CREEPING SLEEP
TRANSLATION ALERT 45
Creeping Sleep | Neal Frisby’s Sermon CD #1190 | 12/3019/1987 PM
Tonight, I was just sitting there thinking about what to preach. I thought about—and said, just look at what happened in 1987, the events that took place on the earth, and I was just sitting there and wondering about them and the Lord said, “But many of my people are still sleeping.” That came right directly to me. O, I looked up a few scriptures and read a few things, and I began to put down my notations [notes]. So, we are going to have this message. I believe it is very important or it would not have come to me like that. You listen to it real close here tonight.
The creeping sleep: It is a sedative that is settling all over the world. It’s like satan has given them all a great sedative of some kind. Millions in 1987 fell asleep; some may never wake up, falling asleep without God, falling away from God, quit going to church, quit the Lord, just falling away. In 1987, many fell by the wayside, the Lord told me. How many more in 1988 would give up and fall by the wayside, never to wake up again? Before the great outpouring, many more will fall by the wayside, never to wake up again. Others can be wakened possibly, but that is the hour we live in and it is creeping more so. More people are quitting the churches. More people are quitting the real things of God, going off to the wayside and just falling away.
All through the bible, there was a time of sleeping in each age. Then there was a time of great awakening that would come. Since the time of Adam to the days we live, some would sleep on an extra one thousand years during the Millennium, fully waking up at the White Throne. Those were asleep in the time of His visitations. Those were asleep throughout the Old Testament when the great prophets were revealing the truth of God. Those who rejected the Lord and died in unbelief, rejecting the Master would lay in that sleep. The creeping sleep today is crossing the earth, each year more so and more so, until a stirring revival would come. In some ways, it’s like dogs that have fallen asleep. They no longer bark to give forth the warning to their master and signal him, danger, danger, danger is coming. They have something, but it does not ring. Their warning systems are out of order. They are all asleep, the creeping sleep is coming upon the world, falling asleep at night, going on to sleep.
You know, one time in Babylon, they were all asleep drunk, all of them drinking, having a big time, dancing and all the ladies drinking out of the vessels of the Lord taken out of the temple. All of them were caught up in this madness of sleep. It was a spiritual sleep. “Daniel, the prophet, O, who cares for him? We don’t call him anymore.” He was out of tune at that time, but not so with Belshazzar’s father. Nebuchadnezzar called him often. But Belshazzar was in trouble; a handwriting appeared across the wall. In the United States and across the world right now, the handwriting is beginning to write the first words across there—spiritually asleep. Do you believe that tonight? It [the message] came to me not knowing what to preach. This is my last sermon this year, the next time I return here would be 1988, in just a few days. My last sermon; [see] how God brought it to me.
We find out that there are two great enemies to the churches. One of them is excuses and the other, the Lord said, is sleeping on the job. They no longer pray. They have no need. They have a priest praying for them or a pastor somewhere, somebody doing this for them. No longer do they want to be alert. “Oh, let me sleep, it’s so beautiful, just to go on to sleep.” God said it would be like that at the end of time. Excuses: miracles are taking place and you have someone that is sick in your family–but I have no time to bring them out, I have bought a piece of land over here, I have got to do something, I just got married, I am busy at the bank over here—excuses, excuses, excuses, the bible said. He said they shall not taste [of the wedding supper]. At some point, that invitation is cut off. The ones that refused, He said, they shall not taste of that great feast that I shall send. He talked about the great healing revival and He talked about the last ones on the highways and hedges, after they all went to sleep. There was a great powerful moving from the Lord where He went out and just got them from here and there. People that you never knew would go to church, but He had them hidden somewhere somehow. He woke them up at the right time. He can wake them up at the very right time. Then He said it would be a powerful force—command—the commanding force would command every seed that God has foreknown, he shall come forth as flowers in the grass, he will come forth like the trees; he will come forth.
