Transcript for Morning Devotion 3: A Parable About Preparedness - The Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) by Merlin
[Music] all right let's get started [Music] [Music] okay let us begin by singing be thou my vision [Music] 386 be thou my Vis oh Lord of my heart not be all else to me save that th thou my best go by day oh by Night waking all sleeping th presence my light be th my wisdom and thou my true word I with thee and thou with me Lord thou my great father I thy true son th in me dwelling and I leave thee one [Music] riches are HID not no men's empty [Music] praise now and th and th first in my heart my king of Heaven my Fring of Heaven Victory War I reach heavens of right and my own heart for before you be my vision oh ruler of [Music] all let's pray Our Father in heaven we come before thee and we give thee thanks how thou has granted us a good night rest how thou has blessed us throughout the past days how we have experienced thy goodness thy manifold blessings and we are so thankful this morning we come before thee we ask that thou would forgive us of all our sins and that thou will cleanse Us by the Precious Blood of thy only begotten son and even as we continue this day with all the spiritual programs as well as fellowships we ask that thou will grant to us a meaningful time that all of us will save thy good goodness that all of us will experience thy presence in our lives in a most special way and that thou will always be our vision our lord Jesus will always be our Focus as we live our days on this Earth so we ask of thee to teach us even as we have our devotion May thou speak to us each and every one who has come that we will experience thy goodness and also thy teachings and most importantly to put into rightful application what we are about to learn we commit this time into thy hands for we pray all this in Jesus name amen amen okay as we are continuing our devotions in the various Parables spoken by our lord Jesus and this morning we have come to Matthew 25 if you have your Bibles turn with me to Matthew 25 we will consider verse 1 to verse 13 this is the parable of the 10 virgins now we have learned lessons on preoccupation lesson about stewardship today we want to learn lesson about about being prepared so let us turn to Matthew 25: 1-13 Brothers will begin sisters will respond okay if you there let's begin with verse one then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened onto 10 virgins which took their l and went forth to meet the bridegroom they that were foolish took their lambs and took no oil with them while the bridegroom carried they all slumbered and slept then all those virgins arose and trimed their lambs 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 went the marriage okay let's read verse 11-13 together afterward came also the other virgin saying Lord Lord open to us but he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the son of man cometh the Lord bless the reading of his holy and sacred word have you ever been unprepared for an important event for example you have uh competition or you have a sports event that you are involved in or you have an examination or an interview and then you are unprepared and because of that you lost in the competition or you failed in the exam or you could not get the job all because you were unprepared now there are serious physical consequences if we are unprepared right but what about spiritual consequences when we are not prepared when we are not prepared to face our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ what about those people who are unprepared for the return of our Lord Jesus now in the preceding chapter our lord Jesus spoke about the end times especially about the Great Tribulation that is where we all are very familiar with Matthew 24 where the disciples ask him uh what are the signs of thy coming what about the end of the world and then Jesus went on with the discourse about what will happen what are those signs and what will occurred during the tribulation and then he told the people to be prepared because no one knows when the Lord will come again so it is about the Lord's coming now all of us may be wondering well the Lord will return yes and then he will establish his Millennia Kingdom and he will do that after the Great Tribulation but as Believers we will not be there because we will either be caught up in the Rapture or we will die and our souls will go to be with the Lord we will not be in the tribulation so what has that got to do with us well there are still spiritual lessons we can learn although it is about the Lord's Second Coming where he will come and rule the world for 1,000 years so we want to draw spiritual lessons and this spiritual lesson is about being prepared so there are three parables in Matthew 25 all pertaining to the Lord's coming now one was this parable of the 10 virgins then you have Parables of the talents and you have the parable of the separation of the sheep and goats so all three are pertaining to the Lord's coming now let me give you the background of this Parable or at least some understanding of those practices in the Jewish culture in a typical Jewish marriage ceremony there are three parts and the first part would be the engagement now this would often be arranged by the fathers of those who are getting married the bride and the groom it is like a contract the contract of a marriage so there will be this engagement and then the second part will be the