We turn to 2nd Kings, 2nd Kings chapter 8. 2 Kings 8, and we read from verse 7, and reading through to the end of the chapter, our text for tonight is taken from the first part of our reading, the verses 7 through 15. 2 Kings 8, reading from verse 7. And Elisha came to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, was sick, and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. And the king said unto Hazael, take a present in thine hand and go and meet the man of God and inquire of the Lord by him saying, shall I recover of this disease? So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, 40 camels burden, and came and stood before him and said, thy son, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to thee saying, shall I recover of this disease? And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover. Howbeit, the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die. And he settled his countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed. And the man of God wept. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel. Their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and the young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, but what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, the Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. So he departed from Elisha and came to his master who said to him, what said Elisha to thee? And he answered, he told me that thou should surely recover. And it came to pass on the morrow that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread it on his face so that he died and Hazael reigned in his stead. And in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat then being king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign. Thirty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David, his servant's sake, as he promised him to give him always a light unto his children. In his days, Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves. So Joram went to Zair and all the chariots with him and he arose by night and smoked the Edomites which compassed him about and the captains of the chariots and the people fled to their tents. Yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libna revolted at the same time. And the rest of the acts of Joram and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his stead. In the 12th year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, did Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, begin to reign. Two and 20 years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, king of Israel. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. And he went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to war against Hazael, king of Syria, in Ramoth Gilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram. And King Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him in Ramah, when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. Amen, thus far we read. in God's holy and inspired word. Beloved covenant people of God, this evening's text in our series in the Life of Elisha, as we look at it in the first instance and sort of glance through it, it seems that, well, this section really doesn't have anything much at all to do with Israel, with the nation of Israel, that northern nation. In other words, the Old Testament church in those days, it doesn't seem to be anything to do with them. This is up north in the country of Syria. And therefore at first glance we might say surely there's no real history here and no real message for the church. This is just a little bit of old history of an ungodly nation. But that's not the case. This is, in fact, once again, part of the clear gospel for the Old Testament Church and, in fact, for us as well. It's the sending forth of God's Word into the world at just the right time and just the right place as God has determined it. And remember that the Word of God, as it goes forth into the world, is Jesus Christ in his very person and his work, achieving all that he goes about to do. Especially here, what are we taught about? Well, we're taught here about the response of Hazael, an ungodly Syrian, to this word of God as it is brought and presented to him. First, we see more generally that word that is given to him, but then more specifically, and it's that specific word that is brought to him that we want to look at, the response that he had to that. The question for him at that time, and then therefore the question also that arises for Israel and for us is this, what will that response be to the Word of God as it comes to us? What will that response be when the Word of God is set before us? Sadly, and to his condemnation with Hazael, He hated that truth. In fact, he ignored that truth. There were parts of that truth he simply took and perverted and twisted and used for his own sinful purposes. And what he did was he pursued the path of iniquity. But that was God's purpose. And in fact, in seeing that and having that then set before Israel, as Israel heard of these things, that was part of that gospel message that he was setting before Israel. The message that was set before Israel and set before us through Elisha. And therefore we take up our text under that theme, Hazael pursues the path of iniquity. Under that we'll consider three things. Let's