Ken Martin - The Loss of Biblical KnowledgeWhat it Means for America and You

well good morning everyone pleasure to be with you once again i'm going to cover a topic today that i hope will be helpful to give us a perspective of life and what's been happening to all of us in the course of time as we've been experiencing day by day the western world of christianity is a western world because that's where christianity basically has been in the western world these are the areas of the countries that basically have embraced the scriptures of the holy bible and they believe in jesus christ as the savior of mankind now what we have in this world now is a problem that has been growing over the years and now it is beginning to really manifest itself the western world of christianity is facing one of their greatest dilemmas also and we are smack dab in the middle of it as well because we as individuals who worship god and practice the christian way of life as they would refer to it this problem that is growing is not only affecting those who go to church and there's a lot of people who go to the church of their choice but the problem is that the churches are beginning to experience something that has got them greatly worried the churches are beginning to falter they're having serious problems and there's a reason for it because as george gallup you might be familiar with that name gallup has a polls that he takes and he analyzes george gallup and jim castelli they did a poll and survey and here's what they found that americans revere the bible they revere the bible but by and large they don't read it oh that's interesting and because they don't read it they have become a nation of biblical illiterates wow that's quite shocking in fact i've entitled this message today the loss of biblical knowledge what it means for america and you the loss of biblical knowledge what it means for america and you let's take a look at what they found out and how bad is it our nation is losing its biblical heritage and the roots of our national character that's what's happening that's why you hear some of the crazy things that are being addressed on the news they want to tear down statues they want to rewrite history instead of evaluating each generation within their generation because that's how god judges what they want to do is to erase all history and because they think they're smarter than any other past generation well we're being judged in our generation as well by the hand of almighty god but how bad is it well i'd like to give you the various results fewer than half of all adults fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels what are they matthew mark luke and john i shouldn't be so hard but look what they discovered that's incredible then they found out that many professing christians yeah professing that's the problem they cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples they don't know who are the ones that followed christ then they found out that 60 of americans 60 that's a high number can't name even five of the ten commandments yet the ten commandments are supposed to be burned into our mind and in our heart and look what's happening this is the feedback we're getting from our nation 82 percent 82 of americans now you're really getting up there and what do they say they believe god helps those that help themselves is in the bible and it's not wow we're really getting mixed up then as a country as a nation the next point he said 12 of adults believe and this this is i don't mean to be facetious here but it's kind of humorous 12 of adults believe that joan of arc was noah's wife joan of arc that's french history if you have to go back to jeb french history but i think she's noah's wife i guess because he built an ark it's amazing a survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent this is high school seniors they thought that sodom and gomorrah were husband and wife now i'm not being facetious that's that's in the poll that's what they found out you talk about being way off and lacking understanding a considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that the sermon on the mount well everyone knows this one was preached by billy graham they don't even know that it came from the mouth of the messiah you talk about being weighed in the balance and found wanting so basically increasingly america is biblically illiterate is what george barna came up he said they don't know and you don't know you don't know what you don't know and so they're living life in a crazy set of circumstances and now i'd like to go through some of this and show you then what the antidote is what god gives us so that we don't fall prey to this kind of foolishness because it really is foolishness and it reveals to us the prophecies that god has spoken of in isaiah jeremiah ezekiel many of those prophecies are coming to pass right now you can go to the book of jeremiah where god says my people have committed two great evils two great evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters because you have to have circulation of water to have it be a live water and then they've hewned out cisterns they've tried to work out these problems that can hold no water and that doesn't work either so basically what we're seeing is that the lives of individuals the lives of our churches and the lives of our communities and our nation are collapsing these things are collapsing and the loss of biblical knowledge what it means for america and for you and for me is serious the bible always addresses things from the standpoint god says my people well let's face it let's ask the question who who's god's people not everybody out there is god's people most of the world are not god's people and what i mean by that spiritually speaking physically yes they're his people he created them and there he's he's concerned about everyone and he's going to bring about this marvelous transformation when christ returns and the regeneration takes place but until that time the bible what makes the bible so unique is that it is a book that addresses how god worked with his people in the old testament and in the new testament and remember the people he worked with was only one group of people they were called the house of israel not any other name the house of israel and he pointed out that in dealing with he says not because you were the greatest he said you were just