Are you wise or foolish-Matthew 25:1-13

Again, the message will go to God in prayer. I want to make an announcement, a very joyful announcement. I received a call from Frank Tate. The church at Danville has asked him to be their pastor, and he has agreed. So Frank is now going to be moving from Hurricane, and he's going to come down and be a pastor at Danville.

Pray for that group. I know there are two other churches in that vicinity that are very close to where they were at. I think the men of that congregation have also desired to stay. And so they'll be looking for a pastor. So pray for them. pray for them, it's gonna be a struggle for them, but I know it's a joy for one, it's sad for the other.

But one thing about it, man is called of God, needs to do what God calls him to do. And we don't often understand this. We in this congregation have had that. You've had this before. Brother Moose Parks was a faithful pastor of this church, and the Lord called him to go away.

And God has been gracious to give me this ministry here. Peradventure, God would do the same there for them. So pray for them, pray for all that is involved in this. I know that the people of Danville will be very happy. The answer to prayer for them, but yet I know it's sad for the other members of Hurricane, so pray for them as well. My heart this morning is that you would also pray for me. I desire to preach the gospel to you in clarity and plainness. And I know this without him, none of this is of any worth. Without the Spirit of God, none of this will make the least bit of sense. None of it, no matter how plainly I can make it. It won't be effectual. It won't be powerful to you.

Pray that God would send it this way. It's always the desire of every preacher that the Spirit of God would use us. And so, I pray that God bless us this morning. set our minds and hearts on this. There's so many other things that are pulling us away. You're not the only one. I stand up here and preach, but I promise you there are 10,000 things pulling me in all different directions. I pray for singleness of mind.

What a glorious thing to everybody having the same mind. And know what Paul exhorted us to? Be of the same mind, the same heart, having the same desires. The desire of the church is to hear Christ. That's my desire this morning. I want to hear Him. I want Him to speak to me. I want this word that He spoke, over 2,000 years ago.

And man, when I read this, it is just as vibrant as if he said it now. It's perfect. I'm amazed at how perfect this word is. It's astounding how accurate he fitly describes his church, and all the people that profess to believe in this text. We're going to see this. He is most surely God manifest in the flesh. There is no one other who can speak like this.

I pray he'll speak to our hearts. Let's go to him in prayer. Gracious Father, again we approach you. We come seeking mercy again, grace, in our time of need. This is a time of need. We need to worship you. We need to hear your voice. We need your spirit. We need your grace, your mercy, your forgiveness, your cleansing, your righteousness. We are a needy people.

Please, by the power of your spirit, come and fulfill our needs. Have mercy. upon us, forgive us of our sins, give us all the same mind and the same heart to worship and praise the Lord Jesus Christ. Please help those that are sick, help those that are struggling, those who are bound down by chains that you would give them deliverance, set love in our hearts for you and for each other. Thank you for this place, this congregation, this people. I pray that you would keep us in love and unity of your spirit.

Pray, Father, for Frank and his family and the church in Danville as well as the church there in Ashland, that you'd be with them, that you would do your will. Father, I do pray that you'd bless it for the glory of Christ. It is in His name we ask these things and for His sake. All right, if you take your Bibles and turn back with you to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Now the title of my message is in the form of a question. Are you wise or foolish? Are you wise Or are you a fool?

Now, in the previous chapter, our Lord Jesus Christ, the disciples and the men take Him about the temple and show Him the temple like He needed to see the temple. But they did. They showed Him the temple. They were admiring how beautiful it was, how glorious it was.

And the Lord warns them that this temple will soon be destroyed. Just a few years after this, He said not one stone will be left on another. Judgment is coming on this nation. And we know it did in A.D. 70 when that temple was destroyed by the Romans. But the Lord uses this judgment as a springboard to testify of a greater judgment. A greater judgment that is coming. It is the last judgment. It is the eternal judgment.

He says in chapter 24 and verse 30, He said, Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. This is what's coming. There's a greater judgment coming.

