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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/scott-macleod/the-sinless-perfection-of-christ/
Now we'll turn, please, in our Bibles to Leviticus chapter 16. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus chapter 16. There was a comment that Brother Dan mentioned this morning. And it's very disturbing. I've heard it a number of times.
It's not that what he said. It's what he said others had said. And he made the comment that there's a number of individuals that are starting to push the idea that Christ could have sinned, but that he chose not to sin.
Now, I'm very disturbed by that. I've heard that for the last six months a number of times. And what really disturbed me this morning when he said, he used the expression, individuals that are on the fringe of assembly testimony.
So I took it from that that he meant there are some people possibly that are in assembly fellowship somewhere. I'm not too sure where. And possibly could be imbibing this doctrine. And I want to assure you from the word of God, we're going to look at it in Leviticus 16, that that is absolute wrong.
And we're going to look at that in a minute here. By picture, we're going to see it. And then we'll use some verses in the New Testament. So Leviticus chapter 16, and we'll start at verse number 4. I'm not going to read the whole account.
And we'll just read a couple of things that are a picture to me of the sinless perfection of the Lord Jesus. Verse number 4 of Leviticus 16, referring to Aaron on the Day of Atonement, he shall put on the holy linen coat.
So just make a mental reference of that, linen coat, holy linen coat. He shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh and shall be girded with a linen girdle. And with the linen mitre shall he be attired.
These are holy garments. Therefore, shall he wash his flesh in water and so put them on. Now, you come back, come over to the end of verse number 28. After all of this stuff has been done, which is ordered by the Lord, you read, and he that burneth them shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water.
And afterward, he shall come into the camp. Now, there are many pictures given to us in the word of God. We all know that every picture and every type in the Old Testament, they have limitations. And that's often why it's careful for us when we are looking at them not to bring things into the chapter that is not there.
Now, what you have here is this man Aaron, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus, our great high priest. Very interesting that Aaron, if you look into the word of God, he wore a different set of garments for 359 days of the year.
I know this is probably known to many. And they were the gems that were on his breastplate and that colorful blue and then the ephod and the gold. There's a whole number of different things he wore. But on this one day, God wanted all of those garments of beauty and glory to be set aside.
And then he was gonna put on these four items. And you'll notice that they're all white and it's all linen. Now, linen is a lovely picture in the Old Testament of the perfections of the Lord Jesus. But it's very interesting to note that before Aaron could even put these four things on that picture the sinless perfection of the Lord Jesus, Aaron had to wash his entire body first.
And then he would put on these four items that speak of the sinless perfection of Christ. Then he would go and he would do his activities that he had to do with the two goats and the incense and so on.
And then after all of that was done, then he had to take off the linen. And before he could put on his garments of beauty and glory again, he had to wash his entire body again before he could put on that normal attire that he would wear.
Now, that is just a very small picture to us. In order for Aaron to even become a type of Christ, isn't that something how careful the spirit of God is? He had to wash his entire body, his entire flesh.
You know, I love the word of God, how careful it brings before us that the Lord Jesus, he knew no sin. You take your three principal writers in the New Testament. He knew no sin. Then we read another one, in him is no sin.
Then we read another expression, he did no sin. So it's very clear to us that in order for Aaron to even become a picture to us, do you know what he has to do first? He has to do something that the Lord Jesus never did.
The Lord Jesus never had to remove from himself any type of outward defilement. That's what Aaron had to do, pictured in washing his entire body. Then Aaron would take that mitre, that white hood that would have went on his head.
And you can line up the New Testament with that, that speaks of the mind. And here is Aaron in picture form, bringing before us the mind of the Lord Jesus, absolutely free from every taint and thought of sin.
And then you have this outward robe that he would have put on his body. I mean, those are all lovely pictures of the Lord Jesus. It didn't matter where you saw this man, you saw nothing but white. And that is picturing the Lord Jesus.
There's another thing, the girdle that he would have wore. That's the belt that would have went around the robe. That picture is his work, what he does for us. And there is another picture that the Lord Jesus of the work on the cross, absolutely, totally free of sin.
But there's something that the people did not see. And it's an aspect that we don't see, and we'll never see. You'll notice that there's one piece of article that's mentioned, it's the linen breeches.
Now I'm not trying to be irreverent when I say this, but so that we understand it, it would be about the same size as a pair of boxer shorts that a man would wear. And that was the undergarment. That was underneath everything.
No man saw that. I want us to understand today that let us never think that with all of our intelligence, we can somehow come to the sinless perfection of Christ and comprehend it. We've got it measured.
We understand just how holy he is. No, we do not. There is an aspect of the sinless perfection of Christ that only his God can comprehend. It was for God's eyes only, if I could say it that way. I think that it's a lovely picture.
There are things that we can see. We can see it, the head, the hat. We can see the robe. We can see the belt. But there's something that we can't see. And that's the undergarment. And that was for the eyes of God alone.
I want to quote a couple of verses to you. And it's very interesting. I have heard this verse quoted many times wrongly. I want you to pay close attention. I'm going to quote it very carefully in 1 John 3 and verse 5.
And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sin and in him, I hear a lot of people say was no sin. That's not what it says. In him is no sin. Now that should thrill our heart because at this very moment in heaven, our savior in him is no sin.
