SOUL SALVATION
[p. 219] SOUL SALVATION
1 Peter 1:9,22; 1 Peter 2: 25; 1 Peter 3:19,22; 1 Peter 4:19
You will observe the words ‘soul’ or ‘souls’ in these verses. We are dealing with soul salvation, the salvation we can enter into now. We shall come into body salvation later; we shall not be saved absolutely until our bodies are saved. The Lord is the Saviour of our bodies as well as of our souls, and the whole result of His death includes both, but we have to wait for body salvation, as I may call it.
It is a certainty, for whether we wake or sleep (die) as believers in Jesus our bodies shall be saved. If we are awake, or alive, here as believers when the Lord Jesus returns, we shall be changed. He shall come Himself. The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with archangel’s voice and assembling shout and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. That is to say, they come out, they rise; the grave shall be opened; that will be the resurrection from among the dead. The Lord will signify to His own, in answer to His own voice, that they are to come out, as He says, “the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth”. John 5:28 The power of God shall become effective in them so that they come out, as Lazarus came out of his grave.
And then it is said also as to those who are alive and remain that they shall be changed. This mortality must put on immortality, so that our mortal bodies shall be changed. That is a very real victory, a victory which can never be snatched from us. Believers are already saved in hope of this, but the present salvation is soul salvation, which we receive, which is offered in the gospel. It is to be received. So that Peter says, “receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls”, referring to what we are inwardly, as our bodies refer to what we are outwardly. The one is as real as the other. My soul is just as real as my body, only it is not material, it is that part of me which in this sense refers to a man’s inner being, that which abides. It is not mortal; the body is said to be mortal, the flesh is said to be mortal, but this is never said of the soul. Hence the vast importance attaching to it in the Scriptures. As we read from the Lord’s lips in the gospels, “what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26 You see, people do not think of that. Attention is given to the body. Any one is interested in the relief of the body, but proposals with regard to the soul are generally uninteresting, whereas the soul question is the important thing.
The man of whom the Lord speaks in His parable in Luke had his attention drawn to his soul. The land yielded abundantly, but the land yielded only the material thing. He could not house all that the land supplied, his barns could not contain it all, he was a very prosperous man, so that he had to take counsel with himself as to what to do with his property so as to settle down here and enjoy material things. Whilst he speaks to his soul and says, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry”, Luke 12:19 he refers to his body, not to his immortal being, not to that in which he had to say to God eternally.
And he had prepared himself material for many years, but the word of God was, “Fool”. It is not an unkind word. It is not an ungracious word in these circumstances; it is not intended to be an offensive word; it is a word to convey kindness, to save a man from folly. It is not unkindness to call things by their proper name if by so doing you can save a man from eternal darkness.
And so the word was “Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee”. Luke 12:20 You see, God has a right to that which is responsible to Him. It may be required of you tonight, as it was of that man. Are you ready for such a call? “Thy soul shall be required of thee”. Called away! You may not have thought of such a call. Whither going? To where is it called? You have to be ready to settle that with God. You have neglected to settle this matter, to attend to the soul matter, and now the hour has struck; the time is gone, and your soul is required. Think of it, it is required of thee; you have to yield it up. When that hour comes the best medical skill, the most skilled nursing is valueless; the most intense affection of parents, or wife, or child, cannot hold you “this night thy soul shall be required of thee”.
Whither goest thou? Where is it to be found? To be attended to in another world, in kindness? No, beloved friends, the day has gone for that. For the Lord in another remarkable parable tells us of a rich man who died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, not his soul, meaning that his soul is himself. He lifted up his eyes. Is it not urgent therefore that matters should be settled with God in this hour? Soul salvation! And so Peter says, “receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls”. It is a question of soul, not body, and they were receiving it, and so I would ask you to put out your hand today and receive it. It is being proffered to you in the gospel.
