Sleeping Saints
By Pastor Nick Bibile
Eph 5:13-14 But when anything is exposed by the
light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
Therefore it says,
“Awake,
O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
It is amazing
what sin has done to man. It even has marred metaphors that reflect goodness;
the blessings have turned into a curse. The pictures of goodness and blessings
have become pictures of sin. Water is a good picture of life but because of sin
water destroyed mankind by the flood. Fire too is a good metaphor of the Holy
Spirit, it is the great zeal of the Christian, and fire is good for the cold,
during winter it keeps us warm. But even this word is marred due to sin, sin
has influenced the tongues and sometimes the tongue is called a fire which can
destroy many, there is fire in hell.
Then there is
sleep, which a blessing, as Psalm 127:2 says that he gives to his beloved
sleep.
We can sleep
in Jesus, rest in Jesus but how amazing sin has touched this metaphor and the
blessing has made into a curse. Now sleep is a metaphor of the sinful condition
of man.
1 Thes 5:6 So then let us not
sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
There are
many who are spiritually dead and they are asleep. Remember when God told Adam
if you eat of this fruit you shall surely die, Adam did not listened to God but
listened to the devil and ate from the fruit and from one man death came to all,
in the same way there was spiritual death that came to all. The unspiritual man
cannot understand the spiritual things as the unspiritual man is dead towards
spiritual things.
People are
healthy and alive but alive to sin and dead to God. They are in darkness of
sin. Unless God of Light will awaken many sinners with his
light. Jesus is the Light of the world and this is the reason why Jesus
came.
Isa
60:1 Arise,
shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
3 And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
We too were
dead and in darkness but when the Lord called us we rose from our spiritual
dead condition and became alive to God.
Eph 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of
this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is
now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among
whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires
of the body and the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love
with which he loved us, 5 even when we were
dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have
been saved.
We were in
bondage to sin, chained to sin, slaves to sin. There was no way we could have
risen ourselves from the dead or no way to break the chain of sin, only the
heavenly power can rescue, remember Peter was put to prison by Herod and he was
chained, put in a cell and he was asleep, there was no way he can get out.
Acts 12:6-7Now when Herod was about to bring him
out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with
two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And
behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a
light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands.
We were like
that, we were in prison chained to sin asleep but the light of the Lord shone
upon us and our chains fell off and were rescued from sin. Oh! How we need to adore his grace as sinners
like us were rescued by our Lord.
But there are
many Christians who are asleep in the church. They are called sleeping
saints.
1 Thes 5:6 So then let us not
sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
You are not
dead but made alive to Christ Jesus but why go back to sleep? How can you sleep
when you realize what your Savior has done for you? But it is sad that many who are called
Christians are asleep. Not literally although some do fall asleep literally in
the church, the meaning here is figurative.
Let us see
some of the signs of sleeping saints. When you asleep you don’t feel anything, no feelings. There
is a state of insensibility. There is no consciousness. When you see the Fatherless, widows, orphans,
poor, hungry, needy, many will be not moved with compassion for them as they
are asleep, no feelings. They have no feelings and compassion as long as they
have enough. They love their religion as they can praise God in Church and do
all the rituals without obedience and love for the Lord.
Jas
Many
professing Christians are sound asleep as they as an apathy in the church
today, if someone is sick, or ill they don’t care as long as they are healthy.
When someone is persecuted they don’t care as long as they are not persecuted,
many are self centered as they only think of themselves first.
If something happens to their body they feel
it very good as they are conscious of themselves but not of others. They stand
at the very edge of hell but they tremble not. The anger of the Lord is burning
against them but they fear not.
They drink
from the worldly cup of pleasure and are intoxicated with the world. They sing
the worldly music and dance to the tune of the world. They dream of the world,
the American dream of having everything not realizing that this life is only a
dream.
“For me to live is Christ.” (Philp 1:21) but for many for
me to live is the world.
Remember when
Jesus went with his disciples to pray. Jesus told the disciples, “Pray that you
may not enter into temptation.” Our Lord agonized in prayer and when he came back
he found the disciples sleeping.
The sleeping
saints have no power to resist temptation. Their moral strength is departed.
They have the temptation for lust, greed and not content what they have, like a
bird in the trap they are caught by the enemy of this world. They are unable to
resist the passions of this world. They say they cannot resist temptation; of
course you cannot as you are asleep. Oh! Spirit of the living
God wake up the sleeper.
