Beloved radio friends, we greet you in the precious and the worthy name of our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We welcome you to the broadcast. We wish to emphasize very, very greatly, we believe the necessity of the Lord's return, and imminently, is upon us. Surely the Lord must come back, and he will. We continue our study of the parable of the ten virgins, reading again the words of the Lord Jesus in relation to his coming again. Chapter twenty five in the Gospel of Matthew. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise, five foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, but they took no oil with them. But the wise took the oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And 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 foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone. But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and for you. Go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. While they went to buy, the bridegroom came. They that were ready went into the marriage with him, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. May God bless the reading and the hearing of his word. May I repeat again, here are the words of the Lord Jesus in this parabolic story of the ten virgins, reminding us some will be ready when he comes, others will not be ready. My friend, are you ready? We come to the study as we follow it. We come to the words that we find in verse five. As they went forth to meet the bridegroom, we come to read in verse five the sad, solemn words. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. Now, what does this imply? My beloved, I want you to think very carefully and prayerfully with me. While the bridegroom tarried, his coming did not take place, and though they were waiting and supposedly looking for him, because he tarried so long, they all slumbered and slept. Now, let me remind my listeners, if you're acquainted with the early history of the church, which you can read in the book of the Acts and even in the epistles, at the beginning of the Christian testimony, you must and you have to confess. Those early Christians expected the coming of the Lord. But unfortunately, as many years went by, that blessed hope was neglected, and they ceased looking for the Lord to come. The sleeping of all these virgins, whether real or false, represents the fact that the expectancy of the Lord's return was given up. The professing church, and if anyone knows anything and has read anything regarding church history, they will know immediately there came a time in the early centuries of the church's history when the professing church became occupied with earthly things, occupied with earthly power, occupied with earthly government. And truly, it was a long period of history, in the history of Christendom, when the Lord, the return of the Lord during that long period was not even expected. They all, now note that, they all slumbered and slept. Take it in. The little word all is inclusive. Those that were real, those that were not real, in regard to the coming of the bridegroom and its precious truth, its blessed message, they all went to sleep on it. My beloved, you have to, you can prove it by reading any secular history of the church that has been written. The truth of the coming of the Lord seems to have been lost for many centuries. Now look with me, if you will, at verse six, please. We read at midnight there was a cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye out to meet him. At midnight there was a cry made. Now, beloved believer, and even unbeliever, I want you to think of something. And it's true, even in the history of the church, whether you look at it in the word of God or outside the word of God. Many of us who have listened to that which has taken place within the past century and a half, we recognize that the midnight cry began to go forth. And my friend, I say we are living in the very period of the fulfillment of this sixth verse, and we are facing the soon coming of the bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ. Please let me say the midnight cry has been heard since the middle of the last century, when the Holy Spirit gave a revival of that blessed hope and all that is connected with it. And we herald the midnight cry today and say again to all our friends, behold, the bridegroom cometh. Now, let me give a personal testimony of which I, I'm absolutely sure about. I had a very dear friend, much older than myself, who lived and was born even before the la- the first half of the last, the last half of the last century. A dear servant of God who was saved, perhaps before eighteen fifty and who lived at the time when the revival of the coming again of our Lord and his doctrine became known? And I never will forget what he said to me on one occasion. He said, Brother Bramhall, do you know what the believers talked about in those early days when I was first converted, whenever we met upon the street, wherever we met in any homes, wherever we met, the greatest subject of conversation was the coming again of the Lord Jesus. My beloved, it burned in their hearts, what to God it burned in ours. Behold, the bridegroom cometh, and in view of this cry, we are told to go forth and meet him. Now, beloved, let me please say, what does it meet- mean to go forth to meet him? To be truly separated unto him, the one who is soon coming again. My beloved fellow believer, I raise the question for you as well as for me. Are you and am I, both in life and practice, going forth to meet the Savior? My fellow believer, are you and am I telling others Jesus is coming again and coming soon? My beloved unsaved friend, it's my desire to tell you and seek to awaken you to the fact that Jesus is coming again and soon. Now we read in verse seven and eight: Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said unto the wise, give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. Now, beloved, it is impossible for the true Christian to give oil to another. I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. On the authority of the Word of God, I am sure and know that he has given to me the presence of the Holy Spirit to abide with me and to abide in me. But I cannot give you the Holy Spirit. No, my beloved, I cannot. No Christian can give oil to another, to a foolish virgin. All that the wise can say is this in verse nine: Not so, lest there be not enough for you and for us, but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. My beloved, there is only one person to whom you must go if you are not saved, to whom you must go if you desire to have the oil of the Holy Spirit within your heart and within your life. Did not Isaiah the prophet write that you should seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Come ye to the waters, come ye and buy, yea, buy wine and milk without money and without price. My beloved, you can get the Holy Spirit, but you can never get him without taking Christ, and you take Christ freely. You cannot buy him. Ah, beloved, there is one who gives without money and without price the blessed spirit of God when you receive Christ and the forgiveness of your sins from him. You must go to the Lord himself. I wonder, there are so many foolish virgins today. They're running hither and thither and yonder, running about trying to find oil for their lamps. Beloved, you better go to Christ. The midnight cry discovers the true condition of the foolish, and it also discovers the true condition of the wise. It discovers that the foolish are without oil. It discovers that the wise, they can be calm. They can be arising and trimming their lamps. Note verse seven, All those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And what these lamps and vessels were is best explained. And I quote the words of Edersheim, a Jewish writer. The lamps consisted of round receptacles to possess pitch or oil for the wick to be placed within. And this was placed in a hollow cup or a deep saucer, which was fastened by a pointed end onto a long wooden pole by which it was borne aloft, unquote. A simple vessel, but within it there was oil, there was a wick, and thus when it was lit, there was a light. The torch of light would be held high as they went to meet the bridegroom. My fellow believer, is your light shining? Is mine shining as we go forth to meet our coming Savior. Shine, shine just where you are. Into the night, send forth the light. Shine for the Lord where you are. But oh, my beloved unsaved friend, I would like to speak to you faithfully. You do not even have a light. Without Christ within your heart, you have no oil. There is no Holy Spirit. There is no light for God to shine from you and through you in this dark world. But if you will find all for your lamp, you must come to Christ. You cannot meet the coming Lord and go into the marriage without being saved. There is a lot of religious activity, I know, but much without the knowledge of Christ. We have a lot of ecclesiastical buildings. We have a lot of excitable gatherings, but often without Christ. We have a lot of foolish virgins seeking to reach heaven without coming to Christ. We have many earnest and sincere people trying this religion and that religion, this church and that church, this preacher and another preacher. But my beloved, listen, every man and woman, boy and girl needs to come to Christ. And if you do not have Christ and him alone as your savior, your faith in him and his redeeming blood, you are a foolish virgin. My beloved, we pray, take heed to your soul. Jesus is coming, we know not the moment. Are you ready? Are you wise, or are you foolish? Blessed Lord Jesus, by the spirit, convict and convert some dear soul to the savior. Amen.