We're just going to hand over to her brother and I and he will
finish the service. Well could I thank the brother
for his help tonight, and a burdened shaft, shared as a
burdened haft. And we do thank him for that.
The Bible says two are better than one, for they have a good
reward for their labour. So I do appreciate his work and
his labour of love and the warm words of welcome.
It's good to be with you if. If I remember correctly it was
October time of last year. I was here with you giving a
word of testimony. How quickly those months have
come and gone and it's a joy to be with you here tonight.
Your own minister I think was severely pressed regarding the
preacher for the night. He was having difficulty finding
a preacher and the phone rang 1 morning and I answered it and he
said Brother Tammy, I think he was asking an unbelief.
Are are you free? What's today's date?
This is the July the 9th and I said yes, I am free and would be
happy to preach for you if the Lord enables me to do so.
I think he was getting a little bit desperate, but I was glad I
was able to help him out to some degree of measure as far as the
meeting tonight. Is concerned.
Well, if you have your Bibles there, I'm sure you do, I'd like
you to turn with me to Matthew's Gospel.
Matthew chapter 16, June the 22nd.
So it was very close to four years ago.
I suffered that stroke. It took me the best part of
three years, the Lord helping me to get to the place where I
could preach again, where I could live again, where I could
laugh again and God has sustained me.
And given me help from day-to-day.
And I'm glad for those experiences.
It's a privilege from time to time to minister the word of God
in the night certainly is no exception.
So we're going to turn to Matthew chapter 16, and perhaps
it could be now reading at the verse #21 First 21.
Matthew chapter 16. From that time forth began
Jesus. It shows his disciples now from
that time. His that time of beginning it
would seem there was a change in the focus of Christ ministry.
He was nearing the time of His crucifixion, and so there was a
renewed emphasis upon that great work.
From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how
that he must go onto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be
raised again the third day. Then Peter took him and began to
rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee.
In other words, pity thyself. That's the marginal rendering
there. Pity thyself.
Lord, don't be hard on yourself. Don't worry about the cross.
So this is Peter's thought. Be it far from thee, Lord, this
shall not be unto thee. You're above this.
But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me.
And in the case of the best of Christians, the devil sometimes
get into our mouth. And causes us to be his
mouthpiece. But he turned and said unto
Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan.
Thou art an offence unto me, for thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but those things that be of men.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. For what is a man profited, if
he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his
works. Verily I say unto you.
There be some standing here which are not taste of death
till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.
We'll end the reading there, looking to the Lord to bless his
own word to our hearts and add to this wording the essential
blessing that he alone can bring to the word of the Lord.
But let's just pause briefly now for a word of prayer.
Our gracious God, our loving Father, We thank you for the
privilege. Of being in thy house this
evening, and we thank you for the precious promise.
Where two or three have gathered together in thy name, there art
thou in the midst of them. And a gracious Father we thank
that we can lean upon this exceeding great and precious
promise of God. God is always good to His word,
and whereas people gather in His name, there he is in the midst.
And we therefore thank thee for thy presence.
With us, and thine arms around us throat, we pray for continued
cleansing. In the Savior's precious blood
that devine anointing of the spirit of the living God, we
pray for the defeat of Satan, and we pray the Lord.
The purposes of God shall prevail, that thou will be
pleased to encourage and strengthen thy people, save
precious souls, and gracious God, glorify thyself.
Remember those who are here. Remember those who are
listening. Online we pray the Lord in every
case God will speak in his own. Way.
And by his mighty irresistible power.
Lord, hear us now and abide with us.
We pray for we ask it in the dear Savior's name and for his
sake. Amen.
I want to take as my text tonight the verse #26 of Matthew
16. For what is a man profited, if
he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall the man give in exchange for his soul?
The value? Of a soul.
That's what we want to meditate upon tonight.
The value of a soul. It will shed considerable light
on our text to consider the the context or the passage in which
this text is given. Of course, that is paramount in
every occasion. Always keep things and
understand them fully in the context in which they are given.
