I did neglect to mention that we were told that the Jackowitz's, specifically Jen and Nathan, did have their baby. Matthew Hunter was born yesterday, I believe, October 4th, and everyone is doing well. Baby and mother are healthy and fine, so we give thanks for his goodness in that. Like to continue reading from now chapter twenty five of Matthew will will pick up that context that brother Tyrone was reading as he finished will read the first thirteen verses of chapter twenty five. So Matthew twenty five beginning at first one. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise and five were foolish. They that 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 tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. And then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, give us of your oil for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgin saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, I know you not. Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. Title of my message this afternoon is taken. From verse eight, our lamps have gone out Our lamps have gone out. Certainly that would be a very startling and scary phrase for anyone to utter on that day when that lamp. Needs to have oil, needs to be trimmed, needs to be lit, and. There needs to be an accompanying vessel filled with oil. Our Lord continues through chapter 25, what he started in chapter 24, painting something of an alarming picture. of supposed readiness of his children. Of course, some are ready. Some are more prepared than others. And there's an additional class of folks who are not ready at all. Now, if you lived in Jesus's day, if you were with our Lord when he spoke these words to his disciples, Or perhaps if you lived in the day right after his crucifixion, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, these words would have probably had a very fresh reality and impact upon you. Our Lord's words still. Real in your mind. Our Lord and all that he had done still very real to your conscience, to your mind, and you would have thought to yourself, I am guessing that you would tell yourself you must be ready. You must watch and pray. You must have oil in your lamp. Especially because our Lord, when he's describing the nature of his kingdom, He's not illustrating a condition that he is hoping will not happen. He's painting something of a picture to warn us. He's explaining something of a reality of that day of those who will, in fact, not be ready. What if you lived 2000 years after our Lord's ministry? Would those words have any more impact or any more strength? Here we are two thousand years later. Closer to that day when he will come back and. I think if we all had to acknowledge at least to ourself with judgment day honesty, we would have to confess that we are not always as prepared as we should be. And of course, as we survey the church, perhaps we would also say that certainly there outwardly might be many professors of Christianity. But what is the reality of that inward life? What I'd like to do this afternoon is very briefly go through these 13 verses and make a few comments about the verses themselves, some of the language, and then I have four applications I would like to just set forth to you and ask you to think about in the coming week or so. And I trust, I pray the Lord will use these to encourage us along these lines, as our Lord says, to watch, to pray, to be ready. This parable starts out in verse one with the word then. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like he is continuing the context that he started in chapter 24. There are many previous admonitions. He used the example of Noah. Those in Noah's day did not know until the flood came and took them away. That's when it clicked. That's when they knew the reality of our Lord's prophecy that this worldwide flood would come. He talks about the good man of the house. If the good man had known that the master was coming, he would have ordered his house correctly. He himself would have watched. He talks about servants. He uses all of this imagery, these illustrations. To get us as people to to correlate with this imagery, the reality of his sudden coming. First to introduces this new parable, five wise and five foolish virgins. This is picturing the outward corporate professing church. They all have this outward attachment together. They are all called virgins. They are all anticipating being married to the spiritual bridegroom, Jesus Christ. They are all together in the same house. They all have the necessary lamps. The difference is some are wise and some are foolish. That's a distinction, the wise and the foolish, a distinction that is used many places in the scripture. You recall in Matthew seven, the parable of the builders. Jesus said, whoever hears my sayings and does them is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. But the one who hears my sayings but does not do them, he's like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand, the wise and the foolish, the wise who take our Lord's sayings to their hearts. who believe them, who act upon them. The foolish who hear the words, perhaps even would verbally assent to them, but they do not believe them. They do not act upon them. They do not take them in. The wise representing those who are truly saved, but the foolish are representing those who are not truly born again. This