Alright, let's turn back in our
Bibles to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. As many of you know, if you've
followed along in the messages for the past few months, I've
been preaching through the parables of our Savior, the parables of
Christ, in the Gospels, basically in the book of Matthew, and we'll
continue on through that. A few weeks back, I dealt with
this parable, this first parable in Matthew 25, which is known
as the parable of the ten virgins. I entitled the message, the specific
message on these verses, verses 1 through 13, a parable of preparation. In this parable, as you recall,
there is a wedding. The bridegroom is coming for
the bride. back, that's Christ coming back
the second time. It says in verse 1, then shall
the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, ten young women,
unmarried, pure women, which took their lamps, and remember
their lamps had to do with their profession. It's the light what
people see and hear of you, of me, of those who profess to believe
the gospel. So this parable is talking about
folks like us who claim to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this is very important now to understand this. We have a profession
of faith. And this is the lamp or the torch
literally here. And they went forth to meet the
bridegroom. The bridegroom, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a familiar, common description and title that he has. He is
the bridegroom. The church is his bride. He's
the husband. The church is his wife. He's
the head. We're the body. So, the bridegroom. Now, these
ten young women, these ten virgins, go out to meet the bridegroom.
And it says in verse 2, the first thing it says about them, other
than that, it says, "...and five of them were wise, and five were
foolish." So, all ten are not wise. There are five foolish
here. And it says in verse 3, they
that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them. They had a profession of faith.
They had a torch, and it was lit for a while, but they had
no oil. They had a lamp without oil.
And what is that oil? Well, hold on. He says, they
had no oil with them, verse 4, but the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps. And it says, "...while the bridegroom
tarried, they all slumbered and slept." Which means they simply
went, while in this life, you know, we don't know when the
Lord is going to come again. We don't know the hour. We don't
know the day. And we are to go about our business
as usual. There's nothing wrong with that.
But we don't want to have a profession of religion, or even, and listen
to me now, we don't want to have a profession of truth. true doctrine
without oil, without oil in the land. And so we go about our
daily lives. You men and women, you go to
work, you take care of your families, you do your recreation, all of
these things, and there's nothing wrong with that now. We are commanded of God to meet
our responsibilities in this life. The Bible nowhere tells
us to just stop living and go off and live in a cave somewhere
until the Lord comes back or until we die. So we have these
responsibilities. But we also have to be prepared
when He does come. Now, I also want to make this
point, too, again, that He may come for you today. In other
words, you may die and go to meet Him today. And you have
to consider that. Either we'll go to meet Him in
physical death, or He'll come again while we're on this earth.
Either way, we need to be prepared while we're going about our daily
lives. So it says, "...they slumbered and slept." Verse 6, "...at midnight
there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh." Go ye
out to meet Him. "...Then all those virgins arose,
trimmed their lamps, That is their profession. I want to make
sure my profession of faith is correct. Don't you? There's nothing
wrong with that now. In fact, if we have a false profession,
a wrong profession, that's deadly too. Isn't it? There are many people who claim
to believe in Jesus Christ, but it's not the Christ of the Bible.
You see, if He's not the Christ of the Bible, what does that
mean? It means He's a counterfeit. He's an idol. And I don't want
my profession to be towards an idol. That's deadly. Another
Jesus, Paul called it in 2 Corinthians 11. Another gospel, another spirit. He said in Galatians chapter
1 that those who come preaching another gospel, let them be anathema. They're cursed of God. So I want
my profession to be correct. And the only way I can do that
is to know according to God's Word. What does God's word say
of this person, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ? Who is he? He's
God and man in one person. I've got to know that I profess
to believe in the true Christ who is both God and man in one
person. He's not a lesser God. He's not
a little God. He's not a little G-God or a
little S-Son. He's the Son of God. He's the
Alpha and the Omega. He's the Great I Am. He's the
Creator of this world, and the sustainer of it by Him all things
consist, the Scripture says. And He's the Head of the Body,
the Head of the Church. He has the preeminence. We worship
Jesus Christ as God-Man. He is the One who died for my
sins on Calvary to put away my sins, to satisfy the justice
of God, and who established righteousness for me that I may stand before
God whole and complete and justified, pure in His sight in Christ. He's the one who's the author
and giver of life. He sends His Spirit in the new
birth to give us life and knowledge and faith and repentance. He
is the author and finisher of my faith. He didn't come here
to try to save anybody. He came to save His people from
their sins. And his salvation is not conditioned
on you or me. It's conditioned on what he accomplished,
and he'll have his people. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out, John 6, 37. And he went on to say in
that, he said, this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of
all which he hath given me I should raise it up again. Should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. That's
the Christ of the Bible. He's the Lord my righteousness.
