Alright, now let's turn back
there to Matthew 25. We have so many things that fight
for our attention, and so many things that draw away our affection,
speaking to us who believe the Lord, and us who know better,
us who know better by His grace, and know that there's only one
thing that's needful. And we really should sow to the
Spirit. We really should minister to
that new heart. And the Lord is in the Mount
of Olives here, and He's teaching us that, that He's coming again
soon, very soon. And He's teaching us that the
most important thing for the Lord's people, those who believe,
are to give diligence, to tend to that true heart that He's
given. True faith, true worship, true
service to God. It's all in the heart. It's in
the heart. It's not in the old nature. It's not anything of our fleshly
nature. It's in the heart. And that's
what the Lord is teaching us here. True obedience is heart
obedience. It's a matter of the heart. And
so we have to give diligence to keep the heart set on Christ
alone. Now look at verse 1. He says,
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like unto ten virgins which
took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Now he's
using a custom here, a marriage custom that was commonly known
in that day when our Lord walked His earth, the members of the
Bride's Court, they would be ready and they would have their
oil burning lamps and they would be ready. And when they got word
that the Bridegroom was coming, they would all go out with those
lamps lit and they would meet the Bridegroom. And so that's
the illustration he's using here. The Bridegroom represents the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the husband of his people,
the church, particularly of his elect people. The true believer
is betrothed to Christ, engaged to Christ. The ten virgins represent
all who profess to believe on Christ. in the invisible church,
all who profess to believe on Christ. Now His elect that have
been called by His grace make up the true church. They make
up His bride. The day when He returns will
be our marriage day. That'll be the day of the marriage.
And we're waiting for Christ the Bridegroom to return. That's
what we're waiting for. So these ten virgins represent
all who profess to believe on Christ. That's who they represent.
And they're called virgins because the true believer is a saint. The true believer is a saint.
And sanctified by God the Father, by divine election, this marriage
was arranged by God the Father. He chose His bride for His Son. He elected whom He would to be
the bride of His Son and gave them to His Son. We've been sanctified
by the blood of Christ. Look over to Ephesians 5. Ephesians
5. Christ came forth to do everything
necessary, everything required to satisfy the justice of God,
to purge us all, all His children of our sin, that He might present
His bride to Himself. Look at Ephesians 5.25. It says,
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. Christ is the husband, His church
is the wife, the bride. He gave Himself for it, that
He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the Word. That He might present it to Himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. He did that.
that He might sanctify, that He might cleanse it, that He
might present it to Himself. He gave Himself for the church.
He did that. He did it all. Sanctified by
Him. And then we're sanctified in
the new birth. by God the Holy Spirit when we're
born of Him. That's when we're separated out
of darkness into light. Out of separation from God into
Christ and then separated from this world. You see that? Put
it into Christ. Look over at 2 Corinthians 11. A true believer is like a virgin
engaged to the man that she loves. and she's keeping herself pure
for her wedding day. That's what a believer is. 2
Corinthians 11, 2. Paul said, I'm jealous over you
with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband,
just one, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. You see that? Just like someone
engaged to be married. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent tricked Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." In other
words, that you should be turned by something from Christ your
husband to start two-timing, to start cheating, to start looking
away and playing the harlot and playing adultery, being the adulteress
from this one that you're espoused to. And this fear is real. It's very real because not everybody
in the visible church of God who professes to believe on Christ
are truly set and have their hearts fixed by God on Christ. In the visible church there are
always going to be believers and there are going to be those
who merely have the outward form and an outward profession but
who aren't truly believers. The Lord sets them before us
here in this illustration. Look at verse 2. Five of these
virgins were wise and five were foolish. Now, the five wise virgins
represent those truly born of the Spirit, true believers. And
the five unwise represent those who have only the outward form,
but no work performed in the heart, no grace in the heart.
You see that? The wise are those truly born
of the Spirit, have a work of grace wrought in their heart.
