Bridesmaids & Goats - Endtime Parables — Philip Powell

Bridesmaids, Goats, and End-Time Parables

All right, well, we're looking at now, today, the topic of bridesmaids and goats. Sounds exciting. End-time parables. And before I get right into the topic, I want to just make three sort of statements.

First of all, I want to bring you a quote which really winds up what I was saying last week about rock music and the Song of the Bride. And this quote was given to me. It's a quote from Terry Law in his book, Praise and Worship, which was published in 1985, and it's quite frightening.

He tells how, and Terry Law is a person who I met way back in probably the late 60s, early 70s, when he travelled the world with Living Sound. And he came to us in Britain. I was in Britain at that time.

Then I met him again in Australia, and he's certainly quite a good musician, but he gave a fearful warning about rock music. And he tells of meeting, or not him meeting, but somebody else meeting the person who was the manager of one of the biggest rock and roll bands in the world.

And this man was asked the question, what do you think is the next agenda for rock and roll? And the person went on to say, we're coming through the era of punk rock, a new wave. Where do we go from here?

And this is what the manager said. If you study rock music, it has gone through four phases. Each phase has appealed to one side of the human personality. In the late 50s, early 60s, it appealed to sex entirely.

In the late 60s, going into the 70s, we tried to raise the consciousness and spiritual perception of young people. We were getting them involved in causes, Vietnam, etc. We opened them up to take drugs and experiment in other ways.

We are now in the third era, the addictive rock and roll era. Notice that, addictive rock and roll era. That is what punk rock is. Our music is violent and blaring. We don't feel quality is important.

We are creating an addiction to the sound of violence. And then the manager continued saying, we're just like any other business. How do they sell cosmetics, clothes or cars? They find motivational triggers.

We have discovered the best motivation to buy a product that there is in the world. It is religious commitment. No human being ever makes a deeper commitment than a religious commitment. So we have decided that in the 80s, we are going to have religious services in our concerts.

We are going to pronounce ourselves as Messiah. And we are going to make intimate acquaintances and covenants with Satan to pray for the sick and pill people out of wheelchairs during concerts. We will be worshipped.

Now, I'm quite sure that is what is happening. And I'm equally sure that certain musicians in the church have tried to counter it wrongly. Maybe they've perceived it, I'm not sure if they've perceived it.

But they have tried to counter it by producing the same sort of thing in the Christian context. Now, the Bible clearly says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. And we are not to follow the enemy by using his weapons.

Our weapons are spiritual. They are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. It is my fearful conclusion that churches that have introduced rock will ultimately be shaken to their very foundation. And what's more, the leaders themselves will be shaken also.

And I would suggest that people who hear this tape or anyone who are in churches that have introduced rock that they ought to protest to the best of their ability. If their protest is not heard, I would recommend that they withdraw from the church.

And I would recommend that action is taken against leaders who introduce this sort of thing. Now, I know musicians, quite a very well-known musician in this country who came from Australia. And he says he is aware of the musical scene in Australia.

And he said some of the people who are into Christian rock are failed rock musicians in the world. And because they have failed there, and I could name some of them, some of them unfortunately are coming over to New Zealand shortly and they are doing their big concerts here.

Now, we have to have our eyes open. And so, we are giving these types of warnings. I have been in some of these meetings and quite frankly, I find it almost impossible to think. I know Barry Smith who is a good friend of mine.

He has told me that some of the churches that he goes to speak at, he finds it almost impossible to preach following the music that has preceded him. And certain places he has insisted on a type of music before he gets up to preach.

And you know Barry's position on that. And I certainly support him in that. And I think it is high time that we sounded out the warning. So that is the first thing I want to say. And it is a bit of a wind up to what I said last week about rock music and the darkness that has invaded.

Naming False Teachers and Exposing Corruption

Then the second thing is by way of explanation. During this series I have been fairly forthright in making statements. And I have named people. And some people may be a little concerned about that. Quite frankly, as I understand the New Testament and the Old Testament, and I agree with Jacob Pratt here, that if people do not heed, then they are to be named.

And this is what happens. Paul named people quite openly. And the Old Testament prophets named false teachers and false teaching and false people who live falsely. They were named. The Bible contains many names.

