The sermon 'Don’t Forget the One Thing' by Peter Allison, focuses on Isaiah 17, which discusses the burden against Damascus, a city prophesied to become a ruinous heap. The historical context involves the alliance between Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Samaria, to overthrow Judah's King Ahaz, seeking to escape Assyrian dominance. Ahaz's lack of faith led him to seek help from Assyria, resulting in the downfall of Damascus and the removal of its people. The sermon explains the concept of 'forgetting God,' reflecting a spiritual departure, neglect of His commandments, and serving other gods. Consequences of such forgetfulness include waning glory, economic loss, and vulnerability. The sermon highlights the revival under King Hezekiah as an example of hope and redemption, emphasizing the invitation to return to God, who is gracious and merciful. The overall message is a call to remember and observe God's covenant, emphasizing the importance of spiritual vigilance and repentance.

Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Isaiah 17 this morning as we continue our walk through this book and we come to the burden against Damascus. I'll read this chapter in its entirety. The burden against Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aror are forsaken.

They will be for flocks which lie down and no one will make them afraid. The fortress also will cease from Ephraim, the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of hosts. And in that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob will wane and the fatness of his flesh grow lean It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain and reaps the heads with his arm It shall be as he who gathers the heads of grain in the valley of Rephaim. Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, like the shaking of an olive tree.

Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in its most fruitful branches, says the Lord God of Israel. In that day a man will look to his maker and his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor will he respect what his fingers have made, nor the wooden images, nor the incense altars. In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch which they left because of the children of Israel and there will be desolation. Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not been mindful of the rock of your stronghold, therefore you will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings.

In that day you will make your plant grow and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish, but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow. Woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but God will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. Then behold, that eventide trouble, And before the morning, He is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us and the lot of those who rob us." May the Lord cause us to walk in the path of His commandments and delight in them.

Father in heaven. Please give us understanding of your word this morning. Please give us a heart for your word, a love for it, a desire to seek into it, that we may walk in its ways, and please sanctify my sinful lips, that they may proclaim the truth of your word. Through Jesus Christ, we ask, Amen. Well, chapter 20, or chapter 17 here that we just read, enlarges on the prophecy regarding Damascus and Samaria that was first delivered by Isaiah back in chapter 7 in that book of Immanuel.

And you'll remember from there that Damascus is the capital of Syria, and Samaria is the capital of the northern kingdom, sometimes referred to as Ephraim as in this chapter. And you remember the basic plot is that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, who was the king of Samaria, or the northern kingdom, had conspired together to effect a regime change in Judah. They wanted to overthrow Ahaz because they wanted to put a king in there that would be amenable to helping them in their revolt against Assyria. Assyria had stumbled a little bit and they thought this would be an opportunity to break away from Assyria, but Ahaz wasn't going along with it, so they thought they could remove him and put somebody there that would help them. And Isaiah came to Ahaz and informed him of this conspiracy and the fact that those plans would fail.

Both the kings would be gone before Shurjazab, his young son, would be old enough to choose good and evil. And within 65 years, he said, Samaria would cease to exist. And Ahaz was exhorted, Ahaz was not a good king. He was exhorted to believe, but he didn't. Ahaz was commanded to ask for a sign even.

But he refused God's gracious offer of a sign. He didn't trust the Lord because he was preparing to cast his lot in with the king of Assyria. His heart was hardened by countless abominations. His hands were bloodied by human sacrifices. His eyes were blinded by unbelief.

And Ahazah looked at Assyria. He saw that they were the dominant power in the region, in Mesopotamia. And he concluded that he was safer trusting them than in trusting Jehovah, the creator. And so he gathered up all the gold and silver that he could find lying around Jerusalem. A lot of it had already been taken.

But he found enough between the temple and whatever he could tax. He found enough of it to persuade Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria, to take care of his enemies to the north, Samaria and Syria. And so Tiglath-Pileser obliged. He captured Damascus. He deported their people to other cities, Khor, and he killed Rezvan the king.

And this is all related, you'll remember in 2 Kings 16, verses 7 to 9, gives us that history. And so that's the historical background for this burden that Isaiah delivers in chapter 17. He enlarges upon that prophecy that was given there. This prophecy was given in 741 BC, and I've put a timeline on the back of your outline just to give some perspective on what the history is. During during the ministry of Isaiah.

