All right, i'll remember to turn
my microphone on this time All right, let's turn to philippian
philippians. I'm, sorry ephesians chapter
four now. Let me get the scripture right
ephesians chapter four Verse 32 be ye kind one to another
tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you." Forgive one another even as God,
for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. It's sad, and it's an evidence
of the depths of ignorance, to hear Those three words roll off
of men's tongues in vain. And it's sad and it's ignorant
because the purpose for everything is for Christ's sake. The purpose for everything is
for Christ's sake. Everything God has done, everything
God is doing, and everything God shall do is for Christ's
sake. Colossians 1.16 says everything,
everything was created for Him. That in all things He might have
preeminence. Romans 14.7 says this, none of
us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. That includes
everybody, everybody. No man lives to himself, no man
dies to himself. Whether we live, we live unto
the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the
Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or
we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ both
died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the
dead and the living. In the dispensation of the fullness
of times, Ephesians 1 says, God's going to gather together in one
all things. And he's talking about all people.
All people in one. He's going to gather them together
in Christ. Whether they be in heaven or
whether they be on earth, he's going to gather them together
even in him. Everything was made before him.
And Christ is Lord. The God-man is Lord over those
who are Alive and even over those who are dead. He's a lot. He's
Lord over everybody Like it or don't like it. It's true and
Everybody's gonna be gathered to him. We're all coming right
to one person Christ every one of us Every one of us with every
sinner whether you're a believer or an unbeliever whether you're
a saint or rebel God will accomplish the end purpose of giving Christ
all preeminence That's right. He's going to accomplish that
purpose in every one of us, whether we live or die, whether we are
a saint or a sinner, whether we were a rebel or a child of
God. We're going to accomplish that
purpose. We're going to give Him all preeminence. Proverbs
16, verse 4 says, The Lord hath made all things for Himself,
yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. We're either going
to glorify God and give Christ preeminence by His grace saving
us from us or we are going to do it in judgment with Him condemning
us. But either way we are going to
give Him all preeminence. That scripture brother Eric just
read said God has highly exalted Him. He has given Him a name
above every name. And at the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord
to the glory and praise of God. That is what we are going to
do. Every one of us are. Wouldn't it just make sense to
bow to Him now and believe Him and trust Him? Huh? It just would. It just would. Every person has
reason to rejoice. You know, we all have reason
to rejoice of the greatness that's contained in those three words.
Of course, for believers, we have reason to rejoice because
everything that we have spiritually in salvation is for Christ's
sake. Everything. everything. He said
in Ephesians 2, 7, He saved us, He raised us with Christ that
in the ages to come He might show us the exceeding riches
of His grace toward us, His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Our text is talking about kindness. Be kind to one another. How do
we know anything about kindness? Do we learn it from this world?
I hope not. We don't learn what kindness
is from this world. We learn what kindness is seeing what
God did for us in Christ. That's right. And there's coming
a day when He's going to show us the exceeding riches of the
glory of His kindness toward us. And even the rebel, you have
reason to rejoice too. Because for Christ's sake, you
have a little bit longer to enjoy all the things in this world
that you like and enjoy. God wouldn't, He would have destroyed
this world a long time ago. Except for the fact that he has
a people in this world and he's gonna call them to faith in Christ
And so for the sake of Christ who redeemed those people He's
long-suffering to the rebel and giving them a little more time
to kick up their heels and cuss God So they meet him That's right. Listen this Romans 922. What
if God willing to show his wrath? and to make his power known,
endured with much long-suffering." That means, what if he endured
suffering a long time, waiting a long time, suffering the vessels
of wrath that are fit to destruction? You mean he's long-suffering
the vessels of wrath that are fitted to destruction? Yep. Why?
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels
of mercy, which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even us whom he's
called, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also." That's
why, that's why. So the rebels got, he really,
if you are in the habit of going around and saying those three
words, cursing God, you really ought to think before you let
those words roll off your tongue. Because the only reason you get
to enjoy the things you like is for Christ's sake. That's
true. This is the one great motive
for believers. The one great motive for Christ's
sake. That's our motive, brethren.
