When king Saul disobeyed God, the prophet Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and given it to another..a man after His own heart.” Saul sought the kingdom by his own reliance. It was a reflection of his superficial acknowledgement of who God is. Let us analyze for a moment the 25th chapter of Matthew.
We begin with the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). Jesus said, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.” Five were wise, five were foolish. All ten of were yet virgins, they had access to oil, and were to enter into marriage at the return of the bridegroom. The foolish virgins carried no oil in their lamps. If the lamps are the vessels of our lives, then the oil can only be the Holy Spirit of God Himself. At midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom has come! Go out to meet him.” By this time the foolish virgins lamps had gone out. There was no anointing over what they once had. The wise virgins went into the marriage feast and the door was shut. The foolish came saying, “Lord, lord open to us.” He answered, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Now let us examine the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). To one slave a master gave five talents, to another he gave two, and to another he gave one; each according to their ability. When the master returned, the slave with five had doubled what he was given, likewise the one with two, but the slave with one talent did nothing with it. To the two who had multiplied their portion, a portion was given and they were brought into the kingdom of their Father. But the slave who did nothing with his salvation was stripped of his talent, it was given to the one who had ten, then he was cast out of the kingdom. He had no real desire to obey his master or to seek the heart of God.
We come to the last group; the goat nations who did not help the brothers of Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46). When the Son of Man comes in His glory He will sit upon His glorious throne and before Him will be gathered the nations. He will separate the people as a shepard separates sheep from goats. The King will say to His sheep on the right, “Come you who are blessed by my Father prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” The righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Then He will say to the goats on His left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” They will yell, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?” He will reply saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
The foolish virgins who took no oil, the one talent slave who did nothing with his salvation, and the goat nations who did not help the brothers of Jesus all found that the doors to the kingdom were closed to them. In contrast to Saul, a man anointed by God who lost his anointing, they too all wasted what they were given and were all totally and finally rejected by God. We need to consider our lives in the light of eternity; the Son. Do we even take these things seriously? Could this be me? Have I failed to yield something in my life unto the Lord? Am I living for Him in a way that is acceptable in serving Him? The standard has always been Christ. Seek these things out while there is still time. Don’t be so caught up in the doctrinal statements of your church that you fail to examine your life. We have to be willing to put our lives down for the cause of the kingdom. We have one opportunity in this life to serve King Jesus. Lets not waste that. Let us be men and women so in love with Christ that we know nothing else.
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who DOES THE WILL of My Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 7:21