There is no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Jesus. What does it mean? How do we walk it out? This is Michael Brown. This entire month, we're focusing on the beauty of holiness and helping us as believers not to fall into the ditch of legalism on the one side or license on the other side, not to fall prey to condemnation and the weight of a burden that is not from God, but to enjoy the liberating power.
of holiness. Our textbook through the week. Through the month, go and sin no more, filled with Scripture. And every quote, every principle, every teaching we're going through this month, it's all found in the book. There is a great hymn by Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley.
and he was the famous hymn writer between them. And can it be? And if you know it, I only found out about it in the second church. We didn't sing it in the first church where I was saved from 71 to 77, but began to sing it in the next church, 77 to 82. It's a classic older hymn.
You don't hear it that much these days. And can it be? That I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood. Died he for me? Who caused this pain?
For me? who him to death pursued? Amazing love. How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Then listen to this.
Listen to this. Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin, and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray I woke. The dungeon flame with light. My chains fell off.
My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee. No condemnation now I dread. Jesus and all in him is mine. Alive in Him, my living head.
and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne. Claim the crown through Christ, my own. Oh man, I'm getting touched in Tyria just reading the lyrics to that hymn. Oh, What are you feeling the truth of the gospel?
Is it bearing witness deep inside of you? Wow. From long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin in nature's night To no condemnation now I dread To bold I approach the eternal throne And claim the crown through Christ my own. Wow How can that be real? in your life.
How can you walk that out for yourself? William Seymour, greatly used by God in the Azusa Street revival almost a hundred years ago. said this Justification, or over a hundred years ago, excuse me, justification. deals with our actual sins. When we go to Him and repent, God washes all the guilt and pollution out of our hearts.
And we stand justified like a new babe. that never committed sin. We have no condemnation. We can walk with Jesus. And live a holy life before the Lord if we walk in the Spirit.
You say, okay. That's nice, but how? You tell me about it? But you're not telling me how. That's what I wanna do.
That's what I want to do today's broadcast. We may go over tomorrow into this as well.
So do you feel condemned?
So what exactly do you mean by that?
Well do you often feel as if you're a second class citizen of the kingdom of God? If you're you tolerate it. but hardly loved by the Lord. Oh, you're saved. You're in his kingdom.
But he tolerates you more than loves you. Is that how you feel? Or it Is it common for you to feel guilty and unclean no matter how right your life seems to be? Is that common for you? Romans 8.1.
There is. no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Jesus. But knowing what is written and experiencing the reality of what is written. are often two separate things.
So You may know, okay, the Bible says it. But I'm not experiencing it That makes me now feel worse. Because it's in the Bible. I should be experiencing it, but I'm not experiencing it.
So that makes me feel. Even worse about myself. And there's something wrong with me. It's a trap, right? It's a cycle.
It goes from bad to worse.
So Here's some of Satan's tricks. In ways that he drags us down. And maybe this is exactly what you're experiencing. Maybe you don't even know who I am or what you're listening to, what station. You just happen to tune in.
Well, it's God. It's God that set this up.
So keep listening. Keep listening. discouragement and hopelessness. What's this trying? I'll never be good enough.
It's never going to work. I'm never going to be able to make God happy with me.
So why even bother? These are some of Satan's tricks. Or the opposite approach. trying to lull you into sleep with false assurances.
So hey, do whatever you want to do. Live however you want to live. It's fine because there's no condemnation. Just live however you want to live. And God doesn't convict you of sin anymore because everything's already forgiven in advance.
ditch on the other side of the road.
So What does condemnation actually mean? There is no condemnation. Does it mean there's no conviction? No, certainly not. Conviction is a good thing, healthy thing, beautiful thing.
Doesn't mean that.
Okay, what does it mean? Here's what's written in Romans 5. Romans 5, beginning verse 16. Ready to get in the word with me?
Okay. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, Greek, to condemn. Katakrima. But the gift followed many trespasses. Brought justification.
So the judgment followed Adam's sin and brought condemnation. But the gift. Through the blood of Jesus, followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if by the trespass of the one man, Death reigned through that one man. How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness?
Reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men.
So also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
So what does condemnation mean then? All right, Romans 8, 1 and 2. There is therefore now no Condemnation. Condemnation came after Adam sinned. Condemnation brought death on all human beings.
There is no condemnation. Condemnation, same Greek word, for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, The law of the spirit of life. Set me free. from the law of sin. And death.
Now Just A little sub-point here, and then I want to be practical. Calvinists who say That if you're truly saved, you'll persevere in holiness to the end. If you backslide, it'll only be temporary. If you die in willful, rebellious sin, you are never truly saved. Are minions who say That you can know the Lord, you can be born again, but you can reject His salvation and walk away from Him and die in sin.
They agree on this. that there is no assurance of divine favor for those who willfully forsake God. You cannot be in Christ. and woefully forsake God. There is no condemnation to those who are in him.
So you cannot be in him. and woefully reject him. If you die in your sins, unrepentant hostile to God, Calvinists and Armenians would both agree, you're hell bound. But I I'm not Talking For the most part, to those of you that want to reject God. Most all of you listening, you want him.
That's why you're listening. You want to please him. You want to grow. That's why you're listening to Christian radio. Yeah.
You are in Jesus, you are a believer. But you're struggling. And those I'm speaking to in particular today, you're struggling with that sense of condemnation. I'm not good enough. not not like others.
They're so much holier and better than me, so much better Christians than me, don't struggle with the things I struggle with, etc., etc. Uh So What's God's posture towards you? Please let me help you. Please r Please let me be a vessel sent by God today to minister grace and hope to you. All right?
God wants to bless you. If you're his child, He wants to bless the whole world, but those in rebellion, he cannot bless unless they repent. The first blessing is their repentance. He wants to bless you. He wants to fellowship with you forever.
He wants to do good to you. He's the one who continues to draw you to himself. He's the one who took all the initiative in the relationship.
So what you have to do is is forget how you feel in your in your heart. Ignore what your mind tries to tell you. And just believe the word. And as I give you scripture, Take this in and meditate on it. Brainwash yourself with truth.
Let the truth of God Wash your brain, wash away the junk, wash away the wrong thinking, wash away the condemnation as the love of God becomes more and more and more real to you. Have you ever done work? outside or maybe with a certain substance and your hands get really dirty. And you have to keep washing them.
Soap and water, hot soap and water. And then I remember when I was in high school and worked a job, part-time job in a cabinet shop. With my two friends, my two best friends that were both believers, and our little band or rock band, and here we are. I remember with our long hair, and the place was like dusty. And by the end of the day, we looked like George Washington or the founding fathers, because we had this longer hair, and it was all like white from the dust.
You know, we'd be sitting in those days eating pizza and our hands look filthy. They look filthy, but it was just the stain. Was so ingrained in us, you could wash your hands, and it was still ingrained. It took a while once we stopped working there. It took some weeks before you were able to get everything, okay, get that out deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper.
That's what we have to do with the word. We have to brainwash, we have to wash our brain, wash our heart, wash our mind with scriptural truth. And you may have to wake up every morning and say, Father, you love me and you want to bless me. Father, you love me and you want to bless me. Father, you love me and you want to bless me.
You may have to wake up in the morning. You may have to walk around the house saying that and then quoting scripture, quoting scripture about the goodness of God, quoting scripture about the love of God until it becomes real. inside of you. Forgot an important announcement, don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.
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So call now 1-800-771-5584. one eight hundred seven seven one fifty five eighty four. or online at T R I V I T A. Trivita dot com Hey friends, welcome back to the line of fire. Remember, all the quotes we're sharing with you, all the principles we're giving you, all of the scripture verses we're citing, they are all collected together in my book.
Go and sin no more, a call to holiness. We have been so blessed over the years since the book has been out by those who say their lives were changed, they got free from sinful habits, they're living for Jesus now, or they were kept from a great fall because of the scriptural truths of the book. Smith Wigglesworth. died in 1947, known as the Apostle of Faith, gave this counsel. about the word.
Read it through. Write it down. Pray it in. Work it out. Pass it on.
The word of God changes a man until he becomes an epistle of God. Hear it again. Read it through. Write it down. Pray it in.
Work it out. Pass it on. The Word of God changes a man until he becomes an epistle. of God. What's the difference then between conviction of the Spirit?
and condemnation. What's the difference?
Well Conviction is good. Not bad. It's sent from heaven. It's not manufactured in hell. And you should thank God when his conviction breaks your heart, fully yielding to the Spirit, since heeding his rebuke always brings life.
Conviction may make you feel miserable for sin, but the moment you move towards God, you feel good. You feel blessed. The moment you move towards confession, you feel relief. Oh, this is good. A young man told me a few weeks ago.
that that he had committed adultery. And I mean, what could be worse news for the wife than the husband committed adultery? And he he he hid it. and tried to cover it up and deny it, but once he came clean, And he and his wife happily married to this day. Once he came clean, It was free.
