The Truth Makes People Free

Through Jonah 2:8, we explore God's holiness, justice, goodness, and mercy and their stark contrast with our sinful humanity. Uncover the profound journey from sin to salvation made possible through Jesus Christ's sacrifice, which opens  restored relationship with God. Delve into the concept of 'lying vanities'—those deceitful distractions that lead us astray from God's truth—and learn how embracing His mercy, rather than forsaking it, is key to experiencing the joy of  reconciliation.

We also tackle the dangers of pursuing hollow beliefs and transient worldly pleasures, highlighting the spiritual emptiness such pursuits often leave behind. Through a personal relationship with Jesus, filled with grace, forgiveness, and peace, believers are called to move beyond merely knowing doctrine to living a life transformed by faith. 

Chapters

• 0:15 The Gift of God's Mercy
• 9:20 The Danger of Lying Vanities
• 22:56 The Power of Believing in Jesus

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Hello and welcome to the Redeeming Love Bible broadcast. My name is Phil Duddy, evangelist with Grace Baptist Tabernacle of King, north Carolina. Very, very glad to have you with me on the program today, as always. Please do reach out to us. We would love to hear from you at redeemingthelost at icloudcom.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Let's go over to the book of Jonah. Today we're going to be in Jonah, chapter two. Looking at just one sentence out of Jonah chapter two, the word of God reads this way this is Jonah, chapter 2, verse 8. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy and bless God. That word mercy is chesed and that is a precious, precious word from the Word of God to us today. Forsaking their own mercy. How does this work? This is very, very, you know it's very, very common. I see it. You know, I've seen it over the years. I see it currently in folks that we minister to as a church, but observing lying vanities, resulting in you personally forsaking your own mercy.

Speaker 1: 1:27

And we need to look at who God is. We need to always have that in the foundation that God is alive, and in the Old Testament he spoke to us, he spoke to Moses and he said I am, I am, I am, that, I am, I am, I am that I am. And God's nature is such that we, as people, we have trouble putting him in the words. He is Alpha and Omega. We see that in the book of Revelation, repeated a few times, all the way through the book of Revelation, beginning and the end. God's outside of time. He simultaneously exists at the beginning and the end of history. Jesus said to us I am the way, the truth and the life. No one is going to see the Father except through me. And God is holy, god is just, god is good, god is pure, god is righteous, god is merciful, god is merciful, he, you know. Same time he's merciful, he is full of wrath upon sin and sinner alike, and there's no contradiction there. And God is love, he is love. So all the way through the scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament, we've got God communicating with us. We've got God speaking with us. We've got God using words. He's using words, he's using language to express himself as to who he is and what he's all about. Because God is, he is holy, and that's not a description of God's morality, that's not a description of God's value system. But that's a description of God's nature.

Speaker 1: 3:18

God is completely different, completely other from. You might say. You know the sum total of fallen creation, humanity included. We, naturally, you know, every single one of us is born in sin, and those of us in Christ Jesus, we are born again. But looking at the difference in the nature? But looking at the difference in the nature, we're born in sin. And so sin just sort of naturally comes out of us or naturally comes out of our heart. And it comes out of our heart, it comes out of our will, it comes out of our desires and it's expressed in our passions, it's expressed in our pursuits, it's expressed in the things that we do. And that's just sort of where we live. We all express our sin and we all pursue our sin. And that's just sort of the way the world works.

Speaker 1: 4:14

You might say, foundationally, we look at everything from the perspective of sin, perspective of sin. God is completely different from that. God looks at everything from the perspective of holiness. He looks at everything from the perspective of love. He looks at everything from the perspective of justice. He looks at everything from the perspective of goodness. He looks at everything from the perspective of wisdom. He looks at everything from the perspective of his authority, god is completely different. Holiness is strange to us before we're born again, before we believe Jesus, before our sin is washed away, before we receive the Holy Spirit. Holiness is strange to us by nature and sin is strange to God by nature. And so we've got a difference here. We've got a fundamental difference in who we are and who God is. And, as I've said a few times, there is a born again. A few times, you know, there is a born again, there is a forgiveness, there is a grace, there is a reconciliation with God, and His name is Jesus.

