‘The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.’

We’re turning this evening to Psalm 9 and I’ll read verse 17. ‘The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.’ And our subject this evening is ‘a small sin with everlasting consequences.’ It’s been described as a ‘small’ sin and yet ultimately when we reflect upon the sin referred to here there’s nothing small about it. It’s a significant sin. It affects our whole life and it has the power to ruin us eternally.

[It is] the peril of forgetting God. It’s a widespread phenomenon. Here it refers to all the nations that forget God. Multitudes, millions throughout society forget God – the one true God, that is. There are many imaginary gods, many who think that they are worshipping the God of heaven by some other name. But ultimately the God that they have chosen to worship is so different to the mighty Creator who has revealed himself through his own Word, the Bible. While many who forget God view those who are wicked and sinful, that live a depraved life, they would shudder to contemplate the end of such people and yet here this verse reminds us that those that forget God will share the same destiny as those categorised at the beginning of this verse as ‘wicked’. The wicked, the bad, shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Now I want to reassure you – we will look at some of the more encouraging verses that surround this verse this evening, but it’s important that we lay to hear this solemn warning.