You see, the first time the Lord Jesus Christ came, He came in meekness. You read His words and they are as the Scripture says, He, as a lamb before his shears is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. The Scripture says that He would He a bruised reed shall he not break, And smoking flax he shall not quench, Till he has set judgment in the earth, And the isles wait for his law. He came as the Lamb of God in his first advent. When he had finished that work, When He had died for the sins of His people, God raised that man, the Lord Jesus, from the dead and now He is seated on the throne of glory and He is ruling over all things.

Yet this doesn't appear to be so. The calamities, the difficulties, the struggles, the church being few and weak, It doesn't appear that way. It doesn't matter how it appears. That's what's happening. He is ruling for the singular purpose of gathering His people to Himself. Saving His people. That's what He's doing. To give eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him.

Yet there will soon come a day when that last individual is saved. Imagine the moment when that last sheep is called, when that last one hears the gospel and believes, when that last one is brought into the fold. It is then the Lord Jesus Christ himself will descend from heaven with the shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds. He will come in glorious victory. What happened at His resurrection will then be manifest to everyone. And He will gather His elect and the rest will be damned. That's coming. The question then our Lord asked, not the question but rather the demand is, verse 44, Therefore be ye also ready. Are you ready? Are you now ready?

Only those that are born again of the Spirit of God are ready. Only those who believe on Christ alone will be accepted and received into the presence of God. And if you are outside of Christ, you will not be received. You will not be accepted. Your works and everything you have done will be only counted as sin and you will die in your sins. That's what will happen.

Now with this in mind, the Lord in chapter 25 begins to show us three divisions. He's going to testify that there is a division among all that profess to believe in Christ. The one we're going to look at is the wise and the foolish virgins. The next one are the three servants with the different talents that were given to them. And the last division was that of the sheep and the goats. But let's look at this one this morning, the wise and the foolish virgins, and that's why I have that question. Are you wise? Which one of these are you? Which one of these are you? Look at this parable in verse 1.

He says, The kingdom of heaven Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom." What is this kingdom of heaven? First of all I want you to see he's using marriage as an illustration or he's preaching the gospel by marriage.

He does this often. In this day a custom was when a man had been betrothed that he would make a procession to the bride's house. And the bride would wait for the bridegroom to finish his celebration and then he would come and take his bride and then they would go to his house. And that's what the picture here is. The bridegroom is coming and there are ten who profess to be his virgin bride. We know this is true in scripture because the scripture tells us that God has chosen a people for his son, a bride, a bride.

In Hosea chapter 2 and verse 19 it says, I will betroth thee unto me, listen, forever. Now that's Hosea and Gomer but that's not That can't be happening. It didn't happen with Jose and Gomer. They're not betrothed forever. This is speaking of God and his people, his elect. I will betroth thee unto me forever. I will betroth thee unto me, listen, in righteousness and judgment.

When our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, is it not what he provided for his bride? Both righteousness and satisfaction for judgment. That's what he did, his death provided a satisfactory offering for her sin. He in his obedience provided righteousness for her. And notice this, he says, and in loving kindness and in mercies. Isn't this how he came to us? When the Lord comes to his bride, he comes in loving kindness. He finds her in distress. He finds her in her captivity. He finds her in her sin. He finds her in her wicked condition.

But He doesn't come in judgment. Isn't that gracious? Isn't that merciful? When He came to you, you were already cast down. He didn't have to cast you down. When He came to save you, He came with tenderness and mercy. He said, Come to me, my love, my dove, my undefiled. How merciful is that call? This is how he calls all of his people.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the faithful husband in this text, the bridegroom. But now in this text we want to see who are the virgins. He says the kingdom of heaven is likened to ten virgins. And we know this, that this is not all the elect that he's talking about. Why? Because we know that five of them perished.

Our Lord Jesus Christ says of his elect that he should lose nothing. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. I came down from heaven not through mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will, that of all He had given me, I should lose nothing.

So the Kingdom of Heaven here is not talking about all true believers. What it is talking about is all professing believers. Every one of you in this building, with the exception of some, profess to believe. I profess to believe. So this encompasses everyone who makes a profession of faith.

