The Bible in A Nutshell Pt. 1

[Music] open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of John at chapter 3 verse number 16 John at chapter number 3 verse 16 for God thank you you may be seated for god I want to talk this morning above the Bible in a nutshell John chapter 3 and verse 16 is probably the best-known verse in the Bible perhaps it is the first verse that we ever learned and the last one we ever forget some years ago there was a woman in the nursing home in Kenner Louisiana who was 106 years old it was a birthday and the television station went there to interview her to talk to her to get a word from her she did not know her own name she did not remember any of her children she did not know where she was but they asked her did she remember anything and she said for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life Hershel Hobbes called this verse the gospel in superlatives Martin Luther says John 3:16 is the Bible in miniatura others have called it the Mount Everest of Scripture the highest point in the Bible but I want to call it this morning the Bible in a nutshell if all the other verses in the Bible were lost and this one verse rim and all the Bible is contained in this one verse there's enough gospel truth in John 3:16 to save whosoever will have faith in Jesus Christ here is a verse so profound that if all the scholars of the ages could plummet its depths it would take an eternity for them to get to the bottom of it yet the verse is so simple that a little child in Sunday school can understand what it means this simple verse is inexhaustible because it is about the love of God I have given myself daily growth an impossible assignment in these series of sermons for who can fully expand the love of God could we with ink the ocean filled and where the skies of parchment made brothers and sisters if every stalk on earth a quill and every man ascribed by trade to write the love of God above would rain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contained the whole though it stretch from Sky to sky no one of us in here this morning no one of us on earth today could get to the bottom of the love of God but I want to examine this marvelous verse this morning in some detail and hopefully I will not destroy it as you would destroy a flower by trying to analyze its parts I want to begin this morning with for God next Sunday I want to talk about so loved the Sunday after that the world and on until we get to the end of that verse for God says atheism so loved answers fatalism the world answers Trump's nationalism that he gave answers materialism his only begotten son answers Mohammed ISM whosoever believes answers Calvinism shall not perish answers annihilationism but have everlasting life answers Arminianism John 3:16 is a bit less is 'm which reveals the mind the heart and the wheel of God the Father let's examine this matter of for God the first brothers and sisters begins its explanation of love by going to the origin of that love the heart of God himself the word for God in the Greek text is the word free us and that word free us in the Greek is singular there are not many gods there is an attempt by atheists and others around the world to claim that there are thousands of gods and and people say there are many ways to get to God but there is only one God according to the scripture and the Bible does not try at all to even prove the existence of God the Bible just opens by saying in the beginning God brothers and sisters the God of love is not just one of many gods he is the only God various Allah and Buddha do not exist Allah and Buddha do not exist the Allah and Buddha do not exist the only God that exists is the God of the Bible he is omnipresent which means he is everywhere he's omniscient which means he knows everything he's omnipotent with means he has all power but the fundamental assertion about God in the text is that God is omni-benevolent which means he is all nothing David Wells writes a God with whom we are on easy terms and a God whose reality is little different from ours is a God that we merely make up in our minds and sooner or later we get bored with I would get bored with a God who is a man upstairs I would get bored with a God who is a higher power I would get bored with a god who's a little higher than a man that that would be fascinating for a moment or that that would really be a novelty for a moment but when I get in trouble I don't need a man upstairs when my heart is broken I don't need a higher power when my life is turned upside down I don't need a god who's a little higher than a man I need somebody who can come and pick me up I need somebody who can come and make my life make sense and save me from myself of all the eight billion plus people on this planet God loves each and every one of us individually there are over eight billion people alive on the planet and the eight billion of us who are alive on the planet does not divide God's love into eight billion people let me see if I can make that make sense in 1973 my brother Steve was shot in the back and killed on the campus of Grambling college he was a senior at gremlin getting ready to graduate that the May of 1973 he was killed in February of 1973 and my mother was inconsolable for days on end before Steve's funeral my mother would scream and cry all day long from the time she woke up in the morning till the time she went to bed at night my mother was inconsolable people would come to the house