His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): We'll tell you all about the sixth seal judgment today on His Perfect Love.

Guest (Male): We come back to our study of Revelation today on His Perfect Love and we'll be finishing up chapter six on our next two programs. We've arrived at seal number six which features cosmic disturbances unlike anything we've experienced. From a great earthquake, stars falling from the sky to the sun turning black and the moon blood red and the inhabitants on the earth will have no doubt that this is from the wrath of the Lamb. Here's Pastor Matt Vanderwan with all the details.

Matt VanderVen: We've come as far as verse 12 last week. We finished the fifth seal and if you remember a couple things that's important out of that passage is that he taught us his promise of justice and really restoration is short. Even in the darkest and most wicked times, God has promised during this great tribulation, during this fifth seal, there will be martyrs. Now some of you are saying, well that doesn't sound so good to be the martyr. Well no, that means they did what? They received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That means they got born again.

And isn't that the most important thing that they have a relationship with Jesus and then all the things that will come because what we're going to learn in the book of Revelation and it's so beautiful even in the end of the book, he says that they are going to minister with him for all of eternity as we will, but they're all going to be given white robes. They're going to be walking victorious. And it doesn't matter the darkest of dark times that we may be living or even worse in the great tribulation, that confidence and promise of God that he will not leave them that once they declare Jesus is their Lord and Savior, that he will bring them to them, to him, to the heaven.

And those who martyr during the tribulation are assured in their place in God's kingdom. What a great promise and hope. They're given white robes symbolizing purity and victory in Christ. And I just felt the need to point this out once again is that this waiting for God's justice speaks to his patience, his long suffering. Again, he allows more people time to repent and turn to him before the final judgment. I truly believe that's why we haven't been raptured yet. I mean I I really anticipated we would have been raptured by now with some of the things we're already seeing going on in this world, the government, the things we're hearing about, you know calling Isaiah five those calling evil righteousness and good and meanwhile it's evil and wickedness.

I I honestly thought we'd be raptured out by now, but but I also understand why God is so slow to do that because he doesn't desire that any would be eternally separated from him. He's desiring that all would come to faith. And again the delay is not because God is indifferent to suffering, the other side of that equation. Well there's a lot of people suffering today. Maybe some of you are suffering right now on this side of eternity and you're here this morning in the great tribulation again far worse but but but nonetheless maybe somebody's suffering and you're like God why?

How long? Maybe you're crying out with the martyrs are crying out. How long oh Lord? Please know that your God is not indifferent to your suffering. He's not indifferent to the suffering of his saints in the great tribulation. But again he desires that the opportunity from more and more to come to salvation. And so he's willing to turn around and strengthen us and encourage us through the suffering, through the difficulty that more might come into the kingdom of God for all of eternity. You know Peter echoes something so beautiful in second Peter chapter three verse nine.

He echoes this same truth. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but he is long suffering, patient towards us that not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Even in the early church, the apostle Peter as he was planting, even in Peter's heart, he felt that desire. Lord, oh how long? And even the bride of Christ gathered at that time said how long? And Peter given inspiration for the Holy Spirit says no, it's not that God is indifferent and God hasn't forgot about you. God is not slack concerning his promises.

But he's patient and he's long suffering and he wants us to be because he wants just like it took time for us to come to salvation, he wants that time given so others can come to salvation. Just recently I heard from a family that was sharing with me um through through a text with my wife they were sharing just how the brevity of human life here one moment absent with the body, present with the Lord, a neighbor. We were just talking about going out to our neighbors last week, weren't we? Being faithful just even if you go next door, upstairs, downstairs, wherever the neighbor and they were given the blessed opportunity to pray with that person, to be with them during those final moments.

But they also know that that person had given their life to Jesus Christ and because of that, no matter how much heartache they know they will see them again. I can't think of a greater gift or comfort that God could give his people or that individual than knowing that we will never be eternally separated, but we will be together forever. And that's exactly also what comes out of the fifth seal. Yes, we can focus on the cries of the martyrs and the the tremendous difficulty and and heartache that's going to come from this great tribulation, but see the goodness in God's pause and God justice and that he wants more and more to come to Christ.

See his character, see his love with truth. He's even extending grace to the lost today. Revelation chapter 20 verse four reveals that those who are martyr during the great tribulation will reign with Christ during the millennial kingdom. Amazing. The apostle Paul declared in Romans chapter 8 18 for I consider that the sufferings of this present time again talking to a church in Rome, by the way had never been to, planted a church through others, but himself never traveled to at the writing of the time of the letter. He had not even gone there. Colossi the same thing, hadn't gone to Colossians either at the time of the writing of the letter.

