His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Gaining and maintaining an eternal mindset. Next on His Perfect Love. This is his perfect love, the world goes out. It's what real love looks like in truth and prayer. This is his perfect love.

We live in a world full of bad news, and we're reminded of that every time we turn on the news. From murders, wars, or people dying unexpectedly. And if this is all there was to look forward to, there would be no hope. But today on His Perfect Love, we'll see the hope we have in Jesus Christ and what awaits us in heaven. We pray you're left with an encouraged heart as you think about all that God has in store for you. We'll be covering Romans chapter 8 starting at verse 18. But first, Pastor Matt VanderVen pays a quick visit to Second Corinthians. This is his perfect love.

Matt VanderVen: In chapter 12 of Second Corinthians, we see that Paul goes on here and he also talks about how he has this vision of paradise. Many believe, and I believe, that this happened when Paul was beaten. Remember when he was in Lystra? We were in Acts and we went through and he was at Lystra, and remember he was stoned, and they brought him out the city? Many believe that he was dead or had a near-death experience.

And this vision came from when he had that near-death experience because it sort of lines up with the timing of that. Where maybe he had this experience and he was brought up to, as he says and describes it, the third heaven and paradise. And in verse 5 he says, "Of such a one I will boast, yet of myself I will not boast except in my infirmities."

And then in verse 7 of chapter 12, he went on to describe this thorn in the flesh. And he had gone to God three times and said, "Lord, help." And the Lord answered and said, "Paul, this is good for you. My grace is sufficient." Sometimes the answer is no. It doesn't mean ye of little faith. It doesn't mean that. It means God your Father, who is sovereign, knows what's best for you.

And that this is temporal. All of what you see around you is temporal. And if it's going to produce a work for the glory of the King for all of eternity, it's worth it. Regardless of the suffering. Most people live like they're living the last 10 years of their lives on earth like it's their eternity, rather than living the last years you have on earth preparing for eternity. It's upside down, friends. It's upside down the culture of this world.

Turn back to Romans. He says, "For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God." He's going to speak about creation here. He says, "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willing but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now."

Do you remember in Genesis chapter 3? Hold your finger here. Look at Genesis chapter 3. This was not God's design for creation, what's around us today. Because of sin in the garden, willing to sin, he says to Adam—notice he goes to Adam and not Eve first. He does speak to the woman, but first he went to Adam originally and said, "What have you done?" But he speaks to Adam because Adam was supposed to be guarding her heart and mind. That's the husband's job. And Adam had received the oral command directly from God, and Eve had received it from Adam.

What does he say? Look at verse 17. I'm going to skip down a little bit. He says, "Cursed is the ground for your sake." All of creation is cursed for the sake of humanity. Now, that might seem like an oxymoron, but remember again, things are not always as we understand them. Our ways are not God's ways. All of creation is cursed right now.

And yet it was for the sake of humanity. That's why creation groans because it's still under the curse. It's not until a new heavens and new earth that that will be. Which is why as he's writing in Romans, he's saying that even creation longs for that time where all things will be set right. That's what he's saying here. Just as you and I, we are still living in a fallen dying world. We're still living in a cursed world. Bad things are still happening. Cancers are running, all these things that are going on. Water supplies tainted, radiation, and things that are going on with that with the sun and everything with our atmosphere.

There's a lot going on. It's still under the curse. You and I have been redeemed. You and I have been justified. But we aren't walking in the fullness of that glory yet. It's not until we're with him that we receive the fullness of that glorification that awaits us in those glorified bodies. We must put on incorruption. This corruption must put on incorruption, as the Bible says, before we meet face to face with God. This carbon-based life form, this spacesuit that I use that's driven with a heart that's the engine, so to speak, pumping the blood and everything and all the organs that work off of oxygen.

When we're in heaven, there will be no sun or moon. Our glorified bodies will work on a different kind of system. Jesus will radiate the light in heaven, as you read in Revelation. It's not going to work with the same system. I don't know. Maybe it'll be a different kind of system that won't be based on carbon or won't be based on the heart pumping the way it is. I don't have all the answers to that. We don't.

But turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 11 because this even when Christ comes in the millennium, even when he comes to reign on earth, we begin to see what creation will look like and what was once—should I say another way—what once was. I don't know how to say that correctly grammatically at the moment. What happened originally in the garden, what it was like. What once was as you're turning there.

He speaks of the rod from the stem of Jesse, chapter 11. Who is that? The branch, Jesus Christ. The Davidic promise, the Davidic covenant. The branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, six or seven spirits here we see. The spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. I should say seven attributes of the Spirit, maybe better put.

His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes nor decide by the hearing of his ears. He's a righteous judge. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with a rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins. Praise God for that kingdom. That's the kingdom I long for. No longer politicians twisting what's right in their eyes.

