I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 3 and hold your place at verse 16. Last week, I began by asking the question, how do we know that someone loves us? How do we know that someone loves us? And if you'll remember, the answer is that love is expressed in action. If a person simply says, I love you, or I love this, or I love that, or I love this person, but there is nothing tangible to go along with that love. If there's no action that goes along with that love, then the love that is expressed is merely words. And love is not merely words. Love is verbal. Love is... Action. Love does something. It doesn't just say something. So today I want to ask a further question on that same idea. I want to ask, since we know the answer to the question of how do we know someone loves us, My question to begin today's sermon is what is one of the most common ways that we show love to people? What is one of the most common ways we show love? And as we consider that question, let us stand and read our text for today. We have been going verse by verse through the Gospel of John, but we have stopped here at verse 16 to spend some time diving into the meaning of this particular passage. As many of you know, this passage has been used by God, unlike many other passages, or unlike any other passage, this passage has been used around the world to explain the Gospel in simple terms. So it says this, it says, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Father in heaven, I pray, even now, Lord, that You would sanctify this message. And by that, Lord, I mean that You would set it apart and keep it from all error, And Lord, as I preach the message, I pray you would keep me from error. Keep me from wandering into foolish thoughts. Keep me from rambling into unnecessary speech. Keep me tied to the post of your word and let me not stray. And Lord, for the sake of your people, I pray that what is preached will not only be truthful, but would be used by your spirit to impact the heart. And Lord God, for those who are believers this morning, I pray that this message would reaffirm to them the one that they have believed in, and the reason why they have believed. And Lord, for those who are here who do not know you, whether it be young or old, whether it be man or woman, whether it be visitor or even member, Lord, if today It is made clear to the heart that they do not know you. I pray that you would bring what only you can bring and that is the miracle of regeneration. That they would trust in Jesus Christ and not in themselves. That they would turn from idols and trust in the only true and living God. And Lord, that you would be glorified in saving a people for yourself. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Pardon me. What is one of the most common ways we show love to people? One of the most common ways that we show love to people is by the giving of gifts. I've learned in 20 years of marriage, now 25 years, oh better not get that wrong. I've learned in 25 years of being married to my wife how much she enjoys to receive gifts, and the best gifts, according to her, are the gifts that come without any expectation, not for a birthday or for some other event, like an anniversary, which apparently I can't remember. But the unexpected flowers, having stopped off on the way home or maybe gone by her favorite coffee shop and just arriving at home with a gift is a demonstration of love. And it's often received in just that way. This shows love. One of my favorite verses of scripture comes from the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus is talking, about how even though we live in a fallen world and even though men are evil and wicked, they still somehow know how to give good gifts to their children. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7 verse 11, Jesus can't let that one go by. He just has to remind us we are evil. He says, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask of Him? Fathers give gifts to their children because we love them, not because they deserve it. Not because they've earned it, but because we love them. And we demonstrate our love in the giving of gifts. But what is the greatest gift that has ever been given? We can go through history and we can find times of tremendous gift giving. Gifts of land and gifts of fortune. Gifts of Honor. You go to New York Harbor and you see the Statue of Liberty. That was a gift, right? It was an honorable gift. And so we look around and we see all around us thousands of years of human history, thousands of years of gift giving. And we ask the question, what is the greatest gift that has ever been given? And the answer to that question is in our text today. By far, and without any controversy, the greatest gift that has ever been given is when God gave His Son. That's the greatest gift. No question, no controversy, nothing can top it, nothing can come close to it, there's nothing that compares to it. The greatest gift that has ever been given is God giving His Son and therefore the greatest act of love. If gift giving is a demonstration of love, then the greatest act of love has been demonstrated in the giving of the Father or giving by the Father of the Son to us. And so we continue this morning looking at John 3.16, and we're going to look at this gift that has been given. If you remember where we are in the context of the passage, I always like to remind us of that, especially those of you who are visiting with us today, and we're very thankful that you're here, very glad to see people, new people, always nice to meet you all. The only negative