Five Foolish Virgins — E.A. Johnston

The Five Foolish Virgins and the Church's Spiritual Decline

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.

The Diluted Gospel and the Need for Repentance

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.

And I recall Leonard Ravenhill's assessment of the American church. He said that in his opinion only five percent 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.

The Danger of False Assurance

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. I rested my hope of 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.

A Prayer for Repentance and Spiritual Awakening

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. This is the prayer of this poor preacher. Amen. Well, friends, our passage is found in the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 25.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

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 virgins, 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.

The First Element: Five Out of Ten Are Unprepared

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.

The Second Element: The Fool Who Neglects His Soul

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.

The Third Element: Outward Religion Without the New Birth

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.

Carnal Security and the Absence of the Holy Spirit

Are 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. We don't preach on hell enough and warn sinners not to go there.

The Mind of the Flesh Versus the Mind of the Spirit

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?

Fleeing to Christ and Submitting to His Lordship

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. 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 Savior 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.

Examining the Evidence of Genuine Faith

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. Know you 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.