The Five Foolish Virgins — William Blackburn

Preparing to Meet God for Eternity

The most important thing in this life is to be prepared for the next life because no matter how long you live here on planet Earth, you might live to be 90 years of age, I don't know, but however long you live, that is a brief span of time compared to eternity.

You see, you're going to live most of your life not here on planet Earth, but you're going to live most of your life either in a place called heaven or a place called hell. You see, my dear friends, the Bible teaches us that eternity is long, life is short, hell is real, and a man needs to be prepared for eternity.

You see, we spend a lot of time preparing for things. We prepare for an education, we prepare for a career, we prepare for marriage, for raising a family, we prepare for retirement, but the sad fact is that many people don't make the main preparation of all, and the main preparation of all, the Bible says, is prepare to meet God.

Friend, I want to tell you, one day you're going to stand before God. One day Jesus Christ is going to return, or one day you're going to die, and I promise you, you're going to die a lot sooner than you ever dreamed possible.

You're going to leave planet Earth one day. The Bible says God created you as an eternal being. Your soul, your will, your intellect, your emotions, it was made in the image of God, and God has created you to live forever.

And one day your body is going to die, but the real you, the soul, is going to go on living in eternity. You see, what you need to understand is you are an eternal being. You are going to live somewhere forever.

When your body dies, your soul is going to leave that body and just go on living. And the Bible says you have one of two places to go. You can either join God and fellowship with God and love God and be with God in a place called heaven, or you can reject God and live without God in a place called hell.

And the Bible says the most important decision you will ever make is to be prepared to meet God. Prepare to meet God. Now I want to ask you a question. Are you prepared to meet God? Suppose tonight you head home, and suppose on the way home you have an automobile accident like this young teenage boy we just heard about.

Suppose you go home tonight and you have an automobile accident. Suppose you die tonight. Are you prepared for that? Would your soul go to heaven, or would your soul go to hell? Friends, I want to tell you, if you are not prepared to stand before a holy God, you need to get prepared.

Because I'm telling you, as sure as I'm standing here tonight, the Lord Jesus is coming soon, and if He doesn't come in our lifetime, you're going to die and stand before God, and you need to be prepared.

And I'm not talking about joining a Baptist church, and I'm not talking about getting baptized, and I'm not talking about living a good moral life. I'm talking about surrendering your will and your life to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

I'm telling you, we live in the Bible Belt here, and everybody in the Bible Belt has walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, been sprinkled or baptized or confirmed, but the sad fact is that the vast majority of people in Laurel, Mississippi are one heartbeat away from hell.

I'm telling you, our community is filled up with people who have a form of religion, but they do not have the Spirit of the living God in their heart. And this parable that I've just read to you, the Lord Jesus Christ wants you to be prepared to go to heaven.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

God wants you to be prepared. And so the Lord Jesus Christ gave us a parable. Now a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly message. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, I want to tell you what heaven is like.

Jesus Christ said, heaven is like this. Heaven is like 10 virgins and these 10 virgins are waiting for the bridegroom, the virgins being you and I, the bridegroom being the Lord Jesus Christ, 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom.

And the Bible says that five of them were wise and five of them were foolish. Now the reason five of them were wise were five of them were really prepared to meet God. And the reason the other five were foolish is because they were unprepared to meet God.

Oh, don't miss the point, sir. They thought they were prepared. They thought they were ready to meet God, but Jesus Christ said they had a form of religion that did not get them through the gates of glory.

You see, my friends, it is awful to be unprepared to meet God. But what a tragedy to be unprepared and not know it, to be unprepared and yet to be deceived by Satan, to think that you're prepared to meet God.

And yet when the time to stand before God comes for you to be shocked and surprised to realize that you're lost and be condemned to the devil's hell. So let's take a look at the five foolish virgins and see what Jesus said about it.

And I want you to notice some things about the five foolish virgins. The first thing I want you to notice is I want you to notice five things. They had a remarkable similarity to the wise virgins. Notice what the Bible says.

The Bible says, number one, they were all members of the same bridal party. They all were members of the same bridal party and yet Jesus said one group was wise and one group was foolish. And you know, we have both groups here tonight in this auditorium.

Right now we have both the wise and the foolish right here sitting on the same pew. There are some of you that are prepared to meet God. You've been born again by the Holy spirit. You're ready to meet God, but sitting on the same pew beside you, there's somebody who's not prepared to meet God.

