Has Your Light Gone Out by Ed Pruitt

Matthew 25:1-13

HAS YOUR LIGHT GONE OUT?

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11, 2001 AM
Pastor Ed Pruitt
Amarillo Church of God

Matthew 25:1-13
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

2 “Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

3 “Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them,

4 “but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

5 “But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’

7 “Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

8 “And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

9 “But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’

10 “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’

12 “But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Then over in 1st Thessalonians Paul’s letter to the Church—at Thessalonica these are familiar scriptures, let’s study them together this morning,

1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-9
But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.

2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Let us Pray

Father we thank you again this morning for all the blessings, and the privilege that’s ours to live for Thee.

And now we pray to you this morning that you will anoint me as I preach Your Word.
God, speak to us that which is needed bring forth once again from Your Word that which will stir us.

God challenge our hearts, feed our souls, strengthen and lift our spirits.

God help us we pray this morning that we may soberly and seriously open our hearts to You as we study Your word, in Jesus name.
Amen

I realize that I read two very familiar scriptures but we want to study them this morning.

Even as God has directed my mind this way, I know that you are aware I believe you are that in the 25 chapter of Matthew Jesus is speaking some words here that we need to consider.

There’s many lesson to be gained from this parable, but the very design of it is to induce watchfulness.

That was the very reason that Christ gave this parable.

I know that historians will tell us that Christ appeared upon a scene, of a group of virgins that was actually waiting on a marriage to begin.

But you see a marriage in the East is all together different from our marriages.

Here a couple gets married and goes on a honeymoon.

But there in the East when a couple comes together the bride groom goes to the brides home and may spend a week there together.

In the East a wedding meant much more than it does to people here.

Were getting to the place where hardly anyone turns up to a wedding around here anymore, but in the East if you study history, everybody went.

Everybody that was able to walk got out and followed the group.

A wedding was really something!

And one thing about this wedding was this.

The bridegroom never let the crowd know when he was going to show up.

And he thought that he had really accomplished something if he could catch them asleep.

Sometime he would come at 2:00 in the morning, sometime 4:00 they never knew when.

And so as they gathered, they were always waiting and ready for him to appear at any time.

And as Jesus looked upon the scene He began to set forth a teaching to us about the kingdom.

That the appearing of our bridegroom was going to be just like that, at an hour that we think not, and that we have got to stay watchful.

My friends I want to repeat, he had one thing in mind above everything else and that was to induce watchfulness.

If we back up in what we call the 24th chapter of Matthew verse 42, and verse 44
Matthew 24:42
42 “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
Matthew 24:44
44 “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

He lets us know that in this parable as it brings us right up to the very second coming of Christ the end of time.

He lets us know my friends, that it takes a real state of preparation, if we ever meet Christ in peace, if we are ever ready to meet the experience, of the world, come to and end, the experience of death.
It takes some preparation for that experience that going to Christ us right to the judgment of Christ.

I want to say in the beginning of the sermon this parable gives the picture of the church that lives in the period right before the second coming of Christ.

Here we have a picture of the church today, not everybody that claims to be a part of the church is wise! Amen!

I read a sign the other day and I never got over it, (we have to many wise guys and not enough wise men)

Not everybody’s wise, this is the thing that Jesus is trying to get us to understand.

Somebody says, you say it is the picture of the church just prior to the second coming of Christ?

Yes sir, all through the 24th chapter he’s been pointing to the second coming.

What’s going to happen?

What kind of days will it be like?

And then when He started, what we call the 25th chapter, He said then the Kingdom will be like this,

When?
Only one place to place it, right before the second coming of Christ, because it ends with His coming.

It ends with the coming of the Bridegroom, so we’ve got a picture today and that’s the way we want to study this lesson as a picture of the condition of the Kingdom of the Church.

Just before the second coming of Christ.

Jesus said then the Kingdom, will be like this.

Ten virgins, five wise, and five foolish.

My friends He gives the picture that should stir us if we will stay awake to God today and open our hearts to Him.

I believe he will bring some thing’s, to us that will help us a little bit.

When we began to look at these virgins, five wise and five foolish.

I say to truly define the difference between the wise and the foolish.

It’s needful that we have a clear conception of how much they are alike.

You study these virgins in the light of the scripture and you see that they all had some knowledge and regard for the bridegroom.

Everyone of them had a desire to go out and meet the bridegroom.

I don’t believe there’s anybody that’s got any kind of real salvation, even if you haven’t got a very big dose of it.

If you got a very small dose of it.

There’s a desire within you to go meet the bridegroom.

To go and meet Jesus Christ.

So these people wise and foolish they were all alike on that point.

