F4F | Do You Have Enough Oil?

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So have you ever read

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Matthew chapter 25 in the parable of the ten virgins and wondered what is meant by the virgins falling asleep?

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What is meant by them having oil? You'll note that their salvation, because this is a salvation parable, their salvation is dependent upon whether or not they have oil.

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So a right understanding of this parable is going to be helpful. A misuse of this parable will create all kinds of anxiety, and I've heard so many different bad sermons on this particular parable that it would behoove me.

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I don't think I could do it. To actually sit down and lay out all the different ways, I've heard it twisted.

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So what we're going to do in this installment of Fighting for the Faith is we're going to head over to the Jim Bakker show, and you'll note that they're in the middle of another one of their fundraising things where they're selling food buckets, survival food.

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So, you know, I think their goal is to get you to buy seven years worth of their food buckets, because after all, the

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Great Tribulations, so that's seven years long. So you got to make sure that you got a seven year supply of Jim Bakker's.

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Could you imagine eating that stuff for seven years? I can't even imagine eating it for like a day or two.

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Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself and I'm derailing myself. So let me whirl up the desktop here, shall we?

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There we go. And let's go ahead and get to the web browser.

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We're gonna be listening to Colonel James Durham, and he is a Destiny Publishing House author.

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He's got a book out called Alert Perilous Times. Part of the reason why he's on the Jim Bakker show is to shill for his book.

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And so we're going to tune in and we're going to listen as he asks the question, do you have enough oil?

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Do you have enough oil? I don't know if I have enough oil or not, but we'll find out, you know, so let's do this, shall we?

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Here we go. You have a chapter in your book. It kind of interests me because it's called Carrying Extra Oil.

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You remember that? Yes. Can you talk about that? Carrying extra oil, huh?

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Okay. Now note, the 60 meal food bucket from Jim Bakker.

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That's the thing that they're promoting there at the Jim Bakker show. But let's listen to Durham's answer.

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Jesus gave this really strange parable teaching the people. He talked about the kingdom of God is like 10 virgins.

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And you think about that. How in the world is the kingdom of God like 10 virgins? That's kind of the mystery of parables.

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You have to unpack them. You have to figure it all out. And then he goes on to say five were wise and five were foolish.

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And still you don't get, what does this have to do with the kingdom of God? And then we see that all 10 of them went to sleep.

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They were all unprepared for the arrival of the bridegroom. And we know the bride... No, that's not true.

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We'll take a look at the parable here in a minute. Falling asleep is not the problem because there's something going on here.

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I'll explain. It's Jesus. And they were not ready. They were not ready for that. And five of them didn't have enough oil to relight their lamps.

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And five of them only had enough oil to get from where they were into the building. And so how is this like the kingdom of God?

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Well, I can think Lord is teaching something greater. There's something under this that's so much more important.

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And probably the people of that time understood it better than we do today. Oil was life. The olive oil, you cooked with it.

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It was your food. It was your source of light in your heart. May I point out that you're overcooking the parable at this point.

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It was what you bartered and trade with in order to keep things going. Oil was so important and so precious.

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It was used in the sacrificial system. It was used for anointing priests and Levites. It was used for all of these things.

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Oil was so important. And I believe that what the Lord is saying to us is right now... I believe that what the

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Lord is saying to us... This is an exegesis.

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Let me back this up just a little bit. Oil was so important. And I believe that what the Lord is saying to us is right now, we in the church have become like the foolish.

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Most people, when they hear that parable, we've become... in the church, we've become like the foolish. What does it mean to be foolish in this parable?

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What is Jesus getting? Well, they think, oh, I'm like the five wise. I'm okay. I'm doing great. But they were all asleep. And all of them were limited.

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Yeah, they are all asleep. Five of them totally unprepared. I think that's about who we are as a church today.

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And we need to have the extra oil. We need to always be... Extra oil?

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We just need oil. I'll explain the parable in a minute. We're ready for whatever comes. If we're waiting for the bridegroom to return.

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And that's what I'm doing. I'm waiting for the bridegroom to return. We all are. And in the last chapter of Revelation, he says three times,

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I'm coming quickly. I'm coming very soon. I believe him and it's coming soon. And how many of us are out of oil?

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Right. How many of us? If you're a Christian and you're out of oil, you are in big trouble.

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The question is, what is oil? What in this parable? Have let the oil of anointing, the oil of the sacrifice, really the original of the sacrifice is carbon.

