The end of Matthew 24 and the beginning of Matthew 25 give us parables and teaching about the time in which we are living. The first part of Matthew 24 deals with various signs of the end time and then shows how Christ’s teaching becomes very personal to the disciples and to the believers who will live in the days of the end time. For instance, notice how Matthew 24:44 deals with the alertness, the awareness of time and the awareness of the limitations of time, the awareness of the demands that God will make upon a people who live in this unique time that we live in today. This passage should stir our hearts and give us new courage to rise up and say, “Who can spare his own life now? It must be given for the Kingdom.” What a crisis hour we are in to do the will of the Lord with all of our hearts!
Jesus forewarned His disciples: “For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.” Matthew 24:44. In dealing with the end-time events, we must always expect the unexpected. Not only are these events being speeded up by Satan in order to circumvent God’s timetable, but the time is being cut short by God in order to circumvent Satan’s timetable. These days are to be shortened for the elect’s sake or no one would be left alive (Matthew 24:22). Warfare between God and Satan is taking place where time is concerned. Events normally run a certain course, but now Satan is trying to bring disaster to the human race before God’s purposes are achieved. Satan rages because he knows he has but a short time (Revelation 12:12).
Man is facing total chaos, a destruction of the whole world. The potential of humanity’s self-destruction is a reality at this present hour. Even now nations are beaming intercontinental missiles at one another’s major cities. Satan has brought this power to ungodly men, many of whom are direct channels of Satan. Dishonest men today are striving toward wars, because the day that war ceases is the day that many millionaires stop multiplying their wealth. James 5:5 says that such men nourish their hearts as in a day of slaughter. What will God do to those rich men who have nourished their hearts and grown fat through the deaths of countless young men going to the battlefield? How many thousands of men became millionaires in the course of World War I? How many became millionaires in World War II? How many became millionaires in the Korean conflict and in the Vietnam conflict? No one knows for sure, but it is probably an unbelievable number. What hypocrisy exists among the nations! The same kind of hypocrisy exists in the great religious systems. Behind the scenes, most of the denominations own large tax-exempt corporations. Some of them even manufacture the very items they publicly denounce. Religions should not be involved in big business that is hypocritical to their beliefs. God’s people must return to the New Testament pattern of the early Church, something that is simple and alive, something that is very much of God.
The Lord warns us that the days of certain events are going to come upon us unexpectedly, because time will be out of its usual order. It will be as if something five miles away suddenly looms up within the next block. In no way will anyone have a true perspective of time. In no way can predictions be made that can be followed. For example, many of the polls and predictions which anticipate rates of population growth are being set aside because they are not working. Other factors are entering in that no one could have anticipated.
We do not know what could happen in the next six months. We do not know to what extent God’s timetable could be speeded up. Romans 9:28 tells us that God will do a quick work in the earth and cut it short in righteousness. When this happens, suddenly everything will be finished; it will all be completed. You may think that it will take five years before you get to the place where God can use you. However, God can pour a double portion of His Spirit on you, and then you can be ready to go out and move in the things of the Lord in a matter of days or in a matter of hours. Nothing can be projected or predicted by any usual course of predictions that man has ever known. Who can make any predictions based upon human analysis? The Lord has said that when a certain day comes it will be unexpected. People will not be prepared for it.
Concerning that unexpected day, Jesus also said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?” (The King James Version translated this as “meat in due season”; in other words, he is feeding them exactly what they need.) “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and shall begin to beat his fellow-slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and shall cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; weeping shall be there and the gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 24:45–51. Readiness and faithfulness are required of each one of us. Here the Lord is saying that we must be ready.
Sometimes it seems as if it will be a long time, maybe even another thousand years, before things can be worked out and the Lord finally comes. Yet because events are unexpected, we cannot know how to anticipate what is going to happen. When the day of the Lord finally comes, it will be with such rapidity that it will startle people. It will be unexpected. Suddenly it will come upon them, like travail upon a woman with child. No one can say how it will happen or how long it will take. Those days will start falling in place so rapidly that even those who thought they were alert will find that they did not expect it to happen that quickly.
In I Thessalonians 5, Paul gives this apostolic Word which supports what Christ was saying: Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.
But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing. I Thessalonians 5:1–11.
What is Paul saying to us? He is saying that even though we are not ignorant of the times and the seasons, the day of the Lord will come upon us suddenly. It will be difficult to anticipate it fully. We look for it, yet when it comes it will not be expected. Many other events are like that. We wait and wait and wait for them, and when they come they still jolt us. We find ourselves totally unprepared, even though we have made every effort to prepare ourselves for them. A loved one’s passing can be like that. As much as we may be prepared, it can still hit us unexpectedly.
