Gooding, David: The Saving and Losing of a Soul

It is lovely to be with you once again here in Castle Ray, and it is astonishing to see so many of you gathered at the end of the day, after much serious and deep thought, and listening to heart-moving sermons. It's wonderful to see you come again at this late hour, uh, to meditate with me on the Word of God. To make it easy, therefore, at this late hour of night, I propose, in the middle of what I have to say, to insert a little lesson on Greek, you see, because that will diversify things a little, won't it? And you'll find it so fantastically easy that you'll wonder why you didn't learn it before, and you'll go away wanting new lessons in Greek. But, um, don't get too excited, because before that we shall have to, uh, listen to quite serious things. I want to talk tonight on the salvation and the losing of the soul, as it is taught us by the Apostle Peter in session. Now, you know, one of the lovely things about Peter is that when he writes, he doesn't mind taking our minds back to many of the unfortunate mistakes he himself made when the Lord Jesus was here on earth. From time to time, Peter, as he listened to the Lord, felt sure the Lord had got it wrong this time and, uh, could do with a little help from Peter to correct things and get them right, you see. And he made some suggestions, some of which were most unfortunate and inappropriate, you see, and he had to be corrected and had to learn the lessons that he found sometimes very difficult to learn. And as I say, when he comes, having learned his lessons after many mistakes, when he comes to teach those lessons to us, he doesn't mind referring us to the time when he was in school, so to speak, and made all the mistakes. And now he's the teacher, and we're in his school, and if we find it difficult to understand what he says, be sure Peter will be. So this topic of the salvation and the losing of the soul. We'll first go to school where Peter was taught the lesson, and then we shall read the lesson from Peter himself. The school he went to is mentioned in Matthew chapter sixteen. Matthew chapter sixteen and we take up the story of verse twenty one. Peter has just confessed the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and a blessing has been pronounced on him by the Lord Jesus for that confession. Now, in verse verse twenty one we are told, from that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall never be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art a stumbling block unto me, for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever would save... Ah, but now we shall need this lesson in Greek, shall we? Hold on to your seats. It won't be long, and it won't be difficult. But this word that is here translated life is in fact the Greek word souke, or some people pronounce it psyche, yes? And of course, you're all aware of the word psyche, aren't you anyway? You've heard it many times, I suspect. And then you know what psychology is. Uh, you will be offended if I try to explain it to you. That contains this word psyche, psychology, you see. And we know what psychiatrists are. They're people, they're doctors who treat, uh, mental troubles if we have. So, psyche in Greek then, and it's a word that has many different connotations, and you can translate it life, or you can translate it soul. And here we're going to meet it several times. It's the same word, verses twenty five, twenty six Says our Lord, whosoever will save his psyche, his life, if you like, his soul, shall lose it. And whosoever shall lose his, here it comes again, psyche, his life or his soul, for my sake, shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his psyche, his life, or his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his psyche, his life, or his soul? Well, you say, do tell us which it means. Don't leave us in the soup like that, not being sure what it means. We'll talk about that a bit later, but just to point out that this is where Peter himself first heard the lesson taught. You'll see it is one after one of his grievous mistakes for which our Lord had to rebuke him and say, get thee behind me, Satan, thou mindest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. So now let's turn to Peter's first epistle, and here is Peter having learned his lesson, and he's now writing to teach us the implications of that lesson. One Peter chapter one and we'll pick up in verse seven. That the proof of your faith being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved by fire, might be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom not having seen, you love, on whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. And once more, it's that same Greek word psyche. Or look with me, will you, at the, towards the end of the chapter, verse twenty two. Seeing you have purified your souls, same word again, in your obedience to the truth and to unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently, having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And then in chapter two and verse eleven: Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, psyche once more. And the last verse of that same chapter, for you were going astray like sheep, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Psyche once more. So Peter has learned his lesson, and it's no wonder that when he comes to write his epistles, he, more than anybody else in the epistles of the New Testament, talks to us about the salvation of our souls and what it means to lose them. Paul talks, doesn't he? We know that very well. His great emphasis is on justification by faith. Let's sit back for two and a half seconds and enjoy it in our hearts. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Got hold of that well? Do get hold of it. Because being justified by faith, we can rejoice in the certain expectation of achieving, of obtaining the glory of God and one day being made like the Savior. And know it, being justified by faith, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Paul talks to us about the justification by faith and about sanctification, but as far as I'm aware, nowhere in his epistles does he use the phrase the salvation of the soul. And that sets our old brain box a ticking, doesn't it? Why is that? And of course, the lovely Apostle John, beloved apostle that he was and is, he talks to us about eternal life and how we can be absolutely sure we have eternal life. These things I write unto you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life. And with it the security of being in the Savior's hand and in the Father's hand, with the assurance that he shall never let us go, we shall never perish. Got that too? Eternal life and all its wonderful assurance. But in his epistles, John nowhere uses the term the salvation of the soul. Little odd that, do you not think? James uses it once, Hebrews uses it once, but as I say, it's Peter predominantly and preeminently that talks to us about the salvation of the soul, and it all goes back to the lesson he learned personally from our Lord Jesus Christ. So, we have to ask what this word soul means. Here comes the easy bit. This is a lesson in Greek, you see. Greek is like English. You know English? Of course you do, but do you know, you realize, don't you, that some English words mean a lot of things, do you see? And you have to know the context, uh, in which to use them, and from the context you know what they mean. Take the word court, for instance, C-O-U-R-T, court. What does it mean? Ooh, so it means a police court. Hmm. And I was never summoned to a police court, so I don't know much about it. So it means a police court, does it? I see. Well, what if we quoted the television or something? The players are now coming out onto the court. What kind of a court would that be? A police court? No, no, you say, stupid. That means, uh, that means a tennis court. I see. Oh. And then you read somewhere else, uh, Her Majesty the Queen holds court every Thursday. What, tennis courts? Or law courts? No, you say, stupid. In that context, court means a royal court. Oh, I see. Ah, yes. Well, if somebody told me that somebody lives at number three Ravenhill Court. What, must I suppose he lives in, he lives in a police court? No, of course not. Number three in a tennis court. No, of course not. Well, number three in a royal court. No, no, you say a court i- is a place where you've got a lot of houses built round sort of a square, and the middle bit in between is a, they call it a court or a courtyard, do they not? Yeah, easy that, isn't it? And then, when you hear that somebody is courting somebody else, what does that mean? Playing tennis with them or something, or summoning them to the police court? What, no? You say that's all getting very difficult. Well, that's your language. I didn't invent it, and you seem to know how to use it and get the words straight in the proper context, don't you? So why should we complain about Greek if one of its words means quite a lot of things in different places, if you see it like me? So this thing, when Peter talks to us about the salvation of the soul, what does he mean by soul? Have you got a soul? Then you should know what the soul is, wouldn't you? I'm tempted to ask at this point where you keep it, but I'm not going to get onto that yet, you'll see. But I suspect most of us here would claim to have a soul anyway, so we ought to know what the thing is. So, this Greek word psyche, that means in the first place one's physical life. Yes? For instance, we're told in Matthew chapter two that when Joseph and Mary brought the young boy Jesus back from Egypt, an angel told them not to go to Bethlehem or Judea, but to take him north, and they took him to Galilee. Uh, do you see? So the angel told them that they were now free to come back so long as they went up north, because those who sought the young child's psyche were now dead. That's Herod and co. When Herod sought the psyche of Jesus, what was he seeking for? Wasn't interested in spiritual welfare, was he? Not Herod. Do you see? He was seeking the child's physical life and determined to destroy it. And so the word can mean that in the New Testament. And our Lord's warning still stands, doesn't it? Suppose you were faced with the offer of eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, and justification, and a home in heaven. But you knew if you received the gospel and received the Savior, you would be persecuted, and you could lose your physical life. What would you decide to do? To keep your s- s- physical life and refuse to the Savior, or to receive the Savior, and if need be, forfeit your physical life. I expect none of us had to face that question, did we? But there are multitudes on earth to this very present day, particularly in Muslim circles, that are faced with precisely that problem. They accept the Savior and run the risk, very real risk, of losing their physical life. Or to keep their physical life, they refuse to receive the Savior. And in that circumstance, our Lord's words remain, he that loves his life, his physical life, shall lose it. He that loses it for