to try to comfort her my father would try to comfort her we would try to comfort her my mother wouldn't eat she wouldn't sleep she screamed and and cried until my brother Steve's funeral one day a lady came Miss Assistant Lauderdale who was a member of another church came to console her and was Fanning her and patting on the back and trying to get her to calm down and and it's just a lot of Dale said to my mother you have to remember you have some other children and my mother stopped crying just like that and got angry and she stopped crying and she looked at Miss Lauderdale and she said no one of my children take the other child's place because I don't divide my love between my children I multiply it and she went back to screaming and crying but but but I want I want to mention that this morning because of all of the people on the planet God doesn't have to divide his love to share with us the eight billion of us on the planet causes God to multiply his love the same Lavi has for me he has it in the same measure for you for him to love me does not take his love away from you that's why no one of us are to be envious of any of the rest of us because Jesus loves every last one of us the same measure someone ought to help me appreciate this morning I don't have to get upset if God goes to see about you because when I get in trouble he'll come see about me I don't have to be angry if God blesses you because the same God that blesses you will bless me in like manner the scripture talks about the the breadth and length and the height and the depth of the love of God that's what the Bible says theologically but all folk back in Louisiana where I'm from used to say he's so high you can't get over it he's so low you can't get under him he's so wide you can't go around him you've got to come in at the door and brothers and sisters God is so immense God is so transcendent that he's outside everything he created but his transcendence does not remove his eminence he is transcendent of us but he is imminently with us the scripture says he's Emmanuel God with us someone ought to help me preach it he's not just on the Pew with you on Sunday maybe that's why you got to sit in the same spot every Sunday because that's where you left him last Sunday but I need to tell you you can take it home you can take him to work you can let it ride in the car with you you can take him to the restaurant with you you can take it with you in your leisure you can take him in your play time you can take God to the hospital you can take God with you everywhere because that's know where God is not psalmist in Psalm 139 says where can I go from your spirit where I cannot flee from your presence if I send into heaven he's there if I make my bed in hell he's there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth even there shall God hold me hold me that's the kind of God I don't need a God I have to carry I need a God that can carry me I'm trying to move onto the body of this little ceremony but when Victoria was a was a small child just learning the walk and just learning the talk we'd go someplace to restaurant a mall in place we went and she would walk because she was just learning the wall she was excited about walking but soon she would get tired of walking he'd get tired of trying to walk and keep up and so I would walk slowly so that I could hold her hand and carry with me but my legs were longer and I thought I was walking slow but I was really ticking her too fast and she'd stopped wherever we were in the middle of wherever we were walking she stopped she couldn't save pick me up she'd say pick up me and wherever we were I would stop doing what I was doing and pick up her life gets hard sometimes burden gets heavy sometimes and I'm walking with God but but sometime I can't keep up and there are days when I have to look up to my father and say pick up me is there anybody here ever had to go up to God and say father I stretch I wish I had a witness god I'm tired pick up me god I'm weak pick up me god I need your strength they got me I'm not talking to you proud people in here this morning I'm not talking to you arrogant worshipers in here this morning I'm talking to a believer whose back has been up against the wall and God showed up just when you needed him the most I'm telling to somebody who's been down to your last dime and you didn't know how they were going to make it another week but God let that car run on fuse he just made a way out of lowly pick up me the clearest picture of God in the scripture this morning is Isaiah chapter 6 Isaiah says it was in the year that King Uzziah died that I saw also the Lord High lifted up his train filled the temple above it stood the Seraphim with which six wings with two wings they covered their face with two wings they covered their feet with two wings they did fly and one cried to another holy holy holy the whole earth is full of your glory and the dog hosts moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke if you're gonna get a good idea of who God is you got to see what Isaiah saw high and lifted up you can't praise God like you ought to if your view of God is at ground level [Music] if you're gonna shout in his presence he's got to be high and lifted up if you can't give God glory this morning your God is too low you have to lower view of God that's why you arrogant at his presence because your view of God is so low that's why you can't open your mouth to give him praise because your