His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Cling to this wonderful promise of God today on His Perfect Love. "I will not forget you," He says. We also read other passages in Scripture that say God cannot lie. So if God cannot lie and He tells you He never forgets you, He literally has you on His fridge. Every one of your report cards, every one of your special events.

Maybe even when you were going through school and maybe you didn't have a date to the ball or the prom, your Heavenly Father in the spiritual realm was with you. You didn't go alone. He was always with you and always will be with you.

Guest (Male): Do you feel at times that God has forgotten about you? We can take comfort in the fact that the Lord cannot and will not forget us or forsake us, even when we're unfaithful. The children of Israel had pretty much forgotten about God, but in His usual loving and merciful way, the Lord promised not to forget them, and He extends that promise to us today.

Consider God's heart for you personally as we press on in our study of Isaiah. We're in chapter 49 today on His Perfect Love. Here is Pastor Matt VanderVen.

Matt VanderVen: Now the Lord says, "Who formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him so that Israel's gathered to Him." You see prophetically what He's saying there? One day He knows Messiah is going to bring Jacob, speaking of the tribe, the children, the 12 tribes, all of Israel, one day will be brought back to God the Father in right union, in right relationship.

And that's why I'll never subscribe to a replacement theology or that nonsense where people try to say the church has replaced Israel. You'd have to undo thousands of scriptures that talk about how God has a future hope and plan for Israel. "So that Israel's gathered in for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength," speaking of Jesus.

And indeed He says, "Is it too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel, the Jewish blood?" He says, "I'm sending you on a mission as Messiah here to the Jews and to the Gentile." How many of you are Jewish by blood origin? Is there anybody Jewish? One person. Everybody else in this room, we're a Gentile.

And Jesus Christ, it was declared by the prophet Isaiah that when Messiah Jesus would come, He would come to set Jew and Gentile free. And we're all here 2,000 years later because of it. Many of us wouldn't hang out with each other. Maybe we'd do different things or we'd never see, but Jesus brings us all together and gives us commonality in Him.

And it's just a real reminder. He's not a divider. There's no division here. He's a unifier. Jesus is a unifier. We need to see this. All this talk of division and diversity and the differences, and yet my Jesus is talking about how He brings it all together and brings everyone in. He's not focusing on the differences. He's focusing on Himself who brings us all in, and we are one in Christ Jesus. Neither Jew nor Gentile, no male nor female, all in Christ Jesus. It's beautiful.

He goes on to say, "And He restored and preserved the ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be my salvation to the ends of the Earth." He declares it right there. It's amazing. Pagans, God loves Gentiles. He loves Gentiles. He wants to save the whole world.

"Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to Him whom man despises, to Him whom the nations abhor." That's the reaction of the world in His coming. "To the servant of the rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship because the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, and He has chosen you." Thus says the Lord, "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you."

How many times are you counting salvation, salvation, salvation? It makes it very clear what He was coming for on His first trip to Earth into creation. "I will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people to restore the Earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritage." Jesus came as a covenant. I can't help but thinking we just had communion, and He talks about a covenant that He is establishing, and that covenant is in His blood.

It was all here. He had declared it 740 years before He'd even come to Earth. "I will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people to restore the Earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages. That you may say to the prisoners, 'Go forth,' to those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.'"

What's He talking about here? Verses 1 through 9 so far, we've been looking back. We've been looking back and seeing what He did and what His work on the cross did. He set captives free. But now as we're going to go in verses 9 through 13, we're going to be looking at the future Millennial Kingdom, which just happens to be the very same place we are in Revelation right now on Sunday mornings. I love when the Lord does this.

He sets His people free of sin and of bondage. And now He talks about the blessings to come in the kingdom age. "To those who are in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed along the roads and their pastures shall all on desolate heights. They shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike them, for He who has mercy on them will lead them. Even by the springs of water He will guide them. I will make each of my mountains a road and my highway shall be elevated. Surely these shall come from afar." All the nations are going to come to Jerusalem.

Look, those from the north and the west and these from the land of Sinim. Now it's interesting. This is all going to happen during the 1,000-year Millennial Reign. We don't know what Sinim is. No one actually knows. No scholar knows. I don't know. But I believe as a millennialist, we're going to be in the Millennial Kingdom and I take that literally.

I believe one day we'll come back with Christ after the rapture and we will see this very land of Sinim. It will be changed. The name will be there and Jesus says we're going to go to Sinim. We're all going to look. "Sinim? We knew it. Where's Sinim?" And He's going to take us to Sinim. Who knows what we would have known it as? Maybe we'll all meet up at Sinim and high-five from this church. "Hey, we're at Sinim."

"Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O Earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people and will have mercy on His afflicted." Now back to the present time of Isaiah. In verse 14, He's going to bring us back to His present time now. "But Zion," remember when He's using that term Zion, He's speaking of Jerusalem. "But Jerusalem, Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.'"

