Well, I'd like to invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 25, verses 1 through 13. Matthew 25, we're going to look at the parable of the ten virgins this morning. We have been in the Olivet Discourse, which is Matthew 24 and 25. Last week, we came to the end of Matthew 24, and we considered Jesus' admonitions in the end of that chapter. And I think it's important to point out that the great theme of this Olivet Discourse is obviously the second advent of Christ. So important is this doctrine that it is the last thing that Jesus teaches on in the Synoptic Gospel accounts. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this as the final teaching of Jesus before the cross. Now we know that Jesus taught some more things before the cross from John's gospel, but in the Synoptic Gospels, it ends with the teaching on the Second Advent, telling us, I think, something of the importance of this doctrine. And as I pointed out last time, it is a doctrine that is mentioned over 300 times in the New Testament. It is a cardinal Christian truth. obviously very important to living the Christian life. And so with that in mind, let's listen very carefully as Jesus continues to talk about the Second Advent and the parables of Matthew 25, beginning this week with the parable of the 10 virgins. Would you follow along as I begin reading with verse 1 of Matthew 25? Then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flask of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight, there was a cry, here is the bridegroom, come out to meet him. Then all those virgins rose 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, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. While they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, Truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Last time when we were at the end of Matthew 24, we considered what Jesus had to say to us in terms of living in readiness of the second advent and essentially it could be divided into these two admonitions. He says, be awake And then he says, be faithful. If you're going to be faithful, you have to first be awake. Be awake. Live in awareness of the second advent. Orientate your life toward the second advent. Be awake that you might be faithful. Now, Jesus is going to continue to deal with those themes of being awake and being faithful as we come into Matthew 25, and in that order with the parables that he teaches. We've just read the parable of the ten virgins, and it concludes with verse 13 that says, Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Well, as we look at this parable together today, I want to look at it with you under three heads. First, the background and symbolism of the parable. the background and symbolism of the parable, secondly, the plain teaching of the parable of the ten virgins, the plain teaching, and then thirdly and briefly, the main lesson of the parable, the main lesson. Let's begin with the background and symbolism of the parable. The background is drawn from the Jewish tradition. In the Jewish tradition, these ten virgins would be likened in our day to ten bridesmaids. They were the young ladies who attended the the woman on her wedding day, they would come to her home and they would help her get ready and they would be part of the wedding procession when the bridegroom party came in the evening after dark to the home of the bride and they would walk in procession through the streets of their town or their city and they would go to the either the bridegroom's home or his parents home or if those homes were too small to some rented place where the wedding celebration would occur. Now in the parable we're told that among the company of ten girls that five were wise and five were foolish. And the wise were wise because they had brought a supply of oil to keep their lamps lit. These lamps would have been torches that burned at the end by a certain kind of rag or rope that would have been doused in olive oil and they gave about 15 minutes worth of light and that's how come you had to have an extra supply of oil or you wouldn't be able to keep your lamp lit and Jewish weddings took place at night and it was a part of the procession through the streets for the bridal party to all journey toward the banquet hall with these lit torches. And it showed that you were a legitimate part of the party, and it was also something that was necessary to gain entrance at the trail's end. And so Jesus is using that background of the Jewish people to communicate important spiritual truths. And there's some obvious symbolism conveyed here that we can glean. The first thing that should be obvious is that Jesus Christ is the bridegroom in this parable. We know, for example, in the Old Testament that Yahweh is the bridegroom of Israel. That's how he describes himself. And well, who is Yahweh? Well, Yahweh is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And God the Father, Yahweh the Father, sent Yahweh the Son into this world to be the great bridegroom of the church. And we know that because John the Baptist calls Jesus the bridegroom. of the people of God. Think about John 3. And Jesus calls himself the bridegroom of the church in Matthew chapter 9. And the apostle Paul calls Jesus Christ the bridegroom of the church in Ephesians 5. Who is Jesus Christ? Well, he's Yahweh the Son incarnate in human flesh, drawn as near to us as possible to enter into the most intimate relationship imaginable. That is who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Now the second thing that is obvious is that the ten virgins represent the professing church. The ten virgins have some things in common. All our virgins all have lamps, and all are in some sense separated from others, and all profess