His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: The culture's going to change, but the word of God never does, and nor should the church of God change to meet the cultural norms. It's the culture that gets changed by the word of God and the church, if the church teaches the word of God. If the church is faithful to teach the word of God, the culture will be changed one soul at a time.

If you want a revival, you want a country that's changed, you want a Christian worldview, you begin it by first of all being in the word of God and then taking what you have been so blessed with and giving that to others and not only being hearers, but being doers.

Guest (Male): This is His perfect love. The word goes out. It’s what real love looks like in true faith. This is His perfect love.

How often have we heard it said in the modern-day world, "This is my truth"? But what is the source of all truth? It's not what we determine it to be, but rather God and His word. As the culture changes from one year to the next, the word of God never changes. It's something we can hold on to.

Today on *His Perfect Love*, we'll turn to the source of truth, the Bible, for insight and application in our lives. Pastor Matt VanderVen will be covering Isaiah chapter 56 today. Let's lean in and listen.

Matt VanderVen: In chapter 56, we'll begin in verse one. "Thus says the Lord." Everybody should be paying attention when God says, "I'm going to speak." "Keep justice and do righteousness, for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of the man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Shabbat or the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil."

So the first thing that the Lord correctly, obviously, says is He says, "My salvation's coming. I'm bringing salvation, justice, and righteousness." And He says, "My righteousness"—God, Jesus Christ—"He's going to reveal His righteousness to this world." And He did that through certainly a near fulfillment of that, but the far fulfillment of that time would have been the first coming of Jesus Christ, that we would see that through Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect, holy, righteous life.

And then He says, "Blessed is the man who does this and the son of the man who lays hold of it." More is caught than taught, truly in our homes, families, and our children. More is caught than taught. And He says, "He who keeps from defiling the Sabbath." This is really important because one of the things and one of the reasons that Jeremiah's going to tell us later on as we read that the Judah's even being brought into captivity was not just their idolatry—certainly that was more—but they had taken the Sabbath and they had profaned it.

To Israel, that's a big deal. Because Israel—you and I, we're not under the Sabbath. We understand that. We're Gentiles. We're born-again Christians. We're saved. We're not under the Sabbath. The Sabbath was specifically, for if you read in the Old Testament, it was given as a sign to Israel. And it was supposed to be this point of where God was declaring His rest. Certainly, God doesn't grow weary or slumber or get tired. We understand what He was doing was for our benefit, to take time from our schedule, different things going on to really have intimacy and spend time with Him in a beautiful way. And it's important to God that we have that fellowship and koinonia with Him.

So He said to Israel, "I'm giving this to you, and this is an important sign for you, and I'm giving it to you, Israel. Don't forsake it." He actually put it as part of the Decalogue, one of the Ten Commandments. Well, throughout history, Israel, unfortunately, ends up turning from the Sabbath. He says, "This is one of the things that I gave you that actually identified you." When you think of the law of Moses, one of the signs that identified Israel compared to all the other worldwide religions, the pagan religions at that time, was a day that became holy and set apart for God and you and God alone.

And it was something that Israel became identified with, that on a Saturday in the Jewish calendar, the right before the first day of the week, Sunday would be the first day of the week under the Hebrew calendar, that people would see that the Jewish people would turn and they would gather and everything would be so focused on God. Nothing else mattered. Their works, their animal, all that stuff. The focus was solely on the Lord, the Shabbat, the Sabbath. And what they were going to do to have peace and just love and time with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And unfortunately, one of the reasons that He turns around and brings them in captivity, as we'll read and we've already read up to this point, is because they forsook the very thing that they were identified by. And that was their intimacy with Jesus, their intimacy with God. They forsook it. And they were brought into captivity. And if you think about it, 70 times 7 is what? 490 years. And that was the exact amount of time, 70 years of captivity, but 490 years before Messiah Jesus Christ returns. It was past the intertestamental period. There's no coincidence in that. God's timing is perfect. It was the time that Israel was brought into the captivity, they were released, and then there was 490 years before Messiah Jesus would come and reestablish a new covenant with them.

Isn't it beautiful? But as we look here, He says, "Look, he who keeps from defiling the Sabbath." Today, you and I, Jesus, He fulfilled the Sabbath for us, didn't He? He kept the law perfectly. You and I, we're not under the Sabbath. We can worship every day and should. It's not one day of the week, it should be every day. Every day we give our hearts to Jesus. Jesus Christ comes and lives inside of us. We're holy and set apart for the Lord. And just like the Jewish people, we shouldn't defile ourselves from having intimacy with Jesus Christ. There should be nothing that we allow that come in between us and Jesus, our relationship with God. And we know what does that. What comes in between Jesus and us? Our sin. I heard you guys say it. Our sin. You're right.