You see, we have the same bridal party here tonight. We have folks who are here tonight. You've been singing and praising. Some of you are prepared and some of you just think you're prepared. You're like the five foolish virgins.

You're part of the bridal party, but you're not ready to meet God. You see the five foolish virgins, number one, they had a remarkable similarity in that they were members of the same bridal party. But number two, they were similar in that they were all virgins.

All 10 girls were pure. That word virgin means they had high morality. They didn't drink and smoke and run around. They lived good godly lives. Friends, I want to tell you something. You can be the best man in Laurel, Mississippi and go straight to hell.

You can be a man who pays his bills and pays his taxes, comes to church, never lies, never cheats on your wife. You're a moral, honest man and go straight to hell because morality has absolutely nothing to do with going to heaven.

Because even though you may look moral on the outside, the Bible says that we are sinners on the inside. The Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says there's none that doeth good.

No, not one. The Bible says if any man tries to stand up and say he's not a sinner, that man is a liar and doesn't even know the truth. Friends, I want to tell you, the five foolish virgins, they were members of the same bridal party.

They had a high morality. They were virgins and yet Jesus said they were not prepared to meet God. The third thing they had similar was this. The five foolish virgins not only were members of the same bridal party, not only virgins, but they all had a lamp.

All ten virgins had a lamp. Now what does the lamp represent? Well, the lamp represents a profession of faith. All ten girls professed to be ready to meet God. Now listen to me, men. They had all walked down an aisle.

They had all prayed a prayer. They'd all been baptized. They all had their name on a church row and yet five were wise and five were foolish. Now friends, I want to tell you, a profession with your lip that does not change your life has absolutely no power to get you into the gates of glory.

In fact, the Bible says there are many people who profess God with their mouth, but with their heart, they deny Him. My friends, I want to tell you, we live in the Bible, Bill. And I'm telling you, if I were to take a group of you out tonight in Laurel, Mississippi, and we were to knock on doors, you would be surprised to find out that almost everybody in Laurel, Mississippi has made a profession of faith at some time in their life.

Almost everybody in Mississippi has their name on a church row somewhere. But my friends, I want to tell you, most of them have never met God because I'm telling you, a profession of faith that does not change your life will not get you through the gates of glory.

The Bible says you must be born again. See, it's not a profession with your mouth that saves you, it is a conversion by God. When God sees that your heart is pure, when God sees that you're willing to repent, when God sees that you're willing to surrender your life to Him, God will supernaturally put His Spirit in you.

Now men, listen to me. When you get the Spirit of God, you know what happens to you? You take on the personality of Jesus. When you get the Spirit of God, men, you won't stand out there in the foyer and talk about bass fishing during the service.

When you get the Spirit of God, buddy, you seek and hunger after the things of God. When you get a couple of Christians together, buddy, in about 30 seconds, the first thing they want to talk about is the Lord Jesus Christ because they have the Spirit of God, they identify with God, they hunger for the things of God, and these 10 ladies, they look exactly alike.

Man, you couldn't tell them apart from the outside. They both were members of the same bridal party. They were both all virgins. They were pure and moral. They were good people, lived good lives, and they all had a lamp.

They'd made a profession of faith, but Jesus said five were wise and five were foolish. Five were prepared to meet God, and five only thought they were prepared to meet God. The next thing they have in common is this.

They all had the same purpose. Every one of these girls had the same purpose. They were waiting for the bridegroom. They were waiting for the bridegroom. They had the same intention. I want to tell you something, friend.

We have a lot of folks in church, everybody wants to go to heaven. Nobody wants to go to hell, but I want to tell you, good intentions will not get you to heaven. Just because you come to church, just because you believe in God, just because you have a desire to go to heaven and you're going to get saved Sunday, my friends, just because you have a desire like a Christian does not mean you're a Christian.

We have a lot of folks in church that want to go to heaven, but they're not willing to repent of their sin. They're not willing to surrender their lives to the Lord Jesus. They're not willing to give everything they have to God.

They have a form of religion. They profess it with their lips, but with their heart and their lives, they deny the things of God. I want to tell you, man, I talk across this country, and I'm telling you, I meet men all the time.

They come down in a church, they may be a deacon or a Sunday school teacher, they may be on the board of directors of a local bank, they may be influential. They come to church, they talk a good game, but you go out there, friend, when they leave the church, the name Jesus never crosses their mouth.

