back to index2020-12-27 Suddenly
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The fool is said to the prudent, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going 00:00:29.200 |
But the prudent answered, "No, there will not be enough for us, and you too. 00:00:33.200 |
Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves." 00:00:36.240 |
And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who 00:00:39.480 |
were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. 00:00:43.720 |
Later the other virgins also came, saying, "Lord, Lord, open up for us." 00:00:47.400 |
But he answered, "Truly I say to you, I do not know you. 00:00:51.720 |
Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour." 00:00:58.280 |
Heavenly Father, after a year like 2020, we've arrived here at our last Sunday, and we thank 00:01:05.920 |
God, we can't help but give you worship and praise. 00:01:09.200 |
Thank you that we can trust in a faithful God who never changes. 00:01:14.560 |
And Lord, I pray that as we look into your Word, we would remember who you are, we would 00:01:19.400 |
remember the power of your Word, and Father, we would allow it. 00:01:25.040 |
God, pass all the rebellion and stubbornness of our hearts to soak and sanctify into our 00:01:34.600 |
Alright, well, this is the last Sunday of 2020, and I was curious, I couldn't remember, 00:01:42.000 |
but last year, the last Sunday of 2020, I actually preached as well, and I didn't realize 00:01:46.720 |
it until I looked back to see what the topic was on last year. 00:01:50.840 |
And it was pretty fascinating because, you know, it's the last Sunday of 2020, so what 00:01:55.880 |
you can do is look back at the year and think through, like, "Man, what was the year like?" 00:01:59.680 |
In 2019, there wasn't much, but you kind of had to dig to look into some of the world 00:02:06.000 |
This year, you know, it's pretty self-explanatory. 00:02:09.440 |
There's a lot that happened, and I'm going to do the obligatory thing. 00:02:13.480 |
I'm going to kind of draw our attention again to some of the things, I'm not going to go 00:02:17.120 |
very long, some of the things that happened this past year. 00:02:20.200 |
It was a year filled with protests, political turmoil. 00:02:28.080 |
We saw notable deaths of famous people, among which were a few Christian giants. 00:02:34.080 |
Wildfires, many of you were displaced from your homes because of these wildfires. 00:02:43.960 |
And obviously, the thing that probably rises to the surface of all of this is the global 00:02:51.880 |
2020 really, really has been a crazy year, right? 00:03:00.520 |
For those of you who don't know what a meme is, it's this thing where it's a picture and 00:03:04.320 |
then, like, people, like, describe something with this picture. 00:03:12.720 |
When people think about the year 2020, if you haven't noticed, people kind of get angry. 00:03:17.200 |
Or if something bad happens, people yell out, "2020!" 00:03:22.560 |
It doesn't really make sense, but people are like, "Oh, my gosh, only in 2020, this will 00:03:32.080 |
Because of this, though, I think, knowingly or unknowingly, we're looking forward to the 00:03:40.320 |
As if, like, 2020 coming in is going to actually change something. 00:03:52.320 |
And then once 2021 comes, it doesn't mean that anything's going to change. 00:04:01.600 |
There are so many hard things going on that, from a worldly perspective, we want things 00:04:11.000 |
If you think back, especially at the month of March, when it felt like the whole world 00:04:15.160 |
flipped upside down, when everything was beginning to shut down, we're all sheltering in place, 00:04:23.240 |
a word that comes to mind, a favorite of Berean is this word "soberness." 00:04:35.960 |
Really just one swing of things and the entire world was brought to its knees. 00:04:41.320 |
And this virus, it's unseen by the naked eye, right? 00:04:56.880 |
For many of us, as we sat in our rooms trying to work from home, and we had our frontline 00:05:01.160 |
workers, we had our healthcare workers, among whom we need many prayers for them now, but 00:05:06.280 |
besides them, many of us found ourselves working from home. 00:05:12.520 |
And I remember talking to people and thinking, "Wow, people sound very sober right now." 00:05:20.520 |
And people would talk about their lives and how everything has slowed down and how everything 00:05:26.400 |
was a little quieter and the time with the Lord for the first time in many, many months, 00:05:36.840 |
I mean, I don't know if you kind of relate with that, but that time, that March, April, 00:05:41.240 |
May, there were a lot of people who had just sweet times in the Word, in prayer, in trust, 00:05:49.640 |
I mean, life is so crazy, it's so hectic, that finally you get to this point where everything 00:05:59.240 |
I had a friend, he had a phrase that he used to use a lot, it was like, "It hurts so good." 00:06:07.200 |
It felt good to feel that sobriety and that awareness and that perspective change and 00:06:13.960 |
that sharp kind of jab of the reality of the world. 00:06:18.320 |
And so for Christians, it was actually a great time. 00:06:26.400 |
To feel the brittleness and the feebleness of our own existence was good. 00:06:36.000 |
The reality of a sovereign God who reigns over the world was brought into spotlight. 00:06:41.640 |
And so something that we can espouse so easily and so quickly about, like, oh, God is sovereign, 00:06:48.240 |
