Address—Tim Ruga
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Could we start the meeting?
By singing just the first verse of 228.
Join all the glorious names of wisdom, love, and power that mortals ever knew, that angels ever bore. All are too mean to speak His word, too mean to set the Savior forth #228 just the first verse.
Join all the glory.
Oh.
Let's pray.
Could we start by turning to Matthew chapter 23?
Matthew 23.
And verse 18.
Lord Jesus speaking, he says, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Now these are not the Lord's words. He's repeating what the scribes and the Pharisees said.
He says then in verse 19, you fools and blind weather, is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? So what is the Lord talking about here?
Well, for the scribes and Pharisees, they had gotten quite taken up with apparently the gift that they were offering up of its various forms and forgetting all about the altar and its importance. And there's much to that subject that I don't intend to go into, but I want to use this just as an application of what is on my heart. Because when I consider this verse, I thought, well.
I think about the gift. I think of the Lord Jesus Christ, because that is indeed.
What those sacrifices offered in the altar all spoke of, and I thought, well, what could be greater than that gift? And the Lord says here.
Which is greater? The gift of the altar that sets it apart?
I puzzled over that for a little and I thought, well, the altar clearly speaks of Christ as well.
It's the basis, the foundation for the gift. It's that on which God ordained that the gift should be offered up on, not any altar, but it had to be in a proper foundation. And in my application, it has to do with the person and the work of Christ. The work of Christ is so precious and so valuable to us.
But not when it's separated from his person.
He is the altar and without the foundation of himself, his blessed person, the gift doesn't have the value. It requires that foundation. And this isn't the only place, of course, where you can find this thought. We are considering not long ago in First Corinthians chapter 2, where the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians.
That when he came among them, he determined to know nothing.
Save Jesus Christ and him crucified. There it is again, those two things. Jesus Christ, his person and him crucified, His work, both of them vital foundational doctrines. But what is on my heart today has to do more with the 1St. In fact, it has to do everything with the 1St. I want to talk a little bit this afternoon about the.
Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I want to talk about this person in connection with three things, because if you take a subject up like this, obviously it's vast. Another thing about taking it up, our brother mentioned earlier in the open meeting that the apostle Paul said, I only know in part, and I'm painfully conscious of that when speaking on a subject like this, you're going to speak about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How much do we actually apprehend of His blessed person?
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And I have to tell you for myself.
It's probably a lot less than it ought to be, but by God's grace I've enjoyed a few things and I want to share them here today. Three things in particular. First of all, I wanted to speak about His divinity. Second of all, I want to speak shortly about the Trinity, and particularly as it relates to God the Son. And the third thing is about his holy nature.
These three things, a couple of these have already been mentioned here earlier today.
So if we were to go on and see if you say, well how important is that? I think no true believer will question it. But the Lord made it very clear when it comes to His work. You go on in John chapter 6 and you find that the Lord said, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you've got no life in you. And whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood have eternal life and I will raise him up.
At the last day.
And so he's speaking about believing in him, believing in his work, and actually making it part of yourself. And he's saying without that, there's no salvation. The same is true, though, when it comes to this person. And for that, we can go to John 8. Let's turn there. John chapter 8, and these are many of the verses I'll be reading here this afternoon, are well known.
To many here, but there may be some that haven't considered them yet. And.
It's to you. I'm mainly speaking.
And for all of us, we can enjoy the truth of these words. Verse 24 John 824 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins. These are the ones who had rejected what the Lord had said, improving all that he was.
Middle verse 24 for if you believe not that I am.
He shall die in your sins. Father told us earlier we should check the J&D translation. Even in our King James. You can see it's in italics. He does not belong there.
The Lord Jesus is speaking about the fact that He is the great I am. And what does that mean? Well, we could go back to Exodus chapter 3 and look at that forsake of time. I'll just refer to it. The Lord had come to Moses and sent him to the children of Israel to give a message unto them. And they said, well, and Moses said, well, who should I say has sent me? And the Lord said.
I am that I am.
And he said to Moses, shall you say to the children of Israel?
I am has sent me unto you.
That was his name.
