The title of the message this
morning is Prepare to Meet the Lord. That's a phrase you might
see on billboards a lot of times in this country. Prepare to meet
thy God, prepare to meet the Lord. Now, how do we prepare? Well, Christ, in Matthew 24,
in the sermon called the Sermon on the Mount of Olives, or the
Olivet Discourse, he taught us that when he comes again, and
he's coming publicly, And I didn't put references down for that.
I think I'm gonna do some preaching on a couple of those passages. But you know, today, it's very
common for false Christianity to promote this idea of a secret
return of Christ, where people start disappearing and some don't.
We've talked about that. But the Bible teaches that when
he comes, he'll come with a shout. He'll come with a trumpet sound
very publicly, and nobody's gonna miss it. Nobody can hide from
it at that time. And what he's going to do when
he comes, he's going to gather his church unto himself. Those who have died and gone
on to be with the Lord are coming with him, and those who are left
on earth, they'll be raised up. That's the rapture, what we do
believe in a rapture, but it's not just disappearing. He's gonna
catch us up. to be with them and will be one
corporate body and will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, 1
Corinthians 15 says that. This corruptible must put on
incorruption. and raised from the dead and
given a new body, a spiritual body. We don't know a whole lot
about that, but we know it's going to be something else. It's
going to be glorious. There's not going to be any sin,
any sickness, any sorrow anymore. And he's going to rapture and
glorify his church with himself. And then it's going to be publicly
declared before the whole universe who his people are. We're going
to see in the last part of Matthew 25 when we get to that he's going
to separate the sheep from the goats publicly and That's a declarative
judgment. You see we're not going to be
at judgment to find out anything We're going to be at judgment
to declare what's already been revealed for his people that
this is a sinner saved by grace through the grace of God washed
in the blood of Christ clothed in his righteousness and But
then also, those who lived and died in unbelief, those who are
dead will be raised from the grave, and those who are alive
on earth will be put in a situation where they'll be brought to judgment,
and it'll be declared there that they're lost, they have no righteousness,
they have no blood to wash away their sins, they denied Christ,
They'll be judged by the righteousness of God. Acts 17, 31, he's gonna
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
See, that's the thing about it. I've often thought about this,
you know, when the Bible talks about the terror of the Lord,
you know, we know the terror of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5,
we must all appear at the judgment. We know the terror of the Lord
and we seek to persuade men. Our God is a consuming fire to
those who live and die. See, that's the terror of the
Lord. When we think about that on our end, we know the terror
of appearing before God at the judgment without Christ. Can
you imagine that? I can't imagine anything more
horrible than that. not anything that man can concoct
here on earth, to be found at the judgment, only to hear him
say, depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you.
Shudder to think about that. And so what we see here is in
our preparation to meet the Lord, it's not an issue of trying to
clean ourselves up or trying to make ourselves righteous,
and don't misunderstand me now. Because we, as the people of
God, we're to always try to do our best, we're to always repent
when godly sorrow over our sins, when we mess up, and we do, we
mess up. And we know that the grace of
God is a keeping grace, it's a preserving grace. And it's
on His part, His power and His goodness, not our own. So, you
know, somebody says, well, I need to clean up my life. Well, maybe
you do, you know, in certain ways. We're to fight sin, but
that's not, and again, don't misunderstand me, that's not
our preparation to meet the Lord. Our preparation to meet the Lord
is making sure that we're in Christ. looking to Him, resting
in Him, pleading His blood, His righteousness. Oh, the grace
of God. I am what I am by the grace of
God. And that's the issue. We'll talk
about that in just a minute. So here he's been talking in
Matthew 24 about what's going to transpire during the last
age, the new covenant age, up until His second coming. And
here in Matthew 25, he gives three parables. that show us
as the people of God what we're to be doing up until the time
that He comes and He could come anytime, we know that. We don't
know when but we know it could be anytime and when He comes,
He'll come with that great shout. Well the first parable is one
that's familiar to you, it's the parable of the ten virgins.