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And it meant to draw close, doing whatever you can to draw close to God. Are we carrying the kind of oil that draws us closer to the

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Lord? So that when the bridegroom... What on earth is he talking about? Bridegroom returns.

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We're ready. We're ready to meet. Yeah. I mean, when Jesus shows up, are you ready?

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I mean, that's a legitimate question that we all need to answer, but let's take a look at the passage itself because this isn't really that hard to work out.

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Now, what I'm going to do here is I've got the parable right here, Matthew chapter 25, and I'm going to back up a little bit into the context because you'll note that context, context, context is how we recognize and understand a biblical text.

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So, then you'll note that Matthew 24, known as the Olivet Discourse, is a warning about the end times and the return of Jesus.

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Concerning that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the son, but the father only.

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No one knows when Jesus is going to show up. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the son of man.

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For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when

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Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.

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So will be the coming of the son of man. Then two men will be in the field. One will be taken, one left.

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Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken, one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your

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Lord is coming. Now, the question is here, is this staying awake that is mentioned in Matthew 24, 42, an admonition that somehow the virgins in chapter 25 had done something wrong by falling asleep?

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The answer is no. By staying awake here, Christ means to stay in the faith, continue to believe.

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Know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

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Therefore, you also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour when you do not expect. And that's, this is true even in the second, in the parable of the 10 virgins, we must all be ready.

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How does one get ready for the return of Christ? We'll talk about that. So who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master set over his household to give them their food at the proper time?

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Blessed is that servant whom his master will find doing so when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all of his possessions.

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But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him.

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At an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and place put him with the hypocrites.

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In that place there will be weeping and there will be gnashing of teeth. So then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

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So Christ here is changing things up a little bit. And you're going to note Matthew 25 is going to contain three parables.

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Parable number one, the parable of the virgins. Then you've got the parable of the talents. And then you've got the parable of the sheep and the goats, the final parable of this chapter, all three of them looking at different aspects, if you would, of the end of the age.

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So here's how the parable goes. For it will be like a man, sorry, I have to scroll back up a little farther.

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There we go. The kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

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Five of them were foolish. Five were wise. Ah, okay.

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So foolish is bad. Wise is good. So you're going to note here five of the virgins are already admonished by Christ as being foolish and rebuked for it.

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And five of them are upheld by Jesus as being wise. Well, why were they wise?

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Well, we'll see here in a second. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil.

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That's a foolish thing to do. You know, a wedding in the middle of the night, you want to have your oil ready so that you're ready to rock and roll and go, you know, they took no oil with them.

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But the wise, again, notice it says to them, they were wise. They took flasks of oil with their lamps.

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Flasks, plural. Okay. They were ready. Okay. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.

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But at midnight, there was a cry. Here is the bridegroom. Come out to meet him. Then all those virgins rose, trim their lamps.

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And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out.

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But the wise answered saying, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.

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And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him into the marriage feast.

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And then the door was shut. The wise were saved. Okay. When Jesus returns in glory to judge the five wise ones, they were in.

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Note, they were not only wise, twice told by Christ that they were wise, but they now, when the bridegroom shows up and that's

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Christ, they were ready to go. And now they are saved. Okay. Afterward, the other virgins came also saying,

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Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, truly, I say to you, I do not know you.

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Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour. I do not know you.

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Depart from me. Right. The five foolish are damned.

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That's the point of this text. So now the question is what on earth is meant by oil?

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So let's kind of work our way back through this parable and you kind of see what's going on. So 10 virgins will be 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

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I like to think of this as kind of this simple. Christ bled and died for the sins of the whole world.

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And I know this puts me at odds with those who are Calvinists and I do not apologize.

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It says very clearly that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so everybody is bled for and died for, but that doesn't mean that everybody is saved.

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And that's the kind of tragic bit of all of this is that here you've got the 10, you got 10 virgins, which is kind of symbolic, if you would, of all of mankind.

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And some were foolish, some are wise, some are saved, some are damned, but all of them have been virginized, if you would, by the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross.

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But that doesn't mean they're all saved, because what is it that brings salvation? We'll talk about this.

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So five were foolish, five were wise, for when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

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As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. Drowsy and slept.

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Death. That's what this is referring to. When Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, what's kind of first order of business?

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Christ is going to raise humanity from the grave. All right? So, all human beings will be resurrected.

