Matthew 16;24-28 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. 28 “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
We know that in our times, Anil Ambani went from having a $42 billion fortune, making him the 6th richest man in the world, to having a net worth of zero in 12 years, and even negative with heavy debt. Vijay Mallya, a rich billionaire, lost everything, becoming not only bankrupt but also owing ₹9,000 crore, and now lives with the help of his partners and children. Why did these men lose so much? Not only them, many, many men have been made bankrupt or lost great wealth because they didn’t pay attention to their expenses and income/loss and profits. They didn’t assess the profit and loss, didn’t keep income and expense in control. We can say a spirit of speculation, ignorance of their real financial position, overconfidence, and overestimation ruined them.
Though these are big losses, they are temporary and will end with this world, but spiritually there is one eternal profit and loss calculation every man should do. If he fails to do that, he will face a greater loss than all these men.
The Lord is setting up non-negotiable conditions of discipleship. One who follows should deny himself, take the cross, and follow not just at any time, but make this a daily practice and lifestyle. Knowing this is difficult, we will have many objections, so he winsomely brings 4 powerful motives—like 4 hands that push us. A man says, “no, I can never do that, backing away,” these motives push him one after the other, one pressure upon another, step by step. First, the inflexible law of saving by losing. You cannot change that. You try to save, you lose; you lose, you will save. Second, the Profit or Loss, unanswerable question.
We will see two more today.
The Question of Comparable Worth
The third motive is also a question. Another unanswerable question of what is comparable worth (exchange for a soul).
Verse 26, second part: “Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?”
Assuming someone in the group thought, “assuming I lost my soul for the sake of the world, then maybe something could be found of comparable worth… in exchange for the state of my damned soul.” He asks us this question to think: what can be given of comparable worth in exchange?
The word “exchange” is a commercial word used in the Old Testament, translated in books like Ruth, meaning commercial redeeming. For example, you lose something very precious to you—a beautiful designed necklace… assume one done 100 years ago, custom-made out of pure gold, you don’t get like that—but you lost it, and then you see it in a pawn shop. As an exchange, you have to pay… of comparable worth.
If a man should lose his soul, what should he give in exchange for it? What can you bring forward that will purchase that lost soul? Think, think, think… Have you thought about this? For you to understand the comparable worth, it will make you think what is the value of the soul, isn’t it? Only then we can think of a comparable worth, some idea of the value of the soul, so we can estimate what can be exchanged for the lost soul.
What is the value of a soul? What is a soul? How many here know this? Every human on this earth, and everyone sitting here, is made in the image of God. When God created us he made our body from mud and breathed into our nostrils and we became a living soul. That Living Soul is of infinite worth.
How valuable is that soul? Oh, great speakers have felt so weak to speak about the value of the soul. With my poor speech, how can I explain the value of the soul? I feel I can never speak adequately about that, not because there is nothing to say, but because there is so much to say. I fear the more I try to explain, I may belittle the value of it. The value of a soul is beyond language. But we need to have some idea of infinite value, because only when we know the value of our soul, we will take care of it. Knowing the value of the soul not only affects how we care for our own soul—it also motivates us to care for the souls of others.
Let me try with my poor speech to give you some 0.000% idea… You have to think, think… the question is asked to think… think with me… oh, we can speak forever on this topic.
1. The Soul is of Infinite Value Because It is Immortal.
The soul is created in the image of God. That soul will live as long as God will live… that means it is immortal. There is no end for the soul. When someone dies, gone, gone… where are they? Their soul. So what I am is my soul. When that goes away, I am not even called Murali, but a body. My soul is me… It will live all eternity… oh, who can explain what is the weighty word of eternity… what comparison… The soul is an everlasting thing like God; God has gifted it with immortality; and hence it is precious. To lose it, then, how fearful!
2. The Soul is of Infinite Worth on Account of its Capabilities.
Not only did God gift immortality, but he gifted it with the capacities of God. Like God, each soul has intellect, emotion, volition, and conscience: a moral, reasonable being. Not only does it exist eternally at one stage, but a soul created in God’s image has the ability of the law of progress/development in all its capabilities. Meaning its intellect, emotion, will, conscience, feelings of right and wrong, and guilt will always develop forever and ever… never at one stage. Its knowledge and feeling will ever keep increasing.