posture of the foolish is not unlike those in Ezekiel's day. When the prophet Ezekiel told. To those who would hear, they come as the Lord's people cometh. And they sit before the prophets as the Lord's people do, and they hear the words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth, they show much love, but their heart goes after covetousness. Verse three and verse four highlights another distinction. What makes the wise wise? They have oil in their lamps, they have oil in their accompanying vessels, they are prepared. They have that supply of oil. And as you know, when you trace this parable through to the end, that oil will win the day for them. They will be blessed at the end. Central to this parable is the lamp, is the oil, is the light that that lamp holds. These lamps or these vessels that hold the light. Appointing to a profession. All these ten versions here have this profession, this outward ascent. This solidarity, one with the other, this outward commitment. But, as you know, there are many types of professors in the Word of God, stony ground hearers of the Word, wheat among tares, here wise and foolish. The wise have this ordained supply so that the lights in their vessel will be burning. But the foolish have no oil in their lamps. They have no oil when they need it the most. They have no oil in these vessels that they would take along with their lamps. Again, the foolish represent those who do not know the living reality of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. They are not truly born again. They are foolish because they lack. All preparation for meeting God on that great and notable day. Verse five, something quite surprising, they all are slumbering, they all are sleeping. Although they anticipate being joined to their heavenly husband, They slumber and they sleep. Two words are used here. The word slumber simply means to be drowsy. Kind of dozing. And then the word slept means to lie down and to, in fact, sleep. So we see something of of a collective picture here. And the reminder that we as believers and certainly unbelievers can be prone to this spiritual lethargy, spiritual weakness that we have to fight against every single day. True believers, outward professors only. When you fast forward this parable to our times. Here in 2014, it's a little surprising. With all of the helps and accompanying things that we have avenues into the word of God, whether they be. books or tapes or preaching messages. When you think of our life, when we only have to work 40 or 50 hours a week, when we have machines that do some of our labor, when we have a church of like minded believers, we have opportunities for worship and fellowship. Many, many things for us to help us along this pilgrim journey. But I think it's safe to say that we, too, can fall into spiritual lethargy. Become spiritually weak. Verse six. Something of a surprise, a startling cry is made at midnight, the bridegroom is here, go forth to meet him right now. Midnight is not giving us a time or an hour when the Lord will come. It's used figuratively as that moment when we are not expecting him. That moment in the middle of the night when. We are not looking for him specifically. A moment that is known only to God himself. and probably a moment that we don't even anticipate. Yesterday morning at 8 o'clock in the morning, were you aware that the Lord could come back at any moment? Probably not, because we don't rehearse it, we don't think through it. We do get into this autopilot mentality where we assume all things will go on as they have. Behold, the bridegroom comes. The word says in another place, he comes as a thief in the night. He comes as lightning shines from the east to the west, this suddenness, this unexpectedness, this quickness, this propness. He comes. No equivocation by the church, no equivocations, no but waits from people who are not ready. Verse seven, all of these ten virgins then arise. They must arise. The bridegroom is coming. And verse eight, a very sad discovery. The five foolish discover that they have no provision to meet the Lord. They may have a lamp, but it cannot bear light. They may have a lamp and they may have a wick, but there's no fuel, there's no oil, there's no reality. The lamps in the New Testament time perhaps could only hold within them a few spoonfuls of oil, and so they would take not only the lamp, But they would take a vessel filled with oil as much as they would need for perhaps a day or two. These five foolish virgins proclaim a very sad truth. Our lamps have gone out. It's dark. And we have nothing within ourselves to light the light. They should have known that they needed to be replenished, that they should have known they needed provision. But they did not act upon it. And they did not know until the time that they needed it the most. In verse nine, the wise virgins relay the fact that they are unable to help. They counsel these foolish ones to go and buy from those who sell. Again, this is imagery not suggesting that you can buy salvation, not that you can buy the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. It's imagery that says you need to go make this transaction, you need to go see the people who have the oil. Again, buying Relative to salvation is imagery that's used in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Isaiah 55, ho, everyone that thirsts come to the