And we wouldn't know about them apart from the fact that they were named. And it has been written down for us. So I don't have a lot of problems about that. Providing we are accurate when we do name people.

And the reason I have done this, let me tell you something that happened to me when I first went to Australia. I was very friendly with a godly man by the name of Dennis Clark who has gone to be with the Lord now.

He came from South Africa to Europe. And he was a brethren extract. And I linked up with him. He was an independent Bible teacher. But we worked together a great deal in England. And then we joined forces and did some seminars together in Australia.

And the first time we were together, God gave us a sort of an agenda. And the agenda was that we were to pray for the exposure of corruption in high places. And it had to do with the government on that occasion.

It was quite amazing what happened out of that. We actually saw the arrest of Mr. Asia, the drug boss, I believe directly as a result of that prayer time. There was a hundred of us together. And we prayed.

And within a very, very short period of time, things were starting to be exposed in high places. I believe that we got on to God's agenda for prayer. And it was quite remarkable. I don't say it with any sense of boasting.

It wasn't us. It was the Lord leading us. And there were about a hundred people with us from all denominations praying there in Sydney. But while I was there, God gave me an understanding of what is necessary, I believe, for his resurrection life to come into any situation, including the church situation.

And it was linked to John chapter 11, and I think it's about verse 38 or verse 39, where Jesus said to Martha, Roll the stone away. Now because Jesus was all powerful, he could have done that by just a command, couldn't he?

I mean, he raised Lazarus with a command. But he left it to Martha and those with her to roll the stone away. Why? Because I believe there's a principle here that it is our responsibility to expose corruption to the light of resurrection.

Some things God can do, some things he has entrusted to us. And so I believe that some of the things that I have said, and it's on tape, I believe God wanted me to say it. And so I have said it. We probably will never have to say it again.

But I believe we have to say it, and I believe that that will have a snowballing effect. There has to be the exposure of corruption in high places. And I talk about that now in regard to the church. There has been cover-ups, and I have mentioned them.

It needs to be exposed. And when it is exposed, it will be exposed to the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus. The problem with us is we are too concerned about our stinking reputation. And our reputation doesn't count for very much when all is said and done.

It's character that counts in the end. And character and reputation are not always the same thing. And so very often in order to protect our name, we will engage in cover-ups. And I believe it's obnoxious to God Almighty, and I believe that he intends for it to be exposed.

And then, brothers and sisters, I believe we will see the revival that we need to see in New Zealand and across the world. So I have said that just to give you a perception of the background of what we are coming at.

Background Notes and the Sermon's Main Text

And then the third thing I want to say very quickly is about the material that I am giving you with the notes. You'll find at the back of each set of notes, up to today, from next week it won't apply, but you will find an article from the Omega Times because I have linked all my messages in with what I wrote in Omega Times.

And incidentally, some of the leaders, for reasons best known to them, have objected to my writing in Omega Times and have put pressure on the publishers for me not to write any longer. Now that's okay, I don't mind.

But they have done it, and so much so that they have actually influenced people to cancel their subs to Omega Times because of our involvement. Now, that's between them and the Lord. The fact is they haven't come to me, they haven't spoken to me, and they've also said that there's nothing that they would find that they could object to to what I've written.

So that's with them and the Lord. But we will not be continuing with our articles. One article was omitted, and so I have given it to you in original draft form. And it is the Jewish analogy of the bridal system.

And I believe there's some good stuff in that, but it was never published, and it won't be published, but it's there for you to read. And I trust that you will find it helpful. So that's the explanation, and now what I want to do is get into the topic today.

And we're talking about the passage of Scripture in Matthew chapter 25. And there are three basic parables there. There is the parable of the ten virgins, five wise and five foolish. Then immediately after that there is the parable of the talents.

One man was given five talents, another was given two talents, and another was given one talent. And you know the story very well. The one with five brought back another five. The one with two brought back another two.

And each of them is commended equally. Well done thou good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful over a little, then you will be entrusted with a lot. There's no difference made between them.

The fact that one has produced five and the other only two doesn't make any difference. They are both commended equally. The one who had one only brought one in the end, because he buried his talent. And he is condemned on two bases.