I want you to notice the character of this bride, these ten virgins. First of all, notice the character. This is the character of all professing believers. First of all, they're virgins. All of them. All of them are virgins. This testifies of the moral and outwardly moral conduct of every professing believer.

Everyone who professes to believe desires to have a good moral conduct. We all do. Every believer. Everyone who professes, whether you're a Catholic or whether you're a Baptist or whether you're a Pentecostal, whatever your denomination, everyone who professes to believe desires to be moral. Isn't that just so? So you look at the church from an outward perspective and they may have a great moral character. But see, morality does not define whether you are a fool or a wise virgin. They all were virgins. They all had a good character. Second thing, they all had lamps. Look at that. He said, The kingdom of heaven be like unto ten virgins.

They all took their lamps. What are these lamps? The lamp has to do with religion. Everyone that professes Christ has a lamp or has a a light. They profess to see a light. They profess to be believers. They profess that their religion is the true religion. Ask anyone who professes. Everyone who professes has religion. Isn't that right? The Catholics are religious. The Baptists are religious. We are religious. We all have lamps. The lamp represents a religion. Paul had a religion. His lamp was beautiful, wasn't it? I mean, before the Lord saved him, when you go to that text in Philippians 3, you listen to him describe himself. Well, he says, look, this is how wonderful I was. I want to show you how beautiful my lamp was. Hebrew of the Hebrews, tribe of Benjamin. It's touching the law of Pharisee, blameless. You couldn't touch me with sin. You couldn't accuse me of sin.

See, his lamp was pretty. Now, we may have different lamps. Some may be shoddy. We all got them. We all got religion. And notice this. They all waited for the bridegroom. They all waited for Christ. They all professed to be waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, they all profess to be ready. Every one of them.

You ask a, again, go to a Catholic, ask him if he's ready. He's ready. Go to a Baptist, Calvinist, go to anyone who professes to believe and ask them if they're ready and they say, yeah, yeah, I'm ready. Yeah. They all think they're waiting for Christ, every one of us.

They all slumbered. Notice that. In other words, you ain't gonna find a church anywhere without sinners in it. You got groups of people that say they don't sin, they're liars. So, yeah, just follow them around for a minute. Follow them in traffic, you'll see.

Somebody had said something about a guy, he had a, Hot dog in one hand and Diet Coke in the other. Big old fat guy and he had a I love Jesus t-shirt. And he goes to the cashier and he's cussing her out. Now whether he does love Jesus or not, I don't know.

You can't tell by that, can you? You catch us in the right moment, man. You could not tell us from the worst sinner. We sleep. We are lazy. And I'm talking about true believers as well as vain professors. So you can't tell that way. You can't tell that way. So what does this tell us?

That in every age, there's always these two people. In every church, there's always wise and foolish virgins. There are always faithful and lazy servants. There are always goats and sheep, tares and wheat among. And you know what's what's true about it all? You can't buy outwardly looking tail. That's what our Lord is telling us in this. You couldn't tell by these things, these outward manifestations of morality and works.

Believers do good works. Vain professors do good works. Believers have religion. Vain believers have religion. Believers are moral. vain believers are moral. You can't tell. Believers sin, and so do those that are vain pretenders. Even so it is now, there are always pretenders mixed with the true, wise among the foolish. So the important thing is for this, not to look to the right or to the left to try to figure out who's pretending and who's not. The wise thing to do is look within. Am I pretending? Or am I a real believer? Am I really ready? So the question then is what makes the difference? If nothing outward makes the difference, then what makes the difference?

Look at the text. Verse 2. Five of them were wise, and five of them were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, their religion, and took no oil. But the wise took oil in their vessels and lamps. What's the difference? Oil. Oil makes a difference. So what is the oil? If religion is a lamp, what's the oil? Simply according to scripture, the oil is always a picture of the Holy Spirit. It is a picture of the Holy Spirit.

It is the Spirit's work to give both life and light to the sinner. Now, everyone who professes to believe should know this, that we all by nature lived in spiritual darkness. We all by nature were dead in our sins. We all by nature could not see. Why? We had no light. Why? Because we had not the Spirit of God.