my sake and the gospels shall keep it to life eternal. And pondering that makes me think how easily I got salvation. What would I have done if I had had to face that decision? I shall be in glory, I suspect, before most of you. There's no guaranteeing that you won't one of these days have to face a similar decision. But as well as meaning physical life, it can mean our internal spiritual life. So John, in his third letter, writes to his friend Gaius that he wishes that he may be prosper and be in health, that's prosper and be in physical health, even as thy soul prospers, he says. So now John is contrasting the physical health of his body with the spiritual health of his inner man, his soul. Mm. That shows how we've got to keep our eyes open, doesn't it, when we're reading and, and, uh, see what this word soul, psyche, means in its context. It can refer to the inner man. I suspect we shall all agree, because it's so familiar, that in the New Testament, this word for soul, psyche, often refers to that part of a human being that survives Survives death. death. Said our Lord Jesus to his disciples, don't you fear, don't fear those who can kill the body, but after that, that's all they can do, and they can't do any more than that. They can kill the physical body. Fear him that has to the power to destroy both body and soul, suke in hell. So now there's a very big difference, isn't there? You can kill the body, but that isn't the end of the soul. The soul is that part which survives death. And of course, there's some lovely things there, aren't there? Remember the about the Lord Jesus when he was di- uh, dying of suffering on Calvary, and the robber, the terrorist man beside him, repented and trusted the Savior, and our Lord replied to him, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Well, that day our Lord's body was in the grave and remained there all the rest of Friday, Saturday, and until early Sunday morning. His body was in the grave, but his soul, where was that? And the soul of the dying thief, where was that? Well, our Lord tells us that wasn't in the grave, and that hadn't been destroyed. This was in paradise with the Lord Jesus. The soul is that part of man or woman that can survive death. And if the person concerned is a believer, what a lovely thing that is. For the soul is the real person that inhabits the body, yes? So when you listen to the early Christians and they're talking about death, they don't normally say, now my soul is about to to depart and go with Christ, though you could put it that way. They talk rather like Paul. I'm longing, says he. I could stay, and for your sakes I will stay, but I, I, my own personal desire is to depart, that is, from this world, from this body, and to be with Christ. I be with Christ, not just my soul there, but I be with Christ. And so to the dying thief, today shalt not thy soul, but today shalt thou be with me in paradise. And so says, uh, Paul in Corinthians, when we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord. When we are absent from the body, we are at home with the Lord. The soul is the real person that inhabits the body. If, if we've established that, that's what the soul is. Now let me, uh, let me inquire of you, this soul of yours. What you say is saved, I believe, yes? That's what the evangelists say, don't they? And rightly so. For when the evangelists preach to us, they have in mind our souls, and that part of us that's going to last eternally somewhere. And they're liable to say, if you die tonight, where would your soul be? In other words, where would you be? That is a very serious question to face, isn't it? Is your soul saved, says the evangelist. And they rightly tell us that when we trust the Savior, then our soul is indeed saved. We commit the keeping of our soul to our blessed Lord. So, no, no, no uncertainties about that, Greek notwithstanding, and that more Eng- more difficult English notwithstanding? Jolly good. But now you've got it. This soul of yours. That's where I was tempted to ask, where do you keep it? So your soul is saved. What kind of a thing is it? Where do you keep it? You keep it in a box? So that, uh, when the Lord comes, is that half a minute, Lord, I, I, I just want to go and collect my soul, you see. Uh, when you save my soul, I put it in the box and put it in the bank vault so that it never could get lost, you see. So have a minute, Lord, just want to run down to the bank and collect my soul. Now you say, don't be so silly, don't. My soul is me. That's right. And who are you? And what are you? Because when we read the New Testament, we find that this word soul covers a lot of things that we are, what our soul is. It's a life, of course, and because it is alive, it has a time trajectory, yes? How old are you? Well, I mustn't ask. I was going to ask how old you were, but I mustn't ask that. And how many years is it since your soul has been saved? You say sixty nine and a half. I see. And your soul has been alive all that time? Well, yes, of course, you say. Yes, it's my life. It's me. So you've lasted a long time already, your soul, yes? But I'll tell you a thing about life. I wonder if you've noticed it. You have a physical life and a soul life. But when we think of our lives and the time of our lives and how long they last, then we remember we have to spend our lives, don't we? That's the thing about last life. It's the thing about souls. You can't put them in a box. The soul is alive. It's all alive, and you... you have to spend it. Well, you keep the soul, but you, you know, it's there all the