Matthew 25:1-13.
OUR Lord here shows us what took place at the beginning. There was a company who were expecting the Bridegroom. You must not confound the Bridegroom with the Judge; Jesus will be Judge on the great white throne: as the Bridegroom He will come for His bride first, The Lord Jesus, having gone on high, is now seated at God’s right hand until the appointed moment comes, and then He will rise and will come for His own, to welcome them, and to be welcomed By those who know Him and love Him. These the wise virgins represent. They have been His witnesses. The foolish virgins were not witnesses; they had not any light.
The parable is very simple. The kingdom of heaven is likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. You must not suppose that in the ten virgins you have the Church as such, because they do not represent the Church as the body of Christ, but a history of profession, fend the end thereof. We must not import into Scripture what is not in it. We very often make the great mistake of putting into Scripture what is not in it. The parable shows that some of the very people who went out to meet the bridegroom were the people who went into the marriage; yet every believer has passed away who went out at first. There is not one on the earth today that was here on the day of Pentecost. The point is, that the Lord’s return is never the deferred hope of the believer, and reality must mark the professor of Christ. All that are real go in. Not what you profess, but what you possess, is the point. Not the ground you take, but the state of your soul, is the point. “They that were ready went in.” Are you ready?
Will the whole world be converted and be ready for His return? The Lord here says, When I come back half of those who go out professing to wait for Me will be unprepared. You must have the indispensable necessity―the oil―if you are to be ready. It is not only the possession of a lamp, but what will feed the light and keep it going. The Holy Ghost alone can feed the light. Mark you, ten virgins went out. Five were wise and five were foolish. It is not the old and the young, the rich and the poor; it is the wise and the foolish. And mark, these are not the heathen; they are professing Christians. You are doubtless a professing Christian. You are probably a church member. You are passing current as a Christian. I am not addressing the heathen, but I am addressing Christless professors of a Saviour of whom they are totally ignorant.
We must try and separate these two classes. Some were wise, and some were foolish. God begins with the fools. I do not call you a fool, but God does. What is a fool? A foolish person. And do you call me a fool? I do not, but the Lord Jesus says, “They that were foolish took their lamps and took NO oil with them.” The reader without oil-not having the Holy Ghost-is among this class. “But the wise TOOK oil.” Now observe the immense difference between the two. They all took lamps; they were all professors of Christ. It was night, and the night is the moment of the absence of Jesus. The lamp is the profession of the name of Christ, which of course abounds on the earth today, and in no place under the sun more than where the English language is spoken. I am serious. There is no place under the sun more favored, and there is no doubt God has given us great privileges, with correspondingly grave responsibility.
Could anything be more serious than to be, not a heathen, but a baptized professor of a Christ you do not know. Had I met you last Sunday, and asked you, “Where are you going?” “I am going to worship,” you would have replied. But, I ask, Are your sins forgiven? Oh, I would not like to say that, you reply. An unconverted sinner going to worship? How can that be? Have you got the oil? What does that mean? What is the oil? You will find all through Scripture that the oil is the figure of the Holy Ghost. Have you received the Holy Ghost? You reply, perhaps, “I hope so.” The wise virgins did not hope to have it. They took oil. But look at the foolish virgins, and see your own case. Little cared they about the oil, little dreamed they of the necessity of new birth, and the possession of the Holy Ghost. It was quite enough to look like others who were going out to meet the Bridegroom. It is nice to look like other people, and if they have a lamp, then a lamp let us each have. The devil has got a great many lamp factories today, and a great variety of lamps, too, all without oil. And perhaps, my friend, you have gone and taken a lamp. In one of the numberless sections of Christendom you have professed to follow Christ. I am going to clear myself of your blood. If you have an oil-less lamp you are going to be shut out. Do not misunderstand me. The Lord is coming. I have heard the cry, and I have gone out, through grace, to meet Him. Through infinite grace I have got the oil. Have you it? Have you the Holy Ghost? Listen, “the wise took oil.” How did they get it? We are not told that here, but we are told that they were so wise that they would not budge on€ single step without it. That is the point.
