Keep your Bible open there in
Matthew 25. Matthew 25. This also has been
a scripture that has troubled me since I was a child. I have found that the Lord spoke
in such a way that his word does trouble us, doesn't it? It's
not by accident. It's in order for us to flee
for refuge to the Lord Jesus Christ in our trouble of soul.
That's what trouble is given for us, whether it be from God's
Word or be in the providence of our lives. God, the Lord,
our God and Savior troubles his people now so that we won't be
troubled for eternity later. So this is one of those cases. And I've entitled today's message
something that's something we all need to think about. And
this is really the subject of scripture. Am I ready to die? Am I ready to die? I don't think
we consider death as often as we should. I think that in my
life, death has been constantly in my conscience. And I think
it's true of men in general. God has put in their subconscious
the reality of facing God in judgment. And death is the end
of our life. After death, there is the judgment.
In Hebrews chapter 9, around verse 27, it says, it is appointed
unto men once to die. We live once, we die once. And
then it says, but after this, the judgment. And so that text
of scripture is actually given as an encouragement because it's
speaking of Christ's death. and the fact that his death could
only happen once. Now, all of scripture is this
way. Those things that trouble us
and terrify us, in fact, as we were singing, I love to tell
the story of Jesus and his love, are actually made for our comfort.
The things of God that once put us in terror are now our greatest
comfort. For example, In Numbers, the
book of Numbers in chapter 14, if you'll remember the account
there, the children of Israel had come to the borders of Canaan,
and they would not go in because they doubted God's word, and
the Lord told Moses, basically, in so many words, step aside.
Step aside, I'm going to kill them. And Moses interceded for
them, he said, Lord, Why does your anger, why are you so angry
with your people? If you destroy this people, then
the Egyptians and the people of this land will hear and they
will say, it was because the Lord was not able to bring them
in. That is the most powerful intercession
you can read in scripture, I think. Moses was pleading with God for
God's glory. Lord, you are able even to bring
in a sinful people to your promised inheritance, because the promise
didn't depend upon the people. It depended upon God's strength
and his faithfulness. And so the very thing that was
caused for their greatest concern, Moses, by the wisdom given to
him, looking forward to Christ, saw that even in God's almighty
power, There was hope, even though that power could be exerted against
us to destroy us, yet it was that power of God that he pleaded. Your power to hold back even
your own wrath in wisdom and to pour out your wrath, not upon
your people to destroy them, but upon the one, the one who
is your fellow, the Lord Jesus Christ, the shepherd. And he
says in Zechariah 13, seven, smite the shepherd. and he will
turn his hand upon the shepherd, and the man who is his fellow
smite the shepherd, and the sheep would be scattered." And so this
is the way that scripture is written. It's written with warnings
that trouble us greatly. But this is the wonderful thing
about scripture, is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Word
of God. And so when we talk about loving
to tell the story about Jesus, we're talking about the fact
that all that Christ is, He is all that God is, all that He
is as God, He is for us. He's the mediator. He's the one
mediator between God and men who can mediate to God to satisfy
all that God is for us. And not just, okay, I'm not going
to destroy them, but no, satisfy in such a way that he magnifies
all of God's perfections to the highest possible level because
he himself stood in the gap to suffer for his people. And so
I give you that as an introduction here to these verses in Matthew
25, where we just heard Brad read the first 13 verses there
in Matthew 25. And if we want to ask the question,
when we look at verse one, it says, then shall the kingdom
of heaven be likened unto ten virgins. Then, when is then? When is this then time? Well,
if you back up into chapter 24, he says in verse 42 of Matthew
24, watch therefore, for you know not that our, your Lord,
doth come. But know this, that if the good
man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come,
he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to
be broken up. Therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an hour
as you think not, the Son of Man cometh." So it's clear from
the context here that he's talking about when the Son of Man comes. when the Lord returns. And so
this is the Lord's return. He says, then shall the kingdom
of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins. Now, these 10 virgins,
and the kingdom of heaven here is not talking about in heaven,
where God's kingdom obviously is. Christ is the king. Where
Christ reigns is his kingdom. And the people of the Lord are
part of his kingdom. But that kingdom is not only
in heaven, but it's in the hearts of his people. The kingdom of
God, he says, is within you, he tells them in scripture. So
he says here, then shall the kingdom of heaven, he's talking
about Christ reign amongst his people. And in that reign amongst
God's people are his gathered church. And so in the gathered
church, then, there are these two distinctions. Ten virgins,
five of which were wise and five of them foolish. He says, then
shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins. When
the Lord returns, there will be a congregation of professing
believers. That means people who claim to
be the Lord's people. They're outwardly part of what
appears to be the kingdom of heaven. They're associated with
it. And he says, it's like ten virgins,
young women who have never been married, who are looking for
the bridegroom, which took their lamps. lamps are for light, and
they went forth to meet the bridegroom." So these 10 went forth all together
to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five
of them foolish. Well, how were they wise? He
says, and foolish. Well, in verse three, they that
were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but
the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. So the difference
between these two was one had oil in their lamps, the other
one had lamps, but no oil to light their lamps. So at night,
if the night should come, and they needed light, they wouldn't
be able to produce it because there was no oil in their lamps.
