Yeah, that's not a service I normally offer, by the way, approving and disapproving of weddings along the way, but I think you can be persuaded. It's good to be back with you. It's a wonderful thing to be back in this church that's had a significant impact in my life, both just as a believer and then in the ministry as well. It is interesting that every time I come, it seems we're discussing the weather. That was all the discussion before Sunday school and just as we get going. And I will tell you that for those of us who are used to winter storms in Buffalo, this was a generational exception. We're not used to having hurricanes inland. And that's what we had. We had a Category 3 hurricane. It's just that the water was frozen and we weren't getting rain. It intruded in our plans significantly. Let me just give you a quick overview. It came in, Lake Erie just picked up like a bathtub and came up to good parts of Grand Island, covered a few spots of it, and couldn't see in front of your face. I mean, literally, you could see about this far for at least two, three days. Emergency services couldn't get out. It's a little over 40 death toll. I buried somebody just before I left town who had passed away because emergency services couldn't get there. For us as a congregation, you know, we have been planning, I don't know how you were planning here for us. We were looking forward to the services around Christmas. We do a festival of lessons and carols on Christmas Eve. We had morning worship planned and we had evening worship planned and the entire county for two counties was under a driving ban. So we celebrated Christmas on New Year's Day and New Year's Eve. It was, we did all those things anyway. The point for me in that storm, though, was that we had all our plans laid out. We were going through the steps that we were thinking were going to be a tremendous blessing and encouragement and an opportunity of worship. And God's plans intruded into our plans significantly. And the text that we're looking at today reminds us that God is going to do that for all of us at some time. Matthew chapter 25 comes and speaks about Christ's intrusive presence. And as intrusive as it was in that very first Christmas, when Christ was born in the incarnation, and the people, very few of whom were expecting what would take place, Jesus is now coming towards the end of his ministry and telling them that it's going to be that way once again. That there are going to be those who think that they are prepared and are looking forward to that coming, and they're going to be surprised. So here they are. They're ready to celebrate this family, this wedding party, this gathering together. And everywhere, things are turned upside down for some of them. The presence, the return of Christ, changes what they expected. So we're looking at the Olivet Discourse. It's in Matthew 25 that we're coming, as you've just read in the scripture. And starting at Matthew 25, if we went through the entire chapter, Picking up on the theme from chapter 24, we would find there's at least two parables and an illustration. We'll just call them three parables. There's the parable here of the wise and foolish virgins. And then that's going to be followed by the parable of the two wise and servants and one who was foolish. And then we're going to come to the illustration where Christ describes the end and the judgment of the people in the world. And there'll be some who will be the sheep and some who will be the goats. And they are going to be separated one from another. Each of these parables makes a point that's unique, but each one builds on the one before, and it intensifies as you go through the account. And so when we look at these, we're going to look especially at the first. But as we look at these parables, we're going to see those who, unlike some of Jesus' addresses that are the Pharisees and the Sadducees and others who are ostensibly outside the fellowship, I think we see things here that are being addressed to people who are within the fellowship of the church, who would call themselves believers, who think that they're serving the Lord, and they're expecting something very different than what happens when the Lord returns. So let's ask God's blessing as we look at the text that's before us today. Father, once again, we pause before your word. And we're so thankful that you use your word as you see fit in our lives. And so, Father, we pray that you would use it as an instrument of grace in each of our lives, that you would minister to us. You know the particular needs that we each have. And so we pray, Father, that you would meet them according to your riches in Christ Jesus. We pray that you would meet them. as you open up your word to us at this time. Give us one eye fixed on how we might glorify you as we're instructed here, and give us another eye fixed on our own need. For we ask it in Christ's name, amen. We start off, and there's really these three accounts, and I'm not going to go through in detail all three, but I think it's important to start and consider what do we have in common in all of these accounts, because there's many things that are in common. So the first is this. In each of the