You want to turn in your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 25. We're going to start that chapter
today. We've been in the book of Matthew
for a long time now. And we're coming to the end.
And now we find ourselves in Matthew 25. Matthew 25 and Matthew
24 constitute a single sermon. And Jesus gave it, a discourse
if you will, to his disciples on the Mount of Olives after
he had left Jerusalem and after he had left there in his preaching
and teaching for the last time. And so now he sits on the Mount
of Olives with his disciples and he tells them, he answers
their question, he explains to them that the temple in Jerusalem
will be destroyed And then he gives them several signs of both
that and the end of the world in Matthew 24. And so now we find ourselves
in Matthew 25. And we're going to cover, hopefully,
the first 13 verses of this chapter today. But before we do, let's
ask the Lord to be with us. Dear Father, we pray that you
would so guide us into your Word that you would show us our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. we would find ourselves trusting
Him and find our hearts loving Him and worshiping Him for this
so great salvation. Lord, we know that Your Word
is true and we know the seriousness of it. We know our own condition
before You. We're not for Your grace. Your
grace in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we would be lost
and deservedly so. And so we pray, Lord, that You
would teach us from Your Word, point us to the Lord Jesus Christ,
give us faith in Him, and cause us to walk with Him all the days
of our life. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. In Matthew 25, we'll
read the first 13 verses. I've entitled this message, Five
Wise and Five Foolish Virgins. Beginning at verse 1 it says,
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which
took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five
of them were wise and five were foolish. They that were foolish
took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took
oil in their vessels with the lamps. While the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry
made, 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. 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 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 virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and
said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. And then Jesus
sums it all up with this last verse, "'Watch therefore, for
you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man
cometh.'" So, from these two chapters, there's a single message
that keeps reverberating from them, and that message is in
this last verse, "'Watch, for you don't know when the Son of
Man comes.'" Now, the purpose of the Lord Jesus' sermon here
in Matthew 24 and Matthew 25 is to teach us that we must be
ready when the Lord Himself comes again. Remember, He came the
first time to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and
the sins of His people. He put away sin, their sins,
and He will come again the second time without sin unto salvation. And he will come not only without
sin to salvation for his people, but he'll also come to judge
the world in righteousness. If you want to look at just a
summary of this, you can see it in Hebrews chapter 10. I'll
read it to you there. At the end of Hebrews 10, he
makes a statement pretty much that I just made. I'm sorry,
Hebrews chapter 9, not 10. Hebrews chapter 9, it says, that
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which
are the figures of the true, not like the Old Testament priests
used to enter into those tabernacles on earth, but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he
should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into
the holy place every year with blood of others. For then must
he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now, once, once in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, and after that the judgment, so Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that
look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto
salvation." And then also in Acts 17 31 where Paul told those there that the Lord Jesus will
judge the world in righteousness. So that's the message. Christ
is coming again. The first time to put away sin,
the second time to judge the world and to save His people
in righteousness. And then in this text of scripture
in Matthew 25, there was a cry at midnight that was given. Behold
the bridegroom cometh, go out to meet him. The Lord Jesus comes
to us whether in our death or at the end of time. He's coming
again, and we have to be ready. And so this parable contains
both a word of comfort and a word of warning. It's a warning to
those who in the parable are the foolish, the five foolish
virgins, a great warning, but to the wise it is a great comfort. And to all it is a call to be
ready, to be ready when the Lord Jesus comes. What does it mean
to be ready for the bridegroom? Think of a bride. Think of a
bride on her wedding day as she prepares to meet her bridegroom. There's no day in the life of
a woman like that day. There's never a day more joyous,
full of more anticipation than the day of her wedding. And she
looks forward to it because of the love that her husband-to-be
has for her and her love for him. She looks forward to it
because there will be the greatest joy on that day and will carry
them forward and throughout the rest of their life. And great
intimacy so that they will be with one another in a way that
they cannot express their desire or their delight. any higher.
And that's exactly what is pictured here. It's the preparation of
these who are called the virgins in this parable. The preparation
of Christ's people for Him. That's what it means to be ready.
