His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: You're going to want to go back to your idols. Do we know anything about that? When we go through a crisis, a trauma, we're all in. Things are rosy, going great. Sometimes we might say, "Well, I'll read the Bible tomorrow," or "I'll pray tomorrow." But when we're in the middle of a crisis, does anybody have to remind us to pray? Does anybody have to remind us to open our Bible? No, we're holding on for dear life.

Guest (Male): The children of Israel were special to God, so much so that He loved them even when they were engaged in idolatry. It's comforting to know that He feels the same way about us and continues to extend His hand of mercy and love even when we rebel. As we continue our verse-by-verse study of Isaiah today on His Perfect Love, we'll zero in on God's heart for His people as detailed in chapters 43 and 44. Let's join our teacher and pastor, Matt VanderVen, and take a look into the heart of God, the only one that can deliver us.

Matt VanderVen: Chapter 43 again, I'm going to start in verse one, and then I'll exegete from verse 14 on. "But now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.'" You might remember we talked about that last week specifically in context of where God, you think about it, He created us. He gave us life. He breathed air into our lungs. And at the same time, He sent His Son to Calvary to suffer and die really a sinner's death, and yet He was without sin. And He did that for you and I.

I just find that so remarkable and amazing that He then comes back and redeems what technically He already owned because He created us. We were His from the beginning of creation. But He loved us so much that He would come and He would remove that carnal nature and replace it with a new nature. Praise Him. So, we keep reading here where He says, "You're mine, right? You've been redeemed. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place."

"Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore, I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east and gather you from the west." Probably one of the most wonderful things the Israelites could have heard as they're getting ready to go into captivity. Hezekiah maybe still there on the scene at this time, we're not really sure. This is forward-speaking. We know he had been given 14-plus years of life. But they knew that Assyria certainly had failed to take Jerusalem. But we know that Babylon is going to come and pull them into captivity.

God is going to allow for that correction and judgment because for whom the Lord loves, He corrects. But for them to hear these words and to remember these words. When we go through a difficult storm, when we go through a difficult trial in life, for God to look and speak into our hearts and say, "Fear not." Isn't that a good word? Fear not. I need to hear that a lot. I don't know about you. Fear not, for I am with you. Isn't that what He told us in Matthew chapter 28? "Lo, I am with you till the end."

He speaks of that. Always God reminding us He never withholds His love from us, ever. Ever. Unconditional agape love. And He never ever abandons us no matter what we do. Even in our sin, we may turn from Him, but He never ever turns from us. "Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Let them go. Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory."

If you ever wondered your purpose, go ahead and circle that right there. "I have formed him, yes, I have made him. Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear and say, 'It is truth.' You are my witnesses," speaking to Israel, "says the Lord, 'And my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am He. Before me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me.'"

"I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you." May I encourage you to circle verse 12? Verse 12 is one of those beautiful verses when you have somebody that is trying to talk to you about pluralism, or maybe somebody that's popular today. All, there's multiple ways to get to heaven. All, there's multiple gods in different religious systems and different things. This is a simple passage that is very clear on the matter.

He says, "I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior." There's no one else that can save you or save you from your sin. "I have declared and saved." That's what God does. "I have proclaimed. There is no foreign god among you. Therefore, you are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God. Indeed, before the day was, I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand; I work, and who will reverse it?" I work, and who will reverse it? It's beautifully put. I mean, that's poetic. God is basically saying what I put forward, no man can change.

There is no one more powerful. There's no one that is everywhere. There's no one as sovereign as Jesus, as God. And He declares that over and over again. And I don't know about you, but have you ever thought about this, that God needed to actually write this down for His people? I mean, it has to be difficult to remind His own creation that clearly knows that we can't create something out of nothing. Everyone of us are aware of that limitation. For a holy, powerful, sovereign, loving God to gently and humbly—I mean, it's humble the way He does it—to come to His creation and say, "I love you so much. Please, Israel, don't. Don't follow after the pagan gods. Don't follow after these pagan idolatry and all the idolatrous works."

"I have something better for you, Israel. You're my chosen people. I chose you from the whole earth to be my witness, to go to the all different parts of the world, to proclaim the good news that I love you, I'll never leave you, and I am your savior and there is no other." You know, He reminds us, and He's been reminding us. He says, "Look, put these idols on trial. If any other god or man can do this, please bring him forward." Do you know that by the time this was written—I have never shared this with you, but I find it interesting—do you know that by the time this was written, one-third of prophecy was still not fulfilled? 33%.

We talk about how 27% of our Bibles that are written contains prophecy. Everyone know what I mean when I say that? Foretelling of the future. By the time we are at this point, there is still a third—33% of that 27%—that still is future-telling. Today we look back 2,000 years and we think, "Well, okay, Lord. Jesus, yes. We can see these things now. 1948, Israel coming back into the land and that was prophesied in Ezekiel chapter 36 and 37, the dry bones." Okay, Lord. But do you realize that at the time that this was written, it's 150 years before Cyrus is even born?

