In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of taking sinful habits seriously and addressing them with a sense of urgency. He highlights that although we are not perfect, God is quick to forgive and is slow to anger, showing great mercy towards us. The speaker encourages seeking guidance from a leader and separating oneself to God through prayer and fasting when dealing with recurring sinful habits. He concludes by emphasizing the incredible love and grace of God, urging listeners not to reject or ignore it, but to embrace it wholeheartedly.

What does it mean when Paul writes and says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? What does it mean? Does it mean that we won't go to hell no matter what we do? You can pray a simple prayer, go out and be an adulterer, alcoholic, murderer, but there's no condemnation so you don't go to hell. Is that what it means? Or does it mean that you may go to hell, but you won't feel guilty? I mean, you just never feel guilty if you do those things? Or does it mean that we're freed and we never sin and therefore we don't feel condemned? Does it have anything to do with feelings? Is it just a legal statement? What does it actually mean? Understand the difference between conviction and condemnation. The purpose of conviction is for God to say, you've sinned, now come to me and be forgiven. You're guilty. Come to me so I can wash you and cleanse you. Condemnation is guilty as charged, away from me. Condemnation is damnation. If you're in Jesus, you're not condemned. But I had a bad day. It doesn't matter, you're not hellbound. But I didn't pray enough. It doesn't matter, you're not hellbound because you didn't pray enough today. But I should have witnessed more passion than I did. Fine, but you're not hellbound over it. God didn't say, I damn you. That's condemnation. Away from me forever. Condemn. That's what the word means. Conviction is God saying, I'm not pleased with that. Now turn. Get right. If you can sin without conviction, you are very... God convicts us and we feel as if he's drawing us, beating you down all the time. Now I'm not talking about struggles. We all have struggles. There's a difference. I'm talking about unconfessed sin. I'm talking about known and willful practice. The person sitting here tonight, you know it's wrong, but you are determined in your heart to continue this practice. And you come into the prayer closet and wonder why you can't get through to God. Your iniquities have set... He will mortify every... Be forgiven instantly and I had to put that behind me and had to pursue God and live a holy life. For me, it hit with a totally different angle. You're falling short. You're not doing enough. There is no intimacy until first you have become secure in... Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And really boldly means God says, come with incredible confidence. I'm not looking. But evil thoughts are injected by the enemy and the devil does that to make you feel unworthy in the dancing and the rejoicing in the Lord. But my Bible says the Holy Ghost in you is stronger, is stronger than all of those arguments of the flesh. It's by his mercy that he has saved me. He sits at the right hand of God. He is at the throne of God and I am in him. Paul says in the book of Ephesians, if I have trusted in Christ for my salvation. You're clean. If you have to make restitution, if you have to make things right with the person, do it. If you haven't truly repented. In other words, if you're still thinking of the possibility of doing that thing again, then get it dealt with to the point that it's behind you and forsaken. But when it is, and God says you're clean, you're clean. You can raise holy hands to him. We're washed by the blood of Jesus. It's like if a judge says, you think you're going to get the law thrown at you, even though you knew you didn't do this thing. But you've been implicated and the judge says, that's the verdict, not guilty. You're free to go. Are you any more not guilty a year later or five or 10 or 20, legally right at that moment, not guilty. If you have truly turned from that sin, remember what it says in the book of Proverbs, whoever covers his sin will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes it will have mercy. If you've turned from that and abandoned it and said, God, I just want to please you, wash me clean. Not so I can go back and do it again. That's not repentance. Not I'm thinking maybe I'll, no, I've turned from it. I want to please you. I only want to live for you, Lord. When you've done that before him and asked for washing and cleansing, it's done. And one moment later, you can say, Lord, I lift up holy hands before you. If you're a saint here tonight, you have that power. If you are a genuine Christian, if you have truly trusted in Christ, if you truly in your heart want to walk with God, if you're truly, truly believed in him for your salvation, you have the power to cast down the thoughts of the devil himself. You have that power given to you of God. Think of it as the power of the blood of Jesus was enough to bring us in right relationship with God when we were enemies. Now that we're his children, now that we're his friends, how much more will we be kept by God? I am both his servant, as well as his son. I relate to him as my father and my master. I relate to Jesus as my both. And you look upon you, you have been received because of the blood of Jesus Christ. God looks upon you and you have become the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. That's an incredible truth. But you have to understand that tonight must always remember God wants us holy because holiness is good. God wants to uncover sin because sin is destructive. He wants to deal with these things so that he can have us in close relationship with him. So understand God's posture to you. Go through the word. Go through Psalm 103. Chew on it. Meditate on it. Something else that'll help you. Understand the difference between being bathed and having your feet washed. Understand the difference between being bathed, meaning born again, and having your feet washed, meaning daily cleansing. But Jesus goes to wash the disciples' feet. Peter says, no, no, no, you're not going to wash my feet. Jesus said, if I don't wash your feet, you have no place, no part in me. So good old Peter says, well, I'll wash everything from head to toe if you wash me. And Jesus said, no, no, no, those who've been bathed don't need their whole body