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

You know, we're in a series entitled Jesus's Most Outrageous Sayings. What we're doing is we're going through the New Testament and we're picking out twelve of the most radical things that Jesus ever said. And then we're spending a week on each one of them and asking the question, well, so what? We've already done nine.

We're ready to do number ten today. And so if you brought a Bible, I want to ask you to open it with me to John Chapter 8, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John Chapter 8. And if you did not bring a Bible right 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 page 758 here in the main auditorium and in our copy of the Bible, page 758 or John Chapter 8 in your copy of the Bible. Now, while you're turning, let me give you a little bit of background here in John Chapter 8. Jesus is involved in a heated argument with the rabbis. And the issue that they're arguing about is whether he, Jesus, is really the Messiah, whether he is really God wrapped in human flesh, whether he is really the great I am who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, whether he is that I am encased in human flesh. And here in John Chapter 8, three times Jesus claims to be exactly that. Look with me, verse 24, Jesus says, If you do not believe that I am, you will indeed die in your sins. Verse 27, When you have lifted the Son of Man up, Jesus is talking here about his death on the cross, then you will know, Jesus says, that I am.

And finally, verse 58, Before Abraham was, Jesus says, I am. Now, in response to Jesus's claims, the rabbis accused him of being a liar. They accused him of being demon possessed. They accused him of being a Samaritan, a lowlife, a slimeball. They even make a snide remark about his birth.

The rabbis knew about all the rumors surrounding Jesus's birth, that his parents were not married for nine months before he appeared. And so in light of that, they make this really snide comment, verse 44, verse 41, rather. They say, We are not illegitimate children like you are.

We are true descendants of David. And here's what Jesus says back to them. Verse 39, he said, If you were really Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. Verse 40, Instead, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that he heard from God.

Abraham did not do such things. And it's at this point that Jesus says a truly outrageous thing. He turns to the rabbis, verse 46, and he says to them, Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? And if you can't, if I'm telling you the truth, then why don't you believe me?

Now, do you understand what Jesus did here? He said, Okay, fellas, if I'm such a liar, if I'm demon possessed, if I'm the slimeball in the lowlife that you guys say I am, if I'm the illegitimate child that you say I am, then I have a challenge to offer you. I have a contest to offer you, fellas.

Here it is. You find one thing I've ever done wrong and I will remove my claim. I will retract my claim to be the Messiah and I'll go away. Find one thing I've ever done wrong. You know, one demerit I ever got in school. Find one speeding ticket I ever received. Find one bounced check that I ever wrote. Find one late credit card payment that I ever made. Find one selfish act for which I ever had to apologize.

Find one rotten thing that ever came out of my mouth anywhere in my life. Prove me guilty of one sin and I will withdraw my claim to be the Messiah and I'll go away. But if you can't, if you can't find one single infraction anywhere in my life, then why not accept my claim that I'm the Messiah and believe me? Now, folks, this is an unbelievable statement Jesus makes here. This is a preposterous challenge that he throws out to these rabbis.

Which one of you can prove me guilty of a single sin? You try throwing that challenge out to your wife or your husband and you see what happens. You try throwing that challenge out if you're a young person here to your parents and watch what happens.

Or to your children, you try throwing that out to them if you're a parent. You try throwing that challenge out to your boss or to your neighbors or to your good friends. I guarantee you that even though they may be your friends and even though they may try to see the best in you, you say to them, prove me guilty of one sin and very quickly they would have a few examples that they could share with you. Now remember, Jesus did not throw this challenge out to his friends. He threw this challenge out to his sworn enemies, people who were looking for ways to discredit him, looking for ways to make him retract his claim to be the Messiah and go away. And here it is, all they have to do is come up with one single wrongdoing, one single infraction or sin he'd ever committed and Jesus said, I'll do it, I'll go away.