betr now this is like a waiting period but prior to this waiting period the couple would come together and they would take the vows before their families and friends now at this point they will be considered married so they are married but remember divorce is the only premise in which they can break the marriage bone but it is never God's will for divorce because it is because of the hardness of man's heart that was why God gave this premise or this Avenue for them to break the marriage bone but it was always God's will for men to stay married until they die until they do them part so when the groom dies the bride will be considered a widow although they have not physically consumated they are considered married now then after that this waiting period sometimes can be months or even up to a year there will be this wedding feast and this wedding Feast will begin whereby the bride would have her Bri mates now they will be waiting for the broom to come for the groom to come to meet the bride so they will be waiting there for him to come most of the time it will be at night and they would have either lamps or torches while waiting for the groom to come and then together they will go into the wedding feast and the door will be closed and the celebrations can go up to a week so that was the background okay that was the background of this particular parable of the 10 virgins so there were this 10 virgins now waiting with their lambs for the groom to come now they do not know when he will come so they will be just W thing now there are several things we can learn from this Parable and this is the lesson we want to learn is about prepense so the first thing we want to learn is about the similarities now before that verse one says the kingdom of heaven now the Kingdom of Heaven is sometimes used interchangeably with the kingdom of [Music] God it is the realm where God rules in a kingdom there will be a king so all the children of God the Believers belong to the kingdom of heaven where our God is King so Jesus said well the kingdom of heaven where all the Believers dwell with God being the king is likened onto this so it is like this Earthly illustration so he gave this illustration now you notice that the 10 virgins they are all very similar all of them very similar what are the similarities firstly all of them were invited to the wedding feast all of them they were all invited and they also responded positively you know in a separate Parable our lord Jesus said there was a man who invited the people to come for his son's wedding banquet and then someone said well I've just bought an animal I to go to tend it another one says well I have to do this other business and these people did not respond positively but unlike these 10 virgins they responded positively so they were there they were invited they responded positively and they were also part of the wedding party so they were not only invited and they responded they were also involved so very active they were waiting and they also would would be dressed in wedding garments now this is very obvious because as Bry mates and they are young virgins because in those days they would have this people who are not married who will be the bright mids so they would be all dressed up so when you look at the virgins outwardly they all look the same every one of them look the same so you cannot tell the difference and they all also believe in the groom because later on in verse 11 the foolish virgins also Cried Out Lord Lord that means they they acknowledged that they knew the groom now the bridegroom would be our Lord Jesus Christ so this is about our Lord so they acknowledged that they knew him Lord Lord and they were all waiting so you think of these 10 virgins waiting outside for this bridegroom to come so they were all aware that he will be coming they knew that he would be coming and they were all waiting what lessons can we learn from here when we apply this into our lives you think about the church in the church the people also heard the gospel they were invited right all of us here we heard the gospel we were all invited and then we also responded positively we profess that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ so we responded positively and we were also active know we became members members then we also Worship in the church we serve in the church we Fellowship we attend all the meetings just like these 10 virgins they were also part of the wedding party they were all involved outwardly can we tell the difference we can't in the way we worship in the way we sing in the way we serve in the way we give in the way we pray in the way we communicate with one another we cannot tell the difference can you tell the difference just by observing someone outwardly and say well this person is a Believer this person is not a Believer we don't know outwardly we cannot tell and then all of us also profess that we know the Lord we call upon him our Lord Our Savior and all of us also believe that our lord Jesus Will Come again Jesus will come again all of us believe that but does it mean that everyone in the church is a Believer we hope so we pray so but sadly the reality is that not everyone is a True Believer some will be just professing their faith but inwardly they do not know the Lord they do not truly believe in him they do not have true saving Faith so what will be the difference the difference will be in the preparedness in their anticipation of his coming now this does not