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Loss And Profit
In Matt. 16:24-26, we read, "Then
said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man 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: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall
find it. 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?" In the text before us for consideration tonight are two points
that I desire to call your attention to in particular: one is profit; the
other is loss. We shall consider the loss first that the thought of profit
may be left on your minds in the conclusion. There is but one point to
consider on the side of loss and that is sin, for sin is the cause of the
loss of every soul. Search the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation and
you will find but one thing that will separate a soul from God, destroy
life in this world and in the world to come, and that is sin. Possibly you
have never looked upon your life of sin as a loss, but I am quite certain
that if you will carefully consider the thoughts as they are presented you
will see that there is nothing promised in sin but loss. There is not a
victory promised in sin; not one. The only thing that sin promises is
defeat, disappointment, and ruin. I cannot understand why people will
waste their lives in sin when there is nothing promised in return but
ruin.
LOSS IN THIS LIFE
Sin is a loser in this life; there is absolutely
nothing to be gained. Our servant stood before us this morning and told us
of the wretchedness of his former life in sin. We can surely see that you
and I (from a standpoint of intelligence) should shun, abhor, and flee,
from every sinful thing. I do not see where you get your inspiration to
run in a race that, before starting, you know means defeat and ruin. Says
one, "I did not know it was that way." The Bible tells us that
the wages of sin is death. Sinner, did you ever carefully consider that
your promised wages is death? You may serve sin long and faithfully, but
your miserable wages remain the same as promised.
Some people take the loss of life very indifferently;
surely they fail to comprehend the enormity of the loss. Oh, the terrors
of a misspent life! Some people think that they will lose some good things
when they become Christians. I used to think that way myself; I discovered
later that I had been mistaken. I thought at one time that it was all
right to live in sin. I am persuaded now that a thing that is unsafe to
die in is unfit to live in. On every had we have the testimony that sin is
a loser in this life. Oh, what a loss! If tonight we could lift the
curtain from the infernal machinery that was invented alone to destroy the
souls of men and women, see the deplorable condition of mankind, I am sure
this would be a convincing sight.
Take a survey of the haggard faces and dissipated lives
about you and can you fail to recognize the fact that sin is an awful
loss? Go with me to the prisons of our land; look through those cold iron
bars at those haggard faces that at one time were symbols of innocency and
purity but now are furrowed by sin. Once they sang their hopes in childish
glee, but now they curse the very day they were born. Ask them of their
hopes; they have none; they are simply waiting for death to relieve them
of their awful condition. They may at one time have had as noble a purpose
in life as you and I have, but they trusted their lot to sin, and it
ruined them. Go to the almshouses; look at those who have squandered their
lives, are afflicted in body and mind, are half-witted, and many longing
for death to come to their relief. What is the cause of all these human
woes? Sin. Let us next visit the rescue home; see those pale faces. Those
eyes that once sparkled have been dimmed by long nights of revelry. Faces
that were once fair, and hopeful, are now furrowed by sorrow, degradation,
and regret. Ask them why it is so; they may give many reasons, but, the
Lord bless your soul, sinner, sin is at the bottom of it all. Go to the
hospitals that are increasing and enlarging every year; walk up and down
those long corridors; at all hours of night and day you will hear the
muffled cries of those suffering the pangs of disease. They scream out in
their sleep; their dreams haunt them. They pray for death, but death will
not come; they know nothing but distress and anguish. The cause of it all
is sin. Sin, directly or indirectly, is the cause of every heartache,
every pain, every human woe.
We are very careful to figure the profit and subtract the
loss before entering into business. If the loss absorbs the profit we will
not enter such a business. If we could find a business where it is all
profit and no loss, every man that is able would invest in it. Now if we
are so careful in temporal matters, does it not occur to you that we
should be much more careful in matters pertaining to eternity? Sinner, you
are in a business that has no profit, but all loss. If it were a temporal
matter, you would forsake it as soon as possible; why not be as wise in
eternal things and forsake sin forever? May God call forth your better
judgment tonight and give you the power to act upon it because you know by
experience that there is no profit in sin. We have but one life to live;
do not squander, waste, and barter, it away. Come and invest your life in
Christ, where there is not a regret, not a loss, but where all is profit.
LOSS AT DEATH
A life of sin is a total loss at death. It will not be
long until you all will feel the chilly hand of death; its turbulent
waters will dash your poor, feeble feet; your cherished hopes will then
have fled; your vision of this world with its pleasures will fade away;
some kind friend will wipe the death dew from your brow and close your
glassy eyes. I ask you, sinner, in the fear of God, can you then point to
one profit in your life of sin? The Scripture likens sin unto sinking sand
and miry clay. In the trying ordeal of death you will find no power to
support you, but at the very time you most need help it will sink away and
leave you to your ruin without time, without opportunity, and without God.
Oh what a loss!