Speaker 1: 5:32

We can go back to John, chapter 3. God so loves this world that he gave His only begotten Son so that anybody who would believe in him whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. And God desires this reconciliation. God has fully provided for this reconciliation to happen. He has fully provided for this born-again thing. He's fully provided for your sin to be washed away. He's fully provided for there to be a relationship.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Where sin had broken the relationship between God and humanity, god has fully provided for that relationship to be gloriously restored in Jesus Christ. He shed his blood. Jesus Christ took your judgment. Jesus Christ took your hell. Jesus Christ took the wrath of God in your place. Jesus Christ took your judgment. Jesus Christ took your hell. Jesus Christ took the wrath of God in your place.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Jesus Christ became your sin. Jesus Christ died and before he died he gave hallelujah, he gave up the ghost. Before he did that, he said it is finished. What was finished? The work of restoring and reconciling you to God? That was finished. That is finished.

Speaker 1: 6:54

That high, high, high, perfect expression of God's mercy was finished, and that's where we're going to tie into Jonah today, that God has fully provided a complete salvation for you. He has fully provided a complete salvation for me. He's fully provided a complete salvation for everybody that you see walking around the world, all around you. God has fully provided a perfect, complete way for that individual, that person, to be reconciled to himself, to be forgiven, to be washed clean, to be made pure, to go from being a sinner to being a saint, to go from having a dead spirit to having a living spirit, to go from walking in death and destruction to walking in life and goodness and joy and hope and peace, all the fruits of the Holy Ghost as he comes inside and he indwells and he starts bearing his fruit. Bearing his fruit, bearing his fruit.

Speaker 1: 8:07

God has made a complete provision for that to happen and that provision is already made. That work is already done, that's already complete, and all that remains is faith, because we're saved by grace and through faith. All that remains is belief because you know God said, you know hallelujah, john, chapter 3, whosoever believeth in him, whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ, shall not perish but have eternal life. That means that you won't see condemnation, you won't see hell, you won't see destruction. You will see eternal life. You will not see the second death. You will walk the streets of the new Jerusalem. Hallelujah and amen. But God has already made this provision to happen. He has made the provision for eternal life. And what's eternal life? I mean, that's a precious thing. John chapter 17 says that Eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

Speaker 1: 9:20

Knowing God, knowing Jesus Christ, not just a theological knowledge, not just a doctrinal knowledge, not just a theological knowledge, not just a doctrinal knowledge, not just a book knowledge, not just a theoretical knowledge you know, that's really no knowledge at all but really actually knowing and relating and walking and talking and hearing from God and receiving from God and praying to God and you know God answers and walking with him and ministering to him and growing up in him, growing it fuller and fuller, and fuller and fuller, and more and more and more into the stature of Jesus Christ every day that goes by. And so you know, hallelujah, you just sort of graduated in the glory one day, and it's not even that big of a change because you've been walking with God the whole time. Anyway, since you've been born again, you've been growing, you've been ministering, you've been, you know, doing good works. You've been having, you know, this vibrant life in the Lord. You've had this joy and this great joy and this exceeding great joy. You've experienced the peace that God gives you, you've experienced the grace, you've been experiencing the forgiveness, you've got the mind of Christ. All of this redemption has happened and the only change you know as we walk through, you know death loses its sting, you lose your flesh and you receive a resurrected body, and so you really haven't lost anything. But you've been walking with God, walking with God, walking with God, walking with God and having this life that's become more and more and more full and just knowing God, having that relationship with Him, having that intimacy with Him, and that's a precious thing. And, like I said, this is all finished.

Speaker 1: 11:14

Nothing I've described today is something that you have to work for. Nothing that I've described today is something that you have to earn, that you have to put in effort or time. No, we simply receive. We simply receive what God has already completed and receive what God has already given. And God sort of you know, you know Paul would write. You know, I believe it was Paul off the top of my head, but it's no longer I, but it's Christ who lives in me, and so there's a closeness, there's a relationship, there's an intimacy that we're walking around. I'm walking around in the same fleshly body, but it's Christ who lives through me now and I hope that's the same as it is with you as you're listening.

Speaker 1: 12:08

But, as you've heard today, if it's not, then God has made a complete provision for you and God wants you to be born again. God wants you to be saved. God wants you to be made holy. God wants you to be forgiven. God wants you to be reconciled to himself. God does not want you to perish in a lake of fire. God does not want you to actually have his wrath poured out on you. God does not want that. And how do you know God doesn't want that? You're hearing this and God's speaking with you and God's showing you the highest expression of his mercy Jesus Christ stepping in and coming into your place, bearing your sin, dying your death, so that God would be faithful and just to forgive you instead of condemn you. Because, hallelujah and amen, um, you know you're not going to perish if you believe jesus christ, but if you reject jesus christ, there is a condemnation because you would rather have darkness and light. That's the. You know. That's john, chapter three.

