Behold in my hand here a book.
You recognize it as the Word of God,
the Bible.
This is without doubt the greatest book in
the world.
There never has been a book like it.
The greatest part of this book is the
New Testament.
The greatest book in the New Testament is
the Gospel according to John.
The greatest chapter in the Gospel according to
John is the third chapter.
And the greatest verse in the third chapter
is the 16th verse.
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.
That, I say, is the greatest verse in
the Bible, and therefore I'm preaching this morning
on the greatest story ever told.
Now the previous two verses introduce the 16th
verse.
In the 14th verse we have these words,
For as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of
Man be lifted up.
Hundreds of years ago the Israelites were bitten,
as you know, by serpents.
They cried to Moses for relief.
God told Moses to erect a pole, and
on that pole to fasten a brass serpent.
And Moses did so.
I can imagine two men there in Israel
having been bitten by serpents lying side by
side.
I can imagine them dying as many did
during that awful plague.
I can imagine Moses standing there beside them
and crying out to them, Look!
Look!
Look at the serpent!
The serpent of brass on the pole!
And I can imagine one of those two
men refusing to look, saying to himself, What's
the use?
How can a serpent on a brass pole
provide curing for a man who has been
bitten by a serpent?
Why, it's ridiculous.
It's absolutely impossible.
It's too simple a remedy.
And he turns over, and a few moments
later he passes into eternity.
I can imagine Moses crying out to the
other man in desperation again, Look!
Look!
And I can imagine the other man turning
and glancing at that serpent of brass on
the pole there before him.
And instantly he is cured.
The serpent bites have no more effect on
him.
He rises to his feet perfectly well, having
been completely cured just because he obeyed the
instructions given by God to Moses.
He looked, and as the hymn says, There
is life for a look at the crucified
one.
There is life at this moment for thee.
Then look, sinner, look unto him and be
saved, unto Jesus, unto Christ, who died on
the tree.
And every man from that day to this
who has been willing to look has been
saved if you look in faith at the
representation of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, the
serpent representing sin, because your sin and my
sin 1900 years ago was laid on the
sinless head of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He bore it in his own body on
the tree.
And all you and I have to do
is to look.
And when we look in faith at Jesus
Christ there on Calvary's cross for us, we
are healed of the bite of the serpent.
We're delivered from sin.
There is no penalty.
We're saved, and saved for time and for
eternity.
Now that introduces us to the 16th verse,
the greatest story ever told.
There are four statements in this verse, and
I want you to look at these four
statements one by one.
If you will, you'll never forget it as
long as you live.
Here's the first statement.
God so loved the world.
The first word in that statement is the
word God.
Salvation starts with God.
Salvation does not start with man.
Man is not seeking God.
God is seeking man.
And only because God seeks man does man
finally respond as he is influenced by the
Holy Spirit and turn to God.
God so loved the world.
It doesn't say God loved the good.
It doesn't say God loved the righteous.
The world is made up of sinners of
every kind.
It is made up of good and of
bad.
It is made up of black and white.
It is made up of all humanity throughout
the entire world.
And it's that world, a world of sinful
men and a world of sinful women that
God loved when he allowed his only begotten
son to hang there on Calvary's cross 1900
years ago.
For God so loved the world.
And God loves every man in the world.
God loves every woman in the world.
God loves every boy in the world.
God loves every girl in the world.
God loves the heathen in the world.
God loves the civilized nations in the world.
God's love is universal for God loves the
entire world.
God so loved the world.
That's the first statement in the verse.
Here's the second verse, the second statement, that
he gave his only begotten son.
Now love gives.
If there isn't giving, there isn't love.
Love is expressed by giving.
And the man who loves is the man
who gives.
And the woman who loves is the woman
who gives.
Love, I say, is expressed by giving.
And when God loved, God gave.
He didn't give an angel.
He didn't give Gabriel.
He did not give Michael.
He did not give one of the archangels
of heaven.
He gave his nearest.
He gave his best.
He gave his son, his only begotten son.
You and I could have understood it had
he given an angel.
But God didn't do that.
When God gave, he gave his best.
God gave his son his only begotten son,
the only son he ever had, the only
son he ever will have.
He gave his son to die on Calvary's
cross for you and for me.
And Jesus, Jesus came down from the realms
above to this earth below.
Here he gave his life for your sins
and for my sins.
Otherwise, there wouldn't have been any hope for
us.
Otherwise, we would have perished.
Otherwise, we would have been lost.
Otherwise, we never could have been saved.
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, the only son he
ever had.
He gave him that he might die on
Calvary's cross for you and for me.
That's the second great statement in this verse.
That's why I call it the greatest story
ever told.
What about the third statement, for God so
loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, whosoever
believeth in him.
Let me pause for a moment on that
tremendous word, whosoever.
That word gives us assurance.
That word gives us certainty.
That word includes us because it includes the
black, and includes the red, and includes the
brown, and includes the white, and includes the
men, and includes the women, and includes the
boys, and includes the girls, includes the good,
and includes the bad, includes every individual on
the face of the earth, whosoever.