Oh, a lamp will do for me, say you; wiser heads than mine let me into the professing church; I have been in the Sunday-school, in the Bible-Class, and have recently joined the church. I like the thought of carrying a lamp. But you have no oil, Oh, soul, God wake you up, the Lord wake you up ere it be too late. You must be converted, and receive the Holy Ghost, or you will be shut out.
Perhaps you will tell me that you do not believe in the necessity of conversion. You do not believe in the Spirit’s work, that lays hold of a man, and makes him feel his danger? If He touch you He will open your eyes, and you will see that you are all wrong. Thank God, if you have passed through the new birth. Do you say that you would like to be converted? Thank God for the desire. If you are yet unblessed, you had better be in a hurry. Christ’s coming will close the possibility of getting the oil. Will there be no preaching then? Plenty, and the seats will be-half-filled with people. The wise will be gone. Shall I say, God have mercy on those that half-fill the seats? It will be too late. “I know you not,” is the Lord’s word to late-comers. If you wish to be saved, if you wish to join the ransomed company, and to go in with the Bridegroom, you must have the oil now. You must be converted. God save you, my friend. God convert you this very hour. If you die as you are this moment, you will spend your eternity in hell.
Ah, friend, you have sin on your conscience, and sin in your heart. You are steeped in Sin. Untouched by the Spirit of God, steeped in sin, and unblessed of God, what a sad case is yours, although a professor of Christ. Drop that unreality. Holding in your hand a lamp that has no oil, unconverted, not born again, and not possessing the Spirit, you are on your way to an eternal hell. Oh be aroused, I implore you. Gaze a moment at the wise. Do not tell me that they had not the knowledge of salvation, for, mark, they took oil. Where did they get it? They had got it. That is certain. I should like to get it. Thank God. Can I buy the oil? Yes. You can buy the oil, but it is without money, and without price (Isa. 55:1). Do you know how a wicked woman once got it? A Stranger came to her and said, “Give me to drink” (John 4:6-42). She did not give Him water, but He gave her the oil. Friend, you come to Jesus, and you will get it. You just turn to the Lord Jesus, that is the way the soul receives it. Turn to Jesus once on the cross for your sins, and now exalted at God’s right hand in glory (Acts 10:43).
One great truth of Christianity is this, that when a sinner turns to the Saviour, he gets all his sins forgiven by God, on the ground of righteousness, because all His claims have been met by the death of His Son. There is more than that. The Holy Ghost now on the earth, the Spirit of God, loves to come and seal the faith of the soul that believes in God’s dear Son. That is the oil. The believer in Jesus is not only converted, but has received the Holy Ghost. You are not a Christian, if you have not received the Holy Ghost. It is very simple. I do not think there is anybody that has really bowed to Christ, but has the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost comes and dwells in the believer, immediately he has trusted the Saviour.
What leads a man to trust in Jesus. He sees he is lost, and he sees God must judge him; then he hears of Jesus and trusts Him. He hears the word of truth―that Christ is a Saviour; that every man is under the judgment of God; and that “the Son of man is come to seek, and to save that which was lost.” He finds out that. Christ has been a substitute, and he says, I wonder whether He died for me? He is not quite sure, and then he realizes that Christ died for sinners, and if for sinners, then for him. He can then say, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
What is the gospel of salvation? That Christ has done a work, whereby God has been perfectly glorified. All the value of His work is put down to your credit, as believing in Him. When you learn that Jesus desires to save you, you will say, By the grace of God I shall trust Him. When a man believes in Jesus the Holy Ghost seals him. In the Old Testament you get the figure of the oil repeatedly. The blood was put upon the leper first, and then came the oil (see Lev. 14). I must be washed in the blood of Jesus before I can be sealed by the Holy Ghost. Redemption is one thing, and the reception of the Holy Ghost is entirely a different thing. What is the mark of God’s children? They have the Holy Ghost. It manifests them. They are marked off as being His. They say, “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6).
