“The kingdom of the heavens” supposes the King, not on earth but in heaven. It did not commence till He was rejected on earth and received up in glory. The third heaven is the very highest blessedness a creature can enter—paradise. We get it three times in the N.T. First (Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)), a redeemed soul in the disembodied state is received there after the Savior's death; second (2 Cor. 12:2-42I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (2 Corinthians 12:2‑4)), a living saint is taken up to paradise (whether in the body, or out of the body, the apostle could not tell). And we ought to be very thankful for this revelation, as there are many now who deny eternal judgment, and ridicule the idea of any consciousness out of the body. If this were true, how could Paul say, “whether in the body, or out of the body” he knew not? Thirdly, there is another mention of it when we are glorified. “To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:77He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)) —our eternal home.
You do not get the bride, named here, but the Bridegroom; it is a parable to show us the necessity of being ready, and of having the possession of oil in our vessels. The portion of this discourse that pertains to the children of God between Pentecost and the coming of the Lord, commences at verse 45 of the previous chapter, and is carried down to verse 31 of this chapter, where it begins a new section. So you get in this Olivet discourse, first, the Jews; then, what God is doing at the present time; and finally, the Gentiles after the church is no longer here.
This then is what the kingdom of heaven (ver. 1) can be likened unto. “Then (at that time) shall the kingdom of the heavens be likened unto ten virgins,” etc. That this is the correct interpretation is confirmed by the fact that though in ver. 13 the words “wherein the Son of man cometh” are found in our A.V. they have really no right there, and in this omission all Editors agree, including our Revised Version. “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.” One can readily see the temptation for a copyist to insert what he imagined was required to complete the sentence, as in verse 44 of the preceding section.
In these verses (1-13), we have true and false profession—virgins who went in to the marriage, and virgins shut out from it. This could not be said of the bride. For all who form the bride will enter within with the Bridegroom. The five wise, or prudent, virgins here represent those who elsewhere do form the bride. The lamp is profession. If a man professes to be a Christian he is supposed to have light. In Phil. 2:1515That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; (Philippians 2:15) it is not lamps, but heavenly luminaries. In Luke 12:3535Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; (Luke 12:35) we get the girdle and the lamp. The oil is the Holy Spirit. It is quite a different thought in Luke to what it is here. You cannot associate a wedding feast with a court of judgment. The thought of a judge is one of terror, and trembling would be connected with it; a wedding is a joyous season. In the “virgins” you get the thought of purity, “I have espoused you... to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,” said the apostle; and in Rev. 14 those are called “virgins” who are not defiled with the corrupt systems of the world. So these are professed Christians who go forth to meet the coming Bridegroom. He has been the coming Bridegroom from the very first “If I go away, I will, come again, and receive you unto myself.” So it has always been presented as a present, and not a deferred hope. A deferred hope in the heart has a disastrous effect on the soul. Even if aged we ought to remember that the Lord is near, and may be here before we have finished our journey. This could not be “the remnant” going, or coming, forth to meet the Bridegroom, for they have to stay in the land till He comes; but the Christian has to go forth. So they go forth to meet the Bridegroom, the Coming One. He was the coming One in the O.T. You get both comings in the O.T., His coming to suffer, and His coming to reign, but you could not there get His coming as the Bridegroom. That was a mystery not revealed till Ephesians. We get foreshadowings in the O.T., even of God's present ways with His own. For instance, Enoch taken away without dying before the judgment which fell in Noah's days, when a remnant is carried through the judgment for the peopling of a renovated earth. Then again, what more striking than Rebekah conducted through the desert to the land of Canaan by Eliezer the trusted servant of his master Abraham, to be united to Isaac raised (in figure) from the dead. Is not this the Holy Ghost's leading of a people now, through the wilderness for Christ the heavenly Bridegroom?
Of the ten virgins, five were wise, prudent, and five were foolish. Now what do we gather from the word “prudent” as distinguished from foolish? The prudent foreseeth the evil and hideth himself; the simple pass on and are punished. He makes provision and hides himself; and in Luke 16 we find the unfaithful steward acted “prudently.” One must not think his evil conduct is approved by the Lord. It was his earthly master who approved his foresight in providing for the future. “And I say unto you,” Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when they fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations. That is, what is committed to you, use with an eye to the future. This is the lesson for us. An old writer says to a Christian possessed with wealth, “The Lord is loath for you to use your wealth, He wants you to put it into safe keeping, and there is none so safe as His.” The wise virgins are prepared for the future—for the coming of the Lord; the foolish are not prepared. These take their lamps and their wicks. It is a night scene, the wick is lit, but it does not last long—only human energy, not the sustained power of the Holy Spirit. Oil is a well known type of the office of the Holy Spirit. It was used in the consecration of the priest, and we find it referred to in Psalms 133, “The wise took oil,” it was not merely profession, but the Holy Spirit the power for testimony. He it is by whom we are anointed.
