Jesus' Most Outrageous Sayings - Can Any of You Prove Me Guilty of Sin? - Part 10

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You know, we're in a series entitled Jesus's most
outrageous sayings.
What we're doing is we're goingthrough the new Testament and
we're picking out 12 of the mostradical things that Jesus ever
said.
And then we're spending a weekon each one of them and asking
the question well, so what,we've already done nine, we're
ready to do number 10 today.

(00:23):
And so if you brought a Bible, Iwant to ask you to open it with
me to John chapter eight,Matthew Mark, Luke John chapter
eight.
And if you did not bring a Bibleright under the armrest there
next to you in your chair,you'll find a copy of the Bible
and we're going to be on page758 here in the main auditorium.
And in our copy of the Bible,page seven 58, or John chapter

(00:46):
eight in your copy of the Bible.
Now, while you're turning, letme give you a little bit of
background here in John chaptereight, Jesus is involved in a
heated argument with the rabbis.
And the issue that they'rearguing about is whether he,
Jesus is really the Messiah,whether he is really God wrapped

(01:06):
in human flesh, whether he isreally the great I am, who spoke
to Moses out of the burningBush, whether he is that I am in
case in human flesh and here inJohn chapter eight, three times,
Jesus claims to be exactly that.
Look with me, verse 24.
Jesus says, if you do notbelieve that I am, you will

(01:31):
indeed die in your sins.
Verse 27, when you have lifted,the son of man up, Jesus is
talking here about his death onthe cross.
Then you will know, Jesus saysthat I am.
And finally, verse 58 beforeAbraham was, Jesus says, I am
now in response to Jesus'sclaims the rabbis accused him of

(01:54):
being a liar.
They accused him of being demonpossessed.
They accused him of being aSamaritan, a lowlife, a slime
ball.
They even make a snide remarkabout his birth.
The rabbis knew about all therumors surrounding Jesus's
birth, that his parents were notmarried for nine months before
he appeared.

(02:14):
And so in light of that, theymake this really snide comment,
verse 44, verse 41.
Rather they say, we are notillegitimate children.
Like you are.
We are true descendants ofDavid.
And here's what Jesus says backto them.
Verse 39.
He said, if you were reallyAbraham's children, you would do

(02:37):
what Abraham did.
Verse 40.
Instead, you were looking for away to kill me.
A man who has told you the truththat he heard from God, Abraham
did not do such things.
And it's at this point thatJesus says a truly outrageous
thing.
He turns to the rabbis verse 46and says to them, can any of you

(03:01):
prove me guilty of sin?
Can any of you prove me guiltyof sin?
And if you can't, if I'm tellingyou the truth, then why don't
you believe me now?
Do you understand what Jesus didhere?
He said, okay, fellas, if I'msuch a liar, if I'm demon
possessed, if I'm the slime ballin the low life that you guys

(03:25):
say I am, if I'm theillegitimate child that you say
I am, then, then, then I have achallenge to offer you.
I have a contest to offer youfellows.
Here.
It is.
You find one thing I've everdone wrong.
And I will remove my claim.
I will retract my claim to bethe Messiah and I'll go away.

(03:49):
Find one thing I've ever donewrong.
You know, one demerit I evergotten schools find one speeding
ticket.
I ever received find one bouncecheck that I have a road.
Find one late credit cardpayment that I ever made.
Find one selfish act for which Iever had to apologize.

(04:10):
Found one rotten thing that evercame out of my mouth anywhere in
my life, prove me guilty of onesin.
And I will withdraw my claim tobe the Messiah and I'll go away.
But if you can't, if you can'tfind one single infraction

(04:31):
anywhere in my life, then whynot accept my claim.
That I'm the Messiah and believeme now, folks, this is an
unbelievable statement.
Jesus makes here.
This is a preposterous challengethat he throws out to these
rabbis, which one of you canprove me guilty of a single sin.
You try throwing that challengeout to your wife or your

(04:54):
husband, and you see whathappens.
You thrive.
Try throwing that challenge out.
If you're a young person here toyour parents and watch what
happens or to your children, youtry throwing that out to them.
If you're a parent, try throwingthat challenge out to your boss
or to your neighbors or to yourgood friends.
I guarantee you that even thoughthey may be your friends, and

