Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Helping us tell the difference between condemnation and conviction, here's Pastor Ed.

Ed Taylor: Don't confuse condemnation with conviction because they're two very different things. Conviction of sin is a good thing, and it's from God, and we need that.

And yet the condemnation of the law brings death. The condemnation we bring upon ourselves brings death. The conviction of the Holy Spirit brings life and correction. You could put it this way in a very simple way: you know it's conviction of sin when it draws you to God, and you can know it's the condemnation of your flesh, the enemy, and even the law trying to live up to some standard or someone else's standard. You know it's condemnation when it leads you away from God.

Guest (Male): Hello again, glad to have you in our listening family here on Abounding Grace. We invite you to join us in Romans Chapter 8, verse 1, as we continue our series Free From Our Past. When we become a Christian, we're no longer condemned.

But now that doesn't mean we won't feel condemned at times. Sometimes others will condemn us, and sometimes we bring it on ourselves. So how do we get beyond that to embrace God's truth for our lives? Pastor Ed Taylor will suggest starting with a proper understanding of what it is to be in Christ.

Ed Taylor: You see, when you're not in Christ, you make really bad decisions and you keep loads and loads of condemnation. That's why by the time someone came to share the gospel with me, they did not in any way need to explain to me the issue of sin or my own sin.

They didn't have to come to me with a list of a hundred sins in the Bible and hope that one of them hits my soul. While I wouldn't use the word sin, nor did I use the word sin, I did know of the bad behavior in my life. I was well aware of it when the alcohol would wear off, when I'd end up home, when I'd wake up face down somewhere in the city because I did something so bad to my friends that they pulled the car over, opened the door, and kicked me out.

I found my way home because there was one thing about me apart from Christ that I couldn't get away from: I was always waking up with me. And the worry and anxiety and the concern that I had in my life about another night drinking myself into darkness, drinking myself out and waking up and wondering, "What did I do?" And finding out what I did and going, "I just can't believe it. What kind of person am I?"

Then at a young age, and I speak this for the sake of someone listening in because especially those that listen in jail, in jail you feel like you've thrown your life away and you've convinced yourself that you've thrown your life away. It doesn't have to be jail, but at a young age, I just resolved that I'm done. It's over. I've thrown my life away.

It's going to end a lot earlier than I ever expected, so I might as well go out strong. And I was fully convinced, surrounded with people that loved me, even with a son and a wife. It didn't matter. Why? Because I wasn't in Christ. I was in Ed, and being in Ed is a bad place to be.

You don't want to be in this world, living for this world, thinking that this is where your source of satisfaction will be. It will only bring condemnation. That's why when you're in the flesh, condemnation messes with your head because you've lost the sense of being in Christ.

It doesn't change your status as a believer, being in the flesh. It just makes you closer to the life that you lived before you were saved. On top of that, you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your life not letting you get away with anything and wooing you and drawing you and convicting you to bring you back to where? In Christ. The place of safety, the place of knowing your security in Him, the place of strength.

Jesus put it this way in John Chapter 3, verse 19: "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." That's the condemnation. Condemnation is not in Christ; it's apart from Christ.

If you're here today and you haven't been born again, today is the day. Now is the time. A life of surrender. I don't know where you think your life is going to end, but the Bible says apart from Christ, your life is going to end eternally separated from God, and that will be your just reward.

As we were talking to that brother on the radio today, talking about the fairness of God and the justness of God, make no mistake about it, God is fair and God is just. And He's the one that sacrificed His own son on behalf of our sin. A sinless God meeting us in our helpless estate. Why? Because He loves us and He's still patient with us, that He might rescue us from ourselves.

I think condemnation can enter into our lives at times because we forget. We forget the bondage that sin holds and how easy it is to walk away from His faithfulness, if just in our minds. Would you turn over to John Chapter 8 with me? I want to reintroduce you to a woman.

This woman in John Chapter 8, she was caught in the very act. In the very act, which is a very humiliating place to be. The act? It was a sexual act. The Bible speaks of it with the word adultery, which means she was having sex with a man outside of marriage.

