May it please the Lord to bless
us together this morning as we turn to his word. Let us come
to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 and we'll read verse 26. The
Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 and reading 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? Perhaps you young people may
be wondering why we have four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John, and why perhaps we could not just have had one Gospel
with everything included in it. Well we see in this how God is
gracious and he ordained that four different people should
record the things which had happened basically from the beginning
when the Lord Jesus Christ was born unto his death and unto
his ascension. And as you read those four Gospels
you will find that the accounts vary and In this particular instance,
we read this verse here, this account, it occurs three times. It occurs in Matthew, Mark and
Luke and doesn't actually occur in John. And similarly, sometimes
only once does an account occur. And sometimes in all four Gospels
does the account occur. Now what we have to realise is
that God ordained that men should write these things and Although
we know that his spirit overshadowed them as they wrote it, they did
write as men and they saw things in different ways. And certain
points were more evident than other points. And I'm saying
this really because sometimes we might be surprised if we were
to witness a certain thing, I mean if you were to watch a procession
say, perhaps, I don't know, the truth and the colour or something,
and you watched that and you were told to write down what
you'd seen, you might not write down exactly the same. Something
might have attracted your attention more than somebody else, and
you would find that the various versions were different. Well,
that's just the same in the Word of God. We have these versions
which are slightly different, and What we observe is the Lord
purposely ordains this, so that when someone might record something,
we might think, well why didn't they say this? And why didn't
they observe that? And I'm saying that in a spiritual
sense. It's because the Holy Spirit
ordained that we see things perhaps slightly differently, and we
see things perhaps with a greater emphasis on one thing rather
than another. So although we have the general
picture, the Lord leads us in individual and different ways. And that's precisely as we read
it in the Word of God, especially in the Gospels. So sometimes
people who want to be awkward, they might read something and
say, well it doesn't say that, why doesn't it say that? Well
we know that overall the Word of God includes everything that
the Lord ordained. And sometimes we need to compare
the various accounts to perhaps get a very full picture of that
particular element that is recorded in the Word of God. I just thought
I'd mention that this morning, just to give an overall view,
which may be perhaps, or may have been, perplexing to some
of us. Well, we've had here, we have
here this morning in this chapter, in the 16th of Matthew, some
things which we're thankful the Lord Jesus points out. First of all, he pointed out
the error of the doctrines of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they didn't understand what
the Lord was saying as the disciples to begin with. when he said take
heed and be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They didn't understand what they
meant and they thought it was referring to bread, but in actual
fact the Lord was referring to the doctrines and he was referring
to the false doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees. That
which perhaps gave reason for people to be as it were risen
up in themselves, as leaven does, and it's a false doctrine and
we need to be very aware today in the world in which we live,
where there is many false doctrines, and we have to beware of them.
And so that's what the Lord Jesus warned the disciples of, and
of course he warns us today of that situation. And then he comes
and he asks a question, and it's interesting how the Lord leads
into a question. He asks the people what the disciples,
what the people thought, who he was. He said, whom do men
say that I the Son of Man am? He asked the question. And of
course there was the answer. Disciples said, well perhaps
this person, perhaps that person, perhaps someone else. But then
you see the Lord was leading them in. And then he came to
this great question. But whom say ye that I am? He
had made them think. And it's good sometimes when
the Holy Spirit makes us think about a situation, and then leads
us to the real question. And the real question was not
really what other people said, it was what they said as individuals. And then we know that dear old
Peter came and came up with a real good and right answer. And he
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And immediately the Lord Jesus
told him and told the disciples that it wasn't flesh and blood
that had revealed this, but his Father which is in heaven. And
again we have to realise that today, that it is God's Spirit
