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[0:00] Psalm 142, verse 1, it says, No man cared for my soul.

[1:00] David cried out. We're going to look at particularly verse 4. David said, No man cared for my soul.

[1:12] No man cared for my soul. Now, sometimes we may think nobody cares. Sometimes we may feel like nobody cares. This is how David felt at this time.

[1:28] Someone said that the soul weighs 21 grams. There's a Swedish doctor that did some experiments. Now, I know we've put too much weight in that. But the soul is something, of course, we can't see it.

[1:43] We can't measure it. But it's that inward you. Every one of you here today is a living soul. Every one of you has a soul, a body, a soul and a spirit.

[1:54] Now, in these days, people spend a lot of money on various things. You know, some of you ladies might spend some money on nail care.

[2:05] On nail care. You get those nails and you go down the special shop and get them looking nice and smart. Some of you chaps even might spend a bit of money on hair care. You know, if you start to lose a bit like I am, you might think about some special products or some colouring products to make you look young again.

[2:24] So look after that hair of yours. And ladies too, hair care. And then there's body care. You know, just looking after yourself. But what about soul care?

[2:36] Soul care. About your soul. Really, that's so much more important, isn't it? Much more important than your body than the outward. For what people can see is what people can't see.

[2:47] It's the soul. The inward man. The real you. And the question, the statement here tonight that I'd like to bring to you is that souls are in danger.

[3:00] Souls are in danger and who cares? Who cares about them? Just Jesus. Yeah. The Lord Jesus certainly cares. But so shouldn't we.

[3:11] So shouldn't we as believers, as God's people. And look with me if you can at some verses here. Hebrews 2 verse 3. You might like to follow along or just listen as I read them.

[3:23] This talks about how should we escape. How should we escape. Hebrews 2 verse 3. You might not be able to follow quickly enough if we don't have any youngsters on the front there.

[3:36] But Hebrews 2 verse 3 it says, How should we escape if we neglect? So great salvation. It says that in part there.

[3:48] How should we escape? Friends, there's some people who are not going to escape because they're going to neglect their soul. They're going to neglect salvation. Now today we have a lot of talk.

[3:59] There's talk about child abuse. Child abuse. Child neglect. What about soul abuse? Soul abuse. Soul neglect. Some people, they neglect their soul.

[4:11] They neglect their soul. They neglect salvation. Until it's too late. I was speaking just last week with an elderly man. He's been talking to me about his wife's getting elderly too.

[4:25] They're making preparations. They're making preparations for the ultimate time when the lady will be passing away. I believe that lady is a Christian believer.

[4:39] But this man has not taken any thought. And I was challenging him just, I think it was Friday or Saturday, gone, talking to him about his soul.

[4:50] Now youngsters, every one of us has a soul. Every one of you here tonight, people, has a soul. And don't neglect that salvation. Don't leave it. Don't leave it too late.

[5:01] I was urging this man not to leave it. And I've urged others too of late. It presses me. It concerns me. Especially when people might come here week after week and hear the message of Christ and his death on the cross.

[5:15] He's rising from the dead. His salvation offered as a free gift to mankind. And yet they still neglect it. They don't make the personal decision to trust Christ. And friends, I want to tell you, there's no exit door in hell.

[5:27] There's no exit sign over a door in hell. There's no door to get out. There's only a door one way in and no way out. And it says that it is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment.

[5:41] The date's already been set. The date of your death. Unless the Lord comes first for some, the date of your death. You've got an appointment with your destiny. Death will knock on your door.

[5:53] It's like that picture of, you know, the AIDS adverts of years back of the Grim Reaper. There, the, the, you know, the Grim Reaper there. Death is going to come and he's going to say, it's over for you.

[6:06] There's no escape. You know, you see some of these Halloween figures walking around. It's going to be scary for some because it's going to be really scary because they're going to go to hell. It's not going to be any kind of trick or treat.

[6:20] It's going to be damnation for eternity. And so, souls are in danger. Young people, older people tonight, souls are in danger. We should take that seriously. Luke 12, verse 19, tells a story about a man who was a, they call him a rich fool.

