Profit Or Loss?

Profit or Loss? is a clear and compelling gospel tract that challenges readers to consider life’s most important question - what truly matters in the light of eternity?

Using powerful illustrations drawn from wealth, financial success, and personal loss, this tract highlights how quickly earthly riches and achievements can disappear. It then points readers to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Written in a thoughtful and accessible style by Ivan Gordon, the tract explains humanity’s spiritual bankruptcy before God and presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the only One able to pay the debt of sin through His death on the cross.

Clear, biblical, and gospel-focused, Profit or Loss? presents the message of salvation with urgency and hope, reminding readers that the greatest possession anyone can have is the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Christ.

Ideal for personal evangelism, literature tables, outreach events, gospel meetings, and community distribution, this attractive four-page leaflet is an effective resource for sharing the gospel in a practical and memorable way.

Wording Inside:

John D Rockefeller has been described as the richest American of all time. He owned the Standard Oil Company. In today’s money he would be a multibillionaire. Some say he could even have been a trillionaire. While his name is synonymous with wealth, the tragedy is that he lost a large fortune in a very short time in 1929 in the Great Depression. What had taken years of hard graft disappeared like the proverbial snowflake landing on a river, a moment there then gone forever!

Fortunately, he was so wealthy that despite those heavy losses, he still retained a massive fortune. The Bible speaks of “the deceitfulness of riches” (read Mark 4.19). Looking at life’s profit and loss ledger, we are reminded of how important the bottom line is.

The Gospel message is summed up in the words of the Lord Jesus: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (read Mark 8.36).

Every one of us owes a tremendous debt. It is a debt to God that we have no means of paying. In other words, we are bankrupt sinners, and the Bible makes it very clear that we are all facing spiritual ruin if that debt is not cleared.

The good news is that there is one Man who has the ability, the willingness, and the necessary credentials to pay everything we owe. He is the Saviour, the Son of God. He has paid the debt upon the cross of Calvary and the person who believes on Him will never perish (read John 3.16).

Mrs Alexander wrote that lovely hymn, “There is a green hill far away, without a city wall”. It continues, “There was none other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven, and let us in”.

The most precious thing we can ever possess is the forgiveness of sins. Dear reader, we are all sinners by birth (read Psalm 51:5). We practise sin every day because it is in our very nature. Our sin is ultimately against God. That is why it is such a serious matter. If unforgiven it will be the very thing that will finally bankrupt us without hope forever.

But the good news is that Christ died for sinners! Peter writes that we are “not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold … but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1.18,19).

He tells us that those who trust the Saviour will have an eternal inheritance reserved for them personally in heaven. An inheritance that can never depreciate or be lost. This is because the Lord Jesus who “was rich … became poor that [we] through His poverty might be rich” (read 2 Corinthians 8.9). He suffered the ultimate poverty of the death of the cross that you and I might be spiritually rich forever.

Should we not then be wise and set a proper value on spiritual things rather than suffer loss eternally?

The Bible warns of a dreadful poverty that will come to the person whose sins are never forgiven. That poverty will be the unbending and unending wrath of God.

But... Christ died for the ungodly, and now God can save all who come to Him in repentance.

“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life...” (read Romans 6.23).

In closing, CT Studd was a great pioneer missionary who was educated at Eton and Cambridge University. In 1883 he captained the Cambridge Cricket Team. His time at the university was described as one long blaze of cricketing glory.

He was brought up by wealthy parents in a beautiful mansion called Tedworth Hall. He trusted Christ as a young man and renounced his wealth and status, going firstly to China and latterly to Africa as a missionary.

His brother had taken seriously ill some time before, and CT wondered, “What is all the fame and flattery worth when a man comes to face eternity?” He eventually went off to Africa and in his biography, there is a photo of him standing near his tent beside a river with a line for his washing stretching from the tent to a tree.

Beside it there is another picture of Tedworth Hall (where he grew up) in all its glory sitting in its beautiful grounds. Underneath are the words recorded of Israel’s great leader, Moses. “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (read Hebrews 11.26).

CT Studd made the right judgment and set a true value on the things that really matter.

Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed me white as snow.