The Church Awakened
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 7, 1866,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
" Therefore He says: Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And
Christ will give you light.'"
Ephesians 5:14.
WE have not time this evening to enter into the question as to where
this quotation came from. There does not appear to be one exactly like
it in the compass of the Old Testament–but we must remember that the
Apostle very frequently quotes the spirit of texts rather than the
words of them. In the eighth and in the tenth chapters of the Epistle
to the Hebrews we find him quoting the same passage, but not in the
same words, showing us that he, as an inspired man, felt himself able
to deal rather with the spirit of a passage than with the precise words
of it. There may, therefore, be no such passage in the Old Testament
verbally, but as there are several which have the spirit of the
exhortation, Paul was justified in saying, "God has said so-and-so."
Besides, the passage may not be a quotation at all. The Apostle may
mean to say that Christ said that to him, or that Christ said that by
him–that Christ intended, even then, while he was handling the pen and
writing, to say the words which he then wrote–"He said so-and-so." We
have no time, however, to go into that matter. It is a more important
question, perhaps–To whom is this text addressed? Nine times out of
ten when it is preached, it is taken as though it were addressed to the
ungodly. It is a very proper text to address to the ungodly, but I do
not see that the connection permits it.
There are some who would think it altogether unscriptural and unsound
to address these words to those who have no spiritual life. We are not
of their number. If we see a man ever so deadly asleep we believe we
are commissioned by God to preach the Gospel to him, and to say,
"Awake, you who sleeps," and though more and more persuaded of the need
of moral sensibility in man and the desperate character of his
depravity, we are not among those who fear to preach to dead sinners,
but dare to say, even to the dead, "Thus says the Lord, You dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, You dry bones, live!" We
can, therefore, very well take this text and address it to the ungodly.
But this is not intended to be a sermon to the unconverted. It appears
to me to have been addressed to the Church of God at Ephesus–to have
been the language of Paul to God's own people–warning them not to fall
into the same habits as did the children of darkness, but to come out
and show themselves to be God's people. I know the objection will be
raised that they are told to come forth from the dead. But I do not see
that that is any obstacle at all, for albeit that the people of God may
not be spiritually dead in the sense in which the ungodly are, yet how
often do we speak of ourselves as feeling as if we were dead? How often
do we speak of our graces and of our piety as though they were come
into a cold and dead state?
It is comparative death that the Apostle here means. We may use the
words employed here as we would use them in common conversation and say
that though there are some quivers of spiritual life in the breast of
every Believer, yet there are multitudes who are outwardly dead as to
their usefulness! And there are Christians and Churches, too, of whom
we may say, without at all libeling them, "You are dead, awake you that
sleep." Whatever objection there may be to addressing the text to the
converted, there will be far more difficulty in addressing it to the
unconverted, and I think there ought to be no hesitation in directing
it to either.
To raise difficulties is very easy, but meekly to try to learn what the
Savior would say is far better. I intend tonight, then, to use the text
to you Christians, you Church members, you professors. The first thing
we shall discuss is the state of mind into which many Christians get.
Secondly, what Christ has to say to them about this state, namely,
"Awake, and arise from the dead." And then, thirdly, the gracious
promise with which we are encouraged to make the effort. "Christ shall
give you light."
I. First, then, let us notice THE STATE OF MIND INTO WHICH A CHRISTIAN
MAY SOMETIMES GET. The state of mind into which a genuine Christian may
fall, and, if a genuine Christian, much more a spurious one–he may be
asleep, and, in a modified sense, even dead. Let me begin describing
this state of mind by mentioning the insidious character of it. A
Christian may be asleep and not know it! Indeed, if he did know it he
would not be asleep! It is a part of sleep for men to be in an
unconscious state, and when a Christian begins to slumber, perhaps he
dreams that he is rich and increased in goods. But he is not at all
likely to take up a lamentation to himself, and say, "I am asleep," for
if a man could say, "I am asleep," I think it would he pretty tolerable
evidence that he was awake–and the fear of being asleep, the very
dread of being asleep–would be proof, at any rate, of some degree of
wakefulness.
