His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Today on His Perfect Love.

Matt VanderVen: Commercialism, materialism, is a prison, and it's a trap.You want proof of that? How many of you have debt? How many of you've taken on debt because you shopped to cope with something? How many of you have shopped to buy something that really was out of the the bracket that you should have bought something in? How many of you did something because you thought, well, we need it, or we have to have it? And yet, now we look back on it, and we're, boy, we're on an eight-year payment plan, 10-year payment plan.

Matt VanderVen: Some of us, 30 years for one of those houses. California, 40 years mortgages.

Matt VanderVen: This is his perfect love. The world calls out. It's what real love looks like. In truth and grace. This is his perfect love. We're told in Revelation that commercial Babylon will be destroyed. Who is it? Is this referring to a literal city or a world system? Stay tuned for His Perfect Love as we pick up where we left off a few weeks back in Revelation.

Matt VanderVen: The world calls out to us with its amusements and attractions, and it is powerful, so we must be on our guard. It is our tendency to fall for the unceasing advertising campaign of the world. Before long, we're loaded down with its trinkets. Wouldn't you like to know how to not get taken in by it? Here's Pastor Matt VanderVen in Chapter 18.

Matt VanderVen: This is his perfect love. Let's read through the whole chapter here, okay? And then we'll start in verse one, and we'll get as far as the Lord allows us in the next 30 to 35 minutes. After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the Earth was illuminated with His glory. And He cried mightily with a loud voice saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.

Matt VanderVen: For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the Earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the Earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. You're starting to hear those tones now, wealth and rich and and and the abundance and merchants. We're starting to get a little bit about, a little dialed in here on this chapter. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, My people. Lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Matt VanderVen: Render to her just as she has rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works. In the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. What's measured out will be measured back. And the idea here in regards to the harlot that's bringing this materialism, it will be a double portion of judgment that will be brought to her, speaking of this woman, this illustration of the judgment of this Christ-rejecting world.

Matt VanderVen: In the cup which she has mixed, mixed double for her. In the measure that she has that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously. In the same measure, give her torment and sorrow, for she says in her heart, I sit as queen, and I'm no widow and will not see sorrow. She's making her own pompous declarations. Therefore, her plagues will come in, and this is important, the idea here is immediately one day. Death and morning and famine.

Matt VanderVen: And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. The kings of the Earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously will with her will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning, speaking now, obviously, the city Babylon, the, you know, mercantile system of the world. Standing at a distance for fear of her torment saying, Alas, alas, the great city Babylon, the mighty city, for in one hour, your judgment has come. And the merchants of the Earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore.

Matt VanderVen: Merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, talking about all these wealthy things, these items, these, you know, attributes and aspects of certainly, great comfort. Every kind of object of the most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble, and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil, and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, and sheep, horses, and chariots, and bodies, and souls of men.

Matt VanderVen: The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, who have become rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, the great city was that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing. It's all going to burn. Every shipmaster, all who travel by ships, sailors, and many as trade on the sea stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, what is like this great city?

Matt VanderVen: They threw dust on their heads, mourning, and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, the great city which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she is made desolate. Rejoice over her, oh heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you all on her. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, he threw it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence, the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore.

Matt VanderVen: The sound of the harpist, the musicians, the flutists, and the trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman or any craft shall be found in you anymore. And the sound of the millstone shall not be heard in you in you anymore. The light of the lamp shall not shine in you anymore. And the voice of the bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the Earth, for by your sorcery.

Matt VanderVen: Ain't that what it is? All the nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of the prophets and saints, and all who were slain on the Earth. That is a very heavy chapter, a very long chapter, a lot of depth in that chapter. So, we'll take it little by little, piece by piece, precept upon precept, line upon line.

Matt VanderVen: The first question that we really need to answer here, is this the same Babylon as I mentioned that we read about and that was described in chapter 17, right? Because chapter 17 focused on the religious idolatry and spiritual fornication. Yet in chapter 18 here, we seem to be focused more on the commercial and the material. I want you to see some of the definite or specific similarities between Babylon is described in Revelation chapter 17 and Revelation 18.

Matt VanderVen: So, let's just look at some of these things here together so we can settle this in our hearts, that yes, they are one and the same, just a different rake or perspective focus is being brought by the Holy Spirit. Both are under the rule of who? Antichrist. And both have what? It's interesting, a ruling queen. Isn't that interesting? Both have ruling queens, speaking of the same queen.

Matt VanderVen: Both are filled with blasphemy. Both hate the saints. Both want to shed their blood. Both are associated with what? The kings who are what? A part of the fornication. Both are under judgment and destroyed. All very specific similarity all the way down. And in my view, it's both to see them intermingled, yet focused from different perspective, right? Religious Babylon, again, Revelation chapter 17, commercial Babylon, Revelation chapter 18.

Matt VanderVen: And it begins very clearly, and we'll see these things here after these things, meoltoto or meoltota in the Greek, it means that it's going to occur sequentially after the fall of religious Babylon. So, chronologically, that means those who are alive in the great tribulation, those who've rejected Jesus Christ. Listen up, when you see a one world religion, and you see the kings and the Antichrist turn on that one world religion, and I pray that this tape, this this audio here, can be heard by someone.