And that's the human condition. It's not that God has ever forgotten any of us, neither His chosen people Israel. We push God away. God has never pushed us away. God has never pushed us away. So what we see now is the fear of the people that now when they find themselves in this captivity and everything that's going on because of Isaiah is telling them, they're saying, "But Jerusalem, the Lord's forsaken us. You're telling us He's taking us? He's going to put us into a Babylonian invasion? We're all going to die?" 70 years of captivity, this is terrible what's going to happen. "And the Lord's just forgotten us, and my Lord's forgotten me."

And then He helps us understand. I love this. Look at verse 15. He speaks to them, to the children of Israel, Jerusalem, Judah specifically. "Can a woman forget her nursing child?" I think about baby dedications. We just had one probably within the last few months. I love to watch the mothers come up and the fathers and the family, and there's little ones. They have this beautiful young child, this baby. That baby looks at you.

When you look in that baby's eyes, then you know what I usually do? I usually look in mama's eyes. And you know what I see? A beautiful mama bear. A beautiful mama bear because mama's watching. If I grab the baby and I'm going to hold the baby, mama's watching. Daddy's watching. Mama and Papa bears.

"Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will never forget you." What's He saying there? This is really important. If you have had a bad example in this life of a mother, a father, or somebody that was a caregiver, and they weren't all the things they were to be in Christ Jesus, and you have struggled to relate to God the Father because of maybe your earthly father or relationship maybe with your earthly mother and how could I love that way when I was treated this way or these things happened in my life that were beyond my control, sometimes abuse or terrible things or just neglect.

I want you to see what He says here in verse 15 because this is a gift from Jesus Christ to you tonight. You've heard pastors say it, me say it, other people say it, your Heavenly Father is nothing like an earthly father. Nothing like an earthly father. Sometimes people go, "Well, yeah, how do you know?" Because Isaiah got it directly from Jesus Himself and the Holy Spirit.

Look what it says again. Read it with this understanding and context. "Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget." In other words, maybe it's possible for a mama bear or papa bear to do that. But what does He say very clear here? "Yet I will not forget you. I will not forget you," He says. We also read other passages in Scripture that say God cannot lie. So if God cannot lie and He tells you He never forgets you, He literally has you on His fridge. Every one of your report cards, every one of your special events.

Maybe even when you were going through school and maybe you didn't have a date to the ball or the prom, your Heavenly Father in the spiritual realm was with you. You didn't go alone. He was always with you and always will be with you. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful reminder of just the intimacy and desire for God to dwell with His creation, His children.

"See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands." I love that. A lot of times, you ever take a pen and you're maybe going pretty fast and you've got to do something and maybe you're in the grocery store and you're right over there getting the chicken or meat and oh, you forgot to get the orange juice. So what do you take a pen out quick and maybe have paper? That's you're smarter than me. But what else do you do if you don't have paper? What do you do? You write it on your hands.

Sometimes I'm doing clinicals and different things right now. Sometimes I'll be in a room with a patient and I'm taking vitals and I've got to get all the vitals quick because I've got to put it in the EMR. So I'm turning around and I'm writing all the vitals down. I get all the vitals on and then I go over to the computer and I put in all the vitals so I don't forget. You ever do that? Sometimes people use to tie a little string on their fingers. Why would God use a lens that we can't understand?

Why do we do that? We do it so we don't forget. Is everybody with me here? You write something down so that you don't forget it. And we write it on our hands. Look what the Lord says here in verse 16. He knows how we think. He literally says, "See, I have inscribed you on the palm of my hands." Now what was the context of what He just said? He will never ever forget you. And then He said, "And I'll prove it." And when you see Jesus, Jesus is going to say, "I can prove my love. I can prove my love."

Because in Revelation as we read when we stand before Christ, we know it's the Lamb of God. But He speaks of it as one that was worthy because of the blood, because of the piercing. So that's never been forgotten by heaven and nor will it ever be forgotten, God's sacrifice on the cross and what He did. And God has inscribed all of humanity through His wounds. It's a constant reminder of how He loves us.

So God the Father says, "I've inscribed you on my hands," and the Son has said, "I have you and I will die for you." It's powerful, isn't it? "Your walls are continually before me," speaking of Jerusalem. "Your son shall make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you." They're not going to follow you or bother you any longer.

"Lift up your eyes and look around and see. All these gather together and come to you. As I live," says the Lord, "you shall surely clothe yourselves with them as an ornament and bind them on you as a bride does." The future of Zion, the future of Jerusalem, you're going to return and your return will be so beautiful back to Israel, it will be like a bride coming. Guys, just give me your eyes for a minute. Do you remember what it was like if you're married or you've been married? Do you remember what it was like? I can remember it like it was yesterday.

I can remember where I was in the Bronx. I can remember when my wife walked through those doors and came around and she was standing right back there. I can remember what she's wearing. I can tell you the fragrance. I can tell you how many steps she took. I can tell you the minute when she got up there and her hands began to quiver. I can tell you her eyes. I can tell you where she looked. I can tell you where her father was sitting. I can tell you every single detail.

