His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): The fifth sealed judgment is unleashed on a Christ rejecting world. Next, on His Perfect Life.

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

Guest (Male): There will come a time during the tribulation period where if you love Jesus and His word, you are an enemy of the state. And if you don't take the mark of the beast, you'll pay for it with your life. And many will, according to Revelation chapter 6. Today on His Perfect Love, we'll hear all about it as Pastor Matt Vanderven focuses on the fifth sealed judgment. But that raises the question, will believers living today have to go through this? Let's talk about that as we begin.

Guest (Male): This is His perfect love.

Matt VanderVen: So my question is, do we need to be nervous specifically ourselves? Are we going through this? We've talked about this multiple times. But being with the heaviness of this, knowing 2 billion people are going to perish, knowing that there's going to be tribulation saints, we just read about Christians being martyred and killed. I think it's really good to review this again because I'm sure there's somebody here that might be a little bit fearful after hearing that there's people that are going to be martyred because they love Jesus and they love the word of God. I hope everybody here would go, that's me.

Right? I'm hoping everybody here says that's me. I love Jesus and I love the word of God. Amen? I'm not alone, right? Like, okay. So because of that, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, please look at verse 13. I want you to understand that's not you. You're going to be looking down from the mezzanines, but that doesn't mean you should be indifferent to people going to hell. You shouldn't be indifferent to people going through a great tribulation. You should care, love, and want to bring the great the gospel and fulfill the Great Commission. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13 it says, but I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren.

Paul is speaking to who? The church at Thessalonica. You all with me? Concerning those who have fallen asleep, that's a really poetic way of saying those who died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. Oh, you mean exactly what Pastor Matt's been saying, that the work of the enemy is to steal hope. If he can convince the Christians just like it was happening here in Thessalonica, that they either miss something, it's too late, or there's no hope, you mean you can steal the joy that Christ wants us to have and the peace that he wants us to have right now?

And that's all deliberate as a job or work of the Antichrist or the Satan himself? Yes. And we see it right here and they were trying to do it. Satan was trying to do it 2,000 years ago to the church of Thessalonica, too. Same old tricks, same old liar and deceiver. So look at verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, there's the truth that sets us free. Even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus, those who have died. For if we say that by to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming Circle that in your Bible.

We've looked at Do you know that Greek word? That's the Greek word What does that mean? Is that the same thing as a rapture or a parousia? No. That's why I want us to see this. The Greek is until the parousia of the Lord, which is His physical coming where He touches down on earth and the mountains split. We'll by no means precede those who are asleep, those who died. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Okay. Thank you. That's really helpful and inform informative. Okay. Now we're understanding what the plan is. But then he says something in verse 17 and if we're not careful to study the Greek, we could get very easily confused thinking he's still talking about the parousia because he was talking about a moment ago just the second coming and I said, hey, be Bereans, be students of the scriptures, keep in contact, good hermeneutics, right? So what was the context right there? The second coming of Christ, literally touching down on the earth, right? So I would be a hypocrite if now I told you all of a sudden to say, oh, well, no, no, no.

Everything I'm going to read at this point is about the harpagō. Pastor Matt, how do you get to determine that? You're just a man, man's wisdom. You don't get to like change that. In context, we were talking about the second coming. You'd be 100% right except for the fact that the Greek changed it. Because as we read on and I'll give you the Greek here, he goes on to say He says in verse 17, then we who are alive Interesting. We who are alive, not dead but alive, and remain shall be He doesn't say parousia, does he?

Parousia. He said we shall be harpagō. That that word caught You can circle it in your Bibles. That's the word harpagō. I I wrote a little book in the back. It it talks all about this, the harpagō. Up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Wait a minute. That's different than what Jesus just said. Jesus said when He parousias, He's coming down to earth. Didn't He just say that? He says He will come It will by no means precede those who are asleep, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise or He is coming.

When He says He is coming, He's coming, He's coming. He says I'm coming again, right? Now in verse 17 though, He says, wait a minute. You're coming. Did you catch that? He says you're coming now. He says I'm coming but you're coming. Where where am I going? He says you're caught up. Well, that's me coming to you. You're not coming to me. I'm coming to you now. That's that word harpagō. He says we're also going to be together. How awesome is that if we're that generation? With them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air Well, that's very different than meeting them on the earth, isn't it?

