Redemption Part 3: Free From Condemnation, Starting With Your Words

Redemption Part 3 teaches that the blood of Jesus has already removed condemnation, yet many believers still live with guilt and shame that keep them from receiving what God has given. The pastor explains that redemption is a process: our spirit is made new at once, while our mind and body are still being redeemed. The first step out of condemnation, he says, is surprisingly simple. It starts with your mouth.

This message continues from Redemption #2 — The Hand of God, the Down Payment and Freedom From Condemnation. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, every Scripture linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway, a timestamped outline and practical steps for this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was posted on May 7, 2024, and runs about 49 minutes. The pastor picks up the redemption series he began a couple of weeks earlier, before a time away, and opens by recapping its two main truths. He then moves to the practical question of how believers actually walk free from condemnation.

His answer builds from the Garden of Eden, through Romans and 1 Corinthians 15, to Psalm 107, Matthew 12 and James 3. He closes with Proverbs 18:21 and a prayer asking God to forgive careless words and to set a guard over our mouths.

Redemption Part 3: A Continual Process

The first truth from the series, the pastor says, is that redemption is a continual motion. We can say, “I was redeemed, I am being redeemed and I will be redeemed.” The last stage is the redemption of our bodies, which Romans 8:23 says we eagerly wait for, groaning within ourselves.

When you were born again, he explains, your body did not change and your mind did not change. Your spirit changed. You received a new spirit, alive to God. From that point, believers are laboring together with God to renew the mind until the body is finally redeemed.

The second truth is that Jesus’ sacrifice did what the law never could: it freed us from sin, and more specifically from the condemnation of sin. Everyone, Christian or not, deals with guilt and shame from time to time. But according to Hebrews 10:1–4, the blood of bulls and goats could not take sin away. It only reminded people of it, year after year.

Jesus’ blood is different. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Condemnation, the pastor says, “it’s gone it’s done with.” Then he asks the church an honest question: do you still feel condemned from time to time? Does shame hit you out of the blue? God wants that dealt with, because of what it does to us.

He also explains the word itself. As he teaches it, the Greek word for redemption is a compound of “away” and “to loose,” to take away and let go, much as the word for revelation means to take the coverings away. He adds that the Book of Revelation is above all a revelation of Jesus Christ, just as Jesus told the religious leaders that the Scriptures they searched testified of Him (John 5:39).

He also cites Webster’s dictionary: redemption is “the act of making something better or more acceptable.” That is what redemption should do in your life now, he says. It is not only that you get to go to heaven one day; your life should be getting better.

How Condemnation Keeps You From Receiving

Condemnation, the pastor teaches, keeps us from receiving from God. He points back to creation. God made everything before He made Adam, and He even planted the garden first (Genesis 2:8–15). Adam did not help till it or clear it. The garden was not a backyard plot but, as he pictures it, hundreds or thousands of acres, and Adam’s only job was to tend and keep it.

When Adam and Eve walked with the Lord in the cool of the day, they did not have to ask for anything. Everything was already given. That is why Satan’s lie was so dangerous. When he said that God knows you will be like Him if you eat (Genesis 3:4–5), he was really saying God had withheld something, and you must do something extra to get it.

That, the pastor says, is exactly what the law does inside a person. It whispers: what am I not doing right? Why can’t I get healed? Why won’t this door open? The result is spinning wheels, frustration, guilt and shame. Inside, your spirit is perfect, with no shame or guilt there. But condemnation still comes through the mind, and that is where we work with God.

We labor to enter His rest (Hebrews 4:11), not to earn it. On the cross Jesus did not cry out, “Now get busy and work hard.” He cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Guilt and shame should not be named among Christians, the pastor says, but they are, because many have not learned to walk in the liberty God gives.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). Jesus told the religious leaders that their tradition made the Word of God of no effect (Mark 7:13), and that those who abide in His word will know the truth and be made free (John 8:31–32). Religion works by fear, he says, but perfect love casts out fear, and fear involves torment (1 John 4:18).

A Holy Law and Weak Flesh

Reading Romans 7:12 from the New International Version, the pastor notes that the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. “It’s holy but it can’t make you holy,” he says. “It’s righteous but it can’t make you righteous.” The weakness was never in the law. The weakness was our performance.

So Jesus said, in effect, I will do the performing for you. He lived righteously and perfectly, and now He asks us simply to believe in Him so He can give us His righteousness. A parent who cared only about a child’s performance, and never just loved and held them, would be “a pretty pathetic parent.” We are called to be tenderhearted and compassionate toward one another (Ephesians 4:32).

The law, by contrast, is never tenderhearted. He tells of injuring himself working out one Sunday before church. He could barely walk, sat on a stool during the service, and declared he was healed in Jesus’ name. By the end he was walking fine. But earlier, while his wife Pam was driving him toward the hospital, they were stopped for going about five miles an hour over the limit. Was there any mercy? No, he says, because the officer was bound by the law.

Jesus demolished that system by fulfilling the law Himself, then giving us His righteousness. Everything that pertains to life and godliness has been given to us, not through hard work but through the knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:3). Adam was the first representative of mankind and fell, so all have sinned (Romans 3:23). Jesus is the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45).

The liberty we receive frees us to keep receiving. God is able to make all grace abound toward us, so that we have an abundance for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8).

The pastor then gives what he calls the entry level into the process. 1 Corinthians 15:56–58 says, “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

That work is not labor by the sweat of our brow, he explains, but working to enter the liberty God has already given. Your spirit is perfect, and your mind and body are what need to change. In the end the body will be glorified, and when we see Him we will be like Him (1 John 3:2).

The law was weak through the flesh, so Jesus came in the flesh and lived without sin (Romans 8:3). Then He went a step further: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He did not merely carry sin away, the pastor says. He became sin and died, so it was put to death once for all.

Redeemed From and Redeemed To

Redemption is not only being delivered from something, the pastor teaches. It is being delivered to something. The best the world can offer, he says, is helping people cope with their bondage, making friends with whatever holds them, which he compares to Stockholm syndrome. Jesus does far more.

He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9) and delivered us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). Many Christians think salvation is only about getting to heaven one day, so they never apply themselves to redemption. But every day we should be being redeemed.

The table below sets out the contrast he draws between the two ways of living.

Titus 2:11–14 shows the process at work. The grace of God that brings salvation teaches us to deny ungodliness and live soberly and righteously in this present age, because Jesus gave Himself to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify a people zealous for good works. If redemption is being renewed in us daily, the pastor says, the fire should be rekindled daily too.

So what if your body or mind is in bad shape? Then let’s deal with it, he says, and let God redeem us from every evil work. And one of the main points of the redemption process is how we speak.

Justified or Condemned by Your Words

Your mouth is the gate for everything, the pastor teaches. Salvation comes by confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believing in your heart (Romans 10:9). Marriage begins with spoken promises. God framed the worlds by His word (Hebrews 11:3), and we are made in His image, so our words hold a tremendous key to our lives.

Psalm 107:1–2 says to give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and His mercy endures forever: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” Not that God sends tornadoes or burns down houses, as people say when they call disasters acts of God, but that He is good. He recalls a song from the charismatic renewal, “I’m redeemed,” and urges believers to declare what they have been redeemed to as well as from.

When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him (Isaiah 59:19), and we work with Him by answering, “No, I’m redeemed.” In Matthew 12:33–37 Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and every idle word will be accounted for. “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

An idle word, the pastor explains, is like revving a car’s engine without putting it in gear: lots of noise, but you go nowhere. It is a word that does not move you toward what God redeemed you to. He pictures believers in heaven grieving over what was theirs all along, blessings they blamed God for withholding while their own words kept them out.

If condemnation keeps coming into your life, he says, look at your words. “There’s no such thing as a saved sinner,” he insists; that is like a “married bachelor” or an “honest thief.” If you are saved, live saved and say so. “Am I perfect? By no means,” he admits, “but I’m justified.” Do not give guilt a launching pad to rocket into your dreams at night.

The pastor recalls David’s prayer asking the Lord to put a watch over his mouth (Psalm 141:3). James 3:2–13 says we all stumble in many things, but whoever does not stumble in word can bridle the whole body, as a bit turns a horse and a small rudder turns a great ship. No man can tame the tongue, the pastor notes, but our Redeemer can help us.

With the same mouth we bless God and curse people made in His likeness, and “these things ought not to be so.” He urges the church to stop letting circumstances determine what they say, and to realize that “your day is determined by what you say.” It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32), and it starts with your tongue.