(05:16):
even though they may try to seethe best in you, you say to
them, prove me guilty of onesin.
And very quickly, they wouldhave a few examples that they
could share with you.
Now, remember, Jesus did notthrow this challenge out to his
friends.
He threw this challenge out tohis sworn enemies.
People who were looking for waysto discredit him, looking for

(05:41):
ways to make him retract hisclaim, to be the Messiah and go
away.
And here it is, all they have todo is come up with one single
wrongdoing, one singleinfraction or sin he'd ever
committed.
And Jesus said, I'll do it.
I'll go away.
And the rabbis couldn't come upwith anything.

(06:02):
Folks.
This is the consistent andunbroken claim that the Bible
makes for Jesus Christ.
Namely that he was the sinlessson of God.
Hebrews four verse 15, Jesus wastempted in every way as we are
yet.
He was without sin.
Second Corinthians chapter five,verse 21.
Paul says, God made him JesusChrist who had no sin to become

(06:28):
sin for us on the cross.
And in first Peter chapter two,Peter says, Jesus committed.
No sin.
Think about it for a moment.
Jesus often frequented thetemple in Jerusalem, but he
never offered a sin sacrificefor himself there.
You know why he didn't need tothink about it.

(06:50):
Jesus prayed, father forgivethem, but Jesus never prayed
father.
Forgive me.
Why?
Because he didn't need to.
You said, well, Lon, I'm curiouswhy the Bible goes to such
lengths to make this point aboutJesus.
Well, the answer my friend isthat if Jesus had one single sin

(07:10):
in his life, he would have beendisqualified from fulfilling his
mission here on this earth.
And what exactly was Jesus'smission here on this earth?
Well, let's go back to the verybeginning of time and we'll find
out back to the garden of EdenGenesis chapter two God said to
Adam and Eve Genesis two verse17.

(07:30):
You are free to eat from anytree in the garden, but do not
eat from the tree of theknowledge of good and evil.
And if you eat from it, you willsurely die.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed Godin the garden of Eden, they
brought a death penalty, notonly on themselves, but upon the
entire human race.
Paul says Romans chapter five,verse 12, therefore sin entered

(07:53):
the world through one man, Adamand death through sin.
And so death passed on all menbecause we're all descendants
about them.
We've all got that defectivegene.
We all inherit a sin natureverse 19 four by one man's
disobedience.
All of us were made sinners inthe sight of God.

(08:14):
Now in the old Testament timesto deal with this problem, God
set up the system of animalsacrifices to teach us a great
spiritual truth.
And that truth is that God willaccept a substitute.
God will allow someone else topay for your death penalty.
In my death penalty, God willaccept somebody else dying in

(08:35):
our place.
However, that substitute has tomeet one very important
requirement.
That substitute has to bewithout blemish.
It has to be perfect andspotless and flawless in every
way.
Now the Bible tells us thatthis, this uh, system of animal

(08:56):
sacrifices was just a temporarysolution to the problem of our
sin.
Hebrews 10, four, four.
It is impossible for the bloodof bulls and lambs to take away
sin in order for there to be apermanent solution to the
problem of our death penalty,sooner or later, a man had to
die for mankind.

(09:16):
There had to be a humansubstitute, a human lamb and
friends.
This was Jesus's mission incoming to earth.
Let me repeat.
This was Jesus's mission incoming to earth.
He came to earth to be thishuman substitute, this human
lamb.
This is why that he's called inJohn chapter one, verse 29, the

(09:41):
lamb of God who takes away thesin of the world.
This is why Peter referred tohim first, Peter chapter one, as
a lamb, without blemish or spot.
And the point here is if Jesushad committed one act of
wrongdoing, if the rabbis hadbeen able to produce one sin and

(10:04):
laid it to his charge, Jesuswould have been a blemished
lamb, and therefore his deathwould have paid for no one's
death penalty.
His death would have been nogood for any of us.
Let's summarize God's justicedemands, death as the penalty
for our sin, but the Bibleteaches that God will accept the

(10:28):
substitute.
However, that substitute has tobe perfect and blemishless and
sinless well, the Lord JesusChrist, God wrapped in human
flesh, came to earth and livethat sinless life.
Therefore, when he died on thecross, his death satisfied the
justice of God on our behalf andfriends.

