Turn in your copies of the scriptures to Matthew chapter 25 tonight as we continue looking at the parables of Christ. This evening, we'll be reading the first 13 verses and discussing this parable called the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins or the parable of the 10 virgins and other headings. Let's read together the first 13 verses of this passage. Matthew chapter 25. Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him! Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you, but go, rather, to those who sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came, also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you who refer to yourself as the Son of Man, Lord, you who clothed yourself with humanity, that you might relate to us in our fallen state and communicate to us as the perfect man what we may be in relationship to God through your mercies and your sacrifice. You set before us your example, but more than that, Lord, you've given us your life. And by that life, have secured us a place with you in glory. Father, you taught many things, and we're very grateful that through Christ you taught us about the coming of your Son to judge the earth. We pray that this parable would open our eyes to the reality of his coming and our need to be prepared for it. Help me to teach, to preach, to proclaim this great truth, that the ears will be opened of all who hear that we might all be ready on that great day. This, I pray through the blessed name of Christ. Amen. The Boy Scout motto, if you're never a Boy Scout, is be prepared. Be prepared. And that led in turn, to the instruction in things like first aid, navigation, and camping, and other survival skills. I remember one of the first things they taught us to do was stick a Band-Aid in your wallet. You never know when you're going to get a cut, and wouldn't it be nice to have one handy. And it's different, though. Sometimes things come upon us by surprise, don't they? It's not as though we think, today I know I'm going to drive through a a box of nails that fell out of the back of the truck, and I'm going to need a spare tire, so I guess I better put it in my car." No, we make preparations knowing that certain circumstances come on us by surprise. Some of you like it when I bring in aviation illustrations, so I'm going to bring one in tonight. If you don't know me, I'm a pilot, and I do that for a living, and I was in the military for a time, and one of the things that they prepared us for right up from the get-go when I showed up for pilot training was egress training. You're scratching your head, what is that? Well, that's what I said too. But when they started talking about parachutes and ejection seats, and I quickly caught on what egress meant. It meant getting out of an airplane that's going down. Because in a military setting, people are shooting at airplanes. And you may have one fall apart on you. And so you prepare. You are trained. to know what circumstances of material failure, fire, et cetera, will require you to say goodbye to your aircraft and perform an egress, to eject, to punch out, to bail out, and other terms like that. Because if you stay with the airplane, and here's another euphemism, you buy the farm. What that means is you go into the ground with the airplane, and you don't want to do that. So they trained us in parachute landing falls, how to get out of the harness once you've landed in the water, other things like that. But some things, even though you can prepare and think about this ahead of time, some things are beyond your expectations and they're quite surprising. There was an F-15 pilot in the Israeli Air Force who was in air-to-air combat exercise over the Negev back in the late 80s, and he was mixing it up with some F-4 Sky Raiders or Skyhawks Skyhawks. And they had an air to air collision in the midst of their training. He was a new guy. He was in the front seat of a two seat F-15. There was a big ball of fire. He heard the radio transmission. I'm punching out. He sees the parachute that the Skyhawk pilots out of his airplane. The instructor in the back says, I think we should punch out. But as they came out of the spiral, he said, I've got control. I've got control. We're still flying. He says, let's not go yet. So they found that if they decreased their speed below about 280 knots, it started to go out of control again. So they just put it in a dive, sped up, regained control. And the guy says, well, we can land it if we land at like 300 knots, which is equivalent of like 350 mile an hour. This is OK. So they got the runway ready. They had the cable stretched out on the approach end and the safety curtain at the far end of the runway should they go off the end. So this guy lands his airplane at 280 knots. He has the tail hook out, it grabs a wire, rips the hook right out of the airplane, but it breaks the speed by about 100 knots. He hits the brakes as hard as he can until the tires turn into smoke and melted rubber and stops about 10 feet from the safety barrier. Feeling rather safe, finally on the ground, he turns around to shake the hand of his instructor pilot and notices that not only did he have wing damage, but his right wing was gone. absolutely gone, like about one foot left of it. So they call up McDonnell Douglas and they say, is it possible for an F-15 Eagle to fly on one wing? And they said, no. Then they showed them the pictures. Who could have prepared for such an event? Now it's a tribute to the pilot here and the airplane, really, that such a thing could happen. I've got the picture if anyone wants to see it afterward. He said, you can't prepare for something like that. And you can think in this world, I go through all sorts of preparations. I go to school. I go to driver's training, all these