some interest in the same bridegroom, the same wedding, and the same banquet. But there's a difference. Five are called wise and possess oil, and five are foolish because they have no oil. Now, our Lord is obviously describing those who profess to be Christians and who have some connection to the church. And it would appear to me that our Lord is even describing the evangelical church at the time. of the Second Advent. And I say that because the apostate church, according to 2 Corinthians 11, preaches another Jesus and thus is looking for another bridegroom. But these people here, apparently, are clear about who the bridegroom really is. And there's not any heresy that we can see in this parable. So I take this to be the evangelical church at the time of the Second Advent. The third obvious thing is the parable pictures what will happen at the end of the age. Now the words of Christ in verses 11 and 12 remind us of what he said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7. Look at Matthew 25 verses 11 and 12 where Jesus says afterward, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you. Now listen to what Jesus had taught earlier in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23. He had said this, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Jesus is clearly echoing what he has already taught in the Sermon on the Mount in this parable in the Olivet Discourse. In Matthew 7, Those in the church who are rejected by Christ on this great and final day are those who did not go through the narrow gate, and they did not travel the narrow road. Earlier in that chapter of Matthew 7, Jesus had talked, I believe it's in verses 12 and 13, about entering through the narrow gate and traveling the narrow road, for broad is the road that leads to destruction. And that's the road that the world is on, whether the world is outside the church or whether it is somebody who belongs to the world who's on the inside of the church, they're on that broad road. In other words, what Jesus is saying about these people in the church that he will reject on that day is that they first had no real biblical conversion, and that was seen secondly in that there was no discipleship. You didn't enter through the narrow gate. You weren't converted. You never gave up your sinful autonomy. You never repented of that. You never looked to me as your shepherd. You never looked to me as your Lord. You never followed me. You were never converted, and that's why there was no discipleship in your life. That's how come you didn't walk the narrow road. You walked the broad road, didn't you? Now, that narrow gate has sometimes been likened to a turnstile. When Jesus talked about the necessity of entering the kingdom through the narrow gate, we should think of that gate as a turnstile where you have to leave all the baggage behind, including and especially that sinful autonomy. and you cease to be the master of your life and Jesus becomes Lord, he's the shepherd. In other words, Jesus is of the mind that it's not enough to intellectually say that Jesus is the Savior. No, you prove that when you follow him as the Lord of your life. That's essential. And the person who travels that narrow road takes the word of God to be the rule for his faith and life, come wind, come weather. Doesn't matter what the state might threaten. It doesn't matter. The word of God is the rule for that person's life. That is the wise virgin. The foolish virgin compromises and finds ways around it, and I'll accept this in the Bible, but I won't accept that, and lives his or her life like a fool. And on that day, what a fool they will feel themselves to have been. Well, let's look at, secondly, the plain teaching of the parable of the ten virgins. The oil represents something, we would have to say, that is essential to true Christianity, that is essential to real Christian experience. The parable makes the distinction between those who have oil and those who don't. And that's really the great central point of the passage. Now, we need to remember that parables are stories. They're not allegories. And because they're not allegories, not every detail of a parable is to be pressed into a symbolic mold. We are to understand that there are details that are told that are simply incidental to telling a well-rounded story. For example, we read about the fact that these 10 virgins slept. I suppose the only thing that we can really say about that sleep is that Jesus is implying some sense of delay in the Second Advent by that. But there isn't anything of central importance communicated when we read that all ten virgins sleep because the wise slept as well as the foolish. And there is no rebuke on the part of the bridegroom to the wise, for example, for having slept. And so it seems to be more of an incidental detail. It's not central to the parable. We mustn't get bogged down on that. It's not that we can't say anything about the sleep, but it's not something to press and press and press. It's not central to the parable. But the oil is. The oil and whether you have oil or not is determinative whether you're wise or whether you're a fool. That is the central point of the parable. Do you have the oil or don't you have the oil? That is of primary importance. It tells us whether or not a person will be prepared for the coming of the bridegroom. It's indispensable to Christian experience. Now, before we consider what the oil does represent, let's reflect what it does not represent. We can't say that the oil is an evangelical confession of faith. An evangelical confession of faith is very important, and we never minimize that in the church. In fact, we are going to recite, before we come to the table of the Lord this morning, we're going to recite together the