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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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.