Let me ask you to turn in your Bibles, if you will, to John chapter three, the third chapter of the Gospel of John. Before we come and take up the word of God by way of seeking to expound it and apply it, let us again ask that the Lord will be our portion and our help. Let's seek God's face in prayer. Father, as we now bow before you, we call upon you in the name of Jesus Christ. And we do ask, O God, that you would not leave us to ourselves as we come to seek to understand and to properly interpret and to apply your truth to our lives. The Lord, we confess that we are by nature sinners and apart from grace and apart from your help, We will not rightly understand nor rightly respond to your truth. So we ask for the help of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ may be glorified in his church. And we ask this, our God, that you, our triune God, may receive glory and honor. Amen. Now, if the Lord tarries till in the morning, a lot of gifts will be given. All over the world there will be bows untied and packages unwrapped and they will contain all manner and all kinds of presents. There will be toys and ties and maybe puppies. There will be computers, no doubt, and computer games, and other kinds of games, and we can make almost an endless list of the things that will be received tomorrow. And those will vary according to the taste, according to the abilities of those who are giving. And some of those will be relatively inexpensive, dare I say cheap. Some of them, will be rather expensive. There will be some that might even be extraordinarily so. There will be no doubt expensive jewelry given tomorrow, and that there will be perhaps new cars that are given And there will be some that will go beyond those price tags in the world in which we live. And what I would like to do is to focus your attention and our time together this morning on the greatest gift that was ever given, namely Jesus Christ. And the text that I think best states that in scripture is one that you would probably be able to quote. That is John 3 and verse 16. for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Now you see in this verse the word gave he gave his only begotten son so we are in the realm of gifts of giving And we are told what was given or who, that it was the only begotten Son. And what I'm asserting is that this gift, the gift of Jesus who is the Christ, sometimes we say Jesus Christ as though it were simply a name, but that name means something. Jesus is the word that means Jehovah saves or salvation is of Jehovah. And, of course, his name when he was given was not Jesus Christ, but he was Jesus who is the Christ God's prophet, priest, and king sent into the world to save sinners. And so it is that one whom I'm asserting is the greatest gift that ever was given or that could ever be given. And I make that statement for several reasons. The first is because of the one giving the gift. That Christ is the greatest gift that ever could be given, that ever was given, is true in the first place because it is God who gave him. He is the greatest being. And in giving his son, thus it is God the Father specifically in view in verse 16. You see, if for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, it is God the Father that is particularly in view here. And he gave his only begotten son. Now, some gifts are special to us. They're important. They have significance because of the person who gave them. If your small child who loves you dearly, labors, colors a picture, they do that for me sometimes here and they bring them to me to go put on my refrigerator when I get home. Not my children, but other people's children. And when you look at that, you can't make heads or tails out of what it is. But it's significant and it's precious simply because of the one who gave it. My grandfather gave me a single-barreled old shotgun when I was six years old, and I still have that. It's not something I use. It's not useful necessarily to me. It's certainly not worth much. It has significance simply because he gave it to me. Perhaps some of you have had a watch passed down from your grandfather, and maybe it doesn't even work. and you couldn't hardly give it away, but it's precious to you. It has significance and value simply because it's your grandfather who gave it. It might be a ball, a baseball that your favorite coach gave you, or some professional ball player maybe gave you a ball, and that has significance, importance, not because in and of itself it necessarily is useful to you or has any real value. It is simply because of the one who gave it, sometimes presidents. or someone who is in a high station in office will give someone a token. The thing in and of itself is not valuable, but it is valuable simply because of the importance of the person who gave it. Now, when we take that and apply it to this text, we must think of God, the Father, the one who created and made us, who planned it all. The one who is, as it were, in the economy of the Godhead is the one who purposes and whose purposes are carried out. He is the one who has made us. And not only us, but the Bible tells us that He has made all things visible and invisible. Anything other than God Himself has been created by God. He is head and king over all. And if He has given a gift, indeed a special gift, then it must Be the greatest and most precious of