thing about being a new person is we are a verse-by-verse preaching congregation, which means literally where we pick up today is where we left off last week. And if you're a new person, then sometimes you're coming right into the middle of a sermon, and today you're right in the middle of a verse. Because last week I preached John 3.16a. And John 3.16 is a three-clause passage. It has a, b, and c. And today we're going to look at b. And next week is c. So if you're a visitor, you have to come back next week so that you can actually hear part 3 of this message. But this all fits within a context. And the context, of course, is the nighttime visit of Nicodemus who came to Jesus. It doesn't tell us why he came. It doesn't tell us why he came at night. All it tells us is that when he came, his words of Jesus were kind, Good teacher, we know that you are sent from God for no one can do the things you do unless God be with him. That's a kind thing to say. But yet Jesus challenges him, unless you're born again, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. He immediately has confusion. What do you mean? Am I supposed to go back into my mother's womb? Jesus says, no, I'm speaking of spiritual birth. You've been born of the flesh and that which is born of flesh is flesh, but you must also be born of the spirit for that which is born of the spirit is the only one who's fit for the kingdom, which is a spiritual kingdom. Nicodemus didn't understand. How can these things be? Jesus challenges him. You're the teacher of Israel and you don't know this? You're the teacher of Israel and you haven't got this figured out yet? Jesus gives him an Old Testament example. An Old Testament analog. Something we call a type. And with every type there is an anti-type. Meaning something from the Old Testament is a type and it points forward to something in the New Testament that fulfills that or the anti-type. The Bible says there are shadows in the Old Testament and they have their substance in Christ. That's the Old Testament type, the New Testament anti-type. And the Old Testament type Jesus mentions, He says, "...as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life." And that gives birth to John 3.16. John 3.16, Jesus says, well, let me back up. We said this last week, so I'll clarify. We don't know if John 3.16 begins another statement by Jesus or if this is actually a commentary by John about what Jesus just said in verse 15. And as I said, I don't know, but I know there's controversy and contention over whether or not it is. But simple enough, it's in line with God's truth and inspired by God's Holy Spirit. What is stated is, for God so loved the world. For God so loved the world. And so in that we see the declaration of God's love. That was our message from last week. The declaration of God's love. The word so is an adverb. It modifies the main verb. The main verb is loved. And the word so here, hutos, means to be in this manner or in this way. And so the statement of John 3.16 is, in this way God loved the world. In this way, God loved the kosmos, the Greek word, tan kosmon, it means, in its most broad sense, it means God's creation, what he created. God loves the world. But how does he love it? How does he demonstrate his love for the world? And that leads us to today's message. How does God demonstrate His love? And what I want to share with you this morning from the second clause of John 3, 16, is I want to show you three ways God demonstrates His love. Three ways God has demonstrated His love. And so let's walk through these. Number one, God's love is demonstrated graciously. Notice it says, for God so loved the world that He gave. He gave. So God demonstrates His love graciously in the act of giving. From the opening text of the Bible, God demonstrates Himself a generous giver. God creates the world. and He gives the world life. If you ever go back and study the first chapter of Genesis, you'll notice that the first three days, God is forming the world. He separates light from darkness. He separates the waters above from the waters below. He separates the land from the sea. God is forming the world on days one, two, and three. But on days four, five, and six, God begins to fill what He formed. On day four He fills the sky with the luminaries, the sun, the moon and the stars. On day five He fills the sky above with birds and He fills the sea below with fish and the living creatures of the sea. And then on day six He takes that land that He had separated from the sea and He gives life to the land by creating every beast of the field and then creating man in His image. God gives life in demonstration of His nature as a giver. God makes this man and what does this man do to his God? What does the man who is created by God, who has been given this world to enjoy, in fact, he's been given all kinds of things to enjoy. He's been given a garden. He's been given a beautiful wife, we can assume. He's been given every tree of the garden to eat, save one. A lot of folks really don't like the fact that, well, why would God have the tree of knowledge? Why would God even put it there? Why would God forbid Adam anything? That's not the question. The question is, why did Adam go to that tree when he had every other tree that he could have enjoyed? And God said, you can eat of everything, except this. except this one thing. I'm gonna give you dominion. By the way, again, God's a giver. He's given a garden. He's given a wife. He's given all the trees and all the fruits and vegetables and He says, and I'm gonna give you authority. I'm gonna give you