They all had some knowledge and regard for the bridegroom.

They desired to honor him.

They showed this forth by making the move of going forth to meet him.

They wanted to be a part of the wedding.

There much like people today who start for God, Amen

Start out for God and to live for God with real zeal!

And you hear them talk, they will let you know that they are going to be a Christian for the rest of their lives.

Amen, I haven’t got into this thing just to get into it a while and run.

But my friends, we find just exactly in the picture before very long we see them become foolish.

And I want to say this morning in love, the most wise move that you ever made in your life, was when you turned your life to Jesus Christ through real salvation.

And the most foolish thing that you ever done in your life is when you get careless, with that experience after God has so wonderfully blessed you with it.

And this is the part of the picture that Christ wants us to get this morning.

These virgins were all alike, they all had the same desire.

They had all shown their desire by gathering in the group that was going out to meet the bridegroom.

They had the same names, all of them were virgins.

They had the same dress.
They were all on the same errand.

They all had the same lamp.

They all had the same vessels.

They all slumbered and slept.

And I said all of that to say this.

In all the outward things the wise and the foolish looked just alike.

And here is where we are today.

Right in this nominal group of people that claim to be Christians today there is wise and foolish.

Yes there is!

If I thought that all of you were wise, I would go on a month’s vacation,

But I know that you are not all wise!

I know it, some of you might say, how do you know it.

God shows me!

And as we go on, this is the deceiving part of the thing.
As we look on, everything looks just alike.

We all come to church, we all sing, we all raise our hands, we all listen to the preacher.

We all, no you don’t, but should all pay your tithes.

Give to the work of God, I want you to get the picture, the wise and the foolish setting there together, outwardly they were just the same.

The problem was internally.

Down inside the vessel, was where the difference was, the human eye couldn’t see it.

Aman, I want you to get this now!

The difference was on the inside!

And not until the cry the bridegroom was coming, did the difference appear.

Now this is sad, in fact it causes me to stay awake at night.

How come?

I am afraid that there’s going to be people right in my ministry that never wake up to the fact of their true condition!

Not until the cry goes out, the bridegroom is coming!

And just as the lesson is given, when that call goes out it will be too late to do anything about your eternal welfare.

Oh you will be excited just like they were.

My friend they tried to get from the wise, they run to the oil shops,

They got excited they put forth great effort.

In fact I would just like to say this, if I could get you to put forth half the effort right now, while you got time and opportunity to get square.

Get your life straightened up, get filled with the Spirit of God.

Just half the effort that you will put forth, when you face death one of these days, or the world comes to an end.

Brother there will be effort put forth like none have ever seen before.

The bible gives us many pictures of people crying.

Crying, screaming, have mercy, Lord save me, but it will be too late.

It will be too late.
I pray that God will help us this morning as His all seeing eye looks right down upon us.

I say again that they look just alike.

The difference didn’t really show up, till the cry went forth the bridegroom is coming.

I say this, It is a very sad part.

Somebody said why?

Well there was already a difference between them while they were sleeping.

But they didn’t realize it until they woke up.

And there’s a difference right now between the wise and the foolish.

But my friends were in such a period of time,
I know that people fuss with me when I say that people are slumbering and sleeping but that’s exactly what’s going on.

Not talking about you sleeping physically but my friends not awake as you should be to your true condition before God.

Oh you hear people say I don’t think that they are asleep.

Well then how is it that when catastrophe strikes, you here about people after people that profess real salvation.

But when real catastrophe strikes and they wake up they begin to humble themselves, confess their faults.

Get down to real business before God!

Amen I say that wise and the foolish look just alike.

Because the need, the lack was internally.

In the foolish, it didn’t show up until they were awakened to it by the cry the bridegroom comes.

I say my friend, that there was a genuineness with them as far as they went.

Talking about the foolish the moves that they made were genuine.

Amen, they were virgins, they got them a vessel.

They got them a lamp they went out to meet the bridegroom the moves that they made were genuine, but they didn’t go far enough.

Those foolish this morning represent those who are satisfied, with only enough for the present.

How many of you fall in this category this morning?

You just want enough for the present or putting in nominal language to day.

Just enough salvation in my life to get by on.

Not thinking a thing about an emergency coming, not thinking a thing about the future.

When you pin point it right down they were called foolish because they only looked at the present.

All that they cared about is that they had a lamp now!

I’ve got a vessel now!

I am on my way now!

I say this morning there’s far to many that falls in that category, of just enough to get by on.

Let me tell you.

You won’t have to have much drowsiness come over you.

Much relaxing of effort on your part, if your living that way in your experience of just enough for the present.

