Well, as we give our attention to worshiping God by studying His Word, I direct you to Matthew chapter 25. If you want to take your Bibles together with me and turn there. Matthew chapter 25. We'll be looking this morning at verses 1 to 30, and I've entitled this morning's message, Don't Miss Out. Don't miss out. some things in this life that it would be better if we didn't miss it, but it's not the end of the world. You know what I'm saying? Last week or so, my email inbox was saturated with letters from Amazon telling me that Amazon Prime Day was coming up. And then when the day got here, there were emails throughout the day talking to me about the sales and everything else. And I must confess that I missed out. I'm sure we could have saved some money. I still have problems figuring out how you save money by spending money. But in any case, I don't typically buy things just because they're on sale. It's good to find sales. It's good to leverage those kinds of things. I typically, if I want it, I just buy it. And if I don't want it, I don't. But in any case, it's It's it's probably a good idea if if you caught some of those sales if there was something that you needed right same thing for What is it Black Friday? I guess it's be called Black Friday because you can get a black eye trying to get that sale on that TV But it's it's you know that something car sales what you just don't want to miss out Other things now I may I may step on a few toes at this point but when the when the latest movie comes out and For some of us, you don't want to miss seeing it in IMAX on the big screen in 3D with the glasses and all the stuff and the popcorn and yada yada. For me, in most if not almost all cases, my preference would be to wait six months, pay about the same thing for for the whole movie as I would for one ticket and not have to buy popcorn as I would for all of that and still see the same. But see, for some of you, that's sacrilege. And including for my daughter, you'd have to see it. I mean, that's part of the whole experience. You'd rather not miss out. And it's a little bit of a consequence if you do miss out, because you'll never get to see it on the big screen. But that's not really the end of the world. You follow me? Some things that happen in life, it would be a really good idea to miss out on. There's a little bit more of an impact if you miss out. For instance, your wedding day. Might be a good idea if you didn't miss out on that, fail to show up on that one, because A, you can't get married without being there, and B, she just might decide to look for somebody else if you don't bother showing up. Right? So there could be some stronger consequences. Maybe it's the birth of a child. Now, I know that in some cases, even in this household of faith, given the military context, some of us may miss out or may have missed out on the birth of a child. But you wish you were there. Maybe it was because you were deployed. Maybe it was because you were on assignment or whatever and you couldn't help it. Maybe it came too fast and you were on a business trip and so you just weren't here. But there's a little bit more of an impact of missing out on that kind of an event, and you can never get it back. You follow what I'm saying? And I'm here to tell you, pictures are not the same as being present. Your first day of work, you might not want to miss out on that. Why? You may not have that job tomorrow. You see, there are varying levels of consequences for missing things. And I got a whole pile of other illustrations here, but I think you get the point. I will tell you there's one thing that you do not want to miss out, no matter what. You do not want to miss out on the Kingdom of Heaven. Now, that may not be a big deal to some of us, whether you're here with me today or listening to my voice, but I will tell you this, as sure as I'm standing here right now, you do not want to miss out on the Kingdom of Heaven. You do not want to miss out on a right relationship with God. And there are two absolutely critical reasons that you need to be ready for Judgment Day. That I want to share with you from Matthew 25 this morning that I hope will help you to appreciate the need to make sure you're right with God today. Because you really don't want to miss out. But if you are not ready to exit this life and to stand before your creator, if you are not ready for the kingdom of God when Christ returns, you will be excluded and you will miss out. And there are two lessons that Jesus teaches to his disciples here in Matthew 25. verses 1 to 30, that I think make this exceedingly clear. You need to be ready for judgment day. You need to be ready for the end of the age. You need to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ. You need to be ready to meet your Maker right here, right now, before you leave. Why? One, because there are no second chances. And two, because there are eternal repercussions. There are two parables that Jesus tells in these first 30 verses of Matthew 25 that make this abundantly clear. And I want to look at both of them in order, starting with Matthew 25 and verse 1. It is the parable that Denver read earlier this morning. The parable, the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom and the procession, the wedding procession that goes from the bride's house to the groom's house. I remind you of the context very quickly before we get into our parable this morning, and that is that we are in the middle of Passion Week. This is Jesus's final week of ministry, earthly ministry here before he heads to the cross. He has pronounced the woes against the religious leaders, against the Pharisees there in the Temple Mount, and he has exited the Temple Mount. On the way out, the disciples observed the glories of the temple and the buildings and the structure, and Jesus says to them, do you see all this stuff? It's all temporary and it's all coming down. You need to be concerned about eternal things in the consummation of the age. And on his way out of the Temple Mount and down across the Kidron Valley and up onto the Mount of Olives, he has a discussion with his disciples. And that's what Matthew 24 and 25 are called, the Olivet Discussion or the Olivet Discourse. Jesus' discussion with his disciples. And the whole of these two chapters are answering this question. In verse two, Jesus says, you see all these things referring to the temple and all the area. Truly, I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down. And as he's sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples come and they ask him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? How do we know when the consummation of redemptive history is coming? All of Matthew 24 lays that out, and we went through it in detail. And after he gets done explaining about