A Cry At Midnight

​Matthew 25:1- 13
As parents we can remember the baby crying and hollering at night.  Sometimes our wives might nudge us to get up and go see about the baby - you look at the clock, it’s midnight!
 
Well, we’re not going to be talking about babies and crying but those of us with families have some experience with that.  But I do want us to look at “A Cry at Midnight”.
 
In this 25th chapter of Matthew Jesus is talking about the Kingdom.  “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like unto ten virgins”.  We see that five were wise and five were foolish.  Now those that were foolish took their lamps but didn’t take any oil with them, they just went with their lamps or lanterns.   Now they all were going to light the way for the bridegroom that was coming.  We know that there were also five wise virgins; the five wise didn’t just take their lanterns, they had a little jug with them so when the lantern got low they could pour some oil in.  They wanted to make sure they would have enough light to light the way for the bridegroom.  They didn’t know when, but they knew the bridegroom was coming.
 
We see in the scripture the bridegroom tarried (the Message Bible says “he didn’t show up when they expected him to”) so they fell asleep while they waited. Right now my brothers, some of us are slumbering and sleeping but I want to let you know this morning that the bridegroom is coming. We have to make preparations; we’ve got to be ready. We need to make sure that we have oil in our lamps.
 
That oil is the Holy Spirit and we’ve got to make sure that we have Him in us.  If we have the Holy Spirit in us we’re going to shine. I mean there will be a radiance in us that will light the path of the bridegroom.  We don’t want to be like those foolish virgins and only able to shine for a little while. You know how some folks start out, they have it for a little while, and they fool around and they run out.
 
We have to feast on the word of God. We have to continue to read the word of God, continue to pray, and continue to fast.   We must do these things to keep that light burning.  The bridegroom might tarry, but He is coming, He is definitely coming.
 
 “And at midnight there was a cry made…”. At midnight the announcement came, the bridegroom is here, and no further preparations could be made. When the bridegroom came they that were ready went in,  the door shut behind them, and the celebration began.
 
It’s like the story I heard of a banquet.  This couple got there, walked up to the banquet porter and said we are Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We made reservations, in fact we’ve made plans to come for years.  The porter looked down the list but their name did not appear on the list.
 
As they stood there they peeped in and they heard nice music. They saw a table lined up with all kinds of food on it. They saw gold rimmed glasses and tablecloths - I mean it’s just magnificent, I mean out of this world!  The orchestra is playing beautifully, people are in there having a wonderful time, and there they were trying to look, and eager to get in.  They asked the man again saying, I know our names are on this list because we’ve been preparing for this for years, and the porter goes down the list looking, but their names were still were not on there.  They even had to turn around; they couldn’t get in. Why?  Because they weren’t ready.  Now they thought they were ready. They thought they had made reservations, but they hadn’t and they couldn’t get in.  Like the five foolish - they were gone to buy oil when the bridegroom arrived and when they came back the door was shut, they couldn’t get in.  We have to be prepared, we have to be ready when He comes.
 
Just as sure as we live brothers we’re going to have to leave here, and the decisions that we make on this side will determine where we spend our destiny.  We can spend it with the Lord or we can spend it over with the other folks that haven’t accepted Him, the ones that rejected Him, abused Him, talked about Him, ridiculed Him, even crucified Him.  In other words we can spend eternity with the devil. If we want to spend eternity with Jesus, we must make sure that we are ready.
 
We need to watch, we need to be ready because we don’t know when the Son of Man will come. The cry will come when we least expect it, maybe even while we slumber and sleep. There may be a cry at midnight.  There won’t be time to get ready, we have to be ready.  We don’t want to be like the five foolish - we don’t want to be unprepared.  We need to be making ready right now, because the arrival of the bridegroom is at hand; he’s closer today than He was yesterday.
 
Are you prepared for the arrival of the Savior?
~J.T.