It's true that when he was on earth, in him is no sin. You see, these people that try to tell you that the Lord Jesus could have sinned, but he made a conscious choice not to sin. Well, does that mean that he could sin in heaven?
See what it does? It opens up a door to so many things that could go wrong. I want you to listen to another verse. Listen to this one in Hebrews 7 and 28. For such a high priest became us who was holy?
No, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. Sometimes we think of that verse and we think of it only in relation to his life. Oh, he was holy, he was harmless, he was separate, undefiled from sinners.
Absolutely not. True of him in eternity, in heaven at this very moment, our savior is holy, is harmless, is undefiled, is separate from sinners. A truth that will always stand because it's stated in the word of God.
Listen to another one. 1 John chapter three and verse three. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he was pure? No, even as he is pure. So it's very clear, dear child of God, from the word of God, you and I, sometimes that's where we make the mistake.
We try to understand God by working backwards from what we know. We know ourselves. We all know that there are things that we see, that we hear, that we look at, and there is right away we're doing our best to stop that gravitation toward wrong.
That temptation that rises up within and we're doing everything. We're quoting verses and we're trying to stop ourselves from sliding into it, right? Always remember, the Lord Jesus had no defiled heart.
The Lord Jesus had no wicked flesh. The Lord Jesus could clearly say, the devil cometh and hath nothing in me. There was absolutely nothing that could be placed around the Lord Jesus or that could be put into one ear and ran through his mind and out the other ear.
There was nothing in the Lord Jesus that reached up, that gravitated toward the wrong, never. Do you know what there was? There was only the abhorrence of sin. The very thought of it being mentioned just grieved his heart.
Now, we ought to understand that because sometimes people get into a little bit of a mistake when they think of the devil tempting the Lord Jesus. And well, did the Lord Jesus not understand what he was saying?
Yes. But understanding what is wrong is not committing sin. The devil does that to us all the time. Something goes across our mind. I remember Mr. Albert Ramsey, dear brother, he used to tell us, you can't stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your head.
Just because the Lord Jesus heard the words of the devil, fall down and worship me, he understood what he was being asked to do. But there was nothing in him that gravitated toward it. Absolutely sinless.
So when we sometimes reel back in horror at sin, that is not how the Lord Jesus responded. We are affected by sin. Sin has deadened my response, the way I should respond to sin. Listen, the Lord Jesus, so holy, absolutely holy.
I can't begin to describe to you how it must have affected our savior as he walked in this earth and everywhere he looked, he saw the effects of sin. Not a wonder he's called the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
I see things that happen that people do to other people. And it just causes me to get almost sick, doesn't it? When you think of the wickedness and the depth of sin that humanity falls to. My, how much more?
You'd have to add on infinitum to try to understand how it stabbed him, grieved him to see what sin had done to this world. I've been given a permission to take a few more minutes. So I'm just gonna end with this.
I'll leave you to think on this. Look at verse number 12. If you look at verse number four and five, that's his sinless perfection. Look at verse number 12. This is his life. Look at this. And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord in his hands full of the sweet incense beaten small.
We heard about this yesterday from our brother William. And bring it within the veil and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat. That that is upon the testimony that he die not.
This is a lovely picture of his life. Now here's another thing. The people never saw the majority of that cloud of incense that was in the holies of holies. Do you know what they did see? I'll tell you what they rather smelled.
They only smelled the effect of that man having gone in there with the censer, the cloud filled the holies of holies where God was. And out came Aaron with this white cloth only perfumed with that fragrance.
See, there is, when we look at the life of Christ, once again, let us never think that we can, we got the gospels, we've got his life encompassed. We got it all. Listen, God enjoyed things of his son.
You and I will never plumb the depths of it. The majority of that smoke from that incense remained in the holies of holies for the eyes of God. And as men were on the outside only catching the fragrance of it.
I mean, that was wonderful. Finally, with this, I'll sit down. Look at verse number 20. We have the live goat brought before us. Verse 21, and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel.
And then the goat is sent away. Look at verse number 22. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities onto a land not inhabited. And he, that's the fit man, shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
Now, listen, when it comes to the sacrifice of Christ, we can read about Calvary, but then there comes a darkness. And now there's only something for the eye of God. The people heard a lot. They heard Aaron.
They saw Aaron as he pressed his hands upon the live goat. They could smell the fragrance of the incense on the linen. They could hear all their sins being put upon the live goat. Then the fit man would come along.
He'd tie a rope on the goat. And then he'd start to lead the goat away. And all the people could watch. They're seeing their sins being carried away. And all of a sudden on the horizon, the goat and the man, gone, out of sight.
Do you know what God's teaching us? That's not far enough. Then the man, the fit man, he then lets the goat go. And now the goat goes into a land uninhabited. And even the fit man doesn't see it. Do you understand with our intelligence, you and I will never plumb the depths of how far our Savior went.
Never. But there's only one person that can comprehend it. That's the Father. Because in our picture this morning, always remember, God forsook Christ. But the Father never forsook the Son. Now, that's a mystery I can't comprehend.
I see it so perfectly illustrated. I see a father and a son walking to the altar in Genesis 22. In one instance, I see a son bound and a father with the knife. The next instance, I see a father and a son side by side as they both look at the ram.
Don't ask me to explain it. I can't. But there are aspects of the person of Christ that you and I will never be able to fathom. God bless His word.