As we. Pray each time we gather
together, that's our hearts desires that the Lord would send his
spirit. If he doesn't, we're meeting in vain. It's the Holy
Spirit that causes us. It gives us the ability to worship
the Lord in spirit and in truth. We've been looking in Proverbs
as you all know, going by whatever the day of the month it is, that's
the proverb that we read as a congregation. And so today was number 21. And
if you'd like to turn there with me, Proverbs 21, the Lord's given
me a message from this passage. A lot of Proverbs writing Solomon
writes, he will have a thought and he'll write it in one verse.
And then the next verse doesn't really go along with anything
that was in the previous verse. Now we understand that it's all
the Lord's word and it's all relevant to us and the translators,
they took verses and they put chapters in to separate them
and things like that. But sometimes the Lord allows
things to be hidden and then he reveals them. And it's throughout
the entire scripture, whether it's in Proverbs or if it's Genesis
to Revelation, that's what the Lord does in the preaching of
the gospel is he's revealing something new to his gospel preachers
to declare. But it's always the same thing
that's new. It's Jesus Christ and crucified. And yet we come
and sit at the same table and we eat the same manna from heaven
and he fills us once again. And that's why we're here today.
Tonight is the Lord would send his manna against in his spirit.
He would quicken us. He would revive us once again
so. In all of Proverbs and distinctly in Proverbs 21, we have multiple
comparisons or contrasts that take place. You have the wicked.
and the righteous. You have the poor, you have the
rich, you have the proud, you have the humble, you have the
fool, and you have the wise man. You have those that have been
given understanding and those that are still dead in trespasses
and in sin. You have the ways of man and
the ways of God. We have works, we have grace,
we have good, we have evil, we have right, we have wrong. I'm
reminded that that's how it has always been since the fall of
man in the Garden of Eden. Cain and Abel is the very first
example of this. Cain offered up the works of
his hands unto God, and God was displeased with Cain. He had
no respect unto Cain or his sacrifice. Abel offered up a sacrifice of
blood, didn't he? That was significant because
it implied that it was all by grace. of the Lord's blood, it
was a type and shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what he
was saying was, this is not in my hand, no price I bring, simply
to Christ I cling. And so from the very beginning,
we see these parallels, these comparisons. So who maketh us to differ? Who
maketh us to differ? Is it not the Lord? He said in
1 Corinthians 4, 7, who maketh thee to differ from another?
And what hast thou that thou hast not received? It is the
Lord that causes one to be good and causes one to be left to
themselves, calls one to be poor and one to be rich, causes one
to be proud and one to be humble. The Lord gets all the glory in
it, doesn't he? We know that it's all by grace. It's all by
the Lord's gospel and his free and sovereign grace to his people.
It's God's choice. Let's look here at some of these
parallels. Proverbs 21 verse 15 says. It
is joy to the just to do judgment, but destruction shall be to the
workers of iniquity. The man that wandereth out of
the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of
the dead. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. He that
loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. The wicked shall be
a ransom for the righteous and the transgressor for the upright.
It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with the contentious
and angry woman. There is treasure to be desired.
and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth
it up. He that followeth after righteousness
and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honor. Now there's two contrasts
here that I haven't mentioned just yet. And those two contrasts
are oil. It's interesting that he gives
us two examples, one in verse 17, let's look at that again.
He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. And then in verse
20, He says, there is treasure to be desired and oil in the
dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up. We have the
oil of the flesh, the oil that man has conjured up, the oil
that satisfies the flesh. And then you have the oil of
gladness that only the Lord can produce. And I mentioned when
we read Psalm 23, to notice what he said about anointing the head
with oil. I've titled the message, Oil of Gladness. And I would
like to see a few things about our oil. Do we have the oil of
the wise man described here or do we have the oil of the fool
described here? It's a contrast, isn't it? It's
a specific contrast that the Lord shows us. There's no other
oil beside the oil of gladness and the oil according to the
flesh. Understand that. There is treasure to be desired.