He's the one who shed his precious blood as the full payment of
all my sins. He met every condition and stipulation
and condition for salvation. He's the God-man. Now, anything
less, anyone less is an idol. That's right. And we need to
know that our profession is correct according to the Word of God.
That's why that passage that Brother Ron read, it says in
there, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of
God. Now, we're to be students of
the Word, and there's no way of getting around that. You can
say, well, I'll be a casual student. Well, you go on. Be what you
want to be. But you're to be a student of
the Word. And you see, here's the thing about it. If we know
Christ, if we know the true Christ, God's Christ, God's Messiah,
we will never be ashamed. Because we never have anything
to be ashamed concerning Christ. We've got a lot to be ashamed
of concerning ourselves. I'm going to show you that in
just a moment. But here they are, they trimmed their lamps,
all right. Verse 8, it says, And 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,
buy oil. That doesn't mean salvation or the Holy Spirit can be bought.
But it's using terminology that's familiar with Scripture. Back
in Isaiah chapter 55, when Isaiah issued the call of the Gospel
forth unto Judah and Jerusalem, he said, Ho ye everyone that's
hungry, everyone that's thirsty, come ye, buy without money, without
price. Yes, we don't have the money.
We don't have the price to pay. But we're to seek salvation.
That's what that's teaching. You seek salvation. Now, here's
the problem. Look. Look at verse 10. It says,
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. Listen. When you die, or when
I die and go and meet the Lord, it's too late then. Salvation's
over. You're not saved by then. You won't be. The door's shut.
When the Lord comes back again, the door's shut too. It's too
late then. I'll tell you, when He comes
again the second time to judge this world and gather His people
together unto Himself, the whole world will fall on their faces. Every knee will bow and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus... But then salvation is over. It's
too late. The door is shut. That's the
point of no return right there. And so He says in verse 11, And
afterward came also the other virgins, the five foolish, Now
the five wise went in, they had oil in their lamps. And then
here come the five foolish, the other virgins, saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily
I say unto you, I know you not. Oh, my soul, I know you not. That knowledge there is that
intimate love, electing grace knowledge that God has of his
people in Christ. And he said, I know you not.
Back over in 2 Timothy 2, verse 19, Paul makes this statement
to Timothy and to the church. He says, Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, stands steady, having this seal, the
Lord knoweth them that are His. He knows who belongs to Him.
He knows them because He chose them for the foundation of the
world. He knows them because He justified them in and by Christ. He knows them because He sent
His Son into the world to die for their sins and establish
righteousness for them. He knows them because He sends
His Spirit to give them life and to bring them unto Him as
obedient children in faith and repentance. He knows them because
He preserves them unto the end. And when He comes again, He'll
know them then. And He'll gather them together
in His bosom and will be glorified. Do you know Him? That's the question.
Now, the issue of the parable back here is be prepared. He
said in verse 12, I know you're not, so what do we do? Somebody
says, well, I don't want to be among those who don't have oil
in their lamps. And I know you don't either.
I don't want to have just a profession that burns for a little while.
You know, if you burn a wick, it'll burn for a little while,
and then it goes out. But the oil, this oil here, what
is this oil? It's the oil of grace in the
heart. It's the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. It's
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that brings true,
saving faith and repentance of dead works. It is the Spirit
who sheds abroad in the hearts of God's people the love of Christ
that constrains us, that is, motivates and inspires us to
fight sin and obey Him, not to be saved, but because we already
are saved. To motivate us not by legal fear
of punishment or mercenary promises of earned reward, but to motivate
us by grace and love and gratitude. for the salvation that He's freely
given those of us who do not deserve it and cannot earn it.
That's what He's talking about. Last week I dealt with this to
show that there are two things you need to be prepared. Back
over in Matthew 22. You don't have to turn there.
That's the parable of the marriage supper the king gave for his
son. And when the king came into the marriage feast, he saw there
a man who didn't have on the right garment. didn't have on
the right wedding garment. He said, well, how did you get
in here, friend, without the right garment? The man was speechless.
