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WHY SOUL IS IMPORTANT MARK 8:36-37 October 27, 2024
I – BECAUSE OF THE PERIL OF SOUL Every person who has not trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour is already condemned. A person is not going to die, go to a judgment, and there have God decide whether he is saved or lost. The judgement for the unsaved people is already determined that he is already under sentence. – John 3:18 John 3:18 “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” All that lost people is waiting for is for his heart to beat the last time, and he goes immediately into hell.
The young child (not infant) who has reached the age of accountability, though he may be moral and pure, is already condemned if he or she has not trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour.
Hell is not just an imagination of a person, but it is a real, literal, physical place, a place of eternal torment, a place of excruciating suffering, it is a place of annoying, nagging memory.
In hell men will remember the many times they had a good and perfect opportunity to trust Jesus Christ as Savior but chose to reject Him.
The Winecoff Hotel (now the Ellis Hotel) opened in 1913 as one of the tallest buildings in Atlanta, Georgia. The Winecoff Hotel fire, of December 7, 1946, was the deadliest hotel fire in American history, killing 119 hotel occupants, including the hotel's original owners. Located at 176 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, the Winecoff Hotel was advertised as "absolutely fireproof". While the hotel's steel structure was indeed protected against the effects of fire, its interior finishes were combustible and the building's exit arrangements consisted of a single stairway serving all fifteen floors. All of the hotel's occupants above the fire's origin on the third floor were trapped, and the fire's survivors either were rescued from upper-story windows or jumped into nets held by firemen. There is screams and cries of those at the scene of the great tragedy. 119 people lost their lives in that fire, many of whom leaped from the windows and were killed as their bodies crushed on the pavement below. Others fell into power wires and were electrocuted. The fire department did their best, but they could not possibly catch in their safety nets all those who were leaping from the windows of that blazing inferno.
What would cause men and women to leap from those windows to awful death? They were trying to get away from the fire. But a minute. The fires of hell are as real as were the fires of the Winecoff hotel. However, in hell there are no windows to leaf from. There is no way to get away from the fire. If a person leaps, he or she only leaps into the same flame he was trying to escape.
If somehow, we could load every Christian on chartered buses, drives them into hell and leave them there for 5 minutes and then bring them back to this world they would spend the rest of their lives telling others about the Saviour trying to keep people from going to that awful place of burning and eternal suffering.
II – BECAUSE OF THE PRICE OF SOUL There was the testimony by a French doctor who claimed that he knew the weight of a human soul. According to that doctor, he made the determination by placing the body of terminal patients on every sensitive scale and noticed that when the potent died, the scale dropped 21 grams. So, the doctor concluded that a soul weighs 21 grams. Well, I don’t know how much a soul weighs, but I have some idea what one soul is worth. Jesus said in Mark 8:36, 37. Mark 8:36, 37 “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” According to Jesus, one soul is worth the entire world. Based on that statement of Jesus, we can say that the world as the material universe. All the gold, silver, diamonds, precious stones, etc., all the real estate, all the buildings, all the automobiles, all the money in all the banks, we can point that this was the world. If that was all there was to the world, the value of a soul would be more human tongue could explain.
However, the world consists of more than the material universe. The world consists of 3 things:
Now place all of these together on one side (fun, fortune and fame), and then put one single soul on the other side, and ask Jesus which is the most valuable and Jesus would answer in Mark 8:36, 37. Illustration: Actor Jim Carrey said “I wish that everybody could be rich and famous so that they can see for themselves that is no the answer.
To start from nothing in this world and earn a fortune of a billion dollars in a lifetime is quite an accomplishment. If a man could become the richest man in the world and would be remembered in history for his great accomplishments. However, in the eyes of God he would accomplish far, far more if he had led only one soul to Christ because one soul is worth more than all the money in the entire world.
For the sake if souls that are dying invest your money in some good soulwinning enterprise.
III – BECAUSE OF THE PAYMENTS JESUS MADE FOR SOULS No Christian can ever fully comprehend the indescribable sufferings of Jesus to pay our sin debt. Some thought that those in hell were paying their sin debt and therefore would know how much Jesus suffered on the cross when Jesus paid our sin debt, but those people were wrong because those who died and goes to hell will be forever paying on their sin debt, but they will never get it paid. John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” When a soul has been in hell for in million years that verse will still be there. All souls suffering in hell will never get his sin debt paid, but on the cross in a few hours Jesus suffered enough to pay in full the sin debt of every person who has ever lived or ever will live. When Jesus uttered the words “It is finished (John 19:30). God meant the sin debt is paid in full. It is complete.
How could one soul suffer so much in hell in such a short time? A soul could suffer in a very short time because Jesus Christ was infinite and we are finites and no number of finites equals infinitude, no matter how large the number. If the sin debt was to be paid, either the finite must suffer infinitely, or the infinite must suffer finitely.
No purchase in the world was even so expensive as our redemption. No object in the world was ever so costly as a precious soul. Psalm 49:6-8 “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; 7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: 8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)”
But thank God, the payment has been made and made in full I Peter 1:18-19 “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”
Conclusion: Make a holy vow to tell at least one soul about the Saviiour Jesus Christ for the next 30 days and keep that vow. Make a holy vow to witness to every member of our family this year and make sure that each one of them know the way to heaven. Make a definite commitment and set a goal to win a soul every day, every week, every month. Why is it that every Christian is not involved in the most important task in the world which is winning souls for Christ? The answer is because we just simply do not see the importance of soul and winning the soul to Christ. Also, it is because we always find time, money, and energy to do the things we feel are important. I Think we would make any inconvenience to keep one soul out of hell. |