The Greatest Gift Ever Given

We read the word of God from two sections today, from John chapter 17, verses 1 through 5, and then first John chapter 5, verses 9 through 13. Reading from John chapter 17, These words spoke Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. First John chapter 5, verse 9. If we receive the witness of man, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his son.

He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son.

He that hath the son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Certainty from the word of God.

Our subject is the greatest gift ever given. And the Lord does not leave us in doubt as to what this gift is, because in his high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, Jesus tells us what it is. As thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Many of you listening to me right now have received this marvelous gift of everlasting life. I trust that you are enjoying it. I trust it's the very center of your life.

I trust it's the thing that controls our lives, this greatest gift that was ever given. But alas, there are many, many people who have never received this gift. If God were charging for eternal life, I could understand why some people would not receive it.

They might not be able to pay. If God were giving required works for eternal life, I can understand why many would not have it. They might not be able to work.

But God is giving a gift. Graciously, lovingly, God is giving eternal life. And yet there are multitudes that have never received it.

Now when you realize the wonder and the splendor and the greatness of this gift of eternal life, you really cannot help but receive it and rejoice in it and want to share it with other people. The tragedy is we take this gift for granted. We sing about eternal life and we read about eternal life.

We attend services and we give thanks to God for eternal life. But somehow it loses its splendor. For some reason it becomes drab, ordinary.

And this is tragic. And so today we want to meditate on the greatness of this gift of eternal life, the greatest gift ever given. And perhaps the best way for us to recapture some of the glory, some of the splendor of this gift, is to examine this gift and to notice once again the qualities that make this gift great.

What are the qualities of this gift that make it the greatest gift in all the world? Well, I think there are several of them. And the first, obviously, is this. It is an eternal gift.

Not temporary. Not passing. Not some recent fad.

It's an eternal gift. Thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given him. And this is life eternal.

The reason this gift is so great is because it possesses the quality of eternity. It is an eternal gift. Now, all of us have received gifts that hardly lasted a week.

This is one gift that lasts forever. But you must remember, eternal life is much more than just endless time. In fact, it is not endless time.

It is no time at all. Eternity does not involve time. God is eternal.

With God there is no beginning. With God there is no ending. C.S. Lewis said that we should picture eternity something like this.

He said, get a long roll of paper. Just stretch out a roll of paper as far as you can stretch it. And then take your pen and make a little line on that roll of paper.

That is time as compared to eternity. You see, everyone is going to live forever. Eternal life is more than endless life.

Everyone is going to live forever. The most blatant agnostic is going to live forever. The most rampant unbeliever is going to live forever.

It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment. You say, I don't know Christ as my Savior. I'm sorry you don't, but I'm telling you, you're going to live forever.

But you'll be living in an endless death. Eternal life is not just quantity of time. Eternal life is quality of experience.

Let me put it this way. Eternal life is not life from God. Eternal life is the life of God.

When you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, you participate in the very life of God. That's why the Apostle John writes, he that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

It's an eternal gift. I think it perhaps shocks people to realize that salvation is not just wiping the slate clean. If that's all it is, then the next time the slate gets dirty, we're done for.

Salvation is not just washing away the dirt. If that's all it is, then the next time you get dirty, you're done for. Salvation is not just forgiving the past, because if that's the case when you step into the present or walk into the future and disobey God, that's it.

Salvation is much greater than that. When God saves you, he does wipe the record clean. When God saves you, he does wash away the stain.

When God saves you, he does forgive all your trespasses. But he goes beyond that. When God saves you, he moves into you and he gives to you his own life so that those of us who are saved are living right now in eternity.

Time doesn't bother us. Change and decay all around I see. O thou that changest not, abide with me.

O Lord, thou has been our dwelling place through all generations. When you have eternal life and God abides in you and you abide in God, you're participating in eternity. Though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day.

Though we sense in our own bodies the ravages of time, we don't worry about that because we are participating in eternity. Our home is in heaven, eternal. Our father is in heaven, eternal.

