His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt hits the fast forward button to that day when we'll stand before the Lord.

Matt VanderVen: One day we will stand before Him. When we stand before Him in that presence, you don't think that every one of us is going to go right down to our knees, worship Him, kiss His feet, be thankful, love Him, hold Him tighter than you've ever held anything in your life, anyone in your life, and begin to just cry out to Him? I have no doubt that I'm going to say, "Lord, I could have done more. I could have done more. I could have done this. I could have done that." Why was I the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life? Why did I monkey with that? Why was it a waste of my time? Why this, that, and the other, all those things?

If I had to live in heaven eternity thinking about all the things I could have done for the kingdom of God and didn't, that then becomes very tormenting, or I would be tormented in that because I'd be constantly thinking about all the ways I blew it. God is saying, "No, the focus is no longer on what you did. The focus is now who we are together. It's family. You're home. We're together." That is the focus: Jesus and you and the relationship. That's a good God. That's a merciful God.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for His Perfect Love. We'll meet up with Pastor Matt VanderVen in Isaiah chapter 65 in a moment. Throughout the Bible, God warns us of coming judgment on those who reject the Messiah and the free gift of salvation in Him, but it also speaks of the glory of the millennial reign ahead for followers of Christ. Today, Isaiah speaks of both in a powerful way, and it would be good for us to consider where we're heading in life and if a change of direction is needed.

Matt VanderVen: Chapter 65, God answers this now. God's going to speak back to this prayer from the nations and the people in Isaiah. It's beautiful how God speaks. God says this: "I was sought by those who did not ask for me." What He's saying is, "I've received disrespect from my own people." Do you see that? Disrespect from my own people. "I was sought by those who did not ask for me." Who's He talking about? The Gentiles.

"I was found by those who did not seek me." Again, you can read Romans 10. He talks all about this. He's basically going to say the Gentiles treated me better than you did, Judah. "I said, 'Here I am, here I am,' to a nation that was not called by my name. I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts."

He's telling us this is God's heart here. This is God's heart for us. It's on display. God has given us literally an LED screen where we can let God speak to our hearts, and He's giving us an action sermon. He's showing us His heart, His thoughts. He's speaking to the people. He's the Ancient of Days. He doesn't change. His heart doesn't change on these things. He still feels this way today. It's still happening today when there's rebellious people, when there's sin, when there's these things, and His chosen people are in the midst of it and they're not crying out.

He says, "I get treated better by the world." I've often heard people say people in the world treat people nicer than Christians often treat other Christians. That's an indictment on the body of Christ. "I said, 'Here I am, here I am.' You didn't seek me. 'Here I am, here I am,' to a nation that was not called by my name. I've stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the way that is not good, according again, as I just mentioned, to their own thoughts."

Do your thoughts matter to God? Do your thoughts matter to God? Yes. "A people who provoke me to anger continually to my face." Do you see the emotion in this passage? Can you feel the emotion in this passage from our Lord? "A people who provoke me to anger continually to my face, who sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on altars of brick." They practice idolatry.

"Who sit among the graves," talking about the graveyard. You know why they were going there? To get wisdom from the spirits. They were going to the mystics and the spirits today. We might say it would be like somebody walking in to buy a horoscope or one of those things, or to go into a medium or a fortune teller. That's the occult. That's demonic. Stay away from that. Christian, you have no business near a place like that. Nothing good's going to come of that.

He says this is what it was like back then. They're going to the graveyards because they want to meet with these spirits. The problem is we know from Corinthians, absent with the body, present with the Lord. There's no good spirits in there. Any spirit that's talking to you from a graveyard is not a good spirit because that spirit, if they were born again, is with Jesus. So I don't know what spirit you're talking to, but you're not talking to a holy spirit. You're talking to demons.