Look at Job chapter 12. Look at Job chapter 12 and verse 24. After declaring the complete and absolute sovereignty of God here over all men, he describes the nature of man. He said he taketh away the heart of the chief of the people. In other words, the best of us, the best of men, the chief of the people of the earth. And he calls it them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way they're lost. What does he say about the best of us?

We're lost. They grope in the dark without light and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man. So what is God describing the lost? The lost are blind and they are groping in the dark. You see a blind man, he don't have a cane, what does he do? He's always looking for some, trying to find something. He can't find it. He's groping.

This is how we are spiritually. Look at Isaiah chapter 59, he says the same thing. Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 10. He says, the arm of the Lord is not short to save, but God must first reveal something to us, the greatness of our sin, He says this in verse 10, we grope for the wall like the blind.

We grope as if we have no eyes and stumble at noonday as in the night. We are in a desolate places as dead men. Behold the greatness of our blindness that we cannot see no matter how clear the gospel is preached. Astounding. I've heard gospel messages that are just so clear and so plain to me. And I'm like, who couldn't understand that? Well, the blind. Me before the Lord gave me light, I should be able to well understand what they're going through because I myself groped in the dark until he gave me light.

And the Lord puts the law in our hearts and we men know there's a God but they can't know who He is. Men by wisdom cannot know God. This is the lamp without oil. Is that man believes he can know God by some academic measure or by some philosophical point.

If I could just make it, if I could just do, if I could manipulate them and if I could get some entertainment in here, if I could do all of these things, then they'll get it. No, they won't. Why? Because the man preaching that don't get it. It's the blind leading the blind. But religion with the Holy Spirit, what does it have? It has light. It has life. But those without the Spirit are a lamp without oil. Since man is dead and blind to the way of salvation, he gropes in the darkness. But God, by grace, has given his Holy Spirit to quicken the dead. This is the purpose of the Holy Spirit.

Why do you think we do this? I know it comforts you. I know it feeds you. If you have light, you see these things and they're glorious to you. But that's not the only purpose we do this, is it? Because there are still more of his elect that he must give light and life to. God in grace gives his Holy Spirit to quicken the dead and give life. And when that person is given life, it is like oil to the lamp. The oil feeds the fire. I like this picture. Go to Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 4. This is a beautiful picture. Try to drink in the vividness of this.

The angel talking to the prophet, verse 2, he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold, a candlestick of gold and a bowl on top of it, and seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the lamps, which were at the top thereof, and two olive trees on it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side thereof. And so I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, what are these, my lord? And the angel that talked with me answered unto me, he said, no, it's not without these things. He said, no, you know what this is? No, I have no clue what this is. He answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. See the vision here is of a candlestick, a candle. It has seven candles, seven pipes, right? Seven candles. And into these candles are pipes. Each one of them has a pipe. And it's coming from this big bowl of oil on top of it. And on top of that are two olive trees constantly providing oil.

He said, what's that? Well, the candlestick is the church. It's God's people. And notice the source. He gives us a new nature by which we can hold this oil. which is the Spirit. And not only gives us the Spirit in a measure, He constantly is pouring in the Spirit to keep the light going. And what's this? The Word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. Here it is. Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.

See what He's saying? The oil is the Spirit. Think of that in Pilgrim's Progress, remember? When he come into that interpreter's house and he saw that fire on that one side, he saw the devil throwing water and throwing water and throwing water. The more water he threw on it, the bigger it got. He said, come to the other side. And what do you see? You saw a man pouring oil into the fire.

That's what happens. The Spirit of God, when He comes to a man, He gives him the light of life. And the Spirit of God provides that light. He provides that faith. And it's a constant, perpetual light that doesn't go out. It can't. And what does this light reveal?

