His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: As a pastor, I stand before you one because I know you all stand, all of you guaranteed as born-again believers in Christ. If you are, you will stand before Jesus. It's not only my calling, but it's my love that wants to prepare you for that.

So that when you do stand before Jesus, you're without excuse one, two you know what to expect. I don't want you getting there and Jesus going, "What church did you go to? Your pastor didn't tell you about the Bema seat judgment, so you've been carrying on your whole life like it doesn't matter?" I don't want that for any of us.

Guest (Male): It's not hard to see our nation is divided. While that's the case in the world, it shouldn't be in the church. Today on His Perfect Love, Pastor Matt VanderVen encourages us to work through our differences and work towards unity.

You can be sure you'll encounter some with a different opinion or conviction than you, but when it comes to doubtful things, there's no need to divide. It's an opportunity to love. Here's Pastor Matt with more in Romans chapter 14, starting with verse 3.

Matt VanderVen: Look at verse 3: "Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand." Of course he is, because he's the one that does the sanctification.

So Paul is saying that God is the judge; therefore, we must be careful not to judge another person. That's what Paul's warning us here, and we know that the Master judges perfectly, doesn't He? Who's the Master? Jesus. He's not a respecter of persons. He judges perfectly.

If I asked any of you to judge something right now, whether you mean to or not, you are creating presupposition data points based on specific points of time at which you take these data points and you pull them together and you form an opinion or a presupposition.

Now those presuppositions may or may not be accurate in context or not in context based on particular events you have happen, your own emotions, things that are going on around you. Are you willing to guarantee that your presuppositions in all things, unless they're scriptural, are correct every single time? Is it possible that maybe you get it wrong? Is it possible maybe you come to a conclusion that doesn't represent God's heart?

If it is, God is saying be careful, that's why you're not to judge. Now contrast that with God, who is infinite, all-knowing, can see everything. Eido in the Greek, right? Not a progressive knowledge like we. We ginosko, we learn. Progressively, we see, we understand, we ginosko something, we learn it, but it's progressive.

We put things together, we form opinions, we make context out of what we see and understand and we assimilate based on that and we operate based on those principles. Everything around us—matter, the way we interact with it, physics—you take all these things in context. They're all laws, whether we like them or not, they're in effect. We have a direct interaction with them.

But if we choose not to believe them, does that mitigate them in any way? Of course not. They're still laws. What am I getting at? God knows all of it. He can see the beginning from the end. He eidos it. In the Greek, he has a direct, personal understanding of it all. He's the one that judges.

He doesn't judge in respecter of persons. He's not a judge based on emotions. He doesn't have a good day and a bad day. He doesn't look upon any of that. There's a purity to our Lord's heart. We can trust His judgment. And after all, He's going to tell us as we continue reading on, we all are going to stand before Him and be judged anyway.

Isaiah quotes it. It's a quote from Isaiah that we're going to read later down as we get towards verse 11. He's going to draw our attention to it, that we all are going to stand before the judge anyway.

So if you think as the Christian your job is to go through and judge everybody around you because if you don't do it, what will befall that person, I want you to rest assured this morning. You can sit back, you can be peaceed out for a minute and you can relax because God never sleeps or slumbers. That's His job and He will judge perfectly with love in righteousness. It's not our job. Many times we'll get it wrong and are you willing to take a risk with that with a brother or sister? Is it worth it?

Is it worth it that you could push somebody further from Christ than to Christ by not understanding? Now again, we're not talking about scriptural principles as we'll read in Timothy where God's very clear: "Hey, if you're doing this, go up, encourage, exhort, rebuke, correct." Absolutely, there's times where we need to do that.

If we see a brother that's getting drunk every day and they're going out and they're living a lifestyle, we have every right to love them and come alongside them and say, "What's going on? What's ailing you right now? Something's causing you to do this. What's the reason? There's something going on in the heart."

