The Value of a Human Soul

Story of Cow Pile and Flies

• Sitting on a tractor, waiting for Ronnie with hay.
• Observed flies getting sustenance from a cow pile.
  • Led to reflection on God’s greatness and self insignificance.
  • God can do without us, but we cannot do without Him.
• The tendency to think and act small, despite God’s greatness.

Mark 8:31-38

• Jesus teaches about his suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection.
• Peter rebukes Jesus, but Jesus rebukes Peter, calling him Satan.
  • Peter is focused on human perspectives, not God’s.
• Following Jesus requires self-denial, taking up one’s cross.
• Saving one’s life leads to losing it, but losing it for Jesus’ sake saves it.
• The worthlessness of gaining the whole world but losing one’s soul.
• What can a man give in exchange for his soul?

The Value of a Human Soul

• The value of something is determined by what the buyer is willing to pay.
  • Example: A cow may be valued at $3,000 by the seller, but its true value is what someone will pay.
• Examining the value of a human soul through Jesus’ words.
• Two perspectives:
  • God’s valuation of a soul.
  • Personal valuation of a soul.

God’s Valuation of the Soul

• Overwhelmed by the price God paid for the soul.
• God values the human soul above everything else.
• God created man from the dust and breathed life into him, making him a living soul.
  • Humans are unique from animals, as only humans have souls.
  • Animals have life but no eternal soul.
• Belief that the soul has infinite value based on what God has paid.
• Difficulty in explaining something spiritual/eternal with a finite mind.

Consequences of Sin

• God warned Adam and Eve about the consequences of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil: death.
• 100% of people born into this world will die.
• The flesh will die, but the soul will live on eternally.
• God was willing to pay a price for the soul that no one else could pay.
• After Adam and Eve sinned, they hid from God.
  • Like people today, who run from God when they sin.
• God had to kill an animal to provide coverings for Adam and Eve.
  • Symbolic of the value of a soul.

Desensitization to the Value of Human Life

• Disturbed by society’s desensitization to the value of human life.
• The most innocent (unborn babies) should have the greatest protection.
• Society’s inability to ponder the essence of life and its inception.
• Something is wrong when people don’t value human life.

Cain and Abel

• God accepted Abel’s offering but not Cain’s.
• Cain slew Abel, the first murder in the Bible.
• God knew what happened and confronted Cain.
• Cain’s response: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
• God heard the voice of Abel’s blood crying out.

The Wickedness of the Heart

• Terrible things happen because people are wicked.
• Every imagination of the heart is continually evil.
• Without the influence of the Holy Spirit, anyone is capable of terrible acts.
• The sin nature remains in the flesh.

Old Testament Offerings

• Throughout the Old Testament, offerings were given to cover sin.
• Millions of animals were slain as blood was shed.
• These offerings covered sin but did not remove it.
• God removed sin with the blood of His only begotten Son.

The Tree of Life

• After Adam and Eve sinned, God put them out of the garden to prevent them from eating from the tree of life and living forever.
• Jesus Christ is the tree of life.
• The solution (Jesus) was present before the problem (sin) occurred.
• God highly values the soul, which will live forever.

The Birth of Jesus

• Angels announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds.
• The multitude of heavenly hosts praised God.
• From the foundations of the world, God determined that Jesus would give His life as the sin-debt of man.
• Jesus would become a man and give His life as the perfect, sinless Lamb of God.

The Ultimate Price

• There is no greater value than Jesus Christ, His life, death, and resurrection.
• God established the value of the soul by sending His Son to suffer.
• Would not give one of his own sons, but God gave His only Son.
• God demonstrated His love by sending Christ to die for sinners (Romans 5).
• Everything is about Jesus Christ.
• Without the cross, shed blood, and resurrected body of Jesus Christ, all are lost.

The Simplicity of the Gospel

• The gospel is not about religion, theologies, or doctrines.
• Only God can get you to heaven.
• God established the value of the soul to be infinitely higher than anyone else.
• Jesus Christ took on the flesh of man to become the sacrifice for human souls.

The Angels’ Understanding

• The angels understood the value of a human soul.
• They knew that the one in Mary’s womb was the eternal Son of God.
• God gave His Son because human souls were worth more to Him than even His own Son.

Personal Testimony

• Everything shared is proven fact, not conjecture.
• Jesus Christ has already paid the price.
• God gave everything when Jesus came into the world.
• God saw the value of the soul to be greater than anything else, so He sent His Son.
• Bought with a price.

God’s Proven Value

• God has already proven what the soul is worth to Him by paying the price.
• He established the ticket price 2,000 years ago.
• Jesus was nailed to the cross, beaten, and bled out.
• He cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
• This was the greatest price that could have been paid for mankind.
• God forever established the value of the human soul that day on Calvary’s hill when Jesus Christ died.
• 2 Corinthians 5: Be ye reconciled to God, for He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
• Not debating, but declaring what He paid.

The Uniqueness of God’s Offering

• Not trying to convince anyone that this is a better market.
• Not only did He pay the price that nobody could pay, but there wasn’t even anybody else bidding.
• The song: “You ask me why I’m happy? Well, I’ll just tell you why, because my sins are gone.”
• Sometimes we sit here like knots on a log, knowing all along what He paid for us.
• Saw the Jim Perry Jackson auctions on vacation.
  • The prices paid for the cars were amazing.
  • Father owns it all.

