The Midnight Cry

Dear Father God, we're grateful today for Jesus. We're grateful

for the living Word of God. Help us to live

the word, to have the Holy Spirit in our lives.

In Jesus' name. Amen, take your bibles in turn with

me to Luke nineteen eleven and twelve, and let's read.

As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell them

a parable because he was near to Jerusalem, and because

they supposed that the King of God was to peer.

And what does it say? Immediately he said, therefore a

nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom

and then return in ancient times. I mean, how many

have you been to a good wedding lately? Raise your

hand you have. Now I'm going to confess to you

that this is our thirty eighth wedding anniversary today, Diana

mol And So I've been married to a beautiful wife

for thirty eight years. I would not trade her for anything.

And she's not here today because she's with Steve at

Holy Cross Hospital. But we decided we'd spend our anniversary

with our church family because that's the place we like

to be. Oh my, you're springing this on us in

the middle of the work of the sermon. That's pretty good. Now,

this was not a planned illustration. It was not.

A little Bertie told us, so we kind of knew

that it was. Today was Pastro Miik and Diana's anniversary,

so we just wanted to give this to them. We're

sad Diana isn't here, but we wanted to give it

to Pastor Miik and Diana on behalf of the church.

We're thankful for everything that you do and we appreciate you.

Guys.

Tell me you're birtually here to see you from And

I had when I had found out it was their anniversary.

I had actually been telling him about our back to

school night ice cream social and he committed to being

there and I said, no, Pastor Mike, you need to

take Diana out, go have dinner or something.

And he said he's going to.

Come and have dinner with the youth group. So what

a great pastor and Diana too, so thank you.

Yeah. But that's red, white and blue. Yes, that was

the theme of the I purchased red, white and blue

flowers for my wife also at house, so now she

has a double dose. My wife is patriotic. You probably know.

Thank you so much. Well, that was a that was perfect.

I'm talking about a wedding in the middle of my

sermon and perfect timing. I don't know how you got

a copy of the transcript. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, it's something. Well,

Jewish wedding is not like an American wedding. You know

what to do. In a Jewish wedding, you go to

the there's a time of betrothal where you come to

the house of the bride and your betrothed white cupola,

this canopy that they hang over you and you dance

around and you're happy. You say, I commit myself, but

then you're careful that you do nothing more than commit

yourself because it's kind of like you're technically committed to

be married, but you're not married until you're married. And

then the groom leaves his bride and goes to his

father's house. Doesn't that sound romantic? And in a Jewish wedding,

a groom gets married in his father's house without his

bride being there. This is a Bible wedding. Come on,

And once he's married in his father's house, he then

comes suddenly unannounced to the bride's house and sometimes in

the dead of night, and a great procession then takes

him takes them back to his father's house for the

marriage supper, and then they have to leave the father's

house eventually and live on their own. Now that's the

picture of Bible prophecy right there. See Christ came, He

was with ancient Israel. The pillar fire cloud was the hoopla.

They were betrothed under the white canopy. Christ was with

Israel from Sinai all the way to the cross. And

when Jesus died on the cross, he then left the

bride's house and went to heaven. Right for what purpose?

To get married? Where in his father's house? And that's

the investigative judgment of the Book of Daniel. The marriage is

when Christ comes before the ancient days and he receives

his kingdom one name at a time, and then he returns,

and then he will leave his father's house to come

at the time of the midnight cry the last warning

to this world, and we will be awakened, and we

will leave this world to go to the father's house

for the marriage supper of the lamb. And then at

the end of the millennium, we're coming back, and this

world's going to be rec created, and then we get

to live with Christ forever and ever and ever and ever.

So if you remember a Jewish wedding, you have all

of Bible eschatology figured out. It's that simple. So, as

Jesus is receiving his kingdom from his father in the

investigative judgment, that's where he is now. That judgment started

in the year eighteen forty four based on Bible prophetic chronology.

As he is preparing to come back, we should be

preparing to go out to meet the bridegroom, should we not?

