In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the urgency of being serious Christians and preparing to meet the Lord. He refers to Jesus standing outside the church door, knocking and waiting to be let in. The preacher discusses a parable from Matthew 25, where the bridegroom represents Jesus and his imminent return. He urges the congregation to believe in the coming of the Lord and be prepared for his arrival, as the exact timing is unknown.

Worthy, worthy of honor, blessing and riches and honor, we give thee glory, we give thee praise, we give thee all there is of us, precious Lord Jesus. We put ourselves at your disposal again tonight, Lord. We're so happy to be in your divine presence. Oh, will you please again take us in those sacred nail-pierced hands? Don't let us escape the moving, the working of your Holy Spirit in the inner man. Don't excuse anybody, don't excuse any of us. Oh, my Father, my Father, we're here in thy presence and before thy wonderful Word. As we open this book, will you open up its truth to us tonight? Ooh, and let the light of your glorious presence shine in upon us. Let us know what you want, and I pray you'll give strength and conviction and power and ability to obey the Lord and give your heart the response that you want tonight. In the name of, say it with me, the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for coming. Thank you again for coming. I haven't given you anything but the truth, and I have to believe you're lovers of the truth. I have to believe that, and so I can't do anything more but give you more truth. Is that what you want? Yes, the hour is too late, the time is too short. It's no time to play church, no time to fiddle. It's time to be serious Christians and get ready to meet the Lord. I want to thank you for coming. I want to thank you. You know, I didn't know. I'm a little, just a little district woman around here, and I didn't know if I'd have five or ten or how many, but thank you for coming and sharing in the truth, sharing in this wonderful, glorious gospel, sharing in his glorious presence. I think Jesus is wonderful. Oh, I think he's wonderful, wonderful. Yes, yes, and the Lord provided help. Thank you, Sister Kimball. Thank you, Sister Schaffer. And Sally Keller has arrived. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And Brother Hensley, I appreciate you. I really do. This man has, when I say cooperated, I mean cooperated. And anything I say, yes, yes, yes, he was ready to give me the sky just so we could meet in his presence and enjoy this wonderful time together in the presence of the Lord. I thank you for your offering this morning. I can't return anything to you, but Jesus keeps good books, and he'll do all the repaying. God bless you, bless you. They're still coming in. Thank God, thank God, thank God. Just again say, glory to the Father, glory to the Son, glory to the Holy Ghost, blessed three in one. That's all right. Go on. Yes, yes, say to him whatever you want to say. He's worthy to be worshipped, worthy to be adored, worthy to be adored, worthy to be adored. Yes, we worship him and open up to him, and then he can pour the truth into our hearts. Would you turn with me tonight to the 25th chapter of Matthew? And we're going to talk about something that is really very, very important. If Jesus said it, it's important. And this is one of his parables. And folks say, well, that's only a parable, but that's the way Jesus taught. Jesus didn't complicate the truth. He made it as simple as he could make it so the people could understand. And that's what I try to do. It's a parable of Jesus. He said it so that gives me credentials to use it. The 25th of Matthew, beginning with the first verse, first through the 13th. Then shall the kingdom of heaven. Now, the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said my kingdom comes not with observation. My kingdom isn't something that's out here. My kingdom is inside of you. So these parables that he gives us, he's talking about something that's going on inside of us. And when you read it, you read it as a personal thing. Jesus is talking to me here. There's something. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto. There's something inside of me that's going on that he wants to get at, that he wants to probe into, he wants to deal with. So we'll listen to what he has to say. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil, our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us in you. But go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. While they went to buy, the bridegroom came. And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage. And the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. There's three parables here, one right after the other, that Jesus gives in which the bridegroom, the bridegroom is talked about. The bridegroom has gone away on a journey and he's coming back. And in all three of these parables, Jesus is talking about the bridegroom. That bridegroom is soon returning. And so the truth, the central truth here is that the bridegroom is coming. You believe that? Do you believe the coming of the Lord is imminent? Do you believe? How close do you think is the coming of the Lord? Do you believe the Lord could come even tonight? Do you think he could? I don't see any reason why Jesus couldn't come tonight. There's only one thing, there's only one thing, whatever last traces and etchings of his own likeness and image he has yet to make on his bride, and when she's ready, he's coming. He's coming. So the truth that I want to leave with you is that the bridegroom is coming. And the truth that has been all through this conference is the fact that the bridegroom is coming. And the truth