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Scripture Reading: Matt. 24:39-44; 25:1-13
In this chapter I am burdened to have more fellowship concerning being filled with the Spirit inwardly and outwardly. Many Christians have taught concerning the believers having the fullness of the Spirit, yet hardly any teachers have referred this matter to Matthew 25. The reason for this is that the truths unveiled in the entire book of Matthew, which is a revelation of the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens, have been lost and even missed by most Christians. Some may quote portions of Matthew referring to the virgin’s son being called Emmanuel and given the name Jesus (1:23, 25), to being pure in heart (5:8) and poor in spirit (v. 3), which to them is to be humble, and concerning coming to the Lord for Him to give us rest (11:28). Others may even refer to Matthew 28:19, being baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to argue concerning how to baptize people. Actually, though, what this Gospel reveals has been lost. The reason why we call our version of the New Testament the Recovery Version is that this refers to the recovery of the lost truths. If you spent one day to study the book of Matthew with all the footnotes in the Recovery Version, you would realize that the lost truths in Matthew are recovered there.
Many of us would claim that we are in the recovery—but in what kind of recovery? Are we just in the recovery of the ground of the church or of meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus? The entire situation of today’s Christianity is in degradation. Many of us who say we are in the Lord’s recovery, even the ones saved among us who were never in Christianity and still remain with us, are in the degraded situation. If some Christians are asked what it means to be saved, they might answer that it means to believe in Jesus and to have your sins forgiven that you might go to heaven one day. Even some among us would say this. This kind of saying is a strong sign of the degradation of today’s Christianity. Many of us have never been in Christianity, but we are in the degradation of Christianity. Do not think that degraded Christianity does not include you. It does not mean that because you are meeting in the recovery, you are not in that degradation. Christianity denotes a general situation of Christians, and since the end of the first century this situation has become and still is altogether a degraded situation.
What does it mean to be degraded? To be degraded is to lose whatever God has revealed concerning His New Testament economy. Whoever has become a Christian and yet has not come up to the level of God’s New Testament economy is in this degradation regardless of where he meets. I am quite concerned that even a good number among us are also in that degradation because we are not up to this level. To merely be saved with your sins forgiven to have a right to go to heaven is a salvation in the degradation of Christianity. This is not a salvation up to the level of God’s New Testament economy. This is why I have sounded the call to rise up. Before rising up, you have to wake up. Do not remain in a drowsy, stupefied condition. Today the poor preaching of the gospel in the degradation of Christianity is a kind of stupefying gospel. They preach the gospel to save people, but their kind of preaching is a stupefying. This is why I proposed that we have some bumper stickers that say, “Christ will come to settle accounts with you” (Matt. 25:19). This statement is versus today’s stupefied situation.
Our present situation in the Lord’s recovery, especially in the past few years, has been and probably still is a kind of drowsy, stupefied situation. I hope that we could pay our full attention to the two portions of the Word in the Scripture Reading, which were spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself. These two portions of the Word are actually two aspects of one matter, the matter of the Lord’s coming back. The Lord told us that He would come quickly (Rev. 22:20), yet one may think His coming has been slow because it has been nearly two thousand years since His ascension. But do not forget that to Him one thousand years are just one day (2 Pet. 3:8).
I was confirmed concerning the assurance of His coming back by my study of prophecies and their fulfillment. I studied the Bible when I was young by studying its prophecies, and I was taught mostly by the Brethren teachers, who have been famous and still are in the study of biblical types and prophecies. I also studied a number of others’ writings concerning prophecy. Through my study I was deeply impressed with one thing—the Bible in its prophecies and all the prophetic writings stresses the re-formation of the nation of Israel (see Matt. 24:32 and footnotes). The Israelites had lost their country, their fatherland, and they all had been scattered on the earth. I wondered how Israel could ever be re-formed as a nation when they had lost their homeland for over twenty-five centuries. According to my concept at that time, for such a thing to happen seemed impossible. I began to watch over the world situation related to this matter since 1925. I had the habit of always reading the first page of the newspaper, every day if possible, concerning international affairs. I remember reading the front page of the largest newspaper in Shanghai one day in 1948. The headlines said that the nation of Israel had been re-formed. The newspaper told the account of how the United Nations recognized the re-formed nation of Israel. The returned Israelites’ fighting back the Egyptians was a fulfillment of Exodus 23:28, which says that the Lord would send hornets before the Israelites to drive out the enemies from the good land. This was a great surprise to me. I worshipped the Lord that in His sovereignty He had re-formed a nation for His people.