The bride makes herself ready. She prepares herself in thinking
about her husband. She wants to be beautiful. She
wants everything to be in order. And so she makes herself ready
for her bridegroom. And Jesus says in this parable
that we don't know when the bridegroom comes, but therefore we need
to be ready at all times. To be ready for him means to
be prepared as a bride for her husband. Remember in Matthew 24 there
was much that will try, God's people. There's all of the deception
in the world. There's the upheaval in creation. There's our own sinfulness. In
all these things we have to be ready. Like a faithful wife,
Don Fortner compared this being ready to his wife who used to
prepare the house for him when he was away. And as she anticipated
him coming home from a trip. She would clean the house. She
would get herself ready. She would make a nice meal and
wait for him to come. And when she saw him coming in
the driveway, then that was his coming. But she never knew exactly
when he would come. She just got things ready, thinking
about the time when they would be together. And so this is what
it means to be ready. It's preparing our hearts. for the Lord Jesus Christ return.
But how can we, who are sinners, prepare our hearts for one we've
never seen? Isn't that what grace is all about? The Lord Jesus
Christ himself must make us ready. That's the message of the gospel.
Now, first thing we see in this parable is that there's five
wise and five foolish virgins. The bridegroom in this parable
undoubtedly refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look in
2 Corinthians chapter 11, it says Paul uses the same language
when he speaks of the people to whom he ministered and the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I am jealous over you,
in verse 2 of 2 Corinthians 11, I am jealous over you with a
godly jealousy. For I have espoused you, to espouse
means to betroth you, to make you, commit you to a husband. I have espoused you to one husband
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Same language,
isn't it? The virgin in this case are the
people to whom Paul ministered the gospel. That's the virgin. That's the one to be married.
The husband is Christ to whom they're going to be married.
And then he says in verse 3, "...but I fear by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." Simplicity
in this verse means the singularity or the onlyness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. A espoused virgin prepares herself
in her heart for her husband. It's effortless on her part.
She just thinks of her husband, thinks of being with him. And
here the bride in 2 Corinthians 11 is to have a single eye, to
have only one thing in her heart. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
by Christ alone. to His glory alone." And that's
the message of the gospel. And so, to be ready is to have
an attitude of this woman who's to be married to her husband.
But in this parable there are five wise and five foolish virgins. And this teaches us that in the
world, while the church is in this world, before the Lord comes,
in the visible church, there will always be a mixture a mixture
both of foolish, wise and foolish. Those who are called in Scripture
the sheep, who will be gathered together with the Lord when He
comes and put on His right hand. And the goats which will be cast
away forever into everlasting perdition, which is what is said
later in this same chapter. There's the sheep and the goats,
there's the believing and the unbelieving, there's the wise
and there's the foolish. This is the contrast made throughout
time in even the church of God. In the church, in the visible
church, those people who are gathered in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, there are always tears among the weak, as Jesus
said in a parable. Or the bad fish in the same net
as the good fish. So we must never try to separate
the bad from the good. Never be surprised by it. Never
try to separate it. Because in ourselves, the Lord
told His disciples, you can't separate the tares from the wheat.
The Lord Himself alone can do that. we'll never identify the
tares correctly. If we were to try to identify
the tares, we would accept Cain and reject Abel. We would receive
Esau and reject Jacob. We would reject Paul the Apostle
and the thief on the cross, and the woman who washed Jesus' feet
with her tears, who was a well-known woman of ill repute, or the woman
in John 8 who was taken in adultery, we would reject her, or the publican
in the temple, or the leper, or the devil-possessed man, and
so on. And when we would receive with
gladness King Saul who was tall and handsome, and we would receive
the public, I mean the Pharisee who prayed such articulate prayers
in the temple so publicly, and we would receive the rich young
ruler who went away from Christ because he couldn't come to Christ
as a sinner. but always thought he had something
he could bring. The Lord is the one who separates. Only the shepherd knows his sheep.
Only the shepherd is able to separate the sheep from the goats.
So it's not our job. But we're not to be surprised.
In the church, as it is in this world, there will always be a
mixture. And so, even though we labor in this world in the
gospel, even though we pray, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns
on the last day, there will be many found within the walls of
the church who are yet dead in trespasses and sins. Again, quoting
Don Fortner, he said this, it is a horrible thing to be found
in the streets of Sodom without Christ, but it is more indescribably
horrible to be found in the church without Christ. That sounds like
a serious warning, doesn't it? From these verses. It causes us, doesn't it cause
us, when we hear these parables like this, to ask like the disciples
asked in the upper room with Jesus at the Last Supper when
He said, one of you is going to betray me. One of you is going
to betray me. And they all began with one thought
to ask Him, Lord, is it I? Is it I? That was the expression
of the honest heart. But Judas said, Lord, is it I?
