Verse 13 of chapter 20 love not
sleep lest thou come to poverty Open that eyes, and thou shalt
be satisfied with bread Now the spiritual Teaching is always
as we know from going through these psalms our Lord these proverbs
though our Lord uses Earthly things and situations that we're
familiar with to teach a spiritual truth Love not sleep sleep is
a good thing sleep is necessary sleep is desirable But too much
of it, and you cannot prosper. It's it's not they're mutually
exclusive And this is speaking of course of sleeping when you
should be working when there's duty to perform a responsibility
to live up to The spiritual version of this is Martha cooking Preparing
for the Lord entertaining in her house for the Lord Jesus
himself And what she was doing was good. It was commendable All else being equal it would
have been the right thing to do a good thing to do But it
wasn't what she should have been doing and our Lord was very To point that out to her Mary
had chosen the good part and that was when the Lord's in your
house Your place is at his feet And that's true here this this
morning if the Lord is in the house We could have a cantata. We could you know entertain we
could Beg sinners to do something for the Lord and There's a lot
of religious activities. We could be engaged in this morning,
but our place is at his feet That's the point of the worship
is to come to his feet and hear his word That was the good part
because he is the one thing needful That's the lesson of our text.
There's good there sleep is necessary. It's good it's But this vital lesson is clear
there are many good things and that religion does and calls
it salvation. They call it living the Christian
life. They call it wonderful works. But as with the man in Matthew
7, our Lord calls them works of iniquity because it's them doing and not what
Christ has done. And he says, depart from me,
I never knew you. Keep this aspect of our text
in mind because there are other aspects to this You can be doing
always good things And never understand that one thing is
needful And that's a deadly deadly mindset Also our text speaks of an overindulgence
of the flesh Our flesh tends toward Repose and rest and in
activity now. We're built to work The Lord
made us to work he gave us the faculties and the inclination
to work But it's a question of priority All of us have been in bed at
one time or another and I Had something to do whether it's
get up and go to work Which is usually the case and the alarm
rings And you don't really want to get out of bed That's something
we can all relate to and that's why our lord uses this illustration
For spiritual things when I was little my mom would yell, you
know, it's time to get up and I would be thinking in my head
No, it's not No, it's not That time has not yet come And we've
all just groaned and turned over and put our head under our pillow. But I remember when I was like
12 years old, we would go deer hunting in West Texas. You don't
think it gets cold in Texas. But if you're in West Texas in
the wintertime, it gets cold. And of course, we had to get
up about an hour or more before daylight to get on the deer stand
before sun up. Not only was it early, but it
was cold. We had a pot-bellied stove in this cabin, the only
source of heat, and it would have burned out in the night,
and you stick your foot out of that sleeping bag, and the last
thing you wanna do is get out of that sleeping bag. Now, the
night before, we were so excited. We were gonna get, I know there's
a 10-point buck out there with my name. He's just, I've got
a, It's destiny, you know we get so excited about that at
that moment of deployment Let's just say I was less excited about
Getting that buck Now whether I got a buck that year or not
was not life or death But the principle is the same and for
many before me it was life and death It was life and death that
it is a in earthly matters now. There's a time to get up and
do what has to be done, whether you're physically sleeping or
just slacking. And so in this scenario, in this
aspect of our text, this sleeping is representative of any indulgence
of the flesh, indulging what the flesh wants as opposed to
Prospering doing what's necessary to prosper of course especially? spiritually I don't feel like it Can just
be a casual preference You know it can just be well. I don't
feel like having that for dinner. I'll have this for dinner But
it can also be a very serious shirking of responsibility. I
don't feel like it well I My heroes have always been the
ones that, it's preached almost as a religion these days, do
what makes you happy, do what you enjoy. I've had jobs that
I enjoyed more than others. But I'll tell you who I look
up to is somebody that does it because they have to. because
they're family. What rejoices their heart is
not jumping up and going to a job that they love, but what rejoices
their heart is making sure their family has what they need, whether
I like it or not, even if I don't like it, even if it's killing
me. So in this aspect of it, sleep
is the path of least resistance. This applies in a lot of things
that are earthly matters, but have spiritual significance,
that have significance with regard to the scriptures, taking the path of least resistance.
This applies in the home, when parents don't discipline their
children. The easy thing is just to tell
them, no, no, no, and then They don't obey you just say get out
of here go outside, and you know leave me alone no accountability
And the scripture says you're flirting with hell when you do
that you're flirting with hell for them Because you're not teaching them
the authority of God even on a basic level like that I It's a lack of accountability.
