We continue our study and teaching of the Lord Jesus at Matthew chapter 25. Reading from the first verse of Matthew 25. Now I should mention that the last verses of Matthew 24 are directly linked to Matthew 25. But owing to the time factor we shall concentrate on this parable, known as the parable of the ten maidens, or the parable of the ten virgins. And we need to ask the question: what does this parable mean?
Now before I do so, by way of introduction to this passage, I'd like to remind you of what we were studying last week and what we were considering. And you remember that we closed on the thoughts of Romans chapter 8. And let me read to you again Romans chapter 8, verses 5 and 6. And you will recall that Paul speaks about the contrast between flesh and spirit. Romans 8, verses 5 and 6. And this is what the Apostle Paul says: "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."
Now, setting the mind, we saw, has to do with what you think about. The word is literally "to think." But we have the word here in verse 5 in the present tense, or the present continuous tense, which means to be constantly thinking about. And Paul is saying that those who live according to the flesh set their minds constantly — the things that preoccupy their minds constantly are the things of the flesh, the things of the world. Whereas those who live according to the Spirit, their minds are constantly preoccupied by the things of the Spirit. Now this point we expounded last week, because it has to do with our parable as we shall see in a moment. And you will see that in our exposition there is a definite sequence of development.
Now, I want to deal very quickly with one point, and that is this. You may immediately feel there is a problem here. I mean, how can you be constantly thinking about spiritual things? Constantly preoccupied with spiritual things? When, for example, you have your studies to do, when you have your job to do. It seems to be a practical impossibility to be preoccupied with spiritual things when, for example, you have to study your chemistry, you have to study your engineering, or whatever it is you are doing. Now, it is important to understand what Paul is saying. Because otherwise we say, "Well, Paul, this is impossible. It just can't be done. I cannot set my mind on spiritual things all day long because I've got my job to do in the lab or in my office or whatever."
However, the way to understand — and that is why I use the word "preoccupied" — is we can speak about what is in the foreground of your thinking and what is in the background of your thinking. Now, it is very easy to illustrate this point. When you are in love, you find that what preoccupies your mind is, of course, your boyfriend or your girlfriend the whole time. Now, this does not mean that he or she is always in the foreground of your thought. Very frequently he or she is in the foreground. But not always. For example, you still get on with your studies — even, hopefully, anyway. You still get on with your studies, maybe with a lesser degree of success or consistency. But still you try to get on with your studies.
But the point is this: when you are preoccupied with something, that thought or those things are always in the background of your thinking, whatever else may for the moment occupy the foreground. The background is always there. So, when you are in love, the person you love is always in the background of your mind, even though you may be peering down the microscope at that particular moment or doing a particular experiment. That is in the foreground of your thought at the moment, that thing which you are doing, that study which you are engaged in is in the foreground. But in the background, all the time, is the one you love. That is what we mean by the word "preoccupied." And not only is it possible, it is in fact very much the case.
And this is what Paul is saying. The spiritual man — he may be doing his engineering at this time, or his law, or his accountancy, or his economics, or whatever it is he is doing. But always the undercurrent of his thinking, what is always in the background of his thinking, what is always forming the backdrop of his thinking — no matter what is on the front of the stage at the moment — the whole setting of his thoughts is always spiritual things. This means that even when he is doing this, his motivation and the thought that dominates his thinking are the spiritual preoccupations that govern his mind.
Now I find this is very important for me to explain to you, because otherwise you will think, "I simply cannot have two things in my mind at the same time." Of course you cannot have two things in the foreground of your mind at the same time. Your mind cannot focus on two different objects at the same time. But it is important therefore to understand what Paul is saying in Romans 8: that for the spiritual man, his mind is constantly preoccupied with spiritual values, spiritual qualities. It always forms the undercurrent or the background of his thinking at all times, no matter what for the moment may occupy the foreground of his thoughts.
Now with that point in mind, let us move on to Matthew 25 and to the parable of the virgins. Now this parable, I shall aim to expound without comment on what you will find in commentaries and the like. This I will leave to you to discover. And you will find that the exposition that we will go forward on owes little or nothing to current commentaries and the like. And I mention it simply because when you look at commentaries, you might be immediately struck by the difference of this exposition. But I would like you to check every detail and see how accurate the exposition is.
