I invite you in your Bibles to the end of Ephesians chapter four, the end of the fourth chapter of the epistle written by the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian church, Ephesians four. We're continuing our summer series on the kind of living that the gospel of Jesus Christ demands from us. And what we've been doing is taking passages of scripture that very simply set before us the work of the Lord Jesus in his atonement and then connects that gospel work with the way in which we ought to live. Today we come to the middle of Ephesians chapter four. And I want to read here a section that is full of instruction regarding our behavior and our attitudes and our relationships. It's very interesting to me that with each of these instructions that he's going to give us, the apostle attaches a consideration. why it is you ought to behave this way, why it is that you ought to think this way. As I read beginning at verse 17, I urge you to pay attention to those considerations. And the considerations are going to build to a climax. And it's the climax that we'll take as our text this morning. Ephesians 4, beginning our reading at verse 17. This is the word of God. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the 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 unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for 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 hands 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 unto 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. Be ye therefore 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. Amen. And did you see the considerations that he sprinkled down through there? Did you note how the considerations build on one another and come to a climax there in chapter five and verse two? In verse 21, we were told we're not to be like the society around us, the rotting culture around us, because we have been taught differently by the Lord Jesus Christ. We have not so learned Christ. That's a consideration. And in verse 24, we have another consideration. Consider the new man that you are, that God has created you in righteousness and true holiness. And so consider the new creation that you are in Christ. And verse 25 is a consideration. We are members one of another. Consider that fact in all of our interpersonal relationships, especially as a church family. We are members one of another. There's this inseparable union that we have with one another. Think in verse 27 of this consideration, that there is a devil and he's watching for an opportunity. He's looking for a footing. He's looking for a place in your life. And that sinful anger gives him a base of operations in your life and in your family. And so that's a consideration to not be angry. Verse 3 is a consideration. The Holy Spirit of God. He can be grieved. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. So you see that everything in that passage, all those instructions about our behavior, our thinking, our attitudes, our relationships, they're all set forth to compel us to a certain kind of living. And you can see that those considerations are intended to move us away from lethargy and dismissal about the seriousness of these things. We can oftentimes just kind of Think, not even think as we're reading down through here and see these things as secondary matters to like the true doctrine of the first three chapters of Ephesians. You've gotta stick to that and then these are just kind of suggestions for successful living. No, we ought not think that way. Think of these considerations and take these things seriously, the apostle says. But when we come to the final verse of the chapter, we are introduced to the highest possible consideration for Christian living, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And then you look at it again in verse 2 of chapter 5, walk in love as Christ has loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. The consideration that is being set forward in that last verse of chapter four and first two verses of chapter five is the highest possible consideration, the way that the Lord has treated us. Consider that, brothers and sisters. Consider the way that you have been treated by God in the gospel. and follow that. Again, verses 32 and then 1 and 2. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore 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. I want to preach to you this morning. on the subject as it's stated in chapter five and verse one, be ye followers of God. The word follow, however, isn't ideal for getting across the message of that verse. It is more significant than just following in his steps. That word followers is the word from which we get our word mimic. It's an ancient word that had reference to being an actor on a stage and observing someone else and then trying to duplicate what you just saw. Probably the best English word for expressing the idea here is the word imitate. Be an imitator of God. And so that's our theme this morning. and the series on gospel living, Imitators of God. That's what you and I are called to be, imitators of God. Now, in order to imitate someone, you have to watch them. You have to watch them closely. You have to have long, careful exposure to them. You have to latch on to something about them which is worthy of imitation. So let's start at the end of verse two and work our way backwards then. Here is the act of God that you and I are called to mimic, to imitate. Christ hath loved us and hath given himself for us. Now to stop right there, does that sound familiar? That's the exact phrase we saw last week in Galatians 2.20. Christ loved me and gave himself for me. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's the exact same phrase. but now we get this expansion on it. He loved us, he had given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor, and that is what we are to imitate. You see here, as it's been in all these passages, the gospel is not just presented as motivation. It's so much more than that. You are called to mimic Christ's love, to mimic Christ's sacrifice in your interpersonal relationships. You see, Christ's love doesn't just motivate us, it constrains us to live a certain way. And his suffering doesn't just motivate us, it compels us to arm ourselves with a mindset that we are no longer going to live for our lusts, but we are going to live to the will of God. And His mercies, they don't just motivate us, they actually summon us to a reasonable service of worship, the presentation of our whole selves to God. And God's grace does not just appear to motivate us, it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And the fact that Christ loved us and gave himself for us It's not just motivating factor, it is the fact that draws us into a life of trusting Him, even trusting Him with our sins, even trusting Him with all of our failures. We are to imitate His loving sacrifice in all of our relationships. That's what these verses are telling us to do. We're to study the way that He did it and then go out and mimic it in our relationships. Watch Christ and then impersonate him in all of your interactions with others. So let's just go word by word through the second half of verse two so that we know exactly what we are imitating. Christ loved us. And the only way to even begin to grasp the significance of that phrase, especially in an age where love is just a mere sentiment, is to put up against that phrase the biblical doctrine of human depravity, the doctrine of sin, and then to realize the truth about yourself and how just how unlovely and unlovable you are to a holy God. Because if a person feels that they are overall a good person, who's lived more or less a good life, hasn't really harmed anyone else, Well, then it would be a surprise if God didn't love me. But when you realize what you are by nature, ungodly, a sinner, an enemy of God, a hater of God who prefers darkness to light, that you are an ugly, vile, obnoxious sinner to a holy God, When you understand what Paul meant when he wrote that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, when you agree that you of yourself were at one time foolish and disobedient and deceived and serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, that's when the little phrase Christ hath loved us becomes completely overwhelming. You've got to think of that phrase in light of the biblical doctrine of sin and your own realization that it's talking about you when it talks about depravity and sinfulness and fallenness. Christ has loved us and has given himself for us. That's his activity in this. He wasn't just passively allowing things to happen to him. He was giving himself. He says in John 10, therefore doth my father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again. This is his deliberate act of his will. His love is not manifested in passive submission. His love is manifested in a deliberate act of his voluntary will. And we get ahead of ourselves, but that's something to keep in mind when you're talking about showing love to others. We're not just talking about stoically bearing with people, passively. We are talking about a deliberate act of your will to give. That's what Christ did. He gave himself for us. And then come the next two words, and they are great words. He gave himself an offering and a sacrifice. An offering and a sacrifice. An offering is a gift presented. A sacrifice is a life offered in the place of another. And it seems to me that the use of those two great words suggest that the work of Christ is both a presentation of worship and a propitiation for man's sins. In other words, the death of Christ is the fulfillment of the law in precept and in penalty. Christ fulfills the law in precept when he gave to God. the worship from the heart that had been withheld from God by His image bearers ever since they fell. No image bearer had ever presented an acceptable offering of worship to God, not a one. The whole law is fulfilled in two commandments, love God and love your neighbor. And the Lord Jesus comes into this vacuum of worship where these image bearers have worshiped and served the creation above the creator. And he comes to present his offering of worship And in his death on the cross, he fulfills the two great commandments. No man had loved God greater than that man in that moment when he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And greater love had never been seen than when he laid down his life for his friends. And in that one act, He gives a supreme offering of love to God and love to neighbor, and he satisfies the whole law and precept, offering unto God acceptable worship for the first time in world history. And then the death of Jesus fulfills the penalty of the law. God's law demanded that I be cursed It demanded my execution. God's law demands the death of every sinner. And Jesus bore my sins in his body on that cross. And justice ran its course on Jesus. And so he gave himself a bloody sacrifice, substituting his life in the place of my life. And the penalty of the law is fulfilled. He's an offering fulfilling the law's precept. He's a sacrifice fulfilling the law's penalty. And God is satisfied. And that's what that last phrase has reference to. This is to God, a sweet smelling savor. The offering was presented to God. The sacrifice was consumed in relation to God, and God receives it as a sweet-smelling savor. The best picture of that phrase comes from the aftermath of the worldwide flood. You remember when no one in his family came off the ark? that Genesis 8 says that Noah built an altar unto the Lord. He took of every clean beast and every clean fowl and he offered burnt offerings on the altar and the Lord smelled a sweet savor and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again smite any more every living thing as I have done. It's a non-literal figure to be sure. but it gives some conception of the satisfaction, of the pleasure that this sacrifice gave to God. It was to God a sweet smell. He was pleased with the offering, and that is the result of the offering and sacrifice of Christ. God is fully, perfectly satisfied. Jesus himself said, it is finished. And yes, it is true. God demands nothing else. He is satisfied with Christ. The offering and the sacrifice was to God, a sweet smelling savor. And it was all for us. Those two words right in the middle of the verse, it was all for us. He delivered Himself for us. He offered Himself for us. He laid down His life as a sacrifice for us. It was a substitutionary act in our place, on our behalf. Which of us is capable of presenting such an offering? Which of us would be willing to offer ourselves as a bloody sacrifice to God? Who among us could offer anything to God but the stinking odor of our own flesh? So praise God for the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. And now what is the lesson for us as His children? What is the lesson for us? Remember our theme, which comes directly from verse one, imitators of God. We are to be imitators of God as dear children. The word be there, just the first word of chapter five, is a word for becoming. It's continual, ongoing action. We do this progressively. We are to be becoming imitators of God. Little by little, we're going to be becoming more and more mimicking of God, imitators of God. And Paul makes two applications to us. There are two ways that we are to imitate God in the way that God in the flesh sacrificed himself for us. Two ways to imitate God. One comes before verse one, one comes after verse one. First way, first application of the way that we imitate God We imitate God according to verse 32 by having a forgiving spirit toward others' faults. And number two, according to verse two, we imitate God by walking in love. Let's just take those applications one at a time. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. That is the first application of how you and I are to imitate God. You notice the context of this instruction in verse 32? Because I think all of us think of ourselves generally as kind people. We are not talking about a general kindness. Look at the context. We're talking about interpersonal relationships where the other person has done something to you and you are tempted by their action, by their fault, by their sin to be bitter, which means you won't stop nursing the wound that that person gave you. You just hold this inner resentment toward them You're bitter. We're talking about situations when you're tempted to wrath, which is the word for the bursting out, the flaming up of that bitterness. You're tempted to anger, which is that settled, burning spirit, like glowing coals of a fire. You're tempted to clamor, which just has to do with raised voices. The person has done something and you're tempted to raise your voice. We're talking about evil speaking, which is insulting, abusive speech toward the other person. We're talking about malice, which is an intent to harm the person because you will get your way no matter what. That's the context we're talking about. We're talking about situations when you have been sinned against, when a wrong has been committed against you, and your flesh feels very justified in expressing itself in terms of verse 31. And that's what makes these kinds of sins so difficult to deal with. We all know what it is to look at another person and to be able to tell, even by the way they won't look at us, or by the way that they have this set face, their arms are crossed, or there's this stiffness in their body. We can tell that they're nursing an attitude. But if you try to address it with them, they'll never acknowledge it. Because they feel justified in having the attitude. They believe these sins are defensible because of the wrong that was committed against me. There was an injustice. There was a fault. So they feel justified for verse 31 types of attitudes. Because they're victims after all. They're victims. The Christian people don't respond to wrongs committed against them with verse 31. It doesn't matter how justified you feel. And it doesn't matter how badly you've been hurt. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind in situations like that. The word kind is just the word that means good, gentle, easy. Tender-hearted. It's a word that refers to deep movings. It actually has the word bowels in it. The deep inner movings of the spirit. A softness on the inside toward the other person. Forgiving one another. Forgiveness is the dismissal of genuine indebtedness. Someone has really wronged you, and they owe you now, but you choose to dismiss the debt, forgiving one another. Forgiveness, brothers and sisters, is a promise, a promise to never raise the issue again with others, with the person you're forgiving, or even yourself. It's a promise to never let the offense be in a barrier again in the relationship. When we forgive, we cancel the debt. We remove the barrier. We promise it will never be a barrier again. To forgive is to rise above our emotions. It's to arise above our sense of needing to defend our rights. It's to be ruled by grace and to be ruled by the word of God rather than our emotions and rather than our sense of justice. Because forgiveness is a grace. In fact, the word grace is in the word forgiveness. Genuine forgiveness is something freely offered, freely given to someone, to someone who is undeserving. They're undeserving. You give it graciously. And that's the first way that we are to imitate God, brothers and sisters. We're to do this even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. To do anything else, to respond in any other way to faults against me is to be ungodly, is to be not like God. The forgiveness of Jesus, think of it. We say that we've experienced it, have we? He has been so liberal in forgiving us, hasn't he? So generous. He never forgives begrudgingly. He never forgives with cold formality. His forgiveness is always generous. It's always joyful. It is the rich mercy of the Lord Jesus. Before we even know our sin to be sin, he made an atonement for us by his own precious blood. And before we had even thought of mercy from him, he already had thoughts of mercy toward us. That's how liberal and generous his mercy is. So therefore, we can forgive even when the other person hasn't asked. If there needs to be a conversation, if there needs to be a confrontation in order to make things right, then okay, we initiate that, but our forgiveness is not to be withheld until the person finally comes around and admits their faults. We're to have a spirit of liberal forgiveness toward all offenses committed against us. Think as well about how the forgiveness of Christ is so complete. It's so generous and it's so complete. He doesn't keep back reckonings against us. He doesn't retain or reserve his anger. He says, I will not remember your sins. He casts them behind his back. They're holy and they're completely gone from his observation or regard, never to be brought up again. Think about continuous his forgiveness is. He forgave us long ago. He still forgives us. His forgiveness is over and over and over again. He doesn't forgive and then afterwards accuse. His forgiveness is eternal. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. We are to copy that forgiveness. We are to be an imitator of God and forgive liberally, forgive completely, forgive continuously. even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us." I know this is easier said than done. And the Holy Spirit knew that too, which is why He gives you the greatest of all possible considerations, and He attaches it to this command. And by attaching God's forgiveness of you to your forgiveness of others, you are taught that the way to forgive others is to evaluate the wrongs that have been done to you against the wrongs that you have committed against Christ. You consider his full, free forgiveness of all the wrongs you've committed him. You see, mere suppression of the anger is not Christianity. Just keeping it down, just keeping a lid on it, just keeping it from boiling over, that's not Christianity. Christianity is thinking about what you are and what you have experienced in Christ. It's turning your mind to all the reasons that you ought to be damned. that you ought to be lost eternally, that you ought to be in hell right now, that if he had not dismissed your sins, they would be piled up as high as the heavens, and you would be bowed down under that load for all eternity. But you've been given this wealth, All this liberal, this liberal forgiveness of all of the numberless crimes you've committed against him. And you're so wealthy in forgiveness that you don't even miss the dime that the other guy took from you. You've been forgiven in Christ Jesus. You weigh your faults, you weigh the other person's fault against you, against your faults against God. The way to forgive others, even when the offense is serious, even when, quite frankly, it is unforgettable, is to purposely set your mind on things above, on the atonement of Christ, the way that He continually forgave you and keeps on forgiving you. It is very difficult for you and I to acknowledge that we haven't really forgiven. Have you observed that? It's very difficult to acknowledge that you and I haven't really forgiven. If someone confronts us about it, even if they confront us gently, and graciously with their observation that we haven't forgiven and we appear to be harboring bitterness, we instantly get defensive about it. So how would you know if you've forgiven? How do you measure this? Try out some of these questions. Have you stopped turning the injury over and over in your mind? Have you stopped doing that? Have you stopped nursing your wound? Have you ceased reliving it? Have you quit listening to those statements the person made to you over and over and over and over and over again in the memory of your mind? Have you taken any practical step toward communicating goodwill to that person? by your countenance even, by your words. You have for Christ's sake been forgiven so much, so go out and imitate God. Walk that way. That's the first application. You look at Christ, you look at his sacrifice, you imitate God. How? One, in the forgiving spirit you have toward other people's sins against you. And then two, we hardly have time to consider it, but verse two, walk in love. And all I have to say here is that Christ loved us and gave himself for us. And that is to be the model of our love. Giving up ourselves for the sake, for the well-being of others. Sometimes to really show love, I mean to really love someone, with 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love, That kind of love that is modeled by Christ. Sometimes you have to give up money to do that. You have to give up time to do that. There will be times when you're taking advantage of. There will be times when you're called to suffer hardship in order to love that way. Sometimes really loving others involves great personal sacrifice. Are we ready for that? Or are we so set on having our own way and enjoying our own things and never being inconvenienced and being shown to be right in this matter? Are we so set on those things that any consideration of being Christ-like in this area of our lives runs a distant second to all of our own self-interests? There are going to be times that you and I are so sinned against that the only way of ensuring that the offense does not fester and permanently separate is by your own self-sacrifice. Your flesh wants justice. That's what your flesh wants. Your flesh wants justice. You want to speak your mind and put the other person in their place. You want to show them nobody bullies you. Nobody takes advantage of you and gets away with it. Nobody treats you that way. You're not going to take it anymore. And you're going to have to kill that. You're going to have to kill that. And your flesh is gonna struggle and it's gonna cry out and writhe as you're nailing it to that cross, but you are to crucify it. Sometimes the only way to keep the offense from festering and separating is through death. But you are called to imitate God. as a dear child, a child beloved. And we haven't commented on those words, have we? But they're a fitting, encouraging way to draw this to a close. At the end of verse five, or verse one, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, as children beloved. You know, as the Lord's own offspring, you ought to be able to walk in love and freely forgive others because you are a beloved child. And what that means, this might come as a surprise to you, but what that means is that imitating God by loving the brethren and forgiving them as Christ forgave you is actually natural to you. Because you are a beloved child. You are born of the Spirit. You are a partaker of the divine nature. God's seed is in you. So let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. You are a child of God. You've been changed, haven't you? From the inside out. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. You're a child of God. Pursue the family resemblance. It's already there in you. Develop it and resist the devil in your flesh. You've been forgiven so much by a Savior who loved you and gave himself for you as an offering and sacrifice, as a sweet-smelling savor to God. You were an enemy doing nothing but spewing out hatred and corruption in the face of God, and he set his love on you, and he made you his beloved child. Imitate him as a child beloved. Put away your bitterness, and your anger, and your wrath, and your clamor, and your evil speaking, and your malice, and be kind, and be tenderhearted, and be forgiving, and walk in love. Your Savior calls you to imitate God in this. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth him. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us. because God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him here in his love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the work of Jesus that rescued us from our misery and made a real substitution. And we thank Thee for the example that He also is to us. Help us to walk in love. Help us to be forgiving toward one another, to imitate you in forgiveness and love. Give us grace, Lord, to do what your word calls us to do. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.