His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Anything that takes away from the authentic original gospel of Jesus Christ is heresy or blasphemy. It's not Jesus plus something. It's not a ritual. It's not a religion. It's a relationship. And it's a relationship built on faith and trust. And then it's a surrender or submission. Then there's an obedience. Then there's justification and we're justified and cleansed and right relationship is established. And then there's sanctification. He also teaches us how to live it out.

He came to demonstrate to us that God and mankind belong together in harmony. That's God's desire. That's why He came. He came to mend a gap. He came to restore what was broken. He came to join a separated gulf. Something that was separated, He came to bring together that way, to provide a way. A humanity that was separated from His creator.

And didn't He accomplish what He came to do? You're all here, aren't you? Many of you believe in Jesus Christ, don't you? And if it weren't for Jesus, where would we be? The Gentile. It was always prophesied that we would come and be grafted in. But I don't know where I'd be without Jesus. It's beyond my capacity mentally to even think about that.

The direct revelation that He's given me through His word and through His spirit. It's without condemnation or contest. In other words, you can't condemn it, and it's beyond contestation. It's really not something that can be truly denied, but it sure can be fought against. And that's exactly the point Paul's making. That's exactly what we see here.

And I would say it this way, even though some folks here may not be Christians. I don't want to look at you all and assume, just because I see you every week, I don't know where you are. Some of you I do, but I don't know where everybody is here. And I think it would be foolish for me to look out and assume everyone's saved here.

But think about this. Even those that didn't receive Jesus Christ as their savior if they're hearing this right now, if you're hearing this right now. Still, they've demonstrated the fact of the Incarnation. How? What's today's date? Our calendars are written and dated based on the God-man coming 2,000 years ago. Everything in humanity has been changed and goes according to a day in which God, a timeline in which God ordained. Everything.

So even if they try to deny it with their lips or their heart, it doesn't change the fact that I assure you they'll understand Monday through Friday they need to go to their job or Saturday depending. They know what day it is, and they certainly know what year it is. Because every year, the day moves forward one day. They're not confused about that. So even that they're proclaiming the Incarnation of Christ. Maybe they've never thought about it that way.

I believe it's inescapable for both the Jew and the Gentile. And I think that's the point that Paul was making for the Jewish people, why they need a Messiah, because truly everything revolves around Him. Everything. Time.

Look at verse eight. But what does it say? The word is near you. He's quoting Deuteronomy Chapter 30 here, and we'll look at this in a moment. In your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy. This is important. Look at what he's saying. He's bringing about the idea of choice. And one that leads to life and one that leads to death.

In Deuteronomy Chapter 30, Verse 11, it says, "For this commandment which I commanded you today, it is not too mysterious for you." Notice we've been talking about mysterious or the mystery of the Incarnation. Again, Deuteronomy Chapter 30, Verse 11. "Nor is it a far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us to bring it to us that we may hear it and do it?' Nor is it beneath the sea or beyond the sea that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us to bring it to us that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it."

That's a declaration. He says the word is near you that you may follow it. It is written in your heart, stamped on your conscience, and all of creation testifies as Romans Chapter One and Two have already explained. Again, it's not a new idea. It's not a new ideology. If we study all of the word of God, we'll continue to see the theme that Jesus Christ over and over again had been explaining originally to the Hebrews, to the Jews.

That they would respond when Messiah would come. They would receive Him. But that was prophesied too, if you remember, in Isaiah and other places, that they would reject Him and it would become a stumbling stone. Even that was prophesied. He says, "But the word is near you. See, I've set it before you today, life and good, death and evil."

He says, "I've made it very binary. Very, very clear. Life, good. Death, evil." Like transcends the second-grade education. We can figure that much out. Life, good. Death, evil. He did that for people like me. He made it very plain and simple so I couldn't mistake it. So it can't be twisted. It can't be manipulated. It's the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to judgment that you may live and multiply. The Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish.

It was prophesied. If you do this, this is what's going to happen. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you crossed over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as a witness today. Just think about that for a minute. He says, "I call heaven and earth to witness this declaration of what I speak to you today, humanity. There is no misunderstanding this. And it's not a maybe. That I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life."

He's making a plea. Choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. That means you and your children's children too. That you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice and that you may cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them.

That was God's promise. That was God's promise to Israel. And all He asked is that they would listen to and obey His voice. Hear His word, but more importantly by faith believe that He is who He said He was. You can turn back to Romans. Look at verse nine. He then brings it right out. He says that if you confess, this is the gospel we preach. I don't know what gospel everybody in here preaches, but this is the gospel.

Anything that's contrary to this is heresy. Let's just call it what it is. It's heresy and blasphemy. Anything that takes away from the authentic original gospel of Jesus Christ is heresy or blasphemy. It's not Jesus plus something. It's not a ritual. It's not a religion. It's a relationship. And it's a relationship built on faith and trust. And then it's a surrender or submission.

Then there's an obedience. Then there's justification and we're justified and cleansed and right relationship is established. And then there's sanctification. He also teaches us how to live it out. And then after that there's glorification. These are all things that have been prophesied. These are all things that have been promised to you and I as believers in Jesus Christ. This is not a new gospel.

This isn't the gospel of the New Testament alone. This is the gospel of the entire word of God that you have before you, and it hasn't ever changed. What God did is He issued a new covenant not based on a law to keep because He knew no man could do it. He instead bridged a gap. He's the way, the truth, the life. No one goes to the father but by Him or through Him.

He says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, He says you will be saved. Notice that with me. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made into salvation. He even says it. He says, "I'll even make it simple for you. With your heart you believe. With your mouth you confess. You're saved."

That's what it looks like. Why is this a foreign gospel to so many? This is a gospel of love. Why is this so foreign? Why are there so many striving? Because we have an enemy who's decided he's going to pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ. Half truths are still full lies. Half truths are still full lies.

For the scripture says whoever believes, whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. You can look at Psalm 103, Verse 12. Even Revelation Verse 3, Verse 20. All these declarations written, I give you one in the Old Testament, one in the New, describing there'll be no shame that will come to you for those that place their faith in Christ Jesus.

I love what he does in verse 12. He then turns around and says, "And just for the record, there is no distinction. There is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek." He says, "Let's clear that up right now." Yes, God chose Israel and we read that last week, how they were His chosen people not because they were mightier in number or anything like that but because God chooses to show mercy on whom He chooses to show mercy and favor on.

But guess what? They're still God's chosen people. God's a promise keeper. He keeps His vow. He doesn't break vows. Humanity breaks vows. God honors vows. Even when we break them, God still honors vows. Which I love because no matter what's happened, if we're backslidden or we fought against God for so many years and then we one day we realize, "Lord, I need you."

He doesn't turn around and go, "Now you want me?" No. He's gentle. He's loving. He says, "Come unto me. All of you who are heavy laden, weary." He says, "And I'm going to give you rest and peace." You can't have one without the other. Notice he didn't say, "I'm going to peace out the world." He just promised to peace you out in the world. Just think about that for a minute.

He says for there is no distinction between Jew or Greek. Look back to Acts Chapter 10, one book over quickly please. Acts Chapter 10, we're going to look at verse 36. This is the first Christian that's not a Jewish convert, Cornelius. Do you remember we read this in Acts Chapter 10? Look at verse 36. "The word which God sent to the children of Israel preaching peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all." Jew and Greek.

Cornelius would have fallen into the latter category there. He was not a proselyte. He was not a convert. He was the first Christian in your Bible, true when we say true Christian. I mean one that didn't convert from Judaism to Christianity that way, a proselyte. But he says all in all. Look at Galatians Chapter 3, Verse 28. As you begin to look at this, start to think about what is he trying to do.

He's trying to help the Jew and Gentile understand that in unity we're all under Christ. And that salvation was for all of us as it was promised, the Jew first and then the Greek. But because the Jew rejected, many, not all, many Jews are coming to Christ, praise the Lord. We have a Seder coming up, Messiah in the Passover. Why are we doing that?

One, it's awesome to be able to go through the Hebrew and some of that. But number two, it's awesome because if we invite our Jewish friends out, many have come to salvation through a Messiah in the Passover. Chosen People Ministries does it beautiful because it all and always pointed to Christ. It's not new. God over and over again wanted us to be without excuse.

Look at Chapter 3, Verse 28. He says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female." He's not giving a gender exclusion here, by the way. "For you all are one or you are all one in Christ Jesus." What he's saying is there's no difference when we're in Christ. He doesn't look at one better than another. He loves us.

But He still writes the Jew. Even though they might have rejected Messiah, God's not done with them. As a matter of fact, He's going to take all of Chapter 11 to just explain just how not done God is with Israel. So those that come up with a replacement theology spin or they most of the time when that happens, I don't mean to hurt anybody, but they've never read their Bible completely.

They've taken a context or a pretext, but they've never read all of the Bible like the Old Testament and New Testament. And they come to those conclusions because truly anybody can turn around and circle a passage in the Bible and say, "Oh, this is what it means." But if we don't handle the word of God hermeneutically and correctly by all of the council of God, what is the best commentary? The word of God.

What does the word of God have to say? So I just bring you to that to make you realize that this isn't something new. Even back then, there was division that was trying to be created. And God is saying no. He says in Romans 10:12, "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is the Lord of all." And I love this, he says, "and He's rich."

Now this is not talking about His pocketbook or His wallet there so to speak. If you look at Ephesians 1:7, it says He's rich in something. What is He rich in? Grace. It actually says His richnesses of grace or His riches of grace. He says, "For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." That's it. Beautiful. Thank you.

We're going to close there but what I'd like to do before we do that, I'd like us to turn to Joel Chapter 2, Verse 28 and look at this passage. This passage was spoken of in the last days. This passage is prophetic but it was meant for the last days, I believe the days we're living in. In Verse 28 of Chapter Two of Joel, he says, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions."

"And also on my men servants and on my maidservants, men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in heaven and in the earth. Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord." So that speaks I don't believe we'll be here for that. I believe we'll be raptured out by that point.

But I can't say for certain if we won't see that and then be raptured. I don't know. But I think when some of those things start to change, I happen to believe there's going to be cosmic disturbances and I think that might affect our life, I don't know, air, everything else that goes with it. I start to go to sort of Revelation Chapter Six and start looking at a third of all of humanity is wiped out. I call that judgment. I call that wrath.

And then when I read First Thessalonians 5, it tells me that the church is not given unto wrath. So I think scripturally, my understanding scripturally is we're not going to be here for that because I can't reconcile the two. I'm not able to. And remember neither could the early church fathers nor anyone else.

It wasn't until 230 or 40 that the first person one of the I wouldn't even a church father, really you might call them that, but by 240 was the first person and his name starts with an A and it's escaping me right now was one of the first person that even thought about, well what if we're going to go through the tribulation or we're going to up until that point from the time of Jesus and really even before for those that had believed, the remnants, all the way up to the time of like I said 230, there was not a single thing we can find extra-biblically in any writing that shows any other idea than pre-tribulation and millennialism.

Just think about that for a minute. Not one extra-biblical writing, not one early church father, nothing. Not until 230, roughly 200 years after Christ ascended into heaven, was this idea then postulated or thought about. God tells us in the word there's nothing new under the sun. We shouldn't be looking for a new gospel. We shouldn't be looking for a new doctrine.

But he says, "And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." That's where we see this here. "For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance." That's a promise. God is not done with the children of Israel. He's not. He's prophesying saying that there will be deliverance. "And the Lord has said among the remnant whom the Lord calls. Whom the Lord calls."

And so we read in Verse 13, "For whom the Lord calls, the name of the Lord shall be saved." Amen? Go ahead and read the rest of verses 14 through 21 and please start Chapter 11, because we'll probably get through at least half of Chapter 11 next week.

I love studying God's word. I love studying the prophetic promises. I love seeing all that Messiah Christ Jesus has given us to understand why we know what we know. As Paul said earlier, why we understand. The very thing that he said if the Jews at that time would have read, would have studied, that they too would have understood.

Our understanding comes from the word. He tells us hearing. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word. It all comes back to the word God, God breathed. So let's pray the Lord gives us understanding, not only for the word, but in the days we're living to know the times, to recognize the times that we see around us and to be those watchmen. Those watchmen, those that are pointing mouthpieces, prophetesses, prophets, pointing people to Jesus Christ and the good news and the good word because the best is yet to come. Amen.

Guest (Male): Salvation from sin and death. There is no greater need for mankind. And thankfully, God has provided the solution through His son, Jesus Christ. Welcome to His Perfect Love. We continue today in Romans Chapter 10, and it's there we learn not only who can be saved but how they can be saved. Salvation has been made available to all of us. Let's see how as we join Pastor Matt VanderVen for this message first delivered at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.

Well, thanks for joining us today for His Perfect Love. You can hear this study from Pastor Matt VanderVen again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. Catch up on what you may have missed in Romans at hisperfectlove.org. Look for us on oneplace.com and most of the major podcast platforms. The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to Pastor Matt's messages shortly after they're delivered.

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We hope you'll visit us at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service too, Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information.

Men, mark your calendars for the Men of Calvary Conference 2026 at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Join us on Saturday, September 19th for a powerful day centered on the theme Unity in Faith, based on Ephesians 4:12 through 13. Connect with other men through worship, biblical teaching, prayer, fellowship, and encouragement as we grow stronger together in Christ.

The conference will be held at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore, 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg. Registration is just $20 and includes breakfast and lunch. Register today at ccharrisburg.org. That's ccharrisburg.org. Men of Calvary Conference 2026. United in faith, strong in Christ. And then we'll come back to our study of Romans next time on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt. See you then and God bless.