Although the nation of Israel had been re-formed, Jerusalem had not yet been returned to Israel. In 1967 I had surgery done in San Francisco and was in the hospital for seven days. Within those seven days, I read in the newspaper that Jerusalem had been returned to Israel. One scene on the television showed many Arabs throwing away their new guns and only one Israeli soldier chasing them. The fulfillment of these prophecies should warn us that the Lord is coming.
Matthew 24:39 says, “They did not know that judgment was coming until the flood came and took all away, so also will the coming [Gk., parousia] of the Son of Man be.” The Lord’s coming is His parousia, or presence, which will be a period of time. Verses 40 through 42 continue, “At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes.” Both watch therefore and your Lord prove that the two men and two women in verses 40 and 41 are saved believers. The Lord would not charge unsaved people to watch, nor is He the Lord of the unsaved. Verse 43 says, “But know this, that if the householder had known in which watch the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.” Householder refers to the believer, and house, to the believers’ conduct and work that he has built up in his Christian life. The believers need to be watchful concerning their conduct and work. Verse 44 says, “For this reason you also be ready, because at an hour when you do not expect it, the Son of Man is coming.”
This portion of the Word, Matthew 24:39-44, is on our being watchful for the Lord’s coming. The two men and two women in 24:40-41 are the living saints, because they are still working in the field and grinding at the mill. A minority of the Lord’s saints will be living at His coming back, but the majority, represented by the ten virgins (25:1), will have died before the Lord’s coming. Ten is the major part of twelve (Gen. 42:3-4; 1 Kings 11:30-31; Matt. 20:24), and two is the remnant of twelve.
Matthew 25:1-13 addresses what will happen to the majority of the believers who will have died before the Lord’s coming. Ten represents the majority of the believers through all the generations who became drowsy and slept (v. 5). Became drowsy signifies becoming sick (Acts 9:37; 1 Cor. 11:30), and slept signifies having died (1 Thes. 4:13-16; John 11:11-13). While the Lord delays His coming back, the majority of the believers first become sick and then die.
Matthew 25:1-2 says, “At that time the kingdom of the heavens will be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish and five were prudent.” The foolish ones are mentioned first because the warning here is focused on them. This parable is a warning to the foolish and unready believers. Verses 3 and 4 say, “For the foolish, when they took their lamps, did not take oil with them; but the prudent took oil in their vessels with their lamps.” Oil signifies the Spirit of God (Isa. 61:1; Heb. 1:9). Lamps signifies the spirit of the believers (Prov. 20:27), which contains the Spirit of God as the oil (Rom. 8:16). Proverbs 20:27 says that the spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah. Within the lamp, our regenerated spirit, is the oil, the Holy Spirit. Man is a vessel made for God (Rom. 9:21, 23-24), and man’s personality is in his soul. Hence, vessels here signifies the soul of the believers.
We have the Holy Spirit in our regenerated spirit, but there is a question as to whether or not we have an extra portion of the Holy Spirit in our soul, saturating our being. The problem was not with the lamps of the virgins. Even the lamps of the five foolish virgins were burning. The fact that their lamps were “going out” (Matt. 25:8) proves that their lamps were lighted, having oil in them, but not having an adequate supply. They did not have the extra portion of the oil in their vessels.
Verse 5 says, “While the bridegroom delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.” While Christ has been delaying His coming back, millions of believers and lovers of Christ became sick and died. Verses 6 and 7 continue, “At midnight there was a cry, Behold, the bridegroom! Go forth to meet him! Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their own lamps.” Midnight signifies the darkest time of this dark age (night), close to the morning. That will be the end of this age, the time of the great tribulation. Cry signifies the voice of the archangel (1 Thes. 4:16). All the dead believers arose, which signifies resurrection from the dead, and trimmed their lamps, which signifies their dealing with their testimony in life. After resurrection our life for the Lord’s testimony still needs to be dealt with if it is not perfect before we die.