The unwise are those that just have a mere form, just an external
profession only. Now, this is what I want you
to see in this message. only those made holy in the heart
by God, robed in the snow-white dress of Christ's righteousness,
that wedding garment that we have to have, who are waiting
for Christ in truth, in spirit and in truth, brought into the
obedience of faith in the heart by the Spirit of God, to have
the heart made pure, to wait on Him, to trust Him, to long
after Him, to diligently seek after Him. Those are the only
ones that are going to meet Christ when He returns. The only ones. Our Lord is teaching us here
the importance of diligently keeping our inward hearts fixed
on Christ. Keeping our faith, our faith
set on Him. Our hearts fixed on Him. Alright,
let's look at the first thing we see here. We see several similarities
between the wise, the true believers, and the unwise, the vain professors. Here's the first thing we see.
They all had lamps. Verse 1 says, Then shall the
kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their
lamps. They all had lamps. There's the
lamp's the outward, it's the external, it's the vessel. There's
some things about believers and mere professors of religion that
are the same. There's some outward things that
are the same. Those who have a mere profession,
just like those who have a true profession, both will make a
profession of faith. They both will confess they believe
on Christ. They both will go through some
form of baptism. Believer's baptism, or the believer's
going to be baptized, but those false will go through some form.
They may be all partakers of the Lord's table. They join a
church. They go through the outward forms,
the externals of religion. They come in and worship, just
like the others appear to come in to serve God. They may support the church financially. They may, and they will all do
good works. Believers do good works. They
don't walk in a immoral way. They want to serve God and honor
God. Well, those who have a mere profession will do that. They
will do many good works of mercy, almsgiving. They'll both do those
kinds of things. They have some things in common. They all had lamps. And then
look, verse one says, and they all went out to meet the bridegroom.
They all went out to meet Him. They wanted to go see the bridegroom.
Look over at Romans chapter 10. Even those who merely have a
form of religion, they're zealous. They're truly zealous. They're
zealous in their religion. I don't doubt for one minute
they're sincere in their religion. But they're zealous for something
other than Christ or in addition to Christ. They're zealous for
something other than Christ or in addition to Christ. Romans
10.1 Paul said, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to
God for Israel is that they might be saved. Can you imagine how
they received that? Can you imagine how those in
Israel would have received Paul saying that? These were Jews. These were children of the fathers.
They were zealous for the law of God. They gave alms. They did many wonderful works.
They were waiting on the Messiah to come. What if somebody today
said, my heart's desire and prayer for the visible church of God
is that they might be saved? Folks would say, you can't say
that about us. We believe Christ. Don't you
know the problem with the Jews was they denied Christ? They
stumbled at that stumbling block? I'm telling you what I hear most
people preaching, what I hear most people saying when they
When they go from Mount Calvary back to Mount Sinai, when they
go from Christ back to Moses, when they go from grace back
to the law and start teaching sinners the law and making sinners
think they can actually keep the law. There is no difference between
the Jew and those self-righteous Jews today who call themselves
Christians. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness." You know what God requires? You
know what God requires? God requires perfection. Absolute perfection. Perfection
of heart, holiness of heart, he requires perfection of all
obedience to his law in every little, little regard, every
little thing that you might deem insignificant, he deems significant. How many times a day do you think
that you pass by somebody in your day-to-day dealings with
a fellow human being? and do something that you just
pass off as being not that important. Well, that's not that big a deal.
God holds everything, everything must be completely thoroughly
done in perfect righteousness with no sin whatsoever. And then
everything must be justified. It must be justified from the
sin. Have all the sins put away by death. The wages of sin is
death. We're ignorant of God's righteousness
and ignorant of the fact Christ is that righteousness. That's
why He sent Him forth. If we could keep the law, He
wouldn't have sent His Son forth. That's so. If we could do what's
necessary to be done to bring us to God, God wouldn't have
sent His Son. He wouldn't. But he sent his son because the
law's got to be fulfilled, the law's got to be upheld, the law's
got to be magnified. The law, God's not going to save
a sinner and lessen the law in any degree whatsoever. None. None. Being ignorant of
God's righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Here's who the righteousness of God is. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. They
have a zeal, no doubt about that. But we sing the song, could my
zeal no longer? No. Could it just be always zealous,
always full of zeal? Could my zeal no longer? No.
