Sit, Walk, Stand: The Process of Christian Maturity Read Online Free PDF Page B

while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage feast: and thedoor was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins . . . . (Matt. 25:1–13)
            And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads. . . . They are virgins. These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were purchased from among men, to be the first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no lie: they are without blemish. (Rev. 14:1–5)
    There are many passages of Scripture that assure us that what God has begun, He will finish. Our Savior is a Savior to the uttermost. No Christian believer will be “half saved” at the end, even if now that might be said of us in any sense. God will perfect every man who has faith in Him. That is what we believe, and we must keep it in mind as a background for what we are going to say next. With Paul, we are “confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). There are no limits to God’s power. He “is able . . . to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish” (Jude 24; see also 2 Tim. 1:12 and Eph. 3:20).
    It is, however, when we turn to the subjective aspect of this—to its practical outworking in our lives here and now on the earth—that we encounter the question of time. In Revelation 14 there are first fruits (14:4), and there is a harvest (14:15). What is the differencebetween harvest and first fruits? It is certainly not one of quality, for the whole crop is one. Their difference lies only in the time of their ripeness. Some fruits reach maturity before others, and thus they become “first-fruits.”
    My home town in Fukien province is famous for its oranges. I would say (and no doubt I am prejudiced!) that there are none like them anywhere in the world. As you look out on the hills at the beginning of the orange season, all the groves are green. But if you look more carefully, you will see, sprinkled here and there on the trees, golden oranges already showing up. It is a beautiful sight to see the flecks of gold dotted among the dark green trees. Later the whole crop will ripen, and the groves will turn to gold, but now it is these first fruits that are gathered. They are carefully handpicked, and it is they that fetch the top market prices—often three times the price of the harvest.
    All will reach ripeness, somehow. But the Lamb is seeking first fruits. The “wise” in the parable are not those who have done better, but those who have done well at an earlier hour . The others, be it noted, were also virgins—“foolish,” no doubt, but not false. Along with the wise, they had gone out to meet the Bridegroom. They too had oil in their lamps, and their lamps were burning. But they had not reckoned on His tarrying, and now that their lamps burned low, they had no reserve of oil in their vessels, nor had the others enough to spare them.
    Some are troubled at this point by the Lord’s words to the foolish ones: “I know you not” (Matt. 25:12). How, they feel, could He say this of them if they represent His true children, “espoused . . . as a pure virgin to Christ”? (2 Cor. 11:2). But we must recognize the whole point of the teaching of this parable, which is surely that there is some privilege of serving Him in the future which His children may miss by being unprepared. It says that the five came to the door and said, “Lord, Lord, open to us” (Matt. 25:11). What door? Certainly not the door of salvation. If you are lost, you cannot come to the door of heaven and knock. When therefore the Lord says, “I know you not,” He surely uses these words in some such limited sense as in the following illustration.
    In Shanghai the son of a police court magistrate was