Ex 5:2, But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go." 
	We are continuing, this morning, with the reality of what happens when mankind refuses to acknowledge the Lord God Almighty. Last time, we considered three kings and what eventually befell them in their rejection of the fact of the sovereignty of God. Pharaoh and Sennacherib lost everything within the grasp of their power. 
Nebuchadnezzar, whose arrogance, self-righteousness, and self-exaltation elevated himself above the working of God, experienced the Lord’s effective humbling of even the greatest of men. No one is able to stand against the mighty Hand of God in operation, even if lost in the utter denial that there is a God in Heaven. God will do what God will do when He chooses to so do it. 
	As was eventually voiced by Nebuchadnezzar in Dan 4:34-37, "But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. "And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What hast Thou done?' "At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me. "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride." 
	This is the place to which every man, woman, and child will be brought at the end of their days. No one will be able to avoid coming before the Lord God Creator of Heaven and earth and giving an account of what was done with the life that He gives to each person. No matter what the ideology, the religious beliefs, the social status, the philosophical leanings, the worldly fame, or the political power, each person will be face-to-face with the fact that the Lord God has not only created	all things, but He has always ruled and overruled in all the affairs of men. He did not just give life through His very own breath upon what He formed, but He worked in both the largest and the smallest details of that life to His own plan and purpose in Jesus Christ, His Only begotten Son. 
	Let us consider this reality as we read together several passages from His Word which detail God’s understanding of the heart of those who strive so forcefully and futilely to deny His very existence. These scriptures highlight the very thoughts and intentions of man apart from God. They paint a most disturbing scenario of how the mind of man operates in his delusional stance of denying that God even exists. 
Please turn in your Bibles to Ps 10:4-12. Ps 10:4-12, The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no God." His ways prosper at all times; Thy judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, "I shall not be moved; Throughout all generations I shall not be in adversity." His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate. He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lurks to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. He crouches, he bows down, And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. He says to himself, "God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it." Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Thy hand. Do not forget the afflicted. 
Please notice the false sense of safety and assurance that the wicked man uses to convince himself that all is as he so deems it. He feels that he will never have to face the consequences of his evil actions. Therefore, he strives after those things which continue to reinforce his lie that there is no God and consequently no reason to do anything other than what serves the evil in his heart. He argues against any existence of God, therefore any sense of right or wrong. He deludes himself in the vain hope that the God, he denies, will not see all that he is doing, so he traps the innocent and the afflicted as easy marks for his schemes of wrongdoing.
This passage gives no sense of even common decency in the heart of the evil one as there is no compassion, no sense of wrong-doing, no sense of justice, or of anything resembling a conscience. Everything within the heart of one, such as this, is absolutely centered on what is in it for me, period. 
Note how those around him are not only targeted but are described as adversaries, innocent, unfortunate, and afflicted. There is no description of anyone who cares for or loves such a one, since his heart is seeking only after that which will serve his own ends. This is a lonely and defiled personage without any means or desire after a living relationship with anyone else, let alone God. Everyone is seen as an enemy or a target congealling the evil in his heart. 
	Then in Ps 14, God describes those who deny Him in more forceful and defining phraseology. Ps 14:1-3, The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
	First notice that God states right away that those who refuse to acknowledge Who He is are fools. According to the McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia quote, ‎The "fool" of Scripture is not an idiot, but an absurd person; not one who does not reason at all, but one who reasons wrong; also any one whose conduct is not regulated by the dictates of reason and religion. End quote. (from McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.) 
	It follows, therefore, that these fools are not ones to be despised for their stupidity, but rather to be seen as those who are deluded in their thoughts and unable to reason with clarity. As a direct result of this incapacity to understand the truth, they find themselves given over to all sorts of foolishness which they deem to be proper behavior and manners of living their lives. They are seen as those who, in their lack of proper reasoning ability, destroy and promote evil and practice gross corruption. 
	This is the perfect description for each one of us as detailed by the Apostle Paul in his letter to Titus. He highlights just how much we each were lost in our foolish attitudes of self-will and self-determination unto destruction. Then he declares what is now true of us by the grace and the mercy of God in our lives. Titus 3:3-7, For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
	 God very honestly and vigorously and unmistakably details what is the course of those who act and think as if He does not freely interact with the people whom He created. Besides the fact that they are deluded in their thinking and reasoning, they are also seen as useless because of their obstinate denial of God. 
We see this evidenced in the sons of Eli as they were rejected by both God and man as priests. 1 Sam 2:12, Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the Lord. God called them worthless, and so they are forever remembered as passed over in their duties and labors as of no value to the nation of Israel and God. Their eternal legacy is that they were worthless. 
Again, the Apostle Paul has much to say about such as these in his letter to the Romans. Please turn to Romans Chapter 1 and let us read verses 20-32 together. Rom 1:20-32, For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. 
	This is one of those passages of scripture which can be very difficult to read in terms of what man allows to take place within his heart and mind when he refuses to acknowledge Who God is and What He has done. No one is without excuse, as we are told since God invested Himself in His creation from the very beginning. There is no one who can not see the mighty hand of God in looking at the things that He has created. From the sun and stars and cloud formations to the thrilling sounds of crashing waves, God’s hand is evident. In the details of the fallen leaves to the depth of the molecular structure of cells, the plan and the design and the profound magnitude of the awesomeness of God is expounded in symphonic harmony and structure according to His divine blueprint. 
	Yet, in the foolishness of man’s utter desire to be free from any restraint upon his actions or motivations or oversight by the value and the standard of God’s Righteousness and Holiness, a vile degradation has developed. It has ripped man’s heart away from intimate communion with God and thrust mankind into the absurdity of the human psyche. This realm of lies and deceit is filled with all the horror and the degradation and the filth and the wickedness of anything and everything that will serve to further alienate and disparage and defile what God so perfectly manifested in His Love for you and for me. 
	Our current society is caught up in the depraved propaganda that there is no right or wrong any longer. Everything is seen rather in degrees of gray and of the end justifying the means. To put structure on our behavior is seen as stifling and destructive. To mention discipline in terms of denying the wants and the lusts of the body and of the mind is seen as degrading and demeaning the human spirit and will. All that once was hidden away as shameful and thought of with reproach is now freely practiced and promoted as an alternative manner of expressing one’s real self. Nothing is taboo any longer, much like the time of the fall of the Roman Empire all those centuries ago. 
	The increasingly sad fact is that just as recorded in this passage, this seems to be acceptable even within the teaching of the nominal church. …and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. 
	This is where we will pick up next time, Lord willing. But, before we end this morning, I reiterate the hope that is ours as voiced by the Apostle Paul in Titus 3:3-7, For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So be it!
But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go." Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 20:1+2. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high! May He send you help from the sanctuary, And support you from Zion! Amen.