Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. Today I'm continuing with a message
that I began last week entitled, The Impeccable Christ. This is part two. This will be
the conclusion of that part one and two. So I urge you to get
last week's message. But when we talk about the impeccable
Christ, what we're talking about is the sinless Christ. Jesus Christ, is both God and
man in one person. He is fully God in every attribute
of deity, and he is fully man in every attribute of sinless
humanity. And I read this last week in
John chapter 14 in verse 30. This is the main text that we
launched out from. And then we're gonna go back
to a passage in 2 Corinthians chapter five, talking about reconciliation
based upon the impeccable Christ. But here he's speaking to his
disciples in John 14 in verse 30, and he's preparing them for
his going to the cross. This is the Upper Room Discourses.
And after he finishes with the Upper Room Discourses, he goes
into the Garden of Gethsemane. He has that human struggle with
things that he's about to face and go through an experience
that he had never experienced before, the pain, the suffering.
Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, he sweat great drops of blood,
agonizing. And this is part of the requirement
that he had to go through to suffer unto death. for the sins
of His people. And let me tell you something.
Now, all of this was based upon a legal act of imputation, which
means charging the demerit of the sins of God's people to Him.
And we'll talk about that more. But His suffering under the wrath
of His Father as the surety, the substitute, the Redeemer
of His people, it was real suffering. It was agonizing. I believe it
was suffering like nobody else has ever suffered. And he suffered
unto death, dying on that cross. And you know what happened to
him as he went to the cross. The beatings, the lying, the
crown of thorns, the cat of nine tail, all of that, they would
The Roman soldiers would sneak around, they would bash him and
then dare him to tell who hit him, things like that, that he
was going through. And then being nailed to the
cross in his hands, in his feet, the spear in his side, all of
that, suffered unto death. And he did it justly. And yet
all that time that he was suffering unto death, he remained within
himself the impeccable Christ. He did not sin. He could not
have sinned. That's what impeccability means.
Not only did Christ not sin, He could not have sinned because
He's God manifest in the flesh. He knew no sin, we're going to
read later. He had no thoughts of sin, no motives, no desires
of sin within his mind, his affections, his will, his conscience. And
yet he was made sin. But look, let's read this John
14 and verse 31 one more time. It says, hereafter he told his
disciples, I will not talk much with you after the upper room
discourses. And after he went into the garden
of Gethsemane and they came to arrest him, he wouldn't be talking
with them much. He says, for the prince of this
world is come, or the prince of this world cometh and hath
nothing in me. And what he means by that is
Satan, he's coming and he's going to try to overthrow and divert
Christ from the work of God. But he says, Satan has no ally
within me. And you gotta see that in comparison
to us. Even as sinners saved by grace,
we still have the nature of sinful flesh within us, which is an
ally with Satan. And I used the, last week I used
the example of the Apostle Peter in Matthew chapter 16, when Christ
asked the disciples, who do men say that I am? And you remember
they told him what a lot of people were saying. And then he looked
at the disciples and he said, but who do you say that I am?
And Peter spoke up and he said, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. You're the Messiah. That's what
Peter was saying. You're God manifest in the flesh.
You're the second person of the Trinity. You're the redeemer.
And Christ told him, he said, blessed art thou Simon, son of
Jonah, Simon bar Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed
that to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. So when Peter made
that confession, he was speaking under a revelation and by the
Spirit of God. But then after that, you go back
to this passage and read it, Matthew chapter 16. Let's read
it here this morning. Let's look at in Matthew chapter
16. And you know this passage. This is the one that is perverted
by the Catholic church to claim that Peter is the rock upon which
the church is built. And that's just simply not true.
And we'll read that. He said in verse 15, Matthew
16. Now listen to this. He said,
he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? Who do you
disciples say that I am? In verse 16, Matthew 16, and
Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, blessed art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and blood have not
revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven. And
then he look at verse 18. Now this is the verse that the
false Catholic church perverts. to say Peter is the rock. They
say he was the first Pope. He was not a Pope. Peter was
not a celibate priest. He had a wife. The Bible tells
us that he went to his home house and his mother-in-law was there
and she was sick and Christ healed her. But in verse 18 it says,
and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter. And that's a
word that means rock, but it means a little rock. small rock
and he said and upon this rock now that's another word that
means rock that means a giant rock like a boulder and he says
and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it the rock upon which the church
is built is not Peter the little rock the rock upon which the
church is built is Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the
dead Christ is the rock. On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is nothing but
sinking sand. Do you sing that song? Well,
if you do, do you mean it? Peter later on denied Christ,
but even right here in this passage, and I want you to see this in
Matthew 16. He said in verse 19, he said, I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. That's not
giving Peter the keys to the pearly gates as religious mythology
teaches and as people joke about. Well, they all went to meet St.
Peter at the pearly gates. Peter's not standing at the pearly
gates with the keys to let you in or keep you out. Peter's a
sinner saved by grace. And I thank God for Peter, one
of the apostles and the Holy Spirit used him to write two
letters in the New Testament that are beautiful letters. But
he's not the gatekeeper. The keys here, that's the gospel.
