Matthew chapter 25. I titled the message, Watch and
Be Ready. Really, it's Watch and Be Ready
part two, because it's a continuation of last week's message. Our Lord
is still on the same subject. of His return and that we are
to watch and be ready. The Bible's written, the Bible
we have right now is written in chapter and verses, but originally
it was not that way. It was just written as a letter
or as a book. I'm glad we have chapter and
verses so I can say turn to chapter 25 and we can follow along much
more easily. But this chapter 25 is just a
continuation of the subject that our Lord had been dealing with
in chapter 24. And if you look back, and something
just dawned on me this morning when I was in my study here,
and we looked at this last week, but it didn't dawn on me until
this morning when I was looking at this again, And back in 48,
he speaks of that evil servant. We know that he had been speaking
of being ready. You see back in 44, it says, Therefore be
you ready. And there in 48, But if that
evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming. I never realized it until this
morning that this is also a very good picture of Israel, that
evil servant. and he shall begin to smite his
fellow servants." He says the Lord's delay is coming. And I
do believe at that time that they basically were not looking
for the Messiah to come. They were just going through
the ceremonies. They were having their ceremonies,
and they quit looking for Him. They really wasn't looking for
Him to come. Because when He came to His own, His ownership
received Him not. They missed Him. If you're looking
for somebody, if you're really looking for them when they show
up, You're going to know it, aren't you? You're going to know
it if you're looking for it. They weren't looking for it no
more. They had just got so caught up in their ceremony, the religion
of it, they wasn't looking for that seed, that promised seed
that was to come. Now there were a handful, just
a handful whom the Lord had saved that were looking for Him. But
for the most part, Israel was not looking for Him. And it says
here, "...and they shall begin to smite his fellow servants,
Our Lord said, I sent you the prophets and some you stoned, some you
beat and some you killed. And you're going to begin to
smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken. Now you can be drunken with a
lot of things besides liquor. You can be drunken with power.
They were drunken with power and self-righteousness, their
own righteousness. And you begin to drink with them.
And the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks
not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of. And He'll
cut him asunder and appoint his portion with the hypocrites."
Look back over in chapter 23. Remember all these woes? Thy Lord gave." I'll just give
you one of them here in verse 27. Verse 26, "...Thou blind
Pharisees, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter,
that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes,
Pharisees, and hypocrites!" He said, I'm going to assign you
a portion with the rest of those hypocrites. And I never realized
until this morning I was looking at this, what a real picture
of Israel. especially in that day. And listen,
until this day, they're still in that kind of blindness. They
still will not have anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.
But then he goes on to say here now, and now we're going to pick
up in chapter 25, and he's still on the same subject. It's a continuation
of be ready. Now, the fact that the Lord has
dealt with this at length, tells me, tells us how important this
matter is. That we grow not lukewarm. Remember
the church of Laodicea? It had grown lukewarm. And the
Lord said, because of that I'll spew you out of my mouth. You
know, when someone's sick, they have a fever. Usually they'll
run a fever. You can feel their head, it's
hot. And you can tell they have a fever, take their temperature
and they're hot. But you know what it is to be spiritually
sick? It's to be lukewarm. You don't have a fever. You're
not cold or hot. You're just lukewarm. You're
just so-so. That's spiritually sick. So he says here, and this is
what we're going to learn throughout this chapter here, be ready,
be watchful, be on your guard, because the Lord is coming. The
Lord is coming. Don't grow weary and say, He
tarried, the Lord tarries, He's coming. He probably won't come
in our day. He may. He's gonna come for me, whether
in the world or not. He's come for me and you individually.
