His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): We begin with these words from our pastor and teacher, Matt VanderVen.

Matt VanderVen: He is speaking to the people he loves and is disciplining. He is speaking to his kids and he's saying, "Come on now, stop it." He's saying, "This is what's really coming. This is what awaits your future. Don't trust in what you're seeing here now." He says, "I've got a better plan for you. There's going to come a point where you're going to humble yourself, and you're going to come back to me." You thought it was sweet 400 years ago. Talk to them at the time in Israel. What do you think the millennial reign is going to be like when the theocracy of God is back on the throne on the earth here? What is that going to be like?

Guest (Male): Today on His Perfect Love, we will be introduced to a nation that had turned their back on God. They were religious and rebellious at the same time. Even still, God would show them grace and invite them to repent and come back to him. As we turn back to Isaiah, we can't help but notice how strikingly similar this is to what we are experiencing in this nation. While there is a definite message for the world around us, it could be that the Lord will speak to you on a very personal level as well. Here is Pastor Matt VanderVen in Isaiah chapter one.

Matt VanderVen: Now God is going to go on to make clear here what he sees. We had this moment where he is encouraging and building, saying this is what can be for you all, sort of future-speaking as he was talking to Israel through the Prophet Isaiah. Now he's going to go back and he's going to make sure that the people, because I'm sure they were sitting in the seats probably thinking, "I'm glad that's not me. It's him, her. It's not me sitting in those seats." Look at him. It's got to be him. It can't be anybody else, right? After all.

God makes it very clear he sees what they're doing. He almost uses these terms: you're prostituting yourselves. Sorry to be so direct with you. He says you're prostituting yourself for material gain and for wickedness. Literally, that's what you've done. You've literally made yourself a bought person because of the things you're chasing in this life. How the faithful city has become a harlot. Everybody knows what that is, a prostitute, one who would sell herself. He says that's exactly what has happened. These men and women have come and just prostituted themselves with pagan gods, with materialism, with all the cares and pomp and circumstance of the world.

It was full of justice. It was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in it. He's talking about Judah. But now murderers, your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. If I take water and I mix it with wine, what am I doing to the wine? I am watering it down. He says that's exactly what you've done. You keep doing it. You've done it for 2,000 years. It hasn't changed. You're the same old, same old. You turn around and rationalize it. You turn around and water it down. You make excuses. You even convince yourself when you look in the mirror it's okay and that God understands. He knows better. After all, he loves you so much, so he doesn't care if you're obedient. He doesn't really mean those things he says, does he?

There were pastors walking around, and I showed you a video last week where the guy thought the entertainment or the way to draw people to church was to blow up a car while he's in it. All the churches around him were doing what? Clapping. "Yay, yay, yay! We want to be entertained. Where are the circus peanuts? Keep it coming. After all, this is entertainment, right?" No, he says you're murderers. Your silver has become dross. He's seeing everything Judah is doing. There's not a single thing that Judah was doing behind closed doors that anybody was getting away with.

Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water, your princes are rebellious. Your leadership are companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe. What is he saying? Even your court system, one of the things that Israel prided themselves on was the magistrates and the courts. Think about that. Is that not how God had initially, even with Moses, his father-in-law Jethro said, "You take too much on yourself. You need to set up judges, people that can come and oversee." Then even the kings from that point, they would go in and people would come up and they would tell them the affairs. Moses would say yes or David or Solomon. People would go and we know all the accounts biblically of people coming to the leadership and saying, "Give me justice. We're seeking justice."

He says, "You know what you've done in a matter of 400 to 500 years?" Because that's what we're talking about, a very short period of time, just a little more than the United States of America has been here. Within that time, you took what was righteous and you have perverted it. You've taken the laws of the land and perverted them. You've taken the judicial system and made a mockery of it. It's no different than what has happened in our country when the judges have come and tried to redefine marriage.

I'm so thankful you saw the news today, what happened in the UK. Finally their Parliament got together and they said, "No, we will acknowledge a male and female by their biological birth." We appeal to every other aspect of a scientific mind, but then all of a sudden we try to turn away from that and we call that science. No, that's called mental illness. Real love is not to turn around and look at somebody that is reaching out and crying out for help and pretend that that person doesn't need help. What that person needs is someone to come and put their arms around them and say, "I love you and I am not going to just let you get on this downward spiral to destroy your life and get caught up with suicidal ideation. No, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to lose another soul that way. You mean too much to me. I won't let it happen."

No, our judicial system, not all but much in this country, like it was then, was corrupt. You follow after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause for the widow come before them. The things that should be being righteously judged, those things are not actually happening. Therefore the Lord says, the Lord of hosts. Circle this because now he's addressing a certain way. He's explaining, "Look, it's not just me. Now I'm coming with the full aspect of the angelic army. It is the God of hosts."

That's the most common used title in all of scripture for God, the Lord of hosts. When he uses that title, he is explaining that all of heaven, the angelic host, the Lord of hosts is present. That's what he's saying here. Therefore the Lord of hosts, the God of the angel armies. Please see God is a warrior. I need you all to see that here tonight. God's a warrior. Sometimes again people have watered the gospel down and they've made him an effeminate I-don't-know-what. God is a warrior and he's a warrior for the widows. He's a warrior for the orphans. He's a warrior for the vulnerable. He is a warrior for his children.

The Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel. "I will rid myself of my adversaries and take vengeance on my enemies." That is the wicked, of course. "I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy. I will restore your judges as it was at the first." These are not times where God is saying let's play the friend card. We refer to him and we call him friend, brother, friend. Well, that's all well and good, but let's not forget authority. He is a sovereign God and he deserves the respect that a sovereign God deserves. He is our friend, but he is our God first. It's because we come to him and surrender that we are friends, because we are one with him.

He says, "I'm going to restore your judges. You want a war?" He says, "You want a fight? If that's what it takes, you're worth it. I'll fight for you." Isn't that what you want a good father to do? Isn't that what a good father does? He fights for his kids. He doesn't just turn around and say, "Oh, they're 21, they're 25, they're 30, they're 50. I'm just going to let them go." Are you kidding me? You fight for your kids. He's the God of the universe. He's going to fight for his kids. He's going to fight for you.

He tells us how we're to do our fighting. He says put on the armor of God and then do what? Stand. Part of standing, the idea of being still, also means getting on your knees and worshipping and praying because prayer is your mighty weapon. He's not telling us to go out and be extremists like some of these people with these fake religions and fake ideologies and all this other stuff where they go out and they're beheading people. That's not what God has called us to do. God says vengeance belongs to him.

We come to a place where we humble ourselves before a sovereign God and we go to our knees and we do our fighting and our battling in the spirit. He says it's not flesh and blood that you battle against. It's principalities and powers, things of the heavenly and the spiritual realm, things that you don't even see and that I don't see. He says, "Your counselors, I'm going to bring them back to the way they were." Isn't that good news? Your judges, I'm going to do that, Israel. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. When you turn back and repent, this is going to be during the millennial reign, by the way.

When you turn back and repent, I'm going to put everything right. Zion shall be redeemed with justice. I love to talk to somebody or I should say reason as God says it, with somebody that comes up and says, "I really don't believe that Israel is there anymore. I think the church has replaced Israel. Every time I see that word Israel, I have now used church in its place." Just because they're this nation over there and everything's going on and many of them aren't even truly believers, it's a secular nation. Wait a minute now. These are God's chosen people and God's a covenant keeper and a promise keeper.

So he is speaking to the very people he's loved and disciplined. He's speaking to his kids and he's saying, "Come on now, stop it." He's saying, "This is what's really coming. This is what awaits your future. Don't trust in what you're seeing here now." He says, "I've got a better plan for you. There's going to come a point where you're going to humble yourself and you're going to come back to me." You thought it was sweet 400 years ago, talking to them at the time in Israel. What do you think the millennial reign is going to be like when the theocracy of God is back on the throne on the earth here? What's that going to be like?