Often, very often, when young people come to me and say, "Oh, Sir, I am
afraid I am a hypocrite," my answer generally is, "Then I am not afraid
of it, for when you are afraid of such a sin as that it is not at all
likely that you are guilty of it." Some of you, then, tonight, may be
in a very sleepy state, and for this very reason you will not think so.
And, Brethren, a man who is asleep may be kept in very good countenance
by his neighbors. His fellow Christians may not be likely to accuse him
of it, for probably they are in the same state. If you put number of
sleeping people together they are not likely to be very active in
rebuking one another–so that this state of mind is very dangerous and
very insidious.
A man may be in a Church where nearly all the members are asleep and
they may say that the other Churches in the neighborhood are fanatical,
enthusiastic, and a great deal too earnest. And thus all these people
are sleeping to the same tune, and comforting one another in it. Oh,
then, may God help them, for they are in a very perilous state! A
person, too, who is asleep, may have taken care, before he went to
sleep, to prevent anybody coming in to wake him. There is a way of
bolting the door of your heart against anybody. If you get into certain
views of doctrine you can very easily go to sleep and your doctrines
will stand as sentinels at the doors to prevent anybody from awakening
you.
Beware of Antinomianism! If you once drink a draught of that it will
send you into such a sleep as you may never awaken! If you fall into
certain hyper-Calvinistic views you will have a reply ready to the
rebuke of the most earnest of God's servants. You will begin to judge
them instead of judging yourselves, and accuse them of being unorthodox
while you believe yourselves to be sound–and so you are–but only in
the sense of being sound asleep. This sleepiness in the Christian is
exceedingly dangerous, too, because he can do a great deal while he is
asleep that will make him look as if he were quite awake.
For instance, some people talk in their sleep, and many professors will
talk just as if they were the most active, the most earnest, the most
gracious, the most warm-hearted people anywhere! I say to you what I
mean when I declare that I have heard people in this very house pray in
their sleep. I do not mean in their natural sleep, but in their
spiritual sleep. I could tell by the droning way in which they prayed,
and by their repeating some phrases that I had heard them use before
that they were not awake to the duty–that they were not really
praying, throwing their souls into it–but praying because they were
asked to do so, and so just went through the motions, their souls being
asleep all the time.
And many a man has sung a hymn in this house asleep, too. His heart has
never been awakened to the true melody of praise, yet he has got
through the hymn somehow, his lips making a sound, but his heart never
singing at all. He himself is awake enough to catch the notes, but his
heart not awake enough to drink into the true spirit of thanksgiving.
So, you see, it is hard for a man to know he is in this state, since he
can talk when asleep even as others do! What is more amazing, some
people can walk in their sleep! Yes, and walk in dangerous places where
waking men would be unsafe. They, by some strange influence, seem to
walk steadily and calmly along the eddies and turn by the dangers
beneath. Even the howling of winds abroad seems to be inoperative upon
their senses, and they, therefore, have a kind of security which more
wakefulness would remove from them.
And, oh, the fatal security of some professors, and the way in which
they will dally with the world and yet keep up an outwardly consistent
character! Oh, the manner in which some Christians will go as near to
the fire of sin as well may be, and be scorched by it and yet not
burned! Oh, some of you are good, excellent, moral people in the
judgment of men, but nevertheless, as Christians you do not seem to be
awake to the interest of Christ's kingdom! And as a man can thus talk
in his sleep, and walk in his sleep, there is another thing he can do
better than other people, namely, dream in his sleep! He is the man to
concoct plans and discover new inventions. He can sketch out methods
for building chapels, oh, so rapidly! He can find ways of bringing out
ministers, and doing all sorts of things, and yet he is asleep all the
while!