what the sign of His coming is, and of the end of the age, and what it will be like, and how it brings judgment, reward for His saints, and condemnation for God's enemies, he then turns and begins to teach practical lessons using these two parables to begin with. Matthew 25, verses 1 to 13. He tells the parable of the virgins in order to make it clear. You need to be alert. You need to be ready, which he stressed multiple times in Matthew 24, because there are no second chances. Matthew 25 in verse one, Jesus says, Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Notice the word then that starts the verse that ties it back. to what Jesus has been saying in all of Matthew 24, talking about the return of Christ, the establishment of the kingdom, the sign of the end of the age and the judgment that's coming. Then in that context, when the Son of Man comes, when judgment comes, when the kingdom is established, because the end of the age has come about, When that happened then at that time, the kingdom can be compared to this and comparable means you can make a comparison between those events. When the Son of Man comes, judges the wicked and establishes his millennial kingdom. When that happens, the kingdom can be compared to this. So this is again a parable. It is an earthly story from everyday life and context that people are very familiar with. But it is told in such a way as to make an eternal truth of the point about an eternal truth or a spiritual truth. And he's talking about 10 virgins who take their lamps and they go out to meet the bridegroom. Now, In order to put your first century A.D. sandals on, let me give you a little illustration, a little explanation about what the whole wedding process was like in those days. Because I think most of us, when we read about a wedding in the Bible, I think most of us compare it to our own experiences of weddings, right? We think of the bride and we think of the decorations in the church, And we immediately, when you hear about a wedding, you know that the day before most weddings that we have are on what day? Saturday, right? And what happens on Friday night? Rehearsal dinner. And you know who attends the rehearsal dinner. And you know how everything is, all the steps that go through. And you know about the little sticky points of masking tape and the candles and all the other things, right? And you know about the hairdresser that has to be scheduled for Saturday morning. And you know about what the best man does and the best woman, or not the best woman, Whoever she is that made of honor. Thank you. So right, you know what they all do and you know how the father of the bride comes in and you know how everybody stands up right when the Brides coming in and they turn and they look in the then the flower girl or flower boy comes down and the ring bearer and they drop the ring and everybody Giggles and whatnot, you know about all those things So if I were to tell you a story about a wedding from our day you track with it, right? And you immediately think about any kind of a reference to a wedding in those terms. Well, let me put you in the first century and tell you what the common practices for weddings were. All right. First of all, in a first century context and basically in an ancient Jewish context, weddings were arranged in three different ways. Basically, it was either an arranged wedding between two families. You know, if if if let's just use Well, I'm just going to invent some common names. Any similarity to persons living or dead are purely intentional. But just some random names I'm going to throw out. Let's say that you had a kid, and his name was Chuck, and this other family had a kid, and his name was Gina, and they were both problem kids, and you said, you know, how are we going to get rid of this? Well, the two sets of parents were meeting one day, and they go, you know, we've got this problem kid. Well, so do we. Well, I know what we can do. How about we marry him off and send him on their own? Great idea. And so they arrange the marriage, and that's how it comes about. Let's say you got this other couple of kids. Let's just randomly pick a couple of them. How about John and Leah? Okay, just total random names, right? And these two kids, they meet, and they're young, they fall in love with each other, and they convince their parents they want to get married, and the parents are agreeable to it, so they work it all out. Then you got this other one, and we'll focus our attention today on this one. These other random people, let's just say one's named Bob. I just like palindromes, so we'll go with Bob. And I'll only spell it backwards though, but I'll go with Bob and Darlene, okay? Now, Darlene is just a wonderful daughter and she's out tending the goats and getting the water and taking care of all the stuff and she's working that upper millstone. And Bob comes along and he sees her and he goes, boy, I really like the way she turns that stone. I really like the way she milks those goats. That's the girl for me. So Bob goes up and he talks to Darlene. See, you guys are you guys are all misbehaving. So so Bob goes up. This is why I don't illustrate. No, I'm just kidding. So this is Bob goes up to Darlene's parents and he says he says, you know what? I would like to talk to you about marrying your daughter. Now, these kinds of arrangements went on, whether it's the parents or the kids. or whether it's the the groom in in the Bible. They call it a bride groom because it's the bride's groom. It's we just shorten it to groom. We couldn't come up with a three letter acronym for it apparently. So we just shorten it from bride groom to groom. But that's the bride groom is the groom in today's terminology. So Bob goes up to Darlene's parents and says I really I really like your daughter and I'd like to marry her. So there's a negotiation that takes place. Now, depending on the wealth of the families and the difference in the statuses between those households, there could be the negotiation that involves a dowry. In other words, there's a certain amount of property that comes with that woman into the marriage. A lot of times that had to do with the fact that the The bride's family had a lot of property, and they wanted to make sure that their daughter continued to live at a high level. Other times, it was the groom that came in in order to prove that he had the ability to establish a household. And in order to compensate, or along some lines, the family for giving up their daughter, there would be a bridal price. a token that was given, or an amount of money, or a number of chickens, or cows, or goats, or sheep, or whatever, or a combination thereof. So here it is that you give to the family for their daughter. Sometimes it might be that he's going to work for that family. If you remember