He is condemned on the basis of his fear, and he is condemned on the basis of his laziness. We'll look at that a bit later. Then the third parable has to do with the sheep and the goats. It talks about the nations being gathered together at the end of time, and the great shepherd divides them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.

The sheep are on the right hand side, the goats on the left. The sheep are sheep because they have shown acts of kindness to God's people. The goats are goats because they have not shown acts of kindness to God's people.

And they are divided on that basis. Now, there are certain problems with all of these if you just don't fully understand what Jesus is getting at. And I trust that by the end of today we will understand what it's all about.

Bridesmaids and goats. End time parables. Now, let me say three things, and here we go to our notes, about parables in general before we look at these in particular. I want us to look at the nature of parables and of the truth of parables.

Then I want us to see, secondly, that all of the parables were in a particular setting, and so that is important. And then I want you to consider the time element involved in parables. Now, according to A. M. Hunter, in his interpreting parables, Jesus used some 60 different parables in his teaching, which makes up one third of his recorded teachings.

That's a lot. So one third of all of his teaching was in fact parable teaching. However, I would suggest that A. M. Hunter, in getting to that figure, must have looked not merely at the major parables but also at minor parables.

What we would call more similes or metaphors. Now, a parable in the strictest sense is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It has to have a story attached to it. So probably some that Hunter called parables were more what we would call similes, like a simile is a statement of likeness between two things which are different in every other regard.

When you say a person, for example, he is like a lion. You don't imagine that he's got four feet. You don't imagine that he's got a long beard, or he might have. But what you're saying is he's strong.

That's really all you're saying. He has the strength of a lion. That is a metaphor. It's a picture. It's a figure of speech. Now, Jesus used many figures of speech in the scriptures. For example, on one occasion he used the figure of speech that we call irony, where it's like inverse sarcasm, where he's meaning the opposite of what he's saying.

And really you don't understand his teaching unless you see that in this particular story and parable. It's in Luke chapter 11, or chapter 16, where Jesus talks about the steward, the unjust steward. And on that occasion Jesus uses irony a couple of times.

He says, I say to you, make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. Now, he's not telling us to go out and get money, because that would be contrary to all of his teaching. But what he is saying is simply this.

Look, if you don't believe what I'm saying, then trust the money system. You can see what he's really saying if you look at the parable in depth. Also, when he says, the children of this generation are wiser in their day than the children of light.

The New King James puts the more correct slant on that. When it says, the children of this world are more crafty. You know, wisdom is at two levels. You've got the wisdom in the Garden of Eden of the serpent.

That was the wisdom of this world. And Jesus is not commending that type of wisdom. He is actually using a figure of speech that we call irony. And when you understand that, then you start to understand the parable there.

So, Jesus used a lot of figures of speech. And we don't have time to go into all of that. But I have done a series of articles, which appeared in the Australian Evangel when I was editor, on the parables, the parables of the kingdom.

And I've actually printed them out. You can take them if you wish. But it just gives you some background about parables in general. So, Jesus used this form of teaching. Now, parables are intended essentially to convey one basic truth.

Alright? It's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. However, there may be a number of applications. For example, the famous parable is the sower and the seed. You know, a sower went out to sow. And some of the seed that he sowed fell by the wayside.

Some fell among thorns. Some fell on dry ground. And some fell on good ground. Now, that parable is the only parable that Jesus fully interprets. He gives the full interpretation. And he says, listen, unless you understand this one, you're not going to understand any of them.

And so, he gives the interpretation. And he tells us that the seed is the Word of God. Later on, he tells us that the one who sows the seed is the Son of Man. Of course. He started it all, didn't he? He started it.

He's the sower that goes out. And I tell you what, if you're sowing, it's not you that's sowing. It's him sowing in you. Did you know that? So, he's still the sower. In every age and generation, Jesus is the great sower.

How dare we take credit or glory for what happens? It's him doing it all the time. Blessed be his wonderful name. You see, we get so many things mixed up. You know, that song that we often sing, where we turn it into a prayer that comes from us.

Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. If you look at it, it's in Psalm 2. And the person who was asking was the Son at the time of the resurrection. In Psalm 2, God says to the Son, at the moment of the resurrection, this day have I begotten you.

