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Scripture Reading: Matt. 24:42-44; 25:1-13; Eph. 6:17-18; 4:30; 1 Thes. 5:19; Rom. 8:4
The book of Matthew has been mostly misunderstood throughout the history of the church. Many Christians think that the Gospels are not deep books and that Matthew is merely one of these four Gospels. I would say, however, that Matthew, as the first book of the New Testament, is the most solemn, serious, and deep book because it reveals to us the kingdom of the heavens. We gave many messages on this subject in 1972 in Los Angeles, which are contained in a book of fifty chapters, entitled The Kingdom. I am concerned that many of you have not yet read this book. In 1977 we also had a life-study of the entire book of Matthew, and all these messages have been printed. We also have the Recovery Version of Matthew with all the footnotes to help us get into the riches of this book. In all these sources, I have pointed out strongly that the book of Matthew is a book on the kingdom of the heavens.
The kingdom of the heavens is used by God to stir us up to take care of our Christian exercise and responsibility after being saved. After a person is born, the exercise of his human life begins. For anyone to be a proper, normal person living on this earth, he has to be exercised at least eighteen years. Everyone under eighteen should be under the care and training of his parents. If a person is born in a royal family, he has to be very much exercised to be a king. A prince who will be a successor to the throne needs to be daily exercised in everything. As Christians, we all have been born into a royal family. We all should desire to be kings and rulers in the millennium with our Lord Jesus (Rev. 20:4, 6), but are we exercised in everything? Matthew, a book on the kingdom of the heavens, is a book on Christian exercise for the believers to receive a reward in the coming kingdom age that they might be free from the coming punishment. The great Brethren teachers did not see this. Even Scofield’s reference Bible indicates strongly and incorrectly that the foolish virgins are not believers. This kind of interpretation avoids the fact of the coming punishment.
Some may feel that we should not use the word punishment but discipline. Actually, however, punishment and discipline in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, are synonyms. When parents discipline their children, this means a kind of punishment. To discipline means to punish. Some children who do well in school are rewarded by their parents, but others who do not are punished. The not giving of a reward is even a kind of discipline, a kind of punishment.
I cannot say what the millennium will be like, especially its heavenly part, which is the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, because I have not been there yet. But thank the Lord that when He was on this earth, He told His disciples all these solemn words, and under God’s sovereignty all these words were written down and are published in the book of Matthew. Today this wonderful book is in our hands, and the Lord has mercifully opened it up to us.
Especially in the Lord’s recovery, we have no excuse to say that we have not been warned to take care of the exercise of the Christian life. The Bible is a book full of solemn words for us to consider about our exercise in our Christian life. It is natural for human beings to be loose. I can testify personally that it is hard for me to commit a sin or to love the world, but it is spontaneously easy not to be watchful. Most of the days and hours have been spent without our being watchful. We live the Christian life without seriousness, and this is absolutely wrong. Anyone driving a car should always be watchful. If a driver is not watchful, he may kill himself or kill others. At the very least, the policeman may give him a ticket. The government is there to keep people from being so loose. In like manner, God’s government, His kingdom, is there to keep His children from being so loose.
If we were to read only John 3:16, we would have the realization only of how generous God is. He has a broadened heart, the span of which is from eternity past to eternity future. God’s heart is so broad that it embraces everyone. In John 3:16 God is very generous, but in Matthew it is different. He is a hard master who reaps where He does not sow and gathers where He does not winnow (25:26). The Lord admitted that He was such a One. He will call a number of His slaves evil and slothful and cast out these useless slaves into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (vv. 26, 30). This is the word of the Lord Jesus in the Bible in the very first book of the New Testament. We have to see the solemness here.
