Jesus is telling the Apostles how He is to suffer and he, also knows that His sufferings will be seen by the world as failure, that His life was not the victorious one that it truly was, and therefore He is telling these, that the way to live profitably is not to try to gain the whole world, this is the way to loss, but the way to profit truly is the way of denial of self and following Him.

He is of course not just talking about these men getting into heaven. He did not just come to them for that. It was His will that these men serve that generation after He was gone, and in order for them to do that they must accept the principles under which He worked, the willingness to accept what the world called loss, in order that they might have the true profit.

In all, there was and still is the desire to live, to do the best for self, but Jesus is saying that there is no final profit in that. How many gain only to lose again, how many come from their own folly to the place of those whose last end is worse than the first, seeming for a time to gain something only to lose it later on and end in failure and loss.

To many today, this message has but little appeal. In the first place they may say that they have no intention of losing their souls, and that is true. Most people do not intend to lose their souls at all and most everyone has within him some idea as to how to get away with the business, so as to be saved in the end. But Jesus here is not talking alone about the end. There is far more in this passage than that, and indeed souls or lives are not lost at the end of life at all. They have been lost years before, and the passing out of this world does not cause a person to be lost. They are lost years before, and the passing is just a stage in their journey to their final destination. No, the passing is not the significant part. Lives are being lost day by day, people are being spoiled for that which God has called them. Persons trying to gain the things of this world, are steadily losing all that is Christlike, retaining the shell maybe, but losing all that is vital within.

What profit is there in it, not only in the last day, but now? What profit to forfeit our walk with Jesus in order to gain the approval of the world or of some individual. There are many, many who have lost their visions who still hang on to the little that seems to be left, comforting themselves with the fact that they feel that they are saved at least. But their first love, the high idealism, the holy desires that come with a life of yieldedness have departed—not only the things themselves but all idea of ever possessing them, until the person becomes one of those perishing ones with no vision.

Then there is in this passage the hint of the day that is coming to all, and not alone that great day in eternity, but the day that came to Esau when he realized that the birthright was gone. Could he buy it back? No, he could sell it, but he could not buy it back again. So Jesus is saying here to us, after the years have gone, after the opportunities have been refused, what have you to buy them back again, have we anything that will bring again the opportunities? Or what will we give to get back the old desire to walk with Jesus?

Men and women realize it when their chances have gone, realize how they lost them, maybe some would like to buy them back, but they, though they have gained the world, have not power to buy back the old chances and the fire that has departed cf. Gen 27:34.

There are those who have no intention of losing their souls in the last day, who are losing them day by day. Paul said that he died daily. There are those who will not die to the world and its dictates. They are daily losing their lives into the things of life. They are putting that which should be put into the work of God [into the things of life]. Their sin is an earthly one, which will make it harder for them to leave the earth, and which will make it impossible for them to come to the place that God would have them. We may only aim at one thing at a time.

Let us take warning: that which seems like loss to men, may be gain in Christ, that which men commend and is thought highly of, is but a snare to men and women oft times causing them to lose their souls. The way of the flesh leads to hardness of heart, the thinking on the things of life rather than those of eternity, the putting of the natural before the spiritual, the putting of precious years into that which will steal away the life and leave one without the birthright and with nothing to buy it back. For who can buy back the years, who can buy back the vision, who can buy back yieldedness and the love of Christ and His work once it has been supplanted by self? Not One. Amen.