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And so, the sleep here being referred to is the sleep of death. I think it's kind of that simple, the sleep of death.

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And so, everybody falls asleep. And you're going to note here, this is a different kind of sleep that Christ says stay awake in chapter 24.

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Here, there's no censor, there's no rebuke for everybody who falls asleep, because what has happened to the saints of 150 years ago?

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They're all dead. How about 200 years ago? Dead. 400, 500, 600. They're all dead, dead, dead, dead, dead.

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Thousand years ago, 2 ,000 years ago, they're all dead. They're all sleeping soundly in their graves.

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That's kind of the point here. So, the idea of them becoming drowsy and sleeping, since this is a parable of the end of the world, quite simply, you know, this is the sleep of death.

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And they were not rebuked for falling asleep, right? At midnight there was a cry, here is the bridegroom, come out to meet him.

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Then all those virgins rose, trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out.

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So, what is this oil? It's actually quite simple. Let me give you a text here.

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Romans chapter three, Romans chapter three, okay? This is a chapter that makes it clear that we are not saved by our good works.

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We are saved by grace through faith, right? As a gift. So, Paul in Romans chapter three, verse nine says, what then?

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Are we Jews any better off than humanity, the world? No, not at all.

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For we've already charged that all, that's everyone, both Jews and Greeks are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous.

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No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together.

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They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

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The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.

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In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

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This is the verdict of God's law, which condemns us all and condemns us all as sinners and rightly so, because we all are.

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So, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and that the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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So, whatever the oil is, it's not your good works. It's not your readiness. It's not your intention.

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It's not your love for Jesus. That's not what the oil is. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets, they bear witness to it.

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The righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction.

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All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified. Dikaiao here in the

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Greek means to be declared righteous. They are declared righteous by his gift, by his grace as a gift.

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All right. So, as a gift, right? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received, how? By faith.

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So, we continue. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over the former sins.

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It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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So, what then becomes of our boasting? It's excluded. By what kind of law?

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By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified, here we go,

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Dikaiao, declared righteous by faith apart from works of the law.

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Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also.

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Since God is one who will justify the circumcised, how? By faith. And the uncircumcised through faith, do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

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Well, no, by no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. So, salvation is by grace through faith.

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Chapter four even really super punctuates this point. It says, What shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh?

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For if Abraham was justified by works, well, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness.

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Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as is due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteous apart from works.

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Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. So, is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

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It's for both, by the way. For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him?

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Was it before or after he had been circumcised? Was it not after, but before he was circumcised, he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

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For the purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.

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And to make him the father of the uncircumcised who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father

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Abraham had before he was circumcised. So, how is somebody saved?

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By grace through faith apart from works. Now, important to note here, if you truly have saving faith, good works will follow.

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If they don't, then you don't really have faith. Just as the body that is not breathing is dead, so faith without works is dead.

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But works follow faith necessarily, but faith alone saves.

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So, the difference between the wise and the foolish then in Christ's parable can be only one thing.

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Do you have faith in Jesus Christ? That's the point here.

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So, note here, as the bridegroom they all became drowsy and they slept, they died. Some people die in faith, some people die without faith in Christ.

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That's foolish of them to do so, but they do. Only the wise ones are the ones who have faith in Christ.

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But at midnight there was a cry, here's the bridegroom, come out to meet him. And then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out.

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I hate to say this, but I can't believe for you. Nope, can't.

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And I can't share my faith in Christ with you so that we together with my faith are both saved by my faith.

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That's not how this works. Each single individual either believes or doesn't believe.

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That's the point. But the wise answered, since there will not be enough for us for you go rather to the dealers to buy for yourselves.

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And here, we're going to point something out here. Where does one get oil like this?

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Where does one get faith? I happen to be a dealer in this type of oil.

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And if you don't have any, I'll be happy to give you some. And what I mean by that is that I will preach the gospel to you so that you believe and trust that Jesus Christ bled and died for all of your sins and that he died for the ungodly.

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That's you and that's me. And that he gives us salvation by grace through faith as a gift, not as a wage earned by our works, but as a gift given by grace through faith.

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And so the dealers who sell oil today are faithful pastors who preach the word and preach the gospel or people who minister on YouTube or other places and podcasts or social media who rightly proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ and preach that blessing.

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Blessed are the ones whose lawless deeds are forgiven. You need this oil?