Matthew 25:8 says, “The foolish said to the prudent, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” After resurrection the foolish believers discovered that they were short of the Spirit of God and needed the fullness of the Spirit of God. They are saved believers, and their spirits are burning, but they do not have much oil. They do not have an extra portion of the Spirit in their vessel, in their soul, their being. Then the foolish ones begged the prudent ones to help by giving them some oil. “But the prudent answered, saying, Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves” (v. 9). We should not forget that this conversation takes place after all the believers have been resurrected. After many believers have been resurrected, they will discover that they are short of the Spirit. They were short of the Spirit all the time during their life, but they were befuddled and stupefied. When they are resurrected, they will discover their shortage, but then it will be too late. They have to go and buy for themselves.
To buy means to pay the price. We have to pay the price for the filling of the Spirit in our soul. This filling of the Spirit is not free. The price involves items such as giving up the world, dealing with self, loving the Lord above all, and counting all things loss for Christ. This is why I said that we need to wake up that we may rise up. But to wake up and rise up require the paying of a price. You have to drop your love of the world and so many worldly things.
As the foolish virgins were going away to buy, the bridegroom came (v. 10). First, all the dead saints are resurrected, and then Christ comes. When He comes, the foolish ones are going to buy the extra portion of the oil. Christ comes, “and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast. And the door was shut” (v. 10). Went in here means to be raptured into the wedding feast with the Bridegroom, Christ.
Verse 11 says, “And later the rest of the virgins came also, saying, Lord, lord, open to us!” This is the later rapture of the resurrected believers. All the dead believers will be resurrected at the same time, but the ready ones will be raptured first. Then the unready ones will be raptured later. By the time the unready ones are raptured, the door (not the door of salvation) to enter into the enjoyment of the Lord’s wedding feast was shut. The foolish virgins “came also, saying, Lord, lord, open to us! But he answered and said, Truly I say to you, I do not know you” (vv. 11-12). Not know means “not to recognize, not to approve” (see footnote 1 on Matt. 25:12, Recovery Version). The Lord never recognized or approved the foolish virgins for participation in the wedding feast because they were late in paying the price for the fullness of the Spirit. Finally, verse 13 says, “Watch therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”
Christians have taught a lot concerning the fullness of the Spirit, but according to my knowledge, no one has ever referred this matter to the extra portion of the oil in the vessel in Matthew 25. This is the extra portion of the Holy Spirit in your human being. You have the Holy Spirit in your regenerated spirit, so you are a son of God. Yet after having the Spirit in your spirit, you need to pay the price for the further filling of the Spirit, for the extra portion of the Holy Spirit.
By reading the context of Matthew 25:1-13, we can see that to be watchful is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If we are not being filled all day long, we are not being watchful. This is serious. I feel that now the Lord is working among us and taking a new step to move among us. We call this the present-day move of the Lord, but we have to realize that this is the recovery. As saved believers, we should be people who are watching all the time by being filled with the Spirit. Every day our lamp is burning, and every day our soul, our being, is filled with the extra portion of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit is the saturating Spirit, which we need to allow to saturate our entire being from within our spirit to reach and even to penetrate our soul. Then we are surely watchful persons, getting ourselves ready for His coming back. We Christians have two kinds of statuses before the Lord—we are virgins in life, and we are slaves for our service to the Lord. We must be watchful in life and faithful in service to be ready at our Lord’s return.
If we do mean business with the Lord’s present-day move, we must be filled with the Spirit every morning of every day. We need to confess our sins, but we also need to pay the price. The Spirit who came into our spirit was given freely, but the saturating Spirit to fill our entire being, especially our soul, is not free. It is something that you have to pay the price for, that you have to buy. When we as sinners repented and confessed our sins and believed in the Lord Jesus, we immediately got regenerated, and the Spirit was given to us freely. But daily we need His filling, His saturating, from our spirit to penetrate our soul. We need to pay the price. We love ourselves so much, and we love to sleep so much in the morning. Many of us love our beds more than the Lord. In our daily life we may love a lot of things. Even though these things may not be sinful, yet they are replacements of the Lord. We may not give our first love to Him but to many other things. Now we have to drop all these other things, which means that we have to pay the price to get ourselves ready.