Now, in this parable of the ten maidens, and more accurately the ten virgins, the parable goes like this. First there is the word "then," verse 1. "Then the kingdom of heaven..." This "then," as a time reference, it refers to when? To the previous verses. That's why I say there's a very close connection between what goes before, and we will return to that at some other point. But what goes before with this? What is the "then"? The "then" refers to verses 50 and 51 in the previous chapter: "The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and will put him with all the hypocrites." Where do the hypocrites go? Well, from Matthew 24 we know that the hypocrites are sentenced to Gehenna, to hell. "There men will weep and gnash their teeth." So, the "then" means at the time of that judgment that I have just been talking about in the previous verses.
"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps, or torches, and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them." This doesn't mean that there was no oil in the lamps. There was oil in the lamps, but they did not take an extra supply of oil. "But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Behold the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'" Now the lamps cannot go out unless they had been burning, and there was oil in them. "But the wise replied, 'Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you. Go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. And the door was shut. Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he replied, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."
Now here is a parable, a story that the Lord Jesus told to illustrate spiritual truth. The question is: what does the parable mean? I think every Sunday school child knows this parable pretty well, especially if they have been in Sunday school for a long time. The problem is to know what does it mean. What is the parable saying?
Now, again, notice that the parable has to do with something in the future. We already noticed it has to do with the judgment, but there is also the future tense: "The kingdom of God shall be compared" — see the future tense there — "shall be compared" in the future "to ten virgins." Now, what are virgins? What do they represent in the Bible? Virgins, of course, is a picture of Christians. We find that in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 2, that Paul speaks of the Corinthian church as a pure virgin. The RSV has the translation "bride," somewhat incorrectly. The word is the same word as here, translated as "maidens," for some reason or other, because literally they are virgins. Paul says, "I would present you as a pure virgin to her one husband." And then, in Revelation chapter 14, verse 4, the 144,000 disciples, the true Christians, are described as virgins, for they are virgins. So virgins is very easy to understand, once you know the general picture of the Scripture, as a picture of every Christian.
Now then we have ten virgins. And that's why all these ten are Christians, in biblical definition. There's no way to say that five were not Christians and five were. They all had lamps. All their lamps were shining. All their lamps had oil. The important difference lies in the fact that five of them took extra oil with them, and five didn't. And the wise ones are those who took extra oil with them. They were prepared to go to the extra cost, because extra oil means extra cost, and extra burden, because they ended up with one hand carrying the lamp, and the other hand carrying the extra vessel, or flask of oil. Whereas the others had one hand unencumbered, that is, free, to do whatever they liked, whereas the wise ones were burdened with extra oil, which the foolish thought were really unnecessary. It was supererogation, completely unnecessary.
How many times when many Christians do certain things, other Christians think it's unnecessary, too extreme, going too far, not moderate enough. I mean, you've got oil, you've got a lamp, what else do you need? Why do you have to go carrying this extra flask around with you, with all the extra burden and inconvenience and expense? How many times has that thought crossed your mind when you've seen others take one step further than you have? "Is it necessary?" That's the question. Well, here we begin to see whether it is necessary or not.
Now, the five wise ones, then, have made extra, taken extra precautions. The other thing to notice here is that the bridegroom was delayed, we read in verse 5. The bridegroom was delayed. Presumably, if the bridegroom were not delayed, the oil would have lasted even for the foolish ones. But they made no allowance for the delay. It's very interesting that the Lord here is indicating that there might be a delay in His coming. And here we find this word "delayed," which is also mentioned in the previous section, in chapter 24 and verse 48: "My master is delayed." So, again, the Lord hints that His coming might be delayed.
But at midnight, the cry goes forth that the bridegroom has come. But before that, notice the fact that all ten of them grew drowsy. It says here "they all... slumbered and slept." In fact, the words are much more descriptive in the original. The word translated as "slumber" literally means somebody who is dropping off. It literally means to nod. When you see people trying to keep awake in the bus or train and falling off and they keep nodding their head — literally, that is the word: they were nodding. That was the stage of pre-sleep, just before you go into full sleep. So they started nodding, as some people do sometimes in Bible studies and services. Suddenly they become very much in agreement with you. Before they were shaking their head, and gradually it was beginning to nod. Very encouraging development. And then, having nodded, they fall asleep.
