FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER FIVE Part III
Why Choose to be a Foolish, not a Wise Virgin? – Part 3
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
A man is too apt to forget that in this world
he cannot have everything. A choice is all that is left him.
H. Matthews, Diary of an Invalid
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Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord. Jeremiah 9: 23, 24, N.K.J.V.
“This is the most precious reproof and encouragement, the most important lesson for every soul that is trying to serve God. Here is expressed in plain words that in which the Lord delights. All who understand and know God will know Him as One that exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness. If they walk humbly with God they will be enabled to keep the way of the Lord, to do His will in all kindness, compassion, mercy, tenderness, and love, for God has said, ‘In these things I delight.’ Then how careful should we be in regard to the fruit of the lips, that we dishonor not God by dealing unkindly with the purchase of His blood. If we express the character of God, we shall be Christian gentlemen and gentlewomen . . . .
“Those who know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior have the privilege of being educated and trained in a higher school than that of men, and of being tutored under higher wisdom than that of finite beings. They may come under the tutorship of the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, and partake of the same knowledge that He gave to Daniel [Dan. 1: 17-20]. Those who arehumble in heart [not as a pretense to obtain the praise of men, not God], those who feel their need of a higher and do not rely upon their finite judgment, but search earnestly to know the will of God, may draw from the Source of all knowledge, and obtain grace, prudence and discretion and judgment [a clear conscience and acquired ability to discern between the genuine and counterfeit as tested by the Word]. They will realize the fulfillment of the assurance of God’s Word: ‘The entrance of Thy words giveth life; it giveth understanding to the simple (humble}.” (Ps. 119: 130).” – E. G. White, That I May Know Him (devotional), p. 127.
We must choose to be part of the final antitypical wise virgins in these most solemn closing hours of earth’s probation that commenced in the fall of 1844 as the antitypical Day of Atonement—the closing work of Christ in the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary as merciful High Priest and righteous Judge of all the earth. “For we shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ . . . So then each of shall give account of himself to God.”Rom. 14: 10, 12. This is the pre-advent or investigative judgment that many professed Bible-based Christians adamantly refuse to accept for obvious reasons—they choose to believe they can be eternally saved by their pick-and-choose method of interpreting the everlasting gospel by leaving out wide swaths of the Old and New Testament that clearly reveal God’s way in His plan of redemption as fleshed out in simple yet spiritually profound detail in the sanctuary doctrine. This was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. As David, who received from God the detailed specifications for the building of the sanctuary wrote: “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.” Ps.27: 13. “The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and central pillar of the advent faith, was the declaration, ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuarybe cleansed.’ Dan. 8: 14. These had been familiar words to all believers in the Lord’s soon coming [represented as the ten virgins in the parable].” – Ibid, Great Controversy, 1911 ed., p. 409.
The rejecters of the comprehensive sanctuary doctrine have zealously tried all means, including twisting the Scriptures and employing renowned pastors, ministers, theologians, and Bible commentators to discredit, debunk, and even demonize it in their pulpits and official literature, hoping the doctrine will get buried in time and by their sustained attacks in desperate confederacy, but in vain! The majority of the antediluvians mocked and jeered Noah and his faithful warnings of a coming global deluge and the preparation needed to escape it. But they became even more vehement in their ridicule and contempt. However, all their combined efforts against an unpopular yet present testing truth for their generation could not prevent the Flood from occurring at its God-appointed, prophesied time. “It shall come to pass,” thus saith the Lord.”
The wise virgins in these last days, “ask, seek, and knock for the Holy Spirit” in their daily prayers. (Please find time as soon as possible to read and contemplate on Luke 11: 1-13 for yourself. You may be surprised to find that even if we do earnestly and persistently pray for everything we think are essential and good but not even half as much for the Holy Spirit! No wonder we are so weak in faith and courage to stand our ground in defense of unpopular truth! That certainly does not class us among the wise virgins!
In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, the Holy Spirit is symbolized as “oil”– one of the four symbols employed in the Bible to represent the third Person of the Godhead’s character, personality, and nature of work on earth as Christ’s one and only appointed Vicegerent. This Jesus almost “over emphasized” to His disciples. Thusly, everyone and anyone who claims to be Christ’s vicegerent on earth is an impostor at the very least; at its worst, he is antichrist.
