His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): At a time when the nation of Israel was under poor leadership, the people were pursuing idols and living a double life. But even though they weren't deserving, God in His grace reached out to them in love. His perfect love is next.

This is His Perfect Love, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. We're going through the book of Isaiah today. The plan is to cover chapter 57. The children of Israel were abandoning the things of God and turning to the things of the world. Spiritual adultery and idolatry. Sound familiar? We see that happening all around us today, don't we? Just as He did with Israel, God is willing to extend His grace and mercy to us if we'll humble turn to Him in faith. Here is Pastor Matt VanderVen.

Matt VanderVen: Look at chapter 57 with me here. "The righteous perish." Now this passage here is one of those ones that you're all going to want to keep some notes on because this is going to become a required course in life. Every one of us, should we be very blessed to have another day of life, we are going to see, especially as we get older, we're going to see people that we loved and cared about pass on. There are going to be people that are going to die and they're going to go and be with the Lord.

And many of them we're going to look upon, we're going to look at them and say, they were more righteous than us. They lived more holy than us. They were, by God's standards, walking that line with the Lord beautifully. And yet why? Why does the Lord take them home? Or maybe we ask those questions. Certainly we shouldn't. It's wonderful to be going home with Jesus, but it's on this side of heaven that we long for that person again that we miss, that we love, that has passed on before us.

But it's a really good chapter to help us understand sometimes why God does that. Why God will keep the evil, wicked, or just carnal individual alive, and yet somebody that is contrary, that is doing all the right things or appears to be doing the right things righteously, will be called home so early, especially when we see that somebody in their 20s or when we think of a young baby or young child.

Some of those things are so difficult and confusing to us. Why those things happen that way? Lord, why? Why would You do that? Youth and 90, 100, okay, maybe. But why? This answers a lot of questions, and it really turns things on top of its head for us because so often we're going to see here that God is telling us that many times He actually allows someone to go to be with Him, to go to heaven, to escape judgment, actually, a judgment that could be coming upon a nation.

I thought about that. My mother went to be with the Lord and this was before COVID. She had lung cancer, she had some things going on. I remembered thinking afterwards, "Lord, my father passes, six months later my wife's father, within a month or less of each other, her father passes, and then my mother passes within six months." I lost three parents in a matter of six months. That's a lot. It's sort of like a clearing of the board, if I can say it that way.

And it was processing that even as a Christian, Lord, why? And they're so young. So young in their early 70s, very young. And then we went into COVID and I thought so often, "Lord, I don't know how my mom would have done with isolation." My mom was a short Italian woman, loved people, loved cooking, liked being with people. This was not a woman you put into a room. And I don't think she would have done well.

I remember reading this chapter and thinking, "Lord, was that what You did here?" I don't know, but maybe when I get to heaven I'll ask Jesus. "Lord, is that what You did here because You knew the judgment that was coming and You basically spared her from that judgment?" I'm not saying COVID was a judgment. I'm just saying something like that in life, I'm giving an example.

Let's read chapter 57 here. "The righteous perishes and no man takes it to heart." Just think about that for a minute what he's saying. The righteous perish and nobody's even concerned. Nobody even considers it. That indifference of heart, even to take it to heart. "Merciful men are taken away while no one considers. Sobering is that, that the righteous is taken away from evil. He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in uprightness."

Hold your finger here. Turn to Psalm 139 verse 16. Do we recognize every one of us that God has determined the amount of time that we're going to have on this earth? And yet so many of us worry and fret and have anxiety about how long we're going to live and what's going to happen tomorrow and what if I get this disease and that disease. God tells us very clearly in Psalm 139 verse 16, "Your eyes saw my substance."

He's talking about at fertilization, at conception, that whole idea there. Lifespan, beginning and ending here. "Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in Your book they are all written." What is written in His book? What is he talking about in Psalm 139 verse 16? If we read the next verse, he'll tell us. "The days fashioned for me." The days You have given for me, the days You fashioned for me, they're already written out and recorded in the book even before we're born.

When we've just been conceived and we're being formed, when as yet there were none of them. He's saying as of yet there were none of them, you weren't even born yet, and God had already taken a book and wrote your name on it. How many know what a portfolio is? God has a portfolio of your entire life. You as a young child, you riding a bike or trying to, you trying to roller skate, all the things through your whole life that you're going to go through.

"Matthew, when you're at this fork of the road, you're going to have a choice, son. It's going to be very difficult for you, but choose righteousness. Look upon Me. Don't put your eyes on the things of this temporal world. Put your eyes on Me and I will carry you through it." And this is going to happen December such-and-such at such-and-such time. And then all of a sudden one day I wake up, it's December such-and-such and such-and-such time.