Apostles' Creed. which has been said corporately by God's people ever since the second century. And we profess our faith together, and we believe that it is important what a person says he or she believes. We're not minimizing having an orthodox confession of faith. That's very important. All we're saying is it's not enough, because apparently in the parable, the foolish virgins were able also to recite the Apostles' Creed. It's not the oil. If you begin to think about it, the devil himself is orthodox, but little good it does him. I mean, James tells us that, doesn't he, in James 2. So the oil is not an evangelical confession. As important as that is, that's not the oil. And we cannot say in an absolute sense that the foolish have refused to separate from the world, because in the parable, in a certain sense, they have separated from at least the secular society that never darkens the door of the church. I mean, here are people who congregate together, who come together to worship the wise and the foolish. They're in the same building. They're singing the same hymns. They're listening to the same sermons. They are in some way separated from the world, at least in that external sense. And the foolish may even do a number of other things that to the outward eye of man appears very hopeful. But the oil is not that. It's not being a member of the church. It's not being there every time the church doors are open. That's not the oil. That's good if you're here every time the church doors are open, but it's not the oil. What the oil represents is everything connected to a vital work of the Holy Spirit. Oil is frequently used as a symbol, as a metaphor in the Bible of the Holy Spirit. And so what Jesus is teaching us is that the wise virgin has the Spirit and all of the evidences of the Spirit in his or her life. Now, you think about that. The Bible says that the true believer He or she may be as weak as water, but nevertheless has the Holy Spirit. The mark of a Christian is to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and he is in it for the long haul. He says, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. He makes his entrance in the new birth, and he never leaves, and his presence is a reality in the life of every true child of God. Well, how do you know if you have the Holy Spirit or not? Well, the Holy Spirit has a way of making his presence felt and known in the lives of the people of God. I mean, Jesus talked about that, didn't he, in the Beatitudes. He talked about the characteristics of the born again. And he gave us eight characteristics of those who were born again, of those who are indwelt by the Spirit, who know the regenerating power of the Spirit in their lives, and the ongoing presence and activity of the Spirit. And he began with a honesty about sin. He said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who are honest not only about sin, but in particular about their own sin. And not only that, but mourn for their sin. That's the second beatitude. Not just before they're converted, but throughout their whole Christian life. They know what it is to mourn for their sin, and to come humbly again before God, and confess their sin again, and fight that battle of mortifying sin. And that is a mark of the born again. And then Jesus talked about meekness, and he talked about hungering and thirsting for righteousness. And he talked about four other things. You can read about that in Matthew 5. And then you think about what the Apostle Paul talked about. He talked about the people who have the Spirit also have the working of the Spirit and what is called the fruit of the Spirit. And Paul lists those nine fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There are nine of them. And if you look at them, they can be divided into three in terms of relationships. The first three, love, joy, peace. concern the Christian indwelt by the Spirit now in relationship to his or her God, the next three in relationship to other people, and the final three, who the Christian is in relationship to himself or herself. In other words, when the Spirit of God enters into the wise virgin, it impacts that person in their relationships, their relationship with God, with other people, and and their relationship with themselves, how they relate to themselves. And so these are the evidences of having the oil. On the other hand, the foolish virgin does not have that oil. Charles Spurgeon said this, a great change has to be wrought in you far beyond any power of yours to accomplish, ere you can go in with Christ to the marriage. You must, first of all, be renewed in your nature, or you will not be ready. You must be washed from your sins, or you will not be ready. You must be justified in Christ's righteousness, and you must put on his wedding dress, or else you will not be ready. You must be reconciled to God. You must be made like to God, or you'll not be ready. or to come to the parable before us, you must have a lamp, and that lamp must be fed with heavenly oil, and it must continue to burn brightly, or else you will not be ready. No child of darkness can go into that place of light. You must be brought out of nature's darkness into God's marvelous light, or else you will never be ready to go in with Christ to the marriage and to be forever with him. So we've been looking at the plain teaching, and we have considered that the oil represents that which is essential to true Christianity. It is talking here about essential Christian experience. And then another plain teaching is that at the coming of Christ, there will be a great and final church split. Look at verse 10b. And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut. And so we have people shut in and we have people shut out. We have