Shall we turn in our Bibles to John
3.16. John 3.16. There
are two remarkable John 3.16's in your
Bible, and John writes both of them.
One of them is in 1 John.
You'll find over in 1 John 3.16,
a remarkable verse, and also in the Gospel
of John, for John writes both of these.
I'll read the one in 1 John 1.
Go over it for the end of your
Bible.
1 John chapter 3, and verse 16, Hereby
perceive we the love of God, because he
laid down his life for us.
That's how we perceive the love of God.
He laid down his life for us.
We ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren.
And now the remarkable verse in John 3
.16, the most familiar verse, I presume, in
all the Bible.
John 3.16. 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.
I suppose about six weeks ago I was
going through a lot of my old Bibles,
and so on, and I ran across this
little piece of paper, and it had on
here, Albany 1961, John 3.16. I thought,
well I must have preached from John 3
.16 in 1961.
Well, we spoke on this verse two or
three times, and we were taking up the
Gospel of John.
But this is one of those amazing verses.
It seems to have no depth to plumb,
or height to reach, or breadth to span.
It's a remarkable verse, and so I want
to speak on this verse this morning.
The love of God.
The Bible says that perfect love casteth out
fear, for fear hath torment.
And how true that is.
Men's hearts today are gripped with fear.
All over the world, as you notice the
news, you see it on the television, and
you read it in the paper, how fear
is stalking our streets.
People hardly know next what's going to happen.
And so fear is one of those things
that grips the heart of man, and takes
all the joy out of life.
But God has a love, and a perfect
love, and it casteth out all fear.
That one way you can live a life
without fear, without dread, is God's wonderful love
dwells within your heart.
In the Island of Herboeum, they translate love
in this way.
The heart is calling, is calling for me.
That's the way they translate this word, love.
How true that is with God's love.
God is calling in his love, he's calling
to man.
He called to me.
He's calling to all human hearts today, those
who are gripped with fear.
He's calling them to come to him that
they might receive and enjoy that perfect love
which casteth out fear.
That's remarkable.
And there are in this world, in spite
of all that's going on, and undoubtedly circumstances
are making many cry out to God.
Everything in this life seems to be taken
from them.
They're in circumstances that are beyond description, such
as the perfect war, and other things that
happen.
People are losing everything they've got.
They stand alone under the pile of ashes,
gripped with fear, lonely.
They've lost everything.
Is there an answer?
Yes.
God is calling to people like that, and
their very circumstances are causing them to call
out to God.
God is calling.
He's calling to man because he knows he
only has the answer.
There are two remarkable things in our verse,
John 3, 16.
And one is that God, when God loves,
he loves the world.
And when God gives, he gives his son.
You couldn't ask for anything better.
When God loves, he loves the world.
For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son.
He gave his very death.
When the mother died, and the father, and
the child were returning from the funeral, they
went to bed that night.
The house seemed pretty cold, and it was
dark.
And the little girl, he tucked into her
bed by the father.
After a while, neither of them could sleep,
and the little girl cried out, Papa, it's
dark.
Papa, can you love through the dark?
Yes, honey, Papa can love through the dark.
He fell asleep, but he couldn't.
And it became evident that he was feeling
in his heart what his little girl felt.
He cried out, O Jesus, it's awfully dark.
Do you love through the dark, Lord?
If you do, I need it now.
And he had a peace and a joy
in his heart.
That's the only remedy.
That's the only solvent to a problem.
That's the only solve that can heal the
wounds of human hearts.
His love.
How wonderful is his love.
You can get that kind of love and
comfort from your Christmas tree, your toy, your
tinsel, printing lights.
No, the only way you can get and
enjoy this love is through the person whose
birth we celebrate at this time of the
year.
All this other is for the past.
But men and women need that love, that
perfect love which casts out all fear.
This is true love.
It is.
A young poetess one time, she wrote a
few poems and she was well taken with
her poetry.
She went to see a man who had
a magazine, Walk Time Published Poems, and she
asked him if he would publish her poems.
