Good morning. Open your Bibles to Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians 4. While you're turning
there, I'll let you know if the pastor continues to recover. He texted yesterday, said he's
still pretty foggy from the anesthesia, and the doctor advised him to
stay in for the weekend, so we'll continue to keep him and Janet
in our prayers. Ephesians 4, verse 32. Before we begin, let's go to
our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
we thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity
to gather together as a people, Lord, to read thy word. Lord, I pray you'd be pleased
as we've gathered here this morning, that you'd be pleased to be among
us. Lord, that you'd be pleased to
bless your word. Lord, make the word effectual
to our hearts. Lord, let us see Christ. Lord,
for those of our number who are in a time of difficulty, Lord,
we pray that you bless and be with your people. We think especially
of our pastor, Lord, that you would strengthen him in the days
and weeks to come. Lord, bless him. Be thy will, heal him. Restore
him to health. Now again, be with us in this
hour. Lord, bless us, bless our children,
these young ones, these many young ones you've given us. Lord,
protect and keep them. Lord, above all, reveal Reveal
thy Son to them, reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to them. We ask
these things in Christ's name, amen. Ephesians 4, verse 32. Ephesians 4, verse
32 will serve as our text, but let's start in verse 31. Here we read, let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice. Verse 32, and be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. I'll tell you this morning as
we go through this, this message, it's for me. It is for me. But I hope we can all listen
in. Be ye kind. Not harsh, not bitter, but kind
and gracious. Be pleasant one to another. Tenderhearted. To be tenderhearted
is to be compassionate. It's to be sympathetic. Forgiving one another. as God. Listen to these three
words. For Christ's sake. Now, I know we hear those three
words often, not in this context. We hear them at work. We hear
them when people are upset, often in blasphemy. But listen
to him in light of God's word. Forgiving one another as God,
for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. How has he forgiven his people? He's forgiven us freely. We've done absolutely nothing
to deserve His forgiveness. We've not earned it, we've not
merited it, we've not deserved it. He's forgiven us freely. He's forgiven us fully. Complete and total forgiveness
in Him. He's forgiven us, not temporarily, Not until we
do something wrong again, He's forgiven us forever. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing what God has done for His people for Christ's sake? Not for man's works. No, no. Our best works are filthy rags
in the sight of Almighty God. Not for man's righteousness. What's Scripture say? There's
none righteous. No, not one. He's forgiven us
for Christ's sake. He's forgiven us for the sake
of another. He loved us. Think about it. The Lord Jesus Christ loved us
and gave Himself for us. We're saved. His people are saved. His people are forgiven. Our
sins put away by His blood, by His righteousness, by His grace. And we're instructed, and this
is good instruction in this passage of Scripture, to be kind. to be tenderhearted,
to forgive one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven us. And you know, this is pretty
specific, isn't it? Listen to what it says here.
He says, as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Who's he talking to there? He's
talking to... Every one of us, isn't it? Every one he's been
pleased to save. Every one of his children. You
know, I've often wondered. I've often wondered if a person
truly deserved forgiveness. Unless they asked for it. But you know, if that was the
case, it would make forgiveness conditional on me, wouldn't it? If I had to ask for it, it would
be conditioned on something I was doing. One of the old writers said this,
he said, to forgive and forget the offense and not bring it
up hereafter, to forgive them before they repent, and without
asking why, how. Three words for Christ's sake. Consider what our Lord endured
at the cross. He was scourged. He was beaten. False witnesses spoke. He was
mocked. He was spat upon. That crown
of thorns was thrust down on his head. He was nailed to the cross. He
was crucified. Men said things like this, if
thou be the Christ. They questioned him. They questioned
who he was. Let me ask you, is there any
record that anyone that day asked for forgiveness. Yet our Lord, in the midst of
all this, in the midst of being hung on the cross, in the midst
of being crucified, as they were casting lots and parting His
garments over who got to keep what, He spoke these words to
His Father. He said, forgive them. for they know not what they do." Peter must have struggled with
this. He went to the Lord. In Matthew 18, verse 21, it says,
Peter came to him and he said, Lord, how often shall my brother
sin against me and I forgive him? That seems like a reasonable
question, doesn't it? Seven times? Is that enough? Is that sufficient? If He crosses
me seven times, can I be done with Him then?" And what did
our Lord reply? Not seven. Seventy times seven. And I don't believe that's a
specific number either. We would be ones to keep track,
wouldn't we? No. Seventy times. What if the Lord, what if He
looked at us and after seven times said, Jonathan, that's
enough. He'd be right and just in doing
so, wouldn't He? What if He looked at us and said
seven times 70? Ben, is that 490? I think that
is, isn't it? We'd all fail, wouldn't we? David wrote this in the Psalms.
He said, Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquities, who should stand? Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God,
for Christ's sake, hath forgiven. Isn't that a good reason? Isn't
that a good reminder to forgive one another? Listen to the words
of our Lord. In Matthew 5.43, He said, You've heard that it
hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. I say unto you, now listen to
this. This is our Lord speaking. He said, love your enemy. He said, bless them that curse
you. Do good to them that hate you
and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. That
ye may be the children of your father, which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and the good, and he sendeth rain on the just and
the unjust." He asked this question, he said, if you love them which
love you. Now, here in the front row, and
several, it's easy to love them. They're my family. I believe I can say that about
everybody in here. It's easy to love the members
of this congregation. If you love them which love you,
what reward have you? Don't the publicans
do the exact same thing? Be ye kind, one to another. tenderhearted, forgiving one
another as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. God has forgiven us. God has
forgiven his people for Christ's sake. Can I say that enough?
Can we hear that enough? You know, I was trying to think
of an illustration for this. Probably the clearest one that
comes to mind, though, is back there in 2 Samuel. Turn with
me to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 9. mercy for the sake of another. Here we read of David showing
mercy for the sake of another. Jonathan, he had a son named
Mephibosheth who was lame on his feet. He was crippled and
likely in hiding down there in Lodabar in fear that David would
come and kill him. You know, it was common in that
day for a new king to basically destroy, kill anyone that might
challenge his throne. Look at verse three. We'll go through this quickly.
The king said, David's the king. This truly matters who's speaking
here. The king speaks and he said, is there any? Is there
any of the house of Saul? For what purpose? David's going
to show mercy. He's going to show him the kindness
of God. That means mercy. What did he
find out? Jonathan hath yet a son, which
is lame on his feet, undeserving, unworthy, a poor crippled man
that was lame as a result Fall. Isn't God's scripture just amazing? Isn't his word? Here's this man,
he's an enemy of the king. He's lame as the result of a
fall. Isn't that us? Isn't that his
people? Verse five, David sent, he sent
and he fetched him. He's purposed to show mercy. He sent his servant to go and
get him. He didn't send a letter to him
and say, Mephibosheth, if you can make it up here, I'll show
mercy to you. If you will renounce your grandpa
Saul, I'll show mercy to you. So he sent his servant and he
fetched him. And his servant called him and
he brought him back to David. Look at verse 7. What did David say to him? Fear
not. Fear not. Phibosheth's been brought
into the presence of the king. He's an enemy of the king. Obviously,
he was afraid. Why else would David tell him
not to be afraid? And he fell on his face and he
did reverence. You know, if we are to know anything
of God's holiness, who he is, if we're to know anything about
our sin and what God's law and justice demands, we'll find our
place right there with him, falling at his feet and begging for mercy. In his head he had every reason
to fear, yet he had no reason to be afraid. David's gonna show
mercy. Scripture says this, the soul
that sinneth, that's us, it shall surely die. God is gonna punish. Yet here's the message, fear
not. Don't be afraid. How's that possible? How can I, as a sinner, stand
before a holy God and hear these words? Fear not. Look at verse
seven. David said unto him, fear not,
for I will surely show thee kindness. Why? For Jonathan's sake. For the sake of another. Mercy for the sake of another.
Mercy for Jonathan's sake. Jonathan whom David loved. Jonathan whom, listen, before
Mephibosheth was ever born, David made a covenant with Jonathan.
Why? Because of his love for him. As a sinner, why can I plead
for mercy? What's my plea? God's love for his son. It's for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Colossians
1.14 says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sin. What happened to Mephibosheth?
