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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 444 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Thomas: I don't know but I thought I might read something here that's been gathered. By whom, I don't know, but I believe it's a true statement. You know this universe we live in and the earth here in this universe is just about like a speck of dust--well that's really not a good comparison, but I started to say about like a speck of dust in this room here. That's all it is. It's very, very small. There's a quasar, a star-like object far out in space. Light travels 186 thousand miles a second--light does. In one year light would travel 6 trillion miles. It would take 18 billion years for light to travel to that quasar. Can you imagine that? The distance to that quasar is 108 billion trillion miles. That's a fur piece! I'd hate to get on a slow train there like you used to through Arkansas! Now Matthew chapter 25. "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them," that's the virgins, "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. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out." Now I'd just like to visualize, I imagine those lamps, some of you go back far enough where you used old kerosene lamps. And if you don't have very much oil in there--it's about gone, you may light it and the old wick will burn a little bit but it'll flicker and go out. I imagine that that's about what happened here. And now, but the wise... "and the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out." They were flickering. "But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you; but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And 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." That's the closing of the door. "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." That seemed to be the condition upon which he made his decision at that time... I don't know you. "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." This is a parable and the Lord often spake in parables but they had a heavenly meaning, didn't they? They had a spiritual meaning and that's exactly what this is. The Lord himself gave us this. And he says the kingdom of heaven would be likened unto these ten virgins. That's the whole sphere of the kingdom of heaven. It's obvious that some of them were ready and some weren't. "While he tarried" says verse five. Five foolish and five wise. And we find out in verse three, "They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them." Now we know that oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. They didn't have any. They had a profession of faith. They had a lamp, but they didn't have any oil. A lamp don't do you any good if you can't have some oil to burn your wick. And that's a picture of religious people. Five of them here were wise. They had oil. It don't say what kind they were, or if they were sanctified or what. I believe that when we get Jesus, we've got all that God has for us. And that's why the scripture says in Colossians "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Now he didn't say you'd lose your soul but you would be spoiled. That accounts for many people today that professed to be Christians but yet they got some hang-ups. They are saved, but they've got some hang-ups. Well, for instance now, you know you've got some people that believe that you need to get saved and then you need to get sanctified. And then you need to get the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Now that's the whole, everything that you're supposed to have to make you ready for heaven. That's supposedly what they believe. Yet the scripture that I just quoted to you, "Beware lest any man spoil you ...." Now note there's some that can be spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit--that means deception that's deceiving--after the tradition of men. And where does most people get their religion from? Tradition. Absolutely! Absolutely. Of course this is showing us something else. It's showing us people that profess to be Christians that's not. But there's a day coming when they're going to wish they were. And of course the way He states this is by saying "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him." You know I never will forget whenever I started preaching and I was thinking about the paper, you know. And I got to thinking what in the world would I name it. And then, of course, I thought of the Midnight Cry and that's what we named it. And our just about everything is named the Midnight Cry. The Midnight Cry Broadcast and the church down there in Jacksonville is Midnight Cry. Of course that don't mean anything necessarily. But anyway that's where all that come from. And we see they had profession, they had lamps. All had the same type of lamps, but five of them had oil in their lamps with their vessels and five didn't have any. So they couldn't light them. There was nothing to light. I wonder how many people who profess to be Christians today are really saved? Do you have any idea? I know you don't. No more than I do. Well, we've got literally hundreds of different denominations, religions--hundreds. All have different names, little different doctrines, here and there, but they don't have the Lord. I believe some people get devils and think they've got the Lord. I believe that, don't you? I know I have been in some services and I've seen things that I believe were devils and I've said to myself, if I had to go through that again, I'd walk down there and command that devil to leave. I never will forget one church I was in, I believe it was in Charlotte, North Carolina. And incidentally this was the preacher's daughter. She got in such bad shape she was trying to crawl and she was crawling like a snake on the floor. I'd never seen anything