His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Over and over again, Jesus Christ lets us know how simple it is to be a born-again believer in Christ. It's not Jesus plus something. It's not a religion. It's not a ritual. It's Jesus. It's relationship. And it didn't mean that we had to arrive. He didn't wait for us to become sinless that we could receive him and take upon his spirit upon us, his righteousness that was imputed to us.

But it was while we were dead in our sins and trespasses. That is power that God can do that. He isn't conquered by darkness. No, his light is so bright that it casts out all darkness.

Guest (Male): If you're a Christian, think about this: You're a son or daughter of the King, God Almighty, and we are co-heirs of Christ. But do you see yourself that way? And does your life reflect that? Today on His Perfect Love, we'll pause to consider this great truth that is worth celebrating. We'll be continuing our study in Romans. We pick things up today in Chapter 8 at Verse 12. So, let's find our place there now as we turn things back over to our teacher and Pastor, Matt VanderVen.

Matt VanderVen: Verse 12. Connecting what he had been talking about in the previous passage of Chapter 8, which is the idea of being free from sin and death, which he had already settled in Romans Chapter 6 for us. He now says, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh." In other words, if we're no longer under or conquered by the flesh, if we're no longer conquered by sin, we're victorious. Amen. Okay, then we are debtors. We're going to be debtors to something. We already talked about that. You're going to serve a master. Jesus said that when he came. He says you actually can't serve two masters. You're going to hate one and you're going to love the other. He said there is no possible way to have two masters. And if God says there's no possible way, it's pretty settled in my heart. There's no possible way. There's no reasoning on this.

He points us to what this means further. Thank you for the leading of the Holy Spirit here because he tells us you're going to be a debtor to something, but you don't want to be a debtor to the flesh. Yes, we have a soul and a conscience, and that's our flesh, and we understand that, but we don't have to be debtors to that. We don't owe anything to that. As Paul said, "I don't want to walk in that. I don't want to do those things any longer." He says, "No, I want to walk in the Spirit." It doesn't mean I don't blow it. We all blow it. Nobody's arrived here. Nobody is better than anybody else. Nobody's sin is different than anybody else's.

He's not trying to condemn us. He did that in chapters one through three. He unified us in that already. Now he's trying to set us free. He says don't focus on that. Focus on the Spirit of God where there's life, life more abundantly, life that abounds. I like that. That's encouraging. In a lost and dying world where I'm constantly being beaten down and you're constantly being beaten down, isn't it great that we can come into a place where we can sit and the word goes forth and he tells us, "Hey, don't be a debtor to the flesh. Be free in the Spirit of God." It just pieces you out. You just lay it down and you just, "Ah, thank you, Lord."

To live according to the flesh, "For if you live according to flesh, you will die." He doesn't say "maybe." You will die. "But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body," and you will live. You're not going to do those things. Yes, they may still happen, but that's not your aim. That's no longer your aim anymore. You're not tossed to or fro like a weed blowing in the wind or shaken in the wind that way. No longer. You know the aim now. It's Christ and Christ crucified. You know the aim. It's life through the Spirit of God. It's walking it out.

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." He makes a connection there for us. He says those that walk in the Spirit, those that have the Spirit of God, are now a son or daughter of God. Well, wait a minute. I thought everybody born was a son or daughter of God. I'm glad you asked. Turn in your Bibles to Colossians Chapter 1 and let's look at Verse 16. Certainly, we believe the Lord is the author of everything. We know that the Lord is certainly an author that way. He's the one that holds everything together for us. He created all things. Nothing would exist without him. We understand that.

Colossians Chapter 1, Verse 16 is very clear on this. It says, "For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers." Those are rankings. If you know Ephesians, you're talking principalities and powers. Those are rankings of angels and/or demonic. He's saying all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. That's why we read in John 1:1. He's the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Nothing existed before God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Ex nihilo, out of nothing. Bara, created. Genesis 1. When you read right in the beginning of Genesis, you can't miss it.

