Are You Ready? Behold The Bridegroom Cometh – Matthew 25:1-7

Have a Sabbath, everyone. It's always a blessing to be

here at the Middletown Church. Always a wonderful thing to be

here. I want to bring greetings from

our sister church and three angels.

Amen. I thank Ellis Slingo for the

invitation to speak and thank Sister Janique for that

beautiful song of meditation. Amen.

God is a wonderful God that we. Serve.

Let's bow our heads. As we pray, as we go straight

into the word, my Father want to give you thanks for your

blessings. I want to give you thanks for

all that you have done for us. Lord, as I avail myself at this

moment to speak your words, I pray that you'll fill me with

your Holy Spirit and hide me behind the cross and let your

words be spoken to me. This is my asking in Jesus

precious name, Amen. Amen.

So my topic today is Behold. The bridegroom cometh.

Behold the bridegroom comet. So this is a very popular story

from the Bible, right? And this week, as I was thinking

about what to bring sister I, I this, this story was heavy on my

mind. And I know this is a story that

I've talked about many a times, but based on what's happening in

the world today, this is one of the few parables that's yet to

be fully fulfilled, right? And I think this would be

perfect to talk about today. The whole, the bridegroom comet.

So we'll pick up right where Ella started.

We'll turn our Bibles to Matthew, chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

And we'll look at the the text again.

And for those who don't have your Bibles, I'll put them on

the screen. Hope it's not too small.

Alright, Matthew chapter 25, I'll be reading the key texts

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

again, but we'll go all the way to verse 13.

It says, then shall the Kingdom of heaven be lightened unto 10

virgins. How many?

10 which took their lamps and went forth to meet the

bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and

five were foolish. So five were wise, 5 foolish.

They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil in

them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

While the bridegroom tired, they all slumbered and slept.

How many of them slumbered and slept?

All of them right. And at midnight, what time

midnight there was a cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh

going out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and

trim their lamps. And for those who don't know,

when you have lamps with with oil in it, if it burns for a

while, the top of it becomes like charcoal.

It doesn't light properly, right?

So you have to trim off that part and then it will light the

room even better, right? So everyone wake up, they trim

their lamps, and they all trimmed their lamps.

He says. And the foolish said unto the

wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps gone out.

Remember how many oil did the foolish take?

Can you remember no oil? Right.

So now they're asking for oil. But the Wise answered, saying

Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go E rather

to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

The Wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps, and

while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that

were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was

shut. Those that were what were ready

went in with him, and the door was You sure door wasn't ajar?

It was shut. Verse 11.

Afterward came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open

for to us. But he answered and said, Verily

I say unto you, I know you not. Then all those virgins arose and

trimmed their lamps. But watch therefore verse 13.

For ye know neither the day nor the hour, wherein the Son of man

comets. What you said of man cometh.

You see, we're going to talk about this parable in details

for the few minutes that we have here.

Jesus parables were not just made-up stories, right?

When you read the book Christ object lesson, it tells us that

Jesus and the disciples were were sitting on Mount Olive and

they were overlooking the city and as the sunset, they saw

this, this, this wedding festivity that was going on.

And there were some bridegroom were waiting on on, on the

bridegroom to come. And Jesus used this practical

experience to tell the story of the wedding feasts, right?

So it these stories were not just stories that was made-up.

So let's break it down. The 10 virgins it says in Christ

Object 11 page 46, it tells us that as Christ sat looking upon

the party that waited for the bridegroom, he told his sample

the story of the 10 virgins by their experience, illustrating

the experience of the church that shall live just before the

2nd coming of time. So when we hear the story of the

10 virgins, this is the experience of God's church that

will live just before the closing of time when Jesus was

about to come. Is that fair?

So when we look at this story for the next few minutes, we're

going to picture it in light of the church.

It's not just individuals, but in light of the church and where

we stand when the coming of Jesus Christ.