The waking man does it, and proves that he is awake by doing it–but
the slumbering man only calculates–so many pence a week, so many
subscriptions, and the thing will be done! But there is never a brick
to show for all his dreams! He dreams deliciously, but as for activity,
it is not there. He could always manage a Sunday school, or build a
Christian interest better than anybody else–but no Sunday school or
Christian interest ever springs up under his hand because the man's
whole activity shows itself in inventions which are never executed, and
in plans which are never carried out.
I say, then, that it becomes very dangerous, because sometimes these
dreaming people do dream good things, and they get carried out by some
practical person, while they, themselves, are asleep all the while. As
we have often seen a sleeping drayman with his horses going on with
their load, so they can make others work while they themselves sleep!
And the worst of it is that when these sleeping people get into a nice
comfortable position in the Christian Church they can fill it very
well–and they are the last people in the world to get out–because,
sleepy as they are, they know when the bed is soft and warm. And oh,
when sleeping ministers get into the pulpit, what a curse they are to
us! And when sleepy church officers once get into their places there is
no moving them! There they are and they seem to fill the place quite
well–while all the while it is as though the sentinel's box were
filled with a slumbering man–and consequently the army is not guarded,
and an attack may be made all of a sudden.
Oh, Sirs, I fear that half of Christian people nowadays are in this
sleepy state, and yet if they were told so to their face they would be
very angry with the men who had the honesty to tell the truth! Perhaps
some here are not awake, and if so they will be the ones offended. And
I shall, therefore, be like Swift, who said, "No doubt this is a
capital sermon in Church to those who are awake. But it is of no use to
those who have been asleep while I have been preaching it." It is just
that. The Brother to whom this applies most will be just the person to
fold his arms and say, "We are well, and let us leave well enough
alone." It is insidious in the last degree! I have thus endeavored to
show the deceptive character of this evil.
But, in the next place, what is the evil, itself? I do not know that I
can describe it. But perhaps you have felt it, and certainly you must
have seen it. It is an unconsciousness of one's own slate, and a
carelessness of such a kind as not to want to be conscious of it. The
man takes everything for granted in religion. Whether he is a Christian
or not does not awaken in him any questions. He believes he is, thinks
he is, and that is enough for him! He does not want to come to close
dealings. He does not like the preacher who makes him try the
foundations. He would rather not have such unpleasant points put to
him. He says, like the man who sleeps on the mast, "A little more rest,
and I will awake." I fear that many of us get into such a state as
this.
Then he also becomes indifferent to the state of other men. The man who
is asleep does not care what becomes of his neighbors–how can he while
he is asleep? And oh, some of you Christians do not care whether souls
are saved or damned! It little concerns some Christians what becomes of
St. Giles, or Bethnal Green, or Golden Lane. It is enough for them if
they are comfortable! If they can attend a respectable place of worship
and go with others to Heaven, they are indifferent about everything
else. And whether there shall be an increase of darkness or of light in
England does not seem to concern some Christians, nor even some
ministers!
I know some very good and eminent professors in their way, who seem to
me, at least in my poor judgment, as if it did not matter to them
whether half of England went to Hell, or whether all went to Heaven. No
doubt they would be very pleased if the thing did happen that many were
saved, but as to waking themselves up to the value of souls, and to
engage in earnest effort and humble prayer, they are too much asleep
for that and are insensible to the state of others. And they seem, too,
to be perfectly immoveable by all appeals. The best argument is lost on
a sleeping man! You might convince him if he were awake, but what can
you do with him while he still slumbers?
Therefore it is that many a Christian enterprise has no assistance from
professed Believers because, and only because they are asleep. They
might help it–they ought to help it–but they do not! They profess to
be the servants of Jesus Christ, but they do not serve Him because they
are indifferent, and because they are much given to slumber. And then
this slumbering spirit spreads itself over everything else. The
sleeping Christian does not enjoy the Word. If he reads it, the text
seems meaningless. If he hears it, he thinks the preacher does not
preach as he used to do. If he goes to sing with others, he throws no
heart into it. If he joins in the Prayer Meeting he goes in and out,
but he does not wrestle with the Angel of Mercy.