The two letters that Paul wrote that he never actually visited in person, but wrote via letter to them to encourage them as the work was getting planted. And he says to them for I consider the sufferings of this present time they're not even worthy. He says this is really not even a competition. It's not even worthy to be compared with the glory, the glory of God, the glory which shall be revealed in us. And so as we go on to this sixth seal here this morning, we look in verse 12 he says I looked when he opened the sixth seal.

And behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it's rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place and the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid himself in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.

Look at verse 16 and said to the mountains and rocks that just shows you the mental illness that's going to be a part of the great tribulation that human beings talk to inanimate objects and they expect them to answer back. Don't miss that. Underline that please. Fallen us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Please notice with me there's no such thing is an atheist in the great tribulation. There's no agnostic. It 's not like they're sitting there going why is all this happening to us?

They look up, they see the wrath, the punishment, the judgment of God that's coming. They know it is from Jesus. This is very very important as we study this. There is no such thing as one that misunderstands or doesn't understand. When Jesus Christ was physically alive on this earth, physically manifested in human form, millions of people saw him. Thousands obviously saw him. They interacted with him daily. Many even followed in the beginning when it was what they could get from God. But when it came to truly knowing Jesus, not because they wanted fire insurance, but because he was the love of their life and the love of our lives, that's what birthed the true relationship that caused the apostles, the Christian church, so many of them to be martyred in the first century to turn around and willingly sacrifice their life not denying Jesus because they loved them more they loved him more than they loved themselves.

And that was a work of multiplication. Thousands and thousands started getting saved. By the time you get to the first seven or so chapters of Acts, if you counting, you know there's somewhere around 8,000 souls that have been saved and really that encompasses weeks. It it's remarkable what God did when a when a human soul is willing to lay down their opinions, self will, self righteousness and pick up the mantle of salvation that Jesus Christ has provided. A gift of love and grace and mercy. But as we read here, they fallen us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and and the most declarative truth who is able to stand?

I mean that's ultimately what we come to. I mean when we look at this, this is not a game. This is sobering here. This isn't going to be a matter. I I I say it all the time said if the last few weeks, please statistically even if you want this is not a blind faith. You want to come at your Bible, come at your Bible. You can even come at it extra biblically. You can come at it taking it as the literal truth which we know it to be. And you will still come to the same conclusion.

You can look at the prophecies, 1,300 of them, 1,200 and something. You can look at the ones just about Jesus Christ, 500 and something. Wulford wrote a wonderful book on this. Historians have gone and you could take even extra biblical historians, Tacitus, Roman, you know different people that were and the things that Jesus Christ declared, these things that be true, no man could have manipulated. By a raise of hand, was there anybody in here this morning that got to choose what city you were born in? Just checking. In your mother's womb you couldn't vote and say I would like to be born here.

Anybody? No? Just just for the for the people listening on the radio and for the No nobody raised their hand. How about the time in which you would be born or season? Remember God's coming had an expiration date on it. Jesus coming to this earth because we know that early on it was told very clearly in chapter two what book am I thinking of? Prophetically it said that there was a time that when it was declared, Cyrus did this, that when it was declared that the streets and the walls would be rebuilt, it was after the exist What is it?

Nehemiah. That's right. Nehemiah chapter two. Nehemiah chapter two specifically states that at the time there was a prophecy given by Daniel, but also Daniel in his 70 years in his prophecy there, but that it would be beginning at the rebuilding of the wall which Nehemiah chapter two began. And when that happened in Nehemiah chapter two, the 430 something years or I forget the exact calculation of number was to be declared and guess what? It results if you use a Hebrew calendar in 360 days, guess what year that results to or proves out to? 80 32.

You cannot make that up. That is extra biblical. That is not something you go back to a Jewish calendar based on 360 days. You look at the prophecy in Daniel which says the exact years and then you calculate that all 360 again. That's the Hebrew calendar. That's not the Gregorian calendar of 365 days we use and that gets you to 80 32 which is the very time that Jesus Christ made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Again none of the the problems today we are so short sighted we have forgotten our history. So many doctor Google read books.

Go back to historical books. Then we won't repeat the travesties and things that we have seen happen in this country. You want to not repeat the travesties, know your history so we don't go back and do the same terrible things over and over and over again. And so here God has drawn us to this portion of scripture where now he tells us again I looked and he opened and I saw a seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black, the sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars heaven fell to the earth and a fig tree drops and laid figs and shaken by a mighty wind.

Then the sky receded to all these things. These are cosmic disturbances. So what are some of the things we're seeing here? First one, verse 12, a great earthquake. Some of you have even been in an earthquake if you lived in California or traveled it. This is an earthquake that's going to come that's off the Richter scale. Okay it's going to be when he says a great earthquake, his terms for great is different than our term from great. This is the great tribulation. It's not tribulation, not trial, difficulty. The next thing he says is that the sun will be blackened.

How many people think that this is the only time in scripture that the sun is going to be blackened? It's interesting. You will see this and this is something that trips people up that ends up fall coming to a mid or post tribulation perspective because they don't understand the there's three different judgments. There's the what? We're in the seal. We go to the trumpet and then ultimately we culminate in the bowl or vial judgments. In each one of those you see some similarities with this judgment. We'll look at Joel here this morning. We're going to look at Matthew here this morning, but what people have on because they're not taking a harmony of the scriptures, what they do is they say all this is coming at the end of the tribulation, the great tribulation.

Yet you and I are reading that we're just in the seal judgments and the seal judgments are when again the beginning of the great tribulation. So that means that this event, things that we're seeing like sun and cosmic disturbance, they're not just happening one time. This is going to happen multiple times. Why would that be effective? Well you see what it did right here to the individuals that are alive and we really see that's all of humanity alive at that time that wasn't saved before the rapture. And what did they do? They became fearful. It was a wake up because they saw cosmic disturbances like they've never seen before.

How many of you here this morning have seen the sky roll up or recede or split? Anybody? No. If you and I were alive and we watched even right now if this building, right? We know this isn't the atmosphere or the exosphere, but if we watched just at the peak or the ridge beam if we would call that, the peak point of this building, if it began to fold back on both sides, I think that would have our attention. And I think many of you wouldn't stay seated and probably go this is very interesting. I think many of you would get up and you would probably run out these doors or that door.

Maybe one of you might even grab me. Maybe. What's the third thing we see? The moon. Right? It's reddened reddened like blood. The fourth thing, we see these stars that are going to fall. Some stars, you know some commentators they've come back to well stars falling like that just out of the sky. I mean could that be satellites? I think it's stars. I think the Lord knows exactly what he's talking about. Someone said well it's meteorites. It's got to be meteorite showers. I think God knows what a meteorite is. He created them. He sends them.

He allows them. No these are stars. He says star. Gaseous forms that are going to lose their orbit. They're going to fall to the earth, but it's going to be in such a tremendous way that people are going to look around and what is happening? And then the fifth thing in verse 14, the sky is going to separate. That's what that means in the Greek. We see it roll up or recede. That term sort of confusing to us I think when we think of like the the I was asking a little like how do I explain this Lord?

Forgive me if this is a of man's wisdom. Forgive me. You know I pray it would evaporate from your memories right now, but I I pictured like a shroud or something like that that would be torn. When it's torn, you can now see through it and behind it, right? Yet when we send our satellites or our ships or spaceships or different things into the atmosphere and the exosphere and far out, what do we learn? That it's dark matter, space. It's black and darkness and there's areas where there's not light. We call them black holes and different things like that, right?

And and then we find glimpses of light in certain areas that Okay. So the point is I was this is not an astronomy lesson, but the the point of what I'm getting at is that what's that going to look like when the sky that's blue, whether it's got clouds or not, begins to split apart in such a way that you begin to see a void of black. And that the moon and the sky because it says the sky, right? It says the sun is blackened. It's going to like blend into that atmosphere. And then at the same time, so you get the contrast, the moon is then going to turn red like blood.

Are you getting this? And the and the sky is going to If that doesn't make you realize there's a problem, you're not you don't have a heartbeat at that point. You don't have pulse. Everybody's eyes are going to be saying what is happening? And that's exactly what we read here. It's not surprising. If you're alive at that time and you've hardened your heart to God and you're rebelling at God, shaking your fist at him, what are you going to try to do? You're going to try to hide. You're going to try to run. The the problem is what?

You can't. You would think common sense would tell you and I that if there's a God which we know there is that can make these cosmic disturbances happen, there's a God that can take those little rocks right off you and go hey how you doing? You know we can laugh about that, but I think that just shows you please understand why I'm making a big deal of this that describes the debased mind that he's talking about. That describes the mental illness that he's talking about that will happen during the great We already see it today.

But he is talking about on steroids to the point of where you can you're no longer going to be able to logically reason with someone. The Bible says hey, why don't we reason together? There's going to come a point where you're not going to be able to. Psychologists, psychiatrists, biblical counselors, those that normally come around and are able to reason, to draw you to scripture, to encourage you, to help you. You're going to be taught and it's going to be like the lights out. They're just not spiritually apprehending. Otherwise, why would they come to this place?

They would just simply humble themselves and say God I I repent because it's not that they're not in fear. They're in fear. But what doesn't make sense is they're not in the fear of God that's authoring all the judgment. They're more in fear of the the the the rocks and the things that are have or the the sky and everything that's happening around, but they don't think to themselves they'll say wait a minute if I humble myself before God, he will save me. As long as there's breath in my lungs, whatever I've done, it does not matter.

God is faithful. There is no circumstance or sin that I can commit that God's love and his work on the cross can't forgive. Amen. And I think sometimes we're being led to be fearful. Fearful. The mountains and islands are going to move. Can you imagine the islands and mountains beginning to shift and move place? What's that going to do to roads? How many of you been to Colorado? Flown into Colorado? Anybody here? I've flown into Colorado. You fly into Colorado. It's a very short runway, isn't it? It's one of those runways you pray when you're land I mean you should pray all the time, but I mean it's definitely one of those runways when you're coming down, it's a very short runway in Colorado and I I often think about it.

Some of you are from New York, you might pray the same thing at um at one of the runways there, not JFK, but LaGuardia. Thank you. Some of you even know it because you know how short it is and if you blow that, where you going? Right into the big blue, right? Going to take a swim. So we're praying, right? But in Colorado, I want you to think about that with the mountains shifting and everything, what do you think's going to happen to Tarmacs? What do you think's going to happen to roads and bridges and things that we understand is infrastructure all around us?

You know just recently we had the science fair on Friday where some of you came out and it was a great turnout for the kids. It was wonderful. They did a really good job on their science experiments and projects. And we in preparation of that for the eighth grade and sixth grade, we had an engineer, a scientist come in and he talked to the children about sink holes. Pennsylvania has one of the largest concentrations of sink holes in the state compared to so many other states. And what causes these things to happen where houses and sometimes roads are just swallowed up?

As a matter of fact I I some of you know my day off I do inspections for townships and I was over doing an inspection for housing development and I'm I'm in the home and I come out and all of a sudden I see the construction workers and everybody's backing away and I watch as this road just swallows itself. And I literally saw this before my eyes and I thought well that's not going to pass. I mean we can look the other way sometimes and help, but that's not going to pass. I mean you can No it would thank God no one was harmed, but I I couldn't believe it.

I never saw anything like that in my life of being so close to it and that was small. It was only like 10 ft by 10 ft. And I mean I watch it and I I you know you come up they you know obviously we were getting people out of the way to you know put boundaries around it and I came and I looked in and and there were gas mains and things that were being run for the development and thank God they didn't bust. That's by the Lord because I mean when I saw the day I don't know how they didn't bust.

That that that it fell right around it. It was supernatural, miracle. But anyway I'm looking in here. I see the main gas mains for the utility coming through and I'm I'm looking at this and I 'm thinking to myself Revelation. And it talks about mountains and islands moving. This kind of shift in the movement of what's going to happen, the infrastructure, the the things that we understand, the explosions that are come from this. And then and then finally and all inhabitants verse is 15 through 17 on the earth, non believers, right? Fearing not fearing God, right?

There's not a single atheist or agnostic. Right? You know what atheism means? A in the Greek means no. Theism means God or theist. What when somebody declares themselves an atheist, it's just like super prideful actually. They don't know it because they don't know maybe the original language. They don't realize what they're saying many times. Atheism or atheist is saying that I've scoured what they're declaring with their mouth is I've discarded the whole I went through the whole universe. I've gone through you know Mars, Pluto, the everywhere, planets and I have come and I have discovered that there is no God.

How would you do that? How did you do that? That's what you're saying with your mouth. That's a lie. You can't say that. You might say on the earth you may not have experienced something like that supernatural or a God, but to declare yourself an atheist, the very word you're using in the Greek implies a certain folly. But there's people that do it all the time, but they don't even realize what they're saying.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Matt Vanderwan 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 one place dot 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. If you live in the Mechanicsburg PA area, we hope you'll stop by for a visit just like you hear on the radio. Pastor Matt teaches verse by verse through the Bible here at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg Westshore.

Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek gathering on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. We're located at 28 North Locus Point Road in Mechanicsburg PA. Go to cc harrisburg dot org for more information. And then join us next time when Pastor Matt will pick up where we left off in Revelation here on His Perfect Love.

Matt VanderVen: This is His Perfect Love.

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

Matt VanderVen: 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. This is His Perfect Love.