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I JOHN 4:9, 10

"THE GREATEST CAUSE FOR THANKSGIVING"

Intro: Sitting around table Thursday, when you are giving thanks, for what will it be?  Food?
       Health? Shelter? Freedom? These all good, but they are far from  greatest blessing.

I. GOD LOVES US, "HEREIN IS LOVE, NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US."
        A. Love originated with God.
                1. We did not love Him.
                2. Nothing within us to awaken His love.
                        a. Not beautiful, or amiable, or meritorious.
                        b. "But God commendeth His love toward us in while we were yet 
                           sinners..."
                3. It was our sin, suffering and great need that drew His compassion.
                        a. Though He could have destroyed, He had pity.
        B. God is fountain of all love.
                1. It flows from His nature.
                        a. As the light and heat have their source in sun.
                        b. True love flows from Him.
        C. His love would mean nothing to us except we know of it, therefore, His love was
           manifested by this.

II. "GOD SENT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON INTO THE WORLD."
        A. Christ mission was to make known to us the love of God.
        B. This is love in action.
                1. Love has little value except it acts.
                2. Love manifests itself in actions.

III. THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN CHRIST, "THAT WE MIGHT LIVE."
        A. We were dead by reason of trespasses and sin.
                1. Resemblance between a dead body and the condition of the soul.
                        a. No vision, feeling, hearing.
                2. "God not willing that any should perish."
        B. God desire and will for us is that we might live through Christ.
                1. "The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God."
                2. "He that hath the Son hath life."
                3. l John 5:11.

III. THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN SENDING CHRIST THAT HE MIGHT BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.
        A. God's law had been broken.
                1. The guilty must be punished.
                2. The law proclaimed death for the offender.
                        a. Old Testament times sacrificed animals.
        B. God sent Christ as sacrifice for sin
                1. Relationship between Father and Son.
                        a. "This is my beloved Son."
                        b. "Thou lovest me before the foundations of the earth were laid."
                2. The great love on the part of God.
                        a. We might picture God sending son to reign on earth.
                        b. To send Him as a sacrifice was necessary to remove our sin, else 
                           our sins would have forever separated us from Him.
                3. Amazing grace, how true.

This thanksgiving let us express thanks to God for the greatest gift through which all other 
blessing can only come.