You won’t have to take it easy very long before you will run out, and wake up to the fact that your lamp has gone out.

I say right now that very thing, that very action, will plant you or me in hell!

What is it?

An idea, my friend, of living, or a way of living in salvation that I don’t want anymore than I just have to have!

Just enough for the present!

Just enough to get me by!

That very thing will cause you to be lost!

Why?
There’s going to be a crisis come in your life, and you will find that you are short on the very thing that you need most of all.

I say that they done well, but they didn’t go far enough.

The foolish was satisfied, if you’ll allow me to repeat it, with just a supply for the present,

Just enough to get by on, while the wise prepared for the future.

They had there vessel’s filled.
Oh Brother Pruitt, you say, I am prepared for the future.

Are you filled right now?

Come on, where’s the gauge of spiritually?

The measure of the Holy Ghost of God!

Are you full?

My friend, this slumbering business is nothing else than not being awake to what the bible teaches us.

The plan that God has laid down!

We will go along if you please and run pretty low.

I heard a pastor friend of mine tell a story of a fellow that came to his door one night asking him for help.

The man had run out of gas.

Do you know why this happened?

The man had taken a chance.

The man told my pastor friend, that he knew that his tank was low.

He knew that the gauge was below the E mark but he thought that if he could just get over that hill he would make it.

That’s a living example of how far to many live there Christian experience!

Just enough to get by on!

I want to tell you this morning, your not going to make it!

That very thought in it self will cause you to fail to make it.

Why?

There’s something wrong with my salvation when I don’t get all that I can possibly get!

If you are honest with your soul it will never be satisfied till your vessels filled with God to a running over state!

Friend we starve our souls!

We crowd our souls!

We deprive our souls!

And all the time that we deprive our souls we are feeding the flesh!

Making the flesh stronger!
Making our self battle greater!

So the foolish ones my friend only thought about the present.

They were animated by impulse, and not principal.

There religion was much on the surface.

Jesus explained this in the four kinds of ground shown before hearts of mankind and when he talked about the seed that fell on the stony ground.

Because there wasn’t much earth how come there wasn’t much earth there wasn’t enough room made for it.

Friend this seed right here will produce.

( holding up the bible )

It will produce 100% if you will just give room for it.

But that one where the seed feel on the stony ground.

There was stones in there lives that need to be cleared out.

There needed to be an expansion.

More room in the earth made for the seed.

Aman, I am not going to stay there a long time.
But we have to many people to day God help us.

That wants just enough salvation, and I repeat, to get by on.

They don’t want there vessels filled.

Friend the wise ones had there vessels filled.

I repeat again there was some thought of preparation for the future.

The thing that the lesson shows us outstanding that the wise and the foolish,

They grew weary and tired they slumbered and they slept and when the cry came forth at midnight.

Behold the bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him.

You see the sad condition was, the foolish were awakened to the fact that there lamps were going out.

Some people say that the foolish were never saved.

They never had salvation.

Friend, a lamp can’t go out if it had never been lit!

No they were all Christians!

They were all virgins they were all born again they were all starting forth!

They all had a desire as it were to go all the way!

To meet the bridegroom!

But the weariness of life caused them to slumber and to sleep.

And when the awakening time came the foolish were awakened to the fact that their lamps had gone out!

And I want to tell you something again the lamps didn’t go out when they woke up the lamps had been out quite a long time.

But they didn’t know it until they woke up.

And this is my burden today to wake people up, to some conditions that’s all ready going on in your lives.

These people if you want to put it in plain terms had backslidden and didn’t know it.

There lamps went out while they slumbered.

There lamps went out while they slept.

While they weren’t truly awake to what was going on.

They ran void of the Grace of God.
The Spirit of God.

And their lamps went out.

And when the cry went, my, my, what a cry.

And what a terrible thing it is that people give there life to God and have a determination.

I am going to live for God!

I am going to die for God!

I am going to meet the bridegroom!

I want to hear him say well done my child!

And what a sad thing, to be left out, when the final day comes.

Friend I want to say this morning the second thing that Jesus would have us to see is that character is revealed by crisis.

As long as the foolish set along with the wise and while some slept the rest slumbered they slumbered and slept together everything was fine.

But character is revealed by crisis.

What do you mean by that?
We have just as much religion as we can command in the hour of trial.

To many people think, that they have a good experience when everything goes well.

Real character, is something that has to be built!

Day by day, everyone of us is building a character.

Jesus called it building a house.

Were building a character.

And crisis, my friend, reveals the character the very minor surprises of life.

Those little things that take us unaware.

Those things that were waking up to instantly, sometimes.

