In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of making preparations to meet the Lord. He highlights the foolishness of the virgins who did not take the opportunity to prepare when they had the time. The preacher also criticizes Christians who neglect reading the Bible and praying regularly, lacking vision and vibrancy in their faith. He uses the analogy of a wedding procession to illustrate the anticipation and celebration of the bridegroom's arrival. The sermon concludes with a testimony of how God answered prayer and performed miracles in a church, leading to repentance and a renewed commitment to serve God.

The pastor walked right up to me afterwards. He said, you know, I had in mind to call another evangelist, and I wish I had. I wish I had. That's the way we got started. That's the way we got started. So on, I said, oh, brother, would you like to call somebody else? And I said, kindly as I could, because I knew I had to stay there. Would you like to call somebody? No. He said, we'll try to get through. But he said, my people aren't going to take this. My people won't take this. I thought, oh, what's this man been giving his people? What is he feeding those poor people? I came in on Tuesday night. That first Sunday night, that place was packed and jammed with extra chairs down the aisle. The balcony was all full. And it was a great big church with no little mission. And on Tuesday night, there wasn't anybody in the balcony. On Wednesday night, there wasn't anybody in the choir. And the orchestra had disappeared. And he says, my choir's walked out on me. They won't be here. And the orchestra, they don't want to play in this. And I said, oh, that's too bad. I'm so sorry, brother. And we went on Wednesday night, Thursday night a smaller crowd, Friday night a smaller crowd. And on Sunday morning, you see, he had invited me for two weeks. And so on Sunday, he came to me and he says, are you going to stay another week? I said, well, brother, you asked me for two weeks, I thought. And he turned from me to the congregation. He said, she's staying another week. That's the way my next week was advertised. She's staying another week. I'll let you laugh, but I didn't laugh. Believe me, I didn't laugh. And I was glad I had an intercessor along with me. She was back there on her face crying out to God. All right, we went into the Sunday when he said that. She's staying another week. I got up and read from the scriptures the story of the transfiguration. And I read. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this. Jesus asked me to read the transfiguration. And I didn't know what I was going to do with it after I read it. But I started reading it. And before I got to the last verse, I heard a terrible thud. And I turned around to see what the thud was. And the Holy Ghost had knocked him out of that chair. And there he was sprawled out on the platform. Just full length of himself. Just sprawled out there crying like a baby. Just crying out. Crying like a baby. Crying. The people who were left out there in the pew. No choir. No orchestra. There was a little bunch of people right down here in the front. And what did I do? I slid down behind the pulpit. And said, Jesus, just go on and do whatever you're doing. Just go on. Jesus, go on and do whatever you're doing. Just do it, Lord. And here he's squawking. Just squawking. And crawling on. Oh, God. I just. God. I just. Go on and do whatever you're doing. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, that preacher got up off of the floor. And he came over to me. Oh, Sister, I'm not fit to pastor this church. I'm going to resign. Will you stay and pastor the church? I'm going to resign. I'm going to resign. I'm not fit to pastor. I said, man, never ever were you more prepared than to pastor your church. No, I'm not going to stay and pastor. You're the pastor. You're the pastor. When God gets through with you, he's getting you ready to pastor these people and take them on in God. You just better pay attention to what God is saying to you. Oh, honey, that little group of people down there came to me after the service. Sister, please don't leave us. Don't you go. Don't you dare go. There are seven women of us in this church. And we seven have been fasting and praying for weeks and weeks and weeks that God would come and give us a revival. And the Holy Ghost would come back into this church. And God is here. God has answered prayer. God is coming to us. Please don't leave us. Don't leave us now. And I said, I'm not going anywhere. God's here. I'm going to stay right here and see what the Lord is going to do. God's so moved in that place. He started performing miracles, miracles. Oh, what miracles God performed. Supernatural. Not only healing. God created organs in people's bodies. The creative power of God came into those meetings. God moved by the precious Holy Spirit. And the choir came. I'll shorten it. It's a long story. The choir came and apologized. Will you forgive us? Will you forgive us? I said, honey, you're all forgiven. Just go back up there in your seat. The orchestra came. We're sorry. Will you forgive us? Honey, you're forgiven. Just go back over there and toot your horn. Let's get going for God. Yield yourself to God. Get into God. It was in the middle of winter. The street was covered with so much sleet and ice. An automobile couldn't go down that street. People, people walked for miles holding hands, holding each other up so they wouldn't fall down