Cuz it's two separate events, the parousia compared to the harpagō. You see it with your own eyes yourself and I encourage you, get a Greek lexicon, look the word up yourself. Don't trust me. Don't trust a man. Men will fail you. The word of God never will. The Greek is the Greek and it doesn't change. And thus we shall always be with the Lord and when He says that He's literal, we'll never be separated from him again. At that point of the harpagō, you and I, born again believers, will never be separated from Jesus Christ again.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words. It's very comforting, isn't it? That you and I Okay. But at this point, did I talk anything about the wrath of the Lamb or not? So maybe I'm still saying that we're going to get caught up but maybe we'll get caught up in the great tribulation. We'll know that can't be because if I keep reading But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night for when they say peace and safety and sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape.

But you, brethren and sistern, okay, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. How many of you think both times that Jesus Christ comes are not known for us? That we don't know when that is. Everybody believe that that both times Jesus comes, nobody knows the time or the hour? That would be inaccurate. Only one of the times Which one? We don't know when the harpagō is, the rapture. But after the rapture, when when Jesus takes us up and we're in heaven and the great tribulation unfolds, we know that halfway through Daniel We've already read that together.

Halfway through the great tribulation, there's going to be a breaking of a covenant, a treaty with with Israel. And they're going to desecrate the temple, right? Pigs blood, the whole thing just like it was done in Antiochus Epiphanes in the first century. Excuse me. In the intertestamental period um 100 or so BC. That happened already. So He desecrated the temple, right? So what's going to happen? Antichrist is going to make a peace treaty. We know this. We've We've kind of looked at some of those scriptures already. He's going to break that 3 and 1/2 years.

It then says after that 3 and 1/2 years that Christ is coming again. So that means you and I Well, you We won't be here. But those who are alive, your prodigals, people that are not saved, people that are maybe family, friends but don't know Jesus, guess what they can do? They can grab a calendar, just any calendar? No, that 's right. It has to be a what kind of calendar? A Hebrew calendar. Why? Because the Hebrew calendar based everything on 360 days, whereas the Gregorian calendar that we use bases everything on 365 days. So using a Hebrew calendar, if we counted out 360 uh and 60 days in a year, knowing 3 and 1/2 years, we can do the multiplication, 360 * 3 you know, basically half of 360 okay, which is 180.

We can add those all days up and guess what? To the time and date Jesus Christ on this earth will come again and we're coming with him and that's Revelation 19. Okay. So there's no doubt when Jesus Christ is going to come physically to the earth. It's when's the rapture. But you, brethren, are not in darkness about this day that it should overtake you as a thief, like you don't know. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We're not We We are not of the night nor of the darkness. Let us not sleep as others do but let us watch and be sober.

Let us be awake that this is happening. For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk, drunk at night. But let those who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet of hope and salvation. And here Boy, this verse 9 looks familiar to me. Does it look familiar to you guys? For God did not appoint us to what? Wrath. Did you Did you underline that in your Bible? I have it underlined in mine. But to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, whether we should live together with him, therefore comfort each other and edify.

That's the idea of building up. Comfort, build up your church Build up Build up your your friends, your people, right? Just as you also are doing. So comfort and encourage. That's what we're to be doing. That's why it's so upsetting to me when I see Christians fight, when when we get so upset about disagreements and all this nonsense. We're playing right in the devil's hand. It doesn't matter. It's a waste of time. He just told us here, comfort each other, encourage each other, edify. You're all on the same team. You're going to spend eternity together.

It's so ridiculous to fight. It really really is. It is a waste of time for the Christian to fight with anybody else. We may disagree but we are brothers and sisters in Christ and we move forward together. And it doesn't matter what you look like. But the thing I want to draw your attention to is verse 9. For God did not appoint us to what? That is so familiar. Turn back to Revelation and look at verse 16. And this again is how I know there's no atheist or agnostic cuz this is the people and just so you if you're sitting here this morning going, wait a minute, I'll teach this next week but but if you're wondering how do I know, well, look at verse 15.

We'll go one verse up. And the kings of the earth, great men, the rich men, commanders, mighty men, every slave, every free man Is that pretty much encompass the whole human population? Yeah, I would say so. It's It's everyone. Right? I mean, I don't think you could have used another adjective defining characteristic or anything like that to define mighty men, every slave, free man hid themselves in caves in the rocks and mountains. And they said to the mountains and rocks First of all, I'll talk about this It's It's bad that they're talking to rocks, inanimate objects.

Um but He did say He's giving over debased minds. Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from There it is again, that language. What's it say? The wrath of the Lamb. That was the same language that we just read in 1 Thessalonians that Paul, the direct revelation of Jesus Christ, said that His church is not given unto wrath. It can't be both ways. It can't be the church is going to go through the great tribulation and is given to wrath when literally we just read in chapter 6 of 16 that it says, Jesus said you're not given under the wrath and as a matter of fact, the people all recognized that it was Jesus that's doing the talking and bringing the judgment.

We would have an inconsistency by having a anything but a pre-tribulation view of a rapture because we would be coming back and saying God's wrong. I'm going to go through some of the tribulation. Even though God just said the bride of Christ will not. You see, that's that's the kind of stuff that we're dealing with today. It's a biblical literacy. It It's literally a biblical literacy because people that try to order for a mid-trib or a post-trib I mean, it and I say this in all love because I can disagree with my brothers and sisters.

I still love them. I still go hang out with them, still fellowship with them. Doesn't change anything that way. These are not things we divide over. But how can we find a consistency in scripture if we keep moving the lines? If it's not all true and not all literal, where do we turn around and say, well, I think this is because I like this. Yeah, I want part of the escape plan. So yeah, I believe in a rapture but uh you know, I don't like the commandments, statutes, and judgments of God so Um no, this doesn't apply to me.

And I sort of turn my back No, it We have to be consistent. Jesus is consistent, right? He's the What's one of His titles, right? He is the ancient of days. He is the definition of consistency. Amen? That's how we know He's trustworthy and His word's trustworthy. So you know, as I just read this and I I look at it, I can't help but seeing exactly what God wanted me to see, to be comforted, to tell me that we're not going to be part of this, we're not going to be part of this judgment, and that you know, there are so many people during this great tribulation that will be alive that get saved afterwards that are either going to deal with one of the riders of the horse who I believe is an Antichrist or you know, just in general come to salvation and the government, whoever, and they're literally going to pay for it with their lives.

And the point is is if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, I want to beg you, plead with you to please receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior because there's not a single human soul that needs to go through this horrific time. And I really feel strongly that in Revelation 13:7 when Jesus is telling us cuz this is His revelation, He says it was granted to Him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and authority was given Him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. He's talking about the Antichrist. It says that God is going to give authority to Antichrist.

He's going to allow Him because it's His judgment and punishment. They wanted their will. It's kind of like what happened to Pharaoh in the Bible. Do you remember Pharaoh in the Old Testament? How he finally was given over to a debased mind because he hardened His heart, hardened His heart, hardened His heart. And then finally God hardened His heart. What does That didn't mean that God forced Him into it. God What that means is God says, fine, your will be done. That's really what that's meaning in in the vernacular we use today. It's like somebody going, I want, I want, I want, and God finally goes, okay.

I'm going to give you what you want. I mean, I I can't think of anything more horrific. It was granted to Him to make war with the saints, to overcome them. This is what's going to happen. And And we're thankful that they'll get saved but at the end of the day, it's going to cost them their very lives. And He says it was given Him over every He's going to have control over every tribe, tongue, and nation. Nobody's escaping this, this new government, this new this new movement of the Antichrist is going to come in.

You know, I want to make one thing clear here this morning. The Antichrist can give this authority and power. You know what he can't do? And it never says it once in scripture. As a matter of fact, we just were told because of their testimony they're the saints under the altar and because of their love for the word of God and Jesus, you know what he couldn't do? He couldn't defeat their faith. The gates of hell will never prevail against the church. No matter how long even in our days where we see persecution of Christians, do you realize that Jewish men and women and Christian men and women are more persecuted today and and in the past the Holocaust and differently than any other group and nation of people on this earth generationally?

When you go back and you add you add I mean, we've had horrific things slavery, terrible, wicked, evil things in our past that we we we ought to be ashamed of and never let happen again, never ever ever let happen again. But in comparison as a human people, as a group uh from an ethnic perspective, there's never been greater persecution over the Jewish people and the Christian people. And by the way, in the future that will become the main source of division. It won't be about skin color and ethnicity as we just read, every tongue, nation, and tribe.

That will no longer be the dividing factor, the way it's being used now to divide people because they look different or speak different. The enemy will give that up because the Antichrist will be here. He's already He's already got His agenda. He doesn't need to waste people's time by trying to divide them that way superficially anymore. They've already fallen for it. Now he no longer has to use that trick. Now instead, he'll come and he'll say, if you love Jesus and the word, you're an enemy of the state. If you don't take that mark of the beast, you're going to pay for it with your life right now.