and oil in the dwelling of the wise. I want to make certain
tonight that we know that we have the oil of the wise, don't
you? Now, he could be talking about physical things here, that
a wise man knows not to use up all the oil and a foolish man
uses the oil quickly, but I believe the Lord is telling us something
about oil here. Oil typifies and represents the
Holy Spirit of God, the anointing of the Lord. Every time that
you look in scripture of oil being used, in the Old Testament,
it was used to anoint. King David was anointed. Do you
remember whenever Samuel went down To Jesse's house, that's
where God told Samuel to go to anoint the king of Israel. And
he looked at all of Jesse's sons. He no doubt would have started
with the strongest, the most strapping, the most robust, even
probably the most handsomest, I don't know. But he said, no,
that's not the one that's anointed of God. They went down the line. He kept going. And at the end
of it all, he says, do you not have any more sons? And he says,
yeah, I have one more, but he's just a lad. He's a boy. He's
a kid. He's out tending the sheep. You don't want him. He said,
go fetch him. And that was the Lord's anointed. And what did Samuel do? He opened
up the oil and he poured the oil of gladness upon David's
head, didn't he? What is that a picture of? It's
a picture of the Lord sending forth his spirit in power like
he does to every elect sinner and quickening them by his grace
according to the preaching of the gospel. That's what that
represents. So I want to know tonight if we have the oil of
the wise or the oil of fools. It's important, isn't it? It's
life and death. Last Wednesday night, ironically,
we looked at, is our gospel God's gospel? And it kind of goes hand
in hand with that. So it's the same message in some sense, in
some way, shape or form, but at the same time, it's new and
it's fresh. The Lord makes it thus. In order
to answer the question whether we have the oil of wise or the
oil of fools, we have to ask these three questions. What is
the oil of gladness? What does the oil of gladness
do? And who is the oil of gladness for? Who is the oil of gladness
for? Oil of gladness is only mentioned
twice in the scripture, the phrase oil of gladness, and it's both
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. One time it was mentioned
is in Psalm 45, verse seven, and literally verbatim, Paul
declares it unto the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9,
and it says, Thou lovest righteousness. He's speaking about Christ. Thou
lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy
God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows. This was Paul declaring that
Christ had been given the Holy Spirit in power, had been given
the fullness of the Holy Spirit because he was the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. He's declaring it to them, the
Christ that you're seeking for, this is him. He is the anointed
of God. And that's why he's reminding
them what David had written in Psalm 45, that he was, said that
he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. The anointing received by Christ
is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God rested upon
him. The Spirit of God was given unto him without measure, it
says in John chapter three, verse 34. Same conversation that was
happening between Nicodemus and Jesus Christ. He tells him that
the Holy Spirit, that this oil of gladness, this Spirit of God
was given unto Christ without measure, without measure. Now
you and I know the scripture says that he gives the measure
of faith unto his people. But understand something, the
faith that he gives is the faith of Christ, and Christ had the
full, it was without measure. You can't say he got a full measure,
that's not the way to say it. It was without measure, it was
every bit of it. All of the isness of God bodily,
all of the spirit upon him, the Lord anointed him with the oil
of gladness. It's the same exact anointing
of the Spirit of God to his elect whenever the Lord gives life. We know that the Spirit of God
rested upon Christ without measure. He was completely full. That's
the best way you can put it. He was completely full of the
Spirit of God. But then in time, the Lord does the same thing
to his people. He gives them his Spirit. He
says, live, and they become alive. He breathes the breath of life
into them. It's called the oil of gladness.
That's what it's likened them to. He anoints his people and
they're made alive. He gives them repentance towards
God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, breathe. This is the anointing of the
Lord. Do we see that? So what is the oil of gladness?
It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit on Christ and then God's
elect. That's what the oil of gladness
is. Now, what does the oil of gladness do? meets a sinner right
where he is, dead and trespasses and in sins and says, live. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter
16. Ezekiel chapter 16, the oil of gladness comes to every sinner
that God elected before the foundation of the world meets them where
they are, dead, and trespasses it in sin, and says, live. Ezekiel
16, verse six. And when I passed by thee, I
saw thee polluted in thy own blood. I said unto thee, when
thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increase and waxen
great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned,
thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. And
when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee and covered
thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee and entered
into a covenant with thee and said, the Lord, saith the Lord,
and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water,
yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered
work, and shod thee with badger skin, I girded thee with fine
linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with
ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hand, and a chain on
thy neck, and I put a jewel on thy forehead, an earring in thy
ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thus what thou decked
with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and
silk and boarded work, and didst eat fine flour and honey, and
what else? Oil. And thou wast exceeding
beauty, beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, and it was perfect through my comeliness
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord. What do we see here?