Christ in this chapter has been Speaking of his approaching
sufferings and agonies and death on the cross.
And so we see a change of emphasis as he gives to us there
in the verse #21 read there. From that time forth Jesus began
to show unto his disciples how that he must go on to Jerusalem,
and there he would eventually bleed and die for his own
redeemed people, for those who are the elect of.
God. So he's been Speaking of his
approaching death on the cross, and that of course the great
purpose was, by means of that death, to save sinners from
their sin, and from the eternal agonies and sufferings of hell.
At the same time he reveals to his disciples that they too must
suffer, that there can be no crown apart from the cross.
And there must be this strict obedience to the word of God.
Verse #24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me. Peter didn't want to hear that.
He didn't want to hear about the Lord going to the cross.
He didn't want to hear this truth that the Christian also
has a cross. It's not the cross of Christ,
but it is our own Christ, cross, cross, and it is very heavy to
bear. At times.
So there must be this ongoing, strict obedience to the word of
God. These are the terms.
These are the conditions that God sits out.
So far as his disciples are concerned.
He makes it clear. And we would say tonight, make
no doubt about it, it costs. It costs to be a Christian.
There is a cross to be born, not worn, but a cross to be born.
The Christian is to crucify. That's a very strong word.
It's a violent word. The Kingdom of heaven suffer
violence and the violent taken by force.
He is to crucify self daily with his last, with his passions,
with his desires. He is to put that old man to
death. That's a great cost.
So he must crucify self daily. He must overcome the world
daily. There's a tremendous power and
pull in the world. He must overcome Satan and
resist Satan daily. One day does not guarantee
victory the next day, and so it must be a day by day experience
of denying Self. The Lord in verse 25 in essence
is saying, when we read For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. He is saying that he who lives
for Me and denies himself will live eternally, but he who lives
for self and denies Me. Shall die eternally.
You see, lest they would be followers of Christ should
consider the cost of the cyber ship too great, he would have
them consider the cost of not following him.
Verse 26. For what is a man profited if he
should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange?
For his soul, maybe that thought has gone across your mind in
times past, perhaps even recently, you've considered this
thought, and you've perhaps said to yourself that the cost,
surely, of becoming a Christian is too great.
It's not worth it, my friend. Have you ever counted the cost
of not becoming a Christian? Of not being saved?
Have you ever counted the cost? If your soul should be lost, I
want tonight to leave with you three things concerning the
human soul. First of all, it's reality.
This isn't a make, believe, thought, this matter of a man or
woman having a soul. This is the truth of the word of
God. We want to consider it reality.
And then secondly, it's riches, The value of a soul.
And then finally, bless God is redemption.
It can be saved. It can be lost.
But it can be saved, and may the Lord help us all to see the
incomparable loss of a lost soul.
Next time we stand around the open grave and consider which
individuals gone into eternity. Perhaps outside of Christ, we
should always be reminded of the incomparable loss of a lost
soul. May the Lord impress upon all
her heart, saved and unsaved alike.
The great value of a soul. Now first of all, then it's
reality. In this verse #26 we read these
expressions. For what does the man profited
If you'll gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
I was thinking this afternoon about the wonderful beginning of
the soul. I'll read the verse for you.
Genesis 2, verse 7. And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life. And man became a living soul.
The life of the body is the living, the life giving soul.
It actuates the body. The soul can live without the
body, but the body cannot live without the soul.
And Adam's lifeless body, his body of dust was.
Just that, a body lifeless, until he received from God a
living soul, his own soul, and it was entrusted with the soul.
And God has entrusted you with your soul.
It is entrusted to each and every individual.
At the very moment of conception, you and I were
constituted body and soul, and we're stamped, as it were, with
accountability and responsibility to our Creator.
This is God speaking. Here God the great Creator, the
one who has made the soul, can speak with absolute certainty
and assurance, and so we can be absolutely sure of the existence
of the human soul. In this, of course, we differ
greatly from the animal realm, which has neither soul nor
conscience, but that's not true of man.