Since Christ is preparing a kingdom to come at the

end of the age, should we not be preparing for

that kingdom? His people are to be ready, not unready,

for the second coming of Christ. I don't know about you.

I want to be ready for the second coming of Christ.

Are you in the club with me? I want to

see Jesus come. I want to be found acceptable in

his eyes. I want to be about the king's business

before he comes. I don't want one person here to

be lost who could be saved for the second coming

of Jesus. And in the parable the ten virgins that

we're gonna look at the parable of Matthew twenty five

to one. In the parable, the ten versions are those

who have left the house to meet the bridegroom. Take

your Bible's turn with me to Matthew twenty five beginning

verse one. Then the kingdom of Heaven shall be compared

to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to

meet the bridegroom. The text says they went to meet

the bridegroom. The Greek reads literally, they came out to

meet the bridegroom. The Greek text use of the eris

tense verbs suggests it was a point in time when

they came out to meet the bride and groom. A

decisive movement is here outlined in human history that suddenly

came out for the second coming of Christ. If the

text does not indicate that they came out gradually, it

declares that they came out suddenly at the end of

the Second Great Awakening, which became the Great Advent Awakening,

the Millerite Awakening. When people began to proclaim for the

first time the second coming of Jesus, that he was

coming on this side of the millennium, not the other

side of the millennium, there was a group that co

ealassed in eighteen forty three through the preaching of the

great Sermon of Charles Fitch that said, come out of

hermite people. A group of people coalesced that would become

the Seventh day Adventist Church that was focused on going

out to meet the bridegroom. And this parable captures that

event in history just before eighteen forty four, a Bible

believing pre millennial movement of committed Christians who wanted Jesus

to come, and they committed themselves to the scriptures and

to the second coming of Christ. In the parable's context,

the virgins are a called out kind of people. They

are advent people going out to meet the bridegroom. They

represent people who are expecting the coming of Jesus Christ

enough to come out and be different from mainline Christianity.

Charles Fitchen is a great sermon of eighteen forty three,

and every Christian should go online and read that thing.

He said, there must be a group of people the

time of the end that will us you're in the

coming of Christ, who are Bible believing Christians who get

rid of this philosophical nonsense that spiritualizes away the clear

teachings of Scripture, and who are committed to the word

of God. And he says, if your heart is in

the world and you are not committed for the coming

of Christ, he says, you are spiritual Babylon. He says,

but if your heart is committed to the coming of

Christ and to God's Word, then you are going to

the marriage feast. And that sermon created the Seventh day

Adventist Church. The Second Angel's message sounded in the summer

of eighteen forty three. Now, in ancient times, the bridegroom

came for the bride, and the whole wedding party also

that was waiting. The ten virgins are eager to meet

the bridegroom. They go out to meet him before he

comes out to meet them. In fact, they are the

first in the parable to act upon the belief that

the bridegroom is coming soon. Do you realize, as seventh

Avnast Christians, that we came into existence as the first

group in Christianity to believe that Jesus is coming again?

Do you realize that the whole Christian world believe he

was coming at the end of the millennium Out of

the Millerite movement arose this prophetic movement which believes in

the soon coming of Jesus. Then the parable, they're called virgins,

the figure of a virgins using the Bible to describe

a pure and faithful people who follow God. Look at

Isaiah sixty two, verse five. As a young man marries

a virgin, so your sons will marry you. And as

the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will

rejoice over you. As virgins, in the parable, they profess

a pure faith in Jesus Christ. Relation fourteen, verse four

describes the one hundred and forty four thousands virgins. These

are they which were not defiled with women, for they

are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever

he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the

first fruits and the God, and to the Lamb. So

in the parable, there are how many virgins we just

read it, how many virgins ten? The choice of the

number ten is no accident. As a body, the ten

virgins draw attention to the ten commandments of God. They

are virgins because they represent an obedient commitment, a pure

commitment to the moral law of God. They're not Christians.

