Then shall the kingdom, then, he's earmarking a
specific time.
Now, he is connecting this then shall the
kingdom, he's connecting that with the chapter right
above it, and the things that occurred.
And the one right above it, verily I
say unto you, he that he will make
him ruler over, blessed is the servant whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall so find
doing.
Verily I say unto you, that he will
make him ruler over all of his goods.
But if that evil servant shall say in
his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming.
Now notice, he's talking about a time when
the Lord would come and the servant would
either be ready or not ready.
And he says that he should say in
his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming.
And begin to smite his fellow servants, and
to eat and to drink with the drunken.
Now he's talking about here, drunken.
Now that is not natural drinking.
It's not talking about people that are going
out and eating and drinking with people that
drink liquor.
He is talking here about a spiritual drunkenness.
Because all the way through he talks about
be sober.
He wasn't saying get off of your liquor.
Because the Bible tells the Christian be not
drunk, you see.
But he talks about being sober.
Now the difference in being sober and drunk,
when you're drunk you're not dead.
But when you're drunk, things take on a
different perspective.
You look at your problems entirely in a
different way.
Your personality changes and you're not capable of
using your intellect as you really should, because
you do a whole lot of things while
you're under the effect of liquor.
That when you get out from under it
and become sober, you think of what you've
done, you cry, you tell your wife you'll
never do it again, and you find yourself
broke.
You've done a lot of things.
Maybe they'll say, did you know you hit
that guy last night?
And they've got him in the hospital and
he's filing charges against you.
And just a lot of things.
He'd have never done it had he not
been intoxicated.
But it's said here that eat, drink with
the drunken.
That means spiritual intoxicated.
And I'm talking about people that can, that
are supposed to be professing Christians, that reach
a place, they lose control of their right
thinking and the decisions they should make, and
doing the right things.
So it says here that take heed, and
it said, who then is a faithful servant?
Blessed is that servant, whom the Lord, when
he cometh, shall find so doing.
Now, and he shall begin to smite his
fellows, and his fellow servant, and eat, drink
with the drunken.
And the Lord of that servant will come
on him, in a day that he looketh
not for him, and shall appoint his portion,
when he is not aware of, and will
appoint him asunder, appoint his portion with the
hypocrites, and there will be weeping, and gnashing
of teeth.
Then the next verse says, and then shall
the kingdom of heaven be likened unto.
Meaning, that when the Lord comes, and he
finds some that are eating and drinking with
the drunken, they're smiting their fellow servants.
They're saying, my Lord, delayeth his coming.
This has nothing to do with sinners.
It has nothing to do with the man
of the street.
It has nothing to do with the unchurched
man.
Because this is not applying to him.
It's applying to the ones in the church.
It's applying to those that come to church,
that have started out, intend to make heaven,
but this thing can happen to you.
First of all, in your heart, you say,
my Lord's coming.
He's my Lord, I'm his child, and he's
coming, all right.
I can said to that, but he's not
coming right away.
My Lord is going to delay his coming.
Now then, when you say that in your
heart, you begin to smite your fellow servant.
Bickering, fussing, finding fault, and things like that
creep out.
How many has ever heard of anything like
that in churches over the country?
Sure you have.
And how many have been upset, or maybe
your feelings hurt, and you found yourself almost
ready to lash out at some of God's
children.
But it says, the master is going to
come in an hour that he is not
aware of, and point him his portion with
the hypocrites.
And where he goes, there'll be weeping, and
gnashing of teeth, because he eat, and he
drank with the drunken, and because he thought
the Lord delayed his coming, and all that.
Now, Jesus is giving this.
He doesn't change the subject.
He goes right on, takes a breath, and
finishes up.
It's not the next day, it's not a
sermon, another sermon.
He merely pauses and said, and then shall
the kingdom of heaven be likened unto this.
So, when he gives this that I'm reading,
he has just got through giving the other,
and he earmarks when this occasion, when this
thing I'm talking about now, when it's going
to happen.
It's going to happen when the Lord comes,
and catches his servants unaware, and they're thinking,
I'm going to delay my coming, but I'm
going to blow the trumpet and come.
Now, he said this, then shall the kingdom
of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which
took their lamps, and they went forth to
meet the bridegroom.
Now, I've preached on this a lot of
time, but not the way I'm preaching on
tonight.
I want you to see what the Lord
laid on the heart.
And they went forth to meet the bridegroom.
Now, all the way through, it tells us
there's going to be a wedding.
