Good Morning Beloved Family,
I'm so glad you're here today.
Heavenly Father,
You are the God who calls us
You call us to live a life above reproach
a life of holiness
a calling we confess, we often fail
too many times to count
we fall short of Your glory
Lord, we pray for Your help
even as Your still small voice speaks to us
we fail to listen, we fail to hear
we desperately want to hear You
draw nearer to us
That we may here You speak out the meditations of your heart,
truly, clearly, that we may listen attentively, faithfully,
today and always
In Jesus' name we pray
Amen
"Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' "
Matthew 25:5-6
Today's Message: What Happens At 11:59pm
From our text In Matthew 25 today, I'll be discussing the first thirteen verses. I would like to invite each of you to open your Bibles, and read for yourselves, this truly incredible, phenomenal teaching that God has provided for all of us, contained in this parable.
"Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour."
Matthew 25:1-13
This parable is taken from the great Olivet Discourse. The Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 and 25 is the Lord’s own sermon on His second coming, and this particular parable is a warning parable. There are several such warning parables in this section of the sermon. In the early part, He gave the signs of His coming, and now in the light of that, He warns the world to be ready for when it happens.
The kingdom has a door that can and does close for all who are committed to the host of the banquet; the door to the banquet is open.
Jesus knows that some who come to the banquet, who are deliberately waiting for his arrival, will not be ready when it happens. Unless He returns in our lifetime, for each believer, on a personal level, that meeting with the Lord will occur at the time of death.
After the parable in Matthew 24, the disciples wanted to know when this would take place. Four times already, the Lord has said He is coming in an unknown moment. And now He gives a parable and concludes the parable by saying, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." Matthew 24:36
"Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming." Matthew 24:42
And He repeated the warning in verse 50. Jesus told them, you will know the general time because I’ll give you the signs, which He had done, but was very clear, that no one would know specifically the day nor hour of His return.
There is an enormous amount of energy that in certain Christian circles is poured into such speculation is here declared all are misguided. Because no one will know the hour. Jesus'
the intent of teaching us the suddenness and the unexpectedness of the coming of the Lord which, therefore, should call each of us to preparedness so that we are not caught in that unexpected moment unprepared for His coming.
The time when He comes to reward the faithful servant and to punish the unfaithful servant. It’s at that time that the Kingdom of heaven. It takes us to the time of the coming of the Lord and calls for readiness, preparedness, alertness on the part of all of us for that time will come unexpectedly and suddenly.
Beloved, it goes without saying, that we’re aware of the fact that the first time Jesus came, the world was, indeed, not ready!
The prophets of that day had marked out very clearly the signs to look for. They said there would be a forerunner. There was. They identified him as a voice crying in the wilderness. That’s exactly what John did. They said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, He was; born of a virgin, He was; of the line of David, He was. They said He would come to Galilee, He did. They said He would have great power, He had it. But the world still was not prepared and not ready. And so He came unto His own, says John, and His own received Him not. He was in the world and the world was made by Him, but the world knew Him not.
Still, they weren't ready and yes, they should have been! They should have been prepared in readiness and on alert. They should have been, and so should we be for His Second Coming!
Are we ready? Are we any more prepared in our readiness than they? We have far more detailed information about the Second Coming, so are we more ready? I'd have to say, not even close!
Many Pastors and Christians today, no longer speak of His return, or believe it to a metaphor rather than an actual arrival. They focus more on His birth, love, His forgiveness. And at this time of year, the cross and His resurrection. He is physically going to return to the earth, make no mistake about that!
"When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
Luke 19:41-44
Jesus is clearly saying here, if you had only known what time it was, if you had only known that I was here, and now it’s too late. And this parable warns the world not to let that happen again. For there will be no recourse in the future. The theme of the parable is very simple! It's really not difficult to grasp.
The parable is meant to teach us that Jesus is coming. That He is coming to judge sinners and to reward the righteous. That He is coming in a sudden and unexpected moment and everyone should be prepared. And He is clearly warning once, when He does, there will be no second chance. People may knock all they want, but the door will be shut. The day of opportunity will have come and gone now and forever more! This parable is very rich!
Beloved, if I've said it once, I have said it a thousand, or more, times...