It says in verse 7, Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become as a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, crying, Grace, Grace, unto it. Not Zerubbabel the man, the greater Zerubbabel. This is speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What does the light of the Gospel reveal? What does the light of the Spirit reveal? It always testifies of Jesus Christ. It testifies of His perfect work. O mountain of sin, who are you to stand before Him? Isn't that what He did? He removed our sin. Wasn't it a mountain? An obstacle? Something that separated us between God and what did our great Zerubbabel do? He removed it. By His death He removed our sins forever. And He shall bring forth the last stone. The word headstone means last stone. You know what He's going to do? He's going to build His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it until that last stone is put in it.

That's what it reveals. That's what the Spirit reveals. And what does the Spirit cry? What does the Word of the Spirit cry? Grace. Grace unto it. How did you get the Spirit? How did you receive the Spirit? How do you have light and life? How do you have the oil in your lamp? Grace. Grace is the only answer we can provide. It was not by power. It was not by might. But it was by His Spirit. The light of the Spirit lights Christ. Behold, now Christ has walked upon the earth. And what has he done? He has obtained salvation for his elect. He got it. He got it.

Now the religiously blind, they grope to find out why in the world Christ came. They don't have a clue. So they grope. Well, he came to do many good works and to be a good example for us. What is that? That's groping. You're just guessing. You don't have a clue. Well, He came to save all men. Nope, you're groping. You don't know. You don't have any light. If you believe Jesus Christ died for all men without exception, you have no light. You missed the point. You're groping.

You're guessing. That's why they use words like, Well, I think. I feel like. Well, maybe. Okay, you're groping. Our gospel is not maybe. Oh, he did it. He did it. Christ is our foundation. You have light, you know this. He's the foundation of all your salvation. He is the grounds of every hope you have of righteousness, of justice, of judgment, of eternal life, forgiveness of sins. What's the grounds? Are you guessing? No, I'm guessing. Christ is the foundation of all my salvation. I'm not guessing. Christ is all my righteousness. He's all my righteousness. He's all my wisdom. He's all my sanctification. He's all my redemption.

And I know this, I have life simply by the grace of God. Unmerited favor. I was no different than any of the other foolish virgins. Salvation is by grace and not by any works of the flesh. Now, you want to know if somebody's wise or foolish? If you believe salvation is by any works of the flesh, you're a fool. You have no light.

The light reveals Christ is all. and all who have the light believe wholly, completely on him. This is the all of the spirit that you believe. As said unto you, there were ten who professed to believe, but what's the distinction? What's the distinction? Paul made this distinction. He said this, I know whom I have believed.

Those that grow up in the dark, they know what they believe. But you who have light, you know who you have believed. And this is what you're persuaded of, that he's able. I'm persuaded that I'm not able. But I am totally persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. We believe that. So that yet, you say you believe. Well, the Pharisees and the apostles, you say, go to a Pharisee and ask if he believed in God. Of course you believe in Christ. Well, yes, I believe in Christ. So do the apostles.

But yet, if you were to set Jesus as he's revealed in scripture in the midst of them, then you're going to be able to get the division. What do we know who have light? We who have the oil of the spirit, what do we know about him? We know He is God manifest in the flesh without question. This is not a debatable argument. It's plainly declared and proven multiple times in Scripture.

Jesus said this, I and my Father are one. Jesus said this, before Abraham was, I am. And those Jews knew exactly what he was saying because they picked up stones to kill him. He said, I am God. The one that was at the burning bush that said, I am, that's who I am. We who know him know he is God in flesh. And we know why he came.

He came to save his people from their sins. That's what the angel said, isn't it? When the angel declared His birth, He said, You shall call His name Jehovah Saves. Now why are you going to call Him that? Because He shall save His people from their sins.

We know He came to save His people from their sins. He came to provide righteousness and He came to satisfy judgment against them. He came to reconcile us to God by His one offering of sin. And we know this, when God killed him, he punished our sins, and then we know it was successful because God raised him from the dead.

Is this what you know? Is this the person you know? God manifested in flesh. Jesus Christ, who came to provide righteousness and redemption for all his people. Third thing, I think that's separate. Now, you could probably get 95% of Christendom to confess those two things. But this is where you find their groping.

