Okay. 1 Peter 2 is where we'll
be this morning. 1 Peter 2. And we'll just use this as a
reference point. But today the name of the message
is, and we're continuing our study on who is Jesus Christ,
today we're going to look at Christ the Sinless One. Christ
the Sinless One. He is absolutely sinless. And we'll look at Scriptures
and how it talks about God being the Holy One of Israel. And then we'll look and see how
Christ is called the Holy One. We'll see the connection that
way, that Jesus Christ is God incarnate in the flesh. Look
at 1 Peter 2, verses 21-24. For even hereunto were ye called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that ye should follow His steps, who did no sin, So Scripture
here proclaims that Christ did no sin. Neither was guile found
in His mouth. He never had a sin thought. He
never had a sin in deed. He's perfect. Who when He was
revealed, revealed not again. So when people came up against
Him and said things to Him, He didn't say anything back. Kind
of the opposite of how we are. And He didn't say anything. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously.
Who his own self, remember, he's the sinless one. Who his own
self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree. There's substitution. The sinless one. That we, being
dead to sin, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes
ye were healed. And now turn to 1 John 3, verse
5. Christ the sinless one. And then
we're looking at the Old Testament. If you want to put your finger
in 2 Kings, I tried to find these chronologically so we wouldn't
have to go flipping all through different sections, so put your
finger in 2 Kings as well. We'll look at 1 John 3, verse
5. And you know that He was manifested. Christ came into the world, right?
At the appointed time of God. He was manifested. God manifested
in the flesh, right? Emmanuel, God with us. And you know that He was manifested,
what? To take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. So this has to be established.
This is foundational for what we believe. Because if Christ
was like us, which He's not, no sinner can redeem another
sinner. But God, who is perfect, sinless, can redeem His people
from their sins. So this is foundational for what
we believe. Now, when Christ is preached,
we often make reference to His sinlessness. And it's all through
the Scriptures that God is holy, righteous, perfect, and we'll
continue our study today on who is Jesus Christ. We're looking
at Christ the sinless One. We have looked so far that Christ
is the Son of God, God incarnate in the flesh, the God-man mediator. We've also looked at Christ as
prophet, Christ as our high priest, And our sacrifice too, remember?
He's both our priest and the sacrifice. We have to remember
that too, which is incredible. He's priest and sacrifice. And
He's our King as well. Christ is our King. Now in the
Old Testament, the God of Israel is called the Holy One. Let's
look through a few scriptures in the Old Testament. We won't
look at a whole lot, but we'll look at a few here. 2 Kings 19,
verse 22. And then we'll look in Job. And then we'll look in Psalms,
and then we'll look in Isaiah. Now there is, when I did a search
on the Holy One of Israel, there is a lot. So we're just going
to scratch the surface. But it's going to show us who
He is in the Old Testament, and then we'll look at who Christ
is in the New Testament, the Holy One, the Holy One. So, 2 Kings 19, verse 22, God
is called the Holy One of Israel. Look at 2 Kings 19, 22. Whom
hast thou reproached and blasphemed? And against whom hast thou exalted
thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? Even against the
Holy One of Israel. So God is called the Holy One
of Israel. Now turn, if you would, to Job.
Job 6, verse 9. Our God is holy. We don't understand
it. I really don't think we fully
grasp the holiness of God. We were talking at breakfast
yesterday about that, about how when we stand in front of our
King, we're going to see Him in His glory and His majesty
and His holiness. And we're going to know what
He's redeemed us from. We just see through a glass darkly
right now, just darkly. We have limited understanding,
but praise God for the understanding that we do have because we know
from our studies in Colossians that he's the one who's revealed
this to us. He's the one who's revealed it. We didn't know him
before until he was pleased to reveal himself to his people. Look at Job chapter six, verse
nine. He's called the Holy One again. Even that it would please God,
chapter 6, verse 9. Even that it would please God
to destroy me, that He would let loose His hand and cut me
off. And then look at verse 10. Then shall I have comfort, yea,
I would harden myself in sorrow. Let Him not spare, for I have
not concealed the words of the Holy One. Holy One. God is holy. And in turn, if
you would, to Psalm 71, verse 22. And then put your finger in Isaiah
43. He is the Holy One of Israel.
Holy and true and righteous is our God. And this is why He can't
be in the presence of sin. Because He's holy. He's pure
holiness. Pure holiness. Look at David in Psalm 71, verse
22. He prays the Holy One of Israel.
I will also praise Thee with the psaltery, even Thy truth,
O my God, unto Thee will I sing with the harp, O Thou Holy One
of Israel. And then turn with me, if you
would, to Isaiah 43. Now, like I said, if you type
in the word holy into a search engine in the Bible, And just
even center on the Old Testament, it's incredible. It's just incredible.
