Forgiveness for Christ's Sake

I still think about that and wonder how Will managed to keep his feet underneath him. It's truly been a joy to be with you all. I thank you for having me, Clay. I thank you for putting up with me for a few days. But truly, it's been a blessing. And I'm thankful, thankful for the opportunity to be with you. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians four. We'll begin reading with verse 17, but I wanna finish up with verse 32. That's where we'll spend most of our time this morning.

Verse 17, this I say, therefore, and testify unto the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But ye, ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that you've heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Put off concerning the former conversation, your former behavior, the old man, which is corrupt. according to the deceitful lust. If the Lord has spoken to you through his word, if he's spoken to you through his spirit, and you've been taught, taught the truth that is in Christ Jesus, we're to put off that old man. We're to put off that old manner of life. To deny the old man. To not let that old man rule over us. That old nature with its lust and with its desires. They're deceitful. Scripture speaks clearly of the deceitfulness of sin. Sin promises pleasure. Sin promises profit. but it can provide neither. Put off, put off the old man.

Verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Renewed by prayer and by worship. That's what we gather together here, don't we? To worship, we feed on Christ. We continually feed on his word. That's how this new man is refreshed. Haven't you been refreshed in these last few days? In the Lord's day when we gather together, when we read God's word, to be renewed. Verse 24, and put on the new man, which after God is Created. Created in righteousness and true holiness. Put away lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we're members one of another.

That union we have in Christ. We sit down to eat. We sit down to worship. There's people, some people we've never been around before, but the Lord's people. And there's that union. You can travel somewhere and be around, and it's family, right? We're united in Christ, united in him.

Put away lines, speak every man truthfully, for members one of another. 26, verse 26, be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon Your wrath. I read a note here in my Bible, it says this, get over it. And quickly. Wouldn't we be well served to do that? It festers, doesn't it? The longer we bear on things, just the worse. Get over it.

27, neither give place to the devil, Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the things which is good that he may have to give to him which needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to use of edifying, building up that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. and let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

Put them away. Well, they come naturally to us, don't they? Put them away. Put away bitterness and wrath. Resentment, rage, a bad temper, none of these things are consistent with the grace of God in the heart. Contention, strife. We're drawn to them, we're drawn to them, but he says put them away. Put them away. Now look at verse 32.

Much of these last few verses is wrapped up in this one right here, I believe. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. To be kind, not harsh, not bitter. I often look at how the Lord dealt with his disciples. They must have been something to put up with, right? Just as we are. But how patient was he with them? How kind was he with them?

How tenderhearted? Loving. To be tenderhearted is to be compassionate. To be sympathetic. Forgiving one another. And listen, it all hinges on these three words here. For Christ's sake. Now, I know we hear these words, but not in this context, do we? We hear them when people are upset. We hear them in blasphemy. But listen to them in light of God's word. Forgiving one another as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.

These are foundational words of the gospel, aren't they? Now, this religious world, it would try to convince men to say men are forgiven for what they do, for something they've done or something they've not done, something they've quit doing. Men say a lot of foolish things, don't they? What does the word of God say?

For Christ's sake. For Christ's sake, God hath forgiven you. Listen, it's not because You went over and mowed the neighbor's grass for him. It'd be a nice thing to do, but that's not gonna put away your sin. We just read it, didn't we? For Christ's sake, God hath forgiven you.

He doesn't forgive you because of all your volunteer hours somewhere. He hasn't forgiven you because of your good deeds. By the deeds of the law. there shall be no flesh justified in his sight. It's not because you made a decision. It's not because of your faith.

It's not because of anything but one, for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, because Christ loved you, because Christ died for you. because the Lord Jesus Christ intercedes on behalf of his people. For Christ's sake, he hath forgiven you. God's forgiven his people for the sake of his son.

And he's forgiven us, he's forgiven us freely that we've done absolutely nothing to deserve his forgiveness. If anything, it's just the opposite of that, isn't it? We've not earned it, we've not married it, we've not deserved it. He has forgiven us freely.

In John chapter eight, the scribes and the Pharisees, remember they brought that woman before the Lord? Now just think about that. As we've gathered here this morning, if a group of men would just bust open that door and bring in a poor woman, crying, upset, and sat her in the midst of all of us. And that's what they did. Our Lord was speaking.

And they brought her in and they cast her before him and they said this, She's been taken in the very act of adultery. I mean, can you imagine her fear, her shame, the shock of everyone around? And they said Moses and the law commands that she be stoned. Here she stands in fear of, no doubt in fear of judgment, in fear of death. The law says she be stoned, what say ye?

And the Lord stooped down, and with his finger he wrote on the ground, like he didn't hear him, and they kept asking him, what do you say, what do you say? And he replied, he that's without sin, let him cast the first stone. They must have known something about their sin, didn't they? A little bit. And they all walked away from the oldest to the youngest. And then the Lord looked at her.

The one, the one who is without sin. And he looked at her and he said, where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. and all the joy that must have filled her heart, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Now he didn't say she wasn't guilty. She was, that's true of every one of us. Every son of Adam. But he did not condemn her. He forgave her, didn't he? What did she bring to merit that? Nothing. He forgave her freely, freely. No reason in that woman. Listen, he forgives completely, complete forgiveness.

My sins against a holy God, forgiven, put away. My sins against the law, I've broken God's law. I continually break God's law. forgiven. My sins against his gospel, forgiven. My sins against this body, forgiven. My sins against my neighbor, forgiven. They've all been taken away. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us He forgives from all sin. Complete forgiveness. Justification, pardon from all sin. He forgives lovingly.