Jacob, and the story of Rachel and Leah, and how he worked for 14 years. to walk away with two brides. And you remember how that father-in-law tricked him into both. But in any case, right? So any of those types of arrangements could happen. But when that arrangement, that agreement was made, you entered into what is called the betrothal period. Now you know what a betrothal period is if you're familiar with Christmas, right? Because Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit with Jesus when she was what? betrothed to Joseph. So they hadn't actually had the wedding ceremony. But, you know, remember what Joseph committed himself to doing until he had the visit from the angel saying, hey, hey, this is God. Right. He was going to divorce her. See, when that arrangement is made and the betrothal, we call it an engagement period, although this our engagement period, you don't have to have a divorce to break it. In those days, when you made the arrangement, When you came to that agreement, you said, yes, you can marry my daughter, Bob, but it's going to cost you. You see my daughter? That's three flocks of goats, two flocks of sheep. And you're going to work for me for 10 years. Now, Bob is like only 10 years. Piece of cake. She's worth 30 years. Yes. Right. So then you make the agreement. Typically, the betrothal period is from somewhere between six months and a year. Bob says, well, I can have a couple of flocks of goats put together in a year. So a year from now, I'll marry her, right? And yes, it's true. Sometimes Darlene wasn't consulted. Yes, it's true. Sometimes Chuck wasn't consulted. Neither was Gina. They just got slapped together, right? Sometimes it was like John and Leah, and they both were head over heels for each other and meant for each other. Right? That's the way it was. But once that arrangement was made, they were essentially married in a betrothal sense. So there is a commitment to each other that can only be broken by divorce. Now at that point, an announcement goes out to all the families and friends of the family for both families. But this is an announcement of a wedding for when? Next year. So what happens over the course of that year? And by the way, all they do is they say, we're getting married. Sometimes we're getting married next year or sometimes we're just getting married. That's all you know. And that goes out and the invitations go out. And so everybody knows that you're invited next spring or whatever to a wedding. Now, as the time approaches, as we get closer and closer to the time, usually, depending on how far away everybody lives. And remember, this is not a context of society where you have planes and trains and automobiles. You don't have a bus. You can't get a taxi. You got to walk. If you're lucky or wealthy, you can ride a horse or a camel right there. And and you can make your way, but it's going to take some time to get there Sometimes it takes days. Sometimes it takes weeks to walk there and get there now. Let me ask you a question How many of you have trouble getting to work on time? periodically Some of you have longer commutes. Have you noticed, depending on how further you go, how more likely you are to have a certain level of flexibility as far as what your actual arrival time is? Imagine if you had to walk. It changes things, doesn't it? It gets longer and longer. What if it rains? What if you're tired? What if you blow out one of your sandals? And what if you're bringing it? Can you imagine? So, John and Leah, you just spent the last few weeks traveling all over the Midwest, right? Can you imagine you've had to walk it with your kids? Oh, look at the eyebrows. The eyebrows shoot straight down. That's good. Right? Because it's a lot more work. It takes longer. That's what we're talking about. That's why when you talk about a wedding, the date was a time frame, not a day. It wasn't like, 2.30 Saturday, make sure you're here. It was about Saturday. Or it'll be in three weeks. It's going to happen. So we get closer to the event and the announcements goes out. This is the second time the invitations go out. And these invitations essentially say, all right, everything's good to go and we're prepared for the wedding. Come on in. This is like the context back in Matthew 22. Remember when the king has Matthew 22, when the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding. See, that's that second invitation. Now it's time everybody come on in. Everything's all set up. We're good to go. This is the second invitation. Now, after that invitation, now we come up to the actual wedding day. And as we get closer to the wedding day, the wedding process is essentially this. The groom is going to leave his house and go to the bride's house and they're going to get married there. So the friend of the bridegroom familiar to that terminology as it relates to John the Baptist and Jesus. OK, we call him the best man. The friend of the bridegroom leaves early. Now, if they're close, he leaves a couple hours early. If they're outside of town or a little farther away, he leaves maybe a couple of days early. But he leaves early from the groom's house and he goes to the bride's house. And when he gets there, you know what he says? The bridegroom is coming. The bridegroom is coming. Get ready because the time for the wedding is approaching. Now you see why John uses that illustration for himself. He is one who came to prepare the way for the groom. Now, the best man shows up and says the groom's coming. That means he's on his way. or he was about to leave when he left. But as far as the exact time of arrival, I don't exactly know, but it's at hand, right? Now, when the groom shows up, he goes straight to the bride's house. When the bride when the best man shows up, he tells the bride in that house that, OK, get everything ready because he's on his way. She gets all dolled up and she got all decked out to the groom shows up. They come into the bride's house. They have their formal ceremony there and then they head into the nuptial suite. OK, it's in the it's in the bride's family's household. And when they come out of the nuptial chamber, having consummated their marriage, and yes, that's how it happened, because it was in order to provide evidence, according to Deuteronomy 22, for the bride's family, that she was chaste when they got married. She was indeed pure. And so, after they come out of the nuptial suite, Now, it's time for the procession. This is when the groom takes his bride, and the two of them head out, and they're going where? To his house. This is the context of Matthew 25. The bride and the groom and the procession from her house are making their way and picking up all those who were invited along the way. They're going to the groom's house and they're going to go in, and that's where that one-week