Hallelujah. And he says, ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. Give the church the nations for the inheritance. Never. It's giving the Son the nations for the inheritance. Because he owns everything, and everything belongs to him.

And yet, we've made it ours, haven't we? We have said, we've got to do this, we've got to do this. And so much of the church growth thing, and the church planting thing, is a self-motivation thing. But when it comes back to realizing it for his glory, it takes all the pressure out.

Hallelujah. And it begins to put it in perspective once more. So, he's the sower all through the generation. He's the seed who bruises Satan's head. We think we are. No, it's him. When God promised there in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, the first great promise of the Bible, he said, and the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent, and the serpent will bruise his heel.

And there on the cross, thank God, though his heel was bruised, he bruised Satan forever. Blessed be his wonderful name. And in every generation and every nation, it is the seed of Satan that is being bruised, by not us, but by the seed of the woman, Christ in us.

Blessed be his wonderful name. And when you start to see that, it becomes a marvelous, marvelous thing. So, parables are intended, essentially, to convey one basic truth. And you've got to see that truth.

Incidentally, the kingdom parables of Matthew 13, there's eight of them, but there are six basic truths that are brought out in them. The first one deals with the commencement of the kingdom. A sower goes out to sow.

Christ does that. And he does it not only in his generation, but he does it through us in every generation. The next one about the tares and the wheat is the confusion in the kingdom. My, there's some confusion, isn't there?

And you can't sometimes tell the wheat from the tares. And the problem is, we go tearing up the tares and start tearing up a bit of wheat, too, if we're not careful. So, you've got to watch that. But the devil plants his seed alongside of the seed that the Father plants.

And just like the darnel, which was the tare there, you can't tell the difference until harvest. But at the time of the harvest, you can tell the difference. And the women used to go out and gather the tares before the harvest was gathered in, and he'll gather his tares undoubtedly.

So that's the confusion of the kingdom. Then afterwards, with the mustard seed and the leaven, you have the corruption of the kingdom. I've heard many teachers say, oh, this, you know, this mustard seed, it's a great tree, and they try and make it represent the kingdom.

No, no, it's the corruption of the kingdom. You see, what happens is that the simple thing that God starts, we make it so complicated, and it gets so big that all sorts of strange birds come and flock in the branches.

And God never intended for it to become big and like that. He intended it for it to remain simple. That doesn't mean we can't have lots of people, but let's keep it simple. Give everything the kiss. K-I-S-S.

Keep it simple, stupid. Right. So, you have the corruption of the kingdom. Then next you get the cost of the kingdom. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure in a field, hidden in a field.

The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl. Oh, thank God, he is the infinite pearl. But he looks down and he sees a pearl in us as well, thank God. And he sold everything he had to get that pearl, the pearl of great price, the church, the true church.

And we've got to sell all we've got to get him. Hallelujah, that's the way it works. The cost of the kingdom. Some people think if they pay their tithes, they've done God a duty. In fact, let me say this.

Tithing is not a New Testament principle. Did you know that? And lots of churches bind you to it because they want your money. And it's not a New Testament principle. You can't find it taught in the New Testament.

Now, I'm not saying it shouldn't be practiced. I think, if anything, it's a minimum. But it doesn't belong to the church. I tell you where it belongs. Everything belongs to God. And what's more, it's not a tent, but it's everything.

Okay? Everything. I am owned by him. And because I am owned by him, everything I own is owned by him. But he has made me a steward over the things that he has entrusted to me. And it is under my control in submission to his lordship.

And it doesn't belong anywhere else. That's the cost of the kingdom. And if you want the pearl, he says you can have it, no matter if you've got little or a lot. It doesn't matter how much you've got, as long as you're prepared to trade everything.

You can have it. Hallelujah. And he's worth it, isn't he? Blessed be his wonderful name. So you've got the cost of the kingdom. Then you get the consummation of the kingdom, the gathering in of the dragnet.

And then finally the conclusions of the kingdom. Jesus said, have you understood it all? They said, well, yes, Lord. What? Have you understood it all? Well, you know, a bit with tongue in cheek. Yes, Lord.

And he says, well, then the kingdom of the heaven is like a person who is a householder. And out of his treasure he brings old and new. Thank God for the old and the new. Don't dismiss the old for the new.

