Talk—Michael Hapanowicz
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Romans chapter 8, verse one.
There is therefore now.
No condemnation.
To them which are in Christ Jesus.
Let's pray.
God and Father, we have to admit that our hearts are prone to wander and we feel it.
They're prone to leave the God that we do love.
And so we just pray that you would take and seal them for your courts above. We just pray for help too, for the word to be shared now.
For the speaker to have something for myself delivered from the heart to the heart. So we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
I wonder if we have in the audience, are there any 910 or 11 year olds here in the audience tonight? I've got an eye. OK, There's a, there's a few 910 and 11 year olds. You know, I remember being that age and it really bothered me, the thought.
Of these these messages in my head.
Did they come from God or did they come from Satan?
And, you know, you get a little older and I think you get better at.
Discerning the voice of the Savior. And I'm not that old now, so maybe I'll eventually grow out of it, but I haven't.
Yet to grow out of the need to discern the difference between those two things.
And may be described in that way. It's not something that you can identify with.
But I think that what I'm talking about is something that others have experienced here as well, and So what I want to call it is the difference between conviction.
And condemnation.
The difference between conviction and condemnation. Now, why is it important to be able to distinguish the difference between those two things?
Well, I think it's helpful for our own souls.
But there is a more important reason than that.
And that is that God is robbed.
When we listen to the voice of condemnation, the.
We had.
In the verse that we read here in Romans chapter 8, verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. When he says that there's no condemnation, I think it's more than just the fact that you and I are not judicially condemned, but that in that nation, part of the word condemnation, there is something to do with our experience here in this life.
And he says there's no condemnation to them.
That are in Christ Jesus, so we can say authoritatively if there is an experience in the soul of the believer.
Of feeling condemnation.
It does not come from God. So the first thing that I want to do is I want to look at the source.
Of conviction, I want to look at the source Of condemnation, I want to look at an overarching principle for distinguishing the one from the other. And then we'll look at 3 examples. So we're already 5 minutes into our meeting. Turn to Psalms chapter 51.
Psalms, chapter 51.
And verse 4.
This is David speaking. The header of the Psalm is to the chief musician a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And he says in verse four Against thee the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest.
And be clear when thou judgest.
You know, header of the Psalm told us that this was when he had done this in with Bathsheba and he says here against thee he's referring to God, against thee the only have I sinned and it's like.
Really, David?
00:05:01
Because I can think of some other people that you sinned against in this example. I don't believe in this verse.
That there is a denial of the way in which our sin effects other people. But rather Psalms 51 verse four is a recognition that at the end of the day, every sin is a sin against God and He is the ultimate victim of every sin that you and I have done.
And David has two implications.
Of that fact that it is against God, and only against God that the sin was committed, He says here that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest. The fact that your sin is against God means that he has the the prerogative to bring to your attention.
The fact that that sin took place.
And the second implication is.
That thou.
May be clear when thou judgest as the victim of that sin crime. God has the authority to pardon or pass judgment on the sin that took place.
Now turn to Revelation. This is Revelation chapter 12.
Revelation 12 and verse 10 and I heard a loud voice saying, in heaven now is come salvation and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God.
Day and night. If we had read the previous verse, verse nine, it refers to him here as Satan.
Accusing.
Believers is a full time job for Satan.
Now we were using the word condemnation as a sea, so it fits better with conviction, but we could use the word accusation.
Accusation are brought against you on a 24/7 basis. Now consider the implication of who brings the accusation. Was your sin against Satan?
Was he the victim of that crime?
No, he wasn't. So does he have the authority to release you from the claims of that sin?
No, he doesn't. And it's more than that either. He doesn't have the desire. You know, I was thinking of the example of Judas.
It tells us in Luke that Satan entered into him and led him to betray the Lord Jesus.
And then we find that later Judas regrets it and he goes out and he hangs himself.
And I don't know that this scripture ever draws a direct connection to Satans involvement in the suicide of Judas, but I believe that he must have played a part. And so you think about that Satan first led Judas to do the sin.
And then he used the fact that he had done the sin to bludgeon him with into despair and ultimately suicide.
That was mean, very mean.
He's not going to be any kinder to you.
And so there is no confession, there is no sorrow, there is no repentance, however thorough, that will itself silence the voice of condemnation. Why is condemnation so implacable?
Because the source.
Has neither the desire nor the authority to release you from the claims of that sin. So let's turn to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 7.
And I just want to look at an overarching principle for distinguishing the difference between conviction and condemnation. Verse nine. Second Corinthians, Chapter 7, verse 9.
Now I rejoice not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. For you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
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For behold this self same thing that he sorrowed after a godly sort. What carefulness is wrought in you?
Yeah. What clearing of yourselves? Yeah. What indignation? Yeah, What fear? Yeah, what vehement desire? Yeah, what zeal. Yeah. Yeah. What revenge. And all these things. You have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
Sorrow over sin.
Is not necessarily a good thing.
Does that strike you as odd?
What does he say here?
There is worldly sorrow.
Not good, and there is godly sorrow.
Which is good.
How can you tell the difference between the two?
You can tell the difference.
Between the two, by the effect that it has. Look at verse 10. He says there godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
The principle here that you can tell the difference between a thing by the effect that it has. This verse is the mother of 1000 applications, and we obviously don't have time to go through 1000 examples, but I just wanted to run through three things real quick with you. First of all, consider the statement. I am so unworthy.
But thank God that he saved me anyhow.
Versus I am so unworthy.
So would Why would God even care to hear my praise?
Both statements have an identical start.
How can you tell the difference between the two though? You can tell the difference between the two by the effect that it has in the soul. So I just want to give you 2 examples of how this principle works out in the context of what we're discussing, conviction versus condemnation. Let's give this to you really quick.
Conviction.
Leads to repentance that produces worship.
Condemnation leads to a self focus that stifles praise.
Conviction entertained restores communion.
Condemnation entertained, destroys.
Communion.
Do you see how God is robbed in that by when we listen to the voice?
Of condemnation.
There's one other thing I want to mention on this verse. He says that he makes an interesting comment. He says godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. Why does he say it's not to be repented of? And I've sometimes thought about this, you know, have you ever done anything that was right and you regretted it?
Now maybe you're thinking you haven't, but let me give you an example and see if you change your mind. OK, say someone does something to you or says something to you that's really annoying. It's really offensive and you want to bite their head off, but instead you bite your tongue and then later you think I should have given it to them.
Right, you did the right thing and not giving it to them, so to speak, but later you kind of wished you had.
That that is, that's repenting of a good thing. But I think there's a more particular reason in connection with the subject for why he says that in this chapter. I think the reason he says that godly sorrow is not to be repented of is because.
Worldly sorrow is to be repented of.
And you might be thinking, so now I have to feel bad about feeling bad. And it's like, look, relax. It's to be repented of in the sense that it is to be abandoned. It's to be forsaken. So we have 3 minutes so we don't have time to develop the examples, but I just want to run through a couple. One is in Luke chapter 22.
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Two verse 32.
He says this is the Lord speaking. He says of of Peter.
But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen by brethren.
Satan says that your failure means you can never be used again.
And God says that there is fruitfulness on the other side.
Of restoration.
The Lord told Simon, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Now I have a question, could could Peter of strengthen his brethren while he was in the act of denying the Lord Jesus?
No, he couldn't. And it's not just a question of the Lord choosing not to use him in that moment.
He could not strengthen his brethren while what he was doing was robbing them of courage.
Which is denial of the Lord Jesus necessarily must have done so God was robbed.
Of the service that he should have received from Peter by that sin.
Now, what would happen if Peter had listened?
To the voice of condemnation and said because I've denied the Lord.
I can't be used by him anymore.
God would have been robbed of the service due him from Peter.
Twice.
From the same sin.
And Satan can get a lot of mileage out of our sin when we listen.
To the voice of condemnation, so for his glory.
It's important to distinguish between the two. The next one I want to look at is in First Corinthians.
Chapter 10.
We'll just go through this one pretty quickly.
Can't read my own writing.
Umm.
Let's see, no temptation hath taken you. Verse 13. Verse 13. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Satan says that you are uniquely sinful.
God says there is no temptation that you face that you find appealing that someone else hasn't also faced and found appealing to.
There's more to be said on that, but we don't have time, so let's just go to Romans. Romans chapter 2 and verse 4.
Romans chapter 2 and verse four. Or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
Satan says that your sin excludes you.
From the goodness of God.
And God says, my goodness is a reason for you to turn from your sin.
We're really out of time, but I just wanted to share this. You know, we think about some of the reasons why it's important to be able to distinguish conviction from condemnation. I think one of the reasons is that you may be given an opportunity to identify in the life of another believer that they are experiencing condemnation. And I'm going to speak of it as if it's a particular individual or situation, but I can think of a couple examples.
Of people where there was a marked sin in their life and they repented, they turned from it and it was dealt with in the fullest possible manner and years later some tragedy struck in their life.
And they said that God is punishing me for what I did.
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And here that breaks my heart because what they're saying is my sin places me outside of the goodness of God.
And it's a lie we need to be able to identify in the life of each other.
Where there is conviction and condemnation, and this is especially important for you young people who will one day be shepherds to be able to identify.
In someone else's life, that because damage can be done to a soul that is experiencing condemnation and if you treat them as if they're under conviction and an opportunity is missed.
If they are experiencing conviction and you treat it as if it's condemnation. And so we need it for our own souls, we need it for the souls of each other, We need it for God's glory to be able to identify the difference between these two, that we might listen to the voice of conviction and heed it.
And we might not listen to the voice of condemnation and rebuke it.
And so I just hope that this is helpful for us to be able to see.
The source of conviction comes from God, who has the authority and the desire to release you from the claims of your sin. Condemnation comes from Satan, who has neither the authority nor the desire to release you from the claims of your sin. You can tell the difference between the two by the effect that it has in your own soul. And there are examples from Scripture where you can go line by line and say, how does this message compare to what's in the word of God? Because.
Your experience of condemnation might be different than my experience of condemnation, and there are certainly other messages than those 3 verses that we looked at. But like I said, I think that overarching principle is helpful for us in being able to identify. Just ask the question, what effect is this message having in my own soul? So let's just close in prayer. God and Father, we thank Thee for the truth of Thy word.
And how it answers.
To really the experiences that we go through in the messages.
That we hear and we just pray, Lord, if there's any soul here tonight that is struggling.
Under the voice of condemnation that they would turn to your word to find the truth about what it says on the matter.
And we think of if there are any soul who is experiencing conviction that they might heed the warning, and if the two are mingled together, would they be able to separate the one from the other? We ask Lord, that we would be of a help in each other's lives in identifying these things for your glory, that you would not be robbed of worship, you would not be robbed of praise, you would not be robbed of service, and you would not be robbed of the delight that your heart has.
In our hearts, delighting in the measure of our acceptance. So we ask this in Jesus name.
Amen.