dominion over this. I'm gonna give you my image. God's a giver and He shows this gift. And what does man do? Spits in the face of his Creator. He does the one thing he is commanded not to do and in doing so commits treason against the sovereign of the universe. Here's the great part of that. That did not stop God from being a giver. Because right after God calls him out of the, remember he was hiding, calls him out of hiding, chastens him, and punishes him, what does God then give to Adam? He gives him the skin of animals to do what? to cover his shame. You understand what the result of sin is. We've talked about this before in previous lessons. The result of sin is death, disease, destruction. All these things came into the world because of sin. But what else comes into the world because of sin is shame. Guilt is a state. Shame is a feeling. Adam was guilty the moment he sinned. Because he's in the state of guilt. Now you're guilty. You're either guilty or you ain't. And he was guilty. But the feeling that comes along with guilt, people often say, I feel guilty. I say, no, you either are guilty or you ain't. You feel shame when you are guilty. And so Adam felt shame, so what is the first thing he did? He went and got himself a needle and thread. I don't know where it came from, but he got a needle and thread and he wove together his... He didn't really use a needle and thread, I'm kind of kidding. But he wove together clothing and it weren't good enough. So God takes and lays upon him the skin of an animal. When I was preaching through Genesis, I went more through this. I don't have time today, but talking about how the skin of that animal, I believe, represented the death of Christ, because this is the first time we see anything about the killing of an animal in Scripture, the taking of life, the providing of atonement. I think all this points forward to Jesus, but ultimately, it's covering Him. God gives Adam a covering when he didn't deserve it. You're the one that really gets me. And God gave Abel protection when he didn't deserve it. Remember Abel? I'm sorry, Cain, the other one. My bad. Cain kills Abel and what did he deserve? Death. But God, for whatever reason known to him, doesn't allow him to be killed. God gives. Even when they're undeserved, God gives. And you walk through, again, I could go through the whole Old Testament, I don't have time, but just walk with me in your mind. God gave Abraham a promise he didn't deserve. Go out from the land, go to the land that I show you and I will make you a great nation. I'll bless those who bless you and I'll curse those who curse you and all What did he say? Through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed. Abraham didn't deserve that. Abraham is a idolater living in an idolatrous land among an idolatrous people. God calls an idolater out and he gives him this land. He gives him this promise. He gives him the seed. Not because he deserves it, but because God is a giver. Because God is good, not because Abraham is good. Do not make that mistake to think that God gave it to Abraham because he deserved it. That is the opposite of grace. When you begin to think that what you get from God is because you deserved it. God tells Israel that. I didn't choose you because you were greater than other nations. I didn't choose you because you were the largest among the nations. I have known you of all the nations, says Amos chapter 3 verse 2. You and you only have I known of all the nations of the world. Speaking of the people of Israel and the Old Covenant. I've separated you out. I've known you. God gave them what? He gave them covenants. He gave them promises. He gave them prophets, priests, kings. Most important, gave them scripture. To them, what does the New Testament say? To them has been entrusted the oracles of God. That was their gift from God. Undeserved, unmerited, they received it. They were given a law, a tabernacle, a priesthood, all undeserved. And then, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. and give them the adoption as sons. That is the culmination of all of the gifts that God had given up until that point. And I would make the argument that every one of those other gifts pointed forward to that gift. That all of those things from the past pointed forward to Christ. God sent forth His Son. as the greatest gift and the culmination of all of His gifts when He sent Jesus Christ into the world. Now here's the thing to consider. God did not give His Son because we were worthy of it. I want to say something and you may want to disagree with me later and just go talk to Mike. No, or Andy. No, I'm just kidding. I'm not above anyone disagreeing with me, but what I'm about to say I think is very true. There's a common sentiment, often regurgitated by pastors, and it goes something like this. Look at the price God paid for you. God wouldn't sacrifice his son for something worthless, therefore we must be valuable. That's the common sentiment. Is that we're valuable because the price God paid. Let me say this about that. God didn't save you because you were worthy of the gift. He saved you because he's a good giver. That's why he saved you. John Calvin. He said, God was not moved to deliver us because he perceived in us something that was worthy of so excellent a blessing, but ascribes the glory of our deliverance entirely to his love. Not to us, but to his love. He doesn't ascribe our deliverance to anything in us. Our deliverance is ascribed only to His goodness, not to ours. Calvin goes on to say this, he said, Beloved, hear me well. If you believe you have merited the love of God, you don't understand grace. The very definition, textbook simple definition of charis, grace, it is unmerited favor. An unmerited gift. This is such an important truth. This is so valuable for us to remember because part of the gospel message is understanding that the grace given to you and to I is not based on something we deserved. If you got what you deserved, And I know you've heard other pastors say this, and I know you've heard me say it, but it's always good to remember. If you get what you deserved, what would you get? The wrath of God. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. Wage is what you earn. But the gift of God By the way, same word, the word charis, the word gift, it's there. This is why some Bible translations say the free gift of God. Guess what? That word's unnecessary, because if it's a gift, it's free. Like, I understand why they put the word there, I understand why the inclusion of free, but if it's a gift, it is by nature free. I've told you guys this before. If you go to your boss at the end of the week and he hands you his paycheck and he says, here's your gift, you probably need to look for another job. Because that means he didn't value much of what you're doing if he thinks his payment to you is a gift. No, your payment when you work is your wage. And what we are earned, what we have earned through sin is we earn the wage of God's wrath. But the gift of God is eternal life. That is a gift. God's gifts are unmerited. But I wanna add a thought to this, and this is something to really put into your mind. God's gifts are unmerited, but they are not unconditional. What's he about to say? Oh, is he about to squeeze into the heresy territory? No, I'm not, stay with me. Don't get too afraid. God's gifts are unmerited, but not unconditional. Here's the condition God chooses to do it. That's the condition. God doesn't have to give us anything. God doesn't owe us anything but wrath. And all that is based on His justice. He chooses to give and that's a condition that He did not have to do. God chooses to love us because He is a good giver. He chooses to love us because He is love. The Bible doesn't say God loves us, it says He is love. It is a part of His nature, not a part of His nature, it is His nature. I don't want to confuse that because we start breaking God into parts, then we're into, we've started dividing God out and that's not what we should do. We should say God is distinguished as His attributes. God is love, God is grace, God is also wrath, God is all these things. But when we talk about God's love, God chose Abraham. God chose Abraham's descendants. God chose Jesus Christ to come and now to welcome people who aren't Abraham's descendants to come into the family of Abraham and be counted as children of Abraham and to receive the Abrahamic blessing as part of that family through Jesus Christ. By the way, that's how God fills his promise to Abraham. God's promise to Abraham is not fulfilled just through a physical bloodline. God's promise to Abraham is fulfilled through all of those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 4, those who believe in Christ are the sons of Abraham. That's why we, I mean, right arm, right arm, Father Abraham. I mean, y'all remember this, right? We all sang it. I am one of them and so are you. God chose to do that. He chose His way. So God demonstrates His love graciously in His act of giving. Number two, God's love is demonstrated sacrificially. God's love is demonstrated sacrificially. Last week we stopped for a moment, we considered the word God when it says in this way God loved the world. We said let's stop for a moment, let's remember who it is we're talking about. We're talking about the one who created the universe. We're talking about the one who is immense. The Bible says He holds the universe in the breadth of His hand. Literally God is beyond compare as far as His immensity, His infinite So for a moment today, I want to stop and consider the word Son. Because last week we stopped and considered the word God, I want us to consider the word Son, because this text tells us that God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten Son. Not a creation. Very important distinction there. Jesus Christ is not a creation of the Father. Sorry to disappoint all the Jehovah's Witnesses, but they are in damnable heresy for believing that Jesus is a creation of the Father. He is not a creation of the Father. Nor is He adopted by the Father. There are those who believe that Jesus became the Son of God at His baptism. That is called the doctrine of adoptionism, that Jesus Christ wasn't the son of God until his baptism when God said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. That was when God adopted him and now was gonna use him in ministry. And there's a Greek word for that. It's baloney. That is absolutely just not true. Jesus Christ He's not a creation, He's not an adoption, but He is a Son who shares the nature and glory of the Father. In John 17, when Jesus is praying the high priestly prayer, He said, Father, glorify me with the glory that we shared before the world was created. Glorify me with the glory that we had together before the world was created. Philippians chapter two, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God something to be held on to, but he emptied himself and became a man. Not only did he become a man, but he went to the cross and he died. Jesus Christ steps down from glory, steps into humanity, and He does so at the behest of the Father who sent Him into the world to do this