His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Facing a big problem or difficulty today? Keep this in mind: There is no problem in your life, not a single problem that His love cannot heal. He's greater than the greatest problem you could possibly have or circumstance.

That's an encouragement for each and every one of us, because there are times where it is difficult, but Jesus is greater. His love is greater, His purpose is greater, and He promises never to leave you nor forsake you. He doesn't quit on His purpose.

Well, maybe as you're listening today, you're weighed down by the circumstances of life and feel as though there's little to no hope. Jesus would say to the weary and heavy-laden among us, "Come to me, and I will receive you, and you will find rest for your soul."

In Isaiah 42, we have a beautiful prophetic picture of Jesus. It's why this scripture is often called the fifth gospel, as it beautifully portrays our Lord and Savior as He really is. So let's jump right in. From Isaiah chapter 42, here is Pastor Matt VanderVen on *His Perfect Love*.

Matt VanderVen: Let's look at verse one here. "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my elect one, in whom my soul delights." When you read that, and we can't get too far in verse one here, what does that sound like? What New Testament passage does that sound like?

I don't know about you, but I think of the baptism of Jesus, and He comes up out of the water, and what did God the Father say? "My son in whom I am well-pleased." Isn't that exactly? "Behold my servant, whom I uphold," the Father's saying about Jesus. "My elect one, whom my soul delights." Matthew chapter three, verse 17. We get an Old Testament picture of that which was fulfilled perfectly in our New Testament in Matthew chapter three, verse 17.

"I have put my spirit upon him." And this is important because Jesus not only is with us, He's in us, and the Greek word as we learn in Acts chapter two, well, one and two, is the word *epi* or *epi*. Now, that word in the Greek, as many of you know, means to come upon.

When we talk about the giftings of the Holy Spirit, we know that the Holy Spirit comes upon us. Certainly He lives in us, and He works through us. This is a perfect picture when He says, "I, the Father, put my spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the triune God you see right here, in him."

You have a picture of the Trinity right before you. If somebody's ever said, "Well, I don't know what you're talking about, I don't see that word Trinity in the Bible," you can take them to several passages. I mean, you can't even get through Genesis chapter one in the first few verses when He speaks of Elohim, plural. *Bara* meaning created *ex nihilo*, out of nothing. God is telling us: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

He says, "I've put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles." He came for the Jews and the Gentiles, didn't Jesus? "He will not cry out, nor raise his voice." That was strength under control, demonstrated for you and I. "Nor cause his voice to be heard in the street," speaking of yelling the word of God.

He never yelled. Jesus never needed to raise His voice. He didn't need to intimidate, nothing like that. He was gentle. He was meek. He was mild. He says, "A bruised reed," and this is for anybody here tonight: if you're holding on, holding on so dearly to the Lord Jesus and saying, "Boy, I am tired," maybe you're feeling like, "I am overwhelmed by my circumstances."

And you're thinking, "Jesus, how much more can you ask, would you ask of me?" The Lord is so good. You can trust Him. Look what He says here, and He speaks here about not breaking us. He doesn't break the weak or the vulnerable. I just need us to see that. That's your Jesus. That's my Jesus. He doesn't break the weak or the vulnerable.

He goes on and says, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax," you know what that is. Think of modern terminology: if I was to take a candle and I was to take it and light the little wick there, what happens if I blow? What would it do? Go out.

Maybe some of you when you say, "Happy Birthday," you might sing "Happy Birthday," and what do you tell them? "Blow out the candle." We blow it out. What is that significant of or speaking of? It's describing how Jesus isn't going to break us. He's not going to break the weak or the vulnerable. He's not going to blow us out that way.

He will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. "He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established." You see, He's very clear here: "Justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for his law." The point of what God is telling us, that Messiah Jesus, Yeshua, when He would come was that He was going to come with a perfect plan and perfect purpose, and He would not quit.