You see, the Word of God's justice will always shut the mouths of
sinners who do not have on the right garment. Well, what is
that garment? Well, that garment is the righteousness
of Christ. That garment that He wove in
His obedience unto death that is legally accounted and charged
and given to His people. We need to have the right garment.
Somebody says, do I have the right garment? Well, do you believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He your all in all? Is He
your only hope of salvation and no other? Do you serve Him and
believe in Him and trust Him with a divided heart or with
a single heart? To know that He's everything.
Somebody says, what do I need to do? Well, you need to get
under the preaching of the Word of God. You need to be where
the Bible is preached. You say, well, I want to be entertained.
Well, go somewhere else for that. But for your salvation and preparation
to meet God, you need to be where God's Word is preached unapologetically. You need to seek the Lord as
a dying sinner. Lord, have mercy upon me, the
sinner. Stop looking at everybody else
and look at yourself. That's what he's talking about
there. I'm a sinner. I'm in need of mercy. Now, you
can look around and you can pick out all kinds of sinners who
you think are worse than you, but they're not your problem.
You are your problem. I am my problem. God be merciful
to me, the sinner. Show me Christ. Don't let me
go on in a false profession, even of right doctrine or the
truth. Let me have oil in my lamp. Thirdly, seek and pray
earnestly for the salvation of the Lord. Now, let me tell you
something. When God saves a sinner by His grace, God makes that
sinner thirsty, spiritually thirsty for the water of life. Are you
thirsty for the water of life? Well, Christ is the fountain
of living waters. Sink or swim, I've got to have
Him. You see, He's my only hope. When God saves a sinner, He makes
him hungry for the bread of life. Well, Christ is the bread of
life. When God saves a sinner, He makes him labored and heavy
laden under the burden of legalism and false religion. Are you weary
and heavy laden? Christ said, Come unto Me, all
ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He makes
us weary so that we want nothing but the rest that we have in
Christ. Christ my Sabbath, Christ my
Altar, Christ my Great High Priest, Christ my sin-bearing Sacrifice,
Christ my Lamb, His blood alone cleansing me from all sin, Christ
the Lord my Righteousness, I have nothing else to recommend me
unto God but Christ and Him crucified. When God saves a sinner, now
listen to it, He makes that sinner yearn and pine for the Word of
Life. I want to be under the preaching
of the gospel. I read in that opening passage
in Hebrews chapter 10 that God's people are not to forsake the
assembling of ourselves together. That's what we're doing here
this morning. We're assembling ourselves together to hear Christ
exalted. I guarantee you, I know this
from experience now. If I read in the paper tomorrow
that they were going to meet downtown Ashland on Winchester
Avenue and they're going through a party and brag on Aidan Christopher
Parker. I'd be there. Because I love to hear people
brag on Aidan Christopher Parker because he's my grandchild. You
all know something about some of you old folks know something
about that, don't you? Well, my friend, I'm here to
brag on our savior today. I want to talk about him. and
the great salvation that He's provided. Now, are you interested? Or can you take or leave it?
Now, salvation is of the Lord. It's all of grace from beginning
to final culmination. It's never conditioned on us.
And the only way that we'll be prepared and seek to prepare
is if God preserves us by His grace. That's so. And yet he
tells us to make a conscious spiritual effort to prepare. Look at verse 13. He says, and
this is Matthew 25, "...watch therefore, for you know neither
the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh." I don't
know when He's coming, but I know He is. And if it's in my lifetime,
I want to be prepared. If it's not, I want to be prepared
to go meet Him. So think about this. Do we have
the oil of grace? in our hearts. The scripture
says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
anathema, maranatha. Now I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 7. And what I want to do, just in a few moments, now
I've called that parable the parable of preparation. But you
know something? All the parables are parables
of preparation. Every parable we've studied,
isn't it? It's been a parable of preparation. We've studied
the parable of the seed and the sower. I'll prepare, you see. I don't want to be the thorny
ground hearer, the stony ground hearer, or the waster. I want
to be the good ground hearer. Only God can make a good ground
hearer. Only God can prepare my heart
to receive the good Word of God. Talk about the pearl of great
price. How valuable, how precious is Christ and His Word to me?