that I want you to carry away from this conference is the bridegroom is coming. I want you to be very conscious of that fact. Carry it with you. Live with this truth. Meditate on it. Pray, pray about it. Pray about it. Pray about it. And listen, listen to the Word of God and what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to you down on the inside. I hope you are in communion with him. Are you in communication with the Holy Spirit? Is he down in there talking and dealing and there's nothing to keep him from talking and dealing with you and telling you the choice secrets that he wants to tell you and that we all need to hear because only the Holy Ghost knows this bridegroom. Only the precious Holy Spirit knows who he is. Only the Holy Spirit knows what he's like. Only the Holy Spirit can help us to be prepared for such a bridegroom. Amen. Oh yes, God help us. And this parable of the ten virgins is just linked with this whole thing. And I'm talking about the bride and the bridegroom. And I want to say this. In a time and a day when marriage is looked upon as less almost than honorable, a message of this kind is not for the carnal. It's not for the carnal. In fact, they aren't interested anyhow. But with the apostles and the prophets and those saints of old, we unite our interest in a bridegroom. Hallelujah. Marvelous. Heavenly bridegroom. Holy, holy, holy and righteous and altogether lovely. And this is a very intimate thing that's going on between a heavenly bridegroom and his church, his holy church that's down here on earth that he loves so very much. They're virgins. Paul says concerning the church, I have espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. I have espoused you, well, you know, to one husband, not half a dozen. To one husband. So you cannot have a divided heart. You cannot have divided interest. We cannot live with one foot in the world and the other in the church. We cannot live in the flesh and in the spirit. You can't. You can't. You cannot build your house on the sand and on the rock at the same time. You cannot have two masters. You cannot have two lords. You cannot go in two different directions. You cannot love the world and the things of the world and love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. This is the bride. That holy church that has an undivided heart and undivided love. A first love. A Jesus-only crowd. Hallelujah. I belong to Jesus-only crowd. Did you know that? Say something. Where are you living? Thank you. Somebody else say it. Thank you. Somebody over here say it. Yes, praise the Lord. We're Jesus-only people that love the Lord our God with all of our heart. Only one husband. Only one bridegroom. Amen. That's why that little girl, that little girl wears a ring that only has one stone in it. There's one and only. One and only now. One and only. So her engagement ring only has one stone sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ. Love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. You know what that means? That means the strength of your mind. The strength of your soul. The strength of your spirit. The strength of your heart. And that's all there is of you. Amen. He wants all there is of you. I think he's wonderful, don't you? All right, in this marriage ceremony, the minister says, Will you, and I'm always interested in this, Will you love and what? Honor and what else? Will you love, honor, and obey? Will you love, honor, and obey? Who is this man who wants me to love him and honor him and obey him? I have a right to question. Who is he? Who is this man who wants me to love him? What is his character? What are his qualifications? What right does this bridegroom have to ask me to love him? If you, if a man would come and propose to you, and that's what he's saying, he's saying, Will you love me? Will you honor me? Will you obey me? That's what you're going to say at the wedding, if you're going to marry me. These are the worthwhile things. Who is this one who wants me to love him? What are your qualifications, Jesus? You want me to love you? What are your qualifications? And he answers back, I laid down my life for you. Here, what are your, what is your character? He says, Here is my broken body. Here is my shed blood. Here is my life. I laid it down. I gave it up. I poured it out for you. Can you love this man? Please answer me. Can you honor this man? Can you honor this man? Could you obey this man? Hallelujah. This is what he wants. This is what he wants. He demands our love. And he has a perfect right to ask for our love. And he wants all of our love. And he's not about to divide it with the world, the flesh, and the devil. If you want to be in this company, if you want to make the rapture, if you want to be in this glorious church without spot or without wrinkle, if you want to be in the pride of the land, you have to give up. You have to turn your back on every other husband, the world, the flesh, the devil. What a day we're living in when you have permission to do almost whatever you want to do. If you do it with reservation, they'll tell you. They'll tell you. Did you ever read Dave, what's his name, book on sipping saints, sipping saints? It's all right to sip a little bit on the side if you do it with reservation. It's all right to smoke a cigarette now and then if you just do it with reservation. And here comes this man with, this spirit-filled man, I want you to know, with a great big cigar sticking out of his mouth, and he says, it's all right if I do it with reservation. I want to tell you something. When in that garden of Eden, God put Adam in there, did he say, Adam, now here is a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, it's all right to sip and to