Ken Martin - The Erosion of Godly Fear:How It Happened

good afternoon everyone what we're going to do today is take a look at something that has contributed to a lot of the problems and difficulties we see experience being experienced by our nation today our nation is in a serious state of upheaval and there's a reason for it but it goes back to something that most people are not aware of first and foremost the bible is the book of israel i've been emphasizing that for quite a while most people don't know what that means but we'll try to explain some of that to you the book of israel is this is a book of instruction that god gave to a group of people that he brought out of a place called egypt in the past a group of individuals that he formulated through a man called abraham isaac and jacob and then they were destined to go spend some time down in egypt for a while and became slaves and when the nation finally got to its maximum point god brought this nation out of egypt and the reason he brought him out of egypt was again to reveal himself to these people and these people were a special people god called them a treasure not everybody on the face of the earth is in this relationship with god only a people called israel and israel ultimately became divided after the death of king solomon and became a northern part and a southern part that's all recorded in the history of this bible a lot of times people do not understand these events because they don't study their bible they don't look into the word of god to see what what is this all about and why should i even pay any attention to it well it's a manual of instruction to the people of israel and the people of this world and anyone who will pay attention to it will benefit from it because it's loaded with wisdom knowledge and understanding and it will give an individual person an anchor for their life so that they will know how to enjoy life as jesus said himself and it is recorded in john 10 10 he says i have come that they might have life and life abundantly people are not having life abundantly today they're unhappy they're frustrated they're coming apart at the seams they're filling the mental hospitals and physical hospitals with all kinds of problems the difficulty now that we have with the virus that's grabbed the world is causing all kinds of upheavals in people's lives but there's a deeper reading meaning to that and we're going to take a look at this because this book is the reason why we're here today because those israelites when they came out of egypt guess what god did he revealed something to him because he was revealing himself to those people but they were slaves basically they had been working seven days a week for years when god set them free they now were able to come out as the bible uses the example with a high hand in the book of exodus and when he took them out into the wilderness he revealed something to them and it was the very first thing that he revealed that you and i have also experienced in our lives and anyone else who experiences it will have an opportunity to come to know god in a way that they would never know him if they did not pay attention to this command and what was it remember the sabbath day to keep it holy that's why we're here god wanted to educate and teach those people things that they needed to learn and each and every sabbath is a time for learning if we do not learn on the sabbath then we are missing the importance of what god intended when he actually created the sabbath the sabbath was then to reveal to those people that they were part of what they were part of a creation that god was working out and that creation is a spiritual creation as well as a physical creation and we see that what has happened on this earth is the result of many things written in this book for our learning so every sabbath is a time to learn if you come on the sabbath to worship god in spirit and truth and we're told that true worshipers will worship the father that's found in john chapter 4 verse 23 and 24 and god wants us to worship him to acknowledge him because he is the maker the creator of the heavens and the earth and we are the sheep of his pasture as he uses terms in the scripture jesus came to reveal the father because most people had not known that there was a spiritual father that rules supreme in the family of god jesus is the beloved son and the power of god formulates in the holy spirit that is given to those whom surrender themselves to almighty god the scripture tells us concerning these people that they would live through a period of time and they would go have their ups and downs and ups and downs but in the end time the end time descendants would have a serious problem that they would have to deal with and it's called as it were in the days of noah so shall it be in the end time when jesus christ returns there's a lot of talk today by a lot of different individuals who are concerned about the signs and the time which we're living they don't know where it's all going to happen and the reason why it's hard to understand is because you cannot open the bible and take one scripture here another scripture there pick and choose and expect to understand what is happening it's like coming into a movie and that movie does what we don't know how it started and we're right in the middle of this movie and we're kind of lost well people today are lost because they're in the middle of the movie the movie is outlined in this book and the plan of god is given to us for a very specific purpose we're told that the ministry that would come to serve the people of god and the people of god in the end time would be seeking a relationship with the son of god jesus christ that was basically found in western christianity western christianity because the rest of the world worships other gods only the western world is the world where biblical christianity was proclaimed to the people and to the masses and it has had a powerful effect upon the western world until recently something has happened and there's been a shift a shift in the understanding of worship and how does god want us to observe his laws and commands this is where we're going to go today because isaiah 58 and verse 1 the this prophet isaiah said cry aloud and spare not show my people their sins where have we gone wrong what has happened