Right the way through the kingdom, the old and the new is mixed up together. Praise the Lord. And we're constantly bringing it out. Well, that's a little bit about the parables. You can read a bit more about it there.

But that is what it is intended. The parable is intended to convey one basic truth. Now, if you interpret every detail in the parable, you will end in confusion and you will probably end in error. The ones we're coming to in a moment, the one about the virgins.

You know, I've heard people say, ah, they were virgins. That means they were pure nonsense. All it is is just a term which simply says that they were the friends of the bride. That's all. They were like bridesmaids.

It's got nothing to do with their purity or their impurity. Then others come along and say, oh, the oil represents the Holy Spirit. Again, it can do, but it doesn't exclusively represent that. The story is simply one basic story and the importance of being ready when Jesus comes.

That's all it is. Being ready, being prepared. That is what it's talking about. And you try and make every detail carry through, you'll end up in all sorts of confusion. For example, there'll be those who come along and say on the basis of this, well, there are these ten and they weren't even part of the bridal.

You know, they weren't part of the bride. And so teaching has got around that you can be somewhere in the kingdom without being part of the bride. Again, that's not what it's all about. You must not and dare not establish doctrine on the basis of parables.

All you can do is establish the doctrine from the scripture and then use the parable to illustrate. That's all that Jesus did. And you start doing that sort of thing, you will end up in all sorts of problems.

The Setting and Time Element of Jesus’ Parables

So you've got to understand the nature of parables. It's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And then the setting in which the truth is being taught. You see, Jesus taught in the open air, close to nature.

And you'll find that these three principles carry through with most of biblical teaching. There is, first of all, the matter is stated, then the matter is illustrated, then the matter is demonstrated.

You'll find that with all basic truth. It is stated, it is illustrated, it is demonstrated. Now, it doesn't always come in that order. It may come in a different order. For example, in Acts chapter 1 and verse 1, Luke says, The former treaties have I made O Theophilus.

Can you repeat it for me? Of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. So he's reversed the order now. But go back to his statement in Luke, and it's the same writer, Luke chapter 4 and verse 16, where Jesus actually announces his program.

He comes to Nazareth, and he takes the book, and he finds the passage of scripture, where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because what? He has anointed me to what? What's the first thing now?

Preach! And then, to what? Restore the sight to the blind. So now he's reversed it, right? Back there, it was to do first, and then teach. Here now, it's to teach, or preach, and then to do. It doesn't matter about the order, but you will always find those three things in all basic truth.

It is stated, it's illustrated, it's demonstrated. Sometimes in the reverse order, but it is always there. And we bring that out in our teaching on the kingdom parables, which are available for those who get the tape.

If you want them, we'll send you a copy of those. The kingdom parables based on Matthew chapter 13. Christ, and this is important, directed his teaching to ordinary people. People like you and me. He didn't have much time for the highbrows.

He dealt with ordinary people. Mind you, there were some very wealthy people that joined his party. One lady seemed to support him nearly all through his life and ministry. So there were wealthy people, there were well-to-do people.

There were people from Herod's palace that joined his group. But Jesus never made any difference. Thank God. And we never should either. For we are all at an equal level in the kingdom. Hallelujah. That's why Jesus illustrated it.

When they were vying with each other for who would be first. And Jesus took a little child and set the child in the midst and said, Hey, it's not a question of whether you're going to be first, it's a question of whether you're going to get in.

And he said, I tell you this, unless you become like this little child, you won't even get in, let alone be first. And that attitude is so fundamental to the kingdom. But he deals first of all with poverty of spirit.

And I like the way that Young's literal translates that. He says, Blessed are those who rate themselves insignificant, for theirs is the rule of the heavens. Hallelujah. When you rate yourself insignificant, you don't have a problem about a self-image.

You've dealt with it once and for all. Praise the Lord. And you're in the kingdom. And that deals with your image forever. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Because you're being made into his image. Glory to God.

Which is far more important than self-image or anything else. Okay. And Christ always dealt with things close to nature. Then he directed his teaching to ordinary people. Mark 12, 37 says, the common people heard him gladly.