And you can see it here, verse 21 of chapter 25. He says, then
shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins, which
took their lambs and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five
of them were wise and five were foolish. Now, this, the virgins,
now, he's talking about spiritual virginity. Over in the book of
2 Corinthians, chapter 11. The Apostle Paul spoke of that
when he was talking to the Corinthian church who were subtly trying,
who false preachers were subtly trying to take their focus away
from Christ and get it on to themselves. You know that verse
in 2nd Corinthians chapter what is 13 says examine yourself?
And people go wrong on that, and I'll show you that in a minute.
But look at in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 2, Paul wrote, for
I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I've espoused you
to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So what he's talking about are
these five virgins. These are people who have a claim
being married to Christ and of being pure in Christ spiritually. They have a claim and that claim
is represented by their lamps over in verse and keep if you
if you're there in 2nd Corinthians, stay there but look back at Matthew
25. The kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which
took their lamps. Their lamps has to do with their
profession of truth. that would reveal that I'm a
pure virgin in Christ, that His people. So they took their lamps,
they went forth to meet the bridegroom whom you know is Christ. Christ
is the bridegroom, His church is His bride. But five of them
were foolish and five of them were wise. Now you know who the
foolish ones were and the wise ones. The wise ones are His true
people whose profession of faith reveals the state of their heart.
that they're in Christ, that they believe in Him, that they
rest in Him, that they've been brought to faith in Him and repentance
of dead works, that they're persevering in Him. And the five foolish
virgins are those who have only a profession of Christ, but their
hearts are not right with God. They don't have the grace of
God. They claim to be His. So they have a lamp, see, they
have a profession of faith. You know, the word lamp and light
is often used. Let your light shine before men
that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which
is in heaven. Well, look back at that 2 Corinthians 11 passage. Paul said, I've espoused you
to one husband. How did Paul espouse them? By
preaching the gospel of God's grace that shows us that all
salvation, every benefit of it, every blessing of it is ours
by the gift of God based upon the righteousness of Christ imputed
to us. It's all in Christ. It's that
simple. And it's so simple to say, but
it is impossible for sinners to believe it apart from the
Holy Spirit giving us eyes to see and ears to hear. So I've
espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ, a true child of God, a true bride of the bridegroom. But look at verse three. Now
he tells us what the problem is here. But I fear less by any
means as the serpent beguiled Eve. So now we're talking about
a beguiling here. That's a subtle way of moving
people away from the truth. He says through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. Now that word simplicity has
a lot of connotations. It's the simple message. I've
often told you that the gospel is a simple message. It's not
hard to understand intellectually. Even a child can understand it.
But it's impossible for sinners to receive because by nature,
what's our problem? We hate it. We don't believe
it. We're ignorant of it. This is the light that come into
the world and men love darkness and hate the light. And why do
we hate it? Because it doesn't allow us any room to boast in
anything we do or decide. See, you're not saved, if you're
saved, you're not saved because you worked hard to get there.
It's not by works, it's by grace. And if you're saved, it's not
because you made a decision for Christ, it's because He decided
before the foundation of the world to save you and put you
in Christ, who died for your sins, made His righteousness
yours in the sight of God, justifying you, and brought you by the power
of the Spirit by changing you inwardly. the new birth, I'll
give him a new spirit, a new life, a new heart. And so God,
the Holy Spirit convicted you, convinced you. It's not because
you decided for him or walked an aisle or made a decision or
led him into your heart. That's not why he saved you.
But that's what most people think today. And so what happens in
those situations if you think that way? Well, you get to looking
to yourself. Okay, I made that decision, but
how am I living now? And there's nothing wrong with
looking at how we're living. But it's not based upon being
saved by our decision or our free will or our works. You understand
that? Our baptism. Oh, I was baptized
when I was 12. That kind of thing. It's not
experience-based salvation unless it's the experience of Christ,
our surety, our substitute, our redeemer, our preserver. And
so what happens in those situations, it gets your eyes off Christ
and gets them on yourself. Now once again, I keep saying
this because I know people take it wrong. Nothing wrong with
me taking inventory of myself. You know, when I look at, you
know, I was reading something that somebody put on the internet.
