Relationship

What separates the true God from countless imitations? He's alive – and He interacts with us personally.

The message from Acts 14 cuts through religious fog to reveal an incredible truth: while false gods remain distant and demanding, the living God draws near. From Adam in Eden through the prophets and ultimately through Jesus Christ, God consistently demonstrates His desire for relationship with those He created.

This stands in stark contrast to both ancient idols like Jupiter and Mercury and our modern substitutes – whether alcohol, entertainment, relationships, or success. These "vanities" demand our worship but deliver only emptiness. They control our lives much like gods, yet lead inevitably toward destruction.

The living God offers something radically different. Instead of requiring endless religious performance, He did everything necessary for our salvation through Christ's sacrifice. He leaves us only to believe. And when we turn to Him, He doesn't merely save us from hell – He transforms us completely, giving us a new mind, heart, and purpose.

Ready to turn from empty worship to the One who gives abundant life? Respond to His call today. Your journey from spiritual paralysis to leaping with new life begins with a simple act of faith – turning from vanities to the living God who is reaching for you right now.

Chapters

• 0:15 Introduction to Redeeming Love Bible Broadcast
• 0:33 Scripture Reading: Paul at Lystra
• 3:05 The Living God vs. False Idols
• 7:39 Jesus: God Who Interacts with People
• 11:16 The Sin Cycle and Its Destruction
• 22:33 Turn From Vanities to the Living God
• 27:09 Closing Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Greetings, hello and welcome to the Redeeming Love Bible Broadcast. My name is Phil Duddy, evangelist with Grace Baptist Tabernacle of King, north Carolina. Glad to have you with me on the program today. Glad you're here, as always. Please do reach out to us at redeemingthelove at icloudcom. Come with me to Acts, chapter 14.

Speaker 1: 0:36

I'm going to read a little bit of a longer account in the scripture today, and that's going to be found in Acts, chapter 14, and we will be starting in verse 8. So Acts, chapter 14, starting in verse 8, this is what the Word of God says. And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speak who, steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying in the speech of the Laconia the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priests of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people which, when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of they, rent their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out and saying Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein, who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness.

Speaker 1: 2:29

Now I want to draw your attention to how God identifies himself in this account, because this isn't strictly something that was written down by a man named Luke thousands of years ago, but this was something that was written by inspiration from the Holy Spirit. This is something that God directly gave because he wants you and I to have it, and he used a man named Luke to write this account down. And the reality is that every single word in the scripture, every single word, no matter what book you look at in the Bible, whether you're looking at Acts like we are today, or whether you go all the way back to Genesis, or whether you go all the way forward to Revelation, or whether you're in the prophets or in the histories or in the gospels, wherever you are in the Bible, every single word is exactly what God wants you to hear. Every single word is exactly what God wants you to have. God didn't give us any less and God didn't give us any more than he wants you to have. God didn't give us any less and God didn't give us any more than he wants us to have.

Speaker 1: 3:47

And in this account, he identifies himself as the living God. And not only in this account, but you can see this in the Old Testament. God identifies himself as alive. He's the living God and he's different from you know, in this situation, he's different from Zeus and he's different. You know how does the scripture say here? He's different from Jupiter. I'm sorry, I got my Greek and my Roman mixed up. He's different from Jupiter and he's different from Mercurius.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Those were entities that were worshipped as gods, even though they're not alive, even though they're not really gods. People worship them as if they were alive. People worship them as if they were gods, but they're not really gods. And so, through Paul and Barnabas. Here God identifies himself as living, he identifies himself as alive. He's different from Jupiter and he's different from Mercury. He's different from any sort of old, you know, ancient idol like that, and he's different from any sort of modern day idol that is worshipped as though it is God. He's different because he's the living God and he's the only God who is real. He's the only God who is true. He's the only God who is truly alive.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Jesus, hallelujah and amen. John chapter 10, jesus says that he gives eternal life. John, chapter 11, jesus identifies himself. He says I am the resurrection and the life. Not only is God alive in himself, but he gives life, he gives an eternal life. He is the resurrection and the life. He is alive and he gives life, and he's different from any other thing that claims to be God. Jesus, the Son of God, fully God and fully man. He stepped down from glory to come to us. He doesn't stay up at a distance and say okay, all of you down there, way over there, worship me while I am going to stay up here at a distance. He did not do that in the Old Testament, he did not do that in the New Testament. He has never been that type of God. That type of God is a demonic invention. That type of God is something that people come up with under the influence of the demonic.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Because the real living God interacts with people. The real living God I mean you go back as far as the book of Genesis the real living God personally interacted with Adam. The real living God personally interacted with Adam. The real living God personally interacted with Eve. The real living God personally interacted with even with Cain, even with Abel. The real living God interacted with Enoch. The real living God interacted with Noah. The real living God interacted with Abram. The real living God interacted with Isaac and Jacob. The real living God interacted with Moses. The real living God, he interacts with people. He interacted with the entire nation of Israel. He gave a word to Moses to give to the people. He did not stay distant in the Old Testament and he certainly didn't stay distant in the New Testament.

