Five Foolish Women

Psalm of The Day: Psalm 21

Psalm 21 (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices,

and in your salvation how greatly he exults!

You have given him his heart’s desire

and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah

For you meet him with rich blessings;

you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.

He asked life of you; you gave it to him,

length of days forever and ever.

His glory is great through your salvation;

splendor and majesty you bestow on him.

For you make him most blessed forever;

you make him glad with the joy of your presence.

For the king trusts in the Lord,

and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.

Your hand will find out all your enemies;

your right hand will find out those who hate you.

You will make them as a blazing oven

when you appear.

The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,

and fire will consume them.

You will destroy their descendants from the earth,

and their offspring from among the children of man.

Though they plan evil against you,

though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.

For you will put them to flight;

you will aim at their faces with your bows.

Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!

We will sing and praise your power.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 37:7-9

Psalm 37:7–9 ESV

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

Communion:

Sermon:

Good Morning Church! I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

It's always very funny to me when my life and whatever text i'm preaching on, they sort of line up. When God works them out in his sense of humor, and his wisdom and his grace to sort of just line up. Today we'll be looking at the parable of the 10 virgins. A parable about 10 young women who are going out to meet the bridegroom. They are getting ready and expecting a great party because a great wedding supper is on it’s way. And last night, I had the blessing and the privilege of marrying off Jordan and Elyse. It was a wonderful and beautiful ceremony for a special young couple. And it's such a wonderful thing when we can come and gather and celebrate god's gifts of marriage. Everyone loves a good wedding. And so it shouldn't surprise us that there's actually quite a few parables where Jesus uses marriage as the central thought and the the unifying picture. Weddings were a part of the fabric of culture, marriage IS STILL a part of the fabric of the culture and so it is a great place to set your parables. And this one is no different.

We're finally into Matthew chapter 25 continuing through the Olivet discourse. We have three more sermons, including this one in the Olivet discourse as we think through what jesus said about “These things” and “the signs of the end of the age”. I'd like to review last week's message because i think it's important. I said last week that in the entire “no one knows the day or hour”, passage, jesus laid out the foundation for what would be the rest of this discourse and i noted three thoughts. I am bringing this up because those three thoughts become the last three messages. So we noted that in knowing that no one knows the day or hour, jesus was saying this as a warning. Saying be careful. No one knows. So pay attention. Do not be caught unaware. Be ready in your heart and mind.

He said it as a Exhortation to get to work. This was the second thought here that Because we don't know the day or hour, we need to get to work. Because we don't know how much time we have we must get busy doing the work of the father. And finally, we noted god's judgment — god's wrath — will come. And because of that, and because no one knows, we must look forward with a boldness because we know our savior is coming back. But there's also on top of that the thought that time is short for those around us, who will not have not repented. Time is short for them to hear and repent, time is short for us to preach the gospel, so we must get to work.

And so this week, we're going to dive into the first one. Namely that this is a warning. Ultimatly, the entire Olivet discourse should be to us a warning, but here a particular one. And here Jesus gives us this warning in the form of a parable. Let's read our passage this morning. Matthew chapter 25 verses 1 through 13,

Matthew 25:1–13 ESV

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let’s open with the word of prayer.

Dear Lord, We thank you for today. Thank you for another day that you have made that we may rejoice and be glad in it. Thank you for your goodness and your grace. We thank you that we are the bride of christ, his beloved. Thank you for his redeeming, sanctifying love given to us. We thank you that you call us out of darkness and into light. Help us to be wise. Help us to understand what you have said, what you are doing. Help us to be those people who don't just hear the word but it are, in fact, doers of your word. It's in jesus name, we pray. Amen.

This is a parable of 10 virgins, getting ready for the bride room to come. There's a bit of contextual stuff here we should cover. A wedding in Jewish culture is much different from a wedding in our culture. Like i said we are all familiar with what goes on here. I say: last night there was a wedding and that makes sense to us. It was all on one stressful, full beautiful and REALLY REALLY hot day. Sure, Some of us had to go to rehearsal. So even if we count that, it was sort of a two-day affair but you know, they're they're a short thing, it's a ceremony with a party afterwards. In the Jewish culture, this was a multi day if not multi week long affair. And so there wasn't the same thoughts of “well we're running late, we got to get there now.” Because It just went on for a long time. You're also here before the age of cars and modern traveling and clocks and time zones and all of these things. So often when the bridegroom came you wouldn't know EXACTLY when. And so jesus sets the stage by saying the bridegroom's coming, Not when he is coming, just that he is, but importantly, and the lessons come because there's these 10 virgins.