And then if you do the exact phrase of the Holy One, it's
amazing. It's just, this is who He is.
This is who He's proclaimed to be. And it's not a whether or
not if He is. He is the Holy One of Israel.
It's truth proclaimed. Look at Isaiah 43, verse 3. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel. This is our King speaking. Thy
Savior. So the one here who calls himself
the Holy One of Israel is his people's Savior. Oh, what a reference
to our great King. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sebia for thee. Look at verses 14 and 15 in the
same chapter. Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer.
This is our Redeemer speaking. Oh, beloved of God. The Holy One of Israel. For your sake I have sent the
Babylon and have brought down all their nobles and the Chaldeans
whose cry is in the ships. I am the Lord, your Holy One. Verse 15. the Creator of Israel,
your King. He's the King of kings. He's
the King of Israel, beloved. Okay, so we have established
that the Old Testament that God is the Holy One. And we've established
that the One who's the Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. So
let's turn to Luke, chapter 4. Do you know that the demons called
Christ the Holy One? They know who He is. They know
who He is. I was talking to Joshua about
this yesterday, and Joshua said, well, of course they do. He created
them. They know. They know who He is. Oh, my. Look at this. Luke chapter 4, verse 31 to 35.
Actually, we'll go to We'll go to verse 37. Verse 31,
"...and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught
them on the Sabbath day. And they were astonished at his
doctrine," verse 32, "...for his word was with power." So
God's Word was with power. And in the synagogue there was
a man which had a spirit of unclean devil and cried out with a loud
voice saying, Let us alone. What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
They know. Art thou come to destroy us?
Well, He must have all power if He can destroy demons. He must have all power. I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. Oh, they know and they tremble.
Now look at the power our King has. Look at this. And this is
what I was talking to Joshua about too afterwards. Look at
this next verse. Our Lord says, and Jesus rebuked
him saying, Hold thy peace. Beloved, He has all power. He's
the Holy One of God. And even the demons don't. He's
the Holy One of God. And He says, hold thy peace and
come out of him. And when the devil had thrown
him in the midst, he came out of him and heard him not. And
they were all amazed and spake among themselves, saying, what
a word is this? For with authority and power
He commanded the unclean spirits and they come out. Because He's
God incarnate in the flesh. But note, the Holy One of God. The sinless One of God. They knew who He was. And they're
subject to Him, beloved. They're subject to Him. What a word is this? For with
authority and power He commanded the unclean spirits and they
come out. And the fame of Him went out
into every place in the country round about. So the demons acknowledge
Christ's power. And they acknowledge that He
is the Holy One of God. And He has all power, beloved,
as He said, hold thy peace and come out of Him. And what happened?
They came out of Him. Our great King, the Lord Jesus
Christ has all power, beloved. He's the Holy One of God. The
perfect One. The sinless One. The spotless
One. God incarnate in the flesh. Only God could command that.
Them to hold their peace and for them to come out. Only God.
He's the only One who has that power. The only one. Turn, if you would, to Daniel
9. Daniel 9. Our Lord was tempted and yet
without sin. He was immaculate before God's
law and justice. Turn, if you would, first to
John 14. I'm sorry. Keep your finger in Daniel 9.
This is important. We're going to look at these
two Scriptures. John 14 and Daniel 9. And then
I'll read a verse that we're all familiar with, 2 Corinthians
5.21, which is being maligned and used in the wrong, improper
perspective sometimes, but we'll look at it in the context of
these other two verses. And watch what we see. Watch
what we see. John 14, verse 30. Christ states His own sinlessness,
beloved. He states it. He's tempted yet
without sin. Look at this, John 14, 30. Hereafter
I will not talk much with you. For the prince of this world
cometh and hath nothing in me. There's nothing that the devil
can point his finger at to Christ. Why? Because he's the Holy One
of God. He's perfect. He's sinless. He's
spotless. So we're building a foundation
from Scripture right here looking today, looking at the sinlessness
of Christ. And He Himself said, the Prince
of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me. Now, He has lots
in us, but no foothold in Christ. Nothing. He's perfect. He's sinless. He's spotless. He proclaims that
Satan can find nothing in Him as He's sinless. Vincent's Greek
word study says about these words, "...hath nothing in Me." It says,
"...hath no right nor power over Christ, which sin in Him could
give." So Satan has no right or power over Christ. Now in
us, he's got that right and power because we're sin, but not we
who are in the righteousness of Christ. But he comes to Christ
and he has nothing in him. No power. No sin which could
give him anything at all to get to Christ. And the Greek order
is this, in me he hath nothing. In me he hath nothing. Satan has nothing in Christ.