He didn't really mean it when he said it. He was just going
along with the others to maintain his mask of hypocrisy. The Lord asked this question
of us. He tells us, don't be like these five foolish virgins. And so this parable is a warning.
Let us be warned by it. Look at Hebrews chapter 3. the
same warning goes out throughout scripture. The gospel is always
put side by side with the warnings, and it would be wrong for us
to skip over the warnings and simply look at the good news
of the gospel, because the good news is only good news in contrast
to the bad news. Isn't that the case? Hebrews
chapter 3. It says in Hebrews 3 that in
verse 6, Christ as a son over his own house.
Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end? Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,
as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty
years. Wherefore I was grieved with
that generation and said they do always earn their heart. They
have not known my ways So I swear in my wrath. They shall not enter
into my rest. This is the same warning here
in the midst of all the glories of the revelation of the Lord
Jesus and our salvation in him in the book of Hebrews is this
dire warning to the Hebrews those who who were the descendants
of Abraham by flesh, he reminds them of what happened in the
wilderness. He says, remember, remember, remember those who
fell in unbelief in the wilderness. So he says in verse 12, take
heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief and departing from the living God. So what should they
do? Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For
we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast to the end." What is that confidence that
we hold steadfast to the end? The Lord Jesus Christ is all
my salvation. He's paid all my sins according
to the Word of God. He receives sinners. He's all
my hope. And all my trust is in Him. God
must receive Him in order to receive me. And if He's received
Him, then He receives sinners in Him. That's my hope. I'm a
sinner. I have no hope apart from what
God has said in His Word, that Christ came into this world to
save sinners. And so in chapter 4 of Hebrews,
He says, "...let us therefore fear, lest a promise be left
us of entering into His rest, Any of you should seem to come
short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as
unto them, those back in the wilderness. But the word preached
did not profit them." Why? Because it wasn't mixed with
faith. "...and them that heard. For
we which have believed do enter into rest." As he said, I've
sworn in my wrath. "...if they shall enter into
my rest." Promising that there would one day come a day when
the Lord would cause some people to rest. He says, although God's
works were finished from the foundation of the world, He spoke
it later. He spake in a certain place of
the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh
day from all his works, and in this place again, if they shall
enter into my rest, speaking from the Psalms. He says, "...seeing,
therefore, it remaineth that some must enter therein, and
they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief."
Again, "...he limiteth a certain day, saying unto David, Today,
after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if ye will hear
his voice, harden not your hearts." For if Joshua had given them
rest, then he would not have spoken of another day. There
remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that has
entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works
as God did from his." What does it mean to be ready? It means
to enter into that rest of Christ. finished salvation. He accomplished
it for His people. He brought them to God. He obtained
for them eternal redemption. He washed them from their sins.
He perfected them forever by the one offering of His sacrifice
to God for them. That's the message of the Gospel.
And we enter into that rest through faith. We look to the Lord Jesus
Christ, we say, coming to God like the publican in the temple,
beating on his breast, God be merciful to me, the sinner, look
to your Son, receive me, based on the propitiation He's provided
for sinners. And so we look to Him, and we
find in Him. And so this parable here is a
warning, just like it was then. Notice back in Matthew 25. All
ten were virgins. All ten had lamps. All ten went
out to meet the bridegroom. All ten waited for the bridegroom. But only five had something that
the other five didn't have. And what was that? That was an
oil. They had oil in their vessels for their lamps. So that when
the bridegroom came they would have this oil. What is this oil? What is this oil? What are these
vessels? What are these lamps? What does it mean in this parable
that these were ready? Well, in Scripture, In Scripture,
the Lord tells us what this oil is. That oil is the oil of the
Spirit of God, who takes the things of Christ in the Gospel,
and makes them true, real to us in our heart, applying them
to us personally, so that we receive Christ as sinners, and
look to Christ only, and come to God by Him alone. That's what the oil of the gospel,
the oil of the Spirit of God does when He takes the gospel
and He applies it to us. Listen to this in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 6. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness in the beginning has shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Where is God's glory seen? in
the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who offered Himself
to God. In Christ we see the perfections
of God. made known in a way that they
could never be made known apart from His humiliation and His
obedience and His death. We see the wisdom of God in providing
the Son. We see the grace of God. We see
the justice of God, that He wouldn't accept anything less than the
death of His Son, and when sin was found on Him, He punished
His own Son. We see the righteousness of God,
that He would in righteousness justify the ungodly through the
obedience and death of His Son. We see all the perfections of
God, His power, to save the filthiest and the shamefulest, the worst
of sinners, and his faithfulness to keep his word in doing so.
