His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: We have done this when we say woe to those who call evil good and good evil and we try to redefine God's terms. We try to redefine God's relationship. We try to redefine God's word, the word of God. As a matter of fact, we're going to read that here in a little bit. Who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter?

So what they do is they change right and wrong, they change God's standard to accommodate what? What are they trying to accommodate? Their sin. They try to accommodate and redefine God and His word. And when you do that, you're just positioning yourself for judgment.

Guest (Male): Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore presents His Perfect Love. Thanks for hanging out with us as we go a little bit deeper into Isaiah. We left off in chapter five last time. This section of scripture describes six woes. As you hear about the sins of Judah, I think you'll agree it sounds strikingly similar to the sins of America where people by and large are greedy, proud, calling good evil and evil good. Here's Pastor Matt VanderVen with today's message and woes and warnings we need to hear.

Matt VanderVen: He starts in verse eight, "Woe to those who join house to house. They add a field to field till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land." In my hearing, the Lord of hosts said, "Truly many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones without inhabitant. For 10 acres of a vineyard shall yield one bath and one homer of seed shall yield an ephah."

What's he giving? Well, first of all, that word "woe" in the Hebrew actually means "warning" as a direct translation. So he's really saying, "Here's your first warning." What was he against? If you really I know I read that pretty quickly, but what was he really saying there? He was against the greed of Jerusalem and Judah. They were expanding, they keep buying houses, they're doing all these other things and it was all this greed.

There's nothing wrong with having finances. There's nothing wrong with having finances or money. God uses all of that. That's not the problem. It was what was the motive of the heart and what they were doing with it. It was all about collecting and storing and building their own little kingdoms for themselves. But what about the less fortunate, the poor? Have you ever heard that saying, "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer"?

This is what he was talking about. He says, "You're in the land, you see all these things going on, and you've turned a blind eye to the people in need because you're so concerned with building your own kingdoms on earth." And he says because that's become your priority, I'm going to put it so far out of your reach that you financially will not be able to recover. God's not saying don't be a capitalist. He's not frowning upon capitalism.

What he's saying is don't do it with greed in your heart. If you're going to be blessed, bless others. I've never found a situation where I was blessed and I tried to bless somebody else that God didn't bless my socks off. I can't outgive God. Have you ever tried to do that? You can't outgive God. And that's the right motive of heart. So let's go on to the second one. Greed's the first one. Woe, warning. Watch the greed. It's a real problem, he's saying. You think that's a problem today? Yeah.

Verse 11, "Woe to those who rise early in the morning." My kids love this passage. "See, Dad, sleep until 11. This is awesome." No, let's continue reading. "Woe to those, warning to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night till the wine inflames them." What is he condemning here? He's not only condemning the idea is he's condemning, and it's the same thing he says in Ephesians. It's that idea of who do you want to be controlled by? Do you want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, or do you want to be controlled by another substance?

In this case, he happens to be calling out intoxicating drink, alcohol. But it's no different, you can put drugs in there. In the days we're living, we know drugs are rampant. I don't know why. I know during the hippie movement in the '70s and even some of the '80s there were drugs and I'm not making excuses for anybody. But the stuff that you see today, I mean, we're hearing and we're seeing it on our news. This stuff is all being tainted.

Drugs is never a good idea no matter how you look at it. But now it's being tainted with this stuff that literally you try to get high once and you're dead. You go into cardiac arrest because they're putting fentanyl in it and they're doing all... who in their right mind would want to do drugs today? First of all, nobody in their right mind should ever want to do drugs, but who in their right mind would want to do drugs today with what we're talking about of all these things they're doing? It's terrible.

But this is what they were seeking after. They wanted to escape their reality. So they would wake up very early to get a head start. And so what would they do? They'd pop the pill. They'd pop the prescription pills, they would start with the alcohol, they'll be taking the drugs, anything that could alter the mind to create an alternate reality so they could cope with the day. This isn't talking about medicines you might need to function because you have something going... that's not what this is talking about.

