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In Matt. 25:5 Jesus says of the ten virgins – both the wise and the foolish “while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.”
Aren’t those words confirmed every day right before our eyes when we see the unimaginable sleepiness and lukewarmness that is prevalent in many places, within the ranks of Christians? Many say love when they are in a church/community, but when it comes to taking care of each other in everyday life, one after the other ends up lonely and abandoned, and many get depressed about it, yes, some die from the sorrow of loneliness.
Many will be held accountable for people they could have made a difference to by showing their love in deeds, but they slept or closed their eyes.
The world is dead, hardened and secure.
The hypocrite deceives himself year after year with a false Christianity and a false hope. The believers become forgetful, sleepy, negligent, stop halfway, or go back to spiritual death altogether.
The bridegroom kept waiting - that is why it happened as it did.
Time becomes long and life becomes monotonous.
Nothing unusual, nothing special happens. Everything is today as yesterday, this year as last year. No special signs of the coming of the Lord Jesus are to be seen. The wicked succeed and prosper, seem happy, secure and joyful. Those who fear the Lord and have their eyes turned to the invisible things are laughed at (laughed at) and considered fools (idiots).
Misfortune and adversity are often their lot. They hear and see the thousand captivating things, and the heart is not unaffected by them.
Everyone speaks what the world wants to hear, but few or none come to meet us with a word of warning, revival, comfort. The word of God is neglected, prayer and confession are silenced, and persecution fails. The evil day has come, darkness has power, even a Christian becomes sleepy and cold and slumbers. And if he sleeps for a long time, the oil he once had may also wither and dry up completely. He becomes sure, hardened and spiritually dead.
The sleepiness and coldness that can also affect living Christians is expressed in the following way:
The spiritual and heavenly become small and insignificant, while the earthly become extremely important. A Christian can sometimes be quite satisfied with himself and feel completely secure. He can feel like Peter, who assured Jesus: Even if all are offended because of you, I will not do it. Or like David, when he cast lustful glances at the woman from the roof of his royal palace without suspecting any danger. He does not take growth in good as seriously as before, the grace of Christ does not delight his heart, he does not taste the word and prayer, etc.
What distinguishes a living Christian from a dead one is in this connection this, that the former will very soon be met by a rousing, warning glance from his master, which will cause him to weep bitterly over himself. Or, if it has come to the point that God must resort to external discipline, then he lets the discipline be of benefit to him and lays the warning to heart.
On the contrary, it is a sign that sleep and security have passed into death and hardening, or in other words: it is a characteristic of a false Christian if one is only secure and content, does not let oneself be warned, but either, like Judas Iscariot, proceeds in some conscious sin (sin is not to believe, to be unfaithful to Jesus) or, like the foolish virgins, in one and all they are wise as far as the outside is concerned, but in the depths of the heart they lack spiritual life.
A terrible state for a person to find themselves in! But such is human nature. A testimony, only too terribly true, of the death that was to be the consequence of the fall! A confirmation of the word from Romans 3:18: They have no fear of God in mind.
People hear and read about, and probably also take it for granted, that thousands of others, contrary to their own assumptions, have been deceived and have ended up in misfortune. But they do not even fear that the same thing may happen to them.
We see some examples of this in the following:
A pious wife said one morning to her husband: My dear friend! How is it that I never again, as in the first days of your Christian life, hear you speak with joy about Christ and life in Him? I do not notice that you suffer from your frailty, or that you have a desire to read the word of God. Tell me honestly; how do you really feel about God? Do you still have a life/community with Him?
At the direct questions the husband probably blushed a little, but in a calm and considerate way asked his wife not to be worried and uneasy about his condition. He then gave himself up to something or other, indifferently humming a light melody.
Look, that is self-confidence! The man did not take note of the unrest in his heart, he did not review his position, he refused to listen to the alarm bells that were ringing right in front of his ears, but continued to sleep with a shrug of his shoulders. A clear sign that the spirit of the fear of the Lord had disappeared from him.