view of God is so low but when you see God high and lift it up you recognize the majesty of God and the misery of your own life [Music] how majestic is your name who Lord our Lord how excellent is your name when I consider the heavens the works of your fingers the moon the stars that you've are damned what is man that's just so mindful of it and the son of man that you would even visit him you made him a little lower than the Angels you've crowned him with glory and honor our Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name brothers and sisters you know what I wish we could recover I wish we could recover when I elders head when it came to giving God reference when it came to giving God respect when it came to giving God praise they would not come in the Lord's house unless they bow their head in prayer I wish I had somebody who was raised with old food like I was raised if a funeral procession was passing by men who were drinking would take their hats off because yeah is a funeral procession if lady was on our way to church they would stop gambling they would stop shooting dice because miss ella was on her way to prayer meeting that was a reverence and a respect for the things of God they didn't argue and fuss and fight and get Lord at the knowledge house they went so far as you couldn't put your hand on the Lord's Supper table it was holy somehow not help me preach it it belongs to the Lord and the things of God will hold it you can even walk across the pulpit to clean it because that's where Rav Stewart on Sunday morning and that perp it was was halted because the man of God spoke the Oracles have done here you come in the Lord's house acting like you going to a Civic Center acting like you gone to some social club but God is high and lifted up and his train feels the temple but here's the part of that vision that Isaiah saw that makes me shout every time I read it he said the Seraphim the burning one saying in antiphonal praise one to another in the presence of God Almighty holy holy holy the whole earth is full of your glory but there are no marks of punctuation in the Hebrew language so whenever a word is lifted to the superlative degree there's a way to do that in Hebrew in the English language if we want to make a word superlative at the end of the word on the end of the sentence we put an exclamation point to lift the word to the superlative degree but in the Hebrew or in the Greek when a word is lifted to the superlative degree because there are no marks of punctuation the word is repeated to lift it to the superlative degree in the New Testament when when Jesus wanted them to know something really important he said verily verily he said that twice to lift what he was about to say to the superlative degree and in the Old Testament when in Hebrew which the Old Testament is written in when they wanted to lift a word to the superlative degree they said it three times in succession holy holy holy notice God has never referred to as Messi Messi mercy or love love love or power power is always holy holy holy which means God is indefatigably holy he's inexpressibly holy he's holy beyond definition his holy beyond explanation his holy beyond what we can think that holiness is so holy Isaiah says that our righteousness in his presence is as filthy rags there is none righteous no not even one so when we come in God's presence leave your ego outside leave your arrogant self-esteem outside because there is an like him but that's not all da Xia so Isaiah saw that the I say I said I saw the doorposts moved another translation is the doorposts shouted I want you to get this they were fastened to the floor to the joists in the roof and they were down on the floor which made a foundation for the temple but when God came in Isaiah said the doorposts unhinged themselves and moved in animate wooden objects got up from their moorings and shouted pieces of wood got up to where they were fastened down and gave God glory now if a piece of wood that has no soul can shine in the presence of God how dare you sit here looking like a piece of wood a piece of wood shouted and God save you and you look like a piece of wood I hear you I hear you I used to sit in the pew I hear you I know what you're saying I don't do that that's just not who I am I really don't think it takes all of that ain't high-fiving my neighbor I ain't hugging nobody I didn't come here for that preach to me and let me get out of here know all that shouting they did a while ago know when we gonna move on any time for intercessory prayer the quality they don't know when they'll get through singing the musicians just keep on praying that sanctified music that gets on my nerves but then I don't know he's gonna get up there and talk our our lord have mercy let me see I'm what I'm gonna eat today I wonder in line with them got some greens over there and all kind of stuff goes in your mind and you you sitting here stone face because in your mind it don't take all of that well Bujji one speak for yourself maybe you ain't got nothing to be grateful for maybe God hasn't opened the door for you maybe God hasn't made a wave for you so you just go right back to looking whoopee but to those of us who know if the Lord came true I would have lost my mind if the law hadn't hear my body I would be dead and in my grave if you don't want to praise him I will [Applause] if you don't want to magnify his name I will if you don't want to tell him thank you I will bless the