He says, "And keeps his hand from doing any evil." So he's drawing attention here, and I underline "any" in my Bible. Holiness, justice, and righteousness are how His people are identified. That's how His people are described. They don't come compromising. We shouldn't want to hold on to our sin. We may blow it. He's not saying that you're never going to blow it. He knew we would blow it, but He doesn't want us holding on to our sin as though it's some kind of prize. No, God really has always desired His people to be holy because He's holy, and He desires that.

He says, "Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak saying, 'The Lord has utterly separated me from His people.'" That wouldn't be true. He says, "Don't let anybody say that." "Nor let the eunuch say, 'Here I am a dry tree.'" So you think about this in regards to the Jew versus the Gentile and this idea here. "For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Shabbat or my Sabbath, worshipping God on His terms, and choose what pleases me, hold fast my covenant."

So there's a lot going on here in verses three and four. But what He's saying is the person that would come in, that would be a foreigner, the one who would come and live within the home and begin to assimilate, if you will, or come to worship, He says, "Don't let him be separated from His people, nor let the eunuch say, 'Here I am a dry tree.'" Without what? A tree that's dry does what? It dies. "For thus says the Lord, the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath and choose that pleases me, hold fast to my covenant." God is saying again, Jew and Gentile, God's desire is that we would follow after Him, His commandments, statutes, and judgments. Holiness matters to God.

And in verse five, He says, "Even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of the sons and daughters." He's saying, "I'm going to make them part of a family." The Gentiles. "I will give them an everlasting name that they shall not be cut off." Again, confidence here. I love this. The love relationship Jesus Christ has. "Also the sons of the foreigner," again, when we think of a foreigner, He speaks to a Gentile because obviously it's not a Jewish person, if you're tracking with me. "Who joins themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord to be His servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant."

So what is He telling us in verse six? What was He telling the Jewish people that were receiving this first-hand? He was saying, "Look, I don't want you to try to accommodate the pagan world." It's a choice. In this particular case, when He was speaking this, obviously Christianity was not on the scene. Judaism. He's saying the foreigner that's going to come in, we don't turn around and adopt the world's standards. No, the culture's going to change, but the word of God never does, and nor should the church of God change to meet the cultural norms. It's the culture that gets changed by the word of God and the church if the church teaches the word of God. If the church is faithful to teach the word of God, the culture will be changed one soul at a time.

You want a revival, you want a country that's changed, you want a Christian worldview, you begin it by first of all being in the word of God and then taking what you have been so blessed with and giving that to others and not only being hearers, but being doers. And so it's very important what He's outlining for us here. He's telling us His heart. He's saying, "Look, the idea here is not an idea of compromise." And you think about it today, I mean, we have seen churches try this. Even Christian circles try this. You've heard of me talk about it, or you've heard it yourself. We know that even in our area, there is a church in particular, I won't name the church out of respect, but we had somebody come in, an individual who was attending a Bible study there, and he came, he wanted to ask me a question.

He says, "Is it normal, should there be a pub in churches?" I said, "I'm not sure I follow what you're asking me because it seems so obvious the answer is no." But he's like, "Well, during Bible studies if we get together and sometimes they'll be bringing out alcohol and different things like that." And I said, "No." I said, "The Bible's very clear. You know, we're either going to be filled—Ephesians five, right?—filled with the Holy Spirit or you're going to be filled with alcohol. You're not going to be both." I said, "No, there's no place when studying the word of God like that to be entertaining strong drink or to do something like that because I'll be compromised by that. No, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. I don't want any other substance or anything like that."

And he just looked at me and he said, "You know, it never felt right to me." And I said, "Well, praise the Lord because you have the living God in you. It shouldn't have felt right to you. It should have felt like it was something off there." And he actually went back and talked to the leader of that Bible study and said, "When we look at the scriptures, is this right?" And the answer was striking. The answer he was given, he says, "But then how are we going to get the younger or some of the other generation in?"

This is real. I mean, I just think we need to talk about these things when the word of God is going through these things and it's specifically telling us here that we're not to accommodate the pagan or the world ideas. We're not to try to create some hodgepodge. God is very specific about this. We're not trying to do that. Let us not forget that God adds to the church daily. But it's our responsibility to be faithful. It's our responsibility to be the truth and the light.

