Well, some of you heard that I was supposed to have been here a couple of weeks ago or three and had a little fainting spell. I had a doctor's appointment the next day. He checked me over and he came in and he says, everything looks normal. I said, how great. I wasn't normal before. I'm glad that I'm normal now. They couldn't find anything, and I don't know what it was. I kindly think I figured it out. I figured out that it was such a terrific sermon that I preached, and it was right at the end of that sermon, and I felt like I might pass out. I think the sermon was so terrific it floored me. And then someone said to me, Pastor, You'll do anything to get attention, won't you? It's so good to be back with you. I looked forward to being here the last time and then was not able. I'm so thankful that Brother Dennis Littleton was able to come. He was at church that morning. My wife thought quickly and said, how about Dennis? Could he go for you? And so I sent Dennis and I noticed that he's going to be with you again next Sunday. And I'm thankful for him. He's a good man. He was pastor at Westview right before I came. And then he went up to Palm Coast and was there for about 15 years. And I pastored at Westview. And so we're dear friends. In fact, Glenn's daughter is married to Dennis's son. and we're all together. Way out in West Texas, there is a place called Plains, Texas. The reason it's called Plains, it's very plains, you can see forever and ever. In fact, that's the country of the big sky. Well, in Plains, there's a county courthouse. and they had a trial here not long ago, thought you might be interested in. I might need to make a disclaimer before I tell all of this story. When I tell these West Texas stories, they're either true or they could have happened, or I imagine they happened. So I want you to know that this is true. So in Plains, Texas, they have a courthouse in there. There was a court case and the judge was a good judge that was trying it. And there was a man that lived in that area that was an atheist. And he got the best lawyer you could find and he brought a suit against the people. He said, it's not right. that all these Christians and Jews have all their holidays. Christians have Christmas, and each of the Jews have their holidays, and being an atheist, there's no day for us to celebrate. It's not fair, and I want an injunction that they all be stopped. No more celebrations. Well, the lawyer made a really good presentation of his client's beliefs, and the judge listened very carefully. He was a good judge. He always listened carefully. When the attorney had finished, he took a gavel and said, case dismissed. And boy, it upset the man that's bringing the suit, and the attorney was on his feet, and he said, Judge, I've made a good case. I don't understand. This is discrimination. Why aren't you ruling a different way in this case? The judge said, Oh, your client, counselor, is not up to date. He does not understand. There is a day for the atheist to celebrate. And the attorney said, sir, with all due respect, your honor, I do not know of any date for the atheist. He said, oh yes. He said, if you'll go to the Bible, it says in Psalm 14.1, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Every year, April the first, we celebrate fool's day. Case dismissed. Doesn't it do you good to laugh? So glad to be with you and be here. I've chosen today to speak from the most familiar passage of scripture in the whole Bible. It's one that you know. If you do not, I'd be surprised. In fact, this verse, if no one knows any other verse in the Bible, they'll know this verse. John 3, 16. Would you stand with me as I read it? But instead of reading it, I want you to quote it with me. Let's do it in whatever version you have. Most people know it in the old King James. If you want to do it in that, that'll be fine. Let's say it together. 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. Let's do it one more time. for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that who live within him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You may be seated. I was several years ago, I was preaching through the Gospel of John. Through the years, this is my 59th year of pastoring and being preaching every Sunday. I usually preach through a book. Not every verse, but through a book. And I came to John chapter 3. I preached a message from John chapter 3, verse 1 through 18. A great passage of Scripture. Always on Monday morning after I had preached, I'd go to my office, my study, and I'd prepare my heart for the next Sunday. Overwhelming feeling came to me that I should preach from John 3, 16. And I said, oh no, Lord. I preached John 1 through 18, chapter 3, verse 1 through 18, and everyone knows John 3, 16. There's no need. And God spoke to me in that still small voice and said to me, yes, Bill, they know it from memory, but they really don't understand it. I preached from that verse. And since that time, this verse has become a very important verse. I quote it in almost every sermon I preach. But I wonder, think with me a moment. How long has it been since you heard a sermon on John 3.16? We quote it, we know it, we use it. It's a very important verse, but people do not preach from it much. And the reason is very simple. Once you quote it, you've said it all. expound on it, explain it. It almost seems impossible. It seems that there's no need of explanation. But this morning, I want to do something a little different. Even though this verse is the epitome of the gospel, and Dr. Herschel Hobbs in one of his books wrote, if the whole Bible were lost and only this verse were left, there's enough gospel in this one verse to save the whole wide world. And even though we know it, we don't really look at it. I want to do this this morning. I want to take this verse and hold it up to the light, even as you would a gym. turn it ever so slowly so that we could look at every aspect of this verse and we might go from this place not only being able to quote it, but being able to apply it to our life and to use it in the leading of other people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's start together. For God. Where else would you start? The only place to start with anything is to start with God. If you start any other place, you always come up with the wrong answer. Have you noticed? This is the starting place. God is the one that created the heavens and the earth. God is the one that started it all. God is the one that designed it and planned it. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he created everything that was created. There's no other place to start. And when in this verse it says, for God, it is saying to us that God is the source of everything. He is the source of creation. He is the source of life. He is the source of family. He is the source of friendship. He is the source of love. And He is the source of salvation. If it were not for the grace and the mercy of God, there would be no forgiveness of sin. The Lord God Himself is the source. There is no other place to go. There is no other place to look. God started it all. But not only does it say that He is the source, these two words for God says to us, that He initiated salvation for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Before the world was formed, God's plan was in place. He is the one that when Adam and Eve went away from Him, from that time until our time, He has been seeking to bring back people to Him, to work through the Holy Spirit of the living God, to draw them, to open their eyes, to help them to understand. He is the very source of salvation. For God. Let's go a step further. Did you notice the next two verses, two words? So loved. That's an important teaching for us today. So loved. The word used here, as you are aware, is the word agape love, God kind of love, not the kind of love we have. We say, oh glibly, I love you. And did you know that we use the same word in the English language for love? We love our cats. We love our dogs. We love our cars. We love our houses. We love our wives. We love our children. Same word. Not so. This word agape love is a God kind of love. It is a love that loves when no one loves in return. It is a kind of God, a love God, God's love that loves when we do not deserve it. It's not hard for me to love you people. When I come to this church, you're so nice to me. You act like you're glad to see me again. You're so kind and considerate. But think about this. People in the world hate God. Say all manner of evil against God, turn against God, rebel against God, and God keeps on loving them. No one escapes the love of God. God so loved, the greatest love the world has ever known is God's love. Did you notice that even though that word agape love does not need defining. The word is used, so loved. There is even an adverb that explains greater than the greatest love, God so loved. When he looked on sinful man, his heart was moved, compassion was there. He moved to provide love. Did you notice by chance the words that followed, so loved? God so loved that He gave. God's love is not a passive love. How many times do we glibly say, I love you? But we don't ever give them anything, not even a handshake. Don't pray for them. God did not glibly say, I love you. Oh, you fallen people, I love you. He gave. If I told you I love my wife Ann, we've been married 59 years now, but I never bought her a new dress, never showed any love, talked to her in such a way that no one knew it. You'd say, yeah, he says he loves her, but no, no. God gave. He so loved. He gave, never passive, always active. God is at work on our behalf. God loves us. Not only is that true, notice what He gave. God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son. Anne and I wanted to have four children. We were going to have Kay and Kenneth and Keith and Kimberly. We only had Kay. I told her the other day, I said, Kay, I've discovered why God didn't let us have any more. Why, Daddy? Well, after you came along, as much as you've cost me, we couldn't afford any more. We wanted four children. I remember when she was born. Back then, we didn't know whether it's a boy or a girl. And so I bought a baseball bat, a football, basketball, and a glove. I took her to the hospital with me when she was born, waiting out for them to come and tell me. And they came and said, you've got a little girl. When I saw her, I wouldn't trade her for all the boys in the world. She's the joy of my life. And here's what I want you to notice. As much as I love Jesus, and as much as I want to serve Him, I cannot imagine that I could offer my only daughter for those who hate me, those who rebel against me, those who do all manner of evil. And yet God's love is so great that he gave his only begotten son. He went beyond what could be expected. Who could expect it of God? That's how much he loves. Abraham in offering his son Isaac is the picture of God offering his only son. For God so loved, notice the next word, whosoever. For God so loved the world that whosoever, that may be the most beautiful word in this whole verse. You know what it really means? God excluded no one. God's included everyone. He didn't include those that were really bad. He didn't exclude those that were really good. He didn't include just the wealthy and the popular and the politician. God so loved the world that He included whosoever may come. Nothing is more beautiful. We in our nation, though we don't carry it out, we say that we believe all people are created equal. That's a God principle. God's not down on anyone. He's up on everyone. He loves everyone. He wants anyone and everyone, regardless of what they've done or failed to do, to come to Him, whosoever will may come. When Anne and I went to Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, a Baptist school, the motto was something that was very attractive. The college where everybody is somebody. Don't you like to feel that you're important? I mean, not an egotistical type of important, but someone cares for you. Isn't it wonderful that God said, I don't care what you've done. I love you. I love you so much. I'm willing to forgive you. I'm willing to take you like you are, just as you are, just as I am. You can come to him. God really loves you. He loves those who are drug addicts. He loves those who are alcoholics. He loves those who have