You say, well, you know, it doesn't matter what day

you worship on the fourth Commandment. We can do with

that we want to. It doesn't matter if you worship

images and this and that. They believe in the Ten Commandments.

Thus they are ten virgins. As most Christians in the

world set aside one or more of the Ten Commandments,

the ten virgins do not. They are ten virgins, not

nine or eight or six Matthew twenty five, verse two.

Five of them were foolish, and five were what wise.

For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no

oil with them, But the wise took flasks of oil

with their lamps. Now, notice here what makes them wise

is the fact that they have chosen to have oil.

Those who are faithful to Jesus Christ in Relation fourteen four,

as we said and read, are called virgins. The virgins

of Revelation fourteen to four are those who endure the

mark of the Beast test in Revelation thirteen. And thus

they are called virgins. So that's amazing. We live in

a time when many advent Christians no longer believe there's

going to be a mark of the Beast tests at

the time of the end. You know, I move them

on seventh Day avenous. At times you say, well, you

know the prophecy stuff, just need Jesus. You hear that,

You ever hear that from people just need Jesus. Were

those people that need Jesus without the testimony of Jesus,

that is, the prophetic teaching of the Word of God,

aren't going to get Jesus. Christ comes through the prophetic word.

The whole Bible is a prophetic document that was meant

to bring us to Jesus, and the prophecies that point

to the first coming of Christ are no more important

than the prophecies that point to the second coming of Christ.

We need Jesus. So whenever I hear that, I realize

that we have a little Holy Spirit problem going on,

because people who want to pick and choose what part

of their Bible they are to believe in are people

who are in the end will not have oil in

their lamps. So how do we remain pure in the

middle of an impure world where ideas have misshaped people's

notions of things? We have today? The Emerging Church movement?

Have you ever heard of the Emerging Church movement? Some

of you, haven't We used to worship at the Spencerville

Church over there in Cedar Ridge. It is the birth

of what is called the Emerging Church movement. Pastor Brian

MacLaren was the leading force behind that. Early on he

was considered one of the top evangelicals in Protestant America.

And while he himself was a fabulous person, and I

got to know him as a friend, in many ways,

I did discover that in the Emerging Church movement, they

don't believe that prophecy matters. That we just need the

King of God right here now. It's how we live,

it matters, forget the future. But when nine to eleven hit,

he invited me to his church and he was just

paralyzed by what to do. And I had a chance

to stand with my Bible in hand and to disclose

the prophetic teaching of Luke twenty one the Signs of

the End, And I was enamored to see how these

people who had been deprived of Bible prophecy suddenly were

trying to gobble it up and integrate it. Good people.

But the Emerging Church movement is a major force today

that is even come into some of our ranks that

would challenge us as prophetic Bible believing Christians. It's a

move toward the subjective instead of the objective. The Bible

indicates that those who will stand for Jesus at the

end have the faith of Jesus and they keep the

ten commandments of God. That's a basic formula relation of

fourteen twelve. Here is a call for the endurance of

the saints. And what does it say in your bible?

Those who do I who keep the commandments of God

and the faith of Jesus, Well, right there, I cannot

be a Sunday keeping Christian right because of the fourth commandment.

I cannot bow down and worship images and churches based

on that. I can't be a part of a church

that would advocate the murder of people and political movements

based on that. I cannot be a part of a

worldly church that wants to get rich and covet the

things of the world. Based on that, all ten commandments

matter to Jesus Christ when he returns. Right, You know

what else I can't do. I can't ignore Jesus. Christ

has to be my righteousness. I can't look at the

law as a means of righteousness and have that Christ

is what I need. He's the one, and so we

have the perfect blend of law and Gospel and Revelation

fourteen twelve. And so the wise virgins will be like

that commandment keeping Christ's centered people. This parable focuses on

ten virgins, not nine or eight virgins. They are clearly

ten obedient commandment keeping virgins in the Bible. Now go

back to Matthew twenty five one and two, and let's

read it in the context. Then the King of Heaven

should be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps

and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them

were what wise, and five were foolish. It's clear in

the parable that the ten virgins are messengers of light

in a dark night. They carry lamps as light in

the night. They have taken steps to find the bridegroom

in the midst of the dark night. They want to

go to the marriage fee. They had come out so

they can go out early to meet the Lord. They're

not waiting for the second coming. They're going forward toward

the second coming. Now in the parable, they're trying to

find the bridegroom before he confines them. They want to

meet him halfway instead of just waiting for him to

arrive at the house. The Virgins and the Parable represent

premillennial Christians advent believers who began to keep God's ten commandments,