Example: The soul’s capacity to enjoy happiness or misery ever keeps increasing. As soon as a soul is born as a child, small things make us happy or sad, but as we grow our capacity of knowing and feeling of sadness or happiness has increased so much. This progress keeps happening all our life… the body becomes old, but not the soul… it keeps developing. So every soul has an infinite capacity for happiness or misery, and this is a continually increasing capacity.
Can you think of such a soul? When the soul enters eternity, this capacity will keep increasing through all eternity. In eternity, it is either one of two: either eternal misery or eternal happiness, unmixed like in this world. It is either joy in heaven or pain in hell, that capacity will not be at one stage, will keep increasing… forever, forever.
Reflect and get an idea of the value of the soul by thinking of its eternal capacity to experience misery or happiness. What is it to live to all eternity; it is to increase in happiness or misery for ever and for ever; there is to be no termination to this increase. How much pain or suffering will one soul experience? How can we measure it?
Comparison: Take all the misery in this world… every pain every man/woman experienced from the creation of the world till now, how much pain will that be… what an ocean of pain… the amount of course would be great—utterly inconceivable to us; if you can measure X. In hell, every lost soul will reach a stage in eternity where one soul would have experienced so much capacity of X pain in eternity.
In the same way, all the joys of every being so far, Y, every soul in heaven would have experienced so much joy. Because of the increasing capacity of the soul… incessantly increasing, a period therefore must naturally arrive when the aggregate of its single enjoyment shall be equal to all that has yet been enjoyed in God’s whole universe from the creation of the world to the end of the world. Head is spinning… oh! But even this is but the beginning.
In fact, this is not all; the period will also arrive when each individual shall have enjoyed a hundred, and a hundred thousand times more than all the universe has enjoyed up to the present moment—pain/suffering. Go right on from here; the time must come when every individual, who is happy, will have enjoyed myriads and myriads of times more than the highest arithmetic in the universe can calculate; for, observe, it is ever increasing, and if it increases ever so slowly, what then?
Oh, the weight of the word eternity… to live all eternity with a lost soul. Just get an idea… let us assume… this whole universe’s things are broken into small grains, every building, sand in the seashore, stars, sun, mountains, not only earth but all planets in the entire universe, broken in pieces. You give one eternal bird a task. Take one grain in your mouth, start from one end of the universe to another… billions of light years… 1 light year is 9 trillion km. Billions of light years… it has to travel… can carry one single grain at a time. Let him take only a single grain in billions of light years, reaches the other side, and then comes back another billion light years, carry another grain. How many years to carry all this huge sand of the universe to move from one side to another… let your mind expand… once it has done this through billions of googol light years… that is the beginning of eternity for your soul. All this time you will be either increasingly fully happy or increasingly fully miserable.
Think of that! Just think of a mind whose capacity for enjoyment knows no bounds, and the law of which is everlasting development! Look at such a soul as that! What? Fixed under an unalterable law of everlasting development, running on and on as long as the Almighty Creator exists! Just think of the infinite and utterly incomprehensible value of a soul so constituted—capable of an amount of joy or sorrow so utterly outstripping all finite conception!
Oh, no! all that we can think of is only the beginning… where is the end… where, where… it is always the beginning in eternity… for it has no end; he rolls onward and onward and onward on the tops of the waves of eternal life.
Think of the lost soul… how much sorrow it will experience… in growing development. Shall we dare to look upon it? The period will arrive when, if unhappy, you will be able to say, “I have known more sorrow, remorse, bitterness, guilt, and agony than all the creatures in God’s universe experienced from the beginning of the world and end.” My knowledge of eternal realities has grown more than all in the world, and my sorrow has exceeded all pains… oh, the guilt has together grown than all the guilt of men who have experienced in the world…
What then? Shall God leave him? No… he sinned against an infinite and eternal God, so his punishment will be infinite and eternal. Let him go on and multiply this to any possible extent till he can say, from the world’s beginning to end… “If God created and ended billions of times… I have experienced as one soul than all the creatures of that billions of worlds.” No one can compute… and yet I am no nearer the termination than when I first came here!”