We invest in them. We watch God produce fruit from that, but we have to earn the right by investing in them first, by loving them. You see, that's what he's showing us here. We don't want to judge, we won't get it right. Only our Master's the perfect judge.

The Christian ought to put unity before division. There are some people here that don't believe the Holy Spirit is very much alive and well today, the gifts of the Spirit. I clearly believe my scripture teaches that it's the promise of the Father and He gives good gifts, and I believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit because I believe that's what the Bible teaches.

It's very clear and there are gifts. Do I believe He does everything with decency and order? That's why I don't expect people to bark like dogs or throw themselves on the ground or act ridiculous. Yes. But does that mean that I can't also acknowledge the fact that the Holy Spirit gifts the man or the woman for the calling that He's given them in their lives to do the work?

Whether it's prophecy, a word of knowledge, the gift of tongues in their prayer language. Do I negate all of that because a few people take extremism and start to react in a certain way? Certainly not, as Paul would say. I don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I don't throw the baby out anyway. But I wouldn't do that. I don't throw the toy truck out with the sand. You get the point I'm going with here.

Well, what about people in the fellowship that may believe that? What did Augustine say again? Remember: In the essentials we must have unity, non-essentials we must have liberty. So there are many people here, or maybe a couple people here, a few people here, I don't know, that maybe don't believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Okay.

But we don't have to not fellowship together. We don't have to not be in our Word together because we all surrender under the Word of God that way. Now, does that mean that we turn around and we're to compromise? Are we to turn around and say, "Well, this person does believe homosexuality's okay"?

Look after all, there was a recent preacher that came out in the news this week saying, "You know what? I think the church has got it wrong. I think love is so important that we need to turn around and if that person's homosexual, we need to honor their homosexualism and they can even be pastors and teachers and they can do whatever they want because we want love."

That's antinomianism or nominalism. That's taking grace and applying it in a way that it was never meant to be applied scripturally. That's a Christian definition for antinomianism, not just a secular one. But do you understand where we're going here, where the Lord is taking?

He's showing us that if it's scriptural, because He began in verse 1: "Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to dispute over doubtful things." Anything that's in scripture, is that doubtful? No, it is not. So things like that, we must divide over. Things like that we don't compromise.

But what do we do with the person that's in sin that way? Does that mean that we can't love that person? Of course not. We're to love them to Jesus. How else are they going to learn about Jesus if we don't love them and gently show them: "Here's what the scripture teaches. This is how Jesus wants us to live our lives."

We don't just cast them off as though they don't exist. Somebody loved you enough to introduce you to Jesus here. Somebody in your life somewhere along your way, along your journey of life, somebody told you about the love of Christ. Somebody set you free, and they didn't look at you and dismiss you because of the sin that you were in.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Amen. We too as disciples need to usher that. That is walking in the likeness and love of Christ. So I just want us to sort of bookend that. I don't want us to think, "Does that mean that to never offend somebody, we kind of let any—" No. We don't compromise.

We certainly don't compromise in sin to appease another person. But giving up our liberties? Well, why wouldn't we? If I was going to have one of you over for dinner and I knew you didn't like spinach or—I hope nobody here doesn't like meatballs—but if there's somebody here that just has a meatball issue, fine.

We won't have meatballs. I guess we'll work through it. I'll pray. Love, right? I have to love. My poor wife, she makes the best meatballs. Anyway, you get the point. Paul reminds us that it's not our place to pass judgment on the fellow Christian, that they stand or fall because of their own Master, because of God.

And God is able to make those that are not on a "seafood" diet—you see food and eat it—He's able to make those stand. Look at verse 5 and 6: "One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks."

So what's kind of going on here? Well, the first one is we now see that Paul takes this so that we begin to understand this isn't—because it's dealing with the practicalities of life—this isn't something that Paul is just making over food. Remember, that was a hot topic for them at that time because of the pagan idol worship.