Those things are only preparing you for that last emergency.

Friend, it is going to come on us even as an hour somebody says that were not in the darkness Paul said that’s right.

But Jesus was speaking to his disciples when he said the son of man cometh at an hour that you even think not.

Right when you least expect it, it will all be over.
Right when your thoughts are tied up with everything else.

It could be right when you are setting off for work!

It could be right when you and your wife are down at the bank signing the paper for a loan for a new house,

At an hour that you think not!

You will not be setting down in that hour thinking about the second coming of Christ!

You are going to be busy!

And this is why my friend, we have to live so that we are ready at any hour.

Anytime that He comes were ready!

My friend there’s only one way to be ready and the lesson is here!

We must not only be illuminated with real salvation but we must have our vessels filled with oil!

Aman, the power of the Holy Spirit must be doing It’s work in our day and time.

I beg of you this morning please don’t let the eve’s of this day affect your vision and work of the future.
The devil is using the very day and time that were are living in as we read over in
1st Thessalonians 5:1-3
I don’t need to write you about the time or date when all this will happen.

2. you surely know that the lord’s return will be as a thief coming at night.

3. people will think they are safe and secure. but destruction will suddenly strike them like the pains of a woman about to give birth. and they won’t escape.

It tells us that when the coming of Christ was right on us them that are the darkness in the night will say peace and safety.

Nothing to worry about, nothing to really be to concerned about.

And friends, that very spirit of the world can get a hold of you and I.

What brings slumber?

Peace and safety!

How come it’s so easy to fall off to sleep?

Everything’s all right.
Peace and safety.

If we were really disturbed my friends, we would do something about it.

I say may we not let the eve’s of our day and time affect our vision and work for the future.

You have heard many times that Noah built an ark in the sunshine.

How many times have you heard people say when it has been raining for a long time have you heard about anyone building a boat?

Let me tell you, it tells us in the bible that God is not going to take the earth with another flood.

And secondly, Noah didn’t build the ark in the rain he built it in the sunshine.

Noah lived in preparation of the future.

He built a boat in a land where there had never been any rain any dew no water to float it on, the only forecast of rain that he had was the Word of God!

And Noah believed God!

He believed that it was going to rain.
Without any signs, God told him to build a boat.

Told him the size to build it and all about it because I am going to send a flood on the earth.

And if Noah had been like a lot of people he would have gotten up the next morning, the sun shinning real bright, warm, everything nice.

I must have misinterpreted what God said.

Friend, we are going to have to get to the place where we get free from all of man’s ideas.

All natural ideas, and come to the place that we settle it by the Word of God.

I want to repeat it again there was no forecast of rain but by the Word of God!

And there is no forecast of the second coming of Christ but by the Word of God!

When you come to natural signs they will say peace and safety.

They will laugh you to scorn.

But right in the midst’s of it.

The Word of God is forecasting an end to this world!!
A coming of the Lord and this is the time of preparation.

Just like Noah had to prepare and build an ark, you and I have some building to do!!

You and I have got some preparing to take care of.

I merely say that because we are to easily affected by what the world says around us.

What the signs of the time might bring.

I say just like there was only one forecast for rain and it was by God’s Word.

There’s one true forecast of the second coming of Christ and your need for preparation.

And just as sure as the flood did come Jesus will come!

Aman, His tarrying may cause you to wonder.

His long tarrying may cause you to get weary and slumber and sleep.

But makes no difference in the faith of it all Jesus will come!

The angles bear the message in Acts when disciples stood there looking up into the heavens.

And I say that they would be standing there yet but God sent an angle to disperse them.

He said that this same Jesus that went away shall come again in like manner as you seen him go.

He will be here and I tell you for sure it takes preparation if we are going to be a part of the wedding party.

It takes peroration how careless it is to leave off preparation until the time comes upon us.

Have you ever heard people say it and some just entertain the thought in their mind.

Well if the world does come to an end I’ll get down to business, I will get right with God.

That’s what this lesson is here for to show you that when Jesus appears it will be too late!

To late, to do anything about your salvation.

You read it right in there.

Too late! Too late!!

Another sad discovery or I might say the same they were awakened to the fact that their lights had gone out.

Now friends, this lesson was given to us this morning not to teach us that what kind of shape that we ought to be in before we go to sleep.

But it was given to teach us not to go to sleep.

Look in 1st Thessalonians 5:6

I read let us not sleep as others do.

The lesson was given to us, I know that some people say that it was given to us to tell us that we sure need to know that our vessels are full before we go to sleep.

No it was given to tell us not to go to sleep!

Friend it was while men slept that the devil sowed tares among the wheat.