The Lord passes by, first of all. We see that we're dead and
trespassed and in sin, we're polluted in our own blood. We're
dead, not barely alive, not at the point of death, literally
dead. And the Lord passes by. By grace,
the Lord says, live. What does he do after he says
live? He clothes us? Just as the prodigal
son returning into his father, he thought that he was only going
to get maybe some scraps. He thought he was going to be
able to be a servant in the house of his father. He said, no, I
want to put the best robe upon you and a ring upon your finger
and kill the fatted calf. My son has returned. This is
what the Lord did unto us, not because of anything we had done,
not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according
to his mercy, he passed by in his sovereign right to choose.
He passed by and saw. Dead dog sinners polluted in
their own blood and said live. And He clothed them with His
righteousness. And He girded us with His glory.
He gave us life eternal. and he anointed our head with
oil. Just as David said in Psalm 23, anoints my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. That's what he's done for
his people. He says, live. That is what the
oil of gladness represents, brethren. That's what the oil of gladness
does for the Lord's people. It breathes life by God's gospel. Once life is given, once life
is given, unto his people immediately, it causes us to worship, gives
us repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus
Christ. If the Lord would have just left us polluted in our
own blood, if he'd have said live, but yet left us and walked
away, there would have been no goodness that would have come
out of us still yet. He had to do it all, do we see that? He
not only gave us life, but then he swaddled us, he cleaned up
our blood, he took our polluted blood, he took our sin unto himself.
He who knew no sin became sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. When he did that, he cleaned
us up and he anointed us with his Holy Spirit. He gives us
His Spirit. Think about that. As soon as
He does all this, He gives us repentance towards God and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember we were reading
and it talks about the wise man and the foolish man. The Lord
makes us wise. Why? Because He gives us Christ,
who is the wisdom of God. He gives us life because Christ
is life eternal. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life, right? No man cometh to the Father but by me. The fool, on the other hand,
says we have our own oil. We've made our choice. We've
made a covenant with death. We have our own oil that we've
fabricated. We've made a covenant with death. With hell, we're
in agreement. You've heard me mention that before. This is
the same as the Pharisees in the Lord's time. Do you remember
the boy that was... Well, he was a man whenever the Lord healed
him, but he was born blind. He was blind from birth. And
as he's sitting there begging, the Lord passes by. And what
does the Lord do? The same thing that he did in
Ezekiel chapter 16, he says, see, look, behold, and the man
sees, right? Pharisees became very angry at
God because he'd done it on the Sabbath day. They didn't realize
they were talking to the Sabbath day, the man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. They didn't see it that way, did they? That's who Christ,
that was all the Sabbath represented was Jesus Christ. So they get
angry at the Lord. And they go to the young man,
and they say, are you the one that was blind before? Give God
the glory. Who did this? We know that some
say it's Jesus of Nazareth, but give God the glory. What are
they saying? We'll not have this man reign
over us. We'll not have this oil of gladness. We have our
own oil of gladness. We have our own righteousness,
which is of the law. We don't need this man. Away
with him. That's what they were saying. Give God the glory. They
said, is this man a sinner? They asked that blind man that.