They are in this same place. They don't know when he's coming. They know he is, but not when. So the virgins are divided into two groups. There are five who are wise and five that are foolish. The wise ones are prepared. And prepared to be prepared. They have their torch. But they also have their extra oil. On the other hand are the foolish ones. They just think he'll come in a second. I'll just grab my torch. There is no need to worry about these sorts of things. It will all take care of itself. And there are disastrous consequences.

For the ones who are wise, who were prepared and prepared to be prepared, they got to go in, they got to dine at the wedding feast. They get entry into all of these good things. But for the foolish ones who were not prepared, for them, they will hear these tragic words of our savior: “I do not know you.” And we should note that jesus ends, Again, with this exhortation, the same one we spent all last week dwelling on: “Watch therefore for you know neither the day, nor the hour”

We don't know when he's coming back. So Be wise. Listen to the parable. Listen to these thoughts. We cannot know when he will return. We do know that he is coming but we do not know when. And the other thing that we do know is that we ought to be wise.

A PARABLE WITH THREE LESSONS

In this parable there are three lessons i think for us. Three ways I'd like to approach this. Three thoughts that give us understanding as to the deeper nature of what jesus is speaking about here. We can read this parable and just the surface level lesson, It is important, but it is also it's fairly easy. It's right there covered last week and repeated here: Be wise. And pay attention. For none knows exactly when he is coming.

But there's more lessons i think we can figure out from this. And so i'd like to spend our time this morning looking at three deeper lessons that jesus teaches us in this parable. All of it is this overarching thought: this is a warning. Truly it is a grave warning. You will either be at the marriage supper of the lamb. With all of the ones who headed and listened to the words of the savior. Joining with all the dining dining, spending time with him in the beauty and the splendor of the marriage feast. Or you will have the door shut in your face. You will hear: “I do not know you.” These are your options. And these three lessons i think help us evaluate our lives, evaluate our hearts, evaluate our minds, and give a deeper understanding of what jesus is talking about here.

So, the first lesson: THE GIRLS LOOK THE SAME, BUT AREN’T

Lesson 1: THE GIRLS LOOK THE SAME BUT ARE NOT

There are ten virgins, but even from the get go we see the division. There are ultimately not just ten, but rather five wise and five foolish young ladies. On the outside, They all look the same. They're all getting ready for the same party. They all show up with Torches. They all show up with their lamps, they all look the same on the outside to the untrained eye. At first, glance they all look the same but They're not.

Five of them are truly prepared. Five of them are looking for their bridegroom, five of them are ready. SO ready that when the completely expected and almost guaranteed delay happens, even when he doesn't come when they think he might -- even when he tarries -- and even when they get drowsy and fall asleep, even though these things happen, they are still ready and they are still looking. And the opposite: five foolish ones.

Here's the lesson for us said as plainly as I can. There are many who May look like they're ready. They come to church. Maybe the most righteous looking. They look like every other church member, sound like every other church member, live like every other church member. They may look the same. But they're not. What a grave warning!

The bible is full of passages that I call “warning” passages. Passages that we look at and they are fuilled with waring s to make your salvation secure, to “fight the good thought of faith” to make sure of your calling. And her ein our passage is another one. verse 12.

Matthew 25:12 ESV

But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

He answered. These are girls that thought they were coming to the wedding. These are girls that thought they hadn't made. These are girls banging on the door. We want to come in. This is what they hear : Truly, i say to you, IDo not know you. We have been in Matthew a long time, but not so long that we can forget what Jesus said back in his first long discourse, The sermon on the mount. We heard there a similar thought. Matthew chapter 7 verse 21,

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

These people crying out thinking they may be safe, to use the thoughts of this parable here, they even look like they might be safe. They're even saying look at our actions. WE are doing the same things! We prophesied, we cast out demons, We did mighty works, it looks the same — but it's not. So we should ask: What's the difference? It's a difference of heart.