What we do, now listen to this carefully. What we do, I'm almost
hesitant to make this statement because I've learned that people,
it don't matter how you try to head your words, people get something
out of it that you did not mean regardless. But let me just say
this. What we do is not nearly as important as why we do it. A good work will be a bad work
if it's done from a bad motive. That's right. And what the world
and religion might look on as not being a good work before
God, it might be a good work if it's done from a good motive. Rahab, the harlot, she hid the
spies and lied to the king. Most people tell you that's bad.
God said, held her up in Hebrews 11, said this was a good work.
She did it from the motive for Christ's sake. That's why she
did it. That's why she did it. The purpose
and the motive in everything that God does and And the true
motive in everything the believer does is for Christ's sake. Did you notice here that both
the thing that moves the believer and the thing that moves God
is the same thing? For Christ's sake. Look here.
Read it again. Forgiving one another even as
God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. You see that? Our motive
for forgiving one another is God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
us. And God's reason for forgiving us is for Christ's sake. So it's
our motive and it's God's motive in everything. In everything.
And it's that way in everything we receive from God and in everything
we do. Now here's my first point. Why
do we need forgiveness? Why do we even need forgiveness?
It's because of sin. Because of sin. We wouldn't have
any understanding of forgiveness or any need for forgiveness until
we know something of our sin. It's not, it's not men will say,
you know, well, I understand that I'm a sinner and I know
I'm a sinner. I just don't believe God. That's not what's, no, that's
not it. You don't know you're a sinner.
The man who, the man who claims he knows he's a sinner, but he
don't believe on Christ, he doesn't know he's a sinner. You know
how I know that? If you got the Ebola virus, you're
going to hightail it to the doctor. And if you find out you're really
a sinner, you're going to hightail it to Christ. I guarantee it.
I guarantee it. Now, he don't know he's a sinner.
He don't have any idea he's a sinner. The reason that I need forgiveness
is I'm a sinner. And the reason I still need forgiveness
as a believer is I'm still a sinner. I'm still a sinner. I need forgiveness
because in my flesh, sin is all that I am. It's all that I am. In my flesh, everything that
comes from my fleshly nature, everything I think, everything
I speak, and everything I do is only sin all the time. That's all that comes from my
old sin nature. It's sin. Nothing else. And when
I only had a fleshly nature, that's all I had was sin. That's
all I was was sin. Now that God's given me a new
nature, the sin of that old nature is still mixed with everything
I do. So I'm still a sinner. I'm still a sinner. Listen to
a regenerated believer speak. Let's read it. Look at Romans
7. This is a regenerated believer. This is a believer right here.
Listen to him speak. Romans 7 verse 20. He says, Now
if I do, Romans 7 verse 20, Now if I do that, I would not. It's
no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Who's that
I that doesn't want to do it and that I that don't do it?
That's the new man. That's my new nature. Where's
this sin that dwells in me? That's my old man. That's my
old nature. Now read on. 21. I find then
a law. Here's a principle that'll never
end. When I would do good, evil is present with me. Always. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. See, I told you this is a regenerated
man. Only a regenerated man's got
an inward man. And it's only in that inward man that he delights
in the law of God, verse 23. But I see another law in my members,
in my old fleshly man, warring against the law of my mind, bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
He's saying there, I'm no match for it. I'm no match for this
old man. Who's going to, oh wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's the one. So then,
with the mind, with my new man, I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh, the old man, all I do is serve the law of
sin. Now, can you say that in honesty about yourself? Can you? Every believer can. You know
this about yourself. But if you're not a believer,
you don't know this about yourself. I don't care if you're the most
religious man in the world to where they give you every accolade
religion can give you. You don't know this. Only a regenerated
man knows this about himself. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. In
my flesh, in the product of Adam, doesn't dwell a thing that's
good. Nothing that's good. Here's the second, so I need
forgiveness because I know my sin. Now here's the second thing.