including the Sabbath, after the Great Disappointment of eighteen forty four,

and who are seeking the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Even now, the text says in verse two five were foolish,

five or wise. The Greek reads literally, five were morons

and five were prudent. That's the Greek, and I didn't

make that up. Okay, Jesus used that in his Parable.

Now the Greek word frontamas for prudent phrenology. We get

the word prenology from it or wise. It occurs seven

times in the Gospel of Matthew. The first time is

in Matthew seven twenty four. So let's turn there in

our Bible is Matthew seven twenty four. Now Christ is

talking about building our house upon the rock. And look

what he says. Everyone, then who hears these words of

mind and does them, will be like a wise man

who built his house what on the rock. In the

Gospel of Matthew, Christians are wise if they do what

Jesus tells them to do. In fact, they are wise

that they build their lives upon the teaching of Jesus' words.

So building upon the rock means we listen to what

Jesus says, we study the Bible, we apply his words

our houses on the rock. In the parable of the

ten virgins, the five wise virgins are wise. Why because

they have oil and earth and flasks in addition to

their supply in the lamp. They have been in the

word of God, and they have filled their lives with oil,

Holy Spirit oil Matthew twenty five to three. And when

the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,

but the wives took flasks of oil with their lamps.

Flasks were used to anoint people for god given duty

and calling, and turned to first Samuel sixteen thirteen. Then

Samuel took the horn of oil and annointed him in

the midst of his brothers, that's King David. And the

spirit of the Lord came mildly upon David from that

day forward. So when he was annoying with oil, what

came on David? So what does oil represent? The anointing

to the Holy Spirit and Matthew seven twenty four. Jesus

taught that the wise are those who build their lives

on the words and teaching of Jesus. So how do

we get the oil of the Holy Spirit? How by

letting the words of the Bible do what come into

our lives. So if you're out of the word, if

you're too busy to be in the Bible, if you're

focusing on this and that and everything, and you can't

read the Bible and the spirit of prophecy in your life,

do you realize you're depriving yourself of holy spirit oil?

He said, Well, you know, I'm a student of this

rate theologian. Well, he won't give you holy spirit oil.

I watch this favorite preacher on TV. You don't get

holy spirit oil from preachers. You get it from God's word,

applying it in your life yourself every day. There's no

substitute for that. So in X five twenty nine, Peter

told the religious leaders that God gives his spirit to

those who obey him and submit to the Gospel of repentance.

That's how we get the Holy spirit our life. Firse

Act five thirty one. And God has exalted Jesus at

the right hand as leader and Savior to give repentance

to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses

to these things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom

God has given to those who do what What does

it say? God is not gonna pour his Holy Spirit

at the time of the end on people who teach

that the law of God has done away with. He's

not gonna do that. He's not gonna pour his Holy

Spirit out on people who teach that Jesus is irrelevant

in their life. Either we need so. You cannot receive

the oil the Holy Spirit unless you receive the teaching

of Jesus and the Word of God in your life.

And we repent the five Wise Virgins stored up the

words of Jesus and their flasks. When you have the

words of Jesus in your flask, you have the Holy

Spirit in your life. Your lamp will not go out

because your heart and mind is filled with the Holy Spirit. Now,

the Greek word for flask is the same word found

in the Greek Old Testament for the flask that held

the oil for the candlestick. Take your bibles in turn

with me to numbers four, verse nine, Moses is writing,

and they shall take a cloth of blue, which represents

God's wall, and cover the lamp stand. For the light

with its lamps, it snuffers its trays and all the

vest souls. And that's the same Greek word used for

the oil, which is which is supplied. So the container

that Jesus is talking about in the parable is the

container that held the oil for the lamp stands. It's

lamp stand oil that we need. The Greek word indicates

that the vessels were earth and vessels, not golden vessels,

but earth and vessels. Earth and vessels represents people on

earth who allow God to shape and form their life.

