Shall we read together the place of Matthew chapter twenty-four? Matthew chapter twenty-four. And we'll commence to read with verse forty-five. Now what I have in mind during this time that we're together, where we have the opportunity of ministering the word, I want to look at some of the practical aspects of the Lord's coming. I think most of us here this morning, I presume, know that the Lord is coming and coming soon. I think that anybody that looks at the world at which we're living today would say that things are roughly heading up to the Christ. And it cannot go on. I have the potential today of wiping everything on the planet, wiping it off. And that is not sensationalism. You know that in the Kremlin, over in Russia. And the Lord and the Pentagon here in the United States, and the fact that man has it in his part today to wipe out everything of the planet, it's time for Almighty God to intervene. And I think that that is what is going to happen. My beloved brethren insisted this morning, I believe with all my heart that we're right on the verge of that event, of the coming again of the Lord Jesus. And I think we have to examine very carefully what the Word of God has to say. concerning the coming. Now I'm not going to go into the technical aspects of it or the great technical words that are used connected with it. Sometimes people speak about the Perusia and about the Epiphany and about the Apocalypse. These are technical words that are used connected with the Lord's coming in the New Testament. I'm not going to look at the academic side at all. But I want to look at what the Bible has to say about the practical implications. and the practical aspects of the coming of the Lord Jesus. And the passage that I want to read, there are three little parables here in the discourse that the Lord gave just before he went to the cross. I don't think I need to tell anyone here this morning that's carefully studied the Bible that in the last week of our Lord's ministry, here on earth, just before he went to the cross and went to Gethsemane on the cross. that he gave two tremendous discourses. So the first one was public, and it is connected with the coming. And Matthew twenty-four, twenty-five goes into it in detail. A tremendous discourse, the greatest discourse in the New Testament, or maybe in the whole of the Bibles, concerning the coming of the Lord, that was a public discourse that the Lord gave. And then just after that, he went to another room. And there was that little company of his that he called his own. He opened his final message. It's his last will and testimony. And in John chapter thirteen through seventeen, we get the seven great fundamental doctrines of Christianity that were given by our Lord himself. And these are the two discourses that our Lord gave. One was public and the other was private. This great discourse concerning the coming again of Christ, it was a public discourse. But the other one was given to his own in the other room. And all of them will look at both of them. There's a tremendous section of the Word of God. Matthew, twenty-four, twenty-five. And then John, thirteen through seventeen. Now what I want to do this morning is to look at the discourse. We want to be able to go into it in any detail, but just to divide it in three parts. The first part from verse one. down to verse forty four to the address of the Jew. And in it we get an outline of what the Lord called the Great Tribulation. It's divided in three parts. The first part is called the beginning of sorrows. And then in verse fifteen in the chapter we read about the Great Tribulation and what precipitated death. And then up until verse forty four he describes in some detail the Great Tribulation. Now that first section of the discourse is addressed to God's people, Israel. It particularly applies to them. We will not participate in the Great Tribulation. I believe that before my heart. I believe we'll be lifted out of it before the Tribulation comes. But the Lord describes it here in detail, and then says, it's divided in two parts. The first three and a half years is called the beginning of sorrows. And then the second part, three and a half years, these seven years, that's Daniel's seventh day of the week. We get there with Great Tribulation. Now after that, after verse forty-four, the Lord gave three little parables. And they're called the parables of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now I believe that these three parables apply to us. And I'm going to go into the different arguments why we believe that the parables here refer to the period in which we live. By the way, the kingdom of heaven, that's described in Matthew chapter thirteen in seven brief parables, it describes the period of the absence of the king. The king is absent. And that period is called the period of the kingdom of heaven. And the seven parables of the kingdom of heaven that we find in Matthew chapter thirteen, it outlines them perfectly. It would be a profitable thing to look at them. For those parables of the kingdom of heaven, they describe a mixture of that that's genuine, unreal, and that it is false, on counterfeit, working together. It's called the Kingdom of Heaven. But there are seven parables. In Matthew chapter thirteen, and here in the middle of this discourse there are three parables, and they're linked with what we find in chapter thirteen. Now these three parables is what we want to look at for a few minutes here this morning. The first one is addressed to the few That means to say, it's addressed to the preacher. The man who stands before an audience with the Bible in his hand, and it is a test of him in relation to the Lord's coming. Now the second is addressed to the few, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. And it's addressed to