An infidel, a member of a club whose purpose was to refute
the Bible, had been bold in his speaking against Christ and His doctrine.
He made his boasts of his knowledge and research. He sneered at the
ignorance, as he called it, of the Christians. One day he became suddenly
ill. Physicians were called and they told him that he could live but a few
hours. He became very nervous and alarmed. His fellow infidels heard of
his sickness and state of mind, and, thinking that he might renounce his
former position, they offered him much encouragement. The main point in
their encouragement was this: stand by that which you have believed for
years. The poor dying man looked up into the faces of his friends and
said, "I would gladly stand by it, but can you not see that I have
absolutely nothing to stand by?" That is the very nature of sin: it
has no power to support you when you need it most. Will you let this be
your unhappy experience in the hour of death - nothing to stand on but
sinking sand? Sinner friend, can you point me to any profit as you behold
these solemn truths? For me, as one of old has said, Give me not an
uncertainty for a dying pillow.
LOSS AT THE JUDGMENT
Sin is the loser at the judgment. Methinks as I look
out on this world, that I hear the trumpet sound; the busy cares of life
are dropped and we all assemble before the majesty of Him that sits on his
eternal throne. Oh, think of the awful sight! You have wasted your life in
sin. At the judgment you take your stand on the left hand. The books are
opened, one name after another is called out in solemn accents, the last
page is reached, the last name is called, and your name fails to appear in
the book of life. You would then give the world, yea, a thousand world,
were they in your possession, if your name were only there. Why not give
up the world now and receive the assurance that your name is written
there?
LOSS IN ETERNITY
Sin is a loss throughout eternity. After the judgment
you will take your departure to the place that was prepared for the devil
and his angels. You will have all eternity to think this question over;
you will have lots of time but no opportunity to change your condition.
The rich man was tormented in the flame; he remembered, and he cried, but
no help could be given. The great gulf was fixed, and there was no hope of
crossing it. He had fared sumptuously in this world; he had had all that
heart could wish, but the last account we have of him he was begging,
begging for just a little water. Oh how poor! Oh, what loss! He gained the
world, but he lost his poor soul. God help us tonight to consider our
choice, as we look up and down the corridors of despair, where infidels,
degenerates, liars, thieves, murderers, rich and poor, high and low, all
mingle their fruitless cries which bring back to them only the echoes from
the walls of eternity. I believe we have fairly considered loss and I do
not believe that anyone has yet seen a shadow of a profit in sin.
PROFIT IN THIS LIFE
I now desire to call your attention to the profit
derived from a life of righteousness. The first point that suggests to me
that serving God is profitable is this: God demands of us a life of
righteousness. He loves us, and would therefore demand nothing of us but
what is for our good. God so loved us that he sent his only begotten Son
to this sin-cursed and benighted world to redeem man from sin and to
reunite him to himself. He prepared a place for us to dwell with him
through eternity. We can readily see that he would only demand the doing
of those things that are for our profit. Is it not strange that men will
leave the God that loves them to serve that old archfiend that hates every
good that ever came to mankind and whose only object is to drag them down
to ruin? Can you call to mind one thing that God demanded in your life
that was not the best for you? Yea, search the whole world and you cannot
find one thing that God demanded that is in any way against your
interests.
People generally pick up a great many things while in sin
that God demands them to forsake when they come to him. Sometimes we may
think that the demands of God are severe, but when we get through we
always feel thankful that they are just as they are. By my own experience
I know this to be true. I thought that I never would be able to give up
the filthy habit of tobacco; I tried in my own strength and failed. When I
came to the Lord I found it written, "Having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of
the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Cor.
7:1. I was willing to give it up if the Lord would only deliver me from
the appetite. I threw the tobacco away, and praise God! it went forever. I
have never wanted it since. When I see that awful habit polluting the
atmosphere, diseasing the body, and dragging the soul down to hell, I
think, Who is it that would not appreciate deliverance? Thank God, I am
free and free indeed. The Lord will do the same for you if you are under
the power of that or any other habit, when you decide to give it up.
Not long since, while riding along the streets of a
certain city, I saw some of the most ridiculously dressed ladies I ever
saw in my life. Their clothing was so narrow that if they would have had
to run to save their lives, they surely would have perished. I thought,
then, What sensible lady would not appreciate deliverance from the bondage
of such ungodly, unhealthy, immodest styles? Mothers and sisters in
Israel, do you not consider it a great gain to be free from the tyrannical
hand of the goddess of fashion? I am sure that if I should ask for an
expression every saved lady in this auditorium would thank God that he
ever demanded her to give up the world and worldly conformity. "Be
not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God." Rom. 12:2. Some people do not like the plain, narrow
way, but I am glad that it is just as narrow as it is; I would not make it
an inch wider if I could. You will never get to haven with the world
strapped on your shoulders; the Lord has a better way: a healthy body, a
clear mind, and a rejoicing heart. I am quite sure that if the mothers and
sisters of this fair land could visit the institutions for the maintenance
of the feeble minded, and see the crippled and idiotic children that often
are the sacrifices to the ungodly fashions of our day, they would rise up
as one mighty army against them. O Lord, hasten the day when good common
sense will prevail.