Could my tears forever flow? These for sin could not atone. Christ must save and Christ alone. He's the only way we can come
to God. So they have a zeal. Look back now at our text again
in Matthew 25. And look at this other thing
they have in common. Look at verse 5. While the bridegroom
tarried, they all slumbered and slept. The wise and the unwise,
they all slumbered and slept. Those with the mere form of profession,
lest they've been born of the Spirit of God. Lest God comes
as He purposed from everlasting and comes and enters into their
heart and creates life there and gives them a true understanding
and gives them the gift of faith and repentance to turn from themselves
and their vain works to believe on Christ. They're dead in sin. They sleep the sleep of death.
Dead in trespasses and sins. But now look at this too. But
the wise virgins slept too. They slept too. Look over at
1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I'm going to spend a little bit
of time right here. Now this is not teaching us.
as some vainly wrestle with Paul's Scriptures and tell us that if
you're an elect child of God, this is what some folks believe,
if you're an elect child of God, it does not matter whether you
ever hear the Gospel or whether you're born again, whether you're
ever given faith to believe on the Lord, you'll still be saved.
That's what some teach. That's not true. That's not true. Now, we do recognize the exception.
of the unborn, or of infants who die, and of folks who are
mentally disabled, such as that nature. But that's a mystery,
and that's very seldom spoken of in the scriptures. That's
not the norm. That's not what's normal. That's not what's normal.
But he does, they are the elect of God. Now, it's good to reject
associations and to reject committees choosing missionaries and saying,
you've got to support these missionaries and all that. God alone sends
His preachers. God alone raises up His preachers.
God alone sends them. And those are the only true God-sent
messengers who are preaching the gospel. They're the only
ones we're going to support. And we're going to do it willingly,
not by constraint. But don't let a good motive turn
into turn into a bad one by denying the truth that it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It's
good to stand for the truth that only those regenerated by the
Spirit of God can hear the truth, but it's not good to deny the
truth that of His own will begat He us with the word of truth.
That He uses the word of truth to give that regeneration and
to make us to hear the truth. We must not corrupt the doctrine
of divine election just because we want to say that grandmother,
who never did believe a word of the gospel, is in heaven if
she was one of the elect. We can't corrupt divine election.
And say, well, I know she didn't believe on God. I know she never
came into the church house and heard the gospel preached. I
know she turned red and spit nails and went into the other
room every time she heard us talk about the gospel. But if
she's one of the elect, she'll be saved. That's a corruption
of the scripture. Or we don't bend the doctrine
for Mr. Hypothetical. You know who Mr.
Hypothetical is, don't you? I've heard about Mr. Hypothetical
all my life. That poor man on a deserted island.
Oh, if there's a man on a deserted island somewhere, whoever he
is, they tell me if he never heard the gospel, never at all,
yet he's in heaven if he's one of God's elect, you won't find
that man in Scripture. You won't find him in the Scripture.
If God has one elect in this earth, One elect left in this
earth. He's absolutely sovereign in
power to preserve him and send the gospel to him and he shall
do it for this reason. We saw it Sunday. Because he's
given Christ a covenant of the people. And He's given him the
privilege to say to the prisoners, go forth. And to them that sit
in darkness, show yourselves. And He's not going to deny His
Son that privilege. And His Son has all power in
heaven and earth to bring that message to His people. And He's
not going to deny His Son. Are we going to deny His Son?
Are we going to deny Him that privilege? Corrupting the scripture
if truth is if he's got an elect child on a deserted island somewhere
He will shipwreck the Apostle Paul on an island to save them
just like he did that barbarous barbarous people on the island
of Melita in Acts if his elects on the backside of the desert
he'll send he'll send Philip to him just like he did the Ethiopian
unit and If he's got a Lydia somewhere, he'll forbid Paul
from going to one place and send his messenger to another place,
to her, just like he did Paul. He'll even go to this length.