Predominantly the benefactors are the Israelites in Jerusalem. Certainly Gentiles, but it's the Jews that are going to be the primary benefactors. They're one of the benefactors, if you understand it when I say this way, of the Great Tribulation. And here the penance with righteousness. The destruction of the transgressors and of sinners shall be together. Those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of their terebinth trees. Interesting what he's talking about here: embarrassment, shame.

You know the altars that they would engage in idolatry. He's going to talk about here in the terebinth trees. Back then they had groves, terebinth tree groves, like you would go to an orchard. You could walk under them, maybe you've seen a movie or something like that where you've walked through a forest area. But under the terebinth trees, because they're so large, they kind of overhang each other like that. And so what happens is when they overhang each other, it almost makes like this area where you kind of have some seclusion and privacy.

And so what they were doing is they would go in there. Remember, the whole point is he's talking to purported believers here. The whole point is they go to church to be seen. They're doing all these things. Remember, that's what we just read earlier in chapter one. Now what's happening is he's saying, "But what really happens when nobody's looking is they're going into these terebinth trees, these orchard areas, and they're going in and sacrificing to pagan gods. They're going in and committing sexual immorality. They're going in and doing all kinds of debauchery and sin and they think nobody can see it."

God doesn't see it. They're not seen by their neighbor, so they're presented, "Oh, they're good. I saw him at synagogue. I saw her at synagogue. These are upstanding families, good people." He's talking about no, he said, "Look, the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees which you have desired," meaning you wanted to go after. "And you shall be embarrassed because the gardens which you have chosen," again, those areas where you're going in and doing that bad sinful stuff.

"For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades and as a garden that has no water." He says, "You're going to dry up. The strong shall be as a tinder, the work of it as a spark. Both will burn together and no one shall quench them." He says, "By the time I am done judging all of you, you will be left in your shame." Back in verse 29, he says, "You were embarrassed." Do we forget, have we forgotten as a people, shame is good and embarrassment is good? We're living at such a time that everybody's a victim.

Now, there are a lot of people that are victims, so I want to be clear here. We're not talking to people that have really been part of abuse or truly victimized. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, just as he was back then, those that were playing the part, playing the actor or the hypocrite. That's what he's talking about. And what he's saying is that the shame at that time, it was a good thing because when I am full of shame, what does that do? I don't like that feeling. It's called conviction. I don't like it. It brings about correction.

But we've gotten to this point in our society and our lives today, as apparently Judah had gotten to. Interesting, isn't it? It all rinse-repeats. The devil doesn't have any new tricks. It's the same old trickery he does. He's convincing people, he's saying, "Look, no one has the right to make you feel shame, embarrassment. If you're doing something wrong, you should be able to do that because you do you, I'll do me, and that's just how it'll work. Everybody just does their own things and there is no such thing as shame like when we do things that are wrong."

Well, I'm sorry. When I was young and I remember going into a candy store, and there was penny candy or nickel candy. It was right on the corner. I would go there and I remember after school, if I was able to find some coins or whatever or mom or dad gave me something, I remember I'd go in there and they had like lollipops and the ones with gum or Tootsie Rolls in the middle. Remember those? I don't even know if they have that anymore like that. But anyway, I would go in there and for like a penny or five cents I'd grab a candy. I always walked home, so I'd go in there, I'd grab it, and then I'd walk home with it, right?

One day I got into the store and my friends were going, "Oh yeah, my mom, my dad gave me a nickel or a quarter," and they had their thing and they were going in. I did one of these. Something happened in my heart that moment. I began to want something that was not mine and I began to concoct an idea of how I was going to go in. I think I was eight and I remember going in and I thought, "Well, I'll just take the lollipop today and then what I'll do is tomorrow I'll put two cents in." I'll never forget, I took the lollipop. I went home. I think it was probably about 8:00 at night. Did my bedroom routine, my mom, "Okay, get your- get yourself ready, go brush your teeth," the whole thing.

