The sinlessness of Christ

I'd like to turn to 1 John chapter 3, please. 1 John, we'll read from verse 4 just for connection. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is a transgression of the law.

And ye know that he, the Lord Jesus, was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. May we trust God will bless to us the reading of his precious word.

I want to go back a little to this morning to our brother Scott's ministry and follow on from, he was speaking about the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's fundamental doctrines that if they are wrong, and Paul does an example in Corinthians 15, that if Christ be not risen, our faith is in vain, and we are of all men most miserable, with nothing, far better off, without going through the sufferings that we do, and the circumstances, than all being in vain, but Christ is risen. The sinlessness of the Lord Jesus is another fundamental doctrine, and John tells us that in his person he was sinless.

I don't know if you ever sit down and wonder what being sinless means. You know, I was saying the other day about my little grandson many, many years ago, just a little boy, I don't know how old he was, two or three, he could talk, and I said to him, Christopher, I want you to do this, an innocent little boy, Grandpa, it's not going to happen. He heard his mum, but here he is, it's not going to happen, and you and I have in us the seed and the nature of sin.

Mothers, I want to tell you about a baby boy who never sinned, who never said no, who never cried just to get attention, and my Bible doesn't tell me that, that's my imagination. Who was never sick? Now my Bible doesn't tell me that, but sickness is associated with sin, and in him is no sin. There never was a baby boy like the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was the son of God, but he was a child of Mary, and in him is no sin. Our brother made a very correct statement. Listen to it again.

I think I've got the words, so I use it all the time. If I'm wrong, correct me. It was absolutely impossible for the Lord Jesus Christ to sin.

Now do you understand that? There is a teaching, and I heard that 50 years ago, there was two teachings. One was that the Lord Jesus Christ did not know that he could not sin. That's true, and that wasn't in another system.

I'm not telling you where it was, and the other that I've heard over 50 years ago, maybe 60 years ago, was that the Lord Jesus had the ability to sin, but he had the power not to sin. Absolute error. The Lord Jesus Christ could not sin, for in him was no sin.

There wasn't the seed or the root of sin in the Lord Jesus. He teaches us in Matthew chapter 7 that if you want to understand what the root of a tree is, look at its fruit. I had a friend down at the lake, and he was in Manitoba, and he had a cherry tree in his backyard, and the cherries were all pitted and rotten, and he said to me, is there something wrong? The tree's got to go.

The root's bad. The fruit that the Lord Jesus Christ exhibited in his life was the fruit of a sinless life. I just want to, for a few minutes, I'll be down before the hour for sure, I just want for a few minutes to look at various aspects in the life of the Lord Jesus of his sinlessness.

Listen to 1 Peter 1 verse 19. But we are not redeemed by such corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now watch this.

It doesn't stop there. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus did not become without sin at his birth.

The Lord Jesus eternally was without sin. It was the one who was without sin was born of Mary. It was the one who was without spot or blemish.

Brother was telling us a little bit today about, he was mentioning it anyway, about the washing in relation to the liberal sacrifices. And an animal that was going to be taken had to be without blemish and without spot. I looked at this and wondered, how do we make a distinction? And on the outside, we're only going to see when we take an animal, you remember the lamb on the day of the Passover was kept for a number of days to be examined to see if there'd be any blemish on it.

But when you're looking at a live animal, you can't go and check the inside. You've only got to look at the outside. And as we look at the outside of the Lord Jesus, we're going to do that.

We're going to see in his life, there was no blemish, but I was without spot. And that animal in Leviticus chapter one, we'll take that as an example when it was open, when it was cutting its pieces, the head and the shoulders and the legs, the inwards were displayed, the height had been removed. And there you would see the glory and beauty and the bullock would be without blemish.

And as we search the Lord Jesus Christ, as we look at him from the outside, as we look at him from the inside, there is no sin. Someone has written pressure intense, reveals a new inner perfections shining through. You know, our brother told us he gets cranky and we all do, don't we? There's really not too many of us given the right circumstances, you can't get cranky.

And I've seen the best of men give a sharp retort. We can do that, can't we? And not that it's in us, not that we do it all the time, but it's within us, not with the Lord Jesus. He never was cranky.

He never lost his temper. He returned, they gave some very sharp rebukes. If you could think of him speaking against the scribes and the Pharisees, and he gives a list of woe there against them.

He says, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, all that the works. He was quite honest and open in his condemnation of sin, but he himself never sinned. He was without blemish, and he was without spot, and he was eternal.

Oh, they didn't like it, you know, in John chapter 8, when he says, before Abraham was, I am. And they sought to stone him. The Jews could not stand a perfect man.

Luke 4, they tried to throw him over the brow of a hill. John 8, they tried to stone him. John 10, they tried to stone him again.

Finally, they took him, and they came and took him, with all the false accusations against him, and placed him on a tree. Listen to what we read in Luke 1. Luke 1, 35. We read, the angel answered and said to Mary, the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit.

I never liked using the word ghost. I think I was taught as a boy, it's something that's floating in the air, and it's ethereal, and it's not real. And you're far better using the Holy Spirit.

