Early Wednesday night, Stephen
Franks and Amber Franks, the loss of a three-year-old, three-and-a-half-year-old
son, had some muscle illness, some kind of muscle disease,
so remember them in your prayer. Remember, Fred had his PET scan,
and they won't get the results for a few days, so remember him
in your prayers. Also, Arlene, she's got that
nasty stomach flu that's going around. And what I understand,
it's kind of nasty. Remember the Taylor family after
the loss of their son Julius, is that right? Yes. Yes? Yes.
How old was he? About 51. OK. He came out when we were
the same age. OK. All right. I remember that family
in your prayers. Wayne Land, I remember him in
your prayers. Crowe and I went to see him, and he was, after
they gave him that blood transfusion, he's feeling pretty good. But
we don't know what the next step is that the physical therapist
was working on when we got in there, so we didn't stay long.
But remember him in your prayers also. He fell, broke his nose,
and got bruised up, and low blood, and a UTI. other things might
be going on to doctors uh... looking at some remember him
and uh... continue to be parks and uh...
the others who requested prayer seek the lord's help for them
call their names out to heaven right there on that list okay
let's begin our worship service with hymn number four hundred
seventy five redeem how i love to proclaim ♪ Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it ♪ ♪ Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ♪ ♪ Redeemed through
His infinite mercy ♪ ♪ His child and forever I am ♪ ♪ Redeemed,
redeemed ♪ ♪ Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ♪ ♪ This shall end forever I am ♪
♪ Redeemed and so happy in Jesus ♪ ♪ No language my rapture can
tell ♪ ♪ I know that the light of his presence ♪ ♪ With me doth
continually dwell ♪ ♪ Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb ♪ Redeemed, redeemed ♪ His child and forever I am ♪ I think
of my blessed Redeemer all the day long. I sing for I cannot
be silent. His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. ♪ His child and forever I am ♪
I know I shall see in His beauty ♪ The King in whose law I delight
♪ Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps ♪ And giveth me songs in the
night ♪ Redeemed, redeemed Redeem Redeem His child and forever
I am. After Scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing the hymn on your sheet there, Unworthy. If you have
your Bibles, turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 4. I'm going to read the entire chapter
and deal with it, but not expositionally. deal with it as a matter of the
stories each story tells. Second Kings Chapter 4. This
is in the days of Elisha. Now there came and there cried
a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto
Elisha saying, Thy servant my husband is dead
and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord And the creditor
is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Lysa
said unto him, what shall I do for thee? Tell me what thou hast
in thy house. And she said, thy handmaid hath
not anything in the house save a pot of oil. And he said, go
borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty
vessels, and borrow not a few. When thou art come in, thou shalt
shut the door upon thy sons, and thou shalt pour out into
all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
So she went from him and shut the door upon her sons who brought
the vessels to her, and she poured out. It came to pass when the
vessels were full, she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel.
And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil
stayed. And she came and told the man
of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and
live thou and thy children off the rest. And it fell on a day
that Elisha passed in Shunem. There was a great woman, and
she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was that as he oft
passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto
her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is a holy man of God,
which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber,
I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed,
and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick. And it shall be
when he cometh to us that he shall turn in hither. And it
fell one day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber
and lay there. And he said to Gehazi his servant, call this
Shunammite woman. And when he had called her, she
stood before him, and he said, say now unto her, Behold, thou
hast been careful for us with all this care. What is to be
done for thee? Willst thou be spoken for to
the king, or to the captain of host?" And she answered, I dwell
among my own people. And he said, What then is to
be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and
her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when
he had called her, she stood by the door. He said, About this
season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a
son. She said, Nay, my lord, thou
man of God, do not lie unto thy handmaid. And the woman conceived
an embarrassed son. At that season, Elisha said unto
her, according to the time of life, When the child was grown,
it fell on a day, and went out to its father's reapers. And
he said to his father, My head, my head, He said to the lad,
carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, he
brought him to his mother, and he sat on her knees till noon,
and then died. She went up and laid him on the
bed of the man of God, shut the door of him, and went out. And
she called unto her husband and said, Send me, I pray thee, one
of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to
the man of God and come again. And he says, Wherefore wilt thou
go to him today? is neither a new moon or sabbath
she said it shall be well. Then she saddled an ass and said
to her servant drive and go forward slack not thy riding for me except
I bid thee. So she went and came unto the
man of God to Mount Carmel. He came to pass from the man
of God so how far off he said to Gazi behold yonder is the
Shunammite woman. Run now I pray thee to meet her
and say unto her is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with thy child? And
she answered, It is well. When she came to the man of God
upon the hill, she caught him by the feet. But Gehazi came
near to thrust her away, and the man of God said, Let her
alone, for her soul is vexed within her. The Lord hath hid
it from me, and hath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire
a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive
me? And he said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins and take my staff
in thy hand and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute
him not. And if any man salute thee, answer
him not. And lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the
mother of the child said, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul
liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her.