He was free from that moment on. He said to me, Boy, it's so much better to get it out. It feels so much better to get it out. That's not condemnation. Condemnation hangs over you like a heavy weight.
It's all coming down. It's all over. You are coming down. It's not the voice of the Spirit. The voice of the Spirit may warn you, don't do this, it's disaster, don't do this, it's destruction.
The conviction of the Spirit may make you feel terribly uncomfortable. Terribly uncomfortable. But it's life-giving. The moment you yield to it, Oh, I'm free. I'm clean.
Even though you may have to deal with the consequences of sin, you feel free and clean. And remember, it's the same Greek word, a lenko, same Greek verb, in John 16. When Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, it's that same word that's used in Revelation 3:19 when Jesus says, as many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. It's that same word there, rebuke.
So this is the loving, convicting, rebuking voice of the Spirit. Don't listen to any teacher who tells you the Holy Spirit doesn't convict his people of sin today. That is a lie and a destructive lie. Conviction brings life. Condemnation brings death.
He does not condemn his children, but he does convict us because he loves us. Conviction is like the work of the prosecuting attorney proving his case against the defendant and exposing his crime. Condemnation is like the judge's gavel coming down with a final irreversible verdict of guilty. Conviction says, You've sinned, come back to me. Condemnation says, you're guilty.
Get away from me.
So Here's something that'll help you.
Some terminology. All right, we're going to have a little fun with this. If you're saved. You're no longer a sinner. On a certain level, we all sin daily.
We don't love God perfectly. We don't love our neighbor perfectly. We don't walk in perfect holiness. Our prayers are not as fully devoted as they could be. Our attention in the Word is not as full.
One way or another, we all fall short. And yet our desire is to please God. Sin used to be the habit of our lives, and we did what we wanted to do.
Now, the habit of our lives is, I want to please God, I want to live for God, I want to love God, I want to serve God. And willful sin, well, I don't care, I'm just going to do what I want to do. That's the exception to the rule.
Now, if your self-image is, I'm a sinner. I'm just a sinner saved by grace, but I'm a sinner That is going to make it easier for you to keep sinning. Right? And just picture that you're struggling with gambling, you're trying to get free. And your daily confession is, I'm a gambler.
I'm just a miserable gambler. Is that going to help you get free from gambling? Right? Now, what's interesting is if you go through the Old Testament, especially Psalms and Proverbs, you'll find sinner is used over and over and over. To depict the enemies of God.
The wicked. It's a synonym for wicked. or transgressor. Or rebel. or godless.
or ungodly. These are all synonyms for sinner. in the Old Testament or related terms. Whereas in the New Testament, for example, John 9, the blind man who's been healed, says we know that God does not hear sinners. And when Paul writes to, say, the Corinthians, he doesn't say to all the sinners in Corinth, does he?
No, he says to all the saints. in Corinth. What is saints in Greek? It's holy ones. to all the holy ones in Corinth called to be holy.
Wow. That's a different way of looking at things. The only time in the New Testament We're believers. explicitly addressed as sinners as in Jacob. James, the fourth chapter.
where he rebukes them because they're living like sinners. They're living like the world. They're living ungodly lives. And therefore he calls them sinners.
So It's one thing to sin and repent. even as a believer. It's another thing. to be a sinner. It's one thing to do something bad.
and then correct it. It's another thing too. Yeah. Bad.
So we're going to have some fun on the next broadcast. And we're going to again bathe you with the word of God. But let me tell you the exercise we're going to do. And we would do this when I would teach in a live class with students present. That that whenever we read a verse and it would have the word sinner in it.
We take shinner. Shinner.
Sometimes I'd have all the guys in the class, okay? Whenever we're going to read this, whenever the word sinner occurs, you're going to say sinner. or wicked or ungodly. And you know, the guys had deeper voices, right? Then I'd say to the ladies, okay.
I want you to, when it says righteous or godly, I want you to say righteous. Godly And so we'd do it in these exaggerated ways. I mean, we'd be smiling and laughing as we're doing, but the message would get home that. In God's sight, in Jesus, we are saints, not sinners. And that's our identity.
You're not who you used to be. And this, I'm a sinner, I'm just a sinner mentality opens the door to condemnation, friends. Can you see why this is so important? Whereas, look, if you just think, come on, how many husbands you do something wrong and you're in the doghouse, you know your wife's happy, your kids, you know, mom is not happy, and you live like we're in the doghouse all the time. You know, we got to earn our way out.
That's no way to live as a believer, as a follower of Jesus.
So I want to help you out of the doghouse into the Father's house. Fair enough.
