Beloved friends, we welcome you to the broadcast and to the message from the greatest text in the Bible, the Word of God, John chapter three and verse sixteen. 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. In twenty-five words we have the complete story of the Gospel. God's blessed news of salvation, the great and good news for every man, woman, boy and girl. It is the greatest love story that has ever been told. Today we begin the consideration of the opening words of our text. For God so loved the world. in which we find the breadth of God's love. My beloved, may I first of all point out that we are introduced to the greatest being in the universe, God? Yes, God is so great. The Word of God declares that He is omnipotent, meaning almighty and all-powerful, beyond our human comprehension. The Bible declares He is omniscient. Meaning that he knows everything. And my beloved, let me remind you, he knows all about you and me too. And that in detail. He is also omnipresent, everywhere. We cannot run away from him. And there's no use trying to hide. And certainly he will find you and me. But God is so immense that he is immutable. The unchanging God, he cannot change for the better. Neither can he change for the worse. He is absolutely perfect in holiness and righteousness. Now please, this is the same one of whom it is written, God so loved the world. He is great. Now consider a second fact at the end of this expression. The unworthy object of His love, the world. Oh, beloved, it is not the literal visible creation to which He refers. or whether to the celestial and earthly, but the world of people, the world of sinners, if you please. There is but one classification of the human race, of all mankind in his sight. We are guilty sinners. Have you never read the word of God, as it is written in Romans chapter three, where God declares, and listen to it, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty? Before God, Romans three-nineteen, and in Romans three-twenty-three, God says, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. His love is for a guilty, sinful world of sinners, men and women, boys and girls. This is a universal condemnation, my friend, whether man, woman or child. We are guilty sinners, unworthy. Yes, my friend, and yet we are the object of God's love. Know very carefully this distinction. It does not say that God loves sin. He does not love sin. But it does say he loves sinners. And what a joy to realize the truth of that. He never will love sin, but he does love sinners. Here in his love wrote the Apostle John. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us. First John, four in verse ten. And again God commanded His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans five, eight. Again, emphatically, the unworthy object of His love is the world filled with sinners. For God so loved the world. Oh, that we might enter into this truth. and thank God for the truth of it. He loves. Take the truth in with a man that is old in years. I think of a man who in years ago, when he thought of these words as he came to know them and see them and hear them, for God so loved the world, he said to himself, if God loves the whole world, he sure must love me because I'm in it. Yes, my friend, everyone in it, God loves. though unworthy, but also note our text. The emphasis is placed also on his love by the use of one particular word, the smallest, one of the smallest words in our English vocabulary. God so loved the world. Now to interpret the volume of its meaning that it conveys would be impossible. It indicates in no other words that there is no other word that can describe the measurement of God's love for the world. God so loved the world. Now think carefully of its meaning. For there is a measureless, listen carefully, there is a measureless distance, literally, between God in the glory of heaven above, on his eternal throne, and our world below. Why God should pick out the world of sin is in the midst of the universe to love Don't ask me, it's beyond explanation. But God's love is not limited by that distance. A distance physically. No human mind can ever penetrate. Oh, my beloved, the vast space in the universe has not, will not, does not limit the love of God toward us. That love is unbounded. Neither is his love limited. And listen to this carefully. Neither is the love of God limited by our condition. Note the words of Jesus as I quote them. Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies, wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme. Mark three twenty-eight. And again, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. First John one seven. Once more. If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. First John chapter one and verse nine. Again, let me repeat with emphasis, I don't know your condition. God knows it. But may I say, your condition and my condition does not limit His love toward us. Now all these facts and many more indicate that the breadth of God's love is inexpressible. for him to say, for God so loved the world. It is a world of sinners absolutely unworthy, totally unworthy, having proved it, unworthy of such love. Now you may rightly ask the question, then why such love? My beloved, let me say, if God so great, so omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, and innumerable, and infinite, And we poor sinners are so finite and unworthy in contrast, then why such love, a love that does not fail to include every man, woman, boy, and girl in the world? My friend, let me say this. Listen to this truth. The greater the person is, the more able that person is able to stoop the lowest. It is the greatest person who is able to stoop the lowest. And if I know God from His precious word, there is none like Him who is able to stoop the lowest, and He has. You know as I do, how impossible by our standards of human love that it is that we are able to embrace every person in the world. By nature we choose whom we desire to love and devote our affections upon. But will you please note, God shows no partiality. No favoritism. He loves everyone, for God so loved the world, and each one of us can say, Then he must love me. A leading theologian some time ago was asked by one of his students, What he considered the greatest truth in the Bible that he had ever learned. The young man was asking this great teacher, very efficient in the knowledge of the Word of God, What was the greatest truth he had ever learned from God through the Word of God? And he made answer, as he thought for a moment, to quietly speak these words that you are well familiar with. He answered the young man, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Oh, my beloved, you probably have heard that song from infancy, some of you. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. I'm telling you frankly and firmly, you'll never find a greater truth in the Word of God to bless your soul and save you from eternal hell than when you learn that God loves you and gave Christ to die on the cross to save you. Yes, the breadth of God's love is seen in these opening words. For God so loved the world, the most unworthy object, taking in all colors, taking in all races of people, whether north, whether south, whether east, whether west. And may I add further, regardless to their terrible condition, he has made every one of them the object of his love. My friend, take this truth into your own heart if never you have. If never you have confessed in your lifetime, for God so loved the world. Will you not recognize that each person, each and every individual? And therefore you can say, this means me. God loves me. I don't know how wretched you are in his sight. But let me repeat again. God hates your sins, but he loves you. Again we quote the words as we close. How thou canst be the God thou art, and think so well of me, is darkness to my intellect, but sunshine to my heart. May God bless his word, shall we pray. O our blessed God and our Father, How we thank thee in the name of thy beloved Son, for the words that he spoke, making a declaration that is the greatest declaration and the greatest revelation of God above, not revealing the greatness of thine omnipotence and thy power, but greater still revealing thy loving heart. Father, may every one of us say, Even in the words of the children's hymn, Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. We ask it to bless by the Holy Spirit this amazing truth to every listener in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.