washed, just their feet. He said, you've already been bathed, you're cleansed, you're clean through the word I've spoken to you, but not all of you, meaning Judas is not included. What was he saying? You know, in the ancient world and in much of the world today, you don't have running water going into the houses. You don't have bathtubs and showers. So you either go to a public bathhouse where many people, you know, men are bathing in one place and women bathing in another place, or you go to the river, just, you know, some body of water. And you bathe there, you pour the water on yourself, you bathe there, and then you walk back home. Problem is when you get back home, when you don't have regular roads and so on, you've got all the dirt and all the muck and so by the time you get home, your feet are dirty. Or if you bathe early in the day, and later in that day, you're going over to a friend's house for a meal, your feet are dirty. Jesus is saying once you've been bathed, you don't need to be washed head to toe, you just need your feet washed. You need to understand the difference between being born again, being saved, being cleansed once for all through the blood of Jesus and having your feet washed. That's how some people feel, I got to go get saved again. I got to start all over again because I blew it. Other people think they can keep living however they've been living and once they pray the prayer they're in. Both are wrong notions. We talked about that at length yesterday. The proof of the new birth is the new life. If you're saved, you're no longer a slave to sin, you're a slave to righteousness. Period. What does that person need to do? That person who has been bathed just needs to have their feet washed. While you walk in this world, your feet will get dirty. It's going to happen. Have you ever been in a room full of smokers even though you don't smoke, you come out of there smelling like smoke? Have you ever been in a room full of people using profanity even though you didn't say a wrong word, you feel uncleaned by it? Have you ever been around people that are just scantily dressed and all over each other, hugging and kissing and grabbing each other and you try to get out of that thing quickly? Yikes, this is the wrong place to be. And you're not looking all around but you just feel like junk on you. Just feel like I did something wrong. Even if you don't sin, walking in this world, you get your feet dirty. Walking in this polluted world, stuff gets on you just like the smell of smoke gets on you. Lord cleanse me. Jesus wash me. Not only that, there are things that we do wrong. Even though sin is not our master, even though we can talk about living a sin-free life, meaning living in habitual obedience as opposed to habitual disobedience, the fact is we still sin. The fact is we are not yet perfect. It's one thing to say, oh I'm saved but I'm forgiven so I can sin as much as I want. If you think that way, you may find yourself in hell. You may find yourself lost, cut off from God with no way back. If you say, I want to serve God with all my heart, live for Him, He's my Lord, He's my master, but in this world I'm still not perfect, there is daily cleansing. There is daily washing. We are not sinners today in Jesus according to the Bible. We are believers who sometimes sin. Anyone have one minute during the day where you did not love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Let's be honest, we sin. We always fall short in some way, but our heart is set on pleasing the Lord, doing His will, He blots out our iniquities, He remembers them no more. As far as the east is from the west, He removes our transgressions. Verse after verse after verse that tell us plainly that God utterly, completely cleanses and washes through the blood of Jesus. I don't come to God and say, all right, give me what I deserve. No, only a fool would do that, but I do know when I come to Him for forgiveness, when I come to Him for mercy, He gives me what I rightly get through Jesus, because Jesus paid for it. Take God at His word. If He says you're forgiven, you're forgiven. If He says you're cleansed, you're cleansed. It's when you and I hear the word of God, and we say, God, this is true, and let every other voice be a lie. Let God be true, and let every man be a liar. God, your word is true. We make that decision. We say, God, you're not a man. You can't lie. I'm not. Nothing can separate me from the love of God, which is mine. Appropriated into my life without faith, absolute confidence that what God said He would do, He will accomplish. Be careful to please the Lord. Be quick to respond to His voice. Be quick to respond. When you understand how good He is, and how merciful He is, and how patient He is, and how kind He is, and how loving He is, and how long-suffering He is, Lord, I just want to please you. Oh, wrong attitude. I'm changing that right now. Sorry, Lord. Take any recurrence of sinful habits seriously. You've got to take it seriously. You've got to address it seriously. You have to recognize the seriousness of it. But the fact is, we've got to take every infraction seriously before the Lord. And when we do, and when we fear Him, and we want to please Him, He knows our frame. He knows our weakness. He knows we're not perfect yet. He knows we're human beings in a sinful world. He's quick to forgive. He's slow to anger and great in mercy. It's not written that He's great in anger and slow in mercy. He's slow to anger and great in mercy. If there's a recurrence of sinful habits, take it seriously. If you need to talk to a leader, if you need to separate yourself to God in prayer and fasting, if you need to just ruthlessly change your schedule and all that stuff, do it, because sin destroys. And you'd understand, when you come to God with true repentance, He washes, cleanses, and says, let's get on with it. Choose to believe God. Friends, if you're saved, if you want to please the Lord, there is no condemnation. God does not condemn you. God does not say, away from me. God is not sending you to hell. God's desire is to embrace you, to love on you, and to use you, and to bless you, and to make you a world changer. Don't let the devil rip you off. Don't let your upbringing rip you off. Don't let your surroundings rip you off. Don't let your carnal thinking rip you off. Embrace the Word. Renew your mind. Act on what it says. Refuse to be moved by feelings, and you will live a condemnation-free life for the glory of God. Amen.