So what are the vessels for the candlestick? We are

the vessels. We are the containers of the oil. If

we don't have oil in our lives, we don't have

lamps that shine. Lamentations four two. The precious sons of

Zion worth their weight in fine gold, how they are

reckoned as earthen vessels or pots, the work of a

potter's hands Second Corinthians four to six. For it is

the God who said let light shine out of darkness,

who has shown in our hearts to give us the

light of the knowledge of the glory of God in

the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in

earth and vessels to show the transition that the transistent,

transcendent power belongs to God and not ourselves. Now, where

is the treasure in this verse? What kind of vessels us?

Earth and vessels. So the light of the of the

glory of Jesus is the treasure that's found in earth

and vessels. The oil of the Holy Spirit gives you

light when you treasure Jesus Christ and his word in

your heart and life. Now, I found in my own

experience that I have to fight against the media. Does

anybody have to do that in their life? You're online

and poof it comes at you. Or we got rid

of a television or home years ago because it was

a spiritual distraction to raising our children. But it's easy.

I mean, the books, you can read, the entertainment, the focus.

Isn't it easy to make our lives filled with things

other than God's Word? It's so easy. But I'm an

earth and vessel. I need the Holy Spirit in me.

I need Jesus in me. So my time in the

Bible is holy sacred time, time and prayer holy sacred time.

Now I have a picture on the screen. Here see

those glowing the dog glowing the dark. Dogs genetically engineered

so that at night they glow. And go to the

next picture. Here's a picture of a pig, a glow

in the dark. Pig genetically engineered to glow in the dark.

Go the next one, glow in the dark. Cat genetically

engineered to glow in the dark. Now these animals can't

help but glow because it's in their genes. You realize

that you will be a lamp and a light if

the Holy Spirit is in you. It's that basic. So

the wise virgins made it to their business to store

up the Word of Jesus in their heart and life.

They had batteries or oil. Foolish virgins didn't bother bringing

flasks and storing a pole. And they represent non devotional

Christians who don't bother to share the Word, don't spend

time in it. Aren't focused on the spirit of prophecy too,

which will help us get into the Bible. They're just

into themselves, entertainment, TV, the ballgames, so on. The parable

indicates that they didn't bother from the beginning to stir

up oil only the five wives took their flask with

oil to meet the bridegroom in the darkness of the night.

In the parable, the bridegroom was delayed. Look at verse five.

But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

So I had to ask you the question, how many

slumbered and slept? What's the answer? They all did. So

it's not the fact that they went to sleep that

means they didn't make it. It's the fact that they

didn't have oil. Two words are used for the lethargy

of the night. The word for slumber is new stadzo

in the Greek, and it means to nod off, to sleep.

It's kind of like this, you're kind of yes, noting off,

but you're trying to stay awake. Nustadzo it means to

become drowsy. Now, the other word is kethudo, and it

means to sleep, like yeah, just go and just like

you lay out and you start snoring. You don't want

to be woken up. Have you ever had a kothudo sleep? Well?

Ustadzo sleeps is you're trying to stay awake. Five of

them are trying to stay awake, but they're not in

off off. The other five are sleeping. Who cares? So

the word for sleep is cathudo, and that's really the

word that describes the foolish virgins. The Bible teaches that

God has a way of coming into our night, even

when we're trying to stay awake, and waking us up

to give us light. Maybe it's that certain thing that

happened in your life where you had an accident, maybe

your health was challenged, Maybe you discovered suddenly that you

have a fault of character when you let someone down.