time, isn't it? But you keep having to spend it. You spend the time. And that's an element in the soul, of course. It's time. And then, of course, the word soul, this word psyche, it can be used of our love. We are to love the Lord our God with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength. It can be used of our love. Now, let me ask you a question. Is your love part of you? Does your soul have any love? Yes, you say, well, yes, of course. And that's part of you as well, isn't it? Part of your redeemed soul is its power to love, yes? That's true also. Do you know what? You can't keep your love in a box, can you? You have to spend your love on something. Can't keep it. It'll all depend on what you spend it on, of course. And then with our energies. We have a phrase, do we not, in English, talking about somebody, and you say that work she did, she put her heart and soul into it, yeah. Didn't just come to it, oh, I hope I have to do this. No, all her heart and soul went into it, yes. And that's a good use of the old Greek that shows you know some. It also implies your energies and your ambitions, and your willpower. You'll see it is used, uh, with one mind standing for the faith of the gospel. It's used for appetites. Psalm says he satisfieth the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good. The soul is that part of us that has appetites and can be satisfied. Our soul carries our emotions. Remember what the Lord Jesus said at the Last Supper? My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Our soul contains our emotions. So when we think of all those things, we come back to what Peter is talking about, the salvation of our souls. And then we remember how he learned his lesson and what the mistake was. He confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then, to his astonishment, our Lord began to tell them he must go to Jerusalem and be rejected by the chief priests and scribes and be crucified, and he would be ri- rise again the third day. And Peter, listening to that, couldn't make sense of it. I've just confessed him to be the Son of God, the Messiah. What is he talking about? He's going to go to Jerusalem and be killed. Of course not, Lord. He said, you mustn't get that kind of idea into your head. No, you must tell yourself, I'm going to Jerusalem and being successful, do you see? You mustn't think these negative thoughts. And you can understand why Peter felt that way, can't you? Because when he first heard the Lord's call, he had come to the Lord and received the Savior, and as we put it, he had been saved. Soul saved, if you like. But since then, you think of the love he had bestowed on the Savior, and all he had given to the Savior, because he loved the Savior. And you think of all the energy he'd spent on the Savior, following around Galilee and elsewhere, and preaching for him, and attending to his physical needs, and rowing him in the boat. He'd given up his own job to follow the S- and the love he had, he spent it on Christ. And now, if Christ were going to get killed and rejected, and the world refused to accept him as Messiah. Well, all that Po- Peter had spent on him would be going down the drain. Would be lost, wouldn't it? Peter said, no, no, no, Lord, no, you, you, you must think that you're going to be successful, and they'll all own you as king and Messiah. And when they own you as king, I shall sit on the right hand, not James and John, those other two, you know, those upstarts. I shall be sitting on the right hand or on the left, you see. Mistake, wasn't it? But you can understand him. And you who have ever done anything for the Lord that has really cost you hard. Time, talents, energy, hope, love, I nearly said ambition. To think it's all gone down the drain, your time included, that would be a bitter pill, wouldn't it? Our Lord had to warn our, our Peter and company. You see, Peter, you don't want to lose, do you? This time and everything you've invested in me. But unless you're careful, Peter, in wanting to keep your life, you could lose it. Wanting to keep your soul, you could lose it. And Peter must have found that a very difficult conundrum to follow. Why is it that to keep your life, your soul, you have to lose it? And so our Lord taught him an object lesson, and about eight days afterwards he took up Peter, James, and John up the mountain to give them a vision, as Matthew calls it. And in this vision, they saw the Lord Jesus coming in the glory of his Father and of the Holy angels. His face shining like the sun, and with him stood Moses and Elijah. Marvelous. With what surprise did they see it? I wonder, did, did John nudge Peter and say, it's another world up here, Peter. Yes, there are two worlds, aren't there? There are two ages. There's this present age that has rejected the Lord Jesus in general. There's the coming age, when he shall come in the glory of his Father and the holy angels. Two ages. And now Peter's brain was beginning to work. I see. And as he stood there thinking, there came a cloud, which Peter instinctively recognized, and so did the other apostles. This was the cloud of the Shekinah glory of God. They feared as they entered the cloud. To hear the actual voice of Almighty God speaking to them. And the voice was saying, Peter, this is my beloved son. You listen to him. Ah. That's different from what they were saying downstairs, so to speak. There the Pharisees are saying, now Peter, be sensible. If you believe and trust this Jesus, and you spend your very soul on him. Peter, let's t- let's tell you now, we don't like