His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Think for a moment about how you relate to your unbelieving friends and family members as we get started today on His Perfect Love. Many of us know people that are not born-again believers in Christ, and they are walking according to the world’s standards. God doesn't want us to be harsh or non-empathetic to them. He doesn't want us to walk and just be indifferent to the fact that they're walking their way to hell. God’s never asked that for us.

No, he wanted us to be caring and loving, but not willing to compromise truth. Why are we called to love them? Because we’re to love them right to the Kingdom, that they would see the love of Christ and they would see the truth, and then they would want to be set free.

Announcer: This is His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen. We sure enjoy opening and studying the Word with you and pray you're getting a lot out of these studies in Romans. As we turn back to Chapter 8, we reflect on our identity in Christ. We are free, no longer slaves to sin, but because of Jesus, we can now walk in victory, not by our own strength but by the Spirit. Let's talk about it now as we join Pastor Matt for this message first delivered at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.

Matt VanderVen: Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son. If a son, then an heir of God through Christ. We’re going to build more on that because we're co-heirs, he says, with Christ. But he's building and showing us who we are in Christ like that. Think about the humanity of Christ. Turn to the book of John, Chapter 1. We read it right here. I think many of us have read the Gospel of John, maybe the first chapter.

I’m going to read verses one through 14 with you here this morning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. He's the author of everything. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all through him might believe. He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in his name. What does that mean? That if you were not previously before that, you must have been a creation of God. Because he says here that as many as received him, it’s once you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then what happens? Then you become a child of God. Those are his words, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh.

He’s saying not your first birth from your mama, but what birth is he talking about? Your spiritual birth. John 3. Nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh. We just read that in Romans, right? And he dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. It's not a balancing act for Jesus Christ. He doesn't try to balance truth with grace. He's the fullness of both.

Don't try to balance things in your lives. That's not what God did. God was the fullness of truth. He never compromised a single word of Scripture, but he also walked in fullness of grace. As he found the woman caught in adultery, what did he say to her? Woman, where are your accusers? She had been guilty. God didn't say what she did was right. No, he condemned the sin, but he looked at her and he said, "Go and sin no more."

There was love and empathy there. Many of us know people that are not born-again believers in Christ, and they are walking according to the world’s standards. God doesn't want us to be harsh or non-empathetic to them. He doesn't want us to walk and just be indifferent to the fact that they're walking their way to hell. God’s never asked that for us. No, he wanted us to be caring and loving, but not willing to compromise truth.

He doesn't want us to come back and say, "Well, I'm sure God wants you to be homosexual and I understand your struggling with your gender because you apparently can't look 18 inches to two feet down and figure that out." Maybe there's a biological quandary going on at that moment. No, he knows it's cerebral. He knows it's a heart issue. He knows it's mental. They're figuring things out, right? But he didn't say ignore them or be harsh to them.

He said love them. Why are we called to love them? Because we’re to love them right to the Kingdom, that they would see the love of Christ and they would see the truth, and then they would want to be set free. It wasn't through Bible thumping people. But again, we're to give truth. We're not to compromise that. We're not to say it's okay that you're living this lifestyle and God doesn't really care. That's lying, and you're doing that in order to make them feel good.

But what's that really doing? That's compromising. You're loving them right to hell rather than perfectly loving them, unconditionally loving them, and telling them, "Hey, have you ever read your Bible? I know you believe you're a Christian, and I certainly can't judge you on that, but Jesus says that we who love him are those that keep his commandments and statutes. Would you like to know a little bit about what those commandments and statutes are? I'd like to live them out in my life. Would you like to live them out in yours? And how about we do it together?"

That means you're investing in someone's life. Then you have the right to pour into them once you invest in them. Well, back to Romans. So, he talks about this sinful flesh and on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. That's the ingredient there. That's why when we're born again, we receive a new nature.

We're walking in that new spirit, and it's through Jesus Christ that we are seen forgiven and justified, just as though we never ever sinned. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that wonderful? That's your identity in Christ. That's why Paul can begin with 8:1 and say there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. That's why he can say that. That's why you can all look in the mirror and say there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because God sees you with the righteousness of Christ, that imputed righteousness to you.

Isn't that wonderful? Doesn't that just sort of, I don't know about you, but I can just exhale. I can be. I can just be me. I can try to walk more towards Christ and I want to grow in his likeness and sanctification, but I'm not laying a trip on myself. I'm just trusting God to do it. Verse 5: "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."

I think that's almost common sense to us, what he's saying there. We read the differences in Galatians. Those that are thinking about the flesh are thinking about all those things—hatred, motives, adultery, and things that are not good. He says, "But those that are walking in the Spirit think of love, joy, peace, longsuffering." We went through the list, you remember. He says it's a choice. Isn't that what it's pointing to? It's a choice. What are you going to walk out today?

Who do you want to be in Christ? It's a choice. He then tells us in Verse 6, "For to be carnally minded is death." What is this idea of carnally minded? Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, Chapter 3. Look at verses one through four with me. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as—talking to the church at Corinth, he'd spent a year and a half there, terribly sexually immoral, a lot going on in the church, not a good example here.

