I would ask you to turn with
me tonight to the Gospel according to Matthew. Lord willing, we'll
continue our studies in Ephesians next to Lord's Day morning, but
because we have appreciably different congregations on the evenings,
I feel it would be best to turn to another portion of the Word.
And for a long time, I've had a desire to expound at greater
length this portion of the Word that I have used in a mini-exposition
on one or two occasions at the wedding of one or two of you
present here, and I believe this is the occasion that it would
be proper to take this portion and to expound it in greater
length and in greater depth because it speaks so simply yet profoundly
to one of the most fundamental areas of biblical truth. The
passage to which I refer is Matthew chapter 25, verses 1 through
13. Then shall the kingdom of heaven
be likened unto ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went
forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish,
and five were wise. For the foolish, when they took
their lamps, took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in
their vessels with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there is a cry,
Behold the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him! Then
all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish
said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going
out. The wise answered, saying, Peradventure
there will not be enough for us and for you. Go ye rather
to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went
away to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went
in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward
came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! But he answered and said, Verily
I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know
not the day nor the hour. As with all of the parables of
our Lord, this parable was not spoken in a vacuum. The Lord
Jesus was not simply gathered somewhere with his disciples
and suddenly got an impulse to tell an earthly story with a
heavenly meaning, for that is the oft-repeated phrase as to
what a parable is. Rather, our Lord, here as in
every situation in which he spoke in parables, was concerned with
one great central truth. And we do not need to use our
imaginations to know what that truth is which provoked this
parable, for in the previous chapter our Lord is recorded
as speaking very explicitly concerning this great biblical doctrine
of His coming again in power and in glory, that which we commonly
call the second coming or the second advent of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And the scriptures everywhere
teach that the same Lord Jesus who first of all came by way
of a virgin's womb to dwell amongst men as the God-man, the Emmanuel
God with us, that same Jesus will also come again not in humility,
not to be enfleshed in a virgin's womb, but He will come in power. He will come in great glory. He will come to gather His saints
to Himself and to bring judgment upon the wicked. And it is these
truths which our Lord has been enunciating in the ears of His
disciples. A sampling of this teaching is
verse 31 of chapter 24. And He shall send forth His angels
with the great sound of a trumpet. and they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other. When he comes, it will be gathering
home time for all of his people. He, at his return, will gather
his own to himself the truth that is wonderfully taught in
the parallel passage, I Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 and following. The coming again of Christ will
not only be the consummation of redemption and the pinnacle
of bliss for His own, for His elect, as they are called in
this passage, but the next paragraph in chapter 24 reveals that it
will be a time of judgment upon the ungodly. He tells us that
the return of Christ will be to the ungodly what the coming
of the flood was to the ungodly of that day. Verse 36, But of
the day and the hour knoweth no man, not even the angels of
heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only. As they were
in the days of Noah, as were the days of Noah, so shall the
coming of the Son of Man. As in the days that were before
the flood, eating, drinking, etc., knew not until the flood
came and took them away. So shall the coming of the Son
of Man be. There will not only be the gathering
of the saints to their Lord, there will be the taking away,
the banishment, the judgment of the ungodly. In fact, that's
the note upon which that chapter closes, verse 51. Verses 50 and
51, the Lord of that servant shall come. In a day when he
expecteth not, in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall cut
him asunder and appoint his portion with the hypocrites, there shall
be the weeping and gnashing of teeth, then shall the kingdom
of heaven be likened." context, the setting in which
this parable was spoken is very clearly a setting of explicit
concern with the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. a coming that will be bliss and
glory for His own, and judgment and eternal destruction for the
ungodly. Now in that setting, our Lord
says, then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten
virgins. Having spent these few minutes
to put the parable in its proper setting, so that in attempting
to extract from the parable the message of God, we will not get
bogged down with what is the trimming of the lance, what does
it mean to go by, and all of the rest. For the meaning of
a parable is not found in finding some significance in every detail
of the parable, any more than when the preacher gives an illustration,
you are to find the thrust of his illustration by a hidden
meaning in every single ingredient of the illustration. And so the
great thrust of this parable has to do with events that surround
the returning of Jesus Christ in glory and in power to gather
his own to himself and to crush the wicked with everlasting destruction. Now then, what are the basic
facts of the parable itself? Having ascertained the basic
facts of the parable, we shall then seek to discover the meaning
of those facts as they relate to us. All right, fact number
one is this. All ten virgins went out to meet
the bridegroom. Look at your Bibles. Then shall
the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins who took their
lambs and went forth to meet the bridegroom. all ten virgins
were concerned with this coming and this encounter with the bridegroom. All right? The second fact of
the parable is this. All ten virgins were divided
into two classes, those called the wise and those the foolish.