And Gehazi passed on before him and laid the staff upon the face
of the child. But there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore,
he went again to meet him, saying, The child is not awakened. When
Elijah was come to the house, behold, the child was dead, and
laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut
the door upon them, twain, and prayed unto the Lord. And he
went up and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth,
and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, stretched
himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm.
Then he returned and walked into the house to and fro, and went
up and stretched himself upon him. And the child sneezed seven
times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and
said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her, and when she
was come into the home, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went
in and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground,
and took up her son and went out. And Elisha came again to
Gilgal, and there was a dearth in the land, sons of the prophet
were sitting before him, and he said unto his servant, Sit
on the great pot, and seed the pottage for the sons of the prophets.
And one went out of the field to gather herbs, and found a
wild vine, and gathered there of wild gourds, with his lap
full, and came and shred them into the pottage, for they knew
them not. So they poured out to men to
eat, and it came to pass as they were eating of the pottage, that
they cried out, O man of God, there is death in the pot, They
could not eat thereof. And he said, Then bring me meal. And he cast it into the pot.
And he said, Pour out for the people, and they may eat. And
there was no harm in the pot. There came a man of Baal, Shalisha,
and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves
of barley, full ears of corn, and the husk thereof. And he
said, Give it unto the people, that they may eat. And his servitor
said, What, should I set this before a hundred men? He said,
Give the people that they may eat. For thus saith the Lord,
They shall eat, and they shall leave thereof. So he set it before
them, and they did eat, and left thereof according to the word
of the Lord. Let us pray. Our Father, we bless
you and thank you for your word, for the wonder of it and the
clarity of it, for the declaration of who God is and what man is.
We thank you for the sure salvation of the elect by the shed blood
of Jesus Christ, the Lord. We thank you, Father, that we
can approach unto you, to your throne of grace, to make our
desires known. We know that you know what we
ought to pray before we pray. In fact, the words of our tongue
are in your hands. We ask, Lord, for those who are
sick, those who have lost loved ones, This family has lost this
son. Both these families have lost
these sons. Ask the Lord to help for them, strengthen them, turn
their eyes to Jesus Christ. But we know in this world, no
matter how hard we try among our brothers and sisters, among
our friends and family and our acquaintances, we cannot really
comfort the soul. We can speak words, we can speak
your words, but you must come, Father, and touch the heart and
mind for men to be comforted. we pray you will. For those who
are sick of our own congregation, Brother Wayne, ask your helpful
and continued blessing. Brother Fred, be with Loretta,
she's getting ready to find out what the Asheville doctors have
to say. And help us, Lord, to remember
each other. Call out the names of each other into your presence.
