Okay, go with me back to Mark
8. Mark chapter 8. And let's begin
reading again in verse 34. Mark 8, 34. And when he had called the people
unto him, with his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul. Whosoever, therefore, shall be
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when
he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Now, the things that we do and the
decisions that we make are based on whether or not we
see any value in it. You know that? Everything we
do. Sometimes we do things we don't
want to do because we see some value in it. It would be good
if we do this. All right? If there seems to be profit in
something, gain in something, we do it. And if there's no profit, no
value in it, we don't. Right? Is there any value in hard work? Is there any value in hard work,
working hard? Do we see any profit in it at
all? The answer is absolutely. Absolutely. A man ought to work
hard. I worked, I think, hard yesterday. My body says I did. I woke up
this morning and I thought, oh man, I worked maybe too hard.
That's not possible. Our Lord said do that while there
are 12 hours in a day. Our Lord worked hard. I'm confident of the fact there
was no finer carpenter on the face of this earth. He worked
hard. So will it profit a man to work
hard? Yes. Is there any value in education? Will it profit a man to learn? The answer is yes. In school,
out of school, whether a person's in the classroom
or on the job site, it's all education. You cannot do anything
unless you learn how to do it. You just can't do anything. Is there any value in being responsible? Is there any value in that? Budgeting
your money, setting aside for hard times. What about owning a home? And
I'm bringing up things that we all put value in, okay? Is there any value? Right now,
I don't own my home. Regions Bank does. Should I keep making those payments?
Should I? Is there any value, is there
any profit in me continuing to make those payments until one
day, finally, when I'm 123, they sign that piece of paper and
they say, this belongs to you. This is yours. This deed is now
yours. Is there any value in that? What about rest? Is there any
value in rest, taking time off? Is there any value in taking
your family on vacation? Taking a minute, come together
on vacation? We can see the value of everything
that is worth anything in this life. But there's one thing,
and I pray I listen to what is about to be said. There is one
thing that man by nature cannot see the value of. And that's his own soul. Cannot see the value of it. Man
does not understand his soul. I'm telling the truth. Man does not understand what
his soul is. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
one. Genesis 1 verse 26 says, And God said, Let us make man
in our image after our likeness. You see that? He said in our
image after our likeness. Not only our image, after our
likeness. what we are like. So Genesis
chapter 2 verse 7 says and the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and man became a living soul. What that means is God created
something that will not end. All right? He said, let us make man
in our image after our likeness. And man became a living soul. God created something that will
not end. I've known that for a long time. I've had a lot of light bulb
moments lately. That was a light bulb moment. It was like, whoa. God create from the time that
a soul is created and given, a soul was given to a little
baby. OK, that happens all the time.
How many babies have been born today? With each one, a soul
is created and given. With each one, a soul is created
and given. From the moment that soul is created, it will never
end. All right. It will never end. God created
something that will never end, either in eternal bliss or eternal damnation and torment,
it will not end. Is that not awesome? The soul does not end. This life
ends and this world ends. Everything has an end, but not
the soul. Not the soul. A man named Robert Hawker, he
was an old preacher and an old writer, he said, A single soul
is of more value than the whole world. One soul. A single soul
is of more value than the whole world and for this plain reason. The time is coming when the whole
world and all that is in it will be destroyed. But the soul of
every individual must live either in happiness or in misery forever. A man's soul will never end. Never. Your soul, you are your
soul. You are your soul. Have you ever
wondered what it would be like to be somebody else? You ever
wondered that? We are our souls. The soul is what animates the
body. Go with me over to First Kings 17. We brought this up
in the Bible study. And I want to show it to you
now. First Kings 17. Verse King 17, look with me at
verse 17. And it came to pass after these
things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house fell
sick and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath
left in him. Now this is Elijah. staying in
the house of this widow woman and her son, and her son fell
so sick he died. There was no breath left in him.