[6:36] And I know this is special meaning to my, my wife, not that she's foolish, but that she, was spoken to when a preacher was speaking on this very verse about her salvation.

[6:48] And she thought about her soul, that it was in great danger that night. And she trusted Christ that night when she heard the preacher talk about this subject of Luke 12, of the rich man. And it says of him that he thought, oh, soul, take it easy.

[7:04] You've got everything going for you, man. You know, you've filled up your barns. Let's go and build another barn. Let's pack it all in the bank. You know, let's, let's live it up and live the high life.

[7:15] You know, the hand, everything was going for this man. He thought that he had all the time in the world. And it says, in verse 19 of Luke 12, as he cried, as he, as he boasted, soul, take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry.

[7:32] But God said unto him, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided?

[7:43] Some people are going to get a big shock when God says, time's up, it's over. And so souls are in danger and people aren't heeding the warnings. It's like, can you imagine driving on the road where there's great big red and orange signs with flashing lights, with danger, danger, danger.

[8:00] You know, stop, you're going the wrong way. The road's out, the bridge has collapsed ahead of you and people are just willy-nilly driving along, not caring, not heeding the signs, the warning signs. It's like that with many today that they don't hear the preaching of God's word.

[8:14] Maybe they hear it but they don't listen to it. They don't receive it. They ignore the warnings. They ignore the signposts. They don't heed the warnings. It's like, as you'd imagine, the Titanic.

[8:25] They thought, well, this vessel's never going to sink. God couldn't even sink this vessel like the designers boasted and we know what happened to the Titanic. Friends, the soul's in danger. They don't even realise it. They're riding that ocean liner on that one-way voyage that they're not going to get to the next harbour.

[8:45] Friends, it's all certainly concerning. And people are trifling with their souls today. In this world that we live, they're trifling with it. There's a story told about how someone was visiting Niagara Falls and they were playful there with their young little girl as they were swinging her up into the sky to kind of scare her.

[9:07] You know, they were going to throw her into the fall. And there was a sudden jerk as she was fearful and he let go and it was over for that little one.

[9:21] A shriek and then destruction. That is what it's going to be like for some. Souls are in danger, friends. It's serious. It's serious. And I want to tell you tonight they care for souls in hell.

[9:35] They do care for souls in hell. The rich man is still there in hell. And he cried out, I'm tormented in this flame. In Luke 16, he was worried.

[9:46] He said, I've got five brothers and I want to come to this place of torment. This is Luke 16. They send somebody to warn them. They don't want them to come to this place of destruction, this place of torment.

[9:57] There is a hell. There is a hell. It's real. You know, churches by and large, you don't often hear people, but it's needful for every preacher, for every Christian to be heeding the warnings of God's Word.

[10:10] Our Lord Jesus, the greatest preacher, spoke more of hell than of heaven. It's more important that we understand the reality of it. This is not fiction. He's still there. He's still there today.

[10:21] And it says, they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 9. The fires of eternal hell are fires that cannot be put out.

[10:32] Of course, we know that the hell, that is, the holding place will be thrown into the eternal hell, the lake of fire. In Revelation, it speaks about death and hell shall be thrown into the lake of fire. So that will be the eternal hell.

[10:43] But, friends, we need to be very careful. There's a story told about a man who was very particular about how he lived. Everything just had its place in his life. You know, everything was just perfect.

[10:55] How he laid out his life, everything that he did. He lived his life like clockwork. When he got up, every morning, he brushed his teeth. He wanted to make sure they didn't get decay.

[11:07] He brushed his teeth. He exercised. He looked after his body. You know, he jogged around the block every morning. He got eight hours asleep every night. He cared for his body.

[11:17] He didn't smoke. He didn't drink. But his one mistake, he forgot God. He forgot God. That's true today of many lovely, kind-hearted, well-meaning, nice people that I know.

[11:32] They've forgotten God. God has no place in their lives. They don't care for their soul. And when it comes down to it, there's one book that we need. So Walter Scott, in his last hours on earth, he asked his son-in-law to read to him.