Babylon's not even on the scene yet. Assyria is still sort of dwindling as a world power. And He's literally, God coming to His people and telling them, "Look, I want you to be prepared and I'm telling you all this so you understand the key of what a real God can do. You don't need to carry your gods to your feast. Your God will carry you through life. You don't have to carry your gods. Number one. Number two, I want you to know I know the end or the beginning from the end. And I'm telling you that because I was there and I was there in both aspects."

I don't know how to explain that to any of us, how do we even explain that? That God wrote Revelation, knows what's going to happen and writes it as though it already has occurred. I can't get my mind around that. But God is declaring it as it is done, not it will be, or maybe. And He's saying, "Test me." And He literally gave us a book and said, "Look, everything we're going to read tonight," He says, "Go back. Look, all of you." We can all go to history books. We all got history books. There's libraries and multimillion-dollar libraries, beautiful libraries in England and Greece and all over the world.

He says, "Just look in these libraries. Look at the historical books. Did these things not occur 700 to 1,500 years, depending on where you're trying to date it in some of the works, before the event was even on the scene?" That's the definition of prophecy. This isn't like Nostradamus where, "Hey, I got one out of three right." I gave three predictions and I got one out of three. That's pretty good, right? 33%. No. To God, anything less than 100% is a failure because He's holy and perfect.

So let's look as we continue here because again, what's unique about our God alone is He brings 100% prophecy, and He's telling us that it's unique to Him. And it's beautifully put: "I work, and who will reverse it?" So now we pick up where we are tonight. "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer," reminding us, "your Redeemer, Israel, the Holy One of Israel: 'I'm going to tell you about a coming destruction of Babylon.'" It's going to be 150 years later. "I want you to see this, and I'm not telling you this just because I'm showing off. I'm telling you this because when you go into the captivity, and you are around those pagan gods in Babylon, and I bring you out—oh by the way, I'm going to give my prophet Jeremiah word, which is the next book we're going to go into, I'm going to give my prophet Jeremiah the rest of the account where you're going to be there 70 years."

"And when Jeremiah comes and gives you this word even before you go into the captivity entirely, please remember these words that there's a Babylon. You're going to be brought into captivity, and I'm going to also bring you out in your due time. And when I do that, I'm telling you all this because I know your natural instinct is to want to go back to what? Your foreign pagan gods. You're going to want to go back to your idols." Do we know anything about that? When we go through a crisis, a trauma, we're all in. Things are rosy, going great.

Sometimes we might say, "Well, I'll read the Bible tomorrow," or "I'll pray tomorrow." But when we're in the middle of a crisis, does anybody have to remind us to pray? Does anybody have to remind us to open our Bible? No, we're holding on for dear life. There's something in the human composition that we do that, and God is saying, "Look, I love you so much. I'm going to foretell what you're going to do when I bring you out. And I'm telling you all so that you remember this. So when I do that, maybe just maybe you won't go back to the idolatry for which I brought you into captivity to begin with because your god couldn't—their gods, pagan gods—couldn't get you out of that captivity, Israel."

"So come to the one true God who can deliver you as I will demonstrate it." Does that make sense? That's the entire portion of the section of Isaiah that He is going to try to communicate effectively to the Jewish people. Again, 150 years before Cyrus is on the scene and being delivered. It's remarkable. "For your sake, I will send to Babylon," can you imagine them reading this and going, "Who? Who? What?" "And bring them all down as fugitives, the Chaldeans." Wait a minute, who? There were no Chaldeans yet. "Who rejoice in their ships. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King."

"Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters." He's going to now talk about the defeat of the Babylonian. He's going to refer back to really the deliverance. When was the last time that God on a—may I say a global way—went and delivered Israel and that it involved a sea? What happened to that sea? What did God do when Moses got to the sea? He parted it. What's He talking about here? He's talking about the Exodus. Do you see that? That's the portion of Scripture He's describing.

"Thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea," describing back what He did already, "and a path through the mighty waters"—I mean, could it be any more clear? The parting of the Red Sea, right? "Who brings forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the power (they shall lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick)." What is He saying? I did it once before with the Egyptians. I can do it again. That's right. That's exactly right. I can do it again.

"Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing." I love that. He doesn't always do the same thing the same way twice. "Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people I have formed for myself; they shall declare my praise."

God says, "I'm going to do it. I'm going to supply the water, which is also going to bless the animals and nature." There's a ripple effect to God's blessing throughout all His creation. "But you have not called upon me, O Jacob." And here's the condemnation of Israel. And I want you to see something in His heart here. See if you get the same thing when I read it. See if the Holy Spirit reveals a little bit more about God's heart here. "But you have not called upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel. You have not brought me the sheep for your burnt offerings, nor have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, nor wearied you with incense."

"You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices." You think about Moses and the sacrifices the people were to bring: love offerings, worship. And He's describing His heart. He's saying, especially after that last passage we just read where He talks about how I'm going to deliver you and He must have said "I love you" how many times. "I love you, I love you, you're my people. I'm going to deliver you, I love you." And then He comes to the condemnation of the stark reality. It reminds me of a father. There was a song or there was a poem, *Cat's in the Cradle*. Some of you may know of it or heard of it.

