"Whosoever" Of John 3:16

The following is taken from Address Nine (pages 106-110) in Addresses On The Gospel Of John - by H.A. Ironside:

You remember the story of the little girl in Martin Luther's day, when the first edition of the Bible came out. She had a terrible fear of God. God had been presented in such a way that it filled her heart with dread when she thought of Him. She brooded over the awfulness of the character of God and of some day having to meet this angry Judge. But one day she came running to her mother, holding a scrap of paper in her hand. She cried out, "Mother! mother! I am not afraid of God any more." Her mother said, "Why are you not?" "Why, look, mother," she said, "this bit of paper I found in the print shop, and it is torn out of the Bible." It was so torn as to be almost illegible except about two lines. On the one line it said, "God so loved," and on the other line it said, "that He gave." "See, mother," she said, "that makes it all right." Her mother read it and said, "God so loved that He gave." "But," she said, "it does not say what He gave." "Oh, mother," exclaimed the child, "if He loved us enough to give anything, it is all right." Then the mother said, "But, let me tell you what He gave." She read, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Then she told how we can have peace and eternal life through trusting Him.

Am I speaking to anyone today who dreads the thought of meeting God? Do you think of your sins and say with David of old, "I remembered God, and was troubled"? Let me call your attention to this word: The love of God has been manifest in Christ. If you will but come as a needy sinner He will wash your sins away. "But," you say, "how can I be sure that it is for me? I can understand how He can invite certain ones to trust Him. Their lives have been so much better than mine, but I cannot believe that this salvation is for me." Well, what else can you make from that word, "whosoever"? "God so loved... that He gave... that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He could not find another more all-embracing word than that. It takes you in. It takes me in. You have many another "whosoever" in the Bible. There is a "whosoever" of judgment: "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." "Whosoever" there includes all who did not come to God while He waited, in grace, to save. If they had recognized that they were included in the "Whosoever" of John 3:16, they would not be found in that of Rev. 20:15.

Somebody wrote me the other day and said, "A man has come to our community who is preaching a limited atonement. He says it is a wonderful truth that has been only recently revealed to him." Well, I could only write back that the term "limited atonement" has an uncanny sound to me. I do not read anything like that in my Bible. I read that "He... [tasted] death for every man." I read that "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." I read that "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." And here I read that "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I say to you, as I said to the writer of that letter, that there is enough value in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ to save every member of the human race, if they would but repent and turn to God; and then if they were all saved, there still remains value enough to save the members of a million worlds like this, if they are lost in sin and needing a Saviour. Yes, the sacrifice of Christ is an infinite sacrifice. Do not let the enemy of your soul tell you there is no hope for you. Do not let him tell you you have sinned away your day of grace; that you have gone so far that God is no longer merciful. There is life abundant for you if you will but look up into the face of the One who died on Calvary's cross and trust Him for yourself. Let me repeat it again, "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"Whosoever believeth." What is it to believe? It is to trust in Him; to confide in Him; to commit yourself and your affairs to Him. He is saying to you, poor needy sinner, "You cannot save yourself. All your efforts to redeem yourself can only end in failure, but I have given My Son to die for you. Trust in Him. Confide in Him!" "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish."

...To believe in Jesus [is] to commit [yourself] unto Jesus. Have you done that? Have you said,

"Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul,
Weary, worn and helpless, Thou canst make me whole.
There is none in heaven, or on earth like Thee;
Thou hast died for sinners; therefore, Lord, for me."

Inside The Veil And Outside The Camp

"Charge That to My Account"

and Other Gospel Messages

by Harry A. Ironside

LOIZEAUX BROTHERS NEW YORK, N. Y.

CHAPTER ELEVEN -

INSIDE THE VEIL AND OUTSIDE THE CAMP

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of JESUS, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of GOD; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:19-22).

"Wherefore JESUS also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach" (Hebrews 13:12, 13).