Jesus gives more and more parables on that.
The king shall give a wedding for his
son, and we are the bride.
He's the bridegroom, and there's going to be
a wedding.
That's going to take place in heaven, while
the great tribulations taking place here.
Now, it said, then shall the kingdom of
heaven be likened.
And the ten virgins went forth with their
lamps to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were wise, and five were
foolish.
And they that were foolish took lamps, and
they took no oil with them along with
them.
But the wise took oil in their lamps
along with their vessels.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and
slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made,
Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go out to meet
him.
And all the virgins arose and trimmed their
lamps, and the foolish said unto the wise,
Give us your oil, for our lamps are
gone out.
But the wise answered, and so it said,
Not so, lest there be not enough for
us and you.
But go rather to them that sell, and
buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom
came, and they that were ready went in,
and into the marriage, and the door was
shut.
Afterward also these other virgins came along, and
said, Lord, open unto us.
And he answered and said unto them, I
know you not.
Watch therefore, for you know not what hour
the Son of Man cometh.
Now I want to comment on one thing
here tonight.
This is a true happening.
Thirteen verses Jesus gives, and he says the
kingdom of heaven, then shall the kingdom of
heaven be likened unto.
He's taking an Oriental wedding to describe a
condition that is going to exist right when
the Lord comes.
How many believe surely that this parable is
taking place in Dallas?
It's taking place all over the earth.
It is not a parable that could have
been interpreted a hundred or two hundred years
ago, because other things had to happen.
And he says then, what is he talking
about?
When the Lord actually comes, right at that
time, just before the trumpet blows, there is
going to be a certain thing take place.
Now, we often say, what does the lamp
mean?
What does the oil mean?
What does this other mean?
It means an Oriental wedding.
It has, it is taking a natural thing
to convey a spiritual.
The whole thing is this.
We're not going to an Oriental wedding, but
Jesus is taking the highlights of something very
important that took place back in his day
at any Oriental wedding.
And he applies it to the time when
he's just getting ready to blow the trumpet
and come.
Now let's see what it is.
All ten virgins are all ready to meet
the Lord.
They all had lamps, they all had their
robes, and it says their lamps burned.
Now we know the ten burned because the
five said later, our lamps have gone out.
So they filled their vessels with oil and
it burned, and all ten of them burned
just exactly like they all had robes on.
And they all were going out for the
same purpose.
They had separated themselves from all the world
as a peculiar or as a complete separate
group that is going out for the purpose
of meeting the bridegroom.
Many people back there didn't prepare, they didn't
get the robes, they didn't get the lamps,
and they didn't light the lamps because all
those things are necessary.
So we find this parable has nothing to
do with a sinner.
It has to do with you that sit
right here.
There is a warning to us that are
here in the church tonight, and this is
exactly what we'll find.
Now when they got there, they could have
all said, well Hammond has got lamps.
We all have lamps.
Hammond has got a robe on.
We all got robes on.
Hammond has come to meet the bridegroom.
All right now.
Now then, suppose he'd come in three minutes.
They'd all said we're ready to go, and
they would have been.
Can anybody anywhere at any time ever say
that any one of those ten were not
ready when they arrived at the place to
wait?
Now the Bible tells us that there is
a period of time here where the bridegroom
tarried.
I'll quote it again.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and
slept.
I want to talk just a little bit
on this slumbering.
It says that there was a period of
time that the bridegroom tarried.
May I make this statement?
While you sit here tonight looking at your
pastor, that's exactly what's happening right this minute.
The bridegroom is tarrying.
Now what is the professing church doing?
Right up at the very end, they all
began to slumber and sleep.
Slumbering is sleeping, is you go down and
snore and you're out.
Slumbering and sleeping is this.
You close your eyes, or you open them
up, and you really go to sleep with
your eyes open.
And you kind of get glassy-eyed, and
then all at once you lean over a
little bit and you kind of straighten up,
you know, give a little grin, see if
anybody saw that.
You almost went to sleep, but you slumbered.
It means that you're half here and half
there, and you're not really any good either
place.
You're just kind of in the middle.
And so you get a little glassy-eyed,
and the preacher's talking, you know, so-so,
and you almost go to sleep again, and
you look around, and you catch it and
straighten up, and the first thing, you know,
you lean back.
You've had it.
Now that's what happened.
That's what Jesus said.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and
slept.
But here's what the Lord spoke to me
that Friday night.
