His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Consider this staggering statistic. According to the latest study in 2025, less than 8% of Christians actually read their Bible every day. Less than 13 to 15% of Christians actually read their Bible for more than an hour a week. How can we ever be conformed to the likeness and image of God if we don't know what His likeness and image is?

He is calling His children to have a hunger like when we first got saved, to light the fire again, to come to the Word and come ready to say, "Lord, have Your way in me." I love You, Jesus.

Announcer: Armageddon. Books and movies have been made about it, but not all of the depictions are true. What will this battle really be like? We need to look no further than Revelation Chapter 19 to answer that, and that's where we're heading today on His Perfect Love.

Pastor Matt VanderVen is our Bible teacher. Today he'll be completing Chapter 19. When Jesus returns, He will judge those who have rejected Him, and the Lord will bring an end to evil and wickedness. Here's Pastor Matt with more.

Matt VanderVen: How many of you have had a garden or planted something? How many of you can grow things? Please come to my house and help me. How many can grow stuff in your yard, with dirt and everything? The whole thing God gave you. A bunch of you are like, "Yeah, I can. I'm sorry you're a loser." No, you didn't say that, but you were thinking it. You ought to be ashamed, just because you have green thumbs and I don't.

Where am I going? When you're going to put something in the ground and plant, you're doing that with the expectation that there's going to be a fruit or something that comes from it. You're not like, "Oh my gosh, I've got to till this ground." You're thinking about vegetables. You're thinking about something that's going to come forward that's going to feed your family and take care of them.

Ladies, some of you are Proverbs 31 women. You're thinking about all the things you're doing to care for your family. Guys, you're coming alongside, thinking of the ways you're going to provide. Ephesians 5, right? You're looking at all these things and you're like, "Oh, this is great." And yes, there's sweat on the brow, as Christ said there would be in Genesis 3. But afterwards, you know that comes sustenance and food and things that we get excited about.

Vegetables and meat and all these other kinds of things that taste good. How many of you are foodies? Do you like food? Every one of you should raise your hand. Don't you make me feel bad because I'm double-handed. I think it's born into the Italian culture. It's how we express our love. Fellowship, Acts 2:42. They gathered for the breaking of bread, fellowship, investment.

But what the Lord is saying here is so clear to me. It's that we're to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love our neighbor just as Jesus loved us, loved you. The armies that we read about here in this passage were deceived. They were deceived to believe that the Antichrist could win. Just for way of memory, turn back to Chapter 13, please, really quick.

Chapter 13, verse 4. "So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?'" That's where they're at. They're so deceived that they have literally even declared it. Who can go against God? Who can make war against the Antichrist?

They don't think, "Well, who's against God?" anyone who rejects God. They're not afraid or fearful or any of those things. Meanwhile, God has turned around and showed them His power. He's showed all of us His power. And yet He's showed them something I think remarkable, and that is His love, an unconditional love.

He's shown us grace. He's shown us mercy, compassion, a desire to see us with who we could be, not who we were when we had the bottle or when we had the drugs, or when He picked us up out of that miry clay and stood us on a rock. He didn't see us as that is who we are. He saw us as better than that, who He created us to be.

When you look across the aisles here, who do you see? Your friend, your brother or sister in Christ? Do you see them and see the best in them, or are you so focused on all of their failures and all of their shortcomings? Because that tells me more about you than anything else, more than what you tell me about them.

It tells me about your presuppositions, your understanding of who Christ is in your life, and your piety or pride to think that somehow you're the one, you've arrived. Since the Lord began this fellowship 11 years ago, we've had one very clear statement, and that is there is no ego or pride. Nobody here's arrived.

When we walk into this church, we're not going to play Christian. We're not going to turn around and look down upon anybody. If there's sin issues, sure, we're going to come along that person, not to embarrass them, not to shame them, but to get them and help them because we love them on the right track. Get them back on the path with Christ. That's the goal.