God is good, God is in control, He is the King. 00:06:59.400 |
But we stare at something so life-changing and we realize how far we are from the things 00:07:12.600 |
Before we lived under the illusion that we are actually somewhat in control of our own 00:07:16.040 |
destinies and talk of a sovereign God became very lip service. 00:07:23.160 |
And I think during that time, many of us began again to truly desire the coming Kingdom. 00:07:33.560 |
I think many of our prayer lives were restored and rejuvenated. 00:07:40.560 |
We were taking time to behold the Lord and it was really just a good time. 00:07:48.920 |
And so as we think back at 2020 and as we think about everything that's been happening, 00:07:53.880 |
my hope is that today as we go into a couple passages, or I mean a couple points, we're 00:07:59.720 |
gonna be jumping around in a lot of passages, but that it would be an opportunity for us 00:08:04.120 |
to think again about whether the soberness that came with the pandemic is still with 00:08:13.120 |
Or to think about now, where have our attentions again gone? 00:08:17.080 |
Where before it brought soberness and clarity and a desire again for God to return, is that 00:08:23.240 |
Even just this morning, when you think about yourself right now, is that the case? 00:08:29.720 |
So I'm gonna take us through two points and these two points are gonna be pretty simple 00:08:35.400 |
The first point is that the Old Testament people were waiting for the coming King. 00:08:39.440 |
The Old Testament people were waiting for the coming King. 00:08:41.600 |
And then the second point is very similar to that, it's we similarly are waiting for 00:08:48.240 |
So as this pandemic, like that broke us out of the pedestrian type of thinking and living, 00:08:53.440 |
now if you think about how we're living now, I think we've gone back into that. 00:08:59.680 |
And so there was a time when these things weren't a thing, right? 00:09:02.640 |
You go into a supermarket and see everyone wearing a mask and you'd be like, "What is 00:09:07.440 |
And so now you go into a supermarket, it's just, "Oh, everyone's just doing it," right? 00:09:10.840 |
Everything just kind of goes back to normal way of life. 00:09:15.440 |
So our eyes just kind of go back to like, "Oh, this is life." 00:09:18.080 |
And we try to make this world again something palatable to us. 00:09:24.120 |
And so this first point, the things that we think about, the soberness that we're called 00:09:28.440 |
to and the coming of a King and the coming of a kingdom is actually something that's 00:09:35.240 |
And so if you look at Christmas, for example, I mean, that's the whole point of Christmas 00:09:41.680 |
is that there was a people called the Israelites who were waiting for the Messiah King to come, 00:09:49.560 |
And this Messiah King was supposed to bring in a coming kingdom. 00:09:53.200 |
I mean, Israelite history is so fascinating because there are all these prophecies of 00:10:07.360 |
Starting with Adam and Eve, God promises that a singular seed, which is the Messiah, would 00:10:12.680 |
With Abraham, He promised that a singular seed would come up out of his lineage, which 00:10:19.800 |
And God actually promised Abraham that there would be a great people that come out of you, 00:10:23.520 |
and there's going to be a great king, and he's going to usher in a great kingdom. 00:10:29.000 |
So when King David comes into the picture, it looks like maybe this is it. 00:10:35.240 |
It looks like maybe God is, maybe this is actually the Messiah. 00:10:40.000 |
Not from the line of Judah, coming in to help us conquer the promised land. 00:10:47.200 |
But even during the heyday of Israel, the golden age of Israel, during the time of King 00:10:51.400 |
David, King Solomon, and you know it can't be it because there's so much sin. 00:11:02.560 |
And this current of constantly wanting to make this world it, wanting to look for a 00:11:09.520 |
savior that's going to come and make this kingdom the one that we're living for, it's 00:11:18.880 |
But quickly we know that that can't be it during the time of David. 00:11:21.760 |
Because Assyria comes in and conquers the northern kingdom. 00:11:25.080 |
Babylon comes in and conquers the southern kingdom. 00:11:28.840 |
These kingdom after kingdom after kingdom comes in and takes over, and we're like, "Oh, 00:11:36.840 |
That wasn't the Messiah who was supposed to come in and usher in the kingdom." 00:11:43.000 |
And so Israelites again are brought to that place where it's just, "He's coming. 00:12:01.440 |
Wait, look to his coming, to the salvation that he'll bring to the people. 00:12:20.880 |
But this is very applicable to us because these promises of a coming king continued. 00:12:30.000 |
I mean, these promises of a king that's supposed to come, we find it in multiple passages. 00:12:35.280 |
If you look at Isaiah 7.14, it says, "Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. 00:12:39.440 |
Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. 00:12:44.280 |
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given, and the government will rest on 00:12:48.200 |
his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal 00:12:57.240 |
Micah 5.2, "But as for you, Bethlehem Epiphtha, too little to be among the clans of Judah. 00:13:02.760 |
From you, one will go forth from you to be ruler in Israel. 00:13:05.720 |
His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." 00:13:10.520 |
