His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Today on His Perfect Love: your God can carry you. You don't have to carry your God. I mean, it almost seems obvious, forgive me for stating that, but if you have to transport your God, you have a problem. You have a problem.

Guest (Male): Are you going to settle for a God that has to be carried or go with the God that will carry you? That's the question we bring before you today on His Perfect Love. If you've ever been to Disneyland, you've no doubt seen a parent carrying their exhausted child down Main Street towards the exit.

Maybe like those little ones, you're worn out and feel a weight on your shoulders that is too heavy to bear. The good news is the Lord wants to and will carry us through life. Pastor Matt VanderVen is in Isaiah 46 today.

Matt VanderVen: Again, Isaiah 46 is recording the greatness of God in contrast to the Babylonian false gods. This is where Bel comes on the scene because remember, we're talking about Babylon and the fact that Cyrus is going to overwhelm or overcome Babylon.

Bel and Nebo were Babylonian gods. Isaiah 45:21, I had you underline already, declared that there is no other God beside Him. He is the one whom people can trust, and He calls all the people of the earth to be saved because He's the only true God. With that context established, God now goes and very specifically attacks the Babylonian idols, specifically the ones that were being worshipped at that time, Bel. He says he bows down, and Nebo is the other one, and he says he stoops.

Bel was also called Marduk. Maybe you've heard him used for that term, Marduk or Merodach, in your scripture. That's in Jeremiah 50:2. If you've seen that word, Merodach, it's talking about Bel. They're one and the same at that time. He was the chief Babylonian god and represented the nation's strength and world dominance or world leadership. That's what they worshipped him for. That was his notoriety.

He's listed several times in the Hebrew scriptures and it's always in the context of actually being defeated and being judged. Every single time he's listed by God, he's defeated or judged. Jeremiah actually records Bel would be put to shame in Jeremiah 50:2, and he would be punished in Jeremiah 51:44. He's going to be judged as part of the Babylonian judgment for its offense against God and God's chosen people, Israel.

Nebo, interestingly, as it's written here, it actually was a prominent city and a mountain in Moab. But it seems that it's a reference in here to Nabu, which is the actual name for that pagan god. You can even see that extra-biblically if you'd like. He's a false god rather than a city of Moab. He's not talking about Moab. Nabu was also a prominent Babylonian god, but he was second only to Bel or Marduk.

Nabu has been associated with various other gods, including Nisaba, which was the Sumerian god; Thoth, which would have been their Egyptian idol; Apollo, which would have been a Greek idol; or Mercury, which would have been a Roman idol. All of those different names have all been, in one way or another, associated back with this Babylonian god of Nabu that has reformed into one of these other gods in each of these nations.

Bel and Nabu were representative of the Babylonian pride. They would be both humbled, we read here. That's the whole point, because it says that he's going to bow down and Nabu stoops. They're going to be defeated and humbled in a humble posture. Their images are carried by cattle away from Babylon. We're going to read that here in a minute. Those who relied on those gods to deliver them found that those images went right with them into captivity.

Those gods could not save anyone. What was He just talking about? Saving and Savior, saving and Savior. Then He goes right to the Babylonian gods that can do none of those things. He points it out because He said if those pagan gods whom you all worshipped were so powerful and have to be carried on an ox, then why couldn't they save you? Because, by the way, Babylon, you're not going to be able to save yourself when Cyrus comes in and conquers you, which happened in less than 24 hours.

He declared it all. Again, this is prophetic. 150 years earlier, He is declaring it directly to the point. He says, "Where are your gods?" He says they're going to go into captivity with you. They are not gods. Your god can't save you. They're man-made objects you made with your hand and your imagination. They do nothing. That's His whole point here. He couldn't deliver them. You would think that the Jews, the people in the nation surrounding, would see these things and go, "Why are we worshipping these pagan Gentile gods? We need to go back to the Great I Am, the one true God, and worship Him."

You would think it would be almost obvious. But this is part of the foolishness that God is calling out, and He's doing it ahead of time. He says you're going to see yourself act this very way. Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavy-loaded and a burden to the weary beast. Again, you think about annual feast days. They put these idols on a carriage and these animals have to drag them around. That's a problem right off the bat. If you have to load your idols, your gods, on a carriage, and there are animals that have to drag them... Your God can carry you. You don't have to carry your God.

It almost seems obvious, forgive me for stating that, but if you have to transport your God, you have a problem. You have a problem. They stoop, they bow down together, they could not deliver the burden, but they themselves have gone into captivity. Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by me from birth, who have been carried from the womb. Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Even I will carry and will deliver you.

You see the whole point He's saying? He says, "I'm going to carry you. You don't have to carry me. I'm sovereign. I'm your God." He says, "I am He." How many times have you seen recently on whether it's the NFL or one of these other things, and these guys rip their shirts off because they're trying to do a Superman pose, or they turn around and now the new saying is "I am him," "I am He"? People are like, "Where'd that ever come from? Why are they just saying these things?"