waters and he that has no money, come and buy and eat. Ye come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Come and buy. It's used in the New Testament in the book of Revelation to a similar type crowd in Revelation, one of the churches, Jesus said, I counsel of thee to buy of me gold that is tried in the fire so that you might be rich. Again, Jesus was not charging for someone to buy literal gold, he was using this imagery to come to him. to make this transaction, to get that which is needed. And so these foolish go. Verse 10. And verse 10, we realize it's. Too late for the foolish. But it's perfect timing for the wise. They go in, the wise go in to that marriage feast and the door is shut. The door is shut. If you're familiar with scripture, you know that very often there is a premium placed on now. today. Without presuming upon. Grace tomorrow, without presuming that sometime in the future we will discover that we are an almost Christian, without presuming upon God's mercy, that that door of mercy will be open for us tomorrow, next week, next month. These foolish go to buy to get ownership. The application is that they are not able to get it themselves, and apparently the day for buying is over. We did not read that they have purchased, they have gotten, they have gathered what is needed. Verse twelve, they knock on the door. But the bridegroom says that he does not know them. They are a stranger to him. It's almost as though the bridegroom is hearing from them for the very first time. It's almost as though the bridegroom is saying, I don't know you. You never told me that you love me. You never prayed to the. Pray to the father through my name, you never walked with me. You never expressed thanks to me, you never studied my book to learn of me, you never imitated me, you never waited for me, you never walked in my steps, you never prepared for me to come back. I do not know you. Words spoken with, I'm sure, some sense of sadness. Not with joy that they are going to be kept out, not with the light that they cannot come in, but the reality of the situation. I do not know you. And then our Lord concludes this parable in verse 13 to his disciples, bringing them back now to to reality, if you will, to the present day situation, to what's important for them. What is the takeaway for them? He says to them, watch, therefore. For, you know, not neither the day nor the hour wherein the son of man comes. Very clear, the son of man is most definitely coming back. Very clear and definite, you do not know when that may be. Very definite, you absolutely have to be prepared. That's the takeaway message, the inventories of Chapter 24, Chapter 25, embellishing, making them real to us, because sometimes we're dull of hearing. And we need this imagery to to make it real so that we can we can take it in. Well, I'd like to now give with give to you, leave with you four applications from this passage, and I'll develop these a little bit, just as much as necessary, hopefully to to so that they make an impact to us. Number one. We must ensure that we have not only lamps, that is not just an outward. Profession, but we must ensure that we have oil in our lamps and oil in our vessels. This oil is is is given to us as the imagery of the reality of grace in our hearts, the reality of the supply of the spirit, as Paul says, the reality of spiritual fuel. It's very easy to carry a lamp. Perhaps even to carry a vessel. But we need to have this oil, it has to be filled, this vessel has to be filled. I'm reminded of Ezekiel's speaking about oil, how it filled the candlestick in his heavenly vision of the temple in heaven, excuse me, the temple on Earth. But he said it was filled secretly from heaven. In other words, there was this inward filling that could not be seen with the naked eye. It was fed secretly. Our professions, the reality of our Christian life, has to be infused daily, has to be sustained daily. We can't just have the outward. We have to have the inward. It's interesting to me, I think it's a vestige of the fall. In the Garden of Eden, it's interesting to me that very, very many, many people want to make an outward connection to something spiritual. It's almost as though man is innately religious in some sphere, in some way. But it's outward. It's not inward. And Paul, very often in his epistles, drives the reality of an inward reality home over and over again. The reality has to be there in your inward man. Others may not see it. If you're spiritually minded, you probably don't parade it out to other people. Look how spiritual I am. But you have to be filled up to overflowing. And are you filled up to overflowing? I'd like to illustrate this with something that happened in Elisha's day. Let me just read a few verses from the book of Second Kings, and I think this will illustrate for us what it means to be filled up with with this reality. In Second Kings, chapter four, there was the wife of a prophet, the prophet died, and it turned out the wife Oh, the creditor, lots of money and the creditor was going to come and take her two sons to be servants. And so she told Elisha, I only have a pot of oil. I cannot pay the debt. This is what Elisha said. Go and borrow vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, empty vessels, do not borrow a few. and come in and shut the door with you and your sons and pour that one pot of oil into all