on that ice. But you couldn't catch them away from that church. And the revival went on for five full weeks. God moving. It's supernatural power in that place. God is doing everything he can do from his side to get his church ready and to help his people and get his people ready. I want to tell you something. I want to tell you something, saints. Don't you pray unless you mean it because God in heaven answers prayer. And you want to get in trouble with God, you start praying. And the angels, the angels will start working. And the Holy Ghost starts working. And the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost will come because Jesus is going to have a bride. He's going to have a bride. And I understand that, you know, there are churches today that have never had God. They don't know anything about a move of the Holy Spirit. They don't know anything about that. Do you believe that? They don't know anything about that. I feel so sorry for our young people today. They've never seen the power of God, the glory of God in the church, worship in the Holy Ghost. Some churches, they wouldn't have that because they can't. You cannot be carnal and worship. Worship is a life. You've got to live it. You've got to be clean. Spirit has to be pure. Worship is something that goes out of you to God. Most of the songs today, they're in the realm, the emotional and the blessings and what God does for us. And I'm so happy. I'm so happy. Then they sing about the coming of the Lord. We're going up, up, up. Going up, up, up. Isn't that deep? Isn't that deep? That's one of the songs they sing today. And then they get that other thing going. I've received an invitation to the marriage of the Lamb. And they take off. And I'm going to be there. I say, sit down. If all you have is an invitation, how many of you men had an invitation to your own wedding? Come on. What's the matter? Put up your hands. Did you ever have an invitation to your own wedding? No. And if all you've got is an invitation, sit down and get into God. That you can be more than just a guest there. There will be that crowd that gets inside the gate. And they have palm branches. And they're just inside the gate waving palm branches. And that's their reward. That's their reward. They're no part of the glorious Bride of the Lamb. They're no part of that. They're just there as attendants, what you call them, spectators. They did not pay the price. But they got inside the gate. But there's no qualification to be in the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. No maturity. No maturity. Just this last week, I led an elderly man to the Lord Jesus Christ. And just a few days, he passed away. And I said, oh, just think this man, all these years, could have been built up a beautiful relationship with Jesus Christ. But he's going in like the thief on the cross. Just inside the gate, he'll get in. But no qualifications whatsoever to be a Bride of the Lamb. You have to qualify for that. They all, ten of them, knew the Bridegroom was coming. And they joined in the talk. They were all talking about the Bridegroom coming. They were all talking about their lamps. Talking about their oil. They all got up and trimmed their lamps. Trimmed their lamps. Yes, they had them. I've seen those. It was my privilege. The first time I went to Palestine, it was then. I went there over 40 years ago. And when I went, I asked Jesus, won't you please let me, won't you arrange, Jesus, for somebody to get married while I'm there and let me have an invitation to the wedding? And so he did that for me in the village of Ramallah, where they really have the old time, like the song of Solomon, weddings. And I had an invitation to that wedding. And here they come. The weddings are at nighttime. And so they have these long poles with a bowl on the top of it. And in that bowl is a wick or a rag. And they light that. And then they go in these processions. And the friends of the bridegroom, they're out there singing his praise. Singing all about the bridegroom. All the friends of the bridegroom. They were singing about how beautiful he was. Just like the song of Solomon. They sang about his hairs, black as a raven. And they sang about his eyes. And they sang about his strength and his legs and his arms. Read it in the song of Solomon. They just went through the whole thing. And here they were coming in procession. The friends of the bridegroom were on their way with their lamps and with their bowls. And they wanted to get into that wedding. I wanted to get in there, too. I wanted to get in there, too. I saw this whole thing enacted. I saw the consternation of those that didn't get in. And I tried to get in in that mob myself. Dear me, they stripped buttons off of my gloves. We were packed that tight together trying to get in. Trying to get in to see this beautiful bride and this bridegroom. And to attend this wedding. And it took a lot of extra oil. Because it was a long procession. And these bowls weren't very big. And they carried their extra oil along with them. But the foolish virgins didn't carry any extra oil along with them. They talked about it. They talked about it just like the rest of the crowd. The wives took their extra oil. But the foolish didn't take any extra oil with them. And after a while the thing happened that you know is going to happen. And their lamps went out. And then they came to the wives, it says here. They came to the wives. Now they knew the bridegroom was coming. They all knew