His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Today on His Perfect Love, we'll meet a church that was spiritually dead. And here's what Jesus has to say to them.

Matt VanderVen: He's telling them very clearly. Wake up. That's what he wants for this church. And then he tells them to do what? Once they wake up and are recognizing this, he tells them to repent for their sin, right? Be watchful and wake up means to start paying attention to their need of salvation, to stop being careless about their hearts condition before God. Be others focused as well.

Guest (Female): This is His perfect love. The word goes out. It's what real love looks like in truth and grace. This is His perfect love.

Guest (Male): We're going through Revelation right now on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt Vanderwan. And as we return to chapter three, we take another look at the church of Sardis. While they had a good reputation, they were spiritually lifeless, unsaved, just going through the religious motions. There's a lot of that going on today. If that would describe you, stick around. We'll discover what to do when spiritually dead. But first, Pastor Matt explains why he believes the seven spirits spoken of here are the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Female): This is His perfect love.

Matt VanderVen: I think we identify these seven spirits here with the Holy Spirit, the eternal God, because God the Father in chapter one, verse four is already there. He who was, who is, who is to come, okay? That's the Ancient of Days, God the Father. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only remaining eternal being is the Holy Spirit. There's no one else left that can be omnipresent nor omniscient. Okay. Well, I'm not convinced. Okay, you guys Wow, you guys are Well, good. You're Bereans. You want to You know the scriptures. Okay. Well, let's Let's ask the question then.

Once we identify who the seven spirits are, if we do come to the place that we recognize it's Holy Spirit, the question remains is why is there seven of him? Okay, I believe all of us should really be convinced at this point that it's the Holy Spirit. But why seven of them? And that's a fair question. If you're sitting here this morning going, Pastor, but wait a minute, most of the time in scripture, we refer to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one God, three persons, and I would be in complete agreement with you.

But then why here? If you're trying to tell me this is the Holy Spirit, why does it say the seven spirits? Wouldn't that Wouldn't that confuse you and I if you're trying to say it's truly the Holy Spirit? Again, I love that you're Bereans. Good question. Turn to Isaiah chapter 11, verse two, please. Isaiah chapter 11, verse two in your scripture. You see, I believe John's vision that he's giving us here includes a picture of the perfect and complete Holy Spirit. Isaiah chapter 11, verse two is very clear. It reads, the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

This is a prophetic prophecy of Messiah. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So what is this prophecy of Isaiah about? It's about the Messiah that's going to be empowered not by seven individual spirits. Did you just catch that in Isaiah 11:2? It's not talking about seven individual spirits. Even in context, we don't read it that way. But one spirit and what is that one spirit or how is he described? Seven unique ways. Look at Isaiah. You You have your Bibles right in front of you.

It's very clear. What is the first way? Well, the spirit of the Lord. Who is the spirit of the Lord? The Holy Spirit. There it is. Closed case. We now know it's 100% certainly it's the spirit of the Lord. It said so right there. Well, wait a minute. What are these other spirits then that are then being given that way, seven spirits? Well, the next one is the spirit of wisdom. Do you see that? The third one is the spirit of understanding. Do you see that? The fourth one is the spirit of counsel. The fifth one is the spirit of power.

The sixth one is the spirit of knowledge. And the seventh one is the spirit of the fear of the Lord. All seven here. So what is What is this communicating to us uh at one time prophetically now for you and I as we look back and even in Revelation presently, what do we understand that the seven spirits of God in the book of Revelation are a reference to the Holy Spirit in the perfection of his manifold ministry. That's really what God is trying to say to us. And again, it's going to be important that we understand that because if you're going to Sardis and you're about to give this really heavy rebuke and correction, you want to make sure that though the person who's giving that perfect question, the Holy Spirit, that correction, he's not getting it wrong.