He's not blind anymore, but he was. Is this man Jesus a sinner? And he said, whether he be a
sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, the oil of
gladness has been put upon my head, whereas I was blind, now
I see. That's the interjection of the
gospel. A man that's dead and trespasses in sin by the wayside
with no hope of life, the Lord Jesus Christ passes by and says,
live. That's our hope, isn't it? That
he would sin, he would condescend, he would send his spirit in power
and say live. That's the oil of gladness that
he does on his people. This is what it does. The oil
of gladness causes us to confess. That's what that blind man confessed
after he had received his sight. He confessed who Christ was to
Christ. He confessed that Christ was the Lord. He worshiped Christ. He worshiped God. That's what
the oil of gladness does every time it meets a sinner, is it
causes us to worship God. Repentance towards God, faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and what is our confession? Christ
is all in salvation. That's what it does. And we have some insight to this
worship and all throughout the scripture, even in the temple,
even the worship of the temple, the oil was used for this same
worship, as I'm describing to you, the same confession that
we're physically doing now, that's what the temple, all the types
and shadows that took place with sacrifices and all the ceremonies
that were happening, they were worshiping God the way that God
had established them to worship at that time, but it was all
a picture of Christ. The temple itself was a picture, the tabernacle
was a picture of Christ. We've seen that recently. The
sacrifice was a type of Christ. And this oil that they use were
for three different reasons. One was anointing, one was the
source of light, and one was worshiping for burning incense.
Now, every time that you hear or you see in the scripture of
anointing of oil, that's a type of sanctifying, making holy. That's what that represents.
When Moses came to the tabernacle, what did he have to do before
they could even worship in it? He had to anoint it with oil. He had to sanctify it. That's
what it represents. Before Aaron could ever offer
up a sacrifice unto the Lord, what did they have to do? He
poured the oil upon his head, didn't he? He anointed him. Before
you and I can ever worship God, we must be sanctified. We must
be holy. We must be made righteous. Not
having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but the
righteousness that is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have to be just as holy as God. That's what Christ did for
his people. He made them just as holy as
God. This was their source of light.
The oil was in the tabernacle in the temple. Is Christ not
the light of the world? He said that, didn't he, to his
disciples? I am the light of the world. When I go away, you
are the light of the world. Isn't that what the Lord said?
Christ is the light. That's what it represents. Do
we see that? It's all Him, every bit of it, from Genesis to Revelation.
We're in Proverbs, I know, but this is the Lord. This is His
doing. This is His work. This is his
light going forth. We couldn't. We could not see
to worship God. We were in darkness. Do we see
that he has to send his light for us to see how to worship
him and he does. Last thing they used it for was
to burn incense. It was used as a catalyst. If
they were to just burn incense, the incense itself would not
burn on its own. It had to have the oil. What
is that representation of the incense we've talked about? The
objects that they use in burning the incense and how it had the
coals had to come from off of the altar of God and how that
Christ was offered up as a sweet smelling savor unto his father.
That's what the incense represented. And yet it had to have the oil
as a catalyst for it to be burned. Christ Jesus had to be anointed
with the oil of gladness and he was. He was the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Christ Jesus worshiped God perfectly,
didn't he? And when he offered himself up
as a sweet smelling savor unto his father, When the Lord looks
upon you and I, those for whom the Lord died, he smells his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he's satisfied. He's satisfied
with his son. He's satisfied with what Christ
did. Without this oil, there would
be no worship. There would be no worship for the child of God.
We have to have the oil of gladness. We have to have the spirit of
God. They that worship must worship in spirit and in truth. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, Nicodemus. That which
is born of the spirit is spirit. If you want to worship God, you
have to have this oil of gladness. Here's the good news. He gives
the oil of gladness to his elect gladly, gladly. The Lord is the way that he does
that. The Lord is the one that bestows
His oil of gladness upon His people. Isn't that good? The
Holy Spirit is at the disposing of the Father. As soon as the
time comes, in the fullness of time, the Lord's going to get
every one of His elect. He already has them, but He's
gonna call them, and whenever He calls them, He's already saved
them. When He calls them, He's gonna send forth the Spirit and
power. The moment that He chooses, and He's gonna say, live, and
they're gonna see. They're gonna breathe for the first time. They're
gonna be born again, and they're gonna worship God in spirit.
and in truth. The oil of gladness is used in
every aspect of worship. It sanctifies, it illuminates
Christ. We see Christ because of this
oil. Causes us to cry out for the
sweet-smelling Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Causes us to claim
and plead that he is all of our righteousness before God and
he is our only hope, is our Savior. Now back to Proverbs 21. What else does the oil of gladness
do? Look at v. 15. It is joy to the
just to do judgment. It is joy to the just to do judgment. Now, the oil of gladness, brethren,
gives joy to the just. Are we just? God is just, isn't
He? God is just whenever He put His
Son to death for the sin of his people. Justice was satisfied,
and you and I are now justified. So in God's eyes, we are the
just. Think about that. In Christ Jesus, he's made us
perfectly righteous. He's made us just in his eyes.