What does that mean? That means that you have a God, you have a Lord and Savior that came outside of creation into creation, subjected himself in flesh, in humanity, to take on the sin—your sin, my sin—of the world. A creation which he created, but humanity rejected. And that's real love. When we think of unconditional love, that's real love. None of us could have done that. Revelation tells us that no one was worthy to open this—nobody could open the scroll of the Lamb of God. Only the Lamb of God could. As we look at that, then what is the definition here? If we're all God's creation and we begin that way, then what happens?

Originally we were created in the likeness of Adam—you and I, not original creation, certainly, Genesis 5. But then we were recreated as born-again believers in the likeness of God when we received him as Lord and Savior. What happened next? He says he gave us the right to become children of God. Look at the book of John Chapter 1. We read last week verses 1 through 14, so I will not read it all again for you. If you would like to go back, you can listen to last week's teaching for that. But specifically, when you look at John, look at Verse 12.

What I love about this is over and over again, Jesus Christ lets us know how simple it is to be a born-again believer in Christ. It's not Jesus plus something. It's not a religion. It's not a ritual. It's Jesus. It's relationship. And it didn't mean that we had to arrive. He didn't wait for us to become sinless that we could receive him and take upon his spirit upon us, his righteousness that was imputed to us. But it was while we were dead in our sins and trespasses. That is power that God can do that—that he isn't conquered by darkness. No, his light is so bright that it casts out all darkness.

He tells us here in Verse 12, "But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God." You receive him and then you become a child of God "to those who believe in his name." It always comes down to belief. That's the only thing he ever commanded us to do was to believe. Once we believed and we were no longer spiritually blind, we could see, the scales fell off. Then he says, "If you love me, keep my commandments and statutes." And we want to do that, don't we? Sometimes we might wrestle with them a little bit. It didn't work out so good for Jacob, right? Little bum hip. But God wants the very best for us, and often we choose the second best. That's not his design.

Look at 1 John Chapter 3. If you've gone to the book of Revelation, you've gone too far. 1 John Chapter 3. I want you to think about this word. How true is this? Sometimes we think nobody understands us. "Us" being plural as a Christian, a born-again believer in Christ. Sometimes we can feel alone. We really can. But we're not. You and Jesus is a multitude. Look at what it says in 1 John Chapter 3: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us." He says just think about it. Behold. Take a moment and think about the manner in which God loves you. Just behold it for a moment, for an eternity actually, "that we should be called the children of God."

I can relate more with what Paul said, "Oh, wretched man, that's who I am." But if I spend time dwelling in that, I miss the work that Jesus Christ did in me, and I'm not seeing myself correctly. I'm seeing myself in my old nature, in my old way, in my adamic nature. But I'm not seeing myself as Christ sees me. Christ isn't looking down at any one of us as born-again believers, any one of you, and sitting there and going, "Yeah, he's half-baked, man." And I don't mean that in any other way. I mean he's half arrived. He's not looking at that. He sees you spotless, without blemish. That's a willing choice he had to make. Just think about that.

He's constantly reminded. In Revelation Chapter 4 and all the way through 6, we see that there's a bow placed within the throne room of God, if you have studied Revelation with us. It was a constant reminder of the promise that he made to humanity. When we see a bow in the sky, a rainbow, we're told that's a constant promise from God that he would never destroy the earth again with a flood. It's a reminder, but it's a reminder which he chooses to enforce. He doesn't remember. He's a God who knows everything, can remember everything, but he willingly chooses no longer to remember our sin as far as the east is from the west.

Notice they didn't say north to south. North to south reconnects. You go however many miles and you come back around. East to west—where is there really an east to west? You're always going east, aren't you, if you come back around? But north to south, you have poles. You have a pole. You stop. Why didn't he say north to south? Because there's a finite point. But east to west goes on and on and on. Think about all that he's given us, all that creation bears witness of his love—that we are children of God. If you don't see yourself here this morning that way, if you don't see yourself as a son or daughter of the God Most High, then you're missing out on the greatest gift Jesus Christ has given you, and that's himself and his glory. We are co-heirs. We're going to read that in a moment.