And help us this day, we pray, to honor you and honor the Lord
Jesus Christ worship him in spirit and truth, we pray in Christ's
name. Amen. Your sheep, Unworthy. Unworthy am I of the grace that
he gave. Unworthy Amazed that a king would reach
down to a slave. This love I cannot understand. Unworthy, unworthy. bigger in bondage and alone but
he made me worthy and now by his grace his mercy has made
me his own My sorrow and sickness laid stripes on his back. My sins caused the blood that
he shed. My faults and my failures have
woven a crown of thorns that he wore on his head. unworthy a beggar in bondage
and alone but he made me worthy and now by his grace his mercy
has made me his own Unworthy with angels to sing. I'd thrill just to know that
he loved me so much. A pauper, I walk with the king. Unworthy, unworthy. in bondage and alone, but He
made me worthy, and now by His grace, His mercy has made me
His own. Stan and Steve, receive the offerings,
please. Let's pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, the unspeakable gift
that you have given to your children and with him freely given him
all things. We know that what we have, we have received. Let
us not boast as if we have not received it. It is you who make
us one to differ from another. There is nothing in or about
us that makes us different from anybody. If we differ it is because
of your grace. Fathers, we Receive this offering
and let us do so with joy in our hearts. We pray in Christ's
name. Amen. you That is your attention back to
2nd Kings Chapter 4. Elisha is known as the miracle
prophet. I expect instances like these
in this chapter are one of the reasons why he was called a miracle
prophet. The substance of this chapter involves a Shunammite
woman and her dealings with the prophet. But the chapter is bookended
with two reports that encapsulate the assurance of the believer.
And before we look at the Shunanite woman, we'll consider these two
stories as they relate to the one whom God has graced by giving
him faith. Verses one through seven, some
say this woman with the crews of oil was the widow of Obadiah, who during the reign of Jezebel
had hid 300 prophets in a cave. Others say that she was a widow
of one of the 7,000 that had not bowed their knee to Baal.
But neither of those things is declared in Scripture. It's enough
to say that she was a widow. It's clear that she was destitute
and she feared that she was about to be brought into bondage of
servitude and her sons would be sold to slaves. to those who
she owed, she was broke. How she got in such straits is
not identified, but we can see that she represents the Child
of God who is utterly dependent on the help of the Prophet. When
I say THE Prophet, I am talking about the Prophet, the Great
Prophet, the True Prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this
picture is every believer and is reminiscent of the believer
who throughout his life comes to places often where he has
diminished, has a diminished view of Christ, or has forgotten
what Christ has done for him. All of us do that from time to
time. Trials and tribulations we know are designed and intended
to bring us to Christ, and they would not be necessary if we
did not often astray, and that is why these admonitions are
so often given in Scripture. This woman had a pot of oil. It was insufficient for her need
to get out of debt, and perhaps she didn't even regard it at
all, just sitting there. We said, What do you have? She
said, I got some oil. That's all I've got. The one pot of
oil pictures all spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ. The believer,
the elect, have all these blessings in Christ from the foundation
of the world, though they are only made aware
of it through the gospel of Jesus Christ. In times of trouble,
when overwhelmed, the believer often turns his eyes to the things
that beset him, and it is not until the true
prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, informs him through the gospel
that having Christ he has all, that he is brought to see that
in that pot all his debts are paid, and He has grace sufficient
for all His days throughout eternity in that one pot. The fact that
all things are His is clearly seen when Christ reveals that
the grace of God is not only sufficient, it exceeds that what
we could ever think or ask. The all in this pot is figuratively
the Spirit of Christ that takes the things of Christ and shows
them to the believer. The Spirit makes no new inventions
but rather reminds the believer that all he needs and all he
has is in that pot. That pot is Jesus Christ and
the contents will never be exhausted. It says of the Son that the Father
loveth the Son and has put all things in His hand. If you have
Christ, you have all, for He is all and in all. You have need of nothing, you
are complete in Him. The second story is found in
verses 38 through 44, and this has to do with the food of the
believer. It's symbolic of Christ through the Word. The believer
feasts on and lives off the Word of God, the Gospel. To the world
it may not seem like much, but it is sufficient to feed the
host. This episode reminds us of the loaves and fishes that
fed the 5,000 in the hands of Christ. The caveat here is that
when the prophets said make a big pot of stew to feed all the prophets,
the fellows gathered some stuff that wasn't supposed to go in
the stew. They didn't know that. get some wild gourds and some
wild vine and they chopped them up and said, well there's some
spices I reckon, we'll put that in the stew also. But the men who were eating it
said, we can't eat this, there's death in the pot. It's a metaphorical
language employing the effect of the wild gourds and the wild
vine. This represents any personal input into the Word of God. Your
words are wild vines and wild gourds, don't belong in the Word
of God. It cannot and does not belong.
