Are You Feeling Condemned Or Convicted?

Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. Everybody, do you know Jesus or do you know about Jesus? What about conviction? What about condemnation? Is there a difference? We're going to find out right now. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying, amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now, open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Jack Hibbs Podcast. And we are very grateful that you are with us and that you get something out of this program together. I hope you do as we look into the Word of God. If all else fails, right, if I quote you a Bible verse, that's victory enough. Just think of the magnitude of God's word, the holiness of God's word, the purity of the power of God's word, where if we grab one verse and we unpack that verse, the things that it will ring forth to us is truly why it says of itself, the Bible, that God's word will not return void when he sends it out, but it will accomplish that very task for which he sent it. So you never do wrong by reading and studying the Word of God. And when you read the Bible, you just don't read it to read it, though we do read it to read it. But you also need to pause much like you eat a meal. Sometimes we eat a meal on the go, and sometimes we sit down and just take it in. And sometimes in this busy world of ours, we actually sit down at a meal with friends and family and spend hours, spend hours. I was at a restaurant with some friends about a year ago. They took Lisa and I out. They were treating us at this pretty high end steakhouse here in Southern California. And we were there so long that the manager came and said, can you guys leave now? We've got to get other people in here. And our friend who paid for the whole thing as a gift to us, so sure we'll leave. And we walked out and he said, I'll never spend a penny there again. I thought that was great. But have you ever sat around the Bible like that to where it's just gone on and gone on to where you are marinated in the Bible? So you want to make sure that you carve out time for that. That would mean that you'd make a Bible priority. And so somebody will think, well, wait a minute. If I make that much time for the Bible, I won't have any time for myself. That's right. That's perfect. That's how you know you're growing in Jesus when you're no longer preoccupied with yourself. But let's talk about self for a moment. The Bible tells us Jesus is speaking in John chapter 16. Listen to this. Jesus is a little while, verse 16, John 16, 16, a little while. And you will see me no more. And again, a little while. And you will see me because I go to the Father. Then some of the disciples among them said among them, what is this that he says a little while and you will not see me? And then again, a little while and you will see me. And because I go to the Father, they said this therefore, what is this that he says a little while? We do not know what he is saying. Now, Jesus knew that they had desired to ask him a question about this. And he said to them, are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said a little while and you will not see me? And then again, a little while you will see me. Most assuredly, I say to you, listen to this, that you will weep and you will lament. But the world will rejoice and you will be sorrowful. Sounds like today, huh? But your sorrow will be turned into joy. Okay, this is important to Jesus announces that the Holy Spirit will be coming to the believer. In fact, back at verse 9, listen to this, verse 7, he says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But I will depart and I will send him to you. And when he has come, here it is. Listen, he, the Holy Spirit, will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and thirdly of judgment of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more. And thirdly of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. He said, I still have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he noticed the personal pronoun, he, the Holy Spirit of truth, when he comes, he will guide you into all truth for he will speak, he will not speak on his own authority. But whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. Let's talk about conviction. Let's talk about conviction out of these three things. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is going to bring conviction. So let's back up. Let's roll back the hands of time when we were not followers of Jesus. Now, some of you have always been followers of Jesus, but you'll still be able to relate to what I'm saying. Again, we're talking about conviction. And if you're taking notes, please mark this down. Conviction. Can you tell me, is that kind of a trick question? Can you tell me what conviction feels like? Can you tell me what conviction of the Holy Spirit feels like? Jesus said, the Spirit of God will come and convict you of sin. I'm going to put this out to you and have you ponder this. Conviction of the Holy Spirit feels the same, at least it does to me, when I was not a Christian, condemnation felt the same way that conviction feels now as a believer. Let me explain this. As a non-believer, condemnation is that sense of foreboding of boy, am I in trouble with God or gods or whatever is out there, I'm in trouble. There is this condemnation that gives you a sense of hopelessness, of crisis as it were of the Spirit. When we talk about conviction, when Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, the conviction and condemnation feeling is the same. So watch, the world is convicted of their sins, but John chapter 3 tells us the world is under condemnation. So there's no real difference in feeling. Now I don't want to suggest for a moment that God made us automatons and so dull that we don't have feelings. Of course we have feelings. We're not to trust our feelings, we're not to be led by our feelings, feelings or nothing that should guide us, but when you don't know God and you've done wrong, or when you come to the knowledge of God knowing that you've done wrong, you feel condemned. And that's that condemnation that you respond to. The Holy Spirit is reminding you right now. The Son of God died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the grave. You don't believe that and so you will die in your sins. Does that ring a bell? Do you know anyone else who said because you do not believe you will die in your sins? Is that ring a bell? Yes. Jesus said that. Jesus said that to the scribes and Pharisees. You guys know the law and I'm telling you that this is the truth, but you won't believe. And he says, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Now they were convicted of their sins because of the Holy Spirit doing his job. I don't even have to interview them. You don't even have to ask them. It doesn't even say that they've sensed the conviction and condemnation. Jesus told us that they were condemned, but they didn't believe in him. So they blew off the conviction of the Holy Spirit. They blew off that conviction and they remained in their condemnation. And in that condition, if you die, that is committing blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That's how you commit it. Yes, my Catholic friends, you've been lied to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit or the unpardonable sin is not suicide as terrible as suicide is. The only one unforgivable sin in the Bible is crystal clear. It is to reject the Holy Spirit's witness of Jesus and you die in that condition. There's no hope for you in this world or in the world to come. You're lost. So please don't entertain that. So let's kind of walk this through. A non-believer does wrong in the world and they're convicted. Disney, Pinocchio, in that cartoon would have you believe that Jiminy Cricket is telling him that he's just done something wrong. Why does that happen? If the guy is not a Christian, why should he care? Frankly, let's be blunt. We don't care if the guy is a Christian or not. It's irrelevant. The Holy Spirit's doing his job. The Holy Spirit right now is convicting every person in the world who's doing wrong. Jesus said he would. With what purpose in mind to lead them to repentance, to bring them from their condemnation, read the book of Galatians, read the book of Romans, that's all that Paul's talking about is that we were once condemned. We were once in this world lost and alienated from God. We had no hope. We were going to hell. And then the truth came. And when the truth, listen, when the light of the truth shown upon our wickedness, what did we do with it? Did you knock the light over? Did you run away from the light? Or did you stand there and melt as it were in total terror? Because you got caught. You were found out. God knows. You were condemned before you even showed up. But now you're convicted. And then that's what you read in the book of Acts where the keeper of the jail cries out, what must I do to be saved? So you want to make sure that you don't live in a realm of condemnation thinking that it's conviction and you're okay and you'll never move out of that lifestyle or out of that world of sin. Condemnation leads you to understand that you're being convicted by the Holy Spirit which leads to repentance and you become a believer. Now watch this. What about conviction in a believer's life? Does the Holy Spirit convict believers? The answer is an overwhelming yes. In 1 John 1.9, the Bible tells us, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins and declenses from all unrighteousness. That book is written to believers only. So when the Holy Spirit says to you and I, the believer, what you just said, what you just did, what you just thought is wrong. And I'm calling you out on it. We're not condemned. Condemnation is now gone. We are, we are God's children. Romans chapter 8 tells us that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We're not condemned any longer the moment we accept Christ. But we do thank God. We do experience conviction of sin because we're not perfect because we're not sinless. We haven't died yet or the rapture hasn't happened yet. We still drag around these bodies and we're not fully redeemed. These bodies are still influencing our lives. And so when we sin in this world, the Spirit of God says to his children, hey, that's wrong. Here's, here's, it's clumsy, but it should be simple. Is, this should be our response. Lord, you are correct. That, that was wrong. What I just did. I agree with you that I should not think that way. And I'm asking you, Lord, based upon Jesus Christ merits of Jesus Christ, his cross, his blood shed for me. I ask you, Father, to forgive me of my sin that I just thought that thought. And I ask you to wash me clean in Jesus name. And thank you, Lord. Thank you for that. In Jesus name, I pray, amen. If you sin and you confess that sin to God, he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sin, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, based upon what, based upon what Jesus Christ did for you and I. So you have the nonbeliever who is condemned, who could receive conviction where the Spirit of God is seeking to wake him up. He will make a choice to either run to Christ and be relieved of his burden, much like pilgrims progress, John Bunyan's great illustration of the Christian life. The weight of sin will roll off his back and you come to Christ and you're free to start your journey with Christ, to follow him. Or if you're already a believer, the Spirit of God will convict you for what reason, to maintain fellowship, to maintain communication. Thank God we do not lose our salvation when we sin and then run back to church on Sunday, almost in the panic. Oh my gosh, it's Thursday. Don't let me die until Sunday. I gotta go get my life to Jesus on Sunday. I gotta go get born again again and again and again and again. No, you don't. You're only born again once. If you confess your sin right where you're at right now and you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you confess your sin to him. What does that mean? It means that you agree with him that it is sin. What does that mean? It means that you hate it. Listen, if you don't hate the sin that offends God, if you don't hate the sin in your life that actually is responsible for crucifying Jesus, just my sin. Forget you. Just my sin was enough to crucify the Son of God. Me, Jack, that's why it was so horrifically offensive for the for the scribes and Pharisees to say, we have no sin. More Abraham said, we're righteous. Jesus said, if you were Abraham's descendant, you'd believe in me. To say that you believe in Jesus is to say what? That he's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But they didn't believe that. They didn't believe. They needed that. So the question comes down to this. As a believer, I maintain fellowship with God, walking in a perpetual state of revival, which is the repentance of sin. Lord, and listen, friend, this is not like a Muslim. I forget the name of it. There is a Muslim instrument. It's made out of, sometimes it's made out of wood. Sometimes it's made out of looking for something to show you what they do with it. I have one of my office downstairs. They have a handle and it's got chains on it and about two feet long and embedded within the links of the chain is animal bones, glass, rock, fish hooks or claws from animals. It's brutal. And you beat yourself on the back with it in Islam and you thrash, open your back and your blood is to help to make an atonement for your sins. Watch how stupid this is. How many times do you have to do this per person? But so what? What you had a bad thought? How many how many lashes is that in Islam? How many how many times do you vlog or cut your head? You ever seen Muslims in the Middle East, cut in their foreheads? How come? When you watch CNN, CNN, we'll never show this kind of stuff. You should watch this stuff. You want to be a Muslim? Here you go. Get yourself a set of razor blades because you're going to need to bleed. You don't have to do that. Well, you might say, well, that's why I'm not a Muslim, pastor. I am an upstanding member of the first Bapticustal Church of Los Angeles. And we are amazing. And you can only go to heaven being baptized in our water because our water is holy. Nobody else's water is holy. Our water is holy. Dr. Walter Martin said there's only one way to get holy water. And that is to boil the hell out of the water. Isn't that hilarious? There's no holy water, folks. Anything that is added to the merit, the work of Jesus is an offense. You can't get pure enough water. You can't bleed enough. You can't be legal enough. You will die in your sins because you are saying Jesus is really great. But I have to do this. I hope God's convicting you right now that you must come to Jesus Christ completely abandoning all of your self-effort and works in morality out the window. I don't care how moral you are. You can be the most moral individual, the most religious person in your community and be completely on your way to hell lost because you're still quite impressed with yourself and your spirituality. And God says it stinks. You won't accept it. Jesus said, I didn't come. I didn't come to heal the healthy. I came to heal the sick. He said that to the Pharisees so they would get it. They didn't get it. They considered themselves healthy. They considered sinners sick. Jesus said, I've not come for you guys. If you think you're righteous and healthy and fine, I can't do anything for you. I came for them. That made those guys sick to think that Jesus would forgive a prostitute or a murderer or a gang member. Think of that. Isn't it amazing? So when you sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit, he's going to speak to you about what you did. Here's where the rubber meets the road. You better run from what you did to his arms. Don't run from what you did down the street into the darkness. Run from what you did into the arms of Jesus. Please stop running from God when you do wrong. Run to him. Tell him what you did and you'll be forgiven. Hey, I want to wrap it up this way. It's highly possible that in your family, if you happen to have two kids, at least two kids, all you need two kids to prove the point, but the more the more graphic I guess you have two kids. They both came from the same place. You feed them the same food, same clothes, same parents, same everything. How are they so different? How can these two kids that came from the same universe in your world be so different? One of them, you can look at them like this and they just break down. They did something wrong and you just give them a frown. You raise the eyebrow or you just go like this. Have you ever seen those videos where people say to the dog after the dog tears up the couch? All right, which one of you guys did this? Most of the dogs point to the other dog, but the dog that's guilty goes like this. It looks away. Isn't that amazing? There are children. There are us who grow up that they can be called out and they melt with responsibility, with conviction. Then there are those who eat and call them out. They got frosting all over their face. They got sparkles on their fingers. They got whipped cream in their forehead and you say, which one of you guys stuck your face in the birthday cake? And the one kid will like look around like who did it? And it's all over them and they're like, whoa, man, who's in trouble? That's really something. You ever think about that? They seemingly have no conviction at all. That's scary. Listen, when you're a kid, you can train them. When you're older, if you're saying, man, boy, everybody's in trouble except me. Listen, you've got sprinkles all over your hands and you've got frosting on your face and whipped cream on your forehead like everybody else pride just keeps you from seeing it. You need to get washed up and cleaned up and blood is the only thing that can do it. But it has to be the blood of Jesus. And that blood of Jesus, the book of Hebrews tells us is in heaven above. The Bible says that Jesus entered the Holy of Holies not made with human hands in heaven and presented himself as the high priest. That means he walked in with blood. Aren't you glad that your salvation is at a mercy seat? Is that a altar that's in heaven and not on earth? Nobody can steal it from us. It's safe. But friend, listen, are you safe there? Is your salvation secured in heaven? I hope so. All it takes is for you to say, Lord Jesus Christ, I agree that I have had these thoughts, these actions. I've done this in my life and I've crucified you. I'm responsible for crucifying Jesus. Please forgive me of my sin. Wash me clean. Write my name in your book of life. Put your Holy Spirit in me and cause me to walk with you for the rest of my life. And I thank you in Jesus name. I hope you prayed that prayer. And if you did, let us know. We're not going to bother you and we're not going to send you junk. We're just going to say, hey, we're here for you. And you can contact us by, however, I forget how you contact us. Maybe it's going to be on the screen. But please, make sure that you know him instead of knowing about him. Until next time, follow Jesus. This Jack Kibs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibs.com to learn more and stay connected.