This is talking about somebody that's abusing a substance to create an alternate effect within their mind and/or body. There's a reason today that we're seeing a real epidemic, and that's on pharmakeia. We talked about before opioid crisis and different things going on with that. Well, people thought it's gotten better because we cut so many opioids back and how many lives have been saved because of that. Except guess what they started doing?

They started messing with other kinds of medicines that still cross the blood-brain barrier. For some of you that are medical students or went to school for medicine, you understand what I'm saying to you. It can still give an alternate reality even though it may not be considered a Tier 1 pharmakeia drug. And I know plenty of people that have taken those kind of drugs and they're using it to create an alternate effect. And that's not what the Lord wants.

He doesn't want people waking up early and drinking a bottle of vodka. He doesn't want... this is what he's calling out. He says, "Look, woe to you." It's a warning. It's a warning who continue until night when the wine inflames them. "The harp and the strings, the tambourine and the flute, and wine are all in their feasts." All they're doing is partying and drinking their lives and drugging their lives away. "But they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands."

Who are they living for? Themselves. Do you see that there? That's what it's all about. Incredibly selfish. It's all incredibly selfish. Therefore, my people have gone into captivity. He says, "Therefore." When you see the "therefore," you've got to ask what's it there for? You've heard that before. Why is he saying "therefore"? He says, "This is what's coming." He says, "I'm not letting you... this is not going to be without judgment." There's going to be correction in this because I love you, Israel.

Because I love you, Israel, I will bring swift correction to you, swift judgment to you. You think about how many houses, families, lives have been broken apart because of drugs and alcohol and all kinds of addictions. It's ruined people's lives. He says, "Therefore my people have gone into captivity." That's what those things lead to, all of them. They imprison you because they have no knowledge. Their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Therefore Sheol—hell, as we would know it—it's really in the Old Testament when he uses this term, it's basically the place that Old Testament saints, anyone would go to while they were waiting for that ultimate Great White Throne Judgment where they will then, if they have rejected Jesus Christ, be cast into the lake of fire. So he's describing, he says, "Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself." He said hell has grown because of the things that are going on with the drunkenness.

Lest we forget drunkards and people... he says they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It's a very sobering passage. Those that are taking drugs and medicine and all these kinds of things to create an alternate state. He says they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The question is are you born again? It's one thing if you're struggling with something, certainly, but if it's something that you're running to to escape a reality, you do understand there's a difference what we're talking about here.

Someone that's shooting up heroin clearly is trying to escape a reality. Everybody with me and understand what I'm saying here tonight? This is what we're talking about. And it's sobering because that person needs to understand God has a better plan for you than those drugs. God has a better plan for you than that bottle of alcohol. He loves you and He wants to save you and He wants to set you free from that addiction, whatever it is.

And we just need to be reminded of that. Israel needed to be reminded of that. Judah needed to be reminded of that. God is not indifferent to that abuse. He says, "Therefore Sheol, hell, has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure" to accommodate this. "Their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he who is jubilant shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled."

Have you ever talked to somebody that struggles with substance abuse? "I got this. I can handle it." I'm going to be transparent with you. Somebody who's done drugs, somebody who's drunk alcohol, I can tell you: You can't handle it. It handles you. Until you get to the point where you finally humble yourself as it says. You're either going to humble yourself or God's going to allow you to be humbled. And so it's a fact.

And so he says the eyes of the lofty, they're going to be humbled. "But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment" because He's a righteous judge. "And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness." Israel and Judah were not going to get away with anything. "Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture and in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat." Now the third woe, the third warning. "Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity."

Now that word in the Hebrew "vanity" here actually means "worthlessness." So worthless motives if you want to be even more specific. Someone who's walking around with worthless motive, without a motive that is worthwhile or God-centered. "Woe to those who draw iniquity, draw to sin, with cords of worthlessness or vanity as it says here, and sin as if with a cart rope. They say, 'Let Him make speed and hasten His work.'"

Now this is very sobering. We should be circling this in our Bible if you're thinking and if you're tracking with me what's happening here. He is describing the arrogance of the people of Judah right at this point. He is saying that what they are effectively saying to Him is, "Bring it on." That's what the people of Judah were saying as Prophet Isaiah is bringing this forward to the people and he's bringing this word of correction. They are effectively responding and they're saying, "Let Him make speed and hasten His work. Hey, God, if you got something, bring it."

There's no reverence. There's no fear, healthy righteous fear before God. Are you reading this with me? He says, "That we may see it." He says, "We want to see you in action, God. You're going to judge, bring judgment." Oh, He will. But He's also long-suffering because He loves sinners. He loves the unrighteous because He wants to save them from their sin. He wants to redeem them. He wants to take them away from their sin and place them up on a rock, a place of protection and covering.

And I think again, you've heard me say it over and over again, I think even Christians, we get so zealous but confident in a weird way that we turn around and we forget that's who we were. Every one of us, we fall short from the glory of God and something happens in our hearts after walking so many years with Christ that sometimes we can even become indifferent and we forget that heaven is full of forgiven sinners, not perfect saints.

It's just a humble reminder. So he says that they're so arrogant. They're saying, "Hey, let Him make speed and hasten His work that we may see it, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come that we may know it." Basically, bring it, God. You see why He has to bring judgment with such a haughty heart? Number four, the fourth woe, verse 20. Warning to those who call evil good and good evil.

He actually said there would be a day where they would be doing this and this is exactly what was happening at that day. Do you think that's happening today? Do I need to convince anybody here of that? That they're calling evil good and good evil? I want you to think about the sexual immorality that's rampant. Homosexual marriages. All these things that we celebrate as though we're propping that up and it's a stench before God. It's a stench before God.

Not the individuals. He loves them. Again, He loves them. He doesn't love their sin. The sin is a stench before God. And so we have done this when we say woe to those who call evil good and good evil and we try to redefine God's terms. We try to redefine God's relationship. We try to redefine God's word, the word of God. As a matter of fact, we're going to read that here in a little bit.

"Who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter," right? So what they do is they change right and wrong, they change God's standard to accommodate what? What are they trying to accommodate? Their sin. They try to accommodate and redefine God and His word. And when you do that, you're just positioning yourself for judgment. Look at the fifth woe, verse 21. "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes."

What is he talking about? He's talking about the prideful or those that are proud and "prudent in their own sight." Why? Because they're so difficult to reach and they're unteachable. All these words of the prophet that were being put forth, they were just falling on ears that would not listen, hearts that would not be fertile. You think that happens today? You think we're seeing any of that today?

Verse 22, number six, the sixth woe, kind of ties two together here. He says, "Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant at mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man." So this passage has to be taken verses 20-23 to understand what the meaning is. This isn't a repetition of verses 11 and 12 where he was already rebuking Israel, Judah specifically, for alcohol, drugs and the whole thing.

What he's doing now is he's rebuking the leaders. Because in verses 21, 22, and 23, he's talking about those that would be put in positions over justice. Ones who would lead, maybe judges, magistrates. Because he says, "Look, who justify the wicked for a bribe." That means you have to be in a position of authority that you could be given a bribe to alter the righteousness to do something wicked that way. "And take away justice from a righteous man."

He talks about leaders who are drunk or corrupted and they've corrupted the entire judicial system. Do we know anything about that today? Verse 24, we'll just finish up this passage here and then we'll close for the evening. Therefore, he's going to talk about the judgment that's going to result because of the six woes, the sins of Judah. "Therefore as the fire devours the stubble"—and it does—"and the flame consumes the chaff"—and it does completely—"so their root will be as rottenness and their blossom will ascend like dust."