And you couldn't tell which were wise and which were foolish,
except for the fact that five had oil, five didn't have oil,
and it was not known until the bridegroom came. So what made
the difference was invisible. You couldn't see it until the
knight came, until the Lord came. And so he says, In verse 5, while
the bridegroom tarried, now that's the time we're in now, the Lord
has not yet come, they all slumbered and slept. Now, in scripture,
God compares sleep, he compares death to sleep. Remember when
Lazarus was dead, the Lord told his disciples, our friend Lazarus
sleepeth. And they said, well, if he's
sleeping, he'll do better. And then he had to tell them
plainly, Lazarus is dead. Because they didn't understand
when he was talking about the death of a believer, it's like
sleep. We'll get into that more shortly. So the bridegroom hadn't come
yet, and yet all of these ten virgins who had lamps were sleeping
because they got tired. It was nighttime. So they all
slept. And this is another thing that
we should notice about this. Within the gathered church, within
the people who gather to hear God's word and profess to be
believers, there are all of those who, all of them together, whether
believing or unbelieving, you can't tell Because sometimes
even believers are in this state where it appears like they're
lifeless, like they're sleeping. When you're asleep, you don't
know what's going on. You don't care, you're asleep,
and you're happy to be asleep. And that's the same way death
is. You don't know what's going on, you have no interaction with
the world around you, no communication one way or the other, you're
sleeping. But he says, at midnight, verse 6, there was a cry made. The cry was this, Behold, the
bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. When the Lord Jesus
returns, there will be a cry, and the Lord himself will descend
from heaven with a shout. And it says, then all those virgins
arose and trimmed their lamps. They got their lamps ready to
light them, because it was nighttime, they were sleeping, they couldn't
see. And the foolish said to the wise, give us of your oil,
for our lamps are gone out. I feel sorry for these five foolish
virgins, don't you? I do, I remember, I could identify
with them. When I heard this voice, my mom
would read this to us when we were young, and it troubled me. I know I'll probably be found
without oil in my lamp. And so I felt sorry. I sympathized
with these five foolish virgins. They said to the wise, give us
of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered,
saying no. lest there be not enough for
us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for
yourselves." So the wise virgins that had the oil, they couldn't
give up their oil. For one thing, it was theirs. And for another thing, if they
didn't have it, they wouldn't be able to go to the bridegroom.
And it seems selfish, but that was the teaching of the Lord
here, is that the ten wise had oil and needed it, and they held
on to it. And while they went to buy, the
foolish went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready
went in to the marriage, and the door was shut. After that,
verse 11, came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open
to us. But he answered and said, Verily
I say to you, I know you not. Watch ye therefore, and here's
the teaching, this is Christ's lesson here, watch therefore,
for you know not, you know neither the day nor the hour wherein
the Son of Man cometh. So what the Lord is saying here,
you don't know when Christ is going to return. You have to
be ready all the time. Be ready. Watch. You're watching for the Lord.
Even though all slept, he's teaching them, these who had oil in their
lamp were those who were actually ready, even though they slept.