him. And as soon as we can, we're going to execute him. And it could well be, Peter, that when we execute him, we might execute you as well. But even if we don't, when we've executed him, all that you've given him, your life, your time, your wealth, your energies, your ambitions, will all have been lost, gone down the drain, Peter. Don't listen to him. The voice up here was saying, Peter, this is my beloved son. Do listen to him. We have to make up our minds, don't we? Which age are we going to live for? This present world or that eternal world? Of course, we've got to live here and spend our time and energies doing our daily work, looking after our families, and so forth and so on. But our ultimate, ultimate ambition... For which world do we spend our lives so as to make them count for that other world of glory? That is the question. And when we come to Peter, we hear him talking in those terms, doesn't he? Let me talk to you, says Peter, about your love. That's part of your soul. And you have purified your soul, says he, by obeying the truth. They had believed the gospel. When they put their faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit cleansed their hearts, their souls by faith. Well, now what? Well, now, says Peter, what are you going to do with your love? You've got to spend it, haven't you? What will you spend your love on? If I were you, said Peter, to say, uh, now you've purified your souls by obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently. In other words, one prior claim on our love is our fellow believers love one another since you have purified your soul. Do you think I am hearing straight when I think I hear some of those early Christians saying under their breath, but Peter, do you happen to know my brethren? Oh. Do you know? Well, they're nice souls, but they're not quite so colorful as some of the companions I meet out in the world, you see. They are colorful and very ingenious and forward moving and attractive. My, my fellow Christians, not unkind, they're nice folks, but not so colorful. What do you think Peter will say to them? Ah, he says, you see, but yeah, okay. Love the world if you must, but do notice this. You see, all flesh is as grass, and the glory thereof is the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower fades. You love this world, in that sense of the word world, and you spend your love on it, your love will go down the drain, but the world is fading, and one day will be gone. Why should we love our brothers and sisters? Because, says Peter, they have been begotten again by the word of God of incorruptible seed, through the word of God that liveth and abideth. Oh, spend your love on them, whatever you do. They're going to last. And every bit of love you've given them and invested in them, by way of service or encouragement or whatever, that will abide eternally, and you will see the profit on your investment of love in your fellow believers. An important lesson, isn't it? And then, uh, uh, Peter says, Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. You know, the story is told us in the Old Testament that when God delivered the Israelites out of Canaan and they began to march towards their inheritance, flowing with milk and honey, that then came Amalek with all his forces and fought against them. Now, old Pharaoh had tried to get them back into Egypt. He failed at that, to get them back, but Amalek thought he had a bigger prospect. He would stop them making any progress, and he came to war against them. The fleshly lusts, says Paul, fleshly desires, they war against the soul as you are pilgrims and strangers on your way to glory. These fleshly lusts will ra- wage a campaign against you to stop your progress. So don't conform yourselves to your former desires and your ignorance, says Paul. Watch your soul. There were these, uh, Israelites, you know, you read about them in Numbers eleven and fourteen, and they came out of Egypt, and there they were, footslowing along the desert because there was a great inheritance out there, uh, do you see, flowing with milk and honey. But after a while, the going got a bit tough. The sand got hot during the daytime, and there wasn't too much water about, and they felt a bit thirsty, and they began to think of all the onions and cucumbers and garlic that they ate in Egypt, you see. And then their mouth, uh, began to long for, you know, appetites, long for these onions and garlics and cucumbers and things, you see. And so they came to Moses and they nearly stoned him. And they started weeping over cucumbers. Oh, we remember what we had in Egypt, that we ate it for nothing. What a lot of nonsense that was. Nothing, but they a- a- got it by being slaves. But anyway, we remember the cucumbers and things, they said, and now there's nothing but this dry old manner stuff, nearly chokes in your mouth, do you see? And they all wept. That was a hullabaloo, that was. I try to imagine it sometimes. Six hundred thousand grown up men weeping their eyes out over cucumbers. Must have been some hullabaloo that was. Ha. You'll see. And you'd say grown-up men, well, if they were children, that would be one thing, but grown-up men, and they can't work it out in their little heads that they have a glorious inheritance ahead. And for the time being, if need be, yes, the old road there will be a bit tough. And they can't have the sense to judge the one thing by the other and be prepared to endure the toughness now because they're going to the glory beyond. And how about us? An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away, says