well what's happened is that the birthright promise that went to the house of israel and the scepter promise that went to the house of judah after the separation of the tribes that is mentioned in the book of the old testament dealing with this and what we find is that today the israeli state represents the house of judah and england and its once great empire which is now ceased to exist virtually it's just britain today it's not the great british empire it had its day and then there was another tribe that was the tribe of ephraim england and the tribe of manasseh was the other tribe the the thing that most people miss when they read the bible is the fact in the book of genesis when jacob whose name was changed to israel before he died he gave joseph's sons a blessing and he crossed his hands like this and when he laid his hands upon the children and they were young lads at the time they were not children but young lads and what did he say he says let my name be upon them so those people ephraim and manasseh would hold the title of israel in the bible and there are other elements of the different tribes scattered on throughout the scripture regarding northern europe south africa new zealand australia these places all fall into that category but here we come now to a very important part in the end time we're told that there would be a problem facing these nations ephraim and manasseh ephraim has already experienced its now manasseh is going through its time we're now beginning to see what's promised prophesied for the house of manasseh america it was the greatest single nation in history that's what manasseh was prophesied to be but something has happened now and the united states of america that was the one great servant in terms of pro actually printing more bibles and sending bibles around in missionaries around the world than any other nation and so we see that today people have bibles in their homes but they don't understand the bible something has happened let's take a quick look today because what we're going to do we're going to see something that maybe you haven't thought or thought of in a while we're going to deal with the subject of the erosion of godly fear the erosion of godly fear and how did it happen that's the title of this message the erosion of godly fear how did it happen because we were a nation and we are a nation that claims we are under god but do we fear god or do we just talk about god well something has happened and we're told in romans chapter 3 verse 18 if you'll join me there in romans chapter 3 and verse 18. the apostle paul he writes for the clarification of all the prophecies that are mentioned in the old testament and in the new testament he begins to give us answers to things that you cannot understand unless you have laid the foundation of the old testament first now he is given the charge by god to expound on this and what he begins to talk about he talks about the jews and the gentiles in verse 9 and then in verse 10 he says it is written there is none righteous no not one when we really understand that he is merely saying that everyone is in a sinned state of being romans 3 verse 23 all have sinned and come short of the glory of god so we are all in this area where we're not a righteous person we want to be righteous we want to try to be according to god's laws and his commands but we still technically are tainted with sin and then he goes on and explains there's none that understands there's there's none that seeks after god well some people might say yes but i seek after god well are you sure it's the god of the bible or is it a god of your own making these are things we have to ask ourselves because the verse 12 they are all gone out of the way not some all everybody is included here he says and they are they become unprofitable there is none that does good no not one and we like to think we do good we like to think we're okay but we're in a state that needs guidance and help he talks about the condition of what comes out of our mouths and then he says their feet verse 15 a swift of the shed blood we see a lot of that today destruction and misery are in their ways boy have we seen that happen here within this last year and the way of peace which they talk about they have not known if they knew it they would and do what they would have brought peace they can have all their peace conferences but it doesn't actually bring it to pass they can't do it and the real reason is the next verse verse 18 there is no fear of god before their eyes no fear of god before their eyes and there's a reason for that and we're going to ask now how did it get this way because there are today people that seem sincere they go to church the church of their choice not necessarily god's but it's their choice and when we understand what god actually says about the church and how the church is to come together and assemble on a certain period of time like the sabbath the seventh day sabbath then we begin to realize well there must be something wrong here because not everybody's doing the same thing everybody's different why is that well revelation 12 and verse 9 there is an enemy behind the scenes that we all are dealing with it's a dark side by the god of this world satan the devil and he has done something that most people never question he has deceived the whole world how in the world has he pulled that one off well it's because he gives people what they want not necessarily what's right because he's not the author of what's right only god is and god gives us the answers to what is right because he wants the very best for his creation for all of us which are the central focus point of his creation made in the image of god male and female but something has happened and there has in our lifetime we have witnessed a tremendous change from say full let's say 70 years ago when we were involved in the struggle for our very existence world war ii was in full force and what happened after that we were blessed to become the greatest nation on the face of the earth there were there was no one we were rebuilding the whole world after world war ii and we had this marvelous time in which americans were the envy of the world everyone wanted to be like an american they wanted to come to america but something has happened because the something that once made america great