He didn't want us to be condemned, Romans 8:1. He wanted us to be set free. He already dealt with the habitual sin and the occasional sin. He said no. Because grace abounds more than sin, certainly we don't say then let's keep sinning. We've already dealt with that. That's not what Paul was talking about. This is walking in the newness of life. It's available for everyone that calls on the name of Jesus Christ and believes on him. Just think of the power of that for a moment. Look at Verse 2, "Beloved, we are now children of God, and it has not been revealed what we shall be, but we know that what is revealed, he has revealed. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Do you long for that moment to see Christ face to face, to see your Lord and Savior Jesus face to face that way? You can turn back to Romans.

When we read in Verse 14, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God," we begin to understand the power in that one verse and what he's saying. We're not a creation of just God, or I should say we're not just the creation of God, but we're children. He's going to build on this. He's going to say, "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again." The adamic nature came with its own bondage, didn't it? He says you didn't get a new spirit, the Spirit of God. It's not a spirit of bondage any longer. It's a spirit of liberty. He says and you didn't get it to go back in fear like you used to. Oh no. "But you received the spirit of" —circle that in your Bibles, what is that?— "adoption." We're adopted.

At the church, we had a family that just adopted three children, and they're in the process of going through that. How beautiful to watch the knitting together of hearts. The parents have no idea yet all that comes. For us that have had children, they have no idea. Beautiful. Praise God. The children have no idea of the love they're going to receive. They have no idea yet how blessed they're going to be. But you take it all together, it reminds me of us in Christ. We have no clue all that we have with our Father. And our Father looks down on us and he loves us. And we don't know anything about the nth degree of his love for us, just like those little children don't understand all the love that awaits them.

We are adopted by the God of the universe, and we are grafted in. We're not our own. We're blood bought. There's nothing greater. There's nothing greater to celebrate than being a son or daughter of the living God. Amen? He says, "by whom we cry out, Abba." That's an Aramaic word in your Bible. Yes, sometimes in the Hebrew they'll say Abba or Av, but it's pronounced Abba. But this is Aramaic, this word. It's a transliteration, actually, that we get it. And the idea behind it is Daddy. Now I don't generally pray "Daddy." I pray "Father." And for me, that's where the Lord meets me in that. But many people pray "Daddy," and that's where the Lord meets them at that because they can identify with that.

Some folks have a problem praying when they look at their earthly father and they say, "Boy, this didn't line up." But you know what? You're a child of *the*—the definite article—Father God, who is perfect in all ways, who will never leave you nor forsake you. That's the aim for all of us. We can all look to our earthly parents and find something amiss. And all of us did here. Maybe we love our parents, but we look to something—something happened, whatever. You get the point. But with our Father God? Sometimes that's hard for people. Children that go through adoption many times it's hard for them to understand that they can really trust their parents if they've been part of a system where they've been sort of left. It's a difficult situation for them.

When we realize what he's saying here, when they cry out, "Father," that's what you and I can do every single moment. Dad, I'm afraid. Dad, I'm lonely. Dad, I need strength. Dad, I need wisdom. Dad, wash me with your word. I'm beginning to look too much like what I don't want to be a part of. I'm a sojourner. I'm just passing through. This isn't my home. And when I begin to feel more like the culture rather than the culture being changed or transformed, Dad, I need you to recalibrate me with your word to set it right. You don't have a single other reference in all of your home, in all of your life anywhere, than what God gave you in the word of God. It is God-breathed.