that. And they knew certain preparations were absolutely necessary. They knew that. And the call had gone forth. Go ye out to meet him. Go out, go out. Everything that you need to go out of. And they knew the wedding would be at night. They knew that. They knew they had to have extra oil. They knew they had to have light. They knew they had to make these preparations. They knew that. And not to prepare would be most foolish. It reflects on their relationship to the bridegroom. It reflects on how much appreciation they had for his word. The call had been sent back that he's coming. But they had no respect for the word of the bridegroom. Which really says they have no respect for the bridegroom. And they didn't make the preparations. And if we hope to be in that company that goes out to meet the bridegroom, we had better prepare. We had better prepare. We had better prepare. The one requirement, the one requirement was extra oil. To carry with them. To get them through the night. The one requirement. Now folks say, what really does this mean? What really is this oil? Is it salvation? Is it you have to be saved to be in this marvelous church, which is the bride of the Lamb? Is it salvation? Is that all that's necessary? Or is it the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Alright honey, before we make a doctrine, let's ask a few questions. The one thing needful was oil. Oil. And this oil, what was this oil for? What was the importance of the oil? If there was no oil, there was no light. There's no light. Would you tell me how important is light in the night? May I ask again? How important is light in the night? How many of you know it's nighttime? At midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh. How important is light in the night? If there's no light, you're in darkness. There's no illumination. Do you appreciate the precious Holy Spirit illuminating your heart, illuminating your spirit, illuminating this wonderful world? Do you appreciate the Holy Spirit giving you light, light on His coming, light on preparation? Do you appreciate it when He sends conviction to you and tells you, you better leave off here, you better give up here, you better get away from this here, you better get away from that person, you better leave this situation, you better get out of that circumstance, you better take yourself away from the seed of temptation, don't go near it, don't go near it, hate it, stay away from it, resist it, rebuke it if necessary, have nothing to do with it. Oh, how we should appreciate illumination of the Holy Spirit. Yes, yes. If we don't have light, we can't see our way. There's no guidance. There's no guidance, there's no sense to anything. If there's no light, there's no vision. There's no vision. Somebody's going to perish. There's no perception. It's all darkness, and we know how many there are in darkness, and we know no discernment if there is no light, and if ever there was a time we need discernment, my precious ones, it is today. It is today. I told you in the first message that Philadelphia Church, the thing that the Philadelphia Church has to overcome, the thing we have to overcome at this time and in this age is all the deceiving spirits that are in religious circles today. The word even goes so far as to call them the synagogue of Satan, and they're in the church. Deceiving spirits, false doctrines, and how many of God's precious people are being deceived. And I get into churches all over the country and find that, oh, this doctrine is there, and this doctrine is there, and that people are just gullible and accept this doctrine. Do you know this man? First thing about him, he's a millionaire. So what? So what? How did they get it? Commercializing the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of them, most of them, false teachers, false doctrines, deceivers, deceivers, and people, dear, precious saints of God, and some of the older saints, too, that know his precious presence and the glory of the Lord and was just brought up in that. They'll say, Sister Hammond, what do we do? We don't know what to do with this today. I say, stay away from it. That's the best thing to do. Stay away from it. There are religious meetings today I would not go into. There are programs on television I wouldn't listen to. I won't subject the Holy Spirit to that spirit. By his grace I'm going to be ready to meet this wonderful bridegroom. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We have to keep our spirits pure. Keep our spirits pure. Keep our spirits clean. I want to walk in the light. Don't you? Walk in the light. And to walk in the light I've got to have oil. I've got to have lots of oil. I've got to have extra oil. Amen? Not thank the Lord for saving me and baptizing me in the Holy Ghost, speaking in other tongues according to Acts 2-4. And they said, and how long ago did that happen? Oh, let's see, I got the baptism, well, it's 15 years now. Thanks for telling us we'd never known it. I've got to have extra oil. Amen? I have come that you might have life, say it, and have it more abundantly. What does that mean? That means you're going to have life enough that everybody else will know you've got life. More oil, extra oil. Your vessels, your vessels, every vessel that you have, spirit, soul, body, full of the precious Holy Ghost, under this holy anointing, walking alone with Jesus, walking on tiptoe, expecting to get out of here any minute. And I'll be glad to go, won't you? Amen. I'll