I want you to concentrate on this. The one great reason that
we have forgiveness, brethren, the one reason we have forgiveness
from God our Father is for Christ's sake. It's for Christ's sake. That ought to end any argument
that God saved me because of some good in me or that he foresaw
I was going to do something or anything like that. The only
reason God's forgiven us is for Christ's sake. That's it. The
very God we sinned against, and you just think about this, the
very God we sinned against provided his own only begotten
son so that we could receive and be given forgiveness from
that very God we transgressed against. And you know why this
doesn't hit us? Because we don't really comprehend
how hideous and how evil our sin is to God. We don't comprehend
how directly contrary to the holy, righteous, good character
of God our sin is. Try to think of somebody Try
to think of somebody cursing you from the day they could talk. And just stealing from you, robbing
you, taking every possession you own. You can't turn your
back on them without them just stealing from you. And you send
them a message of peace. You send them a message that
you'll forgive them. And they still curse your name.
And they still rob from you. And they still cheat you. And
not only that, they killed your own son. Would you forgive them? Would you? I wouldn't. Honestly, no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't
be able to. But I'm so thankful God's not
like me and God's not like you. God sent his only begotten son
and used us, used us rebels to kill him. with our sin upon Him
so that He might save us from our sin and forgive us our sin. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
just astounding? See, the justice of God had to
be carried out. There was no other way God could
forgive us. You know, talk about God could
have saved us. No, He couldn't. There's no other
way God could have forgiven us because the soul that sinneth
must die. That means every sinner must
die. We're either going to die in
a substitute or we're going to die in ourselves. And I'm not talking
about just physical death. I'm talking about that second
death. Hell, we're going to die. We've got to bear that. Justice
demands it. For God to save his people and be just, two things
had to take place. Number one, God himself must
provide the sacrifice because there's nobody amongst the children
of men that could do the work. And number two, that sacrifice
has got to be so one with God that it's God himself doing the
justifying. Those two things had to be so.
And this is amazing. Look at 1 John 4. This is amazing.
This is amazing love right here. We ought not talk about our love
and brag about our love or anything like that because here is love
right here. Look at this now. Look at 1 John 4.9. And this
was manifested, the love of God toward us. Because that God sent
His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through
Him. Now that word live, that word
might right there don't mean He came forth and He did a work
to make it possible that we might live, maybe. How do you know
it doesn't mean that? Read the next verse. Herein is
love, not that we love God. If He'd have just sent Christ
and Christ did a work making it possible for you and me to
love Him, we'd have never loved Him. We'd have never called on
Him. We'd never have life because
we didn't love God. When He sent Him, Son, we didn't
love Him. but He loved His people. And it means that when He sent
His Son, He sent Him because we're going to have life. Everybody
He sent His Son for is going to have life by Christ. He's
going to give it to them. Why? How do you know that? Because
look at this second thing that it says. And He sent His Son,
that word to be is in italics. That means the translators added
it. He sent His Son, the propitiation. That means satisfaction. He sent
His Son, the satisfaction for our sins. That means satisfaction
is made. That means justice is satisfied.
That means God don't have a thing against His people anymore. Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. You
just think about that. Think about how God loved His
people without any cause in us. We ought to love one another
without a cause in the other. He loved us in His Son. That's how
we ought to love one another, in His Son. And He loved us and
gave that which was dearest to Him for us. That's how we ought
to love one another. And He loved us putting away
all our sin. That's how we ought to love one
another. He loved us putting on us what we were not. That's
how we ought to love one another. You hear the Lord speak about
believers in Hebrews 11, and you read it, and you think, man,
they were good. And go over there and read about
the same believers in the Old Testament, and read what actually
happened. And you think, man, they were bad. That's God putting
their sin away in Hebrews 11, and putting righteousness on
them, and looking at them in Christ through the faith He gave
them, and saying, look how good they are. And He says, love covers
sin. Love covers sin. and robes in
righteousness. We ought to talk about one another
so that the people hearing this say, that don't sound like the
clay I know. That's the clay God knows in
Christ. All right, this was the only
begotten son, and God's provision served God's twofold purpose.