mean that by being prepared they can earn their way to Salvation it does not mean that if they are true believers they are saved already once safe always safe but true genuine faith will produce spiritual fruits we all learned that true saving faith will lead us to do good works will lead us to worship s and also lead us to be prepared lead us to anticipate that my Lord Jesus will come soon he will come and I will meet him I will see him face to face I must be ready so that is the fruit that comes out of our genuine Faith so these are the similarities hourly you cannot tell everyone says well I believe in the gospel I've heard the gospel we cannot tell so Jesus went on to talk about the difference now look at the difference look at verse two our lord Jesus said firstly five of them were wise and five were foolish so five of them were wise five of them were foolish now this is not about intellectual wisdom it is about spiritual so it is in the spiritual sense they are foolish and we all know that Psalm 14 ver1 says the the fool says in his heart there is no God so the foolish will be a reference to the unbelievers the unbelievers who may just profess their belief but inwardly they do not believe so they are foolish Jesus said and why were they foolish why did Jesus call them foolish look at verse three they that were foolish took their lambs and took no oil but the wise took oil in their vessels or containers so they kept containers with their lambs now the difference is not in the lamb all of them carry Lambs so outwardly they look the same the difference is in what was inside the lamb the the oil now without the oil the lamb cannot light up and if a lamb cannot light up it is useless hourly it may appear to be beautiful lamb very nice but actually it is not only ineective it is absolutely useless without the all inside it so in the spiritual sense we may have the forar of spirituality we may perform all the outward show of being faithful worshiping singing praying serving but if inside we do not have true Savi Faith then everything is meaningless it is useless is just like this lamb which may look very nice hourly but without the oil it is useless so it is not just about the hour show it is what is in the heart that is most important without the heart then everything would be meaningless that is the reason why 2 Timothy 3:5 says there are people who having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof so outwardly they have a form a show of godliness they know what to say at the right time they know how to behave they know how to pray they know how to perform acts of wor worship acts of services but inwardly there's absolutely no power because there's no indwelling of the Holy Spirit there's no transforming power there's no faith so it is just an outward show of godliness now that is absolutely useless the Bible did not tell us the reason why this foolish did not bring the oil now there could be several reasons maybe they had no concern about the oil maybe they thought that well when the time come I will borrow from the wise virgins or they could be thinking maybe we could go and buy from the shop or maybe they just couldn't care less but whatever be the reason any reason was irrelevant because there's no excuse for their failure they themselves were to be blamed okay they themselves they must examine themselves just like the Bible always tell us examine whether ye be in the faith now people don't like to hear that sometimes when I preach sermons about about examining our faith whether our faith is true or not I will get remarks like know who are you to tell me that I should examine my faith why are you questioning my faith but the Bible repeatedly tells us that we must make sure that our calling our election Israel like first Peter 3: 10 tells us throughout the Bible we have been exalted to examine ourselves it will be real or it will be false so we always have to examine ourselves am I doing this thing out of a true spiritual motivation or is it just to please men is it to please God or for the Applause of men we always have to examine ourselves so they were responsible whatever be the reasons they themselves were responsible now the wise virgin five of them were very prepared they knew that the bridegroom will come at any time so they believe that he will come and not just believe they were anticipating that he will come they brought the oil they also brought the vessels to contain the oil just in case he may T in his return then or in his coming then they would have sufficient oil to burn the lamb they were very responsible very prepared for the imminent coming of the bridegroom just like believers who truly believe that Jesus Christ is coming they would be very prepared they will always be focused on his coming they will not be callous now look at verse five maybe read with me verse 5 while the bridegroom tered they all slumbered and slept now we have to understand the word ter it delayed it does not mean that our Lord's delay is purposely God has ordained all things to happen he has ordained even the time of his coming but from a human perspective it appears that he is tearing he is delaying so almost 2,000 years have come and gone right since our lord Jesus was risen from the dead so there are mockers who says that well where is his coming he said his coming but 2,000 years have come and gone so from a human perspective it is like it's delaying I don't think he's coming but in God's Divine perspective