Indeed the mind is wholly swallowed up in the contemplation of so incomprehensible a subject. Who can understand or conceive anything of eternal existence? Of what it is, to roll on and on, through an an endless cycle of years, in happiness or misery, with a mind capable of the keenest enjoyment and of the intensest anguish and developing its capacity for ever and for ever.
What you can compare… You want to compare time, do some calculations… okay… if you lived 100 years on earth, eternity 1000 years… 100/1000 is 0.1% lived… but 100 years divide by eternity… try to get a value for this life… 0.0000000000000000000000 you will never reach digit one… this life has no value compared to eternity…
Does this make your realize the value of the soul? Oh, if all said was just a dream or poetry or just lies, how good, no it is an eternal reality. Do you see the infinite value of the soul? What can a man give in exchange for such a soul? What is comparable worth? You cannot compare the world to the soul… it is like comparing Mount Everest to a small dung hill.
In that horrible torture of the lost soul… for continuing years of development… what if he gained the whole world… what will be a comfort… in fact, he will curse everything in life… all gains… his education, wealth, health, relatives, friends, everything will be seen as a curse, because all this made him lose his soul… it didn’t take him to heaven, but eternal torment. Oh, the thought of eternity…
Like the rich man from hell saw how blissful heaven which Lazarus was enjoying… maybe in eternity men in hell will have a sense of what great opportunity they missed of eternal happiness… To suffer such development of pain and to realize… I have lost a soul capable of developing increasing eternal bliss and joys in heaven… No wonder all in hell will grind their teeth of missing such eternity…
The value of the soul is of infinite value, because it is immortal and it has eternally developing capabilities.
3. Think What Value God Gave for the Soul.
Think of how precious a soul must be to God and what value he was willing to give to save the soul. He paid the costliest price an infinite eternal God can pay to save a soul.
The greatest treasure and price in the universe that can be amassed has already been amassed and paid… the blood of Jesus Christ was shed for the redemption of the soul. Ah! it must be precious, if he gave his heart’s core to purchase it.
Consider how precious the soul must be for the value God gave for the soul… One side a world of depraved sinners who were at war with him, who deserve to be thrown into hell, and on the other stood his beloved Son, his only begotten, his well beloved Son. Nothing was more precious to the Father than the Son; they were for eternity, eternity, living without angels or men… perfectly happy. They didn’t need men or the world.
Think of what value the Father gave to souls… as a parent, conceive, if he can, who has an only child, one who has never offended him, the very darling of his soul, one whom he loves as well as he loves himself and has reason to love, if he could give up that child for the good of his enemies. Let people abuse him, do everything to injure him that they possibly could do… Just conceive how many things there must have been against this. God knew what it would cost him, that his Son must pass through trial, through affliction, through persecution, through poverty, through agony. His Father saw every trial and every suffering that he would have to undergo—he saw him heavy sorrowing and despised—he saw him too in the garden, when he sweat as it were great drops of blood, so great was his agony—this was all present to the divine mind when he gave up his Son to be the Savior of the world.
The Father saw his Son weary to fainting, as he carried his cross up Calvary’s hill so that his barbarous persecutors were compelled to lay the burden on another. He saw him mocked and pierced when on the cross, and saw him in the agonies of death, and heard his lamentable cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” What a number of scenes must have clustered around the divine mind to forbid the gift of his Son for the salvation of a guilty world.
Why God gave the supreme sacrifice… the greatest expression of self-denial by the Father… why? The main reason is his great love and his glory.
Another important reason is such was his estimate of the value of their souls were so great, and He saw the dreadful suffering to which they would be subjected as eternal souls to all eternity… he overcame all those obstacles and freely gave his son, that our souls may not perish but have eternal life. Think how much valuable God thinks the soul is.
The worth that God estimated for the soul… in the person of his son… he was willing to give the blood of that son to save a soul… God saw worth so precious… the greatest price an infinite God could pay… he has done it… nothing so costly for God… The Father seeks souls in the world. The Son came to save souls. The Holy Spirit is striving with men to save souls. There is joy in the whole heaven when one soul repents and is saved.
Consider how precious a soul must be, not only to God but even the devil is after it. You never heard that the devil was after a kingdom, did you? No, he is not so foolish; he knows it would not be worth his winning; he is never after that; but he is always after souls. Do you think that which heaven and hell crave for, and that which God seeks for, is not precious?