Today, is the day of salvation. Time is quickly running out. Christ gave us signs to watch for, to prepare us, for the first time in history, we are a generation living in that time!
There are the allegorists who want to turn it into an allegory and give every single thing in it a mystical meaning so that you get lost in a mass of verbiage of hidden secret spiritual ideas. That is not the intent of a parable. And then there are the devotionalists, who want to see in every single thing something applicable to the Christian life. That is wrong as well. And then there are the critics who just want to deal with the data and say it’s a confusing parable because they can’t figure out who the bride is? Some even try to figure out where the bride is since there’s no bride mentioned.
How absurd. I have even chatted with some who were tempting to dissect every line of the parable..
Where were the bridesmaids, at bride’s house or the groom’s house or were they in the street? And if they were out in the street, did they sleep in the street or did they go into a house and sleep? How heavy were the poles that they carried with the lamps on them? And could these young maidens do that? Who specifically are these young maidens? What are their names and where did they come from? And it goes on and on and on and on, one ridiculous question after another.
Let me say something here, as plainly and clearly as I can...The message is in the simplicity and clarity of the parable, not in the confusion brought by those who choose to dissect it!
Beloved, all we need to know is four things, four, that's it! Forget the small inconsequential details and listen to what Jesus was saying, there are four things you need to know:
The wedding, the bridesmaids, the bridegroom, and the warning.
The main essential we need to understand, that in a Jewish marriage, there were three elements. The first is engagement. Long before the scene here, there was an engagement. And the engagement was an official contract between the two fathers who were giving their daughter and their son to each other, as it were. So engagements weren’t really made with the couple, they were made with the fathers. A little while after that, there would be what was called the second phase of the wedding or the marriage, and that was a betrothal. The betrothal was the official ceremony. The couple would come together before friends and family, and they would make vows and covenants and binding promises. They had an actual marriage ceremony, and they made their commitments. They were then officially married.
The point is simple. The fathers made an initial engagement for the children to be married, the children then made their vows to each other, which were binding, and then there was up to a year for the young man to get things ready to take the bride to be his own. He had to provide a place for her, perhaps to build an addition on his father’s house, or obtain a house of his own, or to purchase land and cultivate a field, and show that he could care for her. Whatever it was, he had a year to prepare his home for her, to prepare his life for her and prepare for their life together.
A second thing we need to know to understand this parable is the bridesmaids. Notice verse 1. “Ten virgins,” it says, “took their lamps,” actually, the Greek word means torch. It is not the word lamp, for example, used in Matthew 5:15, you remember, where our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount said a man does not take his lamp and hide it under a bushel. That’s a lamp. This is the word torch, a different word. It is used, for example, in John 18:3 to speak of the torches that the Romans carried when they came into the Garden of Gethsemane to take Jesus prisoner.
There was a long wooden pole. On the top of the wooden pole would be some kind of a wire mesh apparatus attached, filled with cloth. That cloth would be soaked in oil and then lit to give a flaming torch. They would carry on their person somewhere a little flask of oil so that they could keep that lit for as long as was necessary.
So here are ten virgins who take their lamps and go forth, no doubt to the house of the bride, waiting to meet the bridegroom. They are her chosen ladies. The foolish virgins were outwardly attached. They were committed intellectually. They were committed socially. They were even committed religiously. But they had no light and they had no life.
I am obligated to say to all of you, that this is a echoing theme repeated in our Lord’s ministry. He over and over again speaks to this issue. He says, for example, that in the Kingdom there will grow together wheat and tares, right? And they will look so much alike that we don’t dare start pulling them out lest we pull up the wheat, but wait until the coming of the Lord when He will make the distinction. And He talks about soil that looks good and the seed is planted, and the plant comes up and flourishes, but it has no deepness of earth, or it is strangled out by the roots of weeds and found to be dead and non-fruit-bearing.
But at first, we can’t tell the difference. This is a repeated message of our Lord, and it points up the fact - and I think this needs to be emphasized in every church across this world, that the church is filled with people who are unredeemed and unprepared for the coming of the Lord. This particular parable holds great interest to me. Because of the ten virgins, the Lord didn’t say one or two of them didn’t have any oil, He clearly said that five of them didn’t. Look, I don’t want to take something and make it something mathematical, but what that says to me is that He sees a large number of people, His church just like this... Though they may appear to be ready from the outside, they are not ready on the inside.