those that have a profession of Christianity, whether that profession is real and genuine, or whether it is false. And the third parable is addressed to the harvest field. and those that were in it, the parable of the talents, and the man that is with them, these talents that have been committed to him what he does with them. So when we take the three parables and put them together, there are three vital texts, first of all, of the preacher. The man has had the book in his hand and is ministering and preaching the word of God. It's addressed to the prophet. But then the wise and foolish word, and it's addressed to the people that sit in the pew, listening to the message, whether their profession is real and genuine or whether it is false. The five wise virgins and the five holy virgins. And it shows the difference between the two. And then the last one, the Lord is handing out of the present time gifts to his people. Those gifts of talents one man gets five, another gets two, another gets one. And we read that they have to trade with those talents that have been given through them until the Lord comes back again. So the first little overall picture of the three parables that we get here is addressed to us. I believe they apply particularly through the present era their parables of the kingdom of heaven. That is the absence of the king before he comes back again and is addressed to those in the present era in which we are. Now the final section of this great discourse is the judgment of the living nations. that projects it forward to the Gentile nations that will be upon the earth when Christ comes back again in glory. So taking the overall picture of Matthew, twenty-four, twenty-five, first of all, it's in relation to the Jew, and then the second portion, the three parables of the Kingdom of Heaven that address to us, and then looking forward after the church is gone, and when Christ comes back again under the apocalypse in this glory of the Spirit, Then he'll deal with the living nations that are on earth at that time. So that's the overall picture that we get here. Well, in a very simple way, I want to look at the lessons of the Lord's teaching here concerning ourselves and these inquiries. Shall we look at the word now in Matthew chapter twenty-four and verse forty-five? Who then is a faithful and wise servant? who his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But unless that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord, the days have come, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come. And a day when he looketh not for him, and pin an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now notice the real, genuine servant of God here, giving food and season to the people of God. But on the other hand, the evil servant is just concerning himself, a man who stands in the pulpit, and has never been truly brought to Christ and is out for all that he can get. And the three things that he does here, he shows the difference between a real preacher that has been sent by God and another man that hasn't been sent. It's just a job as far as he's concerned and it's utterly worthless and we find the difference between the two. Now that is addressed to the preacher or to the man who has the responsibility of standing up before the masses. Now let's look at the second one. Well-known parable. shall the kingdom of heaven. Once again the term. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins who took their lamps and went forth beneath the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil and the rest was with their lamps. Well the bridegroom tired, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go you out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the fruit they said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, Saying, Not so. Lest there be not enough for us and you, but go rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And when they went by the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went into the marriage, and the door was shut. And toward came also the under-virgin saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, I know you now. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man cometh. Now this is a well-known parable, and it's just as plain as can be, it's addressed to those that make a profession of Christianity. And the surviving it has, those that have a real experience of being born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, and have the oiled. of the Holy Spirit as well as the last confession. So here again we get a difference. That is genuine and real and that is false on counterfeit. And it's a test for the person in Matthew. Now look at the third one. Verse fourteen. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling down, traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his good. and unto one he gave five talents to another two, to another one, to every man according to his ability, and straightway took his turning. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded for the same, and made other five talents, and likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one, went and dug in the earth, and hid his Lord's money. After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoned with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought the five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold, I have gained two of the talents beside it. His Lord says unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, and amid thee, ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Then he that had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee, that thou art a hard man. Leave me where thou hast that song. gathering where thou hast not spread. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent on the earth. Lo, there thou hast, that is mine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and sloatful servant, I am used that I reap, for I sowed not, and gather, for I have not spread. But I have noticed therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received my own interest. Take, therefore, the talent from him. Give it unto him that is ten pounds, for unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not, shall he be taken away, even that which he had, and cast the unprofitable servant into utter darkness. There shall be weeping and matting of faith, showing that the man was not a Christian at all. Again the difference of what is real, and genuine, and what is false and contrary. So, beloved friend, it would take a long time to remember the details of these three parables to just mention a few of the lessons that we can learn from them. And first of all, I want to address those that have the responsibility of the ministry of the Word of God. Read here about a wise and faithful servant that is set over the first hold of God to give them food in due season. You know, that's a wonderful statement. The man in the pulpit. Give them food, and you see. You know, that is most important. Many years ago in Africa, in my first term over there, I was in my apprentice at the time, and in those days we had large conferences. Sometimes three thousand people gathered together to listen to the word. And after I had some facility in preaching a new ombuds of language, I was sitting on the platform and had the opportunity addressing that company. I was only twenty-four of the time, twenty-four years of age, and there was an old African brother sitting by my side, and he was in his bare feet, and he had large chalices on his feet. He was dressed in a low pajama jacket and a stiff passion for the safety pen, and his name was Juan Gula. He was an African evangelist, and that man had traveled thousands of miles in preaching the gospel of the grace of God across Central Africa. He was a well-known man. throughout Central Africa at that time was a pioneer preaching of the gospel. And I was sitting by my side, and here was I, a youth, in my twenties. And before I got up to stand before the audience, he pulled me with a elbow down beside him, and he whispered into my ear, he says, Brother, God's people are hungry. Give them food. I never forgot that. God's people are hungry. Give them food. You know, that's a simple thing. like it is absolutely profound. My beloved friend this morning, the man who stands up with the Bible in his hand has a tremendous responsibility on to be sure that it's good that he gives the people of God. Our beloved brother has to speak to me about the Lord Jesus as a shepherd. Do you remember what said about the shepherd in Isaiah chapter forty? There's a beautiful verse there in Isaiah chapter forty in verse eleven and this is what it says. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. Gather the land with his arm, carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with them. That's the fourfold ministry of the good shepherds. And the first one is, He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. You know to me that's delightful. And to remember the Lord himself when he was here on earth, good shepherd, he saw a hungry multitude of five thousand hands, and once we say, make the men sit down. And when the sun dawned, he turned to the disciples, now he said, give them food, give them food. You know, these are simple things, but they're a profound thing in part. Give them food, give them food. I often think of that little parable that the Lord used in the Gospel by Matthew chapter eleven. He said, if a father had a son, and the son comes to him and asks for bread, for bread, will he give him a stone? Or he says, if he asks for fish, for a fish, will he give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? Did you ever notice the difference between the one side and the other? And the one side is bread, and fish, and eggs, and that's good. And I notice I have the stones and serpents. and swarming, and the difference between the two. Now, what is bread? I believe that bread and food is the great doctrine on subjects of Holy Scripture. What we get in the epistle of the Romans and the epistles of the Ephesians and these tremendous epistles of the New Testament, that is bread. That's the diet that should be fed to the people of God, and we've had men among us. in years gone by who were able to do that. I could mention a lot of names here, and you know that some of us that are old, people say you're always living in the past, and you're always talking about something that happened forty years ago or so on. But the love of friends here, it's the same today. Times don't change. But we did have men that were able to feed us. I'll never forget men who stood on purpose here in North America, and I am talking about fifty years ago. I was at the conference in Kansas Sunday in nineteen thirty, and that's fifty-seven years ago. And I remember even today the men who stood up there with the Bible in their hand and expounded the Word of God, I was young at the time. And I tell you, I was thin, and I learned something, and that this affected my life, and my thinking, and everything connected with my testimony, all those were the days when convictions were formed in my heart. because I was getting drunk. Oh, they explained that these great doctrines of the epistles of the New Testament. And when I went home, I said, I have got something for my soul to say. I was fed, and I was built up, and I was encouraged, and blessed by the ministry of the Word of God. Bread is the diet. That is the main diet of a person. But, you know, first of all, we have the... We get the bread. But then the next one is the fish. Now what is the