a church split here. We have the greatest church split that has ever happened in history. Now, we are all familiar with church splits in time. Sometimes there's sin to go all around, isn't there? Some splits should never have occurred. And unfortunately, one sheep goes with that group and this sheep goes with that group. And it was unnecessary and sad to say it did not help the man of this world who was watching. But not all church splits are sinful in the sense that there's sin to go all around. Sometimes you have to have a church split. Sometimes the leadership of the church, maybe it's of a local church or it's on the denominational level, and after repeated efforts to bring about change have been frustrated, it's clear that the leadership is compromising biblical authority in very brazen ways, and the faithful have no choice at that point to separate. And we can even say that God has ordained certain church splits to occur for the sake of purifying his church and maintaining a faithful witness in the world. Some church splits are necessary, but even in those necessary church splits, it's not as if they were not necessitated because of sin. There was sin on the part of the leadership that were not faithful to the word of God or faithful to the gospel, and it sadly became necessary. But on this day, there is going to be the biggest church split that has ever been seen. There'll never be a church split like it, and it will be a church split that has nothing at all of sin in it at all. It will be brought about entirely by the holiness of God and brought about by the power of God. That's what Jesus is teaching. The wise will enter glory with Christ. And the door will be shut to all others. The Lord is borrowing from the imagery of wedding ceremonies of that day. That's what happened. The wedding party that arrived with the bridegroom, they went into the home, and when they went into the home, the door was locked. And no one who wasn't a part of that procession was allowed to come in afterwards. And the Lord says that's how it's going to be when he returns for his church. The nominal Christian, the one who is Christian in name only, will be locked out. The Sunday Christian, as we sometimes call him, will be locked out. You know the Sunday Christian who is a Monday through Saturday pagan. He's going to be locked out, says Jesus. Locked out in the outer darkness where Jesus says elsewhere there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. A part of eternal punishment not the entirety of eternal punishment to be sure, but part of eternal punishment is the sense of deprivation and the overwhelming awareness of loss. Because to be shut out is to be shut out from the place where the countenance of God shines upon the holy and happy people in that place. It is to be shut out of the place of ultimate blessing. It is to be shut out of the place where there is feasting and joy and light and love and warmth and peace and fellowship in the consummated kingdom of God, such as you and I cannot even imagine at present. And those who shut out will be keenly aware of their loss. But you know, when you begin to think about those who have been shut out and their sense of loss, we also need to think about the fact that the wise virgin is going to be shut in. Shut into that place of blessing and shut in permanently into that place. I mean, you begin to think about that for a moment and I don't know if you've had to have an accusing round with the devil this past week, but I can tell you I've had many. And I look forward to the day to be locked into that place where I'll never have to have that again. Or I begin to think about what it means to be shut into the blessing of that place when I think about the world and the world's seductive power and the fact that my heart is still attracted to idols in this world. I think I'm communicating with God's people this morning. I think that's your experience too, isn't it? You find that your heart is sometimes drawn to give its affection to something that you know belongs only to God. And so what a wonderful thing to be shot into that place where the world will never exercise its seductive power again. Or you think about your own flesh, and you think about the fact that you've had to mortify it this week, and yet you've had to continue to mourn on account of your sin, and you've had to come humbly again to the throne of grace and confess it, and you begin to think about what does it mean to be locked into that place? Well, it means that you'll never have to mortify sin again because you'll never sin. This separation will be forever. No longer will the true believer go to worship with the nominal Christian. No longer will they Behold each other, no longer will they talk with one another. Whatever the pain that this causes the wise virgin today, and it does cause the wise virgin pain today, but whatever pain it causes the true Christian today to think about that, it will not cause any pain on that day. The separation in view is Not the separation that comes when a true believer has to bury another true believer, and then we say, see you soon, dear brother, or see you soon, dear sister. But this separation that the parable speaks of is absolute and it's eternal, and it's meant to be sobering to all of us at present. It's meant to fuel the prayers of the wise virgin for those who we fear are foolish virgins in the church. because the day of grace is still continuing today. And it's certainly meant to awaken the foolish to their need for oil, to their need for experiential Christianity, while the market of God's grace is still open, when you can still go into that market, and you can apply to Christ, and you can buy on those gospel terms that Isaiah gives, without money, without