This morning the message will be based upon some words of our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded for us in the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew. Before we study the scriptures together, let us once again acknowledge our need of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So let us pray together. Our blessed Lord, we thank you for that word of promise that if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more shall the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? And we are here as your people, and we ask for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that, O Lord God, you'd be pleased to enlighten our minds as we reflect upon your holy truth. that you would guide us, Lord God, you would keep us from the awfulness of false teaching, and that, Lord God, you would use your truth and make it have a sanctifying influence upon our lives. O great shepherd of the sheep, use your word this day to bring cleansing into the lives of your people, to bring comfort, to bring strength, to bring direction. to bring wisdom. Only you can do all of this. And so we ask it in your name. Amen. As best you possibly can, reflect back and think about the wedding ceremonies that you have attended thus far in your lifetime. About how many? I know there's a few of you here might say, well, I've never been to one, or, well, a very few, and then again someone say, well, quite a few. Well, whichever the situation, if you've attended a wedding ceremony, reflect back and try and remember, was there one that makes you smile? It was funny. There were some very humorous things said by the minister, some humorous things that took place in the ceremony. So you think about that particular wedding ceremony and you can't help but smile. But again, reflect back. Is there a wedding ceremony that you attended and it made you somewhat sad? I mean, you remember very distinctly the bride's father, he cried, and he cried, giving up his little baby girl. And then at the reception, such stories were told, it was sad. I mean, is a wedding ceremony supposed to be sad? But then again, you probably went to one or two, and what can you say? It was so boring. One, two, three, it's over. You wonder, why did I get all dressed up for this? But then again, you might have attended a wedding ceremony that, oh, you felt so bad, not for yourself, but for the couple getting married. I mean, it was, what do you say, somewhat of a mess. The wedding party members didn't know what they were supposed to do. You wonder, was there any kind of rehearsal? And the bride and groom, they couldn't get through their vows, and the minister, he was blab, blab, blab, and it was a nice June Phoenix wedding. And what always happens at a June Phoenix wedding? It rains. And so you felt so badly, so badly for that couple. But then of course, as I've said more than once, the greatest wedding, the best wedding you ever attended in your life was your own. Oh, it was the day of the beginning of real bliss. Well, this morning together we want to look at a wedding ceremony. And so we go way back, centuries back, and it's probably a wedding ceremony. You've never ever attended one like this. It's one that took place in the days of Jesus. It's one that you're very familiar with. It's called the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Why did Jesus give forth this parable? Well, we can simply state it, he did so as a warning for believers. Always be prepared for the coming of the Lord. Always be prepared to face your Lord. And so we pick up this parable out of Matthew's Gospel, chapter 25. Chapter 25, the first 13 verses. Jesus is speaking, 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. But 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 than 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, Surely 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. Amen. Now, we've been dealing with the parables lately, and we've sort of fell into a rut, and the way it works is, first of all, we consider the context. What's the context? What preceded this parable of our Lord Jesus Christ? Or, to put it another way, why did he speak this parable at this particular time? Well, sometimes we know the gospel writers simply bring in something that happened at a certain time, and there's really not a preceding context, so to speak. Well, is that the situation here? But I suggest to you that there is a context here, and there is a reason why the Lord Jesus Christ spoke forth this parable at this time. Why? Well, it appears to me that the context has to do with the Lord speaking about His return. He's going to come again. And also he starts that in verse 36, but there's something else involved here even preceding that. The Lord Jesus Christ has been speaking about His coming in wrath, His coming in judgment upon Jerusalem. And so when you go back and you look at the opening of that 24th chapter, notice verse 3. Now, as He said on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Well, what prompted that? Well, previous to this, you look at verses 1 and 2. The disciples are there in Jerusalem with the Lord, and they show Him the building of the temple. You see, Herod had this building project going on. It had been going on for years. And oh, it was fabulous. It was marvelous. It was something. You look at those stones, and you look at this, and you look at that. Perhaps you've been at a construction site where something glorious, so to speak, is going up, and you're just amazed. How do they do that? And so they say that to the Lord. Look at this! And He says, you know what? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down, and they're taken back. And so, a little later, they ask these questions. When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming, and the end of the age? And there are three questions, you might say, and two of them are answered, you see, within the first 35 verses. In other words, this matter of when will these things be, what will be the sign of your coming, has to do with the destruction of Jerusalem. And so when we read on, he speaks about, there will be those who will come in my name. This will happen. He says, in those days, in those days, false cries, this and that. But we need to remember something. He uses very figurative language about the Lord coming in the clouds and about this changing and that changing. Same kind of language that's used in the book of Isaiah whenever the Lord through His prophets would speak about the fact, here come the Assyrians and here come the Babylonians. Very strong figurative language indicating a great change is taking place. But we need to remember something about all these words and about this prediction, because look at verse 34. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. What did he say? This generation. The people I'm addressing right now! All these things will take place. What has he been talking about? Man, the language that is used. He's speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem. And yes, in 70 A.D., all that took place before this generation passed away. But you notice there was another question that is set forth. And what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age? And that he picks up in verse 36, notice, but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. He's going on now, you see, to speak about his second coming. Not the destruction of Jerusalem, but about his second coming. And he uses the term in this, the day, the day, the day. Well, he brings out this matter. You know, like the days of Noah? What were they doing? Eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage? What's he saying? He's saying that things will go on somewhat in a normal way before I return. And he doesn't give any spectacular signs about his second coming. In fact, he seems to indicate when he speaks about that servant, the evil servant, the faithful servant, it's going to be a long time, a far country to lay his coming. You've got to be faithful till he comes again. And he doesn't give any kind of special signs about his second coming. And boy, if that's true, then boy, what about all these books? What about all these charts, all these sermons? Oh, there's been an earthquake. It's close. Oh, this has happened. It's close. Well, earthquakes and everything have been going on for centuries upon centuries. Things are going on. There's a long, long delay. You are to be faithful during this long period. You don't know. You don't know. You don't know when the Lord, He will return. And so he brings out this matter about the faithful servant. If a man's not faithful, when the Master does come, he'll cut him asunder and give him his portion with the hypocrites. Then he brings in another parable here, this matter of the wise and the foolish virgins. And again, what's involved here? The bridegroom delays, this long delay. But you always be prepared. You don't know when the Lord is coming, you see. But what he's setting forth here, he will come. And he comes for what? He comes for judgment. Judgment. And indeed it appears, as regards the evangelical church, a lot of doctrines have fallen by the wayside. One of them would be the fact of judgment. The Lord's return for judgment. Oh, you can get some books about the Lord's return and all about Israel, but the thrust of Scripture has to do with He comes for judgment. And you remember the Apostle Paul, he brought that out, didn't he? When he was there on what we call Mars Hill, he spoke to those philosophers, and he brought in the fact that the Lord has appointed a day that man, Jesus Christ, will come and there shall be judgment, resurrection. And it seems then the conversation ended. Does the church preach much about a judgment coming? Or you remember Paul spoke to Felix, and it says in the course of the conversation, he spoke about temperance and the judgment to come, and Felix trembled. And it seems Paul, at the end of Romans 1, he says, men who know the judgment to come, men deep down in their hearts, they know that there's a judgment coming. My life is going to be judged by the Almighty Creator. And then, of course, in the church's confessions, this matter of the judgment comes out in one of the chapters. As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin, and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity, So you'll have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come, and may be ever prepared to say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. And so I ask you this past week, once did you say to yourself, the Lord might come today? The Lord might come today. And if we think about the return of the Lord, it certainly could have a sanctifying influence upon us. Remember John, in his first letter at the end of that second chapter, he talks about what we believe in our conduct, and he says that if he comes, we'd be not ashamed. We'd be not ashamed. Are you engaging in things that if the Lord... Would you be ashamed? Would you be ashamed? Can you honestly say, come Lord Jesus, come? No, I've got some things to do. Come Lord Jesus, come. And so I suggest to you, that's the context. The Lord has been speaking about His second coming, and that second coming will involve judgment. But then he goes on, and to help illustrate it, in like manner he speaks about this wedding. And