Lord at all times you can come by my house and I'll be giving God praise you can ride with me in the car and I'll be telling God thank you you can sit down and listen to my conversation and it won't be long until I get around to how good God's been to me have you ever been around somebody who loves the Lord it won't be two minutes before they start mentioning God made a way for me they're gonna had not been to the Lord who was on my side and lift it up you have to see what Isaiah saw and then if you're gonna get a good view of God you got a cinch SPNs he since what Isaiah sensed he said when I saw that beatific vision when I saw the Seraphim and the doorposts unfastening and shouting in the presence of God I said woe is me I am undone I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips when I saw God's majesty I saw myself in my misery you can't really see who you really are till you stand up next to God don't don't don't measure yourself by me because you using the wrong yardstick if you never told a lie you told it in me I wish I had a witness here if you never cross the line and sinned since you've been saved you much bigger than me because there's some sinner here like myself who can testify that since we've been saved our crowd has been woe is me for I am NOT laws I am undone a man of unclean if that word undone in the text means I disintegrate in the presence of God I am ground into a powder in the presence of God I'm absolutely worthless in the presence of God God has no reason to save me because there's no good thing in me Jeremiah says the heart of a man is desperately wicked who can know it you think you're doing right and you're doing wrong and then it does no wrong to do you think of something wrong to do because we are desperately wicked woe is me for I am undone we get the wrong picture of church when we think the church is full of people who got it all together and you don't join the church until you get all this mess out of your life and and you don't come to Christ until you start getting stuff straight in your life that's not what the church is made up church is made up of some crooked people some wayward people some backslidden people but God is in love with the backslider I wish I had a Bible reader here that's a messed up on the Pew next to you wait a minute no no wait a minute wait a minute you messed up and God still loves you God still blesses you God still makes a way for you and when you come in God's presence acknowledge that woe is me that was I am undone a man of unclean lips and I live with people with unclean lips brothers you got a sense that you have to press that to your heart if you're gonna be all the Christian God wants you to be I know you got a little fish on your bumper and and I know your answer you're falling praise the Lord you too blessed to be stressed and you blessed and highly favored and since you've been in church teaching Sunday School or you've been in church all your life you just look your sanctimonious nose at people because you don't do that no more I wish I had one or two more witnesses here don't do it no more and got nothing do it you're being so spiritual you old you learn some sense talk back to me if you can you come in out of the rain y'all gonna help me preach this won't you it ain't because you're so spiritual and you love God so much it's just some things you can't do no more because of time thank you Jesus beloved when I think about what God not only brought me from but helped me from hurt harm and danger and then delivered me out of the mess I got myself in when I come in his presence I can't do anything but give God glory honor and praise and look at God and look at myself and say woe is me for I am undone I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips but then something happened in the text Isaiah said the Seraphim who were giving God glory went to the altar with with some tongs and and they took burning coal live burning coal off the altar and put it on my lips they took burning coal and seared his lips and sizzled his lips the burning coal touched his lips and seared it sizzled it and until God can touch your lips with live coal from off the altar because when God touches your lips you stop talking about people you stop criticizing other people you stop making small of people you remember in the New Testament when jesus healed a man of blindness and then he came and asked the man what do you see the man said I see men but they look like trees walking and Jesus touched his eyes again and asked him what did he see and then he said I see men rightly Jesus had to get his sight straight because if you see ministries you're gonna start cutting them down and chopping on them climbing on them and so God's got to fix your sight so you can see people that you really ought to see people and speak about people really the way you ought to speak about people because the scripture says judge not and you will not be judged condemn not and you will not be condemned forgive and you shall be forgiven but your lips have got to be seared then they can sizzle for who can't praise God with a loud voice or perhaps those people whose lips have not been seared or sizzling because when God touches your lips and put some live coal to burn off the impurities of he gives you a testimony he gives you a word and you don't have to be a preacher to have a word you don't have to be a sunday-school teacher to have a word you can be a Christian and have a word