accounts, in the bridesmaids, the servants, and the sheep and goats, In each of them, the Lord's return is sudden and unexpected. You notice that here in the parable of the virgins, the cry goes out, verse 6, at midnight, and the women or some of them are asleep. The bridegroom is coming. Let's go out and meet him. That's what they're there for. That was the purpose. And some of them awake, they're awakened, and they go to try and deal with that. The next parable, the parable of the servants, the two wise and the one foolish, the Lord returns, verse 19, after a long time when he's not expected. And then the judgment at the end of all time comes, and you've got the sheep and the goats, and verse 31 says this, when the Son of Man comes in his glory with all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of glory. That's not a time that's been announced ahead. That's really what the questions were as they were approaching this text. Like, when is this return going to be? And Jesus gives them many signs and says, and that's not when I'm coming. And the message that he leaves them with is, not a new chart of eschatology, but the message he leaves them with is, be ready. Be ready now. That's a chief point that Christ is making. It was a chief point in chapter 24. It's going to be the chief point when we come here in chapter 25 as well. There are going to be many signs that people like to list. There'll be false Christs. There'll be wars. There'll be rumors of wars. There's going to be apostasy. There's going to be false prophets. And the time is not yet. When he does come, the parables are all telling us it will be sudden and unexpected. And so as he's writing to people who are those who are waiting for the coming of Christ, he says, be ready. Be ready. And that's the unified message that goes through this whole section. You should look at the end of chapter 24. It ended with these words, watch therefore, for you do not know the hour the Lord your God is coming. And here in verse 13, it ends with, watch therefore, for you do not know the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. The parable of the maids, the parable of the servants, the parable of the sheep and goats, all end, verse 31 of this chapter, speak of the Son of Man coming, and we're to be ready for that time. So one of the things that we notice is that this coming is going to be sudden and unexpected. We just ought to go to the bank on that. I get people who come regularly, and they'll tell me about, oh, somebody's got some new idea, and they've announced a date, in October 31st, 2024, then the Lord's going to return at such and such a place. What do you think? I say, yeah, no, why not? Rule of thumb, if you think you know when it is, you're wrong. I mean, that's just my attitude. If you think you know when it is, you're wrong. We aren't going to know. We are to be ready. As far as I'm concerned, there's really nothing left on the eschatological chart that's got to happen. Christ could come, and we should be ready for this. Because that's how this ends. The Son of Man is going to come with his angels in glory. So it's going to be unexpected. Here's the second thing that's common to all three of these accounts. In each of them, there's going to be an unalterable division between two groups of people. whether it's sheep and goats, the wise and foolish virgins, the wise and unfaithful servant. In every one of them, there's going to be a division. You know, we just changed the letters of the Greek, we get the word crisis. There's going to be this time when you're not going to be able to just go on doing what you've been doing all along. What you've been doing every day, and not that it's bad, but the things that you're doing, the normal things, they're going to be interfered. Christ is going to come. He's going to present himself. In one way or another, we have to be ready for that time. Now in this particular parable, they're all sleeping and five of the women are ready and they go into the marriage feast of the Lamb. They go in with the bridegroom. They go in for the marriage feast. But five, they're shut out. And they are pounding at the door. They can't understand that they haven't been included. In the case of the servants, two are rewarded, one is left. In the case of the sheep and goats, the sheep enter into the inheritance of a kingdom that has been prepared for them, and the goats, they enter into the punishment that's been prepared for those who are the enemies of God. So in each of these accounts, we're being told, we need to be ready because the coming of Christ is going to be sudden and unexpected. Because the coming of Christ is going to produce a division that is lasting and unalterable. In each of these, there are people, the people who are lost, are utterly surprised at their rejection. I think, as I was reading through this, that probably the most striking part of these parables to me is that. that the people who expected to be with the Master, the Bridegroom, the Lord, who are not, but they absolutely expected they would be there. The women are shut out of the banquet and they can hardly believe this. It's got to be a mistake. Lord, Lord, we're here now. Open up. The