price, and you can come to Christ. You know, that door of opportunity is still open, but the fact is, is that when the foolish virgin comes to die, that door is shut. Or if that foolish virgin is alive at the second advent, at the second advent, that door will be shut. It'll be shut like the door of Noah's ark was shut. It will be shut permanently. True believers will be locked in and unbelievers will be locked out. Nothing will ever be able to alter this fact, not the realization of the need for inward grace. Now in this parable, the foolish wish for the oil of the wise when the bridegroom comes, they sense their need of it now. They neglected it, they ignored it, they even despised it while they lived, but now they know they need it, but it is too late. The day of grace is over, the day of judgment has come. Not the realization of the need for inward grace will alter it. Not the best wishes of true believers. In the parable, the five wise virgins direct the five foolish to go buy for themselves. Now, no saint has any extra grace for another person. There is a teaching in the Roman Church that's called supererogation, and it is a denial of the gospel, really, one of the ways that the gospel is denied by Rome. And what it basically teaches is that there are certain people, saints that have lived such virtuous lives that they have accumulated not only enough merit for themselves, but extra merit that is available to people like you and me if we will only pursue that merit through the avenues that the church gives to us. This is not at all in line with the gospel and you'll find that the reformers deal with this heresy. In fact, even the Church of England includes it in one of their articles in the 39 articles. You can read about that in Article 14 of the 39 articles of the Church of England where they deal with this heresy of super irrigation. because there is no merit for any of us in any of the saints. There is no treasury of merit in Augustine or in any other saint that went before us that we can go to and we can apply for. No, the treasury of merit is found in Jesus and Jesus alone. And there is a gospel market that is open, and Jesus invites sinners to come to him on those gospel terms without money, without price, and receive from him that treasury of merit. He can clothe us with the righteousness that is his. He can clothe us so that God sees us holy in Christ. Only he can do that. Not the best wishes of true believers will alter this. What we have expressed in this parable is the desire that the foolish might obtain as had the wise, but the problem is, despite all the goodwill in the world from the wise virgins, it is too late. The gospel market is closed. The day of grace is over. and not the emphatic desire of the damned that it be otherwise will alter it. We read in verse 11, afterward the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you. You can hear their intensity, can't you? Oh, they wish that it would be otherwise. Lord, Lord, no, Lord, please. I don't know you. I don't know you, not meaning I don't know about you. I know everything about you. I know everything about everybody. But I don't know you to be my own. I don't know you to be my sheep. You never followed me. You never recognized me as the good shepherd. You didn't follow me as the Lord of your life. They said that Jesus was their Savior. But on that day, the Savior is of another mind. He held out his arms at one time to these people when he died on the cross. He held out his arms every time the gospel was preached. But when he comes again, he is not coming as the Savior of sinners. Oh, he's coming as the Savior to save his church to the uttermost, but he's not coming to save sinners. He's coming as the sinner's judge. And when he wears the mantle of the judge, and the only savior of sinners will not save any more, then there is no altering the fact that these foolish virgins will be damned. The day of grace is over. That's part of the plain teaching of the parable, but let's finally consider the main lesson of the parable. which is verse 13. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Now this parable argues strongly for you and me to be prepared for death or to be prepared for the return of Christ if we should be alive in that generation that will see that. It calls for honest self-examination among all professors of Christianity. The self-examination is something that will do the wise no harm, and it may do the foolish a great deal of good. The lack of self-examination seems to account for the unpreparedness of the foolish. In their case, I think we can make a little something of their sleep. We can say that in their case, it was the sleep of carnal security. There was no self-watch. They found ways to blunt the truth. They found ways to pacify their conscience. Many of these people refused to sit under an expository ministry because that ministry cut too close to the heart and they felt uncomfortable. They sought out churches with a kind of manila-vanilla evangelicalism where they can feel a little bit more comfortable. Others, they did come to that place where there was an exposition of the word, but they deceived themselves into thinking that so long as they were Orthodox, all was well. But they forgot that the devil and the demons of hell are Orthodox, and it does them no good at all. That's what James says in James 2. The parable argues for honest self-examination. And then the parable argues for seeking a plenteous and continual store of the oil of grace. You know, we're leaky vessels, aren't we? I mean, you got grace yesterday for yesterday, that's all well and good, but you need new grace today, don't you? Isn't that your experience? You're a leaky vessel. And the fact is we have to go to