Well, there are many texts you could turn to in the passage that I've read, but I want to go to probably the most well-known of them all. Verse 16. This verse has been called the gospel in a nutshell. And I think that if I went back to the first days of my preaching when I was fairly young man. I think one of the first sermons I must have preached will be John 3 16. I think this verse sums up the Christian message in a way that people can easily understand. So let's just look at this in a little bit more detail. I've got a number of points to share with you and the first is this. God, the greatest giver. How does the verse begin? Two words, for God. You know, the Bible begins with God. In the beginning, God. Begin anywhere else and you are going to soon run into great problems. God is the creator. He's the generous giver of all that we can see around us. He not only gave us a wonderful world, but he gave us life to enjoy his wonderful creation. You know, there's a lot of things that we have that we take for granted. One is sight. How wonderful to have sight to appreciate the beauty that we have around us. What a wonderful thing it is to see the seasons of the year. Someone once said, what's your favorite season? I said, all of them. I love spring when things come to life. I love the summer I love the beautiful colors of autumn. And I love the winter. And the wonderful thing about God is that when he created, he didn't create in black and white. He gave us technicolor. We can look at all the different various colors. You come to autumn, what a wonderful scene autumn is. With its beautiful colors. But we've not only got eyes to see, but we've got ears to hear. We live right out in the country. No street lights, no noise from traffic. It's beautiful. And at five o'clock in the morning, we're awoken by the dawn chorus. right outside our bedroom window. And people have said to me, that must be terrible waking up at that time. It's wonderful. I'll tell you this, it's better music than radio one and two. And I can wake up and I can just lay in bed and listen to the birds singing and the dawn chorus. And then God has not only given us eyes and ears, but he's given us a voice. A voice to communicate with family, with friends. Enjoy company and conversation. And also God has given to us a wide variety of food to eat and to enjoy. You know, there's some things that we never give God thanks for. Have you ever given God thanks for your appetite? Have you ever given God thanks for your taste buds? Look, God has given to us so much to enjoy, but then turned to spiritual things. He's given to us his word, through whom we can read of all the dealings with his people from the beginning of time. He's given to us his many attributes. We can know about his power, his majesty, his faithfulness, his wisdom, his patience, but also his wrath, but his love and his mercy and his grace. No one, no one has given to us as much as God has given, is the greatest and most generous benefactor that we could ever have. I'll tell you this, you and I have more than we deserve, a lot more. So the verse begins with, for God, the greatest, greatest giver. And then it goes on to say, so loved, so loved. Here we have the greatest motive. You know, whenever we perform an action, we always need to question our motive for doing it. When we give to some good cause or charity, We ought to question our motive for doing it. When we perform some good deed, we need to ask, now what is my motive for doing this? When God acted, there was always a motive behind it. And in this instance, it was love. Love was at the very heart of God's actions and purposes. You know, I find that human love can be very fickle and changeable as situations unfold. But God's love has a purpose attached to it. And God's love is unchangeable. It never changes because of circumstances. You see, God doesn't just possess love. But God is love. It's his very nature. God wants the very best for us. Even when God chastises us. It's done in love. My father was a sergeant major in the British Army during the war. And some people may say, I wonder who wanted a father like that. Oh, I couldn't have had a better one. I knew where I stood. You see, I was a little, I know it's hard for you to understand this, but I was a bit of a rebel when I was young. Quite a rebel when I was young. And I did a lot of things that I'm utterly ashamed of now. But I remember one particular occasion at home because we had a shop attached to our house. And I went into the shop and was about to take things out that I shouldn't be really taking out. And I can remember my dad standing at the door from the house leading into the shop. My dad always used to wear, whatever trousers he had on, he always used to wear this thick khaki army belt. I guess that you've seen some of them, haven't you? And as soon as I saw him, I saw him just taking the belt off. I knew what was coming. And it came. And I just remember him saying to me, listen son, I'm doing this for your good. He said, I'm telling you this, this is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you. I thought, yeah, now I understand. I understand because whenever we sin against God, and I want you to think of this, Whenever we sin against God, whenever we break His law and commandments, whenever we grieve Him, whenever we rebel against Him, it hurts Him probably more than it hurts us. God is love. And God loves us despite our circumstances. But sometimes God has to chastise. But when he does, it's in love. God can't betray his character. And his character is love. Third thing. For God so loved the