And the rabbis couldn't come up with anything. Folks, this is the consistent and unbroken claim that the Bible makes for Jesus Christ, namely that he was the sinless son of God. Hebrews 4 verse 15, Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet he was without sin. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21, Paul says, God made him, Jesus Christ, who had no sin to become sin for us on the cross. And in 1 Peter chapter 2, Peter says, Jesus committed no sin.

Think about it for a moment, Jesus often frequented the temple in Jerusalem, but he never offered a sin sacrifice for himself there. You know why? He didn't need to. Think about it, Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them, but Jesus never prayed, Father, forgive me.

Why? Because he didn't need to. You say, well, Lon, I'm curious why the Bible goes to such lengths to make this point about Jesus. Well, the answer, my friend, is that if Jesus had one single sin in his life, he would have been disqualified from fulfilling his mission here on this earth.

And what exactly was Jesus' mission here on this earth? Well, let's go back to the very beginning of time and we'll find out. Back to the Garden of Eden, Genesis chapter 2. God said to Adam and Eve, Genesis 2 verse 17, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and if you eat from it, you will surely die. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they brought a death penalty not only on themselves, but upon the entire human race. Paul says, Romans chapter 5 verse 12, Therefore sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, and so death passed on all men.

Because we're all descendants of Adam, we've all got that defective gene. We all inherit a sin nature. Verse 19, For by one man's disobedience all of us were made sinners in the sight of God.

Now in the Old Testament times, to deal with this problem, God set up the system of animal sacrifices to teach us a great spiritual truth. And that truth is that God will accept a substitute. God will allow someone else to pay for your death penalty and my death penalty.

God will accept somebody else dying in our place. However, that substitute has to meet one very important requirement. That substitute has to be without blemish.

It has to be perfect and spotless and flawless in every way. Now the Bible tells us that this system of animal sacrifices was just a temporary solution to the problem of our sin. Hebrews 10.4, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and lambs to take away sin in order for there to be a permanent solution to the problem of our death penalty. Sooner or later a man had to die for mankind. There had to be a human substitute, a human lamb. And friends, this was Jesus' mission in coming to earth.

Let me repeat. This was Jesus' mission in coming to earth. He came to earth to be this human substitute, this human lamb. This is why that he's called in John chapter 1 verse 29, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is why Peter referred to him, 1 Peter chapter 1, as a lamb without blemish or spots. And the point here is if Jesus had committed one act of wrongdoing, if the rabbis had been able to produce one sin and laid it to his charge, Jesus would have been a blemished lamb and therefore his death would have paid for no one's death penalty. His death would have been no good for any of us.

Let's summarize. God's justice demands death as the penalty for our sin. But the Bible teaches that God will accept a substitute.

However, that substitute has to be perfect and blemishless and sinless. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ, God wrapped in human flesh, came to earth and lived that sinless life. Therefore, when he died on the cross, his death satisfied the justice of God on our behalf. And friends, now that the justice of God is satisfied for you and me and everybody else who trusts Christ, God is free to do some wonderful things for us. God is free to give us eternal life. God is free to adopt us as his personal children. God is free to enter into an intimate personal relationship with us. Now that our death penalty is paid, God is free to be our heavenly father, our shepherd, our guide, our defender and our friend. All kinds of good things happen, friends.

All kind of good things. Because those rabbis in John chapter 8 could not answer Jesus back when he said, which one of you can prove me guilty of a single sin? All kinds of good stuff happens because they couldn't answer that question. Now if you're here today, let me take a moment and say, and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your real and personal savior, this is really important information for you to know. It's important for you to know the problem. And that is that there is a death penalty hanging over your head in the head of every human being outside of Christ.

And it's good for you to know the solution. That the solution is not your good works, your religious activity, your church involvement, that the solution is Jesus Christ, the sinless lamb of God, dying on the cross as your substitute. And friend, if you will embrace him as your substitute, if you will embrace what he did for you on the cross as your payment for sin before a holy God, you know what?

All kinds of good things will happen in your life. And remove that death penalty and God will bring you all the things we talked about and more. If you're here today, boy, I sure hope that you'll give serious consideration to doing that. Now that's as far as we want to go in the passage because it's time for us to ask our most important question.

