Proverbs chapter 20 Proverbs 20 Proverbs 20 verse 13 declares this, Love not sleep
lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt
be satisfied with bread." The last time we considered the book
of Proverbs, we looked at the verse just before that. It says,
"...the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even
both of them." What that is saying is that the impartation of a
new heart, a heart that hears the voice of the shepherd as
he speaks. Now, no one, since the Lord has
ascended back into heaven, has heard with this ear. I know they say they have, but
they have not heard the voice of the Lord. He speaks one way. He speaks through His Word. And
there is a spiritual ear that hears. And I'll tell you something
that is a good indicator of when the sheep, the regenerated sheep
of God, hear when they hear whenever you hear someone stand up and
preach the gospel and it you know you know that's the gospel
and it rings true to your heart you're saying you know what that's
the truth that's what I believe right there in your heart you
hear the voice of the Savior that's that's when you heard
him If you get to listen to somebody or you read something and you
read that and you think, you know, that runs contrary to what
I know is so. That's not the shepherd speaking.
My sheep, they hear my voice with a spiritual ear. And they see with a spiritual
eye. And there is an agreement. There's
an understanding. And they say, the Spirit of God's
taught me that. And I know that to be consistent
with these scriptures. The voice of the Savior always,
always, gives all glory and honor and praise to the Christ, to
the Lord Jesus, always. The voice of the shepherd never
gives any glory to man for his salvation, never. That's not
the voice of the shepherd. My sheep, they hear my voice,
so the hearing ear, the seeing eye, Jehovah, made both of them. And it's the gift, that's a gift
from God. That hearing ear and seeing eye,
that's a blessing. That's a blessing to hear from
God. But I'll tell you something, with the impartation of that
hearing ear and seeing eye, there is then a realization of a battle,
a spiritual battle, that the newly regenerated sinner never
knew existed. Before the Lord calls his people
out of spiritual darkness, they never struggled. They were always
satisfied. They just accepted whatever a
man would say. That sounds good to me. I'll
go along with that. But not when God speaks to them.
Almighty God gives them a new heart and now they're going to
have to deal with the wiles and temptations of the devil and
they're going to have to deal with the hatred and resentment
of the world and its false religion. And they're going to have to
deal with the constant realization of their flesh and their weakness
and their frailty as they walk through a world that they know
they're not of. With the realization of such
things, don't we realize how desperately we need some guidance
from the Holy Spirit? I need, I need for the Lord to
speak to me. I need for God to teach me something. Well, today, I believe we've
got some instruction from the Holy Spirit of God and we've
got a word For our need in this hour, in this passage today,
the Spirit of God declares three things to everybody that has
been given a hearing ear and a seeing eye. For everyone that
has been called out of spiritual darkness, the Spirit of God has
got three things to say to us today. And I pray that the Lord
give us some understanding here. Here's the three things right
here. There's a warning to be heeded to every believer. Secondly, there's an exhortation
for our defense. And then thirdly, there's a glorious
promise of His provision. Now let's just look at these
three things and remember now why We have these proverbs. Why we have parables? That's
what they are. They're parables. This is the reason that the Spirit
of God had Solomon pen these proverbs. Here's the reason.
The Lord said when the disciples, I've said this so many times,
but we need to be reminded. Why do you have these? They're
so easily, I think, understood by the world as far as they're
natural. understanding. The world understands
this, but now to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
hear His voice in them, why speakest thou unto them in parables? Matthew
13 10, the Lord answered, this is the reason, because it's given
unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but
to them it's not given. Now, just the Word of the Lord
there tells you that there is some distinctiveness about being
able to hear the Word of God. I mean, Almighty God has just
said, I speak in parables because it's been everlastingly purposed
that you're going to hear. And they're not. We have today,
from the Lord, His Word, to His sheep. And here's what the Word
is. Number one, there's a warning
for every one of us to be heeded. Now, everyone that has been called
out of darkness has a seeing eye and a hearing ear. You hear
the voice of the shepherd and you agree with it. You just,
that's the voice of my Lord. That's the voice of the Master.