all. And I would plead with you who are Christians to think on that. To think that God, whom we were created to serve, the God who gives us life and breath and all things, condescends, is moved to give yet another gift and to think of what God has done for you, that He has given for and to you His only begotten Son, that it is God who has done this, the God you were created to serve, the God whom you are to worship and adore and give praise to, and though that has often not been the case, yet God continues to give. Or think of it, my unconverted friend, With what it means that, may I say it in this way, someone as important as God gives a gift. What will happen to those who reject such a thing? Consider, hold your place here, consider Matthew 10 in verse 40 for just a moment. Our Lord Jesus, in speaking to his disciples, warns them in verse 34 that he did not come to bring peace on earth, but he came to bring a sword. Now, that seems to contradict the angel's declaration at his birth, doesn't it? That peace on earth, goodwill to men with whom he is well pleased. But the reality is that for some it is peace. Indeed, for those who embrace Christ, their hearts are taken captive, and they are at peace with God, and they become peacemakers and desire peace with men. At the same time, the very fact that they now come to serve Christ puts them at odds with the world, and therefore it is both peace on the one hand, peace with God, peace in their hearts, they desire peace, but from the world they receive the sword, they are persecuted for Christ's sake. Verse 35, For it came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it." Now, having told them what they're up against, that it's going to be difficult to follow him. And while it will mean peace with God, it will be war with the world. He says in verse 40, he who receives you receives me. He who receives me receives him who sent me. And so having told his disciples, you're going forth as my messengers, and while the message is a message of good news, the world is not going to like it. They're not going to like being told that they're sinners in need of a Savior and that they must bow before Christ. It's going to be war. Even with their closest family members and to their closest relationships, there will be this enmity between the righteous seed and the unrighteous seed, even as is told in Genesis chapter 3. And our Lord is simply reiterating what has been true throughout history between the righteous and the unrighteous. Now, having told them that, he tells them that those who receive them as his messengers also receive him, and whoever receives him receives the Father who sent him. And so you see, it is part and parcel. If we refuse the tokens of God's love, if we refuse the son which he has sent, if we receive and reject that one that he has given, it is a rejection of God himself. If tomorrow morning you go and take a present out from under the tree and you hand it over to your husband or to your wife, and they turn their head and say no thank you, you'll know that there's something up between you and them, right? That it's not a rejection of the present, it's a rejection of you. That is exactly what is happening when men reject Jesus Christ. When they reject Christ, they're rejecting God the Father. He is God come in the flesh and not to receive Him is to despise the Father. Consider what Luke has to say in Luke chapter 10 and verse 16. And this is very similar to what we just read. The one who listens to you listens to me, Jesus says. And the one who rejects you rejects me. And he who rejects me rejects the one who sent me. And so you can't divide this. And to have God extending his hand. To have God extend the gift of His Son and to despise that, to reject it, not to receive it, is the highest insult that could be offered. You would never do that if the President of the United States or the Queen of England sent you a gift. You would never despise it. You wouldn't reject it. You would receive it because you would not want to do insult to such a person. How much more then when it is God Almighty? whose gift is spurned, no higher insult and no greater sin is possible than rejecting the Son of God, God's only begotten Son, whom He gave. The second reason that I give you that Christ is the greatest gift that ever was or could be is because of the reason that God gave the gift. What is it that motivated God to give His Son? Verse 16 again of John 3, For God So loved the world that he gave. Now we give gifts for a variety of reasons, don't we? If it's a work associate that you don't even really know who they are in your office, but it's their birthday and you go and buy them a present, you do it because you feel an obligation to do so. Sometimes you do it because you believe it's your duty to do so. Sometimes people buy gifts and give them because they're hoping to get something in return. Sometimes it's simply to save face so that our reputation won't be hurt or our pride won't be harmed. There are a variety of motivations that motivate people to give. But what motivated God in this situation is his love. And the word love here is one of several Greek words for love. It is the word agape. And it is the highest form of love. It expresses that through the Greek language or in their language. And it is sometimes defined as the love of deliberate choice. In