You know the one line in that
song, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. Would you turn back to Ephesians
5.14. I've entitled this message, awake
thou that sleepest. And notice in verse 14, it's
wherefore he saith. These are his words. He is the
Lord God, the father, God, the son, and God, the spirit. Wherefore
he saith. Now there is not a specific Old
Testament scripture that says those words exactly. You can't
find that in the Old Testament, but you can find a lot that are
like that. As a matter of fact, Drew, when
you were reading that passage of scripture, turn back to the
Song of Solomon. Verse nine, my beloved is like
a row or a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our
wall. He looked forth at the window
showing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake and said unto
me, rise up my love. Same thing. Rise up. My love, my fair one, and come
away. Look in verse 13, the fig tree
put forth her green figs and the vines with the tender grapes
give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one. There it is again. And come away. Now the Song of Solomon is the
relationship between Christ and his church. And he says, rise
up, rise up. Look in chapter four, verse 16. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south. This is the church asking the
Lord to come to them. Blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. I am coming to my garden, my
sister, my spouse. I've gathered my myrrh, and with
my spice, I've eaten my honeycomb, and with my honey, I've drunk
my wine with my milk. O friends, drink. Yea, drink
abundantly, O beloved. Now, here's the church speaking.
I sleep. I'm in a state of sleep. But my heart waketh. That weird time between being
asleep and being awake. I sleep. I'm sleeping. But my heart waketh, it's the
voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister,
my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with the
dew and my locks with the drops of the night. And after he says,
open to me, she amazingly says, but we know exactly what is happening
here. She says, I put off my coat.
How shall I put it on? I've washed my feet, how shall
I defile them? I don't want to get out of bed,
is what she's saying. My beloved put his hand by the hole of the
door and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to
my beloved and my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers were
sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened
to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself. After
I hesitated, he left and was gone. My soul failed when he
spake. I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called, but he gave no answer. The watchmen that
went about the city found me. They smoked me. They wounded
me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I
charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that
you tell him that I'm sick of love. Look in verse 13. This is of chapter six. Return. Return, O Shulamite, wake up,
return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will you see
in the Shulamite? I think this is interesting.
As it were the company of two armies, two natures battling
and raging with one another. Now in the context of our text
in Ephesians chapter five, verse 14, This is spoken to believers
who appear to be asleep. Now that's certainly scriptural.
You remember the 10 virgins? Five wise, five foolish. Five were believers who had grace. Five were empty professors. But you know what the scripture
says of them both? They both slept and slumbered. both of them. The church did say in that passage
I just read from the Song of Solomon, I sleep, but my heart
awakens. You know, even when you're asleep,
your heart's awake, isn't it? You know you're asleep. You hate
being asleep. Your heart is awake. Sleep can look like death. Can't it? You can look at somebody
asleep and they look like they're dead. How many times have you
felt in your soul a deadness, a coldness, not being able to
respond to the gospel, hearing the gospel, and it just feels
like there's nothing there. More on that in a moment, but
this verse can also be used to those who are dead in sins, and
preaching to them. Awake, thou that sleepest, and
rise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life. Now let
me remind you, it's He that says this. You know, I can say this
all I want, and how many people are gonna wake up from it? None. It's only the Lord, by His Spirit,
saying this, there's no power in my words, but if he says it,
there's life in his words. Wherefore he sayeth, and I'm
saying, Lord, say that to me. Say that to me. Don't leave me
to myself. Say that to me. Awake thou that
sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ will give thee light.
Listen to this scripture. The hour is coming. John chapter
5, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. I don't have any
doubt that there have been people who have come in this room dead and left living. the dead hearing the voice of
the Son of God and they that hear shall live. Now, what is
meant by dead in sins? Awake thou that sleepest and
rise from the dead. We're going to get back to the
believer in a moment, but let's consider this passage of scripture
as directed to the unbeliever. What is meant by dead in sins? Well, we know it's not physical
death. The Lord did say to Adam in the garden in the day, that
very day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Now he didn't die physically,
but oh, how he died spiritually. And that's what death in sins
is. It's spiritual death. You still
have physical life, but you look at the difference of Adam after
he ate that fruit. He now didn't want to be in God's
presence. There was a time when he relished
being in God's presence. He goes to hide from His presence. He now has lower views of God.