and set it on fire originally was brought out by a man named alex uh alex i think it's alex tocqueville and he came to the united states wanting to know what made the united states so unique because it wasn't happening in the french revolution but the american revolution was a success and he wanted to know what was going on what made an american different it says he found out when he went into the churches when he went into the churches and he heard the sermons that were coming from those ministers who had the fire of god in their belly and they were teaching the people the things of god and the fear of god now people have taken the fear of god ex totally out of whack because many people have interpreted that that god's going to get you for this god's going to get you for that because every time you make a mistake god's going to get you because that's you you're walking in fear like the sword of damocles hanging over your head and the answer is that's not god that's not the god of the bible god of the bible is always telling us he wants good for us he wants it for our children he wants us to avoid certain things because you're going to get hurt if you do and yeah we do get hurt we've all gone the way that seems right to us and we've been hurt and had to learn a lot of lessons in the process of living life well god is our partner and what happened is that the zeal that made that great generation and even the president at that time when they went against the enemies of the united states and the free free world as it was called he said we will gain the inevitable victory so help us god we needed the help of god in order to win and god was with us because people feared god many of them had the bible they didn't not unnecessarily understand it but they did believe in a god they had a certain fear of god and that fear could be understood in two ways one dealing with worship devotion and a faithfulness to god and also the fact that because he has unlimited power you better not cross him you better not get on the wrong side of him knowingly challenging him because if you do you're going to lose every time and there are those who try to challenge god and we see the recorded history of the bible of people just like ourselves who live their lives it's all recorded for our learning romans 15 and verse 4 and we're here to learn that very lesson that mankind without god cannot succeed can never find peace can never find happiness he tries he tries he fills it with this and that but it never works so what has happened because today people are noticing something has happened to our churches the churches are beginning to have problems the christian community is in trouble and many of them know that and there's a reason for it because people are writing books like this one gentleman his name is mr chambers he wrote a book entitled showtime worship in the age of show business and there you begin to see what is happening to us you see because parents and past generation have not taught their children how important the bible is to their everyday life they've grown up with a lack of understanding about the fear of god parents did not transmit this knowledge to their children and so children are just living a life and it's understandable that's all you can do we all learn as children coming into this world our parents teach us and we grow in the grace and knowledge of what they teach us and we're told in the bible to grow in the grace and knowledge of jesus christ because it is by grace we are saved through faith and faith in who in jesus christ is our lord and savior and that's the one who is revealed in the pages of the scripture for all of us so what happens in the process of time how is this erosion of godly fear how did it happen well the most common complaint that you began to hear in the so-called traditional expressions of worship is that when people especially the younger generation or what we would call today the uh millennials and it's not their fault they felt they fell prey to it just like everyone else if you don't do this certain things everything's cause and effect and what happened was the fact they would go to these church services and it was never taught to them how it related to their everyday life the bible is a key to living everyday life tells you how to live life as a young person as a teenager as a young adult in middle age all the way on up into senior years of life it tells you step by step by step what you need to be understanding and looking for many of us were never taught these things so we had a false understanding regarding god and what children then growing up in the church of these different denominations in the western world remember we're talking about christianity and all christian churches quote unquote are struggling now because they're having problems relating the teachings that they have with everyday life in the lives of young people so the young people say what they say i don't want to go to church because church is boring yeah it's boring sure because if they are not there to learn if they're not there to understand then they're just killing time and killing time doesn't answer questions to life and so what we have is that young people in particular find these old ways of doing things in many of these churches and every church has its own style a way of doing things and if if it's not if it doesn't do something that they want or they seek as you're going to see here in just a little bit it ends up being they go to church and it's nothing but form and ceremony that's what happens rituals one large church claiming to be a church of god it does what it has all kinds of rituals and they go through all kinds of maneuverings back and forth back and forth to them that's doing what the bible says other churches they jump all around the place sometimes people call them holy rollers and and they get all excited that's another way of doing it now all these different things are there to teach us what teaching us that man doesn't know the way of god he has come up with all these different variables and it leaves everybody kind of in a shock because they say well what are we going to do well i'll tell you this where the parents failed satan did not satan the devil has always been after the next generation and he has been working hard and he has accomplished much of