THE Old Testament is a very wonderful picture book of New Testament truths. No uninspired writer has ever produced a volume of gospel illustrations that compares with the Old Testament in type, shadow, or symbol. All through the sacred pages of the earlier books we have set forth the wonderful truths that have been made known to us by our Lord JESUS CHRIST.

Those of you who are familiar with the Tabernacle will recall the place which the veil had in connection with its furnishings and ordinances. By it the sanctuary was divided into two parts; the first was called the Holy Place, and into that particular room the priests went ministering from day to day. In it there were three pieces of furniture - the golden candlestick, speaking of CHRIST as the light of the world; the golden table of shew bread, speaking of CHRIST as the One who maintains and sustains His people through their wilderness journey; and the altar of incense, which speaks of CHRIST ever living to make intercession for us.

Then there was the inner sanctuary on the other side of the veil, called the Holiest of All. And in this room there was just one piece of furniture: the ark of the covenant, surmounted by the mercy seat. This was the dwelling place of GOD, and the mercy seat on top of the ark was the meeting place of GOD and man.

An uncreated light, the Shekinah glory, shone above the mercy seat between the golden cherubim, whose wings were spread out over it. Into this sacred enclosure, where the presence of GOD was manifested, the ordinary priests were not permitted to enter; only the High Priest, and that just once a year. He went in carrying a golden basin filled with atoning blood, which he sprinkled upon the mercy seat and before it, where he himself took his stand.

This was GOD's figure for the time then present, we are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when no man could have immediate access to GOD. There was a priesthood provided through which people drew nigh unto GOD in a ritualistic way, but GOD commanded that the people should stand afar off to worship Him, and the man who drew near was put to death. The only exception was the High Priest once every year.

The Veil of Separation

The veil which hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy was most significant, for we are told in Hebrews that it represented the flesh of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, that is, it represented Him as a man here on earth. The veil was composed of fine twined linen, ornamented with threads of blue and purple and scarlet, and cherubim were wrought upon it, setting forth the justice and judgment of GOD.

The fine twined linen pictures, as it always does in Scripture, perfect righteousness, the spotless and righteous life of the Lord JESUS CHRIST, the sinless One, in whom is no sin, for He knew no sin. The blue suggested His Heavenly character. He was not a mere man, born as other men are; He was the Son of man from Heaven. The purple spoke of royal dignity. He was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the One who came to reign on earth, the righteous King.

The scarlet is most significant. It literally means, "The splendor of a worm." This seems a strange expression to us, but it need not be. In Mexico there is a little insect that feeds on cactus, called the cochineal. It is ground up in a mortar and its blood makes a crimson dye. Also in Palestine, there was a little worm called the tola. When it was crushed, it produced the scarlet dye which was used in making the beautiful garments that clothed the nobility. In Psalm 22:6, the Lord says, "I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." He took the lowest place, the place of a worm, and was crushed in death that you and I might be clothed with the beautiful garments of righteousness and glory. The scarlet speaks of suffering and of glory. Think, then, how wonderfully that veil sets forth the Lord JESUS CHRIST, the Heavenly One, the kingly One, the suffering One, the righteous One.

The Way into the Holiest

But the unrent veil shut man out from GOD, and the holy spotless life of JESUS was in itself a barrier rather than a means of approach to GOD. The unrent flesh of JESUS only served to shut GOD in and to shut man out. JESUS said, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). Men seem to think that our blessed Lord came to earth as an example to show us what man ought to be or do in order to obtain GOD's favor. The life of our Lord, instead of being an example which unconverted men may follow in order that they might find their way into the presence of GOD, is simply the condemnation of all men everywhere, for in CHRIST we see what man should be, but what no man ever was, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

The unrent flesh of JESUS was a barrier into the presence of GOD. No man is perfect as JESUS was, and therefore no man has a title as He had to enter into the presence of GOD uncondemned. But now the glorious gospel is this, that the holy One, the perfect One, the righteous One, the Heavenly One, the kingly One, went to Calvary's Cross, and there His flesh was rent; there He took the place of guilty sinners; there He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, He, the sinless One, was made sin for us.