That's the voice that honors Him. Now here's a warning to
be heeded to every believer. Number one, love not sleep, lest thou come
to poverty. Love, not sleep. Now, Charles
Spurgeon made an observation concerning sleep that I thought
was just outstanding, and I'd never thought of it exactly like
this, but he said, sleep, now this is just naturally sleeping,
naturally sleeping. He said, sleep is the gift of
God. And not a man would close his
eyes in rest if God did not put his fingers upon his eyelids,
sending a soft and balmy influence over his frame, causing him to
sink into a state of quietness or inactivity. Now you think
about that. Sleep. To be able to sleep. Now this
is the natural understanding of sleep. Sleep is a blessing
from God. Our bodies needs the healing
properties. And it's God's gift. The Lord
made these bodies and humanly speaking we just can't do without
it. But we're warned here, love not
sleep lest thou come to poverty. Now, humanly speaking, don't
be giving over to it because it's going to lead to nothing
but ruin. That's what it is, you know.
Sometimes, you know, we find ourselves tempted to go to sleep
and it's, you know, it's an escape, it's a, you know, I mean, we're
tired, yes, but just don't, we need it. But don't be given over
to it. But spiritually, spiritually. Now that's what we want to get
to. This is a word from the Lord to His people. And it is the
Lord, the Spirit of God, who is warning us against the temptations
of Satan, who tempts those that the Lord has so mercifully blessed,
warning us against the frailties of our flesh. Now, here's the
bottom line. We still have the presence of
sin with us. It's still there. The debt of
our sin has been paid. There's no condemnation to them
that be in Christ Jesus. But the presence of sin is still
there. And there's still that temptation. You know, you remember when the
Lord heard what I told His disciples. He said, now, He said, you're
all going to be offended of me this night. just before he was
crucified. And this is what they said, Peter
said this, Though all men shall be offended because of thee,
yet will I never be offended. I'll never be offended. Never. Well, the Lord told Peter, Verily
I say unto thee that this night Before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, though I
should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also
said all the disciples. Now that was, just hold your
place, turn with you to Matthew 26. Matthew 26. Now that was the statement of
the disciples saying, Lord, you'll never have to worry about us.
We'll never, we'll never deny you. Now I want you to look at
Matthew 26, 36 to 41 and listen to these words. Then cometh Jesus. Now this is, look at 34. Barely
I say unto thee this night before the cock crow, thou shalt deny
me. Peter said unto him, though I should die with thee, yet will
I not deny thee. Likewise also said the disciples.
So they just said that. Then the scripture says, Then
cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith
unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And
he took with him Peter, the two sons of Zebedee, and began to
be sorrowful and very heavy, and then saith he unto them,
My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here,
and watch with me. And he went a little further,
and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples,
and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, who is asleep. The Lord just said he was asleep.
What? Could you not watch with me one
hour? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. The Lord had just told him, you're
going to be offended. Peter said, not me. The other
says, not us either. He said, Peter, before this night's
over, you're going to deny me three times. Before the cock
crows twice, you're going to deny me three times. It'll never
happen. Took him out into that garden,
went off to the side, took Peter, James, and John with him, began
to pray, and he came back. They were all asleep. He said,
Peter, while Peter was asleep. Could you not have stayed awake
and pray that you enter not, that you don't be given over
to the temptation that I already told you just a few minutes ago
that you were going to succumb to? Could you not pray, Peter,
that you not enter into that temptation to deny me? And here's Peter. Asleep. Physically asleep. But a picture of all of us who
are susceptible to do the same thing. Believer. Peter was a
believer. and did exactly outwardly what
the Spirit of God has revealed in Proverbs 20 that we need to
be warned against. Listen, Ephesians 5, 14-17, Wherefore
He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. Christ
shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but
understanding what the will of the Lord is. Often. We need to be warned of our slothfulness. We need to be rebuked for our
indifference and carelessness concerning our walk. And we are
all prone to it. Anyone that says, I'm always
spiritually awake, I beg your pardon. I don't think so. Not according to God's Word.