He said, son, all of them was ready,
just a little before, for the glory, for
the marriage, becoming kings and coming back and
reigning.
But all those that were ready, there was
half of them that become unprepared while the
bridegroom tarried.
While the bridegroom tarried, in the state of
sleeping, while they were sleeping.
You say, well now, wait a minute.
I'm a Christian.
I couldn't sleep.
My brother, I'm going to tell you, you'd
be surprised if God told you how many
times he's had to wake you up.
And if you don't watch yourself, you could
be guilty of sleeping between now and next
week.
I'm talking about a sleep that's real.
I'm not talking about laying down on your
bed at night.
I'm talking about a spiritual sleep.
Now, the Word says they slept.
Now, when they got ready, and they were
just about pass out.
Wait a minute, just a minute, getting sleepy.
Hammond is ready.
We're all ready.
Lamps burning, robes on, going to meet the
bridegroom.
We've separated, we've paid the price, we've come
out, we've said we want to go, and
we're here.
Everything is ready.
But after a while, while they slept, it
all happened.
That's what the Lord said.
While they were asleep, they become unprepared to
go.
So all at once, at midnight, a herald
gave out a sound.
Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go out to meet
him.
You never know when the cry is going
to be made.
They arose immediately, trimmed the lamps, and they
went out, and the others rose.
But the lamps had gone out.
You can't go out with your lamp.
You say, what's a lamp mean?
It means being ready.
You had to have to be ready.
Now, what do you, that was an Oriental
wedding, you're going back with the Lord.
What do you have to do?
Be ye therefore also ready.
It means whatever you're to do to be
ready.
When Jesus comes, you're to be that way.
When you awake, if you have a little
slumbering, you are to be prepared and ready.
But here's the thing.
While they slumbered, they went to sleep ready,
they woke up unprepared.
Am I right?
Is that the main thing that the whole
parable hinges on?
The main thing is this.
What was the result?
Five got in and five didn't.
Why, Lord, didn't the five others get in?
It was because they woke up unprepared, and
they were not ready to come out.
And this all happened while they were asleep,
for when they went to sleep, they were
ready.
When they awakened, they were not ready.
In the state of slumbering, they become unprepared.
That's what the book teaches.
Now, let's see something else.
Jesus said, talking about his coming, and he
was telling about how that he went away
and he would come again, and he had
trusted into us certain things, and he said,
therefore, watch and pray, lest, lest coming suddenly,
and that's the way the bridegroom came.
He came suddenly and said, behold, a bridegroom
cometh go out to meet him.
Jesus said in Matthew, in another place just
above this, he said, watch and pray, lest
coming suddenly I find you sleeping.
Was he talking to the world, or was
he talking to his children?
He was talking to his own children, because
the parable had to do with his servants.
Now, we find that sleeping is a thing
that you could very easily do.
What causes people to sleep?
While I'm talking about it, I'm going to
give you all the information I have on
it.
Jesus, one place, he said, because I have
done all these things for you, and you've
rejected them.
He said, I've put forth every effort I
could on you, and you wouldn't listen.
He said, the ox, he knoweth his master,
and the ass, his master's crib.
You see, the ox knows his master, and
the ass, his master's crib.
The ass don't know much about the master,
he just knows that the master gives him
something to eat.
But at least the ass knows the master's
crib.
But he said, my people Israel doth not
consider.
They have forgot me days without number.
Put yourself in God's shoes.
How do you believe he felt when he
said the ass over there knows his master's
crib, and the ox knows his master, but
my people don't even consider.
They forgot me days without number.
Now, he said, cross over the river and
see if the nations have changed their gods.
10 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years
ago, they had God Baal, or a hundred
other kind of gods.
Go and see if one of them has
switched their gods.
All of them are still hanging to their
gods, which are no gods.
But is the only one that has the
real God.
But my people have changed the glory for
that which doth not profit.
My people have committed two great evils.
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living
water, and they have hewn out cisterns, broken
cisterns that will hold no water.
And may I just mention here, I want
you to read it when you get home.
I'd like for you to read it.
It's found in the seventh, in the eighth
chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, and the
seventh verse going on through to the 20th.
I'll not take time to read it now.
I wish I could.
But I want you to read it, Deuteronomy
8, 7, and finish out that chapter.
Deuteronomy 8, 7.
I'll tell you what it says here.
God said, I will do this, I will
read that last verse, just that last verse
here.
It said, As the nations which the Lord
destroyed before you, before your face, so shall
ye also perish, because you would not obey,
be obedient under the voice of the Lord
your God.
