HOW GOD LOVED THE WORLD

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 iii. 16.

God has given me for my text to-night that verse of Scripture which I suppose has been used to the salvation of more people than any other verse in the Bible. It is John iii. 16: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Thousands of people have been saved by that wonderful verse; tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, by simply reading it in the Bible, by simply seeing it painted on the wall, by simply having it presented to them on a piece of cardboard. If there were time I could tell you to-night of a boy who began to read the Bible through, and was brought under very deep conviction of sin by just reading the Bible. As he read on and on, he came to the New Testament and to the Gospel of John, and to the third chapter and the sixteenth verse, and there he 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." And the moment he saw it,, he saw Christ on the cross for his sins, his burden all rolled away, and he found peace. I hope that hundreds to-night will be converted in this hall through my text, whether you hear my sermon or not.

This text tells us some very important things about the love of God. It tells us that our salvation begins in God's love. We are not saved because we love God; we are saved because God loves us. Our salvation begins in God's loving us, and it ends in our loving God.

The first thing our text teaches us about the love of God is that the love of God is universal. " God so loved the world " — not some part of it, not some elect people, not some select class — " but God so loved the world." God loves the rich, but God loves the poor just as much as He loves the rich. If there should come into Bingley Hall to-night one of the wealthiest men or women in Birmingham, and if when I gave out the invitation they should stand up and accept Christ, a great many of you people would be greatly pleased. So would I, for the rich need to hear the Gospel just as much as the poor, and they are not nearly so likely to. But if some poor man should come in here to-night, some man that has not a penny, some man that does not even know where he is going to sleep to-night, and if that man should stand up and take Christ, a good many of you people would not think it amounted to much, but God would be just as pleased to see the poorest man or woman in this building accept Christ as He would be to see the richest millionaire that you have in Birmingham. God loves the educated, but God loves the uneducated just as much. God loves the great scholar, the man of science, the university professor, and the student, but God loves the man who can't read or write just as much as He loves the most brilliant scientist or philosopher that there is on earth. If some of your university professors should come in here to-night, and should be converted, some of you people would be delighted. You would go out saying, " Oh, a wonderful thing happened in Bingley Hall. One of our learned professors came up there and was converted." But if some man or woman here to-night that can't even read or write should stand up and accept Christ, some of you people would not think it amounted to much, but God would be just as much pleased as He would over the conversion of that university professor. But the most wonderful thing of all about it is this — that God loves the moral, the upright, the virtuous, the righteous, and God just as truly loves the sinner, the outcast, the abandoned, the profligate, the bad as He does the good.

One night I was visiting one of the members of my church, and his little girl was playing around the room. The child did something naughty — I have forgotten what it was — and her father called out, " Don't be naughty. If you are a good girl God will love you, but if you are not, God won't love you." I said, " Charlie, what nonsense are you teaching that child of yours? That is not what my Bible teaches. My Bible teaches that God loves the sinner just as truly as He loves the saint." And do you know, friends, it is so hard to make people believe this, that God does love the sinner, that God does love the outcast, that this is the truth that the Bible emphasises the most. For example, turn in your Bible to Rom. v. 8: " God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