And He didn't, did He? He went to Calvary, just as it was prophesied of Him that He would go, suffer, die, and then He would be the firstfruits of the resurrection. And what that communicates to me here, and maybe communicates to you, is that there is no problem in your life, not a single problem that His love cannot heal.

He's greater than the greatest problem you could possibly have or circumstance. That's an encouragement for each and every one of us, because there are times where it is difficult, but Jesus is greater. His love is greater, His purpose is greater, and He promises never to leave you nor forsake you. He doesn't quit on His purpose.

"Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it. I, the Lord, have called you," Jesus, speaking of, "in righteousness," the perfect holy God without any sin. "And I will hold your hand; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people."

Every time we take communion, we say that. "This do, do this in remembrance of me. This covenant I give you is in my blood." It's not in anybody else's blood. It's in the blood of Jesus Christ, and it's ratified through His blood. But it's a covenant in His blood. There's nothing we can do to add to it or take away from it.

It's perfect. It's a holy sacrifice, a propitiation. That word is just meaning a substitute that God the Father accepted on behalf of a sinful world. And His blood, the ushering, the sealing, ratifying of the covenant, that's what you and I are partakers of: His blood.

He says, "I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles." That was the mission. We're all on mission for Christ now. The Jews were on mission for God to the surrounding pagan nations as a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

He's talking about those that were imprisoned with the bondage of sin, selfishness and sin. "I am the Lord, that is my name; and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images." There it is. He's talking to Judah, right? He's talking to the remaining people alive in Jerusalem.

The Assyrian invasion did not succeed at God as far as the surrounding nations of Judah, but it never was able to take Jerusalem. And God had prophesied, if you remember in the earlier chapters of Isaiah that we read, that He would not allow that, and He sent an angel that destroyed, remember, 185,000 of the Assyrian army that were going to come in and come against Hezekiah and his army that way.

And all He's looking at them is He's saying, "Look, I'm the God before you. Why are you making all of these carved images?" I know some of you might be sitting here going, "Pastor, what are you talking about, carved images?" As we've been reading, an idol is anything, simple definition here for all of us. It helps me to understand it, forgive me if I oversimplify it for you this evening.

But anything between my heart and God, by definition, is idolatry. Anything. Anything between my heart and Jesus, by definition, is idolatry. If I'm worshiping it, if I'm giving it a higher standing than I do the word of God, God Himself. He's telling us very clearly here: "What are you doing? Why are you giving glory to another?"

He says, "I'm not going to share my glory with you. I am not going to be in the timeshare business." Jesus doesn't want some of your heart. He wants all of our heart. He is not in the timeshare business. "Nor my praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."

And this is significant because what did He just build all of chapter 41 up to? The fact that He is the one true God. He is the only God, and He can stand behind that because He's put His word forth to say, "Test me. Who can tell you the beginning from the end? No one. Who can tell you what will be in the next 150 to 170 years?" Speaking at the time this was written, meaning who was coming on the scene? Cyrus.

Names him by name, 150 years before he was even born. Babylon as a nation hadn't even risen up at this point, and He speaks of Babylon, a nation that's going to rise up. Assyria was the only nation on the scene, and they had just been conquered. They're thinking things are good. They have no idea what's about to come because of the idolatry.

And yet God is telling them, "Look, turn from these idols. Turn from the wicked ways, and worship me, the one true God." He told us that in chapter 41, just verse 22. "Remember, let them bring forth and show us what will happen," speaking of these idols. "Let them show the former things that were, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them, or declare to us the things to come. Show me. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed or see it all together. Indeed, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination."

God didn't mince words, and He laid it down hot. That's real love. Ecclesiastes chapter three. I was with a staff meeting with the pastors and elders last night, and their wives joined us, and we had a beautiful time of meeting, of just coming together, talking about the things of the Lord, the flock, different things like that we go through.

And the Lord had brought me to this passage, and I thought, "Well, wow, Lord, just stereo concert here." And the exact passage that we're already in, Ecclesiastes chapter three, just look at verses 14 and 15. He had already declared this. "I know that whatever God does," this is Solomon, right? He was one of the wisest men, but also when he writes Ecclesiastes, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he's coming at it initially without God.

He's trying to solve the equation of life without God, and he keeps coming up short until he inserts God into the equation, and then everything makes sense. Amen? Like everybody with me on that? We've all done that. Yeah. We've been there. Don't want to do that again. "I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken from it. God does it that men should fear before him."

Not scared of Him, but reverential fear, reverence. Reverence God. "That which has already been." Now, this is what blows me away. Verse 15, just really think about this last night. I had the group as we were together, I said, "Just pause everybody right there. Think about this for a minute." God is outside of time and space.

But the way that God speaks about things in regards to our present day and the things that are future, as though they're already done. He knew you would be here tonight. He knew exactly where you'd be, the time you'd get here. He knew what you would eat for dinner, what you maybe didn't eat for dinner if you were rushing to get to church tonight.

He knew everything that was going to happen and unfold today. He is never caught by surprise; we're just catching up. We're just catching up. And so this is our God. Look what He says in verse 15. "That which has already been," the things of the past. And I think we can all say, "Of course, God, you know the things of the past. We too know the things of the past; we've witnessed them."

"And what is to be has already been." Wait a minute. Just wait a minute. Just take a second, a cerebral moment, and just allow your mind, let the frontal lobe, your critical thinking lobe, just allow yourself here, this moment, to just reason with God. "Wait a minute, Lord. You're telling me that what is to be has already been?"

That means literally when He's writing in Revelation, and we're there on Sundays and we just happened to be in Revelation chapter 19 talking about that beautiful wedding feast of the Lamb and that we're coming back with Him, and we get to ride what? Horses. I'm super excited about that. I hope you're all super excited about that.

We get to ride horses back with Jesus, and we know exactly what it's going to look like. We know there's going to be 144,000 that are still on the earth. There's going to be a people that were the latter, as we'd call it, Great Tribulation saints that get saved during the Great Tribulation. They're all going to be there, and where are we going to be coming when Jesus and meeting and touching down? The Mount of Olives.

Wow. Praise the Lord because you were there, because the Bible tells you. Look at all that. Again, what is the number one reason for anxiety? It is a fear of the what? Unknown and being not in control. It's really, really simple. We all can wrestle with it, we can struggle with it at different times in our lives, but it's the fear of the unknown and it's the aspect of being out of control.

Jesus just told us that we're going to come with Him. He is in control. We don't need to be, and He's told us what's going to happen. Is that not a good, good Father? Is that not a good Father that has laid these things out before you and I, to tell us everything that will be so we don't have to worry about the things that could be? Because to Jesus, they are the things that have been.

And I just need us to see that, because when we take that in, man, I don't know about you, it pieces me out. It really does piece me out because I start thinking about it and I'm like, "Wow, Lord, this is you're already seeing it. You're already seeing it as though we're right there." So when you think about what Jesus is telling us here, right, what is to be already been, and then God requires an account of what is past.

This is really important. He's telling us a lot about this. He's telling us that one, we can trust Him, but He's also telling us that God sees us where we will be, when it's going to happen, as though we were already there. And to Him, it's happened. To us, we're still about to experience it, and yet we don't need to freak out.

We don't need to be in control of all that. All we need to do is trust Jesus and say, "All right, Lord, your will be done." As a matter of fact, when we were being taught how to pray, remind me, did Jesus say, "And I really want you to pray this way when you're praying to the Father, you're praying to me. I want to make sure that you cover the things that all... certainly we can come to Him with all our fears and absolutely we should."

He says everything. Philippians four, verse six, by prayer and supplication, make your requests be known to God through thanksgiving. Anything and everything. Certainly that the peace of God will surpass all understanding and guard our hearts in Christ and minds in what? Christ Jesus. We all know the passage, Philippians four, verse six.