It's the same exact thing that's being taught here. In the worship
of God, there's not much for the flesh. I'm talking about
the worship of God, not religion. Religion has a lot of things
for the flesh. There's entertainment. There's constantly being bragged
on. Look how wonderful y'all are, you know, and you've achieved
this. They gave out trophies when I was a kid, you know, in
church. Trophies, awards. and bragging on people from the
pulpit all the time. There's that, there's weepy emotionalism,
which people tend to really just eat that up. And often there's
an indulgence, and I've been in it, so I know what I'm talking
about. It's been a long time, but it hasn't changed. I know people that are very dear
and close to me that are in it right now, and it hasn't changed. But there's this indulgence of
our natural self-righteousness by being given some authority
in the church. Everybody's got something, you
know, because we don't want to offend anybody by giving someone
authority and not somebody else. Everybody's got something, you
know. And they love to say I'm active in my church, you know,
and that's the flesh. That's what it is. It's just
the flesh. But in the preaching of the gospel
of Christ and bragging on the Lord Jesus And telling the truth
about us. There's not much for the flesh And worshiping God in the spirit
there's not much For this flesh and so if you're a sleeper you're
gonna find things that you'd rather be doing Than that which
is unnatural to the flesh for us to come here and bow and Submit
our hearts and say Lord Teach us to come to his feet That's
that's abhorrent to the flesh. That's why religion worships
of Jesus that they made and not the one that made them That's
why religion works worships of Jesus who wants to but it's up
to you He wants to but you're going to decide And you're going to find things
that you'd rather be doing if that's your false god. Let me
just say a final word, kind of on the flip side of talking about
it, sleep as the path of least resistance. It's the shirking
of responsibility. That's why you're not going to
prosper physically, because when it's time to step up, you're
laying down. I don't cut it in business or
in any Sustaining of the flesh in this
world or prosperity in this world But on the flip side sort of
of that path of least resistance aspect of this our text speaks
here of the weakness of the flesh and The reason it warms us against
loving sleep or loving the path of least resistance or loving
inactivity or loving something more than what we ought to be
doing is because we do love that by
nature. We do want to do what we want
to do and not what God wants us to do. And when I say wants
us to do, I don't mean that in the way religion does. He wants
you to, but it's your decision. No, it's not your decision. No,
it's not. It's hell, that's what it is.
It's hell. It's the curse of God upon you
and all that that means. The garden of Gethsemane when
our Lord was beginning to bear Our iniquities the iniquities
of his sheep when he said my Soul is exceeding sorrowful even
unto death. There's only one cause for that
There's only one thing that causes that sorrow of soul that sin
He began to bear my sins and And it was crushing his soul
to do that. And his disciples slept through
it. What a beautiful picture of salvation. God's part in it, and you're
part in it. You're part in it as you need it. Your part in
it is you're asleep and you don't even know what's happening. You
don't even know what God's doing until he wakes you up. His sheep, his disciples slept,
not necessarily because they loved sleep in this scenario,
but our text is teaching us this principle too, that this flesh
is weak. This flesh is weak. Our Lord told them the spirit
truly is willing The heart that he gives us the new heart That's
created in righteousness and true holiness as he says The
heart that does believe on the Lord Jesus Christ the heart that
loves the Savior because he first loved us That spirit is willing
Paul said in Romans 7 I would The things that I would do, I
don't do them, but I want to. I want to honor the Lord. I want
to worship him. I want to serve him. I want to not be a monster. I'd
really, in that aspect of my being, what God has done for
me, I'd really rather not be a monster. How about you? I'd
rather not be a selfish, indulgent, worthless monster. And yet that's
what we are by nature. The spirit truly is willing,
but the flesh is weak. The flesh is weak. And they slept
through that event around which this whole universe and all of
time revolves. They slept. And what a beautiful
picture of salvation. We're failures. We're losers. We're not, we're no match for
the moment. We're not up to it. But our Lord at some point said
to them, sleep on, it's enough. Because what he does for us is
enough. But this kind of sleep, I'm talking
about here. The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. We're always fighting that sleep
That's the warfare of the soul of the believer That warfare
doesn't exist in the lost in those that don't know the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're sleeping spiritually all through their
life and until the Lord gives them a wakeful heart and They always will, but we're always
fighting this, believers. Not physical exhaustion, but
the weakness of our flesh spiritually. Our inability to watch is not an inability that's excusable. Remember our Lord said, you can't
watch with me for just one hour? That sounds like That's inexcusable
But that's just what we are That's what we are willingly. We're
Our flesh just doesn't We don't even understand if we
had any any Understanding in our flesh of what was happening
at that moment. There's no way we could sleep
But we just don't our flesh is weak. I And it's not excusable. He said, watch lest you be tempted. It was a lack of urgency on their
part. I'm sure that the fact that they
were there with the Lord Jesus was comforting. But when the
Lord says watch, it's time to watch. Yes, we have the comfort
and assurance in this life, if we're his, of his presence. We don't have to fear our foes.
We don't have to fear that the enemy is coming because he's
with us, but he has also taught us to be sober, to be vigilant
because we have adversaries and they're subtle and they're powerful. I'll just close with this one
thought when the Lord cautioned the disciples there in the garden
when he exhorted them this way Could you not watch with me for
one hour? Don't miss the words with me
Because that's your safety That's your security That's your confidence Not your ability to watch even
Though we must, we should, we're exhorted to, we're commanded
to, but just being careful is not gonna be enough. Just being
on your guard is not your security. The way that we watch and are
sober and will be safe from all harm and temptation is to always
have Him with us. That's our desire. Not, I'm gonna
be strong, you know, and I'm gonna defeat Satan. No, I'm gonna
be with him and I'll be safe. Watch with me. Watch with me. Be where he is and may he always
be where we are and may this be
our prayer. Lord, if you go not with us,
we don't wanna go. We don't wanna go. Let's pray.