Our savior is in heaven, eternal. The glory that we're going to share is the eternal glory of God. This is what makes this gift so great.

It is an eternal gift. You participate in that which had no beginning. You were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

The lamb was slain before history ever began to be written. You're participating in that which has no ending. And right now we are sharing in the eternal life of God.

The unsaved crowd that lives on the things of this world thinks we're crazy because we don't need the passing fads and the foolish toys and the money-wasting and time-wasting gadgets and activities that fill up the pages of our newspapers. They think we're crazy, but we aren't crazy. We're drinking at a well that is too deep for them.

Yea, we are launched upon an ocean that's too vast for them. We have become participants in eternal life. God lives in us, and we live in God.

And we share a quality of life that is so beautiful and so wonderful that we don't want the toys and the trinkets and the cheap things of this world. Oh, this is why this gift is so great. It's an eternal gift.

It has a second quality that gives it greatness, and that's this. It is an expensive gift. All of us have received gifts that, though they didn't cost much, were precious to us.

Your child comes home from kindergarten and says, Mother, I made a picture for you, and you save that picture. Oh, it would never auction off anywhere for any money, but it's precious to you. But this gift of eternal life is the most expensive gift ever given.

You see, our Lord begins this prayer with these words, Father, the hour is come. Now, you can trace that right through the Gospel of John. In John chapter 2, when they lacked wine at the wedding feast, Mary came to the Lord Jesus and said they have no wine, and he very gently and lovingly said to her woman, which was a title of respect, What is there between thee and me? My hour is not yet come.

They tried to arrest him. Twice we read in the Gospel of John, And they sought to lay hold on him, but they could not, for his hour had not yet come. In John chapter 12, our Lord is facing the cross, and he says, Father, the hour is come.

Twice he says that in the Gospel of John. Then in John chapter 13, that is in John chapter 12, twice he says it. In John chapter 13, he meets in the upper room with his disciples, and the scripture says, And Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, laid aside his garments and put on a towel and washed his disciples' feet.

And now in John chapter 17, he looks to the Father and says, The hour has come. What hour? The hour of his suffering, death, and resurrection. The hour of his glorification.

Father, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. How did he glorify the Father? By going to a cross and dying. By being buried.

By raising himself from the grave. And coming forth in glorious victory. The hour of his suffering and death and glory.

He says in verse 4, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. What work? The work of redemption.

That's why I say to you, this gift is a great gift. The greatest of all gifts. It's an expensive gift.

I suppose each of us as parents has known what it means to sacrifice, to purchase some expensive gift for our children, and then have them treat it like it was the empty box. You sacrifice to purchase that first bicycle, and he leaves it in the street and somebody drives over it and it hurts. Our Lord went to a cross to purchase for us the greatest gift ever given.

The most expensive gift. How do we treat it? Peter reminds us, for you are purchased not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus as of a lamb without spot and blemish. Nor silver nor gold could obtain my redemption.

We had to have the death of the lamb. That's why it's such a great gift. It's an expensive gift.

And my friend, if you reject this gift, you are saying to God, it's too cheap. I have other things that are more important, but my son died that I might give you this gift. I have other things that are better.

Are they more costly? This is why the book of Hebrews says, if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. For if under the old covenant, those who disobeyed received their just retribution, how much more shall those under the new covenant who hear the word of God and despise it, despise the blood of Christ, walk on the blood of Christ? How much more shall God judge them? Oh, my friend, you reject this gift. You aren't rejecting some cheap thing that someone found in a secondhand store.

You're rejecting a gift purchased by the blood of the Son of God. It's an eternal gift. It's an expensive gift.

I notice thirdly that this gift is the greatest of all gifts because it is an essential gift. It's something you have to have. Now, we've all received gifts we didn't need.

Someone has defined Christmas as that time of the year when you spend money you don't have for people you don't know on gifts they don't need. And that may be true. I suppose each of us has somewhere in the house a stuffed owl that was given by somebody.

And when that person comes to visit us, out from the attic comes the stuffed owl. Or in from the basement or the garage comes the moose head or that ugly vase. All of us have gifts people have given to us that embarrass us.