(10:50):
Now that the good justice of Godis satisfied for you and me and
everybody else who trustsChrist.
God is free to do some wonderfulthings for us.
Cod is free to give us eternallife.
God is free to adopt us as hispersonal children.
God is free to enter into anintimate, personal relationship

(11:11):
with us.
Now that our death penalty ispaid.
God is free to be our heavenlyfather, our shepherd, our guide,
our defender, and our friend,all kinds of good things happen,
friends, all kinds of goodthings because those rabbis in
John chapter eight could notanswer Jesus back when he said,

(11:31):
which one of you can prove meguilty of a single sin, all
kinds of good stuff happenscause they couldn't answer that
question.
Now, if you're here today, letme tell them it and say, and
you've never trusted JesusChrist as your real and personal
savior.
This is really importantinformation for you to know it's
important for you to know theproblem.

(11:51):
And that is that there is apenalty hanging over your head
in the head of every human beingoutside of Christ.
And it's good for you to knowthe solution that the solution
is not your good works, yourreligious activity, your church
involvement, that the solutionis Jesus Christ, the sinless
lamb of God, dying on the crossas your substitute and friend,

(12:15):
if you will embrace him as yoursubstitute, if you will embrace
what he did for you on thecross, as your payment for sin
before a Holy God, you know whatall kinds of good things will
happen in your life, God willremove that death penalty and
God will bring you all thethings we talked about in more.
If you're here today, boy, Isure hope that you'll give

(12:36):
serious consideration to doingthat.
Now that's as far as we want togo in the passage because it's
time for us to ask our mostimportant question and you know
what this question is.
So have I put you to sleep?
Are you guys okay?
You ready?
Everybody away.
All right, here we go.
Now one, two, three, come on.

(12:59):
You can do better than that.
One, two, three.
There ya go.
I knew you had it in ya.
Hey, you go.
He say lawn.
Okay.
So watch you say, I mean, that'sgreat that Jesus lived a sinless
life and it's great that he diedon the cross as my substitute.
I'm a follower of Christ.
I already know all of that.
So what difference does any ofthis make to my life?

(13:21):
Make it make a difference for meMonday to Saturday.
Okay, well, I'm going to dothat.
You'd stick with me and let mesee, let me show you how we're
going to do that.
You know, the greatestdemonstration of Jesus having
lived a sinless life was nothere in John chapter eight.
It's wonderful that the rabbiscouldn't find anything to say

(13:42):
about Jesus, but that is not thegreatest proof that he lived a
sinless life.
And the greatest proof that hedid that is actually found in
Matthew chapter four.
And I want to read that chapterto you.
And I want us to look at thatbecause there's a great lesson
there for you and me today.
As followers of Christ, Matthewchapter four, verse one, then
Jesus was led by the Holyspirit, into the desert to be

(14:05):
tempted by the devil.
Now, if you were the devil andyou were going to go after
anybody, especially the Lord,Jesus, what areas of life would
you try to tempt him in or temptany of us in?
Well, first John chapter twoverse 16 tells us there are
three basic areas of life wherethe devil and his forces try to

(14:27):
attempt us to disobey God.
And they are the cravings of theflesh.
John says the lust of the eyesand the pride of life.
And here is when Matthew chapterfour, as we look at the, at the
Lord, Jesus being tempted bySatan himself, we're going to
find these are the exact threetemptations that the devil used
on Jesus.

(14:48):
First.
He used the cravings of theflesh watch verse two.
And after fasting 40 days and 40nights, Jesus was hungry.
I'd say that's an understatementwhen you, so the tempter came to
him and said, if you are the sonof God, tell these stones to

(15:09):
become bread.
What was the first area where hetempted the Lord?
Jesus, the cravings of theflesh, Jesus was hungry and the
enemy said, show off your power.
Jesus impressed.
Everybody make these stones turninto bread.
Cause I know you're hungry.
I know it.