So hear what he does in chapter 25. He gives a parable. A parable is a story using earthly
things to convey spiritual truth. And here in this chapter, He
gives us this parable of ten virgins. And it's interesting
that He takes this ten virgins. And by these ten virgins, we
are going to be taught that we are to be ready for the Lord's
return because we don't know when He's coming. We just know
He's coming. That's what we know. But here's
also something that's very important here taught. And this is very
sobering. Very sobering. Not all that's
in the visible church are saved. That jumped out at me when I
was reading this and I thought, wow, you know, this is a very
sobering lesson, message here that our Lord's giving. Not all
that are in the visible church are saved. The kingdom of heaven
He's speaking of here in this chapter has to do with a visible
church on earth. We know this. The church that
is in heaven right now, those who have gone on to be with the
Lord, they're saved. There are not any unwise there. But in every congregation, that's
what he's saying here, in every congregation in the visible church,
there are the lost and the saved. Together. Remember when we looked
at it last week, he said when he comes back that one will be
taken and another left. They're both in the field, they're
both working together, both side by side. It's a very sobering message. Now to illustrate this, our Lord
is going to use a wedding. In that day, weddings were at
night. The bridegroom would go to a
lodging, and then the bride would meet him there. I've read different
ones on this, different things about this, but the one that I believe is closest
to it is that the bridegroom would go to a lodging, and the
bride would be brought to him because it says, go out, the
bridegroom cometh. And they would have this wedding
procession. And then there would be these virgins, these unmarried
young ladies, they would have these lamps and they would get
into this wedding procession at night time and they would
follow Him. And this is the setting that
our Lord is giving us. Then He says in verse 1, Then
shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which
took their lamps, And as I was going over this this morning,
some things jumped out at me I hadn't seen before. They all
took their lamps. Look over in Psalm 119. I'll show you what, some things that
just stood out this morning I hadn't seen or hadn't thought of. In Psalm 119 it says this, in
verse 105, go to verse 105. What's it say? Thy Word is a lamp unto
my feet and a light unto my path. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Everyone, pretty much everyone
comes in here, and I'm speaking to you this morning. I'm not
speaking to anybody out there. We all brought the word of God
in with us, didn't we? We brought a Bible in with us. We brought
the lamp in with us. And all these 10 virgins are
carrying this lamp. It's important to remember this.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins which
took their lambs and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Now there
were five foolish and there were five wise. And you couldn't tell
them apart by looking at them." This was interesting. These are
some things that stood out to me. They're all called virgins,
young unmarried ladies. By looking at them, you couldn't
tell the difference, could you? Couldn't tell the difference.
You couldn't tell which one's foolish? And you couldn't tell
at that time which one's wise. All were virgins, they were all
unmarried. They all had an interest in the wedding, they were there,
they were going to the wedding. They wanted to be in the wedding.
They were all dressed alike. If you looked at all 10 of them,
they're all dressed alike. They're wearing the garments that they
wore that you would wear to the wedding at that time. They all
had lamps. We all have the Word of God here
this morning. And it's interesting, they all burned for a while.
Look over in verse 8. And the foolish said unto the
wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are what? Gone out. Which means they were burning
for a while. But the bridegroom, Terry, and
all they had was just enough to get to where they were going.
to the holding place, so to speak, which to me, I see that as a
church. They're waiting right here in
the church. But they just had enough, just
enough to get to that place. But their lamps were all burning
at one time. At one time, they all had light.
Their lamps were lit for a while. They all had knowledge of his
coming. They were looking for him to come. All of them were
there waiting for him to come. Then they all slept at the same
house, same place. They all had the same common
needs. They all had to sleep. They're all weary. We all have
the same. You know, when the Lord saves us, it doesn't change
our physical needs, does it? I still need to eat. I still
need water. I still need to sleep. I still
need rest. They all talked about the wedding,
and no doubt in my mind when they got there, they were still
talking about the wedding. Externally, they appeared the
same. You couldn't tell them apart externally. You'd have
a hard time telling them apart if you were standing there looking
at them. Only the Lord knoweth them that are His. And He does know them that are
His. That's what He said. He said
He did. Now, here's the difference. Let me give you the difference
between the wise and the foolish. The foolish took their lamps.