They go out to their job on Monday. They live like the world the rest of the week. I'm telling you, friends, you don't have it. When a man gets the Lord Jesus Christ, it produces a seven-day-a-week faith, friends, and it produces a passion for God.

And I want to tell you, friends, if you don't have a passion for the things of God, you ought to examine your heart. You may have great intentions, but have you been born again by the Spirit of God? And the final similarity the virgins had were this.

They were interspersed together. The wise and the foolish virgins were together. They went to the same Sunday school class together. They fellowshiped together. They vacationed together. They ran together, and yet Jesus said five were wise and five were foolish.

I want to tell you, friends, we've got folks come to church and they think because they associate with the things of God, they're saved. They think because they come to church or teach a Sunday school, they fellowship with other Christians and talk about God, that they are born again.

But, friends, listen to me, there must be a day in your life when you do what the Bible says to do. There must be a day in your life when you repent, and, sir, that means turn away from your sin. You can't come to Jesus with sin in your hand.

I want to tell you, you've got them old sorry cigarettes in your pocket. You've got that beer in your refrigerator. You're hanging out with a bunch of lost guys cursing and taking God's name in vain. You've not been born again by the Holy Spirit of God.

I want to tell you, friends, you may hang around people in church, but when you get away from those folks, what kind of fruit is produced in your life that tells what you really are. You see, what you really are is what you do in secret when nobody is around.

What you really are is how you live when nobody can find out what you've done or what you said when the decisions you make then, sir, tell what you really are inside your heart. You see, the five foolish virgins, they had remarkable similarities.

I mean, they had remarkable similarities. They looked just like the wise. I mean, if you and I were to try to pick them out, we couldn't pick them out. We'd make a mistake because on the outside, they looked exactly alike.

They were carbon copies. They all were members of the same bridal party. They all were virgins. They were pure. They were moral. They were admired in the community. They all had a profession of faith.

They had a lamp. They all had the same intentions. They were waiting for the bridegroom, and they were all intermingled together. But Jesus said five of them were wise and five were foolish. Five were prepared to meet God, and five only thought they were prepared to meet God.

Genuine Conversion Rather Than Religious Profession

Now, what about you, friend? I know you're a member of a church somewhere. I know you've walked an aisle somewhere. I know you've been baptized or sprinkled or confirmed, but I want to ask you this. Are you born again?

Was there a day in your life you did what the Bible said to do? Was there a moment in your life when you repented of your sin and surrendered your will to God? Was there a day you were changed by the Holy Spirit?

Friend, I'm not asking have you walked an aisle, have you prayed a prayer, have you been baptized? Are you a good person? I'm asking you this. Was there a day in your life that you can remember when the Holy Spirit of God began to speak to you and God, through the Holy Spirit, revealed to you for the first time that you were a sinner against God, that you had broken God's law, you had broken God's heart, you were a rebel against God, and because you had sinned against the Most High God, you were condemned to hell.

There was nothing you could do to save yourself. You know why you remember it so clearly, sir? It was the most desperate moment of your life. It felt like the weight of the world was on your shoulders.

Your heart began to beat fast. The palms of your hands began to sweat. For the first time in your life, you had learned you had sinned against the Most High God. What were you going to do? And then somebody took a Bible and told you about Jesus, how he had died on the cross to pay your sin debt, how he had been buried in a tomb and then raised from the dead, and if you had turned away from your wicked, sinful life and gave your heart to him, he'd forgive you and save you.

And like a little child, you got on your face and said, oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. God, I admit it. I'm a sinner. I'm a rebel. I've lived my own life, done my own thing, but God, I'm sorry. But I believe you love me, and I believe Jesus died for me.

God, the best I know how, I give my life to you. And man, you stood up after praying that little childlike prayer, and something inside your heart that day, it changed, and you have never been the same.

Have you been born again by the Spirit of God? Do you know for sure that if you were to die today, that you'd go to heaven? Oh, the five foolish virgins, they had remarkable similarities. They were members of the same bridal party, hung out at the same church together.

They were pure, and they were moral, they were virgins. They had a lamp, a profession of faith. They professed to be ready to meet God. They had the same intentions. Everybody else, hey, we're waiting for Jesus to come back.

They were all intermingled together, side by side, five of them on their way to heaven, five of them on their way to hell. Jesus said, this is what heaven's like. You need to pay attention, because some people are prepared, and others just think they're prepared.