It's death in the stew. When men insert themselves and
their opinions and ideas into the Word of God, the stew goes
deadly. It's not palatable until the meal is cast into it. We know the meal throughout Scripture
represents the Lord Jesus Christ as the bread of life. That's
cast into the pot, and the stew is edible. This pictures our
thoughts and notions being brought to the obedience of the Lord
Jesus Christ. and is sufficient to feed all his people with plenty
to spare. Like the crews of oil and the
handful of meal, the Word of God never diminishes, never changes. We can feed on it and we'll feed
on it forever, for it speaks in the revelation of the angels
preaching the everlasting gospel in those days of the new heaven
and the new earth. We do all fade as a leaf, but
the Word of God endures forever. his spirit through his word forever
sustains the believer that's what we have to live on in this
world what you have in your hands what you have in your laps that's
what we got everything else gone fast look around you these dear
beloved faces people I've known for years and loved that long
look at mine I'll be gone for long I'm not long for this world
We'll be out of here in a flash. What lasts? What never goes away? What remains? The Word of God. I hear men talk about this and
that and lay charge against believers and talk about the Word of God
as if it was nothing. Tear pages out of the Bible and
burn them and things like that. You know what? They'll probably
live about 50, 60 years and 70 years and then they're gone.
You don't want to be here. this book, 3500 years. And it
don't need your opinion. The first word in the definition
of the Greek word heretic is opinion. That's the first definition
of heresy. Now you can have your opinions
about a thousand things, but you can't have opinions about
this. This is the truth. This will be here when you're
gone. And between these two stories of the crews of oil and this
feeding of these men is this story of grace, this Shunammite
woman. This dear woman is an example
of the believer. Why is her story a typification
of the life of the believer? First of all, she had great regard
for the prophet. She had great regard for the
prophet, the preacher, Jesus Christ. She constrained him to
eat bread when he passed by her house. When he was traveling,
she saw him in the street, she said, come to the house and eat.
The lack of disciples on the road to Emmaus that constrained
our Lord to come to their house and break bread, so did this
woman because she sanctified God in her heart. Food for the
preacher may not seem like much, but we serve the Lord by caring
for the household of faith. In scripture, you wonder what
works are. People talk about works. There
were some that stood before the Lord in Matthew 7 and bragged
about their works. They said, didn't we prophesy
in thy name? Didn't we cast out devils in thy name? Didn't we
do great wonders in thy name? And he says, yeah, you did it,
and it was iniquity in my name. I never knew you. What are the
works that God speaks of? Look them up in scripture. They
have to do with taking care of the household of faith. Now there
are examples where we take care of others outside the faith,
but generally speaking, the works of the child of God have to do
with taking care of the children of God. Food for the preacher is caring
for the household of faith. She perceived that this man was
a man of God, a holy man, she said, so she added a room to
her house and furnished it that he might rest on his journeys
from Carmel to Samaria. The prophet always had a place
in this house. So do you have places throughout this world. Let's talk to those two fellows
that came here last week. One of them from Kentucky and
one of them from Virginia, wasn't it? And was it the one from Kentucky
that said? It was from Tennessee. Oh, from Tennessee, rather. One
from Tennessee said, anytime you're up in Kingsport, you got
a place, we got a room for you, got a place for you to stay.
I had one of my houses. I had houses. Our Lord told Peter,
when Peter said, we've given it all up for you. In Mark chapter
10, he said, we've given it all up for you. And Peter says, ìThereís
no man thatís given up all for me that he donít have mothers
and fathers and brothers and sisters and houses and households,
a hundredfold, and tribulation in this world and the world to
come.î He was graced. This woman was graced. She was
a great woman. Thatís how sheís described, a
great woman. And being graced, she was a gracious
woman. One of the marks of the one whom
God has been gracious to is that person is gracious. That person
is gracious. That person has a giving spirit.
Secondly, she was content. She said in verse 13, All is
well. All is well. She was happy. When Elijah summoned the lady
to him and asked her what she wanted, If he could do something
for her, she simply said, I dwell among my people. I'm all right.