Speaker 1: 8:21

God himself came. Oh, and generations before Jesus was born, there had been men like I just mentioned. There had been also prophets that God raised up at different times in history to speak to the people. There was an entire law that God gave. That was a framework that described who he is to the nation of Israel, so that the nation of Israel might describe who he is to the nations. So, god, my friend, I hope you're getting a sense of this. God interacts because God is alive. He interacts because he's alive. He's not someone who's far away. He's not someone who's far off, even if you don't believe him. Today, god is interacting with you. Today, god is interacting with you through this message. He's drawing you to himself Because, my friend, jesus is different from anything and anybody else.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Jesus personally came, the Lord personally came to us and he bore witness to the truth. He did good, he spoke with people, he interacted with people. He wept and he cried and he was hungry. There were instances where he was angry. There were times when he was singing. There was times when he was laughing. There was times when he was rejoicing. There were times, you know, where he healed people. There were times where he preached. There were times when he preached to great crowds and great multitudes, and then we have accounts of just times where he was with just a small group of people or even with one other person. We have times, we have all these things that Jesus did, these very, very, very relational things that Jesus did and, oh, my friend, he laid down his life, he shed his blood, he finished the work of atoning for your sin and he gave you access to God by a new and a living way. He made salvation, eternal life, relationship with God possible, all by grace and through faith, and not of works, lest any man should boast. You see, god did everything, and what does he leave you to do? Believe on him. What does he leave you to do? Respond in faith. What does he leave you to do? Trust him. That's what God literally did everything.

Speaker 1: 11:26

This is another way that God is different from so many others that are worshipped. He doesn't require you to go through all of these religious rites. He doesn't require you to give all this money. He doesn't require you to give all this time. What does he do? He comes to you by the foolishness of preaching. It says in the Word of God.

Speaker 1: 11:51

By the foolishness of preaching, it pleases God to save those who would believe, and so God raises up people. He raises up men like me who will preach Jesus to other people, and through that, god starts drawing you. Through that, god starts interacting with you. Through that, jesus starts drawing you to himself so that you might believe him, so that you might take that measure of faith which God gave you, that ability that you have to believe on things, and you might exercise that belief. You might place that belief, you might place that trust squarely on Jesus and on nobody else, because he's the living God and he made you, because he's the living God and he made you, he formed you and he made you to be a living soul. You see, you have some sort of a relationship with God, even if you don't believe him, you have some sort of relationship with him.