We have seen that the two men and two women in Matthew 24 signify the saints who are living at the Lord’s coming back, while the ten virgins signify the majority who are dead. None of us can be sure when the Lord will come back. Neither can any of us be sure when we will die. There is a possibility for anyone of us to have a car accident. I pray frequently, especially during conference and training times, for the Lord to protect the saints from any accidents, but who can say when we will go to be with the Lord? We are not sure when He will come back. Neither can we be sure when we will go. Suppose that you go without being ready. Do you think that everything will be okay? It will be okay temporarily because you will go to Paradise in Hades to rest. But when He comes back, you will be troubled. You will rise up and look at yourself and realize that the light of your lamp is not so bright. Your lamp will be going out due to the lack of oil in your vessel. If you do not get yourself ready before you die, you will be troubled at His coming back.
This is not my teaching, but this is the word out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Himself. Surely we believe all the words He says to us. These two portions of the Word that we are considering are very serious. This is why the entire situation today of Christianity is in degradation, and this degradation could include us. We may be in the degradation. We may be stupefied. We may have been drugged. We may not be so sober in our understanding. We may be living in such a way every day. If we love anything, we get it. We may do what we want to do and spend an entire day without prayer. We may always say we will pray tomorrow, but when tomorrow comes, we still do not pray. This is degradation. If the truths delivered in the Lord’s recovery are always bothering you, this is a strong indication that you are in the degradation of today’s Christianity. If you were not in the degradation of today’s Christianity, no truth would bother you. The truth would make you happy. Your response to the truths would be “Hallelujah, I’m for that and I’m in that.”
I have been praying for the churches, and I am very much concerned for your spiritual situation. My main burden presently is to release all the truth into writing, so most of my time is occupied; otherwise, I would visit many of the churches. Your condition is a bothering to me because many of you are under a kind of befuddled situation, which means you are in the degradation of today’s Christianity. Do not take any excuse. Do not say that because the church life is not so strong, you cannot be strong. You will not be able to use this as an excuse when He comes back. He cares only for whether you are ready or not. No doubt, your lamp is burning because you have been saved, but is there an extra portion of oil in your vessel, your soul, your being? Has your being been saturated with the Spirit? The age is dark, Christianity is befuddled, and even the church life may be somewhat down. All this, however, cannot be an excuse. The Lord will still check with you concerning yourself. Are you living? Are you being filled? Are you watching all day? Are you praying? Are you getting into His Word every day and remaining in fellowship with Him? You may say that you are tired and that you do not have the time, but you may have a lot of time to make phone calls and to gossip. Why would you not spend ten minutes for prayer? You may talk on the telephone for over an hour and yet not have five minutes for prayer.
By His mercy, especially over the last ten years, I have been releasing all the high, deeper truths concerning the New Testament economy of God. According to my realization, though, all these rich truths mostly are only on our bookshelves. How many among us have spent that much time to dive into these truths? Even though all the footnotes in the Recovery Version were written by me, I study them again. I like to get into the footnotes. Early in the morning and any available time I have, I spend time to read the footnotes. I have recently enjoyed footnote 4 on Matthew 1:17, which says, “Matthew comes forward and down to Christ. All the generations were directed to Christ and brought in Christ. Christ is the goal, the consummation, the conclusion, the completion, and the perfection of all the generations; as such, He fulfills their prophecies, solves their problems, and meets their needs. When Christ comes, light, life, salvation, satisfaction, healing, freedom, rest, comfort, peace, and joy all come with Him. From this point on, the whole New Testament is a full expounding of this wonderful Christ, who is everything to us. Hallelujah, Christ has come!” If this were not printed in the Recovery Version, I could never imagine that it was written by me. I enjoy this footnote. Some of you can talk on the phone for twenty minutes. Could you not spend two minutes in the morning to read such a footnote? Just by reading such a footnote you will get nourished.
Our real situation is that we are under a kind of befuddling, a kind of stupefying. Actually, many of us are in the degradation of today’s Christianity. Are we watchful? Are we on the alert for His coming? I do not know when He will come, nor do I know when death will come to me. It may be tomorrow morning. Only the Lord knows. There could be an illness, an earthquake, a car accident, or other calamity that could take our lives. Are you ready? If you are not ready, suppose that you go. You will rest in Paradise in Hades temporarily. You will still rise up to meet Him. By that time you have to look at the situation of your lamp. Will you have sufficient oil to fill your lamp to keep it burning? You may discover that you are short of the extra portion of the Spirit.