Verse 18, And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee,
O thou man of God? Art thou coming to me to call
my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? And he said unto
her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom
and carried him up into a loft where he abode, and laid him
upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord and
said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow
with whom I sojourn by slaying her son? And he stretched himself
upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord, and said,
Oh Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into
him again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again and
he revived. And Elijah took the child and
brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered
him unto his mother. And Elijah said, see, thy son
liveth. The soul is what animates this
body. The reason I can do this is because
of my soul. Without the soul, it's a dead
body. This body is not you. Your soul is you. You could cut
every limb off of this body and still be you. no fingers, no
toes, no arms, no legs, and still be you. And your soul has no
end. Well, I will tell everybody this.
It's a short life. You better get all you can get
of it before it's over. It's never going to be over. It's never going to be over. Mr. Hawker said this, he said,
calculate, if possible, the value of a single soul. Do some math,
he said. The value of a single soul, the
creation of it called forth the counsel of the whole persons
of the Godhead. All three of them. We read it
back in Genesis one. God came together in a council
collectively and all looked at each other and said, let us make
man. In our image, it took the counsel
of the Godhead. He said the redemption of it. We know that the soul that God
made sinned against him, don't we? We all know that. When that happened, the soul
was severed from God. All right, severed from God,
separated from God's Spirit. Man died spiritually, separated
from God. And Mr. Hawker said the value,
the price of what God created was so great, the redemption
of it cost Christ His blood. Now you think about it. Can we
fathom that payment? Surely there was something less
expensive that could redeem this fallen soul. I thought about that woman that
had that alabaster box of precious ointment. She broke it and it
was so costly. You think about the blood of
Christ. Can we put a value on that? It
cost Christ his blood to redeem these ruined souls. And he said
the regeneration of this soul took God, the Holy Ghost, it
took God himself. God is the only one who could
regenerate a fallen soul. Are we starting to see that maybe
we need to redirect our value? I got a house that Regions Bank
owns. They can have it. I need to redirect my value. Mark 8, go with me back over
to Mark chapter 8. Verse 34 says, And when he had called the people
unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
here on this earth, whoever chooses, To see the things of this world
is higher value than Christ himself, more important. Let me go after
that as opposed to him. Whoever will save his life here
on this earth, he said, shall lose it forever. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospels here on this earth. Whoever sees
no value in the things of this world compared to having Christ,
the same shall save it forever." Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
saying, I want you to calculate some values. I want you to weigh this in the
balances and tell me what you come up with. Verse 36, He said,
What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world? And lose his own soul. He said, or. Let me say it this
way, verse 37 or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? He's saying you put a value on
your eternal soul and then you tell me what are you willing
to exchange it for? That's something in it. That's
something look with me at Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, look at verse 16.
It says, Lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. For you know how that afterward
when he would have inherited the blessing, He was rejected
for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully
with tears. Esau was going to inherit everything. He was going to inherit it all,
all the land, the cattle, the servants, the maidens, the money,
the status, everything his father had, everything. And he gave
it all up for one bowl of pottage. You know the story? One bowl
of pottage. Man, Esau, you must really put
a lot of value in that soup. Oh, yeah. Nobody sods pottage
like Jacob. Well, Esau, don't you think you
ought to redirect your value a little bit? Don't you think
you ought to count the cost Weigh this in the balance. No. This is what I want. And I'm
willing to give it all up for it. I'm willing to give up all the
blessing to have this. I'll give up eternity with never
ending eternity with Christ to have this little bowl of soup
right now. What Esau lost does not even come close to comparing
to what souls lose by choosing anything over Christ. Anything. Indescribable loss. Now here's
the conclusion of the whole matter. The Lord God said, if you go
after anything other than me, the road you take that does not
lead you to me, will send your soul to eternal loss and ruin. But he said, whoever will come
after me. He said, whoever is ashamed of
me, I'll be ashamed of him in the judgment. But he said, whoever
comes after me, whoever considers everything in this world loss
compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
his Lord. Whoever acknowledges that everything
this world has to offer is nothing more than a bowl of sod pottage
compared to Christ and his redeeming blood. Whoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospels is going to inherit it all. They'll
inherit it all. That soul shall live with Christ
and reign with Christ forever. Now, really, where is the value? Where is all of the value? It's in Christ. It's all in Christ. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. So all
I have to do is give it all up and then I'll inherit everything?