Now, to take the next point of importance; in this case it is that it comes to you. The general thought is soul salvation, it comes to you by obedience to the truth. “Having purified your souls”, be says, “by obedience to the truth”. Now the truth is a very wide suggestion. What is alluded to here is obedience to the truth of the gospel.
You remember how the apostle, in writing to certain christians at Corinth, said that he had delivered to them the gospel, “How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures”. 1 Corinthians 15:3 You see there how the truth of the gospel is presented. The Corinthians had received this gospel, and having received it as the truth they were saved by it. Have you received it? Or, I should say, Have you bowed to it? You may say that your will is standing in the way. It is obedience to the truth, “Having purified your souls”, he says, “by obedience to the truth”. Not only reception of it — your assent to it as a matter of scriptural statement — but your obedience to it, for the gospel is on the principle of faith to faith, it is for the obedience of faith among all the nations. That is, disobedience to the truth is what hinders many. You may accept in terms, but what about obedience to it, when the heart bows, acknowledging its state before God as sinful?
You see, Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. What about your sins? Forgiveness is offered, but then forgiveness to whom? To those who repent. It is sins repented of really that are forgiven, sins repented of. What about your sins? What about that wicked heart? You remember in the gospel of Luke how the Lord alludes to something that Satan had done in a certain woman eighteen years before — a long way back! You see, you look back, for God requires that which is past, and something has happened that you have never repented of. The thing stands between your soul and God. You lose power, even if you are a christian; for she was a daughter of Abraham, but something had happened eighteen years before and she was bowed together, she could not so much as lift herself up.
God requireth that which is past. That is, your soul has to say to all that — the purification of it by obedience to the truth. “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37 says the crowd of people, thousands [p. 223] of people, as I may say, to Peter. “Repent”, he says; “repent, and be baptised”. Acts 2:38 You see, it is having to do with God, and God requireth that which is past. He has dealt with what is past in the death of Jesus. The death of Jesus is the door for the guiltiest wanderer, but there must be repentance, and as there is repentance and obedience to the truth, the soul is purified, fit to enter into the presence of God.
As the Lord said to the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. Luke 23:43 Think of entering with Him into paradise; purified in your soul by obedience to the truth. And in keeping with that, in the next chapter you have a word that is very important to young christians — to all, but particularly the young, for today it is specially lusts which war against the soul. As you come into purification through obedience to the truth of the gospel you are not going to settle into things that you once revelled in, fleshly things which war against the soul.
Now, the next point is in the end of chapter 2 “Ye were as sheep going astray”. How true that is of every one of us — “as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls”. Thank God, most of us here have returned to the Shepherd.
Should we ever have returned had He not, as He says in that beautiful parable, left the ninety and nine and come after us? That is His side. Most of us have experienced that, how the Lord came after us and bore us back; we were lost sheep. Here it is stray sheep. Who today can be regarded as straying? Ye were as sheep going astray. What about that, young man or young woman, who has been turned aside, something has come in. This meeting is an appeal to you, it is for you to move. We know not what has brought you here, but you are here, and that is so much to the good. We would appeal to you to turn to God, to commit yourself to the Lord [p. 224] definitely. If you are in the world, you will find it extremely difficult to turn to the Lord. The whole atmosphere is against you, but not so in this room, for the Holy Spirit is here, the intense desire of the saints would be that God is here.
To return to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls — two beautiful expressions designating Christ. As Shepherd He would come after you, and He will receive you graciously, but the Bishop would rule you. We have neglected that. As Bishop He has authority, you see, the authority of love, and so the appeal now is to return. In His love there will be no distance; He would bring you under rule. He says, “Take my yoke upon you”, Matthew 11:29 His yoke is easy and His burden light.
In the gospel of Matthew, where you get that expression, immediately after He goes through the cornfields, and His disciples began to pluck the corn. He leads you in the way of food, where there is liberty. His disciples had plucked the ears of corn that were there, the standing corn, the Lord led them into liberty. I do plead with you young people who may have turned aside to return with your heart and mind to the Shepherd, to come into the good of His care. The word ‘Bishop’ really is ‘overseer’. Think of having Him overseeing your soul. The body is His, to be sure, “the body is ... for the Lord”, but the point is the soul, He oversees the soul. He watches all the inner movements of the soul, you see, and He knows the rebellious and crooked way.
