BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibref/wesley/serm_003.txt

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Charles Wesley


SERMON 3


(text from the 1872 edition)


AWAKE, THOU THAT SLEEPEST


Preached on Sunday April 4, 1742, before the University of Oxford,
by the Rev. Charles Wesley, M.A. Student of Christ-Church.

"Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light." Eph. 5:14.

In discoursing on these words, I shall, with the help of God,--


First. Describe the sleepers, to whom they are spoken:

Secondly. Enforce the exhortation, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and
arise from the dead:" And,

Thirdly. Explain the promise made to such as do awake and arise:
"Christ shall give thee light."

I. 1. And first, as to the sleepers here spoken to. By sleep is signified
the natural state of man; that deep sleep of the soul, into which
the sin of Adam hath cast all who spring from his loins: That supineness,
indolence, and stupidity, that insensibility of his real condition,
wherein every man comes Into the world, and continues till the voice
of God awakes him.

2. Now, "they that sleep, sleep in the night." The state of nature
is a state of utter darkness; a state wherein "darkness covers the
earth, and gross darkness the people." The poor unawakened sinner,
how much knowledge soever he may have as to other things, has no
knowledge of himself: in this respect "he knoweth nothing yet as
he ought to know." he knows not that he is a fallen spirit, whose
only business in the present world, is to recover from his fall,
to regain that image of God wherein he was created. he sees no necessity
for the one thing needful, even that inward universal change, that
"birth from above," figured out by baptism, which is the beginning
of that total renovation. that sanctification of spirit, soul, and
body, "without which no man shall see the Lord."

3. Full of all diseases as he is, he fancies himself in perfect health.
Fast bound in misery and iron, he dreams that he is at liberty. he
says, "Peace! Peace!" while the devil, as "a strong, man armed,"
is in full possession of his soul. he sleeps on still and takes his
rest, though hell is moved from beneath to meet him; though the pit
from whence there is no return hath opened its mouth to swallow him
up. A fire is kindled around him, yet he knoweth it not; yea, it
burns him, yet he lays it not to heart.

4. By one who sleeps, we are, therefore, to understand (and would
to God we might all understand it!) a sinner satisfied in his sins;
contented to remain in his fallen state, to live and die without
the image of God; one who is ignorant both of his disease, and of
the only remedy for it; one who never was warned, or never regarded
the warning voice of God, "to flee from the wrath to come;" one that
never yet saw he was in danger of hell-fire, or cried out in the
earnestness of his soul, "What must I do to be saved?"

5. If this sleeper be not outwardly vicious, his sleep is usually
the deepest of all: whether he be of the Laodicean spirit, "neither
cold nor hot," but a quiet, rational, inoffensive, good-natured professor
of the religion of his fathers; or whether he be zealous and orthodox,
and, "after the most straitest sect of our religion," live "a Pharisee;
" that is, according to the scriptural account, one that justifies
himself; one that labours to establish his own righteousness, as
the ground of his acceptance with God.

6. This is he, who, "having a form of godliness, denies the power
thereof;" yea, and probably reviles it, wheresoever it is found,
as mere extravagance and delusion. Meanwhile, the wretched self-deceiver
thanks God, that he is "not as other men are; adulterers, unjust,
extortioners": no, he doeth no wrong to any man. he "fasts twice
in a week," uses all the means of grace, is constant at church and
sacrament, yea, and "gives tithes of all that he has;" does all the
good that he can "touching the righteousness of the law," he is "blameless":
he wants nothing of godliness, but the power; nothing of religion,
but the spirit; nothing of Christianity, but the truth and the life.


7. But know ye not, that, however highly esteemed among men such
a Christian as this may be, he is an abomination in the sight of
God, and an heir of every woe which the Son of God, yesterday, to-
day, and for ever, denounces against "scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"?
he hath "made clean the outside of the cup and the platter," but
within is full of all filthiness. "An evil disease cleaveth still
unto him, so that his inward parts are very wickedness." Our Lord
fitly compares him to a "painted sepulchre," which "appears beautiful
without;" but, nevertheless, is "full of dead men's bones, and of
all uncleanness." The bones indeed are no longer dry; the sinews
and flesh are come upon them, and the skin covers them above: but
there is no breath in them, no Spirit of the living God. And, "if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "Ye are
Christ's, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you": but, if
not, God knoweth that ye abide in death, even until now.

8. This is another character of the sleeper here spoken to. he abides
in death, though he knows it not. he is dead unto God, "dead in trespasses
and sins." For, "to be carnally minded is death " Even as it is written,
"By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men;" not only temporal death, but likewise
spiritual and eternal. "In that day that thou eatest," said God to
Adam, "thou shalt surely die;" not bodily (unless as he then became
mortal), but spiritually: thou shalt lose the life of thy soul; thou
shalt die to God: shalt be separated from him, thy essential life
and happiness.

9. Thus first was dissolved the vital union of our soul with God;
insomuch that "in the midst of" natural "life, we are" now in spiritual
"death." And herein we remain till the Second Adam becomes a quickening
Spirit to us; till he raises the dead, the dead in sin, in pleasure,
riches or honours. But, before any dead soul can live, he "hears"
(hearkens to) "the voice of the Son of God": he is made sensible
of his lost estate, and receives the sentence of death in himself.
he knows himself to be "dead while he liveth;" dead to God, and all
the things of God; having no more power to perform the actions of
a living Christian, than a dead body to perform the functions of
a living man.

10. And most certain it is, that one dead in sin has not "senses
exercised to discern spiritual good and evil." "Having eyes, he sees
not; he hath ears, and hears not." he doth not "taste and see that
the Lord is gracious." he "hath not seen God at any time," nor "heard
his voice," nor "handled the word of life." In vain is the name of
Jesus "like ointment poured forth, and all his garments smell of
myrrh, aloes, and cassia." The soul that sleepeth in death hath no
perception of any objects of this kind. his heart is "past feeling,
" and understandeth none of these things.

11. And hence, having no spiritual senses, no inlets of spiritual
knowledge, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God; nay, he is so far from receiving them, that whatsoever is
spiritually discerned is mere foolishness unto him. he is not content
with being utterly ignorant of spiritual things, but he denies the
very existence of them. And spiritual sensation itself is to him
the foolishness of folly. "How," saith he, "can these things be?
How can any man know that he is alive to God?" Even as you know that
your body is now alive. Faith is the life of the soul; and if ye
have this life abiding in you, ye want no marks to evidence it to
yourself, but _elegchos pneumatos_, that divine consciousness, that
witness of God, which is more and greater than ten thousand human
witnesses.

12. If he doth not now bear witness with thy spirit, that thou art
a child of God, O that he might convince thee, thou poor unawakened
sinner, by his demonstration and power, that thou art a