(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're going to dig right in here, 2 Kings chapter 10. Let's look back here at verse number 1. I know we just read the entire chapter, but there's a portion here in the first part. We're going to re-read this and dig into something that kind of stood out to me when I was studying for this sermon. Look at verse number 1. The Bible says, And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Now I don't think Ahab had literally seventy sons directly, but when it's talking about his sons, it's talking about his descendants, because at this point he's already had a couple generations since he's been in power, and the commandment had come forth already for Ahab to lose his posterity back when Ahab was ruling. So Elijah had preached against Ahab, and the Lord came saying that Ahab's posterity was going to be cut off. So now basically is the time when all of that is going to be fulfilled. It says he had seventy sons in Samaria, and Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria under the rulers of Jezreel to the elders, and to them that brought up Ahab's children, saying, Now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also in armor, look even out the best and meatest of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne and fight for your master's house. So this is taking place, remember last week Jehu went forth and he killed Ahaziah the king of Judah, and he also killed Jehoram king of Israel. Jehoram was of the house of Ahab, and Jehu comes in, he kills Jehoram, he kills Ahaziah, so now he's saying, he just came in and just came in real quick after he was anointed by Elisha, or by one of the sons of the prophets sent by Elisha to anoint him to be king over Israel. He goes in before anyone could even find out that that happened, and goes and kills Jehoram. So now that he's killed Jehoram, he shows up to Samaria, to the descendants of Ahab, the descendants of Jehoram, people who would be next in line to take the throne and to be the king of Israel, because Jehu is not of Ahab's line, and typically they're passing down the kingship, the kingdom by the line. So he comes in and he's like, okay, why don't you look out among you who's going to be next? Why don't you fight for your house? I just killed your master, who's going to step up now and challenge me and challenge what I've done and come out and fight against me? He said, you've got chariots, you've got horses, you're well equipped, come to the battle. Come face me. Because he was taking the authority and taking the kingdom. So he gives them an opportunity, and he says, look among you. Find the best, the best, the meatiest of your master's sons, and verse three, set him on his father's throne and fight for your master's house. Verse four says, but they were exceedingly afraid, and said, behold, two kings stood not before him, how then shall we stand? And I'll just make a brief mention of this. You'll see this over and over again, especially in the wicked house of Israel, how many times people who are not doing right by God, who are not relying on the Lord for their strength and for their defense and for their righteousness, they always have fear. They're always going to be afraid. So Jehu's coming in the name of the Lord, and he killed, yeah, he killed two kings, but it's because he's coming at the commandment of God. And they're just afraid. They look at that and say, oh wow, he killed two kings. They weren't even afraid for the right reasons. They should have been afraid because he's coming in the name of the Lord as opposed to just, oh, he was able to kill a couple of kings. But you see the fear there when you don't have a rock, when you don't have God to be able to rely on that it's a lot, you know, that you're going to be afraid. And these people are afraid. They were exceedingly afraid. And they felt like they had no way that they'd be able to beat Jehu. So verse number five says, and he that was over the house and he that was over the city, the elders also and the bringers up of the children sent to Jehu saying, we are thy servants and will do all that thou shalt bid us. We will not make any king. You thou that which is good in thine eyes. So they basically say, yeah, we're not going to come out and fight. You do what's good in your sight and we'll follow you. You'll be the new king. That was their answer to him. Verse number six, then he wrote a letter the second time to them saying, if ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men, your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city which brought them up. And it came to pass when the letter came to them that they took the king's sons and slew seventy persons and put their heads in baskets and sent him them to Jezreel. See, he didn't want to have anything going wrong later on and say, okay, look, if you really mean this, if you're going to follow me, if you're not going to come out and fight, then you need to chop off the heads of all the house of Ahab and completely break yourself from his household so that there's going to be no more loyalty, no more people coming to rise up later against him and challenge his authority and get people together later on and say, no, you've got to kill them all right now if you're really going to be serious about this. And that's what he did. And he gives them that demand and what do they do? They serve up their master's sons. Now we know how wicked Ahab was. We already went through that in previous weeks. He did not look well to his own house. As this is evident here, notice in verse number five, it says that when he sent to those that were over the house, the house of Ahab, over the city, the elders also and the bringers up of the children, Ahab had other people raising his children. There was people hired just to do the job of raising his children. And I'm going to spend a little bit of time on this because this is really important that we get this message and I think this is something we could learn today. Look at what happened. What was the result of the people who brought up the children of their master's house? How much did they really love those kids? How much did they really care? I mean, think about this. If someone came to you and said, I'm going to rule over you and in order to prove that you're going to be okay with that, you need to send forth your kids. No, you're going to fight tooth and nail for your kids. You're going to fight to the death for your own family. But when it's someone else's kids, right, it's just, oh, this is, this is those people. Yeah, okay, go ahead. We'll save our own necks and not worry about them. And you can expect the same thing to happen in your life if you commit the raising of you. Now, look, I'm not saying that people are going to put your kids to death, right? But when you're committing the raising of your children just completely to other people, they're not going to have the same love and