take a piece of fruit once in a while if you do it with reservation. Is that what God said? No. God said, don't look on it. Don't look on it. Don't go near it. Don't eat of it. Have nothing to do with it. Don't taste it. The day you eat thereof, you die. You die. And I want to tell you, dear, sin still has the same effect on you, spirit and soul and body. The day you eat, you die. You die. You die. You're cut off from God. You lose that holy thing that he breathed into your spirit when Jesus came into you. If the day you eat sin, you die and are cut off from God. Do you know there's a doctrine today? Do your sinning and then, it's all right to repent. Do your sinning. Do your sinning and then you can repent. God is a God of love. Do your sinning and he'll forgive you. Then you can repent. There is a doctrine like that. And I meet these people and they'll come with no consciousness of sin, its ugliness, its horribleness, how God hates it and what sin does to their lives. And they'll come, well, I committed sin and God's a God of love. He'll forgive me. Won't he? Everything within your holy being rises up. That's not the kind of bridegroom we have. It cost Jesus his broken body, his shed blood. It cost him hell. He went to hell. He went to hell for his church. It cost that for him to be our sacrifice and to give his life and to die for us. And the day you eat thereof, you die. Saints of God, for God's sake, for your own soul's sake, if you're ever going to make the rapture and see the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot sin and repent, sin and repent, taste of sin and repent. God is a God of love. God is not that kind of God. He hates sin with a holy hatred. Of course he will forgive if people stumble and fall and are caught. He does forgive. But you can't live like that and expect to come back and back and back. You can't treat God like that. God is a holy God. He's a holy God. We had that the first night of this meeting. He's a holy God. He's a holy God. Everything in heaven says, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Holy is the Father. Holy is the Son. Holy is the Spirit. He's the Holy Spirit. He comes to make us holy and to make us spiritual, to make us like Jesus himself. Holy, holy is the Lord. Holy. When God baptized me in the Holy Ghost, he gave me such a revelation and consciousness of his holiness that I went home from that meeting baptized in the Holy Spirit and somebody had left a newspaper lying on the floor in the living room and I went in. My hands are holy. I'm holy. The Holy Ghost has come into me. I'm holy and I felt such a consciousness of the holiness of God. I could not pick up that filthy newspaper. Somebody had to pick it up and I learned later on that sometimes I had to pick it up but when God came with such a revelation of his holiness, I held my hands like this. I don't want to touch that filthy thing. God is a holy, holy God. I want to tell you, I want to tell you, you can love this man, this bridegroom, this holy bridegroom. Let him have every bit of your love. Honor. That's part of the song of the bride, you know. The bride sings. We sang it this morning. Thou art worthy to receive glory. And that's going to fill heaven one of these days and the angels will fold their wings. Listen to the bride sing. She can sing words that just fill the heaven, fill the heaven, fill the heaven. And you know, the book of Revelation is really the Christian's hymn book. It really is. And all throughout eternity, songs that we're going to sing is there. The angels will get caught up in it after a while. Not redemption song, but they're going to sing about him, his beauty, his power, his glory, his life, his love. Everything in heaven, everything on earth, everything under the earth. And after a while, everything that is is going to be caught up in the song of the redeemed, the redemption. And when they break out, I'm waiting till that song of salvation breaks out when everything that can be redeemed is redeemed. And everything that was lost to Jesus has been restored. He came to seek and to save, not him that was lost, but that which was lost, which includes the whole universe, which includes heaven and all that portion of heaven where that third of the angelic hosts were and the devil took all of that crowd, that whole space is going to be filled up again. The restoration is going to be tremendous. And then the whole creation, the whole universe, heaven, earth, everything in earth and under the earth and in the sea and under the sea is going to cry, Now has come salvation. Oh, I want to say, when you look upon those nail-pierced hands, what do you think you're going to do? When you see his nail-pierced feet, what are you going to do? He lifts his hand to bless you and you see the nail wound there. What do you think you're going to do? I think we'll do exactly what John did. We'll fall at his feet like dead and just pour out, pour out all there is of us to him. Well, honey, I want to give him all of God right now. Amen. And pour out spirit and soul and body and everything I have to give it to him and let it be poured back alive, patient at his precious feet right now. Right now. Right now. Everybody say glory. Glory. Honor. That sitteth upon the throne. Honor. And to the Lamb. Forever. Yes, yes, Lord. Paul says the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. So if it's the Lord himself that shall descend from heaven, then he wants to be Lord of my life. He wants to be Lord of your life. Amen. And if he's our Lord, then he wants to own us. Yes. Yes. You husbands own your wives, don't you? She's mine in that sense. She's mine. Then he wants to own us. He wants to possess us. He wants to control us. Now, now he wants to