We're not going to compromise at sin, but we're also not going to turn around and destroy people. The church is a hospital. For some people, this is their last hope. They've gone everywhere else and spent all of their money and found no answers, no contentment, no acceptance.

And we, as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, so often have pushed people away because they didn't look like us, talk like us, have the same economic status as us or social dynamic as us, instead of seeing them as Jesus sees them. But that means you've got to be like Jesus to see people like Jesus.

Let's look at verse 20 and 21 and we'll close here. "Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone." That's where it is. That's what it's coming to.

"And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh." It's a done deal. It's written. It's going to happen. There is no variation of this. You see, the beast and the false prophet, they receive swift treatment and judgment the minute Christ comes back. Their time is over.

We go from the age of man to the age of Messiah. We go from the age of man to the age of Messiah, what we call the Messianic age, also known as the millennial reign. They're cast alive into the lake of fire before the Great White Throne judgment holds court. The lake of fire, hell, we need to see it here. It's real. There's nothing more important than avoiding it.

And the good news is everyone can. Turn with me just to Joel Chapter 2. Joel Chapter 2 in your Bible. We can look at the day of the Lord. It's going to give us great detail of what this Battle of Armageddon's going to look like. And I hope this, and I know why the Lord put this here, He put this here to warn us.

Joel Chapter 2, we're going to look at verses 1 through 11. He's giving us direct insight to what it will be like on that day and what the climate, the culture, the whole thing's going to look like. And He put it in stereo and in video. Joel in your Old Testament, Chapter 2, and we're going to look through verses 1 through 11. What is the day of the Lord going to look like?

He gives us great detail about this Battle of Armageddon. Joel Chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. "Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning cloud spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong."

That's how they're coming: great and strong. "The like of whom has never been; nor will there ever be any such after them." This is never going to happen again and never exist after this, this existence of a rebellion like this, the people group that will reject Jesus. "Even for many successive generations. A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like swift steeds, so they run. With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap, like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. Before them the people writhe in pain; all faces are drained of color."

"They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war; everyone marches in formation, and they do not break ranks. They do not push one another; everyone marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down. They run to and fro in the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter at the windows like a thief."

"The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?"

Now look at how people can respond. Look at the choices that people are given. This is what it's going to be like at that day of Armageddon. People are going to be running. God's army's going to be there. Nothing's going to be able to harm God's army. They're going to try to come out, jumping all over, and it's like they're going to try to cut and they can do nothing because we have glorified bodies.

It's supernatural. They can do nothing against us. And they are battling with God in the spirit in a way that they don't comprehend on this earth. And no matter how they try to rebel, no matter what they try to do, they will fail. Their faces will turn to pale. You know what that is? That's when you have that rude awakening of what just happened before you.

Literally, all the blood, it's called capillary refill. How many of you know that term, capillary refill? You take your finger, you want to know if you have good circulation, you can turn around and push this right here. And if you see the blood come back in less than what, three seconds? Very good. You have a capillary refill.

What does that mean? It means you have circulation and blood flow to that area. Why am I telling you that? That's what it's like. The blood is literally just run from their face and their body. It's like their heart has stopped circulating blood. It's like it stopped pumping blood through them because the heart has literally just broken.

It's like a myocardial infarction, a heart attack. It can't even pump the blood. That is the reality of that moment. None of us here on this earth have ever had anything like that, apart from obviously the physiological event of a myocardial infarction. Other than that, none of us have literally stood before God or stood before someone and watched everything just literally, the blood just empties out, the pumping doesn't, and we're just not even able to shake, not even able to move.

That's the severity of what we're talking about, that literally, the emotional response is so strong that physiologically, it's a breakdown in the system. And that's all from just the spoken word. Look at verse 12 and onward now. What happens here? Let's look at what the details are. This should be the natural response: a prayer of repentance, a tearing of the heart to turn to our Jesus today.