It was while men slept their lamps went out.

It was while men slept the enemy was able to rob people of their real victory.

The lesson is given to us that we don’t sleep.

1st Thessalonians 5:6 let us not sleep as others do.

Stay awake my friend, just as sure as we are here we also learned in that lesson according to Matthew 25: 8-9 that our salvation is not transferable.

They said to the wise, give us of your oil.

And the wise said that we can’t give you of our oil lest there not be enough for us!

Go to the oil shop, go to where they sell it.

You say what are you talking about?

Real character is not transferable.

I had as good a father and mother as a man could have,
but I had to learn early in life that I couldn’t hope that there goodness would get me to heaven.

Character is not transferable.

There isn’t a Christian this morning that has any goodness to spare!

No, no matter how good that you are.

You don’t have any goodness to spare!

If it was possible for you to give some of your goodness away, in the thought of giving it to someone else then you would be short.

These wise people said if we give any away there will not be enough for us.

We have no goodness to spare there isn’t a Christian this morning that’s got any surplus piety!

See if you are wise you will have to be wise for yourself.

This was the point, it’s individual.

There’s nothing that you can borrow from somewhere else.

I repeat that character is something that can’t be given to someone else!

You live very long you see that this true, you see good men that have vile sons.

Vile all of there lives, you might ask what am I proving?

That’s easy I am proving that you cannot give character to someone else.

Everybody has to get it on their own, from God.

Now I am not overstepping the thought that of raising children up in the nurture and admiration of the Lord will have effect on them.

I am sure that Godly parents will have an effect.

But when it comes down to character it can’t be give one to another.

I repeat again that there is good men that had vile sons and daughters.

And good sons and daughters that have vile mothers and fathers.

Come on, they live straight out for God.

Their parents are bad all the way through.

What am I talking about?

Character is not something that can be given from one to another.

We have got to individually go to God.

Get the change.

I am glad that I can tell you this morning that old time repentance from an honest heart.
That truly loves God and wants to live for God.

And be the right example for God, coming in that attitude will move God to the place that He will change you,

Your life will be changed and you will begin building a character, that’s pleasing to God.

But you can’t give it from one to another.

The second shock that we notice was when they were not only awakened their lamps were out.

They were awakened that there was nowhere that they could get oil.

And the third shock they went and found heavens door closed!

For time and eternity!

I pray that God will help me to lay this lesson right where He wants it put this morning.

What a terrible shock to wake up one of these days at heavens door, and your light has gone out.

It’s ten thousand times worse for the one that’s been enlightened once.

That had a real experience with God.
Knows what it is to walk in the light of God’s Word, and then slumber and sleeps until their light goes out.

And you have woke up to the shock that eternity wakes you up
and finds it is too late to ever get an experience with God again.

It was shocking to wake to find the light out.

But oh what a shock to be put right on top of it that there is nothing that we can do about it.

When the door to heaven is closed there will be no salvation to anyone.

I know all about the Roman Catholics heresy of purgatory and all such false teachings.

There is no truth in it what so ever.

When once the master of the house, Jesus said, rises up and shuts the door, then you will begin to cry for mercy.

You will begin to cry for salvation.

But there will be no salvation because mercy’s door is closed forever and ever.

What a terrible shock especially for those that had once been enlightened and had made an effort to meet Christ and then they miss it all.

The enemy has many ways to cause people to slumber today and I know that I have to be careful what I say.

I don’t want to say it in the wrong way.

I love people and I don’t want to see people suffer
but I want to tell you that one of the ways that the devils doing a great work is through drugs.

And the drugs that I am speaking about is the drugs that our Doctors and Hospitals use today.

There is people sleeping right through the last hours that they have to get themselves right with God and not waking up until they wake at heavens door!

And find it shut!

I say thank God for any relief of pain that medical science can give you.

But I am telling you that the devil using some of these things.

We would see doctors and nurses get under conviction and get saved, if there would be a few people left to die, with out drugs.

I remember a pastor friend of mine telling a story about one of the times that he was called to a hospital to pray for the mother of one of the people in his church.

They told him that their mother was dying and that she was not right with God.

And that she was not too old a woman and she is in a coma they asked him if he would go and pray for her.

He went to the hospital, and he said that before he got through praying for her she started screaming the most hideous screams that he had ever heard.

He said that the nurses heard her screaming all the way down to the nurses station and they came running.

And he just stood there and watched them trying to calm her down.

He left, but later on that afternoon he told his wife that he was going to go to see back about her.

And when he was walking down the hall to her room the nurses stopped him and asked him where was going.

And he told them that he was going back to see how that lady was doing since she had come out of the coma that she was in before he started praying for her.

And the nurses told him that he was not going back to see that lady because it had taken them quite a while to calm her down and that they didn’t want to go through that again.

Well he turned around and back down the steps and through that hall and back up the steps and went to the lady’s room without having to pass the nurses station.

And when he went into her room she was setting there crying.

She told him do you know why I was screaming Brother Wilson?

The fires of hell had a hold of me, I was lost!

The fires were reaching for me!

My God Brother Wilson pray with me again.

He prayed with her and she got saved, it wasn’t a week or so later that he preached her funeral.

What am I saying?

People today are held in a slumber with drugs.

The devil has an easy convenient way to slip people into hell today.

If they were left to their right mind you would hear screaming.
I know what psychiatrists and doctors tell you, people don’t die with the horrors that they used to.

Leave them awake!

Let them face hell wide open, awake and you will hear the screams that you always did.

Hell is real and awaits that person that has not given their heart to God.

There was another story that he told about when he was a young man and with his dad.

About a young man that led many a young man astray and even spent time in the penitentiary.

He would go by his dad’s church and make fun of what was going on.

And then Brother Wilson said that he also remembered the night when that same man was laying on his dying bed and called for Brother Wilson’s dad to come and pray for him.

When they got there the mans wife had about six lights in front of a mirror and the man was screaming that is was dark in there, can’t somebody get some light in here.

His wife told him that Brother Wilson had come to pray for him and then he begin to scream to Brother Wilson’s dad and beg him to pray for him!

He said can you get a prayer through?

I am dropping into hell, he said it’s dark when I got my eyes open and it’s ten thousand times darker when I close my eyes please Brother Wilson can you get a prayer through.

All the time he was writhing and tossing and turning and his boys were trying to hold him down, one of them said that he was crazy.

No he wasn’t crazy, he was wide awake, facing hell!

And he died that way.

You can play around until God will have no mercy on you the Word of God said that you will cry unto Him and He won’t hear you!

He won’t listen to you!

We have got everything pretty well padded now, hardly anyone wants to suffer any pain, if the least pain comes you reach for a pain pill, on and on we go.

But friends you need to realize and I say again I am not speaking against medical science.
But I am saying that the devil will take advantage of letting people slip away by the hundreds.

Not awake!

And his deception works right on.

You watch people today die so easy they just slip away and the undertaker gets a hold of them and put a smile on there face and they look so happy.

And all of the truth of the whole things hid from us.

I say that there was sad shock at these people.

It was bad enough to wake up and finding that there lights had gone out.

But they still had a hope, if I can just run and get some oil.

But the oil shops were closed.

Well, maybe Jesus will have mercy on me and let me in.

But He didn’t even open the door and talk to them.

Just quit your knocking people,

I know you not.

Why did He know them not?

They were on the wrong side of the door.

If you had been with me you would have been on the inside.

This is no time to knock now, remember when I knocked at your heart’s door?

Time and time again, service after service I knocked at your hearts door and you wouldn’t even answer Me.

You wouldn’t even respect Me enough to open your hearts door, and talk to me and now you have put it off too long.

The door of mercy is closed.

Eternally closed, and you are eternally lost.

What a shock!

And I say especially to the people that were once on fire for God.

I have been around people that have died and when I die I don’t want to be drugged up,

I want to be awake and know what I am doing when I cross over to that promised land!

That will be the greatest event of my life!

Praise God!

The Grace of God is sufficient for everyone of us, whatever the perils of life may be just as sure as we are here.

Nothing satisfies you like knowing that you are ready to meet Jesus!

And that peace that goes right along with it.

And nothing could be as bad as knowing that you are dying and heavens door is closed to you.

To feel that darkness like you have never felt it before.

Friends, when your light has gone out you are going to face darkness like you have never faced before.

There’s only one light that can dispel the darkness of the valley of the river of death, and that’s that light that Jesus Christ brings into your heart and life.

And friend, if that light has gone out you will go through the darkness and into the darkest situation you have ever been put into in your life.

We could go and catch other parables that says that very thing just as sure as were here.
There are things my friend, Jesus would have us see, there are things that cannot be obtained at a last minute.

Please don’t let the devil charm you with that stuff, oh I am going to do what I want to and when I see that I can’t live any longer I am going to call on God.

No sir that would you getting saved on your terms and you cannot get saved on your terms.

You can only get saved on God’s terms, you can’t get saved when you get ready.

You get saved, when God’s ready.

Jesus let us see in the lesson that there are things that can’t be obtained at the last minute!

Then look at Chapter 25 verse 6 and it tells us that at midnight there was a cry made behold the bridegroom cometh.