Verse 2. And five of them were foolish
and five were wise. All ten, go to meet the bridegroom. Fact number one. Fact number
two, half of them were wise, half of them were foolish. Fact
number three is this. The thing which constituted them
wise or foolish was the presence or absence of oil. Verse three.
For the foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with
them, But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
In other words, the Lord Jesus calls them wise or foolish, not
on the basis of their IQ, not on the basis of any other factor
than this. Some had oil, some had no oil. All right, so you've got three
facts. All ten went to meet him. The ten were divided into two
classes, wise, foolish, And that which constituted the wise as
wise was their oil, and that which constituted the foolish
foolish was the absence of oil. All right? Fact number four is
this, that only the wise actually entered into the marriage feast. Verse six and following, But
at midnight there is a cry, Behold the bridegroom, come ye forth
to meet him. All of the virgins arise and
turn their lamps. All of them are aware of the
coming of the bridegroom, but only the wise actually enter
into the marriage feast. Verse 10, And while they, the
foolish, went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that
were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door
was shut. All ten were aware of the return
of the bridegroom, but only the wise entered into the place of
festivities. Fact number five, all of the
others were shut out and wished they could enter when it was
too late. Verse 11, Afterward came also
the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered
and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. And that is the
fifth fact of the parable. The others were shut out, but
wished desperately that they could enter. But all of their
wishing and all of their entreaties and all of their tears and their
desperate pleading could not prevail upon the master of the
feast to open the door and to admit them. Well, those are the
simple facts of a simple story having to deal with a common
occurrence, especially if you belong to Trinity Church, a wedding.
Now then, what does this say to us? Particularly, what does
it say to us concerning this great event which triggered the
parable? What is there in the great biblical
doctrine of the second coming of Jesus Christ that is enunciated
by this parable? Well, let's look at those five
facts and see the significance of them, the message of God in
them. The first fact of the parable
that we established was this. All ten virgins went out to meet
the bridegroom. And this tells us that all mankind
shall meet the heavenly bridegroom at his return. Who do the ten
virgins represent? Or whom? Yes, objects. The ten
virgins represent whom? Whom? Well, the answer of this
passage, if we read it in its context, is They represent all
mankind, for our Lord had said in plain, non-parabolic language
in chapter 24 and verse 30, Then shall appear the sign of the
Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on clouds of
heaven. with power and with great glory. All the tribes of the earth shall
be aware of the returning bridegroom. Then shall the Son of Man appear,
and in the words of the book of the Revelation, Behold, he
cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. And so the
first fact of the parable is a pictorial assertion of this
great fact that all mankind shall have to deal with the heavenly
bridegroom at his return. God is not going to consult the
tribes of the earth. God is not going to take a consensus. God is not going to ask that
this issue be put on a public referendum for the next election
day. Would you like to have dealings
with my son at his return? Do you choose to have a reckoning
with my son when he comes in power and glory? Concerning this
event, God does not consult the creature. The hour, the day,
the moment of His return is fixed in the councils of heaven, and
though no man knows that day or hour, this every man should
know about that day and hour. When He comes, you'll see Him.