We see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It says
in Psalm 18 verse 28, For thou wilt light my candle, the Lord
my God will enlighten my darkness. Now in the Old Testament, oil
was used to anoint God's chosen servants. for service. Remember
how God told Moses how to take the oil and make oil and use
it for anointing in Exodus. The prophets were anointed. The
priests were anointed. The kings were anointed with
oil. And in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed
in order to fulfill the task that God gave Him to do to save
His people. But how was He anointed? With
oil? not with physical oil, but with the oil of the Spirit of
God that came down upon him at his baptism when the Spirit of
God in the form of a dove lighted on him and stayed on him. It
says God gave the Spirit to him without measure. So we see that
in the Lord Jesus Christ the fulfillment of that anointing
oil in the Old Testament is made clear that it's the Spirit of
God. And in us, personally, as believers, it says in Romans
8-9, "...if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his." So unless God gives us His Spirit, the Spirit of
His Son, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to make
the Gospel good news to us, if He doesn't do that, then we're
lost. We're without hope. Remember
what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3? You must be born of the
water and of the Spirit. The water of the Gospel has to
sprinkle the things that are true of what Christ has accomplished
on our hearts. He has to apply it by His Spirit.
He has to give us life and give us faith to see Christ. And that
Christ has to be ours by faith. We have to lay hold on Him by
faith. This is the work of the Spirit of God in us. Just like
He says, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. So
many places in scripture, look at a couple in Galatians that
underscore this. Galatians chapter 3. In Galatians
chapter 3, you'll find this mentioned, the Spirit of God coming to His
people. And in Galatians 3 verse 1 he
says Paul is correcting the Galatians because they had held to the
Lord Jesus as their only salvation. At one point it seemed, and then
they are also listening to those Judaizers who said they needed
to also do some things in order to ensure that they were justified
and sanctified. But here he says in verse 1,
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? that you should
not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth crucified among you." Evidently set forth crucified
means the gospel was laid out to you so clearly that it was
as if the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified visibly and physically
before you. But He wasn't then to the Galatians.
It had already happened. But in the preaching of the gospel,
it was so clearly given to them through the power of the Spirit
of God by Paul, and enlightening him in order to give him the
wisdom to explain the things of Christ to the Galatians, it
was very clearly laid out, evidently set forth, crucified among you.
This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law, something that you did, some condition you met,
some contribution you made, did you receive the Spirit by something
that you did? or by the hearing of faith. You simply heard the truth, God
persuaded you of it, and you said, that's the truth! And you
embraced Christ in your heart. That's when you received the
Spirit. Look at verse 8, he says, In the scripture foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations
be blessed. In Abraham, Christ came. God
justified even the Gentiles, God's elect people out of all
the Gentile nations, through Christ. And this was the promise
made to Abraham, that God would justify the heathen through faith.
But look at verse 13. Christ has redeemed us, those
God gave to him to redeem, from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. This is substitution. This is
the substitutionary guilt bearing and curse bearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He bore our sins as His own.
He suffered under them. He pleaded to God. He prayed
to God for them. For us, suffering, he endured
the wrath of God against himself, because of our sins made his.
Being made a curse for us, as it is written, cursed is everyone
that hangs on the tree. That, in order that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Now, God doesn't give us His Spirit because we believe. Faith
itself is the operation and the gift of God when He saves us.
And when He upholds that faith as we walk in Him by faith. But as we believe Christ, that's
the evidence that the Spirit of God has been given to us.
Chapter 3 makes it abundantly clear that when Nicodemus said,
how can these things be? How can you be born again? Jesus
points him to the fact that those who are born again look to Christ
crucified as their sin bearing, curse bearing substitute. And
they come to God by Him. Just like the people in the wilderness
who were bitten by the serpents look to the serpent on the pole.