And I see my Heavenly Father basically going to His chosen people and say, "Where are my children? They don't want their dad. They don't want Abba. You haven't called upon me. You're not even talking to me. You've been weary of me." Can you imagine saying you've been weary of God? What is this when I said maybe the Holy Spirit will reveal to you tonight what He was revealing to me as I was reading this? This sounds like our God is heartsick. Do you know what I mean by that? I'm using a human term for it. But brokenhearted.

Because when you love someone so much and they're unwilling to return that love to you, it makes you heartsick, doesn't it? Have you ever had that in your life? Maybe when you were younger and you had your first crush. And maybe you brought—guys, I don't know—maybe you bought one of the girls in kindergarten, I don't know, maybe you were a young starter, and you brought her a Paddington Bear. You know, you got a little Paddington and she beat that Paddington down and didn't turn around and no favors, no nothing. Think about how you felt when you just poured out your heart and it's rejected.

God has feelings too. I just think we need to talk about that. God has feelings too. He's a God, yes, certainly He's God, He's love, but His heart. I mean, you talk about perfect love. Jesus says, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." We know the passage. And when Jesus was on this earth manifested in human form, He could have behaved, He could have acted any way He wanted. His character could have been any way He wanted it to be. All I know is that John, one of the apostles, felt so comfortable with God, with Jesus, that he literally would lean his head into his bosom.

And Jesus didn't say, "Get off me, you freak." Right? He didn't say that. You know what Jesus did? He reclined. He reclined. In other words, he was blessed by it. He was blessed. Did you ever wonder why he was so hurt when Judas came up to him? Certainly He knew he was going to betray him. He says, "Go do what you're going to do." But he took something that was meant for affection. It can be friendship. It can be love. It can be a whole lot of things. He went up and what did he do? He gave him a kiss. Something that is meant to be a term of what? Friendship. A term of caring. Right?

Did you know that the first-century church all kissed each other? It would have—you know how we shake hands and we hug—that wasn't the custom back then. When they would shake hands, they would actually grab up here, like by your elbow. Like if they were going to do that, they would grab like this. It wasn't what we do today. The cultures and customs are different. But they would kiss. And if you didn't kiss somebody, that was like, "Oh." Today we, oh my, what are you doing? What are we talking about? We're talking about a God who has feelings.

He wants us to want to spend time with Him. He wants us to want to talk to Him, to not be weary of Him. To bring back then through the sacrificial system—we aren't under a sacrificial or ceremonial laws today, certainly we don't do the same things—but back then He'd given them a way to do what? To worship Him. And they weren't doing it because they didn't really want to what? Worship Him. They wanted the fire insurance, but they didn't really want a relationship. And it obviously affected and hurt God. Can we all see that in the passage we're at? He wrote that.

And He goes back and now look, even you continue to read the rest of that 24b, the part of the verse, the latter half of that: look, look how He responds. He says, "But do you know what's interesting? You want to talk about burdened and weary?" He says, "You know what's weary, you know why I'm burdened?" He says, "But you have burdened me with your sins." He says, "You know what you gave me? You didn't give me your love. You gave me your disobedience. You gave me your iniquity. You gave me your sin. You've wearied me with your iniquities."

And I don't know about you, I read this, it breaks my heart. It just breaks my heart. It's why I always say, you know, every one of us, we would be right to say I put Jesus on the cross. So often, you know, I'll hear people say, "Oh, it was the Jewish people and the Pharisees and Sadducees." Yes. Okay. Or it was the Romans and it was Pilate. No, it was me. You don't need to look very far. Look at me. I put Jesus on that cross. "I, even I," verse 25, "He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins."

How many thought that was a new covenant? Do you realize that under the old covenant there was no sacrifice for transgressions? There were for iniquity, there was for sin, but not transgressions. Why? Because transgressions were what? Premeditated sin. There was no sin offering for premeditated sin in your Old Testament. Go back and study it and look at it. There's not one there. God didn't provide a way because why? Because He is the way. And they—that should have caught everybody's attention. "Wait a minute, what do we do if I premeditate something and I sin? Then how am I going to—I can't be forgiven, what's going to happen?"

God, you're the only one. Yes, you got it, that's it. That's what He was always communicating. He says, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake." He says, "I do it for my own sake." Why? For glory, but also because He wants relationship with us, and He considers that part of His own sake. "And I will not remember your sins." How many of us want to be like Jesus? How many of us remember people's sins? You come to passages like this and this is convicting. I'm not to remember anybody else's sin. Somebody's hurt me or if I'm forgiven, forgive others as I want to be forgiven. I don't do these things. And I love that my God says He doesn't remember a single one of my sins, and that's amazing. What could we ever do to deserve that? Not a single one of us could. That's why it's true unconditional love.

Guest (Male): This is His Perfect Love. Pastor Matt VanderVen is leading a study of Isaiah right now, and if you enjoyed today's message, we'd like to know. Email us at our website: hisperfectlove.org. Be sure to include your prayer requests. And while you're there, you'll notice a place to listen to Pastor Matt's sermons, including all of Isaiah. That's hisperfectlove.org.

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