The foolish, I would argue, They just want to follow the bridegroom for... Fun, maybe. Maybe Because the wedding seems nice, or because all their friends are doing it. Ultimately, There's no heart change. The other five are seen as wise. On the highest level they are wise because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and discipline. But they are also wise because oaf their actions. They are wise because they they take care of things they prepare and then they prepare to be prepared. They bring the extra oil, they make sure they have everything they need. But why do they do that? It's because they care so much about seeing the bridegroom, for us to understand: they want to see their savior. It's a heart issue.

The girls here, may look the same, But they're not the same. Call upon your savior. Look to him. As the wedding feast, as the wedding supper, the great wedding supper of the lamb approaches, here is the question: Are you prepared? Do ytou have your lamp trimmed with the added oil you may need? Are you ready to get to work? Are you ready to go and do what is required of you? Love and service and devotion to the king of kings, and the lord of lords. It's a hart issue. Is your heart right before the lord? Don't be like the foolish virgins.

There's a second lesson I'd like to look at: Some things just can't be bought.

Lesson 2: SOME THINGS CANNOT BE BOUGHT

This to me, is One of the most fascinating portions of this parable. These 10 virgins, they all fall asleep. They've been waiting for a long while. Jesus says he was delayed and so they all fell asleep. It's a long night. But he does come. And when he comes, they all begin to trim their lamps. And they all have their torches, they all have their lamps, they have some amount of what they need to give light. But… Some don’t have enough. the five foolish ones light begins to flicker, their torch is dying. They are not as ready as they thought they were. And this is what the five foolish ones say, verse 8:

Matthew 25:8 ESV

And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

They way this is said shows that this is a great catastrophe for them. It's not just well, you have a little bit extra. It's okay. It's much more like we completely messed up and we are now up the creek without a paddle. We'll have no light. We have to go out on a dark road where there may be robbers and thieves where there may be danger. that is bad but that's only half of it. Because we also just HAVE to go out and see the bridegroom. Part of what this ceremony was is that the guests would line the street as the bridegroom, walks down the street. They were in effect his own entourage. And so, to be there standing without a torch lit, it's dangerous yes. But it's also an offense to the bridegroom who is coming. That’s like coming to the party with no gifts, or coming to church with no bible — you just don’t do it.

So the beg the wise: give us some oil! The wise say, basically, “we don't have enough for you”. One of my favorite phrases: “a lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine”. Sooy you five, You messed up. You should have planned ahead. It's not my job to fix it for you. They instruct them: Go to the dealers and buy some for yourself. That's your one shot to fix this. Go buy for yourself some more oil.

Okay. That's what we need to do. The foolish one think, just for a bit: I didn't bring enough. That's okay, i will go buy it! But the lesson here is that Some things can't be bought. And they completely miss the boat. At the heart is this thought: it is NOT just that they don’t have the oil, and so buying the oil doesn’t fix their problem. The problem is they were not ready for his coming in the first place. The problem is that. If you did not prepare in the first place. You can't weasel and con, you can't barter and trade, You can't go in your own strength and might to procure this. The lesson here is that you're either prepared or you're not and you can't buy your way into being prepared.

When the king comes, when christ returns, there will be no swindling and dealing. There will be no purchasing and procuring either. You will be in christ safe in his arms or you will not. You can't buy this. Often, i like to sit down with young people. And we do budgets together. And i have kind of a passion for it because Desiree were not good at this early in marriage. We were not good at following budgets and making budgets. And I often see young couples making a similar mistake to Desiree and I, which is at it’s heart a trying to “buy” your way our of your problems.

For us it looked like this: I got a job place called service master. If you had a flood or a fire at your house, we would go and we would fix it up for you. And it was a fun job. I enjoyed the work. But One of the things i enjoyed the most about the job is I used to get a TON of overtime. And so, when Desiree and i early in our marriage weren't that great at following, a budget, the way i would make up for it is, well, i'll just go work some more overtime. If you're if your budgeting a set amount of dollars and you're not going to make it, you're two options are make more dollars. Or cut the budget. We went with the just try to make more dollars. We didn’t prepare to follow a budget and so I would try and work my way out of a poor finical decision mess. and I see it all the time. i'll sit down with a young couple, or a young single person. And In the conversations you tell them you have an income and an outcome problem. The WRONG NUMBER IS BIGGER. we're looking at all the expenses and they think: we can't cut that or that. So then how are you going to make the thing balance, increase the other side of the equation.