Because they have rejected. It didn't say because they have misunderstood. Did you catch that? It's not a misunderstanding. It's a rejection. "Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and they despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." Do we know anything about that today where men and women would despise the word of God? And those who reject His word. Are there people walking around rejecting God's word?

I just got the latest email, I'll probably bring it out in the next few weeks, from the research every year. I subscribe to the research foundations that are doing studies on the Bible and how many people read the Bible and the surveys and all the different stuff. Pew Research Group, there's a bunch of them I subscribe to. And the latest one just came out that says where are we today with the Bible. And it's interesting compared to last year, for example, and the years before.

Are we becoming a more biblical nation? Are Christians becoming more biblical? Are they actually turning to the word of God or are they going to church to be entertained? What's happening in the landscape of Christianity in America and around the world? Are we becoming more biblically literate or are we becoming more worldly literate? You see those two are in direct opposition. Well, the data's coming. I'll bring it forth pretty soon here.

"Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people." Please don't miss that. When those choose to ignore the word of God or don't read the word of God or want to hear from the Lord, because He's given us His inspired word, all 66 books, God's not indifferent to that. He doesn't go, "Well, that's okay. I know you love me anyway. It's okay." No, He wants you to read His word. He wants you to learn more about Him so that you fall deeper in love with Him.

Can I just ask a simple question for everybody here tonight? And I just want us all to be honest with each other, just really transparent. I remember when I was growing up, you would write letters when you were dating somebody. Maybe somebody you had a crush on or somebody you were in love with. And if you were far enough away from sometimes you'd go away for the summer and you'd go work or you'd go to camp and you would try to stay in touch and you would write these letters.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Please tell me I was not the only one that did this. Okay. And you would write these letters. I know today we use email and texting and gramming and all the social stuff and it's instant. Somebody's going to have to go back, "Pastor, why do you embarrass yourself? Gramming, there's no such thing as gramming." You know what I mean. The social stuff.

But back in our day, we would write these letters and you would long to get a letter. And you know what was so neat? Why did you want that letter? Or I think of parents that went off to war. And my brother John went off to five tours and I know he would write home to us when he was in Kuwait or he was in Afghanistan or he was somewhere, he would write home letters. Very vague, but still, "I love you, I miss you." And it would be wonderful.

My dad couldn't wait, "Has the letter from Johnny come?" because why? We were learning more about my brother John's situation where he's at. We're learning more about him. When I was young and I would write a letter to a girl, "What's your favorite thing to eat?" I wasn't super creative. "What'd you like to eat? What's your favorite TV show? Did you see such and such last week? Did you catch the Muppets?" Some of the younger people are like... Animal, he's my boy.

Anyway, the point I'm getting at is if you remember that, it was because why? I wanted to do what? I wanted to learn about them. I wanted to learn about more about... and I couldn't wait till I got the letter back and I would read it and, "Oh, my, wow, they like this. They like The Wonder Years. Oh, they they they like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and they get to eat it out of a box instead of the homemade one that my mom made that I don't know what that was. They got Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, man. I got ripped off."

But you get what I mean when you're a kid. You had friends that had that and you were like, "Oh, you are so lucky, so fortunate." Meanwhile, your mother or your father prepared this homemade dish that took them hours to make and, "But I want the junk one." I'm sorry if you love Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, forgive me. I see some people out there like... But what did we read here, keeping in context?

The idea here is God's not indifferent. We learn more about God through His word. That's what He wants us to see here. And God wants to show us more of Himself through His word. He loves us. He's in love with us. He can't wait till we talk to Him and pray to Him and He loves when we go to the word of God to learn more about Him because that's His way of talking to us.

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt VanderVen on how God loves to communicate to His people through His word. This is His Perfect Love. We're making our way through Isaiah one verse at a time. 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. Now 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. 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, PA. For more information, please visit our website at ccharrisburg.org/academy. That's 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.