world. And when I think of the world, Today, I see a broken society. We live in the greatest spiritual poverty today. You see, we need to go back to Genesis 3 to just read how the world fell into spiritual poverty. God who had given man so much to enjoy, including fellowship with him, witnessed the fall of his own creation. Disobedience to his instructions, the desire for power, the desire for equality with God, all caused the breaking of fellowship with him. And throughout history, man has been turning his back against God, and it's brought grief, it's brought despair, it's brought misery to the human race. You know, I never ever would have thought when I was in my younger days that society would be as it is today. I cannot believe The downward trend that we have taken in this nation regarding morality, regarding so many things, I find it heartbreaking. Wherever we look in our nation, wherever we look in the world today, we see the devastation that sin has brought. The world, our nation, in spiritual poverty. You see it's only the Christian who has found where true wealth is. And wealth is not found in things that are seen. It's found in things that are unseen. And real treasure is not down here. Real treasure is up there. Treasure is where your heart is. Where is your heart? Fourth, for God so loved the world that he gave. And here we have the greatest act of all. You see God's shown generosity from the very beginning of time. Surely there's nothing else that God could give. He's given everything. He's given enough. What else can he give? Man has continually spurned God's gifts. Turned his back upon the Creator and the giver of every good and perfect gift. How foolish man is. It's like me coming to you and offering you a £50 note, which I'm not going to do just to let you know. But it's like me coming to you and offering a £50 note, and you turn away in disgust without a word of gratitude. Despite that, God still not stopped giving. And every gift that God gives to us has a label attached to it with love. Every gift has the label with love. God can't stop giving. And God gives from the heart. And yet, we still reject it. But here, God wants to give more. Much more. Exceedingly much more. God wants to give himself. He wants to be personally reconciled with those who have rejected Him, those who have turned their backs upon Him. He wants to forgive all those who will come to Him. He wants to forget the past sins that we have committed. He wants to wipe our slate clean. He wants to remember our sins no more. He wants us to have a new beginning, a new start. There can be no greater love than that. Point five. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. The greatest gift of all. Creation's wonderful. I can sit and admire the work that God has done. But we still turn our backs upon him. We respond by rejecting the giver. What does human nature say? No one gave us these things. They all happened by chance. All this beautiful world evolved from nothing. How ignorant we are. How insolent we are. How ungrateful we've become. All come from nothing? Evolved from nothing? I think people who believe that have a degree in Stupidity, to be honest. And yet, despite sinful nature, God responds in love. Still wants to forgive rejection and sin, but how can that be possible? You see, there's one further gift that God had in mind, just one further gift. he would give himself in the form of his only beloved son. His son would become a human being like us. His son would make his home with us. His Son would come to show us exactly what God is like. He would show to us the real depth of His love. He would show how deep that love is for sinners who reject Him. But that act of undeserved love would result in the death of Jesus. on a cruel cross. Jesus Christ would take upon himself our sins, our iniquity. Come on, how many of you have sat here and heard similar things for a long time? How many sermons have you listened that as I explained, that Jesus Christ is willing to take your sins upon himself. And you still come and sit totally unmoved by it. All the sins that we have committed From the day we drew our first breath, those sins that resulted in a great gulf between us and God, sins that cannot be removed by our own endeavor, all our sins and iniquities were laid upon him. He took them all. He became sin who knew no sin. Sixth, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, the greatest invitation of all. It was the year of our Queen's Silver Jubilee. 1977 Catherine helped me, oh she nods, that's fine. We were at home, the postman came, and a card came through the post. It came in an envelope, but on the envelope it said Buckingham Palace. I looked at Catherine, she looked at me, I knew what she was thinking without her uttering a word. I'll need a new outfit, John. And I sat there looking at this card. An invitation to the Queen's Garden Party. And I had to say, I've done nothing to deserve this. Nothing at all. The Queen doesn't even know me. And you know, I came from Barnsley, not Balmoral. Why an invitation to us? Then I thought, has the card been forged? Is someone playing a trick? Is it April the 1st? But on the card, it just said, a gracious invitation. That means it's undeserved. It's been unearned. It's unmerited. And while I was pondering about it all, Catherine says, don't argue, John, let's go. You see, the gospel message is not just for Jews only, for people like Nicodemus. It's for Gentiles, such as you and me. It's not just for people who live in the Middle East, but it's for all people under heaven, whatever their color of skin. It's not just for the wealthy and privileged. It's for the drug addict, the prostitute, the outcasts of society. It's not just for the educated and theologically minded. It's for the ignorant, for the unlearned. It's not just for righteous. It's for sinners. It's not just for you. It's for me. Seventh, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him, the greatest opportunity of all. Who is he that we should believe in him. Who is he? Who is Jesus? He's the Son of the Living God. And you know that fact, the Son of the Living God, is what separates Christianity from every other religion in the world. Other religions, all of them, try to reach God by their good deeds, by their mode of worship, but they're all trying to reach God. Can I tell you if you're trying to reach God, forget it right now. You can't. You can't. It's impossible. Christianity is unique. Because God reached us. He did the opposite to what every other religion does. He reached us. It's not what we do that brings us to God. It's what Jesus has done for us. He died to remove our sin. He died to give us a new beginning. He died to make the slate clean. Give us a new start. Now I didn't tell you at the very beginning of this message that I got nine points. I think you would have collapsed. But I've just got two more to go. Bear with me. Number eight. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. The greatest deliverance of all. I want you to imagine you're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I want you to remember that a ship is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you're on it. I want you to try and realize that your ship is capsizing. I want you to realize that on that ship there are no lifeboats. I want you to realize that you are now standing on that deck alone, waiting for the inevitable to happen. And then as you stood on the deck, you hear a noise in the distance. You see a speck in the sky. And as the boat is capsizing further, that little speck becomes more visible. You realize it's a helicopter. And as that helicopter gets closer, you see a man on a winch. being lowered down to the deck. And he comes down and stands beside you. He takes off his harness. And you're amazed because he fastens his harness on you. He tells you there's only space on the helicopter for one more person beside the pilot. And when the harness is around you, it calls the pilot to lift you up. And as you begin to rise towards the helicopter, you see your rescuer standing on the deck alone. As you arrive at the helicopter, you say to yourself, he'd no need to do this. He took my place. Friends, there are billions of people this morning throughout the world who are perishing. Not in the Pacific Ocean, but they're perishing in their sin. God has sent a rescuer, a deliverer, His name is Jesus. He came so that you would not perish. All He asks you to do is obey Him, believe in Him, acknowledge your sin, repent of your sinful ways, your evil habits, to live Not for yourself, but for Him. He died to give you hope. Hope. What of? Well, that brings to the last point. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. I find it staggering that he came to save me from sin and hell, eternal sin and hell. And he gave me hope of everlasting life with him in heaven. Let me tell you something. You will never experience true joy in this life. I don't care who you are. I don't care what privileges you've got. True pleasure is not found here. True pleasure, lasting pleasure is found with him in heaven. Not everyone will go to heaven. Sometimes the media tries to portray that they will. You know, you have a famous person who died. Oh, they'll be looking down on us now. No matter how they've lived, they'll be looking down on us. Look, that's blasphemous. They will not be looking down upon us. Anyway, when you're in heaven, you don't want to look at what's happening down here. There's something far better to think about than what's happening down here. But no, that's not the case. The people who will be in heaven are people who have turned their eyes upon Jesus on earth and looked in his wonderful face. Those are the people who will be in heaven. Here, we suffer pain. If you're one of those, let me tell you, There'll be no pain in heaven. Here we face sadness. Let me tell you, there'll be no sadness in heaven. It'll be everlasting joy. Here we face death. And look, let's all be honest, we all face death. And it's not a pleasant thing to look forward to. But there'll be no death in heaven. Here we battle with sin. But let me tell you this, there'll be no sin to battle with in heaven. As we close, just think about it. Is this your life? And that's it? Or could you think that one day you'll have total happiness forever. If you're a Christian, I can tell you, you will have total happiness forever. You see, time in heaven is irrelevant. There'll be no clocks thinking, what time's the service gonna end? There'll be no clocks in heaven, no watchers. Time in heaven is irrelevant because when you're there, it'll never ever end. Wow. That's a great thought. Never ever end. And we can be there if we trust Jesus. Let's just pray. Father, thank you that he loved me and gave himself for me. Thank you that through trusting in him, our future is secure. And Father, if there's anyone here this morning who is unsure, who has doubts and questions, Please give them assurance. Please turn those questions into facts. Please help them to turn their eyes upon the Saviour. Thank you for this wonderful verse. Thank you for this wonderful God. Thank you for this wonderful Saviour. hear our prayer. Amen.