thing. But He didn't do so reluctantly. He came willingly to do this thing, which was to bring salvation. but He is a Son like no other." People will say, oh well, and I've heard prosperity preachers say, they'll say, well, Jesus is God's Son, but so am I, and I'm a son of God like Jesus is. You're a son of God, but you ain't like Jesus. You're a son of God, but there is only one like Him. The phrase that is used here is an important theological phrase. It is the term monogamous. Monogenes is a combination of the word mono, which means one. We're very familiar with that because we think of things like monotheism, one God. And the word genes, which is where it's actually spelled the same way we spell the word genes. Not genes like Sears and Roebuck. That was a blast from the past. I could have said Bugle Boy. That would have really... Genes like G-E-N-E-S. I look around here and I notice that all of you carry the genes of your parents. When we talk about the genes, we're talking about kind. You can look at someone and have a general idea of where their parents descended from. what part of the world we might be from, or maybe a mixture of certain different parts of the world. These are the genes that come down to us. This is the, in that sense, kinds that have gone into bringing us to be. The word monogamous, in that sense, can mean one of a kind, unique, like no other. But some translations, like the King James, the New American Standard, and others, use the phrase, only begotten. And that can lead to some confusion. I like the term begotten. I believe Christ, as the Nicene Creed describes Him, is eternally begotten, not made. Which means He comes from the Father, but He is not made by the Father. And you say, how does that work? We say Christ, the Father, and the Spirit are one in essence, but three in person, and those three persons are related to one another in eternity, and their relation is the Son is eternally generated, and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. Now those are some pretty heady ideas but that's what the idea of begotten doesn't mean created and the Nicene Fathers clearly articulated that in the Nicene Creed when they said He is begotten of all time but not made in time. From the Father but not created by the Father. God's love is demonstrated in the sending of His unique, only begotten Son. And what about Christ is unique? What about Christ demonstrates this only begotten nature? Is He's actually God and man at the same time? We call this the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is the union of the divine and human natures in one person. We, a few months ago, read through in worship, we read through the Athanasian Creed, and the Athanasian Creed seeks to identify this hypostatic union by expressing to us the truth that Christ's divine nature was not reduced, and his human nature was not elevated, but they were united, truly human, truly divine in one person. Vera homo, vera Deus, truly God, truly man, in the one person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, there's none like unto Him. This is who God sent. He sent His only begotten Son. And God's love is demonstrated in this because God loves His Son. Consider this for a moment. When Jesus was being baptized, when Jesus is immersed, and yes, He was immersed. When Jesus was immersed, and He comes up out of the water, what does God say? This is my beloved Son. This is my Son who I love. Later in John chapter 3, I think it's verse 35, He says, the Father loves the Son. And you say, we know God loves Jesus. Why are you making a big deal about this? Because I want for a moment for you to consider another passage of Scripture about a father who loved his son. In your mind, I want you to go back to Genesis chapter 22. When it says that God spoke to Abraham and He said, Take thy son, thy only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him up as a burnt offering on the mountain. Notice the language. Take thy son, Abraham had another son, didn't he? At Ishmael. But God identifies, take thy son, thy only son. The idea of only son here is not because he didn't have Ishmael, it's because this was the son of the promise. He knew who he was talking about. Take thy son, thy only son, whom you love. and offer him a burnt offering on the mount. God sends them to Moriah. They get to the base of the mountain. Servants are told to stay behind. The boy and I are gonna go and make the offering. He's got the sticks, they've got the torch, ready to go. And the boy looks to his father. Father, where is the lamb? And this is where we get that phrase Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide a lamb. They get to the mountain. They lay out the wood for the burnt offering. He binds Isaac. He lays him on the altar. And as his hand is prepared, a lot of pictures often think of it like this. He's going to slam it into his chest. The offerings were made by cutting the throat. So his blade was probably to the throat of his son. God said stop and he looked and caught in a thicket by its horns was a ram and God allowed Abraham to substitute a ram for his own son. God commanded a sacrifice of what? The son who you love. And in the end, He refuses that Abraham should go through with that sacrifice and provides him a sacrifice, a substitute. 