While the Bridegroom tarried they all grew heavy, or nodded, or were drowsy. It was not a sudden but a gradual thing. “He will not tarry.” Directly the company forming the church is completed, He will not tarry. The building is not yet complete. God is still calling out those who will form that temple, but when the last stone is added there will be no God-sent messenger telling out the gospel of His grace as now. Now He tarries; both expressions are right in their proper place. When both the tabernacle and the temple were complete God took possession. I judge this is what is referred to it in the address to the first of the seven churches in Rev. 2 There was a lot in Ephesus to commend; one could wish the church now was like it in much. Yet, “I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love.” If first love is lost there is not the longing for the coming Bridegroom, there is not in the heart the blessed hope of seeing Him. If you take church history, you find the hope of the Lord's coming was soon given up. Right through there was the thought of His coming in judgment, but that is not the hope of the church. It is only of comparatively late years that this hope has been revived. Then they get into sleeping places; and the different ecclesiastical systems are sleeping places for the church.
These virgins took their lamps for the honor of the Bridegroom. When the cry went forth they all arose, it produced activity. And I suppose there has been immense activity since that cry went forth say eighty years ago. It has gone forth; and so nearly every Christian knows something of the coming of the Lord.
The hope of the Lord's coming was soon given up, not only by the false but by the true Christian. We get not only the false professor but also those who have the Holy Ghost, for there are things that may be common to both. All carried the lamp of profession, all went out to meet the coming Bridegroom, all got drowsy, all fell asleep, and they have to be called out of their sleeping places the second time. It is a comforting and a sanctifying hope. “Everyone that hath this hope on Him purifieth himself even as He is pure,” and though it is not definitely stated, I do not think we can make much mistake about it, that though there was so much to commend in Ephesus, the most beautiful order and work and care for the Lord's honor, “Nevertheless, I have against thee,” —not “somewhat,” as though it was something small for it was a very solemn thing— “that thou hast left thy first love.” If that is gone the hope of the Lord's coming is gone too. “Ye have need of patience,” that is what we need, to patiently wait for the Lord, “For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come and will not tarry.” His last word was, “Surely, I come quickly,” there is no mistake about it. And the right attitude for saints in the interval through all time is “to wait for His Son from heaven.”
Of course this is very searching. They might be all attired alike, and they all had lamps which speak of profession, but the foolish lacked the great essential, the Holy Spirit. There are various symbols which speak of the action of the Holy Spirit. In Exodus the oil for the light would signify the power for testimony. Then the Lord speaks of the wind, and a dove is used, and fire, and living water. If it is water alone it is the word, but where it is living water it is invariably the Holy Spirit and is so explained in John 7. So there are a great number of symbols. I suppose there was the needs be, for these to be called out again, an act of grace to those who were asleep. “Behold the Bridegroom!” the Coming One. They had started out to meet Him at the first. This midnight cry has gone forth. It was lost through the centuries until the last century, but it has gone throughout the world and it has produced activity, not only among true saints. It is a common expression, 'Oh, do you see the coming of the Lord.' A person may be able to discourse of these things, but have we the Holy Spirit? “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” —there is no real union with Christ.
It is not faith that joins to the Lord, as often stated, nor is it life, but the Holy Spirit. “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.” The disciples had faith, and they had life, but there is no union with the Lord in incarnation. It is in resurrection. “Being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this.” All those who have the Holy Spirit are members of Christ, and of one another. Of course I quite grant that this is not brought out in the verses we are considering, but what is here shown is the absolute necessity of having the Holy Spirit in order to be “ready.” It is not were they expecting the Bridegroom, but had they the oil? It is not a question of intelligence. We love Him because He first loved us. And John's First Epistle shows us that the babes had an unction from the Holy One. If they have, we know also that the young men and the fathers have. But we must not confound the new birth with the gift of the Holy Spirit. By the word and the Spirit we are born again, but subsequent to this I get also the Holy Spirit given to me. The disciples who could not be “joined to the Lord” in incarnation, were nevertheless born again; so were the O.T. saints; “but the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Verse 7. There was this activity produced; they arose and trimmed their lamps, a getting ready for the coming bridegroom. It is not the collective thought of the bride, as in Rev. 22, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come,” but the individual condition of soul, either with, or without, the Spirit. It is subsequent to believing, that we are sealed, but the time between being born and the sealing varies. God does not act in precisely the same way with all. For instance, Philip went down to Samaria and there were a great many conversions, and great joy in that city; yet they had not received the Holy Spirit. Simon Magus also “believed,” but he never received the Holy Spirit.
There was great animosity between the Jews and Samaritans, and if these last had received the Holy Spirit independently of the Jews, we can see there might have been rivalry and division in the church from the first. They did not receive the Holy Spirit until the apostles went down. Then they became part of the church and not till then.