be glad. I don't like it down here anymore. I don't like it. This world is terrible. I don't like it. And I tell people everywhere I go, if Jesus should take me home by whatever means, if it's a heart attack or anything else, if Jesus gets me out of here while I'm in this city, I wouldn't thank any of you for trying to raise me from the dead. You let me alone. Amen. Yes. Extra oil. Extra oil. Discerning spirits. Discerning spirits. Spirits that have light. Spirits that know which way they're going. Spirits that are in love and know who they're in love with. Amen. Amen. That precious Holy Ghost that gives us the light. He gives us the light. You know, the only light that we have comes from Him. He sheds light on this book. He gives us everything we know about God. He tells us everything we know about the church. He tells us everything we know, everything we know about the whole plan and purpose of God. He tells us everything you and I know about our Bridegroom. The Holy Ghost tells us. I'm going to stay close to Him. I'm going to stay close to Him. Aren't you? And let Him whisper the secrets of the Bridegroom into our hearts and into our lives. Do you think oil is important? Do you think oil is important? How important is this oil? All right. Who can tell? Who can tell the value, the importance of this wonderful baptism of the Holy Ghost that God has sent down on the church? Jesus, Jesus said, when He left here, He said, the very first order of business when I get back home, I'll pray the Father that He'll send you the Comforter. The first order of business. Yes. And we knew when He got back there and had arrived safely and was glorified at the right hand of the Father, and then came the precious Holy Spirit. What for? What's He here for? To do for us all the things I'm talking to you about. And get the church ready. Get us ready to be presented to this glorious Bridegroom. How important is the Holy Ghost? How much value do you put on this baptism of the Holy Ghost? Honey, if I didn't have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I wouldn't go to sleep this night until I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's the importance that I put on it. Who can tell the value? All right. There's just two ways that darkness is produced in a life, and that's when there's no light. If there's no light, there's no oil. If there's no oil, there's no light. There's darkness. And you touch Christians' lives. You can tell where they're living. You can tell when you touch people. You can tell where they're living, whether there's light in the house, whether it's an illuminated spirit, illuminated spirit that's alive, full of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, and there's extra oil. You touch people. You know that. Praise the Lord. What makes darkness? Loss of sight. And when the light goes out, there's darkness. This is what creates darkness. No vision. No vision, no understanding. How important is oil? How important that we stay in the Holy Ghost, that we stay full of the Holy Ghost? Well, they soon found out how important it was. The bridegroom came, and then those foolish virgins went to the wise virgins. Their lamps had gone out. And then they went to those wise virgins and said, Will you give us of your oil? Our lamps have gone out. Will you please help us? Will you please help us? Listen, honey. It's too late. It's too late then. And that is positively impossible. You cannot transfer the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That you cannot do. And that's what this means here. You cannot give what you have to another. Do you know that spirit of give me what you have is already in the earth? That's already here. And all of this going to somebody else. Will you lay your hands on me? Will you pray for me? Will you prophesy over me? Do you have a word from the Lord for me? Will you pray for me? I have people call me. Call me all the time. Will you pray for me? Somebody called me 2.30 in the morning and said, Will you pray for me? Pray for me over the phone. Won't you pray for me? I said it's time you pray for yourself. You know, you know, there comes a time. People want you to pray their prayers. To pay their price. They want you to make their consecrations. They want you to make the surrenders. They ought to make. They ought to make. And it's time that we tell these people, You get down here and pray for yourself. You pay the price. You pray. You better pray through. The bridegroom is coming. He's coming. I have no word from the Lord for you. His whole book. He has so much to say to you. How long has it been since you read the Bible? Well, every once in a while. I thought so. That's the reason the light has gone out. There's no oil in the lamp. You cannot transfer the grace of God. I want to show you something there. It is absolutely impossible to transfer your obedience to somebody else. You can't transfer obedience. It's the last moment. The last. The moment. Jesus is here. He's here. And they want, Will you give me your obedience? Will you give me your spiritual life? Will you give me of your spiritual strength? Will you give me what you have? I want what you have. Listen, honey. You cannot get in a moment of time what has to be built up in our life over a lifetime. You have to build up. Jesus, learn obedience. That's time. That's not one act. You learn obedience over a whole lifetime of walking with God. A whole lifetime of preparation to meet the Lord. A whole lifetime of walking