His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Today on His Perfect Love.

Matt VanderVen: God is the perfect judge. He never gets it wrong. And so when God comes and says, no, I've given you away my son Jesus Christ, you need to receive him. He's going to pay your sin debt. You've all been born into sin nature. And then someone willingly says, I reject that for whatever reason. When they do that, they're effectively saying, God, I reject your gift and I don't need you.

Matt VanderVen: Well, thanks for joining us for another edition of His Perfect Love. If you've been studying along with us recently as we've been going through Revelation, you'll recall in chapter 6 we saw the vision of coming death and destruction. And in chapter 8 another wave of judgment begins. But in chapter 7 we have a break. God hits the pause button to extend his grace and mercy so more can be saved. Pastor Matt Vandervinn says this chapter really reflects the heart of God. So Revelation chapter 7 here, if you've been with us, we've making our way chapters 1 through 6.

We've been looking at the seals of God. We know this is at a time called the great tribulation, a great time of judgment and wrath being poured out. We know that because the Bible says so. In chapter 6 verse 16 he said, and he said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. So nobody here should be confused who's he talking about? Who if I say to you, who is the lamb? Every one of you is going to go, Jesus.

We know who Jesus is. Jesus our Lord and Savior. It's often been misunderstood, I think even by Christians and Christian churches, that many believe that the antichrist is going to be the impetus of this great tribulation. He's simply in some ways a lion on a leash. He's not in control. God is in control as we already read in the first five chapters. This is a judgment to a Christ rejecting world. If you haven't been with us, I encourage you to listen to the teachings on the app or on the website and you can go through and listen how we have literally taken time to go line by line to make sure we understand why is God bringing judgment?

Does God is he indifferent to when someone dies, an unbeliever and just is you know glad? No, of course not. He says that he doesn't it doesn't bring him any joy, any satisfaction when an unbeliever in Christ dies. No, it it grieves God's heart like it should grieve ours in compassion, right? We have compassion because we're growing in the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But God is also a righteous judge. And he said very clearly that judgment must come to a Christ rejecting world because a Christ rejecting world is really a form, whether we understand or not, of of idolatry because in essence what we're saying is it's our will, our way, we know better.

We know better than the creator of the universe, the creator of our souls, the the one that knit us in our mother's womb. And so he says for those that willingly do that because everyone's given a choice and free will and has the opportunity to receive Jesus. And I've said it before, there will be no agnostics or atheists in the great tribulation. And we see that right here in verse 16. They didn't say from the well, whatever that thing is, the UFO, the creator, you know what? No. They said from the lamb. There's not a misunderstanding in the great tribulation.

Nobody misunderstands why this is coming. They know it's because they've rejected Jesus and they thought they were getting away with it. They thought they could make themselves a God and that there was no consequence. I explained it to first service this way and it's the only way I know how to do that and the only way I know how to do that in first service is to was to say uh if make it sort of self effective, if I can say it that way. Um if somebody came to your home and they began to walk into your door, just barge in, and they started taking your TV and said, thank you very much, and began to walk out, you're not going to say, well, thank you so much for visiting.

Is would you like can I can I get you some coffee or tea? Maybe there is somebody in here. Most of us would not. We'd say, stop, don't. What are you doing? Or maybe who are you? Or why are you doing this? Or if they went to harm one of the people in your family that you love, you'd say, no, don't do that, right? I I think everybody here understands that there are laws and that there is right and wrong and things like that and and I think every one of us understands that if somebody was to come in your home and try to do that, you would not allow that.

And as a matter of fact, you might even call the police or what we would understand as law what? Enforcement to enforce law because you understand there is law in place that that is wrong. Well, it is no different spiritually speaking in regards to God who is the creator of all things. And as the creator of all things, he has given us commandments, statutes, and judgments not as law but as protection because he's a God of decency and order and love and he wants to establish right living on this earth so that men and women and children don't do things like murder or hurt other people or do terrible That's not God's design, never has been.

But we are living in a lost and dying world, a world that is unfortunately unraveling before our very eyes. And so lest we go on today and read and misunderstand that God is just turning around and bringing this kind of judgment, punishment without a heart of sorrow because if you went to court and somebody went in and took that TV and you went to the judge and said, judge, I witnessed it with my eyes. I have camera footage. There's no it's beyond contestation. If that judge said, well, I don't feel like that today. I don't feel like that's a crime.

You would look at that judge and say, judge, you're not being a very righteous judge. You're not right living, right? And every one of us would be right to do so. And we have an appeals court for that reason because if somebody does get it wrong, there's an opportunity to appeal and say, well, wait a minute, did we render verdict correctly? God is the perfect judge. He never gets it wrong. And so when God comes and says, no, I've given you away my son Jesus Christ, you need to receive him. He's going to pay your sin debt.

You've all been born into sin nature. And then someone willingly says, I reject that for whatever reason. When they do that, they're effectively saying, God, I reject your gift and I don't need you. And therefore God says, fine, I give you free will. But then as you stand before me, all of the things that have been brought, all of the sin that is on your account, how do you plan to settle your debt today? And the human being stands before the righteous judge and says, there's no way possible. I could have all of eternity and I couldn't make right what I've done.

For the born again believer, when that happens, Jesus Christ the advocate stands up. It's one of his names in scripture and says, he's mine, she's mine. They're blood bought. They've been washed by the lamb of God. And God says the father, so be it. My son and his substitution, propitiation has paid the price. Friends, that's the gospel. So when we reject Jesus Christ, when humanity rejects Jesus Christ, there has to be judgment because Christ is not indifferent. God is not indifferent. He has to judge evil and wickedness. So so that is the whole premise of what we've been reading up to chapter 6 here, okay?

In these sealed judgments. And also remember they're progressive. It's not all at once, okay? We need to understand that. He is still long suffering that even in the great tribulation by doing one seal at a time, he is literally turning around and saying, don't you see the cosmic disturbances? Didn't you see, you know, 2 billion people who have died unlike any other time on earth of 8 billion people? Hasn't this gotten your attention? You know it's the wrath of the lamb. What what should you do at that point? Every one of us would say, no more, Lord.

I'm I'm yours. I I I don't know about you. I I submit God, your will, your way, right? But lest we get confused about how diabolical and self-deceived humanity can be, in chapter 16 it also says or even in let me back up, in 15 it says that they began to do what? Talk to the rocks. They began to literally speak to an inanimate objects thinking that the inanimate objects can help them rather than speaking to the God who can forgive them. This is never been about misunderstanding and it never will be. You see, God is loving and long suffering.

So this is important because this is where we're at in chapter 6. Then chapter 7 we come to this interlude in the book of Revelation. And and it's needed because it's so representative of God's heart to say, wait a minute, I'm going to hit the pause button. I 'm going to take my gospel and even during my time of judgment, which oh by the way, he's a just judge and needs to do just like any of you that would be judge you know a judge. You do the right thing, you know, morally more than that righteously.

Morality is always at the interpretation of the culture. Righteousness is not. It's an absolute. So righteously to judge. If you turned around and didn't judge righteously, you would be what? Unrighteous. But what if you turned around and had compassion even in that moment when you're judging righteously and you said, wait a minute, I want to see more people come to me. I want to give the invitation even during the worst possible time in the great tribulation. And to do that God sends 144,000 of these Jewish men. And he sends them to the people and he says, proclaim the good news, the gospel that you can be saved.

And it says it goes out to every tribe, nation, and tongue. Are you Are you with me? That's what chapter 7's all about. It is literally an interlude, a break. Some have called it a parenthetical chapter. It's an interlude. It's not necessarily parenthetical. It's tied into the book. It's not going off into a different direction. It's simply pausing for God's mercy and grace to be poured out so that more could be saved. Please look at chapter 7 with me now that we're all right up to speed here. After these things, verse 1, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding the four winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth on the sea or any tree.

Then I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the living God and he cried with a loud voice saying to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea saying, do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of God on their foreheads. And I heard a number of those who were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. Of the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Reuben 12,000 were sealed.

Of the tribe of Gad 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Asher 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Naphtali 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Manasseh 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Simeon 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Levi 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Issachar 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Joseph 12,000 were sealed. And of the tribe of Benjamin 12,000 were sealed. And after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palm branches in their hands.

And crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders of the four living creatures fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped and saying, amen and blessings and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen. Then one of the elders answered saying to me, who are these arrayed in white robes and where did they come from? And I said to him, sir, you know.

And so he said to me, these are the ones who came out of and please underline this in your scripture, the great tribulation. Very specific here. And washed in the robes which made them or in my Bible says made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. They The sun shall not strike them nor any heat for the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Now we know this is specifically talking to the great tribulation saints, but for for those who died in Christ when our eyes close and open with Jesus, this applies to us as well. We're given white robes. Every tear is wiped away. And all things He's such a good God. He takes all of these memories, all of the things, all the difficulties of the earth and he separates the temporal from the eternal. Isn't that beautiful? Well, let's back up in chapter 7 verse 1 here. So he says, after these things I saw the angel standing at the four corners of the earth holding the four winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth on the sea or any tree.

This is really important. Verse 1 helps us get an entire understanding or a culminative understanding of exactly what he's talking about through the rest of this chapter. If we miss verse 1 and understand we miss the theme of all of chapter 7. Again, I believe it's a brief interlude here between the 6th and 7th seal. And again verse 1 we read about these four angels and they appear to be standing at four corners of the earth and they're holding the winds. Well, that's as clear as mud, right? I mean we understand that they're saying there's these four angels and he's saying that they're holding on the four corners.

But what is Jesus Christ trying to tell us? This is his revelation. We read the book of Revelation and we miss Jesus. We've missed the whole thing. So what is he communicating to us? Well, to do that we need to go back in scripture to allow scripture to interpret scripture. Amen? So please turn in your bibles to Psalm 78 verse 39. We're going to look at a few scriptures this morning to hopefully get a good understanding of what Jesus is communicating to us. Notice I 'm not going to a commentary written by man. While I might have a library of them and I appreciate them from a scholarly perspective, it's not the same thing as the inspired word of God.

There is only one Bible, one holy canon given to us by the spirit of God, perfect, infallible, completely true. And that is what you have in front of you. So when I get to places in scripture where I 'm saying, Lord, I I may not understand what you're saying here, I go to scripture to interpret scripture. It is what gives me my understanding, not my mind, not my intellect, not commentaries written by other men. Again, not knocking you if you have commentaries, but Jesus gave to those men what he wanted to give at that time to the people that he was calling or that God was speaking to.

And I believe the holy spirit moves here to speak to your hearts this morning with the word he wants to give you this morning just for a time such as this. So Psalm 78 here and we're going to look at verse 39 and this is an example of when we can see in scripture God using this term wind or breath in the Hebrew. Both can be the same. Could also mean spirit in the Greek. But he'll use this term and he'll talk to us and he's going to show us how it can be used literally, but also can be used figuratively or symbolically.

And so here we're going to get an example of how he's using that because this isn't saying that the angel is just like literally taking the wind in Revelation and kind of like it's wanting to go and the angels kind of going like, no, no. That's not what he's trying to show us here. He's actually speaking to us and trying to give us a bigger understanding. Look here at verse 39. For he remembered Now please remember Psalm 78 is about uh God dealing with Israel in their rebellion, okay? So verse 39 he says, for he remembered that we were but flesh.

You know, God knows his creation. We're not fooling anybody. And he says, a breath. That word breath can be wind as we understand. It's the similar word if you were to use the septuagen. But the breath that passes away and does not come again. So clearly God is not saying that Israel is what? Air. He's not saying that Israel is breath. He's not saying that Israel is wind. He knows that they're human beings. He created them. They're his chosen people. But he's using it symbolically or figuratively. Do you understand? To to communicate something to us.

Well, maybe you're sitting here this morning saying, well, I I kind of can see that, but I I need more evidence, pastor. I need to I need I I'm a Berean and my Bible tells me that I'm going to test everything in the light of scripture. So I need you to show me that in other places. And I would say, fine, let's turn to Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 22. Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 22, please. And again that's in your Old Testament. It's turned to the right and you'll come to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 22 says, the wind shall eat up all your rulers.

Again, um this passage specifically is speaking to the sons of Josiah. If I just don't I didn't want to just drop you in here, but just as a way of context. This is God speaking to the sons of Josiah. Uh basically begins with a message to David, his house. And now he's specifically going to the sons of Josiah in here and he's speaking to them. The oracle of God kind of, you know, communicating the fact that Jerusalem at this point uh the judgment that's going to come, it's done. There's nothing that's going to change it at this point.

There's nothing that Israel could do at this point because of their idolatry. So it's it's fitting in context of judgment and idolatry. Now we know that obviously Jesus is going to come again and he is going to give Israel new hearts. We know our New Testament passages, but this is the Old Testament in regards to the Babylonian invasion that would come to the south, okay? And then obviously the Assyrian invasion that had first come to the north. But in this particular passage here in verse 22 he says, the wind shall eat up all your rulers.

You you understand here this morning that that God is not saying that the wind literally came and started taking bites out of the leadership of Israel, right? Like of Josiah's kin or family line. That's not what this is saying. We understand it is figurative that God is saying and communicating I'm going to take them out. I'm going to basically eliminate that line. That's what he's he's he's kind of saying. Well, not the line, but the sons of Josiah. That's what he's really talking about here. The wind shall eat you up and all your rulers and your lovers shall go into captivity.

Surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated for what? He's just doing it because uh he shows favor on whom he shows favor or be No, because of why? Please don't miss this. Because of wickedness, because of evil. God is a righteous God who judges evil and wickedness. Um I'd also like you to turn to Jeremiah chapter 49 please in your Bible if you would since you're already in the book of Jeremiah while we're here. Jeremiah chapter 49. So that's a that's another example where he's once again calling upon the kings or the rulers at that time and saying, hey, they're using figurative language.

The wind is going to do this. But notice that he's sending wind. What we read in Revelation is something different, him withholding wind. So that's interesting as well, a little bit different language here. And that gives us our theme to Revelation chapter 7 because he's been sending wind and this has been judgment that's being sent that we just read to Josiah's family, right? In in the previous uh chapter Jeremiah 22. Look at Jeremiah chapter 49 and I'd like you to turn to verse 36 please. Jeremiah chapter 49 verse 36. And this is the judgment that's going to come to or did come to Elam, okay?

And it's a word of the Lord that uh comes to Jeremiah the prophet. He gives him a word about Elam and the judgment that's going to come and um he says, thus says the Lord of hosts, the most common title in scripture for God. Um it's the Lord of the armies. That's what it means. He says, behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might. And here it is verse 36. Against Elam I will bring what? The four winds. Do you see it again? And it's in use of judgment. He's bringing four winds.

He's using this to speak about judgment. And then we get the understanding of what is he really saying. This passage is very important to us help us understand Revelation 7 1 because he's really not even talking necessarily just about wind. He's trying to help us encompass. What does he mean? He says from the what? Four quarters of heaven. Oh. So what you mean, God as we would say in our vernacular, our words today, is you mean the north, the south, the east, the west, the four quarters? You're telling me that you're bringing this whatever you're going to do is going to be all encompassing.

Now in this case in this passage in Jeremiah it's in the heavens. In our passage in Revelation he uses the same language, the four winds, but he's holding them back from what? The earth. Do you see the subject there, the object there of reference? It's the earth. So let's just keep reading here. He says, and scatter them towards all the winds. There shall be no nations or the outcasts of Elam will not go. So that's what he's showing us here. Now turn back to Revelation, please. Let's learn and read verse uh chapter 7 verse 1 again in the context of what we've just seen God use that word wind and how we've done it.

And now let's understand what he's saying to us here. After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of what? The earth, not heaven. So what are the four angels doing? It's representing the north, south, east, and west. He's talking about the all encompassing earth. He's basically saying whatever he's about to do it's going to be done earthwide, not just in one section of the earth, right? That's what he's communicating by this. And he tells us that he's sending or holding. See, in the other passages we read he was doing what? He was sending as part of judgment.

In chapters really 4 through 6 well, 5 and 6 specifically, he talked about judgment and seals that he was he was opening which was sending impending judgment to the earth for a Christ rejecting world. However, here in chapter 7 he's actually doing something different. He's actually holding back. Well, wait a minute, I'm confused. Are you bringing judgment or aren't you bringing judgment? He is bringing judgment, but he's also doing what? Exampling long suffering and patience. Do you see that?

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt Vandervinn 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.

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. There is much more to come in Revelation. Don't miss a moment of the journey here on His Perfect Love with pastor Matt.

Matt VanderVen: His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg Westshore.