Come back to Matthew 25. Matthew chapter 25. Title of the message is The Wise
and the Foolish. The Wise and the Foolish. This is a continuation of the sermon that he began back
in chapter 24, verse 3, when he took his disciples up to the
Mount of Olives and began to teach them about the end of time,
about his second coming, what was going to happen to Jerusalem,
the temple, And this chapter is a continuation of that sermon. It's the same sermon. And I reckon
if there is a title that we could put on the whole sermon is this. Watch and be ready. That is throughout
this whole sermon, the sermon that he gave on the Mount of
Olives. Watch and be ready. Now he says
here in verse 1, the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven
spoken of here is the visible church on earth. That's us right
now. There are no foolish virgins
in heaven. They're all wise. They've all
been made wise in Christ. So I know by this that he's speaking
of his visible church here on this earth. The church will always
have tares among the wheat. Now you can just mark it down.
The Lord said it so. There will always be goats among
the sheep. There will always be lost professors
among saved possessors. Always. And there will always
be wise and foolish in the same congregation. And I tell you
what, you and I couldn't tell it apart. If you saw this wedding
procession and said, what's going to happen here? You wouldn't
be able to tell the five foolish from the five wise. Not in the
beginning of it. Not until the bridegroom came
was the difference made. Not until then. And the purpose of the parable
is to teach us to be ready to meet the Lord when He comes.
To be watchful. To be wise. To be faithful. Not to be taken up with these
things. You remember when the disciples left the temple, they
said, look at this. Isn't this beautiful? He said,
there's not going to be one stone left upon another. Don't give
your attention to this. This material building, these
material things. You watch and be ready for my
coming. My coming. And that's the purpose
of it, to be ready to meet the Lord when He comes. Now, that
does not mean that we stand by the window, letting everything go while we
watch for Him. You say, well, the house is a
mess because I'm watching for my husband. Well, no, clean the
house and make it ready for when He comes. It says over in chapter
24, verse 6, blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He
cometh, shall find so doing. Taking care of what the Lord
has given him to do. Some years ago when Henry had
the preacher school, he had a meeting with the wives. And Vicki took
a lot of notes. And he gave a schedule. One of
these days I'm going to put it in a bulletin. But he gave a
schedule for the wife. When to get up. What to do. Cook, cook your breakfast, take
care of those kids, have them ready for school, clean the house,
have it ready, have dinner on the table, get the dishes washed,
take care of the kids' schoolwork, get them to bed, and then retire. They had a long list. I said,
on Wednesdays, I'm going to put that in a bullet. Be ready. Be ready. That's why he said,
be ready. When your husband comes, be ready.
When our Lord comes, be ready. That's what he's saying. Be about
your father's business. Take care of it while you wait
for him, while you watch for him. And this parable is about
a wedding. And in that time, weddings took
place at night time. And they would have a procession.
And here he uses 10 virgins because they would have maids, 10 virgin
maids. And the number 10, you didn't
have a wedding without 10. You didn't have the Passover
without 10. You didn't even have a synagogue among the Jews without 10, the
number 10. So he uses this number 10 here. And so these 10 virgins
were in the wedding procession. And they had lamps, they had
torches, probably rags around them, and it dipped in oil. And
they would go to a certain place. The bridegroom, he's waiting
at this place. He's waiting at a place out here
somewhere, maybe his home. The bride is at her father's
house waiting. And then when he comes, the bridegroom
comes out of his house, he's going to her father's house.
And when that happens, they have this wedding procession and they
light these torches and they surround him and they light the
way as he goes through the street to their father's house. And
then when they go into the house, they shut the door and they have
the wedding. And those in the house, after
the door's shut, are the ones in the wedding. They get to participate
and enjoy and be part of that ceremony. And so that's what's
going on here. That's the story behind it. So
he says here, Then shall the king of heaven be likened to
ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet
the bridegroom. They're going to, as one writer
said, they're going to light his way. They're going to light
him to the Father's house. And five of them were wise, and
five were foolish. Five were wise unto salvation. Five of them knew the bridegroom.