All right, so what does this mean here? Well, first of all,
understand that the bridegroom is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the husband, the one to be married. The virgins are those who are
professing to belong to him, but there are among them those
that do truly belong to him and those who do not. And the difference
between them, between the ten virgins are those who profess
to belong to Christ, have an interest in Him, but among those,
there are those who have no oil in their lamps. And the lamp
is a light giving, is what they're given for light. And the oil
then represents the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit in Scripture
is always compared to the oil that lights the lamp. Jesus was
anointed with the Holy Spirit without measure. He had the Spirit
without measure, which was that anointing oil that was used to
represent the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. So oil in
the lamps is the Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit of God who gives
us the grace of God in us, so that we have grace if the Holy
Spirit is given to us. If we don't have grace, then
we have no oil, we have no light. So the grace of God given to
us is signified here by that oil. that should be in these
vessels. And those who had the oil had
been given grace, the grace of the Spirit of God. And what does
grace do? Well, you're saved, it says in
Ephesians 2, 8, 9, you're saved by grace through faith and that,
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. not of works, lest
any man should boast. You are his workmanship." So
God gives us this grace that produces faith in Christ in us. So the light, then, is the light
of God's grace that enables us to see Christ. He's the light
of the world. And so Jesus says, and we know,
we're familiar with this, in John chapter 8, he said, in John
chapter 8 and verse 12, let me turn there and read that to you
to remind you what it says there. He says in John chapter 8 and
verse 12, Jesus spake again to them, saying, I am the light
of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. So a follower
of Christ, meaning a believer in Christ, as we saw last time
in John chapter 10, the sheep hear his voice. and they know
him and they follow him. And he compared that in contrast
to those who hear his voice, but don't follow him because
they don't believe him. And so faith in Christ is following
Christ. And so here he's saying that
the grace given to us by the Holy Spirit to look to Christ
and believe Christ is the oil that's given to us in our lamps.
And even though the 10 virgins all slept, it signifies the fact
that When the Lord comes, there will be a, seems like a falling
away, so that you, Jesus said at one point, he says, when the
Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? It seems
so rare. It doesn't mean there won't be
any believers on the earth. It means that it won't seem as
if there are, because faith will have been low in its exercise. And so this is the way it is,
because we're prone to wander, aren't we? We're prone to leave
the God we love. We need grace, and that's why
we sing these songs like, come thou fount of every blessing.
Tune my heart to sing thy grace. We need God to tune our heart,
our vessel, our lamp, to see Christ. We see him with eyes
of faith. And the faith comes to us by
the hearing of the gospel, doesn't it? Look at Romans chapter 10. such a pivotal verse that we
need to have the Lord's instruction to us as his children firmly
in our understanding. He says in Romans chapter 10,
he says in verse 15, how shall they preach except they be sent?
Well, let me back up. He says, verse 14, verse 13,
for whosoever shall call, call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Now, there's a promise, isn't
it? Call. My brother, my sister, if you're
a believer, call. If you are here and you don't
believe, call. If you call, the Lord will save
you. That's what he's saying here. Call on Christ. He's the
Lord. Call on him whose righteousness
alone is acceptable to God, whose blood alone washes us from our
sins. Call on him and he will save
you. That's the promise of God's word.
I didn't make this up. I am a sinner. I need this promise
in order to be comforted, in order to have any confidence
before God. The Lord Jesus Christ does the
saving, so we call on the one who saves. Verse 14, how then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? So we
see then that calling is the result of faith. How shall they
call if they don't believe? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? So we can't call unless we believe. We can't believe unless we've
heard. That's what sheep do. They hear
His voice. And how shall they hear without a preacher? We don't
hear, we don't understand of ourselves. We need someone sent
by God to explain it. God's word. I would not understand
the gospel unless I heard someone explain it to me. That's a fact
in my own experience, I can tell you. And that's what this is
saying here. God has to explain his own word. And he sends men
to preach and to teach. And that's the way we learn.
And it humbles us, doesn't it? Because all of God's Word is
meant to humble us. Why are we afraid of being humbled?
Because we're proud. We need to bow before God in
the dust and say, the Lord made me. He's my creator. He holds my life in his hand.
He knows me. He who made the eye, does he
not see? He who made the heart, does he not know my heart? He
knows me. And he knows I'm a sinful man
without strength and I cannot save myself. I've offended him.