We all have the Word of God with us this morning. But they had
no oil, no extra oil. They had no oil in their lamps,
no extra oil, in their vessel. They had no extra oil in their
vessel. You see here it says, they that were foolish took their
lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their
what? Vessels. You know what that is? Their
heart. What they had was in their heart. See, the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps. You not only have the Word of
God with you this morning, there are those of you who have the
Word of God with you this morning, but you also have the Holy Spirit
in you. The oil in the Scriptures has
always represented the Holy Spirit. It represents the work of grace
in your heart. So you not only have the lamp,
you have the oil in your vessel. in your heart. You have the grace
of God in your heart. You have Christ in you. You have
the Lord Jesus Christ in you. But the foolish didn't have that. All they had is the lamp. This
Word, if all you have is the Word, and not the work of the
Spirit of God, you're as lost as the day you're born. Because
it takes the work of God's Spirit to save a sinner. It was a man told me one time
years ago. Everything with me now is years
ago. But years ago, I was working with him, and he told me, he
said, and this man never made a profession. He never professed
to be saved. He didn't go to church. But he
told me one time, he said, he said, John, I believe every word
in that book. He said, I believe it. I believe
every word in that book. If you did, you'd be saved. If
you did, if you really believed it, There's a difference in believing
some facts and believing God. Abraham, it says, believed God. Abraham didn't just believe some
facts about God. Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. So the foolish here took their
lamps, but no oil in their vessels. They didn't take any extra oil.
They were unprepared for the journey. They were unprepared. The wise took their lamps, but
they also took oil in their vessels. It was in their heart. Salvation
was in their heart. The Spirit of God was in their
heart. The work of grace was in their heart. The foolish here represents one
who has an empty religious profession. That's what our Lord is saying.
That's what He's saying to those Pharisees. We look back in chapter
23. I don't want that. I don't want
you to have that. I don't want this. I don't want
us to come here to what I'm gonna call the holding place. I don't
want us to come here only to find out that I'm empty. That I'm empty. You know, I think it was Peter
said, make your calling election sure. Make your calling sure. That's exactly what our Lord's
saying. He said, don't take this for granted. Don't be like that
evil servant and say the Lord delays His coming. In other words,
you quit looking for Him. You're not looking for Him. I
think it's important, and more so now since I've been looking
at this, it's important that in the preaching of the gospel
that we continually hold forth the Lord's second coming. Paul
told the Colossians, set your affection on things above. Well,
our Lord sits at God's right hand. Set your heart on things
above, on the One who's coming again. You know, if you and I
are constantly looking for Him to come, we won't be surprised
when He comes. And it'll help us to keep our
hearts on things above and not on things of this earth. As I said here, the foolish,
they represent those who have an empty profession, who've never
had the work of the spirit. Their religion is all outward
show, just like the Pharisees. They're along for the festivities. Most, and I know what I'm talking
about, because I've been there. Most want to go to heaven for
the benefits. It's almost like buying a timeshare.
They want to go to heaven for the benefits, not for the fellowship. There's a difference in being
made one with God, and wanting to have fellowship with God,
and just wanting the benefits, and not the benefactor, the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm not selling to anyone on
the benefits of heaven. I'm declaring who God is and
how sinners like you and I can be made one with God Almighty,
how we can have fellowship with God Almighty forever and ever
and ever. And that's through His Son, Jesus
Christ. These foolish virgins have not
the life of God in their soul, They are empty, they are graceless,
they've got some knowledge, they have some knowledge, but they
have not the love of God she had brought in the heart. It's
not there. It's not there. The wise, they
are the ones who have been born of God, they are the ones who
have the oil in the vessel, Christ in you, the hope of glory. They
are the ones sealed with the Holy Spirit, They have fellowship
with God. You ever stop and think about
that? I mean, if you really ever stop and think, have I really,
really had fellowship with God Almighty, creator of heaven and
earth? Do I really want fellowship with
God above all else? I love what Mephibosheth said
when King David came back. Who was his servant? Ziba? I
think it was Ziba. Yeah, Ziba. Remember, Ziba tried
to get all of Mephibosheth's inheritance, and he lied to the
king about Mephibosheth not coming and all that. And then when the
king came back, And he said, you and Ziba, he
said to Mephibosheth, you and Ziba divide everything. He said,
give it all to Ziba. I've got the king. I have the
king. Abraham, when him and Lot, their
herdsmen were fighting together, Abraham said to Lot, Lot, you
take. You go wherever you want, you