It said, I can't really brag about my love for Christ. I can
tell you I do love him, but I don't have anything to brag about because
I fail him all the time. And I can tell you, I can tell
you right now where that'll hit all of us. Do I love you perfectly? If you don't love me perfectly,
you don't love Christ perfectly. Do you understand that? He's
going to show that in the very last parable in the judgment.
And as much as this is how you treated my children, you've treated
me. I can't remember which preacher
it was, he said, if you kick one of Christ's children, he
feels it. And now I know that's just language to illustrate a
point. You can't say that you love God
and hate His children or despise His children or want vengeance
to come on His children. So we don't have, listen, if
we know Christ, if we're believers in Christ, we can say without
embarrassment, yes, we do love God, but we don't love Him perfectly,
not yet. We will when we go to be with
Him. And we don't love him perfectly. And our love is nothing to brag
about. But I'll tell you what I can
brag on. I can brag on his love for me. Unconditional love. Here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sin. That's where our focus needs
to be, see. when we boast or brag or have
confidence or assurance of salvation. And when you look at that word,
the simplicity of Christ, I think the main thrust of it is not
necessarily how simple it is, but how single it is. The singularity
of Christ. What does that mean? That means
that all my apples are in one basket. All my salvation is in
that one glorious person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And based
upon the one obedience unto death, the merits of Christ, His righteousness
alone, and that's where my focus has to be. So here we have these
10 virgins. Five of them were wise. Well,
what is a wise person in the Bible? It's one who hears and
listens to God. because it's God's wisdom. Now
we know a lot of people who have a lot of wisdom, earthly wisdom,
human wisdom, and get along fine with that on this earth. But
what does the Bible say about such people? Let not the wise
man glory in his wisdom. Solomon had earthly wisdom, and
thank God, he finally had godly wisdom. But what did he say about
earthly wisdom and earthly riches and earthly power? It's all vanity
without God, without grace, without Christ. And so these wise virgins
are true believers who wisely, according to the wisdom of God,
based upon what God has given them in revelation and knowledge
and truth, focus their attention on Christ. And their profession
of Christ is real. It's grace. and is that which
brings them to repentance of dead works and idolatry. You know a person, I'll give
you an example of that. A person who, since I've heard
the true gospel, I've heard a lot of people argue about, you've
heard the term Calvinism, the doctrines of sovereign grace.
And there's an acrostic, I think they call it, called Tulip, All
right, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement,
irresistible grace, perseverance. Well, I believe all five of those,
but I'm not a Calvinist. I don't follow John Calvin. I
follow Christ. And those doctrines, those truths,
they were in this book long before John Calvin ever was born. And
plus the fact, I don't know if Calvin was a believer or not.
I don't know. I haven't studied him enough, but my focus is not
on him. See? And then you'll hear the
term Arminianism. That's from a guy, a Dutch guy
named Jacob Arminius. And that's, you know, he didn't
believe until, he believed that man was sinful, but not so sinful
that he didn't have a spark of good within him. We were reading last Wednesday
night on the Zoom meeting with Brother Richard Wormack, we were
reading Isaiah chapter one, and as you start Isaiah, You know,
it says in Isaiah 1 and verse 5, just listen to it. It said,
why should you be stricken anymore? You will revoke more and more.
The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint, from the sole of
the foot even to the head. There is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. And I asked the
people when we were reading, I said, now, where do you find
that spark of goodness there? It's not there. There's none
good, no not one. And so Arminius was wrong. He
was a false preacher. He believed in conditional election.