Now notice the 19th verse.
And if ye shall be, if thou shalt
at all forget the Lord thy God, which
walked, and walk after other gods, and serve
them, and worship them, I testify unto you
this day, that ye shall also surely perish,
as the nations which the Lord God destroyed
before your face, so shall ye perish also,
because you have not obeyed the voice of
the Lord thy God.
Now that was the word of Moses to
the children of Israel, and that is the
last two verses.
But all the verses above it starts off
here.
He said, I brought you out of a
land of bondage.
I brought you out a land of cruel
bondage.
He said, I led you across a wilderness
without water, and I struck the flinty rock,
and gave you rivers of living water.
He said, I brought you out in a
place of no food, and I fed you
with angels' manna forty years, and I caused
your feet not to swell, and I caused
your shoes not to wear out.
I covered you in the day with a
cloud, and at night with a fire that
would give you light.
He said, I bore you and carried you
in, and all your afflictions I was afflicted.
And I brought you into a good land,
and I let you possess vineyards that you
did not plant.
I let you eat of the fruit of
the trees that others planted, and I brought
you into a land of milk and honey,
with figs and with wine and grapes.
And he went on to tell them all
the things, and he said, I gave you
goodly houses to dwell in, and I gave
you protection, and I suffered not one to
fall before the enemy.
As I brought you through, I let you
conquer the enemy, and no man could stand
before you.
But when you came into my land, and
you were filled with good food, which the
Lord thy God gave unto thee, you had
houses that you were comfortable in, and he
said, when you came in and become full,
you settle down, and then you began to
forget the God that brought you out.
You permitted your hearts to go whoring after
the gods of the nations around about you,
and to grieve the Lord God when he
brought you out of bondage.
He fed you coming through the wilderness.
He brought you into the walled city, conquered
the giants and broke down the walls, gave
all of you plenty of land, and gave
you milk and honey, and gave you all
kinds of fruit, and he let you enjoy
the labor of others' hands, because I loved
you and pronounced my love upon you.
But when you got in and become comfortable,
you forgot me.
That's how I wound up.
And then he goes on to say, if
you'll go ahead and do this, I'm going
to forsake you, and just exactly like I
conquered the enemy before your face, that's the
way you're going to be destroyed, because you
forget me.
And let me say this, how many believe
that America came in, we put in God
we trust on our dollar, and how many
believe that we had a respect, we had
a standard of holiness, we had a standard
of right and wrong, and how many believe
that God in his goodness has blessed America
above every nation on earth?
Now, how many believe that many a church
member today has come in with an experience,
and God brought them out of slavery, brought
them out of the hands of the clutches
of the devil, he delivered them from the
pit of sin, he forgave their guilt, lifted
the heavy load off of them, and brought
them into a glorious experience, and gave them
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and gave
them Christ in their heart, and give them
a new birth, put their name in the
Lamb's book of life, and give them peace
of heart, lifted the heavy load, and then
according to God's word, God said no good
thing will he withhold to them that walk
uprightly, and here in this very one, when
you go home and read it, it said
for it is the good Lord that makes
you to prosper, and to have riches, that's
in that very thing, it's God that makes
you to prosper, but I will deprive you
of all these things, and you will go
into the land of the enemy, and there
I will turn and fight against you, just
like I fought against the countries that you
came into, and before your eyes I conquered
them, you shall have the same thing meted
out to you, you're my children, you're the
seed of Abraham, but you must put me
first, and when you are full, and your
stomachs are full, and you're living in lovely
houses, you're enjoying the fruits of the trees,
remember it is the good God of heaven,
and don't forget God, but God came on
the scene later, and it said the ass
remembers the master's hand, and the ox remembers
the master, but my people Israel have forgot
me days without number.
Praise God, thank you Jesus, oh hallelujah, hallelujah,
anyone has the interpretation, glory to God, thank
you Jesus, God is present.
Praise God, amen.