There were times when I was so busy in the publication work that I was laboring from early morning until late at night. As a result, I did not have much time to pray, and I regretted this. We have to realize that in our private Christian life not to pray is more serious than not to come to the meeting. If we neglect a watchful life of prayer, this is a great negligence. This will be a lacking that causes you a great loss in your Christian life. This happens because you stop being watchful. If you do not pray for an entire day, you can never be watchful in that day. If you do not have a praying spirit toward the Lord for half an hour, in that half an hour you can never be watchful.
Again, we must realize that the book of Matthew is a solemn book. The beginning of the parable in chapter 25 says, “At that time the kingdom of the heavens will be likened to ten virgins” (v. 1). This is a parable concerning the kingdom of the heavens in a solemn book that wakes you up to take care of your exercise in your Christian life. A ticket from a policeman results in a financial penalty, but this parable in Matthew 25:1-13 concerns our destiny for at least one thousand years. If we do not pay the fine, the price, for a traffic violation on time, the cost keeps getting higher. Similarly, if we do not pay the price required to buy the extra portion of oil in this age, the price we will have to pay in the next age will be great, high, and costly. In the Gospel of Matthew there are portions warning us to be careful about our exercise in the Christian life.
The parable in 25:1-13 likens all the believers to virgins. In biblical times among the Jews, virgins were very much separated from contacts with outside people. In the kingdom of the heavens the believers are likened to virgins, not to wrestlers, boxers, or football, basketball, or baseball players. Virgins signify believers in the aspect of life (2 Cor. 11:2). We are chaste virgins bearing the Lord’s testimony in the dark age and going out of the world to meet the Lord.
The New Testament charges us and warns us with one heavy charge—that the Lord is coming. None of us knows the day or hour of His coming. If you do not believe in Him, you will go to the lake of fire. If you believe in Him, you escape eternal perdition in the lake of fire, but if you are not watchful in life, you will receive some dispensational punishment. We had no choice regarding our physical birth. Some people may have thought that it would have been much better if they had never been born. But whether we were born or not was not up to us but up to the Lord. Also, we have become Christians. We were predestinated, chosen, and called by the Lord. We have also been regenerated. We are Christians whether we like it or not, and our Lord is coming again whether we like it or not. What shall we do to meet Him? We must be prepared. We are virgins going out to meet the One who is coming to us as the most pleasant person, as a Bridegroom. In this solemn book of Matthew He would not let us know when He would come (24:44; 25:13). His not letting us know means that we have to be watchful and always keep ourselves exercised.
We all are going out of the world to meet our Bridegroom, bearing a lamp as a shining testimony. Our human spirit is the lamp of Jehovah (Prov. 20:27). This lamp should be bright and shining, so it needs oil. Oil in typology signifies the Spirit of God (Isa. 61:1; Heb. 1:9), and we need the Spirit as the burning oil. We are going out to meet Him, bearing a shining testimony, so we need the burning oil, the burning Spirit. With the lamp there is a vessel. The foolish ones have oil in their lamps, their spirits, but they do not have the extra portion of oil in their vessels, their souls. We should be in a situation of going out to meet Him and bearing His testimony. For this purpose we need more oil, more Spirit, so we have to buy the oil. This extra portion of oil could never be given to you as a gift. You could never get it freely. You need to buy the oil.
Now we need to see how to be watchful, which means we need to see how to buy the oil. To be watchful is to take care of the oil. When I was a young Christian, I considered that to be watchful was to look to the heavens for His coming and even to figure out when He would come. Later, I began to realize that this understanding was altogether not practical. By reading Matthew 25:1-13 again and again I discovered that to be watchful is to take care of the oil. A careless driver is not watchful about the gasoline in his tank. He may be driving to a certain destination and then suddenly runs out of gas because he did not watch the gas gauge. Because of his carelessness, he suffers. Today since you are driving your “Christian car,” do you care for your “gasoline”? The gasoline in your car is the Spirit, the oil. All the time you have to buy the oil.
