We had been holding the regular Bible meetings in our home while the building where we usually attend was being remodeled. After the Sunday morning meetings, the young children liked to run down to the lake behind our house to watch the fish.
One Sunday after everyone had collected their families and driven away, I looked out through the back door, and there on the dock was little three-year-old Bobby! He was watching the fish that were guarding their eggs which they had laid in their scooped-out nests.
“Bobby,” I called to him, “do you know your family has gone home?”
He looked worried and said, “No.”
His family lived in a town about fifteen miles away. So I waited to give them time to get home, thinking that while driving home they would surely miss Bobby and come back for him. But they didn’t.
I finally telephoned them, and Bobby’s father answered. “Are you missing someone?” I asked.
Then, upset with himself, the father answered, “Bobby! How could we have forgotten Bobby? I’ll be right back to pick him up.”
Soon Bobby’s father arrived, looking rather sheepish. I laughed and told him that he didn’t have such a large family that he could forget little Bobby.
“I know,” he said. “My mind was on other things.”
I assured the father that we had taken Bobby into the house as soon as we found him and that the Lord Jesus had been watching over him. I reminded him that the Lord says of His own, “I will never leave [you], nor forsake [you]” (Hebrews 13:55Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. (Hebrews 13:5)). With this he thanked me, and they left.
Being left behind can be very sad. The Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus is coming soon to call away all those who belong to Him. This certainly will be a time when you will not want to be left behind! In Matthew 25, the Lord Jesus Himself warns about this time in the parable of the ten virgins who were going to meet the bridegroom. Five of the virgins were wise and five were foolish. The wise ones carried lamps that they had filled with oil. The foolish ones carried lamps too, but they had not filled them with oil - they were empty. You could not tell the difference between the lamps that had oil and those that didn’t. They looked the same on the outside.
And today we have wise people and foolish people that look pretty much the same on the outside. The wise ones have paid attention to the warning about the Lord Jesus coming to take to heaven all those who belong to Him. They have admitted they are sinners and have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, and they are ready to go because their sins are gone and the Holy Spirit lives inside them. Then there are the foolish people who have ignored the warning and hope to get to heaven by the good things they do. They have not followed God’s plan of salvation by coming to the Lord Jesus to have their sins washed away. They don’t belong to Him and don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside of them. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:99But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9)).
In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, the call came for them to go to meet the bridegroom. The wise virgins with oil lighted their lamps, but the foolish virgins without oil couldn’t light theirs. They asked the wise ones to give them oil for their lamps, but the wise said “no” because they wouldn’t have enough oil to keep their own lamps burning.
So the foolish virgins had to go buy oil. While they were gone, the bridegroom came. The wise virgins went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
When the foolish virgins finally got back, they called to have the door opened. But they weren’t allowed in because the bridegroom said he didn’t know them. They were left behind.
The Lord Jesus used this parable to teach us how important it is to be ready for His coming. Those who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour are ready and will go with Him to heaven. Those who have not accepted Him are still in their sins and are not ready. They will be left behind to face the judgment of eternal darkness in that awful place called hell.
No telephone call nor any of today’s modern communications will ever open heaven’s door to those left behind.
If you are in danger of being left behind, waste no time! “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)). “Watch therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man [comes]” (Matthew 25:1313Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. (Matthew 25:13)).
ML-08/04/2002