You'll find my text this evening
in Ephesians chapter four at verse 32. Ephesians chapter four
and verse 32. Here the apostle Paul speaks
plainly and tenderly about the love of God for his people and
our love for one another as his people. He says, be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Turn over just a page or two
to Colossians chapter three, and you will see a very similar
statement. Colossians chapter three and verse 12. The apostle says, put on, therefore,
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one
another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. As you well know, the chapter
and verse divisions in our English Bibles are given by our translators
for convenience so that we can readily find the passage or remember
where a passage is, and they're very helpful in that regard.
But sometimes they're a hindrance if you pay too much attention
to the division because we tend to divide up in our thinking
the subject matter. In the case here in Ephesians
chapter 4 and the chapter division at verse 32, it's unfortunate
because the subject matter is one. It ought really this fourth
chapter as you read it ought to continue through chapter 5
and verse 2. Let's read together beginning
in verse 30 of Ephesians 4 and get the context of our text in
verse 32. Ephesians 4.30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are 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. And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be followers of God as dear children,
and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and hath given
himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling
savor. The imagery used here is beautiful. It refers back to the golden
altar of incense in the days of the tabernacle and the temple
of the Old Testament. That altar of incense, an altar
of gold, had its sweet ascending perfume, this sweet aroma coming
up to God, showing the acceptableness of the sacrifice that was offered
upon it. Here we see our Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus. is a sweet-smelling, acceptable
sacrifice to God, both as the ground of our forgiveness and
as the example of our conduct. The purity of the gospel we believe,
the purity of our faith is obvious not only in the precepts given
in the Word of God to us who believe, but also in the character
of our God who is revealed by the gospel. There is no excellency
which we can imagine that doesn't shine brilliantly in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no line of conduct
in which we should excel as believers that does not point us to the
Lord Jesus, our master and our redeemer as the example of it.
I come to you tonight to bring you mercy's motive. The title of my message I take
in the words of my text, for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. That's the motive of God in all
his mercy. And that's the motive God gives
us to inspire us to mercy with one another. When the Lord God
calls for us to live for his glory, to walk on this earth
as believers, to deal with one another in kindness and in mercy. He always does so not by pointing
us to the law of Moses and threatening us with punishment or loss of
reward or promise of reward if we do such and such things. He
calls on us to be merciful and gracious, not by showing us the
excellency of such moral virtues, but rather by pointing us to
our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, and saying, there's the example. Now follow that example. Here's
the pattern. Now live according to the pattern.
He calls on us to be merciful, to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, just like
he does for Christ's sake. What nobler motive could be given? Requiring us to love and forgive
one another. What manner of people we ought
to be who have such a high example of mercy. In all things, let
us ever look away to Christ, the author and finisher of our
faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
as we run our race with patience on this earth until the day that
our pilgrimage ends. Our text urges us to love one
another and forgive one another continually. He gives us the
example of God himself to follow. Now I'm going to make three statements
with regard to this passage of scripture, and I will spend the
bulk of my time on the first two talking about the example
set before us. And I'll wrap the message up
with a statement with regard to our responsibility following
this example. The only motive by which God
is inspired and calls to forgive us. I've chosen my words purposefully. The only motive by which God
is inspired and calls to forgive us is Christ. And that's the
motive by which God the Holy Ghost inspires us to love and
forgive one another. Now here's the first thing clearly
set before us in the scriptures. Our text teaches us that all
the gifts of God's mercy, all the gifts of his love, his grace,
of everything that the Lord our God bestows upon us, comes to
us for Christ's sake. What a lesson is here. We ought
to be familiar with it and never forget it. It's a lesson we ought
to learn and ask God to inscribe upon our hearts. We often use
the words for Christ's sake when we pray or when we speak of doing
something. And don't misunderstand me, we
ought to always do what we do for Christ's sake. And that's
certainly to be understood. But I dare say few of us have
taken the time to sit down and consider what the meaning of
those words are for Christ's sake. Now, there's no question
I like both the understanding and the ability to give you the
fullness of their meaning. But this much is clear, everything
God does for us, Every blessing of grace, every benefit of mercy,
every boon of His goodness comes to us for Christ's sake. That's the plain assertion of
our text. It is the glory of God's grace to forgive us our
sins, but He does so for Christ's sake. Look back at chapter 1
of Ephesians, verse 7. It is Christ in whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace. God forgives sin for the sake
of the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he accomplished
at Calvary. Now this is a marvel of grace. God forgives us. A just God,
the lawgiver, the glorious King, the great God readily and freely
passes over our transgressions, blots out our sins, forgives
our iniquities for Christ's sake. Without the suffering and death
of Christ, that wouldn't be possible. You turn, if you will, to Hebrews
chapter 10 and just hold your hands there for a minute. Hebrews
chapter 10. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. Let us never look lightly upon
sin. Sin is such a horrid thing that
it cannot be forgiven without the shedding of the blood of
God's darling Son. Sin is an affront to God's holy
character. It must be destroyed. It is the
breach of God's law. It must be punished. Sin is an
attack upon God's government of the universe. It has to be
dealt with in justice. John Bunyan put it this way.
Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer
of his patience, the slight of his power, and the contempt of
his love. Our friend, Brother Scott Richardson,
stood here preaching one time many years ago and made this
statement. I jotted it down and I didn't
want to forget it. He said, sin is an attempt by
man to rape God himself and rob him of his glory. It is the attempt
of man to rape God and rob him of his glory. Sin is man's effort. to assassinate the Almighty and
to set himself upon the throne of God. If God could allow sin
to go unpunished, it would be the worst thing that could be
done as a calamity upon his universe. That which would befall the nations
if sin could go unpunished would be chaos and rebellion by everybody. Now, I'm not gonna stand here
and argue for or against capital punishment. But clearly, one
of the clearest, most strongest arguments for the use of capital
punishment is this. If the criminal who takes a life
doesn't forfeit his life, then no one's life is of any value.
It's for that reason that the state sometimes, in mercy to
the society, takes the life of another. Because without it,
no one's life is of any value. God's justice must be satisfied. His law must punish sin. Otherwise, chaos would be everywhere. Here is God's great mercy, love,
and grace. He who is a just God, who declares
the soul that sinneth it shall die, gave his own darling son
to be the sacrifice demanded by his justice. God, for Christ's
sake, only for Christ's sake, forgives sin. Because in Christ,
His holiness, His justice, His righteousness are satisfied,
revealed, and fulfilled. until we see the Son of God dying
in the sinner's place, until we see God's own Son bearing
our sin in His body on the tree, until we see God punishing His
Son as a substitute for sinners. There's no way that any man can
understand how God can forgive sin and be absolutely just, but
when we see Christ punished in our stead. Then we look upon
God and see Him a just God and a Savior. That's the message
of the Incarnation. Our sorrow can never wipe the
slate clean. Our repentance, be it ever so
bitter, can never answer for our sins. We could never make
any sacrifice that would satisfy the justice of God, neither in
this world nor in the world to come. One reason hell is eternal. One reason hell is forever is
that man's suffering will never satisfy the justice of God. But
go to Calvary and behold God's own son dying in our stead. And you see how God can be just
and the justifier of the ungodly. Look here at Hebrews chapter
10, verse 1. for the law having a shadow of good things to come,
and not the very image of the things, can never with those
sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make
the comers thereunto perfect. That is, you took all the hundreds
of thousands of sacrifices offered by God's law upon Jewish altars,
all those sacrifices and all their cost could never atone
for a single sin. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered? If atonement were made, if satisfaction
were made, there's no more need for sacrifice because that the
worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of
sin. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again
made of sins every year. Every time Aaron, or the high
priest that followed him, brought the lamb of Passover and sacrificed
it upon God's altar and took the blood and sprinkled it upon
God's mercy seat. Every time they did it, they
said, we'll meet you here again next year, another sacrifice
is coming. Every time until at last Christ
our Passover was sacrificed for us. Then the veil in the temple
was rent from top to bottom and God declared justice satisfied. No more need for any sacrifice. No more need for any sacrifice. I'm sorrowfully confident that
he never learned what I told him. But I've told you before,
once many years ago when my mother and dad were about to leave us,
going back home, we were still living over in Junction City,
and my dad looked at me just as sincere as he could be, tears
in his eyes, and he said, son, I hope someday to be able to
make up for all that I've done to God. And I said, dad, I hope
you'll hear what I'm saying. Quit trying to make up with God.
