Advertise Your Business Or Website At HomewithGod.com


THE GREATEST LOVER

By George W. Sinquefield

(John 3:16 KJV) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

(1 John 4:8 KJV) "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

        The greatest statement ever made to show that God is concerned about man's eternal destiny is John 3:16. Martin Luther called it, "The Bible in miniature." Simpson has called it, "The superb commonplace of Christianity." It is, without a doubt, the best known and best loved verse in the Bible. We could throw away every other passage in the Bible and we'd still have enough simple gospel to save the world. It is without doubt one of the clearest statements in the Bible on the way of salvation.

        I heard a preacher of another denomination say over the radio that no one verse in the Bible tells how a person can be saved. He said, "You have to have scriptures from all through the New Testament to learn how to be saved." John 3:16 makes it clear that he was wrong.

        It is beyond question one of the great outstanding texts of the New Testament - the doorway through which tens of thousands have entered the Kingdom of God - in short, the news which to many has been news indeed.

        It is so beautifully simple that the little child can understand its meaning and yet its truths are so profound that the greatest intellect in the world can only bow in worship before its grandeur.

        An elderly man, a devout Christian, had never gone to school. He wanted so bad to learn to read so he could read the Bible. It wasn't easy but for several years he kept at it. He did learn to read and read the entire Bible. He said to a friend, "It was worth all that effort just to be able to read John 3:16."

God So Loved The World

        Many honest and sober minded people find the message of John 3:16 incredible. They ask, "How can God love a world so sinful - when we consider all the sin, suffering, selfishness, hatred, bitterness, murder, savage wars, greed for gain, defiance of God, the godless pleasures, the sordid sensuality."

        Martin Luther once cried, "If I were as our Lord God and those vile people were as disobedient as they now be, I would knock the world in pieces." A poet put it like this:

       The resounding answer of John 3:16 is NO, you would not be God. For this verse makes the incredible declaration that God looked at the whole sorry scheme of things and still loved it.

        The world was and is so very sinful but the message of John 3:16 is still true. "God so loved the world." God loves us, men, women, boys, and girls the way we are but He loves us too much to leave us that way. He is anxious that we become His children, changed by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I.    How Can God Love This Sinful World?

        1. It is His nature to love.

(1 John 4:16 KJV) "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

       Henry Ward Beecher in his autobiography describes how he fell in love with Jesus. Said he, "I found out that it is God's nature to love man in his sin for the purpose of helping him out of it, even as my mother loved me when I was in trouble. It was then that I found God."

        2. God loves us because He is omniscient.

        He has all knowledge and He knows all about us. He knows why we are what we are. He knows the influences which have been brought to bear upon our lives which have made us, to a great extent, what we are today.

        Someone has said, "All of us want to be loved but many are afraid to be known lest they not be loved."

        A wise person wrote a list of 10 wishes he would have granted if possible. The first was, "A few friends who understand me and yet remain my friends."

        Charles Lamb, the famous British writer was walking the streets of London with a friend. He said, "Do you see that man over there? I hate him." "Hate him?" his friend asked. "How can you hate him? You don't even know who he is." Lamb said, "Precisely, we hate because we do not know."

        Two men were talking. One said, "Don't it stir your heart to know that the Lord loves you?" The other answered, "He can't love me for He don't even know me." The other one said, "It is easier for Him to love you than it would be if He knowed you like I do."

        Longfellow said that it makes no difference who the man is, provided we know him, know his temptations and trials, we are sure to love him. No man can hate another if he understands all his failures, his past experiences and the influence which has made him what he is.

        Dr. Kenneth Chafin says, "How many people do you know in this world who, if they knew absolutely everything there is to know about you, would still love you? If they knew everything you had ever done, everything you had ever said, everything you had ever thought, everything you had ever felt? How many people? Actually from the day we are born there is a sense in which we begin pretending in order to get people to love us. We say the things that please them. We do the things that please them. Have you ever said, 'I enjoy being with her. When I am with her I can be myself.' What does that mean? It means that there is a sense in which you can expose a little bit more of yourself to her and she will still love you. But even in the finest of relationships there are usually things held back because we are fearful that if people know us fully and understand us completely they will not love us."

        God knows all about us. He knows what has made us what we are. Therefore, He can and does love us.

II. Love - Not Pity

        God's motive in giving His Son was love, not pity.

        Oh, how the warmth and glow of this great verse would die away if it read "God so pitied the world." We, as hell deserving sinners yearn not for God's pity but for His love.

        One pastor says, "We have grown very familiar with this thought of God's love for the world; but have we ever tried to sense what it would feel like to live in a world that God only pitied and did not love?" He tells the following experience:

        No, it is not pity, even the pity of God that we long for. We long to know that He loves us and John 3:16 tells us that He does.

III. God Loves You

        There is a danger of looking at this great text and failing to realize its personal application to our individual life. God's love is world wide, inclusive of all men. It is also individualistic. God loves the individual. We can say with Paul, "He loved me and gave Himself for me."

        Suppose a friend met you on the street and told you of a rich person who died and left all his wealth to one person. You would most likely say that such happens often - that it is nothing out of the ordinary. But your friend continued by saying, "Yes but he left it all to you? You suddenly become very interested. You are all ears - you want to know more because it affects you in a personal intimate way.

        Read John 3:16 this way "God so loved me, that he gave his only begotten Son, that if I believe on him, I will not perish, but have everlasting life."

        Over the pulpit in the old Moody Tabernacle in Chicago were written these three words "God Loves You." One day a sinful man paused, looked in and read those words. He cursed and said, "God doesn't love a rotten man like I am." He went his way but those words kept ringing in his heart. He went back to the tabernacle and went in. Mr. Moody had arrived and saw him. He talked with him about God's love and soon the man came to experience that love and was saved.

        Philip Bliss one day after he finished singing, "Oh, How I Love Jesus." "These words are true." he said. "Yet I feel guilty for having sung so much about my poor love for Christ and so little about His endless love for me." As a result, he wrote a song that is well known today. It reads, "I am so glad that our Father in heaven/ Tells of His love in the Book He has given;/ Wonderful things in the Bible I see--/ This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me."

        Dr. William E. Hull shares this with us:

        Now notice, "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "Whosoever," how startled Nicodemus must have been as he heard these words of our Lord on that memorable night when he sought an interview with the Saviour. He had long known and believed that God loved His own nation, the Jews, but that His love should extend to the Gentiles, that it was universal -- this was news indeed. Yet this is the supreme glory of the gospel; that the invitation is to every race and clime, every creed and color, every class and condition.

        "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).

        How thankful we should be for that wonderful word, "Whosoever." A little girl said "Whosoever means me, you and everybody else."

        It makes me more sure of my salvation than if my own name had been mentioned. Just suppose God had said that He so loved George Sinquefield so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that if George Sinquefield believed on Him, he should not perish, but have everlasting life. That would make me very happy and I would count on that promise of a God who cannot lie. Peace would fill my heart as I thought about the forgiveness and pardon which is mine through the Crucified Savior. But then the devil comes to me and says there may be another that bears the same name and he asks why should I imagine that God is referring to me. My peace and assurance would be gone, but I can safely rely on that all inclusive word "Whosoever."

        God so loved a world of lost people that He gave His best, His Son, and Jesus loved us so much that He died in our place on the cruel cross to provide salvation.

        Now He declares that if we will believe on Him, trust Him, accept Him as Lord and Savior, He'll save us and give us everlasting life.

        Salvation is God's gift to you and me. Have you accepted that gift by letting Jesus come into your heart? That gift can be yours if you really want it. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."