He is the Holy One. So turn, if you would, to Daniel
9.26. Look at this. Now Christ had
no sin in Him, which could be said of no other but Him. He's
the seed of the woman. We're all born of Adam. He's
the seed of the woman. He's sinless. We receive our sin nature from
our Father. He's perfect, spotless, sinless. He's the seed of the woman. Prophesied
in Genesis. Now Christ had the sins of His
people laid upon Him, imputed to Him, but He had no sin of
His own. And He is spoken of in Daniel
9.26 as the Messiah. Cut off, look at this, Daniel
9.26. Now keep in mind when He said in John 14.30, right? Keep
in mind when He said, Hereafter I will not talk much with you,
for the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me,
right? Nothing in Him. Now look at this, Daniel 9.26.
And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.
But look at these key words right here. But not for himself. Why? Because he's sinless. But
he's cut off for our sins. Because they're placed upon him.
They're imputed to him. But not for himself. You see
how this cries of his sinlessness? And in John 14 we see him proclaiming
his sinlessness, but not for himself. And the people of the
prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary,
and the end thereof shall be with a flood. And unto the end
of the world war, desolations are determined. Now note those
words in Daniel, and turn if you would. You probably don't
even have to turn, but you can. 2 Corinthians 5.21. Note those words in Daniel. Note
the words in John 14.30 where He says, "...the Prince of this
world cometh and hath nothing in Me." Note the words in Daniel
9.26 which says, "...shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself."
He's sinless. And then keep that in mind as
we look at 2 Corinthians 5.21. "...For He hath made Him, God
hath made Him to be sin by imputation. Our sins are laid upon Christ." Look at these words. For us,
who knew no sin. The prince of this world cometh
and hath nothing in him. Perfect. Sinless. Spotless. That we might be made
the righteousness of God and Him. The great transfer. The great transfer. Our sins
are placed upon Christ. The sinless One. And we are made
the righteousness of God. Now this can be said of no one
but Christ that He's sinless. No one but Christ. Turn, if you
would, to Luke chapter 1, verse 35. Luke chapter 1. Luke 1, verse 35, And the angel answered and said unto
her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. That holy thing being Christ. Christ Jesus our Lord. He was
born sinless. We are born sinners. He is born
sinless. And this can be said of none
other but the Lord Jesus Christ. He is proclaimed through the
New Testament as spotless and perfect. Turn, if you would,
to Acts 3. Perfect and spotless. The Holy
One. The Holy One. Acts 3. And keep in mind our text that
we started with, right? Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth, 1 Peter 2.22. And 1 John 3.5, and you know
that he was manifest to take away our sins, and in him is
no sin. Look at Acts chapter 3. And then we'll go one more chapter
over to verse 4. But Acts chapter 3, look at this, 13 to 15. The God of Abraham and of Isaac
and of Jacob, the God of your fathers, hath glorified His Son,
whom you delivered up and denied Him in the presence of Pilate
when He was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy
One." There He is. The Holy One. Perfect. "...and
the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. and killed
the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof
we are witnesses." Turn, if you would, one chapter over to Acts
4, verses 26-28. He's called the Holy Child. Acts
4, 26-28. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ for a truth against Thy holy child, Jesus,
whom Thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel gathered together for to do whatsoever
Thy hand and Thy counsel determined to be done. So they did whatever
God determined them to do. In the same Greek word here,
think of this, the same Greek word is used in all these occurrences
in the New Testament. It means sacred, physically pure,
moral, blameless, or religious, ceremonially consecrated, most
holy one. Now here's something for us to
ponder as believers. The word saint is the same Greek
word. The word saint is the same Greek
word. How can this be? Well, let us
remember that we are saved on the basis of our union with Christ. So the believer is made holy,
blameless, spotless. Now, we're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ, remember, we who believe. And it's only because we are
clothed in the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. Only
in Him are we made holy. We are not made holy outside
of Christ. Only in Him. But it's the same
Greek word. Because we're clothed in His
righteousness. Sanctified by Him. One commentator
said this, Christ is the author of holiness to His people. We
are sanctified in Him. We have our sanctification from
Him, and we are sanctified by Him. And this is precious truth
for the believer. Precious truth. When we study on Christ's sinlessness,
we become more aware of our unworthiness of the free gift of God and Christ. Christ went through life perfect.
Spotless. Sinless. Can we even fathom that? But
Scripture declares this. And as we looked at it, even
the demons call Him the Holy One of God. They know who He
is. And yet men, and we saw the power
demonstrated, didn't we? By Him. And yet men think that it's their
choice and their will that they come to God. When here our great
king even told those demons, hold your peace. And what happened?
They held their peace. That's all power, beloved. That's
one who has all power and all majesty. And his holiness, his
perfect spotless life is accounted to me a sinner.