Nobody make up for God but his Son. Nobody but his Son. And there's no hope but to cease
your doing and trust Christ's doing. There's no other hope
for your soul. Oh, but what a blessed hope this
is. Look what we read in verse five of Hebrews 10. Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written
of me to do thy will, O God. Above when it said sacrifice
and offering, burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest
not neither has pleasure therein which were offered by the law
Then said I lo I come to do thy will O God he taketh away the
first he takes away the covenant of law the covenant of works
and that he may establish the second he takes away the will
revealed in the law and and shows us the will revealed in the gospel.
Takes away the first covenant and brings in the second covenant.
By the witch will, we are sanctified. By the witch will, we are made
perfectly holy before God. Righteous, justified, sanctified,
holy by the obedience of Christ as our substitute. Watch this,
by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ one time with finality,
once for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting to his enemies be made his footstool. Look at verse 19, verse 18 rather. And now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Once it's been paid
for, there's no more offering. Once justice is satisfied, there's
no more offering. Once payment's accepted, there's
no more offering. Having therefore brethren boldness. confidence, freedom to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say his flesh. And having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience. The Lord Jesus, by the sacrifice
of himself, has fully satisfied the law and justice of God. Now, believing him, sinners can
draw near to God with complete freeness, with complete confidence
of acceptance with God. Turn to Romans chapter five.
Romans chapter five. Our God has forgiven us because
of Christ, for Christ's sake. because the Lord Jesus Christ
is a representative man, made to be a representative man by
God's own decree. He is the last Adam. We fell
in our father Adam. We became sinners by the doing
of our father Adam. All sinned in Adam. All died
in Adam. And we, by nature, inherit our
father Adam's nature. We're born into this world as
sinners, going astray from the womb, speaking lies. Now some
folks say, I don't like that. Well, you haven't done any better
on your own. Bless God, we fell in a substitute. That gives hope
that we may be raised up by a substitute. Christ Jesus is the last Adam. It was according to God's purpose
that Adam fell in the garden and I raised in him that he might
be a similitude, a picture, a foreshadowing of another man, Jesus Christ
the Lord. Look here in Romans chapter five
and verse 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon
all men for that all have sin. Now you'll notice in verse 13,
there's a parenthetical mark that goes all the way through
to verse 17, to the end of verse 17. Let me refresh you on your
English grammar. When you read a sentence that
has a parentheses in it, The parentheses is given for explanation
to explain what's being stated. You take the parentheses out
and read right on. It makes no change in the sentence.
Now don't misunderstand me. The parentheses too is inspired,
but let's read beginning at verse 12 and then skip down to verse
18. Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world and
death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for that all have sin. Verse 18, therefore, therefore,
since that's the way we got in the mess we're in, since that's
how we all died, since that's how sin entered into the world,
therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one,
the free gift came upon all men under justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Now I have
to pause and make the statement again because we are constantly
inundated with, we'll worship our many in blasphemy and our
minds can't help but to entertain thoughts of it at times. When
the word all is used, It rarely ever refers to everybody in the
world. It rarely ever does. Back in
the office, Alan read to us Luke chapter two. Caesar made a decree
that when our Lord Jesus was to be born at Bethlehem, that
all the world should be taxed. And every man went to his own
city to be taxed according to the law of Caesar. That didn't
affect me a bit. I didn't pay any taxes. I didn't
walk anywhere. But all means all. It does. It
means all. It doesn't mean everybody. It
referred to all under Caesar's rule. all living at that time
under the Roman government, nobody else, nobody else. And when the
scripture speaks of all in Adam dying, it's talking about the
whole human race represented by Adam. And it speaks of all
in Christ being made alive. It speaks of all God's elect
represented by Christ and by him all made righteous and justified,
not by what we do, but by what he did. Not by something we perform,
but what he performed. Not by a payment we make, but
by a payment he made. Not by our obedience, but by
his obedience. For we were in him, just as we
were in Adam. Levi paid tithes in the loins
of Abraham, we read last week in the book of Hebrews. We in
Christ. Rendered to God all the obedience
and all the righteousness owed to his holiness Righteousness
justice and truth by the obedience of our Savior for we were one
with him In his loins as Levi was in the loins of Abraham I'll
