SERMON: RUNNING ON EMPTY

Community Fellowship Church, Valdosta, GA

14 January 2018

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to Matthew 25:1-13

Matthew 25:1-13 New International Version (NIV)

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

            -- anyone here ever been in danger of running out of gas? -- when Kim and Brooke and I made our trip out to Arizona to pick up the bus, we made several stops along the way to see some of the attractions -- one of those stops was to see Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico

            -- we had been driving west on I-10 and had planned on driving up to see the caverns the day before we arrived in Arizona -- so we put the address into Google and let Google tell us how to get there -- so, we turned off of I-10 and headed north, following the GPS directions

            -- we had about a half a tank of gas, so we weren’t real worried about that -- you know, there’s always a gas station on the road that you can stop at and fill up, even if you have to pay more than you want

            -- the route to Carlsbad Caverns wasn’t what we expected -- we ended up on gravel roads following semitrucks and talking two path lanes to get to the entrance -- the caverns are literally in the middle of nowhere -- and all the time we’re driving, the tank is getting lower and lower in the van

            -- as we were leaving the caverns, it was getting late -- we were going to spend the night in El Paso and then push on to Sierra Vista, Arizona, the next morning -- we looked at the gas, and we discussed whether we had enough to make it to El Paso or if we should go on into Carlsbad, New Mexico

            -- to go into Carlsbad would mean we would be driving about 30-45 minutes out of the way, and then we would have to backtrack to get to El Paso -- we looked at the map and there were a lot of small towns and crossroads and I distinctly remember Kim saying, “Let’s go on -- there’s lots of crossroads and there’s going to be convenience stores at each crossroads and if we have to, we’ll just fill up there” -- that’s exactly what we see here in Georgia, so it made sense

            -- we headed off towards El Paso and started driving through the desert -- we’re on these little country, two-lane roads -- and I started noticing that when we reached the towns on the map, there wasn’t a town there -- it was a crossroads -- it had a town name -- but there was no town -- no stores -- no gas stations -- so, I started getting a little worried

            -- but, at this point, we had no choice -- and, we thought, we do have Triple-A -- worst case, if we run out of gas, we can just call them -- but, as we passed crossroad after crossroad with no stores and as the tank kept getting lower and lower and lower, we realized we had no cellphone coverage -- Triple A is a great resource, if you can get in touch with them -- and we were in a pickle

            -- so, we just kept driving and praying and watching for gas stations -- the warning light came on in the van and we were still a long ways from El Paso -- and I thought, we’re going to have to walk

            -- finally, we came into the outskirts of El Paso on fumes -- I don’t think we could have gone another five miles -- and we ended up paying a lot of money for gas to fill up the van -- a lot more than I would have wanted to pay -- but, at the moment, I was fine with that because we were in serious trouble

           

            -- there’s a lesson to be learned from our experience -- you have to keep your tank full -- you have to make sure you have enough gas to get to your destination, especially if it’s farther than you realized -- I won’t go out there again without a gas tank with a few gallons of gas, just in case

            -- thankfully, people rarely run out of gas anymore because our cars all have warning lights today to let us know when we’re getting low -- we can make sure we have gas before we get into trouble

            -- the Bible has warning lights for us, too -- and this parable of the ten virgins that Jesus shared with His disciples is a warning light for us

            -- let’s take a look at it and see what we can learn from this story

II.  The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)

            -- before we get into the text, let me give you the context of this passage -- we find this parable in a section of Matthew where Jesus is giving instructions and teachings to His disciples about the end times

            -- it comes right after the passage in Matthew 24 we call “The Olivet Discourse,” where Jesus gives His disciples a picture of what the season of the end times is going to look like -- with wars and rumors of war -- nations rising against nation -- kingdoms against kingdoms -- and famines and earthquakes in various places -- it would be a time of false religion and false teachings -- a time when many turn away from the faith, despite the gospel being preached throughout the world