If he's got one of his own in prison, if he has to have his
ambassador arrested and thrown in prison to preach the gospel
to him, he'll do that. Christ did that. Christ did that. He spoke to Paul about that island
of Melita. Christ did that. He put Paul
in prison so Paul could preach to the Philippian jailer. Christ
did that. He has the privilege to say of
them in prison, show yourself. That's right. But we won't find
one person in the Scriptures whom God elected unto salvation,
who God did not call to life by the gospel, by grace. Not
even Enoch. Enoch prophesied and is held
up for us in Hebrews 11 as somebody who believed God. Had faith. This is the truth. God is in
the heavens. He hath done whatsoever pleased Him. And it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
without faith, it's impossible to please Him. Now all that goes
together. Every bit of that. But here's
what I want you to see about this thing of sleeping. Look
at 1 Thessalonians 4.13. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep. He's talking about
physically dead. That's what he's talking about.
Them that had already died. Believers. He said that you sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive, see that? We which
are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not
prevent them which are asleep." You see, he's showing the opposite
of being alive and being asleep. He's calling death sleep because
our spirits go to be with the Lord immediately and the body
is just sleeping. It's going to be raised again. He says,
for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Now he just told us what he's
talking about by sleep. The dead in Christ. Then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words. Now look at chapter 5 and look
at verse 1. Now he's talking about things
like what the Lord's teaching us here in his sermon. He says,
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that
I write unto you. For you yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night. For
when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they
shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in
darkness. that the day should overtake
you as a thief? You, brethren, you, brethren,
are not in darkness. You are children of the light,
children of the day. We're not of the night nor of
darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as
do others." He's talking about the others. He's talking about
spiritually dead in sins. Let's not sleep like they sleep.
You see that? But let us watch and be sober. That's what Christ is teaching
us. For they that sleep, sleep in the night. We're not in the
night. We've been born of God, He said.
And they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let
us who are of the day, regenerated, born of the Spirit of God, be
sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love. This is what
we're seeing Christ talking about. This heart, this oil in the lamp. The breastplate of faith and
love. And for our helmet, the hope of salvation, faith, hope,
and love. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
that's all the assurance we need. He's appointed us to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. That whether we
wake, whether we be alive when Christ returns physically, or
whether we sleep, whether we be physically dead as he said
in chapter 4, we'll live together with him. Do you see that? So
the good news is nothing's gonna stop those who He chose and for
whom Christ died, who've been born of the Spirit, whether we're
dead when He comes back or whether we're alive when He comes back.
Nothing's gonna be able to separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus. That's the good news. So now
what is it that our text is talking about in Matthew 25, 9? Well,
He says, while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and
slept. Lord's teaching us what Paul was teaching them there,
brother. Let's not be of the night. And this is what we all,
we all put far too much trust and far too much attention on
our flesh and on this world so that we slumber and we sleep
in comparison to how watchful and awake we ought to be. That's
what he's teaching us here You remember when he came back from
praying in the garden of Gethsemane and he come back three times
and his disciples was asleep And he said watch and pray That
you enter not into temptation That's what Christ is telling
us right here in this sermon on the Mount of Olives watch
and pray be ever Diligent to guard that inner man to set your
affection on Christ that you enter not into temptation the
Spirit indeed is willing But the flesh is weak. There's a
warfare. There's a warfare between the
old man and the new man. That old man wants everything
diametrically opposed to what the new man wants. And the new
man wants everything diametrically opposed to what the old man wants.
So that you can't do the things that you would. The things that
you would, you don't do. And the things that you would
not do, those are the things that you do. So our dependence
is entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ who delivered us in the
beginning and delivers us through every trial and continues to
deliver us and shall yet deliver us. So then we're debtors not
to the flesh to live after the flesh because if we live after
the flesh we're going to die. We're going to be found castaways.
We're going to be found loving this present world more than
the God of glory in Christ Jesus. We must, through the Spirit,
mortify the deeds of the flesh. We must be ever dependent on
the Spirit. We must be looking solely to the Spirit. You remember
when the Lord, He said, You've heard it said, whoever commits
adultery is in the act. And He said, but I say to you,
if you look on a woman committing adultery, you've committed adultery.