These are just three prophecies, three passages, but it's given to Israel saying he's coming. 00:13:20.640 |
These Israelites are waiting, and they're waiting, and they're waiting. 00:13:25.640 |
So during this time of Christmas, it's really awesome. 00:13:28.080 |
It's a beautiful time to remember that he actually came, that the prophecies were actually 00:13:33.600 |
fulfilled, that the Messiah actually came to do what he was purposed to do. 00:13:41.960 |
These Israelites weren't too different from us. 00:13:46.200 |
A promised Messiah would bring the salvation, who was supposed to take them home. 00:13:51.480 |
I mean, when we see how the Israelites were living, it's very, very applicable to us. 00:14:03.480 |
This is what's really scary about that, is that the Israelites were waiting for the king. 00:14:12.320 |
Are you catching where we're going with this? 00:14:18.080 |
Their entire culture was about waiting for the Messiah to bring in the coming kingdom. 00:14:24.840 |
I mean, they were serving, they were sacrificing, they were worshipers of ... They were the 00:14:38.560 |
These Israelites, many of them are crying out to God for him to come. 00:14:56.520 |
An entire civilization of people waiting for the coming Messiah, waiting for the kingdom 00:15:01.340 |
of God to come, Yahweh worshipers, that when the Messiah that they're waiting for, prophecy 00:15:08.000 |
after prophecy after prophecy, text after text after text, waiting, waiting, waiting, 00:15:22.200 |
In John chapter five, verse 39, it says, Jesus says, "You search the scriptures, because 00:15:25.760 |
you think that in them you have eternal life. 00:15:27.460 |
It is these that testify about me, and you are unwilling to come to me, so that you may 00:15:34.760 |
How is it that they can't recognize the one they're living for? 00:15:37.600 |
Their entire lifestyle, everything about their life was supposed to be waiting for this king 00:15:47.680 |
Furthermore, when Jesus comes, after years and years and years of anticipation and expectation 00:15:57.480 |
and suspense and a hope, when he finally comes, it's murder. 00:16:13.160 |
This happens because it reveals something about the human heart. 00:16:18.240 |
This reveals something about the human heart. 00:16:20.560 |
See, these Israelites are waiting and looking for a Messiah king of their own making. 00:16:26.960 |
These Israelites, they were looking for a Messiah king who would deliver them to everything 00:16:34.200 |
When the Messiah king did not look like the king they wanted or the king they expected, 00:16:40.920 |
they didn't just grumble and complain and unwillingly, grumblingly follow God or follow 00:16:47.200 |
They didn't just say, "Oh, man, this wasn't what I expected." 00:16:50.200 |
They didn't just push Jesus aside and ignore him. 00:17:07.440 |
When the promised Messiah king finally arrived into the world, their reaction completely 00:17:11.420 |
exposed the desires of their hearts and how far they were from God. 00:17:16.720 |
A simple definition of sin means to miss the mark. 00:17:24.240 |
What they did to Jesus was this tangible, concrete example of what sin is and what sin 00:17:44.640 |
It says, "For he grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched 00:17:49.600 |
He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that 00:17:55.480 |
He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and 00:18:00.360 |
like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him." 00:18:07.920 |
This picture of Jesus being unattractive is not just being like, "Oh." 00:18:15.560 |
First of all, it's not just talking about his physical appearance. 00:18:18.720 |
It's that people are just unattracted to the man. 00:18:21.920 |
But when you think about that, you're like, "Okay." 00:18:23.960 |
But when you think about that, what about Jesus was particularly unattractive? 00:18:41.360 |
He loved people so much and he preached others to love people. 00:18:51.720 |
When people think of Gandhi, I don't think of anyone hating the guy. 00:18:55.200 |
I don't think of anyone saying, "What an unattractive dude. 00:19:00.440 |
No, actually, when we go evangelizing around the campus at UCI and different places, you 00:19:04.680 |
talk to people and people say, "Who's Jesus?" 00:19:07.680 |
He was a pretty like, I mean, I know he's a loving guy, good morals. 00:19:13.880 |
But this passage in Isaiah 53 is talking about like, "Man, he's unattractive." 00:19:19.480 |
There's actually something repelling about the man. 00:19:26.400 |
What causes a person to look upon Jesus and be repelled? 00:19:31.160 |
Well, if it's a Jesus of your own making, it's not repelling. 00:19:39.460 |
But if it's Jesus as who he is, it's incredibly threatening to the sinful heart. 00:19:47.480 |
There is something inherent about Jesus that sinful man hates through and through. 00:20:12.080 |
You know how threatening that is to the sinner? 00:20:16.960 |
When he stepped into the world, it demanded recognition that everything is about God and 00:20:20.720 |
life can only be found in God, that everything is about God's glory. 00:20:25.000 |
You see, sinners cannot accept Jesus Christ who is here to make our lives better, right? 00:20:31.280 |
Sinners cannot accept the Jesus Christ who says that life is not about me, but that it's 00:20:36.800 |
Sinners can't accept someone who says that life is about his glory and not my glory. 00:20:41.640 |
I mean, we can sit here and use Christian terms all we want, but man, the glory that 00:20:49.480 |
