His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): God's judgment is coming, but you don't have to be on the receiving end of it if you place your faith in Christ. His perfect love is next.

Guest (Male): This is his perfect love. It's what real love looks like. This is his perfect love.

Guest (Male): One day, God will pour out his full wrath through the bowl judgments during the great tribulation. There's no escaping it unless that is you trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Some will, but many won't during the tribulation. We'll tell you about it today on His Perfect Love as we open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 14. Pastor Matt Vanderven will take this opportunity to not only talk about the judgment to come on nonbelievers, but also the bema seat judgment when believers will be judged and rewarded for faithful service.

Guest (Male): This is his perfect love.

Matt VanderVen: There is a lot going on in this chapter. And as you've been with us, we've been sort of taking it section by section. We're in the second section. We're in that really portion of the third angel in the second section of Revelation chapter 14. It's the third angel that followed them that actually picks up if you're reading along with us, we'd be in verse nine. That's where we're at really. And it says that the third angel followed him, right? Followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image and he receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, we also know we had another passages that even if he takes the name of the Antichrist or worships him in any capacity, the same idea, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of the cup or into the cup of his indignation.

This is very very severe. What he's saying is that anybody that makes an allegiance, anybody who will take that mark. Now again, we're talking right in the middle, almost smack dab in the seven-year tribulation or in chapter 14. We're right in the middle of that section that you see right up here right before Jesus's second coming in Revelation 19. And what he is telling us in this really this understanding here in verse 10 is he's about to pour out the rest or the fullness of all of the judgment or wrath of God which started back in chapter six.

And he's pouring this out on a world that has rejected Jesus Christ. The church has been removed. There are many people, tribes, tongues, and nations that have come to salvation, but most of them have been martyred for their faith. So most of the Christians that would have been saved or the Jews that got saved, they're immediately with Jesus Christ because Revelation 19 hasn't happened and we haven't come back down to earth with Jesus at the second coming. So those left on the earth that don't take the mark of the beast are either those that have gotten saved or those that choose not to get saved but choose not to take the mark.

They too are going to be murdered and martyred, right? Or for their faith or should I say for those that don't maybe believe for their unwillingness to take this mark. So then he tells us that the full wrath, which is going to be leading up to chapter 15 in the bold judgments. This is where already we've seen half of the earth's population is destroyed. So 8.2 billion, somewhere around 4.1 billion are all going to be gone. And basically what he's saying here is if you take the mark, this is very very important, you're going to incur the wrath of God.

And he makes it clear that when you take the mark, you're declaring that you belong to the Antichrist, right? You're not surrendering your life to Jesus Christ. It's a perfect pointer to tell all of us even as believers that are not in the great tribulation, you cannot have one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. You cannot be lukewarm and truly believe that you are born again. Your election, your declaration, your your commitment to Christ, your belief that he is Jesus, the son of God, Lord and savior, the one who is able to take your sin and remove it as far as these all of this is culminated in that understanding.

It's what we understand as being born again. There is no gray. There's no shades of gray. There's no relativism in this. There's no opinions. There's no public bias or public opinions. There's nothing like that. It's very very clear here. If you do not surrender your life to Jesus Christ, if you are not a born again believer, you have made your part and parcel with Satan. You might be sitting here this morning and thinking, but wait a minute. I don't even know Satan. I I've never talked to him, prayed to him. It doesn't matter. When you have rejected Jesus Christ, doing nothing is still doing what?

Something. Doing nothing is still doing something. So John ends this section actually though interestingly in verse 13 because of the heaviness with this, he also comes back and this would be very important if we were alive in the great tribulation. Well again, we'll be raptured out, but if we were here, wouldn't you want some kind of hope or security or something to kind of get you through this through strength knowing that you're in the darkest, most difficult time of human history, the great tribulation? Well, if you look just down to verses 12 and 13, he ends this section with that.

Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, write, blessed are those who right are dead who die in the Lord from now on, yes says the spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works will follow them. So he gives them just this incredible encouragement because he just told them in verse 11 that those who make their part and parcel with the Antichrist with Satan, they're effectively forever and ever going to experience torment.

They're going to forever and ever not find any rest, any peace. They are going to for all of eternity be tormented to the point of where they'll wish they were even never born but cannot escape it. That that's really the definition of hell. It's the separation from God and eternal torment. And hell is a very real place. Jesus actually spoke more of hell than he did of heaven because he wanted to warn people about their choices and the eternal consequences to the choice that we make on this earth. And he wants everyone to obviously place their faith and trust in in him for salvation, right?

