Matthew 25:1-13, The parable of the 5 wise and 5 foolish

•     They all had some knowledge of and regard for the bridegroom.
•     They all had lamps that were burning/lit.
•     While the bridegroom tarried they all slept.  Not until his coming was announced did the difference between them really reveal itself.  In all outward things the wise and foolish virgins were alike; the difference between them was internal.
• The foolish ones had a real regard for the bridegroom, they had gone far to meet him, and were disappointed at their exclusion.

There was genuineness about them as far as they went; only they did not go far enough.  They were not deliberate hypocrites (i.e. acting as though they had more religion than they actually did).  No, my friend, they had some feeling of attachment to Christ.  They had certain impulses towards the bridegroom, which is The Christ, which they did not resist, but they were not completely consecrated; they had a bit of the presence of the Holy Spirit but not at a full measure.

Character is confirmed by crisis.  A man has only as much religion as he desires and that is all he can muster in the moment of trial.  The minor surprises of life that come our way are to prepare us for the last emergency.  Character is a personal thing and cannot be passed from one person to another, but must be acquired and manifested by each one for himself.  I cannot give you my courage to fortify you for your duty.  How perilous it is to leave preparation for the testing times until they have come upon us.  Every time we perform duty the soul is made stronger.  It is thereby the store of oil is obtained.  1 Peter 1:5,7  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

One great truth taught here is that character is revealed by emergency.  It is in moments of surprise that a person’s true self comes into view.  He is the ablest soldier who can find in an instant some resource when an ambushing foe springs up before him.  He is the most skillful mariner, who, in sudden extremity can rise to the occasion, and bring his vessel and crew safely through.  Nothing will more correctly reveal what is within the man, his core character, than the sudden coming upon him of some crushing and unlooked for crisis.

Reserve power is the outcome of daily discipline.  When, in times of danger, some great leader comes suddenly to the front, and demonstrates he has the very qualities which the occasion requires, it will always be found, upon examination, that he has been preparing himself, unconsciously perhaps, but in reality for years by the careful discipline of daily labor, for the work which is now at hand as so successfully performed by him.  While others were asleep, he was at his toil: by the study of many months, perhaps by the labor of many midnight hours, he has been laying up the reserve supply upon which, at that moment of necessity he has been able to draw.  Thus, though the revelation of his ability may have been sudden, the growth of it has been gradual.  Because in times of quiet and safety he kept up the discipline of work, the crisis which swept others into oblivion only floated him into fame.

Be prepared.

–Pastor Ward Clinton