so in the second place, we look at the celebration. The celebration. And as regards this celebration that takes place, there are variations in the interpretation. If you've ever heard a sermon on this, or you've read commentaries on this, or you've looked up in Bible dictionaries on this matter of marriage and the ceremony, you find a lot of variations. I don't know who's the absolute authority. So from what I've read and put together, I'll give you my opinion. Here we have a wedding ceremony that's going to take place. Previous to this, a lot of things have happened. Now it may sound a little shocking and odd to us, but back in the days of the Lord Jesus and before, parents were really involved in the marriage of their children. In fact, they made arrangements, believe it or not. And so you have a father and a mother, and they have a son, and they want him to have a very good wife. And they're concerned about the family he's going to get mixed up in. And at the same time, over here you have a young lady, and shocking as it may sound, man, those girls would get married maybe 14, 15 years old. And the rabbis more or less set a law, nothing under 13. And so the father of this young woman, he's concerned about his daughter, about the kind of man he will marry. And so maybe there's a couple of families, they associate with one another, they talk together, you know, my son, yes, my daughter, you know, I think they'd be good for each other. And so the parents do some talking. And what comes up? Well, there's what we call a dowry, a dowry. In other words, they may hassle about the groom is going to give a dowry to the bride's father, and they may hassle about how much. Finally, they come to an agreement, he gives it. You might say, well, he's just buying a woman. No, that's not what it was all about. That dowry said to that bride's father, this young man's got some responsibility about He's got this money. Evidently, he can provide for my daughter." That's what it was. The father kept it, but it wasn't for him. He gave it to his daughter. And you remember how Leah and Rachel, they were upset with their father because he kept it. He didn't give it to them. But here this father would give this dowry to his daughter. she's married, it was for her. She could use it as she pleased, the husband could not lawfully take it away from her, and so she could use it if she's so pleased to invest in some kind of a family business. You've all read about the woman in Proverbs 31, she bought a field, she did this, where'd she get that money? Well, it could have been her dowry, or maybe she just married a rich old man. He gave her some money and said, hey, why don't you get your little business going? But there was something else about that dowry. She could keep it, and if something happened to her husband, say he died quite at a young age, she had this money, and so money made her a very attractive widow. Money makes women attractive. Then as now. It's all about the money, you see. And so that dowry was hers. Then, you see, there was what is called the engagement. We don't refer to it as that. but rather we speak about this matter of the fact that they are together and stronger engagement than what we have nowadays. And so that took place, and during this time, there would be a kind of a ceremony. Vows would be spoken or vows would be written. Because you don't find that here in this parable, do you? It's already taken place. Betrothal was very, very binding. In fact, to break it, it was kind of a divorce. It wasn't like nowadays in engagement. You know, a couple has a little fuss and she gets upset and throws the rings at him saying, what's over that cheap ring anyway? No, no, no, no. This was quite binding, you see. And so in a sense they were married, but they were not living together yet at this time. And so there are vows that are taken. This comes across when you look at Proverbs chapter 2. You remember how the father warns his son about the strange woman who has forgotten the covenant of her youth. She's cast off her husband. She's broken the covenant. Or you go over to Malachi, and God is angry because of the way they treated the wife of their youth and broke the covenant. So you see, there were vows. There was this covenant relationship. So that's taken place, I suggest to you. And now it's celebration. That's what this is all about, celebration. And so here's the young man, it's time to go get his woman, you see. And so as it starts off, you have the young lady, she's at her parents' house. And she's gonna get all ready, you see, because she doesn't know when, but on that particular day or evening or night, her groom is going to come. So she's going to get ready. And you notice this particular bride, she has 10, can you believe it? 10 bridesmaids. They are described as wise and foolish. One man suggests wise and stupid. But here they are, ten of them in this young woman's house. They're going to help her get all ready. And so you can imagine these are teenage girls. Could you imagine ten teenage girls in one house? And so they're helping their friend get ready, and there's a lot of giggling, and there's a lot of little stories being told, you see. And so they help her get ready, the dress, the hair, all that's involved. And something else we are told about them. Oh, they have their lamps. And here, of course, is all kinds of discussion about the lamps. Was it a little saucer lamp? Was it this kind of a lamp? Most believe it really ought to be turned as a torch. And so you had a pole, and at the end of the pole, maybe some say you had rags, and you put oil, and it lasts about 15 minutes. Others say, no, there's a kind of a saucer