So what does the 10 virgins represents?

The 10 version represent two classes of watchers.

How many classes, Two classes, right, Two classes who profess

to be waiting for the Lord. And if you look through history,

look through the Bible presentation, there's always two

classes of worshippers. You remember when Adam and he

have their first children, there was Kane and and Abel, and they

were fully opposite, right? One wants to do what God says

and one wants to do what he says.

So God says to bring me a sacrifice, right?

And it was like, no, no, no, my vegetables are really pretty.

I grow some wonderful cabbages and some beautiful melons.

And that's what I'm going to give you because that's pretty.

And that's what I did. God says that's not what I want.

I want a lamb. And he got upset and he killed

his brother. So there's always two classes of

worshippers as we go throughout the Bible, as we look throughout

history, there's always 2, two classes of worshippers, one that

wants to follow exactly what God says and one that wants to do

what they want to do, right? And we see this right throughout

history, the virgins, they profess a pure fate, right?

When you think about virgins as a church, it thinks about a

church that profess a pure fate. So it, it, it, we're talking

here about Christians, right? When we think about the virgin,

we're not thinking about different groups.

So for example, we're not comparing Christianity with

Buddhism or Christianity with Hinduism or Christianity with

Muslim. We're thinking about

Christianity, individuals who profess to love and cherish

Jesus Christ, right? So everyone was represented in

the same camp. So when the Bible talks about

the lamp, what does the lamp represent?

So Psalm 119, verse 105 says thy word is a lamp onto my feet and

Psalms 119:105

a light onto my path. So the lamp represents what?

So the lamp represents the word of God, wonderful.

The lamp represents the word of God.

And that's beautiful to know. So the virgins represents the

church and we'll break it down. And the lamp represents the word

of God. So what about the oil?

What do you think oil represents the Holy Spirit.

Wonderful, wonderful. So in Zechariah 4, verse 1 to

Zechariah 4 · chapter mention

14, it tells the story of the rebuilding of, of Jerusalem.

And it goes into a, a, a wonderful depiction of, of the

tree with the olive tree and the oil and basically shows us that

the oil represents the Holy Spirit, right?

And we know that as a church, how much can we achieve without

the Holy Spirit? Not much, right?

If we're here in Sabbath school as the Ellows presented, he

pointed out to us that without the Holy Spirit, we can't

achieve much right, and that's why in it tells us in Zechariah

Zechariah 4:6

4 verse 6 says not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, say

the Lord of hosts right. So when we come and we do what

we do and as was able to put together in the Sabbath school

when the elder was walking through all the wonderful things

that this church has has accomplished.

It wasn't through the strength of the the elders, but it was

through the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit guide and he put

things in place to make sure it could be done.

It's same thing for us today as a church.

There's nothing that we can't accomplish through the Holy

Spirit, right? The Bible tells us we could do

all things. Not some things, but all things.

Through who? Through Christ who strengthens

us, right, All things. So let's look at the 10 virgins.

So it says all went out to meet the bridegroom.

You see, it says with the church today, it represents that

everyone had a fullness of spirit, right?

It says all had their lamps. So all went out to me in the

backroom. So everyone wanted to meet

Jesus. Everyone had their lamps,

meaning everyone had what the word of God.

So everyone was reading their Bible.

Everyone was comfortable enough to say I want to meet Jesus,

hopefully understand what's happening here.

But it says they all slumbered and slept.

Many times we look at the story, we think about the five foolish

and we just say, you see, they're the bad ones.

But when we look at the story in entirety, it represents us as a

church. And because the bridegroom

tired, right? They all slumbered and slept.

How many of us have fallen asleep in the church?

Not physically, but spiritually. At some point, we all have fell

asleep. We all have, Mr. Mark, we all

have reached a point where we we say, do I have to go to church

tomorrow? Do I have to have devotions?

Do I have to have my family worship today?