He's made us good in his eyes. That's why he says here, he gives
joy to the just. Without us being justified, we
would have no joy, would we? We'd be of all men most miserable.
We had hope in this world only, Because of what Christ has done,
He has justified us. And it doesn't mean that it's
just as if I'd never sinned. You never sinned one time in
God's eyes. Not one time has He looked at
you and seen sin upon you if you're His elect. That's the
good news of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ put them
away from the foundation of the world. He takes all of our sorrow,
all of our guilt, all of our shame, He bore it in His own
body, and He gives us the joy of himself. He gives us hope
of himself. First Peter chapter one, verse
eight says, who having not seen you love in whom, though now
you see him not yet believing yet rejoicing with joy, unspeakable. You can't really describe your
joy in the Lord, can you? You can begin to try. We have
joy unspeakable. I can't. I wish I could preach
the Lord the way that I want to preach the Lord. I wish we
could worship him the way that we want to. One day we will.
We'll worship him for eternity perfectly, perfectly. We have
joy on this side of the earth, unspeakable and full of glory
because of what Christ has done. This happens every time we meet
to hear the gospel, doesn't it? He pours out this oil of gladness
upon our head, anointing us one more time. When we come here,
that's what we're begging for. Lord, anoint our head one more
time. Lord, fill us one more time.
Give us Christ one more time. Understand something. The Spirit
of God never points to himself. He always points to the son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. When we come together together,
we come to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. David said, thou preparest a
table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. What's the presence of
your enemies? What is the presence of your
enemies? I'm sure you might have some enemies that don't like
you, that you have contention with and strife, maybe even family
members. Our worst enemy, brethren, if you've been made a sinner,
you know, you see him or her in the mirror every morning.
That's our worst enemy, isn't it? The things which I would
do the worship. I want to the heart that I would
like to have to look into Christ always. I don't have. I don't
feel like I have. I don't even half the time we wonder if we're
believers, don't we order order my Judas or don't let me be Judas. Lord, keep me. Don't let me kiss
your face and think that I've got it all figured out and then
go to hell. Lord, keep me. Lord, save me. Lord, give me
this oil of gladness one more time. Let me see your face. Let
me see your face. That's why we come, isn't it?
The Lord promised that he would reveal himself over and over. The Lord will never get exhausted
of you crying out for mercy. Isn't that glorious? The storehouse
of mercy is vastly full of mercy, more so than you could ever take. It'll never run dry is what I'm
trying to say. All the grace that the Lord has
will never be exhausted. It's an eternal grace. It's an
everlasting love. It's an everlasting mercy. He'll
never get tired of one of His children saying, Lord, anoint
our head with oil one more time. Lord, give me the bread of life
one more time. Lord, let me feast upon Your
body and Your blood one more time. Shut me up to Him. Lord,
let me see Christ. May we be found in Him, not having
our own righteousness which is of the law, but His righteousness. The oil of gladness causes us
to see that we've been justified and it shuts us up to Christ.
