Worship

A Lack of Oil

by Paul Taylor
05/22/21
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

A LACK OF OIL

By Paul Taylor

HAPPY SABBATH  AND A BLESSING TO ALL

In the parable of the ten virgins, Matt.25:1-13, Jesus is making a comparison  of the state of the Christians  just  prior to His return. In the parable, the ten virgins await the arrival of the bridegroom for the marriage supper. Because the bridegroom tarried,  they became weary, and all fell asleep. At midnight, a cry is heard proclaiming the arrival of the bridegroom, and all reacted to the occasion, but five of the ten didn’t have sufficient oil in their lamps to go out and meet the bridegroom and were therefore shutout from the marriage supper.

The bridegroom in this parable is Jesus, and the ten virgins are the church (those who call themselves Christian), and the oil in the lamps are a reference to the spiritual health of the ones claiming a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

As the parable states, five had sufficient oil, (spiritual health) and five did not.

Most of today’s Christians can be characterized as the five virgins lacking sufficient oil to complete the journey to enter into the marriage supper with Jesus.

John 4:24 tells us , “GOD IS SPIRIT: AND THEY THAT WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.”

The oil in the lamps   is representative of the spirit of God, and without a healthy spirit and a life of truth  we cannot please God.

For the past two thousand years the Christians have waited in anticipation of the return of Jesus to take them to a heavenly home where sin will never rise again, but over this period of time the people have grown weary of waiting and most have lost the zeal of hope and faith they once possessed. Most like the five virgins have become lackadaisical in  their relationship with Jesus Christ and in so doing have relegated the worship of God into a meaningless ritual, conforming to the worldly ways of man as they drift further away from the loving relationship they once chose to follow.

Isaiah:1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Have we become the sinful nation Isaiah is referring to? I believe so, and God has words for this condition as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed:

Isaiah 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Have we as a people sunk to such a level of sin and filth, that God has declared He will hide His eyes from us? Because of our sinful lifestyles are we praying in vain to a  God who has had His fill of our rejecting  His commandments and statutes?

God is pleading for His people to wake up, discard the worldly ways of sin, the deceptive rituals, teachings, and practices of the modern politically correct churches who seem more inclined to please man than God.

Isaiah 1:16,17  16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow

Past generations of Christians looked with hope and anticipation of the things we are seeing today in relation to the prophecies of the signs of the soon arrival of Jesus. The prophecies being fulfilled today should instill an immense happiness in the Christians as an assurance that we are about to see the coming of Jesus and His angels appearing in the eastern sky to gather those who have patiently waited, kept His commandments, and have the faith of Jesus, in their heart.

With all the rapidly fulfilling prophecies, the unmistakable signs Jesus spoke of, now in plain sight  for all to see, there  seems to be  an eerily  strange silence in the Christian Church. Are the people so removed from the true word of God that they can’t recognize the facts because of the many deceptions being taught in the churches today?   Rev.17:2 … and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. The wine of fornication here is describing the people being so filled with deceptive and false teachings, that they are unable to distinguish between the  truth and deceptions.

In Matthew 24:42 Jesus instructs His followers; to look for the signs of His coming, and in Matthew  16:3 He is admonishing the Scribes and Pharisees for their pride and arrogance in not recognizing the signs of His first coming: “And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

With the signs of the end times now appearing in plain sight, and after two thousand years of waiting, a firestorm of activity in the Christian church should be raging, but sadly there is silence.

Isaiah:1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Isaiah 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah 1:16,17  16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Friends, time is running out for those still in the world and not into Jesus, not having the patience of the Saints and keeping the commandments of God. Examine yourself in relation to God’s word, not man’s, judge yourself critically, and make the necessary changes to conform to God’s standard. God’s standard is the only standard that really matters.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

May God add a blessing to the going forth of His word and to those reading it.

Paul Taylor

May 21, 2021

©copyright 2021 Paul Taylor all rights reserved worldwide. All scripture KJV unless noted