Good to go? Okay. Have this big package. And, of course, on Christmas Day, we'd unpack it. They didn't know what was in it, but you know what was always in it? A blessing for them. Now, I've got a package today. And when you hear what package it is, you're gonna say, Oh, I already know what's in that package. It's John 3.16. Yeah, you know some things are in that package. But let's pray today that because God is among us, that we'll take some fresh blessings out of that package as we unpack it. And for those of you who do not know Christ, for those of you who are unbelievers, This one sentence, one single sentence from the Word of God is going to tell you everything that you need to know about God, about sin, about your soul, and about your eternal destiny. So, if you'll just listen attentively for a few moments, we'll unpack all of that for you. Now, let me read the verse. John 3.16, 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 that verse talks to us very plainly about the love of God. Have you ever been to the ocean? Have you ever stood on the beach? I've been to the ocean a few times, but I like to go out early in the morning when hardly anyone else is there. And I stand on that beach and I look out at the ocean. And you know what? As far as I can see, all that I can see is ocean. Because it's vast, and it's expansive, and it's immense, and it's powerful, and it's overwhelming when you just sit there and look at it. But you know what? Here's the deal. No matter how much of the ocean I can see, no matter how far my field of vision travels, I'm only taking in a small part of that ocean. Brethren, God's love is like that. The scripture here says, for God so loved, so loved. That small word, two-letter word, so, that emphasizes the breadth and the majesty and the vastness and the immensity of God's love. It's big. It's powerful. And don't you hate it when people take God's love and they just throw it around like it's something common, like it's just a bowl of ice cream that makes them feel good for a few moments and they'll say, Oh, God loves you. And they don't even know what they're talking about. God loves you. Do you know what that means? Do you know what that means when you're talking about the love of an almighty God? A love that is vast and immense. It's powerful. It's overcoming. Because it flows out of a heart of sovereign omnipotence. So it's an overcoming love. It's a powerful love. It's a conquering love. Martin Lloyd-Jones says it's the strongest force on the face of the earth. And it is. It's an almighty love. And I want to prove that to you in just a few moments. I want to look at three things that come right out of the text. I want to look at the object of this love, this almighty love. I want to look at the cost of this love, and I want to look at the consequence of this love. Now, first of all, the object of this love. What was it that this love set its affection upon? Well, the verse tells us, for God so loved the world. Now, what is the world? The world is a place populated by sinners. What is a sinner? I'll tell you what, when we define that, let's define sinner in the best way possible. Let's look at the sinner at his best moment. Let's look at the sinner at the pinnacle of his achievement, at his highest capacity of excellence. Because you know what the Bible says about a sinner? It says that his righteousness His best, not the lowest, but the best that a sinner has to offer, His righteousness, is as a filthy rag. The sinner, when compared with the purity and holiness and perfection of God, is a filthy rag. because he's stained and polluted and saturated totally with sin and depravity. Now, let me ask you this question. How much is a rag worth? A rag isn't worth much, but it has some value because with a rag, you can clean off a table, you can wipe off a window, you can wipe your brow. But how much is a filthy rag worth? It has no value. What can you do with a filthy rag? It's filthy! There's only two things you can do. You can throw it out, or you can clean it up and make it new again. But as it is, it's filthy. It's worthless. It has no value. This verse is telling us, brethren, that God loved a world of filthy rags. That's what we are. That's what the world is. It's just a filthy rag. permeated, saturated totally with sin and depravity. That's why God's love is an almighty love, because He set His affection on something that just... it was just so ugly and horrible. There wasn't anything attractive about it. It really doesn't make sense, does it? except for the fact that this is an almighty love. We can't fully explain it. We can't fully comprehend it. It's like the ocean. It goes beyond our ability to comprehend and take it in. But we can appreciate today what God did, the object of that love, a world of filthy rags. It's awesome. But what about the cost? What did that love do? This love, this almighty love that's so vast and so immense. It says, "...for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Now, there are several men in here that have sons. You know what it is to love your son. Would you ever give your son for a filthy rag? Would you ever exchange his life for a filthy rag? There's no way we would do that. And yet, that's exactly what God did. God gave. You see, love, almighty love gives despite the cost. Despite the cost, doesn't matter what the cost is. In this particular case, it cost Him His own Son. That's what God gave for filthy rags. Now, think about this, guys. What happened when God gave His own Son? What would you feel like if you bought someone a nice gift and you put it in a nice box with a nice wrapping paper and a beautiful ribbon and you were so proud of this gift and you took this gift over and you gave it to someone and they took that gift and they looked at it and they threw it on the ground and they just stomped on it. What would you feel like? How would that make you feel? Well, you see, God gave His only Son. It was a beautiful package. He came to this earth and He healed people. He raised the dead. He opened blind eyes, deaf ears. The lame