the smallest little nation and yet i did what i revealed myself i gave you my ten commandments i gave you the law and all these things my wonderful but you treated it like it was nothing and so we see all these examples written in the bible first corinthians chapter 10 all this stuff how god worked with the israelites in the new testament he tells us through paul and what he says it's all written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age are coming down on us it's time for final exams everyone we're getting down to the nitty-gritty of it we used to talk about these things back in the 50s and 60s and and we had a zeal and we were on fire and we were ready to go i mean we were talking about things and boy did we talk about things we didn't even know we had a deal but it was not according to knowledge our timing was all off we were saying well this is going to happen that's going to have never happened so what are the other people say ah they're just crying wolf i've heard that before they said this they said that no we were right in what god was showing us but we didn't listen totally to how god was revealing things that it was way down the road yet there was a lot to happen and certain triggering events were going to happen that would begin to show how god physically dealt with them in the old testament and how he's spiritually dealing with all of us now in the new now the physical can't be neglected but the spiritual has to be our emphasis because if we're worrying about things that are dealing with the flesh god says you leave that behind you better keep moving forward you better have your eyes riveted on me and what i plan for you because it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom he's not trying to make life difficult for us it is the adversary who's working hard to make life difficult forever he's going to really try here toward the end that's why we need to pray for each other and ask god to hedge us in and protect us from what is coming because the bible says when that event happens somebody's going to get cast down he's going to be madder than all get out and he's coming right after a certain group of people who keep the commandments and have the testimony of jesus that they believe you see the problem god's telling us it's a spiritual warning and the people of god that he's talking to are israelites these are israelite people in the end time and they can be found they're not lost but that's another subject we won't take time to go over there and but we have to ask that question who are god's people because the nations that god deals with are those that honor god and his holy word and that is england and america australia and other places where the christian west became known as the western world of christianity but what has happened especially now focusing on america in god we trust we put it on our coins we put it on the dollar bills everything this is what we said when we started out as a nation and what did we do we said we trust the god of israel and the savior that he sent jesus christ and that has been the essence of our country but things have happened since that time and now god is showing us some other things that we need to look at very quickly he was with us in the beginning stages but what's happening to us let's go to chapter 4 of the book of hosea verse 1. hosea chapter 4 and verse 1. hear the word of hear the word of the lord you children of israel he's not talking just about the jewish state over there in the middle east he's talking about these israelite people wherever these israelite people are around the world i'll just put it that way and he's saying for the lord god has a controversy he's upset with what with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth no mercy nor knowledge of god in the land have i just read to you what's happening to our country there is no knowledge of god in the land anymore there was at the turn of the century in the 1900s but what's happened now we've forgotten our god we're too smart we've got science and technology we don't need god so the god of israel and the bible were the anchor points in which god honored us now in verse six he says my people here again who define divine my people people assume they're god's people no the scripture makes it very clear who god's people are those that fear god keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight verse 6 my people are destroyed we're being destroyed the scripture says for lack of knowledge now wait a second other translations put in there insert for a lack of the knowledge the knowledge that we are lacking are spiritual knowledge that's why i said the loss of biblical knowledge what it means for america and for you as well as for me or anyone we live in this country and he says we're being destroyed for a lack of knowledge and yet knowledge is flying all over the place yeah we've got internet you've got knowledge at the fingertips we've got science is our new god technology that we follow and we love it and we embrace it and in some cases we bow before it and that makes us guilty of the second commandment when we bow before anything other than god and so dear brethren what do we have he says because you have rejected oh you mean we have rejected well yeah because you see the bible makes it very clear uh you have to pray and in our yearly early years we had prayer but we had these supreme court justices that got up there and said hey that's not constitutional so we got to get rid of prayer so prayer was dropped from schools a little bit later what ended up happening hey you know we have everybody's got their rights now well god has rights too and he hasn't been treated right by mankind especially his people israel and now what is god doing he says i'm upset because i watch something else you pass you pass you say it's all right to go kill babies and you'll kill millions of them sacred is life because life comes from god and god is sacred and everything about life is the sacred institution ordained of god and when we kill babies we attack god by doing so then of course we announcing the breakdown of the final element of it and what is that we've seen same-sex marriage that was the final final nail in the coffin and that defiles the very sacred relationship between man and woman enough of that now we who are god's people the nation that once obeyed god said in god we trust we know