But he. He gives this prophecy in there and probably about 740 and then The king of Assyria comes and obliges him. And so this is the enlargement upon that prophecy that's given in 740. Damascus will cease from being a city. And it will be a ruinous heap.

Now Damascus didn't become a tell. It didn't become a pile of rubble that archaeologists dig through, but it did cease as a power center. When a city's walls are breached, as theirs were, when its king is killed, when all its inhabitants are carted off to another city. The city is ruined in the sense of being a national power. Even though that site remained populated by survivors or new settlers, it ceased to be a city that anyone cared about that had any real influence in the area.

Verse two adds that the cities of Aror are forsaken. They will be for flocks which lie down and no one will make them afraid. Aror was originally part of Israel's inheritance that was east of the Jordan. But Jehu's sins, years earlier, brought God's chastening on them, and his territory was lost to Syria under King Haziel. This is described in 2 Kings 10, 32.

In those days, the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel. They're a known inheritance. And Haziel conquered them in the land of Israel from east of Jordan, Gilead. Those were the inheritances of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh. And it says that he conquered them over there from Arora, which is by the river Arnon, including Gilead and Bation.

So Israel is losing their inheritance to Syria. And when Tiglath-Pileser captures Damascus, these cities become quiet pasture lands. Commercially, they are depressed. No more trade or commerce. There's only poor people living in these lands.

And so Isaiah says. They become pasture, the flocks lie there and they're not disturbed because there's no commercial activity going on. It says that the fortresses cease from Ifriam and the kingdom from Damascus. You should remember during that reign of the Syrian King Hazel, that was Haziel, which was about a hundred years earlier. Syria was very successful in encroaching on on Israel's territory.

And under King Haziel, the Syrians dismantled all the defensive capabilities of the Northern Kingdom. They captured many fortified cities and when they captured those cities they would destroy the fortifications so that they could not be used again. And 2 Kings 13 describes this as the suppression of hazel as being so severe that the army of the northern kingdom was reduced to a mere 50 horsemen, 10 chariots, and 10, 000 footmen. I mean that's decimated, more than decimated. This was an army that could put out over half a million soldiers.

In their in their better days. Now, some of these cities that Hazel captured were recaptured under Rehoboam and rebuilt, but Syria remained a threat To Israel and Until they joined forces in this attempt to break away from Assyria And so it's it's these fortified cities in the land of Ephraim that will cease because both Israel and Samaria are going to be overrun and gobbled up by Assyria, by those armies. And all those Fortresses over which they fought will be left in ruins by the Assyrian army the kingdom of Damascus Ceased to be an independent kingdom became just a region under the Assyrian administration The remnant Isaiah says of Assyria that's left over after the remnant of Syria that's left over after Assyria carts everyone off to Kerr, is going to resemble what's left of the former glory of Israel. See under Moses, you remember, they crossed the Red Sea, destroying the Egyptian army in the process. They defeated mighty nations on their march to Palestine, such that, remember, when they got to Jericho, all the cities in that region were terrified of them.

They were afraid of them. Cities like Gibeon surrendered without a fight. And so under David and Solomon, Israel was a glorious kingdom. But Isaiah says that that glory would wane and completely fade away. The sense of of wane.

Is is the sense of limp arms, lame arms that just limp or an economy that's impoverished or a river that's been emptied or a lake that's been emptied. This glory is going to be gone. The glory of Jacob is the honor that God had conferred on them. And that honor encompassed a number of things, a number of aspects. It, I think, included the military power that they exercised in the region, such that no one would really dare to attack them.

Remember, David had an army of mighty men. People like Adino, the Esenite, who killed 800 people at one time. Or Eliezer. One of another mighty man of David, who single-handedly defied the Philistine army that was gathered for battle against them. And the rest of Israel, like David and Goliath, the rest of Israel had retreated.

But he arose, this one man arose and attacked the Philistines. It says until his hand was weary and his hand stuck to the sword, and the Lord brought a great victory about that day through this one man defeating an entire army. And the rest of the army came back only to gather the plunder. Or there are other people who. Like Shama, who.

Stood in a field of lentils and defend singlehandedly, defended the land against the army of the Philistines. These are mighty men. This is some of the glory of the land of Israel. And that military strength brought political independence and it brought respect from all the nations around. You remember the people that would come to Solomon because of the glory of his kingdom.

It included economic wealth and prosperity with which God had blessed the land of Israel. Solomon was a very, very wealthy man. One of the wealthiest people on all the earth. That was God's blessing. That was part of that glory.

And in raising them above the other nations, God gave them laws that other nations didn't have. He protected and he blessed them. But. It was especially that when we think of the glory of Israel, we think especially of the ark that was in the midst of them. That's where the glory of God physically dwelt.

It was a physical presence. This is where God met with his people. As Eli's daughter-in-law is dying after giving birth and hearing the news that not only had her husband and father-in-law been killed, but the ark had been captured. She named her son Ichabod. Glory has departed.

And she said in first Samuel four, the glory has departed from Israel for the Ark of God has been captured. And so the glory of Israel was in the fact that God dwelt in their midst. And by referring to them, this northern kingdom as Jacob, Israel is reminding, Isaiah is reminding them of their heritage as the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs from whom the twelve tribes were named. And this is even mentioned in the New Testament.

You know, the church in the New Testament is built upon the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles. But all this is is fading away. Israel became militarily weak and vulnerable and and they're. And they were systematically dismantled. They.

This is likened in in verses five, six is as as the gleaning when you harvest. There are the olive trees could be shaken and you would most of the olives would fall off, but there would be a few that would be left. Or when you gather the heads of grain, you take most of the grain, but there's a few that are left. And the poor of the land could come and pick up those things that fell. But that wasn't the bulk of the harvest, you know, a field that's been harvested, it's mostly empty.

There's a few, when you glean, there's a few olives that didn't get taken. There's a few heads of grain that don't get taken. And and Isaiah is saying that's what the glory of Israel is going to be like. Like when the harvesters gathered the grain and they and they. And reap the heads in the Valley of Refiam.

The Valley of Refiam was this plane that led, a fruitful plane that led up to Jerusalem from the west or the southwest. So it was the it was not only a militarily significant region, but it was also economically significant region. This is where this was a fruitful field. And so when these crops were harvested and there's not there's just a little bit left for the gleaners. That's that's the image that Isaiah is saying would describe the glory of Israel.

Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bow, four or five in its fruitful branches. There's going to be nothing left. And the reason for all of this is given in verse 10, because you have forgotten the God of your salvation and you have not been mindful of the rock of your stronghold. That's the reason. That's really the important message in this chapter.

Why are all these things happening? Why is the glory waning? Why is there economic loss, military weakness and vulnerability? Why is the glory departing? Because they have forgotten the God of their salvation and have not been mindful of the rock of their stronghold.

So I want to look this morning at what does it mean to forget God? I mean, that's a common word. We all know what it means to forget. Our mind can fail in a number of ways in which we all kind of lump together under forgetting, right? Our memories can fade over time, especially when things are not used and we say that we're rusty or we can forget to do something, something that we might attribute to being absent-minded.

I think children especially learn about this word that way because mom and dad can so often forget to do something that the children were hoping for, right? So that's a, we can forget in that sense. We can fail to Retrieve something that we know and we we say what's on the tip of our tongue and we'll remember it As soon as we stop thinking about it Or we can remember an event but have it a little mixed up I mean not that happens to me all the time I remember something and but I remember some of the details wrong. That's a sense of forgetting. We can even have a false memory remembering things that didn't actually happen.

That can happen. Or we can rewrite our memories of events to some bias that we have. And eventually the original memory is forgotten. And we have this new memory that we've rewritten in our mind and we forget that what the truth is. So we these are all ways in which we can forget.

And sometimes these mental failures can be quite tragic. We can when well intended parents, for example, forget a little child in the back seat of a hot car and they die. That's happening. It's apparently common enough in our land that many cars have warnings on the dashboard now that every time you turn it off, it says check the back seat, make sure nobody's there. But see, none of these things are really quite what Isaiah means when he tells Israel that they have forgotten the god of their salvation Forgetting God here is more of a spiritual matter.

And it is the opposite of remembering God. When God remembers his people, it means that he acts in mercy toward them. It's not simply that that. There's a memory. When God remembers his people, he acts.

When God remembered Noah, He caused the dry wind to dry out the earth. When God remembered Abraham, God's he sent lot out of the midst of the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. When God remembered Rachel, he opened her womb so she could have children. For God, you know, to forget us means that he disowns us as his children. It doesn't act for us.