How needful that we think upon our attitude concerning the hearing
of the Gospel. Listen. Faith cometh by hearing. And hearing by the Word of God.
Make much of the hearing of the Gospel. This is the only way
that faith cometh. This is it. This is it. Hearing
the word of God, hearing the gospel of God's grace. Be careful,
be careful concerning the calling upon Him in prayer. And when
you enter into your closet, not if, believers pray. They're going to find time, they're
going to be alone with God. You say, well, they don't have
time. Yes, they do. Yes, they do. Find
time, and when you pray, and be careful and diligent to search
the scriptures daily, like those in Berea. They searched the scriptures
daily to see if these things were so. I've said so many times,
when I stand up to preach, if I cannot back up what I'm saying
with the Word of God, and prove it by God's Word, Lord, help
me to not say it because it's just an opinion. That's all it
is. But if I can prove it by the Word of God, then I have
nothing to back up from. So when you hear me say something,
Jot down. Jot down what I said. Go back
and look it up. Look it up. Believe me, I've tried to do
it. I don't want to stand up here and just kind of ramble
on. If I don't feel that this is
the hour for that message, if there's something about a message
and I just don't seem to have the light that I want to have
on it or feel that I need to have, I'm not going to preach
it. It happened today. It happened today. I was preparing
something out of another passage and I just got up this morning
and felt this is not today. Not today. Search the scriptures. Just be awake. Love, not sleep. And the reason? Lest thou come
to poverty. A believer can lose What can a believer lose? Well,
I know this. I know he can't lose his salvation.
I know that for a fact. John 10, 27, 28, My sheep hear
My voice, I know them, they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. Well, I can tell you this for
a fact. I know that a believer cannot be lost. I know that.
But there are some losses that are insinuated by that passage
of Scripture. Love not sleep, lest thou come
to poverty. Lest you come to a loss. What losses are there for a believer? What losses are there for succumbing
to the temptation to be lacks or slothful in hearing the gospel,
in seeking the Lord in prayer, and searching the scriptures.
That's the means of God's grace to his people. What losses? Hold your place there. Turn just
a few pages to Song of Solomon 5. Song of Solomon 5 2. Song
of Solomon 5 verse 2. Now listen to the voice of the
bride. This is Shulamite speaking. This
is the bride. I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is 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 dew and my locks
with the drops of the night. And here's her answer. I've put
off my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed
my feet. How shall I defile them? My beloved
put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels, my heart
were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved,
and my hands dropped with my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh
upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved, but my
beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul faileth
when he spake. I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer. What can a
believer lose because of his sleepy, lax, slothful attitude
concerning the hearing of God's Word, the searching of the Scriptures,
and seeking the Lord in prayer? What can he lose? I can tell
you this, the bride here lost the comfort of his presence. Whenever there's a And providentially,
I know this. I mean, providentially, there's
reasons. But I'm talking about when a
believer can and has no reason whatsoever for missing or praying
or seeking the Lord in Scriptures. And the Lord knows. What can
they lose? They can lose the comfort of
His presence. And that's something that only
God Almighty gives. I mean, you can try to talk them
into it or something, you can't. What did David, King David, what
did David lose succumbing to the temptation to take Bathsheba,
to take another man's wife? What did he lose because of his
failure to be watchful? Scripture says he lost the joy
of the Lord's salvation. That's what Psalm 51 is all about.
