His hair is matted and appears to have avoided a comb his entire young career. His coal-black eyes peer out from a face filthy with the grime of the streets. His shrunken belly grovels noisily and aches for lack of food. His hands cut and chaffed wave futily the papers and trinkets at uninterested passers by. And His voice cries out in unsalesman-like despair, “Won’t you buy? Won’t you buy my papers and things? Papers, trinkets won’t you buy them? Won’t…” He sees the policeman, but it’s too late. He’d been warned time after time to stay away from this part of the city, and not to be selling his things there.
The policeman grabs him gruffly, but speaks gently to the helpless and hopeless lad. And the young man realizes, “Hey, this is a new cop. He doesn’t recognize me.” And the officer asks, “Do you have a home?” “No.” The policeman replies, “Have you eaten lately?” “Uh, Uh.” The policeman pauses a moment and looks down the street and sees a building with a cross in the front of it. And he looks at the young lad and says, “You see that building?” “Yeah,” the boy stammers. “Go down there and say “John 3:16” and they’ll help you.”
Reluctantly, the ill-spent youth shuffles up to the door. Thinking to himself, “What do I have to lose?” Tentatively, he knocks and weakly yells, “John 3:16.” The door opens and there stands a middle-aged man who smiling replies, “Come in son, you look cold.” “I’m frozen,” the boy manages to reply. And the kind man leads our boy to a fire-filled potbelly stove. And the lad feverishly reaches out and warms his hands at the fire. And while he is warming himself, this thought races through his mind: “John 3:16, I don’t know Him or understand Him, but He sure knows how to warm the heart."
“John 3:16” today can warm the heart of the coldest sinner. Nothing does more for the sinner than the warmth of God’s eternal love expressed at Calvary’s Cross. God so loved the whole world at the Cross and gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for sinful man. Jesus laid down His life in the place of vile sinners. Nothing does more for the lost than the love of Christ. O the love that drew salvation’s plan, O the love that brought it down to man. The love of God so rich and pure, so measureless and strong, it brought redeeming Grace down to Adam’s race.
“John 3:16” can warm the heart of a cold, hardened sinner. In Romans 2:4, it says that the ‘Goodness of God’ that leads us to repentance. “John 3:16” will also warm the heart of a backslidden Christian. It also lights the fire of a zealous Christian. The love of the Gospel keeps a Christian on fire in the service of the Lord.
Our young boy’s revelry by the fire is interrupted by the man’s second enquiry: “Are you hungry?” “Very sir, very hungry.” He guides the starving youngster to a table. The table is not filled with rich delicacies, but the real necessities of life. All piping hot and ready, and this thought penetrates the boy’s thinking as he hesitantly then fervently begins to satiate his hunger: “Whatever or whoever this “John 3:16” is, He sure can fill the hungry soul.”
“John 3:16” fills the empty soul’s need. Inside of all of us somewhere there is an emptiness, and we’re empty and unfulfilled and without hope till that empty place is filled by Christ Jesus, God Almighty Himself. He is the only one that can satisfy your hungering spirit within. Inside of every man there is something that rebels and resists the law of God and the wooing calls of the Holy Spirit, but there is also inside of every man a conscience that tells him, “You've done wrong, and you’re guilty and in danger without your sins being forgiven.”
There’s a voice calling all of us from an old rugged tree, and it whispers, “Draw closer to Me.” That voice cries out today, “I’ll forgive you, I’ll save you, I’ll give you a home in heaven, I’ll wash you and make you whiter than snow. I’ll fill your heart with gladness and a melody of love!”
“John 3:16” woos the wayward one’s feet. “John 3:16” is standing on the roadside of life today waiting for the prodigal son to return from his wandering afar. And He waits with open arms to place a robe on his back, a ring on his finger, shoes on his feet, and food in his belly. “John 3:16” waits patiently to celebrate the return of a wandering son.
“John 3:16” also runs the cup over for the righteous. Psalm 23:5 “My cup runneth over.” “John 3:16” will run your cup over. In Psalm 23, with the Lord as our Shepherd we don’t have any wants, He gives refreshment, He leads by the still waters, He restores our souls, He gives leadership, He accompanies through evil and death, He prepares a table, He anoints our head, He runs our cup over with His blessing. “John 3:16” will fill the longing soul.
And then the kind host addresses the young man to an obvious need, “Do you need a bath boy?” “Yes sir,” he smiled shyly. “I haven’t had one in quite a while.” He ushers him to huge bath tub filled with warm water, and there he removes the grime of many days. And as the young boy is enjoying the bath, his thoughts are: “Whoever or whatever this “John 3:16” is, He sure knows how to clean a fellow up.”
“John 3:16” cleanses the sinner throughly by the blood of the Lamb. In I John 1:7, the scriptures report, “the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Sin all forgiven, guilt all washed away; it can all be under His atoning blood today.
The sinner cries, “What can wash away my sin?” And the echo comes back from Heaven, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
In the Old Testament, they would bring the blood of bulls, goats and lambs, and that would be an atonement, nothing more than a postponement of a penalty. But the blood of the New Testament is the blood of a new covenant. It is the “blood of the Lamb of God” who had no spot and no blemish. And God’s blood is the cleansing agent that washes away our sins, and they are not remembered against us anymore forever.
Not only that, “John 3:16” will wash the Christian. The Christian needs to be washed from the defilement of his sin and this world. When you walk in the world, some of that world is going to rub off on you. And what everyone needs today is a good dose of “John 3:16.”
The Bible’s Gospel expects the true saint to keep himself clean. See Romans 6:1-17. Shall we continue in sin, God forbid. Should any Christian continue in sin because he is under grace, God forbid it.
Our young man is now warm, full, and clean for the first time in months. He yawns as he towels himself dry and steps into the clean clothes provided by his blessed benefactor. The man smiles and says, “How about a good night’s sleep?” The boy’s mind flashes back to nights in cold alleys when he was sheltered only by cardboard boxes in shivering, fitful, restless nights. And as he pulls those warm quilts up to his chin and settles his head onto his pillow. As He lays in the darkness, looking out the window at the snow coming down, just before he drifts off to sleep, his last thought is: “Whoever or whatever (yawn) this “John 3:16” is, He really gives rests the weary.”
“John 3:16” gives rests to those today that are weary of a life of sinning. The Old Testament says in Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now let us reason together saith the LORD, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall will be as wool.” And Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” If you’re sick of your sin sinner, come on to Jesus Christ. If you’ve had it with your wickedness and ungodliness, and you weary and heavy-hearted, then tell it to Jesus right now. He is a friend that is well known. If you’re sick of a life of unrest and turmoil, if you’re done with doubt and you’re filled up with discouragement, fall down flat at the feet of Jesus, and let Him save you.
The old hymn says, “Many years I longed for rest, perfect peace within my breast, and often sought the Lord alone in tears. But I would not pay the price, would not accept the sacrifice, so I wandered on and on for many years.”
There are people today that have wandered on and on for many years. No rest, no peace, no joy, no delight, no happiness, no victory. Today, you can rest on Jesus’ assurance, “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” “John 3:16” also rests the saint that labors in the Lord.
The next morning the man comes back up and takes the young lad downstairs for breakfast. After the boy finishes eating, they both go and sit down by the potbelly stove. The man picks up his Old Bible and looks in the young lad’s eyes, and says, “Do you understand John 3:16?” He replies, “No Sir, I don’t. The first time I heard it was last night when the policeman pointed me to your door.” The man then opened his Bible to “John 3:16”, and began showing the young lad how Jesus loved Him and died in his place and suffered for his sins on the cross. He showed him how Jesus was buried and rose again the third day from the grave. He then lovingly explained to the young boy how he must repent of his sins and simply believe in Jesus if he wanted to escape from his sins and Hell.
Right there, by the old stove, the young lad received Jesus into His heart and was born again. And as He sat there and thought, He looked into the man’s eyes and said: “John 3:16 sure knows how to make a boy feel safe.”
Reader, you may not fully understand “John 3:16” either. How that God was willing to send His only begotten Son here to die for you, and how Jesus volunteered to lay down His life for your sins, so you could go free, and not go to Hell. You may not understand the agony and shame that the Lord Jesus bore for you on the cross, but it is a fact. God has provided the Savior, you must provide the sinner.
Look to Jesus today, don’t try and put your last touches on the finished work of Christ. Your fingers are black with sin and this angers the Lord. Jesus Christ is the apple of God’s eye. For a sinner to try to put his finishing touches on Christ’s Blood Atonement is a stab in the eye of God.
Sinner, come to Christ Jesus now, He will not reject you. Receive His great atonement and be clothed with His Righteousness. The Gospel is for the bona fide, real, actual, card-carrying sinner; not for the artificial sinner, but the genuine sinner.
Poor sinner, what do say to this? Will you now rest on Christ? God is satisfied with His Son’s atoning sacrifice, are you? God thinks Jesus’ sacrifice is enough. Do you? You can only be saved by faith in Christ's atoning blood, and in Christ alone. Not your own works, or feelings, or experience. Christ wants no preparation from you. Simply cast yourself down on Christ. Submit to Him and let Him save you by His free grace and pure mercy. Cast yourself down in the dust before Him, and ONCE FOR ALL have done with your wretched self. Rely not on anything you can do, or think, or say, or know; rest alone on Jesus only, and you are saved forever. Sinner, look to Jesus, and you are saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
You may be thinking, “My sins are too many”? Jesus’ Atonement is miraculous; it can cover all your sin. Do you say, “My heart is too hard”? Jesus can soften it with His blood. Do you cry, “I am so unworthy”? Jesus loves the unworthy. Do you feel, “I am so vile and sinful?” It is the vile that Jesus came to save. Down in the dust, sinner; down, down with yourself and up with Christ, who suffered for your sins on Calvary’s cross. Get forgiven; God's forgiveness is free. Life is short, Death is sure, Sin the curse, Christ the cure. Do you want to get rid of your sins?
Then turn your eyes there to Calvary’s cross, see Jesus only: He suffers, He bleeds, He dies for you. Look to those bleeding wounds and His pierced side. Oh sinner, look now to the Cross with me. Mark the man hanging there for you. Do you see His eyes? There is pity for your soul there. Do you see His side? It is opened that you may hide your sins there. Do you notice those drops of crimson blood flowing down, every drop is trickling down for your sins. Do you hear Jesus’ death shrieks for you, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” He is screaming and suffering in your place. Yes, for you, if you’re a sinner. Look to the empty tomb: He is buried, He rises again. He ascends on high. If you know you have offended God and sense your sin and danger, please ask God to have mercy upon you for Jesus’ sake.
Trust Him, and you are safe forever. Give up all other trusts, and rely on Jesus alone, alone on Jesus, and you shall pass from death unto life. Sinner, look at Jesus Christ! There is power in His atoning blood to wash away all your sins. No sins can be too black or too many for His precious blood to cleanse. The Blood of Christ is sufficient. Simply and wholly rest and trust in Jesus Christ Himself. “John 3:16” sure makes life worth living.”