we don't we now having a famine of the word the word is being preached but there's a famine going on most people don't recognize it why because there's no spiritual food being given in these places where people go to church to be strengthened in their knowledge of the bible and we don't have biblical teaching anymore we have the social gospel to replace the spiritual gospel of the bible so what we end up having in ignorance people make wrong decisions they stumble they don't know where to turn without the knowledge of god's word a person has no real direction to live your life as a man and woman what ends up happening without a lack of direction you flounder psalm 119 105 psalm 119 105 and what does god tell us here psalm 119 105. psalm 119 is the longest well here it is in 105 of psalm 119 it says your word whose word anybody's word do we want to listen to the cdc or anybody else or government leaders to tell us what's the guideline according to this scripture the writer tells us your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path when you're in the darkness you have to have light and we are in darkness and what god is telling us here plainly again people are having problems because of the fact there's no real direction in their life they don't know where to go they're just wandering no true joy or peace you find that in the same psalm 111 and 165 verses 111 and 165. the question we have to ask ourselves how many lives are being destroyed how many people are stumbling through life because they have no light of god's word guiding them a lot of people are hurting and it's going to get worse its effect upon churches of the so-called christian community well they're having a hard time they're beginning to lose their people and the reason they are because there's nothing good there they hear the same old same old and they don't they don't give them anything that relates to life how many churches are dying on the vine it's part of a wholesale apostasy the mystery of iniquity due to the advances that we have experienced in post-modernism and reflected in pluralistic society multicultural society most of us have never even studied this we're being affected by it but we don't even study it to know well what does that mean if you were asked what is a multicultural society could you give a clear definition most of us couldn't because we haven't studied it once you have the truth the danger is the fact you throw everything else out and you don't pay attention to anything else because you think you've got it that's what the laodiceans say we are rich and increase with goods we've got the truth we don't need it and yet what does god say ah no your head you don't have the fire and the zeal for the things of god you want to but you're half-hearted you got the one foot in the world that you like and the other foot you want to be with god and so you're lukewarm and god says oh no he says that's not going to work because of that he says i gotta i got to intervene and as many as i love i'm going to intervene and if we're in that state of mind and we're not feeling the sense of urgency of the times in which we're living then god is telling us get ready the shaking is coming and it's already started things are happening we had it in 9 11 9 11 was the first shaking when that happened hit this country we'd never had anything like that before an attack on our own very soil and what ended up happening from there everyone you know they were hot for god for just a little while and then they went back to business as usual and our president at that one time he made the statement which i thought was very wrong personally because he said we need to get back to business as usual and i said oh you want to get back to god not business as usual oh we have lots to learn dear brethren but let's notice again isaiah 55 isaf chapter 5 isaiah 5 and verse 20. isaiah 5 and verse 20 and this is coming at us in spades i mean everyone can see it happening and you got to be blind if you can't acknowledge this he says woe unto them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put the bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight oh brother do we have that going down today now how does this scripture how is it fulfilled today in our country what what's impacted on us listen to what we see we see the innocent the abortion problem we see sparing the guilty that means no capital punishment nobody is called on the carpet for wrongs that they do we reward the wicked and who are the wicked well take a look at some of the movie stars entertainers we give them exorbitant monies while good people working a hard life can't even survive in some cases on minimal salary what about divorce divorce is made easy it's like no fault insurance on the car no fault divorce everything's made easy adultery is looked upon lightly fornication an affair a relationship homosexuality which god speaks about they say no it's just an alternate lifestyle these are things that god is upset with the effect of such things destroy our families and this is where the real rub comes because the family is the basic building block of society and if the family goes so goes the country that's what's so sad because we've been blessed to live in the greatest country on the face of the earth it's not a perfect country no country is human beings aren't perfect but there are people who think they're perfect and would like to just correct a few things are here there and what have you and everything will be fine remember whatever god creates whatever god does satan counterfeits and he counterfeits everything so well please remember when god created lucifer he was like no other angelic creation he was perfect in his ways until he said uh yeah i'm so good that maybe i should be the one in charge until iniquity was found only god spotted because god created him perfect god didn't make him that way he chose to be that way and that's exactly what human beings are doing today and god says i put before you life and death choose which way do you want to go sadly a lot of people choose the wrong way the effects of destroying the family and communities the evil what about pornography promiscuity is allowed to spread and we're saying it's freedom and it's ripping families apart instead of fidelity we've got infidelity satan always turns it around children are deprived of the kind of parenting that they need