The message I have for us tonight, friends,
is a solemn one.
It's about the five foolish virgins and how
they represent a good portion of our churches
in America today.
One of the greatest burdens that I carry
is for the church in America.
I grieve over its sad spiritual declension and
its great failure to reach this generation with
the true, undiluted gospel of the Son of
God.
The modern gospel grieves my heart because it's
been diluted to such a sad degree that
it doesn't even resemble the New Testament pattern
and it doesn't get the job done as
far as bringing the loss to repentance and
faith in Jesus Christ.
There used to be a time in America
when the gospel was preached in its purity
and proper order.
There was a day when preachers would preach
up the sinner's room and his duty of
repentance.
Preachers would warn the lost of dying in
their sins and going to a place of
misery called hell.
They were honest with folks and showed them
their necessity of regeneration through the new birth.
They preached about a bloody cross and the
Savior who died there.
But you won't hear much about that anymore
in our churches in the land and it
breaks my heart because people are joining our
churches and remaining in an unconverted state.
It just breaks my heart.
When I look at the church in America
today, how forsaken of God it really is
and too many evangelists have for too many
years preached only about the love of God
and they have not preached the full counsel
of God and it's a crying shame.
It's a crying shame because too many church
members are dying in their sins and opening
their eyes in hell and its regions.
We don't do men favors by diluting the
gospel message to make it easier to swallow
or rather we do them great harm.
It's harder to reach a person with the
gospel once they've become a church member because
they think it no longer pertains to them.
They already did that.
They made their decision.
I like what Vance Havner used to say.
He said, I could have led a lot
more people to the Lord had they not
already joined the church and it's true friends.
It's sad but true.
R.G. Lee shocked his denomination at a
convention one year by stating he believed only
one out of ten of his members in
his church was truly saved.
I recall Leonard Ravenhill's assessment of the American
church.
He said that in his opinion only 5
% were truly converted.
The Lord of Glory spoke of the tares
and the wheat, the sheep and the goats
and he spoke of the dragnet of fishes
where the good fish would be separated from
the bad at that final day.
One thing we know for certain from scripture
that there will always be a mixture in
our churches of the sound and the unsound,
the converted and the unconverted.
That's what my Bible states.
So my message this evening is an alarm
to the unconverted, a warning to the unsaved.
How terrible it is to be a church
member and believe yourself to be truly converted
when the reality of your life stands as
a great witness against you.
You are so self-deceived that you cannot
even see your great danger of dying in
your sins and being cast into hell.
Listen friends, I know what I'm talking about
because for years I was an unconverted church
member.
However, I rested my hope, having on a
good opinion of myself and a long track
record of service, God had to show me
I was lost.
Have you ever been lost friend?
How do you know you're saved if you've
never been lost?
My message this evening is entitled Five Foolish
Virgins and we will examine why they were
so foolish because foolish they were.
Let me pray now that the Spirit of
God will be pleased to attend the preaching
of His word.
Let me pray.
Blessed King, the church in America experiences your
withdrawn presence from our midst because of our
sins and our refusal to turn and forsake
our wicked ways and to seek your face
in repentance and sackcloth.
We need you, Lord Jesus, to come back
to your sanctuary and be prominent and preeminent
once more.
Lord Jesus, we need you to visit your
church in America.
Come take a whip cord to it and
clean it out of all the idols of
entertainment and defilement.
You are on a throne in glory, dear
King, and there you rule while we continue
to play our silly games on Sunday mornings
in this land.
Send us, great God, the grace of repentance
and turn us, O Lord, in your mercy.
Turn us, O Lord, before it's too late.
Have mercy, I pray.
And now, King Jesus, I pray that by
your Spirit you will convict hearts today that
are sitting upon false foundations of carnal security.
Break up those false foundations, great King.
Attend the preaching of your word with your
majesty and power.
Let your word be a hammer that breaks
the rock in pieces.
It's the prayer of this poor preacher.
Amen.
Well, friends, our passage is found in the
Gospel of Matthew in chapter 25.
You may turn in your Bibles there now.
And I want to ask you to listen
carefully to this message, for it has to
do with where you will spend eternity, either
in heaven with Jesus and a heavenly host,
or in hell with Satan and a demon
horde.
Your eternal welfare should be your greatest concern.
It should be more important to you than
your 401k plan, more important than your big
plans for retirement because you may not live
to see it.
We spend all our time and energy on
things of this world to the neglect of
souls, our souls.
Listen carefully now to the reading of God's
word.
Then the kingdom of heaven should be likened
unto ten virgins which took their lamps and
went forth to meet the bridegroom.
And five of them were wise and five
were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps and
took no oil with them.
But the wise took oil in their vessels
with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and
slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made,
Behold, the bridegroom cometh.
Go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their
lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give
us of your oil, for our lamps have
gone out.
But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest
there be not enough for us and you.
But go ye rather to them that sell,
and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom
came.
And they that were ready went in with
him to the marriage, and the door was
shut.
Afterwards came also the other virgin, saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, Verily I say
unto you, I know you not.