we desire in sinfulness, sinners will murder the one that threatens that, even ultimately 00:21:06.080 |
Sinful man will hate him, see him as an enemy, a threat, and a danger to the very way they 00:21:12.440 |
We all have definite shapes of what we want our life to look like. 00:21:18.800 |
When we come in here and we say, "Man, where are my eyes fixed? 00:21:21.880 |
I want them to be fixed up in heaven where Jesus is and not on the things of this world. 00:21:26.400 |
I want to seek the things above and not the things of this world. 00:21:28.960 |
I want to seek the heavenly things and the kingdom things and not the things of this 00:21:31.880 |
kingdom and the things of this world because we know they're passing away." 00:21:35.480 |
But when we really look at where our eyes are, when we really look at where our ambitions 00:21:46.520 |
are and our desires, where they lay, I mean, it doesn't have to be I want a mansion and 00:21:57.160 |
It looks probably more like I want my student loans paid off and a girlfriend, but it's 00:22:10.400 |
While desires themselves are not always wrong, while they are not always the culprit, many 00:22:14.800 |
times if you take a good stare at your desires, if you evaluate what's going on in your heart, 00:22:20.520 |
you can see how quick we are to ascend to that throne and to kick God off that throne. 00:22:26.720 |
See, that kind of sinful living is not me just grumbling and complaining and just going 00:22:34.080 |
That's not just pushing Him aside or ignoring Him. 00:22:37.960 |
That kind of sinful heart is closer and more representative of what sinners were doing 00:22:49.840 |
We don't like to think that pushing God off the throne of my little heart is that bad. 00:22:57.040 |
I'm here to humbly say that what humanity does in sin is more than pushing God off the 00:23:13.880 |
If I call attention back to Isaiah 53, I mean, just one simple thing of hermeneutics, just 00:23:28.040 |
It says in Isaiah 53, "We did not esteem Him." 00:23:41.540 |
When we read this understanding that this is talking about the cross, and that's what 00:23:50.160 |
He's just talking about the crucifixion through which Jesus would go on our behalf. 00:23:57.520 |
So when we read this passage rightfully, we look at it and it's very intimate to us. 00:24:03.360 |
Yes it's for the Israelite first, but then it is also for us. 00:24:15.520 |
"Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders. 00:24:18.760 |
Ashamed I heard my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. 00:24:21.960 |
It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished." 00:24:26.280 |
See this is the desire of every sinful heart. 00:24:28.720 |
Not just to turn and to grumble and push God aside, but it's to nail Him to a cross. 00:24:41.720 |
That's why the Israelites, they were living for the Messiah. 00:24:46.000 |
Crying out for the Messiah and when He came, He did not look like what they wanted. 00:24:59.320 |
The Messiah did not fulfill their deepest desire to make life better for them, for them 00:25:11.040 |
And so this brings us into the pivot of our second point. 00:25:14.600 |
Similarly, we are waiting for the coming King. 00:25:16.440 |
Now we've been talking about Israel, but obviously this is so close to us. 00:25:20.760 |
Just like the Israelites were waiting for the Messiah to come, we're similarly doing 00:25:25.480 |
And this is where our passage today comes in. 00:25:27.440 |
We're going to start from verse 1 here, Matthew 25. 00:25:29.160 |
So if you could turn there, Matthew chapter 25 verse 1. 00:25:33.240 |
It says there, "The kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins who took their 00:25:38.940 |
Five of them were foolish and five were prudent. 00:25:41.360 |
For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took 00:25:49.160 |
So in this story, there are ten virgins, and you could think about them as bridesmaids. 00:25:53.100 |
That's probably the best parallel we have with that. 00:25:56.720 |
It was customary to have a pretty extended patrol period before the actual wedding was 00:26:03.940 |
And so later on, the groom would come, and people would be waiting for the groom to come 00:26:08.000 |
to receive him so that the groom could go to the bride and take her. 00:26:14.360 |
These bridesmaids would line up in anticipation of this groom to come, but they would not 00:26:20.960 |
They just knew he was supposed to come soon, and that's it. 00:26:28.720 |
There could be, you know, natural disasters that occurred or storms that happened so that 00:26:33.720 |
it would impede their path and things like that, and so they didn't know. 00:26:42.560 |
It says, "Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. 00:26:47.600 |
But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! 00:26:52.320 |
Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps." 00:26:55.600 |
So what happens here is all ten fall asleep, and there's no judgment pronounced on the 00:27:03.480 |
We're in First Thessalonians as a church right now, right? 00:27:11.440 |
They don't harp on the ten saying they should have been awake the entire time. 00:27:15.920 |
The reality is, even though we know Jesus is supposed to come soon, it doesn't mean 00:27:20.440 |
that we're supposed to sell everything and then quit our jobs and then we all sit out 00:27:24.840 |
there in the courtyard and wait for Jesus to come. 00:27:28.260 |