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You do need it. We all need this because without faith, it's impossible to please

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God. Look at the book of Hebrews chapter 11. So, you want this oil?

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You want this faith? Hear the gospel, hear the good news and believe.

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Then you have the oil that you need. But if you die without believing, that's a really foolish thing to do.

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And while they were going to buy, buying, by the way, hearing the gospel on the day of judgment ain't going to happen.

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Salvation has come to an end at that point. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, those who were ready, who believed, went in with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut.

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The end. It's over. You cannot be saved after Christ returns. Today is the day of salvation.

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Repent, believe the good news. Christ bled and died for all of your sins, right? The door was shut.

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Afterwards, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. He answered, well, truly

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I say to you, I don't know you. And that's the scary bit is that if your name's not found in the

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Lamb's book of life, you go into eternity nameless and the nameless ones end up in the lake of fire, weeping, gnashing of teeth.

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You get the whole point. So, watch therefore you neither know the day nor the hour. Now that's what this passage is about.

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But this fellow from from Destiny Publishing House appearing on the

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Jim Bakker show, my goodness, this guy's twisting this text up. And in the last chapter of Revelation, he says three times,

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I'm coming quickly. I'm coming very soon. I believe him and it's coming soon. And how many of us are out of oil?

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How many of us have... I'm not out of oil. I trust in Christ and anybody who trusts in Jesus, they're not out of oil.

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You'll note that his misunderstanding of this passage and his misuse of it creates all kinds of anxiety and fear in people who trust in Jesus.

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That's not what Christ would have you do to be fearful. You know, when you actually believe and trust in him, you should have confidence, certainty of your forgiveness and your salvation.

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Let the oil of anointing, the oil of the sacrifice, really the original of the sacrifice is

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Carbon, and it meant to draw close, doing whatever you can to draw close to God. Are we carrying the kind of oil that draws us closer to the

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Lord? Salvation is by grace through faith alone.

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The oil is faith. What he's doing here is anxiety.

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When the bridegroom returns, we're ready. We're ready to meet. Yeah, right. Any Christian who trusts in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins is ready to meet

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Jesus. And Jesus said something really, really amazing. He said that when the bridegroom returns from the feast and he finds the servants waiting and they open the door quickly, he will come in, have them to sit down and he will serve food to them.

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And that's our bridegroom. That's if you will. I didn't catch that part.

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Let's see. He went in with the marriage, the feast, afterwards. Huh? Where does it say?

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I'm not sure what cross references work. It definitely wasn't in the parable of the Virgin, so I'm not sure what he's talking about.

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Be ready. Yeah. Ready for my return. And I am going to, I'm going to come in and I'm.

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Anybody who trusts in Jesus is ready for his return. I had a vision where I was at a banquet.

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You had a what? Ah, this guy's a false prophet. And the tables were set.

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The food was ready. The people were coming in. And I suddenly remembered, it said in the revelation, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast.

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Yeah. Everybody's invited. Everybody. And the Lord wants to bless us. He wants to bless us. But to do that, we've got to be ready.

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Right. Anybody who trusts in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins is ready. Have a supply of whatever it takes to draw close to the

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Lord and stay. Supply of whatever it takes to draw close to the Lord. Without faith, it's impossible to please with him through it all.

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Because he said, even when the offense comes leading all the way to lawlessness and cold hearts, those who remain will be saved.

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We need to be. Yeah. Those who trust in Jesus will be saved. So I think you get the idea.

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I said, ah, so hopefully this provided some clarity for you regarding what

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Jesus was getting at when he talked about the oil there in Matthew chapter 25 in the parable of the 10 virgins.

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And as a result of this, when now you know that it's the oil is faith, when somebody twists this up and creates all kinds of anxiety and makes you wonder, oh my goodness, am

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I ready to see Jesus? Oh no. What if I'm not? If you believe and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you are ready and you don't need to have any anxiety at all regarding his return.

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Instead, you can anticipate it with great joy and great expectation, knowing that Christ has bled and died for all of your sins.

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And he is the one who has made you righteous, clothed you in his very righteousness.

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And rather than giving you what you deserve and what I deserve has given us instead mercy, peace, and forgiveness and reconciliation with God.

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All as a gift because of his great love for sinners like you and like me.

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So hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the videos down below and a big shout out to our crew members.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and the mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.