The eternal self existent one, the I am a short God and here in this verse there is simply no question the Lord Jesus is saying unless you believe I am.
You could say I am God, you will die in your sins. There is no other way around that. We must believe in who He is, in His person that He is indeed.
The not only the Son of God, but God the Son, the true.
Son of God come from God himself, God in himself. Just go a little further on this chapter. We see this proved.
At the end of the chapter, verse 58.
Verse 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
And Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was.
I am.
Now I could stand here and I could say before.
My child was. I was.
And that would be true because I was. I existed before any of my children.
I could not say before Stephen Stewart was I was that would not be true because he is older than me.
But in no case and with anyone could I say before so and so was I am.
Because this language applies to one and one only, and that is the eternal self existent one, the one who is speaking, saying these words, our Lord Jesus Christ. And so he we have here very plainly presented in the Scripture the Lord Jesus claiming to be all that He ever was, God.
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Truly God, God the Son, come in the flesh.
And I just want to stop for a moment and tell a story, something that happened many years ago and partly why this is so much in my heart. When I was just in my maybe the very end of my teens, I was going to school and I was in Newark, NJ. And every day I used to walk along there and I used to pass a whole group of people that would stand in the train station.
And they would hold up magazines that said Awake on them. Have you ever seen them?
And I would pass a group of maybe 10 of them. I think there was quite a number like that every single day there. And it bothered me a lot. I thought, well, you know, I, I know the truth regarding the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation. And I'm a believer. And I walked past them. They're out there claiming to offer something to people. I ought to perhaps talk to them.
One day I got off the nerve, the nerve and I, I did. I went and spoke to them.
And about half the group immediately converged on me and we had quite a fight. I have to say I don't know that it was profitable.
And in all of that, it's just struggling to make my points and doing what I was thinking to defend the Lord Jesus. But something happened and.
Scared me a lot when I left that place, I was shaken.
They had said something that really scared me.
They spoke about the Lord Jesus and they said well He is not God because he's only a creature and in fact the Word of God says that he's the first born of every creature. He was the first one created and everyone followed him.
I knew there was ever something like that.
And it scared me a lot. But what scared me more was than that was this. That here I was a believer, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I was actually doubting this question, But how could this be?
Am I not even saved at all? Have I missed something? Well I did what any believer would do. I went back to God in His Word and I got some helps too and I went up and and looked up every verse I could find on this subject.
Until I was entirely satisfied from the Word of God that those people were wrong, that the Word of God is crystal clear about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he is indeed God. I came to the same point that Thomas did, where I could say my Lord and my God, and I'm so glad that Thomas doubted.
It was, I wasn't the first one, a true believer, but it's good to get a hold of these things. It's very important that we go.
And we learn what the word of God has to say about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and understand something about that. And it's not just good to have had knowledge or maybe to be assured that we weren't wrong. No, there's something wonderful about this. And when you go and you take up the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and you drink him in, and you eat him as that true bread that came down from heaven.
Indeed, you and I will find rest for our souls.
This is not meant as an intellectual exercise. Let's go and look at the verse that those ones were quoting that days in Colossians 1.
Colossians 1.
And the end of verse 13 says his dear son talking about God the Father, and now it goes on to speak some things about his dear Son, or the Son of his love.
Verse 14 In whom we have redemption, who is blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature. Now again, that's not the best translation should no doubt be as Mr. Darby translates with the first born of all creation, the Lord Jesus.
Is called here the first born of all creation.
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It isn't that he was a creature at all.
He was the first born in this. That is creation. And what does that mean?
Well, like any other subject in the Word of God, you typically don't have to go far to find out.
But especially when it comes to this subject that we're talking about today, because there is nothing that the Spirit of God guards more jealously in the Scriptures than the person of Christ. And so you will find the teaching regarding Him and His person.
Laid out in the plainest terms over and over again the scripture from new to old. So we just go on down here.
Verse 16 For by him were all things created.
That are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible.
Whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. Doesn't that answer the question quite directly and show that actually our King James Bibles don't have the right word when it comes to creature, at least not created creature?
No, our Lord Jesus Christ was not created. If He was created then how could everything be created by Him as it says in John chapter one and verse 3, without Him was not anything made that was made?