Because we don't know when he's going to come. 00:27:36.800 |
The point was that they were supposed to be prepared for the coming. 00:27:41.840 |
And so when the bridegroom comes in the middle of the night, all of them wake up, all ten 00:27:49.160 |
And then as they're going, they're all trimming their lamps. 00:27:53.720 |
We know from verse two, even though it's all, all, all. 00:27:57.220 |
These words, if you look at the text, it's all, all of them are doing this, all of them 00:28:01.480 |
But verse two, it showed us that there are two groups of people, right? 00:28:11.720 |
When I would think of this parable, I would think, like, my mind would try to fill in 00:28:19.040 |
We try to identify what made the prudent the prudent, what made the foolish the foolish. 00:28:26.120 |
First, I thought maybe it's because they all fell asleep. 00:28:28.320 |
Well, but that can't be it because they all fell asleep, and even the five wise fell asleep. 00:28:36.100 |
And secondly, I thought maybe it's because they let the lamp go out or close to going 00:28:40.560 |
But it can't be that either because they all got up and they all realized their lamps were 00:28:42.880 |
running low, and they all trimmed their lamps. 00:28:48.920 |
In verse three is where it helps us to identify why five were wise and why five were foolish. 00:28:56.600 |
The conjunction four is very helpful there if you look at verse three. 00:28:59.440 |
It says, "Four, when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the 00:29:04.280 |
prudent took oil and flasks along with their lamps." 00:29:08.360 |
That four gives us the evidence judging why some were called foolish and why some were 00:29:15.740 |
They weren't foolish because they fell asleep. 00:29:17.600 |
They weren't foolish because they let the lamp go out. 00:29:20.400 |
They were called foolish because they did not prepare extra oil. 00:29:37.280 |
That's what differentiates the wise and the foolish, preparation. 00:29:44.080 |
Well, it's that the prudent were prepared to meet the bridegroom. 00:29:49.360 |
The foolish were not prepared to meet the bridegroom. 00:29:52.880 |
And what this does is it brings exposure to the heart. 00:30:14.000 |
They're ready to receive him and light the way. 00:30:16.200 |
They all fall asleep because it takes a while. 00:30:18.160 |
And when he comes, they all get up, trim their lamps, and rush over. 00:30:44.560 |
Not being prepared showed that they did not care about the coming of the bridegroom. 00:30:51.240 |
The problem wasn't their action at his arrival, or rather their inaction. 00:30:59.160 |
It was that long before his arrival, he didn't prepare. 00:31:06.320 |
See, unpreparedness is the mark of a person who doesn't care. 00:31:12.400 |
They had no desire for the bridegroom's arrival. 00:31:21.200 |
When you care about something, think about how much you prepare. 00:31:24.760 |
And when you don't care about something, think about how you prepare. 00:31:31.000 |
I took out most of my examples for today because the sermon was going to go too long. 00:31:37.280 |
I still play fantasy basketball with my old students from my old church. 00:31:45.400 |
One of my old students had like six different boards. 00:31:51.000 |
I'm sorry if you don't know basketball, but if one person gets taken at the top of the 00:31:54.680 |
draft board, then what happens is they move on to their next draft board. 00:32:00.600 |
And if another guy gets taken, then they'll move to the next draft board. 00:32:03.440 |
And in their minds, they're thinking, if this person gets taken, then I'm going to choose 00:32:07.600 |
And I love it because I don't prepare at all, and I still beat them every year. 00:32:19.120 |
If you don't care, you just kind of stroll in and just do your thing, right? 00:32:22.040 |
But some of you guys, I heard that fantasy basketball became an idol to some people at 00:32:31.680 |
But when you look at it, you're like, man, that preparation you put into that. 00:32:37.520 |
If you didn't care, there's no preparation that would happen. 00:32:43.440 |
Have you ever seen someone get ready when they're going to be in contact with somebody 00:32:52.920 |
Sometimes I think about, oh, maybe this isn't good to say. 00:33:01.080 |
Your roommate, you know your roommate is going out to bam for six, and this roommate of yours 00:33:10.520 |
Anyway, but when you see this person taking care of themselves and putting every hair 00:33:16.960 |
in place, you're like, what's the matter with you? 00:33:23.240 |
Have you seen someone really desire a job and get ready for a job interview? 00:33:32.200 |
Man, they're like in front of the mirror, and they're getting themselves all ready. 00:33:39.160 |
They have like paper after paper after paper all written down in these collated notes. 00:33:48.160 |
Oh, I know they're going to come up with this question. 00:33:50.520 |
And then here's 10 possible questions they might come up with, even though none of them 00:33:55.040 |
They're so prepared versus the person who just kind of saunters into the job interview. 00:34:06.320 |
I mean, that correlation between preparedness and caring is very intimate. 00:34:15.240 |
When you care about something, you always prepare. 00:34:18.280 |
And when someone doesn't prepare, it brings exposure to their heart that they don't care. 00:34:28.120 |
So these five foolish women, they're exposed. 00:34:43.360 |
Would it have been that difficult to procure the oil earlier on in the day? 00:34:46.880 |