which is their god-given right and it leads to juvenile delinquency and greater evils and that's why chicago is falling apart and you've got nothing but gangs out there and doing terrible things this is what our news is every day we're listening to it is this the kind of world we would want to live in forever they're telling us they're going to create a new world for us they're going to do away with the world we've known they're going to make it even better by doing this that and what have you and by the way we will just take control of all of you and make sure that none of you do anything that is unacceptable read that in revelation 13. a time where it comes it says you'll be so controlled you won't even be able to buy and sell unless you have a agreement with a certain system that will be enforced at that time bible uses terms like the mark of the beast and what have you if you've already agenda agenda 2020 i believe it was an agenda 2020 i may stand corrected on that i'm not sure for 100 i should have checked that first but i believe that's in there and an agenda 2020 was one of their goals that they hope in the future and that is par that's brought on by the head of uh the catholic church and what he wants is to do something he wants to introduce the law that would make it for everyone to live at peace to worship on sunday think about that what would you do if suddenly you were told you can't meet on saturday anymore because saturday is the sabbath of the lord god but if you were suddenly told now you can't function you're on your own unless you join the system we're going to be forced to make decisions that i don't think any of us really thought we would ever have to do we thought at baptism it was done no there's more decisions coming what happens this destructive tin is it's infected and sickened our nation to such a degree now what is the antidote how are we supposed to understand our position now jude the book of jews right before the book of revelation i find that that's interesting that it it's right before revelation because if you haven't read revelation boy you need to that's that's your bible study right now because the time is now jesus said and it's at hand and we have to do what follow the instructions and what you will note as you read the book of revelation and introduces the very first thing you're told is the warning to the churches god is telling the churches wherever it is god's people are scattered he said you better get your house in order because things are coming and then the rest of the book of revelation explains some of those things all right verses one through four jew the servant of jesus christ and brother of james to them that are sanctified meaning set apart by god for that holy purpose the father and preserved in jesus christ and called mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied something very wonderful has been granted to us in the calling of god now he goes on to say beloved when i gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation it was an evil for me to write to you and exhort you that you do what here comes the antidote you should earnestly content not haphazardly not take it lightly but be thankful to god that he's telling you and giving you instruction how to avoid a lot of the problems that are going to be coming upon mankind he goes on and he says earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints why because this mystery of iniquity that the apostle paul talked about in his writings in thessalonians he says for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before all or being old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of our god into license or permission to do evil is what life's lasciviousness is and denying notice they're denying the only lord god and our lord jesus christ now how do they deny well they say they believe but they deny him in the works they don't follow what he says like like jesus said in luke 6 46 why do you call me lord lord and do not the things which i say when we don't do what he says then our works are lacking and that means we're just professing that we follow god and that's not going to hold water with god in the end result no the next aspect of how do we solve this so that it doesn't inundate us we need to get into the book get into the book and that means get into the book of proverbs get into into the psalms my personal instruction i like to encourage people for a daily bible study you know they have daily bible readings and all kinds of things but if you want to really grow fast in the wisdom of god study the book of proverbs there's 31 chapters in there roughly 31 days in a month and you can do what take one chapter each day wake up in the morning when it's nice and early when you get your mind clear or the best time you can work it out because there's no set time one size doesn't fit all here but what you can do is to take that chapter read it carefully and then meditate on that and ask god to give you insight of what it's addressing you'll be surprised all the wisdom suddenly you're going to grow in because the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom and if you listen to what he tells you he's going to teach you now we have to understand that the things of god relate to everyday life and that's where so much is missing today that's why people are disillusioned because they haven't done their homework and when you haven't done your homework like paul told timothy study to show yourself approved unto god if you don't study how can you know if you don't do your homework in school or in college you fail the test every time and the only other way some people get by is they cheat they cheat to get a false degree because it's a false one it's not a true degree and so there they have they say well i have a degree that makes me smart no it makes them dumb because they have no wisdom no wisdom to go with that degree all they've done is learn what has been pumped into their head but really they've never really stopped to consider the end result no the sabbath is going to be something and this is something on the sabbath we need to really fire up on the sabbath and make sure that we appreciate god giving us this wonderful day that is an honor to him and his creation and giving us an opportunity to fellowship with one another you can see with this crowd the coronavirus thing what it has done