Peter, reserved in heaven for us. If need be at the present time, you're in manifold a heaviness through testing of one kind and another, but can't you see the proportion of things? It's worth enduring a little discomfort that is in avoid- unavoidable on a jar- journey that is taking us to the incorruptible inheritance above. Yes? And so we might talk, but we haven't the time, uh, about all those other things that we spend our souls on, we spend our love, our energies, our ambitions, our desires, all part of our souls, and we're spending it on this, that, and the other. God give us the wisdom to spend our souls on the things that will repay eternal dividends, and not to spend our souls on things that will soon fade and be gone. And we have two things to help us as we go along. Keep your eyes, says Peter, on the revelation of our Lord Jesus, whom not having seen you love, and though you still don't see him, yet rejoice with joy unspeakable, already receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And Peter is giving us advice that he learned in the school of Christ. What helped him to face this lesson about the saving and the losing of the soul? Why, the Savior took him up the mountain and showed him the glory, did he not? What it shall be like when the Savior comes. Oh, says Peter, do fix your eyes on that glorious time when the Savior shall be revealed and you actually see the glory. And as you see in your heart's, uh, mind the glory that shall be when you set eyes on the Savior, it shall help you and cause you to receive in a practical way the saving of your souls. Notice the present participle, receiving, day by day receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And then Peter adds another thing, let this be the last. He says, you surely realize, don't you, my fellow believers, what was involved in convert- Have no sense in their little heads, uh, be- uh, how to develop their potential to the full. And they get lost, and they get ill, and their fleece gets all muddled up with thorns and thistles and goodness knows what, and they become bedraggled. You were like that, going astray. Your soul, its loves, its hopes, its energies, going adrift. You've returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls, the shepherd and overseer of your souls. That's what conversion is. He died to save us. He's given us eternal security. We're justified by faith, but he stands beside us because by its very nature, you have to keep spending your soul, don't you? What shall I spend it on? And what shall I do in this decision and that decision? All sorts of questions arise that have to be answered. The wonderful thing is that our blessed Lord stands by our side, and he watches our souls to see how we spend them, and is there to direct. We have to do the deciding. He's there to direct. And he'll say, well, oh yes, that's a good thing to spend your soul on. This wouldn't be good. You'd waste your soul if you spent it on that. Don't do that. Like a mother standing with a little infant in a toy shop. And there are these wicked toy people, manufacturers have put those some gloriously high colored motor thing in front of the infant, you see, to get the infant's attention. All color and marvelous, what have you, it looks, you see, and the infant only gets sight of it and he says, I must have that. Mummy, I want this one, I want this one. And mummy says, well, now you've got your fifty pounds that Uncle Jack gave you, and you have to decide, of course, whether you spend it on this thing here or something else, but I shouldn't spend it on this if I were you, because mother can see the thing is flimsy old, uh, plastic stuff, and the child only has to sit on it too hard one day, the whole thing will break and be gone, you see. So mum says, no, I wouldn't spend it on that if I were you, darling. See that thing over there. Well, that thing is sturdily built, you see, it'll last a kid for I don't know how many years, and pass it on to his grandchildren, and you see, it's painted a little bit too duller brown. When mum says I should spend it on that if I were you, child isn't quite so sure, do you see? Hasn't yet got it into his head what is going to last and what is worth spending this fifty pound on. So does the blessed Lord stand by our side, Sunday to Saturday, in all life's decisions. We don't have to run away from life, do we? But as we spend our lives, spend our souls, spend our energies, time, love, hopes, ambitions, and emotions. The Lord is there to say, now, my dear, don't spend it on that. It's not going to last, you know. You'll lose everything you invest in that. Spend it on this, and what you spend will last for all eternity. Shall we just bring our lesson to the Lord in prayer? Blessed Lord Jesus, thou shepherd and bishop of our souls, we thank thee for being with us and near us each day. We thank thee for the vividness with which thou didst teach thy servant Peter, and now he teaches us. Help us, Lord, to understand these things and their practical implications, we pray, that we may live for thee, that we may live for thy coming kingdom, thus investing our souls in thee and in thine interests. We bless thee, thou shalt not disappoint us at last. Not even now do we have the joy of knowing and following thee. But when we see thy glory in thy face, O Lord, how wonderful it will be. Grant us that when we see thee, we shall not be filled with regret that we didn't give thee more. Part us then with thy blessing and prepare us for this incoming week, we pray, for thine own name's sake. Amen.