Would it have been that difficult for them to go into town and purchase it and have it 00:34:57.360 |
And so these five foolish ones, exposed at the moment when it says, "The bridegroom 00:35:01.240 |
has arrived," they turn quickly to the five wise. 00:35:06.680 |
"The foolish said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going 00:35:11.080 |
But the prudent answered, 'No, there will not be enough for us and you two. 00:35:14.280 |
Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' 00:35:17.000 |
And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who 00:35:20.480 |
were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. 00:35:27.760 |
Later the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open up for us.' 00:35:31.160 |
But he answered, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.'" 00:35:33.680 |
And here's the exhortation, "Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the 00:35:41.800 |
You see, the five foolish can't take the oil from the five wise. 00:35:47.280 |
So five wise are like, "Hey, you got to get your own," and rightfully so, right? 00:36:01.000 |
And so we understand it is on each individual's plate. 00:36:03.680 |
It is each personal person's responsibility to account for their own hearts. 00:36:13.760 |
And these five, the moment they realized they needed oil, it was already too late for them. 00:36:21.200 |
It already exposed something of the past, and the door closed. 00:36:28.880 |
If you're familiar with the book of Matthew, it's all about the kingdom. 00:36:33.120 |
It talks about this is what the kingdom looks like, and so everything else is not that. 00:36:38.920 |
And so this is what kingdom people look like. 00:36:41.040 |
Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, when it starts with Beatitudes, is telling you what 00:36:51.000 |
You will be either prepared or you will be unprepared. 00:37:09.000 |
So when we look back at the OT Israelites, and we think, "Man, they completely missed 00:37:20.240 |
There is a danger of us being in a similar place, where we look like the wise, but we 00:37:27.600 |
You might say that you're waiting for the coming Messiah king. 00:37:30.760 |
You might say that you're prepared to go, that this world is passing away. 00:37:36.940 |
You can say so many things that look so similar to what Christians ought to say. 00:37:41.920 |
All of us would say we're waiting for the coming king. 00:38:01.220 |
That they actually have no desire for the king, and they never had any desire for the 00:38:09.780 |
So when Jesus comes again, many will be in panic mode. 00:38:15.620 |
Many will try to do the action of what they were supposed to do, but it will be too late. 00:38:27.460 |
It's the heart that's presented in that moment. 00:38:33.700 |
If there's an uncaring heart that has no love for the coming king, way prior to his 00:38:40.380 |
Jesus could have come a month earlier, it would have been the same. 00:38:42.700 |
Jesus could have come a month later, it would have been the same. 00:38:45.260 |
It's not for, if I had just a little bit more time. 00:38:48.540 |
We see that with the story of this Lazarus, right? 00:38:51.780 |
This guy, if I just had more time, man, maybe I would have, but it's too late. 00:38:55.620 |
He finds himself in a place where it's too late. 00:39:00.220 |
The time when he comes will only be an exposure to what already exists in our hearts. 00:39:09.060 |
And so when he comes, they will panic, they will run around, they'll look for excuses. 00:39:28.380 |
I'm going to take a look at 2 Peter 3 here, verse 8. 00:39:33.420 |
It says, "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one 00:39:37.380 |
day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 00:39:40.860 |
The Lord is not slow about his promises, some count slowness, but is patient toward you, 00:39:44.860 |
not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance." 00:39:47.580 |
See, this time period that we're living in right now is a time of grace. 00:40:00.140 |
And we sing these songs like, man, God's loving kindness, it never fails, his enduring love, 00:40:12.340 |
This world, we're existing in a ticking time bomb. 00:40:15.960 |
If you've ever seen an hourglass with sand, it's already numbered how many, it's going. 00:40:28.460 |
And so it says here that this time is actually meant to bring people to repentance. 00:40:33.420 |
I mean, it has a sense of this urgency that like when we're talking to people about this, 00:40:40.220 |
it's not like, wow, God is good and gracious and loving and merciful and like that's it. 00:40:55.600 |
That's why in the verse right after this in verse 10, it says, "But the day of the Lord 00:41:03.480 |
God's patience is long-lasting right now, but then when he comes, thief. 00:41:09.640 |
It'll be sudden in which the heavens will pass away like a roar and the elements will 00:41:14.300 |
be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its work will be burned up. 00:41:22.740 |
Everything that we're working for, just gone. 00:41:31.500 |
This is what God has always, when we say God or Christ, he is the same yesterday, today, 00:41:38.420 |
We say, "How can God's kindness and grace and mercy upon this humanity ever change?" 00:41:57.420 |
Today, we can be so certain that tomorrow will come, but we can't be mistaken. 00:42:08.900 |
2 Peter 3 continues in verse 11, "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, 00:42:13.740 |