When He comes, you'll reckon with Him. When He comes, you
will have dealings with Him. Well, the second fact of the
parable is this. All ten virgins were divided
into but two classes, the wise and the foolish. And what does
this tell us? It tells us that all mankind will be found divided
into two classes at the return of Christ. All mankind will be
found divided into two classes. And the Bible knows only two
essential divisions of mankind. And it has nothing to do with
male and female. rich or poor, black, white, yellow, or any
color in between. The Bible knows only two divisions
of mankind, and to describe those divisions it uses such simple
words as just, unjust, righteous, unrighteous, saved, lost, sons
of light, sons of darkness, sheep, goats, children of God, children
of the devil. In the words of our text, there
are the wise, there are the foolish. They are in Christ, or they are
in Adam. They are justified, they are
condemned. They are believers, they are
unbelievers. And we could multiply words right
from the Scriptures, and that's all I've done, is quote Bible
terms which categorically teach us that there are but two divisions
of mankind that really count in God's eyes. That means, sitting
here tonight, there are but two divisions. There are but two
categories of people amongst us. And every one of us, in the
reckoning of God, is either wise or foolish. No middle ground. No neutral position. No halfway
house. no commingling, they were wise,
they were foolish. All right? The third fact of
the parable is this. The thing which constituted them
wise or foolish was this whole matter of oil. Look again at
verse 3. For the foolish, when they took
their lamps, took no oil with them. but the wise took oil in
their vessels with their lamps. Now, it's obvious then that they
were wise or foolish. Based upon this commodity of
oil, what is the message of that to us? Without having to go into
a complicated proof or anything else, I think it should be quite
obvious to us what the symbolism of the oil is. not only because
throughout the scriptures oil is often the symbol of the Holy
Spirit, but because the context itself indicates that the difference
between these people was that some were prepared to enter into
the presence of the bridegroom and the marriage feast, and some
were not. And therefore, even if there
is no essential symbolism in the oil referring to the Spirit,
we know from other scriptures that that which constitutes a
man or woman prepared to enter the kingdom of heaven or not
prepared is whether or not he or she has been born of the Holy
Spirit of God. And so we are safe in asserting
that that which constituted them wise or foolish was the presence
or the absence of saving religion, which is just another way of
saying the presence or absence of the indwelling of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ. For saving religion If it is
anything, it is religion in which the sinner has been brought into
vital living relationship with the Son of God and has been made
a partaker of his Holy Spirit in his person, in his graces,
and in his gifts. Does not the Word of God say
in Romans 8 and verse 9, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of his? Isn't that what the scriptures
say? Did not our Lord say to Nicodemus, one who certainly
considered himself wise? And if Nicodemus was ever to
assess himself, I'm sure he would think that he was constituted
a wise virgin. But Jesus said, Look, Nicodemus,
except a man be born of water, he cannot see, he cannot enter.
the kingdom of heaven, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. It is the presence
or the absence of the life-giving principle, the life-giving power,
that makes the difference between being wise and being foolish. And now, whenever the Spirit
of God is come to indwell a man or woman, mark it. He never comes
as a dormant, hidden principle. He comes as the life-giving,
life-transforming power of God. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation. The old is past, the new has
come. And what do I mean when I say
we must have the Spirit? Am I talking about some kind
of a mysterious experience of the Holy Spirit in which we hear
the fluttering of angels' wings and profess to be caught up in
rapturous ecstasies and have visions and hear voices? No. My speaking about some experience
in the Holy Spirit subsequent to conversion called a baptism
in the Spirit or some other such thing, I say again emphatically,
no, I am talking about nothing more or less than that gift of
the Spirit that is always attendant upon a believing response to
the gospel of the grace of God. Paul could say in Ephesians chapter
1, and I direct your attention to that portion, writing to the
Ephesian Christians who were blessed with every spiritual
blessing in Christ, he says in verse 13 of chapter 1, in whom
ye also having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom having also believed you were sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise." Now, see the three things that
he brings together? Having heard the truth of the
gospel, ye believed, ye were sealed. And that is an inseparable
trilogy of spiritual reality. They heard, they believed, they
were sealed. No man has any valid experience
in the Holy Spirit who does not believe And no man truly believes
who does not hear the gospel, which is the truth concerning
God and sin and Christ and forgiveness. Having heard, he believed ye
were sealed. And so when we come to this parable
of the virgins and see this third fact, that that which constituted
them wise or foolish was the presence or absence of oil, We
are facing this very simple fact as we sit here tonight. Do you
know what constitutes you, wise or foolish, in God's reckoning?
