The glory of the gospel message reached its crescendo moment in Romans 8. You’re free then to see your own failures, your own ugliness, your own self centeredness. To hear criticism, to be rejected, to feel alone. To face the holes and the lacks in your life Because if you belong to jesus christ god is for you and it doesn’t matter who’s against you God supplies you with all the things that you need god accepts you And ultimately no other verdict matters god loves you with an unconditional No expiration date love.
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Pastor Mark Willey
Excerpt taken from “The Greatest News of the GOOD NEWS”
Video Transcript:
God accepts you. Verse 33 and 34. This speaks to our fear of condemnation. Who will bring, verse 33, who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus, who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
You hear verdicts every day. Sometimes you hear dozens of them. They’re verdicts that condemn you’re not enough. When you see your sales report and compare it with some of the others in the office. When you compare your body shape. When you compare the attention you get from others. When you compare your people skills, your intellectual capacity, your athleticism, your beauty, your car, your house, your job, your kids athleticism, intelligence.
Your social skills, etc. You hear the verdict. I’m on the less than side not the greater than side We feel the condemnations Where does that come from? Why are we so constantly? Evaluating ourselves and and and seeking the verdict to be okay It came through the fall the fall into sin the rejection of god the fall in sin was the fall from the position of acceptability and worthiness to feeling shame and unworthiness.
All of our fear of condemnation is ultimately the longing for the verdict of God that we are acceptable. And so we look forward in a thousand other lesser places. But the one place that can ultimately quiet our soul is when we rest in the verdict of the one whose opinion matters more than anyone else, the one who knows us best, the one who designed us and created us, the verdict of acceptability, the verdict of acceptance.
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It’s God who justifies, the word justifies means to declare acceptable, righteous, standing in God’s sight. Psalm 110 verse 1, it says this. that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father. It doesn’t say He was there before, but that He has this particular position now, through His cross, His resurrection, His return to Heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.
Psalm 110, verse 1. 110 verse 1 is quoted 20 times in the New Testament. It is the most often repeated Old Testament passage in the New Testament. Why? They’re constantly having this thought Jesus has gone into the presence of the father. He is my Assurance that I have a place there that I am accepted there and he says he is ever living.
He is constantly Interceding the idea is that Jesus who is victorious over his enemies because in psalm 110 verse 1 It says two things on the one hand. It says that he is there And he has made his victories, his footstool, he has defeated his enemies. But the other thing it says is he has made, he is making intercession for us.
Jesus death, resurrection, victory showed that he is victorious over his enemies. And shows that he was victorious for his friends. The verdict is in. You are declared eternally acceptable to God. You don’t have to prove one thing. You don’t have to measure up in one way. People’s opinion, he says, ultimately, if you can allow the opinion of God to permeate your soul, the opinion of people are going to be quiet.
You can silence To the degree that your mind is saturated with how God views you, how He has made you in Christ, you can silence the voices that are so loud in your head, saying, You’re not enough. You’re not this. You’re not that. You’re just a less than. You’ll never measure up. You’re godless. You’re, you’re, you’re this.
You’re that. You’re that. The fear of condemnation is overcome by verse 33 and 34. God accepts you through Christ. And fourth, God sticks with you. It speaks to the fear of isolation. What shall separate us, in verse 35, from the love of Christ? And he basically goes down and says, There’s, there’s not a thing.
There’s nothing. He goes through this unbreakable chain of God’s love for us. And he says, in verse 28, All things work together for good, for those who have been brought into the purpose of God in Christ Jesus. Now, in verse 37, he says again, Where did I put my glasses? All these, there it is. This is a black lectern, and these are black glasses, I’m not as crazy as you think I am.
Alright, 37. No, in all, verse 37, no, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. What are the all things? What are the all things of verse 28? In everything that’s coming into our lives, we can be conquerors because we are loved by God. It is the motivation. You see, I was in a Bible study, and, and we were reading how in Proverbs, it says, God is talking about how do you live the, the, the path of wisdom.
And it says what you do is you take the reality of God’s love and faithfulness. Those are the two words. It’s actually how God revealed himself originally to Moses. He said, I am the, the loving and faithful God. It’s, it’s in, it’s in the book of Psalms over and over. It is the characteristic. God is a God of love and faithfulness.
And he says, he says, write this on your heart. That God is faithful that God is crazy about you the degree to which we live that out The security of that, the safety of that, is the degree to which we are not in captivity to the opinions of others, the affections of others. If you want to be a better husband, find your security, not that my wife’s got to love me perfectly.
No, I’m loved by God. If you want to be a better husband, a better wife, live your life in the reality of God’s acceptance of you, God’s love for you, God is for you. And the basis of this love is, it says, that God God chose us, God pursued us, God wanted us, and nothing can separate you from Him. Eugene Pat Peterson has written, it’s a paraphrase of, of the, the scriptures, but it’s a beautiful one.
And I would like to just read how he Expresses Romans 8 verse 31 to 39. I think it is a beautiful depiction and, and I want to just read it now. Verse 31. So what do you think? With God on your side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?
And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The one who died for us, who was raised to life for us, is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us?
There’s no way, not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in scripture. They kill us in cold blood because they hate you, it says. We’re sitting ducks. They pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us.
I’m absolutely convinced that nothing, nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable, absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love. Because of the way that Jesus, our master, has embraced us. The glory of the gospel message reached its crescendo moment in Romans 8.
You’re free then to see your own failures, your own ugliness, your own self centeredness. To hear criticism, to be rejected, to feel alone. To face the holes and the lacks in your life Because if you belong to jesus christ god is for you and it doesn’t matter who’s against you God supplies you with all the things that you need god accepts you And ultimately no other verdict matters god loves you with an unconditional No expiration date love this morning.
We’re going to come to the lord’s table And I hope these truths are ringing in our ears