It's right in your Bible. It's right in your Bible, the very speech of the pagan aspect when someone is trying to lift themselves up as though they are a god or a lord. Kids buy these shirts and say, "I am He," and all this, and they have no idea that its origins are all based on idolatry and ridiculous foolishness because God is saying, "I am He." You're not he or she. I am He. I created all things. Let's get the story correct here.

It would be foolish for a sovereign God to allow man to actually think more highly of himself than he ought. It would be foolish for a loving God to not step in and say no. God doesn't turn around and enable that kind of mental illness. He doesn't enable it. He's not asking us to enable it. No, real love is to say you are not He. Jesus is the He. There is one true God. There is no other God.

To whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me? Because it's not going to be these two gods that you're dragging into Babylon in captivity. Who should I be alike? Because you don't carry me. They lavish gold out of a bag, they weigh silver on the scales, they hire a goldsmith and he makes it a god. They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship. They bear it on their shoulders, they carry it. He's describing how it makes no sense. You go to the garage, you make this thing, then you bring it to the temple and start worshipping it.

Really, if you saw somebody do that today, wouldn't you be like, "Well, there's something wrong here. This is not normal. This is ridiculous." And if you really loved somebody, if you were really others-focused, you wouldn't just sit there and go, "Well, you do you." You wouldn't do that. That's cruel and wicked. No, what would you do? You'd go up and go, "Oh, come on, let's get a glass of water. Let's sit down. Let's talk about this. You do realize you just formed and made that thing in your garage, right? And I know you're taking it to your shrine, your place of worship, and you're going to bow down. Does that seem reasonable? Can that idol in any way help you or deliver you? Or does it know what's going to happen tomorrow? Can it tell you what happened 5,000 years ago?"

All the things He's been building as His case in Isaiah, the book of the prophet Isaiah has been making. And yet, it's still happening today. I mean, there's still parts of the world in Hinduism and different... even in our area, with some of the culture we've had, different people coming into the country and different things. I think that's great, fine, great. I love that. I personally love other cultures. But you get to actually see how everybody practices different religions or their practicing of religion.

You would think, "Well, no, that's thousands of years ago." Except just a few months ago, I was going to do an inspection at a man's house and I walked in... very well-to-do, very nice home. He's done very well for himself that way. You walk in, and I'm literally telling you, there's a shrine. And it has these little statues right in there. I'm not making this up. There are people that are still doing... not just somebody, I mean, there's millions and millions of people that are still doing the very same thing that God is calling out here.

Lest we think we have arrived, we do the same thing. According to God's terms, we've just gotten more sophisticated. We don't go to the garage anymore and whittle it down in wood or make it with ceramic. No, we take our minds and we create these illusions and we begin to worship these things. We worship the creation more than the Creator. That is the same idea of an idol. It can be placed on so many different things and God is calling our attention to it. He's telling them it was foolish then, and it is foolish now, to place your trust in anyone but Jesus Christ.

It is absolutely foolish. There is no other human being that will ever tell you that they can deliver your soul. There's no other human being that's going to... and there's no other God because there are no other gods that can deliver your soul. Jesus Christ was the suffering servant that went to Calvary and the only one willing to actually do that, to give his life. The God, the Master, the Creator, to give his life as a ransom for his creation.

I've never heard Mohammad talk about that. I've never heard Buddha. I've never seen it as a Taoist practice. No, of all these other religions and all these other things, it's always a matter of self in some capacity, self-desire, with this idea of enlightenment, this whole idea of going to another... it's all something cerebral that they create in their mind and they believe. It does show you the power of the mind, by the way. But there's no power or substance behind it. They can't save their own soul. I mean, it really is that simple. It's that simple.

And so He's appealing by bringing this up. This isn't cruel. I know to some tonight that say, "Wow, God's really laying it down hard and this seems..." No, the most loving thing you can do is to tell somebody that there is no other God but Jesus. That's the most loving thing you can do, to not enable someone to continue utilizing their imagination. How many of you when you were a kid had a special friend? Nobody had a... what do we call it? Imaginary friend. Thank you for saying the word out loud.

How many of you had an imaginary friend? Or how many of you played house and you imagined and you kind of made all these things? You were cooking for the whole family and you were doing dishes. It was appropriate. You were young and you were being creative and you were imagining and it was all beautiful because you were growing and you were imagining. Remember, ladies, the first time you had your first tea party? Where you took and you poured your little tea and maybe you had somebody come to the tea party, unless it was Paddington the Bear? And then Paddington the Bear took a sip and said, "That is the best tea I've ever had in my life." And you thought it was the coolest thing.

And guys, maybe you were at a tea party too, I don't know. But for me it was soldiers. You took the green... I used to throw them up in the air, the parachute men. How many of you remember that in the '70s and '80s? You threw those big... and they were big, remember? Not like the little ones. These kids today are getting ripped off. We had really cool ones. You'd throw that thing up in the air and that thing would come down and you know, "All right, all right, almost near the landing spot. Okay, hang on, left." We'd roleplay.