look first of all at God's truth declared and how it was. Secondly, the determination of sin with Hazael. Thirdly, the solemn reality that is set before our souls. God, in his providence here, sends Elisha up into Syria, and that's unusual. It certainly is not the usual thing that we read about in the Old Testament for God to be sending his prophets out of the visible church and off into other places. It's notable exceptions in the Bible. Very clearly, Jonah, particularly, was sent out of Israel and sent to Nineveh with spectacular results of the conversion of so many under the preaching of the word. Our Lord has always determined exactly when and where His Word would go forth, to go forth for salvation or to go forth for condemnation. And God has never failed. in the sending forth of his word. As he says in Isaiah 55 verse 11, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I shall please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. So, context, the king of Syria, Ben-Hadad, has fallen sick. Remember, Ben-Hadad, as we've been saying, has been causing quite a number of problems to the nation of Israel, to the Old Testament church, has continued to come and afflict it. But he's fallen very sick. This is not just some minor illness. There is quite a good deal of concern that he is going to die from the illness that he has. And then he hears, very surprisingly, that Elisha is present in Damascus, that Elisha has come out of Israel and he's now sitting in the middle of the capital city of Syria, not very far away from where he is. Very surprising, isn't it? Because in a certain sense, it's really Elisha who's the arch rival of Ben-Hadad. It's because of Elisha that all of Ben-Hadad's plans have failed when he was sending raiding parties and Elisha just told the king of Israel all the time where he was. And then when he came and encompassed Dothan, he was defeated there. And when he came down and finally managed to besiege the city of Samaria, he was utterly defeated once again with Elisha in the midst of the city. You would think that as soon as Ben-Hadad would hear, Elisha is in the middle of Damascus. You know, shut the gates, catch him, put him to death, get rid of this enemy of mine. He does nothing of the kind. Why? Because he's sick unto death. And now he's faced with death. All the real realities of life come upon him. He's afraid of death. He's afraid of dying as all men and women are. What does he do? Notice here, he hears that Elisha's around and as it were, his eyes come open and he's sort of going, I want to send to Elisha. What on earth? Isn't this the man that trusts in his own gods, like Rimen, for example, that we know he had the great God Rimen. We heard that with Naaman. But he had other gods as well. Why isn't he sending off to Rimen and all these other gods? He knows in the end, when he's faced with the realities of life like death, that these are just empty idols. There is no help to be found in them. But he knows that the God of Elisha, Jehovah, is the real God and there is truth to be found. And so he wishes to know from Elisha, he wishes to know from the true God of Elisha, will I recover from this disease? Ben-Hadad knows that the answer he will get will be truth indeed. Notice what he does. How does he seek to get this truth? In a sense, he doesn't just wanna know the truth, he also attempts to buy that truth, to buy the truth that he wants. He sends a gift. Look at the size of this gift. A camel is a beast of burden and a camel can carry a massive load. If you wanted to send a gift, if you send it by camel, you can send one massive gift by camel. He sends 40 camels. What on earth is Elisha supposed to do with 40 camels worth of stuff? I mean, pretty hard to carry it all back to Israel, isn't it? But by giving such a rich gift, can you see what this ungodly king is trying to do? As it were, just the same as with his idols that he's so used to, you're supposed to give a whole pile of rich things to your God, and that way your God will give you what you want. And as it were, he's trying this with Jehovah. Lots and lots and lots of gifts. Will I get the answer that I really want that I'm actually going to recover? Buy my life. Sadly, men today believe the same thing. that they believe that, you know, I can buy with God. As long as I'm a man, you know, who goes about in my life and I'm trying to do more good things than bad things, then I'm going to be able by the, you know, the various things that I do, that God's gonna be pleased with me and I'll buy my way into heaven. So, he's been Haydad. able to buy his way to life? Not at all, not at all. Elisha answers the question, will he recover from the disease? Hazael sets the question before him and Elisha speaks the truth. What does he say? Yes, yes, Ben-Hadad will recover from his disease, but no, Ben-Hadad will die. And you sort of look at that and go, well, what kind of an answer is that? Yes, he will live. No, he will die. It seems completely contradictory, doesn't it? It seems contradictory until we hear Elisha further. But you know, in a sense, that answer that Elisha gives is the same answer to all ungodly men. when they come and they, as it were, want to live before God in the way of just living a good life and so on, then the answer to them is, yeah, you might recover. Yeah, you might be able to survive through your life and maybe you get through a horrible childhood. of poverty and wretchedness and abuse and you recover from that. And maybe you do really well and you're able to get yourself a good education. Maybe you will in fact be outstanding in your field and you will be well known in the world. And maybe people will even remember your name for generations to come. You may well recover, but you will die. No matter what you do in this life, you will die. Hebrews 9 verse 27, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. And without faith in Christ, then you face the wrath of God for eternity. It is most important that one thing, where are we with the Lord? Do we have a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? So, Elisha says to him, yep, Ben-Hadad will recover, but the Lord has shown me that he will die. But that's not the main point of Elisha's message from God. In fact, there's a lot more to this. He has spoken at this time more generally concerning Ben-Hadad, but now Elisha has something to bring to Hazael in particular. And this message has been a long time in coming. What do I mean by that? Well, we need to cast our mind back, and I'm not sure that you remember it, so I'll remind you. We need to go back to the time of Elijah. Back to, in fact, the very beginning of when we looked at the calling of Elisha. In 1 Kings chapter 19 and verses 15 and 16, God had said to Elijah, here now, not Elisha, but God had said to Elijah, just after he had run away and cast himself down, was feeling very depressed and told him to get up and be about things again, that I've got 7,000 that haven't bowed the knee in Baal, and what are you doing here? He then says to him this. He says, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. Now those three, it's only the first one that Elijah actually carried out and Elisha became the prophet and Elijah has long passed into heaven. But this is God's word and God's word never fails. And therefore that which God had declared through Elijah, now he has Elisha to bring it to pass. This is God's anointing of Hazael to be king. Now, Hazael is not literally anointed here. It's not that Elisha says, you know, God has sent me to anoint you and pours oil over his head and sets him apart in a special rite or ceremony to be king. But this is God anointing Hazael to be king by this word of God. Bye now. How does he do that? Because that's important for us to see. Elisha now settles his gaze. He stares straight into the eyes of Hazael, just looks him in the eyes. And as it were, that gaze is boring into Hazael's eyes. And Hazael starts to feel very uncomfortable as if Elisha is seeing right into his eyes and right into his mind and right into his very soul and right into his very intentions of his heart and mind. Guess what, Elisha is. Not directly, but God has revealed to Elisha what is the heart and intentions of this man, Hazael. Hazael can't keep up the look, he has to look away, he's ashamed and wow, you know. But then when he looks at Elisha again, Elisha is crying. Tears are running down his cheeks, perhaps there is even some controlled sobs. Elisha is greatly distressed and Hazael says to him, why? What's going on? Why are you crying like this? And so Elisha then gives him this prophecy. I know, notice this, the evil that you will do. I know the evil that you will do. Remember this is the prophet of God, this is the prophet of Jehovah who's speaking this truth. So he's saying to Hazael, I know the evil before God's face that you will do to the children of Israel. Their stronghold you will set on fire and their young men you will slay with a sword and will dash their children and rip up their pregnant women." That's pretty horrendous. But I also want you to know that, as it were, this is not unusual for the Syrians. The Syrians in that day and age were known to be some of the most brutal and barbarian people, particularly when it came to their armies on earth. And this would have been just a day in the life of the Syrian army. It's not anything unusual for them. So it's not as if Hazael would listen to this and go, how could anyone ever do that? Their armies did it every day. So it's not that. Hazael is actually, when he says this, when he makes this expression here, what he's saying is, what is thy servant? I am but a dog. I am not anything much at all in the kingdom of Syria. I don't have any great authority. I'm someone who's well down the rankings, you know, therefore, how could I go on to do this great thing? And that's the reason why Elisha then says to him directly, the Lord has shown me, you are going to be the king of Syria. And so he tells him then directly what it is, because Hazael's saying, well, that can't come to pass. I'm but a dog. Well, this is how. So this is Elisha. He's anointing him to be the king. Elisha tells him plainly, you are going to be the one who is going to bring about this evil. You are going to be the one who will do murderous and terrible things. to the people of Israel. And here's the significance you see of what Elisha is saying to Hazael. Ben-Hadad, yep, with his illness that he's got, he's surely gonna recover of the illness, but he's gonna die at your hands, Hazael. And when you become king through that murder and through that wretchedness and through that evil, you will go on to proceed on to further murders and atrocities and brutal cruelties. You will, Hazael. And it's enough to bring Elisha to tears. that he's speaking of this wickedness and thus to speak of to Hazael of all the wretched evil that these things are. Elisha is saying that he knows through God that despite Hazael right now in this very instance being warned of God this is an evil This is wretched wickedness and iniquity, despite being warned by the very word of God, who, remember this is Jehovah, who has utterly defeated with all of his power, every effort of Syria to come against Israel. Yet, Hazael will blindly and wickedly proceed with everything that is in his heart. that Elisha says, this has been shown to me. You're going to do this anyway. These plans you see of Hazael to get the kingship, it's not like they just suddenly appear when Elisha says to him, you're gonna be king. And he goes, oh, really? Wow. No, he'd been planning for a long time. He had all sorts of plots and schemes in his mind, but he didn't know how to bring them forth. And he'd been planning all sorts of things. But now God, as it were, says to him, I'm revealing the evil present in your heart. It ought to have bring him up short, shouldn't it? This is God who's saying, I see your heart. It ought to have made him step back and fall down on the ground, but it doesn't. What does it bring him to? Well, that's when we see the determination of sin. We look at that in the second place. The word of God here, We see it sounding out, don't we? The very truth of the Word of God constantly speaks in such a way that it shows us who we are. The Word of God reveals to us, it comes as a blinding light that shines into everywhere, including the dark recesses of our heart. The Word of God sounds out into the world as the truth, a wonderful truth that sets forth the message and calling of salvation in Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer for the world. But this Word sounds out every aspect of the gospel. And this text this evening sounds loudly one of these vital truths. God says, as he did in Genesis 6 verse 5, that the wickedness of man is great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. That also is truth, and the truth of the Word of God And that particular message being spoken to us this evening as it was being spoken to Hazael also, I mean, God directly spoke to Hazael and said, Hazael, God sees you. God knows you. He knows your heart. He knows your intentions. He knows the evil in you. He is sovereign over all things. He is in control of all things. He has all power, but you answer to Him for your responsibility for what you do in your heart. And despite that, Hazael is not humbled. Hazael chooses the pathway of wickedness and deceit. He chooses that. He chooses deceit. Notice immediately his deceit toward Ben-Hadad. He goes back to Ben-Hadad with this message and Ben-Hadad says, well, what's the answer? What did Elisha, the man of God, say to you? And so he says to him, well, he said, you will surely recover of your disease. And does he speak truth to him? No. I mean, you could say, well, he did because he told him the first, but when we withhold truth, we as good as speak lies. When we take and we twist and distort truth for our own purposes, that's lying, that's deceit. And that's what Hazael does. He sets himself up for murder. He, as it were, causes Ben-Hadad to kind of relax a bit and go, oh, phew, okay, I'm going to recover. And no doubt, Hazael also deceives himself, not only deceives Ben-Hadad, but deceives his own heart by twisting the truth. As it were, you can imagine him saying this in his heart, look, this Jehovah has determined that I will be king. And therefore I've got all these plans about how I can do that. It's Jehovah Himself who's actually strengthened me and encouraged me to go about and do this and to, you know, smother the King. It's Jehovah who is powerful and sovereign and therefore it's a good thing that I'm just about to do. That's not truth, is it? It's not truth in the slightest way. And yet, and yet, you see it's to take the truth And it's to twist it and pervert it and to use it to our own ends. And that's horrible. That is horrible deceit. So Hazael goes on and he murders his own king, the one whom God had put over him. And in doing so, what he's doing is what we read about in Psalm 2, where people say, let us cast off the cords of God. Let's not have him to rule over us. God, the almighty sovereign, had set Ben-Hadad, the king, over him. And then the almighty God had warned him with the tears of the prophet of the serious evil that it was in his heart and he should have turned from it. This is very similar to what God did with Cain. Do you remember that? Go back to Cain and Abel. Remember they offered the two sacrifices and Cain's sacrifice was not accepted by God because He offered it in His sinfulness. God said to Cain, if you do well, if you do well, will you not be accepted? You're going to be accepted if you're doing well before the Lord. But if you do not well, what's the problem? God says to him, sin lies at the door. That's the problem. And then paraphrasing, He says, that sin, he said to Cain, that sin, it has a desire for you. It desires to rise up against you. It desires to have a control over