"Lord, how could You let this happen? Did You know this was going to happen? What is going on?" And I begin to become anxious and worried. And when I'm able to put my eyes on Jesus and look to Him, He reminds me. He says, "Did you not know I told you? And they're in the book and they were written. Son, now walk them out and walk them out with Me. Don't pray your trials away. Pray Me into your trials so that I can go through them with you because that is where your growth will come from when you learn true dependency on Me, not to trust in yourself more."

That is a required course, isn't it? How many of us love that course? We're like, "Yeah, sign me up, I want to take it twice." No. We pray that one away. But it's really good because that's during those deepest and darkest or what I call difficult times that I'm learning so much about the favor of God, the dependency of God, and the love of God. Because He doesn't leave me there.

How many of you have had a situation where you thought, "Man, this is it, I'm going to die." Has anybody in here ever had that happen? You're here. So look what he goes on to say. "He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in uprightness." But there's a judgment that's going to come. Specifically, why would he be telling this in chapter 57 in regards to Israel? Specifically Judah's idolatry. Because where are they about to go within a hundred-and-something years?

They're going to go in captivity. And who's going to bring them into captivity? Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon. So God is declaring what's going to happen and He says this judgment is coming. And yet there are people that were alive that are actually being martyred or they're actually dying at that time. And God is saying that He is taking some of them home so they don't have to go into that Babylonian captivity and judgment. And that's also God's mercy.

But I imagine if you were alive at that time and you were going, "But I just lost my cousin." And then when you're in the judgment you're going, "I'm glad my cousin's with the Lord." It's that kind of insight that God's word gives us here this evening that unless you have a dependency on Christ and the word of God, when we find those circumstances, we cannot make sense of them often. But it's the word of God that unveils different reasons of why God may or may not be allowing something to happen. It's powerful.

Let's keep reading because He's going to reveal more of this to us. "But come here," verse 3, "you sons of the sorcerers." Now He's talking about the wicked and evil. He was just talking about the righteous and how they're going to eventually have their rest in their beds and He's got a good plan for them, each one walking in uprightness in verse 2. But now He's contrasting that. "But come here, you sons of the sorcerers, you offspring of the adulterer and the harlot."

He's talking about spiritual here, that's their idolatry. He's talking about spiritual adultery. Please understand that's what idolatry is to God. Every time you see adultery, certainly there's the aspect of sin and adultery when you think of flesh and flesh, a guy with another woman that's not married or someone that is outside of their marriage, that's clearly adultery. Nobody's questioning that.

But there's something that God is helping us to understand and He talks about it in Hosea, He talks about it in so many different books of scripture. He's talking about here spiritual adultery that He is trying to explain. This is the depth of what someone does when they commit idolatry. It's basically like spiritual fornication against God. It's going and cheating on God. It's going against God.

He uses this example. "Your offspring of the adulterer and the harlot." In other words, you were playing spiritual harlotry by worshipping these pagan gods and worshipping the mammon and the materialism and all the things that this world had to offer you. And I gave you as My chosen people, you are holy and set apart from Me, Israel, Judah, but you played the harlot with these pagan gods.

"Whom do you ridicule? Against whom do you make a wide mouth?" Talking about the struggle here. This is important teaching. "And stick out the tongue." When you do that, when you take and you form your mouth and you make a wide mouth and you stick out the tongue, what are you doing? You're mocking, you're making fun of, aren't you doing that? You think of your wide mouth and you're just mocking like when you were a kid.

We laugh and joke about it, but this is no joking matter here because they're talking about doing this to the Lord. He says that's what you're doing. When you're committing the sin of spiritual adultery, you're sticking your tongue out and mocking Me, mocking God the Father. This is a serious matter, isn't it? Idolatry's a serious matter. Spiritual adultery, very serious matter.

He says, "Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with gods under every green tree?" Again, He's giving this idea of example, tying it back and forth to what people would effectively saying that like in the fleshly aspect, no shame, just going out everywhere and committing adultery in front of everybody. Nobody should commit adultery, but you're not even hiding it. You're out in the open, you're defaming yourself, you're defaming the other person you're with.

He says what you're doing is you're taking your gods and you're going under the trees where everybody can see you and you're worshipping and lighting these incense and you're going through all these spiritual rituals with these false pagan gods and you don't have any care or shame. And you're supposed to be a testimony to the surrounding nations. You're Israel. You know what Israel means? The word Israel means governed by God. It's in your name.

He says, "Jacob, I will call you, you are no longer Jacob, Ya'aqov, you are now Israel." You are now governed by God. He's explaining the difference in how the transformation went on in Jacob's life and now how he is to be governed by God, wielded by God, perfectly. And He says, "Now this is what you do with that? You go and you commit and you play the harlot and you worship where the nations are watching you that you should be leading to Me? You now are mocking Me and being a demonstration of what it is to be a pagan, My own people called by My name."