He believed God foresaw what we would do and chose us based
on that. That's not grace. Paul spoke
of election, but the election of grace. And Arminius, he preached
not a limited atonement, but an unlimited, meaning that Christ
died for everybody equally, even those who perish in hell. Well,
that's anti-gospel. Our existence in glory is based
totally upon what Christ did. And his death secured the salvation
of everyone for whom he died, his sheep. And then Arminius,
he believed that the Holy Spirit's work could be resisted. Now,
I know what Stephen said in his message when he talked to those
about who were uncircumcised in heart and ears, which means
not born again. He said, you do resist the Holy
Ghost. Well, that's what all of us will do unless the Holy
Spirit gives us life in the new world. But when he gives life
in the new birth, what does he do? He irresistibly, invincibly,
powerfully calls us to Christ and we cannot resist it because
he convicts us with a new heart. And then Arminians believe that
you could lose your salvation and we don't believe that. So
my point is, a lot of times I've met people who think salvation
is just coming from being an Arminian, a freewheeler to Calvinism. but they believe they were saved
under a false gospel. Well, that's not wise, people.
That's unwise because if you have faith in Christ, the gift
of faith, you're also gonna get the gift of repentance, of dead
works, turning from your idols to serve the living God. I'm
gonna preach on that, Lord willing, next week if the Lord doesn't
come back or if he didn't take me home. I'm gonna preach on
that issue. We turn from our idols. The God
that I worshiped growing up was a false God. How do I know that?
Because now I know the God of the Bible who justifies the ungodly. And this is, you know, that right
there offends a lot of people now. I offended a so-called sovereign
grace preacher here in town several years ago when I had lunch with
him on this very issue. He didn't want to talk to me
anymore. But listen, the evidence, the lamp, that is the profession
of faith, includes faith in Christ, repentance of dead works, and
perseverance in Him. Well, look at verse three of
Matthew 25. It says, they that were foolish took their lamps
and took no oil with them. Well, what is that oil? Well,
oil represents the convicting work of the Spirit and the grace
of God within. They were satisfied with a profession,
but they didn't understand the depth of confession. It's like
those who go through life and say, well, you know, I have a
lot of brethren who are in false churches and believe a false
gospel. Well, my friend, the Bible, the
wisdom of God will not allow a person to think that way if
that word is written on your heart. Do you understand that? So they didn't take any oil with
them. How do you take the oil with you? Well, you gotta have
the oil first. And again, that's the convicting
work of the spirit. That's the grace of God within.
To have a profession of faith and to ignore or deny. And it's just like the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. There's gonna be a warfare within,
in us. We're not just simply gonna lie
down and be rolled over even by our flesh. Now, we're not
gonna be perfect in this life. were sinners saved by the grace
of God. But here they are. So they both,
they took their lamps, all right? It says in verse four, but the
wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Go to the scriptures
and find out and understand the work of the Holy Spirit. We have
the work of the Father, we have the work of the Son, and we have
the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit's work is
a convicting work that brings us to faith in Christ, looking
to Him alone, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, and repentance of dead works. I trust nothing else. I don't have to go back and find
a date when I was saved or anything like that, but I have to know
this, that there's a true Christ and there's a false Christ. Over
in that 2 Corinthians 11 passage that Paul was talking about,
and this is really important now, he said, I fear that you've
been corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, and in verse
four he says this, for if he that cometh preacheth another
Jesus. Now there's the problem. And
that word another, you know, in the Greek language, there's
two different words for another. One is another of the same kind.
The other is another of a different kind. Well, the word here is
another of a different kind, another Jesus. That's why we
have to understand from the Bible that our profession, our lamp,
is consistent with the doctrine of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? Well, he's God manifest in the
flesh. And if he's any less than that,
it's another Jesus. You understand? But not only
that, what did he accomplish on the cross? He truly saved
every sinner for whom he died. And if he did anything less than
that, it's another Jesus. And that's what Paul's saying,
another Jesus whom we've not preached, or if you receive another
spirit, a different kind, which you've not received, or another
gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him.
That's hymns in italics. Paul was talking about himself,
bear with me. Now, whenever a preacher stands
up and preaches a false gospel, the wise will not listen. The
foolish will. And so he says, verse four, back
in Matthew 25, but the wise took on their lamps, their vessels
with their lamps. While, in verse five, while the
bridegroom tarried, in other words, in the time between when
he says he's coming and then he actually comes, they all slumbered
and slept. They did what we normally do.