wicked servant thinks he's done right. I mean, he says things to the master that he just continues to condemn himself by every single word that proceeds out of his mouth. And the goats, the goats, they don't understand. Do you see what they say in verse 44? Go down a little further than we read in scripture. Then they also will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did minister to you? Think about this feature of these three accounts. The impression that I have is that the people to whom this is addressed are people who think they're right with God. who think they've got a place next to the king, who think that they are in a good spot, in a good church, they are going to be those who are going to be with God for eternity, and they are horribly surprised. I mean, in today's terms, I think we'd say people like this would likely be found sitting in church on a Sunday morning. or saying they belong to, they're a Christian, and they could tell you what their background is. Well, those are some things that we see in common. Let's take a look at the parable that's in front of us. We have the different translations do it differently. These bridesmaids, I mean, they're really there. They're functioning like bridesmaids. They're there, they're the bridal party, except things are reversed in this day. It's not like our day. The bride's groom is supposed to be there early, and the bride comes in when she's ready. You know, she's coming in later with the bridal party with her. Here it was the opposite. The bridal party's there, waiting for the groom to come, and their main role is to be ready when the groom comes, and they go out and meet him, and they usher him back in. And he's delayed in his coming. They fall asleep. They're planning. for this event is changed because some have planned well. It's changing the outcome. Some have planned well. They've come, they brought their lamp, they brought oil in case there's a delay. Some come, they just bring their lamp, they don't bring any extra oil. So they fall asleep because of the delay. The bridegroom has announced he's coming. They hurriedly get up, they get ready, they get the lamps ready to go out and five of them go, we're out of oil. Lend us yours. And the answer's no, there won't be enough. Go get some from the market. And then in verse nine, we see that answer. No, there may not be sufficient. Go to those who sell and buy for yourself. And so those women start off, they go to get more oil, and they're getting, they come back, and as I say, the bridegroom and the bridal party have gone in. And they're shut out. And they're crying open to us. We didn't read the next part, the next part in verse 12. The bridegroom says what to them? I do not know you. I don't know you. What a shock. You've been there all this time. You've been with the people who are actually in there. I mean, it's kind of like, you know, if the door could see, you'd be like, I can see. I should be in there with them. There's my spot. And they're shut out. And you can understand why this could be confusing because visibly on the surface, I mean, they all look like they're there to do the same thing, and they're in the same position. The admonition of the Lord is, watch, for you needn't know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man comes. They were all there, and some were looking forward to His coming, they're preparing for the coming, and some not. But once again, there's a lot of similarities. I want to just notice with you before we look at what's different between them, what was the same about all these women? There's a number of features. One is they've all been invited to the banquet. I mean, it's not as though they're in their bridal party and, you know, you're sitting there getting ready for the wedding and you look around and you go like, okay, do you know who half of these people are? You're with the other bridesmaids and you go, I don't know, do they belong here? No, they all knew. They've been invited to come. They were there because they were supposed to. They have, in one sense, if we're thinking about the return of Christ, these are people who have heard and responded to a gospel invitation. So at least they've heard it. The second thing is they all responded positively. They've all responded positively to an invitation to this wedding. Some of them may have disregarded or scorned it. Some of the people in town, they might have gotten the invitation and said, no, not for me. And I happen to be reading the parable of the sower as part of my reading through the Bible just this week. And I was just reminded again, the gospel goes out, the sower sows the seed, and what happens? It falls on some and there's no root at all, right? Those are people who get the invitation, they hear about the wedding, and go, no, that's not for me, I don't want anything to do with it. There are some who hear and respond. And in their response, there's actually like 50%. That response doesn't result in genuine relationship with the living God. And so we see the same thing being alluded to here in these first verses, that some have heard, some have responded positively, I'm going to suggest that they were in the fellowship of