control us. Oh, honey, learn to yield to his control. For one of these days the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise first. And I tell you, when he puts that current on you, you want to be ready to respond to the Lord and know what that is and what that's all about and be ready in a moment in the twinkling of an eye to get out of here, to get out of here. And to get out of here in a moment of time, you've got to hold very loosely everything down here. Amen. Hold everything loosely. Hold it so loosely. A woman rushed up to me and she says, Do you really think the coming of the Lord is that near at hand? And I said, Honey, I'm not saying things up there that I don't really believe. I do believe the coming of the Lord is that near at hand. She says, I don't want him to come. We're building a new home, and I'd like to enjoy it a little while before the Lord comes. Oh, honey, that will look like a doghouse compared to what's over there, what he's getting ready for us. But, oh, people have no vision, no vision, no understanding of the things the Lord has prepared for them that love him. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Say, Praise the Lord. All right. Now, I've talked about the glorious bridegroom, and I could just go on and on to talk about who he is. You never get through. He's so wonderful. He's so wonderful. He's Savior. He's Savior. He's such a glorious high priest up there praying for us, presenting us to the Father. Do you know Jesus has been praying for you for almost 2,000 years? Do you know that? Almost 2,000 years he's waited for his bride. He's waited for his bride, but he'll continue to wait until she is worthy of so marvelous a bridegroom. And this now is what this parable is all about. We're going to leave the bridegroom and talk about the readiness, our readiness, our readiness, ready for the day of the wedding, the wedding day, the wedding day. Yes. Now, there were ten virgins, ten virgins. Five of them were wise, and five of them were foolish, ten of them. And they all heard that the bridegroom was coming. They all heard it. There's very few Christians on earth that have not heard the midnight cry. Already we have heard that the bridegroom is coming, and he's coming soon, and we know that. And the cry has already gone forth. Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye out to meet him. And I could spend an hour in there, because there is so much to go out of. There's so much to go out of. You know, there was a time when you just came out of the world. Separate yourself from the world and come away from the world. But you not only have to come out of the world today, it seems to me there's a thousand things in religious circles that you have to come out of today if you're going to be ready to meet the bridegroom. The church has gathered so much trash along the way. She's gathered so much dirt. She's gathered so much of the world until the church is no longer influencing the world. The world is influencing the church. And she's seeing the church just to see how near the edge she can get and not go over. Well, the fact is that she's going over, because in that Laodicean period, Jesus is outside the door. He's not even in the church any longer. He's outside the door. And the whole church thing has dwindled down until it's a personal thing. And it's almost come to that right now. Almost. Jesus stands outside the door, knocking on the church door, trying to get in there. And finally he says, If any man, if there's one in there, if any man hear my voice and will open the door, I'll come in and sup with him, and he can sup with me. You know, it was like this at the close of Jesus' ministry. Jesus ministered to the multitudes. The multitudes followed him, heard him gladly while he was performing miracles and ministering to them and taking care of their wants and their needs. They followed him. Multitudes! And then there came a time when he began to lay his cross upon them. Lay his cross upon them. And when he laid his cross upon them and talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, they began to turn away, every man to his own way. This is too hard. This is a hard thing. Then they turned away. Isaiah said, They turn every man to his own way. This is his demands, this cross business. We don't want that. We don't want that. I've had churches tell me, We do not want that. We don't want that. I went into one church and before I went there, I knew I was headed, I knew it was going to be a battle. And I asked Jesus if he would give me an intercessor to go along with me. And Jesus spoke to my heart and told me that it was going to be rough. But he says, If you will obey me and do what I ask you to do, we'll come out victorious. And I said, Oh God, give me grace. Oh God, give me strength. Oh God, help me to stand through this thing. And I went to that church and my very first sermon, the Lord says, I want this to be your text. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ, by which I'm crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me. And I said, Jesus, I'm supposed to be here for revival. You don't have revivals on sermons like that. I want that's your text for tonight. Ooh, I see I'm in it for trouble. So I went into that. They had advertised me in that place. It was unbelievable. They advertised what they put out about this woman that was coming to town. I looked at the advertisement and wondered who on earth they were talking about. And all the extravagant things that they were saying. I was the biggest little Bible teacher on the face of God's earth and such extravagant things. I apologized to Jesus. And I said, Lord, we know better than that. And just forgive them and help me to do your will.