As a manager of a retail store, when I offer to put customers’ items in a plastic bag, they refuse the bag with the retort “Save the planet.” Now don’t get me wrong. In our home we recycle, but in our church you would not find us practicing church discipline on someone for failing to recycle or for using plastic bags. After all, what is more important? The saving of the planet or the saving of a human soul? That ought to be a no brainer. But unfortunately we lose sight of priorities in God’s economy.
When a certain man approached Jesus and asked him to tell his brother to divide the inheritance with him, Jesus responded “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”(Luke 12:15). Then he said the following parable.
“And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12:16-21
Are you like the man in this parable who said, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”(Luke 12:19)? Is that your motto in life: relax, eat, drink, be merry? If so, God calls you…a Fool! Why? Because of your soul. Note the urgency. THIS NIGHT your soul is required of you! What will it profit you if you gain the whole world and forfeit your soul?(Matthew 16:26)
Ought not you to be anxious for your soul? Do you care more about saving the planet than the salvation of your soul? Let me give you two reasons you should be anxious for your soul and concerned.
First of all, you are an eternal being. You will live forever. Question is: where? Jesus said there are two groups of people, those for the resurrection of life and those for the resurrection of judgment(John 5:29). Elsewhere Jesus describes these two distinct groups as the sheep and the goat.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Jesus(Matthew 25)
These penetrating words of Jesus cut on a number of fronts.
First of all, at the end of time, when He returns again, there will be a separation. There are two distinct groups that will be separated, the sheep and the goat.
Furthermore, the one who will separate them is Jesus, the Son of Man, in all His full splendid glory, seated on His glorious throne in majesty and full authority. Therefore you will have no excuse. There will be no second chances. No argument you present will stand at the fury of His wrath.
Also, His words to you will be stark and striking: “Depart from Me, you cursed.” Jesus elsewhere said, “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’(Matthew 7:23).
And note that this is eternal. F O R E V E R and E V E R!!! Everlasting. You will be cast into the eternal fire for eternal punishment. And this will be a conscious existence. This will be your reality, you who take more delight in saving the planet than in being anxious for the state and condition of your soul.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
Jesus(Luke 16)
You will be in eternal torment. You will be in anguish in this flame, this eternal fire. You will be for eternity in this place of torment. And for you it will be too late. Consider this then your warning. Take heed!
“You are an immortal creature, a being born for eternity, a creature that will never go out of existence. Millions of ages, as numerous as the sands upon the shore, and the drops of the ocean, and the leaves of all the forests on the globe, will not shorten the duration of your being ; eternity, vast eternity, incomprehensible eternity, is before you. Every day brings you nearer to everlasting torments or felicity. You may die any moment, and you are as near to heaven or hell as you are to death.”
John Angell James, The Anxious Enquirer After Salvation(1834)
But not only should you be anxious for your soul because you are an eternal being, but also because God is a Holy and Just being and you are a sinner. You are corrupt at the very heart(Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19) Your sin is a direct offense and affront against God(Psalm 51:4), who cannot ignore or overlook it.
“You have broken God’s law; you have rebelled against his authority ; you have acted as an enemy to him, and made him your enemy. If you had committed only one single act of transgression, your situation would be alarming. One sin would have subjected you to the sentence of his law, and exposed you to his displeasure : but you have committed sins more in number and greater in magnitude than you know, or can conceive of. Your whole life has been one continued sin : you have, so far as God is considered, done nothing but sin. Your transgressions have sent up to heaven a cry for vengeance. You are actually under the curse of the Almighty.”
John Angell James, The Anxious Enquirer After Salvation(1834)
BUT, there is Good News. It is called the Gospel. It is the substitutionary death of Jesus and His resurrection(1 Corinthians 15:3-4). You are a great sinner, but there is a greater Savior. There is salvation in no one else other than the Lord Jesus Christ(Acts 4:12). Would you come to Him, today? Today is the day of salvation.(2 Corinthians 6:2)
“These people do not see their need of a Savior. They appear to think it an easy matter to get to heaven, and that God will of course be merciful to them at last, some way or other, though they do not exactly know how. Yet God says that He is just and holy, and never changes—that Christ is the only way, and none can come unto the Father but by Him—that without His blood there can be no forgiveness of sin—that a man without Christ is a man without hope—that those who would be saved must believe on Jesus and come to Him, and that he who believes not shall be damned. Surely they are asleep!
Once more I say, is this the state of your soul? Remember my question. Are you asleep?
Worst of all, these people do not appear to feel their danger. They walk on with their eyes shut, and seem not to know, that the end of their path is hell! Some dreamers imagine that they are rich—when they are poor, or full—when they are hungry, or well—when they are sick, and awake to find it all a mistake! And this is the way that many dream about their souls. They flatter themselves they will have peace—and there will be no peace; they imagine that they are all right—and in truth they will find that they are all wrong. Surely they are asleep!
Once more I say, is this the state of your soul? Remember my question. Are you asleep?
If conscience pricks you, and tells you you are yet asleep, what can I say to arouse you? Your soul is in awful peril. Without a mighty change it will be lost. When shall that change once be?
Oh, awake! and sleep no more.
This day, as the ambassador of Christ, I beg you to be reconciled to God. The Lord Jesus who came into the world to save sinners—Jesus the appointed Mediator between God and man—Jesus who loved us and gave Himself for us—Jesus sends you a message of peace—He says, “Come unto Me!” Come is a precious word indeed, and ought to draw you. You have sinned against heaven—heaven has not sinned against you. Yet see how the first step towards peace is on heaven’s side. It is the Lord’s message—”Come unto Me.” ”
J.C. Ryle, Are You Asleep?
