Ten virgins - Shepard - IV - Chapter 10

Required reading
Ten virgins by Thomas Shepard (Available from Amazon or free here).  Read Chapter 10.

My summary
At the beginning of Chapter 10 we Shepard outlines where he is now headed as he expounds the parable of the ten virgins:
(i) The bridegroom is Christ;
(ii) We meet the Bridegroom to enjoy fellowship and familiarity with Him;
(iii) We meet the Bridegroom at the last day or when we die, and in faith.

Then Shepard gives four reasons why Jesus is the bridegroom:
(i) Jesus is the person who the Father gives to the soul;
(ii) there is no satisfying the Father without Jesus;
(iii) the soul cannot receive anything from Christ unless he is espoused to him;
(iv) true faith ever closes with Jesus by love to Jesus.

Four applications are made of this doctrine of Jesus being the bridegroom:
(i) The Lord keeps His people hungry and empty and cuts them short of many spiritual blessings so that they might be content with Jesus;
(ii) We see a necessity of seeing and knowing Christ before a man can believe;
(iii) We see the happiness of saints and all believers in their bridegroom;
(iv) We learn to judge your faith whether it be of the right make or no;
(v) We make sure we are close with the person of the Lord Jesus.

What grabbed me
I must admit that each week I feel my summaries are a little inadequate.  Shepard uses points, then sub-points and then sub-points of sub-points and so on - which means it gets very complicated to summarise.  I just wish I had more time to outline everything for these blog posts.  Maybe one of the readers might like to give it a go?

Today Shepard made a good point about why God often wills that we go without blessing: 'They seek for grace, and strength, and peace from the Lord Jesus very importunately, and many times very impatiently, and so sinfully, too, and the Lord denies them. It has been better with them than now, therefore they wonder the Lord should be so full and they so empty, and think sometimes to seek no more, and the Lord denies a dole at this door too, that they might content themselves, and lay up their joys in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. xii. 9, "My grace is sufficient." For this is God's greatest plot, to pull all men down, that His Son may be set up; to wither all grass and beauty of all the flowers of the field, that the glory of the Lord might be revealed.'

If we are without blessing, it may be because we have been making too much of blessings and too little of Christ.

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 11 and12.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.