For our meditation, I'd like to turn with you to the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, the sixth chapter. I know we're in the Christmas season. This isn't necessarily what we call a Christmas text, but I think you'll see as we enter into this that there is something of Christmas contained in this, and really this Bible, this book that we have before us, it's all about Christmas, Christ our Lord, I have only one verse to read, it's the last verse of that sixth chapter, Romans chapter six. But before I read that verse, I just want to comment on, a brief comment on chapter six. The Apostle Paul is speaking to the Roman Christians, the Christians in Rome. Many, perhaps all of them were They were converted pagans. They weren't necessarily Jews. There were probably some Jews there, but For the most part, they were new converts. Paul was writing to them a letter of encouragement, a letter of instruction, a letter that would help them, that would guide their feet in the paths of righteousness. And he begins with a question in that sixth chapter, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Should we? God has been gracious to us. God has been merciful to us. God has blessed us abundantly. He's forgiven us. Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? He gives an emphatic answer, God forbid. Forbid it, Lord, that we should sin. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And then he continues to go on addressing this topic of sin. In the end of this sixth chapter, we read these words in verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the gift. The wages of sin is death. If you're gonna continue in sin, it's death, death, death. Sin is destructive. As I was contemplating this and pondering this text and thinking about this time with you this day, the thought occurred to me that we have much to be thankful for. It's a season of Thanksgiving. We just celebrated Thanksgiving, the Thanksgiving Day, where we gathered with our families, our friends, our loved ones, our neighbors, and we feasted on the natural blessings God gave to us. And we remembered that these are from the hand of our Lord. There's a song in our hymnals, a song 384. And the refrain is, count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done. And to be blessed is to be favored by God. Think of that. To be blessed is to be favored by God. And just think of the love of God. This world is blessed. We say our nation is a blessed nation, and truly it is. But this nation is much like Sodom and Gomorrah. This world is like Sodom and Gomorrah was. And you know, at that time, the Lord said to Abraham, he came down to see if, and I'm paraphrasing here, if it wasn't just so as it came up into heaven, into the nostrils of God, the foul odor of sin. And those angels went down there and they visited wrath and destruction upon Sodom and Gomorrah. But while the Lord tarries, this nation is blessed. This world is blessed. The providence of God provides for every creature. We have natural life. We have healthy bodies. We have sound minds. We have physical strength. These are blessings from God. You wouldn't be here this morning if you didn't have natural life or a healthy body or a sound mind. All of these things come together as a great blessing from God. Food, clothing, shelter, financial means that we can buy what we need and we have property that we can attain and earthly comforts that we can enjoy. You know, we could just continue in this idea and quest to expound upon the blessings of God. You're enjoying them right now and so am I. This is a very comfortable sanctuary. The temperature is comfortable, pleasant. These are gifts from God. We have external peace. In the prayer we acknowledge that we have a peaceful sanctuary. We can leave here and we can go in peace. drive home, there's nobody, there were no bombs being dropped in our neighborhood this morning, it was quiet, peaceful. You say you're being a little facetious, I'm not, you know the news, you read it, there's places in this world that are being bombed. And we were brought, it was brought to our attention recently in the past couple of weeks, there was a converted Muslim man in Syria that was, his name is Mohammed, And he was converted, he's a Christian, and he was working in a school in Aleppo, Syria, and when those ISIS rebels came in, those Muslims, terrorists, he was on their hit list. By name, they were looking for him by name. They were pursuing him. And he was converted. able to communicate with some friends, some Christian friends outside of the country. And the news came to the copper country where some people who are involved in this other mutual friend were being asked, please pray. Muhammad's being pursued and he was running for his life. This is what we're talking about. You and I sit here quietly in peace. We leave here in peace. They were looking for him by name, pursuing him. He was on their hit list. He would be killed if they would find him. By the grace of God, he was delivered. He was allowed. It was a miraculous delivery. He was brought to the border. Financial means were provided from someone from the United States that he could actually have the means to leave the country, but not without the help of a Muslim official. That's how God, he manipulates and he works in the hearts of even the unsaved. And of all things, we found out he was safely brought to Finland. So it's an interesting thing. He's in Finland today, safe. But this is external peace, and we have relationships, and we have purpose in life. Isn't that something? You and I have purpose. There'll come a day if we live to an old, old age, and there is no more purpose. I remember my grandmother, my aged grandmother, talking to my father, and she said, I have no more plans in life. There's no more plans. They've all been