He thinks he can hide from God. How spiritually stupid is that? He thinks that he can make fig
leaves that God will hide his nakedness before God. He now
knows he's naked. He was naked before this, but
now he has a sinful, evil nature. He even blames God for his condition. The woman that you gave me, she
gave me the fruit and I didn't eat. The obvious implication,
if you wouldn't have given me this woman, this would have never
taken place. Now what is it that a dead person
cannot do? He cannot perform the functions
of life. He can't see. He can't hear. He can't smell. He can't feel. He can't taste. He's dead in
sins. He can't hear the gospel. He
can't see any beauty in Christ. He can't hear the joyful noise. He's dead. The only way a man or woman can
perform the functions of spiritual life is by being given life. They that here shall live, God
gives them life. And he who is dead now lives. Now, what is a dead man able
to do? Nothing but stink. Isn't that
so? Nothing but stink. I think of
the words of our Lord in John chapter 6, verse 44, and this
is This is the sad commentary on human nature. It's a sad commentary
on me and you. No man can come to me. No man has the ability to come
to me except the father which has sent me draw him and I'll
raise him up at the last day. Romans 8, 6 through 8, the carnal
mind is enmity against God. Heart, the mind that you and
I were born into this world with hates God. Now, most people,
if you say that to them, they'll say, well, I don't hate God.
Well, you don't hate the God you've made up, the God you feel
comfortable with, the God of your imagination, the God that
you can control and manipulate and get him to do what you want
him to do. Nobody hates that God. I'm talking about the living
God, the God of the Bible, the God in whose hands you are, and
it's up to Him as to what's going to take place with you in His
sovereign hands. Now, that's where folks get,
well, I don't like that God. I know you don't. I know you
don't. You can't. You've got a mind that's enmity
against God unless God gives you a new heart. Unless God gives
you hearing ears. Unless God does a work of grace
in your heart. That is totally necessary. There
will be no salvation apart from that. The carnal mind is enmity
against God. Listen to the scripture. It's
not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. And you hath he quickened who
were dead. dead in trespasses and sins.
Can you see from this just how ridiculous the very notion and
idea of free will is? It's ridiculous. Telling a dead man, if you of
your own free will decide to let God save you, you'll be saved.
Why, that's ridiculous. Well, somebody might think, Can
you preach to a man dead in sins and call upon them to do what
they cannot do? Yeah. Easy. Easy. You dry bones? Hear the word of the Lord. Now, just knowing that I'm preaching
to people who are dead in sins is no discouragement to me at
all. I'm going to preach to them knowing
that God can speak life to a dead sinner through the preaching
of the gospel. So that's no discouragement. Ye dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord. Remember, it's him speaking.
I can say, awake thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and I'll
stay dead, and you'll stay dead. Won't do us any good. I'll just
be quoting something. But if he says it, if he says
it, Lazarus, come forth. He that was dead came forth. Young man, arise. I say unto you, arise. And what'd
that young man in that coffin do? He rose up. What about that
little man? Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. She rose from the dead. The only
way somebody can be raised from the dead is if he speaks. When He says awake, that command
is never disobeyed. And let me tell you something
about God's grace. It's invincible and it's irresistible. You can't
resist it. You can't say no to God's grace.
If you do say no, it's because He never speak to you. Because
if He speaks to you, you will respond. Awake! thou that sleepest and rise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. We read in Ezekiel
16, speaking to the infant cast into the field, when I passed
by thee, I said, live. Now we're called upon to preach
the gospel to those who are dead in sins, Every creature with
the full knowledge that through the Spirit of God, all of the
elect will live and will hear and will believe the gospel. God will raise them from the
dead through the preaching of the gospel. Now, when someone's
given life, now we see, awake thou that sleepest, rise from
the dead. We can preach to dead sinners
and Christ will give you light. He wakes you up and He gives
you the light as to how God can be holy and just and righteous
and yet embrace and accept and justify somebody like you in
a way that honors His justice and honors every one of His attributes.