[11:49] Walter Scott said, need you ask, there is only one book. There is only one book. Surrounded by a huge library of books, in all languages, he felt in his dying hours there was only one book.

[12:02] There was only one book that was going to help him. One book worth listening to. The Bible. And so he read that and John 14, I understand, was where they read from that he shall prepare a place for you.

[12:16] Let your heart not be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. He says, I go to prepare a place for you. But where I am, there you may be also. There's going to prepare a mansion for us.

[12:26] And that was the comfort in his dying hours. The one textbook of life and death. So firstly, souls are in danger. Secondly, souls are valuable. Do we care? What are you worth? What are you worth?

[12:40] How much would you sell your soul for to the devil? I wouldn't want to, you know, he couldn't pay enough, could he? He couldn't pay enough. What are you worth? And yet, someone has paid his life's blood for you.

[12:52] The value of a soul. In Mark 8, 36, it says, For what shall we proffer a man if he gain the whole world and he lose his own soul? He says, What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

[13:03] It talks about the whole world as being of lesser value than your soul tonight. You are very valuable. Your soul is very valuable and so are the souls about us.

[13:13] That's why we care about evangelism as a church here. We care about it. We don't just give it lip service. We try to be about the work of evangelism. Not as some cults that think they've got to earn their salvation.

[13:26] We don't work for our salvation. We work because we're saved. Because we have salvation, we want to work. We have a passion for soul. And Wesley said, Wesley was one, John Wesley was one who said of him, he was not one to sit and chat, but he was busy helping those in need.

[13:43] He was always about the work of the gospel. And the great need of the hour, this is a quote from 1932, the great need of the hour is a holy passion for the souls of men. And it's still true today.

[13:55] The great need of the hour is a holy passion for the souls of men. That's what we need and we've lost our zeal. The church is playing games by and large. It's lost its cutting edge.

[14:07] We need to be about the work of souls, to be about that ministry. And as it says in, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, 22, he says, by all means, save some.

[14:20] By every possible means, by every method you can, you know, that's appropriate. Every method that God would bless to save souls, to catch that divine fire, to proclaim that divine truth.

[14:36] Is there a cause that's worth more than that? Is there something that should prompt and urge you, a passion, a zeal, a love, an all-consuming devotion that should make you want to focus your time, your money, your energy, your strength, your thoughts?

[14:53] There's no greater cause. There is no greater work than the Master's Service. You know, we are OHMS.

[15:06] They used to write that on envelopes from the government. When the government wrote their envelopes out, it used to say up the top corner, OHMS, on His Majesty's Service.

[15:19] You have a royal commission, a royal mandate, a calling and a directive from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And He's wanting you to have that passion to win men, to be greedy for the conversion of souls, to have that desire.

[15:36] Whitefield preached, he said, as if it were the last time I may ever preach, the last time that you ever hear a sermon. Wouldn't it be a blight, a terrible, fault of mine that I was to speak to you and not declare Christ to you clearly and soundly for you to be able to understand and take it in and to receive it simply by faith to trust Him?

[16:05] You know, I would hate to think, woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel. And it's like that for every one of you. But we all need to be about the work as best as the Lord enables us and equips us to do.

[16:16] It talks about Ezekiel, how a man who didn't warn the godless that there was blood on his hands. There's a responsibility, there's an accountability. I'm not meaning to weigh you down tonight, but to prompt in you, to urge you, to get the sense of that tonight, to get the sense of how vital, how important it truly is.

[16:37] It was said of Vladimir Lenin. He was a fanatic with a single-minded passion. A colleague said of Vladimir Lenin, Lenin thinks about nothing but revolution.

[16:51] He talks about nothing but revolution. He eats and drinks revolution. And if he dreams at night, he must dream about revolution. Shouldn't that be true for you as a Christian?

[17:04] Shouldn't the Lord Jesus Christ be your passion? That you should want to live and breathe and serve Him to the utmost of your capacity? Are we obsessed with Jesus tonight?

[17:17] With souls? He was. He was. And He wants us to be. Friends, how critical it is that we take to heart that souls are valuable.