"All our iniquities on Him were laid; All our indebtedness by Him was paid."

He took the sinner's place, and bore the sinner's judgment. He drank the cup of wrath that sinners so justly deserve to drink, endured the awful forsaking of GOD, and cried out at last, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Then, having drained that cup to the bitter dregs, having borne the judgment that you and I so richly deserve, He cried in triumph, ere He surrendered His spirit to the Father, "It is finished."

When He died, we read that "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom"; not from the bottom to the top as though some priest might have torn it asunder, but from the top to the bottom. It was the hand of GOD that rent that veil, in order to declare that now the way into His immediate presence has been opened through the rent flesh of His beloved Son. We read in the New Testament, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of JESUS, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated (or dedicated) for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:19, 20).

"The Holiest we enter
In perfect peace with GOD,
Through whom we found our center
In JESUS and His blood.
Though great may be our dullness
In thought and word and deed,
We glory in the fullness
Of Him that meets our need.

"Much incense is ascending
Before the eternal throne;
GOD graciously is bending
To hear each feeble groan.
To all our prayers and praises
CHRIST adds His sweet perfume,
And Love the censer raises
These odors to consume."

And there into the immediate presence of GOD, He who died upon the Cross to put away our sins has entered as our great High Priest. We are told in Hebrews that He is entered within the veil as our forerunner. His place in the Holiest is the pledge that all who believe on Him shall be there. He has gone in as our representative. He has gone in to announce to GOD the Father that through the virtue of His shed blood untold millions shall also be there.

A Pilgrim Path

In the meantime, we are walking, the sands of the desert. We are still down here on earth, and while we are here we have our trials, our sicknesses, our sufferings, and our sorrows to endure, but that loving heart of His feels for everyone of His people in their trials and griefs, and presents the incense of His own constant intercession there in the presence of GOD on our behalf. We may well say:

"O GOD, we come with singing,
Because Thy great High Priest
Our names to Thee is bringing,
Nor e'er forgets the least.

"For us He wears the mitre,
Where 'Holiness' shines bright;
For us His robes are whiter
Than Heaven's unsullied light."

In spirit we are invited, yea, we are urgently commanded, to enter into the Holiest of All as purged worshipers. Where do you worship? If somebody were to ask you this question what would your answer be? Would you say, "In Moody Church?" That is a poor place in which to worship. How could you worship in the Moody Church, or any other church, if the veil were not rent!

Oh, dear Christian, do understand that they who worship the Father "must worship him in spirit and in truth." As we do this, where is the place of our worship? Not in any sanctuary made with hands, no matter how beautiful, how glorious, how grand, but only inside the veil. Your body may occupy a seat in some building, but if in spirit you come to GOD through the rent veil, the death of JESUS, and bow before Him in adoration, in love, in thanksgiving, in the name of His blessed Son, that is worship.

"The veil is rent - our souls draw near
Unto a throne of grace;
The merits of the Lord appear,
They fill the holy place.

"His precious blood has spoken there,
Before and on the throne;
And His own wounds in Heaven declare,
The atoning work is done.

"Tis finished! - here our souls have rest.
His work can never fail:
By Him, our Sacrifice and Priest.
We pass within the veil.

"Within the Holiest of All,
Cleansed by His precious blood,
Before the throne we prostrate fall,
And worship Thee, O GOD!

"Boldly the heart and voice we raise,
His blood, His name, our plea;
Assured our prayers and songs of praise
Ascend, by CHRIST, to Thee."

True Worship

When people talk of worshiping in some building on earth, and think of a ritualistic service as worship, and talk of worshiping GOD in music, it simply shows that they do not understand what is involved in the rending of the veil. The worship that is acceptable to GOD is the music that rises up to Him as His SPIRIT touches the heart-strings of His redeemed people and we bow before Him, the Holiest of All, singing and making melody in our hearts unto the Lord.