That's a good question for every one of us to ask. Now again,
can I take it or leave it? Somebody said, well, sometimes
I just don't feel like it. It has nothing to do with how
you feel. It has to do with what you need. I take pills every
morning, and I don't feel like taking them. But I need to. I know I need to. Tell me I can
get up and go exercise at the YMCA. I do not feel like doing
that. I'm telling you, I don't feel
like doing it. But I need to. I need to do it. Because of this
heart and this human body, you've got to do it. It has nothing
to do with how you feel. Understand that now. Somebody
said, well, if I had oil in my lap, I would feel like doing
it all the time. No, you wouldn't. You're in a
warfare. That's what the Christian life
is. It's a warfare. It's a war of the flesh and the
spirit. You see? And that sinful nature of flesh
will never, never inspire you to want to do anything godly.
And yet, the spiritual life within will always inspire you to say,
this is what you need. You understand what I'm saying
now, don't you? This is what you need. You get a disease. You go to the doctor. He says,
you've got to go through radiation and chemotherapy. I guarantee
you none of us feel like doing that. None of us are going to
jump up and say, oh man, I get to go through chemo today. But
you need it. And that's what, do you see your
need of Christ and His Word? Do you see your need of grace?
This is good for me because it's eternal life and eternal death.
Well, look at Matthew chapter 7. Look at verse 21. Here's a
good example of being unprepared. He says in verse 21, he says,
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven. In other words, you can go around
with Lord, Lord, praise the Lord on your lips all day long. That's
no guarantee that you'll enter the kingdom of heaven. Well,
who will? He says, But he that doeth the
will of my Father which is in heaven. Now, what is the will
of the Father? Well, the whole Bible is the
will of the Father in essence. But doing the will of the Father,
always begins with resting and trusting and believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing to me, but people,
well I shouldn't say it's amazing, because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them,
they're spiritually discerned. But men will take verses like
this and they say, well doing the will of the Father, and in
essence they'll use those things to inspire legalism and works-oriented
salvation. That means I've got to get to
work, and make myself prepared and make myself fit for heaven.
I've got to work my way into God's favor so that when He comes,
He'll find me doing His will. And so every moment of my life,
I've got to fear if I'm doing something at a particular moment
because I don't want to be found doing something out of the will
of God when He comes again. You ever hear that? Don't go
to a movie because Christ may come back and He'll find you
at a movie. Whoa. That'd be bad, wouldn't it? Let me tell you something, that's
just religious bunk that preachers use to make people more self-righteous
than they already are. That's all it is. Well, aren't
there things we shouldn't do? Of course there are. That's not
what I'm saying at all. But don't get into that stuff
with this. Doing the will of the Father
means following Christ. Resting in Christ. trusting in
Him for all salvation, following Him not to be saved, but because
we already are. You see the difference? And look
at what they say. Look at verse 22. He says, Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? That means we preached in His
name. And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. They thought
they were given glory to God. And he says, and then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work
iniquity. I never knew you. What was wrong
with their profession? Well, their profession wasn't
the glory and grace and mercy of God in Christ. Their profession
is what they thought they had been enabled to do for the Lord. And my friend, that's evil. You see, I preach Christ in the
name of the Lord. But let me tell you something,
my preaching the gospel is no part of my righteousness before
God. Christ is my righteousness before
God. You see, when I stand before
God, I hope and pray that I don't stand there, well, Lord, I preached
a bunch of sermons in your name. You say, well, what's wrong with
preaching sermons in His name? Nothing. But that's not my righteousness. That's not my hope. That's not
my plea. My righteousness, my hope, my
plea is Christ died for me. Christ was buried for me. Christ
arose again for me. Christ lives for me. You see
the difference? They said they cast out demons.
There's nothing wrong with casting out demons, but you can cast
out a million demons and it will not make you righteous before
God. It will not cleanse you from
your sins. Only the blood and righteousness of Christ will
do that. They said we've done many wonderful works. Well, let
me tell you something. There's only one wonderful work
that'll get you saved and into heaven. And that's the work of
Christ. And that's it. And that's all
you need. And that's more than you'll ever
need. It's an abundance of grace. Now Christ said, I never knew
you. Turn over to Hebrews 10 that
I read earlier. You see what I'm talking about?
How are we going to be prepared? Look to rest and follow the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what this book's talking
about. It's a book of preparation. Listen to this in verse 19 again,
Hebrews 10, that I read in the opening. He says, "...having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest..."