The sleeping
saints are inactive. They are active in the world. They wake up early go to
work come home, turn on the TV and watch their flesh likes to see. But inactive in the Lord.
But they give the excuse by saying they have no time for the Lord. They
cannot spend one hour a day with the Lord but have time for themselves.
There are
many professing Christians are inactive as they are asleep. Sinners are
perishing daily people are dying and
going to eternal fires of hell but sleeping saints go to church and wish the
pastor would feed them with spiritual food, they are spiritually overfed but
have no desire to distribute tracts to those who are perishing. They just sit
and eat the bread from the pulpit and ask for more and more.
Even Herod
love to hear John the Baptist, there are many who love to hear the preacher but
Herod was not a Christian.
Mr 6:20 For
Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed
him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.
They like to
eat but do not want to plough the field. They want to drink the wine of the
Lord but do not want to work in the Lord’s vineyard.
Many live to
themselves and think of themselves but the scripture say, no man live to him
self but to the Lord.
Oh! What
amount of sleeping we have done in the churches; if churches are awake they can
preach the gospel to every corner of the earth.
You know the truth of the gospel but you would not tell. The death bell
is ringing as the sinners are taken to hell while you professing Christians are
enjoying the meat of God and going to sleep.
You are
called the light of the world but there is no light shining from you. You are
the slat of the earth but the salt has lost its flavor. Our cities are filled
with crime as sin is spreading through out this nation while many professing
Christians are fast asleep.
The sleeping
saints and the devil loves it, he will make you even more comfortable so you
can sleep more. This is the greatest sin of doing nothing. Go and tell others
what the Lord has done for you.
Any time the
Bridegroom will come, will he find you asleep, is your candle burning! Do you
still have enough oil in your lamps?
Remember the story of the ten virgins. Five were
wise and the other five were foolish, two different types of people in the
church. One is alive hungry for God, growing in the Lord, worshipping him,
serving him and watchful. The other is in the church but sleeping. Living a
careless life, a lose type of life, these were the procrastinators, they are
very excited and busy when it comes to worldly things but very lazy and
spiritually asleep.
They live under the light of
the gospel and they know the dangers of hell and they
really wants to go to heaven, yet they live a very careless lifestyle. Some are
dull, sluggish and slothful in the spirit. They hear strong sermons but they
are asleep. They don’t talk of the Lord or spiritual things in their daily
life. How do you live at home? Is the Lord center of your home? Are you
constantly looking to him like the five wise virgins? Is your heart full of
him? Are you living near to the cross or to the world? If you live near to the
world you will speak of the world, but do you live near to the cross? Then do
you speak things of Jesus?
Many are just loitering in
God’s vineyard, they are just spectators. If you think that hell is behind you
and the devil is behind you looking to devour you, how can you sleep? May be
the devil is saying you can sleep baby, you are mine.
When you are driving on a
straight and a broad it can make you sleepy. So easy roads
can make you sleepy. There is a saying, easy roads makes sleepy
travelers. May be you are taking the broad road of comfort, which gives much
satisfaction to the flesh but sleepy in the spirit. If the roads are narrow and
winding you cannot go to sleep. Jesus said to take the narrow road which leads
to life.
When everything is going well
and pleasant many fall into sleep. Christians cannot
sleep the devil and his demons like hungry lions waiting on the road; they will
watch out and be sober. Christians cannot sleep if he is waging war with the
world, the devil and the flesh, soldiers are alert. But for many
life is good, everything is going smooth sailing but they are at the
brink of hell as they are fast asleep. Puritan Ralph Erskine said, “I like a
roaring devil better than a sleeping devil.” There is no temptation half so dangerous as not being tempted.
How can you sleep if you
meditate on heavenly things? There are heavenly gates wide open waiting for
you. The angels in heaven are getting excited waiting for that moment you will
leave this earth, there is a mansion waiting for you, there is a golden crown
waiting for you and how can you sleep when you think of these things. You
should be excited alive to God. A crown is given not for spectators or
loiterers but for those who took part in the race not for those who slept in
the church. Remember Samson lost his hair of strength while sleeping on the lap
of carnal security. There is a perishing world around us and sleeping is cruel
and eternity is so near at hand, it is only a foolish, mad man will sleep. Oh!
God wake those who are sleeping with your thunder and lightening.