He had two purposes in this. He had two purposes in this.
Number one was to give his son preeminence. And number two was
to save his people from our sins. That was the twofold purpose
of why he sent his only begotten son. Now God loved his son. God would have his son to have
all preeminence. That means he's going to have
everybody that he saved, he's going to have them praising him
and him alone for every aspect of their salvation beginning
to end and renouncing themselves in every aspect of salvation
beginning to end. He's going to have his son to
have all preeminence. And God manifests His great love in saving
His people and making us the righteousness of God while at
the same time making His Son preeminent. He manifests that
love to both His Son and His people by sending His Son to
save us from our sins. Listen to this now. In John 17,
23, Christ said, I in them and thou in me talking to God the
Father, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, in Christ, and that the world may know that thou hast
sent me. Why did he send him? Here, and
has loved them as thou hast loved me. The reason he sent Christ
is because he loved Christ as he loved his people. And you
think about this, you think, and we're only going to understand
this by grace. Because when I look at Calvary's cross, when I look
at Calvary's cross, I think, you know, your first thought
is, how's that loving his son? How's that God loving his son?
That's God giving his son all preeminence. That's Him giving
His Son all preeminence. Now, I'm going to say this. I've
said this to you before. I'm going to say it again. I'm
going to keep saying it until I get it, I word it just a little
bit right. And then I'm going to keep preaching
it some more. But this is so right here, brethren. In that
one act on Calvary's cross, we see perfect righteousness. Galatians
5.14 says, All the law It's fulfilled in one word, even this, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. All the laws fulfilled in that
one word. Alright, in Christ we see the only one, the only
one who loved his neighbor as himself. The only one, brethren,
and he did it in perfect righteousness. He's the only one who fulfilled
the law in perfect righteousness by perfect love. He's the only
one who did this. Christ is the righteous love
which is the fulfillment of the law. Now let me say this slowly. I'm going to read this because
I want you to hear this. This is what I'm trying to preach.
This is what I'm trying to get across to you. I want you to
hear this. I want you to understand this. Christ filled full the
righteousness of the law by a love so great, so perfect, so righteous
when He willingly, selflessly gave Himself to be separated
from God and His brethren. That's loving your neighbor as
yourself. He loved them. He loved God,
His Father, and He loved His brethren so much. It's the only
selfless act that's ever been done. ever. You and I never,
we never have done a selfless act. Even if you don't tell anybody
about it in your heart, you're just busting to do it and you
want to so bad and you're proud of yourself. We never done anything
selfless. This was a selfless act. Christ
did this for his father and he did this for his brethren. What
did it mean? What did he have to do? He gave
himself to be shamefully dishonored that both his God and his brethren
might be eternally honored. You just think about that. On the cross, Christ condescended
to the furthest depths of shame. He plumbed the depths of shame. He went as far into shame and
ignominy as you can go. Christ did. To exalt God and
His brethren to the highest heights of honor. As high as you can
go. And that act manifests the very
righteousness and holy heart, the very character of our Redeemer. That's who He is. To be separated
from God and be separated from your brethren. To honor God and
to honor your brethren. That's what He did. That's what
He was doing on Calvary's tree. You see, We talk about righteousness
and holiness as a doctrine. And we argue about righteousness
and holiness as a doctrine. Christ is righteousness and holiness.
There is no other. Period. Christ is righteousness
and holiness. Period. He's the righteousness
and holiness of the law. When Paul said of the law, it's
holy, just, and good. Christ is the holiness, the justice,
and the goodness of the law. That's what it means when it
says Christ is the end of the law. That's why the law was given,
to show you, you're not the holiness, you're not the justice, you're
not the goodness of the law. That's us. We're not the holiness,
the justice, or the goodness of the law. We're just the opposite. but you get to the end of that
law, shut up to the fact that you are nothing and nobody and
you get to the end of that law and you meet Christ and God says,
let me introduce you to holiness and justice and goodness. That's who He is. That's who
He is. That's why Christ is the end
of the law. That's why the law was given.
