Series: Ephesians
Title: For Christ’s Sake
Text: Ephesians 4: 32
Date: September 7, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Ephesians 4:32: And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake
hath forgiven you.
It is
so sad—such an evidence of the depths of ignorance—when sinners use these three
words in vain. It is sad ignorance because this is the great purpose for everything:
For Christ’s Sake.
Everything
God has done, is doing and shall do is for Christ’s sake.
Colossians 1: 16:…everything was created…for him….18:…that
in all things he might have the preeminence.
Romans 14: 7: For none of us liveth to himself, and no
man dieth to himself. 8 For whether we
live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether
we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. 9: For to this end Christ both
died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Ephesians 1: 10: That in the dispensation of the fulness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are
in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
With
every sinner—believer and unbeliever, saint and rebel—God will accomplish the
end purpose of giving Christ all Preeminence.
Proverbs 16:4: The LORD hath made all things for himself:
yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Philippians 2: 9: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,
and given him a name which is above every name: 10: That at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the
earth; 11: And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.
Furthermore,
every person has reason to rejoice in the greatness contained in these three
words, even every rebel. Of course, for believers, every blessing we have is for
Christ’s sake.
Ephesians 2: 7: That in the ages to come he might shew
the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus.
Rebel,
it is for Christ’s sake that you get to enjoy this world a little longer. God
would have long ago destroyed this whole world, along with every rebel and all things
every rebel holds dear were it not that God has a people whom he shall save for
Christ’s sake. God is longsuffering toward rebels for Christ’s sake.
Romans 9: 22: What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and
to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction: 23: And that he might make known the riches of his glory
on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24: Even us,
whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
So
rebel, you ought to think twice, next time those three words roll off your
tongue to curse God.
This is
the one great motive for believers. What
we do is not nearly as important as why we do it. A good deed can be a bad deed
if the motive is bad and a deed which does not appear good to this world is a
good deed before God if the motive is good.
For instance, Rahab lied. God
commends that as a good deed because she did it for the sake of Christ.
Proposition: The purpose and motive in everything God does and the
only true motive in things believers do is “for Christ’s sake.”
Notice,
both “we” are exhorted by this one motive, and likewise, God is moved by this
one motive--“Forgiving one another, even, as God, for Christ’s sake, hath
forgiven you.” Believer, everything else
we do should be for this one reason, “for Christ’s sake.” Likewise, believer, this is the one reason
God has done everything else for us, for Christ’s sake.
THE NEED FOR FORGIVENESS
First,
why do we need forgiveness? The reason
we need forgiveness is sin. We would know nothing of God’s forgiveness did we
not need forgiveness due to our sins. This exhortation would not be needed did
we not still need forgiveness from God and from one another.
In my
flesh, sin is what I am and all I am. Everything
that comes from my fleshly nature—everything I think, speak and do—is sin. When I only had a fleshly nature, sin was all
I was and all I did.
Now,
that God has given me a new nature, the sin of that old man is mixed with all I
do. Listen to a regenerated believer speak of himself under the power of the
Holy Spirit:
Romans 7: 20: Now if I do that I would not, it is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21: I find then a law, that, when I
would do good, evil is present with me. 22: For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man: 23: But I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is
in my members. 24: O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? 25: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the
mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Can you
say that in honesty about yourself? It is true of every believer. And every
unregenerate sinner is only sin. All of us need forgiveness because of our
sins.
ONE GREAT REASON
FOR FORGIVENESS
Secondly, let’s concentrate on this. The one great reason we have forgiveness of
our sins before God our Father is “for Christ’s sake.”
The very God we sinned against provided his own dear Son
to suffer and lay down his life, that the very God against whom we
transgressed, might be able to forgive us.
We do not understand how hideous sin is to God; how opposite of the
character of our God! The more we grow
to understand this, the more we will grow to be kind to one another, tender-hearted
and forgiving. The more we will love one another!