He says, "Who sit among the graves, who spend the night in the tombs, who eat swine's flesh." It's the idea of gross flesh. You know what swine do? They roll around in their own waste. "And the broth of abominable things is in their vessels, who say, 'Keep to yourself. Do not come near me, for I am holier than you.'" What's the answer? A little defensiveness, right? They don't like Vitamin N, do they? You've heard me talk about that before: Vitamin N? Everybody loves ministry, pastors, and everything. You come in the office, you meet with, "Oh, Pastor, we love the church. Oh, we love all these things. We'd like to do this and this and this." No, that's not what the Lord has. This is what we teach line by line and verse by verse through the Bible. We're not going to put away the Bible and do something else. No, we're going to stick with the Bible. You don't love me because I gave you a little Vitamin N, a little Vitamin No. You can borrow that.

"Who say, 'Keep to yourself, do not come near me.'" Because this whole idea is, "For I am holier than you." They get defensive. "These are smoke in my nostrils." He said, "You know what smoke is in nostrils?" Some of you may have smoked in your past. I never did, but maybe going around somebody that was smoking, sometimes it will burn your eyes. Your eyes can get a little bit burned or your nostrils. It can become an irritant. Smoke's an irritant.

The idea behind that is that it's an irritant to God. That's what He's describing to us here. When somebody is saying, "I'm holier than you," and they get defensive and they treat another brother or sister that way, God says that's like smoke in my nostrils. "That is such an irritant to me," He would say. "A fire that burns all the day." He says it's like a consuming fire that burns and burns and the smoke just gets in your eyes.

Have you ever had that happen when you go to a campfire? All of a sudden, you're standing in one side. I don't know why it follows me around. I'm telling you. Does that happen to you guys or is it just me? I've always wondered. I never asked anybody out loud. Maybe I shouldn't. But you're standing at the fire. You put a s'more in, you're over here and the stuff's getting in my eyes. What's going on? I go over here. Two minutes later, everyone else seems fine. They're good. They're cooking their hot dogs, doing their thing. And I'm over here, my eyes are all red and it's terrible.

But that's the picture that He's giving us. It's very good here. It's like a fire that burns all day. He says that's how God responds to it, that it's literally that kind of an irritant, that it's burdensome or bothersome to God when His church, when His bride, when Judah acts this way towards His people, towards each other. "Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, even repay into their bosom, your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together," says the Lord, "who have burned incense on the mountains, committed idolatry, and blasphemy on the hills," speaking blasphemous names. "Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom."

"Thus says the Lord: As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,' so I will do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all. I will bring forth the descendants from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of my mountains; my elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. Sharon shall be a fold of the flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place of herds to lie down," a place of peace and rest is what He's talking about, a place of righteousness. "For my people who have sought me."

"But you are those who forsake the Lord, who forget my holy mountain." He's responding back to the prayer that Isaiah had just prayed in chapter 64 and 63. He says, "But that's not you," not speaking of Isaiah, but the people in Judah that were forsaking God. He did tell us there's some that were a remnant in Judah, but there are some that were forsaking the Lord. "But you are those who forsake the Lord, who forgot my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad." That's a pagan god of that time. That god was a pagan god of fortune. So if you're taking notes, Gad, that would have been like one of the pagan gods that you'd go to when you wanted to worship because you wanted good fortune or we would maybe say favor today. You wanted favor of something, you would go and worship to this table of Gad.

"Who furnish a drink and an offering of Meni," which was the pagan god at that time of destiny. So that was the other pagan god. You went to the one pagan god of fortune to say, "Oh, I would like this," and then you went to the other pagan god, "Show me favor," and then you'd go to the other pagan god of Meni where you wanted a destiny, "Give me a good destiny."

"Therefore I will number you for the sword." Do you see the difference between how He treats the righteous and the unrighteous? Does everybody see that here tonight? God is not out to get the righteous. He may use correction. But with the unrighteous, He wants to bring judgment to bring them into repentance and reconciliation, and then what? Right relationship, which brings comfort, peace, because you're now walking in righteousness. You can rinse and repeat throughout all 66 books.

"And you shall all bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke..." So here's a question: Does God call on His people? Is He an absentee father? No. Is God calling on each and every one of you? Absolutely, He is. He's calling on me. He's calling on all of us. "Because when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before my eyes, and you chose that in which I do not delight." Their disrespect actually was to their own demise. It always works that way. It always works that way.

"Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my servant shall eat," talking about the blessing to the righteousness. He's going to compare and contrast these two. "Behold, my servants, the righteous that way, shall eat, but you, the wicked, shall be hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, the righteous, but you, the wicked Judah, not following your one true God, you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants shall rejoice, the righteous, the remnant, but you Judah, failing and being disobedient, you're going to be ashamed. Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, the righteous, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart." Are we getting the comparison and the contrast here God's giving us? These are His words, His heart.

"And wail for grief of spirit. You shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen; for the Lord God will slay you and call His servants by another name; so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten." Underline that. That is a promise. He is looking and says, "If you will turn to me, all of the former things, they never, ever happened."

Anything you ever did about a few minutes ago and your whole life, if you've been repentant to God, they're forgotten. You may remember, but He no longer does. Is that not miraculous? "And because they are hidden from my eyes." What does He say? "They're hidden from my eyes." It means God not only takes it out of His understanding, no longer sees it, cannot see it, He cannot remember it. Why is it important that He can't see it either? Why? Because maybe we know God doesn't forget anything. But if God took something, let's say there was a memory of you of a terrible sin, let's just say that. Let's make it about me. It's easier. There's a memory regarding me of a terrible sin. God takes and says, "I'm not going to remember this no more. I'm going to put it right over here." Everybody good?

Let me ask you a question. I could stand over here, I could be in the word of God. I'm not remembering it. It's not there. It's gone. Except until I do this. And what did I just do? I just saw it. And now what did I start to do? Recollect. Is there any coincidence why God says, "I no longer remember and I no longer see"? He doesn't ever want to see it again because it's gone because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Isn't that powerful? That's powerful, isn't it? Thank you, Jesus. Everybody should be saying, "Hallelujah."

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth." Now He's talking about that glorious new creation that will come at the end of the millennial reign. "For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people a joy." Have you ever wondered in heaven if you would remember any of the sin or any of the things that happened on this earth that were not of God? Look back at verses 17 and 18. "For behold, I create a new earth, a heavens, excuse me, and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind." Because otherwise that could be what? Torment. And there is no torment in heaven.

There is no torment because if you and I are faced with a holy God, and we see the truth—remember He says we see dimly in a mirror now? That's what it says in the scriptures, New Testament, that we see our Lord, we see dimly in a mirror—one day when we are face to face, we will see clear, He says. We will see Him as He is and we had always ought to have seen Him. That's what the scriptures teach.

One day we will stand before Him. When we stand before Him in that presence, you don't think that every one of us is going to go right down to our knees, worship Him, kiss His feet, be thankful, love Him, hold Him tighter than you've ever held anything in your life, anyone in your life, and begin to just cry out to Him? I have no doubt that I'm going to say, "Lord, I could have done more. I could have done more. I could have done this. I could have done that." Why was I the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life? Why did I monkey with that? Why was it a waste of my time? Why this, that, and the other, all those things?

If I had to live in heaven eternity thinking about all the things I could have done for the kingdom of God and didn't, that then becomes very tormenting, or I would be tormented in that because I'd be constantly thinking about all the ways I blew it. God is saying, "No, the focus is no longer on what you did. The focus is now who we are together. It's family. You're home. We're together." That is the focus: Jesus and you and the relationship. That's a good God. That's a merciful God.

And that's why He can say, "But be glad and rejoice." Well, of course. "Forever in what I create; for behold, I create a Jerusalem as a rejoicing." He's describing the kingdom age. "And her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying." No more crying that way. Joy will take the place of crying. Joy will take the place of sorrow. Joy will take the place of depression. Joy will take the place of anxiety. Joy will take the place of worry. Joy will take the place of sickness. Joy will take the place of disease. Joy will take the place of death.

"Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days." This is beautiful. Look what He tells us about the millennial age as well, the millennial kingdom, the millennial age of a thousand years. "For the child shall die a hundred years old." Wow. Length of days will be like the kingdom age, like it was previously. Remember back in the times of the patriarchs and the ancients how they would live long years? "But the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed." You know what that means? "Oh, you died at a hundred years of age in the kingdom age? Oh, you had a terrible life. You were terribly unfaithful in that kingdom age." It means I think the people have asked, "What's it going to be like the thousand years? Could people live that long?" Yes, if they're righteous and they're walking with Jesus and they're not turning to doing bad things. We're going to see age go back up again like it was during and before the antediluvian period, before the flood.

"They shall build houses and inhabit them," verse 21. The people that are there. We're going to come back with Jesus. We're in glorified bodies. We're certainly not building houses, but the people in the nations that were on the earth when Christ returns, they're going to be inhabiting the earth, and it says that they're going to build houses. Isn't that something? You ever wondered these things? What's it going to be like in the millennial reign? Is somebody going to build a house? Yes. And they're going to inhabit them. "They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit," during that thousand-year millennial reign. "They shall not build and another inhabit." No, they're going to do it. "They shall not plant and another eat." No. "For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." No longer are you going to work so hard and strive and do all this and then have somebody else steal it or take it from you or abuse you, abuse your hard labor, give you a 10% of a full day's work and you only get 10%. Can anyone relate to that anymore? Employee, employer?

"And my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain." Work is good if we're able to. "Nor bring forth children in trouble." So are they going to have babies in the millennial reign? That's what it says right here. These are the things that we wonder. I get these questions. The best commentary for the Bible is the Bible. "They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants and blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them." There's going to be tremendous safety and blessing during that time.

"And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer." Before they can even pray in the millennial reign, before you can say, "But the..." "Yes?" I mean, how awesome is that? I get excited about that one. And we're going to be watching all of this because we're the body of Christ, we're the glorified saints that have come back with Jesus, Revelation chapter 19. We're in the millennial reign. We're watching this. I'm going to go watch that guy over there. He's about to pray. Watch how Jesus goes, "Yes?" I'm going to be that guy that's tapping you. Watch this one, watch this one. I've been seeing him all day. He looks like he's struggling. Watch this, he's going to go... and Jesus is going to go, "Yes?"

That's going to be awesome. I'm going to be that guy, sorry. Maybe I won't. Maybe the Lord's like, "No, you're not." "It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food." That's great. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord."

Guest (Male): With that, we've made it through Isaiah 65. Pastor Matt VanderVen will peak into chapter 66 in just a minute as His Perfect Love continues. You can hear this study from Pastor Matt VanderVen again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. Catch up on what you may have missed in Isaiah at hisperfectlove.org. Look for us on oneplace.com and most podcast platforms. The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to Pastor Matt's messages shortly after they're delivered. We can help you get started when you visit hisperfectlove.org.

His Perfect Love is listener-supported. It's listeners just like you that help us bring the truths of God's word to the radio every day. Together, we can reach people with the love and truth of God. You can make a donation at hisperfectlove.org. Pastor Matt would love to hear from you. Tell us the station you listen to and how you're helped by this ministry. Email us there at the website hisperfectlove.org.

We want to invite you to join us for a service at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service too, Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information. We do have some time left now, so let's see how far we can get into chapter 66. Pastor Matt.

Matt VanderVen: The one sin that cannot be forgiven in this life, the only sin that cannot be forgiven in this life is the rejection of Jesus Christ. Why? What was Judah? Go right back to what we've been reading here tonight and it all makes sense now. This whole book, it all culminates and makes sense because the theme has been about holiness. So what was the biggest thing that He went to Judah and said the Gentiles aren't doing this, but my own people are disrespecting me? Because they're worshipping to the pagan God when they know there's only one true God. To disrespect God in such a way, to reject that gift of salvation. You see all the sins all over the entire world combined cannot disrespect God the same way as one individual rejecting the atonement of His blood.

Guest (Male): We'll have the rest of Isaiah for you next time on His Perfect Love. Come back for that as Pastor Matt puts the finishing touches on our series in Isaiah. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.