Have you ever read the story of the man who was called a rich fool? His fields had brought forth plentifully—so much indeed that he knew not what to do with such a harvest. He said, "I will pull down my barns, and build greater... I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
“But God said unto him, Thou fool.”
Shall we put this into modern English? A business man about town would say: "Well, now, I have done well in business. I have worked hard to earn what I have, and I have now plenty in the bank, quite enough to last my lifetime. I shall take it easier than I have done.”
Nothing very wrong in that, is there? Nothing dishonest in hard work, nothing foolish in saving what he earned, nothing sinful in wanting to take things easy. Why, then, does the voice of God sound in his ears and call him a fool?
Reader, he was a fool because he left God out. He made wise provision for his body, but he forgot his soul. He took care to see to his physical comforts while here; but he forgot the hereafter. He made a wrong valuation. He valued his body at a high price and his soul at nothing! Because he did this, God called him a fool. That night his soul was required of him.
That night he felt the pains of death coming upon him. He saw his schemes for large barns and larger comforts fade away from him. He felt the things which he had wanted so much, the things of earth, slipping from him. He found himself sinking into eternity without God and without hope, with a soul unprepared to meet God.
His friends probably were suddenly summoned to his bedside in the midnight hour. His family gathered around him, and they saw his life slowly ebb away. When morning dawned, the harvest was there, the barns were there, but the man had gone!
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Reader, are you a fool in God's eyes? Have you forgotten your own soul? While we know that this man was a sinner we do not read that he was guilty of any great sin. God did not call him a fool for being a sinner; he was a fool because he left God out. You are in danger of doing the same.
Your immortal soul is your most valuable possession. Though your body may die, your soul will live on. But where? Will it be the Father's house or the lake of fire? Oh! reader, rest assured if you leave God out, He will leave you out!
“Christ died for the ungodly." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”