lived. But we have purpose. Today we are here, we have purpose, we have opportunities. And so these are the blessings, the gifts that God has given to us, but man has a problem, and that problem is a sin problem. And somehow we can't separate this problem of sin from this eternal life in Christ. It's interesting when you read the Bible, it's connected and the value we'll see. So man has a sin problem and our text says the wages of sin is death. And all we have to blame is ourself, that's all. James the Apostle says, let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed, and when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So we're confronted in our text with two things. I heard one minister called it the bad news and the good news. Bad news is death. Thoughts about death. Death can be felt. You and I can feel death, the effects of death. Weak bodies. As we grow older, our bodies become weaker and weaker and weaker. The joints ache. We have physical ailments. The mind becomes less sharp. These are, we feel it. This is reality. And it's only because of sin. The wages of sin is death. Isn't that something? The only reason you and I are feeling these things, it's because of sin. And the only reason anybody dies, it's because of sin. Because the wages of sin is death. These weak bodies, weak minds, frail frames and feeble limbs, these are the effects of death that can be felt within us. And then it can be seen around us. You say, what are you talking about? Well, just take a walk in the forest, in the woods, and you see the fallen trees and the rotting stumps. These are the signs and the evidences of this curse that's on this earth, that sin brought death into this world. Rotting carcasses, dry bones. These are the things that we see. They're all around us. We see these things. We have daily obituaries. You read them, I read them. We look, wonder who's passed away. This is the reality that we're dealing with. It's all because of sin. The wages of sin is death. And we pass by these silent cemeteries as we drive through the country, and we see them, we look at them. Sometimes they prompt a thought in our mind of a loved one that may be buried there. When we travel, we see these large cemeteries, small cemeteries across here or there, some monument that marks the resting place of a departed person. Dead. We accept this reality. Somehow we accept it. Everybody knows they're gonna die. Everybody does, but we work hard to cover it up We really do. Here's a few things I just want to bring to your attention in this great cover-up. Because we accept the reality of death, but we want to cover it up. We want to mask it. We have ways to do that. We have these, literally, beauty aids that we buy, that we use to somehow mask the death, the corrupt, the seeds of death that are in us that are working every day to deteriorate this body and bring us down to the grave. Facelifts, people go to doctors and they'll pay big money to have their face somehow just do something to make me look young, to preserve youth. You see these movie stars that seem like they just don't get a wrinkle. Well, they do. And they're fighting hard and paying much to have those wrinkles removed. And these are the things that we do. We have perfumes, deodorants, mouthwash. These are all things that sound silly, but it's true. We're corrupting. It's corruption in us. It's a reminder that we're going down. Natural death is unavoidable, and the Hebrew epistle, chapter nine, verse 27, says it's appointed unto men once to die. That's where we're headed, to the grave. And once we do die, it's amazing when you think about it. The embalming fluid comes out, the makeup comes on, the hairdos are done, we dress up the departed one to make him look as nice as we can. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. We bring flowers around the coffin. We want to somehow get life in there. We want to produce something that is living. But there lies the dead body. And then we have these celebrations of life. That's what that has become. We have a short sermon, a short service, and then oftentimes we go to an event that's called the celebration of life, and we just talk about the life, the life. We love life. But the sorry friend is a dead corpse. This is the wages of sin. Natural death is everybody's enemy. Everybody's enemy. Your enemy and my enemy. But the child of God has hope. The scripture says, Apostle Paul records in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 26, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Bad news? Yeah, I got lots of bad news this morning. You and I are, we're dying creatures. But the good news, the last enemy, it says, Paul said the last enemy is gonna be destroyed, and that's death. Praise the Lord. And our Lord said in John's Gospel, the fifth chapter, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. Now we're speaking about something glorious. Death, how disturbing. Death, how hard and difficult. Death, oh, death. We hate the thought of death, hate the thought of dying. But our Lord says, He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, everlasting life. And Jesus continues in John's gospel, the eighth chapter, verse 51, with these words, verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my sayings, he shall never, never, never see death. So what are you saying? What's the Lord saying? Never see death. I thought we're all dying. Well, we are. Natural death belongs to each one of us, but our Lord is not referring to natural death. He's referring to the second death. We are born into this world and we are born spiritually dead, but the Lord says that he had taken part in the first resurrection. On such, the second death will have no power. I was looking up in the dictionary what Webster had to say about this and he said, the second death is perpetual