            -- Jesus tells them that when they see this occurring, they can know the end is near -- that even though we don’t know the hour nor the day, we can be sure the season of the end is upon us

            -- He then goes on to give several parables about the Kingdom of Heaven and what it will look like during that time, and warns His disciples to be vigilant -- to be watching for His return -- and to be doing the things He has called us to do so that He will find us ready when He comes

            -- the first parable that Jesus tells His disciples in this section is the parable we are going to look at now -- the Parable of the Ten Virgins

            -- let’s look back at Matthew 25:1, and let’s go through this together

            -- verse 1 -- “at that time” -- this is referring to the end of the days -- to the time just before Jesus would come back

            -- “at that time the kingdom of heaven” -- the kingdom of God on earth -- the church -- this is a parable about what the kingdom of heaven was going to be like in the last days -- of what the church was going to be like in the last days

            -- and, I think you can make the case that we are in the last days -- the return of Jesus may not happen for another hundred years -- it may not happen for several hundred years -- but, it could happen today or tomorrow or the day after -- as Adrian Rogers said, there is nothing left on the prophetic calendar that must occur before Jesus returns -- it could happen at any moment

            -- I would say that we have to consider that the church today is the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is referring to in this passage

            -- verse 1-9

25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

            -- Jesus tells us that the kingdom of Heaven is going to be like ten virgins who took their lamps out to meet the bridegroom -- so, it’s a story about ten virgins, but it’s really about the church

            -- now, in order to understand this passage, the first thing we have to do is to understand the context of what Jesus is talking about here -- most commentaries tell us that this passage is related to a traditional Jewish wedding festival -- Jewish weddings were not like our weddings -- instead, they were long and drawn out ceremonies

            -- first, the bride would become betrothed or engaged to the bridegroom -- this was the start of a committed relationship with each other -- in the eyes of the community, the couple were joined together forever at this point, and to dissolve that relationship would require the engaged couple to actually divorce

            -- we’re just coming out of the Christmas season -- remember the story of Mary and Joseph? -- they were engaged -- they were betrothed -- and when Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, he decided to divorce her -- that’s what we’re talking about here

            -- so, the couple would be engaged -- living in separate locations -- the groom would build a home for his bride -- or, if the family could not afford a separate home, the groom would prepare rooms for his bride in his father’s home

            -- when this was completed, he would gather his groomsmen and, in the middle of the night, they would arrive at the bride’s house unannounced and he would retrieve his bride -- and the bride and her attendants and the groomsmen would all make their way back to the groom’s home along a path that was lit with torches -- where they couple would enjoy a wedding feast that would last for seven days before they joined together formally as husband and wife

            -- so, that’s the picture we have of a normal Jewish wedding celebration

            -- almost every commentary and sermon I read have identified the ten virgins in this passage as bridesmaids -- as members of the bride’s wedding party -- who would be expected to have lamps -- actually, the Greek word translated as “lamp” here means a torch -- who would be waiting with the bride for the bridegroom’s arrival and who would escort her back for the wedding feast

            -- but, let me point out a couple things here that I noticed that seem to disagree with that -- first, notice that there’s no mention of a bride in this passage -- none -- the commentators said that’s because the bride is assumed and because the focus of a wedding celebration in those days would be centered around the bridegroom, and not the bride, as we do

            -- but, notice that the text never calls the ten virgins “bridesmaids” or “attendants” -- it just tells us that the ten virgins went out to meet the bridegroom -- and that five of them were wise and five were foolish

            -- given the context of this parable -- given that Jesus said this is a picture of what the Kingdom of Heaven -- the church -- would look like at the end of time -- I don’t think these virgins are bridesmaids -- instead, I think they are brides -- I think they are the betrothed

            -- nowhere in scripture are Christians or the church likened to a bridesmaid -- we are always pictured as the bride waiting for the groom -- we are not going to be attendants to the church -- we are the church -- and the church is the bride of Christ -- so, I’m going to suggest here that these ten virgins are brides who are waiting for their bridegroom Jesus because I think that makes the best sense of the meaning and purpose this passage