the throne of grace again and again because of that. That's how the wise virgin operates. That's how the elect live. Now we know that God is going to save all of his elect and that not one of the elect will be lost and that God has extended his power to keep them. He has sealed them by his spirit until the day of redemption. No one can snatch them from the hand of the Father. No one can snatch them from the hand of the Savior. The everlasting arms of God are beneath the people of God. They cannot be lost. They will persevere in their faith because God preserves them in the faith. We believe that in this church. We believe that God will save his elect and not one will be lost, but who are God's elect? Well, we have to say that we don't know who they are until they're converted. And when they're converted, we have good hope that here is one of God's elect. But we do know enough about what we can observe and what God can see that there's a difference, isn't there? And there are people that we have been hopeful that they were converted, and they seem to have joy, and they seem to follow. They seem to outwardly follow the Lord, at least for a season in their life. But then trouble came, and they fell away. And it was so sad to see these people. who once came to church and they come no more. And we had hoped that they were God's elect, but they didn't persevere. And so we now know that possibly they were not. Maybe they are backslidden. We still pray for them. But we have big question marks in our mind, don't we? But when you see a child of God persevering when everything, including the kitchen sink, is thrown at them, and they say like Peter, Lord, where else would we go? You have the words of life. You can pound me into the earth. Lord, by your providence, by your difficult providence, Lord, I'm not going anywhere. I'm following you. Well, there's God's elect, right? The hot sun comes out and beats upon them, and they don't wither. They've got root. They've got that root grace of faith. They've got real faith, the faith of God's elect. That's one of the reasons why in the church we should not look at trial as even the most difficult of trials as being evil things. They are blessings in disguise. They have a way of discovering to us the reality of our faith. But the thing about the elect is that they know that they are weak, and they're not like the foolish virgins in this parable who ignored heart religion and the pursuance of the Spirit's grace and power to be more and more unleashed in their life. The wise find their life in God, and they continue to seek that life in God, and if they grow cold and dull, if they should find in their own hearts that they are growing worldly, well then they must like the penitent, go back to his or her first love. They must go with Jacob back to Bethel. They have to deal with their idols, bury their idols like Jacob did, go back to the God of Bethel and renew their relationship with the Lord. But that's what the elect do. That's what God's Jacobs do. And they are in sympathy, not only with the words of David, but with the practice of David, when David says to the Lord, I am poor and needy, therefore make haste to me. And the elect says, I too am poor and needy, Lord, make haste to me. And they keep coming to the throne of grace as leaky vessels. praying for the working of God's spirit in greater measure in their own hearts and in seeking they find and by growth in godliness and growth in holiness, Peter says, we make our calling and election sure. That's how wise virgins live. But if such watching is something that you are a complete stranger to, The good news is that this can change. You know, Jesus told this parable for a gracious end. He told this parable that it would be taught, that it would be preached throughout the history of the church, that it would be taught while the market was still open, the market of God's grace was still open. He was of the mind that this very parable that we are considering today would be the means of blessing many, many people throughout the long history of the church. And he reminds us, as the gospel is still being preached in the world, that the market of God's grace is still open. In other words, That day of the Lord hasn't come yet. The judgment day has not yet arrived. That day when Christ takes his seat upon that great white tribunal throne of God and when all sinners and all saints will be gathered before that judgment throne and the sheep will be to his right and the goats to his left. That great day has not yet come. In other words, we are still in the day of grace. And Jesus says in this day of grace to sinners in the church and out of the church, he says, come to me, for I'm the Savior. I'm the giver of oil. I'm the giver of life. I'm the treasury of merit. You come to me. You come to me on the gospel terms that I have given without money, without price. You come to me. And I'll give you what you need. You know, there's a lot of things that I don't know. And the older I get, the more I realize I don't know. But there are some things that I do know. And I know them more firmly now than ever. And I know this, that only the Lord Jesus Christ can do poor sinners good. I know that. And I know that he is able, and I know that he is willing. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Bridegroom of the Church, is going to come again in great kingdom, glory, and power. And we pray that you would strengthen the faith of your people through the preached word. And now as we come to the table of the Lord through the visible gospel signs that we participate at the table, we pray that you would strengthen our faith and that you would help us to live in readiness for that day. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.