Loving to Slumber

Isaiah 56:9-12 ESV

“All you beasts of the field, come to devour—

    all you beasts in the forest.

His watchmen are blind;

    they are all without knowledge;

they are all silent dogs;

    they cannot bark,

dreaming, lying down,

    loving to slumber.

The dogs have a mighty appetite;

    they never have enough.

But they are shepherds who have no understanding;

    they have all turned to their own way,

    each to his own gain, one and all.

‘Come,’ they say, ‘let me get wine;

    let us fill ourselves with strong drink;

and tomorrow will be like this day,

    great beyond measure.’”

This writing is obviously addressed to a very specific people at a particular time in biblical history. But there are things we can learn from this, especially when some or all or most of this also applies to our world or to our nations or to the church in any specific location or overall in our world today. But since I live in America, and America is what I know, America is what I will be talking about. So apply these truths wherever you know they apply.

In America today we have many people within the gatherings of the church (or what is falsely being called “church”) who fit this description to some extent. But this appears to largely be focused on those who are in positions of spiritual rule, authority, and leadership within the gatherings of the church, but also within Christian homes. And since God has assigned the leadership roles in the home and in the church to men, this would be targeted mainly to men, although not to exclude women entirely.

So, who are these watchmen? In a spiritual sense they are those whom God appoints to watch over the souls of his people, to nurture them in the Lord, to give them both encouragement and warnings, and to train them in righteousness and holiness and in obedient walks of faith in Jesus Christ. So they are to urge God’s people to live faithfully in service to the Lord and to warn them against falling away from their pure devotion to Jesus Christ. And they are to warn the unrepentant and the disobedient of judgment of God.

Now, when we read the New Testament, we learn that each one of us who believes in Jesus Christ is to be spiritually responsible for those of the body of Christ, not that we are held accountable for what others do, but that we are accountable to God for what we do in obedience to our Lord in nurturing and encouraging and exhorting the body of Christ, and in speaking the truth in love to one another so that we all grow to spiritual maturity in Christ.

[Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25] 

So, it isn’t just the job of the preacher or pastor in a church congregation to look out for the spiritual growth and maturity and encouragement of the saints of God, i.e. the body of believers in Christ. Yet, what most of us are lacking in, unless we are in positions of rule over the people, is any authority over the people. But that shouldn’t keep us from fulfilling our God-given responsibilities to the body of Christ, as a whole. We all should be encouraging one another to live holy lives and to not walk in sin.

Therefore, to some extent, this passage of Scripture can apply to the entire body of Christ, although it is especially targeted at those who are in positions of rule and authority who have the power and authority to make things happen or not happen. So, then let’s look at what this is teaching us, whether or not we live in America, which is where I live. For these are universal and biblical truths repeated for us in the New Testament.

The Lesson

Many professing Christians here in America are not Christians in practice but only in profession. They give lip service only to the Lord, but they do not follow up their confessions of Christ as Lord by truly making him Lord (Owner-Master) of their lives. Instead, many of them are continuing in deliberate and habitual sin against God, and against other humans, and so they are living, in practice, as the spiritually blind. And many of them are preachers and pastors and people of influence in the Christian church.

So, they are selfish, and self-indulgent, and seekers of pleasure and not seekers of God. They are spiritually asleep and lazy and apathetic. They are wanderers who go from this to that to something else without regard for God and for what he wants for their lives. For they live for themselves and for what gives them pleasure and not for God and for what is pleasing to him, and not for the benefit of others but often against others when they sin against them deliberately and habitually without conscience or remorse.

And so they are neglecting not only their own spiritual lives and their supposed relationships with Jesus Christ, but they are also emotionally, spiritually, and physically neglecting the true needs of God’s people, and their spiritual nourishment. And many are teaching them lies which give them permission to continue on in their sin without conscience, for they are telling them that all their sins are forgiven and heaven is guaranteed them when they die, regardless of how they live. But that is not the truth!

And so what this passage of Scripture is about is a warning of divine judgment, and I personally believe the American church is already under the divine judgment of God, as is our nation. And the book of Revelation begins in chapters 2 and 3 with warnings of divine judgment to the majority of the church if she does not repent of her sins and turn back to the Lord (or to him in the first place) in walks of holiness and in obedience to the Lord and to his commands (New Covenant).

For, if sin is what we practice, we will not have eternal life with God. And if we claim to be in fellowship with God/Christ but while we walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin, we are liars. And if we claim to know God/Christ but we do not obey his commandments (New Covenant), we are liars. And if we walk in sin and not in righteousness, and not in obedience to our Lord, we don’t know God, we are not born of God, but we are of the devil, and heaven will not be our eternal destiny (1 John 1,2,3).

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

The Spirit Calling

An Original Work / November 12, 2019

Hear the Spirit calling.

He’ll keep you from falling.

Tenderly He’s calling,

“Come and follow Him.”

Walk with Jesus daily.

Don’t give in to lazy.

Folks may call you crazy.

Fellowship with Him.

Follow where He leads you.

Eat what Jesus feeds you.

His love will renew you

If you follow Him.

Do what Jesus tells you.

Don’t let your faith fail you.

His love will avail you

If you walk with Him.

Jesus, Lord and Savior,

Reigneth now forever.

He gave us His favor

So we’d live with Him.

Turning now from our sin,

Holy Spirit live-in.

Holiness we walk in,

Purified by Him.

https://vimeo.com/373006449