Some young Christians indicated to me that they wanted to have some enjoyment in the world, especially since the Lord was not coming back immediately. They also said that the Lord gave us the time to be joyful, which to them meant to enjoy the worldly pleasures. Perhaps when they were over forty-five, then they would begin to love Him, because they were not so sure that He would come back within twenty years. Even if the Lord does delay His coming back, though, do we know when we will die? Probably none of those dear ones who lost their lives when the space shuttle Challenger exploded had any inkling that they would lose their lives that day. Does anyone know when he will die?
You may not believe that the Lord will come back in the next twenty-five years or that you will die within this time. Therefore, you may desire to live carelessly as a Christian, loving whatever you like and doing whatever is a pleasure to you. Even if your figuration is right, sooner or later you will die, and you will die in a situation in which you will have never accumulated enough oil in your vessel.
To accumulate a deposit of the extra portion of the Holy Spirit in your being is not an overnight job. In order to grow and develop properly, a human being should be exercised for at least eighteen years to take in the nourishing life supply and to study, learn, and be educated. The more one lives in a loose, unrestricted way, the more he loses the chance and the time to accumulate the proper education in every way, not only in school. To be a proper person you need to learn things every day. As a man over eighty, I am still learning and acquiring new knowledge. I use my dictionary frequently to pick up new words. I told some of the young saints that I would hate to see that after ten years they are still the same. To pick up things that become a constitution of your proper being is not a matter of one day or even one year. It is a matter of daily business for a lifetime.
I am still concerned that when the Lord comes back or when I die, by that time I will have had a sufficient amount of oil deposited in my vessel. If I die before His coming back, I will go to Paradise in Hades to see Abraham, David, and Paul and to be happy with these brothers, yet some day I will rise up and go to the air to stand before the Lord. Whether or not I will be raptured early remains to be seen. If we are raptured late, we will miss the wedding feast (25:10). In so many things I have the assurance, but in the matter of attending the wedding feast I do not have the assurance.
To be watchful does not mean only to watch for His coming. To be watchful is to prepare yourself every day by buying the oil. Every day we need to buy some oil. Our spiritual transformation is a daily and lifelong matter. Every day there should be some accumulation, some deposit of oil added to our being. We have not been that much in the proper exercise every day to exercise ourselves even every minute to buy the oil. A baby becomes a big boy by his daily eating. This boy is an accumulation, a constitution, of the food that he has eaten and assimilated. For us to be qualified to be raptured to enter into the Bridegroom’s wedding feast requires our passing through a long period of accumulating the spiritual oil. From the time you become a Christian, you should buy the oil to be deposited in your vessel every day.
I went to a meeting of one particular group of Pentecostal Christians. During their meeting there was much so-called speaking in tongues and prayer, but after their meeting probably no one was watchful. In every way you could see their looseness. I exercised to be with them in my spirit, and our spirit always would restrict us in what we say and do. I believe that even in that meeting with them I gained more of the Spirit, because by His mercy I was watching by praying to be filled with the Spirit.
The Christian life is not a matter of legalities concerning watching television, reading the newspaper, going to sporting events, or indulging in worldly pleasures. It is not a matter of merely whether or not something is scriptural. The Christian life is a matter that concerns our buying of the oil. You may not pray, yet you will watch television. You may not pray, yet you will read the newspaper. You may not pray, yet you will play sports. There are a lot of “yets” in your daily life. You just do not pray. You may not do anything sinful, but this parable of the virgins does not indicate that the Lord will judge us according to how much sin we have committed but according to how much oil we have in our vessel. To receive the Holy Spirit into our spirit, our lamp, is free. But to have the Spirit saturating our soul is not free. If you are going to get the Holy Spirit to saturate your soul, you must pay the price in dealing with your soul.