Was he successful? Did he save his people from their sin? Our Lord Jesus Christ, we who have light, understand that when he said it was finished, it's finished. The work is done. Matter of fact, in John chapter 17, he said, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. What was the work that he gave him to do? The work was to save his people from their sins. Did he? We who have light understand he did. He absolutely did.

And so as it is the will of Christ then to call everyone that he has saved. See the glory and majesty of Him who sits upon the throne as the victorious saver, having obtained righteousness and redemption. And now by the sovereign power and grace of the Holy Spirit, He comes and gives life and light to everyone He saved. Without exception.

He won't miss one. He won't miss one. You got that? He won't miss one. Isn't this good news? He won't miss one. How many times have you talked to somebody you want to preach a gospel to them and they go away and man, we feel disappointed. We feel so sad, feel so miserable. Why? If the Lord wants that, when he'll get him. And that's true, pray for him. Preach to him.

That's our command. I mean, it doesn't make any rational, earthly sense. God says, go preach to a dead man. That don't make any sense, does it? That's what we're commanded to do. Preach to the dead. Why? Because God has an elect among the dead. And he's going to call every one of them.

Not suppose that most so-called Christianity believes that Jesus Christ only made salvation possible. Now listen, if a man believes that Jesus only made salvation possible, he's groping. He might be lied. He's guessing. He has no sure foundation for his own soul.

All who believe on Christ know this. We have the light of the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We know this, that Christ is a victorious Savior. Do you have this light? But not only does this light give life and life, it also gives heat. You know what light does? Gives heat.

You that have the light of life, is it not your heart's desire to hear His voice? You that believe on Him, do you not love Him? And why do you love Him? My only confession is because He first loved me and gave Himself for me. There's no other reason why I love Him, but I do. I do love Him. I do believe on Him. And therefore, we desire to do these works. We desire to do good works. Does any believer not desire to do good? I mean, what believer doesn't desire to do good? But yet all the good we do is no proof that I'm a wise virgin.

What's the proof? The proof is I have the light of life, that I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and I know, I know that he has saved me. I know that his work is successful. I think a false religion like, I was thinking, it's illustration is weak, false religions like this, well, Jesus made salvation possible, and all you gotta do is, And then the difference, there's a bunch of differences as to what you gotta do. You gotta be baptized, or you gotta join the church, or you gotta give your tithes, or you gotta do this, you gotta do that, or you gotta exercise your free will. I thought about when I was a little kid, they'd get toys, right? And the toys were these electronic devices, they worked just fine, they're perfect, right?

Except on the back of the box, it says batteries not included. See, it works fine. All you got to do is add the batteries. Well, that's false religion. Christ's work is perfect. I believe it's perfect. It's wonderful. It'll save you. All you got to do is add the batteries. No batteries needed for this. The oil requires no batteries. No, Christ is all our salvation.

But notice this, go back to your text. Does this mean that we are now perfect without sin? No. Notice this, that during this time while the bridegroom tarried, verse 5, they all slumbered. We that have the light of life, gift of grace and yet we still are so prone to sin that at times you can't tell between us and the fools. We are prone to pride. We are prone to love the things of this world We are prone to set aside the things of God for our families and for our friends and for our entertainment.

One thing about it, God will never leave His people there. God will never leave His people there. Look at this. In verse 6, At midnight there came a cry, Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go you out to meet him. When the gospel is preached, God's people are stirred. If we slumber, it is the love of Christ that stirs us, isn't it? The bridegroom cometh. He didn't say, the judge is coming. The destroyer of the world is coming. That's not what he said. He said, your bridegroom is coming. Oh, how that stirs the heart of me. Now it stirs one to love and one to fear.

Those who had the light, they were stirred to love, waiting. And sitting there with their little lamp, just waiting for Him to come. But the others, they hear He's coming, and they look at their lamps. They're gone out. How many people come into this and profess to believe the gospel? And it doesn't take long for that light to go out and they're gone. Oh, they're so on fire. I have remembered some men who were so zealous, made me embarrassed of how unzealous I was. And they came in their zeal.