Speaker 1: 13:04

You see, unbelief, just because you may not believe in God today, unbelief doesn't make God irrelevant. Unbelief doesn't cause God to cease to exist. Unbelief doesn't change the reality that God formed you, god made you, god made you to be a living soul and that God loves you, this God who is alive. You see, he also describes himself as love. He is love. And so, because he's love, he shows his love, he displays his love, he shows who he is and he is love. And he loves you, even if you don't love him, he loves you, even if you don't believe on him. He loves you. You were made by him, you are loved by him, even if you don't believe on him. You were made by him, you are loved by him, even if you don't believe on him, and he's the type of God who is going to go to people.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Jesus would say this that he seeks and he saves that which was lost. And so if you're separate from God today, in the eyes of God you're lost. And so God is coming after you, not to destroy you, not to you know, just rub your face in how evil you know. Not in any sort of demeaning, bad, threatening way. But God is coming to you so that you might be saved, so that you might be born again, so that you might be with him, because he made you, he knows you, he loves you with a love that is passionate, and he wants you not to be out there in your sin. He wants you not to be out there in death. He wants you not to be out there in destruction. You see, god loves you and he knows better than anybody else that the wages of sin is death, and he knows better than anybody else that the wages of sin is death. He knows that if you continue on in a life apart from him, if you continue on in a life that's separate from him.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Invariably your life is going to be found and revolve around and based on sin. You know God is over here and you're over there. God, you know, values the truth. God is the truth, yet you value something that's not the truth. God is holy in his nature and yet you, being separate from God, you are unholy in your nature, you're a stranger to holiness, and you live a life, and we all do. We live our life before being born again, before God saves us, before we trust God.

Speaker 1: 16:27

You know I was that way. You know my entire life was wrapped up in lust. It was all lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. It was all wrapped up in sin and it all revolved around sin and it was all based on sin and it was bearing out what sin bears out. It was having the consequences that sin has. It was death, it was anger, it was frustration, it was despair, it was hollowness, it was misery, it was sorrow. That's what life was. It was sorrow, that's what life was Brief, little flashes of pleasure, but mostly torment, mostly misery, mostly emptiness, mostly isolation and loneliness and sorrow. That's what it was.

Speaker 1: 17:29

And I know from the Word of God that that's basically what it's like in your life. You might not have the same details as I did, but it's basically the same way. There's lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, and that's what you pursue, that's what you go after, that's what your life revolves around. In some way, shape or form, the expressions of it are individual, but the base of it, the core of it, the foundation of it, is sin. And God right now is bridging that gap. He says I know you're separate from me. I know that sin is all you know. All you know is lust. All you know is fear. All you know is isolation and loneliness. All you know is isolation and loneliness. All you know is a brief little thing that gives you some flash of pleasure.

Speaker 1: 18:40

But then, when that moment's over, it's just sort of back to the grind and it's back to the regular way that things are. And God knows that that's going to end in your destruction. That's going to end in your death. That's going to end in an eternal alienation from him. That's going to end in fire. That's going to end if you continue to be separate from him. There's going to be a physical death. There's going to be physical destruction. There's going to be physical destruction in you and in other people around you, but eternally, my friend, your sin is going to be put out of this world, and it's going to be put out of this world by fire in a very real place called hell. Or, my friend, and this is the gospel, this is the good news Jesus, jesus. Jesus became your sin and he shed his blood, and so, if you turn to God this moment and trust in Jesus, you turn to God this moment and put your faith in Jesus, your sin is put out, your sin is forgiven, your sin is covered, your sin is forgotten and, my friend, you receive eternal life. You see, if you go back to Acts, chapter 14, for just a moment, let's see where is it here. Let's start at verse 15.

Speaker 1: 20:36

Sirs, why do ye these things? Why do you worship things that aren't God's as though they are God? Why do you worship these vanities, these hollow, empty things? Why do you worship as though it is God? You might not think of it this way, but why do you worship the alcohol as though it's God? Why do you worship the drug as though it's God? Why do you worship sex as though it's God, why do you worship entertainment as though it's God? Why do you worship these things as though they are gods? And you might say well, how do I do that? Well, you give it your passion, you give it your time, you give it your money, you give it your attention. It controls your life, it has a place of authority in your life, it affects you in you know, moment by moment by moment by moment, and you follow it. You know, I have one of these.

Speaker 1: 21:53

My more controversial opinions is that every bar is a house of worship. It's just worshiping something else instead of the living God. It controls your life, my friend. You know, and in a way it's a quote-unquote God that's going to lead to your destruction. But I'll tell you the truth the living God leads to life because he gives life.