Look at this though. Now we see little attributes of creation in verse 6. "The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb." That doesn't happen today, friends. The wolf devours the lamb. Lamb chops. "The leopard shall lie down with the young goat." Again, doesn't happen today under the curse. "The calf and the young lion and the fatling together." That's calf kebab. That's then. "And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze." No longer eaters of meat. The cow has always been an eater of grass and things like that, but the bear? No more carnivores. Herbivores that way. "Their young ones shall lie down together. And the lion shall eat straw like an ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole." I still want to know where's mom at that point and dad. Just saying. "And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den."

Okay. Not sure I want my kids doing that, but praise the Lord it's safe for them to do it. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." You see, that's what it was like once and that's what it will be again. Fundamentally different. We're under a curse. We forget that sometimes. You ever hear people say, "Why do bad things happen?" Because of the curse of man and humanity for humanity's sake. Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Well, look at verse 23. Now we know why he says creation groans in verse 22 in birth pangs until now. "Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves." Isn't that what I sort of just did when I said Maranatha, come Lord Jesus? It's a groaning in my spirit. "Eagerly waiting for the adoption." Well, I thought he already told us in verse 15 we're adopted. We are legally. That's a legal term. It's like justification. It's just as we've never sinned.

But are we physically in the presence of God right now holding his hand? No. For some, it might be good enough to know well, I'm adopted and the legal paperwork's filed and it's great. But I would suggest for a true disciple of Christ, you long to be with God. You want to be with your God. You don't want to hold on to this life here. To challenge anybody here, forgive me, but if there's anybody here that's saying I want to live longer so I can be with my kids or my wife, check your heart. Read your Bible. Do you long to be more with God or what you can see, touch, and smell hear? What's more important?

I mean, after all, if you're going to call yourself a Christian, you're going to go by his namesake, you ought to love him more than anything else. If not, call yourself something else. Better to walk at least be real about it. And I know this is hard. We all have to work through this. This isn't something that we all just go oh, we got saved. No, it's a process of sanctification in each and every one of us. And most of the time if we're being honest and real with each other, it's Lord, I know I have to give this to you. I know I want to give this to you. Why does that keep happening? It's the recoil. Lord, take this from me. We all need to pray for strength for that. We all need to pray for God's strength for that.

"For we were saved in this hope." Well, let me back up. He says, "Waiting for the adoption, again, the redemption of our body." That's the glorification, right? You know, we're still waiting for that aspect of it, the completion of that. "For we were saved in the hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees?" I just think of Hebrews 11:1. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is only as good as what you place your faith in. Do you have faith in the invisible God, or are you making other things idols? Even Aaron struggled with that. He made a calf so the people could worship even though he delivered them from Egypt. He still had to work the Egypt out of them, the sin out of them.

If it happened thousands of years ago, 3500 or 4000 years ago, why are we surprised today when we struggle with that very same thing? We need to confess it and give it to Christ. We have one mediator, the man Christ Jesus. He'll meet us there. He knows our hearts. We're not fooling anyone. "But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for with perseverance. Likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Think of First Corinthians 14, speaking in tongues and what have you.

"Now he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." We're going to close with verse 30 here. We're going to go through this. But this passage, 28, 29, and 30 has been troublesome for many over the years. They've come to this passage and philosophies of man have developed from this. Let's check our presuppositions for a moment. Let's just check them right now. Let's read the Word of God in context of what he's been saying. And then if you want to try to nail it with a philosophy, have at it. I don't encourage that. Let's just read the Bible and let it change and transform our hearts.

He says that intercession for the saints according to the will of God, that's through prayer. That we're to be interceding one to another. And then in verse 28 he says, "And we know that all things work together for the good to those who love God"—one of the most quoted scriptures and, unfortunately, most abused—"to those who are the called." Definite article there. Circle that. *The* called. According to his purpose, his will.

So who are the called? Did Jesus not say, "Come unto me all you"—he didn't say some of you—he said, "All you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Downtrodden, same idea. The called. All. According to his purpose. "For whom he foreknew." That word is beautiful. He foreknew you and I. He foreknew all of creation. "He also predestined." Oh, that's when it got tricky. Philosophy ding, ding, ding. Everybody wants to stop. Presuppositions down. We all agreed.

Predetermined? How about we use the right understanding of the word? You see, when we exegete the Greek and we use it correctly, all of a sudden it becomes a little easier for us. Because it doesn't really imply a philosophy, and it shouldn't struggle in our hearts to wrestle with this. He foreknows. Amen. Thank you. I'm glad our Father foreknew. "He also predestined or predetermined to be conformed to the image of his Son." Amen. Amen. Amen.