the other believers. They likely would consider themselves part of the body of Christ, part of a visible church. And notice, they all had some love, some affection for the Lord for whom they were waiting. All of them, they were not indifferent participants. It's not as though they were there and okay, they got up, they went out and got the oil. Hey, the bridegroom went in and they were like, yeah, okay, we missed it, let's go. You know what? Let's go over and see John. Let's go back home. We've spent enough time on this. They were not indifferent to this. When they were shut out, they wanted to come in. They had some affection for the Lord that brought them, for the Lord that had come, I should say. And then notice that they all confess Christ in one sense as Lord. I would at least go that far when they call him Lord. You could say, well, they're just saying, sir. Later on, that term is used in this same chapter to describe one who is the Lord. They all believed, to some extent, that the Master was coming. It's not like some were just hanging out with their friends. They were all there waiting for the coming of the bridegroom. That's commendable. You look at these things. All of these things would be commendable in a church. Most pastors would be glad to have people filled with people for whom all these things would be true. People who have heard the gospel, have responded positively to the gospel, who profess a love for Christ, who are involved in a church, they're part of the church, they show up there. A Puritan, Thomas Shepard, in 1660, wrote a treatise on this passage called, The Parable of the Ten Virgins, opened and applied. And this is what he said. He had so many wonderful things as he went on to talk about these women, that somebody describing what they read, it could have been like a blurb on the back of the book eventually, but it said this, Oh, to be one of Shepard's foolish virgins. There are just so many good characteristics that he had unpacked that were true of these people. They were good people. They fit in very well. By the way, they were all drowsy. It's not just the wicked ones who fell asleep. They all had fallen asleep. All believers at some point in time, we get tired. We might not be firing on all cylinders like usual. We might not be working at the same pace as we had been maybe if we were younger in the same ministries. But Peter, James, John, they served God faithfully. They fell asleep when it was time to pray. But in the midst of this, suddenly the bridegroom comes. And when he comes, all the similarities seem to vanish. When he comes, the key markers of the difference between them shows up clearly. So, be ready is the message of Christ. Be ready. What does it mean to be ready? Let me start going through something. Okay, well, the message is made clearly. It's made repeatedly. Be ready. Be ready for the time when the Lord returns. These chapters are written in a time leading up to the coming of Christ. The eschatological period's certainly been inaugurated with the resurrection of Christ, where there's nothing in the way of his returning. They're writing this at this time and looking forward to the coming of Christ, looking forward, but if the gospel invitation and responding to that's not enough. I mean, if that's not in and of itself, just because you do that, just because you say certain words, That doesn't necessarily make you right with God. Then what is it? Just because you find yourself with other Christians and doing things with other Christians, what is it that we're looking at? Some people want to focus at the oil that's in the lamps, and I think that's a mistake. You're dealing with a parable. There's one main point. The main point's be ready. Some people want to say, well, that's the Holy Spirit. Somebody, some of them had the Holy Spirit, then they ran out of the Holy Spirit, then they had to go get more Holy Spirit, and then that, you know, I don't think that fits with the main teachings of Scripture. What does it mean to be ready when we look at these things? Spurgeon helped us out with this. Spurgeon was commenting on this passage. This is what he said. If you're going to be ready, there needs to be a great change in your life. A great change has to be wrought in you far beyond any power of yours to accomplish or you can go in with Christ to the marriage. You must first of all be renewed in your nature or you will not be ready. You must be washed from your sins or you will not be ready. You must be justified in Christ's righteousness and put on the wedding dress or else you will not be ready. You must be reconciled to God, made like to God or you will not be ready. Or to come to the parable before us, he said, you must have a lamp and that lamp must be fed with heavenly oil. So, looking at the parable so far and looking at what Christ is admonishing. A clearer question is to say, ask ourselves is, am I ready? This is a question I ask myself. This is a question that I've asked our congregation. The questions that are really being pressed on us here is, are you ready, prepared for the coming of Christ? Now, I'm not saying, have you responded to a gospel invitation? I mean, certainly, trusting in Christ is