things that we prepare for. But some things are going to take us by surprise, no matter how much we think we prepare. Isn't that true? And you can be in the Christian church. You can be surrounded by religious things. But are you going to be like this parable describes among the 10? virgins, half of which were foolish and half of which were wise. That's what we're going to talk about tonight, because the Lord Jesus, in talking about the kingdom of heaven, constantly is referring to the great divide. There are the sheep and the goats. There are the wheat and the tares. And tonight there are the wise and the foolish. There is the wise builder who built his house on the rock, the wise, the foolish one who built it on the sand. There's always a division. Sometimes there's minor distinctions, but it's always two groups. And very often it refers to the established religious community, because he's often taking to task, even as my brother Robert was reminding, he takes to task Israel. I mean, the covenant, both covenant people, the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes who had the revelation of God in their hands. They had the scrolls. They studied them. They copied them. They talked about them in synagogue. And yet many of them were mere formalists. They went through the motions. They weren't prepared for the coming of Christ in the first case. But what about us? Are we going to be prepared when he comes again? I'd like to divide our view of this passage into four parts. First, the setting. of the parable, both the context in which it was spoken as well as the story that's described. Secondly, the slumber of these ten. Thirdly, the surprise when at midnight the call comes. And fourthly, the separation, those four parts. The setting, the slumber, the surprise, and the separation. By way of introduction to when the Lord Jesus spoke this parable, Let's consider what's happened in the prior chapters, let's go back to chapter 23 of Matthew. There have been some confrontations between the Lord Jesus and the religious leaders of his day. They challenged him, he responded at the end of chapter 22 by a challenge to them, you know, he says. In verse forty three or forty two. While the Pharisees were there gathered together, he says, what do you think about the Christ, whose son is he? And they said, the son of David. Then he said, well, how then does David in the spirit call him Lord, saying the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. If David calls him Lord, how then is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare question him anymore. They could not trap him in what he said. not even at his mock trial later on. But then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples about these people. He says the Pharisees, the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat. Therefore, do what they tell you to observe and do, but do not do according to their works for they say and they do not do. And then he goes on and over and over again in this passage exposes their hypocrisy. He says in many passages here, we don't need to look at all of them, but take Take a look at verse 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. It's not wrong to be scrupulous in your faith and being careful in what you do, but you've missed the big picture. You've strained a gnat and swallowed a camel, in other words. So he's condemned them. assured them that there's a judgment coming upon their hypocrisy. They pretended. They pretended a faith and trust in God. Then he laments Jerusalem and their unwillingness to even receive their own profit. So after all this. Jesus and his disciples leave the temple and they're headed out to the Mount of Olives. And you wonder sometimes if the disciples were listening because they come out here and just as he's exposed the false situation of external religion. And what do they point out to the Lord at this point? Look at these great buildings. Isn't this wonderful, Lord? You know, if his disciples come up to show him the buildings of the temple, what are they thinking? This external structure. And Jesus says, Do you see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. He's saying this, this edifice, this building has no eternal value. It's not going to be permanent. It's going to be cast down. And then he goes on in this chapter, chapter 24, to not only predict the destruction of the temple, which happened in 70 A.D., but also the coming of the Son of Man when he comes to judge the earth, because they asked him as they get up onto the Mount of Olives, they say, when will these things come? When will it happen? And when will be the end of the age? In other words, when is the temple going to be destroyed? And when is the end of the age? Are they the same thing? Now, the predators think it's the same, but I don't think so. I think the Christ is clearly describing two different events in this chapter. And it's beyond the scope of a study on parables to go into all of this in detail. But suffice it to say, we know that the temple was destroyed by the Romans and the rest of it will be fulfilled. Also, the coming of the son of man. And then he begins to tell them that it's going to come by surprise. Starting at verse 36 of chapter 24, read here with me. But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my father only. He talks about it being as in the days of Noah. So it shall be when the coming of the son of man be. People are eating and drinking, marrying up until the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood actually came upon them. And so it took them all away. So it will be at the coming of the son of man. It will take them by surprise. And there will be the great division. Two will be in a field. One will be taken to heaven. The other not. One will be in