All who follow Christ for a significant amount of time will battle spiritual drowsiness. Our minds naturally drift to worldly pleasures, and our hearts grow weary as we face life’s trials. In this sermon Spurgeon wants to ring the alarm bell, stirring his listeners to awake from their slumber and praise God with renewed vigor. “Only the wakeful are praiseful,” says Spurgeon.
Why is it imperative for the Christian to stay awake? If Christians become lethargic in their faith, then they will forget to praise God as they ought. They will forget the blessings that He has lavished on them and what He continues to provide. Worse, they might forget Who they worship altogether. Our drifting, prone-to-wandering hearts must be continuously reawakened to the beauty of the Lord, lest we fall into a spiritual stupor and miss the great opportunity and joy of serving Him.
On a final note, Spurgeon appeals to the one who has not yet given their life to Christ, the unregenerate sinner. He implores them to wake up to their sin and depraved state and place their faith in Christ. Only in Christ can they be saved from the eternal slumber of death and find true life and joy. Only in Christ can they find salvation for their soul.
As Spurgeon calls out for wakefulness in the Christian life, so too, let us ring the alarm bell loud and clear, so that all may hear the Word of God and praise Him to the fullest.
Excerpt
It is bad to awake late, but what shall be said of those who never awake at all? Better late than never: but with many it is to be feared it will be never. I would take down the trumpet and give a blast, or ring the alarm-bell till all the faculties of the sluggard’s manhood are made to bestir themselves, and he cries with new-born determination, “I myself will awake.”
[…]My heart’s desire is that none of us may feel the dreamy influence of this age, which is comparable to the enchanted ground; but that each of us may be watchful, wakeful, vigorous, intense, fervent. Trusting that the Holy Spirit may bless or meditations to our spiritual quickening[…]
Read the rest of the sermon here.