(15:30):
I don't know about any of youguys, but do you ever get this
thing at night, uh, called themunchies?
It hits about 9:00 PM.
You get those things.
They live at my home.
I don't know if they live atyour home.
I think they live in the dustballs that are on the floor.
I'm not sure, but they're causecalled the munchies between nine
and 11:00 PM.

(15:51):
You know that period where youeat everything you're not
supposed to eat and you do whatyou just Gorge yourself and then
you hate yourself in themorning.
You ever do that?
Well, I've tried everything Iknow to deal with the munchies
in my house that I get.
I've tried whitening my teethbetween nine and 11.
So I've got an excuse, not toeat something.
I'm re I'm telling you thetruth.

(16:12):
I've tried brushing my teeth ateight 30.
So I can say to myself, well,you've already brushed your
teeth.
You can't eat anything.
Now I've tried actuallydeclaring the kitchen to be off
limits to me after eight 30 atnight.
And just saying, I will not walkin the kitchen will just look at
me.
Does it look like I succeed?
Look at me.

(16:32):
No, I don't succeed as much as Iwish.
And you know what?
Here's the interesting part.
I just ate dinner two or threehours before I hadn't been
fasting 40 days and 40 nights.
I've just eaten dinner and Ican't beat the munchies.
Well, how about if the LordJesus, how about the Lord?
Jesus.
He had neat in 40 days and 40nights.

(16:53):
Don't you think that there was agenuine temptation here for him
to do what the enemy challengedhim to do?
He was hungry.
How did the Lord Jesus respond?
Verse four, Jesus answered andsaid it is written.
Man shall not live by breadalone, but by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth ofGod.

(17:15):
So next, the devil turnedhimself to a second area where
he tempts us.
And that is the pride of life.
Verse five.
Then the devil took Jesus intoJerusalem and had him stand on
my highest point of the temple.
If you are the son of God, hesaid to Jesus, throw yourself
down because he goes on to say,the angels will come and rescue
you.
They won't let you hurtyourself.

(17:36):
Everybody in Jerusalem will seeit.
You'll be a big shot.
They'll name a street.
After you in town here, you'llbe a big, Magilla big Poobah all
over this town.
The pride of life Jesus answeredand said, verse seven.
It is written.
You shall not tempt the Lord.
Your God.
Yes, the angels would come getme, but I'm not going to put the

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Lord in that position.
Jesus said third, the enemyturned to his temptation to the
lust of the eyes, verse eight.
Then the devil took Jesus to avery high place and he showed
him all the kingdoms of theworld and their splendor.
All this I will give you.
Satan said to Jesus, if you willbow down and worship me and

(18:21):
Jesus said, verse 10 away fromme, Satan for it is written.
You shall worship the Lord, yourGod and him alone.
Shall you serve verse 11.
Then the devil left and theangels came and attended him
folks.
Why is Matthew chapter four?
The greatest demonstration ofthe sinlessness of Jesus Christ.

(18:42):
Because I want you to remindyourself who Jesus was dealing
with here.
He was not taking on some demon.
He was taking on Satan himself.
One-on-one in all of Satan'stheory and all of Satan's
deceitful illness and all ofSatan subtlety.
And he beat Satan here withouteven a hiccup.

(19:03):
Thus, confirming that beyond alldoubt that he indeed was the
sinless son of God.
But you know, there's anotherreason why I believe God put
Jesus through this exercise inMatthew four, not just to
demonstrate to us that he indeedwas the sinless son of God, but
also to show us as followers ofChrist today, the correct way to

(19:27):
fight off temptation in ourlives.
Let's talk about that.
As we conclude this morning,Ephesians chapter six tells us
that as followers of Christ, weare in spiritual warfare with
Satan and the forces of hell.
Every single day.
Ephesians six tells us that Godhas given us supernatural

(19:49):
weapons for the fight.
And if you look carefully at thelist of weapons in Ephesians
chapter six, you will find thatthey are all defensive weapons.
With the exception of one, thereis only one offensive weapon
we've been given Ephesians sixverse 17.
The Bible says and take up thesword of the Holy spirit, which