Take again Cornelius. Is it possible for a man in his sins to have his prayers and alms come up before God as a memorial? Not so. Yet Cornelius had to “hear words whereby he should be saved.” It was an unique company. As Peter the prepared vessel gave the message, they believed, and the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word, and this before they were baptized. We must not confound salvation with divine life. When the soul has life, it needs deliverance. There was a work of grace in the experience of the one in Rom. 7. When there is a work of grace in the soul there is trouble about sin, and because of the two natures which the believer has, there is indeed the desire to do the good, but no power. For this the Holy Spirit is needed. Rom. 7 is not Christian experience properly so called, but the exercises of a truly “converted” soul not yet delivered. Rom. 8 is Christian experience, for there is now freedom from the law of sin and death, and the power of the indwelling Spirit. Directly a soul is born of God that soul is sanctified, set apart, and safe. If you take the type in Ex. 12 you see the children of Israel quite safe under the blood seen by God; but not a word about “salvation” till chap. 14, where, in verse 13 mention is made for the first time.
Verse 9. The wise cannot give of their oil. We cannot impart the Spirit to another. God alone can give the Spirit. Sometimes He gave it without any human instrumentality, but at other times He used the apostles by the laying on of hands; but we do not find it given by anyone after the days of the apostles.
In Acts 19 we find twelve “disciples” at Ephesus who had profited by the testimony of John the Baptist, but had not yet heard that the Holy Ghost was now here. We must not confound the two—the new birth or being quickened by the Holy Spirit, with the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is always an interval between the two, however short it might be in some cases; but none born again will pass off this scene before receiving the gift. Baptism always, in the scriptures, is at the beginning of the Christian course, but I do not think it has the same importance now as in the early chapters of the Acts. If you take the commission to the disciples in Matt. 28, or in Mark 16, you find baptism in both, but when Paul received his commission (Acts 26:17, 1817Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, 18To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:17‑18)), there is not' a word about baptism. Paul said, “Christ sent me not to baptize,” though He did baptize; but it was not part of his commission. No one preached repentance more than the apostle Paul. Take Acts 17 “The times of this ignorance God winked at,” He never winks at sin, but He did at ignorance, “but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” You cannot have anything stronger than that. Baptism is unto the death of Christ. The necessity some attach to it as giving life is foreign to Scripture. It is always unto death. You get death and resurrection in the Red Sea, and there you get them baptized unto Moses. Christian baptism is outwardly putting on Christ.
It is God alone Who can give the Holy Spirit, and the way He sells, if one may so speak, is “without money and without price.” It is no question of merit but of receiving, and the one who receives God's testimony to the work of Christ receives the Holy Spirit. It is spoken of as “the gospel of your salvation"; it brings in resurrection. The dying thief was born again, there was repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, but he did not belong to this dispensation, and does not form part of the church therefore, but he got as good a title to glory as any saint who ever lived, Abraham, or the apostle Paul himself, for the title is the blood. Those in the glory we hear sing, “Thou art worthy, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed to God by Thy blood.” If God in His sovereignty, leaves us here for a while and gives us grace to live to His praise, we must not mix this up with title; for the title of every believer is the precious blood of Jesus Christ alone. And the way the dying thief was saved is the way everyone is saved—all of mercy, all of pure grace, and this excludes the thought of merit.
Verse 10. All indwelt by the Holy Spirit will be “ready,” and all go in no matter what a person's service, or intelligence. If they have not the Holy Spirit they will not go in. It is a searching word. A soul resting on the value of the blood, is the one whom God seals with the Spirit. If you are full of yourself and your own importance, you will never be filled with the Spirit. If a tumbler is half filled with water you cannot fill it with oil, without getting rid of the water, though you may fill it up with oil. If we are filled with the Spirit we are emptied of ourselves. A Christian may not always be “filled with the Spirit,” though sealed. John the Baptist was filled from his birth though that was exceptional. If a soul is full of the Spirit he will not think of himself. Stephen was “full of the Holy Ghost,” and he was occupied with Christ. In every case the thought in buying is making one's own, not the thought of the price paid. If God gives it me is mine as much as if I paid for it.
Verses 11, 12. There had never been any personal dealings between the Lord and these foolish virgins. He will never tell a poor sinner who has come to Him, “I never knew you.” There is a moment coming when the door will be, shut; and it will never be opened again. Those outside will have sinned away their opportunities. God's house will be filled, there will be no vacant, seat. Verse 11 is not presented as in Luke, where those outside seem surprised, saying, “We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets.” There it is a class of people resting on their privileges. It is possible to share in all the privileges of the assembly, except life, as in Heb. 6; and without divine life the soul is lost. If one has life, he cannot be lost. “I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish.” In Luke 13:25-2725When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. (Luke 13:25‑27) is surprise; but here, in Matthew, the cry of despair. Not everyone who uses the expression “Lord, Lord,” shall enter in. One who is right with God will exalt Christ, and his ministry will partake of that which owns His Lordship. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” God reads the heart and He knows if you believe; if you do, you are righteous before Him, and “confession is made to salvation.”