By the time they reach Jesus with her, understand that the act of sexual sin, by the time this woman reach Jesus and they drag her into His presence, the act of adultery is in her past. She was caught in the act, but it took some time to get her from the act—which by the way, she was set up.

She was set up to be used as a pawn, which is what religion does. It uses people. The religious rulers set her up, no doubt knowing her background perhaps or she might have been in that realm. It doesn't matter. She was used and abused, and that's always a sin. By the time they get her to the presence of Jesus, the act is in the past. She's no longer engaged in that sinful act.

Yet in the commotion, it says in verse 3, the scribes and Pharisees brought Him a woman caught in adultery. And they had set her in the midst. They said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act." We read that in a very clean, sterile environment tonight, but it was not clean or sterile.

It was a very messy, very tumultuous, probably loud scene. She's disheveled. It doesn't even speak of her being covered up, but I hope that she was. They bring her, tears streaming, their faces fixed with anger—not at her, she's just the pawn, they're abusing her. They want Jesus. They want to take Him out.

They bring this poor defenseless woman that they set up. Perhaps they set her up because she trusted them because they were religious rulers. Might I just add and remind you, abuse in any form in the church of Jesus Christ is a sin. It is not from God.

It is not God's will for any pastor, any lay leader, or anyone in the church of Jesus Christ to perpetrate abuse of any kind on you, male or female, especially in the name of God. And here she is, used and abused.

It says in verse 5, "Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned." Which, if they really believed what Moses said, they would have done it already. But they didn't because notice it says, "What do you say?" This they said testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him.

Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." Again He stooped down in verse 8 and wrote on the ground.

Those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one beginning with the oldest even to the last. Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. You see, they had past sin too, and they're living in the present sin because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

As He's writing down on the ground, they're still not repenting. The religious rulers still aren't changing. She's not getting any attention right now. He's dealing with them. Notice in verse 10, when Jesus raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her—and listen to these words, those of you that battle condemnation, listen to them no matter the sin.

"Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." Receive those words: "Neither do I condemn you." Circle them, underline them, highlight them: "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." That's all that she needed.

Here's the thing with condemnation: I don't know why, but sometimes I argue with God because I can hear the voice of Jesus saying to me, "Neither do I condemn you, Ed. Go and sin no more." And yet I condemn myself or allow others to condemn me. Perhaps some of you have found yourselves in that same place.

Jesus says, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. I forgive you. Past, present, and future, I forgive you. In Christ, you're forgiven." Isaiah says in the old covenant, "I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you."

David says in Psalm 103, "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is great His mercy toward us who fear Him." Isaiah says again in Isaiah 43, verse 25, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake," God says, "and I will not remember your sins."

Peter says in Acts Chapter 3, verse 19, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." And Paul says in Romans Chapter 8, verse 1, "There is therefore now," say it with me, "no condemnation." Say it again: "There is therefore now no condemnation" to those who are in Christ.

Answer this question for me: are you in the building tonight? Yes. Are you in Christ tonight? Yes. It's that simple. In Christ, there's no condemnation. So let's leave here today with a few practical tips about living in Christ apart from condemnation.

A few practicalities. Number one: don't confuse condemnation with conviction. Don't confuse condemnation with conviction because they're two very different things. Conviction of sin is a good thing, and it's from God, and we need that. It's wholesome, it's valuable, the conviction of sin.

Yet the condemnation of the law brings death. The condemnation we bring upon ourselves brings death. The conviction of the Holy Spirit brings life and correction. You could put it this way in a very simple way: you know it's conviction of sin when it draws you to God, and you can know it's the condemnation of your flesh, the enemy, and even the law trying to live up to some standard or someone else's standard.

You know it's condemnation when it leads you away from God. You could put it this way: some men and women are not with us tonight simply because tonight they're under the weight of condemnation. This would not be an attractive place for people under the weight of condemnation.

You'll misunderstand everything that God says and you'll interpret it—condemnation is like putting on the glasses of condemnation. I see everything through these glasses. Everything you would say or show me would have to be seen, and when you put on the glasses of condemnation, even the best encouragement is misinterpreted.