[17:30] There's a story told about a man who is going on a voyage on the ocean in a great ocean liner. There was wonderful machinery on board, the greatest engine room down there with a beautiful engine machinery there.

[17:44] And he was taken there to see it. And on his way there, he saw a bundle of dirty rags lying on the corner there. And at a closer glance, he realised it was a little sleeping refugee child.

[17:57] And he brushed him aside and then he stopped and said to himself, what am I doing? I'm on my way to see an engine which a few years from now will be a discarded piece of metal in some junk pile.

[18:09] But here is an immortal soul which 10 million years from now will be living in heaven or hell. It's getting it in perspective, brother.

[18:20] It's getting it in perspective, sister. Souls are valuable. And he retraced his steps and gathered up the little grimy sleeper in his arms and said, God forgive me, I will never again fail to realise the infinite value of an immortal soul.

[18:35] There was a missionary called Pitkin. He was being led away to his martyrdom. He was going to be slaughtered for his faith in Christ in this country where he'd gone to proclaim the gospel.

[18:49] And on the way to him, I don't know how they killed him, but as the people were taking him to his death, he said to a bystander, tell my son when he has grown up, I want him to come out here and take his father's place.

[19:06] That's passion for Christ. That's a zeal and a love for the saviour and for souls. That's what we need, brothers and sisters. The value of a soul. Do we care? Do we care?

[19:17] No man cared for my soul. David said. Charmaine, a king of long ago, gave instructions when they put his body to rest that they were to bury him in a royal posture seated on like a throne and he was going to be buried in a special way holding his scepter and with the gospels on his knees and a sword beside him, the imperial crown on his head and the royal mantle on his shoulders.

[19:44] He wanted to be buried with royal pomp and ceremony. And 180 years after his death, about 1000 AD, they unlocked the tomb, it was opened and the skeleton of Charmaine was there.

[19:55] His flesh and, you know, his organs had long since dissolved. He was just a skeleton and dismembered into a twisted form as the skeleton had crippled and collapsed. And the finger of this bony skeleton was pointing at the gospel passage that said, for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

[20:19] Friends, the value of a soul. Get that picture tonight. And so we've seen souls are in danger, souls are valuable, and just lastly, souls need the saviour. Souls need the saviour.

[20:30] Who cares? Jesus cares. There's a song that goes, standing somewhere in the shadows you'll find Jesus. He's the one who always cares and understands.

[20:42] Standing somewhere in the shadows you will find him and you'll know him by the nail prints in his hands. He's standing somewhere in the shadows and he's watching, he's looking, he's looking down on planet earth at your friends, at your neighbours, at you and he's interested in souls.

[20:58] He still cares. He cared for them while he was on the cross enough to give his last breath for them. And Mark 4, 38, even the disciples, they questioned the Lord Jesus. As they were on the boat and the storm was coming, they cried out, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

[21:14] How could they ask that of the saviour? Don't you care that we perish? Don't you care, Jesus? We're about to die. Of course he cares. Of course he cares. He's in the boat with you through life.

[21:25] Through your life's journey. His whole mission, his whole life was about souls. Luke 19, verse 10, it says that the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.

[21:36] And his whole mission, his whole life was in search of souls. Every pulse beat took him nearer to the last throb of pain of Calvary. Every step took him closer.

[21:49] It was a long expected anguish. He knew from the moment he was born what was to await him. And the Lord laid on him the iniquity, the sin of us all. Isaiah 53, verse 6.

[22:00] And he still sets the captives free tonight. He still binds up the broken in heart. He still opens the prison for those that are bound. And he still says, come unto me.

[22:13] I've got rest for your soul. Come unto me. The Lord Jesus, he can meet the need, the deepest need of the human soul, which is salvation. It's Christ's gift.

[22:24] That's his wonderful promise to you. And yet so many that can't in simple faith take it. I was talking to a chap late last week too, another chap, and just trying to explain, here, it's a gift for you.

[22:39] I want you to have this. And I gave him my pen. And I said, it's a gift. You just have to hold out your hand and receive it. You don't, if someone gives you a gift, you don't say, oh, how much do I owe you for that?