abused people. He loves them. And yes, He loves the up and out as well as the down and out. He loves whosoever will may come. For God so loved whosoever. Did you notice the next word? believeth or believes. You know, that word is probably the most misunderstood word in this verse. If you were to walk down the street today and you were to say to people, do you believe in God? Oh, yes. Maybe not as much today as it used to be, but yes, I believe, but you can tell they don't by the way they live. They don't believe in God. You can tell by the things they do and the way they talk and the attitude they have, living for self, not living for God. People don't really believe. The Bible says that belief is not head knowledge. The demons believe there's a God. You see, it's more than that. It's a heart belief. It really means to trust in, rely on, to give yourself a way to. I couldn't but help think, I don't see a chair here, but let's use this pew, for example. I walked in this building, didn't think a lot about it, but I believed that pew would hold me up. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have sat in it. And why did I believe it? Well, head knowledge. It was built to hold up people. Head knowledge, I'd seen other people set in the pews before. Head knowledge, I knew that everything was designed to hold up people. So I trusted it, but it was more than that. When I really believed in it, it was not looking at it, not just head knowledge, but when I sat in it, I trusted myself completely to that pew. I don't know if any people here are like my wife, and she doesn't like for me to tell this, but she's not here. She hates to fly. Hates to fly. I said to her, Ann, I don't understand this. We fly, we were missionaries, we flew all over the world. I said, I don't understand why you hate to fly. I said, you know the Lord is your savior. If you die, you're going to heaven. She said, I'm not worried about going to heaven. It's the time that airplane falls till it hits the ground that bothers me. I could take Anne to the airport and I could say to her, Anne, see, those airplanes are flying. She said, yes, I believe. I'd say, Anne, we're meeting someone. They're getting off the plane. They just flew in. Yes, I know. I believe they'll fly. Anne, do you want to fly? No way. Not willing to trust. You see, it's not enough to say, I know there's a God, I know Jesus died. It's got to come to the place that you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, trusting and relying on Him alone. Nothing else can do it. Belief is more than head knowledge. It's more than doing words. It's trusting with all your heart the Lord Jesus Christ. For God, so loved, Whosoever believeth. Did you notice the next word? Should not perish. Would you agree with me that this is the greatest love verse in all the Bible? And did you realize that in this very verse, it talks about eternal damnation? Should not perish. The word hell is not used, but the concept is there. A lot of people say today, I believe in heaven, but I don't believe in hell. You can't have one without the other. In this verse, in this very verse, those who believe will not perish. God has provided a place for those that will reject Him. It is a place called hell. We don't hear a lot of preaching on hell anymore, and we don't need to dwell on it all the time. But we need to know that the Bible teaches hell. There is more said about hell in the Bible than there is about heaven. And we need to know that the Bible teaches God is saving us through Christ Jesus from eternal damnation. A devil's hell, prepared for the devil and his angels. And this verse, greatest love verse, talks about eternal destruction. The very last words are important. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, now notice, but have everlasting life. No teaching is more beautiful than that. Those who have wasted life, those who have gone against God, if they come to the place that the Spirit of God is drawing them, and they turn from sin, and with their heart they believe, and they trust Jesus, they are forgiven, and God gives them eternal life. Two things you need to remember. Eternal life doesn't just happen in the by and by. The moment that person really trusts Jesus, they receive eternal life. You see, eternal life starts here and now, not just in the hereafter. Those who trust Christ can face their problems better. Those who trust Christ can have a home that has meaning. Those who trust Christ can have marriage that's meaningful. Those who trust God can be a part of a community. Those who trust God have life that's better. I still believe that life goes better with Jesus, not Coca-Cola. Life goes better with Jesus. Life starts now. And then, when we die physically, the Lord Jesus takes us by the hand, leads us across what we call death's chilly tide, and we go to a place that is prepared for us forever and ever and ever. We will be with Him. This place is called Heaven. No more crying. No more suffering. No more pain. No more separation. Heaven must be a beautiful place. I believe in the streets of gold and I believe in the gates of pearl, but I want you to know what makes it beautiful is the very presence of Jesus in heaven. 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 was pastor of the Borinquen Baptist Church in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, just off of Ramey Air Force Base. Loved every minute of it. I'd still be there if the base hadn't closed. We had to come back to the States when the base closed. I always stood out in front of the church on Sunday morning. Most of the people that came to our church, though not all of them, were from Ramey Air Force Base. I'd watch them as they drove in, and wave at them, and shake their hand when they got out of the car, and help them on their way to Sunday school, and waited until I thought all the cars had come, and I was ready to turn to go back to my office, and I saw this car drive in. It was a little Bronco Ford, that tells you how long ago it was. And I saw the guy when he got out of the car, had on a cowboy hat, blue jeans, had a handlebar mustache. And I thought, here comes a prospect for evangelism. I met him as he