Now notice that all ten of them fall asleep. Now consider what we were studying earlier. The Lord Jesus spoke about wakefulness and the need for spiritual survival to be awake. And what happens to these ten? They all fall asleep. Now how can that be the case, that if all fall asleep, that five of them still can be called wise? We've got a problem here, since they seem to be guilty of the very thing that the Lord Jesus warned that we should not do, namely, not to fall asleep. For those who are in darkness fall asleep. But those in the daytime, they stay awake. Now how can they still be wise? You should have the parable of ten foolish virgins, not five wise and five foolish, if that is what it meant.
So the question we have to ask here is: what does this sleep mean? How can you still survive if you fall asleep with those who are in the night? The answer here is very important to grasp. The sleep here can mean only one of two things, and we must look at both these possibilities. Either it means sleep here is the opposite of wakefulness, of spiritual wakefulness, in which case all ten are foolish. Or else sleep here literally means to die. These are the two basic meanings of sleep in the New Testament. And when you study the passage, you come to the clear conclusion that sleep here is death. All ten of them died. That is the point. As the Lord's coming was delayed, they were no longer physically alive at His coming. They all died. Just as through the last two thousand years Christians have died. The Lord hadn't come in their lifetime. They were hoping He would come, but He did not come. His coming was delayed. They all died.
How can we justify this exposition? Quite apart from the fact that if this sleep here were spiritual sleep, then none of them would be wise. No one had the right to be called wise in the biblical definition because all were unfaithful. But quite apart from that, you will see that if you study a passage in 1 Thessalonians, the parallels between this parable and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 become very striking. Let me read to you 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and you will begin to see how close is the parallel, even down to the words.
And this is what we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We'll read from verse 13: "But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are" — notice the word — "asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope." Yes, sleep, of course, means death. He is saying to the Thessalonian Christians, for those of our brothers and sisters who have died, Paul says to the Thessalonians, I don't want you to grieve as those who don't have any hope. Verse 14: "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have" — notice again the term — "fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have" — again the term — "fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."
Apart from the word "sleep," notice two other things. The other thing to notice is the words "the voice" or "the call of the archangel," in verse 16, "the cry of the archangel." And the last thing to notice is the word "meet" — "together with them," in verse 17, "to meet the Lord in the air." The words, all these ideas, are precisely in this parable. They have fallen asleep, and then you notice in verse 6, at midnight there comes the cry, the call, the shout, the voice of the archangel. It is this cry that wakes them up. Do you see that?
Now notice not only these parallels, but also the word "they shall rise." Notice the word "rise," exactly in this parable: "But at midnight there was the cry," and then verse 7, "they all rose." All the maidens rose up. This word "rise" is very interesting in the Bible. It is often used in this double sense of literally rising up or of being resurrected. So there is the cry, there is the rising in response to the cry, exactly as we have it in 1 Thessalonians, that they rise up. When they hear the cry of the archangel, and what do they do? They go to meet the Lord, which is exactly what we have here in verse 6: "Come out to meet him." It is almost as though Paul is deliberately referring to this particular passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. He is referring to this parable in Matthew 25 of the ten maidens. The word-for-word comparison there. And he speaks of "the word of the Lord." Well, this is the only place that the Lord speaks about this matter, in fact. So which word of the Lord is he speaking about? So it is — here we immediately see a very striking parallel.
In the previous section, the last paragraph in Matthew 24, of the faithful and unfaithful servants, the servants are alive when the master comes. They are awake. The good and the bad are both awake, in fact. That is to say, they are both alive. Even the bad servant is also awake, that is, he is alive. So here He is speaking in physical terms. In the other sense, the good and the bad are both asleep, that is physically, they have both died.
