The danger of the misjudged door

Matthew 25:6–12 KJV 1900

6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10 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. 11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Revelation 3:20 KJV 1900

20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

you can be seated...

The DANGER of the MISJUDGED door

it was several years ago (tell the story with a gravity and a somberness)…brooke was at Indiana Bible college and I had gone to visit her on her birthday. Chapel had ended and I was afforded the opportunity to spend a few precious moments over my firstborn, over whom my heart was still aching from here departure just a month before. I must admit that my mind was racing…I wasn’t focusing on what I was doing or where I was going…I was beside myself with enthusiasm to be spending a few precious moments with my daughter…Somehow in the course of us leaving the building, as we made our way to the exit, comprised of double glass doors, my expectation led to an altercation…Not an altercation with a person…I likely would have faired a little better had it been a battle against flesh and blood…perhaps in that case I would have at least got a lick in or an opportunity to return the punishment that I was about to incur. Somehow, with a quick glance at the exit…my expectation had been such…that the doors were open. I approached the door without hesitation. My stride was confident and unbroken…Until the altercation. Without so much as a flinch, my face encountered the door, which most assuredly was shut.

I fear that soon, such will be the dismay of many that have walked through church doors week after week, month after month, year after year. I fear that the day is soon coming that many will rise on that morning to come to church and to sit through another church service…as they have done so many times before…They will come with the smug indifference and their carnal confidence that they have brought with them for as long as can be remembered. Long ago, their fire went out. Long ago, the zeal and passion gave way to routine and religious duty. They will arrive indifferent and yet ignorant to the fact that the door that they have passed through hundreds of times is no longer open.

Intentionally…leave them hanging here…pause....let the tension build!!

In Matthew chapter 25 Jesus tells the story of the 10 virgin. Your bible identifies, in the second verse, 5 of these women to be wise and the 5 of them to be foolish.

The parable of the ten virgins contains no shades of gray. It doesn’t bother with flowery and flattering words to embellish the character of the 5 who were foolish. There are no statements to explain that perhaps the 5 had come through rougher times or explain extenuating circumstances that might have led to their being identified as foolish…no…a swift and sure line right down the middle…5 were wise…and 5 were foolish.

With so clear a line and so sure a contrast....and considering that the 13th verse brings clarity of context that this parable is concerning the time of the coming of the Lord…I would hope that every person in the audience today…wether in person on or online would want to know…If my backstory and what I’ve been through doesn’t play into the equation…If how wrong I’ve been done nor even how hard I’ve tried play into the equation…Then I want to know....What determines the difference between those that are wise and those that are foolish.

First…let me clearly place this parable within the right scope of target. Who was Jesus talking to and who was Jesus talking about when he shared this parable concerning his second coming. This is clearly identified when the bible says that all ten....both the wise and the foolish were virgins. The virgin in the bible is one that has kept themselves. They have consecrated their lives for a greater purpose. The virgin is a type of the church…This parable is not about the world. It is not about those that have never heard the Gospel. Not about those that have never graced a church building or knelt at an altar....No…the 5 wise and the 5 foolish…they were all virgins…they were all in the church…The line that separates the wise from the foolish is not in the church or in the world...

IF I could say this…if you are not in the church…there is no better time that right now. I’m not talking about a voting member or shaking the preachers hand…I’m talking about obeying the Gospel…repenting of your sons…being baptized in Jesus name and receiving the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking in other tongues…Being born again of water and of the spirit!

If you aren’t in the church…you are ignorant…I know that word is so harsh…but it simply means you don’t know any better…and I believe it better to be ignorant than to be a fool…The ignorant have never experienced the power of God…the ignorant have never heard the message of Calvary…the ignorant have never experienced redemption and regeneration…but the foolish…they have…they have walked in grace, witnessed mercy, understood truth…and still will not be ready when Jesus returns.

Notice....that in verse 1, they ALL went out to meet the bridegroom.

And in verse 5, when the bridegroom tarried…when his coming was delayed…they ALL slumbered and slept.

and at midnight there went out a cry…A cry that must have pierced the darkness of the night…Behold…the bridegroom cometh...

Undoubtedly the 10 waiting women leapt from their places of slumber. Ashamed that they had fallen asleep…Dismayed that the cry of his coming had caught them ill-perpared, they moved into action...

Fighting through the haze of interrupted sleep....A cry that should have brought joy and delight, instead prompted alarm and dismay.

They ALL arose and they trimmed their lamps.

Up until this point, there is no demarcation…there is no separation…they are all virgins that have kept themselves for the bridegroom

They all went out to meet the bridegroom

Desensitized by his delay…they ALL slumbered and slept...

And at the sound of the midnight cry, they all arose to trim their lamps...

Yet…it is here…that the line if drawn between the wise and the foolish.

And most often when we preach this parable, we accentuate the absence of oil in the lamps of the foolish…and of a certainty the 5 foolish have let the oil run out…but if I could push a little bit further.