I know they're the same meaning, probably, but I always like using the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee. The power of the highest shall overshadow thee.

Therefore, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. He was sinless at his birth. Now, I know the word holy doesn't mean sinless.

I remember as a young boy, I used to think holy was sinless. So, Peter says, be holy as I am holy. Oh, I've got a problem.

Then I was taught what it really means, and it's the thought of being separated unto God, Now, remember this. Just being separated is not holiness. I was mentioning the other day at Ankeny, there's a, I can't remember the writer.

I have a very poor memory now. So, my eyes got a little bit better, my memory went, but hey, it's just one of those things that happens. And if we're, what was it he says? Now, now it's gone from my mind.

I'll have to get that coming back. Now, just give me a second. No, it's not coming.

It's gone. It's gone. I'll have to get back to where I was.

I'll come back, I'll tell you. But that's just, I don't have a note on it. We're speaking of holiness.

Yes, I've got it. Separation unto warms and expands. You got it? Separation from chills and contracts.

And you can shut yourself up in a little monastery and you could say, I'm separated. To what? I'm a child of God. If you're separated unto Christ, the things of the world will become strangely dim.

Listen, in the light of his glory and his grace. There's no greater joy. There's no greater delight that you and I can have than meditation on the person of Christ.

How we delight to think on him. How we delight to contemplate him. How we will love tomorrow morning to gather with the people of God and there the brethren will rise and they'll tell his father of all his glory.

They'll tell his father of the son of his love. They'll tell his father of the perfect man who walked before him and pleased him in all that he did. He was that holy thing.

He was separated unto God. It's interesting. We're reading in John 17 the other day that he says, I sanctify myself.

I used to how on earth could the Lord Jesus sanctify himself is already sanctified because I didn't understand the meaning of the word. Lord Jesus says, I am setting myself apart for divine purpose. I'm setting myself apart for the will of God.

He says, I came not to do mine own will but the will of the father which sent me. He says in John 8, I do always those things that please him. He sanctified himself.

He set himself apart for divine purpose and the disciples were sanctified. You and I sanctified. We should be.

We've been hearing today to put the things of God first, to have a, to have a goal. It's one thing to develop things in this life and you have to put bread on the table. You have to put gas in your car.

So you have to have a dollar or two in the bank. But what time do I have for the things of God? I spoke to two groups of young men before the Bible study, do you read and study the passage? Now there was probably a dozen in the first group and half a dozen or more in the second group. Do you know the positive answer was from one.

I wonder you and I, before we come to the Bible study, we know what the passage is. Is it read? Now I used to take university classes. I still had to do my Bible study, keep up with the things in the assembly, had a family.

So every other hour I could get, I had to study for my university classes. If I didn't, when I went to the class, I wouldn't have a clue what the professor was speaking about. And you know, if you and I don't read our Bible when we come to a conference or we sit in a Bible study, we won't understand what is being said.

So he was sinless at his birth. But listen, listen to the wilderness. And I think that what the Lord Jesus says in John 14, a little bit of brother was taking us to Matthew and Luke and the Lord Jesus in the wilderness today and Satan come and testing him.

I never really liked the word tempted because I look at tempted as what I can be because of sin in me. There was no sin in the Lord Jesus, but he was tested and Satan came. The word used is tempted.

I know, but it's the third of them being tested said in John 1430, the Prince of this world cometh and find nothing in me. They find nothing in me. I'm Satan.

Listen, I think it's, is it Luke? It says Satan left him for a season. Did you ever think of that? And if you look at your margin, I think it says Satan less than left him until a season all through the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. Satan was attacking the Lord Jesus.

I am quite satisfied at the storm on the lake, but Luke speaks about, and they are the storm. The disciples were afraid that men off the lake and they'd never seen a storm like that in their life. I am satisfied that that was the work of Satan seeking to destroy the life of the Lord Jesus.

We talked about the stoning or the trying to stone him in John eight and John 10 of throwing over the breath of the hell and Luke four. So work of Satan, he's attacking the Lord Jesus and all the accusations that continually brought against them says the Prince of this world come out and find nothing in me. I'm watching the clock.

He was sinless during his earthly ministry. Doesn't know what the Hebrew writer says. Hebrews seven 26 for such an high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners and made higher than the heavens.

Again, in John eight, we've mentioned it, which of you convinced me of sin. He was holy. His purpose was to please his father.

His work was the work of the father. You will find if you go to John chapter five, that the Lord Jesus left seven things that are a witness, a testimony to his sonship. One is the father.

One is the Holy spirit. One is the works that the father gave him. One is John the Baptist.

One is the scriptures. One is Moses. And there's a testimony to the sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ because he was holy.

He was harmless. You know, sometimes they say of someone, Oh, I don't mind him. He's harmless.

That's not the idea here at all. It was that Lord Jesus never went about to hurt anyone. He never went about to cause, to cause problems with anyone and to make life more difficult.

Now there's some people in, I used to be a apprentice in the electrical shop in the mine and some of the gentlemen, I think they just had the idea that to make these apprentices apprentices learn a lesson and they made everything doubly difficult. And they, they sure harmed you in many ways. The Lord Jesus never did that.