And so, what does it mean then for us to forget God? Well, I've listed some of the things there. We can look throughout the scriptures and I put the scriptures there in there in your outline, and I don't think I think I'm going to look at him a little differently than than on your outline. But I think the first thing that that we need to think of when we think about forgetting God is that we don't observe his commandments. We don't observe his commandments.

Deuteronomy 8, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you today. Forgetting God is to not pay attention to His law. Psalm 119 has a number of references to this. I remembered your judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. I remembered your law.

I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and I keep your law. The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I have not forgotten your law, even in the midst of wicked people restricting us, because that's what tyrants do. Psalm 119 also talks about this, that deliver me from oppression that I may keep Your law. But David says also, the cords of the wicked have bound me, but I'm still remembering You. I haven't forgotten Your law.

I have become a wineskin in a smoke, yet I do not forget your statutes. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. My zeal, my life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget your law. My zeal has consumed me because my enemies have forgotten your words. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts." So these are all examples of remembering God or not forgetting God.

See, forgetting God means not caring about what God's law says and doing whatever we want to do. That's forgetting God. And as a nation, we have certainly forgotten God because we've forgotten His laws. For example, when this nation was first founded back in the early 1600s, when Christians first settled this land. There are founding documents like the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the very first Constitution, the very first legal document in our country, stated that magistrates would have the power to administer justice according to the laws that were established in that document, and if those laws didn't address anything in particular according to the rule of the Word of God.

In other words, the foundation of their society was the law of God. Today, of course, it's vastly different, isn't it? It's obvious to even the most casual observer that the sixth commandment forbidding murder is no longer upheld as a law of our land. If you're unborn, if you're very old, if you're unable to speak or move your body, like think of Terry Shiavo, our culture allows you to be killed. Or even the recent trial of mother who murdered her three children that people say she's innocent.

In the area of the seventh commandment, it's no different. We've forgotten the law of God. The laws of nearly every state have been radically altered in the lifetime of some of us. In the second half of the 20th century this happened. They've been radically altered to conform to the wicked ideas that Kinsey advanced in his very fraudulent and wicked work.

Works that were published about 1948 and 1956. And on the basis of these works, laws relating to the seventh commandment that were faithful to the Scriptures and the law of God, they were eliminated. The penalties were drastically reduced under the justification that 95% of people are doing all these abominations, so how can it be wrong? That's forgetting God, forgetting His law. And the consequences, of course, have been devastating, especially for women and children.

Come to the area of the Eighth Commandment. Again, we've forgotten God. Theft is legalized as taxation. No, not all taxes are theft, certainly not, but many taxes amount to legalized theft, the proliferation of taxes. So forgetting God means, first of all.

Forgetting his commandments, forgetting to observe them, forgetting about them, ignoring them. It also means. Serving other gods. Deuteronomy 819. Then it shall be, if by any means you forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them.

Forget God by following other gods. God says, I testify against you this day, you will surely perish. Or Judges 3, so the children of Israel did evil on the side of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and they served the Baals and Asharas. These are the people who had been delivered through the Red Sea.

They'd been given the land of Canaan. They defeated all of the people there. They forgot all that and they served on other gods. Psalm forty four. If we have forgotten the name of our God stretched out our hands to a foreign God.

Or Hosea. Eight says Israel has forgotten his maker and has built temples to idols serving other gods. Jeremiah 18, My people have forgotten me because my people have forgotten me. They have burned incense to worthless idols. Ezekiel 23 also says, God says, because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back.

Therefore, you will bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry. And he's speaking there with lewdness and harlotry of their serving other gods, being unfaithful to him. So Forgetting God means making the world or our flesh, what we want, what we want to take the throne in our life. It's not seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When we make decisions, is the overarching criteria how the kingdom of God will be advanced in our life, how God will be glorified in what we're doing.

That certainly doesn't exclude wealth, financial prosperity, but it means these criteria, they're not the primary goal and focus of our life. We're seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness. And God promises to add those other things. Because the Lord does richly bless his people. And many times that blessing includes financial wealth, but it's not because the people were seeking those things.

It's not because we seek after those things. Solomon, remember, did not ask for wealth. He asked for wisdom. He asked for God to guide him. But God did bless him with wealth because God delights to bless his people.