celebration, that feast is going to happen. That, by the way, is what is referred to in John chapter 2 when Jesus is at the wedding at Cana. It's not a one-day thing. OK, it's not the reception after the wedding. When he goes to the wedding at Cana, he's there as part of the extended family, as part of this ongoing one week celebration at the groom's house. Now, take a look at Matthew 25 and look at the parable Jesus tells. And with everything I just told you in mind, follow the context historically. The kingdom of heaven will be comparable to 10 virgins. So these are what we might call bridesmaids. But we think of bridesmaids as those who are, you know, the ones standing up here. along the platform, while the groomsmen are standing up here along the platform. The bridesmaids are just the young ladies, the extended family, typically of the bride, sisters and friends, etc. These are just the younger girls that are all invited to join the festival, but they're not actually in the wedding. The wedding itself, the formal ceremony, husband, I now pronounce you man and wife, you can kiss the bride, head over into the nuptial suite. Okay, that's just the immediate family. These bridesmaids are outside from the village and they're just waiting for the groom. Why is there no reference to the bride? Because it's the groom who's bringing now his new wife and they're heading to his house. They're waiting for him. They're going to follow him to his house. And that's how they're going to get into the festival. So the kingdom of heaven can be compared to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. They take their lamps. There's a big discussion in the commentaries. Were these actual lamps or were they torches? Historically, they were torches, but sometimes they were lamps and yada, yada, yada. Listen, at the end of the day, it doesn't make any difference. And there are answers for how both of them work functionally. Regardless, the reason for lamps or torches, is so that you can what? At night you can see. And beyond that, it is the fact that you had a lamp or a torch, and you were dressed appropriately for the wedding reception, so to speak, that showed that you were one who was invited. Remember, this is friends and family, and if we're from different towns, we don't know anything about each other, right? So you know, you've maybe never even met me. You wouldn't know me from Adam. So unless you know Adam, in which case you could go, yes, I do know. I may don't maybe don't know you, but I know you from Adam because this is Adam. In any case, I digress. So. So this is how you this is, by the way, back in Matthew 22, how the king says you didn't come properly dressed. you know, you're obviously not welcome here because you need to show respect to my son and the context of this celebration and just don't come in here in rags. Come in here properly attired. So they took their lamps. And I do think it is most likely lamps because of all the descriptions. But in any case, when we were in Israel here a few weeks ago, just so you know what a lamp is, I mean, you may think of like a Coleman lantern or whatever. It's not what it was. A lamp in those days, you know what a pear is? Piece of fruit, the pear? Okay, picture a pear and cut it in half from top to bottom and then the two halves fall and they kind of rock, right? So take the one half, I don't care if it's the left or the right, whichever one you prefer, but take the one half and scoop it all out. That's kind of what a lamp looks like. I'll show you a couple of pictures on the presentation tonight. And then you fill that cupped out like half pear shape And in the top part, the skinny part, the edges would be bent over a little bit, and you put a wick in there. You fill it with oil, you dip the wick into that oil, you light the end, and that's how you can see. That's how you can see. Or you float one in there, and that's how you can see. OK, and so you're prepared with your proper attire and you've got your lamp to to join the procession and all these lights. It's like a candlelight parade going right over celebrating the wedding. You know, we do the same thing today. We just use cans tied onto the back of the car. OK, now the kingdom of heaven is comparable to 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. So The groom is in with the in the bride's home. They're going through the ceremony and everything else, and they're just waiting. Now, five of these women were foolish and five were prudent, foolish, meaning literally the word foolish. We get our word moron from this. It means stupid, dumb, unthinking, clueless. We might even use a term like daft. Five were daft, five were just silly. And didn't plan ahead, didn't give any real thought to what they were doing. They just kind of showed up with their lamps and the oil that was in it, and the wick, and assuming, you know, we'll just show up and go and be ready to go. But five of them were prudent. The word prudent means wise, sensible, thoughtful. In some cases, it even carries the idea of being insightful or shrewd. Basically, it means that you show good sense and behave in a manner fitting for the occasion. So these were wise, the foolish took their lamps, but they didn't take any oil with them. They only had the lamps and whatever was in it. The prudent took along oil and flasks along with their lamps. In other words, they came with their lamps, there's oil in it, it's lit up, it's evening, we're ready for the procession, but they also brought extra oil, what? Just in case. They were prepared. That's the whole point of Jesus' illustration so far. Now, why the bridegroom was delaying? Some of the commentators get into all kinds of creative reasons why the bridegroom was delaying. He's not happy with the bride price or, you know, once he gets in there and they're getting ready to get married, all of a sudden Bob goes, wait a minute, Three flocks of goats? Time out. How about one now that I see her? Right? No, it's not like that. It's not like that at all. Why would he be delaying? Whether he showed up late, or whether it took a while to get there, they go through the ceremony, they head into the nuptial suite, etc., whatever. Okay? There's a delay. There's a delay. They didn't just go in, they're done, come right back out. So while the bridegroom is delaying while they're in there getting married, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. There's nothing wrong here with falling asleep because they all fall asleep. In other words, the whole thing didn't happen right when they expected it to. And they waited and waited and they were ready. And then it went so long they fell asleep waiting for it. There was a delay, but at midnight, By the way, you know that term midnight? I did a little detailed study on that word in the