go a little further God forgives our sins for the sake of his
love for Christ his son Oh, who can enter into the thought of
the eternal union of love between the triune Godhead and Jesus
Christ, the God-man, our mediator? The Father loves me, he said,
because I laid down my life for the sheep. He who is the God-man,
our mediator. Obviously, he's not talking about
himself in his eternal divinity. Oh no, but because I laid down
my life for the sheep, because of all that I accomplish in honoring
God and saving his people and laying down my life for the sheep,
therefore doth my Father love me. But he's the Lamb who laid
down his life for the sheep before the world began. the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, so that the Father, the triune
God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, constantly forever delight in
and love the Lord Jesus, and heap all exaltation and preeminence
upon the Lord Jesus, our Savior. And because of his love for Christ,
the Lord God Almighty, delights to forgive sin for Christ's sake. God the Father and God the Son
are truly one. And when our Lord Jesus says,
Father, glorify thy son, he's so united to the Father that
he says that thy son also may glorify thee. God forgives sin
because he loves his son. And blessed be God, there is
no sin that he will not forgive for Christ's sake. There's no sin. He will not forgive
for Christ's sake. Again, our great ever gracious
God forgives sin for the sake of glorifying His Son. Nothing
so glorifies God as the forgiveness of sin by His Son. Nothing so
sets forth the majesty the brilliance, the brightness, the glory of
the triune God as the forgiveness of sin by Jesus Christ. For Christ's sake, for the glory
of Christ, the Lord God forgives sin, any sin, all sin, for all
who come to him believing on his side. What's that mean to
me? That means for you center, like
you are for me center, like I am. We have reason to come to God
and pray with hope. Lord God, I am a vile center. There's nothing in me, but sin.
I have nothing to offer you, but sin. But would it not be
for your glory and for the glory of your Son to forgive such a
sinner as I am? Let me read a scripture to you.
You can look at it yourself in Psalm 25 later. This is how David
prayed. For thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon my iniquity. But, Lindsay, that's not all
he said. Psalm 25 verse 11. For thy namesake, O Lord, pardon
my iniquity, for it is great. He seems, no he doesn't seem,
he does argue the massiveness of his sin as a reason for God
to forgive his sin. God will forgive any sin and
all sin for the glory of His great name, and His name is Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer. Not only has God forgiven our
sins, but He hears and answers our prayers for Christ's sake. What can God refuse when it is
sought for the sake of His Son? Oh, let this be the constant
guide of our prayers for Christ's sake. God accepts us, and he
accepts our labors, and our sacrifices, and our prayers, and our worship
only for Christ's sake. We offer up spiritual sacrifices,
1 Peter 2, verse 5, acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. The God of glory, Mark Henson,
would never turn his head toward you in favor for anything except
his son. Did you get that? Nothing's acceptable,
not your Bible reading. not your prayers, not your church
attendance, not your sacrifices, not your missionary work, not
your giving, not your offerings, nothing, nothing is acceptable
to God except Christ. And God, for Christ's sake, accepts
our prayers for which we weep. recognizing that our prayer is
anything but what would be properly called prayer. God, for Christ's
sake, accepts our songs of praise. God, for Christ's sake, accepts
our gifts. No matter how much you're able
to give or how limited you are in what you give, God accepts
the gift, not for the value of the gift. but for the value of
his son. God accepts our worship. God
accepts our labor. God accepts a cup of cold water
offered in the name of a disciple. Not because it's such a good
thing to give a cup of water to a man who's thirsty, though
that's good, but it does it for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. Everything for Christ's sake,
only for Christ's sake. Remember this, every blessing
and promise of God in the covenant of grace is for Christ's sake,
everything. Election, redemption, regeneration,
forgiveness, acceptance, preservation, perseverance, everything is for
Christ's sake. Second, for Christ's sake, God
has forgiven all our sins. I've been talking to you about
what God can and will do. I want you to understand what
God has actually done. God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. I've been mulling that over for
me. Here I am. with all the coldness, callousness,
corruption, and indifference, and lust of my flesh. A man, a sinner, nothing but
a sinner, with nothing to offer God, who believes his son. God, Claus, has given me faith
in his son. That means God has forgiven me
my sin. For Christ's sake, for Christ's
sake. If you believe on the Lord Jesus,
your sin is gone. Our believing doesn't accomplish
the part but I believing experiences and receives the pardon of sin,
so that the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from
Jesus a pardon receives. And this forgiveness of sin is
so complete that God will never, ever charge us with sin. He will never deal with us on
the basis of sin. It is a continual forgiveness.
