Therefore. Now. No.

Good morning, grab your Bible. We're going to be in Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8. Thank you for coming.

It's wonderful to have you here. We are loving this new series on

the 8th chapter of the book of Romans called More than

Conquerors. And if you weren't here, if you

missed a moment just to keep get you up to speed on the series

and as to why we're doing it. Just a quick recap.

What we found in John 10 verse 10, we actually hear that Jesus

John 10:10

comes and he says, listen, I haven't just come to die on the

cross to give you eternal life. I've come to give you Zoe life,

a life that is full abundance pressed down, shaken together

and running over. Essentially he's saying that the

God that you serve is a God of exceedingly abundantly above.

And the way we described it last week was essentially is like he

says, listen, this this is the the fullness of what I have for

you and want you to live in. But if we're really honest, we

live in a percentage of that, you know, because maybe, you

know, you went to school and on the bluff and, you know, there's

a reputation there and your finances aren't doing so well.

And so you got a little bit of creative accounting going on and

then your marriage is a little shady and you lose your temper

all the time. And you live in a country that's

full of, excuse me, taxis and, and who can keep their sanity in

our country. And eventually you end up and

you're living in unforgiveness and you're a rape victim.

And this is all that you're living in.

And So what God is saying is he says, I've got this for you, but

you're living in this. And so we're looking at Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8 because Romans chapter 8 gives us these boundary lines,

Romans 8 · chapter mention

everything that he has for you and I.

And it's challenging, but like I said last week, we're going to

go to war with the Romans 8 so that we can live in this, so

that we can get our boundary lines to where they ought to be.

Because the enemy comes to rob, kill, steal, and destroy.

And he's happy for you live to live in 5 or 10% of what God has

for you. But God wants you to live in the

fullness of everything that he died on the cross for.

And we mentioned last week that there's kind of this gatekeeper.

It's like how, who qualifies? How do I get into this?

And I'll, I'll repeat something that I said with a, a couple

that I was doing marriage counselling with.

I realized that the, the, the more we had conversation, the

more they didn't understand the gospel.

And maybe you don't understand the gospel.

And eventually I took a few steps back and I said to them,

listen, if you were to die tonight or for you here today,

if you were to drive home from three CR and you're die on your

way home and you, you're standing at the pearly gates and

Angel Gabriel is there and he asks you the question, why

should I let you in? Ask them, what would you say?

What, what answer would you get? Because there's only one right

answer. Sort of blink, blink, blink like

a deer in the head last night. Well, you know, I mean, we'd we

coming to church often and we're trying really hard and and

actually I'm starting to read my Bible.

And I said, none of that qualifies you.

There's only one answer, and that is the fact that Jesus has

died on the cross to pay for your sins, to give you the

adoption as sons and daughters into God's family.

That is what qualifies you for eternal life, and that is also

what qualifies us for Zoe life, a life of fullness.

And what's important is that that one word there, which I'm

going to extrapolate into this week, that one word that

summarizes all that qualifies us as a big juicy Bible word that

you probably don't hear anywhere else except in church.

And it's the word justification. You know, it's not like you go

to the rugby on Saturday and say, hey, how was your day?

No, I was justified this week. You know, it's not part of our

language, but it is the foundation of what we're talking

about today and what Romans 8 is built on, that there is only

entrance into all of this. All of this if you have been

justified. And we're going to look at that

word a little later in depth. But essentially, if I distill it

down to one thing, it's the fact that you've been washed by the

blood of Jesus, the blood he shed on the cross for your sins.

So that brings us to Romans chapter 8 and verse one.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

We are now going to start talking about these boundary

lines. And Romans 81 says there is

therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus. Therefore, there is now no

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I'm, I'm going to pause a little bit.

Yeah, we like to honor where honor is due.

And I don't know if you know this, but we have a very special

guest in numbers today. I just want to take a moment.

You know, it's intimidating when you get up as as a preacher, as

a speaker, and you have probably the most influential speaker of

our day in attendance. And I know they're probably

cringing going like, oh, please don't call me up because it's a

communicator. The last thing you want to do on

a Sunday is have to communicate again, you know, sort of just

want to sit and receive. But we really do believe in

honoring those who are in our midst and taking a moment.

So can I ask you that? I'm just going to ask them to

come and say, how's it? Can you give a warm round of

applause? You're possibly the greatest

communicator in our lifetime. Can we welcome them as they come

forward? Oh, that's that's overwhelming.

Overwhelming. Yeah.

The man in the mirror. Now don't let your

disappointment at my fake introduction still the truth of

what I'm trying to communicate this morning.

You know, when I was saying the greatest communicator, most

influential speaker of our day, Did you see yourself in this?

Because here's the truth. Who talks to you more than you

do? Who tells you where to go, what

to do more than you do? Who tells you what to post or

not to post? Who tells you not to forgive and

most certainly not to forget more than you do, See, because

you are the most influential voice in your life.

They, they said that no matter what I say up here and no matter

what it says in here, you are the final authority on whether

you receive any of it. And someone said it comes down

to what you are saying about what I'm saying up here to

determine the fruitfulness of your life or, and this is hits

me right between the eyes. If what you are saying to

yourself is contradictory to the promises of Scripture, you will

never step into the fullness of what God has.

OK, let me say that again. If what you are saying to

yourself is contradictory to the promises of Scripture, you will

never step into the fullness of everything that God has for you.

And I want to lean for a minute because you come to church on a

Sunday to listen to a sermon and you leave it behind.

You will not live in the fullness of what God has for

you. You should be sitting on a

Sunday going, not on my watch, not on my watch.

I will not wonder in the wilderness like the the

Israelites because 10 spas came with a negative report not on my

watch. I will not give in to the the

voice in the mirror, these little insecurities and allow

that to overpower the word of God in my life.

It's meant to destroy and tear down the strongholds and all the

vain arguments that exalt themselves above the knowledge

of God. That is what Sundays are meant

to be doing. But you come and you sit on a

Sunday and you hear and you go. Bravo, like you, you know, Golf

Club introduction to our special guest.

That was divine, delightful. Thank you, son.

And off you go. And an entire generation will

wander in the desert and not walk into their inheritance.

Your children, your marriage, your finances, your relationship

with your heavenly Father is going to be floundering in the

shallows unless you address those voices.

Unless you allow the Word of God to get in.

Because if what you are saying to yourself is contradictory to

the promises of Scripture, you will never step into the

fullness of what God has for you and Eileen, because we're about

to look at something that you will flat out deny.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. Watch those voices.

As I read what that verse means, I looked in the dictionary.

Condemnation means to be proven to be guilty and sentenced to a

particular punishment, usually death.

So Romans 623 says the wages of sin is death.

That's condemnation. To be condemned means to be

unfit for use. Like an abandoned building, it's

condemned. But those are the very words

that you use about yourself. Now God can't use me.

All it means to express complete disapproval of someone or

something. I've been praying every day.

I met a person and their words about themselves was like, I'm

so sorry I disappointed you. I always disappoint myself, but

when I disappoint you, it's just it stings a little hard.

I'm like, do you realize what you're saying?

You are saying I am condemned in my eyes.

I'm a complete, completely disapproved disappointment.

What are the voices in your head?

Because the Bible says there is therefore now no condemnation.

Are you ready for this? You're not.

You're not ready for this. You're going to flat out deny

it. No condemnation means you are

free from any guilt or shame. Doesn't matter what you looked

at last night, doesn't matter whose bed you got out this

morning. If you have been justified,

there is now no condemnation. I know.

I don't believe that either. You are considered innocent,

free from any debts, penalty or punishment.

You are pleasing to God. God has nothing against you.

God finds no fault in you, nothing to punish you for, and

holds no charge against you. I bet you probably have never

thought that thought. Maybe one day if I just know.

Only if you have been justified by the blood of Jesus.

You're pleasing to God and He also sees you as valuable,

useful and desirable. Do you know that God waits on

the edge of your bed for you to open your eyes every morning?

Just can't wait to be with you. You are pleasing, valuable,

useful and desirable. He longs to spend time with you

because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus. Now if you're like me, your

mind's running at 1,000,000 miles an hour and you're that's

$1,000,000. Lawyer is busy denying

absolutely everything that the Bible says.