that and that poor generation doesn't even have a clue as to what's going on behind the scenes you see traditional worship does what when you come to learn in true traditional worship from the biblical standpoint you come to hear the word of god it's the word of god that you're here for we're not here to shake hands and impress one another we're here to learn what is our station in life what does this great god want us to do how do we relate to one another and to the world we live in those are important questions and if you don't know and i remember sometime a long time ago someone said well if you don't know you don't know if you don't know you don't know you don't know it and i'm thinking what are we talking about there you know well then i broke it down let's see if i don't know it and then do i know it no i don't well then then i don't know that i'm ignorant on this subject and most of us are ignorant on this subject spiritual worship in the churches has declined because again the message has not been clear it has not been relevant and it has not had the focus on the word of god the bible has been used to give a lot of nice messages a lot of good sermons and you can't fault that you're going to see a mix you could go to these different churches and you'll say hey the guy gave a good sermon and he'll do this and this and this and it's right in harmony with the bible then all of a sudden he'll go here and whoop he's off the page that's not in the bible but you won't know that unless you study the bible unless you learn about the bible that's why we come on every sabbath you see the israelites when they first came out of slavery and we came out of spiritual slavery that's the great comparison that we're given what happened to the israelites they didn't know they were told well we're hungry and he says all right i'm going to give you food i'm going to give you this thing called manna and what happened they had manna every day god provided for them during that 40 years out in the wilderness but what happened on friday friday was a double portion day and they were told don't go out the next day why they had to learn about the sabbath that this day was different because this day was a reflection and it gave the fear of god that you do what you reverence the god who gave creation who gives you your life and most of all to the israelites he gave them their freedom from slavery so we're here to learn how to be set free from slavery we've all been slaves to sin we're learning how to become slaves to righteousness to be god's servants and our focus is on the word of god so therefore what we see today is that to study the bible is the reason you come to church to study and learn things that you don't know if you don't go away learning something from the bible then you're wasting your time the bible is designed to give us insight and understanding we have congressional congregational singing we have all these different elements that make together for a family of believers believers in the way of god now jesus said in john 10 10 that he came to have life abundantly but how is that life expressed well notice ii timothy chapter 3 2 timothy chapter 3. it goes through all the different things as with regard to the end time period we're experiencing and we can see validation to every one of these things that is mentioned and then he goes up he says they're lovers of pleasure more than lovers of god see god is not the focus they love pleasure that's their god more than god and they have a form of godliness oh yeah they go to church and they say all the right words and it sounds very good they fold their hands they wear certain types of clothes but what happens they deny the power thereof to worship god you have to understand he has the power you know they had a cartoon type character years ago that was called he-man everybody looks for heroes and things well here's he he-man and he-man does what he's got this sword and he raises this sword and he says i got the power all right well he doesn't really have the power that's fictitious it is god who has the power and god wants us to understand where to do what from such turn away don't get involved with people who don't believe in the power of god because it's the power of god that keeps everything together it's the power of god that gives us a life god only has immortality and everything that exists comes because god loans it to us and you and i are custodians of the gift of life he gives us every day a gift of life that day what do we give him in return do we show him fruit of goodness or do we show him fruit of obedience or fruit of disobedience that becomes our individual challenge no we find that there's a problem a problem a serious problem that would develop where the fear of god would begin to be eroded that people would go to church and church would not be the focus on god the church would be a focus on fellowship and get together it would become like a social club everybody just getting together together and shake hands and don't we love each other and aren't we happy are we fulfilled god wants us to be close he wants us to love one another but he didn't want us to be focused on us he wanted us to be focused on him so chapter four look at what the apostle paul told timothy in second timothy chapter four i charge you therefore before god so the ministry has a ministerial charge and the lord jesus christ who shall judge the quick or the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom and we are to preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke do what's necessary in all long-suffering and doctrine why verse 3 look what's happening to people today this is why churches are collapsing this is why young people don't know which way to go they'd rather play video games instead of going and listening to the bible but the bible has the answers to their life video games they're not necessarily wrong of themselves but i'll tell you one thing if you have a video game that's called uh deals with uh stealing cars which is very popular and uh that one is uh is could could you be doing something wrong if you just play a video game and it shows stealing cars or what about um uh what about man of war in which there's the enemy blast the enemy kill him shoot him everything are we training the mind to kill are we training the mind