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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Are You a Wise or a Foolish Virgin?

Father in heaven, thank you so much that your watch care for us has been ever vigilant this past week.

You've blessed us, you've been with us, you've guided us.

Thank you Lord for the many blessings you've showered upon us and help us ever to be mindful of every 1 of those blessings you've given to us.

Help us not to forget, Lord, that we serve a great and wonderful God who loves us so much.

And even now, Lord, you desire to bless us.

As we come to seek your word, I pray that you would lead us, that you would reveal to us the message that you've hidden in your word for us, that you speak to our hearts directly Lord and lead us now we pray in Jesus name we pray and ask amen.

Well if you haven't noticed the title yet from the video, the title that we're, the sermon that we're looking at this morning is a really a question.

Now the thrust of my message, The push of my message this morning has come from an overflow of the reading of the 40 days of prayer book with my prayer partner, Musa.

And I've just been really enjoying the time together.

We've only missed 1 day and we're trying to catch up, but It's always difficult to do 2 sessions in 1 go, but God has been so good and He's blessed so much.

I've been so blessed by the reading of this book and being able to pray consistently with 1 person every single day.

And even though the 40 days of prayer isn't over yet, I just wanted to share with you the blessings that I received so far.

Quite a number of the quotes that I'm taking here, showing to you today, is taken from the reading and I hope you don't mind but you know these quotes and this message has really stood out in my heart and my mind and has just made such a deep impression and I just wanted to share that with you this morning.

I wanted to start off with a quote taken from Signs of the Times this morning.

Signs of the Times, August 6, 1894, paragraph 4.

Jesus used the parable of the 10 virgins to represent the condition of the church before his coming.

And the question that concerns each 1 of us is, are we among the 5 wise or the 5 foolish virgins?

And so this question really has given us the thrust of the message.

That's where I get the title from this morning.

This is 1 of the questions that demands an answer, especially in the time that we are living in right now.

And so before we get into that, let's refresh ourselves, our minds, by going to the Bible text that talks about the wise and the foolish virgins.

We're not going to read through everything, but we're going to read through about half of the parable.

Matthew 25 verses 1-7 Then shall the kingdom of heaven 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.

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

But the wise took 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 ye out to meet him.

Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

So just for the sake of a quick recap, there we see 10 virgins.

And they all slept while the bridegroom tarried.

While he delayed to come, every single 1 of them fell asleep.

The only difference that we see between these 2 groups is found in verse 4.

The Bible says there, the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

The vessel is probably a soft vessel in those days, not a hard jar.

The lamp already was difficult to carry around but the vessel was probably a soft little vessel that they could store extra oil in case they ran out.

So the difference between the wise and the foolish virgin is the wise took extra oil and the foolish did not take extra oil.

But at the time of waiting at that present time, all their lamps were trimmed and they were all burning.

So they were all waiting in eager expectation for the bridegroom to come, but he never came.

And at the time that they fell asleep, all their lamps went out.

And so in order to light it again, the wise needed to use the extra oil from their bag or what we call here the vessel, right?

Now look, in the book of Revelation, we see God's people depicted as a virgin.

In Revelation 14, and more specifically the 144, 000, which is identified in verse 1, but in verse 4, it says that these, the 144, 000, are they which were not defiled with women for they are virgins.

These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.

These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

And so friends, the question that begs the answer this morning is even though in Matthew 25, all of them are virgins, not all of them are the 144, 000.

Because at the end of Matthew 25, those that were not let in because they had to go buy extra oil, they were too late, they went out into outer darkness.

And so the question is, which virgin are we this morning?

And more importantly than that because the defining characteristic between these 2 groups is 1 had extra oil and the other doesn't.

Now we already know that oil in the Bible represents the Holy Spirit.

So when we're asking what does it mean to have extra oil, what does it mean to have an extra portion of the Holy Spirit?

I mean, how can we seemingly store up an extra portion of the Holy Spirit?

I mean, if we can do that, why we all don't just do it now, put in the hard labor, get an extra portion of the Holy Spirit, right?

So we don't have to worry ever again so that when Jesus comes we'll be ready.

So we want to know this because it doesn't seem practical to have this extra portion of Holy Spirit but yet what does that mean?

How do we store it up in a bottle, in a vessel, right?

So this really is the purpose of our study this morning and I want to bring you through some quotes with me as we study into this.

Well, Let's go to our first quote here, Review and Herald, August 19, 1890.

The name foolish virgins represents the character of those who have not the genuine heart work wrought by the Spirit of God.

The coming of Christ does not change the foolish virgins into wise virgins.

And look at this, this is the part that kind of opened my eyes.

The state of the church represented by the foolish virgins is also spoken of as the Laodicean church.

So look, the foolish virgins are those that are in the Laodicean state.

They are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

And the quote, it says that they do not have the genuine heart work that is wrought by the Spirit of God.

And that's why in Revelation 3 in verse 20, Jesus is seen knocking on the door of their heart.

He wants to sup with them and them with Him.

And so the importance of genuine heart work here, heart work, is outlined very clearly.

Although we can understand externally what our heart is like internally by looking at those actions, the problem is the heart.

And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will.

That when obeying Him, we shall not be but carrying out our own impulses.

And I want to pause here for a second because you see, sometimes we feel like obedience, wow, it's so difficult, it's so difficult.

And the reason is because our heart is not changed.

But we're told here in Desire of Ages that when we obey, when our heart is changed, we will simply be carrying out our own impulses, like That's who we are.

The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service.

When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of what?

Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.

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Are You a Wise or a Foolish Virgin?

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