They aren't essential. But you start talking about life and you're talking about a necessity, not a luxury. And this is life eternal.

He's talking about a gift that is absolutely essential. The whole theme of the Gospel of John is life. John tells us why he wrote the book.

And many other signs did Jesus, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name. Life through His name.

And as you go through the Gospel of John, as though John puts a huge neon sign flashing, Life! Life! You go into chapter 3 and he says the only way to get this life is through birth. You must be born again. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

In John chapter 4, this life is compared to a well of living water that springs up in your heart and keeps you satisfied so you don't have to go drinking at the dirty cisterns of this world. In John chapter 5, this life is compared to resurrection. He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but is passed from death unto life.

Chapter 6, this life is compared to bread. I am the bread of life. He that believeth on me shall never hunger.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven which if a man drinks of me and eats of me, he shall never die. He's the water of life. He's the bread of life.

In John chapter 10, life is compared to a shepherd taking care of his sheep. Jesus said that my sheep hear my voice and I know them and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man shall pluck them out of my Father's hand. So from the beginning to the end of this book, God is talking about life. Not physical life, spiritual life.

Not the life you got from your mother and father, the life you get from eternal God. It's an essential gift. Jesus uses an interesting word in verse 2. Thou hast given him authority over all flesh.

Flesh. Now by all flesh he means all human beings, but he could have said that. Thou hast given him authority over all people.

He didn't say people. He said flesh. You know why? He was describing how weak we are.

You know what you are? You're flesh. In the Bible, flesh means fallen human nature. The body is strong.

The flesh is weak. Flesh can't come up with anything eternal. Peter says all flesh is as grass and the glory of man is like the flower of the grass.

Man doesn't have any eternal glory. Man is just flesh. But Jesus Christ comes and says I know you're flesh and flesh means death.

God looked upon all flesh and it had corrupted its way on the earth. Flesh. How amazing it is that God says to you and to me I have something essential.

I have something you need. Eternal life. You're just flesh.

You keep living the way you're living and you'll die without life, without hope. But I want to give to you eternal life. It's a birth.

You must be born again. It's water that satisfies your thirst. It's resurrection power that takes you out of the graveyard of sin.

It's bread that satisfies your hunger. It's an essential gift. My friend, you may have been listening to the preaching of the Word of God week after week and year after year and you've rejected this gift.

You know what you're saying? You're saying I don't need it. But my Bible says you do need it. You must be born again.

It is an eternal gift. If you want to have eternal life instead of eternal death, you have to receive this gift. Oh, you're going to live forever.

Somewhere. Either in the presence of God, in the glory of eternal life, or away from the presence of God in the tragedy of eternal death. Either glory or darkness.

Either life or death. You're going to live forever. And if you receive this gift, you'll have eternal life in heaven forever.

It is an eternal gift and it is an expensive gift. You can't earn it and you can't buy it. You can't deserve it, but you can receive it by faith.

It's already been paid for. It's an essential gift. You have to have it.

There's a fourth quality to this gift that makes it so great. It is an extensive gift. It's for everybody.

Some of you will remember one of the greatest saints that ever walked the face of this earth, Dr. Walter Wilson. In my early Christian experience, I thank God for the privileges I had of hearing Walter Wilson preach. He was so practical and down-to-earth and he helped me as a young Christian.

I never will forget a sermon he preached about John 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave. And Dr. Wilson put it so beautifully, I just want to share it with you. He said, suppose you had to buy a gift for everybody in the world.

One gift for everybody. What would you buy? Is there any one gift that everybody would need? We'll say buy them a book. Everybody can't read.

Some people are blind. Well, buy them a record. You can't buy them a record.

Some folks don't like music, haven't got phonographs, and some of them can't hear. A chair? Oh, some folks are lying in beds. They can't sit up.

Clothing? Well, what part of the world would you buy it for? It might be too heavy for one place and too light for another. Food? Some people are allergic to things. And Walter Wilson, in his own inimitable way, went right down the shopping list and everything he named, he crossed off.