So He said, pluck out the eye. If your eye offends you, pluck
it out. And what he's teaching us, brethren, is the flesh profits
us nothing. The flesh will hinder us. That's
all the flesh will do. It will hinder us, but it will
not profit us. And then you hear some preacher
now, he says, so now don't you dare look. And he starts constraining
you not to look. And he made his own looking and
not looking and keeps on and on that. So when he gets all
his people settled that they're not looking anymore, now they're
all puffed up and proud because they don't look. But what you
think about it, if you don't have an eye, not only can you
not look, you can't not look. If you don't have an eye, your
eye has nothing to do with it, positively or negatively. Nothing. That's what Christ is telling
us. In every regard as we walk through this life, our flesh
profits us nothing. We're debtors, not to live after
the flesh. but to live after the Spirit,
to walk after the Spirit. And we need the Spirit of God
to continually keep us and revive us and keep us looking to Christ
and stayed on Christ so that we can't even keep ourselves
looking to Him unless He keeps us looking to Him. I'm telling
this because this diligently, diligently give ourselves to
feed that inner man and to be continually setting our affections
on things above. That's what the Lord is teaching
us here. There's one thing needful. That's Christ. One thing needful
is Christ. Christ is our righteousness. He is our completion with God.
He's our acceptance with God. He's everything we need to come
into God's presence. Nothing else in this life will
benefit us whatsoever. We need Christ. And everything
and everybody in this world under the direct power of the Spirit
of the Prince of the Power of the Air, the God of this world,
who's blinded their minds, everyone and everything is trying to turn
us from that one thing. This is a spiritual warfare.
I'm talking about a warfare that, like you and I just don't, a
civil war is nothing. The World War I, World War II,
nothing compared to this war. We're talking about a warfare,
brethren. And we just get so sleepy and
so lackadaisical and just going through this life with our blinders
on and spending all this time in so many idle things. So many
things that are just idle chit chat. It has no bearing on anything. It won't help us with anything.
You know, we gotta get up, we gotta go do the things we have
to do. We have to support our family. There's things that is honorable
that we do in this life. We can see Christ in doing those
things. We can set our affections on
Christ in doing those necessary, everyday, mundane things we have
to do. But we get on autopilot, don't
we? We put it on cruise control and we just forget. We just forget. And the difference he's telling
us here is not in the outward form, it's not in the zeal, it's
not in the flesh. Here's the difference. The difference
is the Holy Spirit giving us that oil of grace in the inner
man, making our hearts single for Christ, our righteousness
alone. That's who makes the difference,
it's grace. So let's look at verse 3 here. They that were
foolish took their lamps, but they took no oil with them. But
the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. You see, the
oil goes inside the lamp. You can have the prettiest lamp
you want to have, but you got no oil in it. What use is it? It's good for nothing. The oil's
what makes the lamp burn. Well, you can have the prettiest
exterior of religion that you want to have, but you don't have
the oil of the Spirit, the oil of His grace, the anointing of
the Spirit of God within us so that we're resting in Christ
only, then everything we're doing is trying to come to God another
way. And it won't benefit us. The Lord told the Pharisees,
you clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within,
they're full of extortion and excess. And he says, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also. It's not difficult to get
somebody, to constrain somebody to do something. It's not difficult
to, if I started begging y'all and Sarah learned how to play
some real good sad music and started trying to play on y'all's
heartstrings, we could have every young person in here and said,
now just all you gotta do is come up here. bow down to this
bench right here and give your heart to Jesus, that wouldn't
be hard to do. I could talk to Art back there
and say, Art, now when we start doing all this, you get up, you
come first. Even though you already believe, Lord, you come on first
anyway, just so you, nobody wants to be the first one to jump.
That way everybody else will come with you. And it wouldn't
be hard, you could get people to do that. Start constraining
them to say certain things or to do certain things and then
say, now you're saved. That wouldn't be that hard to
do. But to get them to do nothing? It's not even hard to teach somebody
the doctrine of grace. Men can learn the five points
of Calvinism in the letter as easily as they can learn the
Ten Commandments in the letter. But to get a man to be the depraved
one. That's altogether something different.