If God had said that he so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten
son, that Mr. Brown or Mr. Jones, if
he had put in some proper name, that
would have excluded everybody else.
But he didn't.
He put in a word, whosoever, that includes
everybody, good and bad, man and woman, king
and serf.
Everyone is included in that one word, whosoever.
And my friend, I want you to realize
out there in radio land, out there in
television land, I want you to realize that
you're included.
I don't care who you are.
I don't care what you have done.
I don't care how bad you have been.
I don't care how wicked you have lived.
I don't care what kind of a life
you have lived.
God includes you, for he includes every man,
every woman, every boy, every girl on the
face of this earth.
That's the meaning of the word whosoever, whosoever.
One of the greatest words to be found
in the word of God, that whosoever, whosoever
what, whosoever works hard enough, whosoever labors hard
enough, whosoever is good enough, whosoever can meet
my ideals, whosoever can rise to a certain
height, whosoever can do this, whosoever can do
that.
Is that what it says?
There isn't a word, there isn't a condition,
aside from one thing, whosoever believeth.
And that's the only word, believeth.
If you know anything about the word believeth
in the word of God, you know that
the word believe means to trust, means to
put your faith in someone, means to rely
upon someone, means to hand yourself over to
another, means to put your trust in someone
else, whosoever, believeth, believeth, believeth.
My friend out there in television land, has
there ever been a time in your life
when you have believed?
Has there ever been a time in your
life when you have knelt down before God
and you have expressed your faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ?
Have you ever done it?
Or have you simply had an intellectual belief?
An intellectual belief that has never touched your
heart, that has never reached your heart, that
has never changed your life, that has never
meant anything to you?
A belief of the intellect rather than a
faith of the heart.
It's the heart that must believe.
It's the whole man who must come to
Jesus Christ.
Whosoever believeth.
Have you ever believed?
If you have never believed, if you have
never trusted, you are not yet saved.
You're still in your sins.
You're still lost.
You're still perishing.
And not until you put your faith in
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God,
will you be saved.
But let me say out there in television
land, at this moment, while I'm speaking, you
can put your faith in Jesus Christ.
You can trust Him this moment.
And the very moment you trust Him as
your Savior, you will pass out of death
and into life.
Because God says that whosoever believeth in Him.
Now let me point out that you have
to believe in a person.
You'll never be saved until you believe in
a person.
But you say, I'm a good man.
That isn't what it says.
I'm a good woman.
That isn't what it says.
I'm doing the best I can.
That isn't what it says.
I'm performing good works the way it states
it.
It says whosoever believeth in Him, in Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And my friend, you never will be saved.
And you never can be saved until you
put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
A person.
The one who came from heaven above to
earth below.
The one who hung on Calvary's cross.
The one who bore your sins in His
own body on the tree.
The one who dies that you might live.
Not until you put your trust and put
your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will
you be saved.
I believe there are men and women out
there in radio land who want to know
Jesus Christ as their Savior.
You realize that you're facing the future.
Death is not very far away for some
of you.
There are those who are getting up in
years, and you know as well as I
do, that a transaction of some kind has
to take place in that heart, in that
life of yours.
If you're going to leave this world and
spend your eternity with God in heaven, you've
got to act.
You've got to do something about it.
My friend, you can never act sooner.
You can never be saved earlier.
Now is the day of salvation.
Now is the accepted time.
This is your opportunity.
And today, wherever you are out there in
radio land, you can slip away to your
bedroom.
You can kneel down on your knees.
You can open your heart to Jesus Christ,
and right here and now you can receive
Him as your own personal Savior.
Your heart may be closed like that.
You may never have opened it in your
life in spite of the fact that you
have lived a good life.
There must come a moment when you open
your heart like that to Jesus Christ and
invite Him to come in and save you.
And in that moment you'll pass out of
death and into life.
I've experienced it.
I know what I'm talking about.
My friends, you can experience it.
And then you can give your testimony and
let everybody know that you have passed out
of death into life and that you've been
saved through Jesus Christ.
Listen again, as I quote the greatest story
ever told.
For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him, now what's the result?
What's going to happen?
Should not perish.
Should not perish, but have everlasting life.
That's why it's such a great verse, because
of what it promises you.
If you will put your personal trust this
morning in the Lord Jesus Christ, God says
you'll never perish.
You'll never perish, should not perish.
You say, Dr. Smith, what does it mean
to perish?
How can I tell you what it means
to perish?
I'm never going to perish.
I'm never going to know what it means
to perish.
I put my faith in Jesus Christ.
I did it when I was only 16
years of age.
I never repented of it.
And Christ has been my Savior from that
day to this.
Therefore, I'm not going to perish.
I don't know what it means to perish.
It must be awful.
Must be dreadful.
I know one thing.
It means separation from God.
Separation from God.
What that separation implies, I cannot say.
But I do know that if you perish,
you will be eternally separated from God.
And my friends, that ought to be sufficient
to turn you to Jesus Christ, so that
you may put your trust in Him and
never perish.
You want to perish?
You want to be lost?
God says you will perish, unless you trust
Jesus Christ.
You should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And life everlasting is yours, if you will
accept Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior.