Would you please turn to Matthew chapter 16 please and just one verse of scripture here. We're going to think a little bit more about the soul tonight. We did that last night and I felt the Lord exercising my heart that we would think about that a little bit more and we've been reading there in Luke's gospel and the words that are recorded there and now I want you to see in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 26 that you have the same words recorded here. We were thinking of these words in Mark's account last night and here they are again now in Matthew's account. Matthew chapter 16 and it's verse 26. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Now last night we were thinking about the reality of the soul and we were looking at it from Mark chapter 8 but You'll notice that Matthew mentions this statement that the Savior made, Mark mentions this statement, and we were reading there in Luke chapter 9, and Luke records the same statement. The Bible says, The Lord speaketh once, yea, twice, and man comprehendeth it not. Well, here's three times where the Lord has inspired Bible writers to record the same words. And in these three gospels, each one of them record this statement by the Lord Jesus. So it must be therefore very important. And that's why we want to think a little bit more about it this evening. But let's bow together in prayer just for a moment and ask the Lord for his help. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that thou will bless thy word as we consider it here. and think again upon the importance of the soul and the welfare of our soul. O Lord, we pray that we might indeed be those who give heed and give thought, give attention to the matter of our soul. Speak to all of our hearts, we pray. Bless thy word as it goes forth this evening. We ask now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We were highlighting last night that there are really three areas that the Bible highlights that we certainly ought to think about and consider the welfare of our bodies, of our mind and also of our soul. And the soul being the more important than them all because the body is temporal and it will go back to the dust from whence it comes. The mind as well is important and it ought to be given thought and consideration and attended to with care as well, but the most important thing to consider is the welfare of our soul or the well-being of our soul. And as I say, last night we thought about the reality of the soul and what the Word of God has to say about that and how it emphasizes that we not only have a soul but that we are a soul. if you think about those words in Genesis 2 verse 7 again where God breathed into man and he became a living soul the Lord just didn't breathe into him a living soul the Lord breathed into him and he became a living soul man is primarily a spiritual being he primarily is a soul although he has a body and it is the body that is obvious to us because we have just physical eyes and therefore we see that which is physical But we are a soul primarily. So there is the reality of the soul. And what I want us to think about this evening, well, there's three things. I want us to think about the value of the soul, because the Lord Jesus has something here to say about the value of the soul. And then I want to think about the loss of the soul, because again, in these statements, the Lord Jesus emphasizes that point, the soul can be lost. And then we'll think a little bit about the saving of the soul as well. So the value of the soul, because there in Matthew chapter 16 verse 26, it's familiar in all of the portions, but the words there in Matthew's account, for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? so there's two elements to this the lord sets it out in two ways here he first of all says if it's possible to gather together all the world and to give it to a single individual that would never come to equal value of the soul and if it was possible to gather all of that together all the world whatever is included in that statement there the whole world If you were able to gather that together and have it in one place, give it to one person, even then, that wouldn't be a fair exchange for someone's soul. If somebody was going to barter their soul for all the world, that wouldn't be a fair exchange. So the Lord Jesus Christ here is emphasizing the value of the soul. And he does it in these two ways. And again, the Lord is doubling up in that statement. And the Lord always, when he repeats something a second time, does it for emphasis. That's a common feature of the word of God, whether it's people's names, when the Lord is speaking to an individual. Samuel, Samuel. Simon, Simon. and many others. Abraham, Abraham. You could go through a whole host of different individuals in the scriptures where the Lord doubled up in names because he was emphasizing what it is he had to say to those individuals. It's the same sometimes with dreams. The Lord doubled up the dream. Whether it was Pharaoh's dream or Joseph's dreams, they were doubled up so that they might be emphasized. These are really going to happen. These events that are foretold in these dreams are going to come to pass. So when the Lord doubles up on something, He really is emphasizing it and stressing it. It's as if it's the Lord's way of underlining something in the Bible. So that if we missed it the first time, the statement is there in the scriptures. Well, there it is repeated right again in the same verse. So the Lord says it in one way in verse 26. What is a man profited if he should gain the whole world? If he would gain it at the expense of his soul, if that's the cost that's involved in gaining the whole world, and he loses his soul in gaining all the world, he hasn't gained anything. There's no profit in