As to his own closet, it is full of cobwebs! As to his own heart, he
has not had an inspection of it for many a day because the man is got
into a slumbering state. You can often detect Churches slumbering by
the way in which they drawl out hymns, and their protracted prayers,
which, after all, are no prayers at all! There is a heartlessness in
the manner in which everything is done. Then these Brethren get
unhappy, and afterwards they get to be quarrelsome. Do not let that be
the case with any of us here!
Then there are some who get their Christianity into such a state that
they are so nearly dead that they are always looking after evidences.
We get into a low and miserable state because we are in a sleepy state.
Where this continues long, a Christian Church comes to be a positive
nuisance. These are strong words to use of any Church, but it is so. I
know villages where it would be easy to establish a Baptist church if
it were not unhappily the case that there is one already there which
does no good and which prevents anybody else from doing anything! A
pulpit may sometimes be the emblem of a curse! It may stand there. The
Chapel may stand there and earnest ministers in the neighborhood may
say, "We cannot go there because good Brother So-and-So is there," and
good Brother So-and-So may simply be a naughty one who occupies the
place without bringing any return to his Master.
You ask me how I can describe this state so well. I answer, because I
have been in it myself, and have to mourn that I cannot thoroughly wake
myself up even now! And oh, I am quite sure there are some of you who
might well join with me in that mourning. Brethren, let us think of
that word, ETERNITY, and how is it that we do not feel its power more?
Think of the Judgment–think of the terrors of that tremendous day when
Christ shall appear upon the Great White Throne! Remember the wrath of
God! Remember the pit, which He has dug. Think of the Glory of
Christ–of the robes of whiteness, and the tearless eyes of the
blood-washed! Can we think of these things, and yet be cold, callous,
and indifferent? Shall we always be at this poor dying rate? May God
grant that these weighty themes may have such an effect upon us as they
must have if we are awake and no longer seem to be indifferent matters
because we ourselves are so nearly asleep, so nearly dead!
Now, two or three words upon what makes this evil of Christians being
asleep a great deal worse. It is this–they are Christ's servants and
they ought not to be asleep! If a servant is set to do a certain duty,
you do not continue him in your service if he drops off asleep.
Remember the virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom? It was not
wrong for them to be asleep at midnight. It was the proper time for
sleep. But it was wrong for them to sleep seeing that the bridegroom
was come, and that they had gone out to meet him. It was wrong for them
to sleep!
As I thought this matter over I thought that you and I, and every
Christian who is asleep–we are very much like the Apostles at the gate
of Gethsemane. There was their Master sweating great drops of blood in
awful agonizing prayer, and where were they? Helping Him? Casting their
prayers into the treasury? Oh, no, not they! Watching against His
adversaries and guarding Him against surprise? No, not they! There is
the bold Peter who said he never would forsake his Master, but his head
is on his bosom. There is John, who has sincere affection for his Lord,
but his eyes are fast closed! And James, also, is fast locked in the
arms of Sleep.
It is very much the same with us. Christ is up yonder interceding and
we are down here sleeping, the most of us! Christ is up there showing
His wounds and pleading before the Father's Throne that He would visit
the sons of men, and give Him to see of the travail of His soul! And
here are we, not watching against His enemies nor helping Him by our
prayers! No, we are busy here and there wasting precious time, while
immortal souls are being lost! We are sleeping like men in the midst of
harvest when the grain is waiting for the sickle! Our sickles are laid
low and we stretch ourselves beneath the shadow of some spreading tree
and sleep!