Whether or not you are indwelt of the Holy Spirit. Whether you
have heard the word of the truth of the gospel, and having heard,
you've believed, and having believed, you've been sealed with the Spirit.
And listen, if you've been sealed with the Spirit, the Spirit is
producing in you the fruit of His own presence. And what is
that fruit? Tingles and thrills up and down
the spine? The ability to speak in an unknown
heavenly language? No! The fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, self-control. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. The evidence
that the Spirit has come to indwell you is that He is producing in
you that ninefold fruit. It does not say the fruits plural
of. It is the fruit of. Wherever
He is, the fruit will begin to be manifested. Some dimensions
of it more quickly than others. Some dimensions more fully developed
than others. But that ninefold fruit is produced
in all of its dimensions, to some degree, in every one in
whom the Holy Spirit dwells. You might approach it from this
standpoint, what is the great ministry of the Spirit? Well,
the great ministry of the Spirit is to testify of Christ. Jesus
said, When he has come, he will take the things of mine and reveal
them unto you. He shall not speak of himself,
but he shall speak of me. And if you're indwelled by the
Spirit, the evidence will be that you've been given an estimation
of Jesus Christ that parallels what the Word of God declares
about Him. This Word says He is altogether
lovely. And if the Spirit has come to
indwell you, He has convinced you in your heart of hearts He
is indeed altogether lovely. The Word of God says He is altogether
trustworthy, worthy of the confidence of the vilest of sinners. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, and when the Holy Spirit comes
to indwell a man, He convinces him, it is so. Christ is worthy
of my trust. He is worthy of my confidence. The Scriptures say of Jesus Christ
that He is worthy of obedience. and love and devotion that far
outseeds the love and devotion to husband, wife, mother, father,
friend, or any human creature. And when the Holy Spirit comes
to indwell a man or woman, He convinces him, Jesus Christ is
indeed worthy of that. And so the heart runs out to
him, saying, Lord Jesus, I do gladly give to you a place beyond
that of husband, wife, lover, friend, sister, brother, mother,
father, Lord Jesus, I give myself to you. That's the evidence that
the Spirit has come in the belief of the truth. That's the work
of the Spirit, to make Christ in His person and work as revealed
objectively in the Word, subjectively real in your own heart and life. And so to ask what is the evidence
of the presence of the Spirit is simply to ask, What is the
ministry of the Spirit with reference to the Lord Jesus? And His ministry
is to show us our need of Him. When He has come, He will convince
the world of sin, to show us that Christ alone can meet that
need, to show us that Christ is able and willing to meet that
need. That is the ministry of the Spirit.
Then, when we have embraced the Lord Jesus as revealed by the
Spirit through the Word, The evidence of His presence will
be a growing love for and trust in the Lord Jesus, beginning
to manifest in our own character likeness to Jesus. You see, you
must never divorce the ministry of the Spirit from the revelation
of God concerning His Son. Now let me ask you, are you wise
or are you foolish? I'm not asking if you carry about
a very well-beaten-out, beautifully hammered, ornate lamp of Christian
profession. You say, well, look at my lamp.