It is not merely that on Sunday mornings we press our way inside the veil; no, that is the place where we should be abiding in spirit constantly. Sometimes I go into a meeting where there is a very good atmosphere and some well-meaning brother rises to pray, and says, "O GOD, we thank Thee that this morning we have been sitting together in Heavenly places in CHRIST."

But it is not just when a good meeting is going on, but in every moment of the believer's life, he is sitting in Heavenly places in CHRIST JESUS. The place of our abiding is inside the veil, in the immediate presence of GOD with nothing between. All that once shut GOD in and shut man out has been removed in the death of CHRIST.

Outside the Camp

But we must now consider the other expression, "Outside the camp," for what the old hymn says is true:

"Our Lord is now rejected,
And by the world disowned;
By the many still neglected,
And by the few enthroned."

Just as His place in glory is our place, so His place on earth is our place, as we go through this sinful world. What is His place down here? It is the place of rejection, for "He came unto his own, and his own received him not."

These two expressions, "His own," are not absolutely the same. The first is the neuter; the second is personal, and the passage may be paraphrased: "He came unto his own things and his own people received him not."

Think of it, He came to His own city, Jerusalem, the city of the great King. If there was any place on earth where He might have expected to be received with gladness and acclaim, it was Jerusalem. He came unto His own temple, every whit of it uttered His glory, the very veil spoke of His perfect humanity, and every piece of furniture pictured Him. There was the altar, the laver, the candlestick, the table of shew bread, and everything spoke of Him; but as He came to His own things, the very priests in the temple joined in the cry, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" and they led Him outside the gate, the rejected One.

"Our Man's rejected, don't you know
It happened many years ago,
Yea, centuries have passed away
Since it was great election day
In Salem's city, e'en the same,
Where GOD the Lord had set His Name."

There were two candidates that day, CHRIST and Barabbas.

The people chose the murderer and rejected the Saviour.

He accepted the place they gave Him, and with lowly grace allowed them to lead Him outside the city, away from the temple, away from the palace, outside the gates, unto the place called Calvary,

"And there, He died,
A King crucified,
To save a poor sinner like me."

As far as the world is concerned it has never reversed that judgment. He is still the rejected One, and the place the world has given Him should determine the place that you and I will take. He was rejected, not merely by the barbarian world, not merely by those who were living low, degraded lives, but also by the literary world, the cultured world, the religious world. It was the religious leaders of the people who demanded His death, and all the world acquiesced. The world still continues to do so. It has its culture, its refinements, its civilization (often mistaken for Christianity), its religion (one that has no place for the Cross of CHRIST, or the vicarious atonement, or His glorious resurrection), but our blessed Lord is apart from it all, and the Word to us is this, "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach."

Sharing His Rejection

Do you rejoice in the salvation He purchased on the Cross, but shrink from participating in His rejection? Are you still seeking a place in the world that had no place for Him? Or, does your heart say, "We would not have joy where He had woe; be rich where He was poor"? Inside the veil - that is, the place of privilege; outside the camp - that is, the place of responsibility. A beautiful little hymn puts it this way:

"Through Thy precious body broken
Inside the veil:
O what words to sinners spoken
Inside the veil.
Precious as the blood that bought us;
Perfect as the love that sought us;
Holy as the Lamb that brought US
Inside the veil.

"When we see Thy love unshaken
Outside the camp;
Scorned by man, by GOD forsaken,
Outside the camp.
Thy loved Cross alone can charm us;
Shame need now no more alarm us;
Glad we follow, nought can harm US
Outside the camp.

"Lamb of GOD, through Thee we enter
Inside the veil;
Cleansed by Thee we boldly venture
Inside the veil.
Not a stain; a new creation;
Ours is such a full salvation;
Low we bow in adoration
Inside the veil.

"Unto Thee, the homeless stranger,
Outside the camp;
Forth we hasten, fear no danger,
Outside the camp.
Thy reproach, far richer treasure
Than all Egypt's boasted pleasure;
Drawn by love that knows no measure
Outside the camp.