You know how sinful you are? No, you don't know how sinful
you are. Neither do I. I remember one time I prayed,
and the Lord showed me how bad I am, and I got just enough of
it, so I'll never pray that again. I don't want to know, but I do
know this. The Lord Jesus Christ can take
that sinner and make them perfectly pure in God's sight. That's what
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ actually does, makes us righteous
in His sight. But let me also say this. When
someone is given this life, he still has the same dead nature
he had before he was given life. Hence, the continual warfare
that every child of God struggles. Remember the church, the Lord
looks over, He says, I see two companies of armies, two armies
in the end. Now, we have the same fallen
nature, the same sinful appetites that we had before the Lord saved
us. Is that so? It is, without question. We have the same pride and self-righteousness,
the same carnal lusts and desires, and the same sinful appetites
that we had before God saved us. If somebody says, not me,
well, either you're lying or you're just dead in sins and
you don't understand. Because every believer will say,
yes, that is my experience. I'm not better. And you know,
I'm thankful the Lord used Paul to say that he said, I'm the
chief of sinners. Not I was the chief of sinners,
but I am right now. I'm so thankful for that. What
if he said, I used to be the chief of sinners? I used to be
really bad, but boy, I've gotten so much better now, and I'm so
much holier than I used to be and so much less sinful, and
I don't have the same struggle with sin. Well, the only thing
I can conclude is that I'm not saved, if that's what he said,
but that's not what he said. Thank God for that. He said,
oh, wretched man that I am. That's Paul. Turn with me for a moment to
Romans chapter seven. This is talking about that believer
being asleep, struggling. This is the experience of every
believer. Verse 14, for we know that the
law is spiritual, but I am carnal. Now, before he was saved, he
said, touching the righteousness which was in the law is blameless.
I was somebody. I was making a lot of progress. Before he saved, that's the way
he talked. But now he says, for we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin for
that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not,
but what I hate, That do I, if then I do that which I would
not, I can sin unto the law that is good. I'm not making an excuse
for my sin, the law is holy and right and just and good. Now
then it's no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in
me. The I is the new man, the sin is the old man, for I know
that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me.
I would never sin again. I would be perfectly conformed
to the image of Christ. I would never have another sinful
action. I would be without sin. That's what Paul is saying in
every believer. Amen. Me too. I would be without
any sin at all. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, what are those next
three words? I find not. Not sometimes I do
well and sometimes I don't. I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that,
I would not, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find in the law that when I would do good, that's
my desire, evil is present with me, for I delight in the law
of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind. This is those two companies
of armies that are spoken of. I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind,
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of
sin. We have a beautiful illustration of this in Genesis 25, if you'll
turn with me there. Verse 20, Genesis chapter 25. And Isaac was 40 years old when
he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian
of Danaram, the sister to Laban, the Syrian. And Isaac entreated
the Lord for his wife because she was buried. She had no life
at this time in her. And the Lord was entreated of
him and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. She now had life within her.
And the children struggled together within her. They fought. And
she said, if it be so, why am I thus? What's my problem? And
she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said unto her, two
nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be
separated from thy bowels. And one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder old nature, the sinful
nature is going to serve the younger. You see that old sinful
nature you have? It's made to serve the new nature.
Somebody says, how's that so? Your sin forces you to know that
all you have is Christ. You believe that? Company of two armies. The flesh
lusts against the spirit. The spirit lusts against the
flesh. These are contrary one to another
so that you cannot do the things you would. Now, let's get back
to where I left off about a believer looking asleep. We see where
these problems come from because he has these two natures. He's got a nature that's just
as evil as it ever was before the Lord saved him. It's no different.