separation from God. It's not the dead body. It's not a body decaying in the ground. This is a eternal death, a perpetual separation from God and eternal torments. I don't want to be a part of that second death. Somehow I can tolerate that natural death. I accept that. I'm going to die. Not looking forward to it, but it's a reality. But God forbid that I must partake of that second death, that eternal and forever separation from God perpetually. And I already quoted it, but Revelation 20 verse 6 says, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death has no power. What's that first resurrection? That's when God opened our eyes, our spiritual eyes and our understanding. He resurrected us from a spiritual place of spiritual death. Apostle Paul told the Ephesians, you hath he quickened, made alive who are, what, dead in trespasses and sins. Another thing I found in the scripture that was amazing, God, in Christ, Christ has abolished death. You like that word abolished? He's nullified it, it's null and void. Death is null and void. Paul confirms that in 2 Timothy 1 verse 10. Our Savior Jesus Christ has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Death is abolished. Done. There's not a power on earth that can deal with death. When that long arm of death reaches out and grips a person, they're dead. But Christ has abolished that death, that second death has been abolished. He continues with the Corinthians, we find scripture that just builds upon this. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. I think that's why we're here this morning. Because we live with a hope, a lively hope of eternal life. That our Lord has done a mighty work for his people. And death, this terrible death is swallowed up in victory. So Paul can, I like to think of this as his victory song. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Victory in Jesus, that's what we have over death. What a message, what a gospel. What a message. So the wages of sin is death, but our text says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The gift of God. What is the gift of God? Think about that and try to answer that in your minds. What is the gift of God? God has a gift. What is that gift? Well, you talked about it, preacher, I got physical life, I got strength, and mind is sound, and all these blessings, I got family relations, I got opportunities and possibilities, I just, these are, and they are gifts, but that's not, it's the gift of God. What is the gift of God? It's eternal life, but what is the gift? I heard this before, I've quoted it here, I'm gonna tell you again, an old preacher said it, the gift is in a what? The gift is not a what. What did you give me for Christmas? What did you get me? No, it's not a what, it's a who, it's a person. We can't forget that. I was reminded of that Samaritan woman that the Lord Jesus met at that well in Samaria, Jacob's Well. Our Lord said, if thou knewest the gift of God and who, see it's a who, and who it is, that saith unto thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Beloved, the gift of God is eternal life, everlasting life, but it's a who, it's Jesus, the Christ of God, that's the gift of God. It is. It's the gift of God. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's the gift. I know you know that. We have the nativity scenes that remind us of this. We see baby Jesus in a manger. But oh, that God the Holy Spirit would open our understanding and our ability to comprehend this gift, the magnitude of it. The gift of God is Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. God gave his son. What value do you put on this gift? I ask, that's a serious question for us to ask. What value this morning do you put on Jesus Christ? That's God's gift. What do you put on that? What value, what does, is there any value? We put value, we put high values on some things, material things. Amazing values. And I thought of something I want to share with you. One of the largest gemstones in this world is called the Hope Diamond. Somehow it came into my mind when I was thinking about things of value. You've heard about the Hope Diamond? I did a little research on that and I found out that it was mined in India. sold to King Louis of France in 1668. It's called the Blue Diamond of the Crown or the French Blue. It's a beautiful blue diamond. It's got a strange, unique hue to it, a color that's unmatched. The Blue Diamond of the Crown, that's the Hope Diamond. You'll be amazed at how much that's worth. But before we get to that, do you know how big it is? It's the size of a walnut. That big. Smaller than a golf ball, the size of a walnut. You know what men will pay for that? $350 million to own that Hope Diamond. You and I could scratch together a few tens of thousands of dollars and go there and say, we'd like to buy, the Smithsonian Institute, I believe, owns that. We'd like to buy the Hope Diamond. Be gone, be gone. It's not for sale. $10,000, how about 100? We're not interested. How about a million? No. 10 million? No. 50 million? 