Though black clouds are gathering, and the rain which will spoil the
corn is certainly coming on, we, hired to do the day's work, still
sleep on! It is not so with you all, but it is so with many of us. It
is so bad for us to be asleep, too, because it is quite certain that
the enemy is awake. You remember old Hugh Latimer's sermon in which he
says that the devil is the busiest bishop in the kingdom? "Other
bishops," he said, "may not visit their dioceses, but he does. He is
always at it, day and night." There is no waste of time with Satan! If
we could send the devil to sleep we might take a nap ourselves, but we
never can, and therefore we ought to be awake.
Christian, while you are sleeping, remember time is running out! If you
could stop the hands of time you might afford yourselves a little
leisure. If you could, as we say, take Time by the forelock, you might
pause awhile. But you must not rest, for the tremendous wheels of the
chariot of Time are driven at such a fearful rate that the axles are
red-hot with speed, and there is no pause in that tremendous rush! On,
on, on it goes, and a century has fled like a watch in the night! Time
stops not–how can you loiter, Christians? And, meanwhile, souls are
being lost!
Have you ever seen some of those marvelous pictures which illustrate
Dante's "Inferno"? You may have seen one picture in which the artist
represents souls as being driven about by wandering winds. I would
change the picture and represent souls going along as in a mighty
river–millions of them passing by the banks of Time every hour–many
of them snatched out of the current by angelic hands and landed safely
upon the shore. But oh, how many of them go onward to an awful
waterfall? A waterfall of souls plunging over into eternal woe! As men
stand to listen to the roar of Niagara and to see the flowing foam
generated, so I would ask you to look at the waterfall of Death, and to
see the multitudes of souls passing down it! A million a month in China
alone, and how many millions in other parts of the world are passing
into eternity, unforgiven, unwashed in the Savior's blood?
Oh, Brothers and Sisters! And yet we sit down and sleep! God forgive
us! God forgive us! I think that the very devil, if he were saved,
would not sleep. If the fiends of Hell could be washed in blood and
made new creatures, I think their restless activity which makes them go
about like roaring lions seeking whom they may devour would turn into
another channel, and they would go about to win souls! Are we to go
like snails in the course of good, while swifter than the roe or the
hart men fly in the road of evil? Shall it always be so?
The Christian pastor may forget the villager, but the parish priest
will not! The Christian minister may not proclaim the Gospel, but from
the oratory of the monks there will be no uncertain sound! Christian
women may forget to visit the sick, but the so-called "sisters of
mercy" will be there! You may turn aside, Christian, if you please,
from your position in the ranks of Christ, but you will not find the
servants of Satan so unfaithful! Oh that such restlessness might come
upon us that we might have an insatiable hungering to do good, and an
awful passion to bless our fellow men! Oh that we might yearn and sigh
because others will not repent and turn to God! May the Lord send us
such an awakening! If not, our sin of sleeping is terrible, indeed.
Now, what is it that causes us to sleep? I have heard some say that it
is having too much business. I do not believe it! I do not find that
you London Christians, as a body, are more asleep than country
Christians. In fact, if I had my choice I might select my country
Brothers and Sisters for a great many virtues, but certainly not for
the virtue of being wide awake! Alas, in many of our country Churches
nothing can be conducted in a more slumbering manner. I think that of
the two I would rather have you business men with your pulses quickened
by having so much to do than I would have you go into the obscurity of
the country where there is so little to stir the blood. I believe those
who have the most worldly business can often serve God better than
those who have but little.
But still, we must never throw our sins upon the Providence of God!
What is it, then? I will tell you. First, we are inclined to slumber
from the evil of our nature. This invests our sin with a double guilt.
Master, deliver us from the guilt and then from the power of sin! All
the while we are thus asleep about Divine things, we are wide awake
like the rest of the world about other things. I have sometimes
remarked the way in which men will speak out in the shop most
distinctly but only mumble in the Prayer Meeting. I have sometimes
thought I have seen persons who, at the sound of a shilling, seemed to
open their ears and start up be just as much the opposite way when it
came to doing things for Christ–first and foremost for this world, and
last for the world to come–toiling like the ants to gain this world's
dross, but as idle as a butterfly in regard to Divine things. This is
so sad, because it proves that it is not lack of power to be active,
but lack of will.
