MIDNIGHT MADNESS (2)

“While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered.” Mt 25:5 NKJV

Let’s look at these ten virgins and see what else we can learn from them. Observe three things: (1) The midnight crowd. “While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.” Who slept? The wise as well as the foolish; the world as well as the church. Paul warns, “It is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Ro 13:11 NKJV). We’re in mortal combat with an Enemy who observes no truce, no armistice and no peace treaties. The Titanic disregarded five warnings before it hit the iceberg. The naval yard at Pearl Harbor disregarded six warnings before it was attacked. Christ is not coming back for the religious but the redeemed; not for the refined but the regenerated; not the respectable but the righteous. (2) The midnight cry. “At midnight a cry was heard: Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” (Mt 25:6 NKJV). All around us the voices of fear sound. Where can we look for hope? To government? To bankers? To industry? To academics? No, our hope can be found in these words: “Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit 2:13 NKJV). (3) The midnight crisis. The urgent message of this parable is: Some will have enough to get them into the wedding, others will not. So what should you do? “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Lk 21:36).

Share