Ephesians chapter four. This morning, we have the most glorious topic. As normally, we have glorious topics because it's all Christ-centered. So that's a glorious topic, isn't it? But this morning, this particular topic regarding our Lord is glorious. It's how we've been reconciled. It's the reason we've been saved. It's the reason we're made righteous. And it's found in our text, for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, Ephesians 4.32 says, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Why would the Lord forgive us? For Christ's sake, that's why. That's our topic this morning.

So let's read our text. Ephesians 4, verse 25 through 32. Husbands, nope, that's chapter five. Chapter four, verse 25 through 32. Wherefore, putting away lying, speaking every man truth with his neighbor, and we are members one of another, be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hand the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace into the hearers. and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 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.

In our text, Paul is dealing with forgiveness. He's dealing with how the believer which is one of the Lord's elect, how they should live by faith. And he tells us that we should speak the truth. We don't talk like we used to. We don't talk, we speak the truth now about who God is and about what we are. We see ourself as sinners and we see him as sovereign. So we speak the truth. We didn't used to speak the truth, did you know that? Not when it pertained to God, we didn't.

Then he tells us not to let him that stole steal no more. Well, we used to steal God's glory, didn't we? Well, we don't steal God's glory anymore. God gets all the glory. Now we say, because of what he has done, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but thy name be all glory and honor and power and praise forever.

Then he said, don't let any corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. We never say God loves everybody anymore, because he doesn't. We tell the truth in love, how that God loves the people, that he saved his people from their sin.

And then the last thing he tells us is be kind one to another. Do you know the motivation for being kind one to another? He says in verse, Scripture tells in 1 John 3, 14, you know that you pass from death unto life because you love the brethren. What's the motivation for us to be kind one to another? Oh, it's love. It's the love of Christ that constrains us. It's the love that's our motivation. It's not that the Lord is here with a whip and he beats the sheep. No, certainly not. He does chase, and which is teaching us. But the Lord causes us, enables us, shows us his love towards us. in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's motivation, to be kind one to another. Now he says something miraculous because it's the only place in scripture, we know it's all throughout scripture to some degree in different ways, but he says for Christ's sake, very specifically, that's what I've titled this message, for Christ's sake.

For Christ's sake hath forgiven you. That's glorious news because if it's for Christ's sake that I'm forgiven, then I'm not part of that equation, I'm the benefactor. I'm not the obtainer of that, I'm the recipient by grace alone. I'm not the one that merited that, but it was for Christ's sake if I am to be forgiven. That's good news if you're a sinner. If you've been made to see your sin and what you are, if I've been made to see what I am, it's good news to hear it's for Christ's sake that we are forgiven.

How is it that a wretched, vile, sinful creature of dust, and that describes every one of us by nature, how is it that we can be made spotless? How we can be made clean? How we can be made pure? How that we can be made perfect? How we can be made whole? For Christ's sake, the Lord has done that for his people. How could we be made perfect, perfectly righteous in the eyes of the sovereign creator and sustainer of all life? The answer's simple, one reason alone, for Christ's sake.

I understand something, and I say this often, but we're born into sin. And that doesn't mean that it's just a habit that we pick up and put down every once in a while. We're sinners by nature. We're sinners because of what we are. We're sinners because of what we do. We're sinner from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet with no hope of fixing it. That's our problem. We're in a situation we can't do anything about.

But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the good news of the gospel. Christ saved his people from their sin. How is it that our sin were put away? Well, for Christ's sake, by his work, by him doing it. The only thing we can do is get worse and worse. Our choices can't fix our heart. Our choices can't even will away a cold. You ever tried to will away a cold? You say, well, that sounds kind of silly, but a lot of men rely on the will of this flesh that has no power. Can't will away a cold. What makes us think we can will our own salvation? No, it's his will. Father, not my will, but thy will be done.

Only God can fix our heart, and because Christ is full of truth, and grace because he alone is able, he alone is worthy, he alone is the one that pleased God, his people have been made the righteousness of God in him.

In the book of Revelation, John heard a proclamation in glory. Angel said with a loud voice, who is worthy to loose the seals and open the book thereof? And no man was found worthy in heaven, no man was found worthy in the earth, and no man was found worthy under the earth. And John began to weep much, because if that book doesn't open, none's gonna be saved. Some people call it the Lamb's Book of Life. I like that. It's not in the scripture, but I think that's a good, because John sees him as the lamb. Whenever the elder touches him, he starts crying, and John's touched by the elder, and the elder says, weep not, John, for behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of Jesse, he hath prevailed and is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof. He's worthy to endear the wrath of God and not be destroyed. He's the one that can touch God and not be destroyed and touch man and not be defiled. He alone is worthy. This is why, for Christ's sake, God has forgiven his people. He's worthy.

