there is now no condemnation

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THERE IS NOW NO CONDEMNATION When life is hard and our problems are bigger than we are. When we feel surrounded and beset by realities that would defeat us. When we’ve done all we know to do and still it’s not enough. Where do we turn for strength and hope? Last week we said that there is one thing that never changes, one thing that never wavers, one thing that is always sufficient, and one thing that brings life. And that one thing is what God has promised. In Isaiah we read Isaiah 40.8: The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.

This session of Quest is titled “Unfailing: Walking in the Promises of God.” There’s a double meaning to the word “unfailing” in our title. One conveys the idea that God will never fail to keep his promises. We can trust them and base our lives on them because God is faithful to his word. It’s what Joshua meant when he told the Israelites Joshua 23.14: Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.

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After the coming of Christ, Paul tells us we can be even more certain of God’s promises. 2 Corinthians 1.19,20: The Son of God, Christ Jesus … was never a blend of yes and no. With him it was and is “Yes!” He is the “yes” pronounced upon every one of God’s promises.

The other idea behind my choosing the word “Unfailing” is that if we walk in God’s promises and stand on his word, we will never fail. Hard times may come, we may experience confusion, loss and pain, and we may feel overwhelmed – but if we stand on the promises of God, we will come out the other side of the storm, stronger, better, closer to God and more like Christ. Jesus said: Matthew 7.24-25: Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Stand on the word of God and walk in his promises, and you will not fall or fail. In this series, we’re going to look at seven promises you can base your life on. And we’re going to begin at the beginning. The first promise is You Can Be Forgiven. You Can Start Over. Because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

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God made this promise in the Old Testament through the prophet Jeremiah. He said that he was going to make a new covenant that would replace the covenant given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. This is what he did in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Old Covenant was based on the law. The New Covenant would be based on grace. The Old Covenant was written on stone tablets. The New Covenant would be written on the hears of his people. And included in the creation of a new covenant was the promise: Jeremiah 31.34: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

Looking back on the creation of that new covenant through the sacrifice of Jesus, Paul writes: Romans 8.1: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. People often have one of two problems when we talk about sin and guilt.

1. SOME PEOPLE DON’T FEEL GUILTY. Narcissists rarely do. Psychopaths never. Guys who think life is all about them and their getting what they want – they’re able to rationalize most of their guilt away. And men who go to church, thinking that religion is nothing more than a means to self-improvement, or a philosophy to adopt, or good advice for living a better life –

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they can pretty much escape the unpleasant pangs of guilt. That’s not really whom I’m speaking to this morning. But if you fall into any of those categories, please hear me very clearly: You are lost as hell. The Bible could not be more clear. Romans 3.23: All have sinned and fallen short. Romans 6.23: The wages of sin is death.

If you don’t believe me or the Scriptures, let Clint tell you. This is from the movie Unforgiven where Clint is talking to a young man who just killed a couple of cowboys who cut up a prostitute’s face for a bounty and because he wanted to be a bad man. It’s the first time he’s ever killed anyone. And instead of feeling strong and tough, he feels awful about what he has done, but he tries to justify it away. Then Clint lays a little truth on him. Clip: Unforgiven (.28-.56) We all got it coming, kid. There is none who is righteous, no, not one. We all deserve judgment.

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Just because we do not have the subjective feelings of guilt, does not change the objective reality that every one of us is guilty before a holy God. That’s why Jesus was crucified. And that’s why the Father allowed it to happen, as we talked about last week. Because we, all of us are guilty, and need a Savior. And the only thing that can ultimately keep you from receiving God’s grace and forgiveness is the arrogance that says, I don’t need it. So, if you don’t ever feel guilty, it’s not because your life is working so well; it’s because your conscience is working so poorly. But, the people I want to address this morning are people with the opposite problem. And that is 2. Some People Can’t Get Free of Guilt. Either they feel guilty in general or there is a particular incident that makes them feel ashamed and condemned. Sometimes people think that’s what religions in general, and maybe Christianity in particular, try to do: control people with guilt and shame. Make you feel bad about yourself and use that guilt to motivate you to be a good little boy. We do talk about guilt. But not because we want to control people, but because guilt is a reality.