Where was the butcher then in the first century like that? Where was the main place that they went to get meat? It was the idol temples, because that's where the butchers were. So they went there to get the meat and the food. He's saying you don't have to avoid the meat that's there. Go get meat and eat. You don't have to tell me twice. Go grab it and eat it.

But what else is he saying here? He says one esteems another day. He then brings it into the context outside of food and says, "What about worship?" He's kind of going through this laundry list of preconceived notions or traditions that men and women have, especially at that time the Jew, who had only ever practiced the Shabbat on a Saturday.

That was the only time that they would have understood that. And now we're saying look, we can come and worship every day. You can come to church every day. I don't have a problem if the Lord leads us and we go to a third or fourth service and we need to have service Saturday night.

Praise the Lord, we'll have service Saturday night. That's great. Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday we already do, Thursday—every night, why wouldn't we? Come and learn and serve the Lord and be ministered to by the Word of God every night. Praise God.

That's what Paul's saying. There's no specific day better than—traditionally, the early Christians gathered on the first day of the week, in the Hebrew calendar which would have been a Sunday. That's what we see for the early church in the Book of Acts three different times. They had done that.

But Paul's saying don't elevate the tradition again. Be careful you're elevating tradition and you're getting legalistic about it because you're trying to compare it to God's Word and you're not under that. That's what he's warning us here.

The reason he's warning us is because if we played this back, we all have to go to Leviticus chapter 25, verse 7. If we wanted to play this back and we wanted to follow this scripturally, if we're going to say, "Well, Saturday has to be the day," I think of the Seventh-day Adventists, I think of other movements and religions—notice I said religion not relationship—religions that have created these days or something like that for certain things.

If you're going to turn around and do that, then you have to keep all of it. If you're going to place yourself back under the law, then you've got to keep every aspect of that law. So what's that mean? Well, that means that if you have the Sabbath, you need to keep the entire Sabbath law.

The Sabbath law means you work six days a week and you rest only one day. So that means everybody's got to work six days a week. If your job doesn't allow you, you've got to get a different job, got to work six days a week. If that's not enough, guess what else you've got to turn around and do?

You've got to turn around and do every seven years because you have the Sabbath rest of the land where it would go fallow, you'd let it go. All the debts, anybody that owes you money, you have to turn around and forgive all that money. I'm all for that. How's that going to work?

Other than some politicians giving away everything for free and we don't have a way to pay for it, I don't get involved in all that. But I'm a simple man. Two plus two is four. You can't get something for nothing. So how many of you are willing to turn around and say, "Every seven years, my credit card companies or whoever you have a loan with or your mortgage, I expect you all to forgive me the debt that I owe you"?

How's that going to work? I get a feeling they're going to come back and go, "I'm sorry, that's not how it works." And are you willing as individual believers to say anybody that owes you money every seven years, maybe your child, someone you helped them out, are you willing to say, "I just release the debt, no problem"?

Okay, well maybe you are. Maybe you're like, "Yeah, I'm a really good person, I'm happy, I don't have much debt, that doesn't apply to me." Great. There's also the Jubilee every 50. And what does that mean? That means because you're going to follow this, you've got to follow it all the way. It's the Sabbath law.

Every 50 years, guess what you're going to do? You're going to take the house you're in today that you bought and paid for—you no longer have a mortgage on it, it's all paid free and clear—you're going to contact the gentleman or the lady that you bought that house from and you're going to say, "You know what? I love you so much, I'm going to give it back to you. Debt-free."

Everybody prepared to do that? That's the Sabbath law. If you're going to go to one part of it, you have to keep all of it. That's the problem with the law altogether, right? That's why Christ said you're not under the law because where do you draw the line?

So that's clearly what he's showing us here. Paul's bringing this out because he wants to set people free. He's saying there's a liberty in this. Why would you go back and—you might esteem one day—he goes, it's not about that. What is it really about?