But my point is, He says anything and everything, but He says, "Lord, your will be done, not thy will." Because when it's thy will, that's when problems start to occur, because I start to make these decisions or try to be in control of my own life in a way that I'm not surrendered to Jesus Christ. Is everybody with me here tonight? Do you understand?

That's when all the problems of life become intersected with, because it's, "God, I love you and I want you to be part of my plan," instead of what? "God, show me how to be part of your plan." Do we all understand the difference? It's a very important difference. You can turn back to Isaiah 42.

But isn't that a beautiful passage that just tells it just exactly what He's saying in Isaiah 42 here? Let's look at verse 10, we'll continue on. "Sing to the Lord a new song." Absolutely. When you realize that the God of the universe, the God of everything, has turned around and told you the beginning from the end, He knows where you're going to be, He's covered everything, He's gone before you, He's shown you that He understands creation, can prove it because He was there.

He was the only one. And then He tells us, "And by the way, I understand how it's going to end and I'll prophetically tell you those things so that you don't need to fret and worry because I have you, and I'm going to hold you in my hands, my arms," right? Little kids, we did it a couple weeks ago. Remember the song? "He's got the whole world in His hands," right? Not my hands, His hands.

Why do we say that? Because He's trying to tell us that He loves us and He's holding us tight. And somehow we get so lost in that and we think it's all on us, and we start trying to juggle all these things and the weight of a mantle He never gave us, a yoke. Instead He tells us, "Come unto me." He says, "I have a yoke for you."

It is a custom-made yoke that He has crafted for each and every one of us. He never asked me to carry Bob's yoke or Lisa's yoke or anybody else's yoke in here. He didn't ask you to do that either. So of course, what's the next thing you're going to do? What's the gift God gave us to actually show our adoration? Worship.

It's not because Jesus is up there going, "Right?" He doesn't need a pat. He gave that to us as a gift for us to bring the adoration that swells inside of our hearts and minds to Him, to be able to as a vehicle to bring that to the holy God to glorify Him. "So sing to the Lord a new song, and his praises from all the ends of the earth."

I love that. "You who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you coastlands and inhabitants." He starts talking about the vastness now. "Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice." Reminds me of what Jesus said: "Even these rocks would speak out or sing out if you wouldn't."

"The villages that Kedar inhabits, let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the coastlands. The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man; he shall stir up his zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; he shall prevail against his enemies."

He writes it as though it's, again, already done. It's important. Verse 13 teaches us something else. Jesus can be a man of war when needed as well, can't He? His title is the God of the Lord of Hosts, or the God of the armies, the angel armies.

"I have held my peace a long time, I have been still and restrained myself. Now I will cry like a woman in labor; I will pant and gasp at once." It's interesting how God describes Himself. Certainly as a man of war, that was verse 13. And then for our ladies in here, certainly we know God is masculine, it's very clear.

There's no question about pronouns in this room. We clearly understand the Hebrew and Greek, right? We're not confused by this world order of today. God's not confused. What He's using is an example of something that only a woman who has had a child can understand.

And he speaks in such a beautiful way because at that time typically women would not have gone out to war. Now we know today we have women that are soldiers, we have men that are soldiers, and we pray God's hand of protection on all of them, because these soldiers are standing up to protect you and I. These are heroes on the front line.

Well, look at this what He says here. He describes this woman. He says, "Like a woman crying like a woman in labor, I will pant, I will gasp at once. I will lay waste the mountains and the hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will make the rivers coastlands, and I will dry up their pools." He's making it relatable for both men and women, right? Both give every ounce of their strength.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for *His Perfect Love*. You can hear this study from Pastor Matt VanderVen again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. Catch up on what you may have missed in Isaiah at hisperfectlove.org. Look for us on oneplace.com and most podcast platforms.

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We want to invite you to join us for a service at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service, too, Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information. We'll put a bookmark here in Isaiah and join us next time for *His Perfect Love* with Pastor Matt VanderVen. God bless.