We find out that excuses were the first enemy. The other one, they are asleep, they like to go to sleep and have stopped praying. Paul said we are not the children of the night. We don’t sleep as do others, but we watch, we stay awake, we believe—a believer stays awake. It is the doubters and unbelievers that go to sleep. That believer, you can’t put him to sleep unless God does it; now, I mean the real believer. I am talking about the sleepers (Matthew 25). They had gone to sleep and Matthew 25: 1-10, tells the story of the foolish virgins. They wouldn’t listen to anything. They have had enough and wanted no more. They have salvation and all that, many of them. And the wise were just barely able to wake them up. The midnight cry, see; there comes that great awakening—the period to wake up. It was such a powerful awakening that it shook the foolish virgins apart. Such great thunderous power came out at the right time.
There are some that will never go to sleep at the midnight cry. They are the warners and they are the watchers. They were born to do that and they’ll be there at the proper time. Nothing can hold them. They are preordained and they will cry out. Nothing, saith the Lord, can shut them up. Cry out! Blow ye the trumpet, saith the Lord! Blow it loud! Blow it again and again and again! There is a spiritual trumpet. Paul said we are not the children of the night that we sleep as do others. But he said we are awake and we are watching. They turned their ears from the truth. They don’t want to hear preaching like this. The bible says they shall turn their ears from the truth and turn them to fables (2 Timothy 4: 4). They will not endure any kind of sound doctrine, only what they want to hear. Paul said they will be turned to fables—Paul said, you will become a fable. This is the hour that millions went to sleep. God will raise some up in a powerful move. This is the hour of the great test. This is the hour of who is going to stay with God or saith the Lord, who is going to go on to sleep? So, the foolish virgins went on to sleep. If they hadn’t had the watchers, the wise would go on to sleep. But He timed it right. They [wise virgins] were good; they are people that He has called for that. He had a way out for them because of their hearts, because of their faith and how they love their prophets. They love the word of God, no matter what.
Now, Jesus in the garden: the greatest time in the history of the world. He had taught them [twelve disciples] to pray. He had taught them to be alert. He had worked fantastic miracles; they had seen the dead raised and three of them had heard the Voice out of heaven at the transfiguration. With all these things, at the Garden of Gethsemane, He was praying alone. Then He went over to them and said, “Can’t you just pray with me for one hour?” They were asleep and they wanted to stay that way. At the end of the world, in the most momentous time like that in the history of the world—salvation of the whole world, he was going to the cross—He couldn’t get His disciples up and arouse them to the immediacy and the importance of the hour. He was God and He couldn’t do it, and didn’t do it. Why? That’s a lesson, He said. At the end of the world, at the same time [in the same way], He said, “Can’t you stay awake for one hour?” The church and the foolish went to sleep, but the watchers, and you will hear them tonight, didn’t go to sleep. None of them [disciples] stayed awake at that time, but at the end of the age, at that midnight cry, there are some of them that are still awake. Thank God for the message that He brought all the way through after the crucifixion. Then after the crucifixion, they understood. Then they would have stayed awake [They wished that they had stayed awake].
There has been a lull going on. After all the fantastic wonders that God has performed, sleep, He told me tonight, “Many of my people are still asleep.” There is work to do to keep the rest from going to sleep. They almost went to sleep, but we kept them awake at the right hour. We couldn’t do anything for the others. After all the miracles that God has performed and the messages [that He has given], some in the real church are drifting to sleep. They don’t want to hear anymore. They are turning their ears from the truth. They don’t want to hear sound doctrine. Pretty soon, fables set in. It’s a process there and when you go to the final process, Paul said, a folly, fable, that’s what you are—a cartoon [caricature]. This whole world is a cartoon, nearly, at the end of the age. They turned their ears from the truth; but there are the watchers, saith the Lord.