He saw the Lamb between the midst of the throne, scripture tells us, the Lamb of God as if it had been slain, as if it had been slain. That's the same Lamb that Abraham described whenever he was bringing Isaac up Mount Moriah. The Lord told Abraham, bring thy firstborn, thy only son Isaac, and sacrifice him unto me. And Abraham believed God by faith alone. Knew that God had the power to resurrect his son. The Lord's gonna keep his promise, because he already told Abraham, I'm gonna give you a great nation. And it's not gonna be Ishmael that's that great nation. It's gonna come through Sarah, not the handmaiden.

Abraham believed God and followed the truth that God gave him by faith. He went to Mount Moriah with his son, and his son had the wood. He had the knife, and he had the fire, and the son says, well, here's the wood and the fire, but where is the sacrifice, Father, for the offering? Where's the offering for the sacrifice? He said, God will provide himself a sacrifice. There's the lamb that John saw in Revelation. It's the same exact lamb. It is himself. God provided himself.

Why? Because he alone accepts what he provides. See, you and I are in a sinful condition that we cannot fix any more than we can fix a disease that we get, but the great physician can. He can heal, he can cleanse, and for Christ's sake, God has forgiven his chosen people.

How is it that God forgave his people for Christ's sake? Well, God provided a lamb. God provided a lamb. Why must God provide the lamb? And I want to slow down sometimes on purpose and repeat on purpose to make sure to reiterate, he only accepts what he provides. We can never get away from that. We can never get away from that because that takes us out of the equation totally. That means that we're completely helpless in salvation.

He only accepts what he provides. Somebody said, put your faith, In Christ, God doesn't want your faith. We need His faith. We need Him to give us repentance. We need Him to do all the work. Otherwise, we'll remain dead in trespasses and in sin. If you and I are to have forgiveness, God will have to do everything He requires to ensure He is satisfied.

But here's the good news. 1 John 4.10, herein is love, not that we loved God. He's saying your love didn't matter. Your love didn't matter, my love mattered. He said, but that he loved us and said his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now that word propitiation means the act of appeasing or turning away the divine wrath through a sacrifice. He is the propitiation of the Lord's people. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who qualified to do this. He's the only one qualified.

He's the only one whereby the Lord looked upon him and said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. How is it that David commits a sin, vashiva, adultery, and turns around and tries to cover it up by killing Uriah, her husband, by putting him on the forefront, hottest part of the battle to make sure they kill him. So he's guilty of murder and he's guilty of adultery. And for a year, about the space of a year, we don't really read anything about David. We don't get much insight to what was going on during that time. So you have to think maybe he kind of thought he got by with it. We didn't read anything about him. So I'm obviously, Lord of Hatton, drew the confession of repentance from him yet until one day Nathan comes to him and Nathan tells him the story. And I've told this many times, but he says that there was a rich man that had many flocks and had many herds. And there was a poor man who had one ewe lamb and he raised it as his own daughter. It ate from his table. He loved it. And time came when the rich man was going to have a feast, and rather than taking of his own flocks and herds, he takes that ewe lamb of that poor man, and he fixes it to eat for his guests. And he says, David, what should be done to the man?

Now, I want us to stop right there a second, because I want to explain something. The Lord knows how to get our attention. He knows which button to push to get our attention. And he went right to the source of David's love. David loved sheep. Remember, that's where we find the beginning of David's life. He's a shepherd. That was his job. He would have loved a lamb in his mind, and the Lord knew that. What should be done to the man? Well, David said, he'll surely die. He pronounced his own judgment there, didn't he? He did. What he just said was, is I am deserving, I am worthy to die. He didn't know that's what he was saying, but that's what he was saying.

What does Nathan say to him? David, thou art the man. Can you imagine hearing those words after being angry at this individual, after being upset with this individual who did this thing? It turns out you are the thing that did it. Think about the guilt that would just weigh you down. And he said, because you've done this, you've given great occasion to our enemies to blaspheme against the Lord. The sword will never depart from your house. And the child will surely die. David said this, I have sinned against the Lord. That's repentance. That's repentance. I have sinned against, not you, I have sinned against the Lord. I can't fix this.

And Nathan didn't turn and walk away from him at that time and say, well, you're gonna die because of it. You know what he says? For Christ's sake, this is what he said, fear not, for God hath put away your sin. There's good news. There's the good news of the gospel. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. That's why he saved us, his mercy, according to his grace. Well by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourself, it's the gift of God. It's not of works, not of you, not of our doing, it's God. He's the doer of it.

The Lord hath put away your sin. You shall not die. How is it that he put away our sin? Well before time, God elected a people in the covenant of grace. And Christ is called the elect of God, the substitute surety of his people. In Isaiah 42, he said, behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment on the Gentiles. He said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. This is the one God prepared. This is the lamb that was slain that John saw. This was the one that put away the sin of David, that put away the sin of the Lord's chosen people.