But John 7, 15 says about the intelligentsia, they looked at him and they said, How does this man know what he knows, having never learned? Why, of course he'd learned. But he'd not learned in their establishments.

He had learned morning by morning, Isaiah tells us. The one who woken his ear so that he heard morning by morning. He had been in father's school every day. Hallelujah. And he knew more than they all.

Blessed be his wonderful name. He was not an ignoramus. No. And I find that sometimes, sadly, Pentecostals look askance at people who have a little bit of knowledge. That's sad. Very sad. We should have knowledge.

But we should have knowledge which comes first and foremostly from above. The wisdom which comes from above. For it was said of Peter and John, they looked at those fellows and they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men.

Actually, the term means they were ignoramuses. In the schooling of the day, they had not been instructed. But there was something about them. And the only conclusion that they could make is, they have been with Jesus.

Something of his knowledge and wisdom had rubbed off on them. And Christ gave his teaching in that sort of a setting. And then you have to consider the time element involved. Most parables have a wide and general application.

For example, going back to again the Matthew, thirteen parables. The sowing of the seed is a constant ongoing process. The planting of the chairs alongside of the genuine is a constant ongoing process.

Most of the parables have a general application. And some have seen in those parables the process of history where it starts with a good seed and then it gets confused in the second generation and then it gets corrupted in the third century and so on and so forth.

Well, there may be a measure of truth in that. I don't know. I've had difficulty with that. But certainly it's an ongoing thing. It's constant. It's a constant thing. But some parables focus on a particular time element.

And these that we are considering today do that. They are introduced with the phrase then. Now the expression, the word then means at that time, doesn't it? Then. Just like the word now means at this time.

So the word then means at that time. And so there is a time element involved. And this really brings us to the end of what we were trying to deal with last week and we didn't get to it. We were looking at the fact that Satan has an end time role.

He is referred to in Revelation 12, 7 to 12, as the dragon. And he's always dragging something up, isn't he? But he's a dragon and he comes down with great fury, the Bible says. Why? Because he understands that his time is limited.

Now I have found, and again I just throw it out for your consideration, three keys to understanding the book of the Revelation. You must take into account these three things. We're not going to deal with the book of the Revelation this session.

We might at another session sometime pick it up. But you have to realize that there is symbolism in the book of the Revelation. But symbols always have significance. This is clear from chapter 1 verse 20, where Jesus stands with seven stars in his hand and we're told he walks in the midst of seven golden lampstands.

And the angel says the stars represent something and the candlesticks represent something. In fact the stars represent the minister or the agalos, agalos, the angel it's called, but it actually refers to the messenger or minister who is responsible to God in the church.

I believe in a properly run church there is always one person who is ultimately responsible to God. Right? He's not fundamentally responsible to the people, though he has to serve the people. But he is answerable to God.

And Jesus Christ called these leaders into question. They were accountable. Thank God they're also protected. When they're working with him in his hand, they're under his protection. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

So the stars represent the ministers, the candlesticks or lampstands represent the churches. So right at the outset we're told that the symbolism of the book represents something. Now some people have all sorts of weird answers to some of the symbols of the book of the Revelation.

I've just come across one man who has put out a book, it's gone all over New Zealand, where he tries to make out the millennium in the 20th chapter as a cube of 10. Well, okay, 10 by 10 by 10 makes up a thousand.

But so does a quadruple of 250. So does a quintuple of 200. Why does he suddenly take 10 by 10 by 10? He's got no basis for doing that. And yet he tries to do that because he doesn't accept the idea of the simple explanation that Jesus Christ is going to come back and he's going to set up his kingdom on this world for a thousand years.

Now that seems very simple to me. We've got to be careful with the symbolism of the book of the Revelation, not put our own interpretation upon it. There is symbolism there, undoubtedly. But we're told very often what the symbolism represents.

Then the second thing you've got to understand about the book of the Revelation is what we call the recurring prophetic principle. And this is where I've really appreciated Jacob Prasht. I never saw it the way he's brought it out.

What he calls the madrash humanudics, where the Jewish mind can accept two conflicting ideas at the same time. And it's no problem to them. And they can accept the idea that there's one fulfillment, then there's another fulfillment, then there's another fulfillment, then there's an ultimate fulfillment.