bed and the other taken. The other grinding and no one will be taken. The other not left. He says, Watch, therefore, if you don't know what hour your Lord is coming. And then he describes how. The master of the house had known what hour the thief would come. He would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. So if you have an expectation that something is coming, you stand on alert, right? We used to have in the military alert duty in the military. Guys would be in a silo waiting for a nuclear disaster so they could fire a bunch of missiles back or get in a bomber and head for Russia. We had many of my friends were in the Strategic Air Command when it existed. And they would sit alert, ready to go when the balloon went up, you know, whenever the president said it's time to go to war. And so they had a readiness exercises to test whether they were prepared in the same way. He says in verse 44, you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you don't expect. And then he says, who then is the wise and Faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them their food in due season. Blessed is that servant, whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you, that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says to his heart, My master is delayed in his coming, and begins to feed his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day that he is not looking for him, and at that hour he is not aware of, and will cut him in two, and appoint him in his portion with the hypocrites. There should be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and that's where we come in context of this teaching to this parable about the ten versions. So this is in the midst of a private interview on the Mount of Olives, sometimes referred to the Olivet discourse. It's a large section of Christ teaching here. He talked about the coming tribulation, the sudden surprise return of Christ and at the end of time and Jesus warning an injunction to be prepared for the master's return. And so he says. Then that is in that day, in that time, in that period of when the return is that unexpected hour at the master's return, then. The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to and he goes on with the terrible he's going to use now. an earthly illustration to help us to understand a heavenly reality. He's going to use common scenes of life to help you understand a scene that we can only imagine in part. It's going to be like that looking back and seeing no wing there. It's just going to be totally different than what we thought. It's going to surprise us when the Lord actually comes. It's going to really be a surprise, even if you think you're ready. It's going to be very surprising. It's not going to be what we think, because you can't really imagine it altogether. Who can imagine the heavens being shaken and the sky being rolled up like a scroll and all these other visionary images that have been given to us by the Lord? How can everyone see him at once at the same moment and know that he's coming? The signs of his time. You know, people spend hours trying to figure these things out, but it won't do them any good because they can't altogether until you're there. Well, so he says then, it's likened to 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five of them were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. A little background here about traditions within the Eastern realms oriental realms. Some of us had an opportunity to see at least one wedding this week, and Robert was surprised at some of the traditions that are in American weddings that he's never seen before, and I'm sure we'd find a Scottish wedding interesting as well. But nonetheless, there are these traditions that occur, and it's not to say that every wedding was exactly the same, as it isn't here either. But in general, there would be a procession from the for the groom to come to claim his bride, and there would be a great festivity at that occasion. And generally there would be like an entourage. People would join the wedding party, the celebration would get larger and larger, and they'd all go to the house to celebrate the wedding where the bride would receive, welcome the bridegroom in, and then there would be the wedding. And so the picture was probably common, you know, little villages you'd see, weddings and you'd see people waiting for when the party came down the street and they had to go out and join them and go to the wedding with the bridegroom as he went off to claim his bride. And so this would be a common scene for them to sort of imagine a little bit about what it's going to be like when the Lord returns to claim his bride, the church. Matthew Henry says that sometimes among the Jews on this occasion, the bridegroom attended with his friends came late at night to the house of the bride, where she expected him attended with her bridesmaid, who, upon notice, given that the bridegroom's approach were to go out with lamps in their hands and light him into the house with ceremony and formality and in order to the celebrating of the nuptials with great mirth. Many times, The number 10 was what defined the minimum number to form a synagogue or the minimum number to officiate as witnesses to an official event, contracted marriage, etc. So the number 10 was a very common number as well. As we look at this a little bit further, though, remember that a parable is not an allegory. You'll find that there are many who try to take not only this parable, but others, and they try to make every little item mean something. And we need to be careful of that. Jesus spoke this parable. To a point, and he gives us the point at the end, you know, verse 13, he says, Watch, therefore, you don't know when I'm coming. That's the point