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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/john-meekin/last-posted-couplets-in-john-3-16/
John's gospel chapter 3, and I don't think it's going to be a surprise when I announce it's going to be verse number 16. John 3 and verse number 16. And it says,. 4. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Now that's all that I'm going to read, so let me read it once more with you and to you again. 4. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God bless to us that reading from the scriptures. I would say that one of the problems that a gospel preacher faces as soon as they announce to an audience John's gospel chapter 3, one of the problems a gospel preacher faces is this, is that the text is so well known.
In fact, I don't think, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that this is the best known text of holy scripture. If we stepped outside today, and if we spoke to some of the friends in Garnevillo, and asked them what part of the Bible they know, some of them might say John 14.
You go to a funeral, when we get to a funeral frequently, John 14 is read those first few verses. Some of them would know John 14. Some of them might know Psalm number 23. I think that most would know Psalm number 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
It would be almost inconceivable that people would not know John 3 .16. In fact, it's so well known that we use it in a variety of ways. I was staying in Newfoundland quite recently, and they had one of those numerical keypads for the door.
The dear brother I was staying with, I said, can you give me the keypad number for the door? You've already guessed the number. I see everyone's nodding at me, because they've already got the number 4 -3 -1 -6.
Now, I'll not tell you who owns that house, so you won't break in. But we use it in that way. This text has been preached. This text is known. This text has been evaluated. This text has been used by gospel preachers.
And I would know, I would know that I'm not going to preach anything new from the text, and you would know that as well. But what I want to do is this. I want to preach on the couplets from the text. I want you to notice the two things that are frequently linked together in the text.
There's a number of couplets. We might speak about five of them from the text of John 3 -16. I want you to notice, first of all, God and his Son. Then you'll notice the second couplet, loved, he gave.
The third couplet in the text, the world and whosoever. The fourth couplet in the text, believes and has or hath. And the last couplet in the text, listen to this, folks. If there's a friend that has gathered with us this afternoon, and you are not saved today, listen to the last couplet in the text.
Not only believes and hath, but John 3 -16 says, should not perish everlasting life. And so you can see the couplets in the text. I want to start with the first one, God and his Son. God, you know that this is the God of creation.
In fact, my wife and I, quite recently, we've got a little dog, and we dropped our daughter off to music. And after dropping her off to music, we started to take a walk around the town in which we live, the town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
It's a 45-minute walk for us from the location where Alexia was having her music lessons. It's 45 minutes around the town. We took the 45 minutes and we walked, and we were almost back to the location.
And as we're almost back to the location, we saw a gentleman, and he was standing right there on the pavement, right there on the sidewalk. And I noticed this, he wasn't looking at the traffic that was coming down the roadway, and he wasn't looking at people that were coming from that direction, and he wasn't looking at us as we're coming up towards him.
In fact, he was standing on the sidewalk with his back to the road, his back to the traffic, and he was looking up at the sky. And when I got close to him, I said to the gentleman, I said, sir, is everything okay?
And he looked at me as if I had five heads. He said, what? And I repeated it to him. I said, my friend, is everything okay with you this evening? And he said, well, he said, take a look for yourself. And he pointed at the sky.
There was the Northern Lights. I'm not sure, I'm in the skyscape. Just beautiful colors sprinkled across the sky. In the atmosphere, just the lower atmosphere, there were the green colors. And there were the purple colors.
And above it all, I had never seen this before. Above those two strata of colors, there were red colors sprinkled across the sky. And he said, what do you think? Have you ever seen it before? And I looked at that friend as we were standing together, looking at the skyscape, and I said to that man that I'd never seen before, I said to him, sir, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
And he looked at me and he said, what? I said, that's the opening verse of the Bible. That's how God starts his book. That's how it all began. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. God, he's the God of creation. He started it all.
He will see in its consummation that he finishes it all. My beloved friend today, the one that I am preaching in the gospel to you is the eternal God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, God, the creator God, the God of creation.
He's not only the God of creation. He's the God of salvation. One of the great things that I love as I stand as a gospel preacher is that this God, he's the God of salvation. You say, how do you know?
Well, I was going to do the subjective thing. I won't do the subject. Well, not immediately. I won't do the subjective thing immediately. How do I know that God is the God of salvation? Well, here it is, folks.
Here it is in black and white. Our God is a God of salvation. Listen to what he says. I didn't read verse 17, but John 3, 17 says, God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Listen to Acts chapter 4 and verse number 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Listen to first Timothy, first Timothy 1, 15.
This is a faithful saying. It is worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save, and he came to save sinners. Listen to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 10, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Listen to Romans 10 and 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in mine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, well, you might be saved. What? Caught you, didn't I?
I did that deliberately. That's a preacher's trick. Listen to what the Bible says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in mine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Would you like to be saved today? I'm looking at you as I'm preaching tonight, and the one thing I know is this, that sinners can be saved. And you say, how do you know that sinners can be saved? Because there was a night when I once sat in chairs, just like you're sitting in a chair.
There was a night in my life when I once wondered in my sins, can I be sure, and can I be saved? And a Monday night in my life, I got down on these knees, and I cried to the Lord for mercy, and I pleaded with the eternal God, and I said, oh God, I don't want to perish.
Oh God, I don't want to go to hell. Oh God, the thing that I want more than anything else, I want Christ, and I want salvation. And within a few moments, within a few moments, through Isaiah chapter 53 and verse number 5, I had trusted Christ as my Savior.
You could be saved tonight, for God so loved the world. He's the God of creation. He's the God of salvation. He's the God of revelation. One of the great things about this God is that He has revealed Himself.
He sent men. There were times in the past He sent prophets to speak about Himself. There were times He would speak to people in dreams. There were times He would send messengers so that His word would get to people.
There was one day that something very special happened. It had never happened before. It will never happen again. There was one day that something very, very special happened, and it happened in Bethlehem.
And you say, what was it that happened in Bethlehem? There was a little boy that was born in Bethlehem. And when that little boy was born in Bethlehem, God revealed Himself in a way He had never done before.
There wrapped in swaddling bands the shepherds found Him, whose word of power the heaven of heavens controlled. That helpless babe that Simeon held before Him was acacia wood overlaid in gold. These things so vast made Mary's heart to ponder, the great Creator in a human frame, God manifest in flesh.
We bow in wonder, and we marvel at the Savior He became, God and His Son, the Lord Jesus. Let me tell you about the second one, the first couplet, God and His Son. The second couplet, loved He gave. You say, how do I know that God loves me?
How do I know that God loves the world? Well, it's right here in the text. God so loved the world that He gave. Oh, you say, I know what that means. That's what you've already preached this evening. He gave the Lord Jesus to Bethlehem.
That's not what that means. You say, I know what that means. That means He gave the Lord Jesus to Nazareth. That's not what that means. He gave the Lord Jesus to Capernaum. That's not what that means.
You see, when it says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that's a sacrificial verb. That means that God gave the Lord Jesus to the death of the cross. God knew what men would do.
God knew the hearts of wicked men. God knew the hearts of sinners. God knew what men would do to His only, His lovely Son. And John 3, 16 says, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
They took Him in the morning. It was the early hours of a morning when they took Him in a garden. They bound Him. They spat upon Him. They take Him out to three religious trials. From the three religious trials, they took Him to three political trials.
From the last of those political trials, Pilate brought Him forth. And Pilate said to the audience that had gathered, Pilate said, behold the man. And they cried, crucify Him, crucify Him, crucify Him.
And at last Pilate gave the order and he said, take ye Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him. And they took the Lord Jesus, the only one that deserved to live. They took the Lord Jesus and they crucified the Lord Jesus upon a cross.
9 a .m. in the morning. And from 9 a .m. in the morning until 3 p .m. in the afternoon, the Lord Jesus suffered upon the cross. Did you ever stop now? Did you ever stop? And did you ever ask yourself, why was the Lord Jesus there?
Why was He upon the cross? Why was He suffering at Calvary? Why was it He was enduring the wrath? Why was it He was undergoing the waves? Why was it that the billows rolled over the head of Christ? The reason in this gospel meeting is very simple, so that you could be saved.
God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. I was listening recently to a recording of a Scottish preacher, a beloved preacher. I never heard him preach. He died in 1977. Now, I'm not going to tell you when I was born.
I'm not going to give away my age. But he died in 1977. He was a Scottish preacher called David Craig. They referred to him as the Prince of Preachers, a lovely, clear-voiced gospel preacher. He was telling on the recording, he was in England having some gospel meetings.
And his sister sent a telegram to him. And all she said in the telegram was this, my little boy has taken sick. They don't think he's going to make it. Can you come? And he went to the brethren in the assembly, told them the circumstances.
He boarded the train. He got into Scotland. It was after midnight when he arrived. He arrived in the little town, and he walked down the roadway. And he was walking down to the house, just praying to his God.
The door was open. He put his hand on the handle of the door, and the handle of the door opened. And then he went. He thought everyone was asleep. And as he stepped in, there was a light that was burning in that living area just over in the corner.
There was a light that was burning. And he thought, I won't disturb anyone. And from the other corner in the darkness, he heard his sister with that lovely Scottish accent. And he heard his sister say this, oh, Davey, Davey, he's gone.
He was my only little boy, and he's gone. And he watched as that lady ran towards him with her arms extended. And he said on the recording, I took her into my arms. I took her into my arms, and I didn't know what to say, didn't know what to tell her.
And he said, at last, he said, I told her, don't forget, God only had one son. God only had one son. You know what his sister said to him? His sister said, Davey, he was my only wee boy, and I wouldn't have given him for the best sinner.
And David Craig, he said to the audience, God only had one son. And he gave him for sinners like you and I. God and his son loved. How do I know that God loves me? Listen to it, folks. Listen to it tonight.
God and his son loved. He gave his only begotten son. I want to come to the third one, the world and whosoever. This is one of the things about the gospel that I just absolutely love, the world and whosoever.
One of the great things about the gospel is this, who the gospel is for. Who is this gospel for? I mean, here we are. We're in Iowa this evening. Is the gospel only for Iowa? Sinners in Iowa? You know what the Bible says?
The Bible says it's a resounding no to that statement. It's not only for sinners in Iowa. One of the great things about being a gospel preacher is this, that everywhere I go, to every person that I meet, whether they are male or female, whether it's Protestant or Catholic, whether it's Muslim or Hindu, every person that I meet, I have a message, and I can share that message with sinners.
The world of sinners that are lost, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I was preaching. We were speaking, Nathan and his wife and myself, we were speaking at lunchtime about Peter Orosok.
Peter Orosok was a great man, lovely man. He and I were having a series of gospel meetings together. By the way, if you don't know the name, Peter Orosok was a drug addict. He was a drug addict for eight years.
He was in prison three times, and God saved him. We were having a series of gospel meetings together, and on a Thursday night, we pull into where we were staying, and I went to get out of the vehicle, and he stopped me.
He put his hand upon my arm, and he stopped me getting out, and he said, listen, there's something I want to ask you. There's something I want to tell you, and I said, sure, yeah, yeah, go ahead. He said, son, I always liked it when he called me that, but I knew this night wasn't going to be good.
He said, son, you're preaching every night, and you're preaching that it's for every sinner, and you're preaching it's for any sinner, and you're preaching it's for all humankind, and you're telling that every sinner could be saved.
He said to me, don't you think you're overdoing it a little bit? And I thought, wow, maybe I have been overdoing it. Maybe I really have been stressing that too much, and so the next night, the Friday night, I was speaking first, and so I got up, and I read the passage, and I tried as best to preach, and it was like putting your feet in gumboots.
I don't know if you know what that means, putting a pair of rubber boots on and walking through glue that was sticky, and it wouldn't move, and I tried to punch through 25 minutes, and when I was done and frustrated, my friend Mr. Orosok stepped up to the platform, and he only read one verse.
Give you a guess. Just one verse of Scripture, only one verse, and he didn't even preach the 25 words. All he preached that night was this, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, and midway through his preach, as he was preaching to every sinner and any sinner, and telling that audience that any of them could be saved, he looked down at me.
I was sitting over here, and he stopped his preach, and he gave me that goofy smile, and I thought to myself, you rascal, you rascal, but I learned a lesson that night, and the lesson I learned that night was this, that every time I preach, I would look into an audience of sinners, and I would tell those people that are dying, those people that are perishing, those people that are going out to meet God, I would tell those people that God loves them, and that Christ died for them upon the cross.
For the whole world of sinners, the Bible is so clear, he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Listen to what Paul says, there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a substitutionary ransom on the behalf of all.
Would you like to be saved tonight? There's bound to be someone in Garneville tonight. There's bound to be someone under the sound of my voice that would like to be saved tonight. You could be saved tonight, and the reason why you could be saved tonight is because Christ has died, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, God and his Son.
Loved he gave the world and whosoever the fourth couplet believes and has. It's the simple terms of salvation, believes and has. It's one of the things I struggle with. I struggle with this for hours upon hours upon hours.
Now listen, listen folks, God doesn't expect you to struggle. One of the reasons why I struggled was that I was trying to add something to the death of Christ, and I was trying to, through my own efforts in struggling, make it meritorious.
There is nothing that you can do to save yourself, and faith does not bring merit before God. It is not meritorious. When you say believes, what about a person believing? The moment a sinner steps out by faith and relinquishes everything else and takes the promise of God and simply steps out on what God says about his Son and what Christ has done, the moment a person does that, according to the Bible, that person is saved.
I have a brother, my brother Robert. He's the second one in the family. My brother started dating a girl. He wasn't saved, she wasn't saved. A series of gospel meetings came, and she started to go, and there was one night she called him to the tractor, and she said to him in the tractor, he was doing some hay.
She says, Robert, will you promise me you'll take me to the gospel tonight? He said, I will. He didn't have a thought about his soul, didn't have a thought about it, and he went home that night, and God smote him, and he said, I'm taking a girl that wants to be saved, and he went up, he went upstairs, and he got down on his knees, and he cried that God would save him, and he went out to the gospel meeting, and he was sitting in the gospel meeting, and Murray McCandless started to preach, and Murray McCandless looked down at him, and he pointed, and he said, young man, Christ died for you, and my brother looked at him, and Mr. McCandless said it the second time.
He said, young man, Christ died for you, and my brother Robert looked at him, and Mr. McCandless pointed at him the third time, and he said, young man, Christ died for you, and my brother looked at him, and he said, he's right.
That's what God says, and sitting right there on the seat, he accepted Christ as his Savior. They were going out. He, I might as, don't you hate it when preachers don't finish stories? They went out to the car, and my brother's wife got into the car, and he got into the car, and he said to her, he said, I got saved in that meeting tonight.
She said, no, there's no way. He said, in that meeting tonight, I realized that Christ died for me, and the Bible says Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Whosoever believeth in him, these are not my words.
These are not the words of John Meakin. These are not the words of the Christians from the Garneville Gospel Hall. This is the word of the highest authority in the universe. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, believes and has.
The last thing I'll preach tonight is the fifth couplet. God and his Son loved, he gave, the world and whosoever believes and has perish and everlasting life. You know the reason now. You folks know the reason why we preach the way we do.
You know the reason for it now, don't you? The reason is very simply this, that there are sinners that are listening to me preach tonight, and if you don't get saved, you are going to perish. There's a real hell, and there's real fire, and if you don't get saved, you reject the Lord Jesus.
Hell is fire, forever burning. Turn poor sinner, turn and flee. I wouldn't want to finish on that. Should not perish, but have everlasting life. Tell me, do you have it tonight? Everlasting life. It's the most wonderful thing.
One of the things I feel about my own preaching, one of the things I feel is this, that I tell sinners that they are sinners. I tell them about perishing. I tell them the notes of the gospel. I preach to them the way I have, but one of the things I think many times that I fail to communicate is this, just how wonderful it is to have everlasting life.
It is a wonderful thing to be saved. There is nothing quite like it tonight. Nothing quite like knowing the Lord Jesus. There is nothing like having peace with God. There is nothing like knowing when you go home at night and put your head upon a pillow, everything is well for eternity.
You could know this tonight, 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.