I can tell you the time that when she was so nervous, I remember we were not saved at the time. I was married in a Catholic church. I literally looked at her. She was so nervous and I just grabbed her hands and I was like, "Wait a minute," and I just kissed her hands and I'm like, "You and me. You and me. It's just you and me. None of this matters. It's just you and me. And we're standing before God."

That look of when she was coming down, the excitement. You don't forget that. It's not something you forget. It's not something that's taken lightly. It's something that's precious. Look at how when I look at these things and it draws my mind, this is what God is using to describe as this beautiful bride. That's talking about Jerusalem. He's talking about Israel making their way back into the holy land in which He has for them after their captivity, and He's adorned or arrayed them, her, speaking of the bride in this case, with a precious jewel. And He literally sees her coming, and she's coming back into the holy land that He has provided for her.

Do you see the intimacy and beauty and depth of Jesus Christ's love for the bride of Christ, for certainly born-again believers, but even in the Old Testament, Israel? Do you see the beauty of how God loves His children? God's a romantic. God is a romantic. He's absolutely beautiful. He has an amazing heart of romance.

He says, verse 19, "For your waste and your desolate places and the land of your destruction will ever now be too small for the inhabitants." It's going to be too small for as many people are going to come back. "And those who swallowed you up will be far away." You won't have to worry about those Babylonians anymore because remember He's going to send Persia to overthrow the Babylonian king and they're going to be off the scene.

"The children you will have after you have lost the others will say again in your ears," after going into captivity, "The place is too small for me. Give me a place where I may dwell." Imagine reading this while you are in captivity in Babylon. You're sitting in Babylon. You're remembering these things. You have the prophet Isaiah's writings. You're looking back to these writings here and you're literally coming back and going, "Wow, Lord." Do you think that's going to help you to hold on when you're in captivity like that and you know you maybe have 10 more years, 20 more years? Do you think it's going to give you hope to hold on?

That's exactly what the imminent return of Christ is supposed to be doing for you and I today and the idea of a rapture that can happen at any moment. It's the hope of being ready that He's going to come again for us and He's going to do exactly what He said because He's a promise keeper. Look at it. What beautiful hope!

He says, "I will say again in your ears, 'This place is too small for me. Give me a place where I may dwell.' Then you will say in your heart, 'Who has begotten these for me since I have lost my children? I am desolate,'" because they're in captivity and thinking there's no hope. "'A captive and wandering to and fro, and who has brought these up? That I was left alone. But these, where were they?'"

In other words, He's trying to describe how He comes back into Israel, Jerusalem like that, and He's saying, "I know I lost what was here, the children that they had." He's describing, He says they were all gone. "But now I look around and there's all of these children again. How did you recreate? How did you regain? How did you regive me everything of the blessing that once was and you multiplied it on top of it? You've given me all these children again and we're going to repopulate this land."

Thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I will lift my hand," in an oath. So He's saying, "I swear to the nations and set up my standard for the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers and their queens your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you with their faces to the Earth and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for me."

Now there'll be no more Jewish extermination in the Millennial Reign. "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the captives of the righteous," the Jews in this case, "be delivered?" In other words, is Babylon going to stand a chance to come back?

But thus says the Lord, "Even the captives of the mighty," Babylon in this case, "shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible be delivered. For I will contend with them who contend with you, and I will save your children. I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh and they shall be drunk with their own blood," He says, "as with the sweet wine." That's the fate of those who want to hurt the Jewish people. That's the fate of those who want to persecute and try to exterminate and hurt the Jewish people. You are going against God. You are going against God.

"All flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." Wow! Just take that in for a minute tonight, how powerful that is. And that's just one of the chapters. We just started 49. We got seven more of them like this with such incredible detail in this book. We're going to stop there tonight.

But you just allow that to wash you because listen to how God is speaking of Israel, His chosen. And then you read you and I, we hear Jesus speak when He came into creation and how He loves us. And then He tells us how He loves us and how He wanted to redeem us and how He was going to be our Savior. And guess what? He loves us so much, He was willing to go to the cross for us.

But then He comes to Paul and He comes to all the apostles and He gives them revelation and even in the book of Revelation, He continues to pour out His love and explain all that He has for us. That's why when somebody asks you how you're doing, I hope you're honest with them and you say, "I'm doing great. Jesus is on the throne and He's madly in love with me." Jesus is on the throne and He's madly in love with me. I'm spoiled. My Father spoils me.

Even if I'm living in a world where the wickedness and evil and the downward spiral is happening, I have a joy that's swelling my heart because soon and very soon, I am going to be with my Redeemer because my Redeemer lives. Amen?

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.

The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to Pastor Matt's messages shortly after they're delivered. We can help you get started when you visit hisperfectlove.org. His Perfect Love is listener-supported. It's listeners just like you that help us bring the truths of God's Word to the radio every day. Together we can reach people with the love and truth of God. You can make a donation at hisperfectlove.org.

Pastor Matt would love to hear from you. Tell us the station you listen to and how you're helped by this ministry. Email us there at the website hisperfectlove.org. 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, PA. 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!