Speaker 1: 13:22

But to come back to jonah, there is um, such a thing as a lying vanity, a lying, lying vanity. And as people observe lying vanities going back to Jonah 2.8, they observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercy. As people observe lying vanities, they actually and actively forsake their own mercy. And what is their own mercy? What I just described, with Jesus on the cross and dying and shedding his blood and saying it is finished and rising again, that is your mercy, that is God's mercy toward you and that is yours. And the only reason people are not born again, the only reason people are not saved from the wrath of God. The only reason people are not, you know, in Jesus Christ reconciled to Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Ghost, is that they forsake that mercy that God has for them. They forsake that mercy that God has for them.

Speaker 1: 14:29

John 3 is very, very explicit. It says whosoever. The New Testament is very, very explicit. It says to the Jew first, and to the Gentile, the New Testament is very, very explicit when it says that whosoever will, that the gospel is for everybody. The gospel is for everybody, that Jesus is for everybody. His death was for the whole world. His death was for everyone who has lived, everyone who is alive today, everyone who will live in the future. His death is for everybody. He did it one time, he did it for everybody, and nobody is disqualified from the mercy of God. Nobody is disqualified from the grace of God.

Speaker 1: 15:20

The only thing keeping people from being born again is that they take their God-given ability to believe things and they put it anywhere but Jesus. They believe anything or anybody but Jesus. You know, in the case of Jonah, here, they observe lying vanities, they keep lying vanities. They worship, you know, in a very, very real way it goes there. They worship deceiving, hollow, empty and vacant things and as people worship deceiving, hollow, empty and vacant things, they are not believing Jesus. Believing Jesus as people keep lying vanities, as people pursue lying vanities, as people you know walk after lying vanities. What do we see? We see a perversion of life in Jesus Because, instead of hearing and believing and submitting to and following Jesus, of hearing and believing and submitting to and following Jesus, people follow the lying vanity.

Speaker 1: 16:32

And as they follow lying vanities and you know what are they in particular? Well, you know, in America in 2024, there are as many lying vanities as there are people. You know some people. You know it's a political figure, some people it's an entertainment figure. Some people, you know, it's a political figure. Some people it's an entertainment figure. Some people it's physical fitness, some people it's education and academics. You know some people, it's a drug, some people it's, you know, some sort of a lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 17:07

Some people it's, you know it just goes on, and on, and on, and on and on, and there are as many lying vanities as there are people, because a lying vanity is something that comes up out of a lust. It's a lust of the flesh, it's a lust of the eyes, it's the pride of life. Some people it's a sexuality. Some people it's a cultural tradition. You know, some people it's simply themselves. You know they believe in themselves, they worship themselves, they follow themselves. You know they're the judge, jury and executioner of what the truth is and you know it's as many. It's expressed in so many individual, different ways in these days in America and if it's like that in your country, amen and hallelujah, you can email us and we can pray together, amen and we can minister together. But there are so many different ways that this gets expressed. There are so many different ways that this gets expressed.

Speaker 1: 18:14

But in any case, as an individual follows that lying vanity, there's a submission to that lying vanity. So we've got celebrity culture in America. All of a sudden people start acting like that celebrity. All of a sudden people start acting like that celebrity. All of a sudden people start acting like that politician. All of a sudden people start acting like that idol. There's a submission to that idol. That goes on and in response, that idol begins to shape that individual. Then the lying vanity becomes the foundation of life, becomes the object of worship and becomes the authority in that person's life. All of a sudden we're shaping ourselves around.

Speaker 1: 19:05

Whatever the lying vanity is, whether it's a silly example like the celebrity culture, whether it's the political culture, whether it's the fitness culture, whether it's the academic culture, you start to shape yourself according to your academic institution. You start to shape yourself according to the people in your department. You start to shape yourself sort of actively, start to shape yourself sort of actively after something outside of yourself, in this case an idol, in this case a lying vanity. And the lying vanity comes to receive people's attention, starts to receive people's time, starts to receive people's effort, starts to receive people's life, starts to receive people's work, starts to receive people's devotion and they actively hear and actively believe in and actively devote themselves to the lying vanity. And, my friend, that is how it is a demonic perversion of life in Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Because, if you'll notice, the lying vanity needs people to prop it up, sort of like our last message here, like our last broadcast, the lying vanity needs belief. The lying vanity needs people to prop it up, it needs financial support. It can't do anything by itself, it doesn't have any life in itself, it doesn't have any authority by itself, but because of worship, people give it authority, people give it authority. You know, just looking for more and more examples on this. You can see this, at least I've seen it. You know, maybe you see it too in music, depending on what people listen to if they're really really into it.