Doesn't it look nice? All gold-plated, silver-plated. That's lovely,
my friend. But have you got oil in your lamp? Oh, yes. You do everything a Christian
is supposed to do. You're a very well-polished, tooled lamp. But do you have oil? As you sit
there tonight, is Jesus Christ precious to you? Not as precious
as you want Him to be? That's your great grief, that
He's not as precious to you as you know He ought to be. But
it's your grief! That's the difference between
the grieving believer, conscious of his sin, and the false lamp
holder with no oil, who's content that he's got a pretty lamp. Do you have the oil? Is Jesus
Christ precious? Christ as He's revealed in the
scriptures? Do you count Him worthy of your
trust? Worthy of your confidence? Worthy of your loyalty? Do you
see Him beginning to subdue your lust and your passions and your
pride and beginning to work in you something of likeness to
His own character? Now, my friend, those aren't
profound questions, are they? I mean, those aren't obtuse and
difficult and involved. That's what constitutes you wise
or foolish, the presence of oil. Not enough to have the lamp of
profession. Not enough to have the lamp of
respectability. God says if you do not have the
spirit, you're a fool. The foolish took no oil. And
if you're content with religion and external conformity to the
Christian faith, and you are devoid of the Spirit, God says,
beautiful. May I remind you that the Spirit
is not given hereditarily. You can't get the Spirit because
you had a mom and dad who had the Spirit. We are born not of
blood. Your earthly bloodlines won't
help you. The Spirit is not given sacramentally. Oh, if only the
Spirit would be given through the sacraments, how simple our
task as ministers would be. I almost retched when I went
into a church and saw over the baptismal font the carved figure
of a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, as though the Holy
Ghost was there in a baptismal font. He's neither in baptismal
font nor baptismal pool, running water, standing water, or a mixture
of any kind of water. For then we would be born of
man, in the will of man. We just have to have his will
overpower ours if we're adults. And if not, exert His will upon
us as infants and get us into the water. If the Spirit is given
sacramentally, then men are born of the will of man. But the Scripture
says, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the man, nor
of the will of the flesh. Well, if we don't get the Spirit
hereditarily, sacramentally, traditionally, or decisionally,
how do we get the Spirit? Well, He is given sovereignly.
who are born not of the will of the flesh nor of the will
of man, but of God. But he is always given evangelically. Paul says in Galatians 3, 1,
Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith. The Spirit is given evangelically. That is, he is always given in
conjunction with the preaching of Christ and the believing reception
of the message of Christ. He is always given personally.
You see, that's the wonder and the mystery sitting here right
tonight. Someone may sit in the pew and
the oil is within that vessel. Less than two inches away, a
husband, wife, son or daughter, friend, visitor, whoever you
be, there's no way in which the spirit indwelling in that brother,
sister, that person there can pass from you to them. There
must be personal dealings with the living God. who alone can
implant his life within the soul of a sinner. So the third great
fact of this parable with which we need to reckon is the difference
between the wise and the foolish was the presence of the order. Now the fourth fact was this.
Only the wise entered with the bridegroom into the feast. So
only the true Christian will enter the presence of Christ
and the glories of heaven when he returns. The wise and the
foolish were aware of His return. They could not escape it. The
cry went out, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh. Look at the reading.
Look at the text again, Matthew 25, verse 6. But at midnight
there is a cry, Behold, the Bridegroom, come ye forth to meet Him. Then
all the virgins arose. My friend, when the Son of God
comes back, there will not be one foot to drag. when he summons
the whole universe into his presence. You read that vivid picture in
the 22nd chapter of the book of the Revelation, the 20th chapter,
I'm sorry, in which it speaks of the sea and the earth giving
up its dead at the voice of a returning Lord Jesus Christ. All the wise
and the foolish shall go forth to meet him, but only the wise
will enter with the bridegroom into the feast. Look again at
the vivid language, verse 10. And while they went away to buy,
the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with
him to the marriage feast. And these next words are frightening. was shot. Oh, how vivid are those
words. They went in with him. That's heaven in a nutshell.
What's heaven? With him. With him! When Jesus would describe
heaven to his disciples in John 14, what does he say? If I go
to prepare a place, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am there ye may be also. And at that point, all
silly questions about streets of gold and how many mansions
and how many rooms in a mansion, I tell you, it borders on sacrilege. All I need to know is that I'll
enter in with him. Well, is it going to be before
the tribulation? My friend, my friend, listen! Can you even
think a thought like that with these words ringing in your ear?
They went in with Him! If I must be brought through
blood and persecution, of what concern is it to me if I know
at the end I shall be brought in with Him? Isn't that the heart of the issue?