Now, once we begin to realize this, we are going to avoid a lot of confusion in understanding this parable. This parable then has to do with Christians who have died at the time of the Lord Jesus' coming. And it is the shout of the archangel, the cry of the archangel that wakes them up. So it is not a spiritual waking up, because the cry is not going to wake you up spiritually. They wake up when? At the coming of the Lord. That is the only time when they wake up, which makes it even more clear that the reference is to physical death, because they don't wake up before the coming of the Lord, but at the coming of the Lord. And they rise — literally uses the word "rose" — "they all rose." Very significant here.
Now, once we see all of these things, the parable begins to fall into place in all its meaning, and we begin to expound it accurately. Now, the key idea is to be ready. Verse 13: "Watch therefore, for you know not..." You can't watch when you're asleep, but you can watch by being ready. And notice that only those who were ready were allowed to enter into the wedding feast. So we see that in verse 10: "And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in to the feast." How were they ready? Not by staying awake. They weren't ready by staying literally awake. They couldn't do that. But they were ready because they had extra oil. Now, here, everything hinges on understanding what is this extra oil. There is where we must understand the matter very accurately.
What then is this extra oil if we are to understand this message? Now, many commentators have gone right off the track at this point, if I may say so, by the presupposition that the oil refers to the Holy Spirit. There is a danger sometimes when you study books that tell you about the symbols of the Holy Spirit and the like, because you become very incautious and begin to simply assume that the oil here refers to the Holy Spirit. And I have to indicate to you that this understanding is wrong. Our brother Watchman Nee bases his entire exposition of this parable on this quite mistaken presupposition that the oil refers to the Holy Spirit. Therefore, his whole exposition of the parable is completely out of focus.
Why does the oil here not refer to the Holy Spirit? And I have very quickly to point out the reasons. First of all, in the New Testament, if you work very accurately and very carefully, you will see that if there is any reference in the symbol of oil to the Holy Spirit, it is never the oil that is used in a lamp. It always refers to the anointing oil. There is where, for example, our brother Watchman Nee, and following other Western commentators — because I'm sure it's not his own original work — was completely misled here. If there is any reference to the Holy Spirit, we have, for example, in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 27, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as that anointing oil. But that anointing then refers to the anointing oil. It is a specially compounded fragrant oil used for anointing purposes. It is not lamp oil, not oil that goes into a lamp. There is a possible reference to the Holy Spirit, and here it is much less certain, in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 9, spoken of the Lord Jesus, that He was anointed with the oil of gladness. But again, you see, if it refers to the Holy Spirit, it is still the anointing oil. It has nothing to do with oil that is put into a lamp. That is the first point.
The second point is that this oil has nothing to do with the symbolizing of the filling of the Holy Spirit. If only you can look at the parable, it is not the virgins who are filled with oil; it is their lamps that are filled with oil. So to talk about a filling of the Spirit by means of this oil is completely to miss the imagery of the parable. Their lamps are filled with oil, not the virgins themselves. So where does the talk of the filling of the Spirit come in?
But thirdly, it is not even the point that the lamps are filled with oil. That is not the point of the parable either. It is actually that an extra vessel of oil is being brought along. It has nothing to do with the filling of those particular lamps either. And so if you try to apply it into the image here of the Holy Spirit, it would make no sense at all, because we are not having an extra vessel somewhere else filled with the Holy Spirit that we can carry along. This would make no sense whatsoever in any kind of terms, even when you try to speak of it in everyday life terms. It has no sense whatever. So we must simply realize it has nothing to do with talking about the filling of the Holy Spirit.
So what then does it have to do with? What then is this oil? More to the point is try to see this picture again. The picture is this: that all the ten virgins have fallen asleep. At the coming of the bridegroom, the herald calls out and says, "Behold, the bridegroom has come! Rise to meet him!" And so they rise up and they go forth to meet him. They trim their lamps. They prepare themselves for one last time. And as the foolish virgins trim their lamps — that is, cut the excess off, you know — the lamps or the torches here are basically a stick, a stick on top of which there is a copper or metal bowl on the top, and inside this copper bowl or metal bowl there is a piece of cloth or a piece of rope which serves as the wick. This is immersed in the oil inside this bowl, so you light it, rather like an oil lamp. You light that rope and it begins to burn because of the oil which is soaked up into this rope or this wick or this rag, whatever is used there. And so you hold it up on this pole with this dish or container on top with the wick burning on top.