But he was writing to them to exhort them, to encourage, to rebuke, to correct. 1 Corinthians Chapter 3, verses 1-4, he says, "And I, brethren," speaking to the church, "could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able." What is he saying? He’s saying, "You're not walking in the Spirit. You're still going back, and I can't explain these things to you that I want to speak to you that have to do with the meat and substance, the victory you have in Christ."

He says, "But I have to keep going back to the foundation and the basics because you're not taking hold of the basics. You're not understanding who you are in Christ. You're not going back to the foundation, for you are still carnal." Again, he's speaking to the church, isn't he? Brethren, sisters. He was speaking to the church. He wasn't speaking to unbelievers. He's saying, "Hey, you could still be carnal. You can be a born-again believer in Christ, but you could still be trying to walk out that flesh instead of that Spirit, and you could still be comfortable or content in your carnality."

For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? You're not behaving like you're born again. There's no transformation in you. There's no fruit to speak of. For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal? You're getting caught up in division over who baptized you or who's the one that led you to Christ. He's like, where does that come from?

That doesn't come from God whenever you see division. Diversity is an interesting term. People use the word diversity thinking that it's inclusive. Diversity in the root of diversity is division. It's not an inclusive word. We need to get our HR manuals out and rewrite them over that. That's not inclusive. Unity's inclusive. Christ is inclusive, not divisive, not division, diversity. Follow it out to its end length. I'm not saying we're not to acknowledge that there are differences among all of us, but we can focus on the difference instead of focusing on what draws us together, which is Jesus Christ.

He's the reason that we're all here this morning. Some of you probably would not hang out with each other. I'll just be so poignant about it if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. But he's your unity, and because of that, you can't imagine being without another buddy or another sister in Christ like that because that's your commonality, and it overcomes anything that's diverse. You think they should put that in an HR manual? Unity in Christ. I bet productivity would go up.

Do all things unto Christ because we're seeing with all this stuff going on, 20 years ago where we came from—some of you who are older than 40 remember some of these things—how this technology and all this stuff was going to make us more improved, harder workers and all this stuff. Not so much. Look at what's going on in the world today. Seems like a lot of bait and switch and a lot of lies.

People are more distanced now than any other time in all of civilization and humanity. Friends sit next to each other, look down on their phones, and never even look up. They never even grab each other's hand and just say, "I know. Let's pray. Let's talk." We've lost that personal dependence on one another. Verse 7: "Because the carnal mind is at enmity," hatred, hostility, that's that word there, "against God." It's hostile. It hates God.

How is it possible you can be a born-again believer and your flesh actually hates God? Because the flesh is representative of the conscience. You could walk—as Paul said, the things I do not want to do, that I do. He goes on and says the opposite of that. I don't want to do these things. But does that mean you're not a born-again believer in Christ? No. It means you're not submitted and surrendered to the Spirit of God, and therefore you're carnal-minded, walking out the flesh.

I think it's pretty simple to understand that because if we just think about our own week that we just had, how many people went for that second piece of cheesecake again? I don't know why we keep buying it. I don't know why it's in the house. I don't know why I can't just eat one piece. I'm projecting. You know what I'm talking about, though. It's gluttonous. But why do we keep doing these things?

Because the carnal mind is against God. It's hating. It's hostile. If we don't recognize that's what's waging war in us, we're not going to fight the good battle. We're going to think there's something wrong with us. There's nothing wrong with you. Welcome to the battle of being a Christian. Welcome to the battle of your lust. How we win that battle and work it out is not of ourselves, but as we read in Chapter 7, it was when Paul finally got to Verse 25 and he said, "I thank God!"

Because before that on Chapter 24, he said, "Oh, wretched man!" But then he got to 25. Praise the Lord, we get to Verse 25. Oh, thank God! It's God that does the delivering. He says it's against God, for it is not subject—there it is. It's everything—not surrendered. You're not surrendered to God. You're trying to live it out in compromise. That's why I said Jesus was the truth and the fullness of truth and the fullness of grace and compassion.

It can't be a balancing act. It's got to be the fullness of both. If we could just understand that dichotomy in our minds, that we willfully allow this, because the Bible tells us we are no longer conquered by sin anymore. So when we sin, we willfully sin. My wife did not come up to me and take my hand and go to that cheesecake. I willfully did that. I willfully did that. And more is caught than taught.

My kids were right behind me. Of course, I teach the Bible in my house, but then flesh and cheesecake. You insert your trip. You insert whatever your trip is. God doesn't want us to walk it out that way. We need to be subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. He's saying you can't when you're walking in that hatred or hostility to God in the flesh. You can't be subject to the Spirit because you can't be in two places at once. Your mind's engaging in the things of the flesh.