            -- with that understanding, let’s go on -- Jesus said that five of the virgins were foolish and five were wise -- what separated the foolish from the wise? -- it was oil -- the five foolish virgins did not have oil for their torches, while the five wise virgins did

            -- oil in the Bible typically represents the Holy Spirit -- when Aaron and his sons were being set aside as the priests for the Jewish nation, they were anointed with oil to represent the presence of the Holy Spirit upon them

            -- oil lamps were continually burned in the temple to signify the presence of the Spirit -- and, we are told to anoint people with oil as we pray for them in representation of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst

            -- so, the Bible tells us that this oil that the virgins had represented the presence of the Spirit -- this was evidence of salvation -- as we read in the Bible, when we are saved -- when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior -- we are immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit -- we are filled with His presence -- we are filled with oil

            -- the five virgins who had the oil -- who had salvation -- were called wise -- the five who did not have oil were called foolish because they did not have the Spirit in their lives

            -- one thing we need to note is that there were no outward differences between the wise and the foolish virgins -- looking at them, you couldn’t tell them apart -- they both were waiting on the bridegroom -- they both had lamps or torches with them -- they gathered together into one group -- for a period of time, the five foolish virgins looked just like the five wise virgins -- but one of these was not like the other

            -- and that’s a sobering message we see from Jesus -- not everyone who goes to church is a Christian -- and not everyone who thinks they are a Christian is a Christian

            -- in reality, every Sunday, two different groups gather -- you have the visible church -- the outward church -- the people you see who gather together for worship every Sunday -- the people who walk together through the doors of a meeting place and join together to sing the songs and to listen to the word and to be part of the “church”

            -- but, we all know that some in this group are not really “the church” -- they aren’t born again believers -- they may just be visitors -- friends -- they may be people seeking the Lord -- they may be people who just grew up in the church and who continue to go because that’s their tradition -- but they’re not true believers because they’ve never asked Jesus to forgive them of their sins and repented and trusted in Him for salvation

            -- at the same -- in the same group -- are those who are the true church -- the true believers -- those who have received salvation through Jesus and who have come to worship Him in spirit and in truth -- but, you can’t tell the difference in the two groups just by looking -- on the outside, they all look the same -- it’s a matter of the heart that separates them -- it’s a matter of whether they have the presence of the Spirit -- oil -- or not

            -- Jesus says that the foolish virgins cried out to the wise ones for oil because their lamps were going out -- the text doesn’t say they ran out of oil -- it just says their lamps were going out -- it could be the wick or rag they lit was flammable enough to start a fire, but they had no oil to begin with -- this parable is not saying these foolish virgins ran out of the Holy Spirit or they ran out of salvation -- they never had it to begin with

            -- so, they cry to the wise virgins, “give us some of your oil” -- that won’t work -- you can’t borrow oil from someone else -- you can’t borrow salvation from someone else -- in other words, you can’t be saved based on someone else’s faith -- salvation is a personal decision to receive God’s grace -- requires repentance, trust, and belief

            -- I’ve had people tell me they were Christians because they grew up in church -- because their parents were Christians -- because their grandparents were Christians -- salvation doesn’t work like that -- it’s not transferable -- it is personal and each person has to make their own decision to repent of their sins and ask Jesus to forgive them and to be their Lord and Savior -- you can’t get to heaven based on someone else’s relationship with Jesus

            -- for that reason, the wise virgins tell the foolish virgins to go and get some oil for themselves

            -- verse 10-13

10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

            -- the foolish virgins left, and while they were gone, the bridegroom came -- those who had oil with them and who were ready for His return went in with Him to the wedding banquet -- as soon as they entered, the door was shut

            -- the foolish virgins cam back and knocked on the door, but the bridegroom wouldn’t let them in -- “I tell you the truth,” He said. “I don’t know you.”