take whatever you want, you go wherever you want, and I'll go,
I'll take what's left. And it says Lot lifted up his
eyes and he looked at the well-watered plains of Jordan. And you know
what ended up, you know how Lot ended up inside of him. But Abraham said, Lot, you take,
you just lift up, you take it and I'll take what's left. You
know why Abraham could say that? Because God said to Abraham,
I am thy exceeding great reward. If you have Christ, you have
it all. You have it all. The wise are the ones who have
the life of God in the soul. It's not a religion. Christianity
is not a religion. It's a relationship with the
living person, Jesus Christ our God. They have the work of regeneration
by the Spirit of God, and they have all that they need for the
journey. They have all they need. They didn't come up empty. When
they heard the cry came out, the bridegroom cometh, go out
to meet him. They weren't empty. They weren't looking for, what
am I going to do? They just trimmed their lamps
and headed out. They were ready. The wives were
ready. And then he listened here in
verse 5. While the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered and slept. They all slept. First of all,
the bridegroom, he says here to Terry's, our Lord will always
demonstrate His sovereignty to His people. We wait on Him. He does not wait on us. I worked
for a man one time. I ran a business for him. He's
a very wealthy man. Owned several businesses. I mean,
he owned a lot of businesses. And I ran one of his companies. And he told me one time when
there was somebody waiting out in the lobby for him to talk
to him, you know, and it was after a long time. And he made
this statement, the dime always waits on the dollar. Okay. I got it. I got it. The dime always waits
on the dollar. We always wait on Christ. He's
the sovereign. I'm the dime. I'm the dime. He's the dollar. We wait on Him. And He tarried. And our Lord,
when it seems like He tarries, He's trying the heart. He's trying
faith. He's exercising your faith. We
don't really like to exercise, especially as we get older. I
mean, it's like, I mean, Vic, we try to exercise,
we do, we try it, but it's becoming a sad attempt. But I can tell
you, it would be, we would not try, we wouldn't exercise our
faith. The Lord has to exercise it for
us. We like the sunshine. We love it when the sun's shining,
when the raining and wind is blowing, we're complaining, like,
goodnight, I can't play golf tomorrow. I mean, really, that's
a thought. We're not going to be able to
play tomorrow. But our Lord exercises faith,
and He does so when He tarry. You know, you pray about it,
you have trouble, you pray about it, you pray about it, you pray
about it, to the point you get weary praying about it. And then
He does something. He's trying faith. He's exercising
our faith. The only way faith grows is when
He exercises it. Now he tarried, and while he
tarried, they slumbered, he says here, and slept. First of all,
we all have the same needs. Those who believe and those who
believe not have the same needs physically. We all eat, sleep,
drink, you know, we have the same needs. But there could be
a little deeper meaning here spiritually. Sometimes a church
falls into a spiritual slumber like the church at Laodicea,
lukewarm. It's easy to get lukewarm. What temperature do you like
the most outside? 70? 70 is beautiful, isn't it? You don't have to take anything
off or put anything on. 70 is just right. What was that story? Was that
the three little bears? She tasted the soup and then,
well, it was too hot. Anyway, I'm getting carried away. But it was just right. Got in
that bed, it was just right. That soup was just right. I can't
remember if it was the three little bears or what it was.
But anyway, I got to get off of that. Anyway, we like it lukewarm. We like it that way. But that's
a spiritual sickness. That's a sign of spiritual sickness.
Over in Song of Solomon, remember over there in chapter 5, the Lord came and she didn't
want to open the door, and He put His hand in by the door,
I told you this last week, and dripped with love. And she said
this, I sleep, but my heart waketh. That new heart that God has given
you never sleeps. It's awake, but you still got
this flesh to contend with. You still got that old nature
to contend with. The Lord asked Peter and him when he was in
the garden of Gethsemane. He said, watch for me a while.
Stay here and watch. And when he came back, they were
asleep. He said, what, can't you not watch one hour? The spirit
is willing, he said, but the flesh is weak. And because of
this flesh and because of the sin that's still in us, we slumber
and sleep too much. We do fall into a spiritual slumber
and sleep. But here, that cry goes out now
that after they slumbered and slept, it says at midnight, there was a cry made. Behold,
the bridegroom cometh. Go out to meet him. He's here. They were looking for him. Five
of them were looking for him, for sure. Five of them, I think,
were along for the ride, the festivities. You know, people
like festivities. I was talking to a man one time
that had been to a Bible conference. The only thing he told me about
it was what great meals they had. I thought, is that the only reason
you went? He was just going on and on about
what great... And ladies, you do cook great
meals, but the meal that ought to supersede all of them is the
Gospel. That's the one we ought to be feasting on. But here He
comes late at night, and this represents Him coming in an hour
when we think not. So busy with everything else.