2,000 years later, on a cross right outside of Jerusalem, God's Son, who had asked, if there be another way, let this cup pass from me. And God said, no. There's not another way. So suspended between heaven and earth, God gave His Son. The same God who spared Isaac did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The gift is not only gracious, it's sacrificial. God gives the one He loves to save His enemies. Lastly, God's love is not only demonstrated graciously and sacrificially, it's demonstrated purposefully. Why? Why did God do this? Why did God give His Son? Many people will ask, why couldn't God just forgive? This week I watched a debate between Richard Dawkins, who is an evolutionary biologist and one of the leading atheistic voices in the world. And he was debating a Christian, and he kept saying, Why does God care about sin? Why does this even matter? Why is this this? Why sin? What is this? Why can't... If God wanted to forgive sin, why didn't He just forgive it? Why didn't He just let it go? Is He so petty? That's the word Dawkins kept using. Is God so petty? Two things I want you to take away from this message. Number one, God is gracious, and that should comfort you. But number two, God is good, and that should terrify you. Because God in His righteousness, His goodness, will not overlook sin. That's why it's not petty. Because it is a violation of His law, His character. It is a violation of who He is to be unjust. And when God looks upon us, who deserve His punishment because we've broken His law, because we have spit in His face, because we have joined along with Adam as being enemies of our Creator. When God looks at us, His righteousness demands our punishment. in the same way any good judge. And I've used this illustration a thousand times, Mike's used it, we've all used this illustration. But again, if you went home today and you found out your mother had been beaten, mistreated, her things had been stolen, and she was left for dead on the floor of her home, terrible as it is, and I pray it never happens, but if you found out that it happened, they caught the man who did it, they brought him before the judge, and the judge just winked at him and sent him on his way, you would demand that that judge be removed because you would say that that, judge is in fact corrupt. God is not a corrupt judge. He will not merely wink at sin, but He demands sin be paid in full. And how is sin paid in full? When the one who knew no sin became sin for us. That's why Jesus is necessary. That's why the gift is so purposeful. Jesus is necessary so that you who are a sinner can be declared righteous by God because you are not declared righteous by your merits. You are not declared righteous by anything good that you have done before salvation or after salvation. You are declared righteous by one thing, the absolute perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. and that's the purpose why he sent his son. This week, a lot of folks have been arguing about eschatology. If you don't know what that is, end times, last things. Eschaton means last things. A lot of people have been arguing this week about the place of Israel and eschatology. They've been arguing about Statements by Senators about the Bible? A lot of people have been arguing this week about eschatology. I wanted to say something about that as I close today. We may or may not be in the end times. Jesus may return soon or he may return in another 2,000 years. We may see another three reformations and another four great awakenings before he returns. We don't know when Jesus will return, but I will tell you this. You are in your end times right now because 100 years from now, none of you will be alive. None of you will be alive 100 years from now. Therefore, you are in your own end time right now. Almost every day we live we find ourselves 18 inches from eternity. That's about how far it is from you and the car and the other lane going the other way. And all it takes is one dropped cell phone, one spilled coffee, or one missed text message to have someone cross that yellow line and you will meet the God who created you. And if you go to that God with anything other than Jesus Christ, you will be found wanting. If you try to hand Him your good works, if you try to hand Him your best deeds, He will not take it. The only thing that will count for eternity is what have you done with My Son. To as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God. Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ today? Have you believed on Him? If you have not, you are not ready. I talk to people all the time who have been in church for years and they're not ready. You can be in church for a day, a year, or 40 years. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and you're still trusting in what you have done, you are not ready. And if it feels like I'm a little bit more urgent than normal, maybe I am today because I've considered the fact that some of you are not ready. And my heart breaks. Martin Luther said, I preach the gospel every week because every week my people forget. And the gospel is this, your sins deserve the wrath of God and only through Jesus Christ can they be forgiven and you be counted righteous. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for Your gift. I thank You for Your sacrifice. And I thank You for the purpose in giving Your Son, which was that He who is righteous would become sin on our behalf, and we who are sinners can be declared righteous through Him. And I pray today for the believers. I pray that they would be comforted and encouraged having received that gift. But for those who do not know Christ, Lord, that today that they would be terrified by your goodness. But, Lord, also that they would be drawn by your grace and that you would save to the uttermost those who draw nigh to you through Christ. in Jesus name. Amen.