I got into bed. I think I was in bed by 9:00. I don't know if it was 30 minutes, I remember running to my mom's room. I'm crying something fierce. "Ma, I- I stole. I took the thing. I'm going to go to jail. They're going to- it's all over." I mean, I was really carrying on. I mean, I was really upset. And I said, "Ma, you've got to help me. Can I have a nickel? I need to go make this right."

She's, "Oh, you're going to go make it right all right." No, I said, "But Ma, just give me the money. I'll go in tomorrow, I won't take the lollipop, I'll put the nickel in and everything will be all right, right?" And she says, "No, honey, that's not how it works." I said, "Okay, what do you have in mind? We're just going to keep it?" "No, honey. Tomorrow after work, I'm going to take you down there and we're going to go in." "I don't want to go in there alone, Mom. I'm afraid, I'm scared."

I remember feeling it in my stomach that I wanted to throw up when she was saying that, literally. I was really afraid. And she said, "I will hold your hand." She said, "But you will be a man. I'm not raising a boy. I'm not raising a Peter Pan. You're going to be a man." "Yes, ma'am." "Now go get a drink of water and then go back to bed." "Okay, ma'am." I remember that worst day of school in my life. All day I just kept looking at the clock, all day because I knew. I walked there, she met me right after work. She got out at 3:30.

We go inside and I remember and she said, "I need to tell you something." She says, "I take personal responsibility for this." I looked at my mom and I thought, "You didn't even do anything." And she said, "My son stole from you. I'm going to make it right. And not only that, here's a dollar. Whatever kid comes in today, I want them to be able to have something. But I want my son to understand the shame that he should feel for doing something like this and to remember this feeling so he'll never do it again."

I never stole a single thing through high school, nothing. I mean, I had friends doing things and I never got over that because of shame and embarrassment. Today we want to soft-soap everything. We want to turn around and we want to coddle our children and we think we're helping them, but we're only hurting them because we're not allowing them to be exposed to the realities of life that need to be dealt with.

Look, we all have done shameful things and I'm so thankful that God doesn't turn around and tattoo my sin on my head and walk around and go, "Look at him," because you'd all be like, "Oh!" Or I'd be going, "Oh!" No, that's not his interest. But for Judah, he needed them to understand the severity of what was going on in their idolatry. He needed them to understand that he loved them and that that was not God's intentions for them. He had better for them and they didn't need to do these things. And when shame was needed, they should feel shame and turn from their wicked and evil ways to pursue righteousness. And that's exactly what God wanted us to see.

And so it says the word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. So we'll pick up from here next week in chapter two. We're moving like lightning, guys.

Guest (Male): You're listening to a study in Isaiah from Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. Catch a replay when you visit hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org. We're also at oneplace.com and look for us wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a mobile app. Now this is a great way to take Pastor Matt's teachings with you wherever you may go. You can learn more about the mobile app and start your download when you visit our website, hisperfectlove.org.

Thank you for your prayers and financial support. You can make a contribution to the ministry and send us your prayer requests through the website, again at hisperfectlove.org. Those of you that live in the Mechanicsburg, PA area or will be visiting the area, we want to cordially invite you to join us for a worship service. Just like on the radio, Pastor Matt teaches verse by verse through the Bible here at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You'll find us at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information.

Are you looking for a Christian school that offers a quality education and a nurturing environment for your children? If so, you might be interested in Calvary Chapel Christian Academy, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Calvary Chapel Christian Academy is a non-denominational Christian school that serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The Academy's mission is to provide a Christ-centered education that equips students to love God, love others, and serve the world.

The Academy offers a rigorous academic curriculum, a variety of extracurricular activities, and a caring and supportive staff. The Academy is located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. For more information, please visit our website at ccharrisburg.org/academy. That's ccharrisburg.org/academy. Set aside another half hour to join us tomorrow at the same time on the same fine station where Pastor Matt will pick up where we left off in Isaiah here on His Perfect Love.

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