His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): A call to repentance in these difficult last days. Next, on His Perfect Love.

Matt VanderVen: I really believe in these last days. If you're looking for someone to stroke your ego, if you're looking for someone to say, oh, I'm so glad you're a Christian, oh, this is going to be easy. Friends, you're not going to make it. It's a battle. It's a battle for the mind. Jesus is going to great lengths to convince us of that here this morning. And he's telling us, look, even through this torment, people are going to try to find other ways out. They'll even go to the point of wanting to take their own lives instead of doing what?

Repent. You know, people believe they can do whatever they want, there's no consequences. Now is the time for repentance, the time to escape from sin, to find to be restored.

Guest (Male): Glad you joined us today for His Perfect Love with our pastor and teacher Matt Vanderven. We'll be in Revelation chapter 9 today if you want to find your place there now. The fifth trumpet judgment or woe is going to resolve in a terrifying plague of demonic locusts who will torment the unsaved population for 5 months. It'll be so bad they'll want to die but can't. But God is still reaching out in his perfect love, crying out for people to wake up, repent, and believe. Very sadly, we're told that they won't. Here is Pastor Matt with more.

Matt VanderVen: What is it going to take to get human beings to recognize that Jesus is the Lord and that he is the King of Kings and that he desires, not only desires, he requires obedience. You know what it's going to take? A great tribulation. It's going to take a great tribulation for Israel to come to the place as God's chosen people in which they are today. It's going to take a great tribulation to humble the heart and that he will then one day, as it says in Jeremiah 31:31, give them a new covenant and a new heart.

All these things needs be to get us to the end of ourselves. How many times have we seen somebody struggle, whether it's an addiction or something else going on, and like it says in scripture, like a dog running to the vomit. How many times have we turned around and said very clearly in our own heart, maybe we never said it out loud to the person, but we thought it in our mind, what's it going to take? What's it going to take for this person to be what? Maybe saved or I use a different word. Starts with a B.

Broken. What's it take for this person to be broken to the point of where they're willing to call out and say, I need what? Help. We all understand this. This is like it's like innate. It's built into the human being in the frame in our DNA. The this idea that we get to this place of brokenness and then for survival and instinct, we reach out and cry out. For some people, that is a Unfortunately, it takes it takes them to get to a very, very, very low place before finally they'll cry out. Well, if you want to know what it's going to take the human population, friends, quite accurately, it's the great tribulation.

And that is what this whole purpose is serves is is bringing judgment. But Lord willing, his plan is to bring what? Reconciliation. So this angel, whether, you know, he's going to serve God's purpose even if he doesn't intend to, right? This fallen angel. So the bottomless pit, again, some people wonder where it is. I think the most straightforward answer is at the center of the Earth, right? Because there one might say if you're at the center of the Earth that everything is on top and nothing is in the bottom. It is the bottomless pit. There is nothing more bottom than the bottomless pit.

So if it's in the center of the Earth, it is reached what? You know that Earth is round. You with me? I didn't lose you. Earth is round, right? So if I'm in the middle and I'm at the center of the Earth and I'm at the lowest point, if I'm bottom, no more bottom cuz then I go top. Give me a thumbs up. Let me know. Come on, give me a thumbs up. You're paying attention. All right, good. All right, the abyss is a prison for certain demons. We know that also Luke chapter 8 verse 31, 2 Peter chapter 2 4 and Jude 6 as I mentioned.

So it's most likely the same place here. More generally, this place is considered the realm of the dead. The term Hades also has been used in for this same place and you can see that in Romans chapter 10 verse 7. Romans chapter 10 7. So next, let's go into verse 2 through 6 here. And he opened the bottomless pit and smoke arose out of the pit and like the smoke of the great furnace, so the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke, locusts came upon the Earth and to them was given the power as the scorpions as the scorpions of the Earth have power.

They were commanded not to harm the grass of the Earth or any green thing or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to, underline that, torment them for 5 months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days, men will seek death. That's the idea of the torment. It'll be so bad. And they won't find it. They'll desire to die if it says death is going to flee from them.

So once again, we read of smoke or something that's going to cause the sun and the air to appear darkened. We've already seen the cosmological problems that have happened. In verse 3, we read that the locusts are going to come out of the Earth now. I It says, I've never seen locusts like this. I that's why I don't believe they're natural locusts as we would understand in the animal kingdom. They're obviously not natural locusts, right? They avoid plants, they attack men like scorpions. They're a visual representation of the hordes of demons that are going to be loosed upon the Earth.

I think that's exactly what this is saying to us. Verse 4 tells us that those who have the seal of God on their forehead, the 144,000 possibly and more that get saved are protected, but no no one else is, right? This is an incredible judgment of God. Verse 5 says that they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for 5 months. Again, their purpose and period is expressly governed by God. Please see God is in control, Jesus specifically, and the purpose of all this is to bring repentance, right? And I truly believe that.

In those days, men will seek death and they won't find it, it says. They will desire to die and death will flee from them and death will offer no escape from the prolonged torture. Their power is described like the power of a scorpion and the bite of a scorpion, though extremely painful, we know it's rarely fatal. If you just look at verse 20 in chapter 9, I'm going to skip ahead for a second, but the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not What's it say there, please? Repent of their works of their hands that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither be seen nor walk.

And they did not repent of their murders, of their sorceries, and of their sexual morality, or their thefts. Does everybody see that? Why am I pointing you that out to you? Because again, the whole point is is that God is doing this extreme to get their attention so that they'll humble themselves and do what? Repent. I just wanted you to see it in context there. Back to the scorpions, you know, this this this thing in the humans when they they feel threatened or provoked, usually they'll inject a venomin. But that's always a sort of in a defensive posture.

These are going to be aggressors. And it's it's going to hurt people enough they're going to want to escape, but they can't. So they're going to look to death to escape, but the idea that death is an escape is been often used as a demonic deception. We know over you know, decades and decades, years and years, that often people that struggle with depression or anxiety will seek death through suicide. And it's always been a a lie I'll say it simply, it's a lie from the pit of hell that somehow escaping this flesh, this your bodies, your is going to it's demonic deception.

It's rarely that the body's the problem. In this case, yes, because of the torment and the physical pain, yes, that's going to be part of it and they're going to want to escape that. But please, anyone here, do not ever believe the lie of the devil that somehow you terminating your life is going to in some way allow you to escape that torment mentally, emotionally, physically, or spiritually. That's not how it works. That's just not how it works. The problem isn't the body, right? There's other things that are going on. There's wars that are being waged.

Friends, I 've always heard it said this way to me and I fully believe it. It 's a battle for the mind. It's been a battle for the mind since you were born. It's the enemy, the world, the flesh, and the devil competing with the spirit of God living in you that's always been looking to draw you to himself. That's the battle. It's always been the battle in life. So it's no coincidence that it's demonic deception that somebody would get that inner ear. Oh, maybe I'm maybe nobody loves me. Maybe I'm not Maybe my life would be better if I wasn't here.

Maybe it'd be better for my family or friends or on You know, I've talked to people that have tried to harm themselves in different things and I look at them and I and I say, what would that have solved? Nothing. Do you think you're escaping anything by doing that? Well, I I don't know what's going to happen right and you're willing to roll the dice with that, excuse the term. No. It's a lie from the pit of hell. If something ever like that comes into your mind and you're frightened like that, please call the church, call the suicide hotline.

Don't turn around and try to tackle it yourself. We don't need to do that. Call the suicide hotline. They're there 24/7. If if if it's during the biz hours, we're here. Call the church. We'll we'll jump on the phone with you. We'll come in, we'll talk about We don't ever want anybody to believe the lies from the pit of hell because he's taking too many people and he's trying he's convincing them over and over again and like people are believing it. You know, I think in context here of the judgment and I believe we're already seeing the evidence of this today.

People truly believe they can think and do whatever they want without consequences. And that's simply not the case. There is a consequence to denying Jesus. There is a consequence to doing what you want to do. And again, I know that's not popular. I I'll probably wait for the church to empty out halfway next week, right? I'm not joking. Over the years, I mean so many people, oh, the churches are going to be filled in the last days. Really? I think they will except for the churches that are teaching the word because guess what? People don't want to hear that.

People want a Christianity that feels good, that comforts them, that strokes the ego, what allows them to have one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom and somehow feel good about that. Look, you you please, you do not need to come to a church that not teach don't go ever go to a church that's not teaching the word of God and not teaching not only we all love the the times at the buffet line where we get the desserts, but we need the meat. We don't just need the milk. Paul talked about that.

And so I I hope everybody understands that here. There's a sensitivity, essentiality I was telling you about that I think has has come into the church as a large I I I'm seeing it more evident today than I've ever seen it before. And that is often I hear all and I and I get I'm I'm the person for this, but I'm hurting people's feelings. I'm going to look at you all say this, get over it if it's biblical. Get over it. That is the most loving thing I could tell you right now. That is the most loving thing that I can tell you right now.

Read your Bible, get over your own feelings, get over your own emotions, get over your entitlement, get back to the basics. It's Jesus and let him enlarge your heart. And who cares if you're feeling like, oh, somebody took my toy and I just want to take my toys and go home. You know what, friends? It didn't feel good when we were little kids, did it? And mom and dad or grandpa and grandma came over and says, no, there's consequences. Go sit in the corner or you got a good Okay? But many of us look at us today.

Where would we be if it wasn't for people in our lives that loved us and said, no, this is wrong. You can't do this. I don't know where I'd be. I I know I wouldn't be here. I know I wouldn't be saved. If I didn't have a mother and a father and friends that came along and said, what are you doing? You're throwing your life away. Get off the drugs, get away from the alcohol, get away from the, you know, womanizing, get away from all of it. Right? But that's real love. We need to hear that today.

We need to hear that. We need to we need to come into a church that 's not afraid to call sin sin, that that that a pastor is not afraid to look at the people and say, you know what, you're a sinner, so am I. We're saved by grace, but we need to start getting things right. We need to start getting our lives right. We need to walk in obedience. We need to walk in truth and love without compromise. And we can't be worried about how it's going to feel. It's not going to feel good cuz just like eating a whole cheesecake and I got a lot of experience with that, that feels real good.

But the 10 lbs afterwards, cuz that's about what they weigh, the 10 lbs afterwards doesn't feel so good when all of a sudden I feel like I can't breathe and I have a heaviness on my chest and I got the reflux or the and it's You get what I'm saying? There's a consequence. And I just I really believe in these last days. If you're looking for someone to stroke your ego, if you're looking for someone to say, oh, I 'm so glad you're a Christian at all, this is going to be easy. Friends, you're not going to make it.

It's a battle. It 's a battle for the mind. Jesus is going to great lengths to convince us of that here this morning. And he 's telling us, look, even through this torment, people are going to try to find other ways out. They'll even go to the point of wanting to take their own lives instead of doing what? Repent. Do you see the length of which a human being is capable and willing to do instead of doing what? Having accountability and responsibility. It's not that we don't mess up. We do, right? I'm I'm out there with you.

You could be looking and going to me too. I'm not browbeating anybody. I'm with you. Nobody's different. No human being is different on this Earth. But we need this. You know, people believe they can do whatever they want, there's no consequences. Now is the time for repentance, the time to escape from sin, the time to be restored, right? I really want you to think about the invitation Jesus Christ gave and I'm I'm going to close with this last portion here. Let's look at this. I want to close off verses 7 through 12. The shape of the locust was like the horses prepared for battle.

Look at this with me. And on their heads were crowns of something like gold and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women's hair and their teeth were like lions' teeth and they had a breastplate like the breastplates of iron and the sound of their wings. Notice it's like like like he's not saying literally is. And the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle, this is describing what it's going to sound and or be like when these demons, these hordes of demons come out. They had tails like scorpions.

They're another It says like scorpions. In other words, they have something that's going to inflict harm to torment to people. And there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men for 5 months, very literal, very plain. And they had a king over them of the angel the angel of the bottomless pit. That's Lucifer, right? Whose name is in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek his name is Apollyon. One woe is past, behold still two more woes are coming after these things. So what a description of these demonic locusts, right? Many attempts again have made to show that they're you know, maybe this is just poetic.

Maybe this is a natural locust. But I think this misses the obvious demonic connection here. Why would God call them locusts if they're not literal locusts, somebody might say? But demonic spirits, swarms that destroy like a locust does. I think among the other reasons I can give you this morning is that locusts are and have been used as agents of God's judgment. So it's consistent with the Old Testament figures in the passages like Exodus 10, Deuteronomy chapter 28, 1 Kings 8, Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 7, Joel 1 4, and Amos 4 9. We have seen this before.

So it's a typology to help us understand that we have seen God use the the locusts or things like that to describe judgment and destruction. Now like horses, like gold, like the faces of men we read here, like women's hair, like lions' teeth, the repetition indicates something other than a little description is intended. That's why he keeps saying like, like, like cuz he can't land on a natural animal locust or insect, excuse me. The total impact of the picture is one that's unnatural and and really an awesome cruelty. And again, I've heard over several you know, years suggestions that the locust actually describes something as a helicopter or a gunship of the Antichrist.

It's all interesting, but purely speculative, doesn't fit. There can be no specific answer to the question of exactly who and what is symbolized by the plague of locusts. Although we know for sure that this period is immediately before the end of the wicked that will be subjected to a time of unprecedented demonic torment. We know that for a fact. So how will this take place and what remains unknown? I I guess to the history itself. But we do see something here that's interesting. These as I believe, these demonic hordes are going to have a leader.

And it says that he's a king over them. Do you see that? And it says this is again another indication to me that these creatures are not little locusts. And you might say, pastor, how do you know that? You're making a very strong statement by saying they're not literal locusts when you take everything literal in scripture. I understand. You're looking at me, you have a fair question. Turn to Proverbs chapter 30 verse 27. There's a rule in hermeneutics, in biblical interpretation. The word of God cannot what? Contradict itself. Are you with me? Proverbs chapter 30 verse 27.

The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks. Any questions? Everybody with me? If the Bible says locusts have no king, explains exactly if you make it a natural locust, then you have a problem because you just contradicted Proverbs 30 27. That's not Jesus would never contradict his word. These particular locusts do have a king whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, okay? The king is given a name, Abaddon and Apollyon. They both have the same thought and idea of destruction or torment, perdition as we know it. The angel of the bottomless pit, since this is the king of these locusts and since his name is Abaddon and Apollyon, is obviously Satan himself, another high-ranking leader of the demons.

Look at verse 12. It says the first woe is past, behold there are still two more woes to come. And that's going to be the sixth and seventh trumpet judgment if the Lord tarries. And here's the good news. As I I know we went through a lot here this morning, but here's the good news, right? No one needs to be a a firsthand or an a firsthand eyewitness to these beings or the torment. You don't want to know what they look like and you don't need to be know what they look like. This is not one of those things where you want to find out by being there and going, wow.

This is exactly like what No. Frankly, no human needs to go through the great tribulation. That's the whole point. You know, we have put on our website, ccharrisburg.org and on the church app. If you haven't downloaded it, please download it. It's where you can get your teachings. There's podcasts, all kinds of things, recorded teachings, everywhere we've been through the Bible. That's not a promo or anything like that. It's because we put resources up there. And one of the resources specifically we put up there, it's in big letters, the definite article gospel. The gospel. And it it walks you through or someone that you may want to.

Maybe you're at the store or you're with somebody and somebody's like, wow, man, I never thought about things are getting crazy. You know, these demonic locusts, you know, you're telling me about I Maybe you do that. Maybe you have a conversation at the the grocer, right? And you're talking about these things. Yeah, the world's getting crazy and do you know Jesus? And maybe there's a moment where you get a little nervous. I don't know how to say it. Lord, what do I do? ccharrisburg.org forward the gospel. Open your app, click the link the gospel and go, would you read this?

And then once they read it and they go, oh, wow, that that makes sense. It's in the Bible. We quote scripture. And they turn it around and say, yeah, that's what I want. Well, let's pray. Just ask Jesus in your heart, you know, don't make them do any kind of weird cuz nobody made you do that. You would be surprised, but there are so many people walking around right now that are they're struggling. They don't feel like they belong anywhere. They feel so isolated and alone. You know, this is a wonderful time when we still have the opportunity to make a decision for Jesus Christ.

And what a what what better way as human beings, you all here gathered to be part of that multiplication effect. I mean, everything that's been poured into you, right? They've they've said, go to a Calvary Chapel for a few years is like going to seminary and graduating with a degree. This is this is what seminary professors have not Calvary Seminary third party. You know, we've heard, you know, they said it's it's equivocal to that because you literally go through the meat and you go line by line. In most seminaries, by the way, they don't do that.

They just don't do that. It's more topical, it's more systematic. It's more learning how to read a Bible. But you are literally gathering and many of you have been here for years, line by line. You are learning and you all this has been given to you so that when you stand in front of somebody, you can be able to tell them why you believe what you believe. We meet people where they're at just like Jesus met us where we were at. What's poured in needs to be poured out. Amen.

Guest (Female): This is His Perfect Love.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Matt Vanderven 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 hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org. We're also at oneplace.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 hisperfectlove.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 hisperfectlove.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 West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek gathering on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.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.

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 shine. 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. In truth and grace. This is His Perfect Love.