God
could not forgive us any other way than for his law to be executed upon us. The
justice of God must be carried out. The soul that sinneth, it must die! (Eze
18: 4; 20) So in order for God to save his people and be just, God himself must
provide the sacrifice and it must be a sacrifice who is so very one with God that
it is God himself doing the justifying.
How
amazing! Amazing Love! Our great God and Father, himself, provided his own Son
to die in the place of his people.
1 John 4: 9: In this was manifested the love of God
toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him. 10: Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved us, and sent his Son to be the
propitiation [the satisfaction] for our sins. 11: Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another.
What a
sacrifice God provided: HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.
God’s provision served God’s two-fold purpose: to give his Son all
preeminence and to save his people from our sins. God loved his Son—God would
have his Son to have all preeminence. And God loved his people—God would have
his people to be made the righteousness of God. God manifest his great love for
both his Son and his people by sending his Son to save us from our sins.
John 17:23: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast
loved them, as thou hast loved me.
RIGHTEOUSNESS ON THE CROSS
We only
understand this by his grace! But look
at Calvary’s cross. I’ll preach this till I come close to getting it right,
then I’ll preach it some more! See in that one act on Calvary’s cross, perfect righteousness.
Galatians 5:14: For all the law is fulfilled in one word,
even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
In
Christ we see the only one who loved his neighbor as himself in perfect
righteousness. The only one who
fulfilled all the law in perfect righteousness by perfect love. Christ is the righteous love which is the
fulfillment of the law
Let me
say this slowly: Christ filled full the righteousness of the law by love so great,
so perfect, so righteous, when he willingly, selflessly, gave himself to be separated
from God and from his brethren. He gave himself to be shamefully dishonored
that both his God and his brethren might be eternally honored! On the cross, Christ condescended to the furthest
depths of shame to exalt God and his brethren to the highest heights of honor! That
one act manifests the very righteous and holy heart and character of our
Redeemer. He is Righteousness and Holiness!
He is the righteousness and holiness of the law: the holiness, justice
and goodness of the law is Christ. That
is why Christ is the end for which the law was given—the end to that means is
Christ our Righteousness. There in
Christ on the cross, we behold the positive righteousness of the law and at the
same time, justification from the law—our righteousness and justification—all
in one person in one act.
BLESSING OF REPRESENTATION
Brethren,
have you ever considered what great mercy it was for God our Father to allow
his people to fall in a representative man?
If we had fallen in sin by our personal rebellion, as did the angels,
there would be no recovery. We ought to
thank God every day for representation. Oh, how I love this good news! Before
we sinned in Adam, God entrusted his people to his Son to save us from our
sins.
Romans 5:19: For as by one man’s disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
I love
the fact that Eve took the fruit but nothing happened. She disobeyed God. I
expect God would have chastened her. But
her eyes were not opened—she did not fall into sin—until Adam disobeyed. Believer,
do you know what that means for us? When we disobey God, we sin. And our Father
will chasten us. But we stand in the Righteousness of our Righteous Representative,
Christ Jesus. We cannot undo what Christ
is and has done. We cannot become unrighteous unless Christ could become
unrighteous and that is an utter impossibility—therefore it is an impossibility
to become unrighteous for you who believe.
We fell into sin in our representative head; now we stand eternally
righteous in our Representative Head. How I love the gospel of representation! This
is something of what is meant when it says, “For Christ’s sake!”
FORGIVEN FOR CHRIST’S SAKE
Lastly,
what has God done for us for Christ’s sake?
He has forgiven us, “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
(Eph 4: 32)
For one
reason only—for Christ’s sake—he gave you life in his Son; for one reason
only—for Christ’s sake—God taught you what Christ did for you; for one reason
only—for Christ’s sake—God gave you faith to believe on him and repentance to
renounce you and your works; then for one reason only—for the sake of Christ—God
made you to know that God has forgiven you all your sins! Now, we have everlasting forgiveness, eternal
righteousness. God says, “There sins and iniquities I remember no more!”