Now you know that when the wick begins to get too much black part on it — that is the part that is burnt off — the light will go down, so you trim it, means you cut away that burnt-out part so that new wick, new cloth can come up which soaks up more oil so it can burn more brightly. And when the foolish begin to want to trim their wick, they begin to realize that they are running out of oil. Notice carefully: not that they have no more oil already, but they are running out at that particular time. The exact grammatical structure of those words is important. They have not yet run out. Their lamps have been burning all this time. While they fell asleep, they have been burning. While they have not fallen asleep, it is still burning. When they have fallen asleep and now when they wake up at the call of the herald, and they want to lighten their lamps again, make it brighter, they realize as they look into the dish that they are almost out of oil.
Now all this is very essential for understanding the message of this parable. What does it mean in our terms? What does it mean? Now the ten virgins then represent Christians, Christians who have died, and their lights have been shining. It is granted that their lights were shining during their earthly sojourn. When we start putting it into understandable language, when the Lord Jesus comes — now let's talk about these ten virgins as you and as me. You and I are represented by these ten virgins. And if you are a Christian, your lamp has been lighted. As the Lord Jesus says, no man lights a lamp and then puts it under a bed or puts it somewhere else where it cannot be seen. No, when you light the lamp, that light should shine.
In the Bible the lamp often refers to, symbolizes, salvation. Isaiah chapter 62, Isaiah 62, verse 1, speaks of the lamp of salvation which is burning, that Israel in his salvation has his lamp kindled and burning. So salvation is symbolized by a burning lamp or burning torch. In Psalm 119, verse 105, God's Word is compared to a lamp. In Proverbs chapter 6, verse 23, God's command and God's teaching is compared to a lamp. Now how does salvation come? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. So these are all related. The Word of God and salvation are inseparable. This lamp is shining. In Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 9, for example, light itself is compared to a lamp, and a person's lamp goes out — a physical lamp goes out when he dies. So here the spiritual light is being symbolized. Salvation is being symbolized by this lamp which has been kindled, which has been lighted. And since we are in Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 13, verse 9, almost exactly speaks of this parable, and this is what Proverbs 13, verse 9 says: "The light of the righteous rejoices."
# The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Part 2) — Matthew 25:1-13
Just like this oil. They took it. That extra oil was not for use in this present time. They didn't need it. There was enough oil in their lamps. But that extra oil was for use when they woke up at the other end. When the Lord came, they had the extra oil ready. Oh, that is vital to grasp.
Now the message of this parable becomes unique. It is unique in the sense that it answers questions that in the rest of the Lord's teaching were not answered before. It is not just another parable about staying awake. In fact, they didn't stay awake. It is not just another parable to say be careful and watchful. It is giving us precise and clear instruction that the only ones who made it into the wedding feast were the ones who had made provision for the age to come.
What provision have you got for the age to come? I wonder. Have you got something ready for the age to come? What is your spiritual bank account like on the other side when you get there, if you want to change the picture, the imagery? What works will follow you when you go across the border into the kingdom of heaven? What will... And is it important to have an account over there? If your citizenship is in heaven, as Paul says, then have you got an account over there? Or when you come there, you are going to be bankrupt? But bankrupt is not so bad. It is not so bad if you can go into the kingdom of God penniless, so long as you get there. You see, the Lord Jesus knows that most people are quite content to get there even if they are penniless when they get there. The point here is He is telling us that you will not even enter in without it. You will not enter in without the extra oil. You will not enter in if you have so lived your life in this present age that you have not made provision for the age to come.
It is another way of saying that only the spiritual man will be saved at the end. Not the carnal man. It is not going to be sufficient to be a carnal Christian. You have got to be a spiritual Christian to be saved. You cannot bluff God with that. Now there you can begin to see the power of this point that the Lord is making. It is a point that is truly one that challenges us very deeply and very mightily.
Now let's look a little bit deeper, look a little further in this parable. Now when they find that they are running out of oil — up to now it was so far, so good. Their lamps were burning up to this point. But from this point on it was going to go out. What a dreadful tragedy that you managed to keep your salvation, as it were, going until the time of the resurrection of all things, and then only at that particular point to realize that you didn't have the kind of faith that would see you through into the kingdom of God. How near and yet how far.