of the parable. So we, we can appreciate the details and how there are some analogous elements, because he's a master at prescribing. and using the parable, but be careful of not confusing a parable with an allegory. Unless the Lord himself provides those details, we have to be careful about saying this means that, and this means this, and just be careful, because very often we see some strange and ridiculous doctrines from those who find an allegory under every stone. you would try to describe to your children. Why is it that we see the sun rise and set? Does the sun go up and down, Dad? No, it's not that the sun moves, it's that the earth is moving. And you're trying to explain this to your child, and they're going, the earth is moving? And so you get a flashlight and roll a ball, and you move the flashlight over the edge of the ball. You see it's coming up now, and you can see it coming around the ball, a big beach ball or something. Is that what I'm seeing, Dad? The light coming over the surface? Yes, that's it. That's what a sunrise really is. Now, if the child would suddenly say, now, does the flashlight represent this? You can see how it would be kind of silly to go into that kind of detail. No, it's just that the sun is not a flashlight, and it doesn't have batteries, and it's not long. Is the earth full of air? The details are just there to support the main issue that you're trying to illustrate. So let's be aware of that in this parable. Jesus tells us quite clearly in verse 13 why this parable was spoken. to the end that we would watch for you don't know when the son of man is coming. But there's also we can take comfort and enjoy the fact that Jesus picks his parables very well. Some of us you know maybe you've already grown tired of my aviation illustrations. I don't know. But the Lord Jesus his illustration and use of them was perfect. And so there are some things that capture our attention in a way that maybe a A normal human could not provide. And so we see that in the use of a wedding illustration he draws to our hearts that affection that the son of God has towards his bride. There is that joy associated with a wedding that is also associated with his second coming that we can take note of that comparison that he chose that illustration for that reason. No doubt. As Barnes says, the coming of Christ to receive his people to himself is often represented under the similitude of marriage. The church being represented as a spouse or bride, the marriage relation is the most tender, firm, and endearing of any known on earth. And on this account is a fit representation of the union with believers to Christ. But we see now that the virgins go out and some of them are foolish and some of them are wise. And as always, we see a division between those who are the true saints, those who are to be taken up into glory, and those who are present in the same circumstances, but don't go to glory. We see that in the parable of the wheat and the tares, and other parables as well. And so we see, why was it that the foolish ones were foolish? They had a lamp, but they had nothing to burn in it. You can light a wick, and it'll burn for a little while. But if there's no oil, it's gonna go out pretty fast. It's gonna get consumed, because the oil keeps the wick moist, so the fibers are not consumed. The oil burns rather than the fibers. But if you burn the fibers, once it makes its way into the little hole where the wick's stuffed, it's not gonna burn. So we see these foolish virgins not being prepared for the long haul, not really thinking ahead for what's going to happen. You know, what if he comes at night? What if we're going to have to have these lamps ready? They were foolish. And in every situation in the Christian experience, we're going to find people that outwardly and professedly are Christians. And yet the day of his coming will reveal the reality, won't it? Test the metal to see if you really do have the spirit of God. That's why we have apostles that would write to us. Test yourselves now to see if you're in the faith. Ask yourself some hard questions, even as our brother Robert was encouraging us to do this morning. Don't wait till that day for it to be revealed. As we'll see, it would be too late at that point. But you see that these virgins are both in the same category. They all have outwardly have their lamps. And they go out to meet the bridegroom. Everyone in the professing church claims to look forward to the day of Christ's return to go to heaven. And then they all fall asleep, the wise and the foolish. The bridegroom is delayed. Life goes on. They can't just they can't keep their eyes open. They all fall asleep. It may be due to the weakness of the flesh. Maybe they put in a hard day's work already. We don't know. And then they go out to meet the bridegroom and they're already tired when they even get there. The Christian has many responsibilities, many things in life that occupy our attention, secular pursuits, family things, our own physical frame and its weakness. We get tired. These virgins got tired. It may be just the length of delay. It's like it says in Peter, where is this business about his coming? Things have gone on as they have, as usual, for years. He's never kind of come back. But the Christians insist, oh, yes, he is. We know it's delayed, but God will come at the right moment. Why is he delaying? We don't know altogether because he's more merciful that his that his banquet hall would be filled as we looked at that other parable that he would have more to join in the great wedding feast of the land. But it may be that they also lost a sense of anticipation. I think this address is really the key of our parable that had lost a sense of anticipation. You know, they're sitting there maybe