There in Christ on the cross we behold the positive righteousness
of the law It's love. It's a positive righteousness
of the law. It's love. There you see it on Calvary Street.
You see, here it is. It said, love my neighbor as
myself. Well, I take out my, the widow woman next door, I
take her trash out and I, you know, I try to mow her yard when
I can and shovel her driveway when I can. If her house burned down, and
you gave her your house, you still ain't loved her as yourself. Christ gave himself to bear the second death, to
bear justice, to bear to bear the righteous reproach, the righteous
indignation, to bear that separation of the glory of God. He gave
himself to bear that for God and his brethren. That's love.
That's loving your neighbor as yourself. And when men start
talking to me and telling me, well, I've loved my neighbor
myself. Don't you blaspheme my Lord like that. And that's what
that is. You ain't come close and I ain't
either. He's the only one that did that. He's the only one that'll
get glory for that. He's the only one that's done
that. He's righteousness and he's holiness. That's the positive
righteousness of the law. And then at the same time, brethren,
he was made to be exactly what his people are. He was made to
be sin. He took our sin. He was made
a curse. What could be worse? He was made a curse for us. So that at the same time that
he's fulfilling the righteousness of the law and loving his God
and his brethren as himself, he's satisfying justice and fulfilling
the penalty of the law for his brethren. So right there on Calvary's
tree, when he said, it's finished, brethren, it is all finished. There's the righteousness of
the law in precept and penalty. There he is. It's not a doctrine. It's not something to debate
over whether I know this doctrine or that doctrine. It's a person.
It's a person. Do you know the person? Christ
our righteousness. That's why God says he has to
be made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. You can't meet God unless you
have Christ as your sanctification. You can't meet God unless you
have Christ as your righteousness. You can't meet God unless Christ
has thoroughly brought you out from under your polluted thoughts
and the law and your flesh and completely redeemed you and ransomed
you from every enemy and from everything that kept you from
Him and brought you by His power to His feet and set you down
at His feet and taught you in your heart like a little bitty
child and said, I'm your wisdom. Child, believe this. Oh, I thought
wisdom was what these men were telling me. No, Christ is my
wisdom. And he says, child, I'm your
righteousness. Oh, I thought righteousness was
what I've been being told I had to do. No, that's your sin. Christ is your righteousness.
And he sets you down and he says, I'm your holiness, child. without which no man shall see
the Lord. I thought that was me working
up this holiness in me. Oh, look at that thief hanging
on that cross. Isn't he one of men who saw the Lord? And isn't
he a man who saw the Lord? And the Lord said, you've got
to have holiness without which no man will see the Lord. There's
a man that saw the Lord. What did he do? What'd he do? He hung there with his nails
in his feet nailed to a cross. What'd he do? What law'd he keep? What'd he do? Christ set him
down while he was on that cross and brought him to his feet while
he was on that cross. You didn't see it happen and
you won't see it happen when he does it in your heart either
or in your neighbor's heart or in the person sitting right next
to you right this minute. But He does it. And He did it
hanging there on that cross. So that one minute He's separated
from God, He's in sin and condemnation, and in His flesh He's separated
from holy God, without God, without Christ, without hope in the world.
And He's cussing God. And the next minute, He's been
translated into the kingdom of God. He's been made holy. He's
been made righteous. And he's sitting there saying
to that man he was just cursing God with and saying, why curse
God? We're getting what we deserve.
This man hadn't done anything. That's holiness, brethren. That's
holiness. It don't look anything like what
this world calls it, does it? Nope. Nothing. That's Christ. When he says in Hebrews, 11 12
when he says there that when you're going walking in out of
the way And you got a root of bitterness in you and God comes
to his child and he chases every child whom he loves And he says
and he does it that you might be partaker of his holiness.
You know what he's doing He's taking you from trying to run
away from him and he turns his child and brings you right back
to where? right back to the feet of Christ
and he again he says child I'm your wisdom Child, I'm your righteousness. Child, I'm your holiness. I'm
your redemption. And He does it. From the day
He does it the first time, He don't ever stop doing it. And
He has to keep doing it. Because you know what we are?
We're sinners by nature. And we keep on to look to that
flesh. And we keep thinking our flesh can do us any good. And
thinking, Lord, we can come to God by the law. We keep running
away from God. And we'd run right back into
the whore religion if He'd let us. And He just won't let us.
Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? Whoo, I'm glad. I'm glad. You ever consider what
mercy it is, brethren, for God to allow us to fall in a representative? You ever thought about that?
I'm so thankful that God, if we'd have fallen on our own like
the angels did, there wouldn't be any hope for us like there's
no hope for the fallen angels. But God didn't let us fall in
ourselves. He made us fall in a representative head. And I'm
so thankful. I'm so thankful for that. I love
these words right here. As by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. That's how we were made sinners.
But it doesn't stop there. So by the obedience of one, shall
many be made righteous. Don't you love that? Oh, if it
wasn't me that made me become a sinner, it won't be me that
makes me righteous. That's good news. Not for the
man that wants to have the glory. It's not good news to him. That's
not good news to him. But it's good news to the man
that knows you can't do anything. That's good news to you. I love
the fact. I love this fact. I just love
this. Eve took that fruit. that God forbid her to take.
Eve took that fruit and she ate that fruit and she directly disobeyed
God with every fiber of her being when she did it. And absolutely
nothing happened. I love that. Did she sin against
God? Yes, she sinned against God.
And I'm sure God would have chastened her. Nothing happened until her
head ate that fruit and when he ate that fruit And he disobeyed
God that one in whom she stood that one who represented her
when he ate that fruit She fell and she became a sinner her eyes
were open. She became a sinner You know
why I love that so much. I'll tell you why I love that
so much When we disobey God believer we sin We sin and God will chase
in his child for that just like I said He's not gonna let you
run back into religion and run back to your holiday tree and
run back and play the harlot on him in religion He's not gonna
let that or in anything any other kind of sin You're not gonna
allow it But we stand in the righteousness of our righteous
representative, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's seated at the right
hand of God. And the only way I can be made
unrighteous is if somehow Christ could be made unrighteous. And
that can't happen. That can't happen. My head, He
won't ever undo what He's done for me. And so what's been done
for me won't ever be undone. Period. If you, man, I'm going
to tell you something, if you, when we get a hold of that, don't
that make you happy? Don't that make you rejoice?
Don't that make you want to serve God? Well, did law ever do it? Did law ever do it? I gave you
that illustration of the day. When did you ever fill out your
taxes and sent your money to the Uncle Sam and said, man,
I'm so happy to do this? Huh? Law, God says, stirs up
wrath. When did a police officer ever
stop you when you were guilty as you could be? Guilty as you
could be, and you didn't feel wrath, stir up in your heart
and justify yourself in your head a thousand times for why
he ought not to have stopped you. That's what law does. This
is what grace does. Grace makes a man kind and tender-hearted
and forgiving because he sees how kind and tender-hearted and
forgiving God's been for Christ's sake. Thirdly, what God's done
for us for Christ's sake, what has He done for us for Christ's
sake? He's forgiven us. For one reason and one reason
only, for Christ's sake, He gave you life in His Son. For one
reason and one reason only, He taught you the gospel of what
Christ has done for you. For one reason and one reason
only, for Christ's sake, God gave you faith to believe Him,
repentance to turn from yourself. For one reason and one reason
only, for Christ's sake, God said, you're forgiven. Your sins
and iniquities I remember no more. God, I just committed a
sin. I don't remember it. God, I'm
going to sin tomorrow. I don't remember it. God, I don't want to sin. I'm
not trying to sin, but I know I'm going to sin over and over
and over again. I don't remember it. I don't remember it. Past,
present, and future. I don't remember it. Oh, the
legalists. That will make a man just want
to sin. He don't know a thing about God. He don't know this. He don't know this message. This
message don't make you want to sin against God. No, no, no. How dare you call in the grace
of my God a licentious gospel? How dare a man call God's gospel
producing licentiousness? No, no, no. That's a man in his
flesh. God's grace produces a sinner
who's in love with Christ and wants to serve Christ, wishes
he could serve Him perfectly. Last week in my message out at
Danville, I had something so important I wanted to say, and
I forgot to say it. It's in my notes. I skipped right
over it. When I was talking about Nehemiah as the governor, when
Nehemiah was the governor, it was lawful for Nehemiah to have
this exact of them, so much gold and silver and bread and all
this for him and his servants. He was the governor. And I said
to you, but he didn't. And he said, I didn't do it because
of the fear of God. I didn't want to put a burden
on my brethren. This was a faithful man. He was constrained by this
love of Christ. And he said, I didn't put that
burden on you because I wanted you to be able to give yourself
to the work of the Lord, to spread the gospel, and not have to be
fretting and under this burden and working your fingers to the
bone. That's why I did it. And the point I made to you was
Christ is our governor. And if Christ exacted of us what
we owe him for what he's done for us, we couldn't pay it, brethren.
Precious blood. The blood of God. Where are we
going to start to pay back that? That debt. It'd be lawful for
him to exact it of us, but he don't. He doesn't. And here's
what I left out. You know what he says to us?
If you love me, feed my sheep. If you love me, if you love me,
love my brethren. If you love me, tell somebody
what I did for you. If you love me, forgive one another. If you love me, be kind to one
another. Be tender hearted to one another. Man. That gives you a reverence for
God. It takes control of your inner man. That makes you say, Lord, what
you bore for me was a yoke and a load of a burden that I can't
even begin to fathom. And you give me this light and
this easy yoke? Just love one another. Trust
me and love one another. That's what he said. And that'll make a man love. That'll make a man love. That'll
make a man serve. That'll make a man do what law
can't make him do. That's what it'll do. You know,
I say this without reservation. John said, He that loveth not
knoweth not God. And I know we sin. I know we
fall into rebellion. I know we act hard-hearted and
unkind and unforgiving sometimes. But God's going to bring His
child back to our senses. He's going to bring us to ourselves.
And He's going to break that heart, make it tender, and He's
going to put His kindness in you and His love in you and make
you forgive one another. And so I say this with John,
unreservedly, the man that can go on hard-hearted and unkind
and unforgiving, he does not know God. He just don't know
God. He just don't know God. God for
Christ's sake has forgiven us because satisfaction has been
made to the injured honor of his divine government and now
his justice is satisfied, his honor is restored, his law is
magnified and that is the love of God for his people. That is
it. Now, in the days of David, Jonathan
helped King David. Jonathan was of the house of
David's enemies. Jonathan helped King David and so when King David
ascended to his throne, he sent out a message. You know what
that message was? He sent out a message and he
said, Is there yet any that's left of the house of Saul that
I might show him kindness, the kindness of God for Jonathan's
sake. For Jonathan's sake. Saul was
David's enemy. That's who he was. And yet David,
for Jonathan's sake, was willing to save people out of his enemy's
house and bring them into his own house. Now here's my message. Christ has sent the proclamation.
Christ has risen. Our true King David has risen.
And God has sent the proclamation and he says, Is there anybody
left of the house of my enemy that I can show mercy for the
sake of Christ? And you know what happened? You
know what happened? It was reported to David, Jonathan
hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. Does Christ have
a son here that's lame on his feet? That's the only kind of
sons he's got. I'm going to just go ahead and
tell you. That table's going to be full of sons that's lame
on their feet. He said, I didn't come to call the righteous to
repentance. I just came to call sinners. And this is what we're
talking about here. So is there anybody here that's
lame on their feet in sin? That sinner couldn't do a thing.
He couldn't do anything. It's the joy of the father to
express his love for the sake of his son to those for whom
his son died. It's his joy to do it. And he
says, is there anybody lame that I might show the mercy for the
sake of Christ? And David said, when they came
to him, they said, yeah, there's one left. David said, go fetch
him. Go bring him to me. And they
went and brought him. It wasn't no bargaining with
Him. It wasn't no going and offering Him an offer. They went and guided
Him and brought Him to David. And I tell you what, if you're
that lame sinner, it won't be any bargaining with you. God
will say, go get Him. And He'll send forth the Spirit
of God and He's going to fetch you. And He's going to bring
you to His table. And you're not going to come
there kicking and screaming. Mephibosheth didn't come. You don't come to
the king's palace kicking and screaming. You don't come there
with a good word from the king who has all riches and all glory
and all honor. You don't come to that place
kicking and screaming. Not when you're lame on your feet. No,
no. David said unto him when he got
there, Fear not, I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan
thy father's sake, and I'm going to restore thee all the land
of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. That's what he said. Sinner,
if God's shown you your sins, if he's fetched you to him, God
says, Fear not, I will surely show you kindness for Christ
your father's sake, and will store thee above and beyond what
you lost in Adam, and you'll eat at God's table continually
forever." The only man that would be mad about that news right
there deserves hell. He deserves it. And you and I
deserved it. But God wouldn't take no for
an answer. For us who God's called, for Christ's sake, our answer
to God is Mephibosheth's answer. You know what he answered when
he came to David? You know what he said? Oh, I'm so glad I brought
myself to you, David. So glad I mustered up some power
in these old crippled legs and ain't ever walked a day since
I've been born, since I was dropped by my wet nurse, and walked myself
to you, David. I'm glad I did that. He didn't
say anything like that. You know what he said? He said,
he bowed himself and said, what is thy servant that thou shouldest
look upon such a dead dog as I am? That's what we say, isn't it?
Lord, what is your servant that you look on a dead dog like me?
Now let me give you an exhortation. Let's talk about the exhortation.
Just a minute. I'm done. I'm going to give you
the three doors. He says here, be kind to one
another. Be tender hearted, forgiving one another. Here's the three
doors. This came from a message Brother
Henry Mayhem preached in 1982. A TV broadcast on this same verse. And he got it from somebody else.
I don't know who he got it from, but he said this. Let every word
we speak pass through three doors. Here's the first door. Is it
true? Is it true? We certainly ought
not tell things that are not true. That's the first question
we ought to ask. Is this true? Now here's the
second door. Is it necessary that I tell it?
Just because something true is true don't mean it's necessary.
Is it going to hurt them or is it going to accomplish some good
by me repeating this story? So here, the first door is, is
it true? The second door is, is it necessary?
Here's the third door, is it kind? Is it kind? And he said, if we pass our words,
our deeds, whatever we do through these three doors, It's very,
very possible that we will not offend, we will not hurt, we
will not wound, we will not be unkind in our conversation. Those
three doors. God gives us a light and easy
yoke, doesn't he? He just says be kind to one another,
be tender hearted, forgive one another. And he gives us the
motive, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Grace
and love. Isn't that an easy law? I love when Paul uses the law
in reference to grace and in reference to faith. You know
why he does it? Because grace and faith is not a law. He does
it to show you that it's just contrary to law. It's just the
opposite of the works of the law. Grace and faith is a light
and easy yoke. And grace and love isn't light. It's just such a cheerful, joyful
motive. I pray God bless it. I pray He
will. All right, brethren, we're going
to observe that righteousness and that holiness now in this
table. We're going to break this bread
and drink this wine and think about that One who is righteousness
and holiness.