You know, we think of actually Solomon as the one having all the gold, but actually was David that initially acquired all that gold, and he had reserved it up for the temple. David left an amazing amount of gold for Solomon. David, we don't think of him as having this great wealth, but He's the one that got that gold. The man after God's own heart. So thirdly, to forget God means that we don't give time to the Lord or forsake his public worship.

We don't give time to the Lord. It's to forget the Lord. Jeremiah 3.16 says, Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord, that They will say no more the Ark of the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made any more.

Forgetting the Lord is not giving any time to the Lord. It's forsaking his public worship. The Ark was at the temple where the people were to gather corporately to worship the Lord. Jeremiah says you're forgetting the Lord because you're not remembering to gather anymore there. Not remembering to visit it.

Deuteronomy 32, Of the rock who begot you, you are unmindful and have forgotten the God who fathered you. Psalm 63, 6 says, when I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches. When I remember you, I meditate upon you, upon who God is. We remember him. That's to forget God means We don't meditate.

We don't remember Him in the night watches. To think about Him. To think about... To recall His wonderful works. It's another way that we forget God.

Deuteronomy 6 says, "...and beware lest you forget the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. When something wonderful happens, we like to talk about it. We like to mention it. Forgetting God means we forget His wonderful works and what He's done for us. Our salvation is a wonderful work that He's done in our life.

And if you're in Christ, there are many more things that you can talk about. Forgetting God means we don't recall those things to thank Him for that, to talk about them. Deuteronomy 24. Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt. Remember, there was a judgment that had been given on Miriam for her sin.

And when we forget God, we forget His works. 1 Chronicles 16. Remember His marvelous works which He has done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth, remember them. Means we talk about them. We know them.

To forget God means we ignore all those things. Judges eight talks about the consequences of forgetting God. Psalm 78, 11 also talks about those children of Israel having forgot His wonders that He had done. When God does wonderful things, those who remember the Lord, remember those things. To praise Him for them.

To magnify His name. Psalm 77, I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. Someone 06 7 says our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders. They did not remember the multitude of your mercies, but they rebelled by the sea because they forgot to remember God or his marvelous works.

Or to forget God is to fail to thank God and to commemorate the things that he's done. First Chronicle 16 says, and he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord to commemorate. That is the same word here in our text for remember. He appointed some Levites to commemorate, to thank and to praise the Lord God of Israel. Do we take time to do that?

This is what we do every Lord's Day. We praise the Lord. We take time out of our week. We recognize what the Lord has done and we want to commemorate His work. Psalm 71, I will go in the strength of the Lord God.

I will make mention and that word make mention is the same word. Remember, I will make mention. So if we're remembering the wonderful works of God, it's not just in our own mind, but we are commemorating them, we're rejoicing over them, we're celebrating them. I will make mention of your righteousness of yours only. Nehemiah 9, 7, in confessing their sins, they said, they refused to obey, they were not mindful, there's that word remember, They did not remember your wonders that you did among them, but they hardened their necks and in their rebellion, they appointed a leader to return to their bondage.

But you, God, are ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and you did not forsake them. Job 36 reminds us to remember to magnify His work, of which men have some. And Psalm 42 says that when we remember God, then when our soul is cast down, when we're discouraged, when we're dealing with despair, therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan, from the heights of Hermon and from the hill of Mazar. Remember. Remembering and not forgetting God means that we trust in the Lord for protection or healing.

Psalm 20 says. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of our God." Remembering there is equated with trusting in the Lord for our protection, for our health, and anything else that would bring harm to us. Trusting in the Lord for protection and healing. Maybe all this could be summed up in the phrase that To forget the Lord is to forget to observe his covenant. Deuteronomy four says, take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you and made for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you or first Chronicle 16 that we The same passage we looked at before remember his covenant forever the word which he commanded So keeping the covenant encompasses all these things that we've been talking about regarding the law of God regarding serving the Lord regarding remembering his works regarding commemorating and thanking him.

But it also involves. Using the signs and seals of the covenant that God has given to us. The signs and the seals of the covenant. Applying the sign and seal of the union of covenant which is baptism to our children and ourselves And partaking of communion. The sign and seal of our fellowship that we have with Christ.