If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sin. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin. I love the fact
that God took great care in the writing of this book to put this
forgiveness in the present linear tense. The blood of his son just
keeps on cleansing us from all sin. It just keeps on
cleansing us from all sin. What's that talking about? The
work was done when Christ died. It was done before the world
began. But blessed be God, as we come to God, believing his
son, confessing our sin, We continually experience from his hand the
sweet mercy of full forgiveness. When our hearts condemn us, God's
greater than our hearts. And if our heart condemn us not,
then have we assurance and confidence before God our sins are forgiven. This forgiveness of sin is absolutely
free. God doesn't require one thing
from Bobby Esses for you to be forgiven of all sin. Not one
thing. Not even a thought. It has something. It's absolutely free. But you
gotta know, know if you do, you can't. If you do, you can't have
it. If you do, you can't accomplish
it. If you do, you can't receive it. You gotta cast your doing
down. and trust the doing and dying
of God's Son. And as you trust His Son, His
blood cleanses us from all sin freely. This forgiveness of sin
is not only a matter of absolute certainty and absolutely free,
it is absolutely a full forgiveness, a full reprieve. A forgiveness
that is so thorough that the Lord God by the blood of His
Son has removed our sins from us as far as the East is from
the West and will never remember them again. That's called forgiveness. Forgiveness like none of us can
imagine. All our sins forgiven by Christ. Because the sinless Savior died,
my soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied
to look on him and pardon me. Oh, my soul, what wondrous grace. God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. This forgiveness is eternal. Done from eternity. reaching to eternity. God Almighty
will never charge this man with sin. God Almighty will never
charge you, my brother, with sin. God Almighty will never
charge you, my sister, with sin. No matter what. I'm gonna preach you, you gotta
put up some fences, you gotta guard that. Let's try it again.
God will not charge you with sin, no matter what, if you trust
his son. If you trust his son, he won't
do it, he won't do it. Oh, that'll open the floodgates
to iniquity. Tell me, you who hear my voice, You're the most wicked people
in the world. You'll acknowledge that. There's not any more vile
than you are there. Which of you is inclined now
to go out and dishonor God, his gospel, his son, his family by
ungodly behavior because you know God won't charge you with
sin? Anybody? The only people who talk like
that are folks who just don't know God or His grace. God will
not charge His own with sin. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Not now, not
tomorrow, not ever. Now, one more thing. Since God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven us our sins. We should, we must, for Christ's
sake, forgive one another. Just like God forgives us for
Christ's sake. Not requiring anything from the
offender. Nothing. Not even requiring the
offender to ask it. free forgiveness free forgiveness
in fact our Lord tells us if you forgive men their trespasses
your father in heaven will forgive also forgive you but if you forgive
not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your
trespasses Matthew 7 I read that passage again several
times today and I couldn't find any way to find
any assurance or any peace or any comfort for myself looking
at the way I forgive folks who offend me. None. I want to, but then you
want to, not enough. He requires forgiveness, the same kind of forgiveness.
Well, Brother Dodd, does that mean you're lost? It means without
Him I am. And when I read the text again
just before I spoke to Alan, I think he was the first one
who came in back in the office tonight. I was sweetly driven away again
to Christ my Lord to trust Him for forgiveness, to forgive me
of my forgiveness, to forgive me for my puny excuse
for forgiveness and ask Him for grace that I might be like Sham
and Japheth, not like Ham. Ham uncovered his father's nakedness. He said, come boys, let me show
you what daddy's really like. Oh God, don't let me behave like
that with you. Don't let me do that to you,
Lindsay, or to anybody else. Pride, only pride digs up the
matter. Love covers it. Love covers it,
covers it up. I don't want you to see that.
I ain't gonna look at it myself. Covers it up, covers it up. Brother
Dodd, how on earth can we be motivated to deal with folks
like that? even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you. Amen.