Next, it is very easy to send a man to sleep if you give him the
chloroform of bad doctrine. That has sent half our Baptist churches to
sleep. They have been taught that man is not responsible to God. They
have been taught clear fate and nothing better–and they have gone to
sleep. And who, indeed, can take a dose of that without slumbering?
Then, the sultry sun of prosperity sends many to sleep. You are
prospering too much! God seems to be too favorable to you in Providence
and then the soul begins to sleep. Fullness of bread is a strong
temptation to a Christian. It has been asserted in high church papers
that our youth–our young men and women–are dissatisfied with our
services and system, and they are going to ritualism. I do not believe
it!
My observation goes to show it is not the case. There are some
attendees of our places of worship who were with us when they were
poor, who, having amassed a fortune, have retired to suburban villas
and turned to places where they hear a Gospel alien to that which they
heard when times were different with them. But it is not the case with
the young men and women of our churches! I do not believe the blame
rests with them. It is the power of wealth which comes to them. I
admire that prayer of Mr. Whitfield's for a young man who had come into
possession of a large property, that God would give him Divine Grace to
persevere under such a trial.
Then in some people it is the intoxication ofpride. Get proud of your
spiritual condition and that will soon send you to sleep. In others it
is the lack of heart which is at the bottom of everything they do. They
never were intense. They never were earnest, and consequently they have
such little zeal that that zeal soon goes to sleep. This is the age of
the Enchanted Ground. He that can go through this age and not sleep
must have something more than mortal about him–God must be with him
keeping him awake! You cannot be long in the soporific air of this
particular period of time without feeling that in spiritual things you
grow lax, for it is a lax age–lax in doctrine, lax in principle, lax
in morals, lax in everything–and only God can come in and help the
Pilgrim to keep awake in this Enchanted Ground!
These, then, are some of the things to guard against. My time,
unfortunately, is almost gone, and therefore I can only say a few words
upon the second point.
II. What did Christ say to His people who were asleep? He said, "AWAKE
YOU WHO SLEEP, ARISE FROM THE DEAD." Let me have a little quiet talk
with you, then, in the Master's name. Remember that Jesus speaks this
in love. You never knew him do or say anything that was not in love.
Has there ever been anything which has come either from His hands or
His lips which has not been in love? Oh, then, believe that He would
not have said, "Awake!" if it were not the kindest thing He could
possibly say to you!
He loves you, then, though you love Him so little and go to sleep in
His very Presence! And it is His love which shows itself to you in the
best possible way by that startling word, "Awake! Awake! Awake!"
Sometimes a mother's love lulls her child to sleep, but if there is a
house on fire the mother's love would take another expression and
startle it from its slumber. And Christ's love takes that turn when He
says to you, "Awake! Awake! Awake!" Again, since Jesus says this to
you, be assured that it is His wisdom as well as His love that makes
Him say it. He knows that you are losing much by sleeping. The thief is
pilfering while you are resting. The sower of the bad seed is
scattering it in the field, while you, who ought to have watched, are
going away to those unhallowed sleeps.
He would not have you be a loser. He would have you be rich and
increased in goods spiritually, and thus it is His wisdom that bids Him
wake you. It is a wise voice and a tender voice, which says to the
Christian–"Awake!" It is a voice, too, which you ought to listen to,
for it is backed up by the authority of the Person from whom it comes.
It is your Lord who says, "Awake!" What has He done for you? Shall I
ask you what He has NOT done for you? You owe everything to Him! That
robe that is now washed would have been black but for Him. Ah, some of
you who are here today, oh, how much do you owe! I know, as I look
around at you, what God's Grace has done for you. Oh, Brother, your
voice was the loudest in the tavern! Many a time have you reeled home
from the gin palace! Your mouth could once curse and swear, but you are
washed!