And you know what this question is. So have I put you to sleep? Are you guys okay? You ready?

Everybody awake? All right, here we go now. One, two, three, go back. Come on, you can do better than that.

One, two, three, go back. There you go. I knew you had it in you.

There you go. You say, Lon, okay, so what? You say, I mean, that's great that Jesus lived a sinless life and it's great that he died on the cross as my substitute.

I'm a follower of Christ. I already know all of that. So what difference does any of this make to my life? Make it make a difference for me Monday to Saturday, okay? Well, I'm going to do that.

You stick with me and let me show you how we're going to do that. You know, the greatest demonstration of Jesus having lived a sinless life was not here in John chapter 8. It's wonderful that the rabbis couldn't find anything to say about Jesus, but that is not the greatest proof that he lived a sinless life. The greatest proof that he did that is actually found in Matthew chapter 4. And I want to read that chapter to you and I want us to look at that because there's a great lesson there for you and me today as followers of Christ. Matthew chapter 4 verse 1. Then Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Now, if you were the devil and you were going to go after anybody, especially the Lord Jesus, what areas of life would you try to tempt him in or tempt any of us in? Well, 1 John chapter 2 verse 16 tells us there are three basic areas of life where the devil and his forces try to tempt us to disobey God. And they are the cravings of the flesh, John says, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And here is in Matthew chapter 4, as we look at the Lord Jesus being tempted by Satan himself, we're going to find these are the exact three temptations that the devil used on Jesus. First, he used the cravings of the flesh. Watch, verse 2. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus was hungry.

I'd say that's an understatement, wouldn't you? So the tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. What was the first area where he tempted the Lord Jesus? The cravings of the flesh. Jesus was hungry. And the enemy said, Show off your power, Jesus.

Impress everybody. Make these stones turn into bread, because I know you're hungry. I know it. I don't know about any of you guys, but do you ever get this thing at night called the munchies? It hits about 9 p.m. You get those things? They live at my home. I don't know if they live at your home. I think they live in the dust balls that are on the floor.

I'm not sure. But it's called the munchies between 9 and 11 p.m. You know that period where you eat everything you're not supposed to eat, and you just gorge yourself, and then you hate yourself in the morning. You ever do that? Well, I've tried everything I know to deal with the munchies in my house that I get. I've tried whitening my teeth between 9 and 11 so I've got an excuse not to eat something.

I'm telling you the truth. I've tried brushing my teeth at 830 so I can say to myself, Well, you've already brushed your teeth. You can't eat anything now.

I've tried actually declaring the kitchen to be off limits to me after 830 at night and just saying, I will not walk in the kitchen. Well, just look at me. Does it look like I succeed? Look at me.

I don't succeed as much as I wish. And you know what? Here's the interesting part. I just ate dinner two or three hours before. I haven't been fasting 40 days and 40 nights.

I've just eaten dinner, and I can't beat the munchies. Well, how about if the Lord Jesus, how about if the Lord Jesus, He hadn't eaten in 40 days and 40 nights? Don't you think that there was a genuine temptation here for Him to do what the enemy challenged Him to do?

He was hungry. How did the Lord Jesus respond? Verse 4, Jesus answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So next the devil turned himself to a second area where he tempts us, and that is the pride of life. Verse 5, Then the devil took Jesus into Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

If you are the Son of God, he said to Jesus, Throw yourself down, because he goes on to say, The angels will come and rescue you. They won't let you hurt yourself. Everybody in Jerusalem will see it. You'll be a big shot. They'll name a street after you in town here. You'll be a big magilla, a big puba all over this town.

The pride of life. Jesus answered and said, Verse 7, It is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Yes, the angels would come get me, but I'm not going to put the Lord in that position, Jesus said.