other words, sometimes we love things because we like them. Because we have an affinity for them, we have a fondness. We may love a person because we like that person, because we get along well, because we click, because we have that chemistry. We love that person because we're fond of them. But the word here rises above that. It may include it, but it rises above that. And it is the idea of loving by deliberate choice. It is a choosing to love someone. And in this situation with God, of course, we can say clearly from scripture that God didn't look down on the world of men, those men in rebellion against him and see something that drew him to them by the way of fondness and affinity. Oh, no. You see, the world in rebellion against God had forsaken him and gave and they had gone their own way. They chose to worship and live for the creation rather than the creator. And what that did was raise in God a righteous indignation, not a fondness. And we see, we just read in our regular scripture reading about the sons of Noah and how all the nations sprang forth from them. But we see the righteous indignation of God in the flood, destroying all but one family, wiping out the human race, narrowing it down. Really, we can say to one man, Noah and his family. and the righteous indignation, and Peter tells us that that is a foreshadowing of what's going to come the second time by fire, and that God has given all men warning, and that once he has brought it down to only one man. And so when we think of God looking down upon the world, it's not as though he saw something there that he liked and he said, because I have this fondness, I will do this thing. It is that he chose to love the world by a deliberate act. And thus he gave his son. He extends benevolent goodwill to the sons and daughters of Adam, both to Jew and to Gentile, not merely to the Jew, but to the whole world and all the nations. because of his love. And we find it very difficult to love those who abuse our kindness, who abuse our position, who don't treat that position with the respect that it deserves. Those who despise and reject our gifts. How much more than, dear people, the creator of everything, the sustainer of everything, when even God has given and loved, even though, even though men have rebelled against Him, are at war and enmity with Him, and yet God loved. And I say to you who are Christians, think deeply on the fact that when you were all together unlovely, God loved you and sent His Son for you. You see, you can never really appreciate what grace is until you grasp that reality. Because secretly, in the heart of every person, we like to think that we're special. We like to think we're a little better. And then we find someone who's smarter than we are and we say, yeah, but I've got my niche. He may have book learning, but I've got practical sense. He may be stronger than I am, but I'm quicker. We all want to think we're special. even to God himself, that somehow we are in the favored light with God. And yet what the Bible tells us is that we are all part of a sinful lump of humanity, hell-deserving sinners, and that God simply choked that God chose, not that we chose Him, and not merely that we loved God, but when we did not love Him, while we were yet sinners, the Bible says. John says that it's not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The Bible makes it crystal clear that we have, by nature, no affinity for God and no love for God. That we love ourselves. We love the creation. We make an idol out of the creation, of what it brings us by way of pleasure, whether it's beauty or whether it's active participation in the creation and doing things. But it is that creation that we love by nature. And we worship it. And, of course, when that is in full-blown idolatry, men take and make graven images of one thing or another, a serpent or some other creature of the earth, and they make that into an idol of some man or whatever it is, and they bow down before it. And yet God soul of the world that he gave his only begotten son. That wouldn't surprise me if some of you, if I were to ask you this question, so I'll just ask it. I'll bet there's some people you have a hard time buying a gift for, wouldn't you? You'd almost choke when you handed it over to them. Do you not find it absolutely amazing wonder of wonders, that God looks down on a mankind in rebellion against him, and though he narrows it down to one family, he doesn't just obliterate everything, that he doesn't just condemn everybody to hell, he preserves, as Bill said, due to his covenant faithfulness, due to his plan, due to his promises way back in Genesis, that he would send a Messiah, who would be a Savior, who would remove the curse, and then would be rescued. And he does that why? He's motivated by love. God so loved the world. It's mind-boggling if you ever, ever get a sight of what you really are by nature. You're not special. You're not somehow an inch taller than everybody else in the eyes of God. And my friend, if you're a Christian, you have every reason this day to shout the praises of God, to glorify in the grace of God. And my sinner friend, I tell you, I tell you, this could be to you the message of life this very day. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. Now, just to confirm what I've been saying, Ephesians chapter two makes it crystal clear, does it not? of what we all are by nature and who it is that really makes the difference. Ephesians 2.1, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, spiritually dead and perishing, to be condemned and confined to hell and separated from God, in which you formerly walked, that is, in your sins and trespasses, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among them we too all. formally, lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Now you can't read that and get the idea that somehow they were in a favored light. That somehow to God they just stood out. That they, even as the rest, these who are now saved, even as the rest, were children of wrath, sons of disobedience. Now listen to what makes the difference. Verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead in transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus in order that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What is it that makes the difference but God? But God rich in mercy, but God rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. How do you explain that? Why did he love us? I don't know the answer to that question. I know why he hates us because of our rebellion and our sin. But the Bible doesn't give us any indication of why he loves us. that he chose to love us and to send his son into the world. And such was the manner of his love that he gave, we are told, his only begotten son, which brings me to the third reason that Christ is indeed the greatest gift that was ever given. And that is because of the value, the cost of the gift. He gave His only begotten Son. James 1.17 tells us that every good and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights. How much more then when He gives His own Son as a good and perfect gift. And when it says the only begotten Son, it's speaking, as the hymn we sung earlier spoke of, of His being eternally begotten. That is, what is God like? He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is an eternally begotten Son. That is what God is like. And what men normally try to do is take a look at the world around them and say, well, our relationships are like this. We can only be one person. We can't be joined with other persons. and be two persons in one. And so people look at what man is and say, God must be like we are. But that's not what the Bible teaches. It tells us of a God who is a triunity, who is a trinity of the Godhead in which there are three persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And there is an economy in that. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. The Father purposes. The Son speaks and the world comes into existence and yet we read it was the Spirit that brooded over the deep. And so it is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by way of economy, by way of rank, as it were, and yet it is one God. You say, I can't understand that. You don't have to understand it for it to be true. And we ought not to take ourselves as puny creatures created out of the dust, created in the image of God, and bear the likeness of Him, but we shouldn't take ourselves as the prototype and say God must then fit into what we are. He's God. And the fact is that we have been made something like him in his image, in the ability to think and the power to do in the moral sense that we have a conscience and are capable of doing right. And so it is that son, the eternally begotten son or God, the son who existed eternally as the second person of the Godhead whom we are told here is given. And what did he give him to do? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And what does that mean? He gave him how? He gave him when? He gave him where? Well, let me state it this way. He gave him, first of all, to become man. What we call the incarnation. that he is of taking upon him flesh and blood of a human body and a human soul, that he took a true humanity upon him. He didn't cease to be what he was, God, but he became something that he never was before, he became man. And so Mary, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, conceives and brings forth Jesus, the God-man, into the world. Born, as someone stated earlier, born in a lowly stable, cradled in a manger, in a feed trough for the animals. And God the Father gave Him, God the Son, to become one of us. And so you have the Creator condescending to take the form and the nature of one of His creatures. And being found in the fashion of a man, He was obedient to the law. the law he gave, the law he sits his judge over. He became obedient to the rulers of this world whom Romans 13 tells us are appointed by him. He took everything essential to our humanity and walked on the face of the earth and he could say I am hungry and I thirst and he was in that sense every bit human. And yet, God from all eternity. And with regard to the cost of that, you have to think that in heaven, the Son of God never knew anything of misery. He never knew anything of suffering. He never knew anything of what it was to experience his own curse as when he cursed the world because of the sin of our father Adam. And the angels cry, holy, holy, holy, and he is worshipped and adored. And yet he condescends to take upon him the form, the nature of a man and be born into a world of sin and of mystery, of suffering and of pain, to suffer, to bleed and to die. And as