"Soon Thy saints shalt all be gathered
Inside the veil;
All at home, no more be scattered,
Inside the veil.
Nought from Thee our hearts shalt sever;
We shall see Thee, grieve Thee never;
'Praise the LAMB!' shalt sound forever
Inside the veil."

(Taken from chapter 11 of Charge That To My Account by Harry Ironside)

The Greatest Text In The Bible

by Harry Ironside

"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" (John 3:16).

WHY do so many people think this is the greatest text in the Bible? There are other wonderful texts that dwell on the love of God, that show how men are delivered from judgment, that tell us how we may obtain everlasting life, but no other one verse, as far as I can see, gives us all these precious truths so clearly and so distinctly. So true is this that when the gospel is carried into heathen lands, and missionaries want to give a synopsis of the gospel to a pagan people, all they find it necessary to do, if they are going to a people that have a written language, is to translate and print this verse, and it tells out the story that they are so anxious for the people to hear. If they do not have a written language, invariably one of the first scriptures that they are taught to memorize is John 3:16.

I have a slip of paper sent to me by my friend, Allan Cameron of China. In those odd characters this same message is written, and that message put into the hands of the Chinese has often been used to lead a soul to Christ. Not immediately, of course, for he does not understand it all at once, but it has led him to ask upon what authority is this statement based, and so eventually he is led to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many Truths in One Verse

How many truths are wrapped up in that one verse! In the first place, there is the personality of God --"God so loved." A God who can love is a person. We had a woman in the United States who invented a religion a few years ago, and she said it was all love, and yet she said that God is impersonal. But that is not possible. Just imagine falling in love with a cloud, or thinking that a cloud is loving you! It is something utterly impossible; you cannot do it. Behind love there must be a person with a warm, loving heart. "God so loved."

This Chinese translation which my friend Cameron sent me, says, "God so passionately loved the world, that he gave." It was a divine passion, a heart in heaven throbbing in loving sympathy with men in all their trials and difficulties here on earth. What a wonderful revelation that is, and it is all wrapped up in this one verse.

Then there is the truth of the divine Fatherhood. This God so loved men "that he gave his only begotten Son." There cannot be a son without a father. If God gave His Son, God Himself is a Father, and that is a revelation the pagan world never dreamed of.

Then again, there is the lost condition of mankind. God gave His well beloved Son, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." An unsaved man is in grave danger. You, dear unsaved one, are in grave danger of being so utterly lost that you may be banished from the presence of this God of love forever, and yet He it is who has provided a means whereby His banished ones may return to Him. God gave Him up to a sacrificial death on Calvary's cross for all men, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

The universality of the offer of mercy is also here. It is a "whosoever" message, and what does "whosoever" mean? A gentleman came one time to my former home city and took an entire week for a series of lectures on John 3:16. During that time he labored every night to prove that the world that God loved was the world of the elect, and that "whosoever" was simply the "whosoever" that God had chosen from the foundation of the world. No wonder it took him a week to try to make out that kind of a thing. Any child can see the difference between a doctrine like that and that which is revealed in this text. Any one of school age knows the meaning of "whosoever."

You may have heard the story of the old Scotchman who had been brought up with the idea that God had predetermined just so many people to be saved, and all the rest were created to be damned. He felt that he ought to be willing to say, "O God, if it is Thy will to damn me, I do not want to be saved"; but he did want to be saved, and was in the deepest agony of soul about it. But still they all said, "If you are not one of the elect, you cannot be saved."

One day he was out in the field plowing, when he found a piece of paper with a large text on it. He tried to spell it out, but he was not very good at reading, and so he read s l o w l y: "For--God--so--loved--the--world--that--he--gave---his---only---be-got-ten---Son--that--who-so-ever." He wondered what that meant, but as he did not know, he passed on to the next part. "That--who-so-ever--be-liev-eth--in--him---should--not--perish---but--have---ever---last-ing--life."

"Man!" he said, "here's good news for somebody. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who-so-ever! I wonder who is meant by that word. Here is somebody who can have everlasting life, elect or not elect." And while he was pondering the question, he saw a lad going by with a bunch of books under his arm. He called to him, "Here, laddie, can ye read?"

