The Greatest Sentence In The Wold1b
11/04/2007
THE GREATEST SENTENCE IN THE WORLD
JOHN 3:16
**Today I am going to be talking to you about The Greatest Sentence In The World! Charles Hadden Spurgeon has been quoted as saying “If you removed everything from the first word in the book of Genesis to the last word in the book of Revelation and you only had John 3:16, there would be more than enough gospel left in John 3:16 to save the entire world!
**The greatest sentence in the world is not found in Shakespeare, a magazine or in a fantasy sports league. The greatest sentence in the world is found in the third chapter and sixteenth verse of the gospel according to John and it is our text for today!
*There are only 25 words in our English translation and it is so simple that a child or unlearned individual can hear it, believe and obey it and they can be born again by the Spirit of God!
**However it is so profound that scholars have been examining it for hundreds and hundreds of years and still have not exhausted the unsearchable riches that are available to be discovered!
**When we read the 25 words that make up The Greatest Sentence In World, we discover that there are three great things that it speaks about. First of all:
**It Speaks About The Greatest:
I. LOVE EVER REVEALED
**This kind of love reveals:
A. The HEART of GOD !
3:16 For God, So loved . . .
**John seemed to grasp this great truth as much as anyone. The love of God was so transformational in his life that he identified himself as the disciple who Jesus LOVED!
**He also wrote in 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, FOR LOVE IS FROM GOD 8 The one who does not love does NOT know God, FOR GOD IS LOVE!
**So when we read the first two words in the greatest sentence in the world, we should be drawn to two specific things. First of all we should notice what I call:
1) The INTEGRITY of this love!
3:16 For GOD
**This is referring to THE GOD, not a god! It is the God who created this universe with the spoken word.
**It is THE GOD who upholds all of His creation through the Word of His Power!
**It is THE GOD that called Abraham, that spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush and parted the Red Sea and provided manna in the wilderness for 40 years!
**It is THE GOD who parted the Jordan River for Joshua and the Children of Israel and caused the walls of Jericho to fall down when the Children of Israel shouted with a great shout!
**It is THE GOD who gave Samson his supernatural strength.
**It is THE GOD who protected Daniel in the Lion’s den and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace!
**It is THE GOD who impregnated a virgin named Mary and allowed her to give birth as a virgin to a Son that she would call IMMANUEL which means GOD WITH US!
**So when The Greatest Sentence In The World says FOR GOD, I want you to know that there is INTEGRITY in His love but I also want you to notice:
2) The INTENSITY of this love!
3:16 SO loved
**The third word in the greatest sentence in the world is a small word but it is speaks volumes! It is the word “SO” and it speaks to me about the INTENSITY of GOD’S love!
**God’s love for you and for me is UNCONDITIONAL and by that it simply means that it does not have any conditions associated with it. In other words it does not say “I love you IF but it says, I love you PERIOD!
**Not only does this kind of love reveal The HEART of GOD but it also reveals:
B. The VALUE of MAN!
John 3:16 For God so loved the WORLD . . .
**The latest census figures indicate that there is someone born every 7 seconds and that someone dies every 13 seconds.
**These same census figures reveal to us that there are more than 300 million people living in America and there are more than 6.6 Billion people living in the world right now.
**The Good News is that The Greatest Sentence In The World tells us that every single one of them are important to God!
**Before the foundations of the world were ever spoken into existence, the Heart of God compelled Him to create man in His own imagine.
**As the result of man being created in the image of God, this gives incredible VALUE to every single one of the 6.6 billion people on the face of the earth!
**Is it any wonder why the spirit of antichrist which is so prevalent in the world today is designed to devalue every human life?
**Just look at the way the premise of evolution. Evolution teaches that you are not “a special creation of God” but you are the result of some primordeal ooze or a product of some big bang that took place millions and millions of years ago!
**The Greatest Sentence In The World not only teaches us about the Greatest Love Ever Revealed but it also teaches us about The Greatest:
II. GIFT EVER RECEIVED
**For God So Love The World That He GAVE . . .
**One of the truly remarkable things about LOVE is that:
**Gifts of love are always:
A. EXPRESSIVE
3:16 For God so loved the world, that He GAVE
**Think about everything or everyone that you have ever truly loved and I am pretty sure that you had a desire in your heart to EXPRESS that love in some measurable way!
**I remember when I first met Marie and our relationship grew into a LOVE relationship. I began looking for ways that I could EXPRESS my love to her!
**When Adam and Eve sinned against their Creator, He could have said that is it; that is the end of it for you and for everyone else who will be born after you!
**But praise God that His Heart of Love had already moved upon Him before He created us that even when Adam and Eve sinned that God had chosen a way of EXPRESSING His love for them and us!
**God provided a blood sacrifice for Himself and by shedding the innocent blood of the animals it was a picture of Jesus shedding His innocent blood for our sins on an old rugged cross almost 2,000 years ago!
**God’s kind of love is EXPRESSIVE but it is also:
B. EXPENSIVE
3:16 . . . His only begotten Son
*For God So Love The World, That He Gave . . .
**What did God give that would become The Greatest Gift That Has Ever Been Received? He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON!
**Man has never been able to be made righteous through the blood of bulls and goats, but we have not been redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, but we have been redeemed with the PRECIOUS BLOOD of the Lamb of God and His name is JESUS!
**Salvation is definitely FREE but it most assuredly is NOT CHEAP!
**The Gift of God’s Son is an EXPRESSION of God’s Love for us and it represents The Greatest LOVE ever REVEALED and The Greatest GIFT ever RECEIVED but it also represents:
The GREATEST:
III. CHOICE EVER REQUIRED
**There are two things I want to call your attention to about The Greatest Choice Ever Required. First of all I want you to notice:
A. The RESPECT God SHOWS for us!
3:16 . . . that WHOEVER
**For God So Loved The World, That He Gave His Only Begotten Son, That WHOEVER . . .
**Aren’t you glad that God’s Love is a WHOEVER kind of love? For God so loved the WORLD (all 6.6 Billion) that WHOEVER (all 6.6 Billion) . . .
**When God said revealed to us that His love was available to WHOEVER, it represented the tremendous RESPECT that He was SHOWING for every single one of us!
**My question to you today is this, are you a WHOEVER?
**I am here to remind you of the tremendous RESPECT that God is SHOWING you as an individual but I also need to show you a second thing. I need you to notice:
B. The RESPONSE God SEEKS from us!
3:16 . . . BELIEVES in Him shall not perish
**For God So Loved The World, That He Gave His Only Begotten Son, That Whoever Believes in Him . . .
**What does it mean to Believe in Him? There are two things that I want you to know about “believing in Jesus”. First of all it means that:
1) We must ACKNOWLEDGE our INABILITY to Save or Redeem ourselves.
2) We must ACCEPT His ABILITY to Redeem us!
For God So Loved ________________ that He gave His only begotten Son, that if ________________ will believe in Jesus, then _______________ shall not perish, but _______________ will have eternal life!