And the Lord speaks to you, he can wake you

up in your night so you can come alive. But

at the very end he's going to have to do

that for the entire world. The Christian Church will be

either sleeping or nodding off, and it's something will have

to intervene. It's no accident that God chose to deliver

the children of Israel at midnight next US eleven four

to six. The Bible says it was at midnight that

the Lord came and this plague fell upon the Egyptians,

and then he brought his people out of Egypt. It

was the midnight cry, a passover. The exodus from Egypt

followed the midnight Cry first of Matthew twenty five, and

at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming.

Go you out to meet him. It's the last passover.

It's the final passover when the Mark of the Beast

takes the place of the Blood on the dark pest,

where the seal of God is on the forehead, and

people will be recognized for their commitment to the Lamb

of God. At the time of the end, the angels

came to lt in the night and called him out

of Sodom. The midnight cry in Egypt was part of

God's calling out of Egypt. The Kingdom of Babylon fell

in the Old Testament in the middle of the night

to free them, and the Bible teaches that the last

call for his people is the midnight cry. In the

book Revelation, the plague of Darkness falls and the Kingdom

of the Beast in the Fifth Plague, and just after

the darkness falls, it becomes midnight for the Christian world

that has rejected Jesus in his law and has participated

in persecuting people. In the Mark of the Beast tests

in the sixth plague, there is a midnight cry to

wake up sincere Christians just before Jesus comes. It paralyzed

parallels the midnight cry in the parable of Matthew twenty

five Relation sixteen fifteen. Let's look at it, Jesus says, behold,

I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one

who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked,

and man see his and men see his shame. In

Matthew twenty five six, the Parable of the Ten Virgins,

the midnight cry begins with the word behold. In Revelation

sixteen fifteen. The cry that follows the darkness of the

sun and the fifth plague starts with the word behold.

In Matthew twenty five six and the parable the Ten Virgins,

the text says, behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go you out

to meet him. And that behold statement is made when

it is dark, so when you see in the dark,

it means a light shines. The call goes out Revelation sixteen,

Jesus is behold, I am coming like a thief. That's

the finel light, that's the final glory that will enshroud

this planet Revelation eighteen four and five, And I heard

another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her, my people,

that you may not participate in her sins, that you

may not receive of her plagues, for her sins have

piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered

her iniquities. The Bible teaches that mainline churches at the

time of the enn will unite with the secular state

powers to persecute those who keep the commandments of God

in the faith of Jesus. So if you're lining with

disobedient church systems in your worship experience, you're setting yourself

up to fall. You know, our kids have no business

going to these Christian rock concerts that are ecumenical minded

that water down the Bible so that they are based

on feelings instead of God's word. They're on their way

out of the faith with this kind of thing. God

will have a day in which he calls people out

of that stuff, and God's people will take their stand,

and when that happens, God will call his people out

of Babylon for the last time. The Midnight Cry is

a call to see and behold Jesus The midnight cry

is a call to come home to God. The midnight

cry is the call to come out of Babylon. When

it is midnight, Friend, you cannot see unless you have

light to see in the darkness of the end. God

himself will provide the light we need to go home.

And suddenly, in the parable all ten virgins reach down

for their lamps Verses six and seven. And at midnight

a cry was heard, Behold the bridegroom is coming, Go

ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose

and trim their lamps. As this call to see is

heard in the thickness of the night. The foolish reach

for their lamps in the night, and they come on.

But then they quickly go out. Then they reach for

their flasks, and they have no oil in them. No

oil means no light for the night, no way to

see your way through the final time. No light means

they are lost to stumble in the night. Why because

they have no oil. Dear heart, if you're waiting to

get ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and

you are not in your Bible, you are not in

the Word of God. You are you are simply waiting

for an event that will leave you behind. If you're

waiting for the appearance of the Antichrist before you accept

the real Christ in your life, you're waiting too long

to be ready. The text says in Matthew twenty five

to six, the call went out at midnight. Literally in

the Greek, the call suddenly happened at midnight. Jesus uses

a dramatic use to the Greek perfect tints. It suddenly

happened at midnight. The midnight Christ suddenly was heard without warning.