He was the Great One. Drops of blood came out of Him from praying for all of them. No one would pray with Him, none. He carried that load alone. He prayed for the whole world to save the whole world. That’s why He sweated that blood. He defeated satan in that garden. He got the victory in that garden. Many thought that it was at the cross. He went on through and got us salvation [at the cross], but He defeated satan and got the victory in the garden. That’s where He got it and when He came [to the crowd that came to arrest Him], they all fell back. But they had their duty to do. It was His time and so He went with them. So, in the most important hour of this age, there was a sleep that came upon the world, even on the church for a while and part of them were left [behind]. They [the foolish virgins] wouldn’t listen to the voice that went forth. There is something in that voice that shakes and wakes them up. If people would pray and praise God, get in these services and get excited, how can you go to sleep? I have been so excited about God, I couldn’t go to sleep if I wanted to, sometimes.
The world is sleeping in false religion. “Oh, but I am saved” you see. But they are asleep in false religion thinking all is well. The cares of this life: they are so asleep and involved in the cares of this life, you can’t wake them up if you had the most powerful anointing. They are all asleep. They are in drunkenness, saith the Lord, they are in sorcery and they are on drugs. They are asleep. They are sleeping on the opium of this world; the creeping sleep is deep upon this world. There are thousands of pleasures and ways through which people can fall asleep. Some of them are even legal [lawful] for example, sports or things like that. But when they put all that ahead the Lord, they go to sleep. There are thousands of ways to go to sleep. In fact, if you pray wrong and have a wrong religion, you are praying and sleeping at the same time. Boy, that must be torment when you wake up later! I’d rather be praying with the right word of God when I am praying, and have the word of God when I wake up.
You see; they are at ease in Zion, He said. They are all at ease. There is no trumpet to wake them up. Revelation 17 and Revelation 3: 11 show the great sleepiness of that church (Laodicea). The riches are putting them to sleep; the riches of this earth are putting the people to sleep. The riches of the Laodicean church are driving them to sleep. The handwriting is on the wall. God’s signpost is blinking, time of revival, be ye also ready. Blinking, the signals of God in the Holy Spirit, how many of you are ready? There is a great delay. We are in that delay. Matthew 25: 1-10: read it, so plain and so true. They [foolish virgins] wouldn’t hear anything about the oil nor about going deeper. He tarried just long enough that He could see which ones were really watching, which ones were expecting and which ones really believed that he was coming. He said He would delay for a moment to let things get exactly right and at the right time, that cry came. The ones that had already gone too far asleep, you couldn’t wake them up. There was a revival; a powerful one shook them there, but the ones that had already gone too far asleep, you couldn’t wake them up. They couldn’t come back.
So, we have here the sleep of the sin of unbelief. The sleep of unbelief has covered many not just in the general population, but millions in the churches today. The sin of unbelief—that is a sleep—it lulls you to sleep. The sleep of unbelief and doubt will lull you away from God.
There is a peace sleep and I am not talking about the peace of God. There is a peace sleep where they say, “Now, finally, we have signed a peace pact with the world. Now, we can drink and be merry. Now, we have peace [like Belshazzar, you see]. We are impregnable. On with the party!” Yes, they have peace signed, but their enemies are on the outside waiting for the hour to destroy them. They caught them that once heard the word of the Lord; they caught them off guard. They would hear the midnight cry no more or that translation. They signed a peace pact and that brought sleep. So, the sleep of peace: many nations have signed that. Back in history, they would sign a peace pact and wake up the next morning, fire and bombs all over them. At the end of the age, with the antichrist, they thought they had a peace pact, but when they got it, it was for a little while. Sleep on now, saith the Lord. So, the peace lulls them into a deeper sleep yet. They think they are free from war and that the Millennium has come. See; the creeping sleep is starting and it is getting thicker and thicker as it goes. They are not expecting, you see.