God in his mercy is stretching forth his
hand, he loves us, but if we turn
from him, he tells us what he'll do,
in the first chapter of Isaiah, he brings
a charge against Israel, I want you to
listen real quickly, it said all sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity, seed of evildoers,
children in whom there is your corruptors, they
have forsaken the way of the Lord, and
they have provoked the holy one of Israel,
their anger, they have gone away backward, why
would you be stricken more and more, why
will you revolt more and more, the whole
head is sick, the whole heart is faint,
from the sole of your feet, until your
head, there is no soundness in it, wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores, you have not
mollified them, you have not bound them up
with ointment, your country is desolate, your cities
are burned with fire, your land strangers have
devoured in your presence, and you are desolate,
overthrown by the strangers, and the daughters of
Zion is left as a cottage in a
vineyard, as a lodging of a garden of
cucumbers, except the Lord of hosts had left
a very small remnant, you would have been
as Sodom and even as Gomorrah, hear the
word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom,
give ear unto the law, the God of
Gomorrah, to what purpose is the multitude of
your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord, I
am full of burnt offerings, I am full
of rams and fat beasts and goats, I
delight not in the blood of bulls and
of lambs and of goats, then when you
come before me to appear before me, who
will require this at your hands to tread
my courts, bring no more vain oblations, incense
is an abomination unto me, the new moons
and sabbaths and the calling of assemblies I
cannot away with, it is iniquity, even the
sabbath meetings are abomination, your new moons and
your appointed feasts my soul hateth, they are
trouble unto me, I am weary to bear
them, and when you spread forth your hands
I will hide mine eyes from you, yea,
when you make many prayers I will not
hear you, your hands are full of blood,
wash you and make you clean, put away
the evil of your doings before mine eyes,
and cease to do evil, learn to do
good, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the
fathers and the widows, and come before me,
and come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord, and though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow,
though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as wool.
This is God speaking to Israel after they
have done exactly what he told them they
would not do.
He said, but if you will come now,
I don't want you to bring incense, I
don't want you to bring oblation, I don't
want you to bring a new feast or
new moon, and all the hundreds of ceremonies
and things that you're going through a ritual,
forget it.
He said, I want you to come now
to the God of heaven, open up your
heart, and I want you to reason with
God and get to the core of things.
Forget sacrificing, forget blood sacrificing, forget incense, forget
new moons, come and let us reason together,
though your sins be as scarlet.
But you know what?
Right after that, they did not heed.
They turned their deaf ear to God.
Now we come on the scene.
God, as a last resort, sent his son,
Jesus.
And Jesus was rejected of the same people.
Then Jesus stood on the mountain and cried
and said, Jerusalem, how oft would I have
gathered thee, but you would not.
Now your house is left desolate.
Now I'm coming to the point.
He said, your house is left desolate, and
this is what will happen.
You'll fall by the edge of the sword.
You'll be led away captive.
Paul the Apostle in Romans 11, here's what
he said, Wherefore, God, for as it is
written, and you go back to Isaiah, you'll
find these very words that God said, If
you go away from me, after I have
given you all these good things and I've
taken you out of the hand of the
enemy and I brought you out, I will
put a spirit of slumber upon you and
it shall be drowsiness.
It will be fatigue and it will cause
you not to rationally think and I will
close your eyes and close your ears so
the eyes that could see and the ears
could hear will no longer function.
Now then, in Romans 11, Paul said, For
it is written that God said, I will
give them a spirit of slumber, eyes that
they shouldn't see and ears that they shouldn't
hear, because they had a chance to use
their spirit, they had a chance to use
their eyes and ears, but they rejected.
And now he said, God hath given them
the spirit of slumber.
Now he said, Behold the goodness and the
severity of God.
On the Gentiles, goodness, but on Israel, severity.
Why?
Because he has rejected, your house is desolate,
you shall fall to the edge of the
sword, your place of worship taken down, you
will be scattered and you will have a
spirit of slumber that I told you I'd
put on you.
Why?
Because you forgot your God when I blessed
you and you let the blessing stand between
me and you, I will give you a
spirit of slumber and I will put you
back in the hands of the enemy.
Now he said, Take heed, Gentiles, for if
God spared not his own, take heed, lest
he spare not thee.
How many believe that the Gentiles, it said,
be not high-minded, but fear.
For if God spared not his own chosen
people, but give them a spirit of slumber,
how many believe in the end time right
now, God is giving many people a spirit
of slumber because they've taken the good things
that God's given them and they're letting that
stand between them and God and they're having
pleasure, they're letting the things, the blessings that
God gave them stand between their worship and
their praise like it should and it's separating
them from God and it's caused God's heart
to grieve.
Now, let me say this.
Notice it was a spirit of slumber.
You could go up to any of them
and speak, they'd speak intelligent to you, but
they were asleep.
I'm talking about a spiritual sleep.
Now, Jesus said, Lest coming suddenly he find
you sleeping.