He said, what are your poems all about?
She said, all about love.
He said, young lady, what is love?
Well, what she told him is just about
like the love you find today coming out
of Hollywood and what the world needs is
love.
She said, looking heavenward, it's like gazing upon
a lily pond at night beneath the shimmering
moonbeams when the lilies are in bloom.
He said, stop!
Young lady, that's not love.
He said, love is getting up cheerfully out
of a warm bed on a cold night
at two o'clock in the morning to
fill water bottles, hot water bottles for sick
children.
And you're doing it cheerfully.
That is love.
A lot of parents today, if their child
tried out, you know, I'd like to throw
something at them.
Instead of getting up and doing something for
them, people who really love, in true love
of God, is doing something for somebody at
some inconvenience and cost an inconvenience for yourself.
That is love.
That's God's love.
When you stop to think of the fellowship
between God the Father and God the Son,
and when that love is appropriated by us,
by faith, we enjoy it and we manifest
it.
This is the love of God, if this
is what the world needs.
Not this sickly, slushy stuff you read about
today, love.
Love.
Human love.
For you need God's love.
If God is love, which he is, why
is man afraid of him?
For most men are afraid of God.
Either God's a brute, or man is a
sinner.
One time, a mother was standing ironing in
the kitchen.
Three little girls were playing happily.
But all of a sudden, fright came on
their countenances, and they ran down the hall
into their rooms.
What did they hear?
They heard footsteps coming.
And in stepped, inside that door, stepped a
big burly man.
Either he was a brute, and punished his
children for very little, and they feared his
coming, they ran and hid.
The mother said nothing.
Either that's the case, or the children did
something that was bad, and they feared their
father because when he got to know it,
he punished them.
One of two things caused those children to
do what they did.
Either their father was a brute, or they
had sinned and done something wrong.
God is no brute.
God is a God of love.
And if man fears God, it's because man's
a sinner.
Man has violated God's standards.
He's sinned against God.
The guilt is in his heart.
That's why man is afraid of God.
Not that God is a brute.
He isn't.
God is love.
Man is the one who is to blame
for that fear that's within his heart.
He knows he's sinned against the Holy God.
That's why that fear lurks within his heart.
You know a physician magnifies a man's attitude,
his actions.
A man is far more intelligent than I
am, more powerful, more wealthy, more pure, more
beautiful, more loving.
And he works to do something for me,
like getting a Christmas card from the president
or from a king with some affectionate pity.
Why, you'd show that to everyone.
You wouldn't show one you get from a
friend or relative.
But to get something from a man in
high office, like the president of the United
States, that's a huge.
But to get a love letter from God,
that's exactly what this book is.
The greater the person, the greater the deed.
And God, 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.
God could either love or he could hate.
That was in his power of his preordination.
The display of his power is not dependent
upon the loyalty of his subject, like a
lot of kings.
Kings, especially in the past, and even now,
heads of state, their power depends upon the
loyalty of their subject.
If the public cries out, they can overthrow
his power.
God has the power to do a lot
of things.
He could hate man, he could despise man,
he could deplore man, he could ignore him,
he could condemn him.
What can man do in return?
No.
God is not like big powers that take
advantage of small powers.
Because the small power cannot resist him, that's
not God.
God didn't have to love me.
He didn't have to send his son.
He could have just let me go to
hell.
He had the power to do that.
And I couldn't resist.
But God loved and sent his son to
do.
How wonderful to think that God loves me.
Yes, he does.
And he loves you.
He loves you with all his heart.
That's why this love is so universal.
How wonderful this love is.
This love is not like the sun, yet
in a sense it is, because the sun
shines everywhere, all over the world.
Unlike the rain, the rain is everywhere.
The wind blows everywhere.
That's true of God's love.
In spite of man's attitude to God, he
sends the sunshine, he sends the rain, he
sends the wind.
Those things that we are dependent upon for
life.
How wonderful God is.
Man is not deserving, and yet God in
his grace, he sends this wonderful, wonderful love
of his.