And so, the Spirit of God is given to us. And His anointing,
this giving of the Spirit of God to us, is Christ dwelling
in us. It's according to the everlasting
covenant made in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, the same thing is said. That when Moses was given
the law, God wrote it on tables of stone. But when the gospel
is given to us, God writes it in our heart by the Spirit of
God. Not with the pen of ink, but
with the Spirit of God writing it on our heart. He makes Christ
our Savior. He makes His work our only trust
and confidence before God. And we're actually rejoicing
in our heart to come to Him. This is the work of the Spirit
of God. The oil in the vessels. The vessel in the parable indicates
the heart. God puts His Spirit, the Spirit
of Christ, in our heart and He points us to Christ. We need
that. We cannot live, we can't come
to Him. We might be externally and outwardly
called the virgins who go out after the bridegroom, who have
lamps, but inwardly we're dead in sins until God quickens us
and makes us alive and points us to Christ. And so we have
to be born of the Spirit. We have to be given faith by
the work of the Spirit of God in our heart. This is the work
of the Spirit of God. He teaches us the things of Christ. He brings the things of Christ
to our remembrance. He reveals the things of Christ
to us. Remember, God commanded the light
to shine out of darkness. He shines in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Thou wilt light my candle, the
Lord my God will lighten my darkness." Now in Zechariah chapter 4 another
illustration is given. There was this candlestick in
Zechariah 4. I can't take you there because
of time. But Zechariah saw a vision of a candlestick with seven lamps
on it. And he also saw an olive tree. And the olive tree was feeding
these lights on the candlestick through two pipes. And so on
the right hand and the left hand there were these two olive trees.
And Zechariah asked, what does this mean? And the angel tells
Zechariah, he says, don't you know what this means? He says,
no. I like his honesty. No, I don't
know what it means. And he says, not by might. Nor
by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." The message of that
vision was that God's Spirit accomplishes what no man can
do. He gives the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then later
in the same vision, Zechariah sees two branches from the olive
tree feeding these, both on the right and the left side of that
candlestick. And again, Zechariah says, what does it mean? And
the angel says, don't you know what it means? He says, no. He
says, these are the two witnesses that are giving, the two anointed
that stand before the Lord. Just like in Revelation 11 where
he says these two witnesses go out throughout the earth. It's
the message of the gospel going out through God's ministers proclaiming
Christ and Him crucified to sinners. And it's the work of the Spirit
of God to take those things and apply them to our hearts. This
is the oil. It's given to us in our heart.
God looks at the heart. God deals with the heart. And
what does He teach us? Remember Psalm 35. Lord, say
to my soul, I and thy salvation. Lord tell
it to me and tell it to me from your gospel. Tell it to me in
my heart. Tell me about Christ. He is my
salvation." That's the only thing that these five wise virgins
had. They had the oil of the grace
of the Spirit of God showing Christ to them. And they knew
it. They knew that Christ was their
own. They depended upon Him. They took of Him. Like He says
in John 6, verse 56, "...they ate and drank of Christ, and
He dwelled in them, and they in Him." This was that communion
that God's people have with Him. It's by the Spirit of God. in
the gospel. And that's why in Hebrews, when
he exhorts them, he says, Take heed, lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. Because we must hear about
Christ daily. I don't know about you, but every
day I keep coming back, Lord, tell me again that you are my
salvation. Tell me from your word. Tell
it to me. And tell it to those to whom
you've given me the liberty to speak. Tell it to all of your
people. Glorify yourself in saving this
sinner. Because that's my only hope.
That God would look upon Christ and receive me for His sake.
And so the wise were wise unto salvation. 2 Timothy 3.15. Whereas those who were foolish...
didn't have a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in their heart.
They didn't worship Him in their heart. They didn't believe Him
in their heart. And so when the voice is sent
out at midnight, behold, the bridegroom comes. Go out to meet
him. They realized suddenly there
was a void and vacancy. They didn't know the Bridegroom. They didn't have this dependence
upon Him. They hadn't been coming to Him.
They hadn't been feeding upon Him. They hadn't been rejoicing
in Him before. They only had an outward profession
and not an inward work of the Spirit of God. And so the foolish
could only talk about things, but they had never experienced
them. They could only walk in outward reform, but they had
never received that regenerating grace of the Spirit of God that
so binds ourselves to Christ that we can't leave Him. So brings
Christ to our hearts as sinners, that as sinners we say, this
is all my salvation. Look at Psalm 116. This is the
way God saves us. This is the way He keeps us.