could walk. The lepers were cleansed. The ignorant were instructed. It was a beautiful package that God gave to this world, His only Son. What did the world do? They took the package, threw it down, stomped on it, crushed it. They took God's Son and they butchered Him like a piece of raw meat and hung Him on a cross. Right? That's what happened. You see, that's the cost of this almighty love. You want to know why it's almighty? Who could pay that kind of cost except an almighty God? God gave His Son and His Son gave His life. Brethren, there's no more to give. What more do you want? What more can God give than that? But that's what He gave despite the cost. Gave His Son to a world of filthy rags who despised His Son and hung Him on a cross. Now, what's the consequence? What happened? Bottom line, what's the byproduct of that? Well, what does the text tell us? That whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Now, let's think about these words, should not perish. You see? Because we're talking about filthy rags. What should happen to the filthy rags? They should be thrown out. They're filthy. They're polluted. Look what they did to God's Son. They should be thrown out into hell for all eternity. God could do that and He would be completely just. No one could accuse Him of injustice if He did that. But the words are, should not perish. In other words, there's hope. There's hope for these filthy rags. They don't have to perish. They don't have to be thrown away. They don't have to be cast into hell for all eternity. Should not perish, but have eternal life. You mean that God can clean me up and give me eternal life and it'll be like I'm new again? Yeah, that's it. What else besides an almighty love could do that? What else besides an almighty love would do that? But that's what God did. Should not perish, but have eternal life. Now, to whom is that offer made? What does the text say? The news just keeps getting better. Whoever! He doesn't limit it. He doesn't close the doors. He opens the doors wide. The doors of His love are open wide and He says, whoever! Whoever! He bars no one from coming, but invites all to come. and be cleansed of their filth and have eternal life and not perish. This is almighty love. This is why we don't speak of it in a common way and say, Oh, God loves you. God's love is awesome because of what it did, what it accomplished, what it's still doing. So the doors are open to whoever Well, what do I have to do? What do I have to do to be cleansed? I don't want to be thrown away. I want to be made new. What do I have to do? You said this is for whoever. What do I have to do? What does the text say? Whoever believes on Him, believes in Him. You simply have to believe. You know, over in John 6, a group of people came to Jesus and they said, Jesus, what do we have to do to do the work God requires? What do we have to do? Jesus said this, the work of God is to believe in the one He has sent. What do you have to do? Believe. You mean it's that simple? Yeah. It's that simple. It's not complicated. Not hard to understand. It's that simple. You have to believe in the love of God and what the love of God did for filthy rags. That's what you have to do. Now, if you're a sinner, you're sitting there today and you are a believer. Yeah, you believe in all sorts of things. I watched you. You believe in the food you just ate. You believe that food will give your body nourishment. You believe in the air you breathe. You believe that air is going to give you life. You believe in that chair you're sitting in, that that chair is going to save you from falling on the ground. You believe in all kinds of things. But are you telling me, listen to me, if you're a sinner, are you telling me that you're willing to believe in food, that it will give you nourishment, but you're not going to believe in God who will give you spiritual nourishment? Are you telling me that you're willing to believe in air, the very air that God created that gives you life, but you're not willing to believe Him for eternal life? If you're a sinner, are you telling me you're willing to believe in a chair to save you from falling, but you're not willing to believe in his son to save you from hell? Think about what you're doing. Think about what God offers you. Think about what you are. You're a filthy rag. You're gonna be thrown away into hell for all eternity unless you believe. But if you believe, God's gonna clean you up, He's gonna make you whole, and He's gonna give you eternal life, and you'll live with Him forever. That's what we're getting ready to celebrate, isn't it? These little emblems here, the wine and the bread, what are we celebrating? We're celebrating exactly what this verse talks about. We're celebrating the object of God's almighty love. We're the object of that love. the people in this room. We're the object of that love. We're celebrating the cost, the immense cost that He paid, the broken body, the spilled blood, the cost of this almighty love. And then we're celebrating the consequence of this almighty love, the eternal life that we have. And this celebration is real. This is not a fantasy. This is not a fairy tale. This is not some routine that we just make up to go through so we can all feel good. Brethren, these are symbols of ultimate reality. There was a real body and there was real blood that was shed. And all God asks you to do is believe. Believe. I don't know about you, but that's the best offer I've ever heard. If somebody's got a better one, let me know. I don't think you do. This is the best offer you'll ever hear because this offer comes from the almighty love of God. The very love that we're getting ready to celebrate as brothers and sisters in Christ. And so as we come today as brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope all of our hearts are just full of appreciation for the awesome love of our God. And I hope for those of you who do not know Christ, I hope you will seriously consider believing in Him this day. This day. Don't delay. Believe today. May God help you to do that. Amen.