Distinguishing a Backslider from a Lost Church Member

The second thing I want you to notice about the virgins is this. Folks are always asking me, William, how can you tell the difference between a person who's really born again, but just backslid, and somebody who's a lost church member?

Well, first of all, let me tell you the similarities they have. A person who's saved, but backslidden, and a person who is in church lost, they have no peace, they have no joy, they have no contagious spirit about them.

But there are many differences, because here's what the Bible teaches. A person who is a backslider continues to hear the voice of God, even though he's away from God, but the lost man doesn't hear from God.

Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. To the backslider, the name of Jesus is still a sweet sound, but the lost man, he may say Jesus on Sunday morning, but when he gets away from the church, the word Jesus never leaves his mouth again.

And the backslider still hates sin, even though he may be in sin, he's grieved by sin, but the lost man, he's not bothered by his sin at all. The backslider will eventually be destroyed by the hand of God, because the Bible says when a man lives in rebellion against God, if he's a son of God, God will one day take him home.

But the lost man can seem to live in sin and get by with it. The backslider understands the Bible, but the lost man does not understand the things of God. The backslider still likes to see people get saved.

He may be living in sin and rebellion, but when he sees people get saved, he rejoices in those things. But you know what the lost man thinks about? People may come down and join the church, but he's concerned about, is the grass cut?

Is the church clean? Do we have enough offering to pay our bills? You see, the lost man is not concerned about spiritual things. He's concerned about physical things, tangible things. His heart is set on the things of the world and not set on the things of God.

The Foolish Virgins' False Satisfaction

But I want you to know this, the five foolish virgins had an unwise satisfaction. These women were so deceived by Satan. They were so deceived it was almost supernatural the way they were deceived, and yet the Bible says the devil has blinded some of those that have not believed.

These five virgins, they were satisfied with what they have. Listen to me. They weren't prepared. The bridegroom shows up. There was no panic. There was no excitement. They weren't scared about being left behind.

When the bridegroom showed up, they were still satisfied with what they had. They were satisfied with their lamp. They were satisfied with their profession, even though they weren't ready. And there are some of you here tonight, you're just like that.

You have a profession of faith. You're a good person, a moral person. You've been in church for a long time. You know in your heart, you don't have the spirit of living God, but you're satisfied with what you have.

You don't understand, dear friend, at this very moment, you sit here without God in your heart. You are one heartbeat away from hell and you're satisfied with it. And I'm telling you there's coming a day when you will stand before the judgment of God and the judgment of God will reveal that you are one of these five foolish virgins.

You have a lamp, you have morality, you have a great intention, but you have not been born again by the Holy Spirit. And I'm telling you friends all across America, in fact, I got a message today from a man in Crosshead, Arkansas, the pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, a great church down there about the size of this one.

Last weekend he went to visit his son in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the pastor got saved. I'm telling you friends all across America, I see it. I see deacons get saved by the thousands. I see Sunday school teachers saved by the thousands.

I'm telling you all across America, we've got our churches filled up with these foolish virgins. They have all the stuff that you can give. They have their baptismal certificate, their deacon ordination papers, their choir robes, but they don't have the spirit of the living God.

And that's why on Sunday morning you'll have a house full and on Sunday night you'll have half a house. You'll have a business meeting and folks will get up and talk ugly and disrespectful. Why? Because they don't have the spirit of the living God.

And you try to talk to these people about being saved and they get all huffy and puffed up and they go, how dare you question my salvation. I know I'm saved man, been saved all my life. I want to tell you something buddy, if you're afraid to examine your salvation, you're doing the work of the devil.

And I'll tell you why, because God says examine yourself. God says examine yourself. And this old nonsense about hard preaching, causing folks to doubt their salvation, that's straight from the pits of hell, buddy, because God says, God says examine your heart.

But I'm telling you, our churches are filled up with people. You start preaching hard. I don't care if we have 10 ,000 people saved, you'll have folks whining and complaining and griping that the preaching was too hard.

They shouldn't be making folks doubt their salvation. I've learned this, sir. The only person who gets mad when you preach about lost church members are lost church members. I'm telling you, I was in a little church several years ago and people were there and we had everybody stand and I said, turn to the person beside you, ask him, are you saved?

Back in the back, there was a little junior boy, about 12 years old. He was standing beside a very elderly, dignified man. They stood up and that little junior boy says, sir, are you saved? This man got very incensed.

He looked down and he said, son, don't you know that I'm a deacon? That little boy said, sir, it don't matter what you've done, God will save you. You see, the virgins thought they were prepared. They had a lamp, they had a profession, they hung around the right crowd, they had a good moral life, but they had no oil.