So how is this possible? If you are justified and only if

you are justified apart from work so that no one can boast

justified by the blood of Jesus, then this is what we are called

to walk in. This is what we need to realize

God says about us. You're not condemned

justification. I want to show you the nature of

justification. We're going to do a little bit

of Bible school petty kind of geeky stuff.

Just bear with me. The nature of justification, and

I quote justification is primarily A judicial or forensic

declaration by God. A declaration.

It is not a process, not something you earn where an

individual is made righteous internally, but rather God

declares you righteous. And this declaration means that

God now regards you as justified, righteous, holy, as

if you'd never sinned at all. I don't know if you've heard.

I love the fact that in English it's justified as just as if I'd

never sinned. It's a really just rolls off

your tongue. But does it sink into your heart

just as if I'd never sinned. I mean, imagine maybe you've had

the thoughts like what would it be like if you could go before

God not having had that affair? How would praise and worship

have been different this morning if you came in and you hadn't

had that abortion? Just as if I'd means that he

looks at you justified just as if you'd not had that affair,

just as if you'd not had that abortion.

That is how he sees you because he's taken all of that and put

it on his son and nailed it to the cross.

Punishable by death. Yes, Jesus death goes on to say

justification is the opposite of condemnation.

That's why I say you cannot enter in here unless you have

been justified. Without the justification,

without the death of Jesus on the cross on your behalf, there

is only condemnation. But if you receive it, there is

therefore now no condemnation. It's the opposite of

condemnation. And once pronounced, look at

this. It is a once and for all act.

It is never repeated. Why?

Because it's never withdrawn and it covers your past, present and

future sins. This means all conceivable

charges against you are answered by God's declaration.

Therefore, now no condemnation. But you don't believe me.

Sometimes I don't believe me. I think this is the big problem

is we vacillate between could it be and it definitely isn't.

Do you know what I did? And OK, maybe, possibly.

But you, if you have given your sins to Jesus to pay for on the

cross, you're not only justified, but there is

therefore now no condemnation if you're in Christ Jesus because

it says there it covers your past, present and future sins.

So I want to talk about that. I want to show you a little bit

about this while you wonder could it possibly be true?

Let's talk about your past, your presence and your future sins.

I know if I had to put up my last few weeks, maybe months, a

detailed record of what I got up to in the last few months,

probably have to leave the city. And so would you.

And I've been reading through the Scripture and I came across

a portion of scripture #16 talks about in in my Bible, the

heading is Korah's rebellion. And it's a very dark time in

Israel's history where Moses had just been used by God to lead

the Israelites out of slavery with Pharaoh.

And they're heading through the wilderness to the promised land.

And in the middle of all of this, The Walking through the

deserts and all that is God is busy forming the nation of

Israel and heading them to the promised land.

We find Kora rebellions rebelling.

So Kora gets a bunch of people together and about 250 followers

and they go to Moses and they say, why is it that you are the

leader of all these people? Who put you in charge?

I can hear from God as well. Kora was a pastor.

He was a priest. He ministered in in the

Tabernacle. I have just as much right to

hear from God and to lead these people.

Let's take a vote. And so Moses says, whoa, hang on

a second. I didn't, I didn't ask for this.

God appointed me as the leader. So let's go to God and find out

why he did this. And in that moment God pours out

his judgement on Kora and I'll read you some of the crazy

stuff. Talks about how the earth opened

up and swallowed him in the leaders fire, consumed the 250

rebellious men that had followed him, and then a plague spread

through the Israelites and almost 15,000 people who were

grumbling about Moses leadership died.

It's a severe, sobering realization of the holiness of

God, and I want to point that out because what we are talking

about today is not licentiousness.

Go and sin, whatever you want, it really doesn't matter.

It's within the framework of the holiness of God, but we'll get

to that later. Today's verse says there is now

no condemnation, but judgment falls and corridors.

And to make things worse, it was part of a patriarchal society,

which basically means that you live in and through your

father's story. So if your father was Cora, if

your father committed suicide or was absence, or if your father

had an affair, then it trickles down and your peg does exactly

the same. And in this instance, the

darkest moment of Moses leadership, you as Cora's son,

you shunned, it was an honor, shame culture.

So I was thinking this week, I don't know if you're new to the

city of Pretoria. I don't know if you know this,

but Centurion hasn't always been called Centurion.