It's so cold outside. Can I just wrap up in my bed and

just not come out to church this morning, right?

It's so cold, right? We all slumbered and slept,

right? But what was important was being

prepared, he says. For a time there was seen no

difference between them. So in the moment before the

bridegroom came, if someone was looking on, they couldn't tell

the difference between the five wives and the five foolish.

Does that make sense? Right we have.

We have to understand that before Jesus comes, sitting in

the church, there'll be two classes of worshippers, those

who will be prepared and those will be unprepared, those will

be wise and those will be foolish.

And through our naked eyes, no one will be able to look upon

the congregation, say hey, this side is wise and this side is

foolish. Will never happen.

But the difference will come when Jesus comes.

And This is why we have to be what prepared.

We have to be ready. And the text says earlier, no

one knows the day or the awe when Jesus will come.

So it's for each one of us to be ready, right?

I can't force you to be ready, right?

We have to take on the challenge to have that love for God.

So we want to be ready. We want to spend time in this

word. We want to have devotions as

leaders of our homes, as men, as priests of our home, we have to

make sure our families are ready, Amen, right?

Because we want to make sure that when Jesus comes, it's not

just us, but our entire family is ready to go home with Him.

Amen. Amen.

It says without the Spirit of God, a knowledge of His word is

is of no avail. The theory of truth

unaccompanied by the Holy Spirit cannot quicken the soul or

sanctify the heart. One may be familiar with the

commands and promises of the Bible, but unless the Spirit of

God sets the truth home, the character will not be

transformed. Without the Enlightenment of the

Spirit, men will not be able to distinguish truth from error,

and they will fall under the masterful temptation of Satan.

So what is he saying here in Christ's object lesson?

It doesn't matter how many of the Bible you read.

If you don't ask for the Holy Spirit to apply those principles

in your life that would. The Bible will just be another

book that's on your shelf, right?

There's many individuals who have read the Bible back to

front and they, it's, they're very comfortable living a sinful

life. As a matter of fact, there are

people who use the Bible to commit sin.

We know this, right? They would use the Bible to do

all kinds of evil with it, right?

So reading the Bible in and of itself will not save us.

It's asking for the Holy Spirit to apply these principles in our

lives so that we can move it from just words, but to action,

right? So when we look at the five

foolish, it says they were not hypocrites, right?

They have a regard for the truth.

They, they, they had their Bible with them.

They, they have advocated for the truth.

They are attracted to those who believe in the truth because

they were sitting with the other 5, right?

So they were there. So when we think of the five

foolish, they were not hypocrites, right?

There were people who genuinely love Jesus, but they didn't

asked the Holy Spirit to fully take control of their lives and

so that they were they were falling on the rock of Jesus and

broken. Does that make sense?

Right. So we could be there and we

don't even know. So the Bible says they were like

Stony ground hearers. They received the word with

readiness, but they failed to assimilate its principles.

So do not, they do not know God how to trust, look and live?

So they know about God, but they do not know God.

And that's something we have to be very careful of.

It's easy to know about God, right?

Reading the Bible, we could know so many things.

God is everywhere. He's loving his kind, right?

But do you know God? Do you understand God's love in

your in your life, right? Do you love him enough to trust

Him even when we can't trace his ways, even when we don't

understand why we're going through this struggle right at

this time? Do we love him enough to to

still stay true and faithful to who God is?

You see, after a time, service generates into a form, right?

And that's why in second Timothy verse 3 tells us we for as a

church, we must be careful unless we have a form of

godliness, right? A form of godliness.

Have you ever been to a place or been to a time in your

experience with God when you feel like you're just going to

the motions? You're just going to church

because it's the thing to do the Sabbath morning.

So you have to be in church, right?

It's divine service. So you have to sing, you have to

pray it's evening to your Bible class and you have AY, it's just

like a form, right? We have to be careful with that.

Church will be more than that. Jesus says we should worship him

in spirit and then in truth right?

It should not just be a form or something we do, it should be a

part of who we are. The love of Christ should fully

take hold of our lives. In Ezekiel 33 verse 31 says And

Ezekiel 33:31

they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit

before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they

will not do them, for with their mouth they shoe much love, but

their heart goeth after their Co viciousness.

Talking about the same group of people, right He was.

We will sit in church, we'll hear the words of God, we'll

talk about the word of God, but we'll not do it.

We have to be very careful. The word of God has to be done.

Behold, the backroom cometh. See different starts to show.

When the bridegroom, the announcement was made that the

bridegroom was showing was coming, right?

Are you prepared when we can we be prepared when the eastern sky

is open and and Jesus is coming through is is that time to be

prepared for Jesus coming sounds a little bit too late right?

Not me time. He says no one can supply

another with the Holy Spirit. You remember when they were

asking the five whites they give us some of your oil can.

Can we give others our Holy Spirit?

No, no, no. Right.

In in some congregation, in some churches, they have this thing

where they they could put their hand in.

You had to go prayer with the person and the person start

talking all kind of stuff and say, oh, you've gotten the Holy

Spirit. That's not how it works, right?

That's not how it works. That's not how the Bible work.

You cannot give someone else your Holy Spirit, right?

Each person has to have the Holy Spirit For who?

For themselves. And how do we get the Holy

Spirit? Say ask and it shall be given

unto you. Seek and it shall fine not can

it shall be open unto you, right?

It says when we ask for the Holy Spirit, and I can ask for it for

somebody else, you have to open your heart to receive the Holy

Spirit. See, the grace of God has been

given to all men freely. God doesn't love someone more

than somebody else. That's not how it works, right?

God loves everyone the same and if I ask for the Holy Spirit and

it's given unto me, that means if you ask for the Holy Spirit,

God will give you the Holy Spirit just the same.

Amen. See the 10 virgins were are

watching in the evening of this earth's history.

All claim to be Christians, all have call a name a lamb and all

profess to be doing God's service.

All apparently wait for Christ appearing but five are UN ready.

5 will be found surprised, dismayed and outside the banquet

hall. I'm here to tell you when Jesus

comes that does not be found means surprised right?

The Bible tells that just coming as a thief in the night.

But if you are prepared, even if we don't know the day or the

hour when he comes we'll still be ready.

Amen. Let me touch on this real quick.

He says the door was shut. So when they went to get the oil

and come back and they were banging on the door, so the door

was shut. That represents the close of

probation, right? A good way to, to, to, to, to

explain this is using the story of Noah, right?

Using the story of Noah, You remember when, when, when Noah

was preaching for over 100 years, telling these people,

it's going to rain, right? We have to get in, you have to

get in the ark. And they didn't want to follow

what Noah says. And God told Noah time to get

in. And God shut the ark's door,

remember? And the people start crying when

the rain started falling because before then they have never seen

rain before. Just imagine how traumatic this

was, water coming down out of the sky.

They've never seen this before, right?

Because before this time, the earth was watered just by dew.

It was so perfect, was such a perfect time, right?

And for the first, imagine the first raindrops falling out of

the sky. Oh, Trump traumatized his people

were realizing that what Noah says was true.

So now they start banging on the door of the ark, saying open it,

open it. And Noah was about to open the

door, but he couldn't. Why couldn't now open the door?

Because God shut it, right? Their probation was closed.

They had over 100 years. Now I was speaking to them and

they didn't want to listen. Their probation was cool, was

closed. It was over for them, right?

God shut the door and now I couldn't open it.

The same thing here in this aspect.

When, when, when the the five virgins were foolish.

They were knocking on the door. They said the door was closed.

Their probation was closed. It was over for them.

My friends, we have to be very careful.

It's why the Bible tells us now is the time of salvation.

If you hear his voice, harden not your heart.

Now is the time of salvation, right?