Think upon this with me for just a few minutes.

At midnight the darkest hour will be the time of his coming.

When Jesus comes it will be the darkest hour of our worlds history.

When he spoke of this period he took the days of Noah and the days of Lot, the darkest period when the power of sin and satan was more rampant.

I want you to get that at the midnight hour at the darkest time.

In another lesson he talked about the night coming when no man could live.

And at midnight the cry went out, you say that we are having an increase of darkness.

Satan is leading our world faster and faster every day.

If any will study God’s time clock we will find that we are well up into the eleventh hour and at the midnight hour the cry is going to go out.

Behold the bridegroom cometh.

Go you out to meet him.

Friend we have got to meet Jesus one of these days.

Arrogant attitudes get a hold of people, they act most anyway that they want, they can tell you off and still be a good Christian, talk just about anyway that they want to, and still be a good Christian.

Let me tell you something.
You can tell me just about anything that you want to, but you are going to have to tell Jesus, you are going to have to meet him one of these days.

And everyone of us has got to appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

And you better be sure, I know that you haven’t but you better be sure that you have a good reason for your actions.

I mean a reason that he will take.

You may not agree with me.

I know that there are brethren that don’t agree with me and I love them and we don’t fuss they say that the world isn’t getting any worse it is just my idea.

I will never agree with that if I pickup a news paper or I listen to the news I read about people week after whose children are captivated with drugs not even in high school.

Yet, I think that the evidence will stand that the world is waxing worse and worse.

Darkness, see He is not going to come in the midst of a revival,

He is not going to come when everything is light,

He is coming at midnight the darkest hour.
Is that what it says?

Jesus took those two worst ages the two darkest periods as far as sin and satan were concerned.

The days of Noah when every imagination of mans mind was continually evil that’s why he destroyed the world.

When men’s mind gets to the place that every thought is dark and evil there is no way to help them.

We have got people right around the City of Amarillo that will never be helped.

The darkness of this old world has so got a hold of them their mind is continually evil.

And when a mind is continually evil, there’s no place to get a good thought in there.

God don’t destroy anything that’s worth saving you know why he destroyed the Andulithian world?

Because it wasn’t worth saving.

It couldn’t be saved, if it could have been saved God would have given them more time.

Darkness is moving on us we are heading toward that midnight hour.
Satan is leading the world captive, his deception is leavening the very professed church.

I don’t say that I have just huge amounts of discernment,
but I can see the devil working, right in the professed church.

He is doing things in the church that shouldn’t even go on out in the world, let alone the church.

Darkness as deep as midnight, you might as well get ready for it.

This is the last apostasy, and it’s a great one and I repeat that we are well up into the eleventh hour on God’s time clock study Matthew 20.

Paul said in Ephesians 5:14
14 light shows up everything, just as the scriptures say,
“wake up from your sleep
and rise from death.
then Christ will shine on you.”

If your light has gone out, if you will wake up and go to Christ you can get illuminated again.

If you have never had a light, if you will wake up to your true condition shake yourself from the slumber.

And I talk again about a slumber that keeps you from being awake as you ought to about your true condition.

I don’t know how else to illustrate it than this if.

I could convince some of you whose light has gone out that some of you who are defiantly not ready to meet the bridegroom this morning,

If I could convince you some how that at 2:00 o’clock in the morning you would die,

If I could really convince you of that we would really see some action.

We would see some waking up, but it is that devilish spirit that makes you feel that there’s no hurry about this I’ve got plenty of time.

But as such an hour as you think not friend I can say this for sure someone will die right here in Amarillo before this day is over.

Maybe several.

And again tomorrow and the next day and on and on and you can read the paper and look at the ages of the people that are in the obituary column and you can plainly see that you don’t have to be 70 to die.

There needs to be an awaking Paul said awake thou that sleep arise from the dead and Christ will give you light wake up now while the oil shops are open.

Wake up now while it’s still the day of salvation while there’s time and I say to everyone of us we need to test our lamp.

Come on even you can be deceived.

We need to test our lamps make sure they are burning.

Make sure that our vessels are filled with oil,

Make sure that we are in the Will of God,

Make sure that we are awake.

If the devil can get you in a bit of slumber he will pull things on you we need to test our lamps.

We need to trim our lamps we need to know assuredly this morning that we are walking in the light.

See as God shines the light down from the light house has your lamp been trimmed to the light that God has shown forth upon you?

Your light needs to radiate forth the very light that comes from the lighthouse?

Oh the sadness of trying to get right at Christ appearance when it is too late.

That last great awakening, wake up to find that
the door is closed.