Speaker 1: 22:34

And so, paul and Barnabas, way back in Lystra, we preach to you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, turn from your idol and turn to the living God, which made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things that are therein, who in times past, suffered all nations to walk in their ways. But now, my friend, jesus, jesus, jesus, hallelujah and amen. Jesus has died on the cross for you and Jesus is risen again and Jesus is alive today and Jesus is calling you to him. He left himself not. He left not himself without witness and that he did good. And, oh, my friend, jesus did good. And Jesus does good today. In a world that seems to value lies, in a world that seems to value deception, in a world that seems to value pride, in a world that seems to value all of these things, you know, instead of God, jesus still does good today. He does good and he's speaking to you. He's speaking in your conscience, he's speaking in your heart. He says I know you, I love you. I know you're separate from me now, but you don't have to continue in that. Turn to me today, turn to me now. He says, nevertheless, he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. My friend, god has done good to you in your life. He's done good already and he's looking to do more good now. Respond to him today, as he speaks to you today. You're separate from him, yet he is drawing near to you and he draws you to himself, even this very moment.

Speaker 1: 25:04

Oh, you've lived a life. You know, at the top of this account there's a man. He was a cripple from his mother's womb who never had walked. And, my friend, let that be a type and form of you today. Let that be a type and form of you because you've never known anything but sin. You've never known anything but separateness from God. You've never known anything but walking in your own ways. You've never known anything but just following your lust. You've never known anything but following somebody or something that isn't really God, somebody or something that isn't really God. You've never known anything other than just trying to get by in this world, just trying to live, just trying to survive, just trying to scratch out a few moments of pleasure here and there. Whatever that looks like in your life right now. You know whatever that looks like in your life right now.

Speaker 1: 26:23

You've never known anything but maybe an awareness that there is a God, but God being far off and God being far away and you just kind of being on your own, and there's a real sense of isolation there. There's a real sense of fear there. There's a real sense of stress there. There's a real sense of fear. There there's a real sense of stress there, there's a real sense of anxiety there, and God is drawing close to you now and saying I know all of that, I know you, I love you and I don't want you to be separate from me for one more minute Because, my friends, god gives you salvation and God does save you from hell.

Speaker 1: 27:04

God does save you from his wrath, but that's only the beginning. He gives you eternal life, he gives you a new mind, he gives you a new heart, he gives you new life. He gives you a new mind, he gives you a new heart, he gives you new life, he gives you an abundant life. He gives joy and hope and peace. He gives wisdom and fruitfulness. He gives and gives and gives and gives and gives and gives. And, my friend, will you believe him today? Will you turn from these vanities unto the living God and believe him this very moment? Call upon him today. Ask him to save you, ask him to be born again, ask him to blot out your sins, ask him to wash them away, ask him to make you new. Ask him, ask him, ask him, trust him. Trust him and yield yourself to him as Lord, as Savior, as mighty God, as King of Kings, as Lord of Lords and as the lover of your soul. Hallelujah and amen.

Speaker 1: 28:21

I want to thank you today for being a part of the broadcast. Thank you for joining me for this broadcast today and I do hope it's been a blessing to you. Again, reach out to us at redeemingthelost at icloudcom. We would love to hear from you at that email address, especially if you've been born again. We want to hear about it. We want to pray for you. We want to be a continuing ongoing ministry to you and I want you to check out our church website.

Speaker 1: 28:49

I want you to look at that church website Grace Baptist Tabernacle in King, north Carolina. Gbtministriescom is the church website and I want to invite you to join us in person. I want to invite you to join us at our services. We've got services Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, sunday evening at 6 o'clock and we've got a service Wednesday night at 7 o'clock and you're welcome in all of those services. We would love to see you there. We'd love to meet you in person. We'd love to worship with you. We'd love to worship with you. We'd love you to worship with us. We would love you to be a part of what the Lord, god is doing in North Carolina, and thank you again for being here with the broadcast and for helping us to reach so many nations around the world, and I look forward to speaking with you again, and in the meantime, may the Lord richly bless you. Is all that's in freedom, thank you.