God's message suddenly broke into the darkest night of human history,

and suddenly people realized Jesus is coming. Suddenly, no one

is asleep. Everyone is awake, both the wise and the foolish.

Because the foolish have no oil, they beg the wives

for oil. Please give us oil. But the oil of

the Holy Spirit is a personal kind of thing. You

have to get it yourself and your devotions on your

knees with God in prayer, sharing and growing and serving,

not because somebody else does it for you. The preacher

can't study the Bible for you, The pastor can't pray

for you. You know that the preacher can't plead on

you long enough to get into your Bible and study

the truth. You got to decide to do it yourself.

The minister can't pray the Holy Spirit into you. You

have to ask for the Holy Spirit to come into you,

Paul says, those who are led by the spirit of God.

These are the children of God. So we cannot be

holy spirit void people. At the time of the end,

you have a flask and earth and vessel that is you,

your heart, your mind, your life, and it is your

duty to fill yourself with Jesus his word, the treasure

of prophetic truth, and to get all of it that

you can get into your life. The central truth of

the Parable is this, you cannot, at the last moment

make up for the lack you acquired in your life

because of foolish disregard for God's word in prayer and

really Jesus. The consequences spiritual folly are fatal and final.

In the Parable, the ten virgins in the Parable, as

they were scrambling to get ready for the bridegroom, the

bridegroom came. He came anyway, and he took the five

wives to the marriage feast. Now I'd like to make

an announcement today would you like to have Holy Spirit

oil in your flasks? Do you? I'm gonna put both

hands up, I do. Are you coming to prayer meeting? Now?

We have prayer meeding online. If you can't get here,

you can still come this last prayer meeting. I went

to visit someone who doesn't come to prayer meeting Northern Virginia.

They can't get here, and I talked about them getting online.

He got on line with me. It was a good thing.

We need our prayer meetings, We need the time with

God and the Word of God. Small group Bible studies

have been a part of those Raised in your hands,

been a part of a small group Bible study. They're

huge in helping you grow and receive the Holy Spirit

in your life. The Five Foolish Virgins don't have time

for these kind of things in their life. The Five

wise do. The shops had closed at midnight, the all

couldnot be bought at late at night. You see, it

will be possible as we near the end that you

can't have those spiritual opportunities anymore. They had bought into

the postmodern lie that there is no second coming, so

why bother with oil prophecy flasks? Devotional commitment, no need

for prophecy or growing in deep spiritual Bible studies, in

prayer meeting, and this kind of thing. We're just coasting

along in the night. They stumble to the door that

is shut because they have no light for the night

Matthew twenty five ten. And while they went to buy

the bridegroom came and those who were ready went with

him to the wedding. The door was shut, And afterward

the other virgins came also, saying, Lord Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, surely, I said to you,

I don't know you. Now. Is it possible that Jesus

could turn to you and say, I don't have a

clue who you are? Is that possible? You know what

I'm telling you. The Church wasn't made so that we

could have our way and get what we want in church.

The Church was created so we could have Jesus and

serve and lose ourselves and be broken and grow in

the Word of God and make a difference in the

lives of others. To be filled with holy spirit oil

is to lose oneself for the sake of Christ. It's

to look for that lost soul and make it your

business to bring them to the Lord. And thus the

Lord will fill you greater and greater as you grow

and know. And we are this way. And while they

went to buy the bridegroom came those who already went

with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. Afterward,

the other virgins came, also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said it assuredly. I said to you,

I do not know you. Jesus said in John seventeen three,

this is life eternal, that they might know THEE, the

only true God. And Jesus Christ to him, thou hast sent.

If you fill your flask with God's word, if you

get the church early to scoop up the Sabbath school,

experience the study of God's word. If you try to

go online or at least watch in some way, or

get here for prayer meeting. If you're in small group

Bible studies helping other people to grow, you're receiving the

Holy Spirit as you're recommitting your life to Jesus. We

have laid people who do our Bible studies here for

prayer meeting. I encourage that because I want to see

God's people grow. Our prayer meeding is led by doctor

Shaeffer and Andy, but lay people like brothers Undel and

other share the Word of God and we grow together.

