Creflo Dollar - No Condemnation For Those Who Are In Christ - Part 2
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the Book of Psalms 34, verse 22 in the NLT. Verse 22 says, "But the LORD will redeem those who serve him. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned," no one that takes refuge in him will be condemned. Now, look at John chapter 3, verse 17 through 18. "No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned". Verse 17 and 18: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world," so Jesus was not sent here to judge and disapprove and condemn the world, "but that the world through him might be saved". Not, they're not gonna get saved through condemnation. They're gonna get saved through Jesus.
Verse 18: "He that believeth on him is not condemned," the authenticity of your belief on him is going to be equal to your decision to depend on him. It's not just a mental ascent, "Oh, I believe in him". But it says, "I believe in him. Watch my life. I depend on him". "He that believeth on him," or depends on him, "is not condemned: but he that believes not," who depends not on him, "is condemned already," because we're gonna find out what that means. Why is it that you're condemned already for not believing? "Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God". You're already condemned because you're not believing in the only one who can make sure you're not condemned.
And then finally, in Romans chapter 8, verse 1, Romans 8, verse 1: "There is therefore," now this is interesting because Paul is saying this right after he had a chapter full of confessions about all the issues he got in his life. And the challenge it was to try to stop doing the stuff that he knew he wasn't supposed to be doing and how hard it was for him to be doing the stuff that he know he should be doing, and he was like, "Old wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this bondage of sin"? And he comes here in verse 1, and he says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," period.
There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus period. Some translations show you that "who walk not after the flesh and the Spirit" is in italicized. That part did not appear in the original Greek. Here's what it read in the original Greek: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," period. You still don't bring anything to the table. You got in Jesus, you believed in him, you depend on him, and there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus period. Now, what I wanna do, even if it takes me the rest of this service, I don't think we get condemnation. It's become one of those words that you just kind of use, but you don't really dig in deep. In fact, for the most of you, I'd come and ask, "Are you in condemnation"? You would probably say, "No, I'm not incumbent of condemnation".
Let me give you a familiar definition of this, and then we'll go from there. Condemnation is an expression of strong disapproval. Have you ever had disapproval? It's an expression of disapproval. It is to pronounce unfit, guilty, vulnerable. Judgment and punishment are attached to condemnation. Condemnation is a feeling that you don't measure up. Condemnation is a feeling that you're not enough. You're not enough. And when things happen in your life, the thing that comes up is maybe you're not enough. When things don't work out the way that you thought it should have worked out, it comes up. Well, maybe you were not enough. Inferiority and condemnation, they go hand in hand. Maybe you're not enough.
And Romans chapter 8 and 1 says, "There's no condemnation in Christ Jesus". But I'm gonna tell you right now, there's condemnation everywhere else. So, what does it look like? Condemnation is you waiting on the verdict. I'm waiting on the verdict. Was that enough? Condemnation. I'm waiting to see if I was good enough. I'm waiting to see if I matter. We want a verdict that our life is meaningful. We seek that verdict. We seek that verdict from our workplace. We seek that verdict from our relationships. We seek that verdict even from our reputation. Either I feel like I was good enough or I wasn't good enough.
And then we make our work, and our relationship, and our reputation, we make those things our judge, and we're waiting to see the verdict. The world will always eventually give you the same verdict: not good enough. And so we live in fear, knowing that the verdict of condemnation is coming. We live in this fear, knowing that somebody, some relationship, husband, wife, somebody at the job, something about my relationship, and you'll find yourself, if you're not careful, sitting back being okay because you settled. I don't mean much, so here's the verdict: I'm not good enough. And what people don't understand is what that does in a person's life who only fears the verdict of not being good enough.
Well, I just might as well go and act the fool or I might as well just go act crazy. I might as well just go and get high. I might as well just go and cheat. I might as well, because you can't, you don't stop sinning when the verdict is not good enough. It must have been God. I was minding my own business, getting ready to wrap up. You know how sometimes when you're having a conversation, I don't know if this happened to you. You have a conversation around somebody and your phone is on, and then that thing pops up. Somebody said that happens to you, said don't ever happen to me. Yeah, happens to me.
And I'm rehearsing this out loud, and this article... I found a article out of the "New York" magazine, which was so sad, but I read it, and it describes people today as feeling guilty and inadequate at every turn. They compare themselves relentlessly to others. They are turned inside out day after day by social media. And one person, according to this article, said, "I think my primary emotion in my life is guilt". So if you ever wanted to wonder what's going on in the world and why people are acting like they act: because they are afraid of the verdict. We feel naked and ashamed. People are filled with anxiety, and doubt, and guilt, and we're working harder and harder to convince everybody, including ourselves, that we have it all together.
And especially the Christian people, we work real hard to try to prove to even other Christian people we got it all together, and the truth is is you don't. I'm gonna show you the little trick you've been playing on us. The truth is is you don't have it all together, and that's where our solution can start. Our solution starts with the truth of knowing you don't have it all together, and the problem comes is when you have to really deceive yourself into thinking you have it all together. How can we expect to be delivered off the foundation of a lie that we're doing it to ourselves? We don't need condemnation to come from the world, ladies and gentlemen. You know why? Because we're already condemning ourselves. Anything that we look to other than God will return the verdict: not good enough.
