You Cannot Get To Heaven On Someone Else’s Faith

You cannot get to heaven on someone else’s faith. You cannot, like the foolish virgins could not, look around in that moment when you’re exposed and you have to stand before the groom and say, "But I’m with them, but they’re serious about their faith, but they came prepared, and I know them and I’m their friend and I’m their child, I’m their spouse." It doesn’t work like that. You will stand before God and you cannot on that day depend upon your friends or your family members and say, "But they believed, and I like them, and I was a part of their friend group and a part of their family." You cannot like sneaking into some concert and the guard at the front is quite overwhelmed and he’s trying to grab people’s tickets, and you sort of just crouch in with a big group and there you made it, and nobody checked your ticket. Heaven doesn’t work like that. Somebody will check your ticket. These women thought that if something went wrong, they could always rely on someone else to have done the right thing. How many professing Christians does that describe in our world? I pray it would not be so in our church, but in a room this size it probably does. We think, "I’m fine because the people I know are doing the right thing, and as long as I look like the people I know who are doing the right thing, at the end of the day that will be good enough." Here we see you cannot borrow someone else’s oil.

This clip is part of the sermon “Watching and Waiting" delivered by Dr. Kevin DeYoung at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC on April 6, 2025.

Matthew 25:1–13

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

[1] “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. [2] Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. [3] For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, [4] but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. [5] As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. [6] But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ [7] Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. [8] And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ [9] But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ [10] And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. [11] Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ [12] But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ [13] Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (ESV)