The soul is a thing worth ten thousand worlds; in fact, a thing which worlds on worlds heaped together, like sand upon the sea shore, could not buy. It is more precious than if the ocean had each drop of itself turned into a golden globe, for all that wealth could not buy a soul. Consider! What will you give in exchange for your soul!
You do your calculation… You have a lost soul in hell… you are in debt forever… no payment can ever exchange your soul… There is nothing in the universe where you can find comparable worth with which you can exchange your soul… Think, man and woman… before you sell your soul so cheaply… to the self-pursuits of the world of beauty, glamour, and pleasures of this world… where is the comparable worth?
The question of comparable worth is indeed unanswerable. You want to deny Christ and his demands—you hate to deny self, take up the cross and follow. Go ahead and achieve whatever you want, but you will lose your soul. Once you lose, there is nothing you can give in exchange for that soul.
If once the soul be lost, it is lost forever. There is no antallagma—no counter-price—that can be paid, or will be accepted. It is a loss that can never be repaired, never be retrieved.
The only way to save our souls is to come after Christ and believe and apply the great price which Christ laid down to redeem our souls. If that be so neglected for the world, that they come to be lost, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, nor price to redeem our soul. The opportunity to redeem our soul is eternally lost.
May God open our eyes to see the value of our soul and help us to faithfully deny self, take the cross, and follow him.
3. The Reality of Final Judgment (Evaluation)
Finally, the fourth motive: why deny myself, take the cross, and follow Christ? The Lord directs the attention of people to the searching day of the judgment.
Verse 27: “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every person according to his deeds.”
The Lord is as if saying: “Oh dear listeners… I am dealing with your eternal souls… if these demands are so difficult and hateful… I am telling something many do not know… I am revealing these secrets of eternity so you know how wise it is to follow me… If you failed to come to a resolution in your life that you will deny yourself, take the cross, and follow me, and the Law of losing didn’t convince you… and the question of loss and gain has not convinced you… and the question of comparable worth has not convinced you… then my listener, even now if you are not convinced, okay, before allowing you to go on with your self-centered life… I have one more motive to lay before you… let me take you to the great day and final day.”
Today, at this juncture in eternity, you may deny me and leave me and go your way to gain whatever you can. But he says we will meet again. You cannot avoid that meeting, or deny that meeting. And this is the first indication of the second coming in the New Testament.
Oh friend… Look beyond this time, November 15, 2020… Look beyond this in the future… look beyond your age, circumstance, time, pleasures and problems of this world… look beyond… 2030, what will happen, where will you be… 2040, 2050… 2070, 2080… One of these years, you will get old and be admitted to the hospital ICU… all vital signs, pulse rate all will show zero… The world will celebrate your funeral and may even say you were such a good outward Christian… many may believe you have gone to heaven, and they will bury you.
See in your mind’s eye… looking across the history of the world, the final wrap-up on human history, a day will come, a great day… the day for which all days were created. A big trumpet blast… all the dead will hear my voice and you will hear my voice from the grave and come back and be united with this body and stand before me. The eyes that see me and hear my message… you will see me and hear me on that day… In the mind’s eye, let me take you to that great day… I will decide the destiny of all men.
That day I will not be like this in humility, hiding my glory and standing and pleading in my humble form… with you with reasons… to bring you to follow me… That day… “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels.”
I will come with the glory of my Father… ultimate glory. Glory meaning it is the revelation of the full attributes of God: his power, majesty, infinity, splendor, awesomeness… The Glory of the Father is never revealed since creation. It will happen on that day. The Glory of the Father. He will come in the full blazing reality and manifestation of the eternal God. Now you may see me in veiled glory in the flesh; the veil will be pulled back, and He will come, it says, in the glory of His unveiled Father. Now, that means in a full display of divine attributes.
Full retinue of his angels… undiminished glory of his Father and his angels… retinue of holy angels… Matthew 25… he shall sit on the throne and all the nations will be gathered… Revelation 20:11: “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.”
Matthew 24:29 says, “shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” John sees them shaken like ripe figs on a tree. And as you shake the tree, they just fall. John sees the heavens rolling up like a scroll. The whole heaven goes black and just rolls up, and all you have is that infinite black space. All the lights are out, and God is getting ready for a show like the world has never seen. When that happens… earth and heaven fled like a piece of paper and no place for them… for the universe.