The Lord who made me must save me. And he says this is the way
he's going to do it. Through the sanctification of
the Spirit, he's going to bring his word concerning Christ to
us through his word, the gospel, and he's going to preach it to
us. And we're going to hear and understand by the power of God,
and then we'll hear and believe, and we'll call, and he will save
us. Verse 15, how shall they preach except they be sent as
it is written? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace. Don't you know that? You've heard the gospel and you
remember the one you heard it from, don't you? I remember that
preacher. When I first heard that God saves
me, I don't save myself. that it's not what I do, it's
what Christ did. And I heard that for the first
time, and I suddenly realized that salvation was by grace alone. And I fell in love with this
good news, and the one who fulfilled it for me, the gospel, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I said, how beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. And verse 16, but they have not
all obeyed the gospel. Do you see? For Isaiah said,
Lord, who has believed our report? And if you read Isaiah 53, where
he said that, it's all about Christ's substitutionary sufferings
to bear the sins of his people and to satisfy God in their place,
to bring them to God by his own death, because he was numbered
among the transgressors. And he made intercession for
them, and he bare the sins of many. That's the gospel. And
he said, Lord who has believed our report. So then, verse 17,
faith comes, we don't have it, it comes by hearing, and hearing
comes by the word of God. I love this text of scripture
because it's so clear. So the oil in the lamps is the
light that God gives us through the spirit to believe Christ
when we hear the gospel. Do you see that? And some have
been under the preaching of the gospel, but they themselves have
never heard. They've never believed. They've
never looked to Christ and said, in the Lord Jesus Christ, all
of my salvation, all that God requires, he looks to his son
for, for me. And that's my only hope. I have
nothing else. Look at Matthew chapter 15. And verse 26, verse 21, Matthew
15, 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Now this place where Jesus went
was a place in Canaan. It wasn't a place in the land
of the Jews. It was outside of the land of
the Jews. And this is where he was, in this land which was under
a curse. Tyre and Sidon in the Old Testament
was under a curse. And behold, a woman of Canaan,
so not an Israelite, not a Jew, a woman of Canaan came out of
the same coast, and she cried to Jesus, saying, have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
or troubled with the devil. My daughter has a devil. Lord,
have mercy on me. But he answered her, not a word. Now that's a humbling thing,
isn't it? She needed help. She knew she
couldn't deliver her daughter. A devil had control of her daughter,
and she comes to Jesus, and Jesus didn't even answer when she cried
for mercy. What would that make you do?
I know what it would make me do. Well, I guess there's no
hope for me, and I'd go away. And then, to make matters apparently
worse, his disciples, in verse 23, came and besought him, begged
him, saying, send her away, for she cries after us. She's bothering
me. Get rid of her, Lord. But he
answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Now, we would understand that
to mean only the people that were lost in the nation of the
Jews. But that's not what he meant.
He meant the lost sheep of the house, the household of God's
Israel, meaning those who were the children, not of physical
birth, but of a spiritual birth, by promise, by God's eternal
election. He chose them to be his children. That's why they were called the
house of Israel. And Jesus is saying there, I am only sent
to God's elect, the ones God has chosen and given me to save,
like we read in John chapter 10. So he said, I'm not sent
but to God's elect, to the sheep. Now this woman there, when she
wasn't, when Christ didn't answer her and the disciples prayed
against her to the Lord Jesus Christ, send her away, and he
answers this way, I'm only sent to God's elect. What do you think
that did to her? Well, I know what it would do.
First of all, I would be completely discouraged. But this woman was
more greatly humbled, and she knew that Christ was sovereign
in His salvation, that God is sovereign to save whom it pleases
Him to save. And knowing that God is sovereign,
that He saves whoever He pleases to have mercy on, what did she
do? She said, she came, in verse 25, and she worshipped Him. That's
all she could do. She worshipped him. You're the
Lord. You have control over my eternal life. And so she worshipped
him and she said, Lord, help me. I don't know who the elect
of God are, but I know you're the Savior. Lord, help me. And then he answered and said,
it is not right. It's not me to take the children's
bread and give it to dogs. You're not even a sheep, you're
a dog." And she says, Lord, truth. Amen. Yet the dogs eat of the
crumbs which fall from their master's table. And so, just
give me a crumb, Lord. And Jesus answered and said to
her, Oh, woman, great is thy faith. You see what he's saying
here? He was working to humble her in the eyes of those, in
us, in our eyes and in the disciples' eyes, to show us this is the
way he saves. To bring us down in order that
she would say, Lord, You are my only hope. And she would call,
because she believed him to be her only hope. Because God had
given her the gospel to hear it and believe it. And she believed
him. And he said, Woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee
even as thou wilt. Whatever you want from me, you
have, because you have me. You see, that's what he's saying.