Speaker 1: 20:50

You know, if they're really really into it, you know if they're into the lifestyle, they'll start to dress a certain way, they'll start to speak a certain way, they'll start to act a certain way. They'll start to carry themselves a certain way. They'll start to imitate and individualize and personalize what they see and what they like about the lying vanity and it starts to shape life, it starts to shape thought, it starts to shape speech, it starts to shape work, it starts to shape finances, it starts to shape the way time is spent. And all of a sudden you've got a full-blown idol and it's demonic and it's vain Because it's got no life in itself, it's hollow and it's empty and it's vacant and it's temporary and it's not God. You see, because it's not God, you see, because it's not God, that lying vanity will lead a person straight to hell, that lying vanity will lead a person straight to damnation. How does it do that While you're worshiping the lying vanity, you're not worshiping Jesus?

Speaker 1: 22:13

Worshiping the lying vanity, you're not worshiping Jesus, while you're receiving things from the lying vanity, you're not receiving Jesus. While you're devoting yourself to the lying vanity, there's no submission to Jesus, there's no value for Jesus, there's no reverence for Jesus, there's no respect for Jesus, there's no belief in Jesus. And you're receiving things from that lying vanity. But that lying vanity isn't life and that lying vanity can't give you life. That lying vanity can only give you different flavors of death. It can only give you different flavors of perishing. It can only give you different flavors of lust. It can only give you a few moments of pleasure. It can give you a momentary pleasure, it can give you a temporary pleasure.

Speaker 1: 22:56

But, my friend, I can tell you there's a price to pay. There's a day when the pleasure gets boring. There's a day when the bottom falls out. There's a day when the consequences start to hit. There's a day when you, you're, you're not young anymore. You know. All of a sudden, you start getting older and older and older. There's a day when the body breaks down. There's a day you can't party like you used to. There's a day when the songs get old. There's a day when you get your last degree.

Speaker 1: 23:21

Now. There's a day when, when all of that just sort of comes to some sort of a hollow, empty, vacant end, because it was always a hollow, empty, vacant thing. And you know there's a day, you know Scripture tells us this world is going to pass away. This world is passing away and all the lying vanities are going to pass away with it and the reality that it was all just sort of a thing of the world and it was all just sort of an idol, it was something that you made in your own image, and that sort of comes crashing in and you forsake your own mercy.

Speaker 1: 24:11

Because, my friend, what if you had believed Jesus? What if you had believed Jesus when Jesus came and when Jesus spoke into your life and when the Holy Ghost started drawing you, maybe like he's doing right now? The Holy Ghost started drawing you and there's a day, you know, you believe Jesus and that's got consequences. You believe Jesus and that's got an effect. You believe Jesus and all of a sudden you're born again. You believe Jesus, and the Holy Ghost comes in and he starts giving. He gives you life, he gives you an eternal life, he gives you peace, he gives you healing, he gives you counsel, he gives you wisdom, he gives you joy, he gives you a living hope. He gives you temperance. He gives you all of the gifts of the Holy Ghost he gives you. He gives you all of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. He gives you life, and it's not a life that's founded in the world, because you look at the top of the program.

Speaker 1: 25:20

God's not of the world. God's the one who created it. God's not of it. God's the one who created it, but God's not dependent on it. God's the one who says you know, have faith in me. And yet you know, god himself is not dependent on that. Just because there are people who don't believe God, that doesn't diminish God. That'll diminish an idol, that'll diminish a lying vanity, but that will not diminish who God is. But, my friend, god is God. Hallelujah and amen. God is God and we're not God. God is God and he's not the world. And the things that God gives are not the things that this world can give. God gives a peace like none other. God gives a healing like none other. God gives a joy like none other, because God's not of the world. Neither are the things that he gives. It's not of the world, and it's not something you have to earn. It's not something you have to live up to. It's not something that you even have to maintain on yourself, because Jesus paid it all, jesus did it all and Jesus is alive today.

Speaker 1: 26:40

And Jesus is saying you know if you're lost and dying and you're in your sin and you're under the wrath of God. Saying, you know, if you're lost and dying and you're in your sin and you're under the wrath of God. Jesus is saying come unto me. I want to give you this eternal life and this forgiveness and this healing. I want to give you all the stuff you've been hearing about. Will you believe me? Will you follow me? Do you want me? Do you desire me? Do you desire you know who I am? Will you believe me?