Psalm 51, 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. You know, a believer, they hate,
they hate the feeling of disobedience to God. They hate it. They hate
it. You're not going to find a believer that says, it does
not bother me to be disobedient. If a person can say that, there's
something wrong, desperately wrong. What pain, what loss,
what loneliness we experience when we behold ourselves treating
His blessed mercy and compassion with indifference. And don't
say that we don't have that tendency in us, because we do. You know
we do. David prayed, uphold me with thy free spirit. So what
a warning. Love not sleep. Don't love it. Don't love it. War against it. There's a battle. This is a battle
that goes on within a believer. Don't love sleep, lest thou come
to poverty. Secondly, an exhortation for
our defense. What does Proverbs 20 verse 13
say? The scripture says, open thine
eyes. Love not sleep, lest thou come
to poverty. Open thine eyes. Now, The seeing
eye, the Lord's given it. So I know believers got it. So
here the scripture says, open thine eyes. The Holy Spirit here
exhorts God's people, be vigilant. Be vigilant. Let us be aware
of the tendency You know when we experience that laziness. You know we do. We all do it.
I mean, somebody says, I don't. Yes, you do. 1 Peter 5, 8 and
9. Be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the
same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. Be sober, be sensible, be aware of what we are up against. Be vigilant, that is, stay awake. Wake up, wake up. You ever been
driving at night? Let me tell you what happened
to me one time. I was driving home one night from services.
And all of a sudden, someone in the car said, Marvin, and
I was already in the left lane heading to the ditch. And Kevin,
I never knew it. I never knew it. I thought I
was awake. I thought, I'm awake. And I realized, no I wasn't.
I mean, I had slipped into sleep. And I don't know how far the
car went. You know, I mean, pretty well
I had it, I thought, going down the lane, right? Correctly straight. But all of a sudden, I'm going
over. Be sober. Be vigilant. Keeping a mindful,
observant watch against the cunningness of the devil, of the enemy. I
mean the wiles of Satan, he's the enemy of all mankind, but
he's especially the hater of Christ and the hater of God's
people. He knows. He knows. I mean, he
doesn't know them before they're called out of darkness, but he
can detect, you know, and he's had a lot of practice at this. He's good at his craft. He's
good, you know, as a roaring lion referred to because of his
rage and cruelty. He walks about, the scripture
says, seeking by that craftiness whom he may devour. Scripture
says, whom resist steadfast in the faith. Our strength is not
in ourselves and any attempt of our own strength to resist
Him is not going to work. Faith in Christ, Lord help me,
Lord keep me, Lord uphold me, Lord faith in you. You said Lord
that the shield of faith is how those fiery darts are resisting
the blood of Christ. Revelation 12, 9 and 10, and
the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the world, and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying, In heaven now comes salvation and
strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ,
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down. which accused them
before our God day and night. There's not a time that He doesn't
accuse us. And I'm going to tell you something. Pretty much I'd say everything
He accuses us of, we're guilty of. And they overcame Him by
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives unto death. Open your eyes. Look
by faith unto Christ, resting and taking confidence in Him
who has accomplished the Father's will through the shedding of
His own blood. And lastly, a glorious promise
of His provision. The latter part of verse 13,
and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. Love not sleep, lest thou
come to poverty. Open thine eyes, and thou shalt
be satisfied with bread." Oh, the glorious promise of being
fed the bread of heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John 6.35, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. There is no promise like his
promise of keeping his people. I know that we're tempted. I
know we are. And there's an old man in us
that wants to do one thing. Go to sleep. Don't listen. Love not sleep, lest thou come
to poverty. I read what happened to Shulamite.
She said, she admitted, I sleep. My heart's awake. It's the voice of my beloved.
But I just, I'm just tired right now. I've already taken my coat
off. I'm in the bed. But He put His
hand and drew her heart to Him. And mercifully, mercifully, in
chastening love, He withdrew Himself. And you know what she
wanted? I want Him. I want Him. And if I don't have
Him, I'll not be satisfied. Love not sleep, lest thou come
to poverty. Open thine eyes. Be vigilant.
Be awake. Lord, wake me up. Lord, help
me. Lord, I've got a tendency to
go to sleep, and I know it. And I'm guilty. Right here. Lord,
wake me up. Lord, if you keep me awake, you've
promised this. I'm gonna be fed by the bread
of life. Lord, bless the word to our heart, for Christ's sake.
Amen.