## Everybody's Favorite Verse

## John 3:16

Our text this morning is perhaps the best known verse in the whole Bible. As a child it is one of the first verses ever memorized. A Sunday School teacher wrote this verse on a piece of paper and then placed it inside a walnut shell and asked his class if they knew what it meant. One bright young lad said, "Why yes, it is the Gospel in a nutshell!" And that it is! If the only shred of the Bible you had was this portion of the third chapter of John, it would be enough to evangelize every person in the known world. How can that be?

I. It Tells Us What God Has Done To Save Us.

A. He loves us.

1. There is a word that has been misused in the past and continues to be misused by nearly all of us.

2. We apply it to all sorts of things and as a result its meaning has been diluted.

3. Love is a commitment that one makes to another.

4. Love is not just an emotional feeling that is experienced one day and is gone the next.

5. When we read the words 'For God so loved the world' we understand the true meaning of love.

6. God's love is all inclusive...He loves the unlovely... He loves us even when we don't return that love to Him.

7. God loves the world but He also loves the "whosoever"...it is a personal love.

B. He gave His Son to save us.

1. Here is the greatest demonstration of His love toward us.

2. True love always demands giving.

3. We occasionally read of where a man has gone into battle for another and then is tragically killed, but these do not fully illustrate the love of God.

4. God gave His only begotten Son for us knowing that it meant death for Him.

5. Jesus willingly laid down His life for us on Calvary.

II. It Tells Us What We Must Do To Be Saved.

A. What good would it be to know the truth if we did not know how to apply it?

1. The cure for every disease known to man exists...we just do not know how to appropriate it.

2. Knowledge without understanding is of little value to us.

3. My Aunt lived for 50 years as a widow. She worked hard and tried to cut corners everywhere she could. One area she did was in food. For breakfast she would eat a piece of toast and drink a cup of coffee, for lunch it would be the same, and then for her evening meal she would eat a very meager meal. This went on for years because she thought she could not afford to eat any differently. She developed intestinal problems which ultimately led to her death. When my father was settling her estate he found several shares of stock in AT & T which was worth thousands of dollars. She had it in her possession all the time, but she did not know how to appropriate it!

B. This verse tells us how to appropriate the gift of God.

1. "Whosoever believeth in Him"

2. It is not just believing about Him, but it is believing in Him...trusting Him as Savior.

3. For years I believed about Christ, but it wasn't until I was 23 years old that I believed in Him for salvation!

4. True belief necessitates repentance.

5. Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of direction for our lives.

6. Our thinking about sin needs to change.

7. We need to make a turn-around...turn away from sin and toward the Savior.

8. A man who was traveling by foot stopped along the road and asked directions to a certain place. A boy told him that if he continued going in the same direction that he had been traveling then the place was about 25,000 miles and that he would never make it, but if he would turn around and go in the opposite direction he would reach the place in just a couple of miles!

9. The Scriptures teach us that there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but that the ways thereof are the ways of death.

10. Some of you need to turn around and come to Christ today.

III. It Tells Us What We Get and What We Don't Get When We Get Saved.

A. We don't get a wasted life.

1. So many today are putting all of their talent and effort into achieving goals that are temporal.

2. Look at the millions of dollars and all of the time that has been spent on the election.

3. If the Lord tarries His coming another 25 years or so they will only be names in the encyclopedias.

4. You may be caught up in trying to reach the "American Dream" but one day you will wake up in eternity!

5. Don't waste your life on the things of this world and the tarnished trophies that it offers.

B. We don't have to go to hell.

1. "...Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish..."

2. What does a person have to do to go to hell? Absolutely nothing!

3. Note: v18 "...he that believeth not is condemned already..."

4. In Paris there is a prison that is set aside for only those prisoners who have been condemned to death.

5. Above the gates to this prison is an inscription that reads "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here".

6. But far worse than that hopelessness is the hopelessness of those who die without Christ, who is the only One who can save us from hell!

C. We get to go to heaven.

1. For those who will believe in Him, He promises eternal life.

2. Eternal life begins at the moment we put our faith and trust in Him.

3. It is both a present possession and it is our future possession.

4. Jesus said that since we have received eternal life that we will never perish.

5. Eternal means eternal and never means never!

No wonder this is the most popular verse in the Bible. It tells us all we need to know to spend eternity in Heaven with the Lord. It tells us what God has done to save us, what we must do to be saved, and what being saved means to us. Some might say that it is just too simple, that there has to be more. It becomes a question of trust. Do you trust God's Word? Remember, he that believeth not is already condemned. Why not accept what God's Word has to say and be saved?