you, but you, Cain, must rule over that sin. You are not to have it rise up and rule over you. But we all know what Cain did. And we see here what Hazael did. He did not rule over sin, but he allowed sin to rule over him. Hazael deceived himself into thinking that by killing Ben-Hadad, taking the kingship to himself, I now have the rule over my own life. Look at me. I have got everything I want. I've got everything I need. Men and women continually deceive themselves with this same lie. Follow your own heart. Be the ruler of your own destiny. You can and you will fulfill your dreams. I think there's a, There's an advertising poster somewhere along the way as we drive to church normally. And it says something like, you determine your own greatness. What a wonderful slogan. What a lie of Satan. That's utterly false. In following this lie of Satan, what did Hazael end up doing? Well, it's plain. He ended up being the declared enemy of God. Now it is true that God was using Hazael for his own purposes. It was God who remember right back at the time of Elijah actually said anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. This is God's perfect purpose. And back in that place in 1 Kings 19 verse 17, God made it clear that he would use Hazael's sword and Jehu's sword to punish and to chastise Israel. It's God who puts Hazael on the throne of Syria. Yet it is just as much true about Hazael as what the apostles said concerning the evil men in their day when they put Jesus Christ to death. Acts 4 verse 27 and 28. For of a truth, they said, for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel before determined to be done. God, in his great sovereignty determines all that will be done. He decrees it. It's his sovereignty. Yet that does not take away in any way man's responsibility and his determination to go into and to carry out evil. Hazael did indeed what was God's will for him to do. Yes, but as he did so, he very much made himself the condemned enemy of God in all that he did. He will now answer for his murder of his own king, for his murder and atrocities against the Old Testament Church of Israel, for especially his very plain rejection of the warnings of God's Word that were given to him through Elisha. Oh, sadly, this same thing happens again and again and again today. Men and women have the Word of God that is brought to them. Sometimes it is that it's brought to them in a single one-off way. They attend a wedding or a funeral and they hear the Word of God that's actually presented to them. Or sometimes it is that they actually sit in visible churches week after week after week and have that same word that is presented to their hearts. And sadly a majority of times they do exactly what Hazael did. Hazael hardened his heart. God presented the truth of the gospel to him. of the fact that he was evil and that God could see his heart and he needed to fall down before the Lord and cast himself on God's mercy. And he hardened his heart. He turned from it and he used even the word that God had given for his own ends and to do with it as he will. He was glad, perfectly glad to take up the parts that God had said in his word about, oh, Ben-Hadad, yeah, you're gonna recover from your illness. That fits in with my plans very well. I'll grab that part. He was very happy to latch hold of the fact that, well, God said, I'm going to be king. Great, I'm going to be king. But he ignored and he shut out of his heart the clear call to acknowledge his sin and to turn from it and to cast himself upon the Lord in repentance. And so many do that today. They're happy to sit perhaps in churches where the Word of God is not too clear. And there are just nice things that are said. But have the true Word of God come and penetrate down, and as it were, to have the eyes of the prophets stare into your soul. That's too uncomfortable. And they will go away from that. Hazael's destiny under the punishment of God forever was not because God did not set his word before him. He did. It wasn't because the word of God wasn't clear enough. It was absolutely crystal clear given to Hazael what was said here. This is the evil that is in you. But it was because Hazael chose the path that he did as all will without the grace of God. So let's thirdly consider the solemn reality. God is speaking to Israel at this time. This is God's word to Israel and it's God's word to us as well. Do you see that God is saying to Israel, are you hearing Israel? If this is true concerning Hazael, who God has presented his word before him and he chooses the path of iniquity and he's utterly condemned, and Israelites would stand up and say, yeah, sure, it's because he's a Syrian. God says, no. How much more true is it of you, O house of Israel, if I have been the God who has presented to you for hundreds of years the truth that is laid before you? The words of Solomon, which the people had in Proverbs 16, 4 are true here. The Lord has made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of evil. And the Lord made Hazael, put him in the place that he had for him, spoke the clear word of warning and judgment, made him king over Syria. The Lord made him for the day of evil and held him responsible to turn from those things. But Hazael would be proved that he would be used of the Lord for evil out of his own