You have Christ, you have everything. And so back in Matthew 25. So
these five wise virgins then had oil. God had given them the
gospel. He had given them in their heart
faith in Christ by his grace, by the power of his Holy Spirit. The oil of God was in them. But
the five foolish didn't have that. They were outwardly virgins, But they weren't Christ's people.
They had not been given this oil. And so when they heard the
bridegroom come, and this is what Jesus says, it will be like
this at the end of time. And they said to the wise, give
us of your oil. Give us your grace. Can we? Can we give someone grace? We
can't, can we? And it's frustrating. You meet
someone, you know that person, they seem to have strong confidence
and assurance in Christ. Give me that. I can't. Why do
we need to know that? Because we can only be saved
calling on the Lord Himself. We don't call on a man, we call
on the Lord. Each one of us has to have that
oil in us that we have called on the Lord Jesus Christ. So
how can we be ready? Are we ready to die? Are we ready
to meet Christ? That's the question, isn't it?
Look at a few scriptures with me. I want you to see these scriptures. Look at 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. This speaks about the Lord's
coming in 1 Thessalonians, so we know it's the same context,
right? 1 Thessalonians in chapter 1
of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, sorry, chapter 5 and verse 1
of 1 Thessalonians. He says in chapter 5, verse 1
of 1 Thessalonians, he says, Notice, but of the times and
the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you
for yourselves know perfectly, know this, that the day of the
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now, you've heard
that expression, a thief in the night. Christ is coming. To the unbeliever, he's coming
as a thief in the night. You don't expect him. But it's
a bad expectation when he comes. But to God's people, he doesn't
come stealthily. And he doesn't come unexpectedly. He doesn't come as a thief, he
comes as the shepherd to gather his sheep. Remember, he's going
to come, he's going to send forth his angels to gather his sheep.
So here he says, of the times and the seasons concerning Christ's
coming, brethren, you have no need that I write to you for
yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night. In other words, you don't know
when, but it will come. For when they shall say, peace
and safety. Now this is a very terrible thing.
In our world, people want peace and safety, don't we? But here
the Lord says, when they say peace and safety, then sudden
destruction comes upon them as travail or the pains of an expectant
mother when she's ready to deliver her child, as travail upon a
woman with child, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in
darkness. See, that corresponds to the
wise virgins. You're not in darkness that that
day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light
and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor the
darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as
do others, but let us, this is what Jesus said, watch and be
sober, not drunk. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night. They that be drunken, are drunken
in the night. Notice verse 8 now. But let us, who are of the day,
be sober, putting on, what? This is what we're to do. This
is how we're to watch. This is what he's saying. Be
ready. putting on the breastplate of faith. Isn't that what we
just talked about? The faith, the light in the lamp,
and love, love for Christ, shown by love for one another, and
a helmet of the hope of salvation. My hope is that because Christ
is accepted by God from the dead, I will be accepted by God from
the dead because God will look to Him for me. That's my hope.
I expect, I'm hoping, I'm trusting my confidence and assurance before
God is what He said He did in Christ. Not what I have done,
not anything I am going to draw attention to myself. I have no
reason for any confidence in myself. I have only reason for
despair and fear. But in Christ, I have every reason
for hope. That's the hope of salvation.
That God receives Christ alone. And that's enough for me. Is
that true for you? Do you have that confidence that
Christ is enough? That all that God requires He
looks to His Son for? For what He requires for you?
Is that your hope? Is that your confidence? Is that
the assurance of your heart? Do you know by God's own word
from Hebrews 10, 19 that we have boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus alone? That's scripture. That's what
God said. And I have confidence that God
has received His Son and all of His people in Him. I may not
know if I'm one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but I
know this, God has received Christ from the dead in justifying righteousness
and sin atoning, an atonement made in His blood so that our
sins are no more. I'm trusting Christ for that. for the cleansing of my blood
and for the clothing of his righteousness." And that's what he's saying here,
put on that helmet of salvation. That helmet of salvation and
that faith, that breastplate of faith and love. He says, for
God, this is verse 9 of chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians 5.9, for God
hath not appointed us to wrath. We're not the goats, but we're
sheep to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
you love that? How do we obtain salvation? By
our Lord Jesus Christ. God appointed us to obtain salvation
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't that make you love him?