But it can also represent Him coming for us at death. Many have died much sooner than
they thought they would. Many have died much sooner than
expected. And many of them died only to
find out they were not ready. But Solomon said, as the tree
falls, so shall it lie. We'll see this here in a minute. Then it says, all those virgins
arose, in verse 7 and 9, and trimmed their lamps, they lit
their lamps again, got them all burning, and the fool said to
the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But
the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough
for us and you, but go rather to them that sell and buy for
yourselves. First of all, a believer cannot give you I cannot give
you what you need. I cannot give you salvation. I cannot give you the work of
the Spirit. I cannot give you that. I can tell you about it. I can't give it to you. That's
the work of God. They were asking the wrong person.
They were saying, give us of your oil. I can't give you what
I have. I can surely tell you about the
one that I have. All grace and all glory and all
the work of the Spirit is His to give. And here they are, I see this
also, I can see this as a person coming up to the end and dying. And they're saying, give us what
you have. And I had an experience of this
once, someone that we knew that was dying, And she was begging
me to pray for her, begging me to, I mean, begging me to do
something. I couldn't do anything. I can't
give you what I have. You sat under the gospel, you
heard the gospel. I knew they heard the gospel. And everything was all right
until the hour that this person was dying. And she was scared
out of her mind. and begging me to do something,
begging me to pray, begging me. I can't do anything. I can't
do anything. I cannot give you what I have.
You've got to ask Him. He's the only one. She never
once prayed and asked the Lord to forgive her or help her. She
was asking me. I can't do anything. Sin for
the preacher, so-and-so is dying, sin for the preacher. He can't
do nothing. I can't do anything. I can pray for you, yes, I can
pray for you, but I'm telling you, the only one that can do anything
is the Lord. You know, people get in trouble, they start turning to religion, and they'll turn
to the preacher, and it's like, You've heard this all your life.
Now listen, I'm not saying that there's no one that can be dying
at that last minute. The Lord can save them. He can.
He did the thief on the cross. But I sure wouldn't bank on that.
Because there's only one thief on that cross that we have a
testimony of. There's only one. The other one perished. And they
told him, they said, you go and buy to those who sell. Well,
first of all, you can't buy grace. You can't buy faith. You can't
buy salvation. These are the things you and
I cannot buy. These are purchased by Jesus Christ. Go to him for
them. 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. Afterward
came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
You know, they went out and they bought... Actually, I don't know
if they bought it or not. They just came back and said,
open to us. You know, I don't know if you can get anybody out
of bed at that hour to go to the store and open it up and
sell you some more. I don't know. I doubt it. But they just came back and he
said, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily
I say to you, truly I say to you, I don't know you. I don't
know you. The foolish went to buy. This
is work salvation. This is smells of work salvation.
And the bridegroom came and took those who were ready with him.
And when the foolish came back, it was too late. It says, the
door was shut. It was too late. Once the door is shut, it will
not be open. It will not be open. It's over. And here's the watchword in verse
13. I close. Watch therefore. Watch. That doesn't mean stand at the
window and forget about all the cares, forget about your responsibilities.
It doesn't mean stand there and just look out and wait. No, it
means be about your father's business. Watch for him from
the place you work or the place you have recreation. Watch for
him everywhere you are. Watch for him. Be ready. Be ready. Ready to leave this place at
a moment's notice. Always keep in your mind everything
here is temporal. That's good news to the believer.
That's sad news to the unbeliever because they are attached to
this world. Faith, let me tell you something, and I close. Faith
does not need a set time. What time is He coming? I don't
know. He said He's coming. You know, it'd be like a kid
in the backseat of a car. Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
I'll tell you when we get there. When we get there, you'll know
it. Faith does not need a set time, just His Word that He's
coming again. That's all we need. All right.