This is the way we walk in Him. We come to Him as bankrupt, hungry
beggars. Thirsty, without any money. And
He tells us, come, buy. Buy milk without money. Buy wine
and milk without money. Come ye thirsty. And come to
Christ and find us. Anyway, Psalm 116. He says, verse
1, I love the Lord. Why? Because He has heard my
voice and my supplication. Because He inclined His ear to
me. Therefore will I call upon Him
as long as I live. How did He hear? How did he answer
the one who called? I called upon him in the day
of trouble. I called upon Him for salvation,
and I found that in calling upon Him, He had been calling to me
in the Gospel to look to Christ. There's three things we do naturally
that are wrong, naturally, in coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first one is that we don't come as sinners. When we hear
the Gospel, we're either indifferent to it, because we don't see our
need for Christ. We don't think that our case
is that serious. Or we think, well, yeah, I could
use that. And so we try to fulfill the
requirements God has given. But we can't. And unless God
in His mercy shows us that we're so sinful, that we can't do one
thing of all that He requires, we'll never come to Him as naked,
bankrupt, diseased, heart-plagued sinners. We don't hear the gospel
as sinners. We find no affinity of Christ
to our hearts. But when God teaches us that
we're nothing but sin in ourselves, and our only righteousness is
in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we come. We come as the publican. Lord, have mercy upon me. Or as a leper, so diseased and
foul and helpless to recover himself by himself or any man. And he says, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. And so we come, and when He shows
us, the next thing we do that is wrong is that we think, He
tells me to repent and to believe and we have to love the Lord
and all these things. And we begin to think, well,
I've got to do that. And so we begin to try to look within ourselves
to produce that which we know we need to do. But He has to
humble us again and show us, no, your case is so bad you can't
even produce the faith God requires of you. And so we learn again
that we must come to Him, like in Hebrews 11.6, looking to Him.
who is holy and requires of us what he himself must provide.
We come to him seeking the very faith we need to look to Christ.
Lord, I'm such a sinner. I can't even believe your gospel. I can't even believe your Son
who is the truth itself. Because I'm such a foul sinner.
And so we come begging Lord. And this, in coming, then we
find something. We find that what God requires,
He's provided. And what He's provided, He's
provided in His Son. He doesn't work in us to make
us Reformed so much. He works in us this life. He
gives us this life in faith to see that our righteousness is
in Christ. That we've been washed in His
blood. And that, in looking to Christ, when we look into the,
look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3, when we look at the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Gospel, then it has a transforming effect in
our lives. Because we see, all that I could
do, or ever do, or am, is nothing. God doesn't need it. It's repugnant
to God. But God has provided all in Christ.
And now in so seeing Him as all my salvation, as all my righteousness,
when I come to God, looking to Him, my heart is in love with
Him, and then, then only we're set at liberty and we can serve
the Lord that way. Just like Moses told Pharaoh,
let my people go that they might serve me. Look at this in 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. He says in verse Verse 3, I'll
read it. He says, "...for as much as you
are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered
by us, the apostles, those who preach the gospel, written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart, And such trust
have we through Christ to God. Not that we, we apostles, are
sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our
sufficiency is of God, who has made us able ministers of the
New Testament." That's the gospel. Not of the letter, not the old
law, but the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. But look, Look on down at verse
17. Now, the Lord is that spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. But we all with open face, beholding
as in a glass, a mirror. The glory of the Lord. What's
the glory of the Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified are changed into the image, onto His image, the same
image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
We walk by faith. We live by faith. We depend on
Him. We rest in Him. And He is the
one who works out our salvation. He conforms us to His image.
He causes us to love Him and to walk in His ways when we see
Him, see ourselves as sinners, and see that all God has for
sinners is in His Son. Now the ten had lamps, but the
five had lamps with oil. The five foolish had lamps without
oil because they didn't have the salvation that God gives
by His Spirit to look to Christ. And so they had no oil in their
lamps. And their lamps, for them, were
a mere profession of Christ without the grace of Christ in their
hearts. They outwardly appeared to be
virgins. They outwardly identified with the church. But inwardly,
they were still dead in sin. So when the bridegroom came,
what was the condition in Matthew 25? They all slumbered and slept.
Remember? And they all slumbered and slept,
not just the wise, not just the foolish, but the wise also. But
it was a different kind of sleep. Because for those, remember when
the disciples were with Jesus on the Mount of Gethsemane? That
night when He sweat drops of blood? Peter, James, and John
were there. Let's see if I can find that verse in the book of
Mark. Mark chapter 14. So the setting is in Mark 14
as the disciples Peter, James, and John are sleeping. Jesus
is praying the most... significant event in all of history,
and here they are sleeping. This describes us, doesn't it?
The Lord Jesus had to suffer by Himself. He accomplished our
salvation by Himself. But look at this in verse 37.
When He comes and finds them sleeping, He said to Peter, Simon,
sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour? Watch ye therefore, watch ye
and pray, lest you enter into temptation." Listen carefully.