100 million. I'll bet you couldn't buy that for 500 million. Today, we put value on things, material things. You and I can't comprehend 350 million. That's the value. Why so much? One reason, because it's so rare. It's rare. You can't find one like it in the world. It's the only one. And to own that as yours, it's mine, $350 million. I own the Hope Diamond, it's mine. There's nothing in the world like it. What value do you put on Christ, the gift of God? We get a little excited if somebody would say, here, I'll give you, how about if I just give you this Hope Diamond? What would we do? Somebody came, knocked on your door and said, we just decided we, the Smithsonian Institute would like to give you this Hope Diamond, just, here it is, yours. And they've got an entourage of guards around because it's so rare, so valuable that it's a high risk to move this around the country unguarded. What would you do with that? Again, what value do you put on God's gift, the gift of God? I found a man who put a high, high value on that gift of God. It was the Apostle Paul. He would have passed on the hope diamond. He passed on many little hope diamonds in his life. He gave up on them. I've read this to you many times, I wanna read it again because this applies to see the spirit of a child of God and the attitude of a believer. When the spiritual eyes are opened and they can see value, real value. We use the word intrinsic value. Paul says in Philippians chapter three, verse eight, Yea, doubtless, I count all things, everything, everything in my life, my reputation, my material possessions, my education, my standing before men, all of these things, my high office, I count it but, he says, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, everything. That's the value Paul put on the gift of God. Everything. I count it all but loss. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, he gave it all up. And do count them but dung, refuse. You know what dung is. That's what he counted. I don't want it. It's dung. Who wants to have a pile of dung in your house? And that's your possession. Paul said, I counted it all but loss, that I might win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith, and that I might know him. Paul was infatuated with Christ. He wanted to know him. He wanted to be intimate with Jesus. Do you? Preacher, do you have a desire to be intimate with Christ, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the, what? The resurrection of the dead. You can't escape that. The value of this gift of God, it relates to our understanding of what death really is, what we are under, this cloud of death. Natural death, eternal death, the second death. If you knew and I knew and we could see what these things really are, we know something about natural death. It's still a mystery to us. Here today, gone tomorrow. But this second death, this perpetual separation from God and the eternal torments, we can't understand that. We can read about it, we can hear about hell, we can listen to what we call hell fire and brimstone sermons, and we can get a little agitated, but we just can't enter into it. But if we could, and start to see the reality of these things, then the gift, the gifts are shining bright. This talking about eternal life, the resurrection of the dead, coming out of a grave. The gift of God, this gift of God, it is like a rare diamond. And I want to enter into this with you as we have a few more minutes here. The gift of God, the unspeakable gift, this Jesus, the Christ of God, who he gave his son. to be a propitiation for sin, an atoning sacrifice offered unto God to appease His wrath and to render Him merciful and gracious to you and to me. That's the gift. He didn't come here to set up a denomination. He didn't come here to teach us morality. He came here to save us from our sins, to save us, save you from your sins, your ungodly sins. your vile affections, your wicked flesh, your proud and deceitful heart. He came to save us from our sins because you can't go to heaven with your sin. That's why this is an unspeakable gift. That's why this is a rare treasure. And Jesus Christ is the gift. If you don't have Jesus Christ, you don't have the gift. If you don't have Jesus Christ, you don't have eternal life. If you don't have Jesus Christ, there is no resurrection onto eternal life. It's death, death, death, perpetual death. It's eternal death. It's separation from God forever. And the day will come when the earthly comforts will be gone, and all the blessings that God has bestowed upon mankind will be gone, and it will be outer darkness. Beloved, the gift shines bright on that black, the blackness of sin and the blackness of this second death. That's when it starts to shine. That's when it starts to become precious. When we see these things in their reality and in their truth, the gift of God, it's a rare, rare diamond. Don't tell me or talk to me about the hope diamond. That's nothing but dung. using the words of the Apostle Paul, worthless, worthless trash. 350 million, what are you, dollars? Did you say dollars? What's a dollar? It's a unit of measure. And do you know how fast a dollar can evaporate? Gone. Filthy lucre. We're talking about a rare gem, heaven's gemstone. multifaceted I want to show you this in in the scripture how multifaceted that's what a diamond is you get a person who works gems, there's a name for them, but they cut the diamond and they get the different facets. And so when the light shines upon that gemstone, at every angle, you turn it a little bit here and there, and that the reflection of the beauty of that diamond comes out and you start seeing the colors and the amazing reflections that come out of that diamond. That's why we cherish diamonds, because they're beautiful. And that's why they have so many facets, because they are designed to draw out the beauty of that stone. Heaven's diamond. I like that hope diamond. There's hope in Christ. Oh, there's only hope in Christ. It sparkles with heavenly blessing. Just think, we're gonna talk about some of these blessings, the love of God. There is a blessing, and that's only found in Christ, the unspeakable gift, God's gift, the gift of God. Jeremiah said, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee. I have loved thee. Can you imagine the God of heaven? I have loved thee. Not past tense, it's with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Look at that diamond, we turned it, we looked at it, we saw the love of God coming out of that in Christ Jesus with an everlasting love. When you're his child beloved, you are beloved. And that love didn't