OK, so forgetting God then, what God said they have done and why all this glory was fading is not a slip of the memory, but it's a heart departure. It's ceasing to live for Christ and it's letting the world or ourselves take the throne. If we were to summarize all of these things, we could say that the symptoms of forgetting God would be one having no delight in duties, duties with no delight. Prayer, Bible reading, worship, public worship, private worship Keeping these things out of custom Rather than a heartfelt desire or love for the Lord the form remains While the heart spirit is evaporated God is seeking those who worship him in spirit and in truth. So duties without the light.

It is another symptom might be a lessened appreciation of Jesus. He's no longer the chief among ten thousands, but it's a love for him that's wax cold or as Revelation says, of the church in Ephesus, we left our first love. Might have all the doctrine, we might have all this truth, but we've left our first love. Another symptom would be a neglect of our prayer, both prayer that we have in secret and then prayer that we have as a family and in the broader context. But the first symptom is our own prayer.

That's what's first to go. We might, people can continue the form of outward prayers, but the first to go is the prayer in secret. Another symptom is the neglect of confession. The lack of any daily grief of sin. When is the last time We have confessed sin.

That leads to adult conscience. Another symptom is that we no longer approach God as our Father and we as in that filial sense of his children. We may come in prayer more as a duty and not as a privilege. We may begin to think more critically of the Lord. In fact, in some cases, maybe even becoming angry with what the Lord has done instead of seeing the Lord as our loving Heavenly Father.

It's an orphan spirit. As in is is the fruit of forgetting God. There's also another symptom of forgetting God leads to a decay of love to fellow believers. When Jesus said that when we show mercy unto the least of these, we're showing it to him. And when we don't show that mercy, Jesus says We're not showing that love to Him.

And so forgetting God is a decay of our love to fellow believers, a coldness to the spread of Christ's Kingdom. And another symptom becomes probably the one that is hardest to see is an insensibility to our own condition. Like We don't recognize where we're at. We justify our sin. We trifle with temptations.

And the old besetting sins begin to come back and we're blind that we're oblivious to this because maybe it happens slowly. Because maybe it happens slowly. And so these are the consequences of forgetting God. The glory of Israel fades. We lose our enjoyment.

Of the Lord. The peace of God in our heart is forfeited. We become useless, We become like salt that has lost its savor. We become exposed then to temptation. And That sin brings death.

To forget God is to apostatize. But that happens bit by bit. But there is hope that's held out. Verse 7, in that day a man will look to his maker and his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands.

He will not respect what his fingers have made, nor the wooden images nor the incense altars. This this happened in. Israel as well in the days of. In the days of Hezekiah. This is after the nation of Israel had been.

Conquered by Assyria and the people carted off. They There was a revival in the southern kingdom under Hezekiah. And they they had a Passover celebration. And They sent runners throughout all the land of Israel and Judah with letters from the king. And they said, children of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to you.

Then he will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. So they sent this not just in the southern kingdom, but throughout that whole land. And they appealed especially to those who were left there from the king of Assyria. And they said, don't be like your fathers and your brothers who trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers and He gave them up to desolation, as you now see. Don't be stiff-necked.

They gave him a call to return because there is mercy with God. He is abundant to pardon. If you return to the Lord, your brethren and your children will be treated with compassion by those who lead them captive so that they may come back to this land for the Lord, your God is gracious and merciful, and he will not turn his face from you if you return to him. And so the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, going all the way up into the northern parts of the kingdom, lands that had been overrun by Assyria. The people carted off, but there's a few remnants left, like those like those few remaining olives in the uppermost branch, like the few heads of grain that were left after the reapers have gone through the Valley of Refame.

And so they passed through all this land. Now many laughed at them and mocked them. Nevertheless, Some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. And the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders at the word of the Lord." That's the mercy of the Lord. If we have forgotten the Lord, he invites us to return to him and he restores the joy of our salvation and he heals and he binds up.

Thanks be to God. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You do not retain Your anger forever because You delight in mercy. You do not turn away any who call upon You. We thank You, Lord, for that forgiveness, for that healing, for that hope that we have through Jesus Christ. For what one of us, Lord, can say that we have never strayed, that we have never forgotten You.

We thank You, Lord, for Your grace that preserves us. We ask that You would keep us from stumbling and present us faultless before the presence of your glory with exceeding joy. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.