"Aye, that I can," he replied.

"Well, will you read this?"

Wanting to impress the old man with his great ability, the boy read like a race horse; "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."

"O laddie, laddie, don't read it so fast; read it again, and read it slowly so I can get every word, and be careful with that long word," said the old man. And so the boy read it again.

"Does it really say there that somebody can be saved by just believing?" the old man asked. "What does that long word mean?"

"Oh," said the boy, "whosoever means you, or me, or any other body; but there goes the bell, I have to run," and away he went.

The old man stood there, and read it again, "For God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that you, or me, or any other body believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"Man!" he said, "that's good news for a sinner like me; I don't need to find out whether I am elect or not," and he dropped down between the plow handles, and there confessed himself a sinner for whom Jesus died. He took God at His word and his soul was saved.

One Text a Whole Week

One of the earliest stories I ever heard about D. L. Moody was one with which some of you are familiar. When he was in Great Britain, he met a young Englishman by the name of Henry Moorhouse. One day Moorhouse said to Moody "I am thinking of going to America."

"Well," said Moody, "if you should ever be in Chicago come down to my place, and I will give you a chance to preach."

Now although Mr. Moody was not two-faced, he was merely trying to be polite, for mentally he was saying, "I hope he won't come." There are so many people, you know, who want to preach, although God never meant them to, and Mr. Moody was not quite sure of Mr. Moorhouse. He was rather taken back one day when, just before leaving for a series of meetings, he received a telegram, "Have just arrived in New York. Will be in Chicago on Sunday."

"And now," thought Moody, "I am going away, and I told him he could preach here." So he said to his wife and to his committee, "Here's this young Englishman coming; let him preach once, and then if the people enjoy him, put him on again."

When Moody returned, he said to his wife, "Well, what about that young preacher?"

"Oh," she said, "he is a better preacher than you are. Why, he is telling sinners that God loves them."

"He is wrong!" said Moody, "God doesn't love sinners." "Well," she said, "you go and hear him." "Why, is he still preaching?" asked Mr. Moody.

"Yes, he has been preaching all week and has taken only one text, John 3:16," was her reply.

When Mr. Moody went to the meeting, Moorhouse got up, and said, "I have been hunting and hunting all through the Bible, looking for a text, and I think we will just talk about John 3:16 once more." Mr. Moody always testified that it was on that night that he got his first clear understanding of the gospel and the love of God. Think what it meant in Moody's life, and in the lives of tens of thousands who were reached through his ministry, to know that God loves sinners. Are you one of those who has been saying, "If I were only a little better, I could believe that God loves me?" O dear friend, hear it again:

"Sinners Jesus will receive;
Sound this word of grace to all
Who the heavenly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall."

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15).

Just Like African Boys

I remember when I was a boy, going to a missionary meeting. A missionary was there from Africa, and was showing us a whole lot of curious things, and then he said, "Now boys, I want to tell you the kind of gospel we preach to the people in Africa. How many good boys have we here? A lot of us thought we were good, but our mothers were there, and so not one of us dared hold up his hand. "Well," said he, "not one good boy here; then I have the same message for you that we have for the heathen in Africa; God loves naughty boys!"

"My," I thought, "he is getting all mixed up," for you see I had heard people say, "If you are good, God will love you." But, dear friends, that is not true. God is not waiting for you to be good so He can love you; God loves sinners, and has proven His love for them by the gift of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Instead of waiting for people to be good, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Do you believe it, dear friend?

The difficulty is that men have this wrong idea about God, and are always trying to make out that they are better than they are. "Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?" (Proverbs 20:6). You will find people down in the depths of sin, but they are always ready to compare themselves with other folk, saying, "I am as good as they are." But God has no message and no blessing for men who are trying to justify themselves.