start when you got smart and left your sin, it was an eternity past, God loved you. With an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness, he's drawn you. John says in his first epistle, chapter three, verse 16, hereby perceive we, hereby we understand and we can see the love of God because he laid down his life for us. The diamond sparkles with heavenly luster when we see the love of God. For you, God would do that for you. How about the preacher? God would love you? God loved you with an everlasting love? And that he would love me to the extent he would lay down his life for me? That's how we perceive the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Paul says to the Ephesians in the second chapter, but God who is rich in his mercy for his great, great love wherewith he hath loved us. We read these so quickly, but just think. The love of God reflected on, coming out of that gemstone, Christ Jesus. Even when we were dead in sin, yeah, God will save a sinner. When we were dead in sins, that means not just that we were inanimate objects that just couldn't do anything, we were dead in sins. We were living in sin, loving sin, reveling in sin. Even when we were dead in sin, He hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace are ye saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places. Do you see the reflected love of God in Christ coming out of that gemstone, heaven's gemstone, made to sit in heavenly places with Christ? That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Beloved, there's a gift that God has given his son that's priceless, priceless. Mortal tongue cannot describe the value of this gift. We try hard. We look in the scriptures, we find verses to build upon, and we see the picture emerging, the reality of the love of God, but we just can't express it. One day, by the grace of God, we will see him face to face and really see the love of God in Christ Jesus. What else do we see? We turn that stone. I tried to do this in an order. There's the election of grace. God loved, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It tells us in John's gospel, our Lord said, you have not chosen me, I've chosen you. You didn't get wise and then suddenly decide that you're gonna become a child of God. God chose you, God took you out of this world. He chose you. This is election. This is the grace of God in election. And at the end of the age, our Lord says in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 24, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, when our Lord comes out of the heavens. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man. A little ladybug up here. Then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together who is elect, his chosen ones. When you look at this word, and the word is Christ, you start to see a picture emerge, a wonderful truth that God has chosen a bride for his Son. He gave it to him in eternity past. Christ came to redeem them from their sins. and to bring them to the Father, forgive them, and the Holy Spirit calls them. And the Lord is gonna come himself and gather his elect from the four winds from the one end of heaven to the other. And all of this, as we turn this gemstone and we see the facets of this beautiful diamond of heaven, God's unspeakable gift, it was all in his foreknowledge. Peter says in his first epistle, chapter one, he speaks to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, elect, chosen ones, according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through sanctification of the spirit onto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. This isn't knowledge. in the sense of just understanding things. This is speaking about that relationship, the foreknowledge. God was intimate with you in eternity past. I can't explain it, but I need to proclaim it because it's God's word. He did this based on his foreknowledge, not the knowledge that you might someday straighten up, not the knowledge that someday you might become a good person and put away bad habits because you can't and I can't. but he was intimate with us in eternity past. And all of this he did based on his foreknowledge through sanctification of the spirit onto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ and predestinating grace of God. That's another beautiful, somebody want this little friendly one? The predestinating grace of God. Romans chapter eight, verse nine says, for whom he did foreknow. Those that he knew in eternity past, that he loved, that he set his affection on. He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. These are beautiful truths. These are wonderful gifts. This is the blessing of God. He takes us from the dunghill, and He sets our feet upon a rock, and He conforms us to Christ. He presses us into the Savior. We become like Him. The question's been asked, how good do you have to be to get to heaven? Impossible to get there being good. You have to be perfect, just like God's Son, Jesus Christ, but we are conformed to the image of His Son. And then we have this effectual call, the call of God. This gospel has gone into the world, but the world, for the most part, has given no heed to it. Why? Because their ears are blocked. It's a mystery. Why me? Why did I hear the gospel? Why did you hear the gospel? It's an effectual call. It's a call that God reaches into our hearts. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he called, and whom he called, he justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. How does he call his people? It's through that Holy Spirit conviction. People can listen to the Word of God, they can read the Word of God, they can be in the presence of God's people and His Holy Word, and they never, ever, ever have a conviction, a spirit of conviction, where the arrow of truth pierces the heart, and they say, yes, Lord, I am a sinner. I'm a vile sinner, I'm a lost sinner. I'm an enemy of God. In Adam, I'm at enmity. It never happens. But the gift of God, the Holy Spirit conviction, we see that evidence in the book of Acts when the apostles started to preach there at the day of Pentecost. Now, when they had heard the preaching of Peter, they were pricked in their heart. Not everybody, but there were those gathered Maybe 3,000 souls, I think, were saved that day. They were pricked in the heart. It was Holy Spirit conviction. This is a beautiful gem of God's, or a facet of God's hope diamond in heaven. Holy Spirit conviction. Without it, we won't be saved. We'll go on in our sin, hard-hearted, ignorant of God's righteousness, thinking we can establish our own righteousness and go to hell. We turn that diamond a little bit more and we see forgiveness of sins. Ah, preacher, you've been talking a lot about sin and what sin brings. The wages of sin is death. But when you turn that diamond of heaven and you see that there's forgiveness in Christ, Christ speaks in the book of Acts, or speaking of Christ rather, in Acts chapter five, verse 31, it says, him hath God exalted. Jesus, God exalted Jesus with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Are you saying that your sins are forgiven? That's what I'm saying. In Christ, beloved, your sins are forgiven. I said before, I'm gonna repeat it, this gemstone of God, this heavenly gem, it shines brightest of all things on the blackness of humanity, on the blackness of the human heart, when the conviction of sin is realized and becomes real. Then Adam's sons and daughters, then they appreciate forgiveness. But the preacher's been talking about forgiveness of sins and it rolls off my back like water off of a duck's back, in one ear and out the other. Why? Because I'm not a sinner. But if you're ever a bankrupt sinner, lost and condemned, and when the doctor comes up and says, peace, your sins are forgiven. Ah, that's wonderful news. We know that. We comprehend that. You've got cancer. You've got a cancer that's eating you alive. You're a dead man or woman. You're dying. You know it every day, every moment. It's just consuming your life. You're going to the grave. And there's nothing that man can do for you. You've tried every remedy. You've been to every doctor. You're desperate. And you've given up. And somebody says, I got one more doctor we got to go see. And you go there, and the doctor says, I've got a remedy. I have a remedy. You don't yawn. You know what you do? You pull up your chair a little closer, and you say, would you please give me the remedy? I'm ready. I need it. I desperately need the remedy. Would you give me the medicine? You see the value. We'll do anything for that. You want my house, you want my farm, you want my land, you want my car, you want my bank account, you can have it all. That's what the apostles said, I count it all but lost, that I might win Christ and be found in him. Forgiveness of sins, beloved, it's everything. To be forgiven, the slate clean, and it was accomplished with the blood of Christ, washed and cleansed in the blood of Christ, that's the precious gift. That's the gem reflecting the love of God in Christ. That's the beauty that heaven has to offer, the rare gem of forgiveness. Be it known unto you, Paul says in Acts 13, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. I've been trying to do that this morning. I've been trying to preach the forgiveness of sins in Christ alone. God's not interested in what you can do, because you can't do anything to please him. God is interested in what his son has done. And when he died on the cross of Calvary and shed his innocent blood, for sinners like me and you, God was satisfied with that offering. That's the propitiation. God was satisfied with the offering. and now he can be merciful and gracious to us. What else do we have as we look at this? And we're gonna only scratch the surface. We have the assurance of salvation. Isaiah writes in the 32nd chapter, verse 13, and the works of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever, forever. Then we have the promise of eternal life where John writes, and this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life. That's God's gift. Yeah, I'm troubled by the prospect of death. I really am. I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die naturally. I just don't want to. That day I wanna push off as far as I possibly can, but there's an appointed day when I will die. But beloved, I rejoice in this, that in Christ I have everlasting life and the blessed assurance, assurance forever, and the promise of eternal life, peace, rest, and a good hope. That's why I'm convinced that when Paul spoke to, I forget which congregation it was, he says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. It's Christmas, beloved. Let's thank him for such a gift and never forget it. Each day of our lives, thank him for the gift of eternal life. I pray that you have it. And if you have it, you have something even beyond price. It's a priceless gift. God be praised in his holy name, we pray. Amen. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for Jesus. Lord, may your Holy Spirit reveal this matter even deeper to us. Help us to meditate upon it, help us to contemplate it, help us to live a life that is pursuing our Lord. We pray that everything we say and do would be to your honor and to your glory, to the praise of his holy name. And Father, bless this congregation. They are dear to our hearts. Father, watch over them, each one. Every home and family represented here, Father, may your May your face shine upon them and be gracious unto them. Lift up your countenance upon them and give them everlasting peace. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we pray, amen.