The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. The five wise
slept, but the spirit was ready, their flesh was weak. All of
God's people find in themselves a lamentable coldness and deadness
of heart. in their spirit, that new nature
God has given them, and the new birth, they're ready, they trust
Christ. But there's also this old man,
like Paul said in Romans 7, the good that I would I do not, I
find this evil within me. That's what he's speaking of,
this weakness of that old man, that body of flesh, And we find
ourselves weak, and the Lord Jesus explains for us, yes, the
spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak. So the five wise were
sleeping, but in their spirit they were awake, because God
had raised them to life in their souls. They had oil. They had the oil of grace. But
what about the other five? The five foolish? When they slept,
it was a deeper sleep. It was a sleep they could never
awake from because they were never given the light of the
gospel in their hearts. They were still dead in sins.
Their sleep was a sleep unto death. Look at 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. It's summarized there in verse
1. Paul's speaking of the end of
time, just like it is in Matthew 25. He says, "...but of the times
and the seasons," in 1 Thessalonians 5, "...but of the times and the
seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you."
And now you expect him to begin to say, this is when it's going
to happen. "...for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of
the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." Oh! And for when they shall say,
Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them
as a travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should
overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light
and of the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us
watch and be sober, for they that sleep, sleep in the night,
and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let
us, who are of the day, be sober, doing what? Putting on the breastplate
of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. That's
just like Ephesians 6, isn't it? What do we put on? Faith
and love and the helmet of salvation. We put on Christ. We look to
Him. We see that He is all of our
defense. He's our answer to God. And He's
our defense against our enemies. He pleads Himself for us. He pleads against our enemies.
He pleads the will of God. And He pleads in our heart. He
tells us what He's done. And He points us to Himself and
to His work. That's the work. And so we put
him on. We diligently, we labor to enter
into that rest, as he says in Hebrews 4. Because the word of
God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Therefore we look to Christ, we come to our High
Priest in every time of trouble. Lord, and He hears us because
He knows what it is to be under the guilt and condemnation of
sin. And He delivers us. He points
us to Himself. He points us to His work. He
points us to His person. I am thy salvation. Look to me and be ye saved, all
the ends of the earth. And so by God's grace we look
and we come and we take and we rejoice and we find peace in
knowing that God has received us, though we're sinners, for
Christ's sake. He never looked for one thing
from us. How could He? All of our righteousnesses
were as filthy rags, and our sin deserved the wrath of God. And so we come in this way. And this is our lamp. But for
the foolish, they had this. They didn't have this. They walked
in darkness. They were dead in sins. And they
didn't have on, they didn't have the garments of salvation which
the bridegroom provides for those who are his true people. Remember
Isaiah 61 verse 10? 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 covered me with the robe of
His righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." What's our
clothing? What's our preparation? It's the righteousness of our
Savior. We're dressed in His own obedience. We're washed in His own blood. We stand before God and He has
prayed for us Receive him as myself. I stood for him. I answered for him. I answered
with myself. Now receive him as me. That's what our surety, our substitute
says. The Lord has laid on him the
iniquities of us all. He bore our transgressions. He
was bruised for our iniquities. And now we're dead to sin. We're
dead to all of our enemies, because God has destroyed them in the
death of Christ. And so, the Spirit is truly ready
in God's people, even though our flesh is weak. And this is
the thing. Now, just quickly, I want you
to see the beauty here of this comfort that God gives in Matthew
25. In Matthew 25 it says, in verse 10, these foolish went
out to buy. When they went out to buy, it's
referring to the fact that the gospel is the proclaiming of
the truth of Christ to us. And sinners come to God buying
from God the milk and the wine of what Christ has done, all
of our salvation in Christ, in hearing that gospel. Hear, and
your soul shall live. Isaiah 55, verses 1-3. But here,
he says, these foolish went out to buy, but at the end of time
when Christ comes, there's not going to be any more buying and
selling of the gospel. The day of grace will be over
at that point. And so it says in verse 10, 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. This is
the finality. When Christ comes, like it says
in Revelation 20, 21, it says, He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is holy, let him be righteous
still. When the Lord comes, that's the
finality of everything. Those who are in Christ who have
been given the grace of God to see that Christ is all, and have
come to God in their heart by Him, who look to Him only, it's
final for them. They go in with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the door is shut. But those, like in the days of
Noah, who heard Noah preaching, they didn't go into the ark.