will. In 2nd Kings 10 verse 32 we read, In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short, and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel. God used him to severely punish and chastise the visible church, the Old Testament Israel, because of their coldness and idolatry, and because they also turned away from the Word of God and did not want to hear it. But even though Hazael was doing what the Lord had decreed for him to do, did not mean that what he did was pleasing to God. Everything that he did was iniquity. In fact, then we read to, as it were, put the conclusion to that on it in Amos. Amos chapter 1, verses 3 and 4, we read, thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus, that's Syria, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have threshed Gilead, now Gilead's Israel. because they have threshed Israel with threshing instruments of iron, but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad." God was angry with Syria and Hazael because of all that they did. Because even though they were fulfilling what God called them to do, they did it out of their own selfish lusts and murderous desires. We can do things in an outward way that are okay in an outward way, even what men would call good. But as we do them out of our own selfish desires, it's sinful before the Lord and condemned. There is no way that we can ever cast off the perfect provenance and the sovereignty of God. He's sovereign over all things. We either will with a heart that is humbled by grace, stand before Him and love God, cast ourselves upon the Saviour and trust in Him, submit to and serve Him willingly, or we will suffer the consequences of still unwillingly doing His will in the way of our rebellion and transgression. Jesus said in Matthew 18 verse 7, which is what we read earlier, woe unto the world because of offences. Notice this, For it must needs be that offences come. God has them in the whole of His providence, of the fact that there will be evil in this world, that we brought it into this world in Adam and that evil is following through its course. It must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man by whom the offence comes. Even if that man or woman is inside the visible church, If offenses come by that person, then whoa, or if you like, divine penalty to them. Is there no hope for poor sinners like us and like the Israelites then? Ah, beloved, of course there is. There is one hope, most marvelous hope for the sinner. That's the truth that God is actually bringing so very strongly to the people of Israel and bringing to us as well. God is good. And He sets before us His word this evening. And I know that you and I have often heard this same word. The question is, what do we do with it? And that somewhat ties into what we were looking at this morning too. What do we do with everything that God has poured upon our souls and upon our heart? What do we do with it? Is it possible that what we do is just drift along? and occasionally feel a bit uncomfortable, like Hazael did, and then we just pick and choose the bits that we want out of what God says, and we sort of just turn away from and ignore everything else, including the Word that calls us to fall in our faces before the Lord and give ourselves to Him, then woe to you. Divine penalty. God's wrath upon you as for Hazael. But brethren, I'm convinced of better things of you. That's what Paul said, wasn't it? I'm convinced of better things of you. Do you know the conviction for your sin? Do you feel that even as you hear that with Hazael? Do you know that you have a weakness and a perversity and a sloth Do you desire, like we were looking at this morning, such a desire to really hear and heed and walk with a freshness and a vitality with the Lord? Then hear His Word, hear the whole of His Word, including the truth of His mercy, that He will abundantly pardon and give grace for grace to all those who come and seek Him. That really is what Elisha was setting out there, even in Syria. In the way of faith, in the way of seeking Him, in the way of laying hold upon Him in prayer, in the Word of God, we may receive life, an increasing life. God promises that. He knows the wretchedness of sin in our hearts, and He has given the way of salvation, the remedy for every one of us. And instead of departing into apostasy like Israel was doing, we may know of a gladness and a joy of walking with Him in His paths of faith and obedience and worship. May it be so for us who hear this word tonight. Amen. Let's stand to pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that Your Word at times comes very bluntly to us and it is laid upon us in ways that set us back on our heels. And yet, Lord, we acknowledge that we need to hear this Word, this very solemn Word that is given to us in and through the picture of Hazael, this ungodly king of Syria. We thank You that in that contrast, we see the amazing mercy that You have shown toward us, that we should receive forgiveness and grace and mercy and Your kindness and Your love, that You have rescued us from such sin that was ours, that You have paid for that sin in the blood of Christ. And in His marvelous grace, we are being more and more rescued and brought to that eternal home. Lord bless us richly in this truth, we pray it in Christ's name. Amen.