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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

The High Price of Oil

Good to be here on a beautiful Southern California morning.

You talk to people in other parts of the country and they're without power And their houses are covered in ice and snow.

And although this isn't heaven, I'd much rather be here right now than there.

If you would turn with me to a familiar parable in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew chapter 25, I'll start reading at verse 1.

The scripture says, then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.

But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled The High Price of Oil.

Father God, we thank you Lord for bringing us together in this place.

Lord I ask that you make me just a rusty old sorry old nail, Lord, and hammer that nail into the wall.

And Father God, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ upon that nail, so that today Eric Walsh is not seen or heard.

But instead, Father God, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

I was going to preach today on the topic of the Antichrist, But I need to do a full seminar as I began to do the research, because you need to see pictures of some of the people who have been either self-called themselves the Antichrist, or who people are saying is the Antichrist.

The most recent buzz about the Antichrist is that Barack Obama is the Antichrist.

And so I said, let me switch up today and 1 afternoon when I have, we'll go deep into it because that's an interesting thought.

I mean, I'm not sure why every president or every politician wouldn't meet the criterion in some ways, but let's look at the book of Matthew 25.

And again, this is a very commonly used parable, but we're going to look at it again today because I believe God has a special message in this parable.

It's a parable based on the tradition of marriage in the ancient holy land and in the surrounding regions, where the bridegroom was the center of certain parts of the ceremonies, and that virgins or young ladies were used to light the way and to join the procession as they went into the chamber.

The scripture here in Matthew is just after Jesus has just finished dealing with end-time prophecy.

The disciples and Jesus had walked out of the temple and the disciples said, you know, look at the splendor of these buildings.

And Jesus says, you know, the day is coming when not 1 of these stones will stand on the other 1.

When Jesus says that, they say, tell us, Lord, when will this be?

And the 24th chapter of Matthew is Jesus' response to what is coming on the world.

Jesus wasn't speaking and saying, OK, chapter 25 now.

But in chapter 25, he begins to really try and describe for his disciples and for us the way that the second coming would unfold and even more importantly how it is that we as his followers must be prepared for that coming.

It is an interesting story because it would have been very easily understood in the time it was given.

He says in chapter 25 and verse 1 that the kingdom of heaven should be likened unto 10 virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And 5 of them were wise and 5 were foolish.

Interestingly, of the 10 of them, you can't really tell the difference from the outset.

I think that's important, that You have to understand that when we look at people, we really cannot read their hearts.

Not by their fruits, the scripture says we shall know them.

So there are parts of it that people do make obvious.

But in reality, when you look at it, when we look at other individuals, we have to be careful not to cast them as wise or foolish.

Because on the surface it's difficult to tell.

The second thing is the fact that they're all virgins is kind of a metaphor for saying that they're all believers.

In other words, this is not a parable about people in the world against people in the church.

This is a parable about people in the world against people in the church.

This is a parable about people who are supposed to know truth.

He says they took, Verse 3 says, they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.

The difference isn't visible on the surface.

It probably wasn't easy to look into the vessel and see who had reserve oil.

But the difference was that 1 group was prepared in case the bridegroom took longer to arrive.

1 group had an enduring amount of oil, and 1 group didn't.

Interesting enough is that the groups are separated by the wait time.

In other words, if the bridegroom had come immediately after the 10 virgins got to the door and lit their lamps, you would never know who was wise or foolish.

The fact is that their status is made evident with time.

The longer the bridegroom waited, the more obvious it would become who was wise and who was foolish.

Time then is in itself the deciding, or I should say the separating factor.

You see, sometimes we wonder why it is that the Lord delays His coming.

Or sometimes we wonder why we don't just get what we want when we want it.

In the Scriptures there are many times when something happens and 40 days passes before God finally moves.

Even when Noah entered the ark there was a lag time.

In during that lag time, it was a trying time for Noah and his family.

God wants us to be patient, And so he allows us to wait.

So in our lives, things don't always happen automatically.

Because in the process of waiting, God develops our characters.

He often separates the true from the false.

I was speaking to a young lady just yesterday, good Christian young lady, great singer, but she's probably only a couple years younger than me and she's still single and she's wondering why God hasn't sent Mr.

Ironically, as I'm of course preparing a sermon on waiting, it's an interesting conversation.

And I said, well, maybe God has it so that you're waiting because maybe you're not in the right place for Mr.

Maybe God wants you to wait because there's something about you that God wants to develop before you meet Mr.

The idea, of course, is that if the right guy shows up in her life, all of the things will fall into place, and anyone who's been married knows that that's not true.

I hope his wife didn't hear him say that so loud.

In fact, if 2 broken people get married, 2 broken people don't make a whole person.

2 fragmented, injured, scarred, emotionally labile folk, when they get together, it doesn't come together to make a whole.

In fact, God designed men and women to come together.

2 wholes should come together and make the union.

So God allows us to wait sometimes on something like that just so that we become whole first.

There's a beauty in waiting if you learn to be patient.

Here is the patience, the scripture says, of the saints.

1 of the true tests, 1 of the true characteristics of those who are on God's side is that they are willing to wait for him.

1 of my favorite Bible stories is the story of the 3 Hebrew boys.

Daniel's not in the story, but they get with Nebuchadnezzar and he's going to throw them in the fire.

And I can imagine that many would have figured out a way, tried to talk their way out of it, but they said, we are not careful to answer you.

Because they said, our God can deliver us.

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The High Price of Oil

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