Your heart were breaking.
You're a little two-year-old girl that
wouldn't lose any sleep.
You sleep on.
If your body were wracked with pain, it
wouldn't hurt or interrupt her play.
If your little girl heard that you were
dead, she would be somewhat amused that your
clothes died in a failed date.
In the funeral procession, she would like to
get something out of the ride and laugh
and talk.
In a few weeks, forget all about it.
Yet, she is of constant expense to you.
A lot of trouble.
Yet, there's not enough money in the world
to buy that little girl.
And in spite of all your coldness to
God, your indifference, lack of appreciation, God loves
you.
You mean more to him than all the
world.
He gave his son to you.
God loves you.
In spite of the fact that you've been
a bad investment thus far.
All you've given God is your sin, your
rebellion.
You've gone your own way.
And like that little girl, she doesn't seem
to enter into the heart of the matter.
A loved one has passed away, a mother
or a father.
Her little mind can't grasp what's happened.
Friend, you can't grasp, your little mind, how
your sins have aggravated God.
And how the way you've lived is sufficient
that God poured out on you justice.
Because you've left the mother dear life.
From Monday morning to Saturday night, you've gone
your own way.
You haven't read that book.
You haven't bent your knees in prayer.
And yet, God loves you.
Can you explain this love, how wonderful it
is?
This love is universal.
God loves you.
How wonderful this love is, it's unlimited.
Unlimited.
Not only universal, it's unlimited.
Ask the times.
Well, it's what we're seeing today in the
world.
People claiming to love God, so they say.
I love them, celebrate it conscientiously.
A lot of others, it'll be a lot
of whiskey bottles and a big ball, celebrating
the birth of a holy God and a
holy Savior.
No wonder God doesn't give us earthquakes around
here and a lot of other places in
the world.
This love is unlimited as to distance.
In other words, friend, this love never cools.
Human love, yes, distance sometimes calls that human
love away.
It's limited.
Weather can interfere with that love.
Human love.
I think one time I told the story
of a young fella, telling to be deeply
in love with this young girl, and oh,
she was all his life.
He couldn't think of anything else, but he
wrote a letter and tried to tell her.
And all this flowery, gushy stuff.
How much he loved her, what he wouldn't
do for her, where he wouldn't go for
her.
And then, P.S. at the bottom, I'll
be over tonight if it doesn't rain.
Yes, that limited love, the weather can stop.
Limited by distance.
Not this love, the love of God.
Regardless, friend, of your human love, oh, puny,
there's only many things that can check human
love.
Your health or the health of the one
you love.
Sometimes that can cause your love to wane.
Easy, I suppose, for some people to love
a wealthy mate, but let that wealthy mate
become poor and leave something else.
God love, whether you're hot, whether you're cold,
whether you're rich, whether you're poor, whether you're
old, or whether you're young, whether you're sick,
or whether you're well.
God love.
Human love is limited to these things, and
this love is unbounded.
Unbounded love.
It's universal, it's unlimited, it's unbounded.
If, as to its length, you can go
to the ends of the earth, this love
will define the object of its search.
Its breadth, it will go north, south, east,
and west to find the wandering one.
As to its height, it will climb to
the halls of Lurin, the palace of the
king, and to the homes of the mighty.
As to its depth, it finds its way
to the dens of height and sin, and
the sinkholes of shame to find its object.
Oh, to know the height, the depth, the
length, and depth of the love of God,
you really need to be.
How wonderful is this love that's unbounded.
Vanson, the great explorer in the north, one
time he set tent.
He decided he was going to find out
how deep the ocean was at that point.
He took along a lot of big rolls
of corn, some lighter than others, and he
put a heavy weight on and he let
it down, and he let it down.
He ran out to the first big reel,
and he tied it to the next one.
He let it down, he let it down,
he let it down.
The evening came on, so he retired to
the night, and in his diary he wrote
these words, trying to figure out how far
down that slope had gone.
It's deeper than that.
The next day he went out, and he
tried to come in again, adding on more
room, and he surely ends there.