I'm fine. She was not saying that she was
fine. She was saying that she was fine and was satisfied with
her life. She didn't need anything. She
had enough. But Elijah was intent on blessing
her. So he called her again and promised
her the one thing that is of premier interest to every woman
in Israel, the seed of woman. promised in Genesis 15, the seed
of woman that will bruise the serpent's head, and the serpent
will bruise his heel. And that seed of woman is the
Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And every woman in Israel desired
to be the mother. And so barrenness in Israel was
a curse, a curse for women. She wanted a child. She wanted a child. She desired the truth when he
told her. He said, you're going to have
a baby. Now her husband was old. She had been barren all these
years, hadn't born a child. He said, you're going to have
a baby in due season. And she desired the truth. She
called Elijah the man of God and counted on him to tell the
truth. She said, don't lie to me. Don't
lie to me. Several years ago, Brother Henry
Mahan went to the bedside of a dying member of his congregation.
At the hospital, he asked the brother if he was ready to meet
the Lord. And his brother replied, I am, if you told me the truth. Boy, that'll put things in proper
perspective, don't it? I am. I'm ready to go, if what
you told me was the truth. This is a calling of the preacher.
It is not to be organized or to counsel or Lord over the flock
of God. It is to each time he stands
in the pulpit to tell the truth, to declare the glorious gospel
of Jesus Christ. She said, Thou man of God, do
not lie to thy handmaiden. You're going to have a baby.
Don't lie to me now. Orally, every grace given comes with
tribulation. A believer does not enter to
glory on a flowery bed of ease. It's given to you not only to
believe on Christ, but also to suffer for His name's sake. Now,
that don't mean you're going to fix it where you'll suffer.
Trust me. You trust Christ, you'll suffer.
You'll have tribulation and trial in this world because that's
the life of the child of God. That never changes until we leave
this flesh behind and go into glory. Many of the family in
this congregation are at times in trial, as I speak even now. Some time had passed since this
woman had been given a son. She had a son, and the boy had
grown up, and then the terror of every mother struck the child.
The child was struck and fell, hurt his head. He said, my head,
my head. Probably had a brain injury,
and she put the child on the prophet's bed and closed the
door of the room and went to see the prophet, her husband,
and said, don't bother with that, he's dead. He's dead. And she believed that the prophet
spoke to God. Why do we pray for our brothers
and sisters to be healed when they're sick? Why do we do that? Because we know God can do it.
If he's so pleased, it's happened, I've seen it happen. See, it
happened in this congregation, I've seen it happen, where the
doctor said, you got something that can't be cured, and a few
days later, it was completely cured. It was disappeared. We know He can, that's why we
pray. She knew the prophet of God, spoke to God, and her hope
was that he'd speak to God concerning her son, though he'd be dead.
She knew he was dead, she took him in and laid him out on the
prophet's bed, Her husband told her that it
was a waste of time and put forth the religious reasons for not
bothering the prophet, seeing that her son was dead. And her
trip to the prophet, to see the prophet, was prefaced with the
fact that she was a woman of faith. Verse 23, when her husband
said, ìAinít no use to go up there, heís dead.î She said, ìIt shall be well.î
It shall be well. Her boy is laying dead in there.
And she told her husband, I'm going to see the prophet, and
it shall be well. She believed the promise and
was about to remind the prophet of it. And this is not presumption,
but like Abraham when he raised the knife to plunge it into the
heart of the sea to promise Isaac, he did so believing that God
would raise Isaac from the dead. That's what it says in Hebrews
chapter 11. Abraham is not alone in this
great catalog of faithful believers. In Hebrews 11.35, this Shunanite
woman is mentioned as the woman whose God raised the Son from
the dead. Often we see men in Scripture,
as it were, reminding God of His covenant promise. David reminded God of His covenant.
Moses reminded God of His covenant. Nothing wrong with that. Lord,
You promised. Lord, you said that you'd do this, and it's
all right to remind him of that. It's not presumptuous, because
he said he would. He said he would. And she reminded
him of the promise that was made by the prophet. There's no doubt that this woman
was grieving, but she was also believing. She was a believer.