the way that we're redeemed. Trusting in the saving work of Jesus Christ. But you can respond to a gospel invitation. You can say yes, and there are many who have said yes, and then turn around later and walk away. And it makes no difference in their life. So I'm not asking if you've done that, I'm asking if you've joined the church. Just give it time, you'll see people who join churches, good churches, solid churches, with sessions who are careful about receiving people into membership and later on, turn their back on the gospel. I'm not asking, do you believe in the second coming of Christ? Maybe you've got a whole chart worked out, it's up for a decoration in your living room, guests come over and you can point to all the spots, and you can say, exactly, here's where we are now, there's one Christ. No, that's not the point. What I'm asking is, have you really been born again? Are you really in communion with the living God? Have you believed on Christ as your Savior so that you are living for Christ now? I want to be honest and say I was only half joking when I said to your pastor on the way up this morning, having been here for Sunday school, I said, I hope that was recorded because the application of this message largely was that Sunday school class. as he talked about being in communion with Christ, having a relationship with the living God. This is less about what you might have done on a date. You know, you get that some people have that little card in your wallet and say, on this date I prayed for it. It's less about what happened in the past and more about today. Where are you today? Where's your relationship with Christ today? Can you look at your life and say, you know what? It's near the beginning of the new year. I was looking over the last year of my life, and I have realized that I have changed and grown to be just a little bit more like Christ in some area because of His work in my life. He's taught me some little lesson that's encouraged me in following Him. I have peace from Him. I have strength in the things that I'm facing from Him. And as it was discussed earlier, and I would have discussed with you anyway, when a crisis comes, how will you respond? I mean, these women were going along just fine. I'm sure they were excited about the bridal party they were in. I'm sure they were excited about the groom coming. I'm sure they were excited about going in and their friend getting married and seeing somebody start a new family. And let's be honest, in the first century, they seemed to know how to celebrate weddings for a long time. It was a big deal. They're excited about those things. And then, they have a crisis. God's here, I have no oil. The bridegroom's here, I've got no oil. And for many people, Jesus is saying, that's what it will be like, whether it's at their deathbed or, he's saying, when I come and return. It'll be people, it'll be a crisis. It'll be a crisis because they're not going to be prepared. People who consider themselves true children of God. But if you were to ask about their relationship with God, no. It's not showing up. Now I told you these parables and illustrations, they all feed together, right? So the first, the second, the third, they kind of add to each other as they go. And if we were to ask this question through all three parables, in the next parable we would get an answer about using the gifts God has given you for his kingdom work. What's one way to know you're using the gifts that God has given you for his kingdom work? What's the third parable? Well, the third parable is going to come out and talk to us again about our serving God as we serve our fellow man. And by the way, particularly in that text, just to save a little angst, it's focusing on those within the body of Christ. This is not as though somehow I have to meet every need of every person in the globe. It is, how do you deal with the people in the body of Christ? And as you minister to one another, as you serve one another, you serve God. And as you serve God in that way, He takes note. And if you don't, He takes note. But I would suggest here that the coming of Christ again, It's going to be an intrusion. We're not going to know when it's happening. We're going to be going through life. It's going to be a normal day for us. That's what scripture describes in other places. We're going to be going about our daily routine and Christ returns and we see him. Are we ready for that crisis? Will we be able to stand before the Lord and it be demonstrated that we are his and we're following him? I was just going to suggest that we can get a little glimpse on that because we don't know, right? You really know how you're going to respond when you're dying? Do you know how you're going to respond when you stand before God? We hope we know how we're going to respond in those days. You can get a little idea how that's going to go when you face crises in this life. Again, you were talking about that in Sunday school. It might be a job that's being challenged. It might be a financial. How many people have not had a financial reversal over the last two years in one way or another? only really significant. It might be that your health collapses. It might be