Greek. You know what the word midnight really means? In the middle of the night. You know when the last time you would expect a party to begin? You're sane anyways. Midnight. Midnight. And yet, what was Jesus saying in Matthew 24? The Son of Man is going to come in an hour when you do not expect. That's why this parable is told in the way it is. It's because it perfectly illustrates the point he was making in Matthew 24. You need to be prepared for Judgment Day. You need to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man. You need to be ready to meet your Maker at any time. Why? Because it's going to happen when you don't expect it. So at midnight there's a shout. And it's probably the best man or the friend of the bridegroom that's announcing it, because as they're coming out now of the nuptial suite and of the parents, half of her parents house, the two of them with smiles the size of Pittsburgh on their face are coming out and they're on their way to his house. And there's a shout announcing, behold, the bridegroom come out to meet him. Why just announcing him? Because it's his house you're going to. And then all those virgins rose and they trimmed their lamps. Now the foolish said to the prudent, give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out. But the prudent answered, No, there will not be enough for us and for you to go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves. Now, some commentators, I think they make their living with coming up with goofy ideas. Some commentators say, well, where are you going to find what store is going to be open at midnight in the first century A.D.? Come on. You know something, you don't go to the store, you know where you go, you go to somebody's house and you knock on the door and and he's happy to charge you 10 shekels for two shekels worth of oil at midnight. Yes, you can make a purchase. Obviously, you can in those times. Plus, the point of the illustration is not to make it walk on all fours. The point of the illustration is to teach the truth again vividly that he just covered in Matthew 24. Others have made a point of this saying, well, when the foolish ones went to the prudent and they said, give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out. You know, if those wise ones were really loving, like Jesus teaches us to be loving, you know what they would have done? They would have shared. Dear friends and neighbors, did you read the verse? Look what it says. There will not be what? Enough. for us and we can't share it or none of us are going in. Somebody says, well, see, the reason that the oil is mentioned is because oil, as you all know, is the symbol for the Holy Spirit. So what it means is if you have the Holy Spirit, you can't share it or you can't share your salvation with somebody else. And while those may be theological truths, none of them are the point. You know what the point is here? There were 10 virgins. Five of them were prepared because they not only brought their lamps and the oil to start the evening, they had extra in case it happened later than they expected. And the others didn't. So when the time arose and they weren't prepared, what happened? They missed out, period. Look at the rest of the verse, the rest of the passage, verse 10. While they, that is the five foolish ladies, they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast. And the door was what? Shut. Somebody says, well, what if they just wait till morning and knock? Sooner or later, if the bride knows him, she's going to come out and speak for them or whatever. You know what? None of that is the point. The point is the truth that Jesus said in Matthew 24, and this is a perfect illustration of the finality of the opportunity you have to enter God's kingdom. If you're ready when He comes, you're welcome to come in. And if you're not, you are excluded how long? Forever. While they, the five foolish, were going away to make the purchase to get ready now, The groom came and those who are ready, they went in with him when the wedding feast in the door was shut. Later, the other virgins also came saying, Lord, Lord, open up for us. But he answered. Truly, I say to you what I do not know you. I have no relationship with you. And they are permanently locked out. And there's where the point comes in in verse 13. Jesus says, be on the alert then or therefore be on the alert. Be ever watchful and attentive and vigilant and prepared. You better be ready to meet your Maker at any time. Why? Because you do not know the day nor the hour that He will call for you to stand before Him. You do not know the day nor the hour when He will arrive. Now, the immediate context of this application is the return of Jesus Christ. But I think you can draw a very clear parallel even to today to the fact that you don't know that you're going to live out today. Now, you can presume upon it. But there's no guarantee I'm still alive by the end of tonight. There's no guarantee. In fact, I can tell you, in the last, what, eight months or so as I've been riding my bike, I've been hit by a car in the last six months twice, riding back and forth. Twice! Now, neither one of them was a big deal, but one little old lady tried to run me over, and then one guy did hit me, even in the bike lane. So, yes, you can get, look at the shocked faces. Yes! Yes, I'm in the bike lane in both. Yes. I still got hit. You think that I'm at more risk there than I am driving back and forth from seminary in a two-hour commute? There were four people that died on the freeway last fall. Four people, three of them on motorcycles, while I was driving back and forth to seminary in the same mornings I was driving. Every day is a gift that God has given to you with no guarantee of tomorrow. You could meet your maker tonight. You could meet your maker tomorrow. Are you ready? You better be ready. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven can be compared to ten virgins waiting on the groom on the way into the wedding feast. And when he shows up, those who were prepared, they went in and enjoyed the kingdom. And those who weren't what were locked out forever. You know what the point is? There is no second chance to get into heaven. There are no second chances, if you aren't ready when Christ returns or you breathe your last, you will never gain access to the kingdom of God, period. The second point that Jesus makes here in verses 14 to 30 is that there are eternal repercussions to your readiness. And they go both ways. If you are ready, there are eternal repercussions that are good. And if you are not ready, there are eternal repercussions that go beyond your exclusion from the kingdom and include your suffering God's wrath. for your rebellion. It isn't just on what you miss out. It's also on what you're going to answer for. You not only need to be ready for the kingdom lest you get locked out, you need to be ready because there are eternal consequences as well. Notice verse 14. This is a causal conjunction. This is an explanation of what went before. For it, the kingdom, the commencement of the kingdom, the end of the age, the coming of the Son of Man, will be just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves. Note this, that word slaves. It's the Greek word doulos. It means a bondservant, somebody that is owned. He calls his own slaves. And He entrusted His possessions to them. See that word entrusted? That's a key word. You should underline it. It doesn't say He gave them. He entrusted it to them. As we work through here, you're going to see that this is a very clear point. This is a key principle. What this Master gives to His slaves is not given to them as their own possessions. It is entrusted to them as stewards. And you're going to see that the parallel Jesus is going to draw in this story is it coincides with the time, treasure and talent that he has gifted to each and every one of you and to me and to everybody else on this planet. All that you have, all that God has given you every day, every hour, every moment, every breath, every ability, Every every capacity that you have, God has given to you. To use for him, and this holds true not just for Christians, but for everybody. And you're going to see this as we work through this parable. For the end of the age and the coming of the Son of Man is just like a man who was about to go on a journey. And he called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions, entrusted what he had into their hands. To the first one he gave five talents, to another he gave two, to another one, and each one according to what? His own ability. And then he went on his journey. Now, a couple of points here just to clarify. I know we talked about coins and denarius and things like that. I know we talked about talents sometime in the past. Let me just do a quick refresher. A talent, in a biblical sense here, the term talent doesn't mean an ability. I know it somewhat coincides with that, even in the illustration, but the term talent literally means five talents, meaning essentially five bars of either gold or silver. To give you kind of an appreciation of this, a talent in ancient times weighed somewhere between 55 and 85 pounds. That's a pretty heavy bar of gold, right, or silver. 55 to 85 pounds. Incidentally, I just learned this week the reason for that, or maybe I knew it and was reminded, but in any case, the reason that that volume or that weight was chosen was because that's just about the amount that one soldier can put in a backpack and carry home with him. So this is how international trade and tribute was exchanged. So you make the bars or the talents of gold or silver so that each one can be carried by a soldier. So when you pay your 200 talents of tribute, they send a thousand soldiers. Two hundred of them are each carrying one talent on the way home to their king. Now, just to give you a basic valuation, the approximate value of a talent of gold by today's standards, assuming if I just split the difference and say a talent is 75 pounds, this is just for simple math. Today, actually, as of yesterday, I think it was $1,223.82 or something like that was the exchange rate on gold per ounce. So if you do the math, a 75-pound talent is worth, round numbers, about $1.5 million. Tell me something. Is one and a half million dollars a substantial amount of money? I mean, you know, million here, million there, pretty soon you're talking real money. So he gives him five talents. That's seven and a half million dollars. Somebody says, oh, that's too much. It wasn't gold, it was silver. Okay, let's say it was silver. A talent of silver is essentially the equivalent of 6,000 denarii. Remember what a denarius is? One day's wage. You know what that equates to? 6,000 days wage. You know what that's the equivalent of? 20 years' pay for your average person. 20 years' pay for an average person today. That a lot of money? That'll buy some cheeseburgers, won't it? Yeah. So let's just go with the lesser of the two. Let's say they were silver talents and not gold, because Jesus doesn't specify. So he gives to the one five talents. That's a hundred years pay. I don't even think my wife could spend that. You like that? That's 100 years pay. That's what he gives to the one guy to the next guy. He gives 40 years pay. And to the last guy, he gives 20 years of pay. Now, in each case, though, he doesn't give it to him. What does he do? He entrusts it to him. Now follow the rest of the parable. Immediately, the one who had received the five talents went traded with them. You know what that means? He sold those talents. took the resources, broke it up into currency that he could spend, and he started to do business. Maybe he bought a couple of flocks of goats from Bob and sold them to Reuben for twice what they were worth. And he bought some sheep from Bob and sold them to Jason and some to Denver. And he's making money all over. And you know what? Look what it says. He gained five more talents. He did a whole bunch of business, and he took those five talents, and he took all the financial resources that his master had entrusted to him, and he essentially doubled his master's money. Right? And by the way, it was how much? A hundred years wages. He turned a hundred years wages into what? Two hundred years wages. Now, my wife and daughter both put together couldn't spend it all. In the same manner, that wasn't a challenge by the way, in the same manner, the one who had received the two talents did what? Gained two more. So he went out, he took those two talents, 40 years pay, and turned it into 80 years pay. You know, just as a footnote here, you know what we typically look at? We typically look at the quantity. Right? The first guy did better because he made five talents. The second guy didn't do as good because he only made two talents. Now keep that in the back of your mind as we move forward here. And notice the way the Lord evaluates them. But verse 18 first. He who had received the one talent went away, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. Now let me ask you a question. What's the difference? The difference isn't that this last guy got only one talent and the others got more. So the one guy with the only one talent really didn't have enough to do anything with it. How much is a talent? Even if it's silver, how much is it? 20 years pay. Is 20 years pay substantial? Yes. He had a substantial amount of money entrusted to him. What did he do? He just buried it in the ground. He didn't do anything with it. His master entrusted it to him. To use. And to use according to his own ability, by the way, you can't blame it on the