you got to see what Isaiah saw since what Isaiah cinched and then when that happens you can finally say what Isaiah said he said he put their live cold on my lips and when he touched my lips my ears open that's a strange thing God touches his lips and it opens his ears it's not until God tells you to shut up that you can hear something somebody ought to help me talk you you ever wondered why you have two eyes two ears and one mouth because God wants you to see and hear twice as much as you speak and say because you can't say anything until you feel something and some of us are trying to say something for God and God has never touched our lips I wish I had time to stay right there but Isaiah said when he put that live cold on my lips I heard the voice of God saying whom shall I send and who will go for us then said I here am I send me brothers and sisters you can't say something till you see something and when you see God's power at work in your life I'm running out of time here but if you see God moving in your life you can't help but say something when you see how far God has brought you you got to see something when you recognize how God skipped over some people to bless you you got to say something when you see how you're the last one left for your family and God still keeping you looking good and strong you gotta say something when you see how God has protected you when people try to get you fired on your job and the same folk will set a trap for you God let them fall in it you ought to say something this little word is not fully acquired worshipers it's not for little dainty worshipers it is not for a little cute worshipers this word is for people who know how to holla and know how to tell God thank you and don't care who looking at you don't care who you sitting by matter of fact you bring a little thing which is sometimes and say now don't sit right there if you can't stand no Harlan you might want to go somewhere else if you can't stand the racket because over here in this section is about to get noisy on this row where I am is about to get a loose so you might want to give me some space right now you might want to move back a little bit because this preacher getting ready to talk about Jesus and I got some situations I need the Lord to handle for me I got some storms I'm about to go through that I need God to come to my rescue I'm sinking my body and I need God to heal me and Reverend is about to tell me what kind of God he's talking about and I need you to move out of my way because you look like you don't like to shout so you have my permission right in the middle of the closing of this to get away from that dead spot that you in and find some people who look like they woke up this morning with their mind stayed on Jesus you might be in a dead section where where God is trying to get a signal in and they jamming the signal because they asking you for peppermint and asking you for some paper to write something in punching you because they're looking at somebody else shouting and carrying on get away from them people because they are a dead spot you need somebody who's been through something somebody who know that God can answer prayer that God can open a door that God can make a way that God can be a mother for you that God can wipe tears away that God can put food on your table that God can make a way out of mourning why don't you find somebody who look like me feel like giving God pray if the Lord opened doors for you praise them if you got to do it by yourself if the Lord made a way for you power if you got you beat if the Lord paid your bills for you give God the glory if the Lord delivered you in your divorce tell God thank you if the Lord helped you raise your children by yourself tell God thank you if the Lord been a doctor for you he's been a lawyer for you if the Lord saved you and you're not ashamed to testify why don't you find somebody look like they want to give God to do it and both for y'all right now why would you grab your partner and better y'all right now see you don't know what the Lord has done for me then they use your preaching voice come on say as loud as you can God has been good to me God has made a raise for me God delivered me God has rescued me why'd he do it we'll do it one more thing I'd like for you to do this morning you don't know who is sitting next to you don't know what your neighbor is going to put your arm around and right now look at them in the face tell them be not dismayed whatever betide god will take care of you tell them whatever keep going through this to wear pants won't he do it won't he make the rain really do it he died didn't he die certainly Norman he arose I know what y'all trying to do y'all trying to make me too tired to preach at 11 o'clock I know what you're trying to do you're trying to make me leave it all here so I don't have anything left for you never the clock but I know what the Lord can do I've seen the lightning flash since breakfast - you try to turn my soul the voice of Jesus leading me still final he promised he promised he promised I said he promised never to leave me never leave me alone won't he do it he won't share see ya yeah yeah yeah [Music] if you can't remember anything else for God for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] ah [Applause] [Music] [Music]

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Id: DQduED1Xiy4

Length: 56min 32sec (3392 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 16 2020