that, the Lord says. When it's valued and weighed up in the profit and loss column, it comes out as a loss. There's no profit if that's the cost of gaining the world, if somebody loses their soul. And then he turns it around slightly another way and he speaks about, well, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What will a man give? There's nothing that he could have, there's nothing that he could desire, there's nothing that this world could give him. No matter how much of it and how often he had it in this world, there's nothing that he could have in this world that would ever be a fair exchange for his soul. if he give it in exchange for his soul. So the Lord Jesus puts a great value upon the individual soul. And why would he not when the soul is eternal? We were thinking about that a little last night as we were closing. The soul is eternal. And that's what makes it, you see, of such value. That makes it more valuable than anything in all of this world. It doesn't matter then how much of the world an individual has. The soul is always going to be more valuable because the soul is eternal. Everything else in this world is temporal, everything else that an individual has, whatever it is, the wealth and fame and fortune of the world that they may gather together, and if they could have it all, it's not going to last. It's not going to last. Whatever little piece of the world they have, and that's all any individual is ever going to have, just a little piece of the world, it's only going to last for a little time. Because the Bible reminds us that everything is going to be consumed. It's going to be burnt up. It's going to melt with fervent heat. The things of this world are not lasting. They're not eternal by their very nature, because they belong to this world. And this world is not going to last, no matter how much men and women try to convince themselves otherwise today. And they do. They try to convince themselves this world will last forever, and sometimes that they will live forever. They never think that this world is only passing and our existence here is very fleeting. It was Job who said his days were swifter than a weaver's shuttle. and how quickly the weaver's shuttle goes back and forth upon the loom, and there was Job weighing up his days and saying, my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Our days are so short upon this earth, and therefore to live for the things of time and sense, and to do it at the expense of our soul, the Bible says, the Lord Jesus says, there is no profit in that at all. because it does not take into account the fact that the soul is eternal and all the things of this world are temporal. They're fleeting, they're passing. Man cannot hold on to the world. Even those who have more of it, it seems, than others, they can't hold on to it. They have to let it go. Sometimes, as the Bible says, it takes to itself wings and flies away as a bird toward heaven. Sometimes it takes leave, it seems, of itself, but they certainly cannot hold on to it. Whatever it is of the world that they have, whether it's the fortune of the world or the fame of the world or the pleasures of the world, the amusements of the world, whatever it is, they're only going to have it for a little time. They cannot hold on to the world. No man, no woman has ever been able to hold on to the world. It's impossible. It's impossible. And yet there are many who pursue that. That's what they live for. They live for the world. They live for the things of time and sense. They place no value on their soul, and because they place no value on their soul, they give little or no thought to its well-being. And in that sense, that's understandable if they don't see any value in it. If they don't even believe in the existence of their soul, it's no surprise then that they do not think about its welfare and its well-being, but how foolish that is. And the Lord Jesus inspires Matthew, Mark, and Luke to record this statement that he made in this matter. And surely that in itself must be important. And that in itself underscores the tendency that there is in the hearts of men and women to neglect their soul and to live for the world, to live for the things that they see and that they can handle, that they can taste and never think about their soul. and days and weeks and months and years can go by and they never have a thought about their soul, never have any regard for it at all. They have time for everything else. They have time for work and career and pleasure, material things. They have time for all of those things, but no time for their soul because they've placed no value on it. Many trifle with their souls. They barter away their soul for something very little, some pleasure, Well, they call it a pleasure. Some worldly amusement. Something that's just fleeting for a little time and they'll barter away their soul. Some pleasure that they will pursue at the expense of their soul. There's a man in scripture who bartered his soul. He bartered it for 30 pieces of silver, Judas Iscariot. That's how much he valued his soul, 30 pieces of silver. And when he got them, they were of no use to him. They were as brimstone in his hand. We read about him coming into the temple after having come to that agreement with the chief priests and the Pharisees that he'd betray Christ for 30 pieces of silver and the scribes and Pharisees paid up. They were only too glad to have somebody that would betray the Lord Jesus Christ and identify him that night in the garden, the night of his arrest. But did the thirty pieces of silver do Judas any good? We read about him coming in and throwing them down in the temple. You could nearly hear the clatter of the coins as he cast them out of his hand. They were burning his hand. They were as brimstone in his hand. And he