master for giving him more than what he was capable of doing, because that's already been explained in verse 15 to to each he gave according to his own ability. Now, the difference. is not in 5, 2, and 1. The difference is what each did with what he had. The first two doubled their master's money, and the second one did nothing of value with it. Verse 19. And after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them and settled accounts with them is a technical term for for completing a transaction, a business transaction. So every for everybody, it's clear this was a stewardship. First, 20, then the one who would receive the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, Master, you entrusted five talents to me and see, I have gained five more talents. And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. Well done, you have done a good job. There is praise here, right? There is an affirmation that is confirming the pleasure of the master with the faithfulness of his slave. In fact, when you look at good and faithful slave, the word good is is the strongest word for good. It's the word Agathos. It means morally, nobly, ultimately good. And the word faithful means trustworthy, dependable, reliable, good and dependable slave. Well done. Now, here's the here's the amazing part to me. He says you were faithful with what? What does it say? You were faithful with a few things, a little. See, we just run past this. Stop for a second. Back up. He gave him five talents. What do we say five talents is? A hundred years pay. Is that is that a little thing? Is that a little thing? No. To the master it is. It's a drop in a bucket. You see the parallel? From God's perspective, what is an astronomical amount of money to us is a drop in the bucket to Him. We look at things from an earthly perspective and compare ourselves to ourselves and to each other. And we do our valuations that way. From God's perspective, even those to whom He has entrusted the most, from His perspective, it is but a drop in the bucket. And yet notice what his promise is. Notice the declaration of reward. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many. You thought what I gave you the first time was a big deal? Listen, that was just the test. That was just an appropriate, small, little measure of responsibility that I gave to you to test your faithfulness and your loyalness and your dependability and reliability to see if you would put it to use and be a good and faithful servant. I have given you a little and you have been faithful with it. So because of that, now I'm going to entrust you with what? A lot. This is an illustration of what our heavenly reward will be like. And you know what? It's a passage like this, and others like it, that lead me to believe that for Christians, your eternal reward is not tied to how big the suite is that you're going to have in the Father's house. Some people say, well, I don't want a big suite. I don't want to clean it. If there's one thing I'm looking forward to in heaven, it's not having to clean anymore. You know what it is? He took these five talents and turned them into ten talents. He brought glory and expanded the wealth of His Master by His faithful labors. I really am convinced that at least the primary aspect of our eternal reward, now the crown which is life is eternal life. but all the other references to some kind of a measurable eternal reward, I really am convinced they essentially boil down to this. The more faithful you are in living your life to glorify God today, the more ability you will have in glory and in the eternal state to glorify Him. The more faithful you are with what you have now, the more you will be empowered to glorify Him in the future. In fact, I don't believe it is directly tied even to how much opportunity you have today, but rather is tied primarily to whether you take advantage of the opportunities that you have today. He goes on in verse 22 and says, and to the one who had received the two talents, he came up and said, Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents. And his master said to him, what? Well done, good and faithful slave. You're not quite what the first guy is, but you're still OK. Come on in. Is that what he says? What's the difference between verse 23 and verse 21? Nothing. It's the same commendation. Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. It has nothing to do with whether you have more talents, more time, more natural abilities. It has nothing to do with how much you've been entrusted with. It has everything to do with how faithful you've been with what you have been entrusted with based upon your level of ability, which is what determined how much you were entrusted with to begin with. That make sense? And notice to both at the end, he not only tells them that they're going to be entrusted with more. He also tells them this isn't just this isn't just about financial and stewardship. This is about personal relationship. He adds in enter into what the joy of your master, communion and fellowship, friendship. Relationship. John 17, that's how Jesus, in verses 1 to 5, that's how Jesus even, I believe it's verse 3, how he defines eternal life. This is eternal life. That they may know you, the only true God. It's a personal relationship. Verse 24. And the one who had received the one talent came up and said, Master, I knew you were a hard man, reaping where you do not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. Reaping where you do not sow, meaning you're not the one out throwing the seed, and yet you're still the one bringing in the harvest. and gathering where you scattered no seed. You notice the word seed is in italics. That's because the first part is referring to the sowing process, and the second part of the statement is literally referring to the winnowing process. So it's gathering where you didn't scatter, and the scattering process is the winnowing, banging on the stuff to get the grain to fall to the ground, etc. So in other words, you reap where you don't plant, And you gather when you're not the one that does the work to break the grain off and bring in the harvest. In other words, you make money off of other people's labors. And so I was afraid and I went away and I hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours. Now at this point, most of us, if we were the master, we would be happy with the overall return on investment, right? We've just entrusted our slaves with eight talents of silver, and they've made us seven, and even the one that wasn't faithful, at least I got my original return on investment right back, right? So I started with eight, and now I have 15. That's not too bad. That's the way we think. That's not the way the master here thinks. And from an eternal perspective, that's not the way God thinks. Notice