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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning is the parable of the ten virgins. You may be seated. Surely you have thought about this in recent weeks and in recent months. You just finished barely processing the heinous shooting in Las Vegas when merely an hour south of you Another shooting occurred, but not in a public place, as public as a parking lot at a concert, but in a holy place, a sanctuary of God amongst God’s children. And we wonder, not very many of us at all wonder, that Christ is coming again soon. Now the rest of the world looks at this and just says, oh, things are getting from bad to worse. But then they go about their business and get busy again. It’s kind of like the people that live during another great judgment upon the world known as the flood. When Noah, miles and miles from any large body of water, began to construct a large wooden ark with only seven other people in himself. And every day the people would see this and the work that was being done and they would think, Noah, you’re crazy because things are going along like they’ve always gone and it will continue to go on like they’ve always gone. And I have no need to repent, which is the same thing that is happening to the world again. It may not be in this country, but you know and I know that there is such a power out there Subterfusion in the world from the Middle East with Saudi Arabia doing its interesting things to North Korea to Iran. And that’s only the big actors on the stage, not the little actors in all the little areas of Africa and Indonesia and Southeast Asia and even in our own country. The timeliness of the ten virgins. So here are some points to grasp about the ten virgins. First of all, there aren’t five virgins. There are ten virgins. Even though we know as the story progresses, ten go from, I’m assuming, wise to foolish, and the other five remain wise. But they all are virgins. They all have a lamp. And they all have a lamp that burns brightly. So every one of those ten are, in fact, a believer. But only five endure to the bitter end. And five who were believers, shoved it aside. And they’re surprised when the door is closed in their face. This has the same kind of a meaning that was already present in the parable regarding the seed and the sower. How some sprout up and for a while grow and then the shallow soil is why they perish. Another one sprouts up and grows and because it’s amongst thorns and thistles, it perishes. The five foolish are like those. But all ten… Start out the parable as fellow believers, do they not? Otherwise they would be the five whores and the five virgins. But it’s not. It’s the parable of the ten virgins. Five endure to the end, five do not. The second part is that the five that do endure to the end, why? Because they have something that the other five do not have. And it is only one thing. And that one thing is oil. The five whys have oil. And that oil was not bought at the market. That oil was given to them by whom? Jesus Himself. Because it’s the oil of grace that produces faith. That is what the wise virgins have been given. And upon that oil and that oil alone do those wise virgins depend, live, and have their being. They cannot exist without that oil. They’re convinced of it. They have no future. They have no present without that oil. The mystery that is not clear at all is that the five foolish start out with that reliance upon the oil, but for whatever reason, they lose their reliance upon that oil. Now, the seed and the sower talks about the shallow soil and the thorns and the thistles. This does not talk about the why, and we do not know why, but we know that the end result is that the five foolish stop relying upon the oil, but they still wait for the bridegroom. Why would they wait for the bridegroom if their reliance upon the oil is no more? Because they’ve actually convinced themselves they’re worthy to be received by the bridegroom without oil. And so they’re waiting for the bridegroom. Along with the other five, the wise, who know that they cannot be received by the bridegroom without the oil of grace. So the unbeliever lives in this kind of status of ignorance, happy bliss of damnation. Interesting thought, isn’t it? So why did not the five take the oil? As was said, they had lost their faith in the oil and its need in their lives. The grace of God in Christ Jesus. They began to invent something other than why they would be received by God. Because nature abhors a vacuum. If the oil isn’t there, man is going to create something to replace the oil. And it’s going to look good. It’s got to look good because it’s got to make sense to their reason. So the five foolish begin to think of something other than the oil by which they should be waiting for the bridegroom. Or otherwise, they would have washed their hands of the whole thing and said, I’m tired of waiting for the bridegroom because there is no bridegroom. But they’ve convinced themselves to wait for this bridegroom, and they don’t have anything that the bridegroom gave them to begin with to be received by the bridegroom. Jesus proclaimed this earlier in the Gospels. He said this, In the same way, let your light shine before others… That they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. The oil of grace that you’ve been given, that you know you need and cannot live without, is constantly giving light to the world. You may not realize it. You may be uncertain of it. In fact, I know you’re uncertain of it because you and I continually struggle with, I don’t know if my light’s bright enough. What a dumb thing to say to Jesus who said, I’ve given you the oil already. You’ve got oil. It is burning bright. Trust in what I’ve given you. I don’t lie. Having given you that oil, He’s saying remain faithful. Lean upon and trust in the oil and what it’s promised to do, it will produce light. It can’t do otherwise. Not my oil, Jesus is saying. So think about that. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to the Father in heaven. Well then, if that is true, why were not the foolish virgins recognizing the light of the wise virgins and giving glory to God who is in heaven? Because they truly did not believe that oil was necessary. And when it came to push to shove, they thought, oh, okay, well if that’s all I need to do… If all I’ve got to do is buy oil, I’ll go buy oil, but I will not take it from, I won’t take it from you, God. That’s in essence what they’re saying. I won’t take it from you. So while they’re out trying to buy oil, the wise ones are sitting there waiting for the bridegroom, and he comes, and he who has been knocking at the door, like in Revelation, now closes the door, just like God closed the door on the ark when the flood came. There comes a point when God says, that’s all, no more. Now, it’s interesting. When the foolish virgins are left there with the door in their face, and the wise virgins are on the other side of the door and are received into the bridegroom’s feast, there is no more information about the wise virgins. But there’s a bunch more information to be heard about the foolish virgins. Why? It serves as a warning for all of us to repent, to do not become anorexic with the oil of God that He brings to you here. Don’t become bulimic and feast upon it and then never go back to it again for a long time. Then feast upon it and then never go back to it again for a long time. Or only use it whenever you feel like your life has finally come to a point that you need to use it. Then you’re forgetting what oil is all about. It’s what we live by every day, not just when we realize we need it. We live by it because we know every day we need it. Because there’s only one source of that oil. It’s not the marketplace. It’s out of the side of Jesus where blood and water flowed. That’s where the oil and grace of forgiveness is given. And all we do is stand there and do the greatest work that you can do. Do you know what the greatest work you can do for God? Receive it. Just receive it. And he gives you the ability to receive it and believe in it and trust in it. That’s the greatest work that God can do. And God does the work in you, doesn’t He? What a glorious thing. So the foolish are saying, Lord, Lord, why won’t you open this door to us? The wise have no concept of what’s happening on the other side of that door. They’re in bliss and peace. But the foolish, by golly, they know And they’re mad because they think they should actually be in heaven. In fact, they’re demanding. The wise don’t demand anything of Jesus. The wise are just received. But the foolish, by golly God, you owe me. Kind of like the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Do you remember the Lazarus is in hell? And he cries out and basically demands of Abraham, send someone to my brothers. Right? Send Lazarus down here to cool my tongue. Foolish are always demanding of God. Wise receive from God. Foolish demand that what they receive isn’t the right thing, isn’t fully. Wise just receive and give thanks because wise know that they are beggars. Foolish will never come to that because they actually believe they’re above being a beggar. At some point in time, when they lose that faith, they actually come to that conclusion. Or otherwise, they wouldn’t speak out like this in this parable. Jesus said it in another place, 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. And I just got through sharing to you what is the will of the Father in heaven? To receive the oil of grace that the Son gives to you. So inevitably the foolish despise the oil and the wise cherish the oil. What a remarkable thing. A remarkable thing indeed. So Jesus gives us this parable as a warning with the promise. Not just a warning, but a warning with the promise. The warning obviously is cherish the oil, receive the oil, trust in the oil. Let it be why you can close your eyes at night and why you can face anything, even a slaughter in your own church, with hope. For as Thessalonians, that text said, Paul said, We do not grieve as the world grieves who has no hope. But also remember that we’re going to be pushed because God will thrust you with your lit lamp into a world that’s filled not with light but with darkness because He wishes you to share that light with the world. Whether you are willing to or not, He will thrust you into the world with that light because whose light is it? It’s His. Who supplies the oil? Him. And who keeps it lit for you? God be praised for such a gift of oil to us, and we bear it by grace. In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen. The congregation may be seated at this time.