I was preaching one night in the city of Minneapolis in America — a hot summer's night, so hot that the window frames were all out at the back to let a little fresh air in, and the room was packed. Away down at the back end of the room a man was sitting where the window frame had been taken out, and when I gave out the invitation for all who wished to be saved that night to hold up their hands, that man sitting in the window raised his hand. But as soon as I pronounced the benediction that man started for the door. I forgot all about my after-meeting. I don't know to this day what became of that after-meeting. All I saw was that man starting for the door, and I started after him. I caught him just as he turned to descend the stairway. I laid my hand upon his shoulder just as he turned the corner. I said to him, " My friend, you held up your hand to say you wanted to be saved." " Yes, I did." " Why didn't you stay, then, to the second meeting? " He said, "It is no use." "Why?" I said; "God loves you." He said, " You don't know who you are talking to." I said, " I don't care who I am talking to. I know God loves you." He said, " I am the meanest thief in Minneapolis." " Well," I said, " if you are the meanest thief in Minneapolis I can prove to you from the Bible that God loves you." I opened my Bible to Rom. v. 8, and I read, " God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." " Now," I said, " if you are the meanest thief in Minneapolis you are certainly a sinner, and that verse says that God loves sinners." It broke the man's heart, and he commenced to weep. I took him to my office with me, and we sat down and he told me his story. He said, " I am just out of confinement. I was released from prison this morning. I had started out this evening with some companions that I knew to commit one of the most daring burglaries that was ever committed in this city, and by to-morrow morning I would either have had a big stake of money or a bullet in my body. But as we were going down the street together we passed the corner where you were holding that open-air meeting. You had a Scotchman speaking. My mother was a Scotchwoman, and when I heard that Scotch tongue it reminded me of my mother. I had a dream about my mother the other night in prison. I dreamed that my mother came to me and begged me to give up my wicked life, and when I heard that Scotchman talk I stepped up to listen. My two pals said, ' Come along,' and cursed me. I said, ' I am going to listen to what this man says.' Then they tried to drag me across the street, but I would not go. What that man said touched my heart, and when you gave out the invitation to the meeting I came, and that is why I am here." I opened my Bible, and I showed that man from the Bible that God loves sinners, how Christ had died for sinners, how he could be saved by simply accepting Christ then and there, and then and there he did accept Christ. We knelt down side by side, and that man offered the most wonderful prayer, but one, I ever heard in all my life.

Is there a thief here to-night? God loves you. Is there a pickpocket here to-night? God loves you. Is there a lost woman here to-night? God loves you. Is there an infidel here to-night? God loves you. Is there a blasphemer here to-night? God loves you. I will tell you something you can't find in all Birmingham. You can't find in all Birmingham a man or woman that God doesn't love.

The second thing our text teaches us about the love of God is that God's love is a holy love. " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." A great many people cannot understand that. They say, "I cannot see why it is if God loves me that He doesn't forgive my sins outright without His Son dying in my place. I cannot see the necessity of Christ's death. If God is love, and if God loves me and loves everybody, why don't He take us to heaven right away without Christ dying for us." The text answers the question, " God so loved, so loved." That " so " brings out the character of God's love. It was of such a character that God could not and would not pardon sin without an atonement. God is a holy God. God's love is a holy love. Now, God's holiness, like everything in God, is real. There is no sham in God. It is real love, real righteousness, and real holiness, and God's holiness, since it is real, must manifest itself in some way. It must either manifest itself in the punishment of the sinner — that is, in our eternal banishment from Him, in your ruin and in mine — or it must manifest itself in some other way. Now, the atoning death of Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary was God substituting His atoning action whereby He expressed His hatred of sin for His punitive action whereby He would have expressed the same thing. But some man says, " That is not just. The doctrine you teach is this — that God, the first Person, took the sin of man, the second person, and laid it up Jesus Christ, an innocent third Person, and that is not just." Well, that would not be just, but that is not what the Bible teaches, and that is not what I teach. I don't teach, and the Bible don't teach, that God, a holy first Person, takes the sins of you and me, guilty second persons, and lays them upon Jesus Christ, an innocent third Person. Jesus Christ was not a third Person. " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself," and the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross is not God taking my sin off from me and laying it on a third person; it is God the Father taking the penalty of my sin into His own heart, and dying in His Son, in whom He personally dwelt, in place of the rebel. And again, Jesus Christ was not merely the first Person. He was the second Person too. Jesus Christ was the Son of Man, the second Adam, the representative man. No ordinary man could have died for you and me. It would have been of no value. But Jesus Christ was the second Adam, the second head of the race, the second Person, your representative and mine, and when Christ died on the cross of Calvary I died in Him, and the penalty of my sin was paid. Friends, the philosophy of the Atonement as laid down in the Bible is the most profound and wonderful philosophy the world ever saw or heard. The Christian doctrine is a perfect whole. You take out one doctrine and the others are irrational, but you put them all together and they are a perfect system. For example, if you become a Unitarian and take out the deity of Christ the Atonement becomes irrational. If you take out the humanity of Christ and have Jesus Christ merely Divine the Atonement becomes irrational. But you take all that the Bible says, that God was in Christ, and that in Christ the Word became flesh, real man, God manifest in the flesh, and the Atonement of Christ is the most profoundly and wonderfully philosophical truth the world has ever seen. God's love was a holy love. I thank God that it was. I thank God that His method was such that in perfect righteousness, and perfect justice, and perfect holiness, as well as perfect love, on the ground of Christ's atoning death He could pardon and save the vilest of sinners. And, men and women, when you are awakened to a proper sense of your sinfulness, when you see yourself as you really are, and when you see God as He really is, nothing will satisfy your conscience but the doctrine that God, the Holy One, substituted His atoning action, whereby He expressed His hatred of sin, for His punitive action whereby He would have expressed the same thing, and that in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary your sin and mine was perfectly settled for ever.

Thank God, the broken law of God has no claim upon me. I broke it, I admit it, but Jesus Christ kept it, and having kept it, He satisfied its punitive claim by dying for those who had not kept it, and on the ground of that atoning death there is pardon to-night for the vilest sinner. A man sits here in the audience to-night. He says, "There is no forgiveness for me." Why not? " Because I have gone down so deep in sin." Listen, men. You have gone down deep into sin; you have gone deeper into sin than you realise yourself, but while your sins are as high as the mountains the atonement that covers them is as high as heaven. While your sins are as deep as the ocean the atonement that swallows them up is as deep as eternity, and on the ground of Christ's atoning death there is pardon to-night for 'the vilest sinner in Bingley Hall, for the vilest sinner on the face of this earth.

The third thing our text teaches us about the love of God is the greatness of that love. " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." The greatness of God's love comes out in two ways in the text; first of all, in the greatness of the gift He offers us — eternal life. It does not mean merely a life that is endless in its duration. Thank God, it means that, but it means more; it means a life that is perfect and Divine in its quality as well as endless in its duration, and that is what is offered to you to-night. " 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 do thank God for a life that is perfect in quality and that will never end. Most of us have got to die before long, as far as our physical life is concerned. A large number of this eight or nine thousand people who are now listening to my voice will be in their graves in a few months, more of us in a year, more in five, still more in ten, almost all of us in forty. Eighty years from to-night, probably, there won't be a person on this earth, unless the Lord has come before, who is in this audience to-night. Well, you say, eighty years is a pretty long time. No, it is not. It looks long to you young people. It looks long to look forward to, but when you get to be forty-eight, as I am, and there are only thirty-two years of it left, it does not look very long. It looks very short. Eighty years don't look very long, and, friends, when the eighty years are up, what then? Suppose I had a guarantee to-night that I was going to live two hundred years in perfect health, strength, and prosperity. Would that satisfy me? No, it would not. For when the two hundred years are up, what then? Suppose I had a guarantee to-night that I was to live a thousand years in perfect health and strength and prosperity. Would that satisfy me? No, it would not, for when the thousand years are up, what then? Suppose I had a guarantee to-night that I should live on this earth for ten thousand years in perfect health and strength and prosperity, would that satisfy me? No, it would not; for when the ten thousand are up, what then? Men, I want something that never ends, and, thank God, in Christ I have got something that never ends. Thousands of years will pass into tens of thousands, tens of thousands will pass into millions, millions will pass into hundreds of millions, hundreds of millions will pass into billions, and the billions will pass into trillions, and I will be living on, and on, and on, in ever-growing joy and glory. Eternal life! Eternal life! and who can have it? Anybody. " Whosoever believeth on Him."

What does "whosoever" mean? Somebody asked a little boy once, " What does whosoever mean? " and the little fellow answered, " It means you and me and everybody else." Thank God, it does. It means you and me and everybody else. Somebody once said — I think it was John Bradford — that he was glad that John iii. 16 did not read that " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that John Bradford might have everlasting life," " for," he said, " if it read that way I would be afraid it meant some other John Bradford. But when I read that ' God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him,' I know that means me." Thank God, it did, and it means everybody else in this building to-night. Friends, I came into this building to-night with a pocket pretty well filled with shillings, and half-crowns, and half-sovereigns, and sovereigns, and cheques, and so on, that have come to me through the mail to-day. They are all gone. I handed them all over to the treasurer. But to-night while I go out with an empty pocket I will go out with a full heart — a heart that is full of everlasting life, and that is worth millions of sovereigns. Every other man and woman in this building can go out the same way.

But the text tells us a second way more wonderful yet in which the greatness of the love of God shows itself, and that is in the sacrifice that God made for us. " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." Now, as I said the other night, the measure of love is sacrifice. You can tell just how much anybody loves you by the sacrifice that he is willing to make for you. God has shown the measure of His love by the sacrifice He made. What was it? His very best. He " so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son," the dearest that He had. No earthly father ever loved his son as God loved Jesus Christ. I have an only son; how I love him! We have oftentimes wished that God in His kindness had given us three or four sons, provided they were all like the one He gave us, just as He has given us four daughters; but I was thinking of it this afternoon, and this thought occurred to me, that perhaps the reason why God had only given us but one son was that I might have a little deeper realisation of how much God loved Jesus Christ. Friends, suppose some day I should see that boy of mine arrested, suppose he went as a missionary to China, and I went as missionary to China, and I saw him arrested by the enemies of Christ; and suppose they blindfolded him, and then they spat in his face, and then they punched him in his face, and then plaited a crown of great, big, cruel thorns and put it on his brow, and then some Chinaman should come along and with a heavy stick knock that crown down upon his brow until the blood poured down his face on either side. How do you suppose I would feel? Then suppose they took him, and stripped his garments from him, and took him to a post, made him lean over until the skin of his back was all drawn tight, and bound him to a post, and a soldier came along with a long stick that had on the ends of it long lashes of leather in which were twisted bits of brass and lead, then that soldier laid the lash upon the boy's back thirty-nine times till it was all torn and bleeding, and my son's back was one mass of bloody wounds. How do you think I would feel? Then suppose they took him and laid a cross down upon the ground and stretched his right hand out on the arm of the cross, put a nail in the hand, lifted the heavy hammer and drove the nail through the hand; then stretched his left arm on the other arm of the cross, put a nail in the palm of that hand, and lifted the heavy hammer and sent the nail through that hand, then put a nail through his feet, and lifted the heavy hammer and drove the nail through his feet, and then took that cross to which he was nailed and plunged it into a hole on the rock, and left him hanging there, the agony getting worse and worse every minute. See him hanging there beneath the burning sun from nine o'clock in the morning till three o'clock in the afternoon, and I standing and looking on as my only boy dies in awful agony on a cross. How do you suppose I would feel? But, men, that is just what God saw. He loved His only begotten Son, as you and I never dreamt of loving our sons. He saw them spit in His face; He saw them blindfold Him; He saw them smite Him with their fists; He saw them take rods and beat Him with rods; He saw them take the crown of awful thorns and press it on His brow, and then smite it down with a heavy rod; He saw them strip the garments from His back, tie Him to a post, make Him lean over until the skin upon His back was drawn tight; then He saw a brawny Roman soldier take that awful scourge with long leather lashes into which were twisted bits of brass and lead, and lay it on the His back thirty-nine times till it was one mass of aching wounds. He saw them take Him and stretch Him on a cross, drive a nail into that hand, drive a nail into His feet, and take that cross and plunge it into a hole on that rock, and leave Him hanging there, aching, all His bones out of joint, tortured in every member of His body! God looked on. Why did He suffer it? Because He loved you and me, and it was the only way that you and I could be saved, and "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Men, how are you going to repay that love to-night? I know how some of you are going to repay it. You are going to repay it with hatred. You hate God. You never said it, but it is true.

A friend of mine was preaching one time in Connecticut. He was stopping with a physician who had a beautiful, amiable daughter. She had never made a profession of religion, but she was such a beautiful character that people thought she was a Christian. One night, after the meetings had been going on some time, my friend said to this young lady, " Are you going up to the meeting to-night?" She said, "No, Mr. Hammond, I am not." " Oh," he said, " I think you had better go." She said, " I will not go." " Why," he said, " don't you love God? " She said, " I hate God." She had never realised it before. I think she would have said she loved God up to that time, but when the demands of God were pressed home by the Holy Spirit she was not willing to obey, and she found out that she hated God.

Some of you have never found it out — that you hate God, but it is true. How some of you used the name of God to-day! You have used it many times. In prayer? No, in profanity. Why? Because you hate God. Some of you men here to-night, if your wives should take Christ in this meeting and go home, you would make life unendurable. Why? Because you hate God, and you are going to make your wife miserable for accepting His Son. Some of you young people, if some other young person in your shop, or your factory, or your mill, should accept Christ to-night, you would laugh at them for it to-morrow. Why? Because you hate God. Some of you people will read every infidel book you can get, will go to every infidel lecture. You are trying to convince yourself that the Bible is not God's Word, and if anybody would come along and bring up some smart objection to the Bible, you would laugh at it and rejoice in it. Why? Because you hate God, and you want to get rid of God's Book. Some of you men and women here to-night, you just love to hold up your heads and toss them, and say, " I don't believe in the Divinity of Christ, I don't believe He is the Son of God." Why? Because you hate God, and if you can rob His Divine Son of the honour that belongs to Him, you will do it. You are repaying the wondrous love o'f God with hate. Some of you are refusing to accept Christ. You have been here night after night during the mission. People have been down the hall, and when people speak to you you get angry. You say, " I wish you would not talk to me. Go about your own business. It is none of your business whether I am a Christian or not." You get angry every time anybody speaks to you. Why? Because you hate God. Some of you so bitterly hate God that you are trying to find fault with the doctrine of the Atonement. You are trying to make yourself believe that Christ did not die on the cross for you. You say, " I cannot understand the philosphy of it." If you loved God, you would not stop to ask the philosophy of it. You would simply lift your heart in simple gratitude and praise to God, that He so loved you that He gave His Son to die for you.

There is one other thing that our text teaches us about the love of God, and that is, the conquering power of God's love. " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." The love of God conquers sin; the love of God conquers death; the love of God conquers wrong, and saves a man from perishing unto everlasting life. And, men and women, the love of God conquers where everything else fails. The first time I ever preached in Chicago — it was several years before I went there to live, I was there at a convention — after the sermon, among the people who stood up that night to say they wanted to be prayed for, I noticed a young woman who did not come forward when the rest came. I went down to where she was standing and urged her to come forward. She laughed, and said, " No, I am not going forward," and sat down again. The next night was not an evangelistic service, but a meeting of the convention. I was president of the convention. As I looked over the audience, away down toward the back I saw that young woman in the audience elegantly dressed — the most finely dressed woman in the audience. I called somebody else to the chair, and slipped around to the back part of the building. When the meeting was dismissed I made my way to where that young lady was sitting. I sat down beside her. I said, " Won't you take Christ to-night? " " No," she said. " Would you like to know the kind of life I am living?" It was not known that she was living that kind of life. She was living it in the best society, honoured and respected. Then she commenced to unfold to me one of the saddest stories of dishonour I ever listened to, without blushing, laughing as if it was a good joke; and finally she said, " Let me tell you how I spent last Easter." I cannot tell you how it was — how any woman of any sense could have told it to any man I cannot imagine — and when she had told the story she burst out into a laugh, and said, " That was a funny way to spend Easter, wasn't it?" I was dumbfounded. I simply took my Bible — I had a little Bible with fine print — and opened it at John iii. 16, passed it over to her, and said, "Won't you please read that? " She had to hold it very near her eyes to see the print, and she commenced in a laughing way. " God so loved " — she was laughing no more — "the world" — there was nothing like a laugh now — " that He gave His only begotten Son." And she burst into tears, and literally the tears flowed down on to the elegant silk robe that she was wearing, gardened as she was, brazen as she was, shameless as she was, trifling as she was, one glimpse of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary for her had broken her heart. God grant that it may break yours to-night.