Another place it said, Let us not sleep
as others, but let us watch and be
sober.
Don't be drunk.
That's spiritual drunkenness.
And it said, Let us watch and be
sober.
But in Ephesians, it speaks to the church
and said, Let us not sleep as do
others.
Now, Jesus used this word.
He said, Men ought always to pray and
not faint.
Look up the word faint.
What is it?
It is you're not dead.
Your heart is still beating.
All parts of your body is functioning perfectly.
But you are not rational with what's going
on around about you.
Now, what is the difference?
What is the thin line between fainting and
want to sleep?
We'll go to one person that faints out.
He's on the floor.
He's not dead.
And he'll be up and at it in
just a little while.
But right now, you can say anything you
want to say and he doesn't hear you.
He's not a bit of good to anybody
around about him.
He's still got good brains.
His heart's beating all right.
He's not sick.
He just fainted.
It means that temporarily he cannot function normally.
And what he's doing, he's just passed out.
And he's not a bit of good to
anybody around about him.
You see what I mean?
You're not good to nobody if you're fainting.
Now, here's another person that's slumbering and sleeping.
Their heart's all right.
It's not going to be a permanent thing.
They're going to get up after a while
and go on about their business.
But while they're laying there, they're asleep.
They're out.
They're not conscious of what's going on around
about them.
Jesus Christ, in referring to this, He was
referring to the same condition that happens to
people if you're in a fainted condition and
you're sound asleep.
You're both exactly on the same category.
Why?
Because you're going to come out in a
little while.
He's going to come out in a little
while.
But while you're there, you can't whistle.
You can't sing.
You can't lead anybody to God.
You can't think normally.
You can't think rationally.
And while you're laying there, there's dangers around
about you if you're fainted or asleep.
Jesus, instead of saying men ought always to
pray and not go to sleep, but He
knew that one is just like the other.
He said men ought always to pray and
not faint.
Now that if it calls it fatigue, and
you reach a place that you just feel
that thing coming over you, a kind of
a spirit of sleepy lack.
You don't feel like praying because you're feeling
that way.
You just kind of go along.
But now what does the Bible say?
They that wait upon the Lord.
That's praying.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew
their strength.
They shall mount up as on wings of
eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint.
That means through prayer it is a therapy
to the soul.
There is nothing under heaven.
If you are guilty and the Lord comes
along and says, Honey, you're asleep.
And if I come, I'll catch you asleep.
Well, what must I do, Lord?
Read a chapter in the Bible?
Or what should I do?
Just get up and wash my face real
good?
Put cold water on it and say, Now,
I'm alright.
I'm awake.
He said, Oh no, you're just still sound
asleep.
It's not that kind of sleep that you
have when you go to bed.
It's a spiritual sleep that comes upon you,
and brother, things are happening around about you,
and they're not having any effect.
The preacher can preach, my brother, any kind
of a message, and God tries to reach
you, but He can't.
Why?
You're asleep.
And I found this out.
There's only one thing I know that will
bring you out of the sleep if you're
in it, and that's to get right down
on your knees and pray till that thing
is broken.
Men ought always to pray and not faint.
Whoever heard of anybody just fainting out, pass
out in the natural, I'm talking about.
He's not talking about natural faint.
And somebody said, Well, that person just fainted
there.
If they'd have prayed this morning, they wouldn't
have fainted.
That's a natural faint.
You faint because of weakness.
Am I right?
You faint because of the wrong environment.
You faint because someone comes up and said,
Your husband just got in a wreck down
there, and it's too much for you.
The pressure is too much.
You pass out.
That happens all the time.
People faint.
Doctors will tell someone to sit down.
Now, I've got something to say to you.
They're afraid they'll faint.
That's in the natural.
There's a spiritual faint.
How many believe that?
Now, there is a spiritual faint.
And Jesus said, Watch and pray always that
you might be accounted worthy to escape.
And I'm going to say this.
There are people here tonight that may be
asleep spiritually.
And this may not get through as it
really should.
But if you can let your intellect listen
to what Brother Hibbert is saying, and you
get down on your knees, and you begin
to pray, not just pray because you promised
to pray a certain amount, but you get
out and begin to pray, as sure as
you do, there is a strength that comes
from heaven because God said so.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew
their strength.
They shall mount up as on wings of
eagles.
They will run and not be weary.
They will walk and not faint.
You get out and you pray.
It may take a full hour the first
time until you really touch heaven and the
joy comes in.