CONSTRAINED BY LOVE
Last
week, in my message at Danville, I had something very important that I
accidentally missed in my notes. When
speaking of how Nehemiah as Governor did not exact of the people what was
lawfully his due, I said that after all that Christ has done for us, Christ, as
our Governor, does not exact of us what is lawfully his due.
“Look
to that cross—how could we ever repay him for his good government over us?” What price can you put on his precious
blood?; on his suffering the second death while he hung their alive on that
cross in our place?; on his ruling his kingdom and his house with such a
faithful hand?
Here is what I accidentally left out. He simply says to us, if you love me, feed my
sheep; if you love me, love my brethren; if you love me, glorify my name.
Likewise, in our text, God says, “even as
God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you”, now you just be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, and forgive one another, even as God for Christ’s sake, has
forgiven you.”
It is not law that constrains us or rules us;
it is his love for us, for Christ’s sake, that constrains us. As Nehemiah said,
“It is because of the fear of God.”
Believer, when you see what God has done for
you for Christ’s sake does it not give you a reverence for God above all
others! Does it not take utter control of your inner man! This motive moved the apostle John so much, that
he said, “He that loveth not knoweth not God.” (1 Jn 4: 8)
I
realize we sin. I realize we make grave mistakes. But God brings us to ourselves, to
repentance, to love. So I say this with
John, without reservation, any sinner that claims to believe God, who can go on
being unkind to his brother, being hardhearted, being unforgiving of his
brother, plain and simple, he does not know God.
God,
for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven us, because satisfaction has been made to the
injured honor of his divine government, and now his justice is satisfied. His honor
is restored! His law magnified! That is
the love of God for his people! That is the love that constrains his people. It
is righteous, holy, just love!
ARE THERE ANY LEFT?
In the
days of David, Jonathan helped King David—a beautiful picture of how Christ
worked the works of God. When David ascended to his throne, “David said, Is
there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness
[the kindness of God] for Jonathan’s sake?” (2 Sam 9: 1) Saul was David’s enemy.
But for Jonathan’s sake, David was willing to show them kindness, to bring them
into his own house. Now, “is there any left here, of the house of God’s enemy,
that God might show them kindness, for Christ’s sake?”
It was
reported to David, “Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.” (2 Sam 9: 3) Does Christ have a son here, which is lame on his feet? Christ said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Lu
5: 32) Are you lame on your feet in
sin? It is the joy of the Father to
express his love for his Son by calling Christ’s lame sons just as it was
David’s delight to express his love for Jonathan by calling his lame son.
David
said, “Go fetch him!” David sent and fetched him. His name was Mephibosheth.
When he came to David, “David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew
thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the
land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.” (2
Sam 9: 7) Sinner, if God has shown you
your sins, if he has fetched you to him, God says, “Fear not: for I will surely
shew thee kindness for Christ thy father’s sake, and will restore thee above
and beyond what you lost in Adam. And
you shall eat bread at God’s table continually.”
For us who God has called—for Christ’s sake—our answer to
God is Mephibosheth’s answer to David, “And he bowed himself, and said, What is
thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” (2 Sam 9:
8)
THREE DOORS
For the exhortation let me give you “THREE DOORS.” This is from one of Brother Henry Mahan’s TV
sermons from 1982, speaking on this passage in Ephesians. He said, someone
said, “Let every word that we speak pass through three doors.”
The first door
is this: “Is it true?” We certainly ought not to tell things that are not
true. That’s the first question to ask;
“is it true?”
Secondly: “Is it necessary that I tell it?” Is it absolutely necessary? Will it
accomplish any good by me repeating this story? You are not supposed to tell it
just because it is true.
Thirdly: “Is it kind?”
If we pass our words through those three
doors, it is very, very, possible, that we will not offend, hurt, wound, and be
unkind in our conversation.
God gives us a light and easy yoke. He only
says, “be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you.” Grace and love is a light and easy yoke
because grace and love is a light and easy constraint!
Amen!