It's not true of you. It's not true of me.
Every one of us has this soul made by God and entrusted to us.
You have a soul, and how you treat that soul, what you do
with that soul in this life will determine where you're going to
be in the life to come. The reality is, you and I have
been given a living soul, A soul that can be lost, but a soul
also that can be saved. And should it be lost, our blood
will be upon our own heads. God warrant in the book of
Ezekiel, The soul that sineth, it shall die, die eternally.
So it is the sinner's own sin that brings about the loss of
his own soul. The soul that sineth Isn't that
you? Isn't that me?
The soul that sineth, naturally it shall die.
And die eternally. You see how honest God is here,
how true He's being to your soul and mine.
When Satan seeks to draw away disciples or followers after
him, what does he do? He tells them of the pleasures.
He tells them to all the apparent gains, but not the
peril, not the pain, he said to the sineres.
He said to Eve, on that occasion, the Garden of Eden, he
shall not surely die. Adam and Eve were commanded not
to eat of that fruit, not to touch it, not even to touch that
fruit in the midst of the garden, unless they die.
They can eat all the other trees.
But that one tree in the middle, they were not to touch it.
They were not to partake of it, because God very clearly said,
the moment you do that, you're going to die.
And long come, say, oh, come on now, you'll not surely die.
Go in God's favor is life. He's not going to kill you.
He's giving you life. A loving God wouldn't do that.
Just just think about it. And he said very clearly, ye
shall not. Come on now, Eve, get serious.
God has better things in store. You eat of that fruit you're
going to be entering in a whole new.
There are opportunities. You're going to become like one
of the gods, even an object of worship.
Don't deny yourself that. Eat it, ye shall not surely die.
But he's a liar. And when they disobeyed God and
took of the forbidden fruit, they did die.
They died immediately. Spiritually.
Fellowship with the God was cut off.
What a terrible death that was. They died spiritually.
Eventually they would die physically because the seeds of
death were planted in their mortal bodies, and were it not
for God's mercy, they would have died eternally.
The soul that's in it, it shall die, dear friend, is not your
neighbor's soul, or the soul is limited next to you there in the
Pew. It is your soul.
That you stand to lose. And unthinkable as it is, should
it be lost, literally damned, you will give before God a full
account of your sin and the inexcusable neglect of your
soul. God has given you a soul, and
you're going to be held responsible in terms of how you
deal with that soul. When you were conceived, When I
was conceived, oh, there was a tremendous, A tremendous weight
of responsibility forced upon us, placed upon us that we use
the time God has given to us for the salvation of our own soul.
Men live and die without many cases.
The thought of the soul. What, fools, how strong is the
temptations, as Satan says before that precious.
Precious soul. So if I were to say to you
tonight that out there in the car park your your car is being
broken into or that your bank is being emptied, if you stand to
lose your car and your money, wouldn't you do something about
it if I was there, there in the car?
But look, that man out there, he's, he's trying to get into
your car. Would you just sit here?
I don't think so if you knew someone was out there emptying
your bank account. I'm quite sure that you would do
what you can and could to prevent that particular loss.
Well, how much more careful should we be when it comes to
the eternal soul, that costliest commodity in the whole world?
Now that brings us, secondly, to the thought of its riches or its
value. So have you seen something of
the reality of the soul? That is something, man?
Has a difficulty naturally grappling with.
He doesn't like to think of this fact that he is a soul that
lives on and survives, that the death of the mortal body, that
we're not just creatures of time, we're creatures of
eternity. And this is the fearful thought.
And men ought of course, to live with this fear upon their hearts
and upon. They are souls.
But many deny the very existence of the soul.
The Bible is explicitly clear. Every man born of Adam's rate
has a soul. Well, what does it value?
What do you think of his birth? You think of his beginning.
The human soul begins with the breath of God.
We read there and Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7.
How noble a beginning, the very breath of God was breathed into
the nostrils of our first. Of Adam.