"That he might be also the firstborn among the many brethren." And he's not talking about creation that he was created. He always existed. He's talking about primary. He's saying that we would be God would be primary our life, that we would see the image. What did we see here? He said he foreknew, he predetermined, he called. We read that already. How'd he do that? Well, he justified. You see what and then he does something else on top of that. He glorifies. What we see here is God is the author of salvation. That's what this looks like to me. The ingredients of salvation. A foreknowing, a predetermining, a calling, and an answering to that call. Somebody responds, believes, and they're justified.

Wait a minute. Was everybody predetermined? Because I know y'all are thinking that and we're kind of out of time, but let's just turn to Revelation really quick and we can settle that argument without getting into man's philosophy. You know, and certainly you believe what the Lord is showing you. You be Bereans. But there's a Book of Life that God talks about in Revelation chapter 13, verse 8. He says there's names in it. And he says that book was created before the foundation of the world. So that's important. That gives us a little bit of information. The book was created before the foundation of the world, and there are names in it.

Now, were the names added to it or were the names taken out of it? That's going to be the important point, right? Because if the book already was created before the foundation, it was predetermined before the foundation of the world. The question is, was everyone's name in it already, or were names slowly but added to it or removed from it? That's ultimately what's going to matter. Does God save everyone, or is there a certain people that he just determined to save? It's going to answer the question for us. Read it in verse 8. He says, "All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life." Who are they worshipping? Antichrist. In context, that's what this is talking about. The evil one. The beast.

So it says they're going to worship him whose names are not written in the Book of Life. So that means we see that there are names that are not in that Book of Life. We all agree? And those whose names are not written in that Book of Life, those are the ones that are going to do what? Worship Satan. They're going to worship the Antichrist, the beast, right? Slain from the foundation. Now, certainly Jesus wasn't slain from the foundation, was he? No, he was slain on earth 2000 years ago at Calvary, right? So what must be from the foundation of the earth? The Book of Life. Because Jesus wasn't slain from the foundation, otherwise he wouldn't have to have been slain again. You with me? You tracking with me?

From the foundation of the world. Okay. So clearly this book existed. Now turn to Revelation chapter 3, verse 5. Remember the most important question. Is the name added or the name taken out? Because if the name is added, then that tells us that the book starts empty from the foundation of the world and names are added to it. But if the book starts full, predetermined everyone's name in it, and then names are removed that choose to deny Christ and worship Antichrist or the beast, then that would help us understand. Does God save everyone, or is it predetermined that everyone would have the opportunity to be saved? Better said, because there's a choice. You with me? You tracking with me?

Well, look at Revelation chapter 3, verse 5. "He who overcomes shall be clothed"—he's speaking of the church of Sardis here, right? Church that's also known as the dead church. "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life." Well, to blot out a name, where does the name have to be? In the book. I can't blot it out if it doesn't exist. And the book was written before the foundation of the world.

That means just simple logic. If the—and I don't even need logic, God's word said so. But if the book already existed and it was written from the foundation of the world, and those names that are blotted out of it, right, are the ones that end up worshipping the beast or the Antichrist or deny Jesus, wouldn't that tie through everything else we read in all of scripture? That everyone has free will and a choice, and that if you deny Christ your name is removed from the Book of Life and that you will face the eternal fire and second judgment, or the first judgment for them really, the second death. The lake of fire in Revelation.

When we take everything in context, it makes sense. So when God is saying turn back to Romans, when he's saying hey, who I predetermined, yes he did. He predetermined that everybody would have an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ and believe on his name. He set his mind on that. "Moreover, whom he predetermined or predestined, these he also called." I would hope so. If he predetermined them and said you all have an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ, I would hope he would call us and say, "Come unto me you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Believe on my name's sake." Amen? I would hope he would do that.

And then he says he also justified because once you believe in Christ, he then justifies you. It's a legal term. He sets you free from your sin, just as if you've never sinned before. And then what? "These he also glorifies." That's what you and I are awaiting. We've been glorified, but we're going to receive the glorified body and the true glorification as we meet him in the air or as our eyes close, depending if it's the Rapture plan or not. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Exciting, isn't it?

Guest (Male): Exciting indeed. Talk about something to look forward to. We're about at the midway point of our study in Romans here on His Perfect Love. Pastor Matt VanderVen is just about finished with chapter 8. Today we looked at God's plan for salvation and the future is bright for the believer in Christ. 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.

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Join us on Saturday, September 19 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.

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. This is his perfect love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Let the word go out, the perfect love of Christ to shine. Our lives will shout I am my beloved's and he is mine. Every heart is in his hand. We'll never stop reaching out. This is his perfect love, the world goes out. This is what real love looks like in truth and prayer. This is his perfect love.