I have had to deal with my soul in many ways to buy the oil. When it seemed like it was a good time for me to joke with a person and I joked with a few sentences, I got condemned. I am not a piece of marble but a living person. Every living person has his opinion, but many times when I tried to express my opinion, I was stopped by the buying of the oil. Many times this view has affected my daily living. Could I get more Spirit by exchanging words with my wife? Could I get more Spirit by going to a certain place? I may want to go to a certain place, but I do not have the peace within me. The point is this—every day should be a day for us to pick up the oil in every way. We need to pray from the time that we wake up every morning, “Lord, I do not like to do anything that is not under my being watchful, that is not under my buying of the oil. I like to buy the oil at any time and in any instance. Otherwise, that will be a waste of my time.” This should be our prayer and even our prayerful attitude. Many nights I regretted that I did not spend all my time to be in the spirit.
In the New Testament watchfulness is wrapped up with prayer. Ephesians 6:18 tells us that we should be those watching unto prayer. We need to be watchful, on the alert for our prayer life. Watching unto this in verse 18 refers to prayer and petition. There is no other way to get the oil except by praying. If you do not pray, it means that you do not pay the price to buy the oil. Through prayer we receive more Spirit. Every time we pray, we have the deep sensation that some amount of the Spirit has been gained by us in our prayer. To spend our time for prayer rather than for so many other things means to pay the price to get the oil.
All ten virgins were raised up from the dead, but their rapture after their resurrection was according to how much oil they had in their vessels. Our initial receiving of the Spirit at regeneration is not a ticket for us to enter into the wedding feast. The sufficient oil, the adequate oil, will become our entry, our ticket, to the wedding feast. The foolish virgins discovered that they did not have the adequate supply of oil, so they wanted to borrow from the prudent ones (Matt. 25:8). Then the prudent virgins indicated that what they had was sufficient only for themselves (v. 9). Here is a principle—we can never borrow others’ spirituality. One’s spirituality can qualify only himself. You cannot borrow another’s eating, and another person cannot eat for you. It is impossible. You cannot even borrow another person’s study. You cannot ask someone to go to school for you and borrow whatever he learns. The prudent virgins told the foolish ones they had to buy the oil for themselves. When they are going to buy, the ready ones who have the sufficient oil are raptured. No doubt, that is before the tribulation.
The foolish ones were charged to go to those who sell the oil. According to Zechariah 4:11-14 and Revelation 11:3-4, the two witnesses during the great tribulation, the two olive trees and the two sons of oil, will be the oil sellers. That means they will give people more Spirit. The foolish virgins have to go to these oil sellers in the great tribulation to buy the oil. At that time the entire world will be a place of tribulation. As long as you are there, you are suffering; you are passing through the tribulation. If the foolish ones do not go to these oil sellers in the tribulation, they could never get the oil. This shows us that the foolish virgins will have to pay some price in suffering to get the oil, a price that they had never paid in their entire Christian lives. Even after the resurrection, they will still have to go through the suffering to pay the price for the oil. Finally, the foolish ones came (Matt. 25:11), but their coming, their rapture, was too late. The point again is this—since the time we were saved, every day should be redeemed by us to buy the oil. We all need to rise up from today to buy the oil.
Ephesians 4:30 tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Do not make Him unhappy. The Holy Spirit who is now sealing us unto the redemption of our body is in us. We must make Him happy. Because He has really joined us with Him as one (1 Cor. 6:17), when we are unhappy, this indicates that He is unhappy. If you do not come to the meeting, or if you come and do not function, this makes the Spirit unhappy. At the end of the day you may not feel so good, but when you come to the meeting and function in it, you feel so happy. This means that the Holy Spirit is happy within you. If you do not feel happy, this is an indication that you have grieved Him. Why have you grieved Him? Because you did not buy Him. You did not pay the price for Him. He is the oil.
First Thessalonians 5:19 says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” Sometimes we even go further not only to grieve Him but also to quench Him. Sometimes we may tell the Lord to tolerate us for a certain time and not to inspire us. We may know that the Spirit is moving within us, but we may not like it. To quench the Spirit is to reject the buying of the oil. In many things we do not buy the Spirit, so we miss the chance to accumulate more and more of the Spirit in our being.