And for budgets, sometimes that works. Usually though you just need to be more careful and wise and how you're spend your money. But the point of this parable is that this is NEVER the way the equation works when christ comes back. There's no going to the dealer to buy more oil either, you're ready or you're not. There's no figuring out a way in your own strength or might. There is, but one way. In the parable, the one way would be to be wise and plan ahead and bring your oil. In what we're talking about, to bring this full circle, the one way is trust in jesus christ alone. Looking for him alone. This is ultimately what divided these girls, Sure, they looked the same but they are not. Five of them thought: “Well, we'll just figure it out. We'll just wing it. We'll buy the stuff we need. We'll figure it out as we go along.” The other five were wise and they were waiting with eager anticipation for the arrival of their groom.

Look to the lord. Trust in the lord. Salvation is a beautiful precious free gift. It can't be bought. Then look to the return of our savior. He's coming. Those who are in him, in the perfect, precious gift of salvation, through faith alone, by grace alone, not of works— We rest in him. To try to go buy it yourself, and trying to earn it yourself will not get you there. Because some things just cannot be bought. These girls thought they could go to the dealer. They come back, the door is shut on them. This leaves us to the last lesson. It's probably the most tragic one: Sometimes it is just too late.

Lesson 3: SOMETIMES IT IS TOO LATE

To be too late Is often a tragic thing. You miss your boat, miss your flight. You're too late. What jesus is saying here is even more so: Don't be too late when it comes to his return!

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is the message that he tasked his disciples with proclaiming. Go and proclaim the message: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” and the message is the same today. Here is our message: Jesus is coming soon, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and hear the beautiful message of the Gospel. And woe to those who find themselves standing there too late.

When the king returns, When he comes, it will be too late, the door will be shut. So today, Is the day of salvation. Come to him. The lesson is that Sometimes it's too late. The hope is this: If there is breath in your lungs… And he hasn't come back yet... It's not too late for you.

We often shy away, or i should say that I often shy away from this sort of preaching. Because I've seen it abused. I'm the type of person, you know, if I were to share my testimony it might start with sort of: “Well, which trip up to the altar Is the time where it actually took?” Because you get a slightly better hellfire and brimstone sermon or You go to a slightly more terrifying presentation of the weight of hell here and a more forceful “if you don’t come up toe front now know this: if you deny Jesus before man he will deny you before God” there and so you are left thinking: at which one of those times did it take? That's not my goal and purpose here, But I must also speak the truth, and judgement and being locked out are realities that exist and so we must hear these terrible warnings. This is the message of jesus: You do not know the day or the hour. We do not know when he's returning. So come to him in repentance now. Come to him like the five wise virgins, who came prepared. But we should note eher, they came To love him. That we can't push this parable too far. There's nothing we can do to prepare our hearts. You can't be good enough. You can't be smart enough. You can't be wise enough. You can't do that. So you come to him. And then HE gives you the oil for your lamp. He gives you the light you need. He gives you all that you need in this parable so that you can dine at the great wedding feast Turn to him. Run to him. This passage serves as a warning, this parable is a grave warning. Don't be one of the five foolish women. The ones who Thought they could just skate by. The ones who thought that they could buy whatever they need or bum it off of the wise ones. The ones who ultimately were too late.

Matthew 25:12 ESV

But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

The dor was shut and they heard this message. And this is a terrible terrifying warning to us. May we all, With open eyes, look forward to the return of our savior. May we be like the wise virgins, Taking not just our lanterns but also the flask. As we eagerly anticipate the return of our savior. having understanding of this precious free gift that he's given us. We are invited to the marriage supper, run to your savior, We must hear these words today. For sometimes, it's too late. When christ returns It will surely be too late— But none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. Either he will return or he will call us home. Either way, May it never be too late for any of us. Let's pray.