When you do, you will begin to see
things in a perspective you've never seen it
before.
You will become conscious of things you have
neglected and you have left undone, that all
at once you will become under the conviction
that I must do these things.
There are opportunities that you have been blind
to that will open up.
You will see the privileges of God.
The promises will become more rich to you.
It will be easier to trust God and
to lean upon Him.
You can mount up.
You can run and you can walk and
you'll not be weary.
And God can take care of that condition.
Jesus said, they slumbered and they slept.
And while they slumbered, it all happened.
They become unprepared to go in the rapture
while they were asleep.
When they went to sleep, they were ready
as much as anybody on earth will ever
be ready.
But while they were sleeping, they become unprepared
to go in.
That's exactly what the thing teaches us.
If it teaches one thing, while they waited
and the bridegroom tarried, Jesus is tarrying right
now.
He hasn't come.
How many believe it's just before the sound
goes out, the bridegroom coming?
If we're asleep.
I'm going to tell you, if you're one
tonight that's praying, you're putting your prayer time
in, you're reading the Bible, you're seeing sin
on that television that you'd never seen before.
You'd see sin in the paper that you've
never seen before.
You'd watch the news and you'd see things
in our country.
And I'm going to tell you the truth.
I served God and I've loved God for
50 years.
But since we've been putting this hour in
early when everything was quiet, I have never
been able to see the conditions of this
world.
I have never been able to feel the
pulse of the people of God as I
have since I have awakened and I've come
before God.
I see things in a new perspective.
His Word becomes rich.
It begins to speak to me.
It begins to juvenate me.
When I get up of a morning, I
feel a strength.
I feel lighter.
I feel a strength, a health that I
haven't felt before.
Why?
Because God said, when you wait upon Me,
He that waiteth upon Me, I will renew
their strength and they shall mount up as
on wings of eagles.
How many here tonight realize there is a
possibility, no matter how your lamp burned at
one time, and God said to me the
other day, and I'm finished now, in that
room, in a dream, I was in that
room, and God said to me, Son, go
out and tell them to keep their lamp
trimmed and burning.
And I waited a few minutes and He
said a second time, Son, go out and
tell the people to keep their lamp trimmed
and burning.
I've told you this several times because it
meant something.
And while I was in there in my
dream, I was hurrying to get a scripture.
He said, Son, now go out quickly.
He was just like that.
He said, go out quickly and tell them
to keep their lamp trimmed and burning.
You know what He was saying?
He was saying, go out and tell them
to stay ready.
And if you're asleep, you're not ready.
You cannot carry the load of the church
if you've gone to sleep.
You can get lukewarm very easy if you
slumber, and if you go to sleep.
You can lose your first love very easy
if you go to sleep.
You can think the Lord's going to delay
His coming very easy when you go to
sleep.
You can smite your fellow servant easy when
you go to sleep.
But we need to be alert, awakened, not
in a stupor, not drunken, spiritually intoxicated.
God said to me, Son, I've got a
message for this woman.
She can stand here and tell you what
God performed on her was a New Testament
miracle.
Her life was completely gone.
It was wrecked.
She couldn't be a mother.
She couldn't be a wife.
She didn't ever want to go out.
She never wanted to fix a meal.
She didn't want to go out to eat.
She didn't want to fix anything.
She had just lost control.
And God said, I've got a message for
her, but don't deliver it until she gets
off from the sedative that she's in.
You wait until she gets completely out from
under the effect of the sedative before you
deliver my message.
Because her mind is not able to function
and think.
Well, that is a new one on me.
God knew more about it than I did.
So I went up to her and I
said, I've got a message that God gave
me to give to you at Methodist Hospital.
She said, Brother, I've got the uttermost confidence
in you and I want you to give
it to me.
I said, I can't give it to you
now.
I said, God spoke to me and told
me to come up here.
And here's what he said.
He said to tell you to get completely
off of the sedative that you're on before
the message is delivered.
I don't want you to deliver my message
to people that can't think normally.
And that's exactly what those things do to
you.
That's right along with sleeping.
You don't have to take them to sleep
spiritually.
You can do that, but you're in the
same fix.
God can't put things over to you.
You've got to wake up for it and
talk to it.
And awake thou that sleepeth it said.
Awake!
Get out of your sleep.
He's not talking about natural sleep.
He's talking about spiritual sleep.
Right now, people would have a compassion for
souls that's going to hell if they were
wide awake spiritually.
How many believe that?
Now, I went to her and I said,
What sedatives are you on?