God has his timing he will come soon so even in the tribulation even in that short period of seven years the people also had this mindset that he'll be caring will he come will he not some are wise some are foolish in the tribulation there will be some people who will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and they will be prepared but there will be others who will be like this foolish virgins and they all slept and slumbered and slept they all that means include the wise virgin as well 10 of them all SL humed and slept what does that teach us this is not about laziness does not mean that the five wise virgin were very lazy they went to sleep no it just simply means that life goes on life goes on as it is as we t or wait upon the Lord's return return so unlike those people who you know they wait for the Lost return they going and sell everything go to the mountain and then just wait for the Lord to come no life Must Go On You must be doing what you are doing Faithfully so you eat drink work sleep so they all felt tired they slumbered and then they slep then as they were doing their normal chores all of a sudden look at verse six now this speaks about the separation so there's the similarities there are the differences and then there will be the separation verse six and at midnight there was a CME made behold the bridegroom cometh go out to meet him all of a sudden all of a sudden there was this cry out L the bridegroom has come so all of you now get ready go out to meet him go out to meet him he has come so you'll be very sudden so that teaches us that it will be an event that will be very sudden and those people who are not ready not prepared they'll be caught by surprise he will come suddenly and all those virgins arose and then they start to trim their lambs in other words they start to light up their lambs so the bridegroom has come now we must get ready to meet him now there's this two purposes for the lighted lamp one it would be to of course light up the path in which you were to walk the other is also to indicate that you are truly invited for the wedding feast so the lamb is for the purpose to indicate that well I'm so and so I'm invited into the wedding Feast so they quickly light up the lamb and what happens to the horror of the foolish they found that their lambs could not light up could not light up why because there was no oil at that crucial moment all of a sudden they realize that my lamb could not light up because there's no oil everything is just an our show there's nothing inside nothing to cause this lamb to burn and so the foolish said onto the wise verse eight give us of your oil for our Lambs are gone out we don't have oil so please give us some of your oil but the wise answered saying not so we can cannot do that lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them their sell and buy for yourselves and then they went to buy it was at that time that the bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage to the wedding feast and the door was shut now it does not mean that the wise virgins were very selfish they only cared for themselves what here it teaches us is that no one can ever share his or her salvation you cannot pass on your salvation to another person as the Roman Catholics would teach you that you know there are some saints who have done a lot of good works and because of their good works they have a treasury of good works so you can tap on their treasury so in a sense they can impart some of those good works to you to save you they can pass on that salvation no one can do that so this wise virgin said we cannot do that you go out and look for your own we cannot help you one day we will all have to stand before God when we stand before God none of us can ever say this well God have you considered my parents my parents they are very Godly well God can you consider my Sunday school teacher my Sunday school teacher is most faithful well God can you consider my church no I come from a faithful Bible believing Bible defending church have you considered no God will say to you I'm not asking you about that I'm asking about you on what basis can you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven you have nothing you do not have faith there's nothing inside you just like the lamb without the oil it comes suddenly and then you realize that well I do not have anything now another thing we can also learn that this separation would be permanent permanent look at what the Bible tells us there it says in verse 10 the door was shut so once the door was shut no one can open that door so verse 11 says afterward came also the other virgins the foolish virgins saying Lord Lord open to us open to us the door too late once the door is shut it is too late no matter how you knock the door cannot be open once the Salvation door is shut you cannot open it anymore it is too late now this shutting of the door will remind us of remember Noah's Ark how that door was shut and then all the rest perish no matter how they shout open the door for us now we want to come into the ark open the door cannot the door be shut you know when I was a young Christian I read this very illustrative description of the shutting of the Noah's Ark so there was this Theologian who expressed it very eloquently he said something like this he says there are a lot of people who said that they found Noah's Ark here and there he says those are not Noah's Ark he says if you were to find Noah's Ark you will find