idling, talking about the day. And, you know, it's almost the approaching bridal procession had been almost forgotten. They just got tired, fell asleep. So, when at midnight, and if any of you have been awakened at midnight, that's when, you know, they occur in the deepest sleep. It really is a startling thing. Sometimes our kids will get us up right after we just put into bed and the heart starts racing and it just gets your attention in a way that, you know, toward the morning, you're kind of in and out of a lighter sleep and it's not quite so startling. But at midnight, the cry comes. So Christ used this illustration of how surprising it is, how when you're least expecting, when your expectation is at its lowest, when you're least sensitive is when the call comes out. Verse six. At midnight, a cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming. What have I been doing? I've been sleeping. And they all rose and they all got up and they started this flurry of activity. We've got to get ready. You know, I forgot. Oh, you know, will I be too late? And they started to trim their lamps. They all rose and trim their lamps. J.C. Rowe says the coming of a Christ will take men by surprise. slumbering and sleeping, he will find the vast majority of mankind either utterly unbelieving or unprepared. He will find the bulk of his believing people in a sleepy and indolent state of soul. But he does come, and it is a surprise. He comes unexpectedly. While all of them were waiting, we see that only half of them were really ready, almost like they almost half of them only really believed he's coming. You kind of wonder where the others just kind of going through the motions and just wanted to have the companionship of these other five. And they like the imagery and they thought about it. And maybe they didn't really believe there was a bridegroom. Maybe they believe is really coming. But they went out there sort of half hearted. But notice what their response is in this parable, the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. So we see them suddenly realizing they're not ready. They don't have any oil. There is no light in their lamps. It's a It's just a lamp, but it's got no light. It's the form of religion without the power of. It's a form of godliness without the power of it. And there's somebody saying, I need what you've got. I can see you're ready. I can see that you've got a light in your lamp. I need that, too, if I'm going to go. And I said, we can't. We don't have we didn't prepare for you. We can't prepare for you. It's time for you to go seek it for yourself. It'd be like someone, you know, coming to that point in their lives where, you know, death is staring them in the face or or like a crisis situation. And all they can do is say, I want your faith. I want your God. But they they don't have themselves. They're not willing to commit themselves to God on their own. And they're trusting and hoping that maybe someone will provide it to them without having it in their own heart. It's sort of like when when Samuel confronted Saul for his idolatry and his disobedience, and he said to obey is better than sacrifice. And Saul's response to Samuel was, Go pray to your God for me. Remember that? He didn't say, I need to pray to my God and ask him to forgive me for what I've done. He says to Samuel, Go pray for me, to your God. And it's like what these virgins are doing. They're saying, give us some of your oil. We don't have faith in Jesus. We don't have an expectation of his coming. But if you give us some of your oil, maybe we can get in anyway. And I said, no, there's not enough for I can't provide your oil for you. You know, children, we say your parents faith can't get you to heaven. Your grandfather's faith can't get you to heaven. Your pastor's faith can't get you to heaven. You have to believe on your own. We tell you that over and over again. And yet somehow it took these people by surprise. Don't have any oil. Sadly. We see that they had a form of religion, a lamp, even new religious language, Lord, Lord, let us in. Open up to us. But the faith of another cannot supply your want. So we've had the slumber, we've had the setting, the slumber and surprise and lastly, the separation, because while These virgins were off trying to find what they needed for these lamps. That's when the bridegroom came and at that point it was too late. He came. And the wise and the ready went with him which tells us a little bit about the rich reward that awaits the Christian. It doesn't say they were given a ticket so they could get in at the door. that the bridegroom would recognize them. It says they went with him to the wedding feast. Christ was their companion entering into that great day. They started to enjoy an ongoing intimacy with their savior at that point. Hitherto they had not known. They went with him to the feast. They will be with him whom they loved, who loved them and died for them. They will be with the one who bore with them all their lives and their sin and their weakness and doubt. They will be with him. They will go with him to the feast. But we see in this separation that the foolish and unready were excluded. They were excluded. J.C. Ryle comments, When the Lord comes, he will find that many will find out the value of saving faith too late. But we may settle in our minds that there will be an entire change of opinion one day as to the necessity of decided Christianity. When that day arrives, when the Lord Jesus comes on the scene, when the heavens are shaken and the trumpet sounds and the angels come down and the dead are raised to life and those who are in Christ and alive that day are taken up into the air to meet him there with those who have died and gone before. That's too late. I wish I'd listened when I had time. Right now, many think very little of repentance, faith, holiness, their need of a savior, or if they do, and it's in very blase, sort of uninterested academic sort of approach. But on that day, it will not be a matter of academics. It will be a matter of life and death. Christ will burst upon their minds in an instant. Those who are ready will joyfully go with him. Those who are not ready, it will be too late. And we see that the rejection is just. They understood the terms. They had the oil, the lamp. What's a lamp for, except for burning oil? They had that, but they didn't seek for the oil to be prepared. It was a just condemnation. They knew the need to be ready and have the provision. And maybe this is, at some level, describing an easy believism. They heard the preacher say, you need to repent and believe in the gospel. And all he did was fill out a card saying, I think I'm a Christian. And that's it. That was the extent of their commitment to Jesus Christ. They heard over and over again. You need to walk with him. You need to learn of him. You need to to grow into maturity and to be conformed to his image. And they've not even tried to think about what that means. None of us are perfect in that. But we all endeavor and strive after holiness, godliness, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. But they didn't. They were content. And we see that this exclusion not only was it just, it was permanent. It says in the parable. The door was shut at the end of verse 10, the door was shut. There is no second chance. There's no purgatory to figure it out, there's no Let me have a few more years here to figure this out and once the door was shut the feast had begun And whatever was those foolish virgins may have found it was too late We don't know that they found any oil. They just they knew the party had started they wanted to come So they just came anyway, I think And they just said let us come we don't want to be left out here But it was too late the door was shut and it was permanent Which means all the more readiness, all the more reason to be ready now. As Spurges says, why would you throw away the certainty of a present salvation and immediate deliverance from the curse of sin, which you may have at this moment, which you may have if you believe in Jesus, rather than wait under some foolish dream that perhaps the door of mercy may open after ages of weeping and purgatory, or rather, He says, May rather be ready to enter into with Christ to the marriage. For as the Lord lives, I cannot clear my soul of all responsibility unless I tell you, as I read my Bible more and more and the more I am more and more certain that when the door has been shut, it will never again be open to any living soul. Where death meets you, judgment will find you and there you will remain to all eternity. Isaiah put it this way in Chapter 55 of Isaiah, Verse six and seven. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and listen. And he that is God will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. He's not a stingy God. Come to him while you may. Lest when you say, Lord, Lord, open to us, you hear words like this. Assuredly, I say to you, I did not know you. Reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount, many will come to me on that day and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do these religious things in your name, casting out demons, etc.? And he says, I tell you the truth, I never knew you. Whatever it was you were doing, it was not with me. Watch, says Christ, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. I can say with absolute assurance that we're nearer to the day when he returns than we were yesterday. It doesn't take a lot of mathematical acumen to determine that. But he's coming. So I have four applications. Yes, four applications in light of this. The first, in light of what Christ said in his parable and his main point, we need to ask, number one, are we expectant and waiting? Are we like the ten that have gone forth to meet the bridegroom? Are we expectant and waiting for he will come for you either in death or when he comes again to judge the earth? Another way of putting it is to ask this question. This is where it gets really convicting. What will he find you doing when he comes back? Will you be angry with someone you love? Will you be chasing after fancies and rainbows and trying to line your pockets with money? Will you be spending on things that do not profit? Will you be pointing the finger and blaming people for what's wrong in your life? Is that what he's going to find in you when he comes back? Is he going to find you lusting after those that are not your wife? Is he going to find you wasting your time? What's he going to find you doing when he comes back? Thinking about yourself. About your troubles. Thinking about others and how you might help them and love them. Knowing that the Lord will care for you. Are you exhibiting faith? Are you envying the possessions that others have? The health others have? The opportunities others have and just getting all wrapped around the axle about your lot in life. Is that what he's going to find you doing when he comes back? Do you have an expectancy? He's coming back. I'm going to see him one day, either because the Lord takes me in death or because I'll be alive in that generation that sees his return. Do I have either of those expectations? You should. It's going to be one of the other. I remember In my early Christian life, I was driving in a car with a guy who was a youth pastor and this guy suddenly almost steps off the sidewalk and in front of the car as we were going by. And he says, oh, brother, don't step out and meet Jesus now. Yeah, that's what would happen if this guy just right then he would see the Lord that