Never did it by anything. He did never did it by anything. He said, you know, sometimes the most harm we do is with these two lips and the tongue in it.

You know, James tells us about the tongue. You know, it's only a little rudder that steers a big ship. It's only a little fire.

And we had them in California that burn thousands and millions of acres. And it's only a little word from you and I that harms people. Man was on his deathbed and he was through worry and concern because a brother had been speaking evil about him.

And the man came to him on his deathbed and confessed his sin. And the man who was dying says, do one thing for me. I forgive you.

I forgive you when you did it. But he said, it still bothered me. So I want you to do one thing.

He says, take this feather pillow. I don't know if you get feather pillows now, but we used to get feather pillows and he says, open it up. And it was a windy day.

He says, go and scatter it in the yard. So he did that. Thought it was strange.

Came back. He says, now one more thing, then you can go home. She's going to gather up the feathers.

Child of God, don't go speaking things about your brother or sister that are wrong. And if they're true, go and speak to them. We must go on.

Time's going. He's leaving the garden of the Gethsemane. I'm going back to John 14.

He knows what's lying before him. He knows the enemy are going to come and bind him in the garden. And I guess the same thing could be applied.

Satan's attacking him and it could do nothing against him. We'll move on. He's in his trial.

This is what Peter says. He's before, he's before Pilate and the, and the priests and all that are there. It says here after first, uh, first Peter chapter two 22, who did no sin.

Neither was guile found in his mouth and there was no sin. Now Peter says he did no sin. When he was reviled, he reviled not again.

When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously who his own self bear our sins and his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. There's the Lord Jesus and all the pressures of the law and the religious system are being leveled against him. He did no sin.

I often think of it. You and I, sometimes we don't say things that are wrong. Sometimes they don't do things that were wrong.

But do you ever think things that are wrong? I wish the earth would swallow him up. You ever get that feeling somebody's really on your tail and they're really bugging you and just giving you and you say, Oh, it'd be nice if the earth would just swallow him up. You never say it.

You just think it or you think, Oh, why don't you go away? Why don't you leave me alone? You never say it, but you think of it. You know, another Senate I'm guilty off and you're probably the same. It's not something that I do to him that knows to do good and do it not to him.

It is sin. We often sinned by our negligence by the things we don't do. The Lord Jesus never sinned by negligence.

In the old Testament, there's provision made for sin by accident. You send an ignorance, but there's still got to be a sacrifice for it. The Lord Jesus never sinned by accident.

He never sinned in ignorance. He never sinned. He did no sin.

And so when he was reviled, he reviled not again. And when he was suffered, he didn't retaliate. Now, sometimes we're very good at retaliating.

Some of, some of us has very good vocabularies and very agile minds. And, uh, they tell me your president's like that. If you hit him, he'll hit you twice back and he's good at it.

So, and a lot of us are like that. You hit me and I'll get you back. The Lord Jesus never did that.

When he suffered, he threatened, not such was there. Lord, I'm finished. Time's gone.

Give me one minute. Well, that'll be a Christian minute. Second Corinthians five.

Listen to this. He who for he has made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He was made to be saying, no, there's a lot of things.

The Lord Jesus became. And unfortunately in some of them, you're authorized version, which I love and read and use, but it says made the Lord Jesus was really, it was made a curse. He was made to be sin.

And that was it. But he became many things. He became flesh and dwelt among us.

John one and by the way, I'm taking an extra few seconds. Why is this in the house? Brother Cal got it right. When was the Lord Jesus Christ made flesh or became flesh? You're all answering now.

It was not at his birth. Oh, did I shock you? See, if you want a verse against abortion, John one 14 is a good verse. The child that was conceived in Mary's womb was in the flesh.

It wasn't some phantom birth that there was some phantom object in Mary's womb. There was a child in Mary's womb and that child was the eternal son of God. And he was mine.

And he was perfect, man. He became flesh, but he became pure and second Corinthians chapter eight, his own voluntary. Well, he was rich.

I was thinking when her brother was speaking yesterday about Solomon, a greater than Solomon is here. And the Lord Jesus was richer than Solomon. He became poor that ye through his poverty might be made rich in Philippians two.

We heard a little bit about the obedience of the Lord Jesus. He became obedient unto death, not just an death, even the death of the cross. And Mr. Darby in revelation one in 17, concerning the Lord Jesus, he says, fear not.

I am the first and the last and the living one. And I died. I became dead.

The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was a voluntary act. John 10. I have the authority.

I have the power. I have the right to lay down my life and I have the power to take it again. No man taketh my life from me.

I became dead. And behold, I am. And behold, I am living to the ages of the ages.

But child of God, he was made to be sent. But thank God that the one who bore our sins, the one who satisfied the righteous claims of God against sin. He's risen, he's seated, and he's promised to come again and he's going to take us to birth himself.

No, we're just reading in, in John 17 again for the disciples. He says those were in verse 11 and 12. Those whom thou has given me, I have kept.

Child of God. He says again in John 14, because I live, ye shall live also. It's the living Christ that keeps you and I until we die.

Until that day when he will come and take us to be with himself.