like that, but I didn't bother it. I just let it go. Take its course. If I did it again, I'd just walk over there and command that devil to leave. He'd have to leave. But this is a general warning that to be a professing Christian and to not have the oil of the Spirit, which is Christ in you the hope of glory, is to no avail. Because there's a day coming and it says "at midnight." Now what significance that may be I do not know except to say that its gonna be at a time when people really think they need the Lord. But they may not...it'll be a time just before the coming of the Lord. Who knows? The Lord may have given me those things back yonder. I don't say positively, but I believe He did. Now this scripture here in verse 6 says it's midnight. What do you think that...what the significance might be there? -- Congregation: Dark hour. -- Brother Thomas: Dark hour. That's the very center between the two days. Amen. "There was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh: go ye out to meet him." Now they all of these virgins, the ten virgins, were anticipating the coming of the Lord and they all rose up, got their lamps, trimmed the wicks. And I imagine they lit their lamps, tried to light them, in anticipation of the bridegroom coming. But they discovered it wouldn't stay lit at that time. It would just flicker a few times and then go back out. And I imagine they'd...matches were covering the floor. They were trying to get those things to burn. That'd be a late hour to get your lamps burning. And we notice here now that these foolish virgins though, their lamps wouldn't burn, but they were aware of the fact that the wise virgins had oil. And they rushed over to them. Say, could we get some of your oil? Well we don't have enough but for ourselves. Now we have many scriptures about the door closing. The old Ark door was a type and whenever it closed that was the end of it. They couldn't get in. And that's what he says here. These foolish virgins came to the wise and said, listen, how about giving us some of your oil? They said, no, we don't have enough for you, just enough for ourselves, but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. They had to go get it themselves or they were without. "Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." That's one thing about it, nobody can be saved for you. Nobody can help you in that department. You have to personally bow the knee to Jesus Christ. Every single one of you--every man, every woman, every boy, every girl. If you are to be saved when Jesus Christ comes, you're going to have to bow the knee to Him here. You're going to have to humble yourself and say, Lord, I'm a sinner. He'll save you but now that's something that you have to do. No one can do that for you. I think I'd rather do that, don't you? So these foolish virgins, they came, but it was too late. "And 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." Can you imagine what happened back there when that old ark...and of course the Bible refers to that "as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man." And it's going to be very similar. Can you imagine about the knocking on that old ark side and that door, trying to get in? They...that door was closed and whatever ramp they had going up to it, it was moved. There was no way to get in that ark, except they went the way that the others went. You know it's amazing at how here in this world, we have prejudices. We have certain things you know that we don't like about this group or that group. And there's very few people that actually seek God. What they do is they go to their...what you call their home church and look where it's sent people. Ten thousand and one. Wouldn't it be better, don't you think? He says, "thou shalt seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." Don't you think it'd be better if they'd do that? I know it would. God wouldn't fool them, would he? He'd be true to His word. "Call unto me and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." That certainly seems to indicate that God may seemingly put you off but He is waiting until you get ready. "Ask and ye shall receive, seek"...see that's a continuation of asking .... Out of this crowd here tonight, no doubt there's people who don't know a thing about salvation. And you may have been raised to go to church and to Sunday school and all that with your parents or somebody. You may have made profession of faith, but you're not saved. You're not really saved. You wouldn't want the Lord to come tonight. You'd say, Lord, don't come tonight, give me a chance to get ready. I'm going to give you a chance tonight. I can't save you but I can certainly tell you about the one that can. And you can call this the Midnight Cry if you wanted too. It may be your midnight cry. Now when the Lord comes, there's no way that door can be opened. If the Lord was to come right now, I don't know how many people here would go up. I don't know how many would be saved. But I know this, only those who had Christ in their heart would go up. The rest would, you'd remain right where you're at. I wish I could save you, but I can't. But I can tell you about the one that can. The one who said, "Him that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out." He said he would in no wise cast you out. You have to do the coming. You have to make the move. You have to. You start and he'll meet you. I'll never forget whenever I got saved. That was the most thrilling thing in the world. I'd never had that peace. Of course I was raised in sort of a haphazard way. I had a lot of things that you know...but whenever I threw the towel in and said, Yes, Lord, peace come in behind that. That was Him. Where He goes...He's the Prince of Peace. He came in and He's never left and He never will leave. 
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