Well now, I come to another point that is very interesting to me, and I am sure it will be to you, and that is to see how few are saved. You say, I thought a vast number were saved. Yes, the number is beyond any calculation of man. “Who can count the dust of Jacob ... the fourth part of Israel?” Numbers 23:10 The number is beyond calculation, but then there is the idea of fewness, and so in chapter 3 we have a passing [p. 225] allusion to the deluge, to the ark, and we find that the Lord is said to have preached to the spirits in prison, a very touching thing for us. “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water”. How many? Eight souls. You see, there were multitudes of people there, but they were disobedient. “All day long”, says God, “I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people”. Romans 10:21 How applicable that is to the present time; how few that hear! And yet there was the preaching, the Spirit of Christ in Noah speaking to these people as He is speaking to you today. It is the same Spirit, the one that preached through Noah to these people, a disobedient people, while the ark was preparing. Now, it is “few, that is, eight souls”. Just a few.
What a privilege to be amongst them. One said to the Lord, “are there few that be saved?” Luke 13:23 The point is, see to it that you are saved. It was a question of privilege.
Think of those multitudes of the people in those days of the deluge, on the hillsides; as the water drove them out and they looked on the ark they would say, ‘Would that I were in there, but I am not. I am with the crowd to be sure, I am with the many, but look at Shem there, look at Ham, look at Japheth’. There were only eight of them. Picture yourself one of these as the waters rose on the earth until there is no escape, and there are the few sheltered from the flood, water-tight, no possibility of shipwreck. It was rendered safe by the pitch, and God had shut them in. How many would have said, ‘Lord, it is good if I were there with that few’? What advantage was it that multitudes were together? No advantage whatever.
[p. 226] And so now, you see, you may look upon us and despise us. As you see the millions in this great centre of population you may look on us and despise us because there are but few, but we are the few of privilege, and we beg you to join us.
These were saved by water, it says, in the ark, in that which was absolutely safe, and so here, baptism, the like figure, doth also now save us. How about the question of baptism? Is it a mere rite or ceremony? No, beloved friends, it is more than that. “He that believeth and is baptised”. It is not simply that he has been, it is that he is baptised. He is saved. And so Peter says, “Repent, and be baptised”. And so with Paul, “Why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptised, and wash away thy sins”. Acts 22:16 Is the world holding you? You cannot have Christ with the world. Heaven is outside the world, you need deliverance from it, from this present evil world by the death of Christ. Saved by water. Not only were Noah and his house saved in the ark, but they were saved from the world. That world was swept away by the deluge and they reach a new world, they came through the deluge. And so we; the death of Christ takes us out of the world. “Baptism doth also now save us ... by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him”. You see what power is in your favour now as accepting baptism, all the power of Christ. You have to reckon on that. Baptism is a public thing, and the Lord will come in to help us with all power. Well, how blessed to be amongst them. Let us beg you to join us, I mean, join as saved. That is the thing; the answer of a good conscience. The word is really ‘demand’ of a good conscience towards God.
Well now, this may bring in suffering, for that is the will of God. So that the next passage is, “them [p. 227] who suffer according to the will of God”. There is such a thing as that. In fact, we are called to that here and we are sure to come in for it as we accept our place with the few among those who are saved.
We expect it. “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator”. Commit yourselves, it says, in well doing as unto a faithful Creator.
Now may God help us to lay hold of soul salvation, so as to be saved. Do not forget that. I know that it is not only the time of soul salvation, but the time in which souls are being saved. Then the point for me is to be sure that I am in it, that I belong to the few. And so it is a time of souls being saved. Every day, every week, God is saving precious souls. What about yours? Will you have to say to this matter? As I said, accepting the thing, receiving, as Peter says, the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.