And like I said, in verse 12 and 13 here, one of the things that we learned, he wouldn't have said what he said in verse 13, that is Jesus, if there wasn't what? Think by implication here what we just read. If there wasn't a remnant, who is he speaking to? He's not speaking to the 144,000. He's certainly not speaking because they're already sealed and protected, so nothing's going to happen to them. He's speaking to the people, right? That are actually getting saved during that difficult time but yet had not passed, have not died. And he's saying it's worth it.

Keep your hand on the plow. Don't look back. Don't quit. And he said all of your work, all of your diligence, everything you're doing, it didn't lead to salvation, but you are going to be rewarded faithfully for what you do for Jesus Christ and as ambassadors to a lost and dying world. Right? God didn't just say, hey, I want to put you on a shelf. It's good that you're saved, but there's nothing else to do here. No, no, no. We're active participants in Christianity. And he chooses to use I I'll just describe myself in inadequate vessels to do his pleasure, his purpose.

You see, this is the hope of Christ for every single person, for all of us here, but especially those going through the great tribulation that they're going to ultimately find what? Rest. You and I don't find it. We find peace in Christ, but we don't find that perfect rest this side of eternity, right? We're laboring, we're working. There's going to come a time when our laboring is done, but it is not that time, right? It's it's time to be about our father's business. We're told to look up because our redemption is drawing near. He's telling us over and over again, this is not time to take a break.

This is the time to be all in, right? But that ultimately there will come a time of ultimate rest. Isn't that wonderful news for all of us and certainly for the remnant that gets saved in the great tribulation? I can't imagine something even a greater than anybody could say other than you will finally have that perfect peace and rest you have always desired in your heart. You know, and then I love the idea about the works that are going to follow you because the Bible tells us that he is going to Jesus reward us for our works, right?

And that's really interesting because it's very consistent here with the rest of the passages we read in scripture. It is not a new revelation in regards to what we are reading in this section. This is actually very much akin to what we read in Romans. Let's let's turn there. Romans chapter 14 this morning, please. Let's just study these things to maybe remind ourselves. These scriptures are here to remind ourselves. Please turn in your Bible to Romans chapter 14 and let's look at verses 10 through 12 here this morning. Maybe for some of you, this is the first time you're reading these passages.

For others, maybe this is a healthy wonderful reminder. God even gives us a warning about judging. And this is important here because we're so we're so quick to do that, aren't we? We're so quick to look at one another in comparison when really our eyes should be on Jesus and that's the true comparison. And it's important and I'm bringing you here because it's consistent with what we read in Revelation that really Jesus is the ultimate judge. He's the one that's going to judge us. And please remember, who are the Romans? Now some of you well, they're people through history.

No, no, no. He is talking to the church in Rome, a church that he actually never visited at the time this letter was being sent to them. He had never even been there yet and saw them. He went there originally planting. He did some of the work, but he had not been back. He had not seen what had been cultivated and built. And he knew at that time that all roads lead to Rome. So he says, let me send this letter ahead of time sort of as a discipleship boot camp letter to get a head start on what do you need to know about being a born again believer and how do you live in a world, especially a pagan world?

It's beautiful study. I mean, we can identify that. We live in a pagan world as Christians, but our citizenship is heavenly. And so he tells us very clearly here, look, there's some things I want you to be very mindful of here. And he says in verse 10, but why do you judge? This is chapter 14 of Romans verse 10. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? That's pretty sobering, isn't it? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We all. He who's he talking to?

Christians. Born again believers. Do you are going to stand before a judgment seat of who? Of the savior, Christ, the Greek word for savior, Messiah, the Hebrew word, right? He says for it is written as I live says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or cause to fall in our brother's way. In other words, let's all pray like we pray every morning.

Let let me get out of the way here, right? We're not to be judging one another. That's sin. We should call it for what it is. We like to say, well, I'm just a little you know, no, we're sinning when we do that. That is a sin. We're not called to do that and we have to be mindful of that. But that's not what I brought us to this section for. I brought us to the section that we would see that it very clearly says that everyone being Christians he's talking about here because we know ultimately that the unbelievers or those that do not believe Jesus Christ will ultimately end up in a lake of fire, which we know as the true hell.

And that was where it will be for eternity. And there'll be books that are open. Those that are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be cast into the lake of fire forever and ever and ever. And we understand that, but for you and I, we're going to go to a judgment. Now before anybody worries here and says, well, I thought I was saved, do you mean I could stand before Jesus Christ and lose my salvation? Absolutely not. That's not what this is talking about. This is what we know in scripture as the bema seat judgment.