God’s Creation

• When God surveyed all of His creation, He said that souls were worth more than all of it.
• The only way this would work is for the Son to go.
• Crazy Christians love Christmas and Easter because they tell about the price that was paid for the soul.
• Jesus had to be born of flesh to die of flesh as an offering for sin.
• It had to be God’s Son because the value of it had to satisfy God’s unquenchable requirement for justice over sin.

Personal Conversion

• In 1976, as a nine-year-old, was saved in the back of the church.
• The Holy Ghost opened up the heart and showed that he was a sinner and needed to be saved.
• Without Christ, one is without God.
• Without God, the human soul is in jeopardy of the claims of hell.
• God made a way to escape that place.
• It is not His will that any man should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
• God wants to save you from that destiny you’re headed for and the pits of that torment.
• You’re going to go there if you live without Christ.
• You’ve got to be born again.

The Real Question: What’s It Worth to You?

• The price of the human soul has been established because God paid it.
• Therefore, we know the value of the human soul now.
• It’s worth Christ because that’s what God paid for it.
• The real question is not necessarily what God paid for the soul.
• The real question comes down to: Will you think it’s worth it?
• At nine years old, there was nothing in the way.
• Every year you miss, every year you go on, it becomes harder and more difficult.
• There used to be at some point a whole lot of stuff in your way to God.
• At nine years old, there was nothing in the way.
• Had a Hot Wheel that night.
• Wasn’t hooked on dope, or alcohol, or pornography.
• Just a kid.
• The Holy Ghost worked on him enough to get him up.
• Walked around there, slid in about the fifth pitch where his mother was, held on to that bench.
• She looked down and said, “What’s the matter with you?”
• Said, “I’m lost and I need to be saved.”
• She just got out of the way and said, “I can’t lift it” and pointed to the Lord.
• Got saved right about there.
• It took five minutes.
• That’s the difference between a child who ain’t got nothing in the way and a dog who took on a dog for the booze.
• It took the same Christ to save me as it did anybody else.
• It took just as much to save my soul as it did yours.

Gaining the World, Losing the Soul

• What would it profit a man if he gained the entire world but lost his soul?
• Comparing the greatest earthly value to what God paid for you.
• What’s going to happen if you die without Christ?
• Do you have a value of yourself?
• Pile everything in this world that has any kind of value into one gigantic pile.
• Let’s say you could have it all.
• Let’s say you even had a guarantee of living some 75 years with it all.
• What did that profit you the instant you breathed your last breath and your soul was in hell?

The Rich Man in Hell

• The rich man died and in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.
• He cried out to Abraham and prayed for some relief.
• There’s no relief in hell.
• That same rich man is still there.
• He wished he was dead, but he can’t die.
• He’s immortal.
• His soul went somewhere.
• There are two places your soul can go: heaven or hell.
• Hell’s real.
• Got saved that night because knew where was headed.
• It wasn’t heaven.
• That’s why got saved.
• The rich man went to hell, crying, screaming, calling for Abraham.
• He said, “Lazarus, just let him put a drop on my tongue.”
• Abraham said, “There’s a great gulf fixed between you and me.”
• The price was given, but you didn’t accept it.
• You’re going to hell.
• It won’t be because God didn’t try.
• He paid the price to save you, but you’re going to have to accept it.

The Futility of Chasing Material Things

• People chase after material things and do everything but God so they can get more of it.
• You know what they’ll bury me with?
• It won’t be no higher for me where I’m headed.
• I’m going to be walking on the streets of gold.
• Chasing material things is a waste of time.
• If that’s getting in between you and God, what’s that going to profit you on the day you leave here?
• What’s that going to profit you when you face God?
• There was a day that when I weighed in the balances, like God was a kid.
• Hope every young one gets saved.
• They wouldn’t have had my way.
• They’d very little of my way.
• It didn’t take nothing.
• Was out of there, and got saved that night because He came for me.

Losing Your Life to Save It

• In the first verse, He said, “What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world?”
• He lost his soul.
• There ain’t nothing worth losing the soul.
• What God thought was great about you paid the ultimate price that you have to make Christ his first.
• Remember the verse read first?
• He said, “Whosoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”
• Are you willing to lose it today?
• All I’m asking is to weigh in the balance.
• Everything you do, everything that you know is wrong, but you don’t want to get…
• All I’m asking you to do is think about what’s going on.
• The question that Jesus asked is what did that profit teach?
• Because right here you are, and you don’t have me, and you’re in hell, and you can’t get out. Ever.

The Exchange for the Soul

• What would a man give in exchange for his soul’s life?
• What would you give in that moment to have one more chance, one more second on this earth, one more opportunity to say yes to Christ?
• What would you give what God gave you?
• What would you give up to get Christ?
• Give it all.
• Whoever will lose his life will save him.
• If a sinner wants to keep it, they’re going to lose it.
• In the end, nothing matters but Jesus.
• I gave it all up for you.
• As a matter of fact, you have to.
• Whatever you think you’ve got, it ain’t worth nothing.
• In light of eternity, where are you going to spend it?
• That ain’t worth nothing.
• I trade with God.
• Wouldn’t risk not one more second.
• Would come to Him.