LACK OF GODLY INFLUENCE
INTRODUCTION
Lack of godly influence is a spinoff to unrighteousness which is detrimental to any nation or people who previously lived in allegiance with Almighty God; allowing that allegiance to grow cold as they increasingly adapt themselves to the secular ways of the world.
It is unfortunate that such are no longer enjoying the umbrella of protection, provision, and blessings once experienced under the previous allegiance. It is unfortunate that ungodly traits previously rejected have now become acceptable.
Lack of Godly Influence
Disassociation with God
The Psalmist wrote: The Lord brings the counsel of the heathen (ungodly) to nought; he makes the devices (plans) of the people to no effect (Psalm 33:10). From the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth (Psalm 33:13). The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear (reverence) him, upon them that hope in his mercy (Psalm 33:15).
An example is given revealing that God knows all, Scripture reveals: The word of the Lord came upon Jonah, a prophet of God, saying, arise, go to Nineveh that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness is come up before me (Jonah 1:1-2). What would make any nation, or people, feel they are no longer accountable to God?
Removal of Godly
Leadership
God seeks the positive response, as that of the city of Nineveh, towards any that has fallen out of genuine fellowship with Him. God instructed the Prophet Jonah, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it, the preaching that I bid (tell) you (Jonah 3:2). As Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, he cried out, and said, yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown (destroyed). The people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth (a sign of repentance), from the greatest of them even to the least of them (Jonah 3:4-5).
As reported there was a lack of godly influence from the greatest to the least of the people. When godly leadership is taken from a people; without its influence ungodliness takes root requiring a Nineveh type repentance. Scripture reveals: God saw their works that they had turned away from their evil way; and God repented (relented) of the evil, that he said he would do to them, and he did it not (Jonah 3:10).
Sounding the Alarm
There are some sounding the alarm; utilizing the Word of God that was spoken to King Solomon in reference to the people of Israel: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Along with this promise came a warning: But if you turn away, and forget my statutes, and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I pluck you up out of my land which I have given you; and this house (temple) which I have sanctified (set apart) for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all nations (2 Chronicles 7:19-20).
No Fear of God
Previous God fearing nations, having a lack of godly influence, walk a fine line as to God’s mercy or judgment coming forth. It was noted that where there is no fear of God, no reverence for God, every evil can and will abound. The idea that we humans will be good without God is a deceptive fallacy. When people are devoid of the knowledge and wisdom that come from believing God and having reverence for Him, they become morally corrupt, exceedingly evil, violent and destructive.
When God is taken out of the affairs of man; implementing desired ways and means, no longer functioning under the peaceful setting of the past, the rule of ungodly influences will reign without mitigation or end. Those seeking to right the wrongs will be as little David fighting the giant Goliath who would not have been victorious had it not been for the hand of God delivering him and keeping the Israelites from being enslaved by the Philistines.
Dominance of Ungodliness
We are witnessing the ungodliness that caused the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah. Apostle Peter noted: God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned with an overthrow (destruction), making them an example to those that afterward should live ungodly (2 Peter 2:6). Homosexuality was the primary reason for those cities destruction; which is flourishing in many nations, having failed to heed the warning extended in God’s Word.
Apostle Paul noted the depravity of such activity: God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change (exchange) the natural use into that which is against nature; likewise the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseeingly (shamefully), and receiving in themselves that recompense (penalty) of their error which was meet (fitting) (Romans 1:26-27).
Youth of Today
Lack of ungodly influence has eroded many of today’s youth, having not sound parental influence of the past. Schools, in many cases, have become the teaching ground of immoral agenda rather than the traditional and sound moral practices of yesteryear. Scripture reveals: Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).
We live in what is called “the age of information.” It was noted that we are bombarded with words, via computer-based devices, television, movies, and radio, but have we heard the Word from the Lord? By far, more than we need to hear any other word, we need to hear the Word of God and allow His Word to give direction in the lives of our youth and adults alike, even with some churches suffering from lack of the Unadulterated (Pure) Word of God being promulgated, having arrived in the tolerance and acceptability mode rather than that of the godly influence that once existed.
Secular Society
In the days of the Prophet Daniel it was noted that of all influences brought to bear on the Jewish exiles (Daniel 1:3-5), none must have been dreaded more than the attempt to make the people to forget their God and their heritage. This is still the worse threat to God's people today; with the increasingly secular societies of the Western world, with the assumption of the secularists, that there is no God.
A legendary evangelist of the First Great Awakening, Charles G. Finney, noted that preaching will bear its legitimate fruits; if immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours to a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact; but let us lay it to heart, and awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.
Influence and Dominance
There is a lack of godly influence rising through such names as Socialism and Marxism, cousins to Communism; Critical Race Theory (CRT), the Great Reset Plan, instituted by the World Economic Forum; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Transformation; to name but a few, that would upset the normality of life. Included in the spin-off of evil is a drive to maintain legalized abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriage, and transgenderism as a way of life, though condemned in God’s Word.
Goals include: Discredit family as an institution; control of the schools to use as tools for promoting ungodly agenda; eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them violation of free speech and free press; break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography in books, magazines, motion pictures, and TV; infiltrate the press, gain control of key positions in government, radio, TV, and motion pictures; infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion.
Righteous Man Ridiculed
The Prophet Amos revealed there will be a time that the fruit of righteousness will be turned into hemlock (Amos 6:12). It is interesting to note that the word hemlock refers to a plant that poison is derived from. Poison infects or pollutes the body until injury, illness, or death results. It can be of a harmful influence such as will ruin, taint, inhibit, or embitter.
When this influence creeps into a church, oftentimes unawares, it creates a powerless church. A dream captivated this thought in which the righteous man was ridiculed, of whose influence no longer had any effect. A church of pomp, splendor, where true worship was taboo and sin no longer identified. Lives were without change or with little endurance if change occurred.
Context of Judgment
It was noted that when people conduct their lives as though there is no God who knows and judges every person, evil can abound. The most dangerous society is one in which people have no sense of accountability to God, and no fear of God. People need to hear the Bible and the Gospel, to be informed that God judges and saves; truly believing this is life transforming.
Many today, bring into focus a lack of godly instruction, by leaving out the context of judgment and simply bringing forth the niceties of God’s word that requires little or no change in one’s current lifestyle. Nothing could be further from the truth; the lack of godly influence, permissiveness and tolerance being allowed, and the consequences of such, is the soul of man being jeopardized.
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