a problem that's engulfing your children. Maybe all kinds of things. What is your response to that? Is your response greater communion with God? Deeper fellowship? Growing in your understanding? Is it a deeper communion with the Lord? Commentator put it this way, nothing will more correctly reveal what is in a man than the coming upon him of some crushing, unlooked-for crisis. Let it be a temporal ruin by a failure of his calculations or the disappointments of all his hopes. Let it be the entrance of the death angel into his home and the removal of it from his nearest and dearest earthly friends. Let it be his own prostration by some serious illness which puts him face to face with his dissolution and forthwith the extent of his resources is unfolded. And it is once discovered by both himself and others whether he is animated by an unfailing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. and sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, or whether he's been deceiving himself and relying on some other support. How do we know? He says that a man has only as much religion as he can command in trial. Look back on challenges, trials, difficulties. Has it driven you closer into a deeper fellowship with the Lord? Well, I want to draw this to somewhat of a close. I wouldn't close your Bibles yet, but just a little bit. The last thing I want to notice with you are the warnings that are laid out here. The warnings that are here really essentially could be summed up in the words of Peter in 2 Peter when he says in chapter 1 verse 10, make your calling and election sure. Make your calling and election sure. That's how we know we're going to be ready, by making our calling and our election sure. Now, part of that is know that the Lord's coming may be delayed. The Lord's coming may be delayed. You see this inference from this particular parable. The disciples were thinking, you know, Jesus has to be coming back right away. I mean, most of them were probably expecting that before they left this earth, Christ would return. I think that's quite possible. But that's not what Jesus has told them. I'm not sure about you. I remember I've known, GW said we're friends and we have been, and I've known some of you in this room. I just did a quick calculation. If I was here next year, I could say I've known you for 50 years. It's been that long. That's hard to imagine because I was in my second year in the ministry when I first came to Tacoma, so it's been quite a span. But I remember in some of those earlier days in my life, growing up in the church, that I was listening to some people who were telling me, that the Lord was going to return and they had all their prophetic predictions laid out. In fact, it was impossible that it could take more than another two or three years before the Lord would return. And that was like 1970. I mean, this was literally having a tremendous impact on my thinking. Like, I was thinking, why should I bother going to seminary? I'll never finish college in seminary. God's going to return. I should just be serving God right now. Obviously, their little charts were wrong. Their interpretations were a little inaccurate. And so from my mind, the Lord has been delayed. He's coming when he intends. But from a human perspective, we're surprised. You might have thought the Lord was going to return much, much sooner than he has. Sometimes people wonder, why is the Lord leaving me here in this time? God's got his timing for that. It may be taking longer than you were expecting, But the message of this parable very particularly is, be living as though that time could come even now. Be ready, be living for Christ in fellowship with him, in his service. In the previous chapter, verse 14, it was still dealing with the same theme in Matthew 24, There's kind of some hints all through scripture it wasn't going to happen right away, like, and the gospel will be preached throughout the entire world, would take some time. And so here we are. We should be ready. Because the Lord's coming will be on his own time frame. And the time between which we see the Lord and now may be delayed. So live the life that God gives us now to be ready for that time. Second thing is that the Lord's coming is going to be without warning. That's why the parable ends with these words. Verse 13, watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. That seems to be the universal emphasis when people are going, so Lord, when? And he says, you're not going to know. You're not gonna know. If you're spending all your time trying to figure that out, there's a better way to use the time. Use the time to live for the Lord and in fellowship with him. Third thing is that I noticed that the Lord's coming requires personal preparation. Personal preparation. This preparation is not transferable. That's why you have this awkward thing. Some people look at the parable and they're reading it through and they go, okay, so five of you had oil, five of you didn't, why don't you share? We get an answer that's there, but the whole emphasis is what? You should be prepared. Other people can't prepare for you. The faith of your parents is not your preparation to be with the Lord. The faith of