No, he said with all seven spirits, right? The one Holy Spirit with all seven, the manifold aspect, he's saying the entire aspect of God is weighing in on this matter and coming to this judgment. So it's it's beyond contestation. That's what he's really saying here. It's beyond contestation. There's no way There's a wiggle room. Well, maybe the Lord And also he goes on to say, and you can look at it again here, the seven stars, I know your works and that you have a name and you're alive. Yeah, okay. What is name in the Bible?

We're going to talk about that in a little bit. That's That's the idea of character. He's saying, look, you as a church may have a reputation, and it might be a great one. But you're no longer living up to your laurels. You're no longer living up to the character which you once had. Because that's what a name references, doesn't The name is especially in the Greek and the Hebrew, it's all about character. When you would be a Jew or not so much the Gentiles, but more of the Jews, and again, in context makes sense here, the name you were given often describes your character, right?

So laughter, different things we can think of different people's names in the Hebrew that have meanings associated with their names. Many of you were given names by your parents that had to do with the character of your personality when you came out and they named you that. Some may or some may not. But But that means a lot to us. So it's important because what is What is he trying to communicate here? He says first of all, I know your works and that you have a name. I know your reputation. I know your character. I'm not Jesus, I'm not ignorant.

I know this church and I know it well. I've watched you for 20 or 30 years. I know that you have this reputation that you are alive. You are dynamite, right? Dunamos, powerful, used by God. He says, but I'm going to say something to you. He says, you're spiritually dead. What? That's heavy, isn't it? You You're no longer worthy of that reputation is what Jesus is saying here. You're resting on your laurels, your works. Remember, it's always been about faith in Christ. And why is that important? Because as any church that grows, church that's got multiple generations in it, you know, when you have a younger church, we've we've been around for what?

10 years in November it'll be since we started our first Bible study. You know, it's a little easier when you have a younger church like ours where it's really one generation. Maybe we're seeing some of the second generation now. But I think like the Church of Philly or or maybe even Chester Springs where they've had two or three generations. So what can happen and what can seep in? Well, my grandparents knew Jesus. So that means I must be good, right? I mean, I go to the same church. I mean, I've been here my whole life.

Or my parents got saved in that church and I grew up in that church. I mean, I got to be good, right? I'm a church attender. You see what happens with with some of that that can come with generational uh experiences that sometimes it can bring in uh a comfort and people forget that it's really about the personal relationship with Jesus. And they get caught up in the works, they get caught up in all these other things. And while the reputation of the church was good because the people that started and planted the church and the people that were attending were believers in Jesus Christ, two generations and generation later, because they haven't walked in the same stead of their parents by their faith in Christ, they are not born again.

Or if they are born again, they're kind of half in the world, half in the half in the kingdom of God. What happens? They fall and they have a self-deception and And Jesus teaches this over and over again not to be caught up in that. That it's our personal relationship with Jesus Christ that saves us. It's not our parents, it's not our grandparents, right? So again, once again, doctrine. Here it is a letter, doctrine he's given us through these things foundationally. So they were falling prey, okay? To the similar sin of the Pharisees. And you think of Matthew chapter 23, verse 27 and 28.

Do you remember when Jesus said to the Pharisees, you're like a whitewashed tomb, clean and white on the outside but dead on the inside. Right? That Is that Boy, you're playing the part. You're playing the hypocrite. All right? This church may have the best reputation, but they were spiritually lifeless. In other words, this church was filled with unsaved people going through the motions of religion. There were many tares among the wheat. I use that example from Matthew chapter 13, verses 24 to 30. Look at verses two and three. He He's going to build on this so they understand.

He says, look, you're dead. You're spiritually dead. He says, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. That scary. For I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard, hold fast and repent. That is the same message he's been giving to every church. Repent. Jesus All Jesus desires is that one people are born again, saved. And then the next thing he wants is that when they get off to repent, to turn around and get back in right relationship with him. That is how awesome our God is.

