Condemned Already

We used to meet in a rough section of town in the early years of Pilgrim and on the way to the church house we'd pass this run-down house every single time. You could tell by the people coming and going that nothing good was happening inside. It was the wrong crowd with bad news written all over it. The kind of house where you cross to the other side of the street without even thinking about it. One day we drove past and there was a condemned sign posted right in the window. It didn't surprise me one bit and my first thought was, it's about time.

But then it hit me while I was preparing to preach John 3.

That sign didn't condemn the building.

The foundation had been cracked long before anyone showed up with a sign. The wiring had been a fire hazard for years. The structure was already unsound. The sign didn't create the condition — it just declared it to the world.

We're not in the business of condemning anybody. God said it plain in John 3:17 — "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." The condemned sign is already on every lost sinner born into Adam's line. We've all been conceived in sin — Psalm 51 says so. And Romans 5 confirms it: death passed to all men through one man.

When we preach the gospel, we're just posting the sign. We're not putting something on people that wasn't already there. We're pointing them to a Master Builder who didn't come to nail up condemnation notices. He came to create in us a new creature. He builds us up.

"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already." — John 3:18

Condemned already. Not after the sermon. Not after the invitation. Already.

So go tell somebody.

The full sermon is right here. Give it a listen.

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/