your parents isn't enough for you. I have a lot of friends that are Catholics and they come from very Irish part of South Buffalo. And when you ask them about relationships with God, you know what you hear a lot? I have an aunt who's a nun. I have a cousin who's a priest. They're praying for us. Well, we don't say that in the Protestant world, do we? No, but we say, you know, my church is a great church. It's like somehow what your pastor believes is going to stand for you on the day of judgment. You know, Lord, why should you let me in your kingdom? Well, you know GW. You know my Sunday school teacher. She loved me, she prayed for me, she led me in prayer, she gave me this little Bible. I mean, you know my Sunday school teacher and her love for you. You know my mother. I mean, everybody says the prayers of a mother are so effective. My mother prays for me every day. The fact that you're growing up in a Christian home, the fact that you're listening to solid teaching, the fact that you are involved in Christian fellowship, the things that other people do around you, that doesn't put oil in your lamp. It comes from your personal, living, vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. The last thing I want to point out as we look at this is that the coming of God is going to reveal many opportunities that were lost in our lives. The foolish women who had to go out and buy oil at that time, they are losing that opportunity to be with the Lord, and so it will be when Christ comes that many are going to appear before the throne, and we're going to realize the opportunities that we have lost in the service of God. So don't wait to do something later. Don't put it off. Don't think I'll have a sweeter fellowship, I'll spend more time with God, you know, when things slow down. I still remember in seminary thinking what I was gonna do when life slowed down, and I got out of seminary and I'm trying to figure out where the slow button went, you know, it just seems to get faster. That way too for everybody, isn't it? You're waiting for life to slow down, that's pointless. It's pointless. Now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation, Paul says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6. Don't assume, if you're here this morning and you're unsure about your relationship, don't assume that you'll always have another opportunity to respond to the gospel. Don't assume that your heart will be more tender when you get that opportunity. Because this isn't something you can do apart from the grace of God. If you realize your need of Christ and you believe that He has died to pay for your sins, and you haven't been trusting in Christ, then talk to your pastor. He would love to pray with you, or your Sunday school teacher, or one of the elders. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says, and you'll be saved. Now, there's certainly those who are unsure about their salvation. It's so possible for us to fall into this pattern where we look at things and our lives are unexamined. We look at things and not really judge our heart relationship and living relationship with Christ. I was selling books years ago in the foothills of the Ozarks. I was in college at the time. My engine blew on the car in the middle of, and I mean nowhere. And I'm praying about, Lord, what am I gonna do? Because I'm out here. And a limo, I kid you not, a limo pulls up, opens the door and invites me to get in. You gotta, in today's day and age, you think about that more. But I get in, and I'm sitting in the back seat, and this guy in a suit is sitting there, and he starts up a conversation with me. Turns out he was a vice president from Liberty University. And his question for me was, are you saved? Good question. And my answer was, as a matter of fact, yes, I'm a major in Bible at Shelton College, and he's like, that's not what I asked you. Are you saved? Do you know Christ? Same thing. What Christ is saying is, be ready. Do you know Him? Are you trusting in Him? Are you living for Him? Let me just encourage you. I noticed this morning it was a wonderful providential gift to me that this morning GW was, the pastor was filling in on, in Sunday School on 1 John. If you have any questions about, you know, I've been in church all my life. Do I really have a relationship with God? 1 John? It's a good place to start, isn't it? The marks are there and they're so clear. Look at those things. Examine your life. And Christians, here's a great part. The ones who were ready, who were waiting, who were looking for the Lord, the ones who loved Him, had a vital relationship with Him, the ones who, in terms of the rest of the passages, are those that were serving Him and living for Him, they went in. And there was a feast, a wedding feast prepared for them with the bridegroom. And what has been prepared for those that love God? Well, it's called the same thing, the wedding feast of the Lamb, but I can't tell you what that will be. Nobody can. Because it's so fantastic. What it will be has never even entered into the mind of man. And we can't describe it. And that is what is in store for you who love God, have a vital relationship with Him, and are serving the living God.