Sleeping is a peaceful, restful condition; it takes our minds away from reality. Satan is very careful not to disturb our spiritual sleep.

All the ten virgins were sleeping, away from reality. Then suddenly they woke up when they heard the cry, “Behold the bridegroom cometh.”

The time will come when we all will wake up. There will be the Sunday law, persecution, and the time of trouble. Some of us will have oil in our vessels, and others will have no oil to lighten their lamps. What makes the difference between these two companies? Some have walked in the Spirit of God and sanctified themselves. Others have neglected this time of preparation, and the Holy Spirit has finally left them alone in their lukewarm condition, and their lamps went out for the lack of oil, and darkness fell upon them.

Week after week, for years we have heard messages that Jesus is coming soon. We are to get ready, get ready, get ready. We have heard this so many times and some people are so used to it that the messages have no effect on them anymore.

To the foolish virgins the sleep was a sleep of death; they woke up too late. They kept Sabbath, they paid tithes, they were vegetarians, and they went to church every Sabbath, but they had not reached the perfection of Christ, therefore they were found wanting. It does not make any difference if they were found wanting in one point or in ten points, still they lost their salvation.

Anyone who does even one sin knowing that it is wrong, is sleeping; he is not awake, he does not know what he is doing. One who is eating forbidden fruit, and one who is driving nails into the hands of Jesus, are both sinning. Even if God forgives us our sin, we  often bear the consequences for the rest of this life.

David killed Uriah and took his wife for himself; for this sin he lost four of his children prematurely. He paid very dearly for his sin. Jacob lied to his father and he had to stay away from his country for about 20 years, and then his own children lied to him.

Adam and Eve sinned, and because of their sin, they had to go away from paradise. How different the results that either obedience or disobedience will have.

“And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” Genesis 9:24–27

Blessing and cursing came upon many generations of the children of Noah.

An Ammonite or a Moabite could not enter into the Lord’s congregation because they did not give bread and water to Israel’s people as they were traveling from Egypt to Canaan’s land. “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever: Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.” Deuteronomy 23:3–4

God is willing to forgive our sins, but many times we suffer for them in this life, sins that we have committed in a sleepy condition, not realizing the consequences of what we were doing. “Men and women are in the last hours of probation, and yet are careless and stupid, and ministers have no power to arouse them; they are asleep themselves. Sleeping preachers preaching to a sleeping people!” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p. 337

“My brethren and sisters, awake, I beseech you, from the sleep of death. It is too late to devote the strength of brain, bone, and muscle to self-serving. Let not the last day find you destitute of heavenly treasure.” –Ibid., vol. 5, p. 466

“We must sleep no longer on Satan’s enchanted ground, but call into requisition all our resources and avail ourselves of every facility with which Providence has furnished us. The last warning is to be proclaimed ‘before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings;’ and the promise is given. ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’” –Ibid., vol. 5, p. 454

“Who knows whether God will not give you up to the deceptions you love? Who knows but that the preachers who are faithful, firm, and true may be the last who shall offer the gospel of peace to our unthankful churches? It may be that the destroyers are already training under the hand of Satan and only wait the departure of a few more standard-bearers to take their places, and with the voice of the false prophet cry, ‘peace, peace,’ when the Lord hath not spoken peace. I seldom weep, but now I find my eyes blinded with tears; they are falling upon my paper as I write. It may be that erelong all prophesyings among us will be at an end, and the voice which has stirred the people may no longer disturb their carnal slumbers.” –Ibid., vol. 5, p. 77

First Satan has to lull us to sleep, then, being hypnotized, we are led into sin. Judas was sleeping and being hypnotized by Satan, then after his sin he woke up and saw what he had done while sleep-walking. He could not live with the consequences of his sin, so he went and took his own life.

Pilate also committed suicide when he realized what he had done in condemning Jesus to death. Today we are living in the Laodicean time period. “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:14–17

The message in Revelation 3:14–17 is given to the angel of the Laodicean church, which refers to the leaders of the church. They were sleeping on Satan’s enchanted ground; therefore, God spewed them out of His mouth in 1914, in the time of the first World War.

Every professing Christian must choose which way they serve God. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deuteronomy 30:15–19

While many of the professing Christians are put to sleep by Satan, there will be a faithful remnant loyal to God.

“Thank God, all will not be rocked to sleep in the cradle of carnal security. There will be faithful ones who will discern the signs of the times. While a large number professing present truth will deny their faith by their works, there will be some who will endure unto the end.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 10

God will punish the sins of the fathers unto the third and fourth generation, but thousands will receive mercy for loving God and keeping His commandments. “Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments.” Deuteronomy 5:9–10

There will be a faithful remnant, who cannot be rocked to sleep in Satan’s cradle of carnal security.

Phinehas is one example of faithfulness to God: “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for My sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.” Numbers 25:10–13

David was faithful to God and hundreds of years later, God saved Israel’s people for David’s sake. “For I will defend this city to save it for Mine own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.” Isaiah 37:35

Abraham was faithful to God; he was even willing to sacrifice his son, as requested by God. “And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for My servant Abraham’s sake.” Genesis 26:24

Abraham’s loyalty to God has brought blessings to people up to our days. Then, in order to bring blessings upon ourselves and to the church of God we must watch that we do not fall into sleep, nor neglect to have oil in our vessels.

“The heavenly gate closes, the invitation of salvation ceases. In heaven it is said, ‘It is done.’ Such a time is not far distant. I plead with you to make sure work for eternity, to lay hold on the hope set before you in the gospel. Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for if you merely seek, you will not be able.

“The world is loaded down with the curse which sin brings. It is literally deluged with sin, with violence and corruption, as in the days of Noah. And yet at this fearful period of our world’s history many are asleep. They cease to make efforts to become Christians.” –In Heavenly Places, p. 362

“We are to raise the banner on which is inscribed, ‘The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ This is the great issue. Let it not be put out of sight. We must strive to arouse church members and those who make no profession, to see and obey the claims of the law of heaven. We are to magnify this law and make it honorable. We are to arouse those who are sunk in spiritual slumber.” –This Day with God, p. 355

“How strange it is that those who have had the light of truth for so many years have not carried the torch of truth into the dark places of the earth. The whole world is astir. The Lord calls upon His people to awake out of sleep. My brethren and sisters, stop criticizing others, but criticize severely your own words and motives. We have no time to spend in using the enemy’s methods. . . . Envy, malice, hatred, unbelief, which have been growing into sturdy plants in the garden of the soul, are to be uprooted and cast out, and their place supplied by love, patience, forbearance, kindness, benevolence, tenderheartedness, meekness.” –The Upward Look, p. 79

“Our own land is to become a battlefield on which is to be carried on the struggle for religious liberty—to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. Then can we not discern the work of the enemy in keeping men asleep who ought to be awake, whose influence shall not be neutral, but wholly and entirely on the Lord’s side? Shall men cry, Peace and safety, now, when sudden destruction is coming upon the world, when God’s wrath shall be poured out?” –Selected Messages, bk. 3, p. 387

Soon we all will wake up, but many will wake up too late; they neglected the preparation for the end times. Many will then say, “Why did I not watch. Why was I careless, and now it is too late?”

“Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning. Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” Mark 13:35–37

We must wake up to see our danger of falling asleep unprepared. We are so near to the end, our time is very serious, eternity is closing in on us. May the Lord have mercy upon us. Amen.

Timo Martin