Friends, it is almost too sad a thing for me to think about or say but friends they are true.

All you need to do is just slumber on a little.

See if we would go to God’s time clock we see there that god called an 11th hour ministry what for?

If the church slumbered on to the midnight hour there would be a good percentage according to the parable 50% there lamps had gone out.

But God in his goodness has called an 11th hour ministry while there is still plenty of time while the arch angle sounds out the bridegroom cometh there’s plenty of time to get right get straight.

Get your lamp lit, let your life and your light shine for God.

When they came up to that door found it closed, after it came the other virgins the foolish saying Lord, Lord!

What a sad plea, Lord, Lord, open to us

What are you talking about?

Crying for mercy,

Asking the Lord to let you in like you are, if you are not right,
your light has gone out you can’t get it started,
so the last plea is Lord have mercy and take me in without a lamp.

What did he say?

But He answered verily I say unto you I know you not.

See, Jesus made it very plain in John, the 10th chapter, I know my sheep and there known of me.

Here Jesus said to them I know you not.

And people today try to twist that around and reply ( I know the Lord ) it isn’t a question of whether you know the Lord, it is does the Lord know you!

And He answered I know you not.

Watch therefore what a terrible thing watch therefore that after you started for Christ.

After you got a lamp after you went out to meet the bridegroom or settled it I am going all the way.
Watch that you don’t fall in slumber and sleep and wake up after all your efforts having Christ say I don’t know you!

I don’t know you!

I don’t know you!

So when He said I don’t know you they turned away and off they went into a lost eternity crying our lamps have gone out!

Voices coming from hell this morning are ringing out with those cry’s.

Coming from those that once knew God and ended up in a back slidden condition or just as bad never let the Lord in when He knocked at their door.

The end of time upon you and having to face God with a lamp that has gone out.

They went from the state of inner darkness to outer darkness as Jesus put it.

When their lamps went out they had inner darkness,

But as long as they were still in communion with the wise even though they had inner darkness they had some light.

But my friend when God says to you depart from Me you will go into outer darkness.
There is no light in eternity of any kind it is a place of darkness like we can’t comprehend.

Darkness,

No light of hope,

No light of any kind,

Complete outer darkness separated from the wise,

Separated from everything that’s good total darkness for ever and ever with the door of hope shut for ever and ever.

I pray that God will help us this morning.

Jesus is good enough to just unveil the thing give us a picture in His great and mighty wisdom.

Give us a picture of what the church would be like in this day and time,

My cry is to you this morning as one who loves your soul awake,

Arise, wake up to your true condition and then arise get up and move and seek the Lord while he may be found,

While the door of mercy is still open.

Thank God, He will illuminate you Jesus said in His own word did he not, in Matthew that a smoking flax he wouldn’t put out.

A bruised reed he wouldn’t break.

Until He sets forth judgment to victory

God wants everyone of you to have the victory.

Someone might say, what do you mean a bruised reed?

You go out and bend a reed back and forth until it is almost broken in two.

One more twist and it will break.

That’s a picture of many peoples lives today.

They are twisted and broken, some even ready to the place of taking there lives,

Bring it to Jesus, thank God He can mend, He can repair, He can make new.

And He said a smoking flax.

He won’t put out that smoking flax.

That was the wick of those lamps and when the oil was all gone no more fire, no more light, and the very wick was still smoking,

He says a smoking flax, He won’t put out,

Bring them to Him,

He will pour oil in with one hand, Praise God and fan the flame with the other, and thank God you will be illuminated a fresh!

It’s not His Will that a one of you perish.

I ask you first of all saints of God trim your lamps,

You say oh my lamp is burning,

How do you know?

Put a test on it,

See you might not be putting out as much light as you think that you are,

This is the devils way of deceiving you when your lamp is going out.

He will make you think that you are doing a wonderful work,

Your really illuminating people.

Trim your lamp see if it is shining or not,

Make sure,

And I want to say this morning if we will be honest with our own hearts before God there will be people this morning that will wake up to the fact that their light has gone out.

Bring it to him this morning.

If you are here and never been illuminated I want to say again, God has an experience of salvation,

That’s, that lamp He will not only light you up inside He will cause your life to be a light that will shine and men will see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Let us bow our heads
Heavenly father, we want to thank you for your word,

My God only heavens got the record of the people that’s been awakened as this text has been spoken from

Take it, use it this morning Lord I ask you to bring an awakening bring a soberness a seriousness.

May we forget about every thought that comes to mind this morning but one.
Lord help us this morning to center our minds on one thought, is my lamp burning and is my vessel full in Jesus name!

Aman!
 

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