to steal who in the beginning was a murderer from the beginning that the bible talked about his name he was satan the devil and he was a murderer from the beginning and what did he do he comes to steal and he comes to kill wow you see if we don't have the umbrella of god guiding us we lean to our own understanding today people are literally coming to church with the attitude what's in it for me what's the payoff if i don't like what i get i'm out of here well that is the attitude that god said would come in the end time it's an attitude where individuals are looking for things that satisfy them not things that are pleasing to god we come to learn how to please god and this is where entertainment has come into play so much entertainment is so important to modern worshipers they want to come to church to be entertained but you know the job of the ministry is not to entertain the job of the ministry is to tell you the word of god cry aloud spare not show them where they're wrong help them to understand get over the hurdles that are causing problems for yourself most today were influenced so many of the young generation were influenced by the following uh it entered into about it started in the late 1940s and then really got going in the 1950s it was called the one-eyed monster do you remember what the one-eyed monster was television television began to become the fixation of all our time hours and hours before tv do we spend hours and hours before the word of god no let's all hang our head in shame minister lay person makes no difference i wish we could all say we just spend a lot more time but we don't we're guilty of these things and we have to ask god for his mercy and help knowing what was on the one-eyed monster that began to really impact young viewers oh it was called mtv music television music television also vh1 you begin to see some real entertaining videos things you know because we all like to move don't we we all like to be entertained so what happens is that uh even religion has fallen under the mantle of entertainment you can go on television on these various religious channels and you will find there's a lot of things done on those channels that are nothing more than entertainment you will not find somebody out there crying aloud and sparing not you will find too much of the other and this is now transferred over to another area these addictions these focusing our attention what does it do it corrupts our thinking and we begin to lose our fear and reverence for god that's what's happened isaiah chapter 1 verses 17 and 18 tells us come now reason let us reason together god wants us to reason but people today don't reason properly they don't want to hear the word make me think you see a sermon is designed to make you think how are you doing how are you accomplishing and overcoming or do you preach the word to entertain now this is where many of the big mega churches came online because they began to go to all kinds of music and entertainment and just to be able to go and hear the word of god and learn people didn't want to learn anymore and that's what's happened in our world something is wrong and it's not the fault of sermons and songs it's the problem of a heart our hearts are corrupt brethren this is what's happened the heart of man has gotten tired of looking at the bible tired of hearing about god they don't believe the book anymore has any relevance to them so what does it goes back to the garden of eden ye shall be as gods we now are we have no nothing to lead us in the direction in the right way and so we as the scripture and judges says every there was no king in israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes and that's what's people and so you hear things like well that's your truth but this is my truth i got my truth you got your truth there's only one truth and jesus said i am the way the truth and the life we're told to remember the sabbath because it's a time for hearing the word of god and building what god wants us to learn about him if we don't know about god then how can we function and say we're christian maybe that's the reason why there are so many individuals who are professing christians but they're not desirous to really draw close to god they're afraid of god you know if you're afraid of god there's something wrong the only reason you should be afraid of god is if you do wrong why would a young person fear his parents only because if they do wrong and that's why when they do wrong what do they do they don't come and say dad mom you know i did wrong they don't confess they hide what did adam and eve do when they did wrong they hid what do all of us do when we do wrong we hide so what are we learning we're learning something very important the way that we protect ourselves from the erosion of godly fear and it can happen there's so many factors today coming at us to take away the fear the love the respect the admonition the songs we sing reflect the glory of god if god is not glorious in your mind and in your heart then something is working against you a serious problem the book of ezekiel talks about in ezekiel chapter 33 verses 31 through 33 regarding israel he says they come they act like they want to know the truth they say man that was a great message you gave ezekiel it says but they will not do it they will not do it they're not listening the admonition in the book of revelation chapter 3 telling us about the laodicean church is that wake up and listen the fear of god has got to be before our eyes and deep within our heart if we're going to endure to the end well these things we could go into a lot more of that but we'll just leave it right there and say that again the time shows it's serious this is not time for entertainment the things that are happening around it are hurting us and coming at us from all directions may god give us the strength through his holy spirit to glorify him and the lord christ and to remember god's added charge that you love one another as i have loved you god wants a deep genuine love to be shown between all of his people because he loves us and he's going to take us ultimately to the kingdom of god god be with you all

Channel: UCG Macon-Columbus, GA

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Length: 39min 58sec (2398 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 16 2021