[22:52] That pen must be worth five bucks or ten bucks. Let me pay you something for that pen. That's what some people try to do with faith. They try to buy their religion.

[23:03] They try to buy heaven, buy their works, buy trying to deserve and earn it. But Jesus says, here's my gift. Reach out your hand and take it to as many as received him.

[23:16] To them gave you power. It's simple faith. It's simple trust. It's reaching out your hand and your great need and your great longing for his salvation, for his forgiveness, for your receiving of it, for your trusting of it.

[23:32] Yet that man, he wasn't at that point. He wasn't at that point. I didn't, no, it's important that we don't press people beyond the point. It's got to come from your heart, hasn't it? It's got to come. You've got to say, I really need that gift.

[23:44] I know, I know, I know that I'm lost. I'm a poor, lost, hell-bound sinner and Christ is the only one who can save me and I need that gift.

[23:55] And you need to get to that point where you cry out and you want to hold out your hand and receive it. Friends, tonight, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother and he wants a personal relationship with you.

[24:07] and who is this man? He is the Lord Jesus Christ and he's urging each one of you, you have got a mission tonight, every one of you.

[24:21] I've heard it said that every man who has Christ is a missionary and every man outside of Christ is a mission field. It's one or the other.

[24:33] You're either a missionary or you're someone who needs a missionary. You need the mission. You need salvation. And friends, tonight, it's paid in full.

[24:45] The price of salvation has been paid. It's been paid in full. It's got cancelled across your sin. When you trust him, you know, if you could picture it as if you had a great debt that you've got no way of paying, he comes with that stamp that says, cancelled on it with his blood on it and he goes, cancelled.

[25:13] He writes cancelled across your debt. And what a relief. I know I've got some debt. It'd be nice to have someone say, paid in full. Oh, that's good.

[25:24] No more mortgage payments. No more concern about having to earn it to pay it. We don't have to earn it or pay it, brother. In Christ, you have salvation.

[25:35] It's his free gift and you can receive it tonight if you haven't already. By simple faith, by simple trust, he wants to urge each one to give yourself to Jesus Christ. Give yourself to Christ.

[25:46] It says in Luke 15, this man receiveth sinners. You've got to realise you're a sinner. He says, I've come, not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

[25:58] And the people around, the religious crowd, they said, this man receives sinners. He's hanging around with these outcasts, these no-hopers, this trash, the outcasts.

[26:12] That's what they called them. That's what they were saying. But Christ receives sinners. He receives this unworthy vessel. He says, you know, Paul called the Christians that we are the off-scouring of the earth.

[26:27] We're the scum. You know, we're the lowest of the low. And Paul, you know, you could think, Paul there, with his great credentials, you know, graduate from the school of rabbis such and such and Pharisee of the Pharisees and, you know, he probably had letters behind his name in the modern equivalent, Dr. So-and-so Paul.

[26:48] He says, I am the chief of sinners. He knew his standing. He knew his state before this almighty, wonderful Saviour. He knew how worthy he was, how unfit he was, Paul.

[27:01] The word Paul means little and that's really what we need to become. We need to become little in our own esteem, in our own standing, in our own state and realise how great God is and how great need of him.

[27:13] And Luke 14, 22, just to be drawing to a close here, there's a story about the Great Supper. There was an invitation made, an open invitation, that they, it was an open invitation virtually.

[27:25] You know, nobody was barred from it. It was for any who had come, essentially. And the inviter of the feast, he said, yet there is room. Luke 14, 22, there's still room for more tonight.

[27:39] It's like there's a hymn that goes, there's still, there's room at the cross for you. There's still room at the cross. And friends tonight, I don't know where you're at. I'd like, you know, as I've said in passing, some people ask me to conduct their funeral.

[27:58] And that's a, that's a very solemn occasion. You know, it's your, it's your final goodbye from this earth. And when the preacher stands at the foot of your grave and, and stands there with a Bible in his hand and, and, and gives words of comfort to your family and friends, if I'm that one, I'd like to know, I'd like to, I'd like to be assured that, yeah, I know, I know where she went.