But what if somebody walked in here today or in the parking lot or went into work and says, "Okay, I got to go get my soldier and feed him today and throw him up in the air, because if I don't do that once a day, he's just not going to feel good about himself. He's going to have a low self-esteem." If somebody said that to you, what would you do? Be honest. If you put on Christ, what would you do? You would say... now if you weren't putting on Christ in that moment, you might give a look. Maybe a second look. Because we've all done that, don't lie about it.

We have all been at a grocery store where people are talking to themselves and they're having a whole thing, they're making chicken dance. You're kind of like... you know? We've all done that. I just think it's really great to be truthful and honest and transparent about those things. It's refreshing. We don't have to hide from our inadequacies and silliness. But the reality is if we see that today, wouldn't we go up to somebody and say, "What are you doing?" Not rudely, but lovingly, and say, "The man that you're throwing up in the air and it's coming down, he's real?" "He's real." "Friend, he's not real. It's a figment of your imagination. Come on, why don't you come to my house for dinner?" That's the Christian thing to do. Why don't you come to my house for dinner? Let me invest in you. Let me give you my heart. And by doing that and loving them, you'll love them right to Jesus.

God can set individuals free. I truly believe God can heal all things. All things. But we're living in a society today, and the reason I'm bringing this out is because of the degradation and the downward spiral. We literally have people walking around believing that, like I've said before, they're either animals. They believe that biologically they're different. Okay, now it's one thing to say that I'm attracted to this person or I'm attracted to that... look, that's not right, but it's another thing to say biologically I know how I'm of the opposite. It's a binary discussion. You're male or female. There is no alternate gender.

God declares, "I have created them male and female in the image of God." You are literally challenging God when you do that, when you say no, there is a "they" or this. No. And when we have people do that and we create HR departments that go and enable this, we create all kinds of policies and "Oh, we want to be respectful"... I don't find that respectful at all. I find that as a washing of hands, like a Pontius Pilate move.

Instead, real love is to take and, like I said, have that person come to your house for dinner, invest in them, and draw them to truth. Real love. That's what God is doing here. It is no different. It's just a few thousand years ago so it looks different because He's describing the gold and the silver and the things that they would do when they would make their idols and then worship them. God is calling it out and He's saying, "Don't you see how ridiculous this is?"

And yet, I'm telling you there are churches, there are Christians, there are people that are afraid to say, "I'm sorry, there's a man and there's a woman, and God has designed it this way." And they're afraid to say that because they're afraid their church will empty out, or they're afraid of what other people are going to think of them. Or there's companies that are afraid to put those things in writing in a policy because they're afraid that they're going to be considered discriminatory.

Friends, that's not love. Enabling someone's fantasy or alternate reality is not love. I don't know how to say it. God can't say it any plainer here. And yet we will go to the psychosis of man and the philosophy of man. How is it working? Look, we all talk about men and women of science and data. Just look at the data. Since you've had the diagnostic manual of psychology in the '60s, the DSM, how many of you know what I'm even talking about when I say a DSM? Look at the DSM-1 through 5. They might be going to 6. Look at the differences of how it's adapted to the culture and changed.

Did you know in the DSM-3 at one point, how sick and cruel it was, that they would take someone that had this split personality or they had this and they would castrate them? Do you know how wicked and evil? The DSM-3, look it up yourself, it was in there. If someone said they were homosexual or they were this, they would literally prescribe that as an answer. That is absolutely incredibly sick and twisted. Instead of coming alongside that person and helping them, it's extremes. Both extremes are wrong.

And so we're living in a day where my biggest concern, and I think the Lord is bringing this, is that people are going to become indifferent. That's the only way the heart can wax cold, is when we shut off caring and compassion and love for another person. When we get so inward-focused on our own family or on ourselves that we literally forget that there's a whole world out there and that there are human beings that are struggling every day, some just trying to find food, shelter, some trying to find purpose of life. And we're in such a hurry that we don't even take the time to invest in them because the things we're serving, whether we want to admit it or not, are manufactured idols.

Guest (Male): You're listening to a study in Isaiah from Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. Catch a replay when you visit 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. This is a great way to take Pastor Matt's teachings with you wherever you may go. You can learn more about the mobile app and start your download when you visit our website, hisperfectlove.org.

Thank you for your prayers and financial support. You can make a contribution to the ministry and send us your prayer requests through the website, again at hisperfectlove.org. Those of you that live in the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania area or will be visiting the area, we want to cordially invite you to join us for a worship service. Just like on the radio, Pastor Matt teaches verse-by-verse through the Bible 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. You'll find us at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information.

Are you looking for a Christian school that offers a quality education and a nurturing environment for your children? If so, you might be interested in Calvary Chapel Christian Academy, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Calvary Chapel Christian Academy is a non-denominational Christian school that serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade.

The academy's mission is to provide a Christ-centered education that equips students to love God, love others, and serve the world. The academy offers a rigorous academic curriculum, a variety of extracurricular activities, and a caring and supportive staff. The academy is located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit our website at ccharrisburg.org/academy. Set aside another half hour to join us tomorrow at the same time on the same fine station where Pastor Matt will pick up where we left off in Isaiah, here on His Perfect Love.