           

            -- the foolish virgins had as many opportunities as the wise virgins to acquire oil before the bridegroom showed up -- they just chose to wait, to their own downfall

            -- the ultimate point of this parable is that there is a point of no return -- I’ve had people tell me, “I’ll get saved on my death bed” -- or they say they’re having too much fun now and they’ll just get saved later

            -- there is a point of no return -- there is a time when it’s too late to be saved -- no one knows the timing of their death -- no one knows when Jesus is going to return -- and if you are not saved when you die -- if you are not saved when Jesus returns -- you won’t be given another opportunity to go out and buy oil then -- the door will be shut, and it won’t be opened again

            -- when Christ returns, there are only two destinations -- either you’re inside with Him or you’re outside in the darkness -- either you’re going to heaven or you’re going to hell

            -- contrary to teachings of some, there is no purgatory -- no place or time for you to get right after death -- the decision must be made before death and before the return of Christ

            -- these verses remind us that what determines our destination is whether we have oil or not -- whether we have received salvation through Jesus or not

            -- there are many people who do good things -- even good things in the church or for the church -- who are not going to be at the wedding feast of the Lamb -- there are many people who are going to minister in Jesus’ name, but who won’t be at the wedding feast because they only knew about Jesus -- they didn’t know Him personally -- they didn’t have a relationship with Him

            -- I heard a preacher one time talking about a lady in his church who was a leader in the congregation -- she was well-respected in that church and had taught Sunday School for years -- but, it turned out she was not saved -- she had no oil in her lamp -- she had never personally received Jesus as her Lord and Savior -- thankfully, during one service, she finally admitted to herself and to the congregation that she needed Jesus, and she came to the altar and filled her lamp with oil

            -- doing good things won’t save you -- not even doing good things for the church or in the church -- notice that both the foolish and wise virgins were asleep when the bridegroom came -- not even the wise virgins were up and working when the bridegroom came -- this reminds us that salvation is not by works -- it’s not by what we do -- salvation is only by grace through faith in the atoning death of Jesus

            -- looking like a Christian -- acting like a Christian -- claiming to be a Christian -- is not going to save you -- it’s the same as carrying a lamp without oil -- and in the end, you will find yourself locked outside the wedding feast of the Lamb, just like these foolish virgins

            -- the danger is clear -- keep in mind, Judas heard this parable, but he did not listen -- he heard the warning, but did nothing about it -- the warning light came on that he had no oil, but he didn’t pay attention until it was too late

            -- so, what we do with this passage?

            -- first, we need to find out whether we are truly saved or not -- 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves -- do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you -- unless, of course, you fail the test?”

            -- examine yourselves -- think back and ask yourself if there was a point in your life where you personally asked Jesus to be your Lord and your Savior? -- a time when you confessed to Him that you were a sinner and repented of your sins and asked Him to forgive you for your sins

            -- we’re not talking about baptism or joining a church -- those won’t save you if your heart is not right -- unless you are saved by grace through faith -- unless you believe in your heart and trust in Jesus for your salvation and the forgiveness of your sins, you’re not saved

            -- and, there should be evidence of your salvation -- there should be a change in your life -- in your actions -- in your heart -- you should know that you have been saved -- not because of how you feel -- but because of how you have changed and how you are not the same as you were

            -- if you cannot remember a time in which you were saved -- if you haven’t never asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior -- then I would strongly encourage you to do so now, before you leave -- because you don’t know what the next moment holds -- you don’t want to reach the point of it being too late

            -- I’m going to close in prayer now, and I’m going to lead us through the plan of salvation in this prayer -- if you’ve never been saved, then if you pray this prayer from the heart -- if you truly mean what we are saying and believe it and ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior and to forgive you of your sins -- then you will be saved -- just remember -- words won’t save you -- it has to be a decision of the heart and the head for it to be real

            -- and, if you do know Jesus but you know you’re not where you need to be -- then I’m going to pray for a revival and renewal of our faith and our commitment to Him, also

            -- so, let’s pray and if anyone wants me to pray with them individually later, just let me know

            -- let’s pray