No Condemnation-Part 1

You got a ticket? And I said, I don't think I was driving the car. I said, I think, Josiah, you were driving the car. He says, no, dad, don't try to pin it on me. You were driving the car. And then I says, no, I don't remember that, honey, I think you are. And he was like, no, take responsibility. You are guilty for this ticket. Maybe it was you. Grant and Grant. Dad, dad, don't try to blame me. You're the one that always gets the tickets. And we

were going round and round. I said, give me that ticket. So I got that ticket and I looked at the date on the ticket and my wife had misread it. And I looked at the time on the ticket. It was a Sunday morning at 10:00. I said, hello. I got an alibi, a big alibi. I was preaching. Out of the side of my eye, I saw my son Grant, kind of walking out of the kitchen like this. Trying to. Trying to get it. Grant, where are you going? It's like 10:00 Sunday morning. You were driving grandpa to church.

This is your ticket. And he was like, oh, my ticket. Okay. And you know what I said, son? It's $100. You're paying this ticket. And suddenly when he thought we were paying, it was no big deal when he knew he was paying it. It became a big deal. How many of you parents have experienced that? Once in a while. You know, when you pay it, it's a big deal. Because he finally realized I have to pay the penalty for what

I did wrong. Stay with me now. You see, we had the ticket and the ticket was in the mail. We had done wrong. But until my son realised that it was his ticket, until he realised that he was guilty. Until he realised that he had to pay the fine. It wasn't a big deal. He was condemned. He was guilty. It was his fault. But he didn't even know it. Some of you, when we talk about condemnation today, it's

not a topic that you're that interested in. If I were to talk about being free from debt, you would say, hey, I want to learn about that. If I want to talk about being free from depression, you would say, yeah, I struggle with that sometimes. If I were to talk about being free from a bad marriage, you'd say, come on, talk to me now. If I were to talk to you about being free from worry, you would say, I

struggle with that all the time. If I were to talk to you about being free from stress, you would say, hey, I need to hear this message really loud and clear. But to be free from condemnation, some of you are like, I don't even know what that means. But I'm convinced that when you start to understand what it means to be free from condemnation and start to live in it, it will set you free in a powerful, compelling, outstanding supernatural way that you will be able to determine. There

was a before and there was an after. I understood that I'm free from condemnation. This will be a life changing message for some of you that are living under this dark cloud of continual, perpetual undercurrent of condemnation in your life. And that's exactly how Romans Chapter eight starts with, but he starts with Romans chapter eight. There's no there's therefore no condemnation. But he uses the first seven chapters

of Romans to say, we are condemned. You see, you don't not really understand the power of being free from condemnation until you understand that you are condemned. You don't care about a ticket until you have to pay it, and you realize you're guilty. Some of you don't really care about condemnation because you're not. You don't understand how condemned we are. If you understood how condemned we are, you would be super excited to hear about what it

means to live no condemnation. Romans chapter one through seven. The Apostle Paul spends a lot of time building a case, explaining how all of us, from the little old lady to the young boy, to the mother, to the grandparent, to the college age, how all of us are condemned

by our sin before God. He explains that we've all fallen short of the glory of God, that there's not one of us that can stand right before God, that all our good works and all our attempts to be right before God have failed, that from the beginning, all the way from Adam. Until now we have lived with this cloud of condemnation, that that it started with Adam. God put us in a perfect world, right? And God

didn't create you and I with sin. He created us sinless, created Adam and Eve, put him in the idyllic environment. But there came a point in a time where man and woman both decided to try to go their own way. Theologians call it the fall of man at that very moment when they sinned against God, their nature was changed. From then on, God kicked them out of the garden, not to punish them, but to separate them from the tree of life so that they would not live eternally.

And from that moment on, every person born after Adam has inherited the seed of something. The seed of what? The seed of a sin nature. You and I were born with it. Every person in humanity that's been born was given the seed of a sin nature. What does that mean? That means that you were born with a proclivity, the inclination, the desire, the natural born tendency toward sin. You say, well, pastor, I've seen the little baby when they're born. They're so cute and they're so innocent. And

they are until they turn two. You don't have to teach a baby how to be selfish. You don't have to teach a little two year old how to say mine and how to hit it. It's just like they know it. I mean, when my kids started turning two and 18 months and I saw that sin nature. I said, honey, that must come from your side of the family. Because, man, they just it's just natural for them to show sin. But, you know, it didn't come. It came from both sides

of the family, came from me, the sin nature. There's only been one person since Adam and Eve that did not share the sin nature because he was born of a virgin, not the seed of man. The reason that Jesus Christ had to be born of a virgin was so that he would not have the sin nature inside of him. And so Jesus was born not from the seed of man, but only a woman, so that the sin nature would not be passed down to him. And the Bible calls him the second Adam. The first Adam

was created without a sin nature. And the second Adam is Jesus was born without a sin nature. You and I have a problem, a mega problem. It's the problem of brokenness. It's the problem of imperfection. It's the problem that Scripture calls a sin. Problem. And that very sin condemns us before a holy God. And so Romans chapter one through seven is all about how fallen we are, how broken we are, how condemned we are, how separated we are from God. And it would be a depressing

book if there were not a chapter eight. And chapter eight tells us, yeah, you got a ticket? Yeah. You got to pay a fine. Yeah, you're guilty. But guess what? There is someone that's decided to pay that fine for you. His name is Jesus. And so the apostle Paul starts this entire chapter. I'm going to begin reading in verse one of chapter eight. It says, therefore, and every time you see the word therefore, you have to ask yourself, what is it? Therefore, it means that it is a

bridge between two thoughts. A Romans chapter eight is bridging the thoughts from Romans chapter seven that tells us how condemned we are. And it says, therefore there is now, now present. Here, this time, there is now, here it goes. This is a big one. It's powerful. No condemnation. Say it out loud. No condemnation. There is therefore now no

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the sin who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law was powerless to do because of its weakness by the flesh. God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law may be fully met in us who do not live according

to the flesh, but according to the spirit. If you're taking notes this morning, I want you to write this down. I want you to write. This is what it means to live condemnation free. Number one, there is no condemnation. So you have been set free from the law. Let me explain. First of all, what condemnation is. The word condemnation is a legal term. It's a term that's used in court. We've heard it in a sentencing at times where we say the judge condemned that person to ten

years in prison. It means that the person was found guilty, that they deserve punishment and that they have to fulfill their punishment. They're found guilty. That's condemnation.

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really means to judge down. When someone in those days would stand before the Roman emperor and the Roman emperor would declare whether that person was innocent or guilty, thumbs down meant you're guilty and you have to suffer the consequences. Go to the lions. Get your head chopped off. Go to the be burned at the stake, whatever the consequences were. But he would judge down. You are condemned. Romans eight starts with no condemnation, then goes to no separation. it

ends with no separation. And in between is no defeat. So I want you to I want you to hear this because this is really, really important. The Apostle Paul says to us, there is therefore now no condemnation. If, though, for those of you that are in Christ Jesus. In fact, the word he uses in the Greek is. There is no hint of condemnation. In other words, there's not even a shadow of condemnation. There's not a trace of it. It's not like there's a little bit of condemnation. He's

not saying there's less condemnation. He says there is therefore no absolutely nothing extinct erased. There is no condemnation absolutely at all for those that find themselves in Christ Jesus. Now, if you understood that you would be shouting, you'd be rejoicing if you understood the powerful implications of that. What does that mean? Let me tell you what it means. Listen, practically, for us, if you're in Christ Jesus, there's not even a hint of condemnation. So it means five things. It

means my past sins are not against me anymore. No condemnation means that no matter where I've been, what I've done, how long I did it, how deep it was, how devious and dark and broken that when there is no condemnation, it means that those sins can never, ever be held against me again, because there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. There are some of you that walked in this place, and you have condemnation. Every time the birth of that

aborted child comes to your mind, you feel condemned. Oh, what? What did I do? Maybe you walked away from a family that really needed you. Maybe you were violent against someone in your life. Maybe you cheated, stole, connived or proud. Maybe you made your living as a former prostitute. I don't know your background. I don't know your story. But

here's what I know. What the Word of God declares over you that regardless of where you've been, what you've done, how long you did it, that if you're in Christ Jesus, there's not a single hint of your past that can now be held against you? There is no condemnation. And not only can your past not be held against you, but it also means that your current struggles are not God's punishment. There are some of you that live with this thought that God is punishing me now for what

happened in the past. But if there is no condemnation, then there is no Punishment. There can only be punishment based on condemnation. God does not punish his children that have been set free from condemnation. He may discipline, but discipline is corrective, leading towards change. Punishment is punitive, making us pay a price. There's a difference. If you are going through a hard time right now and you are a child of the living God, it is not based

on the punishment of God leveled against you. There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. And if there is no condemnation, we cannot be punished for things that do not condemn us. There is no condemnation there. Some of you need to grasp that. Know it, understand it, receive it. Number three, your future status is not in doubt. If there is no condemnation before God, then you know what your status is with. With God, there is no doubt of. Where do I stand before God? What will

happen when I die? Am I accepted before God? What if I blow it right before I die? I'm in a car accident and I cuss right before I die. Then am I going to the wrong place? The Bible says there is therefore now not a hint of condemnation, not a string of condemnation. There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, which means he gives us a security about our future because there is no condemnation. Number four, it means my personal acceptance is not earned.

Only if you're condemned do you have to earn a place, pay off a debt, get rid of a penalty, pay that $100 fine, or if not, that fine gets bigger and you find a boot on your car. My personal acceptance before God is assured it's there. It's complete based on what someone has done for me, not what I have done myself. There is therefore in Christ Jesus no condemnation.

So I am fully accepted before the father. And number five and lastly, my access to God is not limited because there is no condemnation to separate me from the God Almighty who listens to me and loves me and hears me. There is therefore no condemnation through Christ Jesus. The law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death, because you are therefore no condemnation to those that are in

Christ Jesus. That no condemnation is a result of the fact that you were condemned by the law of sin and death. But the law of the spirit has overcome the law of sin and death. There's not a person in this auditorium that hasn't sinned. In fact, your sin condemns you before God and my sin condemns me before God. The Bible says that death into the world because of sin. If you sin, you die. That's why all of us die. But that's also why death could not keep Jesus in

the grave. Because Jesus did not sin. Therefore, death had no power over him. And the law of sin and death demands that if you sin, you die. The law of sin and death demands a payment. If we sin, we die. We're under that law. But the Apostle Paul says, In Christ Jesus there is another law that has set you free from the law of sin and death. And it's the law of the spirit that sets us free from the first law that condemns us.

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and download this for free! I'm Wayne Shepherd. That brings us to the end of our program for now, but be sure to come back tomorrow when Mark continues with part two of today's message titled No Condemnation, we're discovering how the law of the spirit sets us free. Friday on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold Steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.