Don't tell anyone, but it used to be called Fervurt Burstat,

named after HF Fervurt, the guy who institutionalized apartheid.

The minute we could, we buried that name.

Took the road Suns down and puts a lovely pretty glow in the

dark. Centurion over that mess.

Shame. And it's exactly the same here.

Can you imagine, hypothetically speaking, you happen to commit

murder and go on trial and public opinion on SABC news and

people spit in your face and you go to prison and you serve your

sentence. But you come out and you're on

house arrest. But they do allow you to go to

church. And so you walk into three CR on

Sunday morning and you've been all over the news so everyone

knows your face. And the whispers start.

Hey, isn't that? Isn't that Cora's son?

He doesn't deserve to be here. But what's interesting is you

carry that same name. What's your name?

What name do you carry? I carry the Dolenberg name,

which has its own stain. My mom when she got divorced

immediately changed too out of the Dolenberg lineage name.

My aunt, 11 aunt who never got married, she couldn't change her

surname so she changed her first name.

Because there's something about the Dolenberg name but it's more

maybe your name that you carry is disappointment, rape victim,

adulterer, failure, alcoholic, absent father.

What is your past? What distinguishes your failure

and darkness and disappointment? What is it that you carry?

Because it says, therefore there is now no condemnation, which

means that our history doesn't determine determine our destiny.

Because when we read Numbers 26, it says the earth opened its

mouth, This is the account of the moment and swallowed them

along with Kora, whose followers died when the fire devoured the

250 men and they served as a warning sign.

However, the line of Kora did not die.

Now, I've always known about Kora's rebellion.

It's one of the things you study in Bible college because it says

they served as a warning sign, but I've never known about

Kora's descendants. You see, the Bible says there is

therefore now no condemnation. Our history doesn't determine

our destiny. Did you know a few generations

later, Samuel comes along and he's from the line of Korra.

If you know your Bible history, you will know that Samuel is the

greatest prophet in the Old Testament, possibly the single

most influential person when it comes to redeeming the nation of

Israel. While they wander off and all

this stupid hate Samuel, and he's from the line of Korra, the

Korah Heights became doorkeepers and custodians of the

Tabernacle. Not only did God use them, but

he welcomed them back in. One group of Korah Heights were

renowned as experts, warriors among David's mighty men.

Another, I don't know if you know this, but David established

worship that lasted the entire lifetime of Jesus.

He established when he put the Tabernacle down thousands of

years before Jesus came. Well actually hundreds of years

before Jesus came, he established 24/7 praise and

worship and the last of the exact length of Jesus life in

Jerusalem. And guess who led that worship?

The sons of Korra. Read your Bible and you find out

throughout the Psalms that we just heard read to us this

morning, written by the sons of Korra.

But before that worship could begin, the presence of God

needed to be brought into the Tabernacle, the Ark of the

Covenant. And you know whose soldiers that

ark was brought in on? The sons of Korra.

Because your history doesn't determine your destiny.

Because such is the power of the gospel, such is the redemptive

power of those who are in Christ Jesus, that you might come from

the same lineage that in one generation saw the the presence

of God chased out. But God in his redemptive power

is able to use you to be the very people who bring the

presence of God in in the next generation.

Our history no longer determines our destiny because Romans 5

says we have been justified by His blood.

It is a judicial declaration over your past.

And I'll read it again. Justification is a once and for

all act that is never repeated. Why?

Because it is never withdrawn and it covers your past, your

presence and your future sins. So that's your past.

And I think a lot of us understand and we live in some

kind of a freedom from our past because we we bring our sins and

we give it to Jesus. But what about your presence

sins? How do you behave when you blow

it now? Now as a son and daughter of

God, now as a band member, an elder, a life group leader, now

as a barista at the back there of someone with a nice little

yellow hand. Well, it says there

justification is a once and for all act that is never repeated,

never withdrawn. And it covers not only your past

but also your present sins. So let's talk about your present

sins. I'm sure it doesn't matter how

long you've been in church, you've heard about the prodigal

son. For those who haven't, or if

it's a little Gray, Jesus is telling a parable and he's

trying to communicate the heart of the father for those of us

when we sin. And he tells this parable about

the prodigal son where a very wealthy father has a has two

sons and the youngest son decides he's done with waiting

for his inheritance. He can't wait for his dad to die

soon enough. He's just like, give me my

money. I want out of here.

And the Bible says the father gives him that, gives him up to

half of his estate. And then it has this lovely

little euphemistic phrase that says, and he squandered his

money in wild living, which basically means if they had

drugs, he bought them and used them.

And if they were prostitutes, he paid for them.

And if they were bars, he would drink it empty until he had

nothing left until he got to that place where like we saw in

Romans 7 last week, he was crying out, wretched man that I

am, who can save me from this body of death?

And then he thought, well, instead of earning a living

feeding pigs, maybe he can earn a living trying to get back to

favor with his father. So he comes back to his father

and essentially he's he's not looking for any favor.

He wants just wants to earn a paycheck.

See, he wants to get back into this through works.

And we saw last week, we are not justified by works, but this is

all he has because he doesn't understand the heart of the

father. So the people that are listening

to the story maybe might have been thinking, yeah, I remember

Jason's son did that, you know, when I was younger or I was at a

village the other day and there was one of those, maybe you've

had it. Maybe you're.

It's the black sheep of the family.

And so Jesus is busy telling about how this prodigal son now

decides he's going to make his way home.

And so everybody listening at that moment, they're expecting

to hear Jesus expound on the Khaziza traditional ceremony.

Now, you've never heard about it because it hasn't popped up in

this parable. But the Khaziza ceremony, what

they basically would do was they would take a pot like this and

they would say, OK, you know, not only did you squander and

ruin our business, yeah, maybe you got one of those, one of

those kids that you thought, oh, you know, you'll just bring them

into the business. And you brought the entire

empire down. And they say not only did you do

this, not only did you bring shame on your father and you

robbed everybody of their land and their inheritance and

everything like that, but now you have the audacity to come

back. And So what they would do is the

elders of the city would grab this fugitive and then hold him,

make sure he doesn't go anywhere else.

And they would now essentially do the Kaziza.

And so the Kaziza would have the family on the one side and the

son on the other side. And so the family would take.

And generally it was whoever had the highest authority.

So in this case, it would have been the father.

And the father would take a pot. And he would say, looking at

this shameful black sheep of his son of his.

And he would say, this pot is like your relationship with this

family. This pot is meant to represent

the tribe that you're from. It's meant to represent the the

business and the trade that we would do with you because you're

one of us. This was meant to represent all

that that my heart is for you and even your future marriage

because the Bible talks about the Israelites marrying within

their tribes. And he would take this pot and

he would smash it like this and he'd basically be saying this

just as that is totally broken an irreparable, so too is our

relationship. So too is your place here.

You know, there's a word ostracize that we use in the

Greek. It means to vote by potshots.

They would ostracize. They'd say, I mean, there's

powder there. There is no restoring.

I'd love to see you rebuild this by Sunday night's sermon.

And so those listening to this prodigal and all the sinfulness

returning, they'd be going, OK, here we go.

Now he's going to pay. Now he's going to pay.

Finally the father can distance himself from this disgrace.

Finally he can cleanse himself of that family shame and they

can carry on. But you've never heard of that

before because what does the Bible say?

It doesn't say that came out with a Khaziza ceremony.

The Bible says while he was still afar off, the father saw

him and was filled with compassion and ran to him.

Do you know why he ran? Because if he didn't get there

first, the son would have to go through kaziza.

And a kaziza is binding. It's legal, it's permanence.

It cannot be undone like the smashing of the pot.

And so the Father ran because he dare not allow anyone to get to

his Son before him. Why?

Because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who

are in Christ Jesus. And so Jesus tries to tell us

the heart of the Father and He uses the story, but

unfortunately he has to never get your opinion on what He is

saying, your opinion on the heart of the Father.

Because it's highly likely in a crowd this big that there are

many multitudes sitting here as prodigal sons and daughters.

And there ain't no way you're coming home because you've got a

whole mess that you need to clean up.

And the heart of the Father says, if you have been

justified, I declare you righteous.

And what Jesus did on the cross has paid for your sins, past and

present. You might be sitting here

thinking, why on earth did I go to church today?

It is because the Father has been running after you.

But there's more. It says in Scripture, if you

look at the original Greek, it actually says that this family

lived in Muycliffe. It wasn't in the burbs or a

little duplex. It was a very wealthy family.

They went on holidays to one of their two holiday homes in

Hermonis, and they'd often go skiing in Austria.

Kids bull for the win. And he was given half.

How long does it take to burn through half of that

inheritance? Not weeks, maybe months, I'd say

years. And the Father stood every

single day waiting, waiting to intercept the judgments that he

knew his Son would endure if he didn't get there first.

And he made sure he ran. And your heavenly Father is

running after you today. Come home.

Come home. That happened to Jesus, and it

will not happen to you if you are justified.

Just as if I'd never sinned, just as if I'd never left.

He says come justification is the opposite of condemnation.

Once pronounced, it is a once and for all act that has never

repeated, never withdrawn, covering past, present and

future sins. Now this is for all of us

because it's not a case of, if it's a case of when you're an

arson, maybe you'll completely and utterly blow it, or maybe

you'll just do that same thing again.

And just, I'm so sorry. And God, you have, please

forgive me. No, and God knows you're going

to do exactly the same thing the week after, irrespective of the

gradients of that sin and that darkness.

Even that is covered. And I want to close, but just

reading, I'm going to take a little bit of a license.

I want to read to you about the cities of Refuge.

Now, if you don't know, the Cities of Refuge were set up for

future sins, that was set up for a place that you could run to,

like the heart of the Father for future sins.

There's a whole bunch I'm going to read to you, but just bear

with me. It starts off by saying,

according to the rabbines, in order to aid the fugitive, the

Sinner, the person who's completely blown it, it was the

business of the Sanhedrin to keep the roads leading to the

Cities of Refuge in the best possible repair.

Nothing will slow you down. Nothing will get you in.

Get in your way. So you could run straight back

to the father and I'll actually pop it up on the screen.

Look at this. It says no hills were left

unattended. So you couldn't be going like,

oh, you know, I don't have a 4x4, I can't get there.

Every hill was perfectly manicured so you could get there

with your ox and donkeys and possessions.

Every river was bridged. So even if it was raining and

the river was in flood, it doesn't matter the storm that

you're in. There's a bridge over the storm

and the river and the road itself had to be at least 32

cubits wide. That's about 15 meters.

That's kind of like our two way lanes so that it doesn't matter

what's coming your way, what you have to face, you can get past,

stay in your lane and get to the city of refuge.

And then every turn had a guard post bearing the word refuge.

So there's no getting lost. And two students of the law were

appointed to accompany the fleeing man to pacify the

avenger if necessary should he overtake the fugitive.

If you're sins catch up with you, there was someone there to

stand behind a pulpit and to say God is running towards you as

faster than you are running towards him.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus while your sins are catching up to you.

And he goes on to say once in the gate he'd be met by the

Levites. They would hear his case and

then take him under their wings. Within the city, the people

living there had a willingness to go the distance with a

person, had an attitude of compassion, not judgment.

We're available to help in every possible practical and tangible

way, and we're committed to His restoration.

This is the heart of the Father for you.

So we can come and we can sing and we can raise our hands.

We can praise. On a Sunday morning, we might

even be stirred to possibly believe this.

But I want you to know justification is primarily A

judicial or forensic declaration by God.

A declaration, He declares you righteous.

It's not a process where an individual is made righteous

internally, but rather God declares you righteous.

This declaration means God now regards you as justified, just

as if you'd never sinned. He considers you righteous.

You, you're robed with the righteousness of Christ and

holy. How on earth this holy, as if

you'd never sinned. It all justified the opposite of

condemnation. And once pronounced, it is a

once and for all act that is never repeated, never withdrawn,

covering past, present and future sins.

This means all conceivable charges against you are answered

by God's declaration. Therefore there is now no

condemnation and I say again, whose voice are you listening

to? Who are you going to believe?

I pray that this word becomes a line, a life changing line.

Like will you marry me? I'm pregnant.

I'm from Bloom Fontaine. You know those big life changing

that this will be a defining watershed declaration of your

life for the rest of your days. There is therefore now no

condemnation for me. Why?

Not because I'm a pastor or because I'm perfect?

No, because I'm in Christ Jesus. Amen.