That's the holy presence of God. You remember back in the old
covenant, in the tabernacle, in the temple, The temple in
the tabernacle was divided. You had the outer court, and
then you had the holy place where all the priests could go, and
they had the table of showbread, and the golden lamp stand there,
and the wash basin, and they had the veil, and behind the
veil was the Holy of Holies, where only one person could go
one time of year, the high priest. And he could only go after what? After blood was shed. He could
not go in there without blood. And all that was a picture of
Christ, our great high priest, who went into the holy presence
of God with his own blood. Now, after Christ has gone into
that holy place, that holiest of all, the presence of God,
he's made a way for his people to go into. And He's made a way for His people
to go in boldly, it says here, not fretting, not with doubts,
but confidently and freely. Free access into the holiest
of all. How? Because they've preached
a bunch of sermons in His name? Because they've cast out devils?
Because they've won many souls to Christ? Because they've done
many wonderful works? Absolutely not. There's but one
thing that gets them free access and acceptance into the holiest
of all, and it says it right here, the blood of Jesus. The blood of God, Jehovah, my
Savior. Now there, you want to be prepared?
There it is. Do you have oil in your lamp?
I'll tell you what, if you've got oil in your lamp, you'll
see that that right there is my only hope and assurance of
salvation. Well, preachers, shouldn't we
witness? Shouldn't we tell people about Christ? Shouldn't we do
all these things? Yes, but that is not your access
into the holiest. That job's already been filled. And if you add anything to it
or take anything away from it, you're denying the Lord Christ. See the difference? Look at it. Verse 20, "...by a new and living
way which he hath consecrated." This new and living way into
the holiest, as opposed to the old earthly way back in the old
covenant. This new and living way is something
that Christ consecrated. He's the one who made this new
way. You didn't do it. I didn't do
it. We didn't help Him. In fact, when he died for his
people, the Scripture says in Romans 5, he died for the ungodly,
he died for enemies. That doesn't sound like you're
helping him, does it? You see, that's the nature of
God's love and mercy and grace. It's undeserved and unearned.
And so he consecrated for us through the veil, that is to
say, his flesh, that points us to his death on the cross. Now,
having a high priest over the house of God. Who is our high
priest? Not the priest of Aaron and Levi. It's Christ. He's our
high priest. Now, listen to what it says.
You want to own your lamps? You want to prepare? Alright,
here's what it says. Let us draw near with a true heart. Now,
a true heart there is an honest heart. Who makes the heart honest? You remember I read a couple
weeks ago, Jeremiah 17, the heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked. No man can know it. And then it goes on to say, I,
the Lord, search the hearts. I try the reins. How does he
do it? By his word. Hebrews chapter
4, I believe it is, where he talks about how the word of God
is quick and powerful than any two-edged sword. In other words,
I don't want to know what you think about me. I want to know
what God thinks about me here in his word. And here's what
he says about all men by nature. We're all sinners. We all are
deserving of death based upon our very best efforts to save
ourselves. There's none righteous, no, not
one. If there's any hope for salvation for any of us, the
best of us, the worst of us, and everybody in between, it's
His sovereign mercy and grace in Christ. And if you think God
saved you because you've done anything for Him, you haven't
seen that. So an honest heart is honest
about myself. I know what I am. I'm a sinner.
In God's sight, as far as salvation is concerned, I'm no better than
the worst. That's what I mean. Now, the
natural man hears that and he says, well, that doesn't make
sense to me. That's right, it doesn't to the natural mind.
It takes the Spirit of God. It takes oil in the lamp to convince
us of sin. Not just sins, what I've done
wrong, but what I am by nature. And that if God saves me, it's
of the Lord's mercy that I'm not consumed. I'm telling you,
without Christ, without God's grace and mercy, We drop into
hell, every one of us, and deservedly so. You say, well, there's somebody
I can think of who doesn't deserve that. Christ said, except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. The best
of the best. You see, that's what he's talking
about, a true heart. And then an honest heart concerning God.
God is just and righteous in all that He does. Listen, whatever
God does is right. There's people running around
here claiming to believe in God and worship God, and then you
hear the Word of God and certain passages of scriptures, oh, God's
not fair. You better watch who you call
not fair. You see, God is just and right
and all that. I don't understand everything
God does. I'd be stupid to stand up here
and try to tell you I understand it all, and I've got it all clicking
on all cylinders in my head. Oh, but that's not the issue.
You see, God is God, and man is man. And his thoughts and
his ways are high above our thoughts. God doesn't change. I don't understand
that, but I know it's so. You cannot change God's mind.
