Condemnation

Welcome to Worshiping the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. Today we're starting a new series called Good News. In this new gospel-centered series, Pastor Robert takes four words that, without Christ, are bad news, but with Christ are good news.

Today's message is about condemnation, and Pastor Robert has so many incredible things to share, so let's join him now. All right, so I'm going to begin a new series for four weeks called Good News. And we're going to talk about good news, and obviously we're going to talk about the good news of the gospel, but we're going to go in depth in a way that maybe you've never done it in four specific areas. In other words, I'm going to take four words that, without Christ, are bad news. But with Christ, these words actually become good news.

Everything changed when Christ came. And so the first word, and I'm just titling the message this, so this doesn't sound like an exciting title, let me go ahead and tell you that, but the title of the message today is Condemnation. Isn't that great? But it will turn out good news. If there's ever a time when the world needs good news, it's right now. I mean, it's nearly all bad news, you know? You can't hardly just go to a browser without seeing bad news. The news doesn't even seem to be the news anymore.

They could just rename it bad news. And it seems all slanted, whether it's conservative or liberal, it's all slanted. And it seems to be that a lot of news channels are just a bunch of arguing. I mean, I can't even watch anymore. I'd like to just know who won the gold medal, please. I'd like to know the news.

But I don't want four people just arguing about something. It's just crazy. Now, when I was growing up, there was a newsman. Now, granted, I did not like the news when I was a child. I didn't watch the news unless I had to and didn't listen even when I did. But there was a newsman, a news anchor, when I was a child named Walter Cronkite. Does anyone remember Walter Cronkite?

Okay. He was called, some of you might remember this, the most trusted man in America. You know why? Because he simply told you the news.

He didn't tell you his opinion. He just told you the news. And so you could watch the news without all of the junk that's in there today. Well, we need good news. You turn on social media, internet, television, whatever it is, it's bad news every day. And anything that happens that is bad, they want you to know about it.

And so that's all they tell. So I want to tell you about the good news. And I want you to know that when the good news came in this world 2,000 years ago, that what we call the good news is even gooder than you think it is. It literally changes everything and all the news you receive, if you will filter it through the good news, it can change it all because the good news changes everything.

So we're going to start three points. Number one, what is the good news? Well, the good news, we get that word from the word gospel. The word gospel literally means good news. So anytime you see the word gospel, just for a while, while we do this study, will you put the words good news in there? For instance, Mark chapter one, verse 14. Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the good news of the kingdom of God.

You see it? Instead of preaching the gospel, let's take the definition. Preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled.

Boy, this is just, this is amazing. The time they had waited for since the fall of Adam and Eve, 4,000 years. The time is now. And the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, by the way, that's one of the words we're going to talk about that people think is a bad word, but it's actually a good word. And believe in the good news, in the gospel. I just want you to just think about Jesus brought good news. He did not bring bad news. He did not say repent for hell is at hand. He said, repent, change the way you're thinking because heaven is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand. He has sent me to announce and to proclaim good news.

Everything he did was good news. So the Greek word, which I know all of you will know, and I'm going to actually show it to you on the screen later so you can get your pens ready. But the Greek word is euangelion.

I know it's a little bigger and we'll talk about it. Euangelion. That's the Greek word for gospel. There are two nouns and one verb. One refers to the news itself.

Good would be the adjective. In other words, the news is good news. It's news and the type of news it is is good news. So one of the nouns refers to the news itself. One of the nouns though, refers to the messenger who brings the good news, which we're going to focus in on. And then there's a verb, which means to tell the good news, which is where we actually get our word evangelist.

One who tells the good news is the evangelist. So with Greek, God chose for the New Testament written in Greek. It was written in Koine Greek, which means common Greek or conversational Greek. And with a lot of these Greek words, I've shared with you a lot about the background would be a military or an athletic term. This has a sense of a military because it comes from the king and it's about battle. But a euangelion is actually a messenger who brings good news from the king.

And that was his only job. And this is the term that God chooses to put in the Bible to describe the gospel. It is the messenger who never brings bad news. When he shows up, his only job is to bring good news. Let me actually show you an example of this in the Old Testament.

This is just an example of it, all right? Second Samuel 18, verse 27. So the watchman said, I think the running of the first is like the running of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok. And the king said, he is a good man and comes with good news.