it has put a barriers and broken up this thing of fellowship we don't have quite the strength the strain of fellowship we once had and the reason why is because the breakdown of society satan is attacking the church of god and he's going to continue to do that parents have a responsibility a god-given responsibility you read that in deuteronomy 6 6 and 7 and in ephesians 6 and verse 4 that's deuteronomy 6 6 and 7 and ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4. we have to help our children how do we help our children we help them to be god conscious don't try to convert younger people because younger people can't be converted only god can convert a person when it's time but we have an obligation as parents to make them god conscious that's why we pray as parents that's why we study that's why we try to live by the ways of god our children then watch and they reflect what we're teaching if we don't teach the things of god they're not going to learn the things of god that's why god was pleased with abraham because he says he preserved the way of god his sons grew up aware of the god of israel who was working at that particular time with noah but he wasn't known as the god of israel then because the nation hadn't yet been born it was a process after abraham isaac and jacob jacob's name changed to israel see most of that doesn't mean anything to most people that's because they haven't studied the bible it's amazing all you have to do is ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and god says that door is wide open he's there to help us he's to encourage us and he wants us to understand look don't dwell on all the bad things you think are going to happen remember god's in charge not the devil and the devil's not going to have his way the reason he thinks things he's upset he knows he's see we we talk about things are getting close things are getting you know and now they really are starting to validate with the signs we see the sign of the times don't you think satan knows that also if god told them in the beginning if god says everything i've done here i've done so that you can look at it and know how i'm going to conclude this whole situation and when it gets to the season that you're in and we're in that season of the fig tree now and it's look up it says and rejoice for your salvation draws nigh oh dear brethren making the bible alive and relevant today that's the job of the ministry that's what we ask you to pray for us because we pray for you and our job and i try in my efforts to try to make these things so that you're aware of them and then you do what you have to take that information and run with it i can't save you you can't save me only god can save us but the job of the ministry is to let you know that we're here for you we're here to teach the word of god not the word of men or organizations of men it's to glorify god in your eyes and that we have to be willing participants parents ministry our job is and is brought out in isaiah 58 1 where it says cry aloud and show my people their sins how can they know if there's no preacher or minister to tell them well god has purposed that there will be one and that one is there to help and assist paul told timothy that was the job of the ministry in first timothy 4 and verse 16. first timothy 4 verse 16 and 2 timothy 4 verses 1 through 5 because he says there's going to come a time where people won't endure you know sound doctrine they're going to turn away from it they're going to go chasing fables they think that's more exciting to go chasing fables no jesus is the prince of peace because we all need peace and that's when you're happiest when you're at peace you don't like upheaval most individuals do not those who want excitement and the looking always for danger and things of that nature they're running a risk by going in a wrong direction pop theology pop psychology we hear an awful lot of that today being told to people i'm okay you're okay god doesn't say you and i are okay as passover approaches now god is telling us look how have you how have you scored on the on the scale and on the chart how's your year been are you happy with what you've done talk to god about it tell them what you need to change but don't dwell on self dwell on god and his word because he wants to blot out your guilt and block out all the things that trouble you it is satan who wants to wear you down and make you feel bad make you feel like you're denied how can you be denied when god has given us the abundance of all things and he really has no we've come to a final place the last scripture i'll give you is found in the book of james chapter 1 and verse 21 james chapter 1 verse 21 in which it says therefore lay aside this is our mission lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word let god's word work into your life because it that's that's where the cleansing process comes through the blood of christ god works in us and comes outwardly in manifestation the world is more concerned about the outward rather than the inward we must become familiar with the word of god make it a part of us and we have to hunger and thirst for it just like you would if you were starving and you needed physical food plain and simple well there you have it the balls in our courts now as individuals the nation is not going to change it's had its chances had its opportunity someone might say well you're not being very optimistic well i'm very optimistic i know for sure they're not going to change because the scriptures tell us they're not going to change god is appealing to them to change they have the opportunity to change but they won't they won't listen to what happened to their ancestors and how the ancestors had it all gone for them and they blew it and we're told don't you do the same thing now as members of the church of god this is why jesus built his church because he knew physical israel in the end time wouldn't respond it's his church that responds it's his church that loves the sacrifice of the loving god to blot out all our transgressions helping us to walk in newness of life god be with each and every one of us as we strive to honor our god and to live daily by his laws and his commands

Channel: UCG Macon-Columbus, GA

Views: 898

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: VYNeGznJ4uk

Length: 42min 21sec (2541 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021