How we need to seek God about taking out of our hearts every root of the love of this world. We cannot cling to anything of the old, vanishing traditions of men. Let us be prepared to cry aloud every day, “Thy Kingdom come, Lord. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” May our hearts yearn and groan for His coming.
An expectation of the unexpected must be built within your mind. You must be prepared for it. The man mentioned in Matthew 24 was a slave over all the other slaves. When he felt that the master was delaying his coming, he began to drink with the drunkards and to beat his fellow-slaves. He may have been a good man to start with, but he could not handle the delay. What makes a man who serves God fall apart like that today? He may be torn between faith and discouragement. He may wonder how long this rat race in the world will go on or how long he will be held in the middle of a certain spiritual battle. He may want to give up because he cannot stand it any longer. People start falling apart because of delays, and when the answer comes quickly and unexpectedly, they are unprepared for it. The Lord wants you to be awake and not to sleep. Be alert. Look for the grace of God to help you. Hold on to your faith because very soon God’s promises will begin to happen.
Have you noticed that sometimes when you are waiting for someone, wondering why he is late, he usually arrives within a few seconds after a little wave of irritation has come over you? It seems strange that whenever you try to relate an event to the length of time it will take, Satan has a way of making you reach that one little point of exasperation just before it happens. You can pray and pray and pray without getting an answer, and when you finally decide to storm heaven, the answer walks around the corner and you feel somewhat sheepish. That little moment of exasperation should be a clue that the answer is coming; yet your feelings give way to desperation.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Hebrews 10:35–37. Do not throw away your confidence.
Are you discouraged? Or are you living in momentary expectancy? Do you have that blessed hope burning in your heart? Do you really believe that the Lord is coming? Do you believe that all the promises God has spoken are not merely fantasies or daydreams, but that they will actually come to pass? Remind yourself that things are ready to happen. How many answers are being delayed? Are you disappointed in not getting more answers within the timetable you have set for them? Do you wonder when the Lord is going to move? He is moving. He is just testing the depth of your faith. Remember that the human heart does not know how to set dates or times. It has to trust God, moment by moment, hour by hour, with an aggressive faith that at no point is allowed to become passive. Because these days are evil, it is important that you press in every day, so that with all your heart you redeem the set time for the will of God.
Matthew 25 gives the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Our concern is not about their character or their worthiness in being invited to the marriage supper. We want to emphasize the wisdom of the five who made preparation for what seemed to be an unseasonable delay and the folly of the foolish virgins in not preparing for the unexpected moment. This parable is about the wisdom of being prepared. Jesus told His disciples, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ”
Notice that all ten of the virgins received the same word. “Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, saying, “No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. And later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ But he answered and said, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” Matthew 25:1–13.
The foolish virgins had oil in their lamps, but they did not have a reserve of oil. This parable gives us the answer for today. In order to make it into the Kingdom, we need to have a spiritual reserve; we need to have strength. We need a double portion. We need oil in our lamps and oil in an auxiliary vessel so that we will have enough. We may wait and wait and wait, wondering if the time is ever going to come. We may need more oil because our lamps are going out, and if we have to go out for more oil, the door may be shut—that fast! We must be prepared to walk with God until He comes, whether it be tomorrow or a thousand years from now.
Throughout the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, you will find more parables with the same emphasis on the unexpected, the danger of not being prepared for a set time which no one knows. You do not know whether you have a day to get ready, or whether you have six months. One thing you do know—you are commanded to be alert. Therefore you should enter into every worship service as though it were your last one. In this hour, a wise pastor will exhort the people to readiness in every service. He will build a fire under them and crowd them to the utmost. He will encourage them and keep them moving in the Lord.
You do not know the hour. Certain events will come suddenly upon the earth. They will move so rapidly that they will startle you, and you may not be able to adjust to a certain element of time. Therefore, you must live in absolute readiness, every hour and every day. Something unexpected could happen this year. It could happen within the next month. If you are too occupied with your own problems, your heart will not be open to that reservoir of the Holy Spirit which is the answer for the Kingdom.
The double portion will come upon a remnant as the prelude to the Kingdom. When should you be getting the double portion? Should you wait until the last minute? When the shout comes that the time is upon us, it will be too late to go after the double portions. That is what made the foolish virgins foolish. When should you have that double portion? Now! Live with a double portion. Live with an expectancy. Live in a readiness. Be on fire and so full of the Spirit and the flow of God that nothing can hold you back. Move in God with maturity, but with the zeal and the aggressiveness of youth at all times.