[28:26] I know where he went. As much as I can know, I, I can see the evidence of, of how they trusted Christ and they, they followed him, they love him.

[28:37] There's an evident faith and, and trusting Christ in them. And, and it's hard for me when, I've had to stand at, at a funeral home and, in a funeral service and, and direct the service and, and yet I didn't know where they went and, and I couldn't give those words of comfort and assurance to the family that, as much as I gave comfort in their grief, I couldn't say, look, yeah, they've gone to heaven.

[29:03] That would be wrong with me to, to make a claim like that without, without knowing for sure that, that they had trusted Christ. And, friends, please, if you haven't trusted him, receive him today.

[29:15] Reach out your hand and take it. Take it tonight. The wages of sin is death, but the gift, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[29:27] Receive it. Receive it. That gift. At Christmas time, birthdays, you know, people get offered gifts. Sometimes people, they get offended and say, oh, I don't want your gift.

[29:41] You know, if there's some kind of family feud or some kind of, some kind of silly behaviour going on or they don't like the look of you, no, I don't want your gift. What a thing to do to God.

[29:53] That's in effect what people are doing who haven't trusted him. It's so rude, exactly. It's so rude, isn't it? And yet people are so rude to God that they refuse his gift. What a heartless thing.

[30:03] What a, what a silly thing to do. What a foolish, thing to do. Friends, don't make that mistake. There was just a last closing little story here. There's a street preacher crying out in London.

[30:15] This was a long time ago in the streets of London. There was an important woman there in a carriage. There was a, you know, a train of horses and fanfare. She was an important person of the day.

[30:27] And the preacher cried out, the street preacher, I'm going to have an auction. I intend to sell that young woman to the highest bidder pointing to the woman in the carriage. I know of three who want to buy her, the world, the devil and Christ.

[30:44] World, what will you pay for her? Riches, honour and pleasure. Not enough, she's worth more.

[30:55] Devil, what will you bid? All the possessions and riches of this earth. Not enough, the preacher cried. Riches disappear like the night when the morning sun comes up.

[31:12] I hear the voice of the third buyer, Jesus Christ. What do you bid, Lord Jesus? I give her grace here and eternal glory hereafter.

[31:25] An imperishable, unstained, unchangeable inheritance. Lord, you may have her. You are the rightful owner. What do you think of the bargain?

[31:36] He died for you. Can you, will you, dare you, refuse to surrender to him? No man cared for my soul. Souls are in danger.

[31:49] Souls are valuable. Souls need the Saviour. What are you going to do about it? About your own soul? Get right with God. I urge you tonight.

[32:00] Please, I urge you. Get right with God. And if you're a believer, there's a work to be done. There's many about. There's a harvest.

[32:10] It's light, right, ready. Say not four months. Now is the time. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you care so much, that you do care for our soul, that when we might feel that nobody cares, we know that you do care, truly care, and you cared enough in Christ to die for our sin, for the penalty and pain of it, the shame of it, the guilt of it.

[32:34] Lord, that we might have heaven as our home, as our gift from you, as we trust you and as we receive that forgiveness for our sin, as we follow you, as we forsake sin and follow you.

[32:47] Lord, help us to make that step and further, Lord, help us that we might care for others, that we might care for the young and the old, that we might care for the folk about us, where we live and where we work and play and go about our business.

[33:03] Lord, help us to care for souls. They're so valuable, so precious to you. And Lord, you show how much they're valuable because you paid your blood for them. Lord, and we thank you that souls need you and we need to get that message to others that they might hear and receive it, that wonderful gift that you want to give to them.

[33:23] Help us, Lord, to be faithful to tell others about that wonderful gift of salvation. And help us, Lord, not to neglect it ourselves, but to cherish it and to adore you more each day.

[33:36] I pray, Lord, for every heart and home here tonight. If there's any folk, Lord, that have been challenged in their Christian walk or if they're not yet a Christian, that will make peace with you tonight about it.

[33:48]  God bless you. You