Sunday Morning, December 24, 2017

The Greatest Gift

John 3:16–18, 36

I. The Wonder of the Giver

A. God Loves Not Because He Needs To
Jn. 3:36; Eph. 2:2, 3; Hab. 1:13

B. God Loves Because He Is Love Rom. 8:35; Jn. 3:16

II. The Wonder of the Recipients of the Gift

A. World—the Width of God’s Love to All People 1 Jn. 2:2; Rom. 9:4

B. World—the Depth of God’s Love to Such People.

1 Jn. 2:15; Jas. 4:4; 1 Pet. 3:18; Rom. 5:8

III. The Wonder of the Gift

A. God’s Response. His Love Was to Give, Not to Feel
Jn. 3:14–15; Eph. 5:2; Eph. 5:25; Eph. 2:4–5; Eph. 3:18–19

B. God’s Gift. His Only Begotten Son. Jn. 3:16; 1:14--17; 1 Jn. 4:9; Heb. 11:17

C. God’s Gift Was His Only Son to Save Us

IV. The Wonder of Receiving the Gift

A. The Gift Is by Faith

B. The Gift Is for Whoever

C. The Gift Is for Real Jn. 3:18, 36; Rom. 8:1

Quotes

“The Heavenly Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish.” —John Calvin

“Search the universe through and through—in all its recesses and through all its historical development -
and you will find no marvel so great, no mystery so unfathomable, as this: that the great and good God,
whose perfect righteousness flames in indignation at the sight of every iniquity and whose absolute
holiness recoils in abhorrence in the presence of every impurity yet he loves this sinful world - yes has so
loved it that he had given his only begotten Son to die for it.” —B B Warfield

“God loved what is the antithesis of himself, this is the marvelous greatness of God’s love.”
—John Murray

“God’s love is incomprehensible, unchangeable. It was not after we were reconciled to Him through the
blood of His Son that He began to love us. Rather, He has loved us before the world was created, that we
also might be among His sons - less than a marvelous and divine way He loved us even when He hated
us. This is the wonder of grace! He loved what He could not love.” —Augustine

“Christ the Greatest Gift. God (the greatest Lover) so loved (the greatest degree) the world (the greatest
company), that he gave (the greatest act) his only begotten Son (the greatest gift), that whosoever (the
greatest opportunity) believeth (the greatest simplicity) in him (the greatest attraction) should not perish
(the greatest promise), but (the greatest difference) have (the great greatest certainty) everlasting life (the
greatest possession).”

“Sinners are beautiful because they are loved. They are not loved because they are beautiful.”
—Martin Luther

“John 3:16 makes the amazing, incomprehensible, unfathomably profound, well nigh unbelievable
declaration that the Holy God sovereignly loves hell-deserving sinners, and that He loves them so much
that He is willing that His only begotten Son, whom He loves with all the love of His infinite heart,
should go to hell in their stead.” —R B Kuiper