They wanted to write books, and they wanted to go to seminary, and they wanted to do all these wonderful things for Jesus. They wanted to build missions, and they wanted to do this stuff, and they started doing all of these things. Let's get a prayer group together. Let's study the Bible at home together, and do all these things.

And then man, that fire went out just as fast as it came in. And the gospel is preached, and a man looks at his religion, And he doesn't have any light. And look at somebody else who has endured the trials, the difficulties, the afflictions, and they're still there. How do you do it? How do you endure?

Well, I have the Spirit of God. The only reason I'm still here is the Spirit of God. Isn't that why you're here? You that believe, isn't that why you still come? Why do you still want to hear this message? Isn't that why you want to hear this message?

Because you have something they don't. And when they see that, they're going to say, how do I get it? Give it to me. That's what the foolish one said. Hey, give me what you got. Teach me. Educate me. Make me a Calvinist. I can't do that. I can't give you the Spirit of God. I can academically show you these things, but I can't make them effectual to you. It is only the Spirit of God that can give you light and life. And so what did they do? The Virgin said, well, we can't give you ours. Go to them that sell. In other words, what do we say to a man who doesn't have any life? Listen to the Gospel. Go where the Gospel is preached.

Because that's where I got it. Isn't that where you got it? Isn't that where the Spirit of God found you? When you were listening to the gospel, the gospel was being preached, you heard it a thousand times, a million times, and all of a sudden, light came on. Why? Because that's the means God chose to give light. So what do we say? Hear the gospel. Ho!

Everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters, come buy wine and milk with what? What do you got to come with? Without money, without price. So you gotta have nothing. You gotta take your lamp and throw it away. You need a whole new lamp. You need a lamp with oil in it.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord. Listen, he will abundantly pardon. He'll give you life. He'll give you life. To everyone who comes to God by Christ, he'll give you that. Why? How do you know? Because that's how I got it. We're witnesses of it. But notice this.

They went away and they didn't come back. They didn't come back until it was all over. How many people will make professions of faith and go away and never come back? You tell them where to get the oil. They never come. Why? They're still groping. They're still blind. They don't have any lights.

Notice what the Lord says about these. He said, 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. What joy is that? To those on that side of the door is joy. Afterward came also the other virgins saying, Lord, open, Lord, Lord, open to us. Didn't we have lamps? Didn't we wait on you? Didn't we want to serve you? Did we not do many wonderful works in your name? But he answered and said, verily I say unto you, I don't know you.

On the one side of the door, joy. Eternal, everlasting, unending joy. To you that are wise, to you that have all, to you who have the Spirit, this is the end for you. The everlasting presence of the Lord Jesus Christ will be our joy for eternity. It will satisfy our every longing and need. But to the fool who does not have the Spirit of God when he comes, you will be shut out. Scripture says where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You know what gnashing of teeth means? Regret. A never-ending supply of regret and pain.

Are you ready? Do you have the light of life? It's not based on your moral character. That fluctuates by the moment, doesn't it? But we desire to be moral people. It doesn't depend on our zeal in religion. We desire to have zeal in our religion, our gospel. That's not the difference. The difference is the Spirit.

And the Spirit, how do you know you have the Spirit? The Spirit always lights Christ. It always reveals Christ. What does He reveal? He's God. He's the perfect Savior. He has saved His people from their sins. And my hope is in Him. All my hope is in Him. So when I slumber and when I sleep, He always rouses me with what? The Gospel. What's my end? Joy. Eternal, everlasting joy.

Is it not then reasonable that we should give up these things here? Is it just not reasonable seeing what great things we have in you? May God help us to set our eyes on Him and by grace reveal what we are. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, thank you for your blessings, and I do pray you'd use the message upon the heart of everyone here. Everyone listening, that you'd be gracious, shine the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ into the hearts of your people. Those be any without light, that you would reveal it to them, and by the same grace give them light and life. I pray this in Christ's name. Aum.

Are you wise or foolish-Matthew 25:1-13

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Are you wise or foolish-Matthew 25:1-13

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About Fred Evans

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