And to you, if you believe. See, he lived the substitutionary
life, didn't he? As well as died a substitutionary
death. And as we study this, as we look
more at who Christ is, as I said, we see our utter unworthiness.
We are not deserving of this. We get mercy. Mercy. It's incredible. It's absolutely
incredible. Turn, if you would, to Revelation
3. Revelation 3. He is spoken of in Revelation
3 as He that is holy. This is speaking of Christ. He
went through life perfect, sinless. One commentator said, with a
sense of unclouded fellowship with God. Perfect fellowship
with God. No wonder He cried, My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He had perfect fellowship with
God. But God forsook God on Calvary's
cross. I remember Brother Henry saying
that, and it just struck me. God forsook God. Why? To pay for my sins. And if you're a believer, to
pay for yours. What mercy. What love. Look at
Revelation 3, verse 7. And to the angel of the church
in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy.
Look at this. He that is true. So Christ is
holy and He's true. And he that hath the key of David.
He that openeth and no man shutteth. Now there's power. There's authority,
right? He can open and no man can shut it. And shutteth and
no man open. He does whatever He pleases.
He's absolutely sovereign. Our Savior is the Holy God. Holy
and reverend is His name. He is the Holy One of Israel,
as we looked at earlier in our message. Being God, He is glorious
in holiness. Exodus 15, 11. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is equal with the Father and equal with the Holy Spirit.
He's God. And He's God incarnate in the
flesh. And the text in Revelation 3-7 has reference to Christ's
holiness as the God-man, our Savior, which is what we're looking
at today. His sinlessness. His absolute
sinlessness. These things saith He that is
holy. And it is our Redeemer's representative,
meditatorial, vicarious holiness that gives us comfort and encourages
us to trust Him. That He's perfect. He's the only
one sufficient to be our Savior. None of us could be a Savior
for anyone else, let alone ourselves. Because we're sinners. But He's
perfect. Spotless. Sinless. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners. Well, He lived as a man in this
world. He had no sin, no original sin, no actual sin. He was perfect
in every way. He was made to be sin for His
people by divine imputation. And when He died as our Substitute
on Calvary's cross, He had no sin of His own, which we looked
at earlier. He knew no sin. The Prince of
this world cometh and hath nothing in Him. Nothing. Nothing. He's our representative, our
substitute, the Son of God, and He lived in this world in absolute,
perfect holiness for us, doing that which we could never
do in our place. Remember, He died before God's
law and justice in our place. He lived that life in our place. Let us who trust Christ remember
this as it will strengthen us through our pilgrimage on this
earth. Turn if you would to Romans 5.19. Let us remember this. The
Lord Jesus Christ lived as the believer's substitute and died
as the believer's substitute. Look at Romans 5.9. Or 5.19, I'm sorry, 5.19, not
9. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, we fell on Adam dead. So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Made righteous. We can't do it
on our own. We're made righteous. And we
saw that, didn't we, in 2 Corinthians 5.21. Made the righteousness
of God. Now let us remember this. Let
this be comfort to us. If you are a believer, if you
trust Christ and His blood has washed away all your sins, let
us remember this. Number one, His sacrifice paid
your debts, my debts, before God satisfied the law and justice
of God that demanded death. And what does He do? He dies
in the ruined place of sinners. Number two, His death removed
Your guilt and my guilt before God. Remove it. My, what comfort this brings
the believer. His precious blood purchased our eternal souls.
Purchased by the precious blood of Christ. In His righteousness,
His complete obedience to God as a man, right? His complete
obedience to God as a man. His righteousness is imputed
to us. And our sins are imputed to Him. He is therefore called, what
we sang last week, the Lord Our Righteousness. The Lord Our Righteousness. He's the God-Man. Divine and human. He was united
in one. And He could not have sinned
because He is God. He's perfect. Perfect. Tempted
yet without sin. And He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He's absolutely sinless. And
He's my Savior. Is it yours? Oh my. And it is because Christ alone
is sinless, that Acts 4.12 is true, which says this, neither
is there salvation in any of them. No other. For there's none other name unto
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Let's go to
Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank you for today and the teaching that we looked at and the sinlessness
of you, Lord Jesus. Oh, that you left the glories
and splendors of heaven. King, supreme, ruling and reigning
and became a man. holy and perfect and sinless. And that You went to the cross
and died in the place of Your people. Oh, that our sins were
imputed to Thee, and Your perfect righteousness is imputed to us.
May we ever glory in this, Lord. Glory in... this precious, precious
fact that You died to redeem Your people upon the cross and
that You lived that perfect life that we never could before God's
holy law, holy law and holy justice in our place. Oh Lord, may we
leave here today with grateful hearts. May we rejoice in the
salvation we who believe that we have in Thee and we love You
because You first loved us. In Jesus' name, Amen.