No. There are Buddhist monks on the
back of the Himalayas that have given up everything and they're
still going to eternally lose their souls. It's not about just
giving things up. There's one way for a soul to
inherit eternal life and here's my goal. You know the scripture says the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. God has given us an eternal soul
and we don't see the value of it. As we try we still don't
see the value of it. And man by nature is giving it
up for a bowl of sod pottage for just three score and ten.
Giving up eternity When 50 billion years have passed, that's not
a millionth of a fraction of the first second of eternity. Never ending eternity. You know,
what's bigger than eternity? Infinity. That's what kids say.
Infinity plus one. You can keep doing that. OK, and men are giving up their
souls. For eternity. Eternity. And our Lord said,
whoever wants to come after me, whoever wants to inherit eternal
life, I'm going to tell you how to do it. May the Lord wake us
up and cause us to heed his word because he is about to tell us
how to inherit eternal life. All right. Now go with me back
to our text. And as you turn back there, I'm
going to quote two verses of scripture to you. Isaiah 55 verse 3 says, incline
your ear and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live. The
only way that's possible is if God gives ears. But if God gives
ears, hear and your soul shall live. And Jeremiah 38, 20 says,
Obey, I beseech thee the voice of the Lord. And that's what
I repeat this morning. Obey, I beseech thee the voice
of the Lord. Which I speak unto thee. So shall
it be well unto thee and thy soul shall live. Hear the Lord,
and obey the Lord, and thy soul shall live. What did he say?
Right here in Mark 8 verse 34. When he had called the people
unto him, with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself. Is salvation in your hands? No. Does the decision rest on you? No. Do you have any say in the matter? No. Are you worthy to stand in the
presence of God Almighty? No. Have you ever done one good and
acceptable deed in his sight? No. Not one? No, not one. Can you think of one reason why
God should choose to show mercy to you? One, just one good reason. Our Lord said, if a man wants
to come after me, let him deny himself. Then he said, let him
take up his cross. Now, if a man takes up his own
cross, he will die on it. It doesn't say his own cross,
does it? Let him take up his cross. Well, now we all have a cross
we must bear. No. The gospel says he bore ours. If there's still a cross with
my name on it, I'm a dead man. I'm a dead man. Do you know what
cross a child of God takes up? You know what cross a child of
God holds to and clings to for dear life? Nail me to it. You know what cross a child of
God owns for his own? The cross of Christ. That's my
cross. If a man wants to come after
me, let him deny himself, take up his cross. Paul said, I am
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. I love
what Ruth said. Naomi told her, you go on back.
Everybody's dead. Your husband's dead. My husband's
dead. Go on back. Ruth said, where
you go, I'll go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people.
Thy God, my God, where you die, that's where I will die. And
there, right there, will I be buried. Right there. If a soul wants to live forever,
and I'm, I know I got these notes here and they're fine. I wouldn't
be able to get through it without them. But listen, this is not
an outline. This is not an outline. I'm, I am. If a soul wants to live, I'm
telling you, if a soul wants to live, we're throwing our souls
away. We're throwing our souls away.
And here it is. If a soul wants to live forever,
let him deny himself. Cling to the cross of Christ. Acknowledge his death to be my
death. His burial is my burial. His
resurrection is my resurrection. Let him deny himself, take up
his cross, he said, and follow me. He didn't say follow church. He didn't say follow religion.
He didn't say follow Calvin. He didn't say follow all the
right doctrines. He said, follow me. Follow me,
the risen Lord, the risen Savior. What he's saying is let Let go
of everything and cling to Christ. Let go of everything and cling
to Christ. There is value there. There is value there. Infinite,
eternal value. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Alright, let's all stand together.