According to His will, according to His purpose, the Holy Spirit then agreed to regenerate all of the elect at the appointed time. And when the fullness of time came, Christ was born of a woman, made under the law. Answer this question. How is it that the holy, perfect King of Kings and Lord of Lords that wrote the law becomes under the law, made under the law. Have you ever thought of that? He subjected himself to be under the law for the purpose of redeeming those who were under the law. He was robed in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. He came to redeem those who were in captivity by the law. That's why he said, call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. He's the only one qualified. He's the only one that could have done it.

Why did God forgive anybody for Christ's sake? For Christ's sake, is that your hope? That's my hope, that the Lord would forgive me, not for my sake, that the Lord would forgive me for Christ's sake. Turn with me over to Isaiah 53. Look at verse four. This is how He saved his people from their sin. This is how. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

Do you know what that word iniquity translates? Guilt. Guilt. It's the same exact word, guilt. He sorrowed because of sin. He owned the full punishment due us because of that sin. The Lord would have been unjust to pour out his wrath upon his son if his son was not made guilty. And yet there's a conundrum there because was the sacrifice tainted at that point? Absolutely not. Because he's offered up as a lamb without spot and without blemish. He was made to be sin for us. who knew no sin. Those are not my words. Those are God's words. So what does that mean? It means what it says. And I bow to it. We must bow to it. It's God's word. It's not something that we have come up with or come to a conclusion. That's our only hope.

This is the basis of substitution. Oh, brethren, because of that, we've been made the righteousness of God in him right now. Right now, made. the righteousness of God in him. He drank of the cup of damnation and bore the elect sin in his body on the tree. That's what the scripture says. What a mystery. What a mystery. Well, the scripture even says, great is the mystery in godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. There's a mystery. How can a man be born of a virgin, but how can God become a man? You know, it's just, David said it like this, I wrote an article two weeks ago about this, David said it like this, such things are too wonderful for me, they're high, I cannot attain to them. They can only be believed by faith. My responsibility isn't trying, our responsibility isn't to figure out God, our responsibility is to believe God, and we can only do that by faith. We're not trying to figure out God, who's ways are past finding out, we just believe what he says.

Was Christ made to be sin? Absolutely. God said it, not me. He was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God? Absolutely. It says both of them. To deny either one is just to say the Bible's wrong. It's to call God unjust, unjust. We don't trust man-made opinions. Our hope lies in the fact that God forgave us for Christ's sake. We look to Christ, not man's opinions, not man's understanding, not debates. No, tell me about what he says. I want to know what he says here. I need to know what this means. We don't declare that we're right and everyone else is wrong. We declare, let God be true and every man a liar. That's right. Let God be true and every man a liar. Christ saved us by grace alone, and the Father forgave us for Christ's sake. That's good news to a sinner.

Now the second hour, I hope to look at, do I follow man or God? And it's literally chapter five, the first two verses, that's what it says, follow after God. But we'll have some points to make. What does it mean to follow God? And it's not what the world thinks. It's not what the world thinks. But it's certainly not declaring what I think, what I have figured out. It's to declare what God has said. And that's what we want to do, brethren. We don't want to declare anything other than what God has said. We don't want to talk about, well, this is my opinion that I've arrived to. I don't care about Caleb's opinion. I care about the Lord, his word. It's not his opinion, it's his authority. That's what I care mostly about.

And it's because for Christ's sake, God forgave us. That's not an opinion, that's facts. These glorious passages, brethren, are how that for Christ's sake we're forgiven, how God did not impute our sin to us, as it says in Galatians. And I go back to our text in Ephesians four. Verse 32, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. When you hear that, does that make you cry out, in my hand no price I bring, simply to Christ I cling? And you hear that you're forgiven, not because of what you have done or what you have not done, but you are forgiven by grace alone. Does that not make you cry out, Lord, give me Christ lest I die. I've got to have him. I've got to have him, his truth. Give me the finished work of the cross.

Well, how can I cling to the cross? By his faith bestowed. His works are higher than our works. His ways are higher than our ways. We just declare his truth in love and pray that he delivers it and causes us to hear it, that he makes it effectual. Do you know if he doesn't make it effectual, we're wasting our time. We really are. There's one thing about it, no matter what mysteries may lay in the scripture, we can all say this without doubt. Just like the blind man said, I don't know if he's a sinner or not. This one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. And who is the one that caused us to see? The Lord Jesus Christ alone. He's the one that causes his people to see. It's not what we know, it's who we know. God's people know the only one and only reason that they have been forgiven. The one and only reason they have been forgiven is because for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, he forgave you. Don't look to yourself, don't examine yourself, don't compare yourself to others. It's for Christ's sake alone. This is how he forgave his people of all their sin.

Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take these words and bless it to our understanding for your glory in Christ's name, amen.

Let's take a break.