The wise put the oil first, and the lamp last. They said, We are going to meet the Bridegroom, and therefore we must have the necessary qualification. They “took oil, in their vessels, with their lamps.” That is a real Christian (Rom. 5:5). Every person that has the Holy Ghost is ready. I am either ready, or I am not ready. Thank God for the ready ones. The Lord is coming back for us. I believe that the cry, “Behold the Bridegroom I go ye out to meet him,” has gone out. After the first fifty or sixty years of the Christian era, the hope of the Bridegroom’s return for His people was completely lost sight of by the Church. You never hear a word about the coming of the Lord for His people in all the writings of “the Fathers.” But the true hope of the Church, that is the Lord coming into the air, and our rising to meet Him there, is now animating the Church (Thess. 4). For seventeen long centuries this hope was lost, but God’s Spirit has revived it, and there, is more testimony now than ever there was, in Scotland, and all over the world. The Lord is coming. I believe we are just at the last moment. Are you ready? Are you prepared?
I quite admit that there is a great deal of infidelity, but all the virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, just before the Bridegroom came. There never was so much activity as now, no matter where you turn. Why? Because the Lord is coming, that is the reason. If the Lord come, and find you unconverted, and unwashed in His blood, you will join in the petition, “Give us of your oil.” My friend, it will be too, late then. Others cannot help you. You will have gone on in your sin till it be too late. Contemplate what it will be to be too late. “While they went to buy, the Bridegroom came.” Unconverted professor, you that have long confessed His name, you will find He has come and you are left behind for judgment.
Do you really think anybody ever mistook you for a Christian, unconverted lamp-holder? You have lived for the world, and indulged in its lusts and pleasures; and though you may have donned its religion, you will be left for its judgment too. You will find out what a terrible reality is the judgment of God when it comes upon you. Oh, be wise! Come to the Lord now, turn to Him now, and get your guilty soul saved. Turn to Jesus now. He has not come yet, but He is coming. May God give you grace to turn now, and get among the “ready” ones. I am ready, and what made me ready? The Saviour’s grace, and the Saviour’s blood. The Saviour that saved me, can save you. Trust His heart, and be among the ready ones.
“They that were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut.” That closed door seals the doom of the unsaved, and then what a bitter cry will rise from many lips, for “afterward came also the other virgins,” saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” Ah! your lips have never been parted before in real prayer. They will be that day. Then your prayer must be denied, why not be ready now? The door is wide open now, why not obtain your title to pass in while it is so? A closed door is an awful thing for a too-late sinner. From within hear the Lord’s voice “But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.” Awful response, but it is the answer of righteousness, although uttered in the voice of sorrow. Another scripture says, “Depart from me, ye workers of, iniquity.” Friend, the most awful thing that could happen to you, is to be denied by Jesus in that day. Precious soul, as He now knocks at your heart, and says to you, Let me in, are you not going to let Him in, Jesus the Saviour? Turn, and say to Him, “Lord I have been hard, and unbelieving, but today I hear Thy gospel of salvation, and, Jesus, I will trust Thee.” He would love to hear you say this. Let not 1897 close, and find you unready for the coming of the Lord.
Fellow-Christians, it is all peace, and joy, and gladness for us; we are going, to be with Jesus forever. Soon He will come. We are ready, through infinite grace. We have joined the company of the redeemed, the glory bound band. Happy people! Ours is the glory forever, and the Bridegroom’s company.
Dear reader, I should like to know, are you among the wise or the foolish? Which? May God give you to be wise in time, for His name’s sake. Amen.
“Where will you spend eternity?
This question comes to you and me!
Tell me, what shall your answer be―
Where will you spend eternity?
Eternity! Eternity!
Where will you spend eternity?
Many are choosing Christ today,
Turning from all their sins away;
Heaven shall their blessed portion be―
Where will you spend eternity?
Eternity! eternity!
Where will you spend eternity
Leaving the strait and narrow way,
Going the downward road today,
What shall the final ending be―
Where will you spend eternity?
Eternity! eternity!
Where will you spend eternity.?
Turn, and believe this very hour,
Trust in The Saviour’s grace and power;
Then shall your joyous answer be―
Saved through a long eternity!
Eternity! eternity!
Saved through a long eternity!”
W. T. P. W.