Impossible.
It was all created by him.
So they were wrong when they said that he was the first created being. Clearly the scriptures show that he is not a created being. Everything created was done by him. And who could do that?
God alone He had to be before all the other things that were created, and that is what was true of our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 17. He is before all things and by Him all things consist. Notice what it says here doesn't say He was before all things.
We're back to that word. I am again, aren't we?
Is before all things. Only God could speak this way. It's God of whom it says in Isaiah chapter 57 that he is the high and lofty one who dwells in eternity for me and you. We dwell in space and we can walk this way, then we can walk that way, go back again, but when it comes to eternity, we don't.
Blown it that way. We live in it, yes, but we're bound by it entirely. God is not.
I can't go backwards in time, I can't even go forward in time. I just go along with time as God has ordained it. But God is not so bound. And this is our Lord Jesus Christ. And so He could say I am. He is before all things. He lives in the ever existing present. He is that one that we can only dimly apprehend.
Well.
If we could go back and look about what it says here, the first born of every creature, what does that mean? We could go back to Psalm 89, I believe it is. And there God says that He would make David his first born harder than the kings of the earth.
How could that be? David was last born of Jesse's eighth sons.
Clearly, who wasn't first born in terms of the first one born? And so we see definitely from Scripture that first born is used to mean something else. When you go to Jeremiah 31 and find the same expression about Ephraim. And who was Ephraim? God speaking about bringing the children of Israel back. He wasn't even one of Israel's children. He was a grandson and not even the 1St.
In his family, the 2nd.
That is not anything to do.
In these examples, with the first one born does it speaking about something else entirely. So what is it speaking about? Well, let's continue on in Colossians one, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead. Oh no, there's another first born.
He wasn't the first one raised, but even that isn't the point.
The point is what we have in the last clause of this 18th verse, that in all things he might have the preeminence. That is what the Spirit of God is speaking about when He's speaking about first born of all creation. In everything the Lord Jesus has the preeminence. He has that place above the others, just like God would give to David.
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Like he will in that coming day to Ephraim.
That's the idea. Not that the first one, this one, was the first one born for the Lord Jesus was the first one created, but that He is the one to have that place above all others before God.
He himself, God the Son. Now one more that I just want to refer to and First Timothy chapter three, First Timothy 3.
And there's so many of these.
That I would just recommend if somebody wants to go and look, there's more than 100 reasons.
I forget the rest of the title by BTP. It's all online. It's free now, There's Brown's book on Jesus, Jehovah. These are wonderful little pamphlets that lay this subject out beautifully, and they lay out enough that you can take many, many, many hours to go through it and enjoy every single minute of them too. But we're going to just have to limit it here.
Sake of time and so it says First Timothy 3 verse 16 and without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. This is our Lord Jesus Christ. God manifests in the flesh. Don't let anyone try to take that away from you like those ones did that day this subject.
Is established.
Clearly in the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, though it says in Second Corinthians he was crucified in weakness.
Yet he lives by the power of God, and he ever was. This what we have here.
God manifest in the flesh. I would encourage you something else too.
Her brother was reading about Philip and Daniel. Get a little further down, you see.
Nathanael finally meets the Lord and.
He said, well, when did you see me, Rabbi? Lord said I saw you when you were under the tree.
Nathaniel realized that here was one who was all knowing.
And speaking about his omniscience, it's a divine attribute of God. It belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not belong to creatures who are created.
He has that attribute.
Nathaniel says thou art the king of Israel, Thou art the Son of God. He acknowledges he's God the Son. Who else could do that? You go on to John chapter 2, the beginning of the chapter. You find that there's a wedding in King of Galilee, and the Lord Jesus then takes water and he makes it into wine. What is that? Who can do that?
Only God a being all powerful.
The Creator, that's his omnipotence, another divine attribute of God. You go a little further in John you find the Lord Jesus speaking and he says no man came down from heaven, but he who came down.
Out of heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.
What is that? The Lord Jesus was there talking to them at the same moment he was in heaven.
How could that be?