And it was only the wise who went in with him. And they went
in with him to all the privileges that he'd prepared for them. This elaborate wedding feast
into which hundreds of dollars had been poured and hours of
planning and preparation is but a little figure of all of the
glories that God has prepared. for those that are constituted
wise by his grace. Only the wise enter with the
bridegroom into the feast, so only the true Christian will
enter heaven. You say, Pastor Martin, that's
a very simple statement. We've heard that all our lives.
Yes, you've heard it, but has it really gripped you? One of the things that I need
constantly to remind myself of as a Christian and as a Christian
minister is that I am trafficking in eternal issues. Though as
a Christian and as a body of Christians we cannot be indifferent
to social, political, economic, sociological issues, our hearts
must bleed for the downtrodden and the oppressed. Our spirits
must be stirred with anger at injustice and inequity. My friends,
listen, when it is all boiled down, the issue of greatest concern
is this. In a few short years, Time will
have taken its toll upon every one of us. And though the Lord
should allow the course of human history to go for another twenty
millennia, which I doubt, but if He did, it still is but a
tick in the clock of eternity. And heaven and hell is where
every one of us is going to land forever. We need to come back
to that basic perspective again and again and again and again.
The bridegroom's coming. Only the wise are going to go
with him into the feast. It's pretty narrow. My friends,
Jesus uttered this parable. He put in the parable these sobering
words. You can almost hear the door,
can't you? And the door was shut! Can you hear it? Shut! And that brings us to the last
fact of the parable, the frightening fact of the parable. The foolish
were shut out. Even though they sought admission
earnestly, fervently, they sought it in vain. Again, the words
of our Lord afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us. But He answered and said, Verily
I say unto you, I know you not." That's all. All he had to do was to say,
I recognize no intimate, personal, loving acquaintance with you.
That's the end of the debate. Lord, Lord, open to us. Is our Lord intending to teach
here that there's a time coming when every man will wish He had
been wise. Is our Lord teaching there's
a time coming when everyone will be dead in earnest about getting
into heaven? It seems that there's a strand that flows through our
Lord's teaching. You remember Luke 16? The parable
or the story of the rich man in hell? But the desires were framed too
late. Oh, my dear people, this is a sobering text before us
tonight. A time is coming for every one
of you who lives and dies a fool, according to this passage, that
is, who lives and dies devoid of the Spirit, when with everything
in your being you will wish that it were otherwise. And you will
say, Lord, Lord, open to me. And He will say, I know you not. The door has been shut. Entrance
is sought, but too late. I know a few things that sober
me more as a minister of the gospel, especially when I face
either a mocking, sneering response to the gospel, or a spirit of
indifference to the gospel. When I look into the face of
the man or woman who says as much, don't you know I'm no kid, I've heard preachers who preach
much more fervently and frighteningly than you could ever do, and that
hasn't bothered me. Preacher, you're not going to
move me. When I see such a person, my heart bleeds because I realize
the hour is coming, when a voice more powerful than my voice will
shake every last ounce of sneer from his whole being. the voice
that says, I know you not. And when I meet the person who
is indifferent, who may even give lip service to the reality
of the things of eternity, but who says, I cannot be bothered,
I cannot help but think of the time when that indifference will
give way to earnestness, to fervency, to importunity. Lord, Lord, open
to us! My friend, do you sit here as
a mocker tonight? I tell you it's frightening to
see mockery on the faces and in the attitudes of young people.