There's nothing, you know, that slumbering and sleep, I've heard
people say, well, they shouldn't be asleep. Well, we gotta sleep
sometime. What that means is they're going
about their daily lives, and we should go about our daily
lives. There's nothing in the Bible that allows you as a believer
to quit your job and try to live off the government or live off
of other people if you're capable of working because you think
Christ is coming back soon. And you've got to sleep. So while
you're going through your daily life, look at verse six. At midnight
there was a cry made. Behold the bridegroom cometh,
go you out to meet him. So here he comes. And we go out
to meet him. He's gonna catch us up, I know
that. But we go out to meet him and it says in verse seven, then
all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. It's kind of like
saying, let's make sure that we say the right things. And
it says in verse eight, the foolish said unto the wise, give us of
your oil for our lamps are gone out. Their lamp went out. When Christ came back, instead
of their lamp shining brighter, went out, they had no oil. And
so they went to the wise and they said, give us of your oil
for our lamps are gone out. Verse nine says, but the wise
answered saying, not so, lest there be not enough for us and
you, but go you rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.
Now, a lot of people have taken that and said, well, you know,
we got to buy oil, we got to buy the spirit. That's not saying
that we can buy salvation. In fact, I've got referenced
in your lesson here, Isaiah 55, one through seven. You remember
what that says? Listen to Isaiah 55. I love this passage. And you say, well, the wise there
tell them to do something, it's impossible. Well, it's too late.
The bridegroom has come and there's no way that they're going to
be able to do anything. And it says in verse one of Isaiah
55, Ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that
hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk
without money, without price. That's what we've done. But now
here's the thing. When we come to Christ, we bring
money. Not literal money. We bring a
price. What do we bring? The blood of
Jesus Christ. That's what we bring. because
he is the payment price for our salvation. That's what we do. We don't have any money as far
as salvation goes. We don't have anything to present
to God to earn or deserve it. Nothing at all. We're poor, we're
in the hole. We're bankrupt spiritually. But
we have a treasure. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so go back to Matthew 25 now. And it says in verse 10, and
while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready
went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. You know,
when I see that door shut, I think about God shutting the door on
the ark when Noah and his family were brought into it. The door
was shut. It's over. Don't tarry, don't
delay, prepare to meet the Lord. And verse 11 says, afterward
came also the other virgins saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. It's
kind of like those in Matthew 7. Lord, Lord, haven't we preached
in your name? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And look at verse 12, he says, but he answered and
said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. The most terrible feared words
in the Bible. I don't know you. Well, he knew
who they were. He knows all, he's omniscient.
He knew their hearts, but he didn't know them in salvation,
in covenant saving love and mercy. And so he says in verse 13, watch
therefore for you not know neither the day nor the hour when the
Son of Man cometh. Watch. That's what he's been
saying, watch and prepare. I've got in your lesson, watch
and be prepared to meet the Lord. His standard for salvation and
final glory now and forever is what? The perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in the glorious person in the finished
work of Christ. So we watch and we prepare for
his coming as we look to and rest in Christ as he's revealed
in the word of God. And whenever the Bible says examine
yourself whether you're in the faith, that means our profession
is that truth by which the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in
Christ. In other words, I want to make sure that my lamp is
consistent with the light of God's truth. Am I trusting the
true Christ for salvation or am I trusting a counterfeit?
That's what I need, that's examination. In the faith, the faith of God's
elect, the truth, the gospel. Is the gospel I'm hearing, is
it the true gospel or a false gospel? The spirit that I'm feeling
and think is leading me, is it the Holy Spirit or another spirit? That's what I want to know. And
then Well, do I have faith in the true Christ as he's presented
in the Bible, in God's word? Have I been brought to repentance
of dead works like Paul describes in Philippians chapter three?
I count it all but done that I may win Christ and be found
in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness
of God by faith. Am I continuing to look to Him
and rest in Him? I know my eyes get diverted some,
but God brings us back. He won't let us go astray and
He'll never leave us. Okay.