that man, pure and perfect, for he took everything upon him except the sinful nature of man, God gave him to be a substitute for sinners. He gives his son up to be ill-treated, to be maligned, to be mocked, to be scourged and condemned as a common criminal. And that unjustly, falsely accused and falsely condemned. And then to die on the cross, the most agonizing death the Romans could come up with. And yet, though he suffered greatly at the hands of men, his greatest agony was what he suffered as the substitute for sinners at the hands of God, bearing the penalty of his people, suffering the wrath of God. And it is that which brings the cry from his lips, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He bore our hell, that separation from God, on the cross. And that's stated in 2 Corinthians 5 21 succinctly. He, God the Father, made Him, God the Son, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And Isaiah, of course, in Isaiah 53, pictures it And he grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty, born in a stable, lived among the poor. that we look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. That is, we looked upon him, there was nothing that drew us to him. There was nothing that said, here's a king. There's nothing that said about him by way of outward appearance, this is the one we ought to serve. We despised him indeed, smitten of God. That is, tried as a criminal, found guilty as a blasphemer against God. as an enemy of God according to the Jewish council and we then esteemed him as one who God was afflicting because of his blasphemy but he was pierced through for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the chastening for our well-being fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed all of us like sheep have gone astray Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. By way of value, by way of cost, it was God's only begotten son given as a substitute for hell deserving sinners. Now, at least one person in this room has a child who's serving their country and is stationed over in Iraq. And starting tomorrow will be on an even more dangerous assignment. And certainly your heart must be heavy to think of what they're deprived of over there, of the danger, of the suffering that they are a part of But can you imagine God sending his only begotten son into this world, into enemy territory, knowing that the result of that will be that he will not be believed, he will be despised and rejected, maligned and ridiculed and mocked and disbelieved, falsely tried, falsely convicted, wrongly nailed to the cross in capital punishment and yet wonder of wonders. Then to pull your own wrath out upon him that your enemies deserve. It's mind boggling. But that is what God has given. And this indeed makes Christ the greatest gift that was ever given. My sinner friend, listen, if God spared not his own son, but having made him a substitute for sinners, poured his wrath out upon him, how, how will you escape apart from Jesus Christ? You are sure for the wrath of an almighty God, as sure as you are sitting here this day. And my Christian brethren, there is no more costly and valuable gift that could be given, nor ever has been given, than the very Son of God, God the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, God of very God, made man and given as a sacrifice for sin. There is another sense in which we might think of him as being given, and that he is. Not only did he give him to be the substitute for sinners, but he also gave him not only to be Savior, but to be Lord. And thus God has raised him up and given him a name, a name above every name that is the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that indeed He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That is, Jesus Christ is not dead, He is living. And God has made Him to be the Christ, the prophet, priest and king of His people. To lead them and guide them, defend them and protect them. To govern His people and to rule over them forever. And he is even now assembling that people through the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching of the good news. He is calling out his people, all who will hear and receive. He calls and he is assembling his people and he begins that purification process that will make them fit for heaven. And he is preparing his people. So that God gave him to be not only savior, but indeed Lord. Now that brings me to my fourth reason and that is because of the universal offer of the gift. Notice how it's put. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Whoever believes It is offered to any and all who will have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, no exceptions. If you will have Jesus, not merely as your ticket to heaven, but as a Savior from your sin, and indeed as your Lord, He's yours. You can't make a better offer than that. You can't have a more magnanimous, benevolent, generous offer. Whoever believes Has there ever been such an offer in the history of the world? Here's the gift. Whoever will have it can have it. That's what God is offering. All who will take Jesus for what he is, Savior and Lord, may have him. Listen, if you will believe in the Lord Jesus, If you'll take Him as your Master, your Savior, your Lord, He's yours. The gift is there for the taking, if I may say. Just take the empty hand of faith and