Last year, the number one motion picture in the United States and I suppose throughout the world that drew the largest box office was a motion picture that was made just for a small amount of money. Nobody ever thought it would amount to much. It was based upon a simple little story and it was called Love Story. And a headline in the British papers said, The Greatest Love Story of the Century, but the greatest love story of all time is summed up in these 25 verses of 25 words that someone is called a miniature Bible, the gospel in a nutshell, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have ever lasting life, the greatest love story ever told for God
[01:02]
Do you ever stop and think about God? Many people are thinking about God today because we’ve seen that science does not have an answer to all of our problems. We are seeing that technology cannot solve all of our problems. And so thousands of young people in Europe and in America are beginning to talk about God. Some of them are going to India to see if they can find peace in their hearts. Some of them are going and studying yoga, and they’re going into all sorts of different sects and groups searching for God.
[01:39]
Some of them are going out into the desert and sitting under the stars and watching the stars. Have you ever wondered about God? Someone asked me at a university one day, can you prove God exists? And I answered, No, I cannot put God in a test tube. I cannot put God in a laboratory and say, here’s God. How do I know that God exists? All the evidence seems to indicate that he does. I look up in the starry sky and I say, there must be a God.
[02:16]
I look at the beautiful nature around about me and I say, there must be a God. I see the birth of a baby. Gary Player was telling us yesterday how he saw the birth of his last child. And he said, as I watched that I knew that there had to be a God. But there’s another reason. Deep in your heart, you have a conscience and your conscience tells you there must be a God. Something down inside tells me there must be a God.
[02:47]
And the Bible tells us that this God is the creator of all the universe in Genesis one one in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. Now, in that passage in Genesis one, there is no explanation. There’s no attempt to prove God. It just says in the beginning, God, because everybody believes in God. Oh, but you say I’ve met some atheists. You met some atheists that hadn’t had any real trouble yet. But you find a person who claims he’s an atheist and let someone announce to him that he has terminal and you say, oh, my God, help me.
[03:28]
Or you get into a battle or get into a difficult spot. He’ll say, oh, my God, help me. Yes. Oh, man. Know that there must be a God. He is the creator by the word of the Lord. Will the heavens man. Now the Bible tells us God is the spirit. God doesn’t have a body like yours. If God had a body like yours, he would have to be in one place at one time.
[03:51]
But God doesn’t have a like you. God is the spirit. And God can be in Africa. He can be in Asia. He can be in Europe. He can be in America all at the same time. He can be on a planet. He can be on the moon. At the same time, I’ve talked to some of those astronauts that went to the moon and they told me that they knew as they went around the moon, there must be a God.
[04:16]
I talked to some of the prisoners of war from Vietnam just a few days before I came on this trip. I talked to those first prisoners that came back to the United States and they told us in those prison cells for eight years in Vietnam, they knew there was a God. God is the spirit. The Bible tells us that God is unchanging. He never changes fashions, change every part of our culture and life changes and vast changes are underway throughout the world.
[04:47]
But jet plane, modern communications have made it impossible. Fashions change, culture changes, technology changes. But God never changes the Bible. I am the Lord God, I change not the Bible says there is no barebone, it’s not a shadow of turning with God. God has not changed in thousands of years, 10000 times, 10000 years from now, God will be the same. God is from everlasting to everlasting. God does not change. But the Bible also teaches that God is a God of love that God loves.
[05:29]
I’m glad that’s in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation that God is a God of love and mercy and grace, and that God loves everybody. I don’t care who you are.
[05:41]
He has the hairs of your head. No. He sees this parable. He’s interested in you and he loves you. Now, there are several Greek words that are translated love eros meaning sexual love, sexual love.
[05:57]
Pilau means friendship, love the love that I would have for a friend.
[06:02]
But when the writers of the New Testament were trying to find a word that would describe the love of God, they invent a new word, a copy, the divine love, a love that we cannot know outside of God.
[06:18]
There is no love that you can think of in human relationships comparable to the love that God has for you and that God has for me. God loves you, you say, but I don’t deserve such love. I’m a sinner. I’ve broken God’s law. I failed him a thousand times. I know that’s the beauty and the greatness and the thrill of God’s love that no matter what you’ve done, he loves you for God. So loved the world, the black world, the white world, the yellow world, the red world, the rich world, the poor world, the uneducated world, the educated world.
[07:07]
And he loves us all the same. God loves you 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.
[07:24]
I want us all to say it together, for God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed him should not perish but have ever lasting life.
[07:43]
The Gospel is never preached without the working and the operation of the Holy Spirit. You see, there’s a little voice that’s been speaking to you while I’m speaking. That’s the voice of the spirit of God. And God has been convicting you of your sin and God has been convicting you of your need of Jesus Christ. Oh, I know that the majority of you may be members of the church. When I came to Christ many years ago, I was a member of the church.
[08:07]
I was the president of the young people society in my church. Everybody thought I was a wonderful Christian, but deep in my heart, I did not know Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. Now God loves you. He’s given his son. What do you have to do? You have to do something. What is it? First you have to repent of your sin. Jesus said repent you. The Apostle Paul said God now commanded all men everywhere to repent.
[08:36]
God commend you to repent. Have you ever repented of your sins? Do you remember the moment when you repent? You say, Well, Billy, what do you really mean by repent? Well, first of all, repentance carries with it the idea that you say, Lord, I’m sorry for my sins. Have you ever said that to God? I’m sorry. And you really meant it. And then it means that you have to change. You have to turn around, you have to change and quit doing your sin, change your way of living.
[09:06]
Oh, things pass away and everything becomes new.
[09:10]
That’s repentance. I’m sorry for my sin. I’m willing to turn from my sin. Have you ever repented? Jesus said, except you repent, you will perish. And then secondly, by faith, you must receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. That can all be done with repentance, repentance and faith go hand in hand. You may not understand it all intellectually. You don’t have to. You come by simple, childlike faith. The Bible says, for by grace that you saved through faith.