If there was nothing beyond the grave, no eternity of
bliss at the right hand of God, I should consider salvation the most
profitable thing to devote my life to. When I look into the faces of my
children, my wife, my father, my brothers in the flesh, and the thousands
of brethren in Christ, I cannot help but praise God for the influence of
salvation on my life. When I go into a home where sin reigns, and see an
old pipe on the mantle, a decanter on the buffet, the house scented with
the mingled fumes of tobacco and liquor, the husband snappy and cross,
wounding the feelings of his wife, the children fearing the wrath of a
beastly father; and on the other hand I see the refining influence of the
gospel which renovates the home and brings the children up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord, I cannot but appreciate the value of
salvation. Sinner, can you not see that salvation is very profitable?
A few years ago in a certain city a revival meeting was
being conducted. During an evening service a man came staggering into the
house and down the aisle to the altar. Prayer was offered and the Lord
rebuked the influence of the liquor, and saved the man's soul. The poor
man was elated over his new-found victory and was very anxious for his
wife to know of his experience. But he had often made a mockery of
Christianity when intoxicated, so he invited the minister home with him so
that his testimony would be confirmed. On the way home he explained how
his home had been ruined, and that he now wanted to be reconciled. His
explanation was complete and they arrived at the door. The newly converted
man opened the door and stepped in, leaving the minister to follow. The
husband's presence struck terror to that house - the wife unlocked the
rear door, the children crawled under the bed; but the husband with
tear-filled eyes said, "Wife, I was saved tonight." She said,
"John, I am afraid of you; you have deceived me so many times."
The minister assured her that John was sincere. That family, that night,
was united, husband and wife repeated their former vows, a family altar
was erected, and a home once ruined became one of order and prayer. I
consider that man's life in sin a total loss and you will agree with me
that salvation was great gain.
Salvation is profitable because it is the only thing that
completely satisfies the soul. Man has tried persistently to find
something that would take the place of salvation, but with all of his
efforts he has met with little or no success. His way of finding
satisfaction always leads into bondage and only increases his cravings.
All over our land are storehouses filled with those things by which man
hopes to satisfy himself. In Louisville, Ky., you pass square after square
covered with tobacco storehouses. What large city can you visit and fail
to find breweries and distilleries? Thousands of barrels are the monthly
product. Man hopes by these to find true satisfaction, but alas, it is
ruin instead. Four hundred million dollars is spent annually for tobacco.
With all that enormous expense, which many need for food and clothing, it
only intensifies the cravings and debauchery of humanity. In the creation
of man God reserved a place in his heart for himself. Mankind has tried to
fill that place with rubbish, such as pipes, tobacco, snuff, morphine,
worldly aspirations, and the pride of life; but from beneath it all you
can hear the voice of the soul calling. Many have tried to hush this voice
but it incessantly is calling, for God alone can satisfy. I have heard
people say that they would give the world if they could only be satisfied.
That is just what it requires: give up the world, give up your sins, come
to Christ, and you will find that which your soul craves.
PROFIT AT DEATH
Salvation is profitable at death. Salvation is the
only thing that we can enjoy in this world and also in the world to come.
It is good to live by and good to die by. Your influence, money, friends,
will be left behind when you leave this world; your bank account will be
given to another, your name will be erased from the deed to your farm and
another name will be attached. Friends can accompany you to the brink of
the river, but salvation will go all the way. Salvation has proved its
value at the stake, at the rack, in the arena, at the chilly hour of
death, and has always proved its sterling quality. It has stood the test
for almost two thousand years and it will stand the test to the last one
of Adam's race. I have trusted it in life; and, by the grace of God, I
shall trust it in death.
PROFIT AT THE JUDGMENT AND IN ETERNITY
Salvation will be profitable at the judgment. When you
shall have crossed the river of death, and stand before the bar of God,
salvation will again prove its value. When we hear those words,
"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world," oh, what an incalculable profit it
will be. When those books are opened and our names are found written in
the Lamb's book of life, would you then exchange your place for the world?
The multi-millionaire would give his millions, yea, this whole world would
be an insignificant and contemptible price. Would the pleasures of sin
tempt you then? Oh, how inestimable are the blessings of salvation. After
I have walked the golden streets a million years I will be unable to tell
you its total value.
It will only be a short time until friends will wipe the
death dew from your brow, the scenes of this life will fade away, eternity
will loom in view. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Will it be sin
in life, sin at death, sin at the judgment, and torments in eternity? or
righteousness in this life, righteousness at death, righteousness at the
judgment, and an eternity of unspeakable joy and pleasure? As for me and
my house we will serve the Lord. "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?" Amen.
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