cried out, I have betrayed the innocent blood. He bartered his soul for thirty pieces of silver. Did him no good? and there's many tonight and they barter their soul for a lot less than 30 pieces of silver, some pleasure, some sin, some worldly amusement that they pursue and won't give up, some pet sin that they enjoy and they delight in and that they want to have, want to participate in, and they'll barter away their soul because of that one sin. There's no profit in that, the Lord says. No profit in that at all. There is nothing in this whole world that can offset the value of our soul. Not if somebody had all the wealth and fame and pomp and position and prestige that it was possible to have and all the power that there is in the world, if that was located in one individual, even then, you still haven't got that which is the worth of your soul. The nearest any man in history has come to having all the world must have been Alexander the Great. He was a great general, led the Grecian armies. You read anything about him? He was a young man, a godless young man, a wicked, immoral young man, but a mighty military tactician. And he conquered the then known world. And the stories told that on the banks of the Ganges River in India, he sat down and he wept because there was no more worlds to conquer. He had conquered everything. It all lay at his feet. and he lost it within a very short space of time afterwards. But the story's told that on the bank of the Ganges River in India, he sat down and he wept that there were no more worlds to conquer. It seems as if he had everything at his feet. He was ruling over the then known world, the then civilized world. Oh, certainly there was lands beyond the bounds of the Grecian Empire, but what he had was looked upon as the civilized world, and it all belonged to him, and he ruled over it all. And as quickly as he conquered it, just as quickly he lost it. And he died a young man, but he lost his soul. He lost his soul in the pursuit of it. There is nothing at all that anyone can give in exchange for their soul. There is nothing worth it, my friend, tonight. No matter what it is that somebody pursues, no matter how much of it they pursue and have, there is nothing worth the value of your soul. Your soul and my soul is of infinite value. We cannot even put a value on it. It is beyond estimation in this world. This world may estimate things in pounds and millions and billions of pounds and trillions of pounds. Whatever way they want to estimate and put a value on something, you'll never put a value on your soul. It is of infinite value. It cannot be valued in that regard. For the simple reason the soul is eternal. The soul will live on. And all the wealth and all the pleasure we can never give in exchange for it. Therefore, consider your soul. Therefore, treasure your soul. Therefore, think about its well-being. If this is the most precious possession that we have, if it is of infinite value, then treasure the soul. Think about his well-being. Ask that question that we were thinking about last night. It's taken from the words of that hymn, although it's based on scripture. Is it well? Is it well with my soul? Those words come from the lips of that woman in answer to the servant of the prophet. Elisha had sent his servant on. He saw the woman making her journey towards him, and Elisha knew that something was wrong. Something was wrong. It was so out of the ordinary to see her coming, even to see the haste at which she was coming to meet him. And Elisha sends his servant to go and meet her. And he gives his servant instructions. He says, ask her, is it well? Is it well with her? Is it well with her husband? Is it well with the child? And even though her child lay dead at home, in answer to the servant's question, when he put the question to her, is it well? Is it well with thee? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? That woman could say it is well. It is well. It is well because she knew the Lord and she was trusting in the Lord despite her present circumstances and the sorrow that was in her heart she was able to say it is well. Well can we say that about our soul? It is well. We've given thought to it. We realize the value of it. We think about its well-being. We've attended to its well-being. And therefore we can say it is well. It is well with my soul. The value of our soul. What about the loss of our soul? Because here in this verse, Matthew 16 verse 26, the Lord Jesus highlights this. as well as something to consider. What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Lose his soul. It's possible to lose our souls. We are not to think that somehow it'll end up well with us, whether we give any thought to our soul or not. There's many who live like that. Logic goes out the window, reasoning goes out the window, but for some, way of thinking in their mind, they believe, they are convinced, oh it'll be all right with me in the end. They never give a thought to the things of God, they never give a thought to their soul, they never attend its well-being, and yet, yet suddenly when death comes, oh they're all convinced it's going to be well with them or it's going to be well with a loved one who has died, and yet they have lived their life with not a thought of God at all. The Lord Jesus here is warning that people can and will lose their souls. In fact, multitudes will lose their soul. The Bible tells us multitudes, not just a few, not just those who are grossly and outwardly wicked. They'll lose their soul. That would seem to be obvious. For those who live grossly wicked lives, it would be obvious, at least it seems to us, if they go on as they are and they end up like that, sure they'll lose their souls, that's true. But there'll be many upright, outwardly moral, otherwise decent individuals