Now listen friends, there are several elements here
which need attention.
We are to concentrate on the five foolish
virgins which represent the false professor, the unconverted
church member.
Number one, notice there is a number mentioned
by our Lord.
That number is five out of ten.
That represents fifty percent or half.
Here are ten church members who each believe
themselves to be sound and truly converted and
on their way to heaven.
But five of them are living on a
false hope of carnal security, for they are
not truly born again.
Apply that percentage to the average church in
America today.
Let's say you have a thousand members.
That means five hundred are lost church members
who are greatly deceived.
They sit upon a false foundation with a
false peace.
Now notice the second element here mentioned.
They are described by the word foolish.
When Jesus spoke of the fool in the
Gospels, he referred to a person as someone
who was careless about their eternal welfare, the
parable of the rich man who built bigger
barns to store all his goods and said,
Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this
night thy soul shall be required of thee.
Then who shall those things be which thou
hast provided?
God calls that man a fool, a fool
because he cared not for his soul.
And the five foolish virgins fall into that
same category, although their case is even worse
for they believe themselves to be wise, but
they are self-deceived.
And that brings us to this third element
in our text.
The five foolish are still called virgins.
In other words, they look good on the
outside, they pass the test on the outside,
but they don't cut the mustard on the
inside, they've never experienced change through the new
birth, they lack the spirit of God, they
are unsanctified individuals.
They believe themselves to be safe in their
hope of heaven, but when it comes time
for them to meet the bridegroom, they are
quite unprepared and lost.
Notice our passage states that the door was
shut, their day of opportunity was over, friends.
When death comes, it's all over, the door
of salvation is shut.
As a tree falls, it shall lie.
In Revelation it declares, He that is unjust,
let him be unjust still.
And he which is filthy, let him be
filthy still.
And he that is righteous, let him be
righteous still.
Listen friends, there are no altar calls in
hell, all that's in hell is weeping and
gnashing of teeth and endless misery and regret.
But the saddest thing about our passage today
is that these five foolish virgins believe they
have an intimate relationship with Jesus, they address
him as Lord, they say, Lord, Lord, open
to us, and they expect him to open
the door and let them in, but to
their horror, Jesus replies, I know you not.
How terrible it will be for you, dear
unconverted friend, when you die, believe in yourself
to wake up in heaven and see the
face of Jesus, and instead you wake in
hell and its terrors.
Or many, not like the five foolish virgins,
the five foolish slept on soft pillows of
carnal security, they had a good opinion of
themselves and were self-righteous, they rested on
their duties, they had their lamps, and they
had done what they thought was necessary through
a long track record of service, but they
failed to have the oil of the Holy
Spirit within, they had a carnal security and
a false hope of heaven, and in the
end, their doom was sealed, there was no
more opportunity, the worst thing about hell, friend,
is once you are shut up in there,
you're in there forever.
If I could take you and lead you,
and if I could open the lid of
hell and let you hear the screams of
the damned, it would keep you up tonight,
but we don't preach on hell enough and
warn sinners not to go there.
Do you mind the things of the spirit,
friend, or do you mind the things of
the flesh?
Romans speaks of the unconverted.
For they that are after the flesh do
mind the things of the flesh, but they
that are after the spirit, the things of
the spirit, for to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be,
so then, they that are in the flesh
cannot please God.
You see, friends, these five foolish virgins could
not please God because they were in the
flesh and bore to the spirit, Romans 8
verse 9 declares, Now, if any man have
not the spirit of Christ, he is none
of his.
An unconverted church member looks good on the
outside, but on the inside is rotten as
all get-out, they are void of the
spirit of God, they've never been regenerated by
the spirit of God, listen, friend, just because
you're the chairman of the deacons, you may
be filthy still, you must be born again.
Listen, dear fellow church member, if you think
you have peace, is it scriptural peace?
Many cry peace and safety when sudden destruction
is coming upon them, are you willing to
hope that your condition is good, but yet
you've never experienced change through the new birth?
Will you perish in your sins?
Please, dear friend, don't be a self-deceiving
hypocrite who rests on a false foundation of
self-righteousness and carnal security, flee to the
only refuge you have, and that is in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Listen friend, when a person gets saved, something
happens, a self is dethroned and another is
enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ, he reigns
upon the throne of your life, and you
must take up your cross and follow him
with all his rights and claims upon you,
you can't have half a Jesus, friend, you
can't have Sager only, you must submit to
him as Lord, throw down your shotgun of
rebellion, break up the false foundation of your
self-righteousness, and be like the publican who
beat his chest crying, Lord be merciful to
me a sinner.
Listen friend, do you allow yourself in any
way of wickedness, do you truly love and
delight in God above all things, Satan is
a master of deceit, be sure he's not
deceived you, the peace you may have may
be from the evil one, go to God
to search you and try you, examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith, prove your
own selves, no you're not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
you be reprobates, five wise and five foolish,
the five who were foolish faced a closed
door for it was too late, their future
was with the misery of the unconverted in
a place of burnings called hell, dear friend
repent before it's too late.