So what we've done is we've created different idols trying to get the verdict we want, and an idol is something that takes God's place, and we're looking for some idol. We're looking somewhere. We're looking somewhere for somebody, some idol somewhere, to say we are enough. And I'm promising you no matter where you look outside of Jesus, it's gonna be the same verdict: not enough. You're hoping that somehow, as you start doing something, that somebody gonna say, "You're enough"! But you're gonna meet somebody somewhere that's gonna be saying, "It's not enough". But then Jesus does something so amazing.
I want you to listen to me so carefully. He freely justifies us, which means he declares us as being right even though we're wrong. And I know some of you have struggled with this issue of "you're the righteousness of God" when you ain't doing right. I know some of you have struggled with the issue of "you've been made holy" when you know you ain't holy. Let me give you an illustration. Let's say you were in my college class, and you took the final exam. Now before the exam, you were passing with a pretty good grade. But when you took the exam, you failed. You did not do a good job on that final exam. Now, I can't tell you, "Oh, you did a great job on the final exam," because you didn't. But what I can do is say, "You know, I'm not gonna count that final grade against you, so you're still gonna be able to pass as if you didn't take the exam".
Now, I didn't try to manipulate or fix up the fact that you still did a bad job on the exam. I just decided not to count it against you. And that's what God's grace does for us. He doesn't applaud you for sinning. He still don't like the sin. He still don't like how you acted. He still don't like how you talking to folks. He still don't like how you answering those midnight calls. You know, he still don't like all of that stuff, but he decided not to count it against you. He will not hold it against you. He's not focusing on what you did and how bad the test was. You're only focusing on "that doesn't count against me".
Verdict: you're good enough not because of what you have done but because you decided to believe my Son Jesus Christ, and the verdict is "good enough". That is the only place you're going to get that verdict. You're not gonna get it from the world. You may not get it from your relationship. You might not even get it from your marriage. But there is a guarantee that you will get this verdict from the Lord Jesus Christ, no condemnation. Let me read something else I saw in this article, which I knew I should have underlined it. Here it is. I was kind of shocked when I saw this. Obviously, this person knows about grace. Nevertheless, our lives are never paragons of beauty and holiness.
I lose my temper with my kids, my parents, my spouse. We all struggle in the same way. We gossip. We judge others who don't have it together. We're insensitive. We dismiss people we disagree with. We lust. We covet. We envy. Anxiety, doubt, and temptation rules us. Our lives are not beautiful. Our failures produce panic as we fear what that means. Might we not be forgiven? Are we still in deep insecurity? And doubt arises. Might we be condemned? But if you put your faith in Jesus but still feel condemned, then you're still placing the condemnation somewhere, perhaps in your own goodness, your own reputation, or how much you are doing for God. You're still looking to try to earn the verdict you desire. And what he asked you for is, "Believe in me," and the verdict, "no condemnation".
But the temptation that we still wrestle with, 'cause I hear you believe in Jesus and no condemnation. I don't want to do that. I want the verdict from the world. I want the verdict from my peers. I want the verdict from the people I respect. I want the verdict! I want somebody to give me an award, to tell me I'm all right! I want somebody to honor me, to tell me that I'm good enough! And you know, the strange thing about it is that one night, I was on my way leaving a meeting.
A friend of mine, his precious, precious son, he had just had the night of, that anybody would want. He won awards. You understand? Great awards, and those awards are supposed to mean you're good enough. And with those awards, he said, "It was the saddest day of my life, that I had all these awards and I had nobody there that I knew loved me to celebrate it with me. And if you don't hurry up and get here, I'm gonna blow my brains out".
You see, I don't care if you do get something from the world, where they're kind of saying that you're enough, if you keep telling yourself you're not enough, even with the awards, the verdict of "not guilty" can only come through your belief in Jesus Christ. If you understand that, say "amen". Now let's search this now. Christ, according to these three scriptures we just read, is the only solution for condemnation. That's it. That's it. And people that don't know that will experience the feeling of "not enough" and condemnation for the rest of their life. But for you, who are hearing this today, you hear this and hear it clearly: Christ is the only solution for the issue of condemnation.
Now, self-righteousness can become the route to self-condemnation because self-righteousness still is trying to deal with it through your own performance and your own self. Condemnation, how powerful is it? Condemnation is what gives birth to fear. You're talkin' about the route to fear, the route to fear. You're afraid that what God said won't come to pass. You're afraid you might lose this. You're afraid. Fear, fear, people walk in fear. People fear things. They fear that things are just not gonna happen.
And we wonder, where does that fear come from? It comes from condemnation. Condemnation produces fear, and when you're operating in the fear of this, and the fear of that, and the fear of all these other kind of things, then that fear is gonna move you into stress. Condemnation produces fear, fear produces stress, and stress will bring on the manifestations of the curse. Watch carefully now. It's condemnation. That's why I'm talkin' about this. Condemnation. You're walkin' in fear. Job said, "The things I fear the most has come upon me". Your fear starts with condemnation. Condemnation opens the door for fear.
What are you fearing? What's the thing you fear every day? Why do you fear that your marriage is not gonna make it? Why do you fear that you're not gonna be able to pay your bills? Why do you fear that your children are gonna come out a certain way? What's the fear you have? That fear is coming from condemnation. Condemnation is the root to every fear you'll ever experience in life. Condemnation equals fear, and fear will bring about the stress. And do you know stress, when you are dis-eased, you will open the door for disease? Well, that's happening. When condemnation produces fear and fear produces stress, stress opens the door for the manifestations of the curse.