Third, the enemy turned his temptation to the lust of the eyes. Verse 8, Then the devil took Jesus to a very high place, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you, Satan said to Jesus, if you will bow down and worship me. And Jesus said, Verse 10, Away from me, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve. Verse 11, Then the devil left, and the angels came and attended him. Folks, why is Matthew chapter 4 the greatest demonstration of the sinlessness of Jesus Christ? Because I want you to remind yourself 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's fury, in all of Satan's deceitfulness, in all of Satan's subtlety, and he beat Satan here without even a hiccup, thus confirming beyond all doubt that he indeed was the sinless Son of God. But, you know, there's another reason why I believe God put Jesus through this exercise in Matthew 4, not just to demonstrate to us that he indeed was the sinless Son of God, but also to show us as followers of Christ today the correct way to fight off temptation in our lives.

Let's talk about that as we conclude this morning. Ephesians chapter 6 tells us that as followers of Christ, we are in spiritual warfare with Satan and the forces of hell every single day. Ephesians 6 tells us that God has given us supernatural weapons for the fight. And if you look carefully at the list of weapons in Ephesians chapter 6, you will find that they are all defensive weapons with the exception of one. There is only one offensive weapon we've been given, Ephesians 6 verse 17. The Bible says, And take up the sword of the Holy Spirit, which is the written word of God. This is the offensive weapon that the Lord Jesus has given us to use, the Bible, and that is exactly the weapon that Jesus used here in Matthew chapter 4 to fight Satan.

Friends, what Jesus is teaching us in Matthew chapter 4 is that as followers of Christ far too often, we try to fight off Satan's temptations using the wrong weapons. We try to use the power of our own human logic. We try to use the power of our own will, the power of our own human resolve. We try to just gut it out. When we're tempted, we go, I will not do that, I will not do that, I will not do that, I will not do that, I will not. And you know what? We lose.

Why? Because we're not using the right weapons. Jesus didn't use that weapon. He didn't stand there before Satan and say, I will not turn you stone into bread, I will not, I will. He didn't do that.

What did he do? Well, Jesus used the sword of the Spirit. He used the word of God. What did he say to Satan three times?

It is written, it is written, it is written. That's how he fought back against temptation in his life. And this is exactly how he teaches us to do it.

And I'm telling you, it will work a lot better than it will work in your life. For example, if we're tempted to look at a woman wrongly, men, then how do we fight that? We fight that by saying, it is written. Job 31, 1, I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a woman. Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, any man who looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart. You throw that at your temptation to look at a woman wrong and I guarantee you, it will lose its appeal real quick. Hey, what if we're tempted to cheat or to lie? Well, how do we fight something like that? We fight it by saying, it is written, Psalm 11, 7, the Lord is righteous and he loves righteousness and what I'm about to do isn't and therefore the Lord hates this.

You throw that at an attempt to do something lying or cheating and you watch how quickly it loses its appeal. If we're tempted to give up, how do we deal with that? We say, it is written, Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. If we're tempted to gossip and backbite and speak ill of other people, how do we fight that off? We quote at it, it is written, Ephesians 4, 29, do not let any unwholesome word, talk come out of your mouth, but only that which is helpful for building people up. If we're tempted to curse and use foul language, how do we fight that temptation off? It is written, Colossians 4, 6, let your conversation be full of grace, seasoned with salt. If we're tempted to try to get away with doing something evil and wrong, cheat on our taxes, engage in a business deal that we know is unrighteous, how do we fight that temptation off? It is written, Galatians 6, 7, do not be deceived, nobody makes a fool out of God for whatever a person sows, that is exactly what they're going to reap.

Boy, that sure makes it more enticing to tell you truth, tell the truth on your taxes. You see friends, as a follower of Christ, I have found over the last 35 years that when I'm faced with temptation and I throw scripture at it, man, it loses its attractiveness to me real quickly. And this is how the Lord Jesus fought 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 we quit and that is, would you notice that the three it is written that the Lord Jesus used, two of them were from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and the other one was from Deuteronomy chapter 8. What does this tell us? It tells us that when the Lord Jesus was out there for 40 days and 40 nights, fasting in the wilderness, He was not playing pinocle, He was not playing backgammon, He was meditating on the Word of God. He was reading the book of Deuteronomy and memorizing the book of Deuteronomy and meditating on the book of Deuteronomy and hiding the book of Deuteronomy in His heart so that when He needed it, it was there.