Because where is the city of refuge? If you go back in the Old Testament and you start to think about what was so unique about the city of refuge for those that had committed a crime. They could go to that one city and they could find a refuge while the thing was being tried or to figure out what had happened. Again, if it was accidental. If it was not accidental, well no, then it was very clear that that person was guilty. But God had identified these cities that were to be used as refuge. Well, if you remove the cities of refuge, if you remove the ability for somebody to come and find a holy, clean place where we know that things are being done righteously and holy, well then where are you going to go?

Where does the person of the world who's looking for truth or the person of the world that's struggling in sin, where are they going to find a place to get help? Churches are very much like hospitals in regards to spiritual aspects. And it's just really important that we see that God has never asked us to lower the standard to entice somebody to come into the faith. God has never asked us to do that. He's never asked us to lower or compromise His truth. Friends, that's akin to a bait and switch. How would you feel if somebody said, "Oh, come on in. The water's really great." And then you put your foot in and it's freezing cold. You'd feel lied to, wouldn't you?

Better just to come when someone's ready and broken in truth, willing and ready to hear the good news of the gospel. The good news of the gospel. We don't have to feel bad about the good news of the gospel. We don't have to be nervous that are they going to receive it. No, they're going to, when their hearts are ready, it is going to be the greatest thing they've ever heard. Just like it was the greatest thing you've ever heard and the greatest thing I ever heard, that Jesus loves me, that Jesus loves you, and He wants to save you from your sin. That was the greatest message anybody could have ever told me anytime anywhere. Amen.

So why we don't need to feel bad. We don't need to compromise. We don't need to change to try to entice people. He says, "Hold fast my covenant." Please underline that in your Bible. Never be willing to give up an inch of the scripture. Even when people come into debates. Maybe you're going to be in your office party, or maybe you're having people over, or maybe there's an academic debate or something's going on, and inevitably somebody's going to want to debate you. And that's fine. Different personality, different opinion, they're going to want to. And they're going to say, "Hey, let's just talk about the facts."

And you'd say, "Well, then let's pull out the Bible." And you bring out your Bible and inevitably say, "No, no, no. I'm not talking about that. Did you see what happened over here in the world? Or did you see what's going on in the news?" Wait a minute. My understanding and everything that makes and forms my perception is from a biblical worldview. It's the lens of the Bible that has brought life that I look through and see everything. You want me to lay down the only source of truth that I know so that I can academically in my own strength and wisdom debate you? Well, I'm sorry. I'm never going to do that.

I've been given the word of God. I've got truth beyond truth. I've got it right from the heavenlies. God-breathed. Why would I want to compromise with that? No, I'm going to hold fast to His covenant. I'm going to hold fast to His truth. You never ever have to lay the Bible down so that you can turn around and they can feel like it's an equal playing field. Oh, that's nonsense. You have the inerrant holy scriptures before you. Let that do your talking.

Verse seven, "Even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer." He says, "I'm going to do it. God's going to do it." "Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Now you know why God got so upset, Jesus, when He was physically on this earth and He went in and many of you know, what did He do? He went in when He was going to temple and He was outside and He saw all these men that had love for the Lord, women and children had made aliya—in other words, they were making travel back—and they wanted to bring a sacrifice.

And they took their hard-earned money. They got all that way, and then they marked it up four times, five times, some even some scholars say ten times the price of what would have been a turtledove or a lamb or an animal to sacrifice at temple. They marked it up. It had become all about money and it was not a house of prayer. And so what did Jesus say? He got upset because they were making a mockery of God, making a mockery of His house, they'd made a mockery of the church or at that time the temple.

And it's one of the few times we ever see Jesus actually demonstrate righteous indignation. He takes the table and what's He do? He flips it over. And what does He say? "My Father's house is a house of prayer. It will not be a den of thieves." This needs to be a place where people can come because they know that I dwell there and it's holy and it's holy ground. It's not about whatever you want to say, selling goods and services and different things like this. And what does He say here? Look at it in verse seven. He says, "For all nations." For every church, every temple all throughout the world, all nations. Why? Because it misrepresents God.