Matt VanderVen: In those days that are alive and living, and they maybe have, who knows, what technology, or maybe it's a DVD, or an MP3, or they just stream it, or I don't know. And I pray they hear these words, when you see that happen and there's this denomination at that time that is worldwide, that is brought down, please know right at that point, the commercial Babylon is going to collapse and fall right after. That's the series of events.

Matt VanderVen: Babylon is falling, and it's understood in two senses, religious Babylon and commercial Babylon. And they're both at unique times. They do not occur at the same time, and that's what I also want us to see, especially as you're teaching others the word of God. I want you to be able to explain that to people so that they have an eye to see and an ear to hear what the Spirit has to say. Is Babylon of Revelation 18 a literal city or a world system?

Matt VanderVen: I think we talked a little bit about that in Revelation 17. Some have thought it to be a future rebuilt Babylon of the Euphrates river in the Middle East. It's now desolate. You would know it today as modern day Iraq, okay? You might remember there was a former dictator there. Anybody remember his name? Saddam Hussein, that's right. He had actually desired when he was alive to resurrect that ruined city of Babylon in all its glory. It's one of the things that he had talked.

Matt VanderVen: We were watching many of us in ministry at that time and wondering how he would fail, because the Bible talks about that there will be this city. And so some people thought, well, maybe it is a literal city, even though I believe it's speaking to obviously all tribes, worlds, people, tongues, nations. It would be interesting to see if there was a Babylon set up in the modern day Iraq. As we know that never occurred. I think it can represent both. I want to be, I don't want to be dogmatic here. I want to be clear.

Matt VanderVen: It doesn't say that it can't be a literal city, but it also doesn't say that it's not literally a commercial system of Babylon, kind of like a religious Babylon that's a system of ideology, a world religion of humanism in chapter 17. It can be a commercial ideology of a marketplace. And we're going to talk a little bit about that because we already know that everyone's been set up for that system. Why? Because do you remember?

Matt VanderVen: You won't be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast, which is all about what again? Commercialization, right? Did you know you remember that? We talked a little bit about that when we were in those chapters. That mark, whether it's on your forehead or your hand, gives you the ability to buy, sell and trade. It's materialism, commercialism. And without that mark, you can't. But taking that mark means you have expressed your allegiance to Antichrist, whether you know it or not, whether you're thinking about it or not.

Matt VanderVen: It's very clear, because to do that, you will be adopting modern day Egypt, a worldwide system. Now, Wolvord, I like to quote him once in a while. He's a scholar, a very good, you know, sounded, grounded scholar, if I can say it that way. He says that the context seems to indicate that Babylon here is viewed in its political and economic character rather than its religious aspect.

Matt VanderVen: And that's important, because chapter 17 deals with the religious. Uh, chapter 18 is dealing with the political, the economical, and that whole idea. So, let's begin back in verse one as we read this together. As we for those that are born again here, aren't you thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ? We will not be here for this to see these things that are going to happen. This is a terrible, terrible. And the good news is no one needs to be. No one has to go through the great tribulation if they give their hearts and minds and hearts to Jesus Christ.

Matt VanderVen: Well, verse one says in chapter 18, after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority on the Earth, and was illuminated with his glory, right? So, after these things, meototo, meotata, we've seen this before, it's speaking the next session events, next action or the event that will happen. You might remember, we saw that in chapter four. After the Church Age, it was used in Greek to help divide the Church Age from the great tribulation and thereafter.

Matt VanderVen: God uses the same language in here expressing a new section, a new chapter if you will, even though it's within this book of Revelation, right? Chapters in and verse numbers were added for our readability. Those were added by men. Those were not in the original Greek manuscripts, okay? Understand that. So, it's for readability. But God by using these terms, meototo or meotata, he's telling us, hey, I have a section break here for you, just like he did in chapter four. We would say chapter four, he wouldn't refer to it that way. He would say, meototo. That section, chapter one, two and three, was a section of Revelation.

Matt VanderVen: After that, all the way to this next section we read here in chapter 18, verse one. He says it again, after these things, meototo. This next section I'm bringing you to. So, we're in if you're counting, the third section of Revelation, according to the original Greek manuscripts. And it's another angel, right? Because that's how we've seen that that that terminology. Is this angel with a great with great authority, that it's the same word we see there, Aalan, right?

Matt VanderVen: Aalan, that means another, of a similar like and quality, okay? However, this angel is different from the angel in chapter 17, who was one of the angels that had the seven bowls that was on the Earth. No, this angel, he's in heaven, right? It says clearly, the Earth was illuminated with his glory. Now, this is interesting. This angel's coming down from heaven, and being just in the presence of God, he what? He glows. He's illuminated. He glows. He has a Moses, when he was up on the mountain, and he was with the Lord.