I want to tell you one more incident before I sit down. One night I was preaching, and we had an after-meeting. The leading soprano in my choir was not a Christian. I don't believe in having an unconverted choir; we don't allow anybody in our choir in Chicago who is not a converted person to the best of our knowledge. You say, "You must have a pretty small choir." We have two hundred, and every one of them, as far as we know, is converted. But in that church it was not so, and my leading soprano was not a Christian — a gay, worldly girl, not immoral at all, a very respectable girl, but very worldly and very gay. She stayed to the after-meeting. Her mother rose down in the body of the house and said, " I wish you would all pray for the conversion of my daughter." I did not look round at the choir, but I knew perfectly well how that young woman looked, without looking round. I knew her cheeks were burning, I knew her eyes were flashing, and I knew that she was angry from the crown of her head to the sole of her feet. Just as soon as the meeting was over I hurried down to the particular door that I knew she would have to pass out by. As she came along I advanced toward her, held out my hand, and said, " Good-evening, Cora." Her eyes flashed, and her cheeks burned. She did not take my hand. She stamped her foot and said, " Mr. Torrey, my mother knows better than to do what she has done to-night. She knows it will only make me worse." I said, "Cora, sit down." The angry girl sat down, and I opened my Bible at Isaiah liii. 5, and handed it to her. I said, " Won't you please read it? " And she read, " He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him." She did not get any further; she burst into tears; the love of God revealed in the Cross of Christ had broken her heart. I left the city next day. While I was away I got a letter saying that this young lady was happily converted, but very ill. I returned to Minneapolis, called at the house, found her rejoicing in Christ, but so ill that the physician held out no hope of her recovery. A few days after her brother came running up to my house in the morning about ten o'clock. He said, " Mr. Torrey, come down to the house just as quick as you can. Cora has been unconscious all the morning. She has not spoken a word. She hardly seems to be breathing. She is as white as marble, and we think she is dying. She seems to be utterly unconscious." I hurried down there. And there lay the whitest living person I had ever seen, bleeding to death through her gums and nose. She was perfectly unconscious apparently, and had not said a word all the morning. Her mother stood at the foot of the bed with a breaking heart. " Oh," she said, " Mr. Torrey, pray, pray, please pray! " I knelt down by the bedside and prayed. I didn't suppose the girl would hear a word I said. I was. praying to comfort her mother. And just as soon as I had finished my prayer there came from those white lips, in a clear, strong, full, beautiful voice, the most wonderful prayer I have ever heard in my life. The dying girl said, " Oh, heavenly Father, I want to live if it be Thy will, so that as I have sung in the past for my own glory, I can sing for the glory of Jesus, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Father, I want to live, but if Thou dost not see fit to raise me up from this bed, I shall be glad to depart and be with Christ." And she departed to be with Christ. The love of God had conquered.

Men and women, let the love of God conquer your stubborn, wicked, foolish, sinful, worldly, careless hearts to-night. " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Yield to that love to-night. Amen.