all over the ark fingernails embedded on the vessel why because the these people will be screaming and crying and crawling onto the outside of the Ark shouting open for us open for us and their fingernails will be embedded now there's a very descriptive way of telling us once the door is shut it cannot be open no matter how loud you shout so that is also a reminder for all those unbelieving relative of ours our loved ones who are still lingering in the kingdom of darkness we must care for them once that door is shut it will be too late so we have every opportunity to share the gospel we better share with them because the time will come where it will be shut and you'll be permanent forever and ever we will never meet again there will be no sweet by and by on that beautiful show you will never see them again so that is a reminder that it is permanent it is permanent and finally it is also surprising you know that is very interesting because these five foolish virgins they were surprised they had their lambs and then they were waiting they were invited remember they were responded positively they were part of the wedding party all that and yet they were surprised they were surprised when he came and then when they couldn't get in they were surprised that was the reason why they shouted Lord open up open up Lord you know that is also a reminder to us that there are many in the church one day they will be surprised that is very tragic they'll be coming to church they'll be attending week after week they'll be singing hymns they'll be worshiping they would even be giving and serving but without true saving relationship with the almighty God it is all in our show their motivation could be you know for others to tap them and say well you are so spiritual you are so Godly or their motivation could be they are just fulfilling some obligations Maybe this is what they thought I could save myself by all these good works for whatever reasons when the day come they will be surprised that why am I not there why am I not there Lord open up for me it'll be too late it'll be too late dear friends as we started our message we said that this is about the Lord's second coming and there will be this period of the tribulation and our lord Jesus will come right so some of us may be thinking well I'm a Believer so it does not apply to me I will not be in the tribulation so this will be for those people in the tribulation so I just don't care about this passage don't care about this Parable no this Parable is about preparedness remember we may not be there in the tribulation if we are True Believers right but one day we still have to die one day our lord Jesus will come in the Rapture and that will also be sudden you know when the Lord Jesus come in the clouds we do not know when it may come today it may come this afternoon it may come tonight our lord Jesus may come and then all of us will be caught up and then for you to find out that why am I still here Lord open up for me save me it's too late or you may die you know we have covid-19 we saw how many lives were lost we have people who contracted cancer we have people who died in accidents we have people who died in their sleep and they were not prepared can you imagine you're going to sleep tonight and then you prepare everything you put some food on the table you say well morning I'll finish the remaining food and then you have your computer switch on you say well I'll answer the email in the morning and then you put a handphone there well I'll call my parents maybe later in the morning and then you go to sleep but you never wake up it can happen to us death will knock on our doors all of a sudden and then the question is are we prepared are we prepared every day of Our Lives we must live with this preparedness with this anticipation today maybe the day my Lord will come in the clouds am I faithful or am I Unfaithful am I just holding the lamb without the oil or am I holding this lamb and it is burning am I true or am I false ask yourself this question be prepared every day of your life my Lord will come today may be my last tomorrow may never come but I'm ready if you are always ready then you live with this preparedness even when tonight you go to sleep praise be to God I'm ready I go to sleep Lord you take me home praise be to God I've have nothing unprepared nothing I'm ready for you you are coming I'm ready at all times Christians we must always live with this repentance be prepared to meet your creator so ask yourself if you have forgotten whatever I've said remember am I ready to meet my Creator today let us pray Father in heaven we thank the for enabling us to consider some of the Parables that our lord Jesus has spoken and taught the disciples as well as all of us and this morning we have considered the parable of the 10 virgins of which five were wise and five were foolish five truly believe in thee and five do not believe they were just professing Believers oh Lord and the lesson thou has taught us the difference between them although hourly they appear to be similar but there is a crucial difference and that is what is inside their hearts five of them have true saving relationship with the but five of them did not and it all will show through their preparedness to their anticipation of thy coming for the five were always ready with the oil prepared ready to light up when thou come the other five could not care less and they have no excuse all of us oh Lord we profess We Believe it's