We never know how deep it was, because
Vanson didn't put any more in his diary.
Next, this is deeper than that.
That's true of God's love.
We thank God for the love of a
father and a love of a mother.
I have reason to believe that my mother
and father loved me or they wouldn't have
put up with me and do for me
what they did, because they didn't.
But here's a love that's deeper than that,
a mother and father.
It's deeper than the love of a wife.
It's deeper than the love of a husband.
Yes, it's deeper than the love of a
bride, in the freshness of her love.
And the love of a bridegroom.
Yes, it's deeper than that.
Deeper than the love of a children, of
children for their parents and their parents for
their children.
It's deeper than that.
God's love cannot be passed.
Oh, how wonderful it is.
A parent asks a child, how much do
you love me?
And that generally means a hug and a
kiss.
Ask almighty God how much he loves me.
He points to the cross.
In this is manifested the love of God
toward us and then he lays down his
life for us.
If you want to see the height, the
depth, the length and breadth of the love
of God, hold on.
Show me how much you love me.
Look at Calvary.
That's how much I love you.
If you can tabulate that, if you can
figure out the depth of that love, greater
love hath no man than this, for the
man lay down his life for his friends,
but Jesus Christ laid down his life for
his enemies.
Ah yes, how deep is this love.
What do you know about the love of
God?
And this love is unmerited.
You can't merit it by being good, doing
the best you can.
No, you cannot merit this love.
No possible way can you merit it, work
for it.
This love is undeserved.
None of us deserve it.
Many years ago in Philadelphia, a tramp had
a haircut for weeks or months, dirty old
clothes, and he was out on one of
the streets of Philadelphia begging for money.
That's when they would ask for a dime.
Today they want a ten dollar bid.
He saw this man walking down the street,
he poked his arm, he says, mister give
me a dime.
The man looked at him, he looked at
him, my son, I've been looking for you
for 18 years, and you're asking me for
a dime.
I'll give you all I've got to give
you.
Come home and hug them.
Yes, he got a fortune, instead of a
dime, because his father still loved him.
The father was willing, in fact, the father
who was going to die wanted his son,
his only son, to have what he had.
For 18 years he looked for that boy
and finally found him.
Friend, how long has God been looking for
you?
You're asking him for a dime?
They do little things for you.
God says, I'll give you a fortune.
He'll give you the riches of God in
Christ Jesus.
Come and look at him.
You don't deserve it.
No more than that boy deserved it.
Ran away from his father, did things, went
to places that would break the father's heart
if he knew.
Ah, he didn't deserve that fortune.
He got it because his father loved him.
On one condition he got it, that he
came home.
And friend, God loves you, but you'll have
to come home.
God wants you, his arms are open wide
and he wants you to come to him.
And if you do, he'll give you this
wonderful gift, salvation.
It's unasked for.
Who would have asked God to give an
angel to die of a cough, let alone
his son?
Man would never have asked God to give
us a son, yet God did.
It was unasked, unsought.
Men, they're not seeking God today.
They're seeking health and wealth and pleasure and
health, hostility, popularity.
Yes, they're seeking these things, provision of prominence.
That's what men are seeking today, women too.
They're seeking God, they're seeking Christ, and seeking
his love.
If they were, they wouldn't have to go
far to find it.
That love is here for you this morning
if you want it.
The Lord Jesus is ready to give it
to you.
There standeth one among you whom ye know
not.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ, and he'll give
you this wonderful, wonderful love.
You know this love is unselfish.
God gave and Christ paid his life in
that subject.
Unselfish love.
God gave more than he was going to
get.
That's true.
God gave me more than ever I've been
able to give him.
God's love is unselfish love, knowing that he's
not going to be paid back, knowing that
man cannot pay back.
As God has given unto man, God's gift
dwarfs anything that man can give to God.
The cattle upon a thousand hills is his.
What can man give materially to the Almighty?
He owns everything.
Yet God is so unselfish, he gave his
only Son, knowing that man couldn't give him
anything by comparison back.