To get a man to acknowledge he's the depraved one. It's not a
doctrine on a piece of paper. It's what's in the heart. To
get a man there. That's something entirely different. To get a man to know he's so
entirely depraved that he can't do anything to pull himself up
by his bootstraps. That it's God who has to choose
whom he will. That it's God who has to send
His Spirit to give him life. That it's Christ His own Son
that had to come into the earth to fulfill the law of God for
him because he couldn't be trusted to do one thing because he's
a liar and a cheat and a dirty rotten scoundrel. To get a man
to acknowledge that about himself and to let go of everything else
that he's been putting his confidence in. I so much would rather come
in contact with somebody that who never been around religion,
never had a thing in the world to do with religion than somebody
that was raised in false religion. It's much easier to teach somebody
the truth who knows nothing than it is to have somebody who thinks
they know everything and will not shut their mouth. I mean,
just won't shut up long enough to listen. The problem's the heart. It's
the heart. The outside of the cup might
be spotless, but within it's full of extortion, murder, adultery,
robbery. These are things that come from
the heart. We have to be given a new heart. But look at these
wise. These wise, look at Philippians
3. They took oil in their vessels. They took oil in their vessels.
Get this now, would you listen to this? Philippians 3, 3. Well, let's look at Philippians
3.2. Look at this now. Philippians 3.2. He says, uh,
beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. I'll tell you what got me thinking
about this message. I turned the TV on the other
day, and the first channel I turned on to was a, it was a, it was
a, a girl sitting there, about 16, who looked like a boy. And
she got to looking in the mirror and decided she didn't like what
she saw. And she wanted to be a boy. So she went and told her
mom and dad. And her mom and dad, being the
open-minded, good, generous mom and daddy they are, they bowed
down to her. And they went and got her some
male hormones. And they had her scheduled to
have a sex change operation. You know how many times I changed
what I wanted to be when I grew up, when I was 16 years old?
This is gonna be irreversible, what they fixing to do to this
girl. But anyway, they had to sex change a surgeon there, tell
them how they do it. And I flipped the channel from
that, and I flipped the channel from that, and there's, it landed
on a soap opera, and there's two grown men, wrapped up, arm
in arm, kissing one another, right in the mouth. I don't have
cable, I just got regular old TV. And I flipped that channel, And
then ended up, before the day was over, listening to a message,
a sermon, and I heard a preacher saying, how, we're all basically
good. Now that, what happens with these
men who are trying to get you to make a spiritual sex change
operation? is when that girl goes through
everything she goes through, she can dress like a boy, she
can grow a beard, she can go through the external, having
everything cut off and try to make her or add it or whatever
to make her look like the opposite sex. When she gets finished,
she's still a girl. She's still what she is underneath.
Well, these fellas who trying to get you to cut your flesh,
That's what the concision is. That's what the circumcision
is talking about. They try to get you to cut something out.
To cut this or cut that. To abstain from this and abstain
from that. So that now you'll be different.
And you will be externally. You'll be different. It's like
she gonna look different. But underneath, you still gonna
be the same vile, God-hating rebel. Only difference is now
you got a false refuge. You understand? So Paul says
here, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the
concision. For we are the circumcision. The circumcision is a word for
a true Jew, a true Israelite, a true Hebrew. We are the true
Jews. Here's the description. We worship
God in the Spirit. Been born of the Holy Spirit,
given a new heart by Him. We worship God in the Spirit.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. And we have no confidence in
our flesh. That's it. That's my creed right
there. That's it. He's not a Jew which
is one outwardly. Circumcision's not outward in
the flesh. He's a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision's
of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter. You can't
look at the letter, the Ten Commandments, even to know what the Ten Commandments
is teaching. You can't. The Spirit, you got to have the
Spirit. You got to be taught that the
law is love. That's what it is. You got to
be taught faith, which works by love. And the praise is not
a menace of God. So what the Lord is telling us
here is keep your heart, keep it with all diligence, for out
of it are the issues of life. Out of it. If the heart's filled
with this oil of gladness, the Spirit of God, and so that we're
set on Christ, the outside will follow. It will. Listen to the
Scripture. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience, that's on the inside, from dead
works outside to serve the living God? You see that? He works from
the inside out. Alright, a good man out of the
good treasure of the heart brings forth good things. Now let's
go back and finish up our text here. Matthew 25, 6. So what
happened to these unwise? Matthew 25, 6. At midnight there
was a cry made. Behold the bridegroom they said
behold the bridegroom cometh go ye out 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 gone out.