the vessels. And so she did this, the scripture says, she went from him, she shut the door upon her and upon her sons. And she brought all these vessels that she had borrowed and she poured this oil, this one pot of oil into all these different vessels. And the scripture says, when all the vessels were full. That she said to her son, bring me another vessel. And he said unto her, there is not another vessel more and the oil stayed. And then she came and she told Elisha. She said, we borrowed all these vessels, we poured oil into the vessels, they all filled up. And he says, take the oil, sell it, and be free from the debt and live on the rest. What's interesting about this miracle of the prophet is the word for vessels. When he said, go borrow a vessel. The word for vessel is a word that is also translated as suitcase, flowerpot, pan, dish, cup, bowl, anything that could hold liquid. So she had borrowed every type of container that could hold any amount of this oil. So for you, my Christian brother or sister, To have your lamp filled and your vessel filled, I'm suggesting that every conceivable vessel in your Christian life should be filled up with oil. That is, it should be, if I could use the phraseology, anointed by God, filled with grace and that daily supply of the spirit. The doctrine that you believe should be spirit infused. Your worship. Should be in spirit and in truth, the service that you perform. Should be done under the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit, your evangelism, your private time, your praying scripture says, pray in the Holy Ghost, your meditation. When you sing, Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to the Lord. As you read the scripture, every component part of your Christian life is a vessel, if you will, that God wants to fill with grace, to fill with the Holy Spirit, to fill with the living reality of his presence. That's the reality of a Christian life. We must take practical steps, we have to exert energy, we have to spend and be spent. That lamp is very small. It has to be filled. Constantly. We must be we must ensure that we do not have lamps only. But they are filled, every component part of your Christian life filled with fresh oil, fresh grace, fresh meeting with the Lord. Sometimes we live off past experiences, past victories. When I was in high school, I used to work at a restaurant and in the restaurant they had this one big fat fryer and everything that was deep fried was cooked in that one cooker. And when there was fresh oil in there, the French fries tasted like French fries and the fish and chips tasted like fish and chips. But the owner would leave that oil in there for four, five, six days and then you would be eating an onion ring and it tasted like chicken or you'd eat a French fry and it tasted like the fish and chips. Everything that was deep fried was cooked in this one cooker. And you started tasting this cross-pollinization of these different flavors and then he would leave it in a few more days and you would eat something and it had no taste. He did it because he was he was a skimpy owner of restaurant. How often in our spiritual life. Is the oil not fresh. Not new. But the Israelites collecting manna, they had to go out every day. God purpose that they would have to go out every day to gather manna. They couldn't go to Costco and get two months worth. Every day it had to be new. You must have not just a lamp, you must have that reality of that inward abundant supply of oil. Secondly, as the people of God, you must do everything you possibly can to avoid spiritual sleep and spiritual slumber. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. But at the time in the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write unto you because you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as a travail upon a woman. They shall not escape. Brethren, you are not in darkness that that they should overtake you as a thief, but you are children of the light, children of the day, not of the night, not of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. Obviously, when we are dozing, when we are sleeping, we cannot be watching. Again, physical imagery to highlight a spiritual truth. We absolutely have to watch. We absolutely have to wait. We absolutely have to pray. If we're not watching, we're not spiritually alert. If we're dozing or sleeping, we are not refueling. We are not preparing. We are not growing. We are not progressing. Number three. My friend, you cannot depend upon the perceived spirituality of other people to rescue you. Or to make you spiritual. This was a big mistake. That the foolish virgins made in Matthew 25. They went to the ones who were more spiritual. For help. But they were not able to help them at that time. Ezekiel said, though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in it were in the city. They should deliver, but their own souls by their righteousness. They say at the Lord. People of God outwardly professing. Trying to hang their hats on the accomplishments, the spirituality of others. Noah, Daniel, Job, what if they were in our midst? Jehovah God says they can only deliver their own souls. There is no vicarious spirituality that can rub off on us. Obviously, the Bible talks about our friends. Those we spend time with should be godly, should be spiritually minded. There is benefit to that. There is detriment. to hanging around people that will not profit us spiritually. But the lesson here is that that most critical spiritual need is not gotten by simply associating with the people of God or associating with this ministry or associating with that church. Well, Pastor Joe, he teaches some really deep spiritual things and CBC. I mean, they seem to understand doctrine and grace and the law of love. And they have just had a conference on spiritual discernment. God is using them with these different evangelistic ministries. But. CBC and Pastor Joe and any given ministry or church cannot deliver your soul. And there's almost. A vulnerability. To a quick association with some perceived outward spirituality. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, assuming that that can rub off. Scripture says this in Galatians, let every man prove his own work. And then he shall have rejoicing in himself and not in another, because every man shall bear his own burden. Of course, we want to be part of a spiritually minded, orthodox, good church. Of course, we want to be members of of of circles of friends or ministries or whatever of God's true people. But we cannot ride into heaven on the coattails of a pastor or a speaker or a ministry or a church. And sometimes. That can creep in very subtly. These foolish ones immediately went to the Lord? No, they went to the wise ones when it was too late for help. Fourthly and lastly, we need to watch for the day of the Lord. Notice verse 13. He said, watch, therefore. For you don't know the day, you don't know the hour. When you trace through this word or this phrase about watching for the day of the Lord, it's not speaking about watching for a prophetic day that will be coming, a specific time that will be coming. Primarily, it's watching your own soul, being prepared, watching unto yourselves. The scripture speaks about watching against the foe. Watching against the foe that wants to make shipwreck of your soul, wants to tarnish your testimony, wants to hurt you spiritually. Scripture speaks about watching against the world. The world that would try to invest itself in your life, distract you. Become your first love, take the place of Jesus Christ. Watching against the world, remember, John said, don't love the world, he wasn't talking about the cosmos, the word there is watch against the ethics, the perceived ethics, the morality, the systems of the world that have set themselves up against God. Watch against yourself. There's enough inward corruption left in every one of us that can do damage, that can do hurt, that can provide regression and not progression in the Christian life. Peter said, seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, all these things around us, what manner of persons are you to be in all holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming day of the Lord? These wise virgins, although they slept, although they did slumber, At least in the final analysis, they did have oil in their lap. They were prepared against that last day, but how much better if they had been waiting, if they had been listening, if they had been looking, if they had been anticipating. The coming of the Lord, not so that their charts and graphs would mesh nice and neatly, but so that they themselves were prepared. So those are the four applications of many that we can take from this passage. We need to not only have lamps outward accouterments, we need to have the inward, the oil, the grace. Secondly. We should do everything we possibly can to not spiritually slumber or sleep or become drowsy. Thirdly. We cannot depend upon the perceived spirituality of others to make us spiritual, to rescue us. God alone can do that. And fourthly, we need to watch for the day of the Lord. I know tomorrow. I'm going to go to work. I know the jobs I'm going to work on. I know how the day will progress. I'll come home. Have dinner. We'll spend some time together in my family. All of you know what you're going to do tomorrow, but that's a false knowledge. We're presuming that's going to happen based on what we've done for the past 20, 30, 40, 50 years. We really do not know what a day may bring, which is why we are to look for anticipate in that way. The coming of the Lord. Let's go study with the word of prayer. Father, we thank you that in your word there are so many clear warnings and directions for us who. Desire to be ready to be prepared. As much as possible, Father, we do not want to simply coast on past grace. We do not want to presume upon your boundless mercy. But father, we want to be those faithful, profitable servants. Those profitable servants who are improving their time, who are redeeming the time, buying it back for your kingdom, those who have oil in their lamps and who are prepared, those who are waiting, those who are watching. Oh, Father, we pray that once again today would be a day where we recalibrate our thinking. We reset our compasses. We look once again to the heavens, as it were, to anticipate. That day when your son will come back and roll up the universe like a scroll of paper to usher in his eternal kingdom. We desire to be prepared by thy spirit We desire that, Father, you would give us those necessary graces and strengths so that this can be accomplished in your might, in your power. Help us, our Father, we pray, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.