The five of them really had no interest in the bridegroom. What
they was interested in? The ceremonies. The ceremonies. There had been a time or two
in my life that I had been around a wedding that I had felt like
the bride was far more interested in the ceremonies and all the
hoopla than the person she was marrying. And five of those were
interested in all the hoopla. They were caught up in it. Five
were wise and five were foolish. But you could not tell that by
looking at them. You couldn't tell. I'll tell you what, if
I had to pick one of them out, if I had to make the choices,
I guarantee you I'd miss it. I'd miss it. I'd shoot someone
like Jacob. I'd shoot someone like David,
King David. I'd miss it. But the Lord knows the difference.
And the difference will be made known when He comes. I want you to note their likeness.
All of them were virgins. They were all outwardly pure. They were all young maidens.
They were all dressed alike. They were all in the wedding
procession at this time on this earth. They all had an interest
in the wedding. They were in the wedding. They
had an interest in it. And they were dressed alike. They all
had lamps. And listen, for a while, all
their lamps were burning. They all professed the same thing,
believed the same thing. They all made a fair show. All
their lamps were burning. They all had knowledge of His
coming. They were looking for His coming, the coming of the
bridegroom. All ten of them were looking because they were in
this wedding procession and they were looking for the bridegroom
to come. And then they all had the same
needs. They all slept. You know, the Spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. We have to sleep. We all have
the same needs. You see, there are five wise,
five foolish, and they that were foolish took their lamps and
took no oil with their lamps. But the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps, and while the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered and slept. That doesn't mean the church
became became, or fell asleep, we have, you know, we can't be
24-7 praying, or reading, or preaching. Sleep is a natural
thing. So they all had the same needs. And they all talked about the
wedding. Don't you know they all talked about the wedding,
all ten of them, just standing there, while they were waiting
for the bridegroom to come, they're talking about the wedding. And
as I said, externally, you couldn't tell the difference. Not a lot. The scripture says, the Lord
knoweth them that are His. Now we have a good idea, I think
sometimes, but the Lord knoweth them that trust in Him. He knoweth
them. But note their difference here
in verse 3. They that were foolish took their
lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps. Now the difference is starting
to be made. It says here, the difference is here, five were
wise. They were born of God. They were
ready. They had plenty of oil. They
had plenty of oil for their lamps. They had plenty of oil for the
journey. But five were foolish. They just took enough to get
there. They just took enough to get
to the place where they were going to wait on Him. Isn't that
here? Isn't that this place? They all
got to this certain place, and there they sat, and there they
talked, and there they waited, and they waited on Him. Well,
five of them had enough oil to wait it out. And five of them
did not have enough oil while they waited. And their lamps
were going out. Five were wise, and five were
born of God, and five were not. They were hypocrites. That's
the word for it. They were hypocrites. You see,
the difference here, it's not their dress. It's not the light
that's burning. It's the oil. Wasn't that the problem? Is that
not the problem? Their lights are going out because there's
no oil. No oil in the lamps. Spurgeon said this, and here
it is. Here it is. This oil spoken of here, it said
they had no oil. They just did enough in the beginning
to get it burning. And as they walked and then they
finally stopped at this place, it's starting to go out. Spurgeon said this oil is the
secret work of regeneration in the soul. Five of them had
it. Five of them didn't. They didn't
have it. They had the outward profession.
They had the outward show. They talked about the bridegroom.
They talked about his return. But five of them had the oil.
Five of them had the Spirit of God. Five of them didn't have
it at all. They just had an outward show.
That's what he's teaching. It is the secret work of regeneration. It is the work of the Spirit
of God in the soul. Turn over to John chapter 7. In John chapter 7, look in verse
37. They're at this feast, I believe it's
the tabernacle. He says in verse 37, In the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive. That's the oil. That's the oil. The Lord is making
the point here. That's the oil. It is the very presence of the
life of God in the soul. That's this oil. It is the actual
presence of Christ, of the Lord Jesus Christ, in you. That's the difference between
them. You see, outwardly, you couldn't tell the difference.