When Gehazi asked her if the child was well, The child is
dead. He asked her if the child was
well. She said, it shall be well. She said that because she believed
the promise in the end. Isn't that all we have? What
do you have that you can lay hold of? That you can prove the
existence of? What do you have that men can
see or even you can see? What can you see, touch, taste
with your five senses? Not one thing. That's of eternal
value. What do we have? The promise. The promise that God has made
in the covenant He's made with His Son for His people. That
promise is what we have. We live on promise. We live on
hope. But that's not a hope, that's
a wish. It's a hope that is a grounded expectation because God has promised
it. What are the children of God
called in all through the book of Galatians? Heirs according
to promise. Heirs according to promise. When she approached the prophet,
she reminded him, she said, that she did not ask for any of this.
She did not ask for a child. He told her she was going to
have one. This is the case of every child of God. Did you desire
Christ when grace found you? Were you looking for Christ when
God awakened you to what He had done for you? Did you seek the
promise and the tribulation that attended the gospel? Let me ask
you this, child of God, did you sign up for this? You didn't sign up for this.
You were signed up. That's what she said, I didn't.
I didn't ask for this child. He didn't give me a child. I
didn't ask for this child. I didn't ask for this child.
Paul calls the pain and sorrow as hard as the pain may be, it's
but a light affliction when held over against the weight of His
glory that awaits us. I have sat with many a dying saint from
this congregation. I have buried all but the two
original members, all but two of the original members of this
congregation. I sat beside their beds, held their hands when they
knew that their days were short. John Hardick, Ralph Maney, Mickey
Husky, Jenny Wilnoty, Laverne Lane, Dave Long, David Ledford,
Dan and Winnie, Robert and Henry. And you know, they did not even
speak of the affliction. none of them did but rather the
hope that was in them of a day not far hence when all shall
be well all shall be well and finally because the promises
of God are yea and amen it is well after all God raised
the child from the dead I thought of Job as I read this.
He lost ten children and everything he had. All he had left was an
odious wife who told him he ought to just cuss God and die. She
didn't like him very much. But the record is, at the end,
after Job had prayed for his friends and God delivered him,
that God gave him double for what he had. he lost ten children. God gave him ten more children. And all that he had lost, God
gave it to him again so he had children on earth and children
in heaven. We who believe can say through
tears and sorrow and anguish of soul and heart, we can say
it over and over again and be truthful. It shall be well. It shall be well. I know we live
in difficult times, and I know if you're like me, you get ticked
off way too easy nowadays, and you find it so much more easy
to hate than it is to love. But God has promised it shall
be well, and it shall be. He can't lie. He's given us faith
to believe the promise, and we know it shall be well. The dilemmas that we face today
are nothing new. The troubles that attend the
child of God and every human being is nothing new in this
world. Back in the third chapter of Isaiah, our Lord said He was
done with that nation and He said what He was going to do
because He was done with that nation. It says, For behold,
the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem
And from Judah the stay and the staff, that's what they count
on. That's what they sunk their teeth into, that's what they
planted their faith into, that's what they have confidence in.
He said, I'm taking that away. The whole stay of bread and the
whole stay of water, they're gonna be hungry and they're gonna
be thirsty. The mighty man, I'm gonna take
him away. man of war, going to take him
away, the judge, the prophet, the prudent, and
the ancient, the captain of 50, the honorable man, going to take
him away, the counselor, going to take him away, the cunning
artificer, the eloquent orator, Instead, I will give them children
to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The people
shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by
his neighbor. And a child shall behave himself
proudly against an ancient. The base shall behave itself
proudly against the honorable. And a man shall take hold of
his brother of the house, and say, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler. You dress
nice, we'll follow you. You be our ruler, and whatever's
going on here, you can take the blame for. The ruin will be under your hand.
And that day he shall swear, saying, I will not be a healer,
for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. Make me not a ruler
of the people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and
Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against
the Lord, to provoke His eyes to glory. The show of their countenance
does witness against them. They declare their sin as Sodom,
and they hide it not. Woe unto their souls! For they
have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say you to the righteous, that it shall be well with him. For they shall eat the fruit
of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be well with
him. For the reward of his hand shall
be given him. But say to the righteous, are you in Christ today? and
you are righteous before God. Christ is your righteousness.
And I have something to say to you. It shall be well with thee. Father
bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right.