“Then”—verse 30—“shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn as the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” And verse 31 adds that He comes with His angels. Now, that’s what Verse 27 of Matthew 16 is talking about. He comes in the full glory of the Father with His angels—thousands upon thousands, as Daniel 7 said, upon thousands upon thousands of angels.
And so, He comes in the blazing, unveiled glory of God into a black sky, lighting the whole universe with His blazing glory so that men scream and cry to hide from that light.
“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.” God keeps books, do you know that? The final accounting will be based on objective data. God has kept the records. God can look at the books in judgment. It’s final accounting, folks. It’s judgment day. And on what basis will the judgment be made? It’ll be made—listen carefully—on the basis of works. That’s right. Works. All the New Testament says by works.
Men will then be rewarded, not according to their gains in this world, but according to their works. You say, “Wait a minute.” People have a lot of trouble with this statement. You say, “We’re saved not by works, but by grace.” He is not saying you will be saved by works, but whether you are truly saved will be proved by works. Works are not how you are saved; they are the objective verification that you are saved. It’s just what James said, “Faith without works is”—what?—“it’s dead.” You see, works are not how you’re saved, but they are the evidence that you are.
On that day, I will render every man not according to what he claimed or thought. The final judgment day uses objective criteria to verify. And it isn’t a works salvation, but we will be rewarded and we will be judged on the basis of what we do because what we do will reveal what we are.
On that day when your whole life is evaluated in the book of God, which will decide your destiny, every act will be decided whether it was done for the motive for the glory of God by denying yourself, taking the cross, or done for the self and self-glory, self-promotion, self-satisfaction. Where will you stand if you refuse to obey my terms of discipleship? You will find yourself as an unbeliever who lived only for self-glory, self-satisfaction.
I will reward; there is also positive motivation. If you deny yourself and follow me, you may be losing temporary things, fame, but when I come back, you will be rewarded with eternal rewards before the entire universe.
The apostle Paul lived his life on earth in the confident expectation of the day of Christ’s return. He was even willing to lay down his life for Christ because of his hope in that day. Just before he was executed for his Savior, Paul wrote:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
And what’s more, he encouraged his fellow-believers to also put all their hopes in that day in many places in the New Testament. See, if you deny yourself in this world for Christ, your hope will be on Christ’s reward when he comes. When you set your hope on that, you will be willing to invest yourself fully in following Him now—no matter what the cost. You will count it your greatest joy to stand before Him on that great day and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” That is enough… every true servant will give his heart and soul denying himself for that reward.
Jesus is telling us that, because that day is certain, following Jesus with total commitment is the wisest investment anyone could ever make.
And He is going to render to every man; nobody will escape. The final accounting will be brought to bear on every individual life according to that life. That’s the reckoning day, the balancing day. That day I will look at the right side and say to those who denied and followed me, as in Matthew 24:34: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.'”
Then if you deny me today, then he will say to those on his left: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Mark 8:38 in the same passage says: “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Today if you are so in heart stuck in spiritual adultery to this adulterous and sinful generation so much, that you were ashamed of me and my words. That day, I will be ashamed of you. So ashamed to see your face… “Depart from me, don’t show your face…”
“Oh Lord, what did I do?” “You heard my terms and most reasonable and powerful motives to follow them… you sat and listened to my servant, but you determined to cling to yourself and married, united to this sinful, adulterous generation. If you were ashamed of my words… you did not regard my allegiance like this worthy of your obedience… worthy of denying yourself, worthy of taking the cross, and I am worthy of following… you are ashamed of me… refusal to bear my reproach… judging my standards unrealistic, too high… foolish… That keeps you in this generation as a man living self-centered, loving.”
On this great day, when you need my mercy the most, I will be ashamed of you. I refuse to acknowledge any relationship with you. I reject you and cast you in outer darkness. “Depart from me, ye cursed.”
So he is saying it is the wisest thing by this final reason, so wise to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. To people who are not his disciples, “You better give your life away, take up your cross and follow me because there’s coming a day when if you don’t, you’re going to be cast into judgment.” And He’s saying to the disciples, “You better be faithful to follow the path of self-denial, cross-bearing, and loyal obedience because there’s coming a time when you’ll be rewarded.”