Isn't it interesting that Jesus didn't say to Satan when He tempted him, Satan, wait a minute, wait a minute, there's a verse for that. I don't know what it is. I know it's in there somewhere. Hold on just a second. I got to run and get my concordance. I'm going to Google this. I'll be right back.

Just stay where you are. I'm coming right back with a verse. He didn't do that, did He?

No, no. What did Jesus do? He had the right verse for the right temptation, right on the tip of His tongue, right when He needed it. Why? Because He had been hiding the Word of God in His heart for 40 days and 40 nights. He had been memorizing it, ruminating on it, and He had it right where He needed it. And that's why Psalm 119 verse 11 says, Your word I have hidden in my heart.

Why? So that I might not sin against you, so that I've got it there to use when I need it. And friend, let me say in closing, if you're here today and you're a follower of Christ and you're losing the battle against temptation in your life more than you're winning, if you're here today and you're a follower of Christ and your Christian experience is unstable, your Christian experience is inconsistent, I will bet my retirement fund on why that is. It's because I'll bet you that you are not doing in your life what the Lord Jesus was doing in His life for those 40 days He was out in the wilderness, that you are not doing in your life what enabled Him to fight off temptation out there in the wilderness.

You are not hiding the Word of God in your heart every day. You're not meditating on it, memorizing it, ruminating over it, so that you don't have the right verse at the right time when you need it for the right temptation. And that's why we don't do better. Now we're never going to do perfect. We're never going to be sinlessly perfect.

We're never going to get it all right. But I'm here to tell you that most of us can do a whole lot better than we're doing if we learn to fight temptation the right way. Not with the power of human logic and not with the power of human will, but with the sword of the Spirit. It is written, it is written, it is written. That's what you throw back at temptation.

That's what you throw back at the enemy. And so I want to challenge you today that if your Christian life is inconsistent, if it is unstable, if you're losing more than you're winning, I can tell you how to change that. Psalm 119, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Friends, you set aside a time every single day to do what Jesus did out in the wilderness to hide the 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 fight temptation in your life. And I promise you, your consistency in the Christian experience, your stability in the Christian experience will go up significantly. And so let me ask you, what are you going to do about this? Are you going to walk out of here and you're going to say, ah, B-plus, not bad today.

I'll give him a B-plus today. Or are you going to walk out of here and say, you know what, I'm going to change my daily routine. I'm going to change my daily lifestyle. I'm going to reorient my priorities. And I'm going to make sure I get time every day to hide the Word of God in my heart so I can be more consistent and stable. I can win more than I lose.

Well, I can't make the decision for you. I can just tell you walking out here and grading the sermon is not going to change your life. But you walk out of here and change your priorities and your lifestyle to build the Word of God in. And it will.

That's the so what of today. Fight temptation the way the Lord Jesus did. I hope you'll take that to heart. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you that you are a mighty God. And thank you that you love us so much that you want us to be successful in our fight against the enemy and our fight against our own sinful human nature, that you want us to have a Christian experience that is driven by consistency and stability. And so, Lord, I pray that you would show us today that you've provided the weaponry for us to do that. You've provided the strategy for us to do that.

And we simply need to humble ourselves and accept your strategy instead of trying to do it in our own energy, in our own strength. Lord Jesus, change the very way we relate to temptation in our life. Change the way we fight it. Change the way we orient our life each and every day when it comes to the Word of God. Change our lives because we were here today. And help us go out and live a more consistent life in the eyes of an onlooking world so that Jesus Christ gets the glory and gets the honor. Lord, thanks for bringing us here today. May we be different as we leave. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.