that reveals this truth to our hearts. It's not flesh and blood,
it's not our parents, it's not our friends, it's the Spirit
of God. It's a wonderful thing for you
and me today if we have the evidence in our hearts that the Spirit
of God has revealed to us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
Son of the Living God. And as such, He is the Saviour
of the world. And as such, He is the Saviour
of His people. And it will be a blessing today
if you and I can come and say that He is my Saviour. Well, that's an introduction
really to this account we have. As we come to the end of this
chapter, the Lord Jesus speaks to his disciples and he comes,
he says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me. Many people pay lip service
to Christianity. Many people, if they were asked,
well, what is your religion? They would say, well, I'm a Christian. Many people would voice that
opinion. But the great question is whether
they are a real Christian or whether they are a pseudo-Christian. By that I mean somebody who pretends
to be a Christian and is not. And of course that applies to
All of us here this morning, we are either real Christians,
or I suppose we might say that we are a pseudo-Christian, one
who is pretending to be a Christian. And so the Lord Jesus sets this
testimony. He says, if any man will come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. So we here see the qualification
of a true Christian. And it is a detailed qualification,
really, and it is an important qualification. The first thing
he says, we are to deny ourself. Put it another way, we're not
to please ourself. We are to be concerned to please
our God. So he says, here, let him deny
himself. That's an important thought,
isn't it? To deny ourselves. Things that
we perhaps want to do. And we are willing to deny ourselves
in order that we might be found amongst those who are taking
up the cross and following him. And it would appear here that
we are not in a position to say, well, I've taken up my cross
and I'm following the Lord Jesus Christ, if we have not denied
ourself. Because there is a clear separation
from the things of this life, the things of this world. Indeed,
the pride of life, the lust of the flesh and so on. We are to
deny ourself. and rather take up his cross,
the cross. Yes, he says here, and let him
take up his cross. And the Lord has ordained that
you and I will have crosses in this life. It doesn't mean that
we will actually carry a wooden cross, but what it means is that
the Lord will give us a cross to carry. Naturally, a cross
was not a light thing to carry. We know the Lord Jesus Christ
was so weak that they had to appoint someone else to carry
the cross. We are commanded to take up our
cross. The Lord's given us a cross,
every one of us, in our life. We don't like to think of that,
do we? We like to think that we're free
and we can just journey on in a casual way perhaps, perhaps
a careless way, and that we can enjoy the things of this world
and also end up in heaven at last. That's what the devil tells
us. That's what the devil tells people.
You can enjoy yourself in this world, you can do what you want
in this world, And then at the end, well, you'll need to make
amends and to rectify your life so that you go to heaven. The Lord Jesus tells us we are
to deny ourselves and to take up our cross, whatever that may
mean. Now, it does mean that it's something
which won't be pleasant to the flesh. It's a cross that the
Lord may have laid on us, some affliction which we are to take
up and to go with. We're not to cast it away and
say, well I've got this and I'm not therefore able to follow
the Lord. No, the Lord says here to take
it up and to follow the Lord. They combine together. All these
strings follow as it were in a sequence. Deny ourselves take
up our cross and to follow the Lord. What a wonderful thing
it is, therefore, to be a true Christian. This is what it is,
to be a true Christian, not a pseudo-Christian. A true Christian, then, is one
who takes to heart the Word of God, and how blessed we are today
to have the Word of God in our own language that we can read
and understand. Don't forget there are millions
in the world, perhaps billions in the world, who are not privileged
as we are. And so we have this wonderful
statement here that the Lord says, if any man will come after
me, you see, if any man will come after me, we want, we desire,
clearly to be a Christian. Here are the three points that
he makes. Let him deny himself, take up
his cross and follow me. The Lord says, for whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. Whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. We can perhaps apply it like
this. We don't want to offend people. We don't want to cause
any divisions. We don't want to speak things
which would cause people to ignore us. and turn away from us. We want to be, as it were, one
of the boys. We want to be considered a good
friend and really a friend of the world. We don't really want
to be separated. We don't want to have to walk
our own path. We don't want to be isolated.