lay hold of Him. What more can God do than to offer His only begotten Son as a substitute for sinners? To everyone who believes, not only to the Jew, but to the Gentile. For as Paul says in Romans 10, Indeed, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, the word of faith. For with the heart man believes, and by the mouth he confesses. And so Jesus Christ is offered. And Paul then says that he is gracious. He is rich towards all who call upon him, whether Jew or Gentile. And as Christians, of course, that gives us great reason to rejoice because God has brought the gospel to us. In His providence, in His ordering of the world affairs, He put us under the sound of the gospel. The good news that told us of our sin and of a sufficient Savior, Jesus Christ. Of one who would set us free. Whom we could serve from the heart. That He has brought that message to us is a wonderful and glorious thing. And my sinner friend, that gospel message, that offer, the free offer of the gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ is yours this day. Why will you die? Why will you reject? Do you not see the insult that is to God? Do you not understand that you're essentially saying, I want to go to hell. Go ahead and sin me. I love my sin more than I love my God. Do you not see the insult, the heinous, wicked nature of that? And yet God offers, now, right now, offers to you in the Gospel, His Son, Jesus Christ. Why will you die? My friend, on the Day of Judgment, there's not going to be any bickering and arguing with God. There's nothing to bicker and argue about. God has done nothing but good. He has sent His Son. He offers them to you. You choose to die. You choose hell. You choose the pleasure of sin for a season. You choose your own way. You'd rather do your own way for a few years on this earth and enjoy God's creation than to bow the knee to His Son and own Him as your Warden Savior. The last thing or last reason I give you is because of the purpose of the gift that God has given. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Some gifts are more needful than others, some more useful, some more beneficial, some longer lasting. For some of those gifts that are unwrapped tomorrow, you'll be glad that batteries don't last long. Some of them don't last long. Some of them are not really useful. But friends, God gave his son to meet our most urgent and pressing need, to take care of that sin that means certain condemnation for us and instead to give eternal life. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. What greater purpose could there be? Eternal life. Melanie and I were talking, she's visiting out here with us, and we were talking just last night about, as you get older, time just seems to fly. That you just wish somehow, I think, I forgot the exact terms you use, but you want to slow things down just to draw it out a little bit longer. It's not going to happen. It's a headlong rush from here to the grave. But the grave's not the end. Blessed be God, the grave's not the end. Thanks be to God, whose sin is only begotten Son, that those in him have eternal life. We may transition from one state to another, but life doesn't end and it doesn't cease. Think of it, brethren. We have eternal life. And thus, death, though unpleasant. Is not so scary. Now, the dying part, No pleasure in that. But we can say with Baal to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We know that we shall be raised and shall be with him forever in the new heavens and the new earth, eternal life. Brethren, what gift could you give that could be greater than that? Here is God forgiving sins, giving the gift of forgiveness in his son and with it eternal life. There'll be a lot of big gifts given this year, I guess. But the greatest gift has already been given Jesus Christ, and that because of the one who gave the gift. God because of the reason that he gave it. He so loved the world because of the cost and the value of that gift. He gave his only begotten son. Because of the universal offer of that gift, whoever believes and because of the purpose shall not perish, but have eternal life. Now, after tomorrow morning, the question which will be heard around the world will be, what did you get for Christmas? I hope and pray that you can say in sincerity and truth, I got Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That was God's gift to the world, the greatest gift that was ever given. Let us pray. Father, we do thank you and bless your name. And Father, we confess that when it comes to really understanding what you have done for us, we are waiting in the shallow end of the pool. For we do not see our sin in the heinousness and blackness that it really is. But we thank you that we have seen something of that and we have fled to Jesus Christ because in giving us a sight of our true nature, You have caused us to see in Him our only hope and a wonderful and suitable Savior. We thank you for the greatest gift that this world has ever seen. And though thrones and kingdoms have been given at times, dominions and powers, yet, oh God, you, you are the biggest giver in the world. We thank you for the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sins in his blood. We pray that every person here may know what it is to receive the gift of Jesus Christ. For we ask it that he may be glorified in the earth. Amen.