Because he's omnipresent, a divine attribute of God. These things belong to God and to God alone, and you will find these things and many other divine attributes.
Tied to Him and His person as presented in the Holy Scriptures and to no created being. And He would leave that through each one here to go.
If you haven't made that study, go ahead and do it. It's a wonderful study.
Going on just if we could to look at the second part of what I wanted to speak about is the Trinity. And here we have.
A whole other subject involving more than the Lord Jesus. But if I could introduce it this way, was at a conference like this where a brother came up to me and he said, what would you say God is? Is he one God who shows himself?
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In different ways.
Or would you say that he is?
A3 Distinct persons.
I said, well, undoubtedly the 2nd. And it's important, isn't it? This is the doctrine of the Trinity.
And God has revealed in the scriptures is one. Yes, that is true.
But he has revealed himself in three eternally distinct divine persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And we need to understand that this is what the Scripture teaches. There are many who call themselves Christians today who deny this doctrine. And so if we could, I just want to look at that. I'll refer to some of it.
You find this alluded to right in the beginning of.
The Bible, Genesis one verse 26, God, Elohim plural, said let us make man in our own, in our image and after our likeness. There's a plurality there, God saying this, so he's speaking.
To more than one.
Who would that be? Angels, No.
The angels Angels never created anything.
It's a Trinity, and we don't find out the doctrine of the Trinity in that verse. In fact, we've got to go all the way to the New Testament to really get it clearly laid out for us. But it's God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit conferring in themselves as to what they are going to do. And so we have this truth animated at least from the very beginning, from the first chapter.
Of the Bible and we could go and we can look and see how each one of these divine persons is eternal. We took the time we could trace it out and with God the Father but certainly in terms of God himself from eternity to eternity thou art God. That unquestionably speaks of the father, although you couldn't deny he speaks of the Son and the Holy Spirit as well. We turn to to.
Hebrews Chapter 9 we would see there.
That the Lord Jesus by the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God. Spirit of God is spoken of as a person who is eternal. But my object is to speak about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I just want to look at a few verses regarding him and the first one would be in Isaiah chapter 91 That I think we all know very, very well.
Isaiah 9, verse 6.
For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given, not born. Of course the son was never born. He existed from eternity.
How do we know that? Read on. The government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called. Wonderful counselor, the mighty God. Any question about this child that was to be born one day, this son that was to be given? No, it's the mighty God. What is the next thing?
Says in our Bible is the everlasting Father really should be the father of eternity, the Lord Jesus.
Was the Father of eternity.
I don't know if there was anything to be created about eternity, but if there was, he created it. He was the father of it.
He is that eternal being of whom we are speaking about, God the Son, a person that existed for all eternity in this Trinity, this triune being that is revealed in the Scriptures as God, the One God. Another beautiful verse returned to this Micah Micah chapter.
5.
And verse two says, But thou Bethlehem Africa, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he.
Come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, who's going forth have been from old, from everlasting, or from the days of eternity.
And this is the Lord Jesus Christ, no question about it in the Scriptures. And all the Jews know it too. You go to Matthew chapter 3, you find out that they were able to tell the wise men there exactly from this very verse where Christ would be born the Messiah. You go to John Chapter 7, you see the same things the the Jews in Jerusalem many years later still knew it, no question that this is Messiah. And what does it say of Him?
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His goings forth have been from eternity, the days of eternity.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is this divine being who has existed for all eternity. He's the eternal Son of God. Now, I just want to take up one aspect of this, because when you look at this subject, you'll find that those who deny the Trinity, a great many of them are called Unitarians.
And according to my understanding of Unitarians, the vast majority of them.
A claim that God is just one God, God the Father. They deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They deny the even the personality of the Holy Spirit and claim he's just a force so.
I'm not going to take up that further. We've already seen plenty on that. But there are those who deny any distinction between the persons in the Godhead, and that's really what I want to talk about here.
The next few minutes.
This is how I came to find that out. One day in Malawi, my neighbor came and he said I'm aware that the rapture is coming and the Lord Jesus is coming to take true believers home. And he says I'm terrified to be left behind at the rapture. He said I would like if you could come to my house and tell me.