who will lose their soul. If you just go back a few pages there in Matthew's Gospel to chapter 7, in those words in verse 21, These are individuals who will even take the Lord's name. Not in vain. No, they'll take the Lord's name upon them and they'll claim as if they're representing the Lord, speaking for the Lord, working for the Lord, doing something in the Lord's name. And on that day, they will discover they've lost their souls. They'll be told to depart from the Lord, because they've never done His will. They've never obeyed Him when He told them to consider their soul and to consider its well-being and seek after its welfare. They never did that. And there at the beginning, of that verse 21 that whole statement it says Lord not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven well the will of God in heaven is for us to think about our soul and to seek after its well-being, and not to rest until we are able to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. That's the will of God. And there are many who will busy themselves in this or that or the other thing. They'll put the Lord's name to it. They'll claim they're doing it for the Lord. And they've never thought about their soul, never did anything about the welfare of their soul. And they'll be lost. There's multitudes. You see the Bible tells us that there is coming a day when the Lord will demand our soul's office. In Luke chapter 12 and verse 20 you have that account that is given. where the Lord Jesus spake a parable, Matthew chapter 12. It begins in verse 16, he spake a parable unto them saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And here's this man who's living for the things of time and sense and he's pulling down his barns and building greater barns and he thinks I have many years And he says there, look at verse 19, I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? This man thought that earthly things would satisfy his soul and meet the need of his soul. and do good to his soul. And it didn't. But there in verse 20 the Lord says your soul will be required of you. You see that's why people will lose their soul. There is coming a day and an hour when the Lord will require the soul of every individual. He will call them to account. They will have to give an answer for their soul. Have they sought after its welfare? Have they properly sought after its welfare? For this man was improperly thinking about the welfare of his soul. He thought the things of earth and possessions, material things, would satisfy and meet the need of his soul. It says there, he said to his soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Oh, he mistook his soul for the things of this world. But the Lord required his soul off him, and he was lost. And there will be many who will lose their soul. And by using that word, lose, the loss of the soul, the Lord Jesus isn't speaking about its destruction or its annihilation. He's referring to the loss of its joy and happiness for all of eternity. That's what it means to lose our souls. It is to lose the joy and the happiness that the soul can have for all of eternity. Everybody, there's not a necessary something, sadly. mistaken about us, but everybody loves joy and happiness. Nobody naturally embraces trouble and sickness or sadness. Nobody willingly embraces that. There's something within us that naturally is inclined to joy and happiness, peace and contentment. Those are the things that we would desire and that we would be drawn towards. Well, we can lose all of those things with regard to the soul. And the saddest thing of all is just to notice how easy it is to lose our souls. We don't really have to do anything. We just have to go on as we are by nature. All we have to do is to neglect our souls and we'll discover we've lost our souls. That's the surest way to lose our souls. We were thinking last night about The best way that the devil could ever get somebody to give little regard for their soul is to tell them the lie, because he's a liar from the beginning, but to tell them the lie that they have no soul at all. That's the best way for the devil to damn souls, is for him to whisper in their ear, you don't have a soul, just live for this world. Well, the easiest way to lose your soul yourself is just to do nothing. Just to neglect it. Just to go on living for the things of this world. Just to go on in our natural state and we'll discover that someday our soul will be required of us and we will lose our soul in hell forever. We'll lose all the joy and the comfort and the blessings and the happiness that there can be. We'll all be gone and we've done Absolutely nothing about it. We've just neglected the matter. We've just neglected the matter. That's the easiest way to lose your soul. Just to neglect it. And that's the natural tendency that is in every human heart. It's just to neglect the matter, to put it off, to put other things in front of it and to say, these are more important at the moment. Oh, so maybe sometime, maybe someday I'll think about my soul. got more important things now and they just go on procrastinating and neglecting until they discover it's too late. Their soul has been required of them and they have made no preparation for it. They have never done anything about its well-being and their soul is lost. And it's the Lord Jesus here that is warning and maybe that underscores why this statement appears so many times. It's because of this particular point that is found here right at the very heart of this statement, the loss of our soul. That's what lies right here at the very heart of this statement in every one of these Gospels. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke's account, right at the very heart of that statement, every time, it's this thought, you can lose your soul. You can lose your soul. And you can lose it as easily as just going on neglecting things. never giving the attention to it that it ought to have. The value of the soul, the loss of the soul, the saving of the soul. You see, there's something that we need to do in order to save the soul. We quoted that verse last night, Hebrews 10, 37, or 39 it is, the last verse of Hebrews 10, where it speaks about the saving of the soul. Well, how do we go about the saving of our soul? Well, first of all, we must realize that we cannot save our own souls. It is not in our power to save our souls. Our souls need to be saved. That's the opposite of being lost. Either we're lost or we're saved. One or the other. And one's going to be the opposite of the other. So if our soul is not going to be lost in hell forever, then it needs to be saved. But we cannot save our souls. We need to send out an SOS to heaven. An old distress call. that is so well known. SOS save our souls. We need to send out an SOS to heaven. We need to cry out unto the Lord that he might save our souls. Listen to the words of Psalm 6 and verse 4. It says, Return, O Lord, deliver my soul, O save me for thy mercy's sake. That's a prayer that every individual needs to pray. Psalm 6 verse 4, O return, O Lord, deliver my soul, O save me for thy mercy's sake. There's somebody who realized their soul needed to be saved. And we need to realize the very same thing. Our soul needs to be saved or it will be lost. And we need to cry out to God in order to save it, for he alone can save it. We're clearly taught that in the Word of God. If you turn over to Ephesians chapter 2 and a few verses there, we'll emphasize this point. Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 4 and 5, it says, The Lord is able to save our souls. Our soul is able to be saved if we cry out unto God. God is merciful. It tells you that there in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 4. But God who is rich in mercy. That's how our soul will be saved. It's because of the mercies of God. God is one who is rich in mercy and he's able to save the soul. He's willing to save the soul. And if we but cry unto him for the saving of our soul he will save our soul. Because, as it tells you there, he's rich in mercy. Rich in mercy. It tells you there as well, in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 4 and 5, not only that he's rich in mercy, but that he's great in love. It says, but God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. Oh, he's rich in mercy. He will save. But he's great. He's great in his love. He loves sinners. He loves to save. He delights to save. And he has loved sinners with a love that is like no other love, for he has loved the unlovable. He has loved those who offended him, those who have grieved him, those who have broken his law, those who have despised him, those who are enmity with him. The Lord has loved the unlovable, such is his great love. And then also there in Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5 you read about his quickening grace. Even when we were dead and sins hath quickened us to gather with Christ by grace ye are saved. There's grace to save the soul undeserved favor and merit from God that saves a soul that saves an individual and delivers them from perishing. Instead of being lost forever their soul will be saved forever. Oh, the Lord is able to save. That's the good news of the gospel, but there must be that cry on our part. We must cry out to him, just like those words in Psalm 6 and verse 4 that we quoted there, where the psalmist says, deliver my soul, oh save me for thy mercy's sake. That's the only way God will ever save a soul is for his mercy's sake. It's not because you or I deserve to be saved, but God will do it for his mercy's sake. He'll do it because of his great love. He'll do it because of his grace. and your soul can be saved. Saved for time and for eternity. It's not only something that applies to this world. To have our soul saved is to not only have it saved in this world, but to save for all of eternity. For our soul to be safe in death and safe throughout all of eternity. Christ died to save our souls. That's the gospel. He died to save our souls. And where the sinner cries out to Christ, He will save. When there's that S.O.S. that goes out to heaven. Save our souls. The Lord will save. He's willing. He's mighty. He's able. And why does he mention this matter? Why does he inspire three gospel writers, each one to record these words that were spoken by his son while here on earth? It's because we need to give thought to this matter. We need to think about the welfare of our soul. And we need to cry out, Lord, save my soul. Save my soul. Save it now. Save our souls this very moment. He's able. He's willing. He's able to save. May the Lord bless His word tonight. And may we know what it is to have our soul saved. May the Lord bless His truth. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we thank Thee that, Lord, the warning can be heeded and we can do something about the saving of our souls. We can cry out to Thee. and thou will reach down thy mighty arm and save us and cleanse us and wash us and fit us for heaven. And then, Lord, our souls will be saved, saved from being lost. And we pray that that might be so for everyone in this room this evening. We pray that too, Lord, for those out around about us here in this estate and even beyond that. We pray that, Lord, for those in our families that are not saved. Loved ones tonight who are out of Christ. And Lord, they're in danger of losing their souls. But we pray that they might cry out unto God. They might cry, save me for thy mercy's sake. Oh Lord, bless thy word, we pray. Write it upon all of our hearts. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We're going to sing