walked in and got him to their Sunday school class. And much to my surprise, in a couple of weeks, they joined our church. And Russ said to me, Pastor, I want to tell you about my experience with Jesus. And this is his story. He said, I was stationed up north in the Air Force, and I knew my job so very well that I could do it blindfolded. And he said, I had become an alcoholic. Nobody knew it, but I did. The last thing I'd do every night was take a drink. The first thing I'd do every morning was take a drink. And I got my orders to go to Vietnam. He said, that's probably the only thing that saved my marriage. He said, I took my wife back to Louisiana, and I just hated to go back there, but I had to take her back. The reason I didn't want to go back, her mother was one of those Bible-thumping Baptists, and said that every time I went to visit them, she talked to me about Jesus from the time I walked in the door till I left. And I didn't want to hear it, but I didn't have a choice. When I got her back into Louisiana, getting ready to leave, she didn't talk to me one time about Jesus. She just kindly was friendly with me and loved me. Right before I left, she said, Russ, you're going to Vietnam. Understand that people getting killed over there. Said, I want to give you this little New Testament. Would you take it with you? And you might want to read it. You never know what might happen to you, Rush. You might need to be ready to meet God. That's all she said. Rush said, I took it. I didn't want to argue with her. And I said, I put it in the bottom of my duffel bag. And I said to myself, I'm putting it there. And when I leave Vietnam, it'll still be there. I'm not going to fool with it. When he got to Vietnam, they didn't have enough space in the barracks, and they sent him downtown Saigon to a hotel. He said, I really didn't mind. He said at the barracks they didn't have a bar. At the hotel they had a bar. I could still take the last drink before I went to bed first thing in the morning. I'd have my drink. Everything was fine. He said when I moved in I didn't even notice, but right across the street from the hotel was a little Baptist church. made up of military people stationed there. And he said, I said to myself, if they'll leave me alone, I'll leave them alone and everything will be all right. Well, time went by and his job, he was working and the guy worked with him. And one day the guy said to him, Russ, we're having covered dish over at the church to not run across from your hotel. Why don't you come? Well, in one of his weaker moments, he thought of home cooked food and he thought, you know, that might be good. And the closer he got to the hour of going, the more he dreaded it. He said, I could imagine that they'd all sit around the wall, look at the floor and said they'd just kindly glance and talk about spiritual things. And I just knew I was going to have a terrible time. But he said, late in the afternoon, I came up with a solution. He said, I put a bottle in my boot And I said, if things get too bad, I'll slip out the back and take a little nip. And to his surprise, when he got there, he said those were the happiest people he'd ever seen. He said, they were so happy, I went over and inspected the punch. I thought maybe it was spiked. But he said, before, he said, few of them, nobody preached. A few of them got up and gave testimony and said, my wife's been sick, but the church where she goes has been taking care of her. My kids are having some problems back home, one said, but one of the deacons came to help them. And one of them said, you know, I'm so thankful for my faith in God. I was so away from God, and God has forgiven me, and there's such joy in my heart. And everything went along, and before he knew it, it was time to go home. He stayed around to help clean up. He didn't want to go back to the hotel. He couldn't understand it. He was the last one to leave with the guy who was locking up. He said, I walked across that street and about halfway across, something hit me in the heart. And the voice said, Russ, those people have something you don't have. You need it. He said, I went up those stairs to my room. I didn't even take the drink I always took before I went to bed. And I started looking everywhere for that little New Testament that my mother-in-law had given me. I looked in every duffel bag. And sure enough, in the last duffel bag in the very bottom was that New Testament. He said, I took it out and I tried to find what to read, where I could find some help. I wasn't having any luck. He said, about three o'clock in the morning. There was a verse that spoke to me. You know what it was? 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. He said that's it. He got down on by the side of the bed, and He prayed, Oh Jesus, I don't know what to pray, I don't know how to pray, but I want You to be my Savior. And he said, there was a peace that came over my heart that I'd never known. My life changed in that moment. He said, I slept like a baby for the rest of the night. First thing I did, I got up and as usual, I went down to the bar. I ordered my usual. He said, when it was brought to me, I couldn't drink it. I turned and walked away. You see, Jesus had loved him. God had given his only son. He believed! He was whosoever and he believed! And his life was changed forever. I understand that Russ is dead now. But when he died, the Lord Jesus took him by the hand, led him across death's chilly tide, and there he is forever. You know what? When Russ left the Air Force, he became a preacher of the gospel, and God used him. God is so good. Say with me, 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. Father in heaven, take this verse today and use it. Lord, if there's anyone here that has never trusted you as Savior, might today be the day. If anyone is trusting in anything else except Jesus, may they turn to you. Oh God, I just pray that you might use it in our hearts who know you to help others to understand it. May it become the theme of our church. May it become the theme of our life. May we be used to let people know that Jesus is still the answer. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.