A Call to Awake

A CALL TO AWAKE

 

 “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”  (Eph 5:14)

 

This Epistle is directed to the Church.  The Christian is called upon to awake out of sleep.  

 

 

I. TIME IS RUNNING OUT

 

A. We are in the last days

 

1. Prophetic End-Time signs are now current events

 

(Matthew 24 and Luke 21)

 

a. False prophets

 

b. Wars and rumors of wars

 

c. Iniquity shall abound

 

d. The love of many shall wax cold

 

e. The Gospel shall be preached to all the world

 

2. Bible Prophecy is being fulfilled

 

a. Knowledge shall be increased – Dan. 12:4

 

b. There has been a great falling away from truth –

II Thes. 2:3,

 

c. Seducing spirits are deceiving good people –

I Tim. 4:1

 

3. These are perilous times – II Tim. 3:1-5

 

 

 

4. It is as Noah’s day – Mt. 24:37-39, Luke 17:26, 27

 

5. The world is like Sodom – Luke 17:28, 29

B. Judgment is at hand

 

1. Like sin will bring like judgment

 

a. The flood was a result of man’s wickedness

 

b. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of

sin – Ezk. 16: 49

 

c. Sin and idolatry brought God’s judgment upon Israel

 

2. Must begin in the House of God – I Peter 4:17

 

3. America will be judged

a. The eagle’s wings will be plucked – Dan. 7:4

 

b. Russia will attack the U.S.A. – Ezk. 38: 10-13

 

  C. The Church will be persecuted

 

1. Has already endured tremendous attacks

 

a. Persecuted period of Church history

(Corresponds to the Smyrna Church in Rev. 2)

 

1) Smyrna comes from “myrrh” which means

to crush

 

2) Crushed under the iron heel of pagan Rome

 

b. The Catholic Inquisition was responsible for many

thousands of Christian deaths

 

 

c. The Catholic counter-reformation was an attack

against the Christian protestants again killing

thousands of Christians

 

1) Over 200,000 Protestants killed in France alone

 

2) Christians were killed throughout Europe

 

2. The Church will go into the tribulation

 

a. Tribulation is coming soon

 

b. The devil will persecute The Church – Rev. 12:13

 

II. IT IS TIME TO WAKE-UP

 

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”   (Rom 13:11)

 

A. The Church is asleep

1. We are in the Laodicean period of The Church –

Rev. 3:14-21

 

a. Compromise began in the 1950’s

 

b. Ruled by the people

 

2. Unresponsive to The Word

 

3. Prosperity is the message of today

 

a. Jabez cult

 

1) Promises untold wealth and success

2) Promoted as the prayer that God must

answer

 

b. Merchandizing The Gospel – II Peter 2:1-3

4. Holiness is no longer the standard

 

5. Modern Bible versions have distorted the truth

 

B. Don’t be caught slumbering

 

1. Watch and pray – Luke 21: 36

a. A continued vigilance

 

b. Necessary to escape the tribulation

 

2. Cast off the works of darkness – Rom. 13:12

 

a. Darkness encourages sleep

 

b. Darkness is the opposite of light

 

1) Light is truth – John 8:32

 

2) Light will wake you up

3) Put on the armour of light

 

3. Rise up in these last days

 

a. Lay hold on eternal life

 

b. Appropriate the promises of God – II Peter 1:4

 

4. No time for procrastination