Speaker 1: 27:04

And in that belief there's a submission that happens too. You know, as we believe him, there's a submission that he is true, that he is good, that he is pure and that he's somebody we want to believe in. And there's a desire to believe in him. And so you know, if there's that yes, that's rising up in your spirit, that desire, that belief, that's rising up in your spirit. My friend, I'd simply invite you right now, whether you want to hit pause or not on this broadcast, but you need to call upon the name of Jesus Christ right, this moment, and be born again and let that yes come up into some words that come up out of your mouth and you talk to Jesus and you ask him and you express to him and you ask him to save you, you ask him to be born again and you just express that belief and you express that desire and you express that heart. And you express that desire and you express that heart and you express that submission, you express everything that's going on inside the hymn, because hallelujah and amen. You know, there's just something about when the words of the heart come up out of the mouth. You know, bless God, and that's a biblical thing. You look at the book of Romans, amen.

Speaker 1: 28:25

But, my friend, you know Jesus, he's also ministering to a lot of churches. He's ministering to a lot of Christians, he's ministering to a lot of Spirit-filled people through this. And, my friend, it's my prayer for you that this would be an encouragement to you. This would be an encouragement to you and that this would be an encouragement to you. This would be an encouragement to you and that this would be a help to you as you minister wherever you are around the world. Wherever you happen to be around the world, you know if you happen to be in Europe, if you happen to be in South America, you happen to be in Mexico, in Latin America, you happen to be a little bit north of us, up in Canada, you happen to be down in Australia, you happen to be in Africa. Hallelujah and amen, my brother and my sister, we got the same Holy Ghost inside, so we are brethren, and I pray that this is an encouragement to you. Whether you're in a big city somewhere, whether you're, you know, big city in Asia somewhere, or whether you're just out, you know, out in the country, somewhere, in a real small town or a real small village, real small place, but you've got some people around you. You've got some people around you.

Speaker 1: 29:52

And everywhere in this world has its own expressions of lying vanity. Everywhere in this world has the familiar demonic spirits. Everywhere in this world, people express this. They believe in something or someone other than Jesus and they receive from whatever they believe in. They receive things, and there's a perishing and there's a death and there's a destruction. That happens over time and church. May you be encouraged to reach out.

Speaker 1: 30:22

May you be encouraged to speak, jesus and to to preach Jesus and to minister Jesus into those situations, to those people, that they might be free, that they might know the truth and that the truth would make them free. Know the truth and the truth is not an idea. Know the truth and the truth is not an idea. The truth is a person and the truth is Jesus, so that they might know Jesus and Jesus might make them free by being born again, by being saved, by being filled with the Holy Ghost. And they have the freedom in Jesus, my friend, and they have the freedom in Jesus, my friend. You can be a part of that. God wants you to be a part of that. And what's more, god has provided everything in the Holy Ghost, in the Word of God, in good Bible preaching, in good churches who fill with the Holy Ghost and love Jesus and love people, love the Father. God's given us everything. We're fully equipped for this. We've got everything we need. It's just a matter of walking it out. It's just a matter of walking and talking and speaking and ministering the way the Lord has provided for us and hallelujah and amen.

Speaker 1: 31:48

May you be encouraged in that today and thank you again. So much, all of you around the world. Thank you for being a part of this broadcast, thank you for supporting this broadcast, thank you for sharing this broadcast with folks. Like I say all the time, play it for your churches, play it for your families, pray it for people who know Jesus and love Jesus. Pray it for people who don't know Jesus and don't love Jesus. But thank you so much for helping us to get this around the world and it's such an encouragement to see it growing, to get this around the world and it's such an encouragement to see it growing, such an encouragement to see it growing and to see it reaching more and more nations around the world. Thank you so much for being a part of that. It's really, really precious.

Speaker 1: 32:38

I want to especially welcome those in Nigeria who are receiving the podcast now. You know we've seen that pop up and I want to welcome you all and thank you all for supporting us specifically. And you know, bless God. You know we pray for you again. You know, let us know how we can pray for you. Reach us at redeemingthelost at iCloudcom. Let us know how we can pray for you. Let us know how we can pray for you. Reach us at redeemingthelost at icloudcom. Let us know how we can pray for you, let us know how we can help you in your specific situations.

Speaker 1: 33:13

And, as always, you know we're a ministry of Grace Baptist Tabernacle. We're located in King, north Carolina. Our church website is gbtministriescom. I'd invite you to look at that. You can find service time, service locations. You can find additional videos. You know we videotape. Well, we don't use tape anymore, you know, but we video and we record our Sunday morning services and our Wednesday evening services. You can find those as well. Please do let those be a blessing to you as well. And if the Lord's moving you to visit us in person, we would love to meet you Again. You can find the address. You can find phone numbers. You can find contact information, times and locations. Please feel welcome to reach out to us. We look forward to hearing from you. You are welcome and you are also expected, and thank you again for being a part of this and for listening, and may the Lord continue to richly bless you. Amen. You.