what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening 00:42:18.300 |
the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and 00:42:22.020 |
the elements will melt with intense heat, but according to his promise, we are looking 00:42:26.580 |
for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." 00:42:34.420 |
You know what word I love a lot in this passage? 00:42:38.700 |
I love the word "hastening" because it has more—I feel like it has more oomph than 00:42:44.860 |
It's kind of the way my kids, like my 5-year-old and my 3-year-old are more aware of Christmas 00:42:52.420 |
So for the first time, my firstborn was trying to like hype up and get like my secondborn 00:43:04.260 |
We went to Home Depot like a long time ago, and then we made that thing where those blocks 00:43:07.500 |
they change and you count down the days until Christmas. 00:43:10.180 |
And they were doing that every single day, like, "Three more days!" 00:43:12.820 |
And then two days before Christmas, she got up and she's like, "Daddy!" 00:43:18.460 |
And then like she was—she was saying, "I'm so excited because tomorrow I'm going to wake 00:43:32.900 |
You know, it's like someone that's like, "Dude, chill out. 00:43:39.300 |
Those of you guys who have young children or have had young children, you remember, 00:43:45.860 |
For no reason, they're so excited, they just start running around the house. 00:43:58.540 |
And this passage is talking about this desire. 00:44:02.460 |
It's not just like, "Oh my gosh, the end is going to come. 00:44:16.540 |
Pastor Peter, as he's been preaching through Hebrews 9, in verse 27, he read this, "In 00:44:21.340 |
as much as it's appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ 00:44:24.980 |
also having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for 00:44:28.900 |
salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await Him." 00:44:33.100 |
Again, there's a lot to unpack there, but just to highlight, "Those who eagerly await 00:44:47.740 |
And once you're there, there is no second chance. 00:44:55.980 |
J.C. Ryle says this, "Tomorrow is the devil's day, but today is God's. 00:45:00.340 |
Satan does not care how spiritual your intentions are or how holy your resolutions, if only 00:45:05.380 |
they are determined to be done tomorrow, because tomorrow may not come." 00:45:09.540 |
And it's exposing something about your heart today anyway. 00:45:14.500 |
In Ecclesiastes 9, verse 12, I thought this was a good picture. 00:45:20.140 |
Like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men 00:45:23.780 |
are ensnared in an evil time when it suddenly falls on them." 00:45:28.460 |
It's this fish that's swimming around, eating whatever food it could find, floating around 00:45:32.740 |
in the ocean, but one day it eats the wrong one and then it's caught and then his life 00:45:41.060 |
And the fish knows when he's sitting there on the fisherman's boat. 00:45:56.140 |
"This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring 00:45:59.860 |
up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words," listen to 00:46:04.380 |
that, "you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment 00:46:08.620 |
of the Lord and Savior, spoken by your apostles. 00:46:12.260 |
Know this, first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, 00:46:16.020 |
following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming? 00:46:20.220 |
For ever since the fathers fell asleep and all continues just as it was from the beginning 00:46:24.500 |
It's not the same, but I kind of get the feel of when the people are killing Jesus on Calvary 00:46:32.740 |
and they're saying, "Who's going to save you? 00:46:39.500 |
It says, "In the last days," he's not around, he's not coming, all is continuing. 00:46:45.460 |
And verse 5, "For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of 00:46:48.540 |
God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through 00:46:53.940 |
which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. 00:46:57.300 |
But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the 00:47:01.460 |
day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." 00:47:08.020 |
The scary thing about this passage is that these people are people who believe in God 00:47:19.180 |
I was watching this movie, I highly don't recommend it, it's called 2012. 00:47:25.260 |
But there's this one picture in the middle of it that was kind of funny. 00:47:32.020 |
And then it's in the beginning of the movie before anybody really, I think this was 2012, 00:47:37.460 |
anyway, it's in the beginning of the movie before anyone realizes that the world is coming 00:47:41.620 |
You know the beginning of a movie where they do character development? 00:47:45.540 |
And you're like, the foreboding, the eeriness of it, everything seems so normal, but you 00:47:49.020 |
know that the movie is called 2012, it's the end of the world then. 00:47:53.460 |
And so they're just walking by this homeless man, the end is near. 00:47:57.180 |
Prepare to meet thy maker, that kind of thing. 00:48:04.700 |
Holding up this sign, like, "Prepare to meet thy maker." 00:48:14.940 |
But the reality is, later on, when everything starts going crazy, it's like all these storms, 00:48:20.740 |
waters come, tsunamis and earthquakes and stuff. 00:48:24.300 |
You see in the middle of all the chaos, the homeless man just standing right there in 00:48:30.140 |
I shouldn't be laughing at it, but it's kind of funny, you know? 00:48:40.740 |