What else does it do? Well, in verse 21, it says he
that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness
and honor. Now, a man in religion that reads
this, a man that is trying to work his way to heaven, a man
that may say something along the lines of I let Jesus into
my heart, a man would read this through a fleshly eye and say,
okay, I need to follow after righteousness and mercy, and
then I will find life, righteousness, and honor. But I love the fact
that the oil of gladness is what has made us. The Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, by His Spirit, is what has caused us to follow after
righteousness and mercy. And because He has caused us
to follow after righteousness and mercy, we have found life,
we have found righteousness, and we have been made honorable
in the eyes of the Lord, honorable. Our life is hidden Christ, this
is the reason. We have his righteousness, this
is the reason. In Isaiah 43, it says, since
thou was precious in my sight, since thou was precious in my
sight, not because of what you did, but because what I've done,
because you were precious in my sight, thou has been honorable
and I have loved thee Therefore, I give men for thee and people
for thy life because you were honorable. Me? I'm honorable? Not according to what I have
done, but according to what Christ has done. He has made his people
honorable in his sight. This is what the oil of gladness
shows to his people. This is what the Holy Spirit
reveals is the righteousness of Christ. And we just come wanting
to hear it over and over, don't we? Now lastly, who is this oil
of gladness for? I think I've already answered
that question over and over and over, but I wanna show us in
Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. Who is this oil of gladness for? Jeremiah 31 verse 11. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. Therefore, they shall come and sing in the height of Zion
and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord for wheat,
for wine and for oil. Now, understand, brethren, when
you see the wheat, the wine and the oil there, We know that that's
the bread of Christ. That's His body broken for us.
That's what He tells us in Corinthians. And this wine represents the
blood of Christ that He shed for the remission of sin for
His people. But what of the oil? Oh, it's the oil of gladness
that in time, He bestows upon His people. It's the Holy Spirit
making us alive, isn't it? For wine and for oil and for
the young of the flock and of the herd and their soul shall
be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow anymore at all. Then shall the Virgin rejoice
and dance, both young men and old, together. For I will turn
their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them
rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of
the priest with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied
with my goodness, saith the Lord." It's for his people, isn't it?
What did he do? He took a hand, his hand, stronger
than ours, stronger than Satan, as he just said here, stronger
than the man, and he saved his people with his strong arm. He takes the oil of gladness
and he turns our mourning into joy. He turns our sorrow into
gladness. He satiates his people. Do you
know what that means? He satisfies them to the full. My cup runneth over. Is that
not what we read? He satisfies us with Christ by
the oil of gladness. So who did he do this for? He
did this for his elect. He did this for his bride. He
did this for the ones the father gave Christ before time ever
began. In Christ successfully redeemed
them. Everyone that he died for purchased
with his own blood. He redeemed perfectly righteous
in God's eyes. Now to start, I asked us a question. Do we have the oil of the wise?
or the oil of fools. I'm reminded, as I give you a
closing parable of our Lord, when He was speaking, He said
that there were ten virgins, and they knew that it was going
to come time for a marriage. The husband would come and take
them that night. But the husband tarried, didn't
he? And it says that five of the virgins did not have enough
oil to keep the light lit. And the other virgins, they were
called upon by them and said, give us some of your oil, share
it with us so that we can be ready whenever the husband comes,
when the bridegroom comes. And they said, no, if we give
you what we have, then there won't be enough for either of
us. Go and buy, go and sell. But it was midnight, wasn't it?
And the bridegroom came, didn't he? Well, those five were gone.
They didn't have any light. They didn't have any oil, did
they? Bridegroom came and shut. The door just as he shut the
door and Noah's Ark, he shut the door and went in with the
five that had the oil, the five that had the light, the five
that had the gospel. What is this a picture of brethren?
It's a picture of thinking that you have the oil of gladness
or thinking that I have the oil of gladness by looking to my
own righteousness. That's what it represents. Looking
to what we have done. but not really having what we
need, the oil of gladness. Do we have the wise man's oil? The question is, are you looking
to Christ for all of your righteousness, all of your wisdom, all of your
sanctification and redemption? Is there one thing that you're
hanging on to as your righteousness? If so, you have the fool's oil. But if Christ is everything to
you, all wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
if you're clinging to him alone, pleading his blood alone for
your salvation, and you have been found in Christ, then we
have the oil of the wise. Do we see that? He has given his people the oil
of gladness and caused us to be wise because Christ is our
wisdom. Our confession is that we know
nothing save Christ and him crucified. Is that not true? We don't have
any righteousness. We must have the righteousness
of Christ. This is our confession, isn't it? Father, thank you for
the oil of gladness that you anointed your son with and you
bestow upon your people in time, causing us to see Christ is all
in salvation. Thank you for your glorious gospel.
Thank you for the wisdom of Christ. Bless your word according to
your will. In Christ's name, amen.