Does everybody understand the soberness of this? Next week, if the Lord should tarry, we'll come back, we'll go over some of this again, we'll go into more detail and we'll finish up the rest of chapter 6, okay, if the Lord should tarry. But I want to speak to your hearts here with one other thing. Listen, we literally just had an action sermon in front of us this morning. Life is precious. You know, when I was when I was pleading with the first service to think about the severity of the days we're living and how right now we have an opportunity in this country to go and and reach out to neighbors, friends, and people maybe we haven't spoken to in a while and just earn the right to invest in their lives by bringing them food, drink, whatever, or just going and putting your arm around them and letting them know you love them.

You haven't forgotten about them. No matter what they've done you haven't forgotten about them. Jesus gave us that great commission. He says, go therefore. Go. And so often today I think we get so busy that we forget the going and we forget the therefore. And I think we also forget the whosoever. We were the whosoever. Somebody cared enough to go therefore for you and I. And I just really believe that as hearts grow cold and the time we have with such freedoms to be able to go and share our Bibles and we have more translations than we know what to do with.

We have more computer tools and technologies to study the Greek and the Hebrew than we know what to do with. We have more wealth and prosperity than we know what to do with. We have more time. You know, most of us are not working in an agrarian society where we're farmers and we're literally working 14 to 16 hours a day just to have enough food to eat for that day as many farmers did to provide for their families. We can put an 8-hour, 10-hour day and come home, see our loved ones, spend time with them, invest in our families.

What would it be like on earth if the Christians just took a half an hour to an hour and went out of their house and went to the left or right in their neighborhood and didn't take their Bible and said, you you you Here's the Bible study. But but just went over and said, how are you doing? How can I serve you? How can I serve you? You know, what it would be like if if people began to live out the Bible again? You know, we we try to do that here by staying true to the word of God and only teaching the word of God here.

But what would it be like if we lived our lives in an application where we took the words that Jesus spoke and took them literally and knew that they were loved and that He wanted to use each and every one of us and He's created divine appointments that we could go and spend time investing in other people and and letting them know they're loved and they're not forgotten. And that no matter what the world's doing and no matter how busy the world gets, we're not going to give up on them. And we're going to turn around and be faithful regardless of what sin they're in, no matter what's going on in their lives.

We're going to be the consistent because Jesus is our consistent. And then we're going to turn around and be the hands and feet in that moment when the Lord opens that divine opportunity and window, we're going to give the gospel of truth and we're not going to do it in a prideful way. You need what I need or hey, by the way, now you're listening. But this changed my life. And I think it'll change yours. And it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It's going to be really hard. But I promise you'll never be alone and He promised He will never leave you nor forsake you.

What if we just took an hour a week to purpose, to pray, and think of somebody on a list instead of realizing that why is it always us? Why are we always the ones that have to make appointments to see other people or invite other people over and they don't invite us over? Why is it always Instead of thinking like that what would it be like if we thought about others first? Like the book of Acts, a spirit driven church. I'm not trying to be an offense to anybody here this morning. I'm trying to be an encouragement to remind all of us that we have divine appointments.

And all God wants us to do is walk in them wherever we are and whatever we're doing. And every one of you are qualified to do it. You have the qual If If it makes you feel better to have a piece of paper, I'll go print you one. And you could say it's from the seminary of Calvary Chapel. I don't care. But my Bible tells me in Acts 13 that it wasn't a piece of paper that qualified Barnabas and the apostle Paul. My Bible tells me it was the Holy Spirit. And you all got the Holy Spirit.

And if you haven't asked for the Holy You better You better pray and ask to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. But you have the Holy Spirit. You've been sealed by God. You have everything you need. All He wants you to do is go forward, open your hearts, and be faithful. Can we all try that this week, just 1 hour? Can we do that this week? And let's see if God wants to rebirth and do a revival and maybe He'll begin in our hearts here this morning. Amen.

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt Vanderven on His Perfect Love. Thanks for taking part in today's study of Revelation, a book that comes with a blessing attached to those that read and study it. 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.

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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 ccharrisburg.org/academy. That's ccharrisburg.org/academy. We want all of our listeners to have access to the word of God. So if you're in need of a Bible, we'd like to get one into your hands.

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Guest (Male): This is His perfect love.

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