From Lies to Glory
A New Heritage
As I write this, it is September 2021. The entire world has been thrown into an unrecognizable madness. Every day brings forward the revelation of another lie that was sold to us as indisputable truth. Yet every day, people swallow new lies. And every day, people live by lies that they’ve been told their whole lives. We are living in a time when the shaky foundations of our culture are being exposed. The first thing we saw exposed was the facade of patriotism. The people of America were notoriously proud to be so. However, when the lockdowns were implemented, the once-vocal patriots showed their ignorance of their God-given, blood-bought rights as citizens, and caved to the authoritarian mandates by way of fear. Secondly, we saw the Christians expose their true feelings about the gathering of the saints. Many church leaders closed their doors. Many healthy church-goers fought tooth and nail for people to stop criticizing their choice to sit on a couch and delude themselves into thinking they were doing something holy. The righteous remnant still obediently gathered together in fellowship.
We’ve seen our society truly shaken. For those who have paused and prayed and reflected, they have looked back over the decades of decadence and materialism, and realized that they’ve been sold a bill of goods promising peace and prosperity, but simply wound up fat and unhappy. The generation of children growing up right now have the highest levels of insecurities in the history of this country. They have access to all the knowledge in the world through their phones and government-issued school laptops, but are lonely, depressed, angry, and scared. They’ve been given everything, but find it all meaningless. Our education system has sworn allegiance to the proliferation of lies; from the expulsion of Biblical catechism and prayer to the acceptance of critical race theory and gender politics as normative and wholesome. The poets and prophets of our culture are adulterers or homosexuals or new age mystics. Our political leaders are cowards and vandals who clutch their power and find ways to devise evil for the sake of monetary gain. We have been told to follow our hearts, and yet love evades pursuit. Instead, people desiring love have found rejection, abandonment, abuse, divorce, abortion, loss - or a moment of happiness that is only a prelude to a sea of woe. As a people, we refute valor and virtue and truth, but prize incompetence and mediocrity and falsehood for the sake of envy. We have deemed ourselves gods - the captains of our destinies - and yet we are scared. We have followed after everything that this world has to offer, and now find ourselves lost, alone, and wanting.
But I tell you, there is hope, and it is not in this world, and it is not in yourself, and it is not in your politicians. In the Bible, in the 16th chapter of Jeremiah, we see Jeremiah prophesying about God’s plan to punish Israel for their sins against him by sending them into exile at the hands of an enemy nation. However, at the end of the chapter, we read the following promise:
O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge in the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
worthless things in which there is no profit.
Can man make for himself gods?
Such are not gods!”
“Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.” - Jeremiah 16:19-20 ESV
In this prophecy against Israel, God inserts a promise that isn’t just for Israel but for every nation on Earth. One day, people from every nation would come to him and confess that they had been living in lies, and worshiping things other than the true God. But they don’t just confess that they have been living in lies. They confess that their fathers have inherited nothing but lies. In this passage it is clear that the lies they’ve inherited are false gods and idols. Where would such an inheritance come from? Jesus tells us in John 8:42-47
‘…“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”’
So Satan is the father of lies and a murderer. We know this from Genesis 3 where he lied to Eve about the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and deceived her into disobeying God. And when Eve gave Adam the fruit, and he ate it, all mankind died spiritually. From that day until Jesus Christ returns, Satan will continue to deceive the whole world and devour and murder those whom he can. And like the first deception, his lies will be woven in a way as to draw people away from the truth of the Living God. This has been manifested throughout history in the false religions found throughout the world. Recently, we’ve seen atheism, agnosticism, and post-modern and progressive philosophies used as a snare to capture and drag people away from the truth of God, so that they will live and die in their sins apart from God and subject to God’s wrath. However, getting back to the promise of the prophecy in Jeremiah, it is this exact state of despair and desperation in which all the nations of all the Earth will come to God, and confess their lowly, worthless state, and confess by God’s very own revealed name that He is God. And how would this be accomplished? Jesus Christ, God’s own son, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary, promised in John 12:32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” And, indeed, after his death, burial, and resurrection, he ascended into Heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. There he rules over the nations, and makes intercession for us, drawing us to God through himself by his Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:32-33, Hebrews 10:12-13, Hebrews 7:25) And in case you’re just skimming over those Bible references, stop now and look them up.
Why is it important for all people to be drawn to Jesus? Because in John 14:6 he tells Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” So, when Jeremiah tells us that all nations will gather to God, the only way they will be able to come to him is through Jesus Christ. And it is a glorious mercy and grace that Jesus promises that he will, indeed, draw these people to himself. And they, who come from a heritage of lies and dead idols will find in Christ the eternal truth of God and life everlasting.
But what about the nations knowing God’s name? Why is that important? Because in Joel 2:32, it says, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” So, then by what name are we to know the Lord? Peter, in his sermon at Pentecost, declares to the crowd, “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36)
In other words, Jesus Christ is Lord. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
What is the extent of this salvation? In Isaiah 45:17 we are told, “But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.” So you see, the salvation of God that is offered through Jesus Christ our Lord is an eternal salvation. It means, if you, by faith, believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be securely saved for all eternity, and that is a glorious and gracious comfort to rest in, especially when you have lived your life a slave to lies, afraid of death, and under the malice of the devil.
“But, Seth,” you may say, “the promise is for Israel. I am not Israel. How does it apply to me?” In Romans, Paul tells us that Israel is like an olive tree, and we gentiles who by faith are saved, are grafted into that tree by God.
What are the benefits of being grafted in? We are adopted to God as sons through Jesus Christ, and have redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavishes upon us (Ephesians 1:3-8). We obtain an inheritance from God, and are sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it at the return of Christ (Ephesians 1:11-14). Do you see how glorious and wonderful it is to be in the household of God? To come to God humbly and confess your sins, and confess Jesus Christ as your savior? The inheritance of your fathers, the lies that ensnared you and enslaved you to sin and Satan and death, are exchanged for the eternal inheritance of life and righteousness and glory and goodness that comes from your new Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ his Son, your Lord and King, Savior and brother, by the blessed Holy Spirit which now dwells richly within you.
If you have had it with the lies of this world, and have no hope in it, then come to Jesus Christ. Confess him as Lord. You will be saved.
…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” - Romans 10:9-11
If you have read this or heard it, and you want to know Jesus Christ or have decided to follow him, then please email me at thebattleandthebride@gmail.com. We’d love to talk with you, and help you understand what to do from here.