What I can do so that I won't be left behind at the rapture? Well, I'm happy enough to do that.
So I went over there, I took a brother in the assembly with me and we went to his house and when I got there I found out he had something else in mind altogether.
Andy, once we sat down, he looked at me and he said look at me, He said here in my house, he said I am a husband and I am a father, He said when I'm at the school I'm a teacher, when I'm at the church I'm a pastor. But I'm still one person, he said. And so is God. That's the way God is, he said.
He just shows himself in different ways.
As Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But it's just one God.
Was that true?
No, that's error. It's a terrible error, and a lot of Christians believe that they're not true Christians at all. They profess to be Christians, and I just say now because they don't want to forget to do it.
Be aware of this. They don't come as those who.
Are, you know, I'm not too sure about my Christianity. These particular ones call themselves Bible believers, and they tend to come across as being very sure about all of this. And here in the United States, I think they're called Branhamites. But you'll find a great many. They're called Oneness Pentecostals and others beside that as well. And one of the things that they do is they like to teach Jesus only.
And it sounds really honoring to the Lord Jesus.
But it's not because in it they're saying that he is God and everything is God in him. And they deny anything else. They deny the Trinity and they take the baptism and they won't even baptize in any name but his only They won't baptize in the name of the Father of the Son. And the Holy Spirit is in Matthew chapter 28. So I just say that be aware of it. Well, we took this man to to.
Matthew chapter four we just turned there verse Matthew 3. I'm sorry.
Verse 16.
Says in Jesus when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.
And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
This is one of many verses in the Scriptures that answers the question entirely as to this error. Here is God the Son he's baptized, and what does he see? The Spirit of God descending from heaven, a divine person distinct from himself. And then there's a voice from heaven that says, This is my beloved Son. Who could that be but the Father?
Speaking from an entirely different place from heaven.
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Is it not clear?
Well, the man my neighbor was following, William Branham said, well, God was just acting like in a play, that's blasphemy. These ones who take up the truth of the Trinity that way and deny it a blasphemy. And in fact, whenever you get into denial, the truth regarding the person of the Lord Jesus Christ or God.
By definition, it's blasphemy. We need to be very careful of that. Let's go to Luke chapter 22. See another example.
Very solemn one, Luke 22. The Lord Jesus in the Garden, verse 41.
And when he was withdrawn from them, about a stones cast.
And he kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done. Oh, now we see something else about these divine persons, God the Father, God the Son, and what do we have?
Individual wills that defines a person. It's right. In the center of a person is the will.
You can't get away from that.
This is the only case, as far as I'm aware in Scripture, where the will of the Father and the will of the Son are not the same because the Lord Jesus could not contemplate being made sin. And yet even in that He and his will, he's perfectly submitted to the will of the Father. No division there. This is not some Divine Comedy, some play of one person trying to make things out for us.
These are two eternally distinct persons.
That we have presented to us here, the Holy Spirit being the third. Let's look at another verse of Hood over in John chapter 14 and told my neighbor. I said, if you said to me, I am going to get the pastor and tell the pastor to tell the teacher to come over and tell you more about this. And later on I found out that you were just talking about yourself the whole time.
I would think you had deceived me. If you speak that way. I think you're talking about three people.
And in fact, you're speaking about only yourself.
Well, that's what we have here, John 14.
Verse 16 I will pray the Father, he will give you another comforter. Verse 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, and the Father, will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
That's the truth. This is not some deception by God. It tells us in Titus chapter one that God cannot lie. He doesn't deceive. But who does deceive? Oh, we know well who the deceiver is, don't we? It's Satan himself in John chapter 8 told that he is a liar and the father of it.
And so we know that he is the deceiver. Well, one more on this and I want to get on to the last point.
Go over to 1St John Chapter 4 for a very precious example of the Trinity.
First John 4.
And 14 we have seen and do testify that the father.
Sent this son to be the Savior of the world. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Yes, there is a triune God. And that triune God is for us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And here we see that the Father.
Sent this son to be the savior of the world. And when the son came here, he could turn around and say to the believers, oh, the Father himself loveth you.
God is for us. This is a precious truth. It's wonderful. We need to take it in and enjoy it in all of its parts as God has revealed it to us in his Word. And of course, not go beyond. It's easy to do that too. Well, I want to get on to the last part. And that is the holy humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Scripture presents that as well. But many believers.
Questioned that or flat out deny it, They say that the Lord Jesus.
Certainly did not sin. They agree with that first. Peter 222 Says he did no sin. I haven't met yet a believer who questions that, but they say he could have sinned.
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And because he could have sinned, but he didn't sin, then he has become the great overcomer, our great example, so that we can live lives through the glory of God and overcome as well. And by saying this, they think to do him honor, but of course they don't, because it's a question of his holy nature, isn't it?
And so I just want to look at a few things having to do.
With our Lord and this question as to whether or not he could have sinned. Now, first of all, if we look at this, we've already seen that the Lord Jesus is God, and the thought of separating his deity from his humanity is not something any one of us should want to do.
Somehow in his humanity he could send, but his theater he could not. That is a terrible thought. And so it's first of all, we could take it up strictly on that basis to say, well, if he is God, as it says in James chapter one, God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. It's clear enough.
And so we know that the Lord Jesus could not have sinned as God.
But they say still.
Where does that leave him as to his humanity? Personally, I wouldn't even want to go there, but I think it's helpful to see that the scripture carefully guards that as well, because no doubt.
The Spirit of God well understood where the minds of men would go, possibly even believers. I I don't know, I think it's a serious error, but I just want to look at this and maybe take it up first in Luke chapter is it one? I think it's Luke 1. Yes, Luke chapter one.
The angels speaking to Mary, Verse 35. The Angel answered, and said unto her.
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
I believe this really answers the question.
Another brother has said, and I've really enjoyed it, that there are different forms of humanity mentioned in the scriptures. In the garden, originally there was innocent humanity.
Before the fall, Adam and Eve were there as human beings. They were innocent. After the fall, of course, there was fall in humanity. We all partook of that when we were born. And now, having believed in Jesus Christ, there is such a thing as redeemed humanity. Thank God we've come into the good of that. But the Lord Jesus had something unique, and that was holy humanity, that holy.
Thing.
Born of thee, the Lord Jesus was born absolutely holy. And not just that. He was a sinless baby That wouldn't set it apart from anything. He would be saying nothing there.
It wasn't innocent either that holy thing. This is Speaking of his nature. Some question that they they could say, well, what about what it says in first Peter, one holy man of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Weren't they holy?
Yeah, as to their actions, but that's not what it's talking about with the Lord Jesus here, and I hope we'll see that. Well, they could say, as in Matthew 25, in other places, the Lord refers to the holy angels. Weren't they holy? Didn't some of them fall? So couldn't the Lord Jesus be holy and couldn't he fall? These are the kind of reasonings and thoughts that can go on in this subject. I mentioned them.
Because he want to see the word of God.
It's clear about this that the Lord Jesus was not in the case of any of those other ones mentioned, He was different from all the rest. We could look at First Corinthians chapter, Second Corinthians 5 verse 21. It's a wonderful statement there, isn't it? He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might.
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Be made or become the righteousness of God in Him.
The Lord Jesus knew no sin. You really couldn't say that if he had a sinful nature.
He did not. He had a holy nature. But it's even stronger in first John chapter 3. And I just want to go over and and look at that verse for a moment.
John, Chapter 3.
And.
Verse five ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. There was no sin in him. His nature was spotless. Holy sin could never enter there. The Lord Jesus would say in John chapter 14, the Prince of this world cometh and have nothing in me. The Prince of this world comes to me. He's got something in me.
There's plenty there that he can tempt. He could tempt the Lord Jesus all he wanted to and it didn't matter. And that really brings us to the next point I want to make. What about that? What about the Lord Jesus in temptation? Let's go to Hebrews chapter 4.
Verse 15 For we have not in high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Or I think the other translation is much stronger on that yet sin of heart, or heart from sin. Why? Because he couldn't be tempted as to sin. Our Lord Jesus was absolutely holy.
Nothing in him would respond to sin. And so the temptation could come as we have in Matthew chapter 4. Satan could bring all that temptation to the Lord Jesus. And what did it show?
What was it for? People say, well, how is it a real temptation if he couldn't have sinned?
Well, the fact of the matter is, the Lord Jesus couldn't sin, and the temptation had one purpose and one purpose only on God's side, and that was to prove that He was this Holy One that was to be born of the Virgin Mary right at the beginning of this ministry. No question about it. And Satan tries them. The examples often given about gold, isn't it? And I like that example, it's helpful.
You don't pass gold with a test.
To see if the gold will fail, you test it to show that the gold is gold. It can never fail to become gold by the test. And the same with the Lord Jesus. He could never fail as to His holy nature by this test that Satan brought. So much so that later on some of Satan's demons had to come and acknowledge before him. I know who thou art.
The Holy One of God.
No question about it. He was the Holy One. Was He the Holy One just then? No. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the one before whom the Seraphim cried wholly holy, holy, holy. It's the Lord of hosts.
In Isaiah chapter 6 and He is the one who will be holy for all eternity. He was holy at the cross when our sins were put on Him.
Never more holy than there, so it says in the sin offering. It is a thing most holy.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ as to his nature, the Holy One of God. Now one more I want to look in at because this brings in us and this is first John chapter 3 again.
I've really enjoyed this first, John Three says.
Whosoever is born of God, I'm sorry. First John 3 verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for a seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin.
Because he is born of God.
Isn't that something say, well, who is that? I never met that person yet. Oh yes, you did.
The first believer you come across is this person say, but don't we sin? Well yes, sadly we do. We still have the flesh and if we don't keep it in the place of death, then we stand and we're all too prevalent to that sin, sadly. But what we have when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, we got an entirely new life. And what was that life?
Well here it says born of God, could that life stand? Says he that is born of God can not sin. And what is that life?
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Colossians 3 Christ, who is our life? Galatians 220 the same thought He is our life. When you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you got a life from God. You were born from God. I know I'm simplifying that a little bit, but you got His life.
And that life is his own life. And what does it say about that life here?
Can not sin. The Lord Jesus was as to his nature, absolutely holy. He could not sin. Didn't matter what the temptation was. These are foundational truths, these three that I have spoken about today. If in any way they're not real clear with you, I encourage you to go back.
Take them up before the Lord come to understand them.
It's vital that we be established in the doctrine concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our time is almost gone, but I just want to look at two more passages.
The first one is in Hebrews.
Chapter One.
Hebrews chapter one.
Leave This passage really takes up all three of these points.
Verse 8 Unto the Son, he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Isn't that beautiful? Who's speaking? God the Father. And who is he speaking to? God the Son, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Interestingly enough, that day in the train station, those Jehovah's Witnesses had no answer for this verse. Perhaps others twisted by Satan would have some thought, I don't know.
But it's hard to get around the clarity of this verse.
The Son of God is God the Son, no question about it. Was he go on to say here, first of all, we can see that it's the Father speaking to the Son. Is this not the Trinity, two persons, divine persons of the Trinity? Yes, indeed it is. And he says thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is a scepter of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God.
Even thy God hath anointed thee.
With the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Now what is this speaking about? Who are his fellows? We don't find now, but just turn over the next chapter. You see that he took on him flesh and blood, so that he could be first born among many. Oh, there's that word again. Isn't it first born among many brethren? Those are his fellows.
The Lord Jesus has that place of preeminence, and God has given it to him.
And what does it say in connection with?
That was loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Is this not the absolute holiness of His person? And try to tell me that this is only His deity, and not His humanity. God the Father is speaking about the place given to Him, anointing him with the oil of gladness above his fellows, speaking about that which is in humanity.
Beautiful. This is our Lord Jesus Christ.
This one divine being holiest to his nature. God the Son, perfectly one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. One last verse and Song of Solomon.
Chapter 5.
And verse 16.
His mouth is mostly.
Yeah, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend. O daughters of Jerusalem, my friend, my beloved. That's who we're talking about.
This is spoken about others of a coming day and earthly relationship with the Lord Jesus. How much more is this true for us who've been put into the closest possible relationship with our beloved? Let's close in prayer.