If this current pandemic should have taught us anything, anything at all, it's too expect the unexpected and at a moments notice! And whether we want to believe it or not, we are not prepared for such a change!
I believe that today's church is filled with these kinds of people who are unredeemed people, who are completely unprepared, and whether they meet the Lord at His second coming should He come in their lifetime or whether they meet Him in death, and they will one or the other, they will be at that moment unprepared though they have been religious and though they have been involved with Christian people and though they have nice feelings toward Christ and though they may be self-deceived into thinking that all is well.
One day, I believe will be sooner than later, all born-again believers are going to suddenly find themselves caught-up into the heavenly realm to meet the Lord. The only remedy for this shocking event is to be on constant vigilance.
Only God knows how many people are actually ready for the rapture, but even a generous estimate would have just a fraction of the North American population turning up missing as a result. The percentages will be lower in Europe and much of Asia, but many African nations will probably see a much higher percentage. Nations like China are basically an unknown, but the reports are sounding good!
The rapture will obviously come as an immense surprise to everyone remaining behind on earth. The first indication that the rapture has taken place will be people witnessing the disappearance of believers.
One of the most attention-getting consequences of the rapture will be the huge number of automobile accidents that result from the rapture. Because for the most part, cars today, are totally dependent on human interaction needed for their navigation, the removal of millions of drivers will create absolute chaos on the roads.
Sometime ago, there was a popular rapture bumper sticker that read,
"In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned." The sticker is of course humorous but it also contains a very profound truth.
Whenever a disaster takes place, much like Covid-19, most people instinctively turn to the radio, television, and internet news outlets for the latest information. During the unfolding of any major calamities, everyone I’ve heard reflect on these events said they were glued to live news reports.
Beloved, the rapture will prove to be very challenging for the liberal dominated press to cover. Very challenging indeed. Because they will have an extremely limited understanding of how this supernatural event relates to the end times.
It will probably only take the media a few minutes to become fully aware that something very strange has happened. All news organizations will closely monitor emergency radio channels. The reports will emerge quickly, into a confusing chorus of distress calls. The press will instantly have a news event that will be a local, national, and international crisis.
Yet, there will be little, if any, understanding what has taken place and what it means for their future!
Polls show that over half of the population has some reasonable understanding of the tribulation. And after the rapture takes place, it will not take very long for a sizable portion of the population to then realize, the rapture has occurred and they have been left behind. Large numbers of people will very probably become hysterical with fear. Many of them will falsely begin to believe that the world is going to end shortly. When in reality, the earth will not see any major judgments until the midpoint of the tribulation. Then, all hell will break loose.
The Bible very clearly tells us strong delusion will eventually follow the rapture. One of the leading sources of deception could be the so-called Christian leaders that are left behind. They will be doing their very best to contradict biblical truth. It’s pointless to try to guess what they will say to rationalize the rapture, but I’m sure they will have a number of explanations that will all seem logical and soothing to people’s troubled minds.
People will find themselves forced to appraise their spiritual condition. Their interest in spiritual things will be very broad, they will cling to anyone that can explain what is actually going on.
But it will be very shallow view.
In Closing....
Look, I am fully aware this is not going to be a well received, popular message, I was already informed of that by the way. They said that many would refute it, debate it and many still will disregard it.
I was told it will, in no uncertain terms upset people. They'll tune it out, they won't listen.
Well, I can only say this, so then I am to let people go to hell on the basis of self-deception?
I just cannot do that, and I will not apologize for it...
Our Lord warns over and over and over and over about this... Repeated warnings. all throughout Scripture, I just cannot in good conscience, just ignore the dire need for this message.. I can't.
God has called me to teach His Word... all of it, even the parts that aren't deemed "culturally relevant," "socially reprehensible" and "unacceptable", or otherwise considered to be "offensive and in poor taste."
I am committed to always tell you the truths contained in God's Word..... always, because I love each one of you and sincerely care about where you spend eternity.. I pray that you understand that.
We can't just keep singing,“The King Is Coming,”and yet do nothing to prepare for it..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries