In Ephesians chapter 4, in verse 32, And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. even as God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven you." These are probably the three most important
words in all the Word of God. For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. This is the foundation for forgiveness. For Christ's sake. Even as God
has forgiven you, for Christ's sake. Not for my sake. God did
not forgive me for my sake. God has forgiven me for Christ's
sake. If God has forgiven me, if He's
forgiven you, it's for Christ's sake. It's not for my sake. It's for His Son's sake. It's
not because I'm sorry. You know, repentance is of God
and we are sorrowful. We do mourn over our sins. But
that's not why God forgives. God forgives for Christ's sake.
For Christ's sake. I want you to get this. I want
you to get this. When I ask for forgiveness of
sins, Lord, forgive me my sins. I know this, and this is where
my assurance comes from. This is where my confidence comes
from when I ask for forgiveness. I had this written in a bulletin
a week or two ago. The blood of Jesus Christ answers
for the sins that I'm asking forgiveness for. He cannot just
forgive me. God cannot just forgive me because
I ask Him to. He forgives me because there's
the blood that answers for the sin that I'm asking forgiveness
for. The justice of God is satisfied because it is already extracted
from the veins of the Lord Jesus Christ. Justice. It drew His blood out, which
should have been mine. Should have been mine. And then
it's the foundation for all spiritual healing. For Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. This is the
one name that gives us access to the throne of grace. There's
one name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. Only one. God
doesn't save me for my namesake. He saves me for Christ's namesake.
His Son. Our Lord said, Whatsoever you
ask in My name, that will I do. Understanding that what we ask
in His name is according to the will of God. We know that. We
understand that. But we ask in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When God defied the purpose to
create the world, When He created the angels, when He created man,
it was all created for Christ's sake. Look over in Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, listen.
Let me start reading in verse 13 in Colossians 1. Who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him,
by Jesus Christ, were all things created that are in heaven, that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by Jesus
Christ and for Jesus Christ. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things and by Him all things
consist. All things are maintained and held together. God the Father
has created all of this. He's done all of this for Christ's
sake. I know that men have done many things for the sake of others.
Some have followed their leaders into death. Some have taken their
families to other countries for the sake of their families. And
everything our Lord has done for His elect, He's done for
Christ's sake. That's it. All we need to learn,
we've got to learn that. I know we know it, I know we
know it, but, boy, to learn it by experience. Now, since God
does everything for Christ's sake, what does that say about
Jesus Christ? What does that say about him?
That tells me he must be the most excellent person of all. Listen to these scriptures in
John 3, 35. The Father loveth the Son. He loveth the Son. You reckon
we ought to love the one whom God loves? He loveth the Son,
and hath given all things into his hand. Everything, everything
that exists, every person, every angel, whether good or bad, everything
has been put into the hands of Jesus Christ because the Father
loves Him. The Father loves the Son. Look
over in John chapter 5. In John chapter 5. John chapter
5 Verse 20, here's another verse. For the Father loveth the Son,
and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show
him greater works than these that you may marvel. But the
Father, he has withheld, listen, he has withheld nothing from
his Son. So what does that say? If there's
anything I want to know of God, of salvation. Go to Christ, the
One whom the Father loves. Go to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now what makes Him so excellent? Well, first of all, it's this.
He is the Son of God. He is equal with the Father.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's not just a mere man. He's
not just a good man. He's the Son of God. He's the
second person of the Trinity. That's who He is. He's a perfect
man. No other man has ever walked
this earth in perfection like Jesus Christ. He is perfect in
every way. He loved God with all His heart
and soul and body and His neighbor is Himself. He's a perfect man. He loved God and He loved His
neighbor. The man Jesus Christ is the chiefest, now listen,
the manhood, the human nature of Jesus Christ is the chiefest
of God's creation. As the Son, He's eternal. As
the man, He was created. He's the God-man. He said, a
body hast thou prepared me. God made him a body that he may
come into this world, work out a righteousness for a multitude
of sinners that the Father chosen gave to him. And in that body,
he also went to the cross and became a sacrifice for them.
He sacrificed himself for them. And by doing so, he put away
their sins and satisfied the holy law of God. I know this
human race doesn't think much of God's law, but he does. God
does. He hasn't thrown it in the trash. He fulfilled it. God Himself
came into this world and became a man that He might justify us
through His blood and righteousness. God did that. He's the perfect
man. He's also the priest over God's
house. I tell you what, there's two
things you better have if you're gonna come before God. That's
a high priest and a sacrifice. And we have both of them in Jesus
Christ. He's that prophet Moses said
would come. He's the Lord of heaven and earth. He's wonderful counselor, the
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. This is
who Jesus Christ is. Now, for Christ's sake, It is
the one great motive for mercy from the Father. It's the one
great motive. When our Father looks upon His
beloved Son, He sees His blood, He sees His sacrifice, He hears
His intercession, and He forgives for Christ's sake. I can't stress
this enough this morning. Have you learned by experience
that everything you have has been given to you for Christ's
sake? Not because you're not good people,
but for Christ's sake. If he left us alone, we'd all
be devils. We would. He forgives for Christ's sake.
For Christ's sake, the Father shows mercy to sinners. and can show mercy to sinners
and still be God. Still be a just God. A just God and a Savior. That's
who He is. He's a just God. He saves in
a just way. Everything God does, He does
in a just way. His mercy, His forgiveness, His
salvation is in a just way. is through Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. And this is a motive for our
obedience. What is the motive for your obedience
and mine? For Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Paul said
this. He said, the love of Christ constrains
me. That's what constrains me. It's
not, and I've said this so many times, it's not ten commandments. It's not a whole list of rules
and regulations. It's the love of Christ, shed
abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. That is what constrains
me. We walk in godliness for Christ's
sake. We do what we do for Christ's
sake. We suffer what we suffer for
Christ's sake. You know, the disciples counted
it a joy when they were beaten for Christ's sake. They were
beaten over the gospel they preached, and when they left, they rejoiced
that they were counted worthy. Worthy of what? Suffering for
Christ's sake. Worthy of that. We give up what
we must give up for Christ's sake. You know, Paul said, I've
suffered the loss of all things for Christ. I've suffered the
loss of all things. But actually we suffer no real
loss in this life, do we? So what Paul said, he said, I
count all those things as loss, as dung. And he counts it that
way for Christ's sake. We serve one another for Christ's
sake. The one great motive for service
is for Christ's sake. Do whatever you do. The scripture
teaches us what? As unto the Lord. We do what
we do as unto the Lord. It's one thing to punch a clock,
put in a day's work for a day's wages, but that is not how we
serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not hirelings. It is, as
Paul said, it is a labor of love. It's a pleasure to serve our
Lord. He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me for I'm meek and lowly of heart. And my yoke
is easy. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. You know what makes it easy? L-O-V-E. Love makes service easy. What makes a mother sit up all
night with her sick child without complaining and just throwing
a fit? Love. Love for that child. The thing that took our Lord
to the cross was not that He felt like He had to do something.
The thing that took Him to the cross was love. He loved a group
of people that were nothing but a bunch of wretches. Paul said,
old wretched man that I am. You know in his mind he was thinking
about that road to Damascus where he was going to persecute the
church. And the Lord stopped him. He
stopped him and made himself known to him. Paul lived with
the reality that God could have justly sent him to hell. Because
he has many. He has many already, and yet
He showed mercy. It's a labor of love. Glad to
serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Glad to do it. When we consider
what he went through to save us poor sinners, he rejected,
my God, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I'm looking
at why God the Father forsook his son. God loved a multitude
of sinners that no man could number and gave them to his son. And his son redeemed them. And
now he sends the gospel out. We'll see this at the next service
of the GospelNet. He sends the gospel out and he
calls. He calls sinners. He calls sinners
to Christ. And then at the end of the service,
a lot of people get up, or they get up and go home, but then
somebody has an interest. Somebody has a real interest
in the Lord saving them. They have what the old writers
called a saving interest in Jesus Christ. You really have an interest
in Him. You have an interest in forgiveness.
You have an interest in knowing God. Where'd that come from? that came from a work of grace
in you. Oh, glad to serve the Lord Jesus
Christ, because He went through rejection by God, by man, despised
and rejected of men, it says, alone. Alone? No one's ever been as
alone as the Lord Jesus Christ. No one. No one's ever been as
poor as Him. He had no place to lay His head. The One who
created all things had no place to lay His head. And last of
all, this is the key to prayer. This is the key to true praying. If we can pray for forgiveness,
for spiritual healing, If we can pray for our families and
we can truly say at the end of praying, for Christ's sake, I
assure you God the Father will answer that prayer. He'll answer
according to his will, but he'll answer. Because I tell you what,
whatever he does, he does for Christ's sake. And if you and
I get on the same page, if he puts us on the same page where
we want everything done for Christ's sake, the one who died for us,
redeemed us, loved us, regenerated us, and in a little while, he's
gonna take us home. Heaven is going to be filled
with a multitude of people, the Scripture says, that can't be
numbered. That cannot be numbered. And
you know that every last one of them there is there for Christ's
sake.