He says you're worshipping these idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys. This is hard. Slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks. This breaks my heart. We know what the pagan nations would do. They would erect these statues to Molech where they would form him to look like this. I'm giving you a very visual picture so you know what it was.

They would be formed where they would have two right angles like this and they would place them together and there would be this metal object like this. And they would literally light the fire to the object and heat it up until it was red. You could literally see the red to it. You knew it was hot and that you were going to literally touch and singe. And willingly the pagan people with their worship, their modern abortion, their modern child sacrifice, they would take and bring these children to the altar of Molech and lay a living child in that as they screamed to death, literally, and watch that child catch fire and incinerate before their eyes.

And they were doing this to pagan gods. This was their worship. Sick and twisted. What ends up happening and what He's writing here and He's now saying, "Israel, you have started this practice. Instead of being different, you took your children and you are now bringing them," and I'm just picking Molech as one of the gods, there were several ways they did this at that time. And they're bringing their own children and laying them on this pagan god, knowing full well what God has to say about this.

Now I know we've become so sophisticated all these thousands of years later. We would never do that today, right? Never. And yet we have all these abortion clinics. "Oh, well, no, but that's not the Christian. The Christian would never do that." Okay. So I want you to think about the things you let in your home. I want you to think about the TV, the internet, these computers, the smartphones, which can all be used for good.

But I want you to think about what that does when you open that up. And I mean now you talk about the kids. Some people put their kids in front of the TV and use the TV as a babysitter. And on top of that, you don't even know what's coming through. Think of the things. How many of you grew up in the 70s or 80s? Just raise your hand here. A good some of you, okay, good.

I can remember in the 70s and 80s certain movies that my parents were not saved when I was young. I can remember going up certain movies I watched. And I can remember Lisa and I said, "Oh my gosh." When the kids got old enough where they could understand certain things, let's put on one of these movies. And we'd put the VHS back then and we'd watch it and all of a sudden, pause.

And we'd look at each other like, "Did you remember that? I don't remember that." And mortified. Mortified about what was just coming in on our TV. And I don't remember any of that, but the things that I had come in. And I'm just sitting there and now I look and I see the things that some of the kids are playing with in these clubs and after-school programs.

And I'm thinking to myself, it's just getting darker. I mean, some even these games, they make these games to look so real. We don't think of it that way, but you're slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks. You're basically offering your kids to an alternate gospel. That's saying it kindly. It can be far worse than that. And we wonder why this generation and other generations are growing up.

There was just a recent article that came out talking about the morality of the country. And they were saying, it wasn't a Christian article, but they were saying it seems like the morality of the country has even changed in that CEOs and people that were sending people through schools and colleges, and it just seems like we keep lowering the standard.

As a matter of fact, there was a recent article that also came out on Fox News, you can look it up. They were saying that most high schools now, Christian and alike, are graduating kids that when they get to college, the colleges are saying they're sometimes three grade levels behind. And this was at Harvard and some of the named colleges, okay. They're saying these are like 4.0 students. These are 4.0 students that are coming in and they're three years behind grade level.

And they're saying, "What do we do with this?" Because it's a pipeline. You go to college to get a degree so that you can go and work. It's not to have a good time. It's a pipeline. You're building a pipeline. So universities have agreements sometimes with companies and hire. And the companies that would hire some of these people are saying, "But they can't critically think." It's a real problem in this country right now. It's a real problem.

I actually sent it to the pastors to read and the principal of the academy and said, "We'll make sure our kids are never behind. No, we want our kids three years ahead, not three years behind." Because it's striking. But we're giving our kids to Molech when we don't realize that we're not protecting them or we compromise with them.

"Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion. They are your lot. Even to them you have poured a drink offering. You'd offer a grain offering. Should I receive comfort in these? On a lofty and high mountain you've set your bed. Even there you set up to offer sacrifices." Idolatry again. "Also behind the door and their post you set up your remembrance." This imagery of spiritual adultery again.

"For you have uncovered yourself to those other than Me." He says your shame has been open for others to see. God sees all. Your shame is open. "And have gone up to them. You have enlarged your bed and made a covenant with them. You have loved their bed when you saw their nudity. You went to the king with ointment and increased your perfumes." So what's the sin here in verse 9? You trusted in other people. You became like them, you worshipped like them instead of going to the one true God who you had a relationship with.

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. You know, 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.

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.

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. Well, put a bookmark here in Isaiah and join us next time for His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen. God bless.