I feel now is not the time for me to release more high truths. I have done enough of that already. My burden is to get your attention to rise up, to be always watchful to get yourself filled with the Spirit and with the high truths that could always wake you up. These truths are missed in today’s Christianity, and I do not have a strong assurance that these truths have all been recovered with all of you. I am a little concerned that even with you these truths are not only missed but buried. Many of you have never gotten into all the truths you have heard in the past five years. I am concerned that the truth concerning God’s New Testament economy is only on your bookshelves but not really constituted into you. Many of us are like other Christians. They are in degradation; you are too. What is the difference? Does meeting on the proper ground mean that you are in the recovery? Apparently you are. Actually you are not.
By His mercy I have been speaking to many of you for years. I feel burdened, and I do have a serious and loving concern for all of you. You spend time after time to meet for ministry meetings and in your locality in the church meetings, yet have you been watchful? Are you still watching? Did you watch yesterday and today? If you pass every day without any watchfulness, do you think that you will be okay when Christ returns? You may use others as your excuses. You may say that you are not watchful because of others. You may talk about the elders and about the condition of the churches, but what about yourself? It is no wonder that the final book of the Bible, Revelation, is a book sounding out a call to the overcomers (2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21). We all have to overcome the present degraded situation among Christians, which includes us. Therefore, I say again—wake up and rise up!
Every morning we need a time to be with the Lord. We need to pray, “Lord, I take You as my sin offering and trespass offering. I am so thankful to You that Your precious blood still washes me this morning. Lord, I need to be filled up with Yourself, with the all-inclusive Spirit within and without. I need You! I need Your saturation! I need Your soaking!” Could you not pray in this way every morning for a short time? Have you been doing this? This is a serious matter. This is why I have said that for now I would stop delivering more deeper truths. We need some kind of a sounding to wake us up that we may be overcomers to overcome the present situation, not only in Christianity but even in the recovery. We have to overcome the present situation of the Lord’s recovery. I do not care whether you are an elder, a co-worker, old and experienced, or young and inexperienced. All that matters is one thing—are you watching today? We do not have yesterday or tomorrow. We Christians have only today. Every day is a today to us. Are you watching today?
Whether you will be living at the Lord’s coming back or dead, the principle is the same. Among the living ones some will be taken, and some will be left to pass through the great tribulation. Among the dead believers, some will be raptured first. Those who will be raptured later will suffer something. I believe that to buy the oil today is much cheaper than paying the price in the next age. Have you ever realized that according to Matthew 25, after resurrection some believers will get into the tribulation? The wise virgins told the foolish ones to go to those who sell and buy for themselves (v. 9). Those who sell must be the two witnesses during the great tribulation, the two olive trees and the two sons of oil (Rev. 11:3-4 and footnotes; Zech. 4:11-14). The foolish virgins will have to go to the oil sellers, the two witnesses, in the great tribulation. Today it is easy for you to get the extra portion of the Holy Spirit, but you may not do it. You may be in an idle situation day after day. To get our soul, our being, saturated and filled with the Spirit cannot be accomplished in one day. It is a lifelong matter.
We need to read the parable of the ten virgins again carefully according to the view of our present fellowship and with the help of the footnotes in the Recovery Version. When the foolish ones go to buy the oil, that will be a hard thing to do. While they go to buy, Christ comes, and the ready ones will be raptured. This is the Lord’s word. This is not just a prophecy but a clear warning to all believers. As the virgins, are we being watchful in our spiritual life?
All of us need to make a living. In Matthew 24 the two men are working in the field, and the two women are grinding at the mill. They are working for their livelihood, but while they are working, they should not forget about their spiritual situation. You have to make a living, but even the early raptured ones were watchful to make themselves ready while they were making a living. At the unknown parousia (coming) of the Lord, these ready ones will be raptured first, and they will enter into the enjoyment of the wedding feast of the Lamb, but the unready ones will miss it. I believe they will have bought the oil, which was good for them to be raptured, but it will not be good for them to enter into the enjoyment of the wedding feast because it will be too late. I hope that we can read these two portions of the Word in the Scripture Reading again so that we may clearly see how the Lord desires for us to be in the right position of being watchful every day and all day before Him.