She said, I'm on thallium.
I said, What power?
She said, Five.
Five.
Five grams, whatever it is.
How many do you take a day?
She told me.
She said, Just very little.
She hadn't been on too long.
And I said, All right.
I got that information, went to the doctor,
and I said to him, I said, Doctor,
I've got to have a question answered for
me.
If a woman is on thalliums and she's
on five grain and she takes so many
a day, how long would it take her
to be completely out from under the effect
of that to where she could think perfectly
normal?
He looked up at me with a question
as to say, Why do you want to
know?
He paused a minute.
He said, There are five grain?
I said, Yeah.
Two or three a day, I think he
said.
Two days, something like that.
I said, Yes, that was it.
Hmm.
Well, he said, It may vary just a
few hours, but he said it would be
between three and four days before she is
able to think normally and react rationally.
People go around all time, week in and
week out on thalliums.
They change your whole nature, and it's amazing
what some people do, and they'll eventually, they'll
kill you if you fool around with them.
But that doctor told me that.
I went back and said, Cut them out,
and when you get through, I'm going to
bring a message to you.
She went home.
She got completely off of them.
I went in, and I told her after
three days was up.
She listened to me.
She raised her hand and prayed.
God healed her.
And overnight, she was a brand new woman.
She was up and going and bright and
tending to the children, fixing three meals a
day.
She was normal, but she was locked in
that thing, and that's the same thing that
keeps people not working for God, and God
can't get things to.
They have gone to sleep spiritually.
I'm not talking to those that have not,
but how many believe there's a possibility of
no matter what you have had, there's a
possibility of you going to sleep, and as
far as I know, one thing, brother, will
cause it to awake is to have a
good old-fashioned prayer meeting until you feel
the glory come in and the Holy Ghost
take over.
And then you begin to think like you
should.
This is what I've delved into, and I
know what I'm talking about.
It gives you just like a person fatigued
that can't keep their eyes open.
They're just like spiritually, you have a heaviness
that comes over you.
We're at the closing of the Gentile age,
and because many have neglected God, we have
permitted the nice home and money in the
bank and everything else.
We forget Wednesday night.
We forget the prayer service.
We forget to feed ourselves on the radio.
We find ourselves feeding on the wrong things,
and we're enjoying the good things that God
gives us, but we're forgetting God.
Now this is not to everybody.
It's to individuals here that have found time
for everything but to get down and really
pray as we really should.
I'm going to ask us tonight to do
this for me.
It's about eight minutes to eight.
I'd like to have us go in the
back.
I've held you just a little lengthy tonight,
but this has been heavy on my heart.
And as we go into this tenth week,
how many believe that there's going to be,
if we stay faithful to God, there's going
to be people, and you know why hundreds
of backsliders are out there that are not
coming to church and they weren't here this
morning?
You know why?
They've gone to sleep.
I said they've gone to sleep.
But how many of you do not want
to go to sleep?
You want the Spirit to keep you awake.
Lest, coming suddenly, He find you sleeping, and
half, half of the crowd that was going
out to meet the Lord did not go.
Half of the group got unprepared while they
were asleep.
That's Jesus saying in this end time, my
Pentecostal holiness, church of Christ, our church of
God, our four square, our, we would say,
God's people, Baptists, that are really born again
and all, God's church as a whole, half
of the ones that were really ready and
on fire, half of the group, because He
spake of those that were designed to go
out and meet the Bridegroom.
Not the world, but the church.
And that means half.
One out of every two is going to
go to sleep, and when the Lord comes,
they'll wake up and find that they're not
prepared and ready.
Have I interpreted this right?
Is it true that Jesus said while they
were asleep, they woke up unprepared, they went
to sleep prepared, but they woke up unprepared.
He tells us to stay ready.
Five of them had wise, they were wise
enough to see to it that they were
going to stay ready.
It's up to us to do that.
Let's stand to our feet tonight.
Oh, hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
How many here again, you'll say, Brother Hibbert,
I do not want to go to sleep
spiritually.
I want to stay awake.
Let me see your hand.
All right.
You'll find it the easiest thing in the
world to do, to go back there and
to kneel and to have a real good
prayer before we go home tonight.
And I want us to open our heart
and search it and say, God, I want
to fit into your program exactly as you'd
have me to fit.
I want to be ready at any time
you want to use me.
Would you come?
Let's come right on through these arches.
Let's go in the prayer room.
Hallelujah.
Oh, hallelujah.