The difference was inward. The difference is inward. And
it's proven by the bridegroom tarrying. He tarries. It says in verse 5, while the
bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. They went
to sleep. You know, we have to end this service. We have to
go home. And tonight we'll have to sleep, and then Lord willing,
we'll be back here Wednesday, and then we'll have to go back
to our jobs. But the bridegroom tarried. Now, to us, it seems
he's tarried, but I tell you what, he's on time. He's always on time. His time. His time. But he tarried, and
I think he did this. He tarried to demonstrate his
sovereignty. I want you to get this. If he's
not the head before marriage, he will not be the head after
marriage. I assure you that. If he's not
the head, if she's not going to follow him before they get
married, she's not going to follow him after they get married. And so he demonstrates his sovereignty
here. He tarries. He's going to come
at his time. The Lord is sovereign. The bridegroom
is sovereign. He's our sovereign. He's the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is no ordinary man. This
is the King of Glory. And He's going to come at the
appointed time. And He's going to come when it's
time. And at midnight, at midnight,
when they were sound asleep, there was a cry made. Behold
the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him." Now listen,
at midnight the cry came. It was made. Behold the bridegroom
cometh, go ye out to meet him. What's that say? This happens at death. or at His second coming. This
is when the cry goes out. The cry may go out tonight for
one of us. Behold, the bridegroom cometh.
Or we may live to see the coming of the Lord and put an end to
all this. It may be. So that's what that's talking
about. At midnight, He came. Or rather, the cry came. Go out
to meet Him. It's time to go meet the bridegrooms.
It's time to meet the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It may be tonight. It may be
twenty years down the road. Like I said, it may be at His
second coming. But I tell you this, when He comes, and when
that cry comes, go out to meet Him. You're going to go out and
meet Him. You and I will go out and meet
Him. And then here's a sad revelation
in verse 7. Then all those virgins arose,
and they started to trim their lamps. And the foolish said unto
the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out. They're flickering. They just
have a little flicker. Just a little light left in them. You see a torch starting to go
out. You can see it starting to smoke. You've got a little
light, but they're starting to smoke. It's starting to go out.
It's starting to go out. And this is a sad revelation.
They find this out when it's too late. It's just too late. Solomon said,
as the tree falls, so shall it lie. It is what it is. And when he
comes and he cries and the cry goes out, the bridegroom summons
you. As God said to that rich man,
He said, Thou fool, this night thy soul is required of thee.
Come. And these virgins here, these
five foolish, you know, they got up and they were excited
with the rest of them. And then they looked and they
said, We don't have enough light. We don't have the light. We're
not ready. We are not ready for the coming
of the bridegroom. You were told about it. You've
heard about it. You knew all about it. You've
known it. And your light's gone out. That's why they're called foolish.
I tell you what, here's what foolish is. It's when you are
confronted with the gospel, the gospel of God's glory, and you're
just unprepared. You walk away from it unprepared.
That's why you call them foolish. And it says here in verse 8,
And a foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil, for our
lamps are going out. They're going out. Now they were excited, but excited
the wrong way, about the wrong thing. Now they're not excited
about His coming, they're excited about their life going out. They
don't have enough. They can't be in the procession
without the light. They can't have it. You're children
of light. You can't be in the wedding procession
without being light. And their light was gone out.
And they recognized it, but they recognized it too late. And here's
what they said. They said, give us of your oil,
our lamps are gone out. Let me ask any of you this. I'll ask all of us this. Does
anyone here have grace to spare? I don't. I don't have an ounce
of grace to spare. I need it all. And those wives said, not so. Not so. The wives' answers say,
not so, lest there be not enough for us and you. That means the
whole wedding will be off. The whole thing will be a mess.
It will all be a disaster. You go to them to sell and buy
for yourself. Oh, I tell you, we only have
enough grace for ourselves. The Spirit of God and regeneration
is not ours to give. I can tell you about Christ. I can tell you about the bridegroom.
But I can't give you grace. I can tell you about grace. I
can stand here and preach to you the grace of God, the God
of all grace and the God of all comfort. I can't give you an
ounce of it. It has to come from Him. It has to come from Him. I cannot trust Christ for anyone. I can't do it. If you could trust
Christ for your children, you'd do it. But you can't. You cannot
do it. It's an individual matter. Individual. Spurgeon said this, there is
a proper place where the oil can be bought at the right time.
