Now we are going to tie Psalm 50 to another chapter of judgment, and I find this really interesting. This chapter of judgment is directed to the end time church as well. So please turn with me to Matthew 25. In Matthew 25, Jesus speaks through three parables that are all tied together with the end time judgment.
The very definition of spiritual virgins here confirms these are called Christians in God's church, keeping at least the letter of the law. They are not spiritual virgins if they are not doing that. So this is written to us. This is written to the end time churches. All ten had oil in their lamp producing light. But five were wise with extra oil, five foolish, unprepared as the oil ran out.
Now, what could this oil represent? We have talked about this before, but as we reflected on the offerings in Leviticus, I find it pretty interesting.
So the burnt offering always came first, with the complete giving of a life. Our sacrifices and service to God always have to come first, but the instructions on the burnt offerings of Leviticus 1 do not use any oil. I thought that is pretty interesting. Whereas, if we read through Leviticus 2 and the requirements for the grain offering, we would see the requirement for oil within the grain offering is repeated at least nine times. We cannot separate our worship and devotion to God from our required service to man.
We are called to sacrifice ourselves in service to man as Jesus Christ did. Bruised, battered, finely ground up, if you will, into a powder mixed with pure oil, His Holy Spirit, that fuels our sacrificial good works to our fellow man. I believe the foundational criteria for the final judgment is God's foundational act of sacrifice foreordained before the foundation of the world.
These wise virgins have an abundance of oil through years of sacrificial good works that have built up strong relationships, first and foremost with God the Father, but right there with it, with the Body of Christ. The two must go hand in hand.
And this ties perfectly to Jesus' other parables in Matthew 25, if we really think about it. The Parable of the Talents is about the judgment of our stewardship over all of our God-given talents. We must sacrifice and use all of those talents to bring glory to God and build up the Body of Christ. And in the final judgment, let us read that conclusion in verse 45 now.
So in this parable of the final judgment, both the sheep and the goats are judged not just according to the keeping of the letter of the law. No, here we see keeping of the letter of law is absolutely required. This chapter started with describing spiritual virgins, so this chapter is about those keeping the law. But the judgment of the sheep and the goats is solely based on what they did or did not do to each other, the Body of Christ.