As long as you try to make a good name for yourself, God can only condemn you; but when you come into His presence and confess yourself a lost, guilty sinner, God has a message and a blessing for you. "God so loved the world" -- a wicked, corrupt, and ungodly world, and you and I belong to it. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man" (Proverbs 27:19). God's Word declares that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jeremiah 17:9, 10). Yet, knowing all the wickedness of which my heart and your heart is capable, God loves us and gave His Son to die for us.

My! what a gospel this is; what a message to bring to poor, needy sinners! We do not come to men, and say, "Turn over a new leaf; quit your meanness; give up this, and give up that." We do not ask any one to give up; we ask you to receive the gift of God, and when you receive that gift, "the things of the world will grow strangely dim in the light of Christ's glory and grace."

A lad tried to preach on John 3:16 one day. He was asked to give his testimony, but thought he had better get up a sermon. He divided his text into four heads:

God loved.
God gave.
I believe.
I have.

Could you make a better division than that?

A Girl's Horror of God

A little girl who lived in Luther's day had been brought up with a perfect horror of God. She thought of Him as always watching her, taking note of every wrong thing she did, and just waiting to visit judgment upon her. Her parents could not get that fear out of her mind. Her father was a printer, and was working on Luther's first German Bible. One day she was in his shop, when just a corner of one of the sheets of the Bible caught her eye. She looked at it, and as she read it, her whole attitude toward God changed, and she said, "Mother, I am not afraid of God any more."

"Well, my dear," said the mother, "I am glad of that, but why are you not afraid of God?"

"Oh," she replied, "look what I found, a piece of the Bible, and it says, 'God so loved, that he gave.'" It was just a part of two lines.

"Well," her mother said, "how does that take away your fear of God? It doesn't say what He gave."

"Oh, but if He loved us enough to give anything, I am not afraid," said the child. And then her mother sat down and opened up the whole truth to her.

People are stumbling over the simplest things. Take, for instance, that word believeth. You would think that was plain enough for anybody, but all my life I have heard people say, "I have always believed, and yet I am not saved." It does not say, "Whosoever believeth the Bible, or creeds, or even the gospel story," but it does say, "Whosoever believeth in him."

What is it to believe in Him? It means to put your soul's confidence in Him, to trust in Him, God's blessed Son. When in Toronto, I picked up a copy of a broad Scotch translation of the New Testament, and the first thing I noticed was that this word believeth is not found there at all. Instead of believeth there is the Scotch word, lippen, and it means to throw your whole weight upon. This is the way it reads, "Whosoever lippens to Jesus should not perish, but have the life of the ages" -- the life that runs on through all the ages.

Just Lippen to Jesus

One day Dr. Chalmers spent hours with a poor, anxious soul, trying to lead her into peace, but she could not understand what it was to believe, and finally he had to leave her. On the way home he had to cross a creek with a shaky old bridge over it, and as he was feeling his way across in a very careful manner, one of his parishioners who saw him, called out, "Can you nae lippen the bridge?" Immediately he said, "That's the word for the old lady I have just left," and he went back to her, and said, "I have got the word for you, can you nae lippen to Jesus?"

"Lippen?" she said, "is it just to lippen? Aye, I can lippen to Him. He will never let me down, will He?"

"Yes, that is it," he replied, "He will never let you down." Have you been struggling, trying, working; have you been promising and trying to give up this and to do this, that, and the other thing? O dear friend, hear it, "Whosoever lippens to Jesus shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

Another "Whosoever"

But now notice the alternative. They who trust in Jesus will not perish, but what about those who do not trust in Him? There is another whosoever. In Revelation 20, where we have that solemn picture of the last judgment, we read, "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:11-15).

Listen to it, sinner, whosoever in the day of judgment "was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Who are found written in the book of life? "Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." There they are, those who believed, and those that did not believe; those who received the gift of God, and those who spurned the gospel, trampling under foot the grace of God. They stand in the judgment as poor, lost, trembling souls to hear their dreadful sentence. You may be saved now without money and without price.

"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 Him who was nailed to the tree."

Look, sinner, look to Jesus just now and be saved.