And you know God takes this serious, don't you? Because Moses couldn't go into the Promised Land, could he? What was Moses's sin? Certainly, he's like us, he sinned all the time daily, but what was the one that God really called him out on? That's right, the rock. You guys know it. And how many times? Twice, right? And when he did it, remember, this is the same man earlier that said, "I'll die for these people." Only two people said that in the Bible—excuse me, three, if you count Jesus the God-man—but only one actually did it. Moses said it, Paul said it, but only Jesus was the one that carried it out.

But Moses did, he went to the Lord God, if you remember and read the scriptures, he says, "No, these people." God's like, "Hey, I'm just going to wipe them out. Let's redo this. Let's just hit the easy button. Let's reset this whole thing." And Moses goes, "No, I love them. These are your people. What will the other surrounding nations think of you?" Moses was concerned about God's reputation. And God said, "You know what?" Now did Moses really change God's mind? No. Who do you think God had the heart to even argue that was from the Lord? He put it in him. And He turns around and He says, "Of course. No, we won't destroy them."

So Moses was so fervent for defending God's character. And then at the same time, he gets so angry with the people. His emotion got the best of him in that moment. And the rock was so important because that was going to be utilized—God knew that He would one day tap Paul on the shoulder and say, "Paul, I want you to write this in the holy scriptures. That rock is no other than a picture of who? Christ Jesus." So when Moses turned around and he struck that rock twice in anger, what did Moses do? What was the sin Moses actually committed? Really, when you look at it, it was misrepresenting God.

You see, that's the sin that God takes very serious because He knows it affects His children. He knows it affects His children and He's very serious about that. So when they're turning around and they're making a mockery as they were at the temple, that's why Jesus turned over the tables, because they were making a mockery of God's house. It was to be a house of prayer. It wasn't common. It was never meant to be common. God tells us He also dwells inside of us. We've become the temple of God, haven't we? There's nothing common about you either. When you have the living God living in you, you're holy, you're set apart. I mean, we could spend an hour just on that and study that scripturally.

Let's keep going. Verse eight, "The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, 'Yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him.'" So there's no bragging rights in regards to this here. The pagans, He says, "Look, all"—just like He said in the New Testament—"all who will come to me. Yet I'll gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him." This is when we read about pagans getting saved in verse eight. That's what He's talking about, pagans actually getting saved here, right?

Look at verse nine, "All you beasts"—that's Babylon—"of the field, come to devour, all you beasts in the forest, his watchmen are blind." So again, the idea here of blind leading the what? Blind. A failure of duty. Watchmen had a duty. What was the duty of a watchman? It's implied within the name, to be an individual that is watching for danger or impending danger. And failing that duty, who does that hurt again? Well, it hurts the nation. It hurts the community. It hurts the culture. It hurts the society.

And so He says, "His watchmen are blind." He's now coming in and He's going to bring a rebuke specifically on Israel's corrupt leaders. That's what He's calling out here, Israel's corrupt leaders, okay? And really, they're responsible for the failing or the falling of the people as well. And those that are in government, those that have responsibilities like that, pastors—there's a responsibility to make sure that we are teaching doctrinally accurate. It's not our opinions. It's not what I think. It's what does the word of God say.

You as a Christian, a royal—a holy priest, a royal priesthood, excuse me, I meant to say, a precious people. When you open your mouth as an oracle or orator for God and you speak in that capacity, you need to be speaking doctrinal truths from the word of God. Please don't be offended when I say this, not your personal opinions. Does everybody agree with that? It's not our personal opinions. Because what was happening is His watchmen are blind. They're all ignorant. They are dumb dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping and lying down, loving the slumber.

I mean, He's laying it down hot. I don't know how else to say it. He's not holding back. And that again, I'm going to say to you, is real love. If you've ever had somebody love you as a brother or sister in Christ and they sit down in front of you and they give you an exhortation from scripture, and it may seem direct, it's not just because they're from New York. It's because often God will use that to prick the heart. It's the matter of intent and motive. Does somebody love you more than they love themselves and are they willing to stand in the gap, even at the cost of peril to their own personal character? Are you willing to do that as a Christian? I hope every one of you would say yes and amen.

Guest (Male): This is His perfect love. The word goes out. It’s what real love looks like in true faith. This is His perfect love.

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. 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. Set aside another half hour to join us tomorrow at the same time on this same fine station where Pastor Matt will pick up where we left in Isaiah, here on *His Perfect Love*.

His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Let the word go out, the perfect love of Christ to shine. Our lives will shout, I am my beloved's and He is mine. Every heart is in His hand, we'll never stop reaching out. This is His perfect love. The word goes out. This is what real love looks like in true faith. This is His perfect love.