there on the top that's secured, and you have a wick, and you keep pouring oil as you need it. So anyway, you had these lamps. Five, they brought extra oil. Five did not. And so they're all at the house. Time passes, time passes. Where's that groom? Well, he's in his own house, and he's there with his friends, and they're having a good time, they're celebrating. You remember Jesus and John too, they attended that wedding feast, it's called a feast. And so it's a time of singing, of music, of dancing, and lots of good food and wine. And so he's with his friends, He says, it's time to go get my wife. He's going to go get her. And so with him, there are a number of people. We'd call them the groomsmen. They have torches. They're probably having some musical instruments. They're doing a little dancing. And so they're heading for the bride's house. Now how far, we have no idea of knowing. But they had some torches. You had to have torches. You see, in that day and age, you didn't have street lights. I mean, it was dark. So you had to have some light, and they're going to go to the bride's house. And evidently, as they somewhat approach, the cry goes out, the bridegroom's coming! And the bridesmaids, they wake up, you see. Now, they're not condemned because they went to sleep. I mean, who knows how long they've been waiting. And so they get their torches ready. They're going to go out to meet him, escort him in, then he will get his bride and he'll go back to his house. And so as they get their lamps ready, their torches, the foolish say, hey, we're running out of oil. Give us some. No. No. Not giving you any of my oil. It wouldn't be enough. You go buy some. So they take off. And somehow or another, they find some merchant, they get him awake, and they get the oil, but it's too late. It's too late. You notice, 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, Surely I say to you, I do not know you. The door was shut. Final. When the Lord comes, it's final. Those within, those without. They're without. And he says, I do not know you. Well, now wait a minute. Didn't he probably know? His brides, bridemaids, who they were, He didn't know them. I don't know you. I have no special regard for you. You remember the Lord Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He used similar language, didn't He? It goes this way. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonderful works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. apart from me, you who practice lawlessness." Look what they did, Bert, those good things, the casting out of the demons, isn't that a big relief into the lives of people and many wonderful works? Were there not any healings? You didn't do the will of my Father. You practiced lawlessness. You did not seek to form your life around my holy law, my holy word. And you wonder how many on the day of judgment, boy, have they been involved in Christian activity. Oh, what a church builder he is. Oh, involved in this and started that and helped this, helped, I never knew you. You who work lawlessness. I never knew you." And of course, we could say here, these foolish ones, we would be foolish too. But for the sovereign grace of God, we now glory and cross, we look and wait for our Lord Jesus Christ. But again, what's the consequences? Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." What was wrong with these five foolish virgins? They didn't really take the responsibility seriously, did they? They didn't take what they were supposed to do real seriously. They made no preparation. They knew the bridegroom was coming. They were not ready. The point is, are we ready for the coming of the Son of God? The only ones who are ready are those who have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And it talks about, watch therefore. Does that mean I ought to spend most of my day like this? Is he coming? Is he coming? No, I suggest to you, what you do every day, you do faithfully your calling. Whatever your calling in life, you do it! You do it as unto the Lord. You seek to serve Him. What you do, you do unto the Lord Christ. That's what you're to do. You remember he spoke previous to this, blessed is the servant, his master, when he comes, find so doing, taking care of the household, doing what he's been assigned to do. Are you ready for his coming? You know, I thought about this matter of the Lord's coming. We automatically think about His second coming, and my, how spectacular, and it'll be the end of the age, and the judgment, and the final state. Yes! But are there not other comings? Do you not know something about His coming, coming to you in fellowship? Have you not had that experience as a child of God? The Lord draws near to you. You're very much aware of His presence, His fellowship. There is the communion that goes on. Are you always ready for that? Then there's that coming of the Lord in chastisement. You experience that? The coming of the Lord in judgment, that's what He did for Jerusalem. Do you not see His judgments in various places? Coming! And yes, that final, glorious coming. And the people of God should always be able to say, come, Lord Jesus. come quickly. Amen? Our blessed God, we thank you for this very sobering parable that you've given to your church. We desire that it has been properly handled. Anything that's according to the flesh, let no heart be troubled. Lord God, remind us all that you are coming again. and help us to so live our lives in the light of that truth. What a glorious truth. Yes, you come for judgment, but we've been judged in Jesus Christ. Yes, you come. When you do, we shall enter in to eternal joy. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Amen.