All I've tried to do since God saved
me has given my evil heart to tell
about him, to tell about his love, tell
about the gift of his Son, tell men
and women how they can be saved.
No man can fully repay God.
This love is unselfish love.
A lot of people this time of the
year, they don't get more back than they
gave.
They don't like it.
But you know, God knows you can't pay
him back.
And yet he loves you and he's willing
to save you, just to see you in
heaven, just to see you happy, just to
see you among that mighty throng, worshipping and
praising him.
God's love is unselfish love.
And it's unending.
Oh how wonderful this love will never end.
Human love does end.
Death can ruthlessly stop.
Quarrels can beginning.
Misunderstandings can disrupt it.
Distance can sometimes cool it.
Time eradicates it, human love.
Not so with God's love.
As long as God lives, I'm going to
be loved.
This love is unending.
Having loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them unto the end.
Not only the end of their lives, but
eternity.
I've only tasted a little of God's life
love, like a child paddling on the beach
of a mighty ocean.
Out there is a vast expanse of God's
love, rolling in its mighty wave.
Yes, that's it.
How wonderful God's love is.
It has no end.
No end.
As long as God lives, I'll be loved.
You can't prevent God from loving you, no
more than you can prevent that thumb from
shutting.
Or if you have property, a river may
run through your property.
You can't prevent God from loving you.
You can't prevent that water from flowing.
Saying God loved you this morning, I want
to say this.
You can pull down the blinds and keep
the sunlight on.
Or you can shut the doors and keep
the sunlight on.
You can go down into the basement and
keep the sunlight on.
The sun's still shining no matter where you
go.
The sun's still shining.
You're just depriving yourself of the love of
God.
God wants you to open your heart to
let the sunshine of his love come in.
You can even go to the extent of
turning a river around from your property, but
it wouldn't come onto your premises.
Yes, you can even do that with God.
Do something of what God has in keeping
from coming into your heart or having anything
to do with your life.
But God loves all.
And this is the fearful thing that you're
going to have to face if you die
in your sin.
God loves you.
If you struggled, spurned, you wouldn't have.
How sad this is.
How do I know that God loves me?
Oh well, I know he loves you.
The Bible says so.
We've read two verses.
For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believed
in him should not perish but have everlasting
life.
I know God loves me.
Not because he answers my prayers.
Not because he heals my body sometimes with
sickness.
Not because he spares my loved ones when
I thought they were going to die.
That's not why he loves me.
Not because he prospers me.
Not because he gives me all I want.
That's not why, how I know he loves
me.
How do I know God loves me?
In this perceive we the love of God
in that he laid down his life for
us.
If you want to see and know where
God loves you, look at that clock.
These other things are almost insignificant that we've
mentioned.
If you want the bona fide facts of
God's love for you, look at that.
Jesus Christ came into this world 1900 years
ago, not to show us how to live
and set us an example.
We couldn't live like he did.
He came into this world for one purpose,
and that is to die.
He came here that he might live and
prove that he was the one sacrifice that
would save man.
His life, sinless life, qualified him to die
that death that only God would accept.
But then if you accepted Jesus Christ this
morning, God would be satisfied.
Yes, God loves my wife.
He loves the world, certainly.
But that doesn't help me.
He loves the church, the Bible says that.
Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it.
Paul says, however, and this is true, the
Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me.
Oh yes, you say, God loved the world,
fine.
You read in a paper about someone got
a fortune, but that someone wasn't you.
God loved the world, but where does that
leave me?
Here's where I come in.
I'm going to believe that he loved me.
I'm going to accept his love gift.
He loved the world, and Christ loved the
church, all who are saved.
But Paul said, if you want to be
in that church, his body, you're going to
have to accept it.
Christ loved me.
Poor, sinful me.
Poor, helpless me.
Christ loved me, and he gave himself for
me as though I was the only sinner
in the world who had sinned against God.
Jesus Christ came into this world to die
for me.
Just poor, sinful me.
That's right.
You willing to believe that?
He gave himself for me.
He didn't give his wealth for me.
God could have created worlds of silver and
planets of gold.
Oh yes, a moon, a diamond.
He could have done all that.
God could have enriched himself a million fold,
but that wouldn't save me.
Not by a representative.
God could tell Michael, Gabriel, go down to
earth.
But your spirit can't die.
You're a spirit.
You've got to have something that's material that
can be spiked to a cross.
Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity,
took a body that could be crucified.
Jesus Christ had to come himself.
He couldn't send an angel.
He couldn't send a prophet.
He had to come himself, and that's what
he did.
Jesus Christ came himself to die for me,
just me.
King Edward Edward of England, as you all
know, gave up the British Empire, the British
throne, he says, for the woman he loved.
When I was in Canada this past summer,
King Edward died, and they had a series
of articles on the television following his life,
and the commentator said, King Edward was never
a happy man.
Hell, he didn't even smile.
He traveled the world over.
Why?
It was selfishness when he gave up the
British Empire for the woman he loved.
If he had been a loyal minister, he
either gave or given up the woman for
the empire he loved, the British Empire.
Oh yeah.
Friend, are you willing to give up something
to have Christ?
Are you willing to give up yourself?
Are you willing to give up anything you've
got for Christ or your loved one?
Lord Jesus says, if you can't leave your
mother and your father and your brothers and
your sisters and your wife and your children,
you cannot be my disciple.
This is where the test comes.
Do you want Jesus Christ more than anything
else in all the world?
Oh, you see, if I did that, I'd
be so miserable.
Have you ever seen me miserable?
I hope you haven't.
If I have, I'll apologize.
If you want real joy and peace, accept
Jesus Christ, and you know something of his
love.
Oh yes, poor King Edward.
He knew he'd made the mistake.
He had been loved by 45 million English
people, but he chose a woman.
That's what you're going to do this morning.
Choose something other than Jesus Christ.
Will you accept the Lord Jesus Christ this
morning as God's gift to you, his free
gift?
Not turn over a new leaf, not go
in the church, not come and be baptized,
but accept Jesus Christ into your heart.
Now, this is God's gift, and you'll have
a real Christmas.
I've gotten many Christmas cards over the years
from people who were saved in my meetings,
and more than one have put down from
Brother Wilson, this is my happiest Christmas.
They've had many Christmases, but there were sinners
there.
Now they've found Christ.
They've found the babe of Bethlehem, the Son
of God, the Savior of the world.
They've found Him.
They know the meaning of Christmas.
Oh yes, they have found the real heart
of Christmas.
I hope you'll find it.
Jesus Christ is the heart of Christmas.
I know it's commercialized, but take Jesus Christ
out of Christmas, and you can have the
rest.
All will pass away, tinsel and poem.
A couple of weeks, all the trees will
be down, the light taken down, and the
tinsel packed away in Zion.
Perhaps this world good won't last, but you
that want something and someone who will last,
for time in eternity is found in Jesus
Christ.
And you'll have a real Christmas, a wonderful
Christmas, if you take Jesus Christ this morning.
He that hath the Son hath life.
Friend, this is God's gift.
It's a gift you can't pay for.
If you're a millionaire, you couldn't take it.
And you can't pay for them.
Why would a person offer you a gift
and you get on your knees, oh I
pray you give me that gift.
I pray you, I plead with you, give
me that.
What are you doing on your knees?
You don't have to plead for it.
You didn't have to pay for it, and
you don't have to plead for it.
I've given that to you.
That's what God's doing.
He's offering you the gift.
You don't have to plead for it.
It's wrapped up in the most attractive paper,
the Bible.
For the Bible is an embalmed personality, Jesus
Christ.
Take the gift and thank the giver.
How wonderful, if you would do that this
morning.
How wonderful is the love of God.
How wonderful is the love of Him sent.
How wonderful it's free.
You don't have to.
A lot of people are going to pay
for these this year.
They're going to get gypped all along.
They'll find out they got taken in.