When you preach the gospel and you hear the gospel and believe
the gospel, that's the key to the kingdom of heaven. And what
is the gospel? It's the revelation of the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ, the righteousness
of God revealed. That which Christ, the merits
of Christ, the God-man who put away my sins. And when you preach
the gospel and you tell people, look, if you don't believe this
gospel, you're gonna perish. You see? Now that's binding in
heaven and on earth. And if you believe this gospel,
that gives evidence that you've been born of God and you're going
to enter heaven's glory. And that's binding in heaven
and on earth. And so look at verse 20. He says,
then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man
that he was Jesus the Christ. That has to do with the timing
of things. There's a time that it would
all be revealed. Verse 21, now listen to this.
Now Peter, remember what he said, he spoke by the Spirit of God.
Thou art the Son of God, thou art the Christ. Well here it
says, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples
how that he must go into Jerusalem, suffer many things of the elders
and the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and be raised
again the third day. Now he was telling them that.
Well, look at verse 22. Then Peter took him and began
to rebuke him. Can you imagine that? Peter, a mere sinner saved by
grace, rebuking the Holy One of God, began to rebuke him,
saying, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto
thee. Peter said, you shall not go and die. Well, look at what
Christ said to Peter, verse 23. But he turned and said unto Peter,
get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. You're speaking out
of your sinful human nature, Peter, and by a desire that's
inspired by Satan. You see, Satan didn't want Christ
to go to the cross. You remember what Christ said
over and over in the book of John chapter 12 when he was talking
about his death on the cross? And he said this, he said in
verse 31 of John chapter 12, I mean verse
chapter 13, but look here in John chapter 12 verse 31. talking
about his debt. He says, now is the judgment
of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world, Satan, be cast out. In other words, Satan would be
cast out in the sense that he would be on the outside. He could
no longer charge the people of God like he did with Job. And in other words, all that
Satan would fire against his people would be diverted by the
death of Christ. Christ said in verse 32, and
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me,
all of his people for whom he died. All the elect of God, all
that the Father gave him before the foundation of the world.
And he says this, he said, signifying what death he should die. Well,
over here in John 14, he said, well, I'm getting ready to go
to the cross. Satan is going to come and try
to divert him from that. But he says, Satan has nothing
in me. No ally in me. Now, he had an
ally in Peter, the sinful flesh. He has an ally in me. I'm a sinner
saved by grace. I still have the fleshly sinful
human nature. But I have a new heart, a new
spirit. I have the Holy Spirit who indwells me. And there's
a warfare within. The spirit against the flesh
and the flesh against the spirit. The spirit's gonna win out. We
know that. Paul said that in Romans 7, when
he said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. The battle's won, really, but
we have to go through this struggle here on earth, where there was
no fleshly sinful struggle within Christ. He was and is the impeccable
Christ. He could not have sinned. He
could not be contaminated with sin. Sin could never be transferred
into him, into his mind, his affections, his will. I heard
a preacher say one time that in order for Christ to be a proper
substitute, he had to become everything that I am in order
that I might become everything that he is. Well, my friend,
that's blasphemy. He had to become everything that
I am by nature before conversion. I'm an idolater, a sinner who
cannot rise above it. You mean Christ had to become
a sinner like me in order to redeem me? That's blasphemy.
And me to become everything that He is? I'm not gonna be everything
that He is. He's God, manifest in the flesh. But now I'm going
to be made like Him in the sense of the moral qualities of spiritual
life and glory. Those transferable attributes,
love. One day when I die and go to
be with Him, I'll love like He loved. I'll obey like He obeyed,
all of that. But I'll never be God. I'll never
be divine in my nature. I'm human. I'll be in a spiritual
body that'll live forever when I go to be with Christ. But I'm
not gonna become him and he's not gonna become me. So he's
the impeccable Christ. Well, last week we turned to
this scripture, 2 Corinthians chapter five, and I want you
to go there again. And I read verse 21. Now this
passage is about God being reconciled to sinners and sinners being
reconciled to God. And that was brought about by
the impeccable Christ being made sin. Look at verse 21. For he
hath made him to be sin for us. And the way that would read in
the original, something like this, if we translate it into
English, it would be for he hath made him sin for us. Now the he there is God the Father.
For God the Father hath made him, the him there is God the
Son incarnate. God-man, Christ. God the Father
hath made Christ the Son sin for us. He was made sin. Now
how was he made sin? Now remember the title of this
message and remember what Christ said in our text back in John
14, 30. He said, Satan has nothing in me. the impeccable Christ? How could one who is impeccable,
sinlessly perfect, incapable of being a sinner, incapable
of being corrupted or contaminated by sin, how could he be made
sin? What does that mean? And it says
in verse 21 of 2 Corinthians 5, he knew no sin, that's talking
about Christ. It follows the word us, but the
construction here goes back to Christ. Christ who knew no sin. Now he came to this earth and
he walked with sinners. He consorted with them. He ate
with publicans and sinners. Remember the Pharisees accused
him of that. And he told him, he said, well, I come not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And in all that
time, he was never made a sinner. He was never corrupted with sin.
He was never contaminated. And he was made sin. So he said,
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Now the righteousness of God
there refers to the merits, the worth, the value of the obedience
unto death of Christ as the surety, the substitute and the redeemer
of his people. And it's what we call the imputed
righteousness of Christ. The righteousness that God has
legally, forensically charged to his people in a legal way. That's justification. Being forgiven
of our sins based on a right ground the blood of Christ, and
being declared righteous in the sight of God, based upon a right
ground, the righteousness of Christ, charged, accounted, put
to our count. Well, how was he made sin? Well,
the sins of God's elect, the sins of his sheep, the demerit,
you might say, the unworthiness, The legal liability, the debt
of our sins was charged to Christ legally and forensically. They
weren't put into him, into his mind, his affections, his will.
They did not contaminate him. They did not corrupt him. While
he was on that cross, having been made sin, he had no sinful
thoughts, no sinful desires, not even any sinful doubt. You
can see that, if nothing else, you can see that from the seven
sayings on the cross. Christ was not corrupted. He
remained the impeccable Christ, holy, harmless, undefiled, the
spotless lamb. That's who he was, the incorruptible
lamb. He was never made a sinner. He
was never corrupted. Now the context proves this out.
As I said last week, this passage is about reconciliation, peace
made between God and sinners. Back over in John 14, when he's
talking to his disciples, he said, peace I give you, my peace
I leave with you. That's the peace that Christ
made by the blood of the cross between God and his people. That's
what he's talking about. That's reconciliation. Here in
this passage, he's talking about salvation. Salvation, which includes
the legal justification of God's people, the forensic part of
salvation, sin imputed to Christ, righteousness imputed to his
people, In the court of God's justice, the debt's paid, it's
wiped out. And it's talking about the new
birth, being made a new creature in Christ. Old things passed
away, all things become new. We've been brought from unbelief
to faith, from no repentance to repentance, all of that. And
it's all based upon this reconciliation that God has brought to his people
through Christ, and he says in verse 18, now this is 2 Corinthians
5, 18, and all things are of God. That's all things in salvation. All things in eternal life. It's all of God. It's not of
you, it's not of me. It was all of God, His sovereign
will and good pleasure. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will. I'll be gracious to whom I will. It's all in Christ. Conditioned on Him. It's not
conditioned on you or me. It's not conditioned on our believing.
Yes, we must believe, but that's a gift from God. Because Christ
had fulfilled all conditions of salvation, all of his people
will be born again and brought to faith in Christ by the power
of the Spirit under the gospel. Faith's the gift of God. It didn't
come to you naturally. And so he says, all things are
of God who hath reconciled us, verse 18, unto himself by Jesus
Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now,
what is the ministry of reconciliation? It's the gospel, preaching the
gospel. the gospel of reconciliation,
the gospel of peace, the ministry of reconciliation, and he says
in verse 19, to wit. Now that means namely. In other
words, God has given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, now
listen to this, verse 19, that God was in Christ. God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
engaged himself in the person and work of Christ. The Bible
says that in Christ, we see the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's Colossians chapter two
and verse nine. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead. So God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. In other words, God reconciled
them to himself. God made peace. God was at peace
with the world. Now, is the world there all without
exception? No. The Bible never uses the
word world to mean everybody without exception. There's always
a qualification. Well, what is the qualification
here? Now, look at this. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now,
what is this imputing, imputation? God did not charge the debt of
their sins to them. Now, here's the point. If God
does not impute sins to you, you cannot perish. You could
not go to hell. So who's he talking about here
that he doesn't impute sins to? Well, you can read it over in
Romans chapter eight, I believe it's verse 31. I may have that,
it's either 31 or 32, but it'll be up on your screen. In Romans
chapter eight, it says, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
is risen again, and is seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. That's the world there. It's the world of God's elect.
And the reason they use the word world is because they wanted
to make it clear that this is not just for the Jews. This is
for God's elect Jew and Gentile all over the world. God has a
people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. You know,
when I was growing up in false religion in our Sunday school
classes, whenever we came to the word elect or election, my
Sunday school teachers always taught me that, oh, that's just
for the Jews. Well, no, it's not just for the
Jews. God has a chosen people. out
of the Jews and the Gentiles, a remnant according to the election
of grace. And who are they? They are those
to whom God does not impute their trespasses unto them. He doesn't
charge them with their sin. What did he do with them? He
charged them to Christ. Christ was made sin, the impeccable
Christ. He was made sin by God imputing,
charging, accounting the sins of his people Jew and
Gentile all over the world to Christ. And he remained impeccable. Well, let's read it again. Verse
19, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, again, that's the gospel.
And he says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be
ye reconciled to God. That's the gospel. We're calling
on sinners to be reconciled to God on that same ground, the
imputed righteousness of Christ. God made him to be sin for us,
Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. You be reconciled to God, not
based on your works, not based upon conditions you met, but
based upon the Christ and His righteousness alone. I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.