In Ephesians 5 verse 2, we read, loved us. He loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice unto God for a sweet smelling savor. Revelations 1 5 says this unto him that what loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood He commended his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He forgives us lovingly for Christ's sake. Love, what does love? Love covers a multitude of sins. He forgives us unconditionally. He has forgiven us for Christ's sake alone. Again, not because of faith, not because of repentance. Those are the gifts of God. We wouldn't have any of those apart from him. He delights to show mercy for Christ's sake. Turn with me to Luke, Luke chapter seven. Luke seven, look at verse 36.

One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And our Lord, he went to the Pharisee's house and he sat down at meat and behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him, weeping. And she began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. And when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, saw that, he spake within himself and he said, this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this was that touches him, for she is a sinner. Did he know? Did he know what manner of woman she was? Of course he did. He knows all things.

Everybody in the, I mean, we read that everybody in town knew this woman was a sinner. Here's the problem, that Pharisee didn't know that he was a sinner, did he? All, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And that woman who washed the Lord's feet with her tears and wiped them with her feet, with her hair. Pharisee, he said, if he knew, if he knew what manner of woman she was, it touched him. Listen, is she deserving of mercy? No. Are any of us deserving of God's mercy? No. We're sinners, just like this woman, a sinful woman. Religious men would have forgiveness to be conditional. Based on something that would make me worthy of it. Let me do something to make myself worthy. My works, whatever it was me.

But listen, if that were the case, this woman would have no hope, we would have no hope. None that do us good. Not one. But listen to the words of our, look at verse 37. The words of our Lord. I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are what? Forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same love is little. And he said unto her, thy sins are forgiven. Unconditional. His forgiveness is, it's eternal. An eternal forgiveness.

Listen, when sin is put away and we, I struggle with this because listen, we have a tendency, I won't say this about anybody else in this room, I have a tendency to forgive someone Until something comes up again, and then I remember that and then I remember two or three other things right now that person harmed me Are we thankful are we thankful that that's not the Lord's forgiveness How easy We do this to ourselves. We think of past offenses. David said, remember that, he said, remember not, remember not the sins of my youth. Our Lord doesn't bring up our past offenses, does he? He doesn't wait and say, boy, I've had great patience with you. but now I'm gonna deal with you after your sins.

Scripture said, whosoever believeth in him should never perish but have everlasting life. John 5, 24, our Lord said, verily, verily, I say to you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation. but has passed from death to life. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

He doesn't repent of anything he's given or forgiven. What he's done is done forever, isn't it? There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who's he that condemneth? This forgiveness, it's eternal forgiveness. Eternal pardon. Eternal salvation. He forgives. He forgives continually. Oh, aren't we thankful he forgives continually.

Peter, Peter asked the Lord, he said, how often should I forgive my brother? Just give me a number, right? I said, three, four times, five times, six, seven? What'd our Lord say? 70 times, nice tripe, 70 times seven. Continually. Is that not what he's done for us? Forgiving us continually? Turn with me to Psalm 106. Psalm 106. Look at verse seven. Psalm 106, verse seven.

He said, our fathers, they understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies provoked him at the Red Sea. at the place of deliverance, and yet they provoked him. In spite of that, nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake, that he might make his mighty power to be known, his namesake for Christ's sake. despite all their sin, despite all their rebellion, despite all their murmuring, and it was continual, he forgave them. As God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Who did he forgive? He forgave a rebel, didn't he? When he forgave me, he forgave a rebel.

Paul said this. He said, I was a blasphemer. I was a persecutor. I was injurious. And despite that, I obtained mercy. Mercy. Can you enter into that? Can you relate to that? Listen to just a few of these verses of scripture. Their sins and their iniquities shall I remember no more. Jeremiah 50 verse 20, in those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, The iniquity of Israel. Spiritual Israel.

It'll be sought after. But there shall be none. None. The sins of Judah, they shall be, shall not be found. For I will pardon whom I have reserved. In Micah 7, verse 9, it says, he'll turn again, he'll have compassion on us, he'll subdue our iniquities, and will cast their sin into the depths of the sea.

I don't wear sunglasses to the ocean anymore. I lost a pair. We looked and looked, never to be found. That was in the shallow end. Our sin cast into the depths of the sea. That's forgiveness. That's complete forgiveness. Cast into the depths of the sea. Turn to Revelation 21. These men, they build these vessels and they try to explore constantly more and more into the depths of the sea. Can my sin be found? Look at Revelation 21, verse one.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth and the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. And look at the rest of that. There was no more sea. My sins have been cast into the depths of the sea. That sea's gone. That's gone, isn't it? That's completely gone, forgiven, put away.

There at the cross, Calvary, those wicked men, falsely accused our Lord. They scourged Him. They spat upon Him. Can the depravity of man ever be more visible than at the cross? They crucified. They crucified our Lord. That soldier, he took that sword and he thrust it in the side of our Savior. You remember the prayer of our Lord? Remember what he said?

And I tell you, I lived under the delusion, maybe I still do at times, that I shouldn't really forgive anybody unless they ask me. That's what, have you forgiven them? Well, they never ask me. You think of the wickedness, the cruelty of man toward our Lord, and yet his prayer was this. Forgive them. Forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's forgiveness, isn't it? Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Forgiving one another. I forgive you, you forgive me. Forgiving one another. Don't miss this point. As God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. I need that. I need that. All right.

Forgiveness for Christ's Sake

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Forgiveness for Christ's Sake

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