Matt VanderVen: He came down, people didn't even want to look upon his face, because spending the Shekinah glory, spending that glory. I don't know, did it look sunburned on Moses? Did he just glow? I'm not sure. Do you remember, and even when we were going through that, uh, when we were in our Old Testament, we're reading through Genesis, Exodus, we were going through Deuteronomy, and I talked about how in that one section, the word there in the Hebrew is interesting. He didn't want the people even to see that when the Shekinah glory began to fade from him. He put a mask or a veil or a covering on, because he didn't want them to see that the glory had begun to what?

Matt VanderVen: Fade from being in his presence physically with God. It's very interesting. It's very interesting. So, this angel's coming down. Obviously, he's been in the presence of God and he for all intents and purposes, I don't know how to say it, he glows. He glows, right? And it reminds me just very clearly that when you press into Jesus and spend time with him, you come away the same way. Now, you may not physically glow, right? You're not going to walk in the room and somebody's going to look at you and go, hey, there's glowworm Matt, right? You're not going to some of you look, what does he mean glowworm Matt?

Matt VanderVen: That's a generational thing. If you're probably over 35, you have no idea what a glowworm is. But for some of us or some of us, you know, you grew up and there was this little worm, you'd squeeze him, and he would glow at night, right? A little glowworm, okay? You guys were cheated that were born in this age. We had the coolest stuff, man. Coolest stuff. Now, you got all this, your tech, I guess your iPhone glows or something now, but it's not the same. This glowworm, everybody wanted one. All right, anyway, back to the point.

Matt VanderVen: When you spend time with Jesus, you come away different. I always like, you know, I'm a foodie, right? I'm Italian. I like to eat. I always related to food. How many of you like steak or meat? Some of you don't? I need to get you saved. No, I'm kidding. No, for those I'm just kidding, please. But, in all sincerity, you know, when you want to make a nice steak, does it make sense to marinate it? Yeah, let let let the fibers in the meat break down. What's good at that? A little phosphorus, little something like in there. Use different ingredients. You don't just add phosphorus, but you add ingredients that go in and they marinate the meat, right? What happens when that meat sits in that baggy or whatever you're using and the phosphorus begins to break down and the tendon all that stuff in the meat, all of it starts to break. It gets nice and what?

Matt VanderVen: Tender, juicy. Do you realize that's exactly what happens when we read the word of God and we spend time with Jesus, we come away more tender, more supple, more juicy in the love of the Lord, more like Jesus. That's exactly. You can't spend time with Jesus and not come away more like him, not come away more tender, not come away more compassionate. If you're afraid of what it's going to look like in a world that's been where hearts are growing cold and waxing cold as it says will be one of the symptoms of the last days, and we already see it.

Matt VanderVen: Spend time in the Bible. Spend time with Jesus, and that will inoculate you from a a cold heart, because you will be supple and you will be compassionate, and you will be others focused and loving. You come away different. You're always going to come away with his truth and his grace, and that will change you. Grace changes everything. Truth changes everything in the way we think of others and the way we treat them. You see, it simply cannot be helped.

Matt VanderVen: We don't have to turn around and and reform a society. The word of God reforms the heart. When you reform the heart, that reforms the society. And that's the way it's always been, and it was designed by God specifically through His word in the church, and that was done. And often when I see this downward spiral, I realize and recognize in some ways, it's my failure. It's the failure of pastors. It's the failure of the body of Christ. It's the failure of the church, because this is God's mechanism to change a world.

Matt VanderVen: He never did it through a political ideology. He was on the Earth. He could have well done that through Caesar if he wanted to, or through Herod. He used synagogues, churches today. He used people. He used times of dinner, when getting together with, eating with a meal with somebody and just pouring into them, learning about them, investing in them, spending time with them, and then giving them the hope that they have, giving them that truth.

Matt VanderVen: Look at verse two here. And he cried mightily with a loud voice saying, Babylon the Great has fallen, has fallen and has become a dwelling place of demons. A prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. What is going on? Well, first of all, the the Greek word here, he cried with a loud voice. This is not yelling. Just like when I'm up here, I don't yell. I get passionate. I might be proclaiming. I'm not yelling, right? He's proclaiming truth. That's what he's doing here.

Matt VanderVen: And he's saying, Babylon the Great has fallen. He announces that Babylon is fallen. He doesn't say it once. He says it what? Twice. Why does he do that? He actually says it two other times down there. But why does he do that? The phrase is repeated like a solemn chant, almost like, it's fallen, it's fallen. It's a declaration. The city is becoming a dwelling place or has become a dwelling place of demons. Do you realize that so much of Revelation is written in the past tense with the infinitive?

Matt VanderVen: In other words, the idea behind it is, it's what? Done. Even though it hasn't occurred yet. How is that possible that God could write that way or inspire that by the Holy Spirit that way? Because God is, don't forget this now, this is important, all the ones you love too, that have gone on to be with Jesus. Don't forget this. They're outside of time. Did you ever think about that? I don't want to wreck you, it's too early. But did you ever think about the idea of time?

Matt VanderVen: That God dwells in the past, the present, and the future all at the same time. I my brain ow. It can't handle that. I it ow. You know, the physics of that starts to mess me up, right? How is how are you in the future and yet in the past? How Because he is. And all the loved ones,