He said there's only one gift in all the world that's good for everybody, and that is the gift of eternal life. And that's true. Everybody needs it.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everybody can have it. Jesus died for all.

Thou hast given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to those whom Thou hast given Him. You have here the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Do all need salvation? Yes.

Did Christ die for all? Yes. Can all be saved? Yes. Will all be saved? No.

Will you be saved? You can be. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. In John 6, verse 37, our Lord puts it this way, All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.

That's divine sovereignty. And him that cometh to Me I'll in no wise cast out. That's human responsibility.

And so if God's speaking to your heart just now and you have never received this gift of eternal life, it's not God's fault. God is calling you by His Spirit through His Word and you can come and receive salvation. It is an extensive gift.

Everybody needs it. Everybody can have it. There's a fifth quality to this gift.

And Jesus makes this very clear in verse 3. It is not only an eternal gift, an expensive gift, an essential gift, an extensive gift, but this gift is an exclusive gift. There's only one place you can get it. I read New Yorker magazine each week because I enjoy the cartoons.

Then after I enjoy the cartoons, I go back and read the copy because it's beautifully written. I don't always agree with the philosophy, but I enjoy what I read. I also enjoy the advertising.

It's probably among the most expensive advertising anywhere in the country. And you turn the page and here's a picture of a beautiful diamond surrounded by emeralds, surrounded by sapphires, and they want $182,000 for it. One of a kind.

Only one place to get it. And often I've smiled and said, well, long after those things have gone, I'm going to have the gift God gave me. There's only one place to get it.

It's an exclusive gift. This is life eternal that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Jesus is saying, when you know me, you know God.

He that has seen me has seen the Father. Suppose that verse said, and this is life eternal that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Isaiah the prophet. Oh no, it doesn't make sense.

And D.L. Moody. And Jesus Christ. In fact, our Lord is putting Himself on the same level as God.

And He's saying there's only one place you can get this gift. You've got to come to me. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Oh, people say to me, oh, there are many roads to Rome. There are many roads to New York. That's right.

I'm glad there are because I get lost. But there's only one road to heaven. Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by me. How exclusive can you get? And people look at us and say, well, you Christians are so exclusive. That's right.

We know the only true God. Every other God is a false God. Every other Savior is a false Savior.

Every other way of salvation is a false way of salvation. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And my friend, if you don't come God's way, you don't come.

It is an exclusive gift because you have to have a personal relationship with God. When He says that they may know thee, He doesn't mean to know it with your head. I knew a great deal about Jesus before I ever got saved.

I'd been in Sunday school. I'd been confirmed. But oh, there came a day when I met Him.

I knew Him. In the Bible, to know means much more than intellectual understanding. It means personal reception.

It's the word that's used for the love between a husband and a wife. The most intimate relationship among human beings. To know.

And here He is saying to be saved means to know God through Christ, to have a personal relationship. In other words, you can't be saved without Jesus. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.

He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Possessing this wonderful, marvelous, glorious gift ought to be the most exciting thing in all the world.

If you've never come and received this gift, that's the greatest thing you could ever do. To come. But to reject this gift, since it is the greatest gift in the world, means your rejection is the greatest sin in the world.

God can forgive murder, and God can forgive adultery. God can forgive stealing, but God cannot forgive rejection. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world.

And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. It's an eternal gift.

If you reject it, you get eternal death. It's an expensive gift. If you reject it, you can't get it any other way.

It's an essential gift. If you reject it, you're missing the one thing you need more than anything else, life. It's an extensive gift.

If you say no, somebody else will say yes. But you've rejected. It's an exclusive gift.

You can't get it any place you want to get it. You've got to get it from Jesus. He's the Savior.

This is the greatest gift in all the world. And it's a gift. You can come to Him and receive the gift of eternal life and enjoy God forever.

Why will you die? Why will you say no? As the Savior calls, say yes. Gracious Father, we give thanks for this marvelous gift and we pray together that those of us who have received it might rejoice in it and share it with others. And that those who have never received might come today and receive Christ.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.