And as for myself, how much do I owe to the Grace of God! The most
stubborn and self-willed of mortals cowed down before the feet of
Christ to take and accept Him on His own terms! And ah, there are some
of you who, like the Magdalen, would sit and wash His feet with tears,
and would be glad to wipe them with the hairs of your head! Some of you
mothers here owe all your children's souls to Him as well as your own.
He saved your darlings! He has brought them to put their trust in
Christ. Oh, we are over our head and ears in debt to Christ! We are
what good Rutherford used to call, "drowned debtors to Christ!"
Oh the depths of our obligation! Oh, how high should be the heights of
our gratitude since He has done so much for us! If He says,
"Awake!"–oh, Master, we would not only awake, but we would crave Your
pardon a thousand times that ever we should have fallen into this
sinful sleep! It is your Lord that speaks! It is your Master that
cries, "Awake! Awake!" Oh, loyal hearts and virgin souls, by the lilies
of your love, and by the roses of His blood with which He bought you,
awake! Awake! Awake, and ask for an earnestness which you may never
lose again.
Further, this is a voice which has been very often repeated. Christ has
been saying, "Awake! Awake!" to some of us hundreds of times. You were
sick, were you, a few months ago? That was Christ, as it were, shaking
you in your sleep, and saying, "Awake, My Beloved, awake out of your
unhealthy slumber!" You had a loss in business the other day and you
bemoaned it very much. Perhaps that, too, was the Master saying,
"Awake!" A dear child was taken from you and borne to Heaven–it was
Christ saying to you, "Awake!"
And we have had many awakenings in this House of Prayer. I am sure our
Monday evening Prayer Meetings have often been a voice to us–"Awake!
Awake!" Sometimes a sermon, too, has come home from God to our hearts
with– "Awake! Awake! Awake!" Oh, shall we never awake? Shall Christ
stand always at yonder door with its rusty hinges and shall He always
say, "Open unto Me, My Love, My Dove, for My head is wet with dew, and
My locks with the drops of the night"? Shall He always be shut out?
Will we never open the door to Him and say, "We wake, Lord, we wake!
Come in and sup with us that we may sup with You"?
Now it seems to me as if it were a personal cry in the text. Did you
notice the singular pronoun–"Awake, you who sleep"? It does not say,
"Awake all of you," but "Awake, you!" Shall I pick you out one by one?
There are too many of you for that. But I might say, my dear venerable,
gray-headed Friend, if there is any tendency in you to slumber, Jesus
says, "Awake, you." And you, Maiden, you who have given your heart to
your Savior in your young days, He says, "Awake, you that sleep!" And
you, young Man with many talents which you do not lay out for Christ as
you ought–He says, "Awake, you that sleep." And to the most slumbering
of us, He seems to say it most loudly and most lovingly, "Awake, you
that sleep." May such a warning come home very personally!
And to close this point I may add that He puts it very pressingly in
the present tense: "Awake," He said, "awake now." Oh, it is very easy
to say, "I hope I shall awake one day." But He says, "Awake now!" It is
not what you will do in a few years, but now, now, NOW! I do not say
that the word, "now," is in the text, but it is there truly, in spirit.
"Awake." If I say to a man, "Awake!" I do not mean that he is to awake
in an hour's time–that would be absurd! I mean him to awake NOW. And
Jesus says this to us–friends who know His love and who have been
visited by His Divine Grace–He says to us–"Awake now, My Beloved, and
come forth to serve Me."
III. But I must close, and the last point is THE PROMISE WITH WHICH
CHRIST ENCOURAGES US TO AWAKE. The promise is, "Christ shall give you
light." What does that mean? Why, light may mean sometimes instruction.