Then there is the sleep of pride. There is so much pride in the nation, the leaders and the people about what God has once done. That’s not going to help them now. The Jews had that pride when Jesus came. Oh, what pride! How dare you go to the Samaritans over there for a few days? The two days He spent there prophesied the two thousand years He shared the gospel with the Gentiles. The Jews, in their pride [said], “We have Moses as a prophet. We don’t have to listen to you.” They said, “We have our temple and we have all of this. We are far smarter than you are.” We know all these things, the Pharisees said, you are the one that is out of line. There He stood, knowing the exact hour each one of them was born and when they would go. He could see to the end of time. There they were, asleep; pride put them to sleep. They were so chosen by God; God’s chosen people on the earth. All the prophets came from them, every one of them. All the Old Testament was written about them, “We’ve got it all.” God will have mercy on that Jew. He will come gain and get the ones that are waiting. But their pride put them to sleep. “We’ve got it made” I have heard them say. “I belong to the Baptists, I have got it made. I belong to the Presbyterians, that is just what I needed. I found a full gospel church and organization, it is so powerful. I got all the pieces when I entered there. I got my name on the book.” They are asleep, saith the Lord. There are a few that will be saved in the great tribulation—that He has chosen—from all these different denominations that have salvation but never got to hear about the power of the Holy Spirit. How they are so convinced! They can believe in three gods, be baptized, wear a cross and do this or that. Brother, you’ve got it made. See how much money we’ve got in the system. The systems will be destroyed, but it is the few people scattered in there that God is coming to get—it is the jewels that are scattered among the dirt, saith the Lord. Among all that dirt in the systems, there are good people everywhere and that is the highways and hedges [people]. Command them forth—come forth now to your Maker! They’ll come out of there. He’s got an appointed time for the harvest. They are so comfortable. They don’t have the armor of God on. They are lulled to sleep and they are comfortable in that lukewarm [condition]. He’ll spew them out, He said. They once knew Him. They knew all about the gospel. The riches put them to sleep (Revelation 3: 11). How rich we are! All the control of the world [riches] are with the churches. But He said that they are wretched, naked and blind. They had everything else, but did not have the one thing that was spiritual. The Lord is the only one who can create the hunger for the people to come in, but you preach it if you have a slow time or if you have a big time. You will catch a few fish here and there. Next time, you know, you are going to need a net to get them. They are asleep, thinking they have it made in the churches. They don’t have the blood of the Lord Jesus and they don’t have the Holy Spirit in them and here they are, they think they have it made. Even among the Pentecostals, I am telling you, watch out. Oh, He has blessed me, but I believe the reason why he did it is that I stayed with the right thing and I stayed right with it.
There are sleeping delusions and all kinds of delusions—the things that they are giving them like crystals—they believe this and they believe that, this kind of doctrine and that kind of doctrine. All kinds of delusions: the delusion of witchcraft, sorcery and all kinds of delusions, worshipping the things of the world.
Then there is the sleep of the antichrist that is already coming, intoxicating them with lies and wonders coupled with science and magic. That “anti” is working as if it is part of the Spirit of God. That “anti” sleep is deadly. It is a sedative from which they are not going to pull out. It is sweeping through all these lukewarm churches. The great men of wealth, the great financiers in there are forming one world churches. And then politics, all the things that are happening—the churches and politics are coming together and when they do, that antichrist spirit will begin to put them to sleep and there is no way you can shake that grip. Between these two spirits, religion and politics, there is no more [greater] deception on the face of the earth. That antichrist, when he begins to intoxicate men and women, with those wonders and signs—they are going on to sleep. It’s coming. It is already crossing many nations now. It is already putting millions of people in the false churches to a sleep, from which they will never wake up. The antichrist will unite with politics and religion at the end of the world (Revelation 3: 11; 17: 5).
There is the preacher’s sleep and it is in all movements from Pentecostals to the rest. The preacher’s sleep: where he sprays the audience putting them to sleep with his message. He never tells them the Lord is coming. As far he is concerned, He [the Lord] is never coming. He doesn’t give that urgency cry, that midnight cry. The preachers are telling them this—even in the Pentecostal and the deliverance ministries—and they are telling them that. They are telling them that there is no urgency. They do not keep that audience alert with the prophecies nor alert with those scriptures—the very testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. I will come again. Behold, I come quickly. They are going to be caught off guard. All the dogs are asleep in those movements out there. The preacher is not telling them how quickly and how soon the Lord can come. They put all their trust in man. They say we have a good God. He is the best God; but there comes a time, He said, when his Spirit will no longer strive with man on the earth. There comes a time when his great mercy—and only an Eternal God can last that long—runs out. The Cherubims crying holy, holy, holy on that throne are silent and we come up hither; carried away, not asleep. Then the world goes into an antichrist intoxication, delusion with all lying signs and wonders. You know today, they are asleep. They watch television 24 hours a day. They are watching movies 24 hours a day. You can’t get them near the church. Many of them have already fallen away from the church. The preachers are spraying them asleep saying, “Be of good cheer. Be of good comfort. Nothing is going to happen. You won’t have any Armageddon. We are going to be in the Millennium.” They preach all kinds of ways and they don’t wake them up.
Then there is the other kind of sleep. It is the people sitting in the audience, saith the Lord. They have heard this so often, saith the Lord, that I am coming. They have heard the scriptures so often about the power of the Lord and all the miracles that He performed that they are just letting it flow over their heads. The audiences have heard the sermons and the messages of God so often, they go to sleep themselves. The audience is not listening to the preaching that is going on saith the Lord. They don’t have a spiritual ear to hear what the Spirit has to say to the churches. So, all over the earth and everywhere tonight, God is talking. They have heard about the coming of the Lord so often that they just go to church as a tradition—back and forth in the Pentecostal and deliverance ministries. There is no great urgency and no stimulation power. They need revelation, saith the Lord. It is the Lord that stimulates the soul to stay awake. He said you can’t put this new wine in old bottles; it will burst them up. Wine in the bible is only a stimulation—symbolic—you don’t drink wine with alcohol in it. It is symbolic of revelation. When God gives a revelation, a stimulation breaks forth out of there, and it is the stimulation that wakes them out of sleep. The church needs the power of revelation that is in the Book of Revelation. It will blow up the old bottles. The new bottles will be controlled by it. Without the revelation, there is no stimulation, I would tell you right there. So, we are at the end of the age. People who are going to sleep don’t want to hear it anymore, but I want to hear it all the time. The ministry here is not like something you have seen before. There is a different kind of anointing here, a revolutionary ministry that God has sent. It is revolutionary if you listen. But not even that will wake those that are truly gone. The messages are coming; you may have heard them before, but they are sent of the Lord to keep you awake. Be ye also ready. How many of you believe that tonight? God has given us the tools and we have the weapons of our warfare and the power of God. My, what a wonderful army! What a people of the Lord! So, as we find out in this message, the creeping sleep, a sedative over the world. God has spoken. I really believe that. I believe he has sounded the trumpet in this [message]and wherever you get this, play it to the rest of them.
In my heart, I love all the preachers that love the word of God, all those ministers that believe in the stimulation and the power of that revelation, all of those that believe in the dynamic miracles of His word and all of those that believe all the word of God. I love all those ministers that are not afraid to tell the truth exactly as it is, no matter what. I love all the people of God, my partners that believe that I am telling them the truth and that I am revealing the power of the Lord directly from the Lord. He has given it to His people and he will give them the glory. That cloud is moving upon the people that are chosen of God and they are moving—the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night, like the children of Israel. He is moving.
Don’t be paralyzed that a sleep is coming upon the world. It was predicted to come at the end of the age. How fitting for my last sermon of the year for God to give forth such a trumpet, such a warning! How many more would leave the churches and leave God? Nevertheless, it makes no difference; His real people are going to be awake [Amen. Thank you, Jesus].
Creeping Sleep | Neal Frisby’s Sermon CD #1190 | 12/3019/87 PM