in verse 26, his master answered and said to him, you wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. So you ought to have put my money in the bank, literally given my money to the money changers. There weren't banks in those days like there are today. But you know what the money changers did? They sat at tables and they had all these different kinds of currency. And when you came in, you had currency from Nation A and you wanted to buy here in Nation B. So you bring your currency in. And for a percentage, I will convert your money over for you so you can transact business or go to the temple or whatever. Right. Well, what do you need to be a money changer? money. So if I have a talent, a silver, 20 years pay, and I walk up to you and you're a money changer, hey, I'll give you, I'll give you a talent to silver to use as your, you know, your basic inventory to kind of get you going. And, but I want, you know, 10% of your profits. So it's not anywhere near the kind of return on investment, those guys that had the five talents and the two. You're not going to double your money, but you'll make at least a little bit of a profit, right? That's what the Master says. You ought to have put my money in the bank. You ought to have given my money to the money changers, and that way on my arrival I would have received back my money with interest. And the first part of what he says is you knew And the word new here is new with certainty that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered. No, see, you confessed by your own admission. You knew who I am and what I'm like and what I expected. By the way, in verses 24 and 25, when the when this lazy servant. Shows that when the master shows up, he says, I knew you were a what hard man. And I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground. See, here it is. Who's the servant blaming for not having faithfully fulfilled his responsibility? The Master. That's not really very original, is it? That's Grandpa Adam and Eve. It's the woman you gave me. It's typical human behavior. It's your fault, God, because of the life you gave me, because of the parents you gave me, because of the job you gave me, the health you gave me, because you didn't give me more than others, because of who you are and what you're like. The problem is you, it's not me. The problem is my circumstances, not me. You see the point that Jesus is making here? None of those excuses are going to fly. The life that God has given you, the time, the treasure, and talents that God has given you, He expects you to glorify Him with it, and rightly so, because He's the Creator, and you're created in His image. And if you do not use who you are, and what you are, and the opportunity you've been given to glorify Him, then come Judgment Day, you're going to answer for it. Now, if you're faithful with what God has given to you, then there will be eternal reward. including the expansion of your ability to glorify Him and the intimacy of a close and a friendly, joyful relationship with Him. But if you don't use what God has given you for His glory, if you're not faithful with it, then when He shows up, you will answer for it. Verse 28, Therefore take away the talent from him, give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have what? an abundance. See, and we think of five talents as an abundance. And from the Master's perspective, that's a little. But from the one who does not have even what he has, shall be taken away from him. Throw out that worthless slave into outer darkness. In that place there will be what? Weeping and gnashing of teeth, which is Jesus' most common way to describe what? Eternal hell. And that's the point. You need to be ready to meet your maker. You need to be ready for the second coming. You need to be ready to stand before God today. Why? Because there are no second chances and there are eternal repercussions. God gives to everyone life and breath and health and strength. God gives to everyone opportunities and abilities to glorify Him. I have, in my life as a Christian, from the earliest days of my Christianity, seen some really amazingly gifted people in various contexts. in speaking contexts, in administrative contexts, in engineering contexts, in musical contexts, and on and on it goes. And seeing them use their, in athletic contexts, and use their abilities to glorify themselves. You know something? Some people are so much more gifted than you are, than I am, than we are, And we look at them and we get jealous. God has given you, in accordance with the abilities that He has given you and your capability, He's given you exactly the appropriate amount of ability and opportunity to glorify Him. And when you stand before Him, that's what He's going to hold you accountable to. Did you make the most of who you are and what He gave you for Him and for His glory? If you did, And you're going to hear what? Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. You've been faithful in a little, in this short, little, temporary, earthly context. Now come on in and let me empower you to glorify me way beyond your wildest imaginations. And those who take everything that God has given them and use it for themselves, and waste the opportunity they have to glorify Him. In the end, from God's perspective, what are they? Worthless. So what does He do? He casts them out. See, eternal condemnation comes upon people not just for sins of commission, but also for sins of omission. You know what I mean when I say that? It's not just that there's eternal punishment in store for the things that you've done that are offenses to God. There's also eternal condemnation that comes because of what you didn't do that you should have done. There are some things in this life that if you miss out on them, it's not a big deal. There are some things in this life that if you miss out on them, there might be some consequences, and some of them might be severe. But I tell you this, as sure as I'm standing here, if you miss out on the kingdom of heaven, what you miss out on, is the best relationship you will ever have and your one and only opportunity to escape God's wrath and enter into his kingdom. Amen. Father, thank you for this day and for the invitation to be reconciled to you. Please move those of us who belong to you to make the most of the time, treasure, and talent you've given us for you and for your glory, not so that we might escape wrath, but so that we might indeed one day hear you express your pleasure and approval of us for our faithfulness to you because we love you. And for those among us who have not submitted have not repented and are not ready for your coming. Please, O God, work repentance in hard hearts and open blind eyes and deaf ears. For your glory, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.