And there's several passages to this, okay? I'd also like to invite you since we're just in this area, please turn in your Bibles to John chapter five verse 22. John chapter five verse 22. Once again, we're going to find out that God the father has given all judgment to Jesus Christ. All judgment to Jesus Christ. God the father no longer judges. He's given that role and responsibility to the savior of the world to Jesus Christ who went to Calvary for you and I. Look at chapter five verse 22. For the father judges no one. Now if it says right here, the father judges no one, does the father judge anyone anymore?

No, he does not. The father judges no one but has committed all judgment to who? The son. That's Jesus Christ. That all should honor the son just as they honor the father. He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who send him. Very clear. The equality and the aspect of that, right? That the father and son are one, but also they each have different responsibilities and or roles. Now that's helpful to study this as we look at this here. While we're in this section, just look at verse 24 before we go on here, right?

Most assuredly I say to you that he who hears my word and believes in him who has sent me has what? Everlasting life. That's also why we know that the bema seat judgment is in a judgment of salvation. That's already been settled by the time you will stand before Jesus. And what's it say? Just in case well, Pastor, how do you know that? Because it says kai in the Greek and that means and. That's that next word you have, you can underline it. That's kai. It means in a conjunction. And what's it say? And shall not come into what?

Judgment. That's the idea of wrath. That's what's being poured out in the great tribulation. There are multiple places where it says this. I mean, we've talked about it in first Thessalonians chapter five. The church is not given unto wrath or judgment. Why? Because you're born again. Jesus Christ has paid your sin debt. He is not going to beat the bride for what he just said has been washed and cleansed. He is not a hypocrite, right? He's not a hypocrite. He means what he says and he says what he means. And if you just study the scripture, I don't know how anybody can come to that understanding that you could lose your salvation.

I just don't get it. It's it's so unbiblical because it ties into everything else of of what he teaches us about the security and the aspect of salvific or salvation and security in salvation once we give our lives to Jesus. But we do acknowledge here that he says you're not going to come into judgment, but you have passed from death into what? Life. And that's very very important to hold on to. And now I'd like to bring you just to second Corinthians, please as we're going through the scriptures. Continue in second Corinthians. Let's go to chapter five.

We're going to look here right around verse nine and 10. He talks more about this bema seat judgment for the Christian. Think of it as like a rewards banquet. If an athlete competes in a race, only the one that runs the race and completes the race gets the reward, okay? There's no there's no other way to say it. We must be competing in the race. We in other words, we must be participants in our Christianity, right? It is not something that we are not to be participants. We are born again believers. That's our participation right there.

Look at verse nine in second Corinthians chapter five. Therefore, we make it our aim whether present or absent to be what? Well pleasing to him. So that's the aim. I love how Paul said this. He didn't say you're all perfect. You're all sinless. No, we've talked about it all the time. It's what is the aim or objective? How many of you like goals? Anybody in here like goals? I like goals. What is a goal? A goal is a aim or objective, right? It's something you set your eyes to. It's very clear that we as Christians should have Christian goals if I can say that way, okay?

Therefore, we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to him. And that is the point. We want to be well pleasing to Jesus Christ for we must all appear before and he says it again, same language, the judgment seat of Christ. We just looked at that in Romans. That each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad, okay? So we're going to give an account even for the wrong things we do, but we're not going to be judged for that.

In other words, we're not going to be separated from God for that because Christ has already paid for that, but we will acknowledge that, right? There is such a thing as a sin of omission, a sin of commission. It's knowing what's right and wrong but then doing what's popular public opinion or following. No, we will answer to Christ for that because we have to say, no Lord, we know. The spirit of God testifies. The Holy Spirit testifies inside of each and every one of us and brings that conviction and then we ultimately have a choice.

Are we doing what is pleasing to others? Are we more of a respecter of people or are we more of a respecter of God? And so we we all have to acknowledge that that's a fact. That's what's going to happen. I don't want you getting there and being a pastor and tell me you're you're reading it right here verse 10. Knowing therefore, and this is important, the terror of the Lord. What do you mean? Why would God put something like that in there? Because the reality is is the fear is the beginning of all what?

Knowledge, understanding, wisdom. Now it's talking about reverential, not fear like, you know, as in beating beaten or something like that or something abused or terrible like that. God God doesn't beat the bride. We've already talked about that. But I can't think of anything I I agree with that word terror. I think that's very fitting because I can't think of anything more terrifying. It's perfect word. Then standing before Jesus Christ and saying, Lord, I could have done more. I could have done more with my finances. I could have done more with my time. I could have done more, but I was so self-centered.