(20:12):
is the written word of God.
This is the offensive weaponthat the Lord Jesus has given us
to use the Bible.
And that is exactly the weaponthat Jesus used here in Matthew
chapter four, to fight Satanfriends.
What, what Jesus is teaching usin Matthew chapter four is that

(20:33):
as followers of Christ, far toooften, we try to fight off
Satan's temptations using thewrong weapons.
We try to use power of our ownhuman logic.
We try to use the power of ourown will the power of our own
human resolve.
We try to just gut it out whenwe're tempted, we go[inaudible]

(20:59):
and you know what?
We lose.
Why?
Because we're not using theright weapons.
Jesus didn't use that weapon.
He didn't stay in there beforeSatan and say, I will not turn
to you stolen during the bread.
I will not.
I will.
He didn't do that.
What did he do?
Well, Jesus use the sword of thespirit.
He used the word of God.

(21:20):
What did he say to Satan?
Three times it is written.
It is written.
It is written.
That's how we fought backagainst him station in his life.
And this is exactly how heteaches us to do it.
And I'm telling you, it willwork a lot better than brutal
will work in your life.
For example, if we're tempted tolook at a woman, wrongly men,

(21:44):
then how do we fight that?
We fight that by saying it iswritten job 31, one.
I have made a covenant with myeyes not to look lustfully at a
woman.
Matthew chapter five, Jesus saidany man who looks on a woman to
lust after her has alreadycommitted adultery in his heart.
You throw that at yourtemptation to look at a look, a

(22:05):
woman wrong.
And I guarantee you it'll loseits appeal real quick.
Hey, what if we're tempted tocheat or to lie?
Well, how do we fight somethinglike that?
We fight it by saying it iswritten Psalm 11 seven.
The Lord is righteous and heloves righteousness.
And what I'm about to do isn'tand therefore the Lord hates

(22:26):
this.
You drove throw that at anattempt to do something lying or
cheating and you watch howquickly it loses its appeal.
If we're attempted to give up,how do we deal with that?
We say it is written Philippiansfour 13.
I can do all things throughChrist who gives me strength.
If we're tempted to gossip andbackbite and speak ill of other

(22:49):
people, how do we fight thatoff?
We quote at it.
It is written Ephesians four 29.
Do not let any unwholesome wordtalk, come out of your mouth,
but only that which is helpfulfor building people up.
If we're tempted to curse anduse foul language, how do we
fight that?
Temptation off it is writtenColossians four, six, let your

(23:12):
conversation be full of grace,seasoned with salt for attempted
to try to get away with doingsomething evil and Raul cheat on
our taxes, engage in a businessdeal that we know is
unrighteous.
How do we fight that?
Temptation off it is writtenGalatians six, seven do not be

(23:35):
deceived.
Nobody makes a fool out of Godfor whatever a person sows.
That is exactly what they'regoing to read.
Boy, that's sure it moreenticing to tell you truth.
Tell the truth on, on yourtaxes.
You see friends as a follower ofChrist.
I have found over the last 35years, that when I'm faced with

(23:56):
temptation and I followscripture at it, man, it loses
its attractiveness to me realquickly.
And this is how the Lord Jesusfought temptation.
And if he fought it this way,then this is the way you and I
need to fight it.
If we want to be successful.
One last thought here before wequit.
And that is what you notice thatthe three, it is written that

(24:19):
the Lord Jesus used, two of themwere from Deuteronomy chapter
six and the other one was fromDeuteronomy chapter eight.
What does this tell us?
It tells us that when the LordJesus was out there for 40 days
and 40 nights fasting in thewilderness, he was not playing
peanuckle.
He was not playing backgammon.
He was meditating on the word ofGod.

(24:40):
He was reading the book ofDeuteronomy and memorizing the
book of Deuteronomy andmeditating on the book of
Deuteronomy and hiding the bookof Deuteronomy in his hearts So
that when you needed it, it wasthere.
Isn't it interesting that Jesusdidn't say to Satan when he
tempted him, Satan, wait aminute, wait a minute.