day. Would he be prepared? Are you prepared? Are you expecting that? And if so, are you filled with a joy and a hope at the prospect of heaven of intimacy with Jesus, a fellowship with the saints in glory. There's a thought of going to be with him. To that wedding of the church with Christ, give you a thrill. You know, it was such a delight to be at the Calabreta wedding, you know, and you could look at the bride and groom and you could see an excitement, an expectancy, a joy. We also got to go to a reception for another wedding where we could see on video this couple as they looked into their eyes as they were saying their vows and just that look of expectancy, that thrill. We finally arrived. This is the day. We've been waiting for this. We've kept ourselves pure. We've been waiting for this day and today it's really going to happen. Where do we go from here? It's exciting. Do you ever think that way about heaven and about the return of Christ? Have you lost that thought, that wonderful thought that you're going to be with him forever with the Lord? Hebrews 928, the writer says, So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many Hebrews 928 to those who eagerly wait for him. He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. They eagerly await for him. Isn't it interesting that the Bible ends with, even so, come, Lord Jesus. That's the last verse. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Second application. First one was, are you expecting and waiting? The second one is, are you watching? Are you watching? Or I could phrase it this way, in what way are you slumbering? In what way are you slumbering? Are you content with Sunday religion? We kind of touched on this in our Sunday school this morning. Is your faith and your practice of Christianity going in the closet with your Sunday clothes? Or is it a part of you all week long? Are you having a miserable prayer life? Is that how you're slumbering? No devotional Bible reading. Is that how you're slumbering? Are you failing to meet with other believers to encourage them? No attempt in your life to really spur one another on to love and good works. Is that how you're slumbering? Are you looking only to yourself? Smugly taking comfort, perhaps, in the number of volumes that you have in your library. But yet, there's nothing written on your heart. What good is a book on the shelf? How does it prepare you? There are good books that will prepare you. They'll stir you up. And I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, having the book is not the same as appropriating the thoughts, the inspiration, the encouragement that the writer was trying to provide you. How are you slumbering? Are you watching? Are you on the alert? Do you really have that expectancy? And are you watching? Thirdly, are you ready? Are you ready for the wise and the foolish were determined by readiness, whether they were ready for his return or not. The signs are there. He's coming. What's your first thought? I'm not ready. There's things I should have been doing. I'm not ready. Is that what you think? Maybe today's the day you need to think about, how can I be ready? You know, if they said, tomorrow there's going to be an 8.0 on the Richter scale in Sacramento. There's going to be no buildings left standing. There won't be any fresh water available for months. No electricity, no sanitation services. You think, ah, I've got to get ready. What can I do? Disaster preparedness week, let's all think about, having bottled water and matches. Would have been nice to think of that maybe better than the day before. And even so, the readiness for those who would know that Christ is coming again. Needs to start early. Needs to start early. If all the signs are there that the Lord is coming, then is not the time to try to borrow someone else's faith. If you're not ready, it's not going to help you to go to Pastor Briggs or Pastor King or to me and say, can you help me get into heaven? So I've been trying to do for the last, you know, ever many years. It's too late. If it's your dying breath, we'll say what we can, but really, it's really up to you to be ready. Are you ready to meet your maker? Are you ready to meet the king, the judge of all the earth? Can you look to your parents? The Lord's coming back. Your parents are probably telling you, you need to trust in the Lord Jesus. You'll be safe. If you're in him, you're safe. Don't worry. Have that assurance that if you're trusting in Jesus Christ, you have nothing to fear. That's what we tell our kids. But Dad can't save you. Mom can't save you. Pastor Briggs can't save you. Pastor Green can't save you. Jesus can save you. You need to trust in him. We can't share our faith in that way with anybody else. We can share the faith that we have. We can say, yeah, we have oil and it makes the lamp burn, but there's not enough to share with you. I can't give you my oil or my lamp goes out. God only gives gifts to the individual. To each a measure of faith are the gifts given. When Jesus comes, it will be too late. And it grieves us, doesn't it, to think now about what it would be like of a loved one left behind, one that you've tried to tell, you need to be ready, it's coming, you're either going to die or Jesus is going to come back. But at that point, it will be too late. When the summons comes, we're on our way, accompanied or not. We have to go to the wedding, and we'll want to, we won't want to wait. We'll go. Isn't that all the more reason for us as parents to train our children to talk to our siblings about the Lord and about their own souls and being witnessed among those whom God has placed in our neighborhood, in our workplace, or our school. It could be asked another way. In saying, are you ready, we could also say, do you have oil for your