fish? It's the fish that goes along with the bread. I was over in Israel. Israel, I went over there twice. And sometimes I've seen a man going out fishing on the Sea of Galilee. And he would have a roll of bread. And in between the two halves of the loaf of bread, he had a fish. If it was the fish that went along with the bread, you know, he had a loaf of bread without something to go along with it. It might be that it's unpalatable. And if a man is continually talking about doctrine all the time, but there's a practical application of it, it has to be applied in a practical way. The fish, it goes along with the bread. If I was talking to an African audience, I wouldn't use the word bread, but I would use the word mush. Because that is their diet. The staple diet of the people there in Africa is mush. But you know what, if you offered any African a plate of mush made from mandioka corn, He would look at it and said, you've forgotten something. You know, there's what they call the ombalela, and the ombalela that always goes along with the mush. You must have the ombalela along with the mush that makes it, and let it go, and that they'll appreciate it. Now, the third thing is the egg. And what is an egg? I suppose there's a number of farmers here in our audience here this morning, and they know that when an egg is laid, and when a hen lays eggs, that she sits upon it, Is it twenty-one days that she sits upon the eggs and she hatches at heart? And there's meat that comes out of the egg. And you say, what does an egg mean? You know, every time I go to a conference like this, I'm looking for eggs. Some little chair must thought that I've never heard before or something to expand or open up the word of God and expand it. And when I get an egg, I'll make a note of it. I always carry a pencil in my pocket. And if I hear something I've never heard before, that opens up some portion of the word of God, I write it down, and I've got an egg. But you know, I take that egg home. I wouldn't want to say I sit down. But I get out my concordance, and it leads me into a wine of thinking along a certain line. And before long, I get me a little bit. And you know, sometimes you get a whole basket of eggs. The bread, and the fish, and the egg. and sweet food. But then on the other hand, stones, startons, startons. What a contrast, Chris. Did you ever hear anybody throwing a few stones into an audience? You know, if I was out of touch with the Lord and I was feeling a little bit worried at all, or maybe I found a butt of malaria or something like that, I could hit up with a sour root in my face and I could throw a few stones at the audience that could hurt people. And people would say, well, no. I'm never going to go to that place again. You know, the man on the platform, he had to be awfully careful not to throw rocks or not to throw stones. There's no merishment in a stone. You could hurt people with it. And I believe there's a lot of stones being slung around the day and rocks. He said a prayer. And then the next one is a serpent. And what's the difference between a serpent and a scorpion? Now anybody that knows these two different types of creatures, they know there's a very good difference between the two. The serpent had the poison on his mouth, but the scorpion had the sting in its tail. I happen to know because I was bitten by one of them. I knew a little bit about it. And one of the most terrible, painful feelings and pain that a person could have is the bite of a scorpion. I'm not here to tell stories here this morning. I want to avoid that if I can. But I was bitten by a scorpion one time, and I lost the feeling it's in my arm for a couple of weeks. And it hadn't been for the time. But I had a knife there, and was able to open the place where the scorpion had bitten me, and was able to squeeze it out and put some permagnet into the wound that I'd made myself, I possibly would have lost my arm. A scorpion is a terrible creature, and the most painful pain that is possible to have is the bite of a scorpion. And somebody says, what do you mean by that? Oh, there's an awful lot of this poison of the snake. There's an answer to this thing in the tale. I was at a conference many years ago, and there's a brother who came to me, and he took it to start looking straight. He said, I'm going to a certain place, and he said, I'm going to have a week of meetings. And believe me, he said, before I'm through, he said, I'm going to throw a bombshell. That is the word that he meant. I said, Brother, people who grow bombshells do not have a problem. Well, he said, You don't know those people, but believe me, if I'm going to let them have it. Now he went to that place, and he had made him spendly, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and he missed the word, and on the Friday night he grew his bombshell. And he left that place, defied it, and split up, and it took thirty years to recover from that night. My beloved brethren and sisters here today will be far from careful of the bombshell or the white discarding. This thing is in the teeth and we have to be awfully careful in that. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. Feeding the minister, gather the lambs in his arm. It's a gathering ministry. Gather my saints together unto me, a gathering ministry. and carry them in his bosom. It's the ministry of comfort. And then I shall gently lead those that are with him. Don't forget that word, gently. Gently lead those that are with him. I thank God for the man that is a heart for young people. I'm trying to help them, blessing them. I can't go on in any blank that this because I want to get at the other portion that I was looking at. But this is most important. and give this address to those that have the book in their hands and have a very, very important ministry of the Word of God. Beloved brother, give them food. Give them food, give them food. Feed the people of God. They are hungry today. And I tell you, you'll never miss the mark if you preach Christ and give it to them in a gentle and an gracious, kindly way. Don't use the pep. Don't throw any stones. Instead of that, do it in a gracious, kindly way. And if you do, you'll go and build it up and building up and find it together, the people of Zahab. So here is the wise servant and the faithful servant, and he gives them food in Jude's scene. What's the forbidden servant here? And those are the three things that he does. He says, first of all, he says, my Lord, the less is coming. He's not coming soon. My Lord, the less is coming. He was sent to see. And then the next thing he begins to smite his fellow servants. Well, it's awfully easy to lift the big stick and smite the people of God with it. He smites his fellow servant. And the third thing he does, he eats and drinks for the drunkard. The social life is wrong. He's only for himself, all that he can do, and have a good time and all the best for it. But by these three things, first of all, he was not deceived. And then he was self-assertive. And the last thing here, he finds that he is self-indulgent. And the man that does this kind of thing, it shows that he's not really true at all. This is addressed to the person. And as far as I'm concerned, I hope, that it demonstrates that I'm not throwing things at anybody here this morning, but I want to turn it into myself. When I ask myself the question, man, when you get up, with the Bible in your hand, what are you doing? What kind of food are you handing out to the people of God? Are you smiting them with a big stick? Or are you giving them food? This, I believe, is most important. So that is the first test of the Lord's coming here. The practical application of it is addressed to the preacher, the man who has the responsibility of ministering the word. Now the second one, the well-known parallel of the wise and foolish orphans. We have preached the gospel from it again and again and again, and God has used it. And I believe that the parable of the kingdom of heaven is affixed to us at the present time. I could give you half a dozen different interpretations that I have read about the parable, but I do believe with all my heart that what is given here is addressed through the present generation. The wise and the foolish person. I want to emphasize the fact that there are full-time periods in the parable. And I want you to know that. By the way, the word virgin, it means chastity and purity. As far as the life was concerned, it means you couldn't point a finger at them. You all looked the same. The virgin, it meant purity or chastity. And then there were ten of them. And the number ten in Scripture is responsibility. The number of responsibility. And then the fact that they had a lamp, that means that there was a testimony, that there was a witness. But then the important thing is those that have the oil, that was important. And that means reality. It's possible to have a lamp. It's possible maybe to have a knowledge of the Word of God, but all the oil is missing. The oil of the Holy Spirit of God. And I want to ask myself this question this morning. Can you look back to a time? when you trusted Christ the Savior on the Holy Ghost came in. He said, well, the characteristic of the present dispensation is the ingrown Spirit of God, the seal of the Spirit of God that is put upon every two child of God. But there are four time periods in the parable covering the whole dispensation. The first one is they went forth to meet the bridegroom. All of us went forth to meet the bridegroom. I would say that that covers a period of approximately two hundred years of the beginning of Christianity. You know, in those first two hundred years, the truth of the Lord's coming was wrong. And I wanted to do a little bit of sober reading of men who have written in those thirty years. There was a knowledge of the Lord's coming and the difference between the Apocalypse, the Epiphany, and the Perlusia. These were men that knew the Word of God, and for about two hundred years there was a bright testimony looking for the coming again of the Lord Jesus. And the pre-Cribulation, the rapture of Christ was known in those early days, they went forth to meet the bridegroom. That early apostolic period. But there came a time when that was lost. And again it took a good deal of reading and a good deal of time to cut different men that wrote at that time. And there came some. and originated things among the people of God, and the hope of the Lord's coming, it was lost. One of the men responsible for that was a man called Origen. He was one of these church fathers, but he was a man that denied many of the fundamentals of Scripture. He spiritualized the word of God instead of treating it literally. And that man, he taught some things at that time, that meant that the hope of the Lord's coming gradually was lost. And then we come down to the second period. While the bridegroom carried, they all, notice, they all slumbered and slept. What does that mean? They slumbered. Slumbered means they nod your head. Do you ever feel that that can be there? You know, Sunday afternoon, if you've had a good meal and you said, look, and you know, you try to keep awake, but you nod your head. That's not what that word slumbered, what it literally means. They slumbered, but then they slept. And that is a deep sleep of midnight. And all of beloved, here this morning, there were one thousand years, from about two hundred and fifty AD to fifteen hundred AD, when the hope of the Lord's coming was completely lost. During that period, you will never find in the writings of the men that lived at that time anything about the rapture of the church and the hope, the blessed hope for the coming of the Lord Jesus. It was a thousand years. when what we call the dark middle ages when the hope was lost. Some has called, some has called it, the devil's millennia. A thousand years of darkness. So that thousand years of darkness, that's indicated with that word. They slumber, they slither, and the hope was lost. But then the next period is at midnight. At the darkest hour of the night, there was a primate, go ye forth beneath him. And here's a second going forth. It's a recovery, recovering. of the great truth of the Lord's coming. Now there was a threefold revival, and I don't need to tell you that in church history, the first one took place under Martin Luther. In the sixteenth century, about fifteen eighty, Martin Luther, he stood up, and he defied the Pope, and he defied the papacy, and the result was he recovered tremendous truth of justification by faith without works. That was the first cry, a midnight cry. and that truth was recovered by him. Some little time later the Lord raised up an evangelical testimony, and one of the principal men connected with that was John Wesley and his brother Charles, and George Whitfield and William Cherry, a tremendous evangelical revival to play. It was a part of the Midnight Mass, but later on some dear brethren had done with the study of the Holy Ghost. and again, clear and simple, and plain. The great truth of the Lord's coming was purified again. And thank God for that. I could quote my fellow brethren here this morning on the men who were responsible for not careful. I am awfully thankful, though, of mostly young men. With the hearing about scholars, most of those men, the university graduates, learn at men, and at the same time studying the Word of God, They discovered the truth of the difference between the rapture and the appearing. On the start of the preaching. And whatever you find, our real evangelicals today, that know of the teaching concerning the Lord's coming, you find that they teach those great truths that were recovered from the first century. Thank God for them. If you take for instance some of the books that have been written recently, written by John Wilbur's, written by Leon. Findberg, written by Charles Ravring, that name of that site, Dwight Pentecost on that tremendous book that he has written on Saints to come. So then my father, thank God for a man whose eyes have been opened. Actually, I believe that one of the men that was responsible for the recovery of the truth was John Eisenberg. And I don't make any apology at all for mentioning that. And these men that I've mentioned, all of them, would tell you that that was where the truth was really discovered. A number of young men, most of them in their middle twenties, sitting around the table in the home of Lady Parscar, over outside Dublin, and studying the word of God. And the God opened their eyes. The Holy Spirit opened their eyes to the truth of the Lord's coming again. Commitment, I cry, behold the bridegroom coming. And beloved, that is going forth today, I thank good for any man. that is the courage to stand on a platform and say, The Lord is coming, and He's coming soon. So, Lord, that's the age in which we live in. Don't be fast to say, He's coming and He's coming soon. Will it make light? But the next point is that right when He came, that is the fourth. And you know, we're right on the verge of that. The coming of the Lord. And thank God when He comes, every true believer, Not a hoofful, but left behind. Every crudely born again soul from Pentecost, right through to the present time, born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, will be ruptured up into the Lord's presence. The bridegroom is coming. Four times in the passage we get the word the bridegroom, the bridegroom, the bridegroom, the bridegroom. Don't tell me that that is for Israel. The bridegroom here, that means that he's coming from the bridegroom. and the bride is the church. So that is just as plain and simple as it can possibly be. And don't take the parable of the wise and foolish virgins and hand it over to some other company. It applies to the present day, a parable of the kingdom of the endless day or the child. For those that had their lamp, they had a lamp, that there was no oil in the lamp. And it fizzled out, and the result was, from that bridegroom came, and the bride was taken, the five wise virgins were taken in, the door was shut. And then they came to the door, Lord, Lord, open unto us. Well, I don't know you. I don't know you. And there they are outside of that terrible, terrible period of the Great Tribulation. So here it is addressed again to the profession. Oh, I ask myself the question, can you look back to that time on the oil, the Holy Spirit of God. When you are regenerated, sin ended well. Thank God is here. I don't want to follow that up because it would take too long. But if there's one thing that proves to me that I belong to Christ, there came a point in my life previous to that point, I was absolutely uncomfortable sitting with any person who read the Bible. You say, were you a pagan? I wasn't. I was brought upon a Christian home. And if a preacher on the platform had the men that made a mistake in his vocabulary or in his doctrine, I could have corrected them, but I was a poor, ungodly sinner. And I was uncomfortable sitting among God's people. And if they ever started the same hails or read the Bible, I would get up and walk back. I couldn't stand it. But I became a point in my life when the Holy Ghost came in and I trusted Christ. And I can say honestly and sincerely. without any hypocrisy whatever and never happier and just to sit with a little company of God's dear people that know how to pray and know how to read and love God's