Lord, your salvation is certain, it's sure, it's full, it's free,
it's eternal. Notice verse 10, and notice this
carefully, who died for us. In order that, whether we wake,
we're alive, or sleep, we're dead in our body, we should live
together with him. Whether a believer is awake in
life now, walking around, or we have gone to sleep in death,
we're with the Lord. We're alive with Him. And how
is that? Because He died for us. Everyone Christ died for
is alive in their souls. They have the light of Christ
in them. Now look over at 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. He says in verse 11 of 1 Thessalonians
3, he says, Now God himself, and our Father, and our Lord
Jesus Christ, this is the Trinity, isn't it? God, our Father, and
our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you, and the Lord
make you to increase and abound in love one towards another and
toward all men even as you as we do toward you. In other words,
preaching the gospel in love to everyone. Verse 13, to the
end for this purpose that he may establish your hearts, notice,
unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." All the
saints, those are the five wise virgins, how are they ready? How are we ready to die? Well,
he says, he would establish your hearts unblameable in holiness
before God. Now, how can God do that in this
heart of mine? I think about sometimes the things
that I've thought, the things that I've done, the things that
I've said, and I get very, very discouraged and depressed. because
I am such a sinner." And you think, well, aren't you glad
you don't do those things anymore? You're no longer like that. No,
I know that I'm exactly the same way as I was then, in the way
I think. That's just me. That is who I
am. I have this nature that's sinful. It's full of sin. And so how
can he make me unblameable? How can he make me holy? Well,
he's only going to be able to do that if he looks to the Lord
Jesus Christ for me. Look at 1 John. 1 John, the first
epistle of John. And he says in 1 John chapter
2 and verse 24, 1 John 2 and verse 24. Notice what he says
here. He says, "...let that therefore
abide in you." What? Well, the truth of the gospel.
"...let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from
the beginning." If that which you have heard from the beginning
shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son and
in the Father." How can we be ready to die? How can we be ready
to meet the Lord when He comes? When we have the grace of God
giving us faith in Christ through the gospel that He's preached
to us, and He says, let it abide in you. You heard it from the
beginning, Let it remain in you. If it remains in you, if it continues
in you, then you continue in the Son and in the Father. If
Christ is in us, then we are in Him. If we are in Christ,
God has made Him unto us wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and
redemption. 1 Corinthians 1.30. Notice in
verse 28 of 1 John chapter 2, Verse 28, and now little children
abide in him. That means stay, you stay. You heard it, you believed him,
stay there. You heard that Christ is all,
in all of your salvation. That it's not what you do. You were a sinner, dead in sins.
But when the Lord Jesus Christ came by himself, he purged our
sins. And you heard that. And you heard
that after He purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand
of the throne of the Majesty on high. Because all of our sins
were put away. You heard that. And you realized
that outside of your own personal experience, God took care of
your sins in His Son. And you heard that. And you said,
that's mine. That's my hope. That's my confidence. That's everything. That's what
God has said. That's what God has provided.
Christ has done it all. He doesn't consider me. He considers
his son for me. And you laid hold on that by
faith. He says, now stay there. Abide in him. Abide in what you've
heard. And he says that Verse 28, when
he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed
before him at his coming. You see? The only way we can
not be ashamed or put to shame at Christ's coming is if we are
in him, and we're in him if he is in us, and we're enabled by
his grace to abide. Look at chapter 3 of the same
book, 1 John chapter 3. He says in verse six, whosoever
abideth in him, that's what faith enables us to do. God's grace
gives us faith in Christ as helpless sinners like the woman who needed
Christ to help him and had no confidence except that the Lord
himself would say, Whatever you need, that's what I'm supplying.
He says here, whoever abides in Him, sinneth not, does not
sin. Whoever sinneth, hath not seen
Him, neither known Him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. He that commits sin is of the
devil, for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Look at verse 9. Whosoever is born of God, that's
the light of the Spirit of God in us. does not commit sin, for
his seed, God's Spirit, remains in him, and he cannot sin because
he is born of God." Now, what he's saying here is that when
we, in ourselves, apart from Christ, we're just sinners, but
when the Lord saves us, By His Spirit, He births us as God's
children, and He puts His Spirit in us to remain in us. And because
it's God's Spirit, God's Spirit can't sin. Our new man is joined
to the Spirit of Christ. We cannot sin in our inner man,
our new man. And that inner man is Christ
living in us. It's his life. And by that life,
we believe Christ. We continue to believe him. And
we find ourselves in our natural selves to be wretched and loathsome
and sinful. But we say, the Lord Jesus is
all my hope. And that's the light of the gospel.