Because when we see clearly, like, yeah, like when we see the world being torn apart, it's 00:48:51.900 |
That's what we see in the book of Revelation. 00:48:56.180 |
But you know what's so crazy about the stubbornness and the rebellion of sinful hearts is that 00:49:03.940 |
in the middle of that, they still refuse to bow the knee before God. 00:49:11.420 |
That would have changed anything about unbelieving hearts. 00:49:20.020 |
Matthew 25 is in the middle of the Olivet Discourse when Jesus is talking about the 00:49:25.820 |
And the point is clear because of the repetition in the Olivet Discourse. 00:49:29.900 |
And chapter 24, verse 36, "But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels 00:49:33.420 |
of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." 00:49:35.660 |
Verse 42, "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming." 00:49:39.620 |
Verse 44, "For this reason, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at 00:49:44.500 |
Verse 50, "The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him 00:49:49.860 |
The word is, the word I think we can captivate here is suddenly. 00:49:59.020 |
I realized coming up out of that initial time of quarantine back in April, a lot more people 00:50:04.220 |
It felt, I was very encouraged until I realized a couple months later, oh, things go back 00:50:15.820 |
When something crazy happens in our life, there's some, we get stricken with some illness 00:50:19.940 |
or disease and like, whoa, and you start living soberly. 00:50:23.640 |
But soon after that, things go back to normal. 00:50:26.860 |
We go to a funeral and we're like, oh my gosh, I have to change the way I live. 00:50:29.660 |
And we leave the funeral and after a while, we're like, we're going right back to what 00:50:34.420 |
And it's crazy that a worldwide pandemic hit us and months later, we're like, just, it 00:50:48.620 |
And when we lose clarity, we again begin to put our sights on things where we once again, 00:50:56.340 |
And now again, we're thinking like, man, I can't wait for the restaurants to open so 00:51:05.260 |
I've heard this term light at the end of the tunnel so many times. 00:51:14.100 |
I've seen pictures of people getting vaccines and the whole room sobbing as if this is their 00:51:21.940 |
To the unbeliever, this thing will not save them. 00:51:26.020 |
God light, like the end will come and the end comes. 00:51:33.300 |
And people think like, oh, like where's God or I'll do it tomorrow or I don't know, you 00:51:38.020 |
know, like just, I'll just continue to living in that. 00:51:40.740 |
I don't think the bridesmaids are waiting for the groom to come or like living all like, 00:51:47.820 |
Like with malicious intent and all that kind of stuff. 00:51:50.700 |
I think they were just kind of living their lives going like, ah, I should be ready. 00:51:59.220 |
For any unbelieving person that's listening today, it will come. 00:52:02.700 |
And what are you going to do when you meet your maker? 00:52:08.140 |
There is no light at the end of the tunnel at that point. 00:52:15.280 |
We cannot live in simple anticipation for our world to go back to the way it was because 00:52:18.780 |
at the end, the world is promised to be consumed. 00:52:26.060 |
To conclude, I realized as I studied this passage, the final, for a final application 00:52:32.060 |
point, just one, because this is the last sermon of the Sunday sermon of the year. 00:52:37.700 |
I'm sorry that it's a little bit heavier, but I thought like it was just so like good 00:52:44.180 |
I think the temptation is going to be to look at this and try to identify who I am. 00:52:53.820 |
Can I ask you today not to try to just sit there and as a final application to identify 00:52:58.220 |
who you are, but actually to take this as an exhortation. 00:53:10.440 |
Not to sit there and say like, "Man, I'm living like I'm a fool. 00:53:13.820 |
I think I might be a foolish person or I think I'm a wise person." 00:53:17.140 |
You're trying to convince yourself one way or the other. 00:53:19.300 |
Instead of doing that, the whole point is he's coming soon. 00:53:29.880 |
There's no reason to look back and go like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so terrible because of this 00:53:33.780 |
No, no, no, the point is here like if you hear his voice today, then listen. 00:53:46.640 |
Wake up tomorrow and say, "This world is passing away. 00:53:54.360 |
In Hebrews 2 and 3, when it talks about today if you hear his voice, "Do not harden your 00:54:01.800 |
You don't have to sit there and be like, "Oh, just continue to live in the past." 00:54:04.300 |
Just like today if you hear the voice, listen. 00:54:07.420 |
It's a lot simpler than we make it where sometimes we think like we have to do something to our 00:54:14.820 |
I wanted to leave that as the final exhortation. 00:54:19.980 |
Because at the end as we usher in, I'm really excited for the New Year's Eve service. 00:54:25.100 |
Even though it's going to be online, I'm very excited for the coming year. 00:54:29.100 |
Even though the arbitrary calendar date changing, whatever, right? 00:54:33.100 |
But still, it's a time to really reflect together. 00:54:37.060 |
I love New Year's because we can reflect together. 00:54:39.580 |
I think there's power when Christians collectively as a body unified do it together. 00:54:52.300 |
As opposed to all of us just living our own lives, trying our best to, you know.