All ten believed in the necessity of the oil. All 10 understood the need for the oil. The five foolish, just like the five wise understood that their lamps wouldn’t burn without oil…

oh...it was their desire to get their lamps filled with oil.

It was their intention to get the lamp filled with oil…

I believe that the demarcation and the dividing line that separated the wise from the foolish can be found in verse 10 & 11

Matthew 25:10–11 NKJV

10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. 11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’

They thought the door would always be open. They failed to realize that once the door is closed…it will never again be opened...

I preach to you today that the church of 2020 has much in common with the 10 virgins of Matthew 25. I believe the modern North American church fell asleep…desensitized by affluence, and worldly appetites. We’ve heard for many years that Jesus was coming back…I’ve been in no less than 100 church services in my life time where a hush came over the church and an unknown tongue went forth followed by a prophetic word declaring that the return of Jesus was imminent and yet nothing has happened.

Two-thousand years ago, the Apostle Peter wrote of this calloused calamity that would overtake the church in the last days....

2 Peter 3:3–5 NKJV

3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,

its not the foolish that have fallen asleep…we have all fallen asleep!

The mantle of intercession and travail laid down by faithful elders like Mother Brown and Momma Bush still lay crumpled upon the ground…waiting for someone to pick them up and pray with a sense of desperation.

I am not questioning wether you are in the church or in the world…In this last hour, you would have to be ignorant not to be in the church…But that isn’t who this parable is pertaining to.

And I believe that the things that we are watching take place around us right now…they are the midnight cry…they are the shrill, piercing cry in the night to awaken the church…to make sure we know that…that the bridegroom is coming!

Listen…I’ve done my best to tap dance around a few things…but so many are being deceived in this hour…you are being deceived into focusing your attention on the political factions of our hour. You are giving your energy to airing your opinions on things that in the scope of eternity will not matter one little bit. Today as I preach the message that Jesus is coming, it should fill your heart with joy and delight that our bridegroom is coming…yet for many the message that Jesus is coming interrupts the narrative that you have dug your heels in to defend. It irritates our carnal flesh that the preacher is suggesting that the battle we are fighting is spiritual and not nature.

2 Timothy 2:4 KJV 1900

4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

And the bible says those virgins…all 10 of them…stumbling around in the darkness of the midnight hour…they began to trim their wicks...

Here is where I begin to really have a problem with the 5 foolish…the trimming of the wick…a visible work that certainly had to be tended to…I don’t want to trivialize the importance of tending to the wick....but to trim the wick when you have no oil is pointless…And trimming the wick can be done at any time…

They were going through all of the acts that they 5 wise were doing…giving off the perception that they had oil…when in reality, they knew all along, they had no oil. But in an effort to appear that they had oil…they trimmed their wicks.

Why…5 foolish virgins…why, when the cry went out would you not run to find the seller of oil…why…when you know the value of the oil…you know that a wick is pointless without oil…Why would you not run to find the seller of oil…yet, we find there is no urgency in the pursuit of the foolish virgins.

And it is here that the great folly of the 5 virgins that would leave them draw the line between them and the wise…they had done everything the wise had done...

they were in the church

They went out to meet the bridegroom

They awakened at the cry

They trimmed their lamps

They knew the value of the oil

But they wrongfully deducted that the door would always be open!

The great error that would leave 5…who had lived their lives consecrated....had at one time eagerly anticipated the coming of the bridegroom…had risen at the cry of his coming…yet now they will forever be remembered in the scripture as the foolish yet eternally forgotten by the bridegroom

Matthew 25:11–12 KJV 1900

11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

And today, I am not preaching to the ignorant…to those that have never known....I preach to the church…

For I fear that many that have lived consecrated lives…have at some point in your life, looked forward to the coming of the bridegroom....you have trimmed your wicks and you even believe in and understand the value of the oil....Yet…you are in danger of an eternity of damnation because you misjudge the door.

You believe that you have forever to get right with God.

You have wrongfully deducted that recent events are just another time of crisis that soon will pass, and someday…when the time is right…you will go and you will once again find the seller of the oil!

Today…I preach to you the words of the same Jesus that declared in Revelation chapter 3 to the church in Philadelphia...

“I have set before you an open door”.

Today, there is an open door.

Today, there is mercy. Today, there is grace. Today, there if forgiveness of sins. Today, there is oil at this altar. Today, there is an open door....

But the same Jesus that said in verse 8 is the same Jesus who said in verse 7 “These things says He who is holy, He who is true. He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts…and shuts an no one opens”.

And the same God that declared in Revelation chapter 3 to the church in Philadelphia, that he had set before them an open door that no man can shut…is the same God that is going to shut the door that no man can open!

I know we celebrate the fact that He is the God of the open door, that no man can shut…but I came to plead with this church today…don’t forget that He is also the God of the shut door that no man can open!

The door won’t always be open!!

If you feel led to go this direction, Genesis 7:16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as god had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.