When God wants to free you, and at times God wants to free you, like Jesus says, even as He's ministering to this precious woman, He still tells her it was sin. Don't do it. Leave it behind you. That's a verse pregnant with meaning, isn't it? Don't get caught up in this anymore. This life isn't good for you.

You know what the law says, you know what—it's pregnant with meaning, but it was enough for whatever was in that eye contact with Jesus. Whatever it was, that moment, however everything calmed down when everybody left and it was just Jesus and this woman under the weight of condemnation. "Has no one condemned you? Well, I'm not condemning you either. But go and sin no more."

Be careful between conviction and condemnation because the Holy Spirit will never condemn you. Never. The enemy of our souls, he's the accuser of the brethren. Number two: when you're convicted of sin, repent. When you are feeling the weight of conviction, repent.

You can say and say and say and still never really mean it. True repentance will lead you away from that sin. That's what repentance means. The first step toward repentance is confession, seeing something like God does. This is what the Bible says in 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Confession, repentance. If you're struggling in this area, here's some homework: read Psalm 51 and let the Holy Spirit use Psalm 51. It's often referred to as the psalm of repentance, written by David who had much to repent for. God will empower you and help you and strengthen you.

Number three: something that will help you in this area is know and believe and act on God's word. I know it's simple, but when you hear something, do it. For example, you have heard tonight the life-giving message of Romans Chapter 8, verse 1, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ.

You've concluded, we've concluded for those of you that answered me, either out loud or even silently in your heart when I asked you if you were in Christ, you said yes. So you agree with that verse. Now take the promise. The promise is there's no condemnation.

You know where you're at right now because you might even be in your mind mentally arguing with me, saying, "But Ed, but Ed, but Ed." But it's not about Ed. God said there's no condemnation for you. So it's not even about me at all or not even about you. It's about Him and the freedom He wants to give you tonight as He looks at you.

He says, "Well, has anyone condemned you?" Fortunately, you can't necessarily answer that question "no" like the woman because there are always voices in our lives that seem to know how to live our lives better than we live our own. So you might even say, "Well yeah, I've got a few people condemning me right now."

Okay, be careful it's not the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But even if there is, Jesus would still say to you, "I'm not condemning you. Go and sin no more." The simplicity of the Bible is that it's life-giving, it's alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.

It makes sense that you wouldn't have a Bible with you tonight to keep you away from it. It makes sense that you wouldn't read it in the morning. It makes sense that if you use your phone to read it because that's convenient for you, that right when you're reading it, a text message pops up.

Then you answer the text message, then it takes you to Instagram, then you start looking off, and before you know it, you've got to go to work. Go, "Wow, I'll get it at break." But then you've got a phone call at break, and then you're going to eat, and then "Where's my phone? Where's my—"

It makes sense to separate you from the life-giving words of the scriptures. Because if you don't hear the word, you won't know the word, and if you don't know the word, you won't act on the word. God has made things so easy for us.

He doesn't say you need to be a scholar and have a degree and go to seminary. Just read the Bible. He doesn't even say you need to understand it. Just read it and do it. You go, "But what if I don't understand it?" Then it'll drive you to God to ask Him. So you're going to win either way.

"I don't know what that word means, Lord. What does that word mean?" And you can hear from heaven, "Look it up." And you just learn how to look up words. "I don't like looking up words." Well, start liking it, as there's a lot of resources where you can look up words.

But you don't want to make excuses because it'll just make things worse for you. The Bible says in Romans Chapter 5, "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."

We have access by faith. Obey that word. Come in and take the access. John Chapter 5, verse 24: "Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life." This is for everyone that doubts that they're saved.

Jesus said if you hear my word and believe in Him who sent me, you have everlasting life. You're saved. "Yeah, but I don't know if I'm saved." Believe God's word. God says if you confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, you're saved.

Live as a saved person. We live by what God has said in His word because His word is life. We don't live by our feelings, we don't live by our experiences. I think of Noah. What a great example in the Hall of Faith. Noah, he built the ark out of obedience, not understanding. He had no clue.