And that of course tells us that he became a a living soul.
That's that's the beginning, that's the birth.
But about his breath, that's range of capabilities.
The soul of course is made in the image of God, but just think
about that. If it is made in the image of
God and the Bible says it is, then it must possess abilities,
qualities, capacities. That set men apart from all
other created beings and underlines the fact that the
soul is infinitely precious. It is that part of the
individual that thinks that reasons.
It's a seed of thought. You remember Lazarus and the
rich man, and the rich man in hell lifting up his eyes, being
in torments he he had. This recollection of Lazarus and
Lazarus to to give me some water, like, and just dip my
tongue in that water. So he remembered Lazarus, no
doubt how he treated them woefully.
He remembered that he had five brethren and he wanted them to
be worn. Let's take him into that fearful
place. So he had memory.
He didn't lose it when he went to hell.
That soul has the ability to think, to reason, to have.
Will and to conscience. It possesses morality.
It can show love. It can show pity.
It can show justice. It can show mercy.
And don't miss this now. That soul is immortal, just like
God, made in the image of God. And it can never be annihilated.
It can never go to sleep. It exists forever.
There is some proportion or comparison between a single drop
of water. In the ocean, but there is no
comparison. There is no proportion between
time and eternity. And after the death of the body,
the soul continues to exist eternally, either in heaven or
in hell. Now are we beginning to see
something of its infinite worth? What are 70 years compared to
eternity? It just goes on living and
existing. For all of God's eternity.
What about his battle? We have something that's birth,
something of its breath and range of capabilities.
What about his battle battling for its possession?
Well, Satan wants the soul to damn it.
He's seeking for your soul. Tonight, he promises the world
sun, moon, and stars. He can't deliver on that.
But this is the promise he sets before it.
You do this. You serve me, you serve yourself
and it'll be well with you. You get everything.
Well. He wants the soul to to to damn
the soul. Christ, on the other hand, he
wants a soul that he may save the soul.
And he promises, Yes, promises are good for this life, but
especially for the life that is to come, Christ is saying.
This is a man where they gain the entire world.
Now, there's no pain with that gain that's going to cause
something. If he were to gain the entire
world, it's never happened yet, never will happen.
But this is the hypothetical case.
All its wealth, honor, pleasure, possessions, lands, houses, and
then there's it all. Of course we're going to lose it
all anyway. When death comes, we brought
nothing into this world, and it's certain we can carry
nothing out. But that soul, having
accumulated all that this world could offer and then suddenly
lost it, his loss would be far less than that of a Sinner
losing his soul. One soul is worth far, far more
than the whole world put together.
And that's how Christ sees it. And he would have you see it in
the same way, begin to think the same thoughts as Christ.
This is how he sees it. This is the way it is.
And, dear friend, you had better just begin to see it in the same
way before you lose your soul. How often, too, have men and
women found that the things of this world are empty and
unsatisfying? They promised far more than they
ever deliver. The daughter of one of our
ministers, who shall remain nameless, was a brilliant
lawyer. And for her, the sky was the
limit. She had the prospect of being
wined and dined open doors far and near.
She had the world at her feet. But she parked it all in and her
coworkers, solicitors, lawyers, said, you're mad, you're mad,
you could have it all. And she said to her mother, I've
seen what money does to people. And I don't want end of like
that. I want to give my life to the
Lord Jesus Christ who loved me and gave himself for me.
The world is highly overrated. After some 64 years.
I just turned 64. There are things in this world
that I enjoy, but I can tell you it's highly, highly overrated.
And yet many, many have bought into the devil's lie.
Get what you can go over the gusto.
Live this life. That's all you have. 70 years.
If you haven't, do that. But that's just the beginning.
And so this world brings far less than it ever promises.
It's highly overrelated. It's not worth losing your soul
over. Certainly not worth it.
Yet how many multitudes even now are casting, throwing away their
soul for a few of the life they the bubbles?
