Forward to Zion: Ohio Hometown Camp Meeting 2011

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Forward to Zion

Alden Ho

The Oil Crisis

We come to worship You and we ask and pray that You will abide with us, that you would help us to be able to understand more clearly the things that you expect of us before your coming.

Men of this world are in a crisis for money that is obtained with the oil.

But within the church, there's a great need for oil also.

And Father, we are dying because of a lack of it.

So help us to be able to see more clearly this evening what it is that you expect of us, what you want of us, before you can come.

Hide me Lord under the cleft of the rock that your people will just see me, but they will hear the Holy Spirit speaking to their heart.

In the book of Matthew, chapter 5, Jesus tells a story, a parable of the wise and the foolish virgins.

We find that Jesus' words are very distinct here and as we look at this parable, he says in chapter 5, verse 1, "'Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." Who is the bridegroom?

By the way, that should say like 7-Up or something instead of Coca-Cola.

We are told in the title there are 10 virgins.

But we find that there's a distinction, there's 2 distinct groups.

In verse 3 it says 5 of them were wise and 5 of them were foolish.

Now what makes them wise and what makes them foolish?

Well we find that in verse 3 it tells us, those who were foolish took their lamps, but they took no oil with them.

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

Why were some of them foolish and not bring the oil?

Because you see, many of them thought that the coming of Christ would be much sooner than that, that the bridegroom would come much sooner.

And while we find that the bridegroom was delayed, they slumbered and slept.

And at midnight, a cry was heard, behold, the bridegroom is coming, go ye out to meet him.

Then all those virgins arose, they trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for ours is running out.

There's not enough for us and you, the wise said, but go rather to those who are selling and buy for yourselves.

And while they went the bridegroom came And those who were ready went out with him to the wedding, and the door was shut.

Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open for us.

But he said unto them, Assuredly, I say to you, I don't know you.

Therefore, watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming." We need to watch.

As I've mentioned in previous sermons here so far, especially the last 1 this morning, there is a shaking that's going to take place.

This shaking is 1 that is going to rock the church, and it's going to be 1 that is nothing that we have ever seen before in the past.

Now the shaking has already been going on since the 1800s.

But this shaking that Ellen White talks about in early writings 270, it is 1 that some will not bear the straight testimony.

They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause the shaking among God's people.

When we preach about things that are happening in the church and the dangers of the church, Brother Rick, you know, they rise up against it.

They call us the ones who are preaching the straight testimony, the ones who are out on left field.

But let's take it back to what the Bible has told us.

In Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20, what is it?

If they speak not according to this word there is no light in them.

Well let's compare Scripture with the spirit of prophecy and we will find that the straight testimony is what they cannot bear.

You see there is a world Ellen White says, there's a world lying in wickedness, in deception, in delusion, in the very shadows of death.

Well we find that's the Laodicean church.

They've been lulled into a sense of self-security.

She writes here in Bible Echo, May 4, 1896, "'Who are feeling travail of soul to awaken them?

She says, my mind is carried to the future when a signal will be given.

But we find that Some will have delayed to obtain the oil for replenishing their lamps.

How many of you say the oil is the Holy Spirit?

Now, let's go back and identify first of all.

When the apostles sat together after Christ said to them, go together and wait, I will send you the?

If he was going to send the Comforter to them would not be the Comforter available to the foolish virgins if they just asked for it, Right?

I want to shift your paradigm thinking for a moment because this is why we are incorrect and we don't fully understand what this parable is all about.

There is a very clear distinction between the wise and the foolish and it is not the absence of the Holy Spirit.

You see, if the wise and the foolish virgins are representative of the people who are waiting for the coming of Christ just before midnight, then there is an absence of something that is so greatly needed and it is not the Holy Spirit.

They're both, I guess you could say, both groups are Adventists.

But Listen to what she says here in this particular article, because it will throw your thinking.

But some will have delayed to obtain the oil for replenishing their lamps, and too late they will find that character, which is represented by the oil, is not transferable.

It represents character and character is not transferable.

This is what causes the shaking because when you talk about changing character, I don't want to do it.

No 1, she says, can secure it for another.

Each must obtain for himself a character purified of every stain of sin.

The Lord is coming in power and great glory.

It will then be his work to make a complete separation between the righteous and the wicked, but the oil cannot be transferred to the vessels of those who have it not.

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