Did David destroy him as he could have? Scripture says this, he
ate continually at the king's table. And not as a, listen,
not as a servant, but as a son, as his own son. Turn with me to one more passage
of scripture here. Psalm 106. Dear brother, might have pointed
this out, Psalm 106. Verse eight. We're to forgive others. We're
to forgive others as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
us. We're forgiven. for the sake of another. Just like we read there of Mephibosheth. And we, again, are forgiven for
his namesake. Saved for his namesake. Look,
you have Psalm 106, verse eight. Start with verse seven. It says,
our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt, They remembered
not the multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at the Red Sea,
even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for
his namesake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. Why? For Christ's sake. Why? For his namesake. You know,
verse seven gives a pretty good picture of us. They remembered
not his mercies, The children of Israel. Think about all that
they had seen. Think about all the deliverance
they had seen. And it says, they provoked him
at the sea, even at the Red Sea. How miraculous. I don't think
any other word would describe the deliverance of the children
of Israel any less than a miracle. Over and over, they've seen these
things. He delivered them out of Egypt
just as he promised with a mighty hand. Yet they provoked him. Think about that. They provoked
him at the Red Sea. What a foolish people. What a
forgetful people. A provoking people. That's us. That's us, even in the midst
of God's deliverance. Yet these are the people that
God is pleased to save. They said this, they said, weren't
there enough graves in Egypt? You've taken us out here to die
in the wilderness. They murmured. You know, I always
thought, which certainly didn't justify their actions, that all
that murmuring and complaining was when they were standing there
at the Red Sea, when they're facing the Red Sea, and here's
Pharaoh's mighty army approaching, and here's this sea in front
of them. There's no place to go. I thought
that's where the murmuring took place, and it did. But in addition
to that, in Hebrew, this reads this way, even in the Red Sea, even in the midst of deliverance,
There they stood, a wall of water on each side. God parted the
Red Sea. They're walking through on dry
ground. They're being delivered. And
what are they doing? Murmuring. They're complaining. They saw something they had never
seen before as they walked through there on dry ground. And they
continued to rebel. Is that not us? Yet, for all this, the Lord saved me. Let me ask you this, let's be
honest. Would you have forgiven them? I can't think of taking our children
on trips without about to lose my mind
about just complaining about maybe one or two things. What
about us? Continually. Would you have delivered
them? Why in the world He didn't just
go ahead and close the water in on them and the Egyptians
all at once? Why did He save them? For His name's sake. For Christ's sake. Despite all that sin, despite
all that rebellion, he saved them for his namesake. I pray
he'd give me forgiveness here. And that he would save me for
his namesake. Let me close with some final
thoughts. I read this last night. He saved
them for his namesake. Do you need wonders, Rod? His name is wonderful. Do you need counsel and direction? His name is the counselor. Do you have mighty enemies? What's
his name? He is the mighty God. Do you need fatherly pity? His
name is the everlasting Father. And as a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Do you need peace? I desire peace, external peace,
internal peace, eternal peace. What's his name? It's the prince
of peace. His name is Jehovah Rophe, the
Lord that heals. Maybe you need pardon. His name's
Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. Seek him. Seek him for his namesake. Do you need defense and protection? His name is Jehovah Nisi, the
Lord, our banner. Seek Him, seek Him for His name's
sake. That that banner of love and
grace would just be spread over top of us. Are you in want and
need provision? His name is Jehovah Jireh, the
Lord will provide. Do you need his presence? Jehovah
Shammah, the Lord, is there. His name is Immanuel. What's
that mean? God with us. Do you need strength? He is the strength of Israel. Do you need shelter? Who is in
the Old Testament? He's the city of refuge. My brother, whatever, whatever
our need is, whatever our want or need is, he has the name to
satisfy. Wisdom to guide, power to keep,
mercy to pity you, truth to shield you, holiness to sanctify you,
righteousness to justify you, grace to adorn you, and glory
to crown you. Trust in Him. Trust in Him who
saves for His namesake. And be ye kind. Be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven. I pray he'd be pleased to bless
his.