"He who eats, eats to the Lord, he who gives thanks"—what? He gives it to the Lord. Whether he eats or whether he worships, it's all about Jesus. It's all about worshipping Him and praising Him, it's all about God. Worship on whatever day you want to worship.

That's what he's saying. We worship on Sunday. It's when we gather together. It's what we follow in the Book of Acts, we do what the early church did. But that's what he's saying here: "For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's."

Isn't that the point? It's all about Jesus. "For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again." That's it. If you had to take a verse here, circle that verse right there, verse 9: "For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again." For this reason.

So that you do not have to go back and keep any aspect of the law. So that you do not have to go back and worry about: "Am I allowed to worship today? Am I allowed to eat meat today?" So that you don't have to do that, Christ died and rose again. The work is done.

The work of the cross has satisfied once and for all all of the judgment, all of the law, and there's nothing we need to put ourselves back under. Because in doing so, we actually ensnare ourselves. We actually put shackles back on our arms. We enslave ourselves again.

And Christ doesn't want us enslaved. He wants us free so that we can go about with the love of Christ and share the gospel. Not limited by our own self-infliction, by putting things in our own way, stumbling ourselves and brothers and sisters that way.

It's all an ends in a means to the gospel, to our freedom, to our sanctification in Christ. He says: "For this end Christ died and rose again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living." I love that he points that out to us.

"But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God."

So he brings us back again between this idea of judging between legalism and antinomianism. And again, antinomianism is really relating to the views that Christians are released by grace from the obligation of observing the moral law. What we see is extremes on either end here.

What about the Bema seat? This passage you just read, specifically verse 10 there, this is a judgment seat passage for believers. He's talking to believers here. He's not talking to unbelievers. What is this judgment that we have to go through?

This Bema seat judgment. Many of you have heard of it, it's in your scripture. We'll look at it here in context. But it's a judgment for rewards. It's based on the idea of the Olympics, and that one would come forward first, second, and third place, the crown would be placed upon their head and it would be a reward.

We all will stand before Jesus. Hence why he quotes Isaiah 45:23 in verse 11. We will all stand before Jesus and be judged. We will have to give an account to the things we did. I want you to think about wood, hay, and stubble.

Everything you've done in this life, everything that you will do will be brought before Jesus and there will be a fire—literally, a literal fire that will be set to it. And whatever remains is what you will be rewarded for. Anything that burns was temporal. It was all about you.

We only have so many years that God has given us on this earth for the purpose of His mission: to reach people and evangelize, to disciple people with the Bible, with Jesus, the love of Christ.

As a pastor, I stand before you one because I know you all stand, all of you guaranteed as born-again believers in Christ. If you are, you will stand before Jesus. And it's not only my calling but it's my love that wants to prepare you for that.

So that when you do stand before Jesus, you're without excuse one, two you know what to expect. I don't want you getting there and Jesus going, "What church did you go to? Your pastor didn't tell you about the Bema seat judgment, so you've been carrying on your whole life like it doesn't matter?" I don't want that for any of us.

Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. We're going to look at verse 11. It's sobering. We're all going to stand before Jesus this way, we're all going to have to give an account, we're all going to be judged. Now, this is not salvation. You're all saved. This is not salvation, this is sanctification here, for the works, for the things that you've done on this earth, for what God's entrusted you with.

What have you done with it? From that, you're going to be given crowns or rewards that one day you will then cast at the feet of Jesus because after all, could we do anything good of our own? Was it not always through Christ?

Look at verse 11: "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Boy, doesn't that just sum it up right there? If you came here this morning and you heard one thing: Jesus is your foundation. It's everything.

"Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward." And that's my prayer for all of you here, is that you receive many rewards.

Guest (Male): What a blessing that our Lord is willing to reward us as we faithfully live to honor Him in this life. There's more to come in Romans chapter 14, we'll have that for you on the next His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen.

His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. 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 4:12-13.

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.