Look further in this parable here. What does it say? As we go on, we see here that when they woke up they found they are out of oil, so they had to go and buy oil. They had to go and look for some oil at the last minute. And as they went, what happens? The bridegroom arrives. And they are not there to meet him. They are not there to meet him. And the result is that when they come there to the banquet hall they find that the banquet is closed. The doors are shut. And what happens is these maidens are standing outside, the five of them, banging on the door. And what do they say here? "Lord, Lord," it says in verse 11. "Lord, Lord, open to us." Notice the term: "Lord, Lord." They are still calling Him Lord. A non-Christian doesn't call Jesus Lord. Even now at this point, at this desperate moment, this unhappy moment, they are still calling Him Lord.
And notice the frightening answer, verse 12: "But he replied, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.'" I do not know you. It is a statement of non-recognition. You haven't made it into the kingdom, into the banquet. The banquet is often a picture of the kingdom, of course.
It is very similar to Matthew chapter 7, verse 23: "On that day people will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not do this in your name and did we not do that in your name?' And the Lord will say to them, 'Depart from me, you evildoers. I do not know who you are. Depart from me.'" It is also very similar to a passage in Luke chapter 13. Let me read to you Luke chapter 13 in this passage, that you may see the similarity. This whole section is virtually another way of putting the same parable.
Verse 23. Let me read the whole passage to you from verse 23 of Luke chapter 13: "And someone said to him, 'Lord, will those who are saved be few?' And he said to them, 'Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.'" See, they tried to get in, but it was too late. They couldn't get in. "When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us.' And he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.' Then you will begin to say, 'But we ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.' But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!' There you will weep and gnash your teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out." Now notice this: this is what it means to be excluded, to be thrust out. "And men will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God."
Now here you can see this whole parable is almost exactly a picture representation of what is being said here in Luke. Therefore, let us come to the conclusion of the whole matter as we close.
Do not say to yourselves — and that is what the Lord is warning us — that you are a Christian today and that is fine and that is the end of the matter. The Christian life, and I have many times tried to point out this matter: that justification cannot, in biblical teaching, be separated from sanctification. To use theological language, that is to say, to be saved cannot be separated from the way you think and the way you live and the way you are. And you may live a Christian life that looks quite acceptable. All ten — you couldn't have told the difference between them. They all burned torches and they all looked alike. They were all virgins, in fact. The decisive moment came at the judgment seat of Christ, you can say, at the time when Jesus came, at the call of the archangel. They also rose. They all stood, as Paul says: "We shall all" — including the Apostle Paul — "stand before the judgment seat." But at that moment, they couldn't face up to the judgment. There is where their faith proved inadequate. They ran out at the crucial moment. It had been burning all so far up to this point. Remember that. It couldn't make it at the last stretch. They had stored up nothing. They had not taken extra oil. They had nothing for the age to come. They had no credit in the age to come. Nothing.
And the Lord is therefore saying to you — He is saying, I am saying to you — it is not only a good idea to store up treasure in heaven. It is essential for you to store up, to use that imagery. It is essential that you so live your life today that you live it with eternity in mind. Because that will come to the test on that day, whether you lived with eternity in mind or not. The five foolish ones had not lived with eternity in mind. They had lived the Christianity which was just for this world. Just enough to see them through. Just enough is simply not enough. That is the point you have to grasp. That's not enough. You've got to so live your life, whether you are doing your job, whether you are doing your studies, you live your life with that goal in view.
Can you grasp the message? At this point we shall continue to expound as we go on in the Lord's teaching. The points will become even more fully explained as we proceed into the next parables. But suffice for today to ask yourself this question: Do you so live your life today that you live with the spiritual consideration in view, with eternity in view? There is the test of whether you have faith, whether you believe God is the living God or not. Whatever you may say with your mouth, the way you live will show whether you live as one who believes that the eternal God is the living God who has given us a future for which we are preparing right now and transferring our credits into that world to come, transferring our possessions, you can say, transferring our labors, all so that on that day we have this extra oil that we need, by the grace of God.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer. Amen.