Somebody says, I've changed. Well, you just don't know what
sin is then. Because if you have a new nature,
you know you have an old nature that's just as evil and wicked
as it ever was. Believer, how many times have
you felt dead? Dead. Felt like you had no spiritual
life. Could a person with the life of God in them do the things
that I do? Could I have life? Could a person
who had the spirit of God in them think the things I think
and desire the things I desire? As long as you have this Adamic
nature, yes. And the Bible gives us so many
examples of this. Ask Noah. What's the first thing
that happened with him after he got off the ark? He planted
a vineyard. And you know the rest. Ask Lot. Ask Abraham. Has he allowed Sarah
to be sold into a harem twice? Ask Lot as he lingered in Sodom. There was something about Sodom
that he found appealing, and he didn't want to leave. And
the Lord was merciful and grabbed him by the hand and yanked him
out. Ask Jacob as he swindles Esau and swindles Laban. Ask the patriarchs as they sold
David into slavery in cruel hatred. They meant him for evil. The
Lord overruled it all. And Joseph said to them, you
meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to save much life. Ask Samson as he lays his head
in Delilah's lap. Ask David as he commits adultery
and cold-blooded murder and tries to cover it up. Ask Solomon with
his 700 wives and 300 concubines. Somebody says, was it okay back
then? No, no. And look at the way they turned
his heart. Ask Peter as he denies Christ
before a little maid. Ask Peter when he compromises
the gospel of Galatians chapter two, being overcome with the
fear of man when the Jews come down and he wants to impress
them. Ask Paul, as he offers the sacrifice of a Nazarite and
was getting ready to offer up a blood sacrifice after the Lord
had died, he was so tired of the contention and so on, and
he agreed to do that. And the Lord had him arrested
before it could take place. And I really feel like that he
probably would have killed him if he would have gone on through
it. Every believer is still a sinful,
flawed, individual. Every believer is a sinful, flawed
individual and there are no exceptions. Man at his best state is what? All together vanity. Let's look at Isaiah chapter
64 for just a moment. This is Isaiah's testimony of
himself. Verse five, thou meetest him
that rejoiceth. Isaiah 64, verse five, thou meetest
him that rejoiceth, and worketh righteousness. Those that remember
thee in thy ways, behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned. In those is continuance. You know, it's hard to even say
that. We sinned, and we're still committing
those sins. That's what he's saying. In those
is continuance. Someone says, I'm not like that.
Isaiah was. You are too. You are too. I am too. And we shall be saved. But, we shall be saved. But, look at Isaiah's confession. We are all, as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do
fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. This is Isaiah the prophet speaking. And there's none that
calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee,
for thou hast hid thy face from us and consumed us because of
our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our
Father, We are the clay, and thou art the potter, and we are
all the work of thy hand. Awake, thou that sleepest. Do you ever fall asleep? Another thing I thought about
in light of this is the Lord's letters to the churches, true
churches, believers that he had saved. What did he say to the
church at Ephesus? I don't know of anything that
could be worse than this. You've left your first love. You've left your first love.
Your love has grown mechanical and unreal. You've left your first love. What did he say to the church
of Pergamos? You have them there that hold
the doctrine of Balaam. What is the doctrine of Balaam?
It's a willingness to compromise some aspect of God's truth for
your own benefit. You have in there that hold the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. What is the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans? I've heard different commentators
say, well, it's a bunch of heretics in this century. You can't determine
what something means outside of the scriptures. You know what
Nicolaitans means? Above the people. It's the doctrine
of clergy laity. What about the church at Thyatira?
You suffer that woman Jezebel to teach. You allow it. You shouldn't,
but you allow it. Now this is a true church. You
suffer that woman Jezebel to teach. And to seduce my servants
to commit fornication. And he thinks sacrifice to idols. Now, is he talking about literal
fornication? Literally eating things sacrificed
to idols? Well, that might be included.
I don't know, but I don't think so. He's talking about looking
for some kind of comfort outside of the covenant and thinking
that you can draw spiritual nourishment from that which is nothing more
than idolatry. That's what he's saying to this church. This was
going on in a true church. What about the church of Tartus?
This one scares me. You've got a name that you live.
and you're dead. You're dead. You appear dead. You're living on the past. You're
living on the past experience, but you seem to be dead. What about the church at Laodicea? He said, you're lukewarm. You're not hot. You're not cold. You're lukewarm. You say, I'm
rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Everything's
great with me. I'm fine. And you don't know
that you're wretched and miserable and naked and blind. That's what
he says to the church at Lion's Sea. But the point I'm making
is you see, I see all of these things in me. And you see them
in yourself. This thing of falling asleep. Awake thou that sleepest. What does sleep look like? Well,
it looks like death. And you know, when you're asleep, there's
a lot of things you can do in your sleep, isn't there? You
can have all kinds of dreams of all kinds of things. And here's
the, and they may seem very real, but they're not. They're not. You can talk in your sleep. You
can walk in your sleep. You can sing in your sleep. You
can pray in your sleep. Now here's what I need for him
to say to me all the time. Awake. Rise from the dead. And Christ shall give thee light. Awake. Oh, I want the Lord to
say that to me every day, don't you? Constantly, because I know
what'll happen if he doesn't. I'll stay asleep. I'll stay asleep. Awake. Thou that sleepest rise
from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. Now that light is hearing the
gospel. That's what that means. You're,
you're able to hear the gospel, the light of how God can accept
you and embrace you and love you and receive you. Turn to
first John chapter one. while you're turning there. Proverbs
24, six says for a just man falleth seven times. Why seven? Well, seven is the number of
completion. You know what that means? A just man falleth all
the time. All the time. There's not a time
when he doesn't. and rises up again. Why? Because the Lord says to
him constantly, awake thou that sleepest and rise from the dead
and Christ shall give thee life. I think of the Lord in Gethsemane's
garden with his disciples, his inner circle, James and John
and Peter. And here they had this infinite
privilege of being brought in to pray with the Lord at this
time. And what do they do? They fall asleep. I mean, at the most critical
juncture in the history of the universe, what do they do? They
fall asleep. And the Lord comes back, wakes
them up, leaves again. What do they do right after that?
