You will remember there were ten virgins, who went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five were wise, having oil in their vessels with their lamps. Five were foolish for they had no oil in their vessels wherewith to feed the flame. The lamps signify profession. All are professors. Happy is it when profession is real, typified by the oil in the vessels. Oil in Scripture is typical of the Holy Spirit, given to all believers, sealing the reality of their profession, and enabling their testimony to continue. The foolish virgins had the lamps of profession, but no oil of reality. When of all times they desired their lamps to burn, viz., when the cry went forth that the bridegroom was arriving, and they were bidden to meet him, their lamps were going out.
While they went to buy oil, the bridegroom arrived, and those that were ready went in to the marriage, and the door was shut. The foolish virgins knocking at the closed door, beseeching for admission, heard the reply of the bridegroom, "Verily I say unto you, I KNOW YOU NOT." (Matt. 25:1212But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. (Matthew 25:12)).
These warnings against mere profession are sadly wanted today, for there are tens of thousands, who take the Lord's Supper, who have no real part or lot in the matter.
The parable speaks of five wise, and five foolish virgins, showing how far Christian observances may become merely formal and lifeless. Jude well describes false professors: "These are snots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds: trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots." (Jude 1212These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; (Jude 12)). But the Lord can never say to the true believer that He never knew them, for we read, "The LORD... knoweth them that trust in Him." (Nah. 1:77The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. (Nahum 1:7)).