in the light that you have. A whole lifetime of living up to the vision that Jesus has given you. We know He's coming. And He's written it out in the book. The qualifications of the bride. The marriage of the Lamb has come. His wife has made herself ready. It's granted to her to be clothed in pure white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. Linen doesn't grow overnight. That's a long process to get a linen garment. You've got to grow the flax. It has to be cut. It has to be, oh dear, the process that it has to go through. This is a lifetime process that we're in of getting ready to meet the Lord. And you can't wait until the very last minute and get something that you should have built up a whole lifetime. That's impossible. I cannot transfer strength to you, and neither can anybody else. Nobody can transfer obedience. You should walk in obedience every day of your life. It takes a lifetime to build character, right? It's a lifetime process. That's not overnight. It's a lifetime process to build character. And each one of us has to pay the price of walking in the light as we receive the light, of giving Him obedience as He lays obedience upon our hearts and lives, doing His will, staying in God, keeping full of the Holy Ghost, keep extra oil on hand, keep prayed up all the time, prayed through. You can't let a day go by without praying, getting in touch with God, feeding on this sacred Holy Word. It's a lifetime process to come into the likeness, the image and likeness of our precious Lord. That's a lifetime process. All right. All right. What really was wrong with these foolish virgins? I'll tell you what was wrong with them. They did not do what they should have done when they had time to do it and when they had opportunity to do it. Now we have time. Now we have opportunity. But they let day after day, week after week. I know Christians, they don't open their Bible from one weekend to the other. You ask them, when did you pray through? They don't know what you're talking about. Oh, I pray. I say my prayers. I pray. No real vision, no real light, no vibrancy in their expression and in their walk with the Lord at all. These, they foolishly made no preparation when they had time to prepare to meet the Lord. None of us know how we're going out here or how soon we're going to go out of here. We don't know. We had better day after day join the crowd of the wise virgins and keep your vessels filled with oil and keep extra oil on hand. The bridegroom is coming soon and I want to be ready, don't you? By his grace, I'm going to be ready. It's a thing of the will. It's a thing of the will and we have to stake our claim and just give everything in our preparing, not let one day slip by. Join this crowd of wise virgins that know that they're ready right now and are welcoming the bridegroom or crying to him, Come quickly, my beloved. Come quickly, my soul cries to thee. Oh, come quickly, my precious Lord. Come quickly. Then he's going to answer that cry someday. The door, then the door will be shut. It's shut. And when that door is shut, the consternation, I saw the consternation on that crowd that didn't get into that little wedding in Palestine. They cried. They banged on the door. They, ooh, the earnestness, the earnestness, Lord, Lord, Lord, open to us. The door is shut, he says, and I don't know you, which really means they did not know him and there was no relation, no relationship between these folks at all and the bridegroom. I don't know you as belonging to this bridal company. Somebody said, well, didn't they get in later? Yes. Yes, they did. They came later. They came later and they got in this, you know, that place just inside the gate, just inside the gate where there's a multitude that no man can number waving palm branches. They're out of hell and they got in the gate through their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ but have no part with him, with him, in his personal relationship to that glorious bridal company. We have to make our choices. This is our last, our last night meeting. I told you the first night this time would slip by so fast and it's like a breath and it's, it'll be over. It'll be over. I want us to go to prayer tonight. I want us to go to prayer and I want all, the whole house to go to prayer and I want us to be free tonight before the Lord to give ourselves to God. I know in my spirit there are, there are spirits here. There are people here. There are hearts here tonight that are really longing to be ministered to and really would appreciate somebody praying with them, somebody to help. Sometimes we need help to get through. Sometimes we need help. Spirits can be so weak but there arises inside, I really want to, I really want to, but they're so sickly sometimes that there isn't strength enough to do the thing that they want to. And I'm going to ask you just to be free, to move among the crowd and pray with whoever God leads you to pray for and to pray with. And there are those here who haven't yet received the baptism of the Spirit. This is your glorious night to let God baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And you who haven't, who haven't had a touch of oil for a long, long time, won't you let Him give you a whole vessel full tonight of extra oil to carry, carry with you? Wouldn't you like to carry a can of extra oil out of here tonight? Oh, consciousness of your relationship to Him in a very, very beautiful way. Praise the Lord. Shall we stand?