They're going out That's what they're saying Because we don't
have enough oil now But the wise answered saying not so lest there
be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that
sell and buy for yourselves and You see, you can't get grace
from me. I can't get grace from you. There's only one priest. That's the high priest. Christ
Jesus, our high priest, who's entered into heaven's glory.
He's the only one that can give this oil. He's the only one. I can't give it to you. The church
can't give it to you. Only the head of the church can
give it to you. And here's the price when you come to get this
oil. Here's what you got to understand
about buying this oil. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye
and buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without
money, without price. So when you come, you gotta come
without money, without price, without anything in your hand.
Nothing you've done. And he won't receive any payment
for grace is free. It can't be earned, it can't
be merited, it can't be deserved. Grace is free. If it's of grace,
it's not of works. Grace is free. Come to Christ
empty. Come to Christ now empty. That's
what he's saying. Prepare now. This is the day
of salvation. Prepare now. The day is coming
when it won't do you any good. These waited until it was too
late, and then they didn't have any oil, and they're saying,
give us some oil, give us something. We've got to have some grace
to meet the bridegroom. And they said, we can't give
you anything. We don't have anything to give
you. Go buy from them that sell. So they went. What happened?
Verse 10. And while they went to buy, the
bridegroom came. And they that were ready, those
that were ready, Those that listened to the preacher when he was preaching.
Those that looked up the Word and applied their heart diligently
to what they heard and truly walked in the light God had given
them. God gave them more light. He filled them with the Spirit
of grace. He gave them the heart. And they were ready when Christ
came. They were ready to go in with
Him to the marriage. And the door was shut. so that
no evil can enter in. No more disruption, nothing else
that will enter in that will disrupt our unity with Him anymore.
That door is shut. It's a blessing to those that
are ready. But 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're not. I know you're not. Only those that have been made
ready in a new heart by the Holy Spirit are ready. They're ready. Paul said, I want to be found
in Christ. I have in mine own righteousness
which is of the law. I don't want to have anything
in the form. I don't want to have anything, any zeal that's
of me. I don't want to have any fleshly
thing that I'm trusting in. I want to be found in Christ
only. That's where I want to be found.
So here's the lesson, verse 13. Watch therefore. This is to you,
brethren, who believe. Watch therefore. For you know
not neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.
Watch therefore. Look over Colossians 3. We'll
end with this. Colossians 3. So the question
now is this. Everybody sitting here, the question
is this. Are you a wise virgin or a foolish virgin? That's the
question. Everybody's got some kind of
profession, some kind of hope, some kind of confidence, some
kind of refuge. Everybody does. So, are we a
wise virgin or are we a foolish virgin? Here's what the wise
virgin is doing. Colossians 3, verse 1. If ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection,
your affection, your affection, wherever our affection is, wherever
our heart is, wherever it's set on. That's what we're going to
mind. That's what we're going to have our minds on. Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead. You're dead. Paul said, the world's
dead to me and I'm dead to the world. Dead to the law. Dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. I'm alive under Him. And my life
is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is our life
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Oh, if we could just... The wise
will do this. The wise will do this. They're
going to be found in Him with their affections set on Him,
all in their lamps, ready to go into the marriage. I hope
that's where we'll all be found. Don't you? Don't you? Be wise now, therefore. Kiss
the Son. Come to Him and ask mercy. He
said, out of your belly will flow rivers of living waters.
Talk about giving you the Spirit of God to rejoice. This oil that
your light will be burning, that you'll be able to see and walk
and hear. That's what he promises. All right. Amen.