I get messages of hope in my life at prayer meeting.

If you fill your flash with God's word and the

truth of Jesus teaching and the Gospel. Do you realize

you're gonna have oil for the midnight cry? You're gonna

be a holy spirit filled Christian at the time of

the end. Everyone who has oil gets to the marriage feast.

Is that good? So your priorities matter. Friend, Jesus will

recognize you at the feast if you have oil in

your lamp. He's not going to ask you what position

you had, if you got your way in church here

or there or that. He just wants to know if

you have Jesus in your holy spirit filled lamp, if

others are more important than you, because the light is shining,

you have light to follow Jesus to the feast. The

parables are called a watch and to be alert in

the Christian life. Why because no one knows the day

or the hour when Jesus will return. The last part

of the parables are warning to never base your faith

on a date or a time. Prophecy and scriptures, there's

no time prophet see for the second coming of Jesus.

The longest time prophecy reaches its in in the autumn

of eighteen forty four, which inaugurates the investigative judgment, the

marriage judgment in heaven. Beyond that, we're not living in

prophetic time, So be ready. There is no time calculation

that you can rely on to be ready. The time

to be ready for the second coming of Jesus is

right now today. Be ready today, every day of your life.

Have Jesus as your right now. Righteousness good enough for

the judgment day. Jesus ends the parable in verse thirteen

with a command for every believer to be alert in

the midst of the darkness Matthew twenty five thirteen. Watch therefore,

for you know neither the day nor the hour in

which the sun of Man is coming. Is that good advice?

It's good advice. A few years ago I had booked

a flight to California for a speaking appointment. The flight

was long, and I carried a lot of baggage with me.

I was really planning and preparing, and I had a

presentation on chiastic research, prophecy and the like. Stay up

late packing. Anybody stay up late packing. You want to

make sure everything's stuffed in those bags. You got the

weight limits, and you just work at it until you

got the bags right, and they'll get through that little

hole and you'll you know, they won't charge you more.

Am I the only one that does that? So I

was up late, you know, trying to get everything in

my bag. My wife says, just pay for the extra

fee and take what you like. I'd like to keep

it down. The flight was not a direct flight. You

went over to Denver, Colorado. It was a layover, so

there was a delay. I was exhausted with the delay.

I thought I would catch up on my sleep and

be fresh for the final leg of the flight. So

I went to sleep right there, next to the door.

I found a comfortable chair. You ever find a comfortable

chair at the airport, They're hard to find, and I

began to snooze. I didn't realize how tired I was,

But it must have been an awful thing for people

to see me there. If they'd known that was the

pastor of our church, they might have said, wake up, man,

But I didn't. I was sleeping. I don't know how

it happened, but it did happen to me. In my sleep,

I heard a voice that I thought was in a

dream and said, mister Oxen Tanko, it is the last

call for you to board the plane. You ever had

that happen to you. I opened my eyes and every

seat was empty, and I was in the lobby. The

door was closing to the gate. I took my bags

and I ran like mad with all my energy into

the terminal, and I gave the attendant my ticket, scan

it and I board it just in time to catch

the flight. Friend, Jesus is coming, And one day soon

the last call will come and the door will close.

It will be the midnight. I cry, behold the bridegroom cometh,

Go ye out to meet him. There is no time

to give into the night. Today. We must not surrender

to spiritual drowsiness in our lives. We must be in

the business of advancing God's cause, of owning the word

of God, of clinging to Jesus. I counsel you to

buy oil before the night comes, and to fill your

flasks with light, giving oil the Holy Spirit. And when

the midnight cry wakes us all up you will be

ready to board the cloud with Jesus and go home. Behold,

the bridegroom cometh, Go ye out to meet him. Dear

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your care for us.

May we hold fast till you come, and be ready

for the midnight. Cry in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen,