and all the nations that forget God. And our subject this evening is the peril of forgetting God. And such in this verse are likened to the wicked. There is no difference in their destiny. The wicked shall be cast into hell, but all the nations that forget God. And I suppose that many of us have from time to time viewed those that lived depraved and wicked lives and we shudder. We see perhaps a president or some army general who has been accused of war crimes or some individual who has been abusive and violent and we shudder to think of their eternal destiny, their everlasting fate. And we think that forgetting God is but a little fault in comparison. And yet this verse speaks so solemnly of the destiny of those who simply forget God. C. H. Spurgeon famous Baptist pastor, many of you have heard of him. He made a study of his own society and he came to this conclusion that the forgetters of God, well they can often be moral people, but they rarely worship God. They are honest people, but they are not prayerful people. They are generous, but they are not believing. They are refined in their conversations, but they have reserved no praise for God. Amiable and friendly, and yet have no experience of God's converting power in their soul. So we have to ask this question of ourselves. Do we forget God? What does it mean when it refers to those that forget God. Well almost certainly this phrase does not mean that God has slipped out of my mind. That's almost impossible with reference to God because we are surrounded by voices and by witnesses which tell us that there is a God. Creation speaks of a creator, a designer. We're reminded that we are made in the image of God. We cannot observe the vast universe, the planets, the sun, with its perpetual shining. We cannot see the beauty and the intricacy and the complexity of life and say, well, I never thought that there was a God. Our own consciences, they remind us that we stand, we must stand one day before our creator. Every single person in this world is given a conscience. We may suppress it, we may ignore it, we may almost silence it, but our consciences bear witness. There is a God. And then, of course, there is the witness in this world of those who do believe in God. So we are reminded continually of the reality of the Godhead. To forget God, the word is often translated and means to be oblivious to God. And that probably is the sense here. Many are oblivious. They live as if there is no God. Their approach to life is God is irrelevant. And in that sense, we may forget God, indifferent. When Moses came before Pharaoh in Egypt, Pharaoh's response was, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? And that's the spirit. of so many in our society, in the nation at large. Who is the Lord that I should obey him? I regard him as irrelevant. I will get on with my life. I will live as if I have forgotten God. And many are unobservant of his voice to them, either in creation, but often in providence. People look around. They see the catastrophe of an earthquake, the sudden destruction and death of countless millions. They see disorder and chaos, war and disease. These things have a voice. They bear witness that man is in rebellion against God, but they bury their head in the sand. They ignore the reality, which is that God is warning the people of the world. Seek me. Recognize your rebellion. Lay down the weapons of hostility. Bring me to mind and search for me. Well, how does society forget God? That may seem a silly question, but this all should relate to us here because it's not just nations that forget God, but it's individuals that live oblivious to God. How does that happen? Well, firstly, it may simply be through the busyness of life. I've got so much to do. I've got a family to provide for. I've got children who need and demand my time. I've got a workplace to go to. I'm so busy. A business to manage and expand and run. People can be so absorbed. I've got school to attend. I've got friendships to forge. I've got my social media account, my Facebook, my Instagram, my Snapchat. I've got to look at these things. And as a result, I simply forget that there is a God. who made me, who commands my attention. Have we forgotten God? Because the week just becomes packed with things that I have to do. My diary is full. There's not a spare moment to think upon the Lord who made me and speaks to me through creation and through his word. Then there's a second reason we may forget God. And that is the distractions and pleasures and possessions of life. They can be so engaging, so enjoyable. It's so much easier just to sit back and draw in the satisfaction that pleasures and pursuits in this world bring. But it could be disastrous if we forget God. Remember the man in the parable, the rich farmer, His ground brought forth plentifully. And within himself, he began to think. He engaged his mind, literally, is the meaning of the words there. And he said, what shall I do? I will pull down my barns. I will build greater. And I will say to my soul, soul, take thy knees. Thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Eat, drink, and be merry. Think good thoughts. That's what the word merry means there. Have good thoughts about your situation. And in the parable, the Lord said to him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of me. Man in the parable, that farmer, I suggest to you he wasn't necessarily an atheist. He was just overtaken with all the excitement of his newfound worth. But it cost him eternal life. He forgot God in that moment. Friends, don't let pleasures Youthful pleasures or even the pleasures of your pension years steal your attention such that you forget or you live as if God is irrelevant. What's at the root of man's forgetfulness of God? Notice here in our text it says, all the nations that forget God. And that's the first reason so many forget God. It's a collective thing. There is a confederacy in the human race. People come together. They encourage each other. You don't want to think about God. Do not focus upon these things and these issues. And so nations quickly become oblivious to the Godhead. There are powerful influences and voices arraigned. in society collectively that almost press gang individuals into living as if God does not exist, forgetful of him. We read in Psalm 2 verse 1, you can turn to it later, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing, saying in themselves, let us break the bands of God, the constraints that are perceived put upon us by God's claims and God's commands. That's the spirit of our age, friends. It's often the spirit of whole nations. Cast God aside. Break loose from the constraints of his laws and his gospel precepts. Do your own thing. Set your own standards. Establish your own morals. We see that in the extreme, in our own society, where good is called evil, where marriage is no longer biblical but perverted and corrupted and distorted. And men exclaim at any objection and say, how dare you take away my right to equal marriage? That's what it's become now. Have you noticed that? It's no longer gay marriage. It's equal marriage. That's what the phrase they use to make it appear so unfair if you resist or if you suggest that there is a different standard of morality. Then there's a second reason why people forget God and that is the fall. What is man's present condition? as a human race, as individuals. The Bible teaches the fall of man. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve disobeyed and the result was man fell. He fell into a state of sin. His very nature in every part was corrupted. His propensity for good was taken away. and his inclination to disobey and to indulge in sin became strong. That's part of the fall. But what happened after the fall? After Adam disobeyed, he and his wife hid themselves from the voice of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. Guilt gives to us that inclination to hide away from God. And that leads ultimately to forgetfulness. Well, it's convenient. Every time I think about God, I have to think about my standing before God. My conscience accuses me that I'm not right with God, that he will judge me. And so it's better I forget him and I turn away from him. Anything that reminds society of God is unpalatable. That's why there is a dismantling of any laws that are linked to the Bible. That's why there is such a campaign to rid the schools of all influence of Christianity. We don't want to do God. That's the spirit of the age in which we live. But there's a third reason. Why? At the root of this forgetfulness, and that is that God is a spirit. That's his nature. And man, by nature, on account of the fall, is fleshly. His spiritual capacities are dead. That ability to know God and to appreciate God has been ruined. Yes, we still have a conscience, an awareness of God, but we cannot adore him and seek him and delight in him as once man did in the Garden of Eden because the fall has spoiled those spiritual capacities. And so we are alienated. So to forget God is a convenient thing. You know there are three forces arraigned to urge the forgetfulness of God. Firstly, there is the world. This unbelieving world will do all it can to shape our thinking such that we have a perspective, a worldview, in which God is oblivious, sidelined. But then the devil, the enemy of our souls, He wants us to forget God. He wants young people to forget God. He wants those who once were spiritually tender and sensitive and concerned for eternal things to forget God. He's such a malicious foe. He will do all he can to fill our lives with excitement and busyness. Or even when things go wrong, he will say, why should you seek God? He's allowed this misery into your life. That's the devil's work. He wants us to think and to live as if there is no God, and then there is our own fallen nature. As I said, it's convenient to live estranged from the God who we, to a certain extent, feel guilty before. We forget his claims upon us. We forget his care. In him we live and move and have our being. He sustains us, provides for us. Even though this world has turned against him, yet God's faithfulness is still displayed year by year in harvest as every reason to seek God. and yet we so often as a nation we turn away from him. Well are we amongst those that prefer to forget God? We have to stop and ask that question of ourselves. I don't mean that slip of the mind so much as that deliberate manner of life where I live as if God is irrelevant. I live oblivious both to his justice and to his kindness and grace. Do we have no sense of need? Do we have no realization that God is the King of kings? Are we unprepared, unwilling to acknowledge our accountability before him? Do we have no recognition of his glory and majesty as the great creator of all things. Let me suggest the folly of living as if God doesn't matter to us. It's folly because it's against reason. In Matthew 22, in that parable that the Lord told concerning the wedding feast. There's an ancillary warning, caricatured in that parable. There were those who were bidden to the wedding, invited, and they would not come. They said, I will go to my farm, or my merchandise, my possessions, my material things. And they excused themselves. That was so foolish. It was against reason. Why? It was the king who had invited them to his own son's wedding. And you know in those days kings were very powerful. They were rulers of absolute authority. They could do what they willed. Who would stand against and cause displeasure to the king? in such a society. We see the result. He sent forth his armies and burned up their city. Of course the Lord was warning the Jews. In that parable he was speaking of those who had been showered for centuries with spiritual privileges. They had his word. They had experienced his providential care. They were wonderfully provided for. To then give an affront to the king of kings was foolhardy. And so it is. The Lord is king in heaven. It is against reason to live as if he did not exist, to pretend. We're like tenants and he is the landlord. Can you imagine if the landlord knocked on the door of a house that he owned and the tenant comes and opens the door and sees the landlord and slams it in his face and says, you're not coming in here. I want nothing to do with you. I don't recognize your claims, your rights. It would be the height of madness because the landlord could simply say, if that's how you wish to treat me, then I will terminate your tenancy. You must be on your way. And yet, to a certain extent, that's exactly what happens. When we live as if God does not exist, we are saying, I don't recognize your claims upon me. And yet, he is the landlord. We're tenants of his earth. He gives us life and breath. He provides for us. All the benefits we enjoy, we enjoy by his permission. How unreasonable if we simply ignore him and pretend that he does not exist. But secondly, it's foolish to resist or to live as if God does not exist because we are immortal. There is an eternal cost. We see it here in this verse. The wicked shall be turned into hell. and all the nations that forget God. Imagine now, yet those who have lived life to the full, perhaps they've had 90 years, and they have indulged all those 90 years, a life in which for them God has not existed, but now they are in eternity. Will they not look back upon all the decades in which they enjoyed their sports and their pleasures and their social life and their riches and their big homes, perhaps, and think what a fool I was to live out my life as if God did not exist when I have an immortal soul that must ultimately be given an eternal destiny. Surely, if we were to have that vantage point, we would say to ourselves, whilst here in this life, never forget God. But it's a folly to forget God thirdly, because he has the power to bless, to favour and to help. This is so often overlooked by the nations. God is seen as a unreasonable, draconian creator who makes rigid laws and rules that I do not want to respect. It could not be further from the truth. God is a God of goodness and mercy and grace and loving kindness and eternal purpose. He is a God that delights to bless those that seek him. Look here at verse 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee, for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. How different. They that know thy name. God's name. In Scripture, it refers to his attributes. If only we can know the Lord. If only the people who forget God and live as if he did not exist, began to conceive his worth, his goodness, his loving kindness, his bounty, his desire to favour, then surely to know him, says the psalmist, they will put their trust in thee. It's because we do not know God. Well, how can we know God? We know him in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the ultimate way in which God has revealed himself. When he came to this earth, when he lived amongst men, going about displaying his kindness and his power, how many experienced his touch? and they were healed of their malady and their diseases, delivered from misery and poverty through his great goodness, such that at the end of his ministries on so many occasions, people exclaimed, he has done all things well. And you know those earthly acts of healing and miracles that he performed, they were merely an advertisement for a greater work that he can do in healing the souls of those that seek him, bringing new life, bringing us to understand spiritual things, cleansing away our sin, bringing us into the family of God, granting to us favour and blessing from the Almighty, to know God. That's the opposite of to live oblivious to God, to come to know the riches of his grace, Jesus Christ, who not only lived a perfect life and displayed his kindness, but ultimately who laid down that life voluntarily at Calvary, and displayed that work of sacrifice. That's the greatest event that ever took place in the history of this world. When the mighty Son of God, holy, harmless, undefiled, all-glorious, was put to death at Calvary, willingly allowing cruel men to nail him to that cross. Why? That through him, pardon and forgiveness, cleansing from sin and guilt could be preached. Do you know such a God? Have you been brought to see in your heart and in your mind the wonder of Christ's work. That's the ministry of those who preach. But look here, it says, they that know thy name will put their trust in thee. Have you put your trust in the Lord? Have you come to him, as it were, and said, I used to live as if you didn't exist? I was forgetful. But now I begin to see that the Lord is worthy of my trust, worthy of my adoration. I desire this God to be my God. I desire his help, his pardoning love, his blessing. Then come, humble yourself before him, entrust your soul to him, believing that through Jesus Christ and his work at Calvary alone, we can be forgiven and receive from him a new life. There are two other verses I wanted to mention, they're not in this psalm, but in Psalm 84 we read this. The Lord God is a sun and shield. A sun, when the sun shines, it brings light and cheer and hope And life, that's our God, a shield to protect from harm and danger and ruin. This is God. He will give grace and glory. Unmerited favor, that's grace. Grace is to freely forgive us for Christ's sake and receive us as his children. And glory. This verse that I read as a text, it speaks of those that forget God being turned into hell. What's the opposite? The glory that the Lord has reserved for them that love him, and trust him, and honor him, and pray to him. Surely this God is worthy of our trust. The other verse is this, Psalm 73 verse 24. Thou shalt guide me. with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. The guidance of God in life, pointing the way, helping us through those dark valleys, those difficult straits in life. The people of God who know him and experience his care. Becoming a Christian is no guarantee of a life free from Tribulation and hardship, far from it. But here is a promise that God will guide us through. He will hold our hand. He will be with us in those difficulties. And ultimately, at death, he will bring us to glory. What a good, what a worthy God we have. How can we forget him? How can we live as if He does not exist? When creation shouts, there is a God, when the testimony of Scripture reveals His attributes, and when in the person of Jesus Christ we see His saving love displayed, may we come and make Him our refuge in times of trouble. Let's pray together. O Lord, we thank thee for thy word. We thank thee for these solemn words that warn us of the danger and the consequences of forgetting God. Yet we acknowledge that we live in a society which is a nation that has forgotten God. O Lord, do draw near to us, do keep us, do preserve us, lest we should be swept along by the tide of unbelief in these perilous times in which we live. Bring us to know thy name, to admire thy goodness and grace, to trust our souls to thy care, and to know at last thy heaven and glory. We ask these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's close our worship this evening with hymn 260. Give me a sight, O Saviour, of thy wondrous love to me. 260.