4. The Imminent Prophetic Seal (Validation)
Now, finally as a conclusion… to validate/establish all this, I have given the terms of discipleship and 4 solid reasons for that. You think this is all about the soul, spirit world and future judgment, “what does that have to do with my life now?” For those who may have any doubts whether my 4 reasons are true, that all the weighty issues I have been talking about are a reality… if you will have any doubt that I will be a judge in the last day…
Now somebody might say, “how do we know this is all true, that you are going to come in all glory and judge the world, what is the guarantee?” We haven’t seen any glory. “This may further discourage the disciples, we thought the kingdom is going to come now, this is getting so discouraging, where is the kingdom power?” Yes, a future day is coming. And you can just see them saying, “Oh, man, how do we know that’s going to happen? We haven’t seen a glimpse of that.”
That takes us to Verse 28, the preview. He says, “I’m going to give you a glimpse of it. I’m going to give you a sneak preview of the second coming.” This is the guarantee what I said is true.
Verse 28: “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
What do you mean they won’t be dead until they see the Son of man? Some of you standing here will not die a physical death… with your eyes… will see the Son of God coming in His kingdom.
At the end of time, he shall come in his Father’s glory but now, in the fullness of time, very soon, he will come in his own kingdom, his mediatorial kingdom. Jesus is referring here to his death, suffering, rising from the dead with power, Christ’s coming by the pouring out of his Spirit, the planting of the gospel church, and spread of the gospel among the nations… so powerful that the enemies of his church in 70 AD… 40 years… the whole Jewish nation scattered… the dismantling of the Jewish economy with the cessation of the temple and priesthood… The Kingdom of God was established with power… throughout the Roman empire against all odds with a little bunch of fishermen, and Jesus said that establishment by my coming in the kingdom will happen before your very eyes, and will be the attestation that I am telling the truth. Many then present lived to see it.
Today, we live over 2000 years… after so many years… we see that kingdom… not only Rome… but 4 corners of the world… so this very day… Jesus Christ has among all the nations… who acknowledge him as Lord and Christ… the most likely instruments… weak things he uses to grow… against all the efforts of great intellectual men, military powers, governments, haters of Christ… yet his church exists today and is growing and spreading… we see it before our own eyes. Before we taste death, we will see more and more of it.
When he spoke to his disciples that day, imagine… nothing was there… how can they believe what he says is true… nothing happened in history… he is just one man. He says, “before you taste death, you will see my kingdom turning the world upside down.”
You see it before your own eyes in your generation, my validation. If this was not given, when you remove all that… you can just close the Bible and go… think I have told you something of a dream… spoke something old, unrelated story… But before your eyes, I have establishing my kingdom with power. This is the proof what I stated is all true, you will lose your life, if you save it, lose your soul, and stand before me in judgment. The proof and guarantee for that is his death and resurrection and what he is doing across the world through his resurrection power and gospel message… The Son of Man coming in his Kingdom spreading across the world. That is why you cannot take my words lightly.
Application
Oh, may these four powerful reasons be etched in our hearts as stone carvings and ring in our hearts always.
25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every person according to his deeds.
Oh, may we feel the pressure of these 4 powerful reasons and commit ourselves to life as true disciples by denying ourselves, taking the cross, and following him. Do these reasons speak to your conscience or is it still blinded by the temporary vanity of the world? Do you feel any trembling? Any fear that you refuse to be Christ’s disciples?
These may seem very difficult, but if we look to the end of all these things, evaluate our life with this, the period of the world, and the posture of souls then, we shall thence form a very different idea of the present state of things.
And now let us not leave these verses without serious self-inquiry as to the matters which they contain. We have heard of the necessity of denying, taking up the cross, and following him.
Have we denied ourselves, taken the cross up, and are we carrying it daily and following him?
If you are trying to save life without doing it, holding to this life tightly like that money, you will lose it. You will never experience eternal life, but the strong grip of this life will drag you to hell.
See, if you are gaining the world without doing it, it will result in the greatest loss for you in this earth and eternity. We have heard of the value of the soul. Do we live as if we believed it?