He's an euangelion. He's a good messenger. That means when he gets here, he'll have good news. So there was this specific messenger. He would show up and go around from village to village. They had no internet.

They had no email. So the messenger would come and say, the war is over. And he would go from village to village. In other words, your warriors, your family members are going to be returning. He might show up and say, the king is coming to visit your village, your city, your town.

He might show up and say, your taxes are being lowered. And he probably never did. But let's all hope that we have a euangelion one day that comes and tells us that, but I doubt it. But anyway, the gospel is good news. Now, first of all, you need to understand Christianity is not a religion. It is classified by people as a religion, but it is not a religion. It is a relationship with Christ. It's very important. But for the sake of argument or for the sake of understanding this, I'll classify it as a religion, but Christianity is the only religion that has good news.

Study them. No other religion has good news. It's all bad news.

You want to know why? It's all what you have to do to get to heaven instead of what's already been done for you so you can go to heaven. It's totally different. By the way, the reason that I say Christianity is not a religion, religion is man's attempt to get to God. Christianity is God's attempt to get to you.

So it's totally different. And even now they've adopted no religion. There's the religion of no religion. How is that good news? How is it good news that we're only metaphysical and when we die, there's no afterlife? How's that good news? How is it good news that things only happen by chance? How is it good news there's not a God who loves you and who is orchestrating things in your life for your good? How is that good news? That's bad news. What good news is, is that there is a God who loves you and he sent his son to die for you on the cross.

That's good news. And this messenger, this Greek word that God used to describe the message, the gospel is a messenger who only brings good news only. So here's point number two, who is the messenger?

And this might surprise you because you might think we're the messengers, but we're not the messenger. Let me show you the Greek word now that I said, this is the English transliteration of the Greek word. You on Gellion, you see that you on Gellion. Here's the reason I wanted to show it to you because I'm going to break it down and look right in the middle of this word. Do you see that word?

Anyone recognize that word? Angel. The Greek word for angel is angelos and it means messenger.

That's what it means. Do you remember that the Bible refers to angels, but in the Old Testament it refers to the angel of the Lord. And when it says the angel, it's referring to Jesus.

Jesus is the messenger who brought the good news. Remember I told you the word evangelist, we get our word evangelist. Here's the word evangelist and then break that one down. Is that the same word?

Yes. I see the word again, angel. So an evangelist is one who brings good news. But what I want you to understand about this is that it's Jesus. The reason is, is because I think we have it confused because sometimes we call books, gospels. We call Matthew, Mark and Luke, Mark, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John gospels, right? Now, nothing wrong with saying that, the gospel of Matthew. But what that means is, is the story of Jesus told by Matthew. That they weren't, the first four books of the New Testament were not called gospels until the second century. We think that they were called gospels because of Mark chapter one, verse one. Mark one, one says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, the beginning of the gospel. So again, hear me, I'm not, I'm not putting down the Bible at all, but the gospel is not just the story of Jesus. The gospel is Jesus. In other words, the gospel, the reason I showed you the word angel, the reason I told you it's a messenger, is I'm telling you that God himself became the messenger and came.

And because of this, I don't just have the story that Jesus came, I have Jesus. This is very, very important to understand. Last night, not long before we went to bed, I got a bad report about two friends of mine.

In other words, one was going through difficulties with his church and the other has been hospitalized for COVID. And it's right before I go to bed. And so I'm lying there in bed and I'm just thinking, I just, Lord, I just can't handle this.

I can't handle this. I just, I pray for him. I want you to help him.

I want you to touch him. I want you, but for me to just go to sleep now, I'm disturbed, I'm upset about my two friends that are going through such difficulties. And so I told the Lord, I just have to give you this burden because I can't carry this burden. And I went right on to sleep and I woke up this morning and I thought about him, but the burden wasn't there. I still had concern. I still prayed for him, but the burden was there.

So here's what I'm telling you. Last night, I didn't need the story that Jesus came to earth. I needed Jesus. I needed the great physician. I needed the shepherd who causes me to lie down in green pastures. I needed the one who causes me always to triumph. I needed the one who is the conqueror.

I needed the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That's the gospel. Jesus is the good news. So talk about who the messenger is.

Here's point number three. What's the message? So again, we're going to take four words and the first word is condemnation. So I'm going to show you how this is a bad news word without Jesus. But with Jesus, he actually makes the word condemnation a good word, a good news word, I should say. The word condemnation comes from the word damnation.