If you could, you'd be God. And God wouldn't be God because
he'd be less than God. You see, if you change, you either
have to change for the better or for the worse. God can't get
any better. He's perfection and certainly
not going to get any worse. God's all wise and God's merciful
and God's love, but his love and mercy are in Christ. A heart
that's honest about who Christ is and what He's accomplished.
Look here, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance
of faith. That means full assurance of
Christ. That doesn't mean that I'm fully assured that I have
enough faith. It's that I'm fully assured that
my faith is in Christ. And He's enough. Somebody said,
do I believe enough? Enough for what? Do you believe
enough to get you into heaven based on your believing? The
answer is no. And I'll tell you why. Because
I'll guarantee you, if you haven't already experienced it, which
you have, you just won't admit it maybe. But I guarantee you
that sometime between now and your death, or now when the Lord
comes again, you will be caught up in moments of doubt. The man or woman who says he
never doubts is lying to himself. It's not a true heart. It's not
an honest heart. There's no oil in that lamp. Oh, I'm telling you, we're pitiful
people. Somebody says, well, you can
be saved and then lost again. You are. That is lost. Because you see, if you can be
saved and then lost, you will be lost. God has to keep us. Look here in verse 22, "...having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." That's a legal
conscience. Our conscience has to be cleansed
by the blood of Christ. What clears us of all guilt? What we do for God? No, what
He's done for us in Christ. And our bodies washed with pure
water. Now look at verse 23. This is preparation now. Let
us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. You
know what that means? That means look to Christ and
don't move off of it. Don't let anybody take you this
way or that way. And you know how we can do that?
Look at that little parenthesis after that. He says, for he is
faithful, that promise. You notice there he didn't say,
oh, you're such a faithful people. No, he says God is faithful and
God made the promise. You see, if I don't take my eyes
off of Christ, you know why it is? It's because God is faithful
to His promise. It's not because I'm so great
or good or steady. There'll be times when I'll look
away. Somebody says something to me.
Somebody does something. I just want to knock their head
off or something. But you see, he's faithful that promised.
And then he says in verse 24, let us consider one another to
provoke unto love and to good works. Now that's a little verse,
but it's a tall order. Consider others. And when you're
going to provoke somebody, now we do provoke each other, don't
we? Well, here's a good provocation. Provoke unto love and to good
works. Don't provoke anger. Don't provoke
selfishness. Don't provoke my way or the highway. I'm better than you. I can do
it better than you. Why didn't you do it this way?
Why didn't you do it that way? That kind of thing. That just
provokes anger. Provoke unto love and to good
works. And verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is. But exhorting that means encouraging
one another and so much the more as the day approaching well turn
to 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and I'm going to conclude with this
Now look at verse 19. These are all words of preparation
now Verse 19 he says nevertheless
the foundation of God standeth sure having this the Lord knoweth
them that are his that's our hope You see, our salvation is
not based on our knowledge of God, it's based on His knowledge
of us. But if He knows us, we'll know
Him. Christ said that, my sheep hear my voice, I know them and
they know me. So He says, and let everyone
that nameth the name of Christ, everyone that has a lamp, has
a torch, has a profession, let everyone who has that profession
depart from iniquity. Now, what iniquity? All iniquity.
Now, that's not saying that everyone who is saved is sinlessly perfect
in themselves. If it is, then we're none of
us saved. None of us have any oil in our lamps. That's simply
saying that those who claim to believe in Christ are to be engaged
in a warfare against all iniquity. A warfare. Fighting. You say,
sometimes I give in to it too easily. Yes, we all do. But you
fight it. Again, not to be saved, but because
you already are. So he says in verse 20, in a
great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to
dishonor. Remember, there were five wise virgins who had the
profession with oil in their lamps? There are five foolish
virgins. That's the same thing here. Vessels of honor, vessels
of dishonor. If a man therefore purged himself
from these, these vessels of dishonor, these Dividers of the
brethren, this iniquity, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified,
which means set apart, and meet, that means qualified for the
master's use, and prepared unto every good work." Qualified. How is that? Well, those who
name the name of Christ, who fight iniquity as motivated by
grace and gratitude, reveal what? That Christ is their hope. that
Christ is their qualification. My only qualification for salvation
for heaven itself is Christ and all that he accomplished. And
that's what this reveals. That's the oil that's in the
lamp. All right. Let's sing for our
closing hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, hymn number
17. Come Thou Fount.