lamp? Do you have oil for your lamp? That is, in that way, are you ready for his coming? And what is this oil? Now, Jesus doesn't say in the parable exactly, but most interpreters I read said it's the Holy Spirit. Like it says in John 1, 12 and 13, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. They've been born again. They have the spirit of God given to them. And Jesus said that his saints, those who have received him, those who are his children, those who have been born again, his saints are the light of the world and that we should let our land so shine before men that they would see our good works. and give glory to our Father who is in heaven. So, do I have this oil? Am I burning bright? Do people see a light in my life? The good works that I do? The benevolence that I do? Or do they see me as a selfish pig who is only interested in his own private religion? Or is it a light that shines on a lampstand, not under a bushel, but shines before men? They say, you're different. Why do you care about me? Why are you doing this for me? Why are you being kind? Why do you forgive me so quickly? Why do you admit your own fault sometimes so quickly? Why don't you? You know, they just don't get it. They say, because of my father in heaven, he's given me his son. He's given me forgiveness. He's given me a hope of heaven. Why shouldn't I admit my fault? Why shouldn't I serve you? He's given all things for me to use, to bring glory to his name. So is your lamp burning brightly? Is it giving light to the house? And finally, then, in light of this parable, knowing that we're supposed to watch, in other places Christ says pray, but watch for sure, for you do not know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. If that is so, what sort of people should you be? What sort of person should you be? When it comes to the church or should we be merely concerned with social events and outward congeniality. No I really appreciate the time so we can get together and just have fun. But is that all our church life is about. Do you ever take time to seek the Lord's face together in prayer when you meet with other members of the church. If you talk over Bible passages, you talk over your struggles, family issues, pray for one another's children. Do you do that? Why not? So just we just want to get together and have a good time. We need to think about that. Will we sit there polishing our lamps? The lamps of our confessional religion. But never make sure there's any oil in it. Never have any intention of lighting it and giving light anywhere. God forbid that we should be found as hypocrites or ill prepared on the day of his return. Richard Trench says of these. Of this parable, he says, Christians who are like these wise virgins will recognize the fact that the church. May not very soon enter into glory, it may be some time. They foresee that they may have a long life of self-denial before they shall be called from their labors, before the kingdom shall come to them, and who consequently feel that they must have principle as well as feeling to carry them on, that their first good impulses will not carry them but only in a little way, and unless they be purified and strengthened by the constant supply of the Spirit of God. It's an ongoing life. We need to be watching. expectant and ready. John would write in his letter, and now little children abide in him that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. This is 1st John 2 28 29. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. And the Apostle Paul would write in 1st Corinthians 15 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. We need to be on with our Christian lives. We need to not fall asleep as we wait for the Lord's return. We need to be ready. We need to be expectant, but we need to be alert and watch. We need to help each other in this, don't we? You know, if the ten wise ones had nudged the foolish ones. No, he's going to come. I just know he's going to come. Do you have any oil in your lamp? You don't? Maybe they would have been ready instead of just slumbering away, assuming that these other five who had their lamps with them were ready. I think it came as a surprise to them that half their companions didn't go to the feast. Do we want to be that way in this place? I hope not. I'd like to encourage you to To spur one another on to love and good works, love of Christ, love of one another, that that light would be shining bright when the Lord returns. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this parable and for the warning that it gives to us. Father, we don't know whether it will be this week or in a century away that you will finally come to judge the earth, but Lord, We know that our earthly days have a number attached to them, and one day we will be standing in your presence, ushered in to your kingdom, and we will see you face to face. Lord, we would stand before you as those ready, alert that when that day comes, we will not be taken unprepared. Surely, Lord, we will be surprised when our final breath goes out of our lungs and our heart stops beating. Few of us would know that that day was the day that was going to happen. It will be a surprise to us. And yet, may we be prepared. May we be watching. May we know that it's just a reality of life. That you will come. And that we would be those who would be prepared. That we would be wise, Lord. We want to be wise. Teach us, Lord, to number our days. Give us a heart of wisdom that we would know and be ready and prepared. And help us to spur one another on, Lord. Sometimes we're so sleepy, we slumber and we forget. Oh, Lord, keep us alert. Keep us awake. And by your Holy Spirit, bring us into that glory. which you have prepared for us in Christ. This we ask in the blessed name of Christ. Amen.