Because as it was in the days of Noah, the same will be in the

end. The time will come when our

probation can be closed, right? Jesus is in the most holy place

and He's He's bringing our cause in front of the Father to make

sure that we're ready for His second coming.

And if we don't get our lives in order, our probation can be

closed. Remember when these people were

locked out of the ark? They were still alive and

shouted right when the arc door was closed.

It took seven days before the rain start.

They were still out there merrymaking and enjoying

themselves and their probation was already closed.

A time will come when our probation will be closed and the

Bible still be going about doing all the same thing that we'll be

doing. We'll be marrying and giving it

tomorrow to be we having parties, having birthday parties

and and we don't even realize that our time is up.

That is why we have to make sure that what we do now makes sense.

We have to give our life to Jesus before it's too late.

Amen. I know you not.

Luke 13 verse 26 says, Then shall he begin to say, We have

Luke 13:26

eaten and drink in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our

streets. But he shall say, I, I tell you,

I know, I know you not whence you are, depart from me.

All the workers of iniquity there shall be weeping and

gnashing of teeth, when he shall see Abram and Isaac and Jacob

and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and yourself

shall be thrust out. Remember when they were knocking

the door. Jesus, I know you not we have to

be careful my friends. It doesn't matter how much work

we have done in the church, if if our lives is not in in

alignment with God in the end they will say I know you not.

We don't want to be in that position right in matches 7.

It says many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we

not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils

and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will I

profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me.

He that work iniquity. Just imagine how traumatic this

is you have done you have prophesied in the name of the

Lord. You were casting out demons,

right? That's all that's a big thing

you're doing the church right. You're healing the sick and

Jesus says get away from me. I don't know you.

We have to be careful that everything we do is in light of

the Spirit of God, because if we can do all these things, if we

don't do it with the Holy Spirit, we'll be missing out on

heaven. He sees the five wives and the

parable of the wise virgins. They add oil in their vessels

with their lamps, Their light burnt with undimmed flame

through the night of watching. It helped to swell the

illumination of the bridegroom, honour shining out in darkness.

It helped to illuminate the way to the home of the bridegroom,

to the marriage feast. So the five wives, one, they had

oil in their lamp. So when the bridegroom was

coming, there was light at the door already.

I wanted to understand this, when we accept the Holy Spirit

in our lives and we our light is shine, it's a letter of light.

So shine before men, right? That they may see a good work

and glorify God. People always see a way towards

Jesus. Does that make sense?

They'll see a way. I think this morning was

mentioned for many people, the only light they'll see it's

through our lives is the way we live or we treat people, right?

Imagine this storm that just happened, this snowstorm and we

have neighbors who were stuck inside and we as as at the same

events, Christian living next door and we didn't help them to

clean their sidewalk. If they can't do it, imagine

what they're thinking about us. I thought they were the loving

Christians and they know I was struggling here.

My, my children are not here and no one come to help me right?

We have to make sure that our light is there.

The Bible says at midnight. What time did the bridegroom

came at midnight? I want us to get this before I

close. The coming of the bridegroom was

at midnight. Midnight is the darkest hour of

the day. The coming of Christ will take

place in the darkest period of earth's history.

And you look at the time, look at it back on the time of Noah,

the Bible says every thought of man was evil.

Everything they think about was evil.

And God said, no, no, no, I can't deal with this.

This is too much. We've looked at the world today,

my friends. Is the world in a wonderful,

loving, kind manner, or is it just dark and evil?

It's dark and evil, right? It doesn't matter what aspect of

the world we're thinking about, right?

It's just dark and evil. The world is in one of the

darkest place that we have ever seen it.

There's a sin everywhere. Sin is celebrated.

And in order to, to stop the sin in the world, they, they said we

need to do more sin, right? So because of all the bad things

happening in the world, you know what we're going to do?

We're going to drop some bombs and kill some people.

So sin is begetting sin. The very every thought of man is

sinful. Does it sound like the same

time? Does it sound like midnight in

the world? It's midnight reference.

And because it's midnight, we know that the coming of the Lord

is very near. That's why Isaiah 60 says, arise

and shine. For the light has come, and the

glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross

darkness to people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and this

glory shall be seen upon thee. There's darkness on the world,

my friends, but there's gross darkness on the people.

People will be hating you right now for no reason.

People hate you just because or you look or you sound where

you're from, where you live. People just hate people.

It's telling us that Jesus about to come soon and the world need

to see the love of Christ through US.

Amen. The world need to see the love

of Christ through us through what we do or we live in the

small things that we can do in our homes, in at school, at

work, at church, right? We need to share the love of

God. So I'm here to tell you, my

friends, let's get ready and stay ready.

So we cannot be ready to meet the Lord by waking up when the

Christ hurled, behold, the bridegroom comet will be too

late. We cannot live separate from God

here and expect to live with him in heaven, right?

So if the only time we have worship or we come together or

we read the word of God is on Sabbath or will you be

comfortable in heaven where 24/7 you have God around you, right?

All the time is the things you'll be doing, the things of

the Lord. But if you're on earth, the only

time you're you're comfortable with God is on Sabbath, you're

going to be in a bad place when Jesus comes.

You won't be comfortable, right? We have to be careful, my

friends. We have to be careful so it says

Matthew 25 verse 13. Watch therefore for you know,

Matthew 25:13

neither the day nor the hour where when the Son of Man cometh

as I close, I'm here to tell you watch.

Watch because we don't know what Jesus is coming.

You may ask me what should be watch for.

I'm here to tell you, watch for your families, lookout for your

families. Pray with your families.

Watch out for your children, right?

What are they reading? What are they watching?

What are they playing with, right?

What? What do they giving their

attention to? My friends?

Watch for your relationships, whether it's in church or work

or school, whatever it may be, watch.

Watch your personal relationship with God.

How much time do you spend in devotion?

How many time do you spend in worship, right?

Remember we, we are in the last days right?

Jesus is about to come. How many times do we spend in

prayer? Do we only pray on Sabbath's?

Do we pray when we're just rushing out to go out to school?

Or do we spend meaningful time to pray and have a prayer life

with God? All of us can can increase at in

some point right my friends or oil for the Holy Spirit.

I'm going to give you a challenge as I close.

I'm going to challenge all of us here today to pray for the Holy

Spirit. Then the Bible tells us that in

the last days, we, we, we, there will be an outpouring of the

Holy Spirit because we can't finish this work by ourself.

I'm going to challenge all of you, including myself, to pray

daily for the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit will fill our

lives, will guide us into who to help and how to help, how to be

a light unto the world or to be gracious unto people, or to be

loving and kind even in situations that we can't see the

end from the beginning, right? Let's pray for the Holy Spirit

because I believe with all my heart that we're living in the

last days. The Bible testifies, the world

testifies that we're living in the last days.

Jesus is about to come. There's so many things that are

happening in the world today. Let us recognize that when the

bridegroom come, we'll be ready to meet Him.

He's behold, the bridegroom cometh.

Let us be ready to meet him when he comes.

Amen. Amen.

Father, we don't know when you'll be coming, but we know

that the signs or tell us that your coming is very near.

So Father, I pray that you help us to be ready regardless of

when you may break the eastern sky to come down to, to, to, to

call your children towards to to whom?

Lord, I pray that we'll be ready, that our hearts will be

ready, our families will be ready, and that your church will

be ready. Lord, I pray that you'll forgive

us of all our sins and you'll fill us with Your Holy Spirit

that will do the word that is asked of us and we'll understand

that. Nothing that we can do without

your Father. Honey, to bless and keep us

throughout the rest of this Sabbath day.

This is my prayer in Jesus wonderful name.

Amen.