Another example:
A young man was converted to God during a long stay away from his home. After his return, he spoke on several occasionsHe spoke lovingly and simply to his brothers and sisters about the salvation of their souls. With his sister, who was an unusually nice person, just not born again, he spoke about the necessity of this and asked if she had not also read what Jesus says: No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. (John 3) Do you know for yourself that you have experienced it? he added.
She kindly admitted to the brother that everything he said was so true and right. But she sought the first and best opportunity to withdraw from the conversation with him, and from then on diligently avoided all contact with her serious brother.
An older brother had awakened some years before. He was at this time a very religious man and was generally considered to be a true Christian. There was just something strange about him, that as soon as he was with the believers, he spoke and acted like one of them, and as soon as he was with ordinary worldly people, he talked and lived like one of them. Especially in the nicer social life he was a highly valued and well-liked guest, and here he was also like one of the others in the circle.
To this religious man the younger brother now spoke something like this:
Dear brother! I fear that you are deceiving many simple souls with your life, that you are considered to be a Christian, but in the company of the world you behave completely like the children of the world. I would like to advise you to either renounce the Christian name, then you will not have deceived anyone, or else to break with the world altogether.
It is clearly and distinctly written:
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
The religious man felt a little offended at this, but then explained in many words that in his opinion these Bible passages should be understood in a completely different way. There should only be, he argued, an internal distinction between believers and the world. If one also distinguished oneself outwardly from the children of the world, one would have no opportunity to influence them in a beneficial direction.
What good did he think he had done by thus behaving like the world, the younger brother asked in wonder. Had he not, on the contrary, strengthened the confidence of those who had witnessed his behavior, and caused unrest and offense among honest Christians? I wonder if he would be so loved and accepted if he were more like the Lord Jesus, who, despite all his gentleness and wisdom, never had an intimate relationship with the world, was never well-liked in the world's circle.
The religious brother, on his part, had, as he said, the greatest reverence for what God had spoken, he just could not share the younger brother's understanding of the words. With a quiet sigh, the latter then went his way, for he could not help but think: They have no fear of God in mind. It was not so much lack of understanding, he was aware of that, but much more lack of desire to obey the commands of the Lord Jesus that made such people not understand the word of God.
Many such examples of what a hardened heart means could be given. Perhaps none is so clear and speaks so strongly as that of Judas Iscariot. He was a disciple of Jesus, one of the twelve specially chosen. He was the one of whom Jesus could say in the words of David: Even my friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
The hardening of his heart (mind) began when he gradually became familiar with sin.
He was a thief, and when he had the purse, he would regularly steal what was put in it. But his theft was practiced with great caution and developed little by little.
Judas did not lack knowledge of Christ, nor opportunity for repentance. Yet with open eyes he went without hesitation to meet eternal death - "went to his own place." There is a word in our Bible, spoken by the Spirit of God, which we do well to take to heart: Woe to them when I depart from them. Hos. 9:12.
He who does not fear has every reason to fear.
A characteristic feature of the true, the vigilant Christians is precisely the spirit of fear that controls them. They fear, even now and then, when there is no danger. They look upon themselves with distrust and displeasure and fear that they are living in secret deception. Feeling sleepy and forgetful, this causes them more worry and anxiety than anything else.
This spirit of fear is also the right vigilance and has the result that the sheep stick close to the shepherd, that the chickens stay under the hen's wings, that the believers daily seek and put on the righteousness of Christ and are therefore protected at all times from the wrath and ready to stand before the face of the Son of Man when he comes.
As Paul says.
That is why many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world 1 Cor. 11:30-32.
And what does Jesus say?
Look, Icomes as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and people see his shame. - what I say to you, I say to everyone: WATCH!
A serious word about salvation and preservation. But only for those who accept it and organize their lives according to it. The rest continue to sleep!
WAKE UP! Arise NOW FROM YOUR SLEEP.