Of this particular life there can be no greater loss than the
loss of the soul, for it brings the loss of holiness, the loss
of happiness, the loss of hope, and the loss of heaven.
And should your soul be lost, it has lost forever.
It cannot be retrieved from the eternal regions of pain and woe
and excruciating pain. That can never be listened,
lessened, or mitigated. Remember the rich man?
He pleaded for just a single drop of water, replaced on the
tip of his tongue, but didn't get it.
Just more of the same, more fire.
And the lost soul cannot make an exchange or a payment that will
bring his soul back from the regions of the dime.
And even if it were possible to come up with something as
waiting as valuable as a soul. The Lord will not permit it.
The soul has had its opportunities.
How many years? How many opportunities for
salvation? But they threw it all away, and
justice, and is now final and irreversible.
You had better then begin to make your sums now.
Do your arithmetic now. Consider that nothing can be
greater. And the loss of a soul can't up
the cost of your soul if it should be lost.
But it doesn't have to be lost. It can be saved.
It can be redeemed by the Savior's precious blood.
That's the most wonderful thing. That's the greatest message of
the gospel. God alone can redeem that
precious soul of yours and of mine.
So we come thirdly, to the redemption.
Of the soul. And here we see the full worth
of the soul. In Psalm 49 and verse #8 we read
there of the redemption of the soul being precious and how
precious it is. There is only one payment that
will save the soul. There is only one payment that
will keep a Sinner out of hell. And that is the precious
attaining sin covering blood of Jesus Christ, which He shed on
Calvary's cross for repentant sinners.
There you get the full idea of the cost of the soul.
It cost our Savior, His precious blood to redeem it.
And that that alone is what can redeem your precious soul.
The price has been paid. It has been.
Already counted in so far as God's people are concerned, it
is for you to receive this great gift that the Lord Jesus offers.
Jesus paid it all. See how much He cares and loves
your soul. Perhaps a soul that you have no
love for yourself. He was prepared to give up his
own life's blood that you might have a soul that was redeemed by
that precious blood of his. You care for your body this very
day. You've washed it.
You've fed it. You've clothed it.
What about your soul, That poor soul of yours, Unwashed, starved
and unclothed, not ready to meet the regions of God's great
eternally. But I want to ask you tonight,
will you not insure your soul? You have car insurance.
You have insurance for this. Insurance for that.
What about your soul? Is your soul insured?
Is your soul prepared to meet God?
I took out. And you'll understand what I
mean by this, an insurance policy on my soul.
At the age of 12 and over 50 years, over half a century now,
the policy of God has held good and three difficult
circumstances. I nearly lost my body.
But I did not lose my soul and never will.
Christ has never lost a soul that he is insured that he is
saved. It is 100% safe and 100% sure.
And I would ask you tonight, won't you simply entrust Christ
with your soul? He gave his own life's blood to
redeem it. Could you not trust him with
your soul? With the hand of faces of where,
put your soul into the nail, pierced the hands of Christ, and
be washed in this precious blood, and be saved.
Heaven will more than compensate for any loss that we may hear
down here. For Jesus Christ, I would ask
your friend and I to consider the value of your soul, and make
preparation for that day when you will be ushered into God's
eternity. Where will you be?
In heaven or in hell, make sure that your soul is insured.
Make sure the saved make sure it is washed.
In the Saviors atoning blood. Let's pray our gracious God, our
loving Father, we thank you tonight for Thy precious word.
We thank you for the clear warning here of the Lord Jesus.
We thank that He is so true to our hearts and to our souls and
while Satan seeks to damn the soul by telling all kinds of
lies. We think that the Christ is so
clear. Christ gives a clear warning,
and we pray the Lord we will take Thy words seriously.
And tonight, oh God, should there be a soul here or
listening online out of Christ, soul that does not prepare to
meet God at this very night, they might take stock that they
might do their sons now and realize there's no more
consulate in all this world than their own soul.
May they prepare to meet their God and be redeemed by Precious
Blood, for we ask it in the dear Savior's name and for his sake.
Amen.