It's bad enough when you see it in a hardened old sinner,
but when I see it upon the faces and in the attitude of some of
you that aren't even out of your teens, it scares me to death. Are you the mocker? Are you the
person who sits indifferently to all of the fervent gospel
appeals that go forth from this place? that go forth from the
prayers in the lips of your godly mom and dad, father, mother,
uncle, aunt, sister, neighbor. Oh, my friend, listen, the hour
is coming when all that indifference will go. These words will rise
up in that hour to mock you. Oh, may God grant that you will
recognize that this night the word of salvation is sent to
you. The word of salvation comes to you because, blessed be God,
The shutting of the door comes after the return of the bridegroom,
never before. The door was shut when, after
the cry, behold, the bridegroom. My friends, that cry hasn't come
yet, and it's not going to come secretly or in a corner. It's
going to be the voice of the archangel. the trump of God,
the shout of a returning Lord. And when He comes, then the door
is shut. But blessed be God, as when omnipotence
shuts that door, nothing can open it. While the hand of gracious
omnipotence holds it open, none can shut it. None can shut it. And thank God that door is held
open by the hands of omnipotence, but not naked omnipotence, enfleshed
omnipotence. Pierced hands hold the door open. And standing in that door is
him who said, I am the way, the truth, and the light. Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you
rest. This is what turns preaching
from a frightening, awesome responsibility into one of the most blessed
privileges a sinner here on earth can know, to say in Christ's
name to everyone here tonight, that door is open! Omnipotence! Gracious omnipotence! Crucified,
buried, risen omnipotence holds the door open and says, Come! Come! And in Jesus Christ there
is welcome, there is pardon, there is the gift of the Spirit.
All of those blessings that you need to be wise are in that one
of whom Paul spoke when he said, Jesus Christ is made unto us
miserable. How can He be made to me wisdom? Because in Him is the gift of
the Spirit, as well as the gift of forgiveness, the gift of pardon.
All of the blessings of grace are in Him. And if you embrace
Him, you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ
Jesus. And the gift of the Spirit is
yours in Christ. You now have oil in the lamp,
prepared to live, prepared to face You say, Pastor, why were
you silent on the last text? Well, because I wasn't ready
to finish. Now I am. I'll read it. Verse 13. Watch
therefore, watch therefore, for ye know not the day, nor the
hour. Our Lord returns to the great
theme that has occupied His mind throughout this whole section,
the theme of His coming again and the call is to all of us
to be watchful. It's a military term. It brings
into its orbit the whole concept of conscious, deliberate wakefulness,
feeling something of the awareness of the great issues at stake.
as a soldier sits at his post in time of warfare, feeling something
of the frightening responsibility that is his to protect the ammunition
or the persons of his fellow soldiers while enemies lurk unseen
in the darkness. So our Lord says, we are dealing
with issues of tremendous moment and concern. Watch therefore,
for ye know not the day nor the hour. Blessed be God, By faith,
every Christian can hear the voice of His returning Lord. Can you hear it tonight? Can
you hear it? By faith, can you shrink whatever
amount of time is between His coming and your sitting here
tonight? Can you, by faith, shrink that time and say, I hear Him
say, behold, I come quickly? Can you respond and say, even
so, come, Lord Jesus? Can you respond in the confidence
that you have something more than the mere lamp of profession
and notion and tradition, but that you do have oil? You're
born of the Spirit, and the proof of that is your estimation of
Jesus Christ, your confidence in Jesus Christ, the beginnings
of moral and ethical likeness to Jesus Christ. And I cannot
close without exhorting my fellow Christians who can answer in
the affirmative, yes, by the grace of God, I do have the Spirit. I have been born of God. I am
a new creature. Oh, dear fellow believers, we
live in the midst of fools. God calls all who are devoid
of the Spirit foolish. But it is a folly that should
break our hearts. For you and I can be instruments
in God's hands in communicating the gospel to see them transformed
from fools into wise. Isn't that an amazing thing?
I can't give my children the spirit, but I can give them the
gospel, which under the blessing of God can be the instrument
of the spirit being given. I can't give the Spirit to my
fellow workers in that shop, in that office, at that college,
in that high school, but I can give them a consistent example
of what a true Christian is, and then explain to them what
makes me tick, and then plead with God to bless that witness
of His own saving mercy, to bring them into the knowledge of Himself. May the Lord take the message
of this simple parable of our Lord burn it into our hearts,
and by his grace make us the wiser, the more diligent, and
if we are not his children, make us those who will seek the Lord
while he may be found. Let us pray.