Scripture reminds us that even that part of us with which we are most familiar, our very own centre of existence and consciousness, is not within our power. When life ends, it does so whether we are prepared for death or not; the spirit or the soul is taken from us and we cannot prolong our lives a moment longer. You might think that man’s soul was within his control, for his connection with it is so intimate. He receives such personal and such subtle experiences in his own soul; it is then hard for him to accept the idea that he is not entirely master of its destiny. Yet that is the truth. That greatest gift that we receive in this life, the gift of our own souls is a gift that we have forfeited by sin. It is as though we have formerly covenanted to exchange our souls for a few passing pleasures of sin in this life. Truly, we pay dearly for our pleasure. What we get in exchange lasts no more than a few moments, and then all that we have left is our guilt, and the knowledge that we can never go back to innocence.
Be wise about your needs, the greatest of which are for the soul, for God, for communion with him, for a new nature, and for eternal life. These are our needs. You are growing older and coming to that final day. There is no man who will retain the spirit. We cannot ask for even a five-minute delay at the end of life. No one can say stay on after their lease is up, or discharge themselves from the war they are engaged in with Satan, with death, and with God. We think we can duck out of almost anything today, but God’s plan for the future is inexorable. We cannot be immune from the war of ageing.
Suppose you could indulge yourself with all the pleasures available to you in this life. Will that do away with the moment of death? Of course not. It does not alter the fact we are heading for that final judgment. You need God. You do not know what is going to happen to you at any time, where you will be in a year, what catastrophe may occur. Our greatest need is to have a heavenly God and in the hands of God, to be in his service and have meaningful life. You have a dead spirit. You can’t say tonight I will make it alive. You are at war in an army fighting the Lord. You say, ‘I have not shut him out of my life’, and yet ‘Yes, you have, and therefore you are at war.’ No one can give you exemption and give you time off from reality. We apparently think, the more we sin the more we can escape, so we go deeper into sin. But he will find this out; he has power to see our thoughts at any time, power to thwart us. Some have struggled towards some sinful objective and he thwarts it at the last minute. He will give much licence and liberty, but he sets the limits.
And yet there is a way of escape that the gospel tells us about. There is a way to escape that death that awaits us all. The way is published in the gospel and comes through Jesus Christ alone. It is through his death on the cross that we may find escape, for there he laid down his life to take the punishment for our sin so that we may go free. If we repent of all our wickedness and trust in him then he will set us free from our slavery to sin and make us slaves to obedience leading to righteousness. There is a way that we can transfer to the winning side in this war. God is willing to forget all that we have done in taking up arms against him and to forgive all of our sins.
How eagerly men involved in a protracted war long for it to come to an end! How they long for a time when they don’t have to get up each day knowing that there is an enemy determined to destroy them. How they long for peace, but the war will end only when one side or the other is victorious. This is a war between God and the devil and there can be no accommodation between them. It will end only when one side of the other is defeated. The truth is that the outcome is certain and yet if we are still in a state of unbelief, then we are fighting on the losing side. However much we may wish to pretend that this world is a wonderful place, that it is possible to create utopia on earth, it cannot be done.
How much can we assume people already know? Solomon now considers the lack of control which we have over our own souls. One event that we all face in common is death and to this extent the future is known to every one of us. He does not question for a moment that we all have a soul and nor should the one who preaches on this verse. To do so is to weaken our case and to lose the advantage of that awareness which is in every human being that there is more to their constitution than just a physical body. We can speak assuming the existence of an eternal soul, though we may have to explain just what the soul is capable of. Why should we need to explain to men what is most self-evident to them and what they are most familiar with?