(25:02):
There's a verse for that.
Now.
I don't know what it is.
I know it's in there somewhere.
Hold on just a second.
I got to run.
Get my concordance.
I'm going to Google this I'll beright back.
Just stay where you are.
I'm coming right back with averse.
Didn't he?
He didn't do that.
Daddy.
No, no.
What did Jesus do?
He had the right verse for theright temptation, right on the
tip of his tongue.
Right when he needed it.
Why?

(25:22):
Because he had been hiding theword of God in his heart for 40
days and 40 nights.
He'd been memorizing it,ruminating on it.
And he had it right where heneeded it.
And that's why Psalm one 19verse 11 says your word.
I have hidden in my heart.
Why?
So that I might not sin againstyou so that I've got it there to

(25:45):
use when I need it.
And friend, let me say inclosing, if you're here today
and you're a follower of Christand you're losing the battle
against him station in yourlife, more than you're winning.
If you're here today and you'rea follower of Christ and your
Christian experience isunstable.
Your Christian spirit experienceis inconsistent.

(26:06):
I will bet my retirement fund onwhy that is.
It's because I'll bet you, thatyou are not doing in your life
with the Lord.
Jesus was doing in his life forthose 40 days, he was out in the
wilderness that you were notdoing in your life.
What enabled him to fight offtemptation out there in the
wilderness.
You are not hiding the word ofGod in your heart every day.

(26:29):
You're not meditating on it,memorizing it, ruminating over
it so that you don't have theright verse at the right time
when you need it for the righttemptation.
And that's why we don't dobetter.
Now.
We're never going to do perfect.
We're going to be sinlesslyperfect.
We're never going to get it allright.
But I'm here to tell you thatmost of us can do a whole lot

(26:49):
better than we're doing.
If we learn to fight temptationthe right way, not with the
power of human logic and notwith the power of human will,
but with the sword of thespirit, it is written.
It is written.
It is written.
That's what you throw back attemptation.
That's what you throw back atthe enemy.

(27:12):
And so I want to challenge youtoday that if your Christian
life is inconsistent, if it isunstable, if you're losing more
than you're winning, I can tellyou how to change that.
Psalm one 19, your word.
I have hidden in my heart that Imight not sin against you.
Friends.
You set aside a time, everysingle day to do what Jesus did

(27:34):
out in the wilderness to hidethe word of God in your heart,
memorize the word of God,meditate on the word of God,
ruminate on the word of God,study the word of God.
And then you use it to fighttemptation in your life.
And I promise you yourconsistency in the Christian
experience, your stability inthe Christian experience will go

(27:55):
up significantly.
And so let me ask you, what areyou going to do about this?
You're going to walk out of hereand you're going to say B plus
not bad today.
I give him a B plus today, orare you going to walk out of
here and say, you know what?
I'm going to change my dailyroutine.
I'm going to change my dailylifestyle.

(28:16):
I'm going to reorient mypriorities and I'm going to make
sure I get time every day tohide the word of God in my
heart.
So I can be more consistent andstable.
I can win more than I lose.
Well, I can't make the decisionfor you.
I can just tell you walking outhere and grading the sermon's
not going to change your life,but you walk out of here and

(28:36):
change your priorities in yourlifestyle to build the word of
God in.
And it will.
That's the, so water today fighttemptation the way the Lord
Jesus did.
I hope you'll take that toheart.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, thank you that youare a mighty God.
And thank you that you love usso much, that you want us to be

(29:00):
successful in our fight againstthe enemy, in our fight against
our own sinful human nature,that you want us to have a
Christian experience that isdriven by consistency and
stability.
And so Lord, I pray that youwould show us today that you've
provided the weaponry for us todo that.

(29:22):
You've provided the strategy forus to do that.
And we simply need to humbleourselves and accept your
strategy instead of trying to doit in our own energy and our own
strength, Lord Jesus change thevery way we relate to temptation
in our life, change the way wefight it, change the, we orient

(29:42):
our life each and every day whenit comes to the word of God,
change our lives because we werehere today and help us go out
and live a more consistent lifein the eyes of an onlooking
world.
So the Jesus Christ gets theglory and gets the honor or
thanks for bringing us heretoday.

(30:03):
May we be different as we leave?
And we pray these things inJesus' name and God's people
said.