They fall asleep again, don't they? The Lord said, Peter, couldn't you
watch one hour with me? He couldn't. And this is, you
know, this thing, that's why I'm trying to say, we need the
Lord to continually say to us, awake thou that sleepest. Rise
from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. Now turn to
1 John 1. This then, verse five, this then
is the message which we've heard of him and declaring to you that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now, if we say
that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. Now, let me remind you, most
religious people will take that verse of scripture and say, if
you say you have fellowship with him, and yet you're practicing
secret sin on the side that nobody else knows about, you're just
being a liar. You're talking the talk, but
you're not walking the walk. You hear things like that. Well, we ought not ever sin again,
should we? I'm not excusing sin in any way, but that's not what
that passage of scripture means. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, the darkness of salvation by
works, that's what that's talking about. The darkness of salvation
by works. All our claims of fellowship
with God are a lie. We're not doing the truth, but,
verse seven, if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanseth us. present tense right now from
all sin. Now, if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in it. Somebody
would make a claim like that has lost all credibility. If
we confess our sins, agree with what God says about
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we've not sinned regarding
any time, well, I didn't sin there. There's one place I wasn't
sinning. Well, we make him a liar. And
his word is not in us because he says we have. You know, if
you do it or if I do it, it's sin. Sin because who did it? My little children, these things
write I unto you that you sin not. You know I love that admonition. These things write I unto you
that you sin not. Now how can that, how can he
make an admonition like that when we can't keep it? I'm going
to sin, I know it. You're going to sin, I know it.
What else would he? Could he say these things right
unto you so you won't be bothered about your sin? He wouldn't say
anything like that, would he? Sin's never okay. Sin's never
acceptable. These things right unto you that
you sin not. And if or when any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father. This is being Christ giving us
this light. We have right now, present tense,
before the sin, during the sin, and after the sin, we have an
advocate, a lawyer with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous,
and he is the propitiation for our sins. Now, don't ever let
go of the importance of this thing of him being the propitiation. You know what a propitiation
is? Well, the same word is translated a mercy seat. Where did God say
he'd meet the children of Israel? At the mercy seat with the blood
sprinkled. He said, there I'll have communion
with thee. This is where the Lord has communion
with his people. The propitiation, the sin removing
sacrifice. And you know that I glory in this more, I hope I'm
telling, this is what I think anyway, I glory in this more
now than ever have. What Christ accomplished on Calvary's
tree, that is the only thing that does, when I awake and rise
from the dead, you know what I see? the light Christ gives
concerning himself and how sin is put away through the perpetuatory
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. So really, in this thing of preaching to me and to you, And this thing,
let me tell you one thing I can't stand. I can't stand, and if
I do it, I'm sorry, I'm wrong if I ever do it. I can't stand
a preacher preaching down to the people as if he's in a higher
position and here's what y'all need to do. I'm not preaching
like that. I hope I never do. I hope the
Lord preserves me from that. It's not right when a preacher
does that. This is a message to me. This is a message to you
through the preaching of the gospel. Awake thou that sleepest. We have an old nature that'll
make us look like we're asleep, mainly make us look like we're
dead in sins. Awake thou that sleepest. Rise from the dead and Christ
shall give thee light. Let's pray. Lord, in Christ's name, we ask
that you would say to each one of us, awake thou that sleepest. Lord, we're so prone to sleep. We're so prone to dreaming, talking
in our sleep, walking in our sleep. Lord, deliver us from
that. Say to each person here, awake
thou that sleepest. rise from the dead. Lord, the only way we'll be raised
from the dead is for you to raise us up. And we're asking you to
do that and give us the light of thy blessed son. Lord bless
this message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.