In the parable, the wise virgins refuse to grant the request of the foolish virgins “to give them oil for their lamps were going out.” Indeed, for character is non-transferable. The “lamp” of profession of faith can only emit true enlightening light, and last through the night, only if fueled by the Holy Spirit. The wise virgins remain spiritually wide awake, working, watching, and patiently waiting for the glorious second advent of the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. They are humble in heart, constantly resisting, by God’s grace, the powerful temptation to glory in the precious wisdom they are obtaining through continuous searching of the scriptures and application of its principles to their daily life. Thus they are daily growing in the knowledge of and likeness of the Lord. But they are never beyond temptation as long as they are in the mortal flesh and Satan is alive!
The seventh and last stage of the true remnant church of the last days, clearly described in Revelation as composed of “the saints who patiently keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus,” as well as have “the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy,” are afflicted with a specific spiritual malady— Laodiceanism or lukewarmness. Those afflicted are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked,” in God’s sight, that is. But there is a divine cure offered. The remnant or remainder of her— the Church’s seed (for the generic Romanized Church has long fallen away in apostasy), are in the minority, even unheard of in many parts of the world. But not for long!
In the soon-coming loud cry of the Revelation 18 angel movement—the globally-expandedmidnight cry that took place in the summer of 1844, trumpeting the startling message, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh, Go ye out and met Him!”, empowered by the Holy Spirit in the latter rain when the mark of the beast of Revelation 13 is finally enacted and enforced by the “image of the beast,” this remnant church is never to be confused for the “beast” of prophecy also identified symbolically as “the great whore or harlot with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication” and “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and the Abominations of the Earth.” This is the woman-church that “is drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Rev. 17: 2, 4-6.
Towards his 120th year Moses assembled ancient Israel to carefully listen and diligently do all that God commanded them in preparation for their soon entry into the earthly Promised Land. Read these chapters for yourself for the same principles of the command is given to us, spiritual Israel, as we prepare, if we are truly preparing, for earth’s closing events that immediately precede Christ’s glorious return, and the long-awaited entrance into the antitypical Promised Land, Heaven itself, as Jacob’s eternal inheritance. It is a choice of life or death, nothing in between as a compromise for it is based on satisfying specific conditions as all the necessary divine provisions are included as a package in the command, with their corresponding consequences and rewards. Take note Christian “virgins” awaiting the coming the Bridegroom:
“For this commandment which I command you today, it is not too mysterious for you, nor is far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you got to possess.
But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as a witness today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” Deut. 30, 1, 15-20, N.K.J.V.
Paul refers us back to the antediluvians of Noah’s time and wrote for the New Testament Church: “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” 1 Cor. 10:11-14, N.K.J.V. One of the subtlest temptations for Christians who are not willing to totally submit their will to God, is clinging to the idol of one’s opinion on self-serving doctrinal interpretations that apparently support their chosen lifestyles, and Cain-like, . Then pride prevents them from giving it up.
From the most original unvarnished truth recorded by the Word of God in the simplest of languages, free of all the gobbledygook, tortuous legalese, twisting and turning jargon of the philosophical and ideological demagogues and so-called “higher criticism” (it incredibly sounds what it really is, a criticism of God and His word), the Creation account of the origin of man—God’s masterpiece and crowning act of creation–can never be labeled as fake news, as hard as the enemies of truth have tried and will stubbornly continue trying in vain!
Thank God, there is hope for the foolish! Not once-saved-always-saved also means not once-a-foolish-virgin-always-a-foolish-virgin, i.e., if one’s probation is still open as he is still alive or has not fully grieved away the Holy Spirit by persistently refusing to yield to the conviction and merciful repeated invitation to repent of their cherished, secret sins that God knows. Such finally commit the unpardonable sin. (Matt. 12: 31, 32)
On the other hand, one may start out as a wise virgin but in time because of the “long wait” for the Bridegroom to come, their eyes that once were single to the glory of God (Matt. 6: 22, 23 )begin to wander and in time turn to the bewitching attractions of the world. One step leads to the next. Carelessly letting down the full armor of God (Eph. 6: 10-18), which they once fully donned, they soon fall for the wiles of the devil, and, procrastinating to repent and forsake their sins, eventually end up being a foolish virgin to whom the door of mercy–not in the Vatican in their recent Jubilee Year—but in the Heavenly sanctuary where Christ as High Priest, Mediator, and Judge has been ministering, is forever shut. But once again we are told: “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa. 1: 18.
(To be continued next week)