In Matthew 23 verse 14, Jesus said, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive the greater condemnation. In the old King James, it says you shall receive the greater damnation.

Mark 3 29, old King James, he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. So all the newer versions use the word condemnation, but the word condemnation comes from the word damnation. So what does damnation mean or what does condemnation mean? It means a death sentence. That's what it means. And when it says don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it doesn't mean that you say something negative about the Holy Spirit. What it means is that the Holy Spirit is the one who draws you to Christ, reveals Christ to you, and when you speak against or stand against the Holy Spirit drawing you to Christ, then you're in danger of eternal damnation, eternal death, eternal separation from God.

So it's a death sentence. That's what condemnation means. Now how in the world does Jesus turn that into a good word? By the way, if you have a habit of damning things, stop it.

Why would you ever damn your marriage, or your spouse, or your checkbook, or your retirement account? I would stop putting the word damn in front of things that you don't want a death sentence over. Is that okay to say that?

And by the way, if some of you would like to nudge someone beside you, you can. So it's all right. And don't ever ask God to damn it.

That wouldn't be good either. So, but it means a death sentence. So what happens, how does this word death sentence completely change when Jesus comes? You remember the woman at the well? He says to her, I mean not the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery.

You remember what he says to her? Where are your accusers? Does no one condemn you? In other words, does no one give you a death sentence? She said, no one.

Here's good news talking. Neither do I. I don't give you a death sentence either. Let me read you another one. John 3 16, most famous verse in the Bible. Look at John 3 17. For God did not, I love the words did not here, did not send his son into the world.

Watch this. Let me say it this way, to give the world a death sentence, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not given a death sentence, but he who does not believe already has a death sentence. God didn't come to give you a death sentence. You were born with a death sentence. The good news comes to remove the death sentence, but he's already condemned because he's not believed in the name of the Son of God.

Here's a really good one. Romans 8 1. There is therefore now no death sentence to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. There's no more death sentence.

This is a word that is bad news. We were born with a death sentence. The good news comes in the world and there's no more death sentence for those who believe.

And that's all it is. That's why I say Christianity, the only religion in the world that has good news because it's not that you hopefully you're good enough one day. So Romans 8 1 by the way starts with no condemnation.

You remember how it ends, don't you? It ends with no separation. Verse 38. I'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come. That's kind of including everything. Nor height nor depth or any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8 starts with no condemnation and ends with no separation. I mean you talk about good news. It's gooder than you think. I mean that's good news. That's really good news. No condemnation is the glory of the gospel. No separation is the guarantee of the gospel.

Here's the good news. Jesus shows up whenever religion in the world gives bad news and every religion in the world tells you what you have to do to go to heaven. Here's what Jesus does. He shows up and says, I'm the way. I'm the way to heaven.

They say, well, tell us what we got to do to do the works of God. Believe in me. Accept me. Receive me. That's it.

That's pretty good news. Okay. So just for a moment, this condemnation, let's wrap it up here. You're in court and God's the judge. And if you've ever done anything wrong, you're condemned to eternal death if you've done anything wrong.

And so they don't even have to play the full video of your life to find out you've done things wrong. And so God raises the gavel and he's about to pronounce the death sentence over you. And then Jesus steps up and says, father, I'll take her sentence.

I'll die for her. And the father says, do you want to receive this? Now you might even say, well, I don't want Jesus to have to die. Here's what he would say. Well, he already did.

He's already done it. He already took your sentence, but it's up to you whether you'll receive that or not, because you have a free will. So would you like to receive what Jesus did for you? When you say, yes, I'd like to receive it. Here's what I want you to understand. He hits the gavel and this is what he says.

Okay. Then you are sentenced to eternal life. You are sentenced to eternal life. See the bad news is you're born sentenced to eternal death. The good news is you're born again, sentenced to eternal life.

You're sentenced by God through Jesus Christ through eternal life. The good news takes all the bad news and filters it and changes it so that all these words that were very, very bad news for us as sinners, everything changes because a person, a messenger, the messenger came into this world and brought the good news. We want you to take a moment to think about what pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com and if you haven't already, go follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. We're so glad that you joined us for the beginning of this series. Next time pastor Robert is going to share about repentance. Be sure to join us then. Until then, have a blessed week.