Nearly the last charge in the entire New Testament is to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4), which is our human spirit mingled with God’s Holy Spirit (cf. v. 16), our mingled spirit. To walk means “to live, to act, to behave, to do things, to have our being.” We have to have our being according to the spirit, and this is to buy the Spirit. Our thinking and our speaking, the expression of our attitude, should be according to the spirit. If you are having your being according to the spirit, this is to buy the Spirit. But to walk, to have your being according to the spirit, needs us to pay a great price. You may need to stop your excessive talking on the telephone and stop your further reading of the newspaper from the first page to the next.
The real revival is to be raised up. We do not need to resurrect in the future to discover that we need to go and buy the oil. We need to be raised up today, every day paying the price to buy the Spirit. This is real revival, and I do believe that by being such persons, we will be fruitful. Many of us have to admit that we are barren. I hate to see the barrenness. We can give many excuses for this, such as our having been defamed and criticized. But how much have we been doing in these past few years in the matter of contacting others and speaking the Lord Jesus?
The many missionaries over the past two centuries would never have gone out if they had made excuses. The dear missionaries who went to China could have said, “The Chinese are closed and are too conservative. Even if they would open up their doors, they would not listen to anyone from the West. If I go, I will waste my time.” There are always excuses against the ministry going out. But thank the Lord, these missionaries went, and they went in all kinds of hardships. According to my observation, the Presbyterian missionaries who went to China one hundred years ago were some of the best. Even though they did not know as much truth as we do, have as much light as we have, or have as much growth in life as we have, they had a heart for Jesus, to preach Him to the poor ones. They made a big success, and even I am here ministering today due to their labor. They did everything to open the door for the preaching of the Lord Jesus. When we grew up, we were under their mission work, and I studied at schools established by the missions. They brought the Bible to China, translated it into Chinese, and passed it on to us. Furthermore, they preached the Lord Jesus. At least they could say in Chinese, “Jesus loves you.” Sometimes children would mock them or throw stones at them. Some were really caught by them even though they could only say “Jesus loves you.”
Saints, we have no excuse. We do not need to go that far to China. We are in our Jerusalem, which is our neighborhood. We have to go. At least we can go once a week or once every two weeks to a certain neighbor. You could go to visit the same neighbor twenty-six times within one year. I do not believe that nothing will happen if we visit our neighbors in this way. Something will happen. If we all get one this year, all the churches will double.
The increase of some of the churches in the past few years is too low. Is this not a shame? This is due to our not buying the oil daily. If we would buy the oil daily, this will issue in something that cancels or annuls our barrenness. We will surely be fruitful. Just to encourage the brothers to go out to distribute the books is a temporary thing.
My burden is to fellowship with you that you may rise up to live a life of always buying an extra portion of the oil by not wasting your time in doing anything. If you do something, and you feel that it is a waste of time, you had better stop doing it. Use that time to contact the Lord, to pray. This is to watch unto prayer. To be watchful is not to let your time go, not to waste your time, but to take every time as a chance to buy the oil. To buy the oil is the best way to redeem our time, for the days are short. We all must rise up.
I believe that I have given you enough deeper truths already. I feel burdened to fellowship with you in this way. All of us need to live such a life of buying the oil daily, even hourly. We need to buy the oil in the way we dress, shop, talk, and live. In everything we must be serious and consider the solemn parable given by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 25:1-13. Whether or not we will be raptured early to enter into the wedding feast depends upon our daily buying of the Spirit from this moment. This is a lifelong matter, not an overnight matter. To get the proper and adequate education is not an overnight matter. A person needs to begin his study from kindergarten and pass through many grades until he finishes college. Take this fellowship as something serious and solemn. This is not just advice but my serious fellowship with all of you in love. I do hope that we all would rise up to live such a life. I do not like merely to stir up or move people, because that does not work. The one thing that the Lord needs and that we need is to rise up to pay the price to buy the oil all the time in all the matters in our daily life.