And yet, how many of us spend time with Dad? How many of us spend time with our Father? How many of us get on our knees and cry out, "Dad, Father"? It's about a relationship, friends. How would it work in a marriage if you just passed for ten minutes and said, "Hey, how you doing? Good to see you"? It wouldn't be much of a marriage, would it? How about a friendship? What if you only talked to that person once a day for ten minutes or once a week? You see, everything that Jesus tried to warn us and teach us had to do with investing in people's lives. He was telling us when we love him with our heart, mind, soul, and strength, he becomes the priority above your family, above your children, above anything.

Can you say, "I love you, God, more than you love your spouse?" Because if you can, you'll be in subjection to him. Can you say, "I love him more than I love my children?" If you can, you'll be in subjection to him, and it will be his will be done. Otherwise, you will find yourself constantly juggling the priorities. You'll fill in the blank with activities. You'll fill in the blank with all types of things, but it's all fleeting. The only place that you will truly find peace and rest is in the arms of your Savior. There's no other way. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit. And for us as born-again believers, amen? We get that. We hear that. We understand that. We are children of God. Amen. And if children, then heirs.

What does that mean? Well, some of you have children, and some of you may be leaving your inheritance to your children. They're an heir of yours. Our God has given us the greatest inheritance ever. What is his inheritance that he gave us? Eternal life with him. We were dead in our sin and trespasses. He conquered death and he gave us an inheritance of victory, an inheritance of love, an inheritance of a system of grace. What more could anybody want? Really. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

Now he said a little bit in Part B of that verse. He says that we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him. Why is that? He's talking about really being an heir meaning being a disciple. I don't believe that every person that's born again is truly a disciple of Christ. Read your Bible. Be Bereans. Search that out. There are people that came and followed after him as born-again believers, but then walked away even for a period of time. Now I'm not a judge. But if Jesus Christ is your Lord and you're blood bought, then your life ought to be being transformed and your heart ought to be being transformed into the mindset of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of earth.

If you live in a country, there's laws that reign in that country. For us in America, that's sort of hard for us to understand. We understand our laws and our government and our judicial branches and our setup. But because we didn't grow up with a monarchy, many of us have a difficulty with this. We think it's the Republic of God or the Democracy of God. But it's not. It's the kingdom. And there's a king on the throne and he loves you and he has a set of doctrine, instruction for you and I to live out our lives to the fullest in him. When we begin to live another way, when we begin to put things in the place where God is, that's called idolatry.

If you remember in 1 Samuel, one of the biggest arguments of that time that came through in Samuel himself, the prophet, was dealing with it was when the people began to look to the pagan nations and say that they wanted a king that would be created that they could turn around and listen to and have laws initiated for us. And yet, weren't they put under God as King? But what did they want? What they could see, touch, maybe smell. They wanted things that they could see. It was difficult for them to worship the invisible God who wasn't that invisible to them because so many years before that, he was a pillar by day of cloud and then a pillar by fire at night.

Even when we say, "Well, if Jesus was physically manifested, then it would be different," friends, if that is what you're using as your rationale, you would be sorely disappointed because even many of the disciples walked away from Christ when he was physically manifested on earth. It's going to be his will and his way, or it's going to be yours. They're mutually exclusive.

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. We're developing our study in Romans, and if you enjoyed today's message, we'd like to know. Email us at our website hisperfectlove.org and be sure to include your prayer requests. And while you're there, you'll notice a place to listen to Pastor Matt's sermons, including all of Romans. That's at hisperfectlove.org. You can also listen to us at 1place.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we have a free mobile app. This is a convenient way to listen to Pastor Matt on your mobile devices; just go to hisperfectlove.org for more information. And if you'd like to support this ministry with a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support, you can do so through the website at hisperfectlove.org. Thank you so much for that. We want all of our listeners to have access to the Word of God, so if you're in need of a Bible, we'd like to get one into your hands. Just email us through our website and ask for the free Bible offer. Here is our web address again: hisperfectlove.org. This has been His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you back here next time when we'll share another study in Romans.

His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.