We are bidden to buy the truth and sell it not. Grace is sold
in God's market on gospel terms without money and without price.
But when the midnight cry is heard, the day of grace is closed
and buying and selling is over forever. That's why our Lord
said in the Scriptures, the day is a day of salvation. Now is
the accepted time. We don't have tomorrow. Not one
of us. And those wise virgins said,
not so, not so. It's not ours to give, it's ours
to receive, but not to give. By faith we receive Christ, and
that faith is a gift of God. And here's a sad folly. See,
they said, go ye rather to the end of the cell and buy for yourselves.
And verse 10, and while they went to buy, Bridegroom came, and they that
were ready, their lights were all trimmed, and they had that
oil, that extra oil they took in their flasks. They had all
the oil they needed for the journey, all of it. And they went in with
him to the marriage and to the house, and the door was shut.
And here's a sad folly. They went away. Those foolish
virgins went away. And when they were gone, the
bridegroom came and the door was shut. They realized their
condition too late. You see, listen, our Lord is
about to go to the cross here. These are His last words to us.
And His last words to us is solemn warning. Be ready. Be vigilant. Be wise. Be faithful. Watchful. Those are His last words to us.
And His disciples on the Mount. And so they left. They went away
and the door was shut. There is a time when the door
of grace, the door of salvation, is shut. There are deadlines
taught in the scriptures. They are taught. When God called
Noah into the ark, it says he shut the door. And they never
heard a message from Noah again. That was the end of it. And then the foolish virgins
came back. And I kind of likened this, I
don't know, I didn't read this in any of the writers, but I
kind of likened this when it came time for them to die. They
came back. But this time, the door was shut. The door was shut. And they said, and here's the
consequence of negligence, open to us. Open the door to us. And the bridegroom said, I know
you're not. I don't know who you are. I do not know you. And that day
they will say, Lord, Lord, we preached in thy name. We cast
out devils in thy name. We have done many mighty works
in thy name. These are the five foolish virgins. And he will
say, depart from me. I never knew you. Now, what are we to learn from
this parable that I'll close? What are we to learn? First of
all, that a profession only is not salvation. Talking about doctrine, talking
about Christ, just believing doctrine, is not salvation. Salvation is to be born of the
Spirit of God Almighty. is to be born from above. Nicodemus,
when our Lord began to speak to him, and Nicodemus started
asking questions, and he said, Nicodemus, you must be born again.
You cannot see the kingdom of God, you cannot understand what
I'm saying without being born again. A profession is not salvation. A possession of Christ Christ
Himself is our salvation. And then this, that the church
is always and will always be a mixture of lost and saved. The true and the false. They'll
always sit side by side in the same congregation. That's what
He's teaching. That's what He's teaching. And that doesn't mean 50% are
saying 50% lost. That's not what He's saying here. He's just saying there will always
be terrors among Greeks. And there will always be the
hypocrite, the false professor among the true professor, and
you won't be able to tell the part until God comes and He makes
the difference. And we'll see this as we get
on over into this chapter. Let me see if I can find it real
quick. And verse 32, And beforehand shall be gathered all nations,
and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherds
divide the sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. He'll do the separating.
He will. He will. And then all who show
an interest are not interested. This is a solemn message. And the bridegroom will come
when he's ready. But he will come. He will come. The Lord
Jesus Christ Come on. He's on His way. And that salvation cannot be
given by men to men. I can only tell you about it.
But I can't give it to you. And I believe that deadlines,
if we learn this, that deadlines are taught in the Word of God.
They are taught. And here's the message. Watch
therefore. Watch. Be vigilant. Ready. Watch therefore and be
ready. For ye know neither the day nor
the hour wherein the Son of Man is coming. The Scripture says,
Make your calling and election sure. Get diligence to do that.
Get diligence. I believe Paul said in one place,
Know ye not how that Christ is in you, how that He dwells in
you, lest you be reprobate? You know, he said, don't you
know, you're not that. Give diligence to know that. Watch. He says, watch and be
ready, be ready, don't be presumptuous, give diligence to these things.
And that's that. There are two more parables after
this, and that's what he teaches in those parables. Watch and
be ready. OK, Mike.