We don't want to be, as it were, be found alone. We don't want
to be castigated and separated from. Well, here we're told Husserl
will save his life, that means our spiritual life, we'll have
to lose our natural life. Husserl will lose his natural
life, for my sake shall find a spiritual life. Really, this is quite a tough
statement, isn't it? And it's not something that we like to
really take on board. We're really not very willing
to have a statement like this step before us. And yet, it is
very clear, isn't it? We're thankful there are those
whosoever's in the Word of God. And here is a whosoever will
save his life shall lose it, and whoso will lose his life
for my sake shall find it." The question is, really, who do we
desire to follow the most? The Lord Jesus Christ or the
world? Are we willing to be separated
unto the Lord Jesus Christ? or we want to be separated unto
the world and just have a pretend that we are Christian. It's so
evident perhaps in the day and age in which we live that there
are, I might say, the vast majority of so-called Christians who do
not follow a pattern that we have set before us in the Word
of God. And I believe therefore we have to really conclude that
they are not real Christians. Whoso will save his life shall
lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find
it. So we come then down to this 26th verse which we read as a
text this morning. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what
should a man give in exchange for his soul? Well, it is a very important
question that we have here. There is a very small phrase
that you might remember, you young people might remember.
No cross, no crown. But if we have a cross, the cross
that we take up the Lord's given us, there will be a crown. Remember that as you journey
on through life. No cross, no crown. So he says, for what is a man
profited if he shall gain the whole world? That is a great
statement, isn't it? We can perhaps try and imagine
us owning the world. The king of the world, the dictator
perhaps of the world. Everything at our beck and call. Everything there, we owned. We owned the world. You could
therefore demand anything and go anywhere. and realize that
everything is yours, and no one can take it from you, and you
walk about as the ruler of the whole world. Everybody bows down,
everybody gives to you what you want, and nothing is withheld
because you possess the whole world. Well, that might be pleasing,
to nature, it might be pleasing to people. We know today there
are very wealthy people, but very often the very wealthy people
are not very happy people. Wealth does not bring happiness.
And here the Lord tells us, for what is a man profited if he
shall gain the whole world? You might think, well that's
a wonderful thing, but what benefit we might say is in it, What profit
is there in it? Because there is a tremendous
comparison. The comparison is simply this,
and lose his own soul. We need then to realize that
if we gain the whole world and we possess the whole world, it
would be for a very relatively short time. And then what? And then what? What faces all of us today, what
faces everyone in the world today is that there is a day which
is approaching when everyone must die. That is the only certain
thing which occurs in everybody's life. There will come A day. A day when they must die. That means a day when they must
leave everything, their body, everything they possessed, in
this world. We see people, don't we, trying
to make themselves live longer, to look younger. We see people
have these facelifts, don't we, bits of flesh added here and
taken out there, so they appear to be younger. Their hair dyed
and everything else and colouring put on them, so they appear to
be younger. In actual fact, age continues. And no one will be able to avoid
the determined day of their death. None of us can never put off
that date. We can't bring it forward. It's
a day that God has ordained. And so, as we have this statement
here, what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? That means that he will have
to leave everything here below and he will be eternally lost. That means that he will go to
hell forever and forever. And try and think, you young
people especially, try and think of the difference between the
length of a life on this earth and eternity. Just try and think
of that. Go home and think about it. Because
there is an incalculable difference. It is so vast. the things in
this life and eternity. And the majority of people are
living for this life. My friends, you and I are either
living for this life or we're living for the eternal life. What is a man profited if he
should gain the whole world and lose his own soul when we come
to die if we possess the whole world, what good would it do
us? Would it extend our life? Would
we live longer? It would make no difference whether
we were born the most poor person in the world with no possessions,
or if we possessed the world. When we come down to die, we're
all equal. We all have to leave everything
here below. And then what? And then where
will our soul be? Where will our soul be? For what is a man profited, if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul. We only have one soul. And you
and I, my friends, have one soul which never dies. It never dies. That means it lives eternally. What a thought that is, isn't
it? How many people brush it aside? How many people don't
want to think about the day of their death? How many people
don't want to think about an eternal life? They want, as you
hear people say, they want to live life to the full. This poor
little life that you and I are living in a body of sin and death. Do we consider what is to occur
when we die? What is a man profited if he
shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And then he
comes and says, or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul? What can you give in exchange
for your soul? We all have a soul, a never dying
soul. And what we need to know is that
we possess the life of God in that soul. What we need to know
