GOD, from all eternity, contemplated the salvation of sinners, and gave His beloved Son, the blessed One, who, in His love, came to suffer, and bleed, and die.
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (read John 3:11There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: (John 3:1) to 16).
I said to one of a large household,
“Mary, you look very happy this morning; are you happy?”
“O, yes, sir,” she replied, “very happy.” “How is that, Mary?”
She answered, “I went, as you told me, and put myself down in the third of John, along with the world.”
“What world, Mary?”
“O, sir,” she replied, “the world we are told that God so loved.”
“Was it a world of angels, Mary?” “No, sir.”
“A world of saints, then?”
“No, sir.”
“Well, a world of believers?”
“No, sir, but a world of sinners; and that is where I am; and when I read ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,’ that tells me that God loves me.”
Let me pause and ask, Have you ever seen that? Have you ever put yourself in some truth of God like that? You complain of coldness and deadness, and say you cannot believe. Now, the reason, is, you do not go to the truth—the very thing to be believed; you do not go down upon the Rock—the truth, as GOD speaks it to you for salvation.
“But what more, Mary, makes you happy?”
“Ah, sir,” she replied, “the next line—it was that which brought me rest and peace —that ‘whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.’”
“Then you believe that Mary?”
“Yes, sir; I rest in that because God says it; and I am happy because there I see that Christ loved me, and died for me, and I have everlasting life.”
That is the whole English, the very alphabet and algebra of salvation, everything a poor sinner wants—he comes to know the love of Christ. And now ask the Christian how he knows he is saved; he will tell you, because of such a truth as that—that God says it. The God of truth declares,
“Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:1616For 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). I accept His testimony, rest on His Word, believe on His Son, and have the assurance that I am saved for eternity. Will you here and now do the same?
ML 07/10/1927