I was so concerned with all the things that I want to do for pleasure on this earth that I totally put you in the backseat. I really wanted fire insurance, Lord. I wasn't looking for a master. That to me is more terrifying because we're not going to stand before Jesus and manipulate him. We can manipulate ourselves. We can manipulate other people, but we are never going to manipulate Jesus Christ who can read our thoughts, our minds, the motives of our heart. We are going to stand before him and earnestly and honestly confess good and bad.

And those things that are bad, we're going to sit there and go, what was I doing? What a waste of resource. As he tells us in the parables, did we bury what he wanted to give us? Talents? We bury those things or do we live for him? I know that's heavy, but we we look, I'm sure a lot of pastors like skip over these parts. I need it. We need it. We need every word, every jot and tittle. It it makes mindful to us what's really important. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

There it is. But we are well known to God. And I also trust we are well known in your conscience as he was even talking back to the people. So again, once again we see this opportunity, this understanding that there's going to be a judgment good or bad. And then finally just to give us a little bit more detail on that, turn to first Corinthians chapter three, please. Again, everybody we're going to look at verse 10. This is important, okay? First Corinthians chapter three. Let's look at let's just start in verse nine. We are God's fellow workers.

You are God's field. You are God's building. Anybody have any questions about that there? Surrendered submission, right? You're you're the Lord. You're blood bought. You you don't exist to yourself anymore. Everybody cool with that? Everybody understand that? No mincing of the words. I don't know how he could be more direct. You're his fellow workers, you're his field, you're his building. He's laid claim to you as a born again believer. He says according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it.

He talks about the work of Christ, those that are engaged in the gospel. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. There's no no greater gospel than Jesus Christ. It is the true gospel. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, wood, hay, straw, we would call those what? Materialism, materials, temporal things, right? None of those things we can take to heaven. There's no U-Haul behind a hearse. There's not not We all understand that, right? Each one's works will become clear. He says, oh, it's going to be very very clear who's living for materials instead of those things that are eternal.

For the day will declare it. You see how it's capital D? That means that that day will be very clear to what you prioritized, uh what I prioritized because it will be revealed by fire. And what's fire? Fire is refining. Fire purifies, but fire also destroys. And the fire will test each one's work for what sort it is. If anyone work which he has built on endures, he will receive reward. How will it be what endures? Because it won't be something temporal. It won't be materialistic. It won't have anything to do with the short life of 100 years.

It won't burn that way. It will be something that will be rewards and treasure that was put in heaven that neither rust nor moth nor decay destroy. For where your heart is or where your treasure is, there is your heart, right? He says he will receive a reward. If anyone work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he and this is important because I know people get real caught up in wait a minute Pastor, maybe I can lose my salvation. No. Look what it says. If anyone work is burned up, in other words, what you have done, he will suffer loss.

Yes, it's very true. You won't have crowns to be cast at the feet of Christ, but he himself will what? Be saved. It's very clear there. There's no misunderstanding that. Your works will not endure, but you yourself will be saved. It's not it's not a difficult passage here. Yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you, by the way that's plural, that word you in the Greek are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you, plural again. If anyone defiles the temple of God Why am I bringing up plurality?

Because he's talking about corporately. He's talking about corporately, not just individually. First Corinthians six says that Christ dwells and the Holy Spirit dwells us individually, but when we gather here right now, he the Holy Spirit of God is flowing in between all of us at the very same time, moving. He's alive. He's the third person of the Trinity. He is in you and right now going through each and every one of your spirit and souls as you sit here. It's a plurality. It means you. It's plural. You can't try to make it singular. It will never be singular.

In the Greek, it's plural. It's what's happening whether you even aware of it right now.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Matt Vanderven on His Perfect Love. We're going through Revelation at the present time. And I'll remind you that you can hear the program again when you visit His Perfect Love dot org. That's His Perfect Love dot org. We're also at oneplace.com. And look for us wherever you get your podcasts. We also offer a mobile app. This is a great way to take Pastor Matt's teachings with you on the go. You can learn more about the mobile app and start your download when you visit our website His Perfect Love dot org. We can't thank you enough for your prayers for this ministry.

Please pray that as God's word goes forth, that lives will be greatly impacted for the glory of God and people would grow by his grace and love or even enter into a relationship with him. And if you have a prayer request, please send that our way. You can email that to us through our website at His Perfect Love dot org. And then join us next time when Pastor Matt will pick up where we left off in Revelation here on His Perfect Love.

Guest (Male): This is his perfect love.

Guest (Male): His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg Westshore.

Guest (Male): 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 hands. We'll never stop reaching out. This is his perfect love. The word goes out. This is what real love looks like. It's what real love looks like. This is his perfect love.