precious word a change of state and claim and for that reason I have the witness of the Spirit that the oil is there that the Holy Spirit is there because I belong to him so this is the test of the few now the third one My time is gone. I'm not going to impose. But I just want to say this. It has to do with workers on the harvest feed. One man gets five talents, another man gets two, another man gets one. What does that mean? My beloved, brethren, as this is here, it speaks of gifts of the body of Christ. The dispensary of gifts, the talents, the dispensary of gift is the risen Christ. And to some people he gives five gifts to another man he would give two and another man he would give one. And what does that mean? You take a man like the Apostle Paul. Do you think he was a five-talent man? If you think of the tremendous servant of God that he was, not only was he a pioneer preacher, but he was an evangelist, and certainly he was a teacher, and some of the things that that man did. in spreading the gospel, on founding New Testament churches in the first century, AD, he was a five-talent man. And then there are other men, well, who are truly servants of you take, for instance, Simon Peter. I'm not saying anything in sentence, that's not anything disparaging about a man like Simon Peter. He was a good man. We thank God for him. But I think in comparison with the Apostle Paul, Well, I was a five-talent man, and I would think that Peter was a two-talent man. And then there are one-talent men. You say, what is a one-talent man? Well, he's a specialist. You know, today, whether in the field of medicine or law or anything else, you're looking for one-talent men. He has concentrated on some line of research or some line of work, and he is a specialist. And somebody says, what is a specialist? Well, the same as facial. Well, it says, what does this facial look? Well, we say a specialist is a man who knows more and more about less and less. A specialist. You know, I have some dear brethren. We have a brother in Africa, and we call him Tabernacle Brown. He may... Brother Thompson, he knows him. Tabernacle Brown. Everywhere he went, it was a tabernacle, the tabernacle, the tabernacle, the tabernacle, everywhere he went. And we called him Tabernacle Brown. He was a specialist. And he was able to... Everywhere he went, He was a little model, and he was up there expanding the tavern. That was just fine. He was a specialist along that line. And then with other people, it's the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, and this. Paul was prophesied this and prophecy of that. And Daniel's ten toes and all the rest of it, expanding that. He's a specialist along that line. One talent man. And we thank God for him. You know, whatever talent that the Lord has given to us, And by the way, there's not a single believer here that doesn't have some gift that's given to them. There's no such thing as a believer without some responsibility that's gone to place it in your heart. And they'll find out what it is, and then go ahead and work at it. Five talent men, thank God we've had them. Do you remember AP Gibbs? I think quite a number of you. I would say he was a five talent man. You know, he could speak to young people and keep them sitting on the edge of the sea. And then he could give up at a conference with several thousand people there and minister the word of God as a Bible teacher. And then he was a hymn writer. And some of the beautiful hymns that he has composed and put the music to it. And quite a number of talents at that. I would say he was a five-talent man. And then there are two talent men. We thank God for them too. And we thank God for her beloved brethren that have the one talent under her... ministering these things along the line of Holy Scripture. So it's going to be a day of reckoning and that the judge will say, what a joy it would be to say, Lord, the talent you gave me, it is devils. It has been employed. And the five talents have become ten talents. It is well done, good and faithful servant and the joy of thy Lord. And then the two talent man, he said, Lord, the talents, has become two to four talents. It is double, and he gets exactly the same reward. Well done, good and faithful servant, and of the joy of thy Lord. But here's the contrast. There's one man that had received one talent, and we read quantitatively with it. He dug a hole, and he buries it in the earth. It was buried in the world. Is there such a thing as a person who is a Christian, and God has given them some particular talent, and is buried in the world? all the other friends. Anything that God has given us, and any gift that God has given us, let us use it for him, and let the judgment see the price. So look forward to that day, of he say, well done. Roots and faithful sermons entered, going to the joy of that day. That's what we're looking for in that day. We're not looking for anything done here. But thank God. And God that day, just to get that commendation from Christ himself, He said, we'll go from the beginning. But here's a man, and he showed by what he said about the Lord that he wasn't a Christian at all. He said, I was afraid of you. I was afraid of you, he said. And he said, you, we think we didn't so. He think that he slandered the Lord. You know, he showed the fact of what he said about the Lord that he didn't belong to him at all. Oh, the Lord is not on the spearmaster. But it's faithful. And it's recording our little life down here. And one day we'll have to get to that. Thank God that day whatever we have done for our little bit on this little boy. So here are the three parables. Again, first of all, the preacher, and then the pew, and then the worker, the harvest, the exercising. May God help them. And these days the faithful to these practical principles.