He compares spiritual growth to hurricane glass, which, as he was told, must survive a two-by-four fired from a cannon at 120 miles an hour. A new believer may be as fragile as a china teacup or rice paper, but our breaking point should grow stronger. Sometimes, he says, what people call an anger problem is really “a redemption problem.”

His last verse is Proverbs 18:21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Condemnation, guilt and shame are “like a vault” holding back the blessings of God, he says, and the first path out of all of it is to watch what you say.

Living Redeemed This Week

The pastor admits he is “preaching to me too” and works at this daily. Here are practical steps drawn from the message:

• Start the day with Scripture. Like him, say each morning that this is the day the Lord has made and rejoice in it (Psalm 118:24).
• Say so. When guilt or shame hits, answer it aloud: God is good, His mercy endures forever, and I am redeemed.
• Retire “saved sinner.” Describe yourself as justified and as the righteousness of God in Christ.
• Catch idle words. Notice words that rev the engine but go nowhere, and replace them with words that move you forward.
• Pray for a guard. Ask the Lord, as David did, to set a watch over your mouth before a hard conversation.
• Speak grace to others. Let your words minister grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:29), the subject he says comes next week.

He closes by leading a prayer asking God’s forgiveness for negative, coarse and idle words, and asking for help to speak whatever things are true, pure, lovely and of good report (Philippians 4:8).

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Recap: redemption as a continual motion
• 1:08 The redemption of our body
• 2:17 Freed from the condemnation of sin
• 3:27 Romans 8:1 and the Garden of Eden
• 4:34 Satan’s lie that God withheld something
• 5:40 It is finished
• 6:56 Where the Spirit is, there is liberty
• 8:07 Romans 7:12: the law is holy
• 10:47 The law is never tenderhearted
• 11:49 Jesus, the last Adam
• 13:07 What the word redemption means
• 15:29 1 Corinthians 15: the strength of sin
• 17:55 He became sin for us
• 19:23 Delivered from and delivered to
• 20:55 Titus 2: zealous for good works
• 23:25 Psalm 107: let the redeemed say so
• 26:03 Matthew 12: a tree known by its fruit
• 28:17 What an idle word is
• 34:21 No such thing as a saved sinner
• 35:41 James 3: taming the tongue
• 40:29 Your day is determined by what you say
• 42:57 Hurricane glass and our breaking point
• 45:00 Proverbs 18:21: death and life
• 47:30 Prayer over our words

Redemption Series

This message is part of a seven-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: Redemption Part 1: Behold the Lamb of God Who Takes Away Condemnation
• Previous: Redemption #2 — The Hand of God, the Down Payment and Freedom From Condemnation
• You are here: Redemption Part 3: Free From Condemnation, Starting With Your Words
• Next: Redemption #4 — The Words We Speak and Freedom From Condemnation

Frequently Asked Questions

If condemnation is gone, why do Christians still feel guilty?

The pastor explains that your spirit was made perfect when you were born again, so there is no guilt or shame there. But your mind was not changed at that moment, and guilt and shame come in through the mind. That is why redemption is a process. Believers work together with God to renew their thinking, refusing the old voice that says they must do something more to please Him.

Is this just positive thinking?

Not in the way the pastor teaches it. He roots it in Jesus’ words that we will be justified or condemned by our words, and in Proverbs 18:21. The goal is not to deny problems but to agree with what God says: that He is good, His mercy endures forever, and we are redeemed. He also admits he has not perfected it and keeps working at it himself.

What should I do about words I have already spoken?

In his closing prayer, the pastor leads people to ask God’s forgiveness for negative, coarse and idle words, and to tear up those seeds in Jesus’ name so they have no effect. Then ask the Lord to set a watch over your mouth and help you speak what is good, pure and of good report. He presents this as a fresh start that anyone can make today.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Romans 8:1 — no condemnation in Christ
• Romans 8:23 — the redemption of our body
• Romans 7:12 — the law is holy
• 1 Corinthians 15:56–58 — victory through Jesus Christ
• 2 Corinthians 5:21 — made the righteousness of God
• Titus 2:11–14 — redeemed from every lawless deed
• Psalm 107:1–2 — let the redeemed of the Lord say so
• Matthew 12:33–37 — justified or condemned by your words
• James 3:2–13 — taming the tongue
• Proverbs 18:21 — death and life in the power of the tongue

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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