The day of salvation, this is how we all should respond while we have opportunity. "Now, therefore," says the Lord, "turn to Me with all your heart." He doesn't say some of your heart. He makes it clear: all your heart. When you go to God, what does He want? All of you and your heart.

Who are you sharing your heart with? Who have you given your heart in a place of idolatry and worship? You take it back and you give it to Jesus. He's the only one that deserves all of your heart. And I'm not saying you can't love others. You are called to love others, but not the same way you love Jesus.

I tell young couples when they're getting married, part of the premarital counseling, I look at the young couples, they're so excited. I mean, you could pretty much say anything, "Yes, we do." No, it's not time for that yet. "Okay, okay." Literally, they're so excited, they're so elated. This is great, they're in love.

So they're going through this whole thing. And then what happens? I look right at the lady and I say, "Do you love him?" "Yes, I do. But do you love Jesus more?" And almost, I've never had it yet where a woman doesn't go, "Absolutely. Are you looking at him? Of course I love Jesus more." No, they don't say it that way, but they definitely turn around and go, "Yes, I love Jesus more."

I look at the man and I say, "Okay, do you love Jesus more than you love her?" Most of the time they kind of look at me like this is a trick question because guys, we think like that, right? We're like, "We're being set up, man, because she's going to hear this, and I do, of course, I love Jesus, but is this going to..." And I'm like, it's okay, you can say it.

"Yes, I love Jesus more. I love you too, baby, but I love Jesus." And it's really fun because I just sit back. Well, now if I do it with one of you that are getting married, you're already prepared for it. I just ruined it. But it's amazing because as you're going through that, it really does cause you to think.

Wow, I love this person. I'm willing to spend the rest of my life with them. Yes and amen. And I think about the commitment I'm going to make to them, how much more to my God? See, that's the trigger. I've only had one time where I actually had somebody look and say, "I love her more." I said, "Even more than God?"

And he was honest. And of course, at that moment we said, "We need to stop here right now." But only one time in 11 years have I ever had that happen. And I'm happy to say that after meetings and going over scripture and everything, he came to a better understanding.

He realized, "You know what? I'm not really saved. I thought I was saved. I grew up, I thought I was saved, but I guess I wasn't because you're right, I would never have said I love another person more than my God if I really was born again." And it was beautiful because then a couple of meetings later he came to salvation. They ended up getting married and they're still married today and they're doing wonderful.

Order of priority, order of priority. So He says, "'Now, therefore,' says the Lord, 'turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.' So rend your heart, and not your garments." Return to the Lord, not on the outside. Let's work on the inside.

"Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him; a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly."

What's He want them to do? He wants them to come together in prayer. He wants them to come together and respond. Verse 16: "Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room.

Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, 'Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to a reproach, that the nations should rule over them.' Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

And it says right after that that God will be zealous for His land. He'll pity His people. And that's what He's going to do when He comes back. He's going to judge those who reject Him. And to you and I and the born-again believers throughout all of the earth for the ages, we are going to co-labor with God. We're going to minister.

Next week I'll talk a little bit more of what that's going to look like because He's very detailed. I gave like 20 verses and I could just see the glazing over. So I'm not going to read the 20 verses out loud. But next service we'll come together and instead what we'll do is we'll spend some time going over each and every one of them, looking at what's going to happen in the Millennium.

Because there are going to be people that are going to try to confuse you about this Messianic age, this millennial reign. They're going to try to tell you it's allegorical. We're going to talk about that next week, if the Lord should tarry. They're going to tell you it's not real or it's just spiritual.

But God has over 20 different places throughout scripture, He has specifically spoken in great detail what we will be doing, what other people will be doing, what it will be like on earth, what Jesus will be doing, what the Jews will be doing. He's gone into great detail. There's nothing allegorical about this. It is literal. It's going to happen, and it's going to happen just as He describes it.

But every one of us today, we need to make a decision here. Are we truly living for Jesus Christ? Are we truly born again? Are we being conformed in the likeness of His image? I have a simple thing I do. I take my Bible, and you do it the way the Lord leads you, but every six months I'm constantly taking notes in my scripture.

And I look back six months from where I was to where I am now. And is there any growth? Not have I sinned and blown it, because of course I have, I'm human. But is there growth? Am I beginning to look, this fragrance, the fingerprints, am I beginning to look and think and act more like Jesus?

See, nobody can tell me that because nobody knows my thoughts. Nobody knows your thoughts. We all have thoughts that we don't share with another living soul. Aren't you glad that God doesn't walk around and put the LED on so that when you're like, "Hey, nice to meet you," and you've got all, "Oh, you really want to be home, you don't want to be here"?

"Why is your hand so clammy? Why aren't you having a firm handshake?" Aren't you glad that He doesn't LED it for us? But you know what? To think that we don't have a thought that He's not aware of, just let that sink in for a minute. When is the last time that you've gone to God, as 1 Corinthians 11 says, where it says examine thyself?

Where we turn around and we go to God and we say, "Lord, I'm going to place myself in the scriptures, run me through it. What do I look like? Who am I? Who am I really?" We can all talk a big game. We can act certain ways we come to church. "Hallelujah, sister, how you doing?" We can do that.

But who am I really when nobody else is looking, when nobody else is around? Where are my thoughts? Only the Holy Spirit can reveal that, not a pastor, not another man, not a helpmate, a wife, nobody. Jesus. But it means I have to be willing to run my life through the grit of scripture.

I have to be willing to look at the characters of the Bible and compare my life. The things I see of David, things I see of Samuel. When I think of Eli and his sons and being respecter of my own boys, I've got to run all that through the grit of scripture. What about Saul holding on too tight?

"Lord, I love being called as a minister. I love what I do here, but I'm going to hold on so tight," not realizing this is the Lord's. Next man up. This is the Lord's. Next man up. It's God's. It's a privilege. It's the same thing in our lives, our families. Have we come to that maturity in Christ where we're willing to turn around and say, "Okay, Lord, show it to me because I want all of Your heart and I know You want all mine."

Amen. It's a call God's invited us to. It's part of sanctification. And the beauty of it is He's a gentleman, so it can go as fast or slow as you want it to. Hence the shroud being torn in two from the top down. Because now we can all press into God as close and as intimate as we want.

No longer do we need a priest to come into a place. No longer do we need a pastor. There is no mediator but the man Christ Jesus, the Bible teaches. I'm not your priest or your pastor. I'm your pastor, yes, but I'm not your priest as far as confession of sin necessarily.

But when we do that and we bear each other's burdens, it's amazing the relief that God brings and answered prayer, the way He takes those things from our lives and frees us of all sin and all unrighteousness. So I really want to encourage you guys: don't play church, don't play Christian, don't be messing with alternate doctrines.

Stick to your Bible. As born-again believers, that doesn't happen unless you're in the Bible at least multiple times a day every day. Because what's poured in is poured out. And the reality is, and I'm not saying anybody here, it's not this church, it'll be the church down the street.

But according to the latest study in 2025, less than 8% of Christians actually read their Bible every day. Less than 13 to 15% of Christians actually read their Bible for more than an hour a week. How can we ever be conformed to the likeness and image of God if we don't know what His likeness and image is?

He is calling His children to have a hunger like when we first got saved, to light the fire again, to come to the Word and come ready to say, "Lord, have Your way in me." I love You, Jesus. Amen.

Announcer: You're listening to Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. You can hear the study from Revelation again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. We've expanded our podcasts too. Look for us on oneplace.com and most of the major podcast platforms.

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And whether you live in or around Mechanicsburg, PA or will be visiting the area soon, we'd love to have you 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.

You'll find us at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information. Next time on His Perfect Love, we go from the age of man to the age of Messiah. Hear all about the millennial reign of Christ when Pastor Matt opens Revelation chapter 20. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.