We are often in the dark and puzzled about difficulties. But do you
know half the difficulties in the Bible spring from a cold state of
mind? When the heart gets right, the head seems to get right, too, in a
great measure. I remember a person puzzling himself fearfully with that
passage in Scripture about Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. He went and
looked at Dr. Gill about it. He went to Thomas Scott about it, and he
went to Matthew Henry about it–and these good Divines all puzzled him
as much as they could–they did not seem to clear up the matter.
The good man could not understand how Jesus Christ could say, as He
did, "How often would I have gathered you, but you would not!" One day
he received more Divine Grace and developed a love for souls. And then
the old skin of narrow-mindedness which had been once large enough for
him, began to crack and break, and he went to the passage and said, "I
can understand it now! I do not know how it is consistent with
such-and-such a doctrine, but it is very consistent with what I feel in
my heart."
And I feel just the same. I used to be puzzled by that passage where
Paul says that he could wish himself accursed from God for his
Brethren's sake. Why, I have often felt the same, and now I understand
how a man can say in the exuberance of his love to others that he would
be willing to perish himself if he might save them! Of course it never
could be done– but such is the extravagance of a holy love for souls
that it breaks through reason and knows no bounds! Get the heart right
and you get right upon many difficult points.
Again, I think the light here meant is a further kind of light–not
merely the light of direction, guidance, and knowledge–but chiefly the
light of joy. Oh, there are some of you who are generally in the dark!
You do not know whether you are Christians or not, half the time. You
are spelling out your evidences, and so on. I compare you to a man who
is almost drowned. He is alive, but how do they know it? Why, they have
to hold a glass up to his month, and if there is a little steam, then
they say, "Yes, he breathes." Well, there are some of you who need such
an experiment as that tried upon you–for nobody would know that you
are alive except by some very delicate test. The Christian existence is
within you, but the manifestation is so feeble that it is not seen. You
do not know whether you are alive or not!
Why, nobody ever doubts whether he is alive! A man in health never
says, "I do not know whether I am alive or not." He goes to work–he
takes his plow and drives it across the field, or goes to his business
and works all day long–and he knows he is alive by what he does. And
if some of you Christian people would only wake up from your sleepy
state and begin to labor for God, and to love souls, you would get such
joy flooding through your spirits as you never knew before! It would be
as though Heaven had opened up its floodgates and let the river of the
Water of Life come bursting into your soul! And instead of being like a
dry, howling wilderness, there would be a standing pool of water–no, a
place in which the ships of your joy, and the galley with oars of your
delight, might sail for many a day!
More Divine Grace and more peace, more light and more joy–I pray God
that you may have these. I have often prayed to God that I might not be
the pastor of an army of invalids. I would be glad enough to comfort
them and do my best to make this a hospital for them. But I want to be
the captain of an army of soldiers and to turn this place into a
barracks for them! I want you to go out every day from Monday till
Saturday, and on Sunday, too, fighting for Christ, contending for the
faith, seeking to gather in outcasts, looking after the poor and needy,
helping the weak and feeble, comforting the disconsolate, and putting
out all your strength in your Master's cause!
We have enough Churches in London where they sleep. Oh, may God deliver
us from having this place to be a huge cemetery, and make us to be a
great House, a great City from which shall go forth the hosts and
armies of the Lord to do battle for Him! May God send His Holy Spirit
to abide among us in all His plenitude, and He shall have the glory!
Now you all see this sermon is to the Christian. I tried to preach to
seekers this morning [#714–a Savior Such As You Need] and gave them
their turn, then. But if there is one here who has not found the
Savior, I must add this word to him. The way of salvation is
this–Trust Christ and you are saved! Christ suffered in the place of
His people. God laid their sin on Him and punished Him as if He were
they. And whoever trusts Christ is forgiven. He is saved! And when he
is saved then I invite him to exert his strength for his Master. But
till then look at home and then look at Jesus, and God grant that this
look at yourselves and at your Savior may be the means of your
salvation–to the praise of the glory of His Divine Grace.