If gaining the whole world losing the soul is a loss, how foolish it is for a man to sell his soul for a few little things. Many of us may not gain much in the world, but we are ready to lose our soul even for the small gain in the world… how foolish. Some of you are losing a soul for ₹1,000 extra money on the Sabbath, losing your soul for a little money, to earn a few lakhs in the world, some financial elevation, some worldly ambition, some of you for deceiving fleshly lusts or digital pornography, worldly fashions, one day pleasure, entertainment…
Ask yourself what is it each of you are losing your soul for? It is astonishing for how little a man will sell his soul. So blind, even if you give ₹500, ready to sell it. It is because of blindness, and like one will not know the value of something until he loses it, men will not know its value. It is of infinite worth compared to nothing; you cannot exchange anything for this.
How much do you value your soul? So what will you give for your soul? A few lakhs, a few pleasures of the world, a house or a job or a position, a career, or some pursuit of pleasure or entertainment? Anything that keeps you from Christ, you are considering to be of greater value than your soul.
Is it some lust that has trapped your mind and affections? Is it some ambition that has wrapped the fingers of pride around your throat and will not let go? Is it some secret sin that you have nursed and nurtured but that will prove to be a poisonous viper in your hands? It is a poor bargain to gain the whole world yet lose that which God counted so valuable that He gave His own Son to redeem.
Face the question of comparable worth… what can you give in exchange for your soul when it is lost…? All the tears, groans, weeping, and gnashing of teeth of millions in hell for thousands of years cannot atone for the sin of one soul in that horrible place of the damned. God gave the most expensive price for the soul.
May God open our eyes to see the value of our souls and the souls of others. Christ wants us to realize the infinite value of our soul and value it more than the world. You know why we are not involved actively in the gospel is because we don’t realize the value of one soul. The whole heaven rejoices when one soul repents. When God uses us to win a soul, we have been an instrument in God’s hand to win something more infinitely valuable than the whole world.
Satan is lying to you everyday… “I will give you this peanut or that thing, give me your soul,” and we are daily bargaining with him. He blinds you and shows your soul has no value… May God help you to see the value of your soul. “I gained all my foolish heart wants… lose my soul, what profit.” May this help us to see the folly of the Devil’s arithmetic… “I will give all… but give me your soul…” how he lies to us… So, will you strike a business deal? “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Would you forfeit eternity for a few paltry pleasures in this life?
Finally, look at the day where all this will take you… the great, inevitable day of judgment that will come on every man. So would you face God’s wrath on that day for the passing fancies of this world? The best preparative for that day is to deny ourselves, and take up our cross, and follow Christ, for so we shall make the Judge our Friend.
Learn to keep the second coming of Christ as your help… it will be a great encouragement.
The great encouragement to following Christ is taken from the second coming of Christ, because to look upon Christ in his state of humiliation, so abased, so abused, a reproach of men, and despised of the people, would discourage his followers from taking any pains, or running any hazards for him, but with an eye of faith to see the Lord coming in all glory, in all the pomp and power of the upper world, will animate us, and make us think nothing too much to do, or too hard to suffer, for him.
There is deep wisdom in showing us the coming glory. He knows the heart of a man. He knows how soon we are ready to be cast down, and like Israel of old to be “discouraged by the difficulties of the way.” He therefore holds out to us a gracious promise. He reminds us that He has yet to come a second time, as surely as He came the first time. He promises us that all the glory, infinite blessings for following him will be given when he comes the second time. He wants us to set our hope in that in following him. There will be infinite glory, honor, and reward in abundance one day for all who have served and loved Jesus. But that will happen when he comes… First cross, then crown. First suffering, then glory. If we suffer with him, we will be glorified with him.
The rewarding of men according to their works is deferred till that day. Here good and evil seem to be dispensed promiscuously; we see not sin/apostasy punished with immediate strokes, nor fidelity encouraged with immediate smiles from heaven, but in that day all will be set to rights. Therefore judge nothing before the time.
Conclusion
If you understood this passage properly, the greatest wisdom and most blessed way to live the remaining days in your life is to deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Christ. It’s the way of the cross or the way of destruction. Life or death, blessing or cursing, Christ sets both before us in this passage. What will you do? There’s no other option. Christ bids us come and die to self, following after Him. Hear Him and follow!
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 