That all he wants is is to bring his kids back into the fold. That when his kids step out of the fold for whatever reason, he doesn't define the individual. Well, you're only repentant for these sins. No, he never did that. Any sin. When the kids get out of line, what's he say? Come on, boys and girls. Come back. Come on. The grass is not greener on the other side. You only think it is. Nope. Come back. And he warns them of that, right? But he also says, hey, there's a judgment coming, right? But first, I'm giving you the opportunity before judgment comes, grace comes first.

Grace comes first. Okay? And I just don't want us to miss this here. Repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. Very familiar language. Isn't that about His coming again? Very familiar language. But let's take this apart. What is this What does this mean? He's warning this church, obviously Sardis here. He's reminding them the judgment that that they failed to be watchful. Well, what's that mean? It means they failed to wake up spiritually. I mean, if I'm just using modern day vernacular, that's what he's saying.

And he specifically calls out their works. This is what throws people off in this passage cuz they're like, wait a minute. This isn't salvation oriented. This isn't salvific. He's talking about works. We know that you're not saved by your works. That is true, but James also taught us that what? Faith without works is dead. Oh, what's the name of this church? The dead church. That's just coin coincidental, okay? So clearly here, there's a unity and a harmony of what Jesus is communicating and he's consistent. If nothing else anybody could say besides love and truth, Jesus is consistent.

There is an Ancient of Days and he doesn't ever change. God never changes. He's not going to change for you. He's not going to change for me. He is consistent. His word never changes. When heaven and earth falls apart or fails that way, his word never will, it says. His word remains. That just shows you the the um significance and sovereignty of his word, okay? So But he says here, your works. Now why is that significant? Well, because our works are the evidence of a changed life. Are they not? I mean, again, we can never judge the heart, but we can be fruit inspectors, right?

We've talked about that before. So he's saying your works, the motives of your heart, your deeds, they're not perfect before God. There's compromise in there. There's something going on. What's What's at it? Well, James was ever so faithful to talk about this. He uh if you remember, he was the uh pastor if I can say it that way. First of all, the first church, right? The Jewish church in Jerusalem, uh James was the pastor of that church. Just turn in your Bibles to James chapter one, please. I just I know with our time is short here today.

Um we may go a little bit longer, but I really want to get everything out of this passage and not just go to the next church. I I really want us to be Bereans and see the things God has has for us here, okay? I As I mentioned when we began the book of Revelation, we're going to take our time. We're going to get through these things. We're going to come out of here with a full diet of the word of God. That's our faithfulness to the Lord. So look at chapter one, verse 21. He says very clearly, therefore lay aside as James again, the pastor of the first uh if I can say it that way, the Jerusalem church.

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and and what? And receive with meekness, humility the implanted word. Receive the word of God, right? Which is able to what? Save your souls, okay? But be doers of the word and not hearers only. Exactly what was happening in Sardis. Deceiving yourselves is exactly what we do when we hear the word and we don't allow it to be fertile and change our hearts. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and done not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror.

For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he is. You know what I'm always reminded? Anybody love accountability in here? Maybe some of you are like, yeah, I actually do. But most people today, accountability is a bad word because it means there's where there's accountability, there's also responsibility. So when some What it's like is somebody standing in front of a mirror and being like, I not accountable to anybody. You know, when I was growing up, we called that person a cowboy. And they lived in the wild wild West fairy tale because they did whatever they want, whenever they want, and they just thought it was okay.

That is not what Jesus Christ is raising, cowboys, okay? He is calling us all under his spiritual authority. Jesus is the head of that church, the head of the church. And he's saying, look, when a man stands in front of a mirror and he looks in that mirror and he thinks something different of himself, walks away from that mirror and is like, you know what? I am looking really good. I got this whole thing I got this whole thing together. Maybe he stands, maybe he's prideful. He stands in front of that mirror. He's like, I'm the eye candy.

You know, maybe that's where that guy goes. I don't know. But my point is when he does that, he's deceiving himself because the word of God hasn't changed his heart. He's looking at himself, but he's not seeing himself for who he really is. Do you understand that's what it's trying to communicate here? So he says, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets the kind of man he was. But he looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone or among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and an undefiled religion before God and the Father is this. He says, you want to know what it looks like to have faith? He says it means being a doer. It means visiting orphans and widows in their trouble. He says, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. He's saying, be others focused and be obedient and holy. That's what it looks like and it's always looked that way. And that's what he's calling out here, you know, when he he he's James is trying to tell that to the Jerusalem church.

Well, Jesus to this dead church is saying your works are your works your tell. Anybody ever heard of what a tell is? Sometimes you can watch somebody. There can be nonverbal language, things they do, certain mannerisms they have. We call it a tell. You can tell what they're really about, you know? If I did this with you this morning, I'm standing here and I go, where where are my eyes focused on? If I'm trying to have a conversation with you and I'm looking at you and I am I focused on you or something else grabbing my attention?

Or am I even trying to maybe tell you to look over there with me? It could be either one. But that's a tell, right? I'm giving you some information. You're reading that nonverbal and you're reacting. Their tell is giving them away because on the outside they appear to have it all together, but spiritually inside they're hollow. Hollow. There's nothing there, okay? And so what is he saying? He's telling them very clearly. Wake up. That's what he wants for this church. And then he tells them to do what? Once they wake up and are recognizing this, he tells them to repent for their sin, right?

Be watchful and wake up means to start paying attention to their need of salvation, to stop being careless about their hearts condition before God. Be others focused as well. So I can manage many of you here wondering, how does this happen? How does the church start so well and yet end up spiritually dead, especially having such a great reputation like the Church of Sardis did? To the human eye, Sardis, this church was thriving. But Jesus wasn't impressed, was he? The scripture teaches in Romans chapter six, verse 16. Romans chapter six, verse 16. Jesus gives us the answer.

This is exactly how it happens. Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves? He's telling us that everybody presents themselves as a slave. Everyone's following a master. Everyone is. You You don't believe me. How many of you grew up in the '70s, '80s, and '90s? You know you had that Michael Jackson jacket or you had that white glove. Come on now. You know you could Right? Come on now. Don't pretend. How many of you had uh grew up in a time where you listened to hard rock before you were saved or whatever it was and you know, you had the jean jackets and you had the Everyone had a ma Oh, a new sneaker came out.

You had to go get that new sneaker, right? Many of us had Bobos. Some of you even know what that word means. The younger people, you can ask the older people. I like to call them more experienced people. We don't use the word old. What is he saying here in Romans six? Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey, you're one of the slaves? You It You are the one slaves in whom you obey rather of sin leading to death. He says, what you worship you're going to become like. You're going to become just like that.

And he says the same way it works the other way, holy as well, if of obedience and that's what you're worshiping. Jesus is going to lead to obedience and it's going to lead to righteousness. He says, that's exactly That's what Romans 6:16 says. Non-spiritual living produces an estrangement from God that is that is characterized both as death no matter how pleasing the person is, no matter how pleasing the appearance of the church or or how pleasing the programs are. You know, growing up, I I've shared with you before, my mom and dad divorced at a very I was very young age and my mom had to work two or three jobs sometimes.

She was a She was a good woman, very faithful. And uh I have a burning in me what hard work is after watching my mom work and sometimes there would be things she would want to do maybe once or twice a year uh do something special, you know, like get a gift or something like that. And um you know, like you probably a lot of you Maybe some people don't like chocolate. I I love chocolate, right? And so my mom would turn around and she would go and um she would save some money and I remember she would come home.

There was a about two or three miles down the road there was this chocolate shop. And uh And she would go and you could pick out whatever you wanted and it was all handmade and the the person that owned it was real I still love just walking by that place just Even if it was out of the way, just smell the chocolate and then just walk by, look in the window and man, that was awesome. It was It was It was really great. Well, I can remember my mom would go and buy those things and and one of the chocolates and and come home and what I would love to do probably like most of you as a young person is I'd I'd bite right into it.

And boy, I mean, uh my mom I I can remember her literally. I mean, I can see these and I'm talking to you here. Um I can remember her face. She would just smile with such joy cuz she got to see her baby boy um you know, just something so simple and pleasurable, you know, just eating a piece of chocolate. It meant so much to her cuz that was a lot of savings for her to be able to do that. So she was real happy about seeing me happy like that. And And so I can remember doing that.

And for the longest time, I thought that's all chocolate all came. Well, my mom, she worked for the Rochester Psychiatric Center. She actually got promoted. She got a supervisory position, okay? So she actually got a job several years later where she started making um some more money and so she got a little bit of a raise. And so my mom went down to the the chocolate shop and she bought a piece of chocolate. But she brought it home and she I remember coming in the house and it was sitting right there at the table and I walked by and I You know, I was come home, greet my mom first.

I was always raised that way. You come in, kiss your mom, you kiss your dad, you're always respectful like that. I remember coming in and you know, just like I was telling you earlier, what was my verbal and my nonverbal saying, right? I'm like, hi mom. You know, I'm looking at that little chocolate. I think it was a bunny or something. I don't remember what. But I remember I go in and I go up to mom, I kiss her and I'm like, what do you got there? And she said, I I got a piece of chocolate for you.

You know it. I told you and I got good news. I got a raise and this and that. And I remember picking it up, something felt different. It felt heavy. And I thought, what is going on here? Why is this thing so heavy? And not knowing any better, and I know I probably seem naive or foolish to some of you, I just honestly didn't know any better. I took the chocolate and I bit into it like you would normally bite into it. And I thought I almost broke my molar or whatever that thing is. Like it was solid.

It wasn't the kind of chocolate that that was, you know, like I don't know what I I knew it was chocolate, but it was a solid piece of chocolate. And when I bit it, all my jaw hurt, the whole thing. I looked at my mom like, what you do? What is this thing? And she's like, that's solid chocolate. I'm like, wow. I'm like, this is This is going to take for a long time to eat it. This is amazing, right? It's really This is good. And she's like, enjoy it. You know, enjoy it, son, you know?

And I tell you that because the only way I know how to explain what I believe was happening in Sardis was the hollowness. They were like the piece of chocolate that you could bite on the outside. Honestly, if you would have put those two pieces of chocolate in front of me, if I had them for you right now and I set them up in front of you, you from your eye would not be able to tell the difference between the two pieces. They look identical. But it's only till you got on the inside that you found which one had sustenance or substance and which one didn't.

Guest (Male): The Church of Sardis was spiritually hollow. They had a reputation that they were solid, but when you look on the inside, you discover they were hollow. We'll hear more about this spiritually dead church next time on His Perfect Love as Pastor Matt Vanderwan continues through Revelation one verse at a time. If you were blessed and encouraged by the Lord, we'd like to know. Email us while it's fresh on your mind. They're at our website, hisperfectlove.org. Be sure to include your prayer requests. Also at our website, you'll find an archive of these studies in Revelation, making it easy to replay a message you enjoy or catch what you miss on the radio.

Again, we're at hisperfectlove.org and now at oneplace.com as well. Look for us wherever you get your podcasts. And we also have a free mobile app. This is a convenient way to listen to Pastor Matt on your mobile devices. Go to hisperfectlove.org for more information about that. And if the Lord is leading you to support this ministry with a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support, you can do so through the website at 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 ccburg.org/academy. That's ccburg.org/academy. There is much more to come in Revelation. Don't miss a moment of the journey here on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt.

Guest (Female): This is His perfect love.

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

Guest (Female): Let the word go out. The perfect love of Christ to shine. Our lives will shout. I am my beloved's and He is my. Every heart is in His hands. We'll never stop reaching out. This is His perfect love. The word goes out. This is what a real love looks like in truth and grace. This is His perfect love.