The Holy Spirit as the Oil of Genuine Faith

They had no oil. And the oil represents the Holy Spirit of God. And the Bible says if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. You can go to the biggest, fanciest church in town, you can give a million dollars to the building program, you can be the head treasurer, you can be the head deacon, you can be the best man in town, but if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you are lost, doomed, damned, condemned without hope and you need to come to Jesus tonight and be born again before it's everlastingly too late.

You see, the virgins had no oil, but they had a temporary light. They said, give us your oil, our lamp has gone out. Now how did the lamp burn if it didn't have the oil? Well if you know anything about these oil lamps, you know that a wick will burn for a couple of minutes without the oil.

That wick, that dry wick without oil, you know what that represents? That represents religion. Oh, religion to give a little light for a while. Oh, religion's all right, I guess, until you die. I mean, it's all right to be a Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic, a vegetarian, until you die.

It's all right to have religion until you die, but buddy, when you die, that religion will not keep you out of hell. You need the Holy Spirit of the living God to come into your life and I'm telling you men, what is wrong today in our churches is our churches are filled up with lost men.

We have men who come down, but their wives lead the devotion, their wives run the church, their wives do the praying, their wives do the tithing, their wives do it all. The men come down, they claim to know God, but there is no passion for God and men, you are lost and you need to come to Christ and make it real.

And I want to tell you, when you have trouble in churches, and a lot of times you'll have women wanting to come boss the pastor around, there's always a couple of well-meaning ladies I've been telling you about, always come in the pastor's office.

I want to tell you something, friend. You show me a bossy woman who comes to the pastor's office and tries to boss the pastor around, I'll show you a woman who's married to a lace-on-the-bridges man, a man who doesn't love God, a man who doesn't have the power of God, because when a man loves God and leads his family, I say you won't have that nonsense around the church.

What we need is we need men to stand up for God. We need men to take a stand for God, but men have been lied to. We've been told that being a Christian is some kind of sissy thing, some kind of woman thing, but I'm telling you, the Bible says when you come to God, you're joining God's army, put on the whole armor of God, fight for God, stand for God.

I'm telling you, God is looking for some men to stand up and count for Him. You see these foolish virgins, they were so deceived, they were so deceived, they were satisfied with their land. They thought they'd get saved anytime.

Even when the bridegroom came, they thought they could still get saved. Listen to me, men, even after God closed the door, they beat on the door and they thought they could still get saved. Let us in!

Let us in! We want to be saved! Let us in! But the bridegroom said, I don't know you. An unwise satisfaction. Are you satisfied with what you have? Are you satisfied with your religion? Do you have the power of God on your life?

Does God answer your prayers? Does God use you in a mighty way? Every time I pray for Him, I expect God to answer that prayer. Every time I ask God for Him, I expect God to show up. My friend, I live by faith.

I believe God believes, He honors faith. I was in a little church in Bruton, Alabama one time, preaching at a free will Baptist church. Gave the invitation. A lady came down, terminal cancer. Terminal cancer.

She had about 30 days to live. She said, William, I believe you're a man of faith. She said, I want you to anoint me with oil and pray. I had some oil on the pulpit. I anointed with oil. Called the elders together.

We prayed. She went home that day. She took all that cancer medicine she had. She flushed it down the toilet. She's been alive. That's been seven years. She's still alive today, healed by the power of God.

Does God still heal? Yes, He does. God still heals. About two years after that episode, my wife and I were back in Atmore, Alabama. That same lady who'd been cured from cancer called me. She said, William, there's a 17-year-old girl who has terminal cancer.

I've told her about the power of prayer and she wants to be healed. My wife and I went to her. She had no hair on her head, beautiful young girl, but no hair. She had three tumors in her chest. First thing I did was the most important thing.

I led her to Jesus. She was born again. Then we anointed with oil and prayed for God to heal her. Oh, heal her. Today she's married and her and her husband travel around the country giving God the praise and the glory for what He has done in her life.

I'm telling you, friends, when you have the power of God in your life, it produces results in your life. When you have God's hand on your life, you can do things you couldn't do on your own. My question is this.

Do you have God in your life? Do you have God in your life? Man, have you really been born again? Do you have a passion for God? I mean, what do you spend most of your time doing? What do you spend most of your money on?

Whatever it is, that's the God of your life.