Whoever is born of God does not sin because his seed is in him. Look at Revelation 19. And see
how this is told to us at the end of time here in Revelation
chapter 19. See if you can find that. In Revelation 19, he says in
verse 6, I heard, as it were, the voice
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. That means almighty. Christ reigns. In other words, Christ is the
ruler. He's the sovereign Lord of heaven
and earth. Verse 7, let us be glad and rejoice
and give honor to him. Notice, for the marriage of the
Lamb is come. What was Matthew 25 talking about?
The marriage. And notice here, the marriage
of the Lamb has come and the wife has made herself ready. How? Verse 8, and to her was
granted, that's grace, given. that she should be arrayed in
fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is, notice,
the righteousness of the saints. And what is the righteousness
of the saints? What is it that prepares you
and me, the only thing that prepares you and me to die? What is the
answer to the question, am I ready to die? Isn't this it? It's Christ Jesus. If the Lord
Jesus Christ is, by his obedience in shedding his blood for his
people, an obedience of love, an obedience of fulfilling all
of God's law, if his obedience is the righteousness of God,
and it is from Scripture, And if that righteousness is the
righteousness of every believer in Christ, and it is from Scripture,
Romans 10, 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. If Christ is my righteousness,
And God has clothed me as He did Adam and Eve in Genesis 3,
with the skins of the animal, killing that animal, taking the
skins of that dead animal, and putting them on Adam and Eve
to cover their nakedness. If God has taken the righteousness
of His Son in laying down His life for the sheep in His death,
and made that obedience of His, my righteousness, that I'm dressed
in His fine linen and I am ready to meet God. And if not, I don't
have. I don't have anything by which
I can appear before God. But if I have His righteousness,
I lack nothing. And I know this because God has
given me this persuasion, this heart persuasion, that I'm a
sinner. And I see that Christ is all
sufficient to save sinners by his work alone, his obedience,
his blood, his righteousness given to them. And that in his
righteousness, God has clothed his people and made them accepted
as the very bride of Christ. And here they are putting it
on. It was granted to them. They've made themselves ready
because they've looked to Christ only. They didn't look to themselves,
they didn't look to their looking. They said, it's all in Him. It's
what God thinks of Christ that makes the difference between
me and anyone else. And I can't give this to anyone
else. God has to give it to you. And it comes to us by the grace
of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit. So that when
we appear before Him, we're abiding in Him. That's what we're doing
right now. We're abiding in Christ, aren't we? We're hearing His
word. We're abiding in what we've heard. We're trusting Christ. We're looking to Him only. And
we're finding it to be true that yes, what God has said is God's
own answer for His people. When we make a plea to God, what
do you plead? What do you plead? When I plead,
when we stand in judgment, what are we going to plead? We have
only one plea, if we have the light of Christ in us, only one
plea, Christ. And we even plead this, and Christ
has to plead himself for me. Isn't that what you plead? In
Isaiah 61, verse 10, he says, I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed
me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe
of righteousness as a bridegroom, decketh himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Over and over
in scripture it says, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith
in Christ is taking what God has said concerning him as being
the acceptance and the righteousness of his people and wrapping myself
in that by faith and saying, this is all my hope, Christ is
in. He's going to have to plead for
me and he's going to have to plead himself and not plead anything
about me in spite of all that I am. And so we come as these
five wise virgins with this oil in our lap looking to Christ.
Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would
clothe us with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We would be found
in him, and he would be in us, enabling us by the life of his
almighty power to look to himself, to look to him for us, and to
trust nothing of ourselves, and not to be despondent, but to
come to him at all times as this woman who needed the Lord to
do for him. No one else could help her, and
yet she stayed and pleaded, even if I'm a dog, even if I'm a dog,
Lord, you have crumbs for dogs. Give me one of those crumbs.
It would be enough. The all-sufficiency of your grace,
just let it fall from your table, Lord. And let me gobble it down
and eat it up and continue staying there, begging at your table
until I see you in glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.