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We all do wrong. We all choose self over others and over God. And the Bible calls that sin. And that makes us guilty. Denying the reality of guilt in our lives doesn’t set us free. It makes us stupid and sick. Jesus did teach that we should face our sins. But the goal is not for us to feel worthless but for to be forgiven so we can start life over again cleansed and right with God and others. Jesus spoke about sin and guilt. But his message was that hearts are changed and lives are transformed not by guilt but by grace. The point of the Gospel is not to control our behavior but to change the affections of our hearts. And shame never does that. Only grace and mercy do that. Why do some people struggle to get free of guilt? A. Religious Abuse You may have grown up in a church or with very religious parents who used Christianity in a destructive way in your life. A preacher, some other religious figure, or your parents used religion to make you feel worthless as a person, afraid of God and ashamed of having natural desires and valid questions. Raise hands

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If that was done to you, I am sorry. You were abused and damaged by someone claiming the name of Jesus and it breaks my heart and I’m sure it breaks God’s heart, too. In fact Jesus had the sternest of words for those who caused one of his little ones to stumble. Another reason is B. Growing up in a dysfunctional, condemning family Not every dysfunctional family is condemning in nature. Some parents never correct their kids, much less condemn them. They’re too busy doing their own thing or too lost in their own pain to know or care what their kids are doing. But there are some families where the parents are overbearing, the rules are unreasonable, the punishment whether verbal or physical, is harsh and demeaning. And the message is communicated that the child can never do enough or be enough to deserve feeling good about himself. And because parents are God figures to children – bigger, more powerful, and able to control our lives – we tend to remake God into the image of our parents.

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So if a parent is always critical and never satisfied, it’s easy for a child to grow into an adult who thinks that nothing he or she does is ever good enough to please God. And the result is a free-floating religious shame that produces constant feelings of guilt. C. Perfectionism Perfectionism is an attempt to control our world and convince ourselves and others that we have it together and are deserving of respect, love and happiness. Perfectionism is a funny thing. It can make you feel that you are better than others and at the same time make you feel worse about yourself. Why? Because being so driven you may achieve more than others. But being imperfect, you never quite measure up. If your sense of worth is derived from being perfect, and you never are, it leaves you with feelings of failure. This is true in school and in our professions, but it’s also true in our relationship with God. When we think that a relationship with God is about meriting his approval instead of being his son, how can we ever feel we’ve done enough to be accepted when we know we have fallen short?

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Here’s another reason, and some of you are going to turn me off on this one. D. Spiritual Warfare I believe in the devil and in demons because Jesus did. I don’t have time to make that ok for you this morning. I don’t believe in a little man in red pajamas with horns and a pitchfork. I can tell you why we have that imagery and why it’s not as crazy as it seems. But Jesus believed in Satan. So, I do, too. Only problem is, we either give the devil too much credit as if he is the cause for every evil in the world, or we give him too little as if he doesn’t affect us at all. But Satan has three primary ways that he attacks us. 1. Deception He tries to mislead us about the real nature of spiritual reality so that we believe wrong is right and right is wrong. In fact, we’re told that the prince of darkness presents himself as an angel of light. 2. Temptation Not every temptation is the work of the devil. But Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness and we are told that he tries to tempt us, as well. Now, here’s the one I want you to focus on.

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3. Condemnation. The Greek word for devil (diabolos) means “slanderer” or “accuser.” Look at these passages; Revelation 12.10: … Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. Zechariah 3.1: He showed me … the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.

Your adversary, “Satan” means “adversary,” wants you to feel condemned when you sin and unworthy of God’s love when you’re tempted. He’ll tell you that you are worthless. He’ll tell you that you have confessed that same sin a hundred times before. He’ll sneer that if you were really a Christian you would have stopped by now. He’ll whisper that you are a disappointment to your Father, and that he can’t possibly love you the way you are, the way you’ll always be. Why? Not because it’s true, but because that’s his nature – he is a liar and a thief and an accuser. And it’s his job to condemn the children of God. It’s something he delights in, it’s something he’s good at it and it’s something he’s committed to.

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He knows if you walk around feeling worthless and condemned, you’ll never know joy, you’ll never be bold in your witness, and you may end up becoming so discouraged that you walk away from the faith. One last reason. E. We’ve done wrong and we can’t accept that God has forgiven us. Sometimes we hold onto our guilt almost like it’s a form of penitence. If we don’t let ourselves feel forgiven or if we refuse to feel joy, it will somehow prove to God how sorry we are and pay for the wrong we did. Brother, that doesn’t honor God and it doesn’t make you a good Christian. If you struggle with feeling guilty, I want you to think for a moment – is there some particular thing you’ve done or haven’t done; a way you hurt or betrayed someone; maybe a time you denied Christ? Think of it and name it to yourself right now. It may be something that happened recently or something you’ve carried for a long time. Maybe it’s the guilt and shame you feel that comes from the religion you grew up with or the home you grew up in or the perfectionism you live with or even the attack of the enemy.

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Name it, right now. Before we’re done, we’re going to ask God to break the yoke of that guilt and set you free. After all, he promised he would. When you’re in seminary, you spend some time doing field ed. That may mean ministering to people in hospitals. Or working in a church which I did for one year. It was a little start up church that met in a VFW hall on Dorchester Ave in Boston. Honest truth, 80% of the people who came were alcoholics, ex-cons, or patients who had been released from mental institutions. And several could check all three boxes. Another year I spent working in a prison. The most joyful, likeable Christian there was a huge man named Felix. 6’4”. 280. All muscle. Always smiling. He had killed a man. But he had accepted Christ, experienced the grace of God and he was a new man. Felix was a leader whose influence on others was as big as he was. He encouraged others in that prison to be faithful to Christ and grow. And he had led many into the same kind of relationship with Jesus he had.

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I was never certain if they had accepted Christ because they loved Jesus or because they were afraid of Felix. Actually, I think it was because they could see in Felix the difference Christ can make in a life. There was another man. Freddy. Unlike Felix, he rarely came out of his cell. And when he was on his bunk, the light was usually off. He lived in darkness. He, too, had killed a man. He, too, had accepted Christ. But unlike Felix, he could never forgive himself. And unlike Felix, he was no encouragement to others and he led no one to Christ. Which of the two honored Christ more? The one who continued to live with guilt and shame? Or the one who trusted Jesus that he had been forgiven, internalized it within his spirit, and lived as a new creation in Christ? If you have been forgiven, you do not make God happy by feeling or acting like you’re condemned. If you have been set free, you don’t honor God by living like a slave. If you have been made into a new creation in Christ, you do not glorify God by walking around like you’re the same creature you were before you were born again.

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Listen. You are not who your past says you are. You are not who your parents said you are. You are not who your sins say you are. You are not who the accuser says you are. You are who God says you are. And he says, he promises that in Christ you are forgiven, accepted and loved as a son. Look at the promise we find in Romans 8.1: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Once you put real, saving faith in Christ, your status before God changes. You change from guilty to forgiven. From sinner to son. From condemned to righteous. Humorous scene from O Brother Where Art Thou. Though Delmar might not be the most eloquent of Christian spokesmen, what he says is actually true. Clip: O Brother Where Art Thou Once you put truth faith in Christ, there is no condemnation. We need to be clear that there is a difference between condemnation and conviction. Conviction says you failed Condemnation says you are a failure. Conviction says you sinned. Condemnation says you’re worthless because of your sin.

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Conviction says you can make this right and do better. Condemnation says you’ll never change. Conviction says those whom God loves he disciplines. Condemnation says God couldn’t possibly love you. Listen, once you are in Christ, there is no – what does is say? There is no condemnation. Look the Holy Spirit will convict the hell out of you. I’m not trying to be funny; actually I am, but that’s one of the works of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life – to convict us of all that’s wrong in our lives until he gets it out of us. The Holy Spirit will convict the hell out of you – Rob, you did wrong there. Rob, you need to confess and ask for forgiveness. Rob, you need to go make that right with that guy. The Holy Spirit will convict you, but he will never condemn you. So when you hear in your spirit, “you are a failure, you are worthless and unloved; you’ll never change,” you can be sure that’s not the voice of God in your life. That may be the voice of a condemning parent or your perfectionist self or the evil one. Wherever it’s coming from, when you hear that voice, I want you to rise up in your spirit and proclaim, “But the promise of God is: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.”

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God knows it’s hard for us to believe that we are forgiven by his grace and that we don’t have to work for it, we just receive it. So he gives us the same promise many times in the Bible, using many different, beautiful images. Isaiah 1.18: Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Why scarlet? Why crimson? What color is the hardest stain to get out of clothes? That’s why. We once had a church policy here. No red drinks at fellowship events or wedding receptions because we could never get the red out of the carpet. That stain would be forever. But God tells us the sin that has most marred and discolored your soul, the one that you think you could never get out, the one you named earlier, God promises that he will wash it away and make you white as snow. I love this promise. Psalm 103.10,12 : He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. ... As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

How far is the east from the west? When God forgives your sin, that’s how far it is removed from you in his sight.

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And the promise we began with. The promise that is attached to the New Covenant that God made with humankind with the coming of Christ. Jeremiah 31.34: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

In A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World, Ron Lee Davis tells the story of a priest in the Philippines, kind and tender, and much loved by his parishioners. But for years he had carried the burden of a secret sin he had committed many years before. He had repented and asked for forgiveness, but continued to be tormented by guilt. In his parish was a dear old woman who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ and he with her. The priest, as you might imagine was skeptical. To test her he said, "The next time you speak with Christ, ask him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary." The woman agreed. A few days later the priest asked the old woman, "Well, has Christ visited you again?" "Yes, he has," she replied. "And did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?" "Yes, I did." "Well, what did he say?" "The Lord said, 'I don't remember.' The only thing God ever forgets is our sin. Are you carrying something God has already forgotten? Why don’t you let it go?

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One more and then we’ll pray. 1 John 1.9: If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

How does this make sense? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we confess our sins – confess means we admit what we’ve done, take responsibility for our actions, make no excuses, and with God’s grace determine not to repeat it – if we confess our sins and God does not forgive us – how is that unfaithful or unjust? Listen up. Because the death of Christ has paid for our sins. He wouldn’t be unfaithful to us, but to Jesus, to his Son, to the sacrifice Christ made, to the blood he shed, if he didn’t forgive us. If Christ’s death made atonement for our sins, it would be unjust to demand an additional payment either from us or from his Son. He would be telling Jesus, “What you did on the cross was insufficient. Something else must be added to the sacrifice you made.” And he would never do that.

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But, catch this, that’s exactly what we’re saying if we don’t receive the forgiveness paid for by the death of Jesus. “Jesus, let me do some penance, let me pay some penalty, let me add something to the work you did on my behalf because I don’t trust your blood to be sufficient for me.” “But you don’t know what I did. It was terrible. It was so wrong. It causes me pain just thinking about it.” You’re right. I don’t know what you did. But I know this. You’re not that special. Have you murdered someone? David did. And God forgave him. Have you committed adultery? The woman in John 8 did, and Jesus forgave her. Have you denied your Lord the night before his death? Have you with a curse ever claimed that you didn’t know him? Peter did. And Jesus forgave him. Have you persecuted the church, had Christians put to death? Paul did. And God forgave him and used him to change the world.

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Christ was crucified for you so you could quit crucifying yourself. That thing you did that you’re ashamed of. God knows all about it – and he loves you. That thing that you’ve hidden from everyone else – he knows all about it – and he loves you. That thing that you hate yourself for, that causes you pain every time you think about it – he knows all about it – and he loves you. That sin you thought of earlier when I asked you what causes you to wrestle with guilt? God knows all about it and he loves you. And he has forgiven it a long time ago. In fact, he has forgotten it just as he promised. And he wants you to be free of it today. Stand and pray. Healing Forgiveness Freedom