But you can hit the reset button. You can say, "Lord, forgive me," repent, and now, "God, give me victory over this. I don't want to do this anymore, Lord. Get behind me, cheesecake!" And you throw it out. Maybe you have a piece instead of two. Let's do all things in decency and order. Verse 8: "So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Hebrews Chapter 11:6 says that same thing, that without faith we cannot please God.

Just think about that. But you are not in the flesh, thank you, Paul, but in the Spirit. I want to insert your name here this morning. But you are not in the flesh, but you're in the Spirit. Do you have moments where you have that fleshly experience? Yes, but that is not who you are. You have a new nature, and you have choice, and you have victory. Thank you, Paul. Thank you for setting us free.

If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. John 3, go back and read that in your notes. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Isn't that what's going to happen? 2 Corinthians 5:8, absent with the body, present with the Lord. Your spirit goes up there and then later on unites.

But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Look again at John Chapter 11, verse 25. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

He was speaking to Martha. If you remember, Lazarus had died. She says, "Jesus, if you would have been here," Mary was inside, she says, "if you would have been here, certainly he wouldn't have died. My brother wouldn't have died." And Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live." Only God could proclaim that. "And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

He's not talking about physical death. What's he talking about? Spiritual death. If you've been born twice, you're only going to die once. But if you've only been born once, you'll face two deaths—your physical death and then the death in the lake of fire, the spiritual death that goes on forever and ever and ever. That's heavy. Look at Acts Chapter 2. Look at verse 29. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he's both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. Psalm 110:1 also references that. Look at verse 32: "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses." So we've seen the Father, we've seen the Son, and we've seen the Spirit saying that he also can raise up.

So who's the one that does the resurrecting of the dead? Is it the Father? Is it the Son? Or is it the Holy Spirit? Yes. Amen? Yes. We see all accounts of that. I do believe that when we die our physical death, Jesus's hand is outstretched to us. And the reason I can say that scripturally, I believe that, is because it says that he went to prepare a place for us, that where he would be, we too would be one day.

That's if we don't take the rapture plan first. And I believe that his arm is outstretched because there's times where he's seated and times where he's standing at the right hand of the Father. Read it in your Scripture. And I believe it's when he's standing as when his hand is outstretched to one of us as he welcomes us to paradise, as he welcomes us home and embraces us. And every tear is wiped away.

There is no sadness. There is no more pain. But we receive our glorified bodies. We are with Christ and we attend the Last Supper with him, and then we come back with him on horses, Revelation Chapter 19. Good stuff. It's what it's all about, isn't it? If he didn't have the ability to resurrect himself, would we be here this morning? Because there'd be no power in his ability in the Gospel because he proclaimed it three times, and he did it.

And without that, you and I wouldn't be here on a Sunday morning. Maybe some of you might be at a synagogue. Maybe some of you might be at a sporting event. But he did. He did rise again. He was and is ascended at the right hand of the Father, and he's making intercession for you and I right now for healing, for right relationship with our Father, for strength to overcome the trials, the difficulties in our lives, for a heart that's new that would see others as Jesus sees them, as he himself saw everyone, to love others as ourselves.

He wants us to have a heart to be able to love God with our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and nothing else coming close to that. That's what he's doing for you and I, just as when he was physically here 2,000 years ago and he would go off to the mountain and he would begin to pray even while his disciples were being entered into a trial. Even though Peter was going to be sifted like wheat, Jesus was giving us a pattern.

When we face the most difficult trials of our life at that moment, we don't run, we pray because he's already praying. He says that if we would just pray, he already knows what we need. If we ask, seek, and knock, he speaks to a persistence of prayer. We're going to stop here this morning, and it's a good place to stop because we get to focus on the fact that we live again. Job asked that question really quick.

Job Chapter 14, look at verse 14. "If a man dies, shall he live again?" Job wanted to know the answer to that. Friends, we can answer Job’s question, can't we? Because of Jesus Christ. Every one of you here that's a born-again believer, if you walked out of this building and there was a catastrophic accident and you went to be with your Lord and Savior, you know that you know that you know that you will be resurrected. Amen?

There's nothing else he could have given us. There's nothing else that we could have wanted that is the greatest gift ever. Look at your children. Look at your friends. Look at your wife and your husband. If they're born-again believers, you will see them in paradise. Nothing can ever eternally separate you. Isn't that everything?

Announcer: We're making our way through Romans one verse at a time here on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen. You can hear this study again at HisPerfectLove.org. That's HisPerfectLove.org. We're also at OnePlace.com and look for us wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a mobile app. You know, this is a great way to take Pastor Matt's teachings with you at the gym, in the car, on your way to work, or as you're getting ready in the morning.

You can learn more about the mobile app and start your download when you visit our website, HisPerfectLove.org. And thank you for your prayers and financial support. You can make a donation to this ministry and send us your prayer requests through the website, again at HisPerfectLove.org. Those of you that are in the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania area or will be visiting the area, we want to invite you to join us for a worship service here at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.

Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 20 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Go to CCHarrisburg.org for more information. There is much more to come in Romans. Don't miss a moment of the journey with Pastor Matt here on His Perfect Love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.