“But While Men Slept…”
“The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way…”
Matthew 13:25
While men slept – the enemy came! What a foretelling summation of the history of the church. Slumber is the precursor to Judgment.
While Men Slept
Concerning the last days, Jesus gave us a clear prophetic narrative regarding the Church. Apathy is the fruit of spiritual blindness. The false gospel of today has anesthetized the conviction of the Spirit by blunting the sharp edge of the Living Word of God so that the people of God can no longer discern between the soulish and the spiritual.
“For the word of God is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and of spirit…”
Hebrews 4:12
The judgment of God comes upon those who present the word of God in unrighteousness, the ministers of the false gospel of today who suppress the truth and marginalize it (the original Greek).
“For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.”
Romans 1:18 (AMPC)
The early church preached Jesus. They did not have their own church to propagate. They had no aspirations to exalt one ministry over another. They clung to the cross of Christ and denied any selfish motive that would divide HIS CHURCH. The apostolic ministry presented powerful ministrations of the Spirit denouncing those who would fall into such carnality:
“Now this I say, that every one of you saith,
I am of Paul, and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.
Is Christ divided?”
1 Corinthians 1:12-13
And again:
“For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?”
1 Corinthians 3:3-4
While the church becomes secularized and divided, the world grows darker, for a divided church is powerless. We are called to love one another fervently and in truth. The Love of God speaks the truth and holds one another accountable because it knows Him who is Holy. Without the fear of God, love becomes humanistic, and the church grows dark.
While men slept…
The tares are sown among the wheat. While men sleep, the “fear of the Lord” is lost, and the church succumbs to a false grace that allows sin and corruption. While men sleep, the world loses its ability to know the good and depart from evil. While men sleep, ministers surround themselves with “yes men” who fail to hold each other accountable to the truth.
While men slept, the enemy comes to paralyze, divide, and dim the glorious Gospel by sowing false doctrines, false teachers, and hypocrites. He uses the rampant egos of men, driven by pride and a lust for recognition, to build their own kingdoms in the name of God.
While men sleep – the enemy comes and destroys families, insidiously and slowly from within. While men sleep – the fervent love between brethren is lost. Party spirits rise, each calling people to themselves. While men sleep – false brethren come in living unholy lives, walking in compromise with sin and the world.
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness…”
Jude 1:4
While men sleep – many in His church pride themselves in the knowledge of a saving grace yet lack the fire of a love that compels them to speak the truth with one another.
While men sleep, the world grows dark, and the church is seen as just another belief system that has lost its vitality, power, and, above all, God’s presence.
While men sleep – hearts grow cold, and the Word of the Lord takes on a doctrinal persona, no longer living, sharp, or active. His Word no longer flows from men in the power of the Spirit, which pierces the heart, bringing many to repentance and godly sorrow.
It is a DAY to awake, to recognize how late the hour is, and to comprehend that judgment is FIRST coming to His house!
“For the time is come
that judgment MUST begin
at the house of God.”
1 Peter 4:7
See Related Post – Spiritual Slumber
“If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.”
~ Charles Finney
While the compromised church blames the government for the nation’s woes, God holds His church accountable for its failure to be His light by which men govern their ways.
“But if our gospel be hid,
it is hid to them that are lost”
2 Corinthians 4:3
†
“Because of laziness the building decays,
And through idleness of hands the house leaks”
Ecclesiastes 10:18 (NKJV)
Brian Troxel
A truth very well stated. Sharing this. Thanks Brian for sharing God’s heart for our day.
Hello Jerry – I have been away for the past week – thank you for the repost and the kind comments.
Blessings brother
BT
If the beloved bride, being beneficently beautified as betrothed to her altogether faithful Bridegroom-King Christ Jesus, sovereignly saving and supremely sanctifying her spirit and soul, was to come short of the holy, happy highlands of heaven hereafter, what, in all actuality, would ever be the Bridegroom or bride’s glad and grateful gain to the praise and fame of His Name above all names beyond the temporal and the transitory?
Earnestly, I pray that we, the gloriously secured bride of our Beloved, live in ever closer cooperation with the omnipotent operation of His supernal Spirit, wakeful, trusting less in the paltry, however subtlety proud, predisposition of our person for transacting supposed or actual good, but instead direly deepening deliberate dependence upon His supernaturally empowering grace, to the illimitably deserving, loving praise of His faith fueling providence and provision.
Hello Stephen – Been away for the past week seeing a cardiologist with great news that my heart is now healthy. We are grateful to Him in all things.
Blessings brother
BT
Alleluia! His boundless beauty, His indomitable love follow us all the days of our lives.
The following very brief article written by John Piper I think explains lucidly the ratiocination for my post which, in the light of Brian’s excellent post, seems to me in retrospect as a reply, more than a little awkward. Doubtless, the emphasis of the Holy Spirit in individuals’ lives varies according to one’s specific season He has the particular believer in. A Word In Season . . . sumballo.
We Can Do Nothing
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/we-can-do-nothing
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Suppose you are totally paralyzed and can do nothing for yourself but talk. And suppose a strong and reliable friend promised to live with you and do whatever you needed done. How could you glorify this friend if a stranger came to see you?
Would you glorify his generosity and strength by trying to get out of bed and carry him? No! You would say, “Friend, please come lift me up, and would you put a pillow behind me so I can look at my guest? And would you please put my glasses on for me?”
And so your visitor would learn from your requests that you are helpless and that your friend is strong and kind. You glorify your friend by needing him, and by asking him for help, and counting on him.
In John 15:5, Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” So we really are paralyzed. Without Christ, we are capable of no Christ-exalting good. As Paul says in Romans 7:18, “Nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.”
But John 15:5 also says that God does intend for us to do much Christ-exalting good, namely bear fruit: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” So as our strong and reliable friend — “I have called you friends” (John 15:15) — he promises to do for us, and through us, what we can’t do for ourselves.
How then do we glorify him? Jesus gives the answer in John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” We pray! We ask God to do for us through Christ what we can’t do for ourselves — bear fruit.
John 15:8 gives the result: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.”
So how is God glorified by prayer? Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need.
Excerpted from Desiring God, pages 160–161
Vital points to observe in not only the church but the world that we were supposed to affect.
In my city there are some 600 churches, and if the church was living God’s desire, my city would be a transformed place; living a clean peaceful life, building up the poor, changing local government policies.
If you can believe it, this past May there was an issue up for vote in our city; whether or not to legalize so many ounces of marijuana. If the church was on top of it, it should not have even been a question.
Fortunately it was voted down, but that’s just the beginning of what’s coming.
Blessings Brian.
sorry been away on a ministerial trip, such a privilege yet at my age taxing as well. “the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people…” The wording of this is intense “the darkness” not just a darkness. May God bring forth such anointed preaching filled with the admonitions of His Spirit that we may see His Glory and Light arise!
Blessings
BT
I hope you are doing better, Brian.
Yes, “darkness” is a parable, and it refers more to the spiritual condition in the people of God.
Bless you Brian
Blessings and grace to you and your family!
BT