They didn't go in. God didn't bring them in, and
He didn't shut the door on them like He did Noah. He shut the
door to them. And so, for those who enter in
with Christ, it's the day of greatest rejoicing. As I said
before, the day of marriage is the day of highest joy. Even
on earth, marriage is that one time in our lives where we celebrate
the most, isn't it? People will spend vast sums of
money on their marriage just so they can set it all up. I
mean, this is it. We're getting married today.
There's nothing else greater than this in our lives and they
look forward to it. There's so much pictures and
people and happy times. It's the day of marriage. This
is what the Lord Jesus is talking about here. You see, from eternity,
He went to His Father and He asked of His Father a bride.
Those people who were the adopted sons of God, He said, give them
to me and the Lord gave them to him and they became his espoused
bride and from eternity he loved them and from eternity he ordained
all things in time and history to bring about their salvation
so that they could be with him and he gave himself for them
Ephesians 5 25 Christ loved the church and gave himself for it
That He might sanctify it, and quash it, and sanctify it with
the water of His Word. That He might present it to Himself
holy and spotless without any blemish. And so, throughout time,
He comes into the world. He's born of a woman, made under
the law, and under the law He answers God in everything for
them. He works out a robe of perfect righteousness for them.
He does everything for them to God's glory. And this is the
consummation now. When He comes, He comes for them. And they who have been given
His Spirit to know what He has done, and look to Him only, and
find in Him the rejoicing of their heart, rest before God. In His finished work, they enter
with Him. They enter into the marriage.
What's the marriage? It's the greatest celebration.
The greatest day of joy and delight. Unimaginable, unspeakable. The union between Christ and
His people coming about in its finality, that which was established
in eternity, now fulfilled in time, at the end of time. And
these who go in with Him, go in with Him. I think that's a
wonderful thing to think about. They go in with Him. Think about
it. The Bridegroom comes. These who had oil in their lamps
come with Him. And the Bridegroom brings them
in with Him. If you go in with the Lord Jesus
Christ, who can stop you? Who can oppose you? Who can say
one thing against you when you're with the Bridegroom? Who can
find any fault with that One whom He has chosen, whom He loves,
whom He brings in with Him, the Lord of all the earth? If God
be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with
Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also makes intercession for us. Does that cause a response
in your heart? Do you find yourself your only
hope in what God has said about what Christ did for his people?
Do you say in your heart of hearts, Lord, all of my hope rests in
what you have done for your people? And does his answer answer all
of your fears and your conscience and everything? Because you can't
provide anything that will quiet it except what he's done. Then
you go in with him, and the door will be shut, and when it's shut,
no one can separate them. And the greatest intimacy of
disclosure, his whole heart revealed, when we see him, we shall be
like him, when we shall see him as he is. I will be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. We shall see him face to face.
Full disclosure. Full disclosure, we'll know Him
even as we're known. That's a day, isn't it? But there
were those who were outside, and when the door was shut, they
were kept outside. They could never enter. It says
in verse 11, afterward came also the other virgins saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us. And he answered and said, verily
I say to you, I know you not. It's not like I knew you and
then didn't know you. I never knew you. You are not
my people. And it was evidenced in your
life. Notice how these virgins were kept out because of their
foolishness, but the others were brought in because of the grace
of God. And this is the message of the
gospel. It's our own foolishness that keeps us from Christ. Paul
told Timothy, the servant of the Lord must not strive but
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, that
God Pertventure would give them repentance, would grant them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. We oppose our own
salvation by nature. God has to, in grace, grant us
repentance. What does that make you do? Does
it make you say, Lord, give me that repentance. Give me that
grace to see Christ and to come to Him. Don't leave me outside. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank
You for Your mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only
place we can find mercy, the only place we look for mercy,
the only place we hope for mercy. And we come to You, dear Lord,
in our heart of hearts, trusting Christ alone. And we find in
Him our greatest delight, because in ourselves we find no cause
for rejoicing. But in Him we find every cause
for confidence and rejoicing. We pray, Lord, that by Your Spirit
You would both give this to us and uphold it in us. We would
constantly have this oil of grace given to us that we could say
in our hearts that You have shined the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God to us. And we would find our Lord Jesus
Christ to be everything, to be everything. He who is the fullness
of the Godhead, in a body, we are complete in Him. And it's
all of our hope, all of our coming. Thank you for this wonderful
salvation, this wonderful Savior. Lord, we long to be with Him.
Give us His grace not to sleep and slumber, but to look to Him
always and watch and be ready. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.