is that we possess the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to know that we possess
that blessed life within, like the Apostle Peter, who was able
to come and to declare, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
Living God, and to know that flesh and blood has not revealed
that unto us, but it is the holy, blessed Spirit of God that reveals
to us, in some measure, the value of our soul. We can value the things in this
life, can't we? We know how much they cost, and
that puts a value on them and we know perhaps how much money
or lands or possessions people have and that has a value and
we know therefore the value of those things but what we fail
to recognize so often is the value of our soul and it is really
because we live in time and we do not understand eternity. That's
the real reason why we're not able to comprehend the real value
of our soul. Well, it would be a wonderful
favour if you and I are led by the Spirit of God to consider
the state of our soul. Consider the state of it. watching
a man give in exchange for his soul. You cannot give anything
that is of equal value. Your soul is so valuable, it's
without price, because it is eternal. That's why you're not
able to evaluate the value of your soul. You can evaluate natural
things, but you cannot evaluate the value of your soul, because in a million, million
years, your soul will still be alive. And in a million, million
years, you would have left a million, million years ago, everything
in this life. Your soul will still be in that
eternal state. And so as we ponder these words,
the truth is that our souls will either be in one or two places. The Lord Jesus so often, as you
read his words, directs us to the eternal state in one way
or another, showing to us the need of spiritual life, the need
to look to him The need to concentrate upon the things of God and not
on the things of the earth. So many, many words. And so as
we think of this, that you and I one day will either be found
in heaven or in hell. And once we're there, there's
no turning back. There's no coming back. We can't
once again recover our situation. The day of grace, that means
the day of God's favour toward us is past. If we are in hell,
never to come again. So may we ponder our condition
today, whether we are in a fit state, to die. If it states to pass out of time,
whether it will be then to go on to be with Jesus or to go
on to be with the devil. What a terrible thought, isn't
it? To be found with the devil and all his evil angels and all
those other people who are evil. to spend eternity with them. And we're told, we get a few
descriptions of it, don't we? Gnashing of teeth. What will
that be? Will that be so we should ever
remember the blessings that we've heard
about and turn our back upon them? And there'll be gnashing
of teeth, burning fire, darkness, the worm dieth not, the nagging
conscience. Oh, my friends, it's beyond our
comprehension, the agonies of enduring hell forever and ever. You know, it's a good thing if
you and I have trembled, as we've, as it were, looked hell in its
face. We've trembled to think that we might be there. Tremble
to think perhaps that we deserve to be there. Blessing indeed is such a view,
if the Spirit of God has given us a view of these things, and
therefore has directed us to the alternative. And that is
Heaven. And again, let me just come here
Because it is a real position, that you might not want to go
to hell, and you might not want to go to heaven. You may say,
well I don't understand that, let me explain it. You may not
want to go to heaven because you might not find it an attractive
place. As you may think about it, many
people have a very false impression of heaven. You know, I heard
someone say not so long ago, he hoped he'd be in the cricket
team in heaven. Well, you know, he had no view, did he? No understanding,
really, of what it was. Heaven is a holy place. A place
where we shall worship the Lord forever. Now, we would not want
to go there unless that Lord God has given us life in our
soul, because a place of worship would not be a place that we
want to go to. And you may say, well, I'd like to have that explained. Well, let me explain it in this
way. We're all here this morning, sitting here listening to the
Gospel. Do you love to be here? Is this
the best place? you want to be? Or do you hope
it won't be many minutes before the Amen is said and you can
get out and go home? We have a hymn writer who has
described it like this, a place where congregations do not break
up and where Sabbaths do not have an end. Now to our natural
mind, and before the Lord converts us, We won't want such a place
as that. And I'm saying this because today
you may be there. You may say, well I don't really
want a heaven like that. And I definitely don't want to
go to hell. So you may say, well I'm in a
real problem. And yes you are in a real problem. But it's good
if the Spirit of God has brought you to that place where you are
in a problem. You may be at a crossroads, you don't know what to do. Well,
I'll tell you what you can do. You can pray to God. And you can pray to God, but
He will give you a desire after heavenly things. He will give
you a desire to know the Lord Jesus Christ as that one that
the Apostle Peter speaks of. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the Living God. and you can pray therefore the
Lord will do this for you and may you indeed then prove that
the Lord does bless you and grant there will be then an amazing
change in your life so that from not wanting to come to chapel,
not wanting to go to hear the services, there will be that
desire and you will love to be there because it will be a little
foretaste of heavenly things because by faith you will see
the Lord Jesus Christ as he may be lifted up as it were in the
gospel pole and you might see in him a great and a glorious
attraction because that's what the Apostle Peter knew the Lord
Jesus Christ was indeed his master and he'd given up all the disciples
had They were fishermen, some of them, publicans and other
things, lawyers. They had to give up those things.
