Reading Mark Chapter 8 verses 36 - 37

What Profit?

When each of us came into the world we all had much in common.

We were all babies, we were all dependant on other people and we all needed feeding and something to drink. We all wore fluffy little suits and sucked our thumbs. I expect people said strange things to us in squeaky voices and rocked us and bounced us all about a bit.

The serious side of what we all have in common is that we were all born sinners and we all suffer from the plague of sin and disobedience to God in our words, our actions and our thoughts. another thing we have in common, and this is what I want to speak of here is the fact that none of us brought anything into the world with us.

When a person comes into the world they come with absolutely nothing and, so often, they then spend the rest of their life trying to get as many things for themselves as they can - and, some of them, by whatever means.

If you could have anything you wanted what would you have? Anything at all!

What do people want these days? The list is probably quite extensive.

Do you ever daydream about how things would be if you had what you wanted? What if you had all the money you could imagine. Imagine you're an Oil Company owner. Some of them have billions of dollars. They have so much money they earn millions of dollars just in interest each day. If you had all that you could do as you please all the time. So much money - the possibilities are almost endless for what you could do. You could help others too, couldn't you? You could finance hospitals and better homes and schools for poor countries - you could really make a difference.

What if the whole world was all yours? Everything you come across belongs to you. Everyone else just has the use of things because you let them. Anything you want you just go and pick it up - or get someone else to get it for you.
All this is a flight of fancy, a delusion. Nobody on earth is ever going to own everything there is.

However, it does not stop vast numbers of people living as if this is what they are trying to do!

So many people come into the world with nothing then spend the few years they have of this life trying to get as much as they can only to find at the end of their life they have something else in common with everyone else. They started life with nothing and they leave life the same way - with absolutely nothing. It would be no point packing a suitcase with all your favourite things if you were told you were about to die would it?

What point is there in owning masses of things when your health fails and the end of your life approaches? Old age and death may seem a long way away today but it comes to all of us quicker than we think. None of us knows how much time we have left.

This is what The Lord Jesus means when He asks what profit a person might have if they gained the whole world yet lost their soul.

Mark 8:36-37 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

The Lord Jesus is the wisest man who ever lived. The Lord Jesus is God and man in one person. He is no less God by being a man and no less a man by being God. As God He made the whole world in the beginning. He sustains the world by His power; everything in it belongs to Him.

If anyone is going to know what something is worth then it is the person who made it. They know the cost of the planning and design work. They paid the bills for the materials and labour to make whatever it was. They are able to say what the end product is worth.

The Lord Jesus knows what the whole world is worth and He knows the value of a person's soul. He asks the question, "What shall it profit a man if gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

The Lord Jesus weighs up the loss of your soul against gaining the whole world and tells you that your soul has more value.

Do you value your soul that highly?

Perhaps you feel that losing your soul would not be such a bad thing if you could have everything you want in this life.

A person who thinks this way shows that that person has not really understood what it means to lose their soul. A lost soul is a soul eternally cast out from all peace, all comfort and everything good. Souls are truly lost in hell forever. Even if someone gained the whole world they'd lose it because the whole world will be burned up at the end of time. Gaining the whole world might be nice while it lasted - but what about when it's all gone?

You can only follow one way.

At the same time as The Lord Jesus was asking this question He was talking about how people should not be taken up with the things of this world but that they should be following the way of life set out by God. This was the Way of Life The Lord Jesus often spoke about. It is a life of denying self and living The Way opened up by The Lord Jesus.

A person cannot travel in two directions at the same time. A person cannot serve two opposing masters. Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The Lord Jesus tells us we cannot spend all our time and energy on things of this world if we are to follow Gods way and avoid losing our soul.
Mark 8:34-35 and 38 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. 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.

The opposite way to trying to gain the whole world and losing your soul is to follow The Way of The Lord Jesus. He said," I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." We must trust The Lord Jesus and not rely on the things we can do for ourselves. It is foolish to think we can make a fortune and that will see us through.

"Believe on The Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." That is a promise from Gods word. Being saved is to not lose your soul but to have your soul kept safe forever.

What is the way to follow? The Lord Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of his people. He took their punishment upon Himself. He changes people so they can know Him and value the things that really count. Maybe you cannot see what I am saying. It is only because you have not known this change in your heart and your soul. Pray and ask that you might be changed by God's power. You need to see how things really are before it is too late