And they willingly did it. And they followed the law of
Jesus Christ. Yes, the Lord said to Peter,
He would make them fishers of men. They gave up their natural
fishing and they were to be fishers of men. Well, not all people
are called to be fishers of men. But nonetheless, there would
be that giving up those worldly things and desire that turn away
from them. Now that will mean taking up the cross. And let's
be very clear, the true Christian takes up his cross because he
declares plainly, this world is not his home. He's not at
home here. He's a pilgrim. He's a stranger. He's a foreigner in this world. That's the description of a true
Christian. He's a pilgrim. He's a foreigner. He's an alien
in a foreign land. He doesn't feel at home. If you and I feel at home in
the world, we're not at home in the things of God. Put it
this way. Are you at home here today? with
the people of God? Or are you keen to get back into
the world you've seen, to be at home with those people? That's
a division, that's a separation. Well then it is a blessing to
really be concerned that we have a right religion. And that means
that we know ourselves as a hell deserving Hell-deserving, needy
sinner. When the Spirit of God convinces
us of that, you know that we are hell-deserving. We deserve
hell. The man in the street doesn't believe that. He thinks he's
not too bad. There's many people worse than
him. And the Spirit of God directs you
and me to look inside, in our hearts. We won't point fingers
at other people. but realise how bad we are and
how we need desperately the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, wonderful blessing today
if we are directed to the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope
of salvation. Nowhere else, my friends, nowhere
else to be delivered from our sins Our hope must only be in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He may not be very strong, but
have you a little hope today? A little hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because when you come down to
die, He will be your only hope. No other good enough to pay the
price of sin He only could unlock the gate of heaven to let us
in. It's only the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes down very, very clearly
to what we know of Christ, what we think of Christ, and our life
will demonstrate what we think of Christ. whether we do truly
desire to be numbered amongst the true Christians, those who
are a true follower of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us not forget this statement,
if any man will come after me. Really that means, if any man
will be a disciple, If any man would be a true Christian, the
Lord Jesus lays it down here so very clearly and very beautifully
and very wonderfully. And it's a great blessing if
your hearts and my hearts are moved by the Spirit of God. My friend, there's nothing we
can do ourselves. But as they are moved by the Spirit of God,
we desire to hear His words. So the Lord says, let him deny
himself, take up his cross and follow me because we shall be
concerned that we possess the life of God in our soul and we
shall have some indication of the value of our soul faced with
death Realising that we must go and be in one place or the
other, our cry may be very simply, give me Christ or else I die. Well that's a very simple prayer,
isn't it? Give me Christ or else I die. That means to know that
Lord Jesus Christ is my Saviour. He is the one who came into the
world to save my soul. He was the one who died upon
Calvary's cross to save my soul. He was the one who shed his most
precious blood to save my soul. He was that one, the only one,
that finished that work his father gave him to do to save my soul. So you will come to say, My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. See, in that position, we have
the evidence that we have passed from death unto life, eternal
life, and that we are following that right and good way, and
then we recognise the truth of these words What is a man profited
if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? We will
realize there's no profit in it. No real profit. No eternal
profit. Only earthly things which fade
and pass away. And lose his own soul. Or, what
should a man give in exchange for his soul? You may say, in
those words, take my life and let it be consecrated unto
thee. Now that is, if you and I can
truly pray that, it's because the Spirit of God has indicted
in our heart that new life which will never die. If you and I
can pray that from our hearts, with the evidence of eternal
life, and we are able to say, in answer to that question, is
it well with my soul? It is well, because of what Jesus
has done, and because my hope is in that finished work. Oh,
my friends today, may we indeed have the evidence of eternal
life in our souls, and be able to follow the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and taking no care of the cost to ourselves, realizing
what a cost our salvation was to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
have that humble desire to be numbered amongst the true Christians
who take up their cross and follow Him. Amen.