affection and attention towards your children that you would have. They're not as concerned about the end result of your children, about where they're going to end up in their life as you would be as their parent. That's just a fact. Nobody's going to care for your children like you would and be as concerned about their well-being and their future as you would be. But today we have a lot of people that are sending their kids off to daycare and to schools and even off to church by themselves. Throw them on the bus, send them off, and just ship them off and not having any influence and not caring what's going on in their life or just being too busy to get the job done. Turn if you would to John chapter 10, obviously keep your finger here, we're coming back to 1 Kings. I want you to turn to John chapter 10. See, you can't expect the hireling that you hire to teach your children, to guide your children to love them like you do, to care for them the same way that you do. Jesus talks about the hireling in John chapter 10. Because that's what Ahab did with his house. He hired people to raise his children. He hired people just to take care of that because he was too busy, he had too many other things going on, he couldn't spend time in his kid's life, he has to have a razor of children to hire to do that for him. John chapter 10 verse number 11, the Bible reads, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gave it his life for the sheep. That's why Jesus Christ is a good shepherd because he gave his life for us. That's how much he loves us. He demonstrated his love for us and that while we're sinners, he died for us. Verse number 12, but he that is in hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth and the wolf, the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth because he is in hireling and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. As the father knoweth me, even so know I the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. You are the ones that God has given as parents to raise your children. You are the one tasked with the responsibility of teaching your children. If your job doesn't allow you to be able to raise your children properly, then you have your priorities screwed up. I know there are situations where people get in, usually as a result of sin, might end up in a situation where they need to be able to provide for their children in single parent homes and things like that, but that's not God's plan or his design. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on people doing all these other things. Usually when you get yourself involved in sin, especially fornication or divorce, you end up leaving yourself open to situations that are very far from ideal. But God's plan is that for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. When Jesus was talking about divorce, he says, Moses, for the hardness of your heart, basically suffered you to get divorced in one specific circumstance. But from the beginning it was not so, because God did not create a man and a woman, once they come together, once they've been married, to get divorced. That was not part of the plan at all. He's allowed for one circumstance for there to be a divorce, and it says, except it be for the cause of fornication, Jesus Christ's words in the New Testament. Otherwise you're committing adultery when you go and get divorced and marry somebody else. So I'm not going to go into all the time where people have gotten, for other reasons, have gotten screwed up, but when you are married and you have a father and a mother and you're raising your children at home, it's your job to raise your children, and look, if you're spending too much time on your job, men need to be able to provide for their household. No doubt about that, and you need to work as hard as you need to work to provide for the necessities. But what happens is that people start looking at things as being necessities that aren't really necessities. And they start devoting way too much time into their job because, oh, well, we need to have a family vacation, well, we need to have another car, well, we need to have this addition put on our house, we need to have all this stuff, when that goes way far beyond the necessities. We need to have every kid having a cell phone and a data package, so I need to keep working. This is the mentality that Americans have today. I think it would do a lot of people well to go visit some other countries just to see what really is a necessity. How do people live in other areas and get our heads straight about this and realize, hey, what is really important in our life? Is it physical, tangible things or is it your family, is it God, is it your, you know, is it people? What matters more? And if you're a parent as children, there's almost nothing more important than raising your children and making sure that they're raised properly and they're raised right. That needs to be a very, very high priority in your life. Yes, you need to work, yes, you need to support your family. But you need to raise, you know, the amount of extra money you have is going to mean nothing if your kids aren't raised properly, nothing. What good is that money going to do them if they grow up and go to the devil? If you send your kids away from you for more time than you spend with them, then you are not going to be the primary influence on their life as you ought to be as a parent. Think about that. When you send your kids off to school, when you send them off to other places, for everyone else to teach them, everyone else to train them and they're spending eight hours a day, nine hours a day, ten hours a day away from you and your influence, I mean how many waking hours do you even have with your child to teach them? You've already entrusted that to someone else, well now you've got their influence over them. And they're not going to love your child the same way that you will. That's why we promote and believe wholeheartedly in homeschooling that, you know, as parents we ought to be teaching our children and teaching them well and instructing them and instructing them not just in mathematics and in reading and writing and all these other skills but also in God's Word. You send your kids off to the public school, I guarantee you they're not going to be getting any teaching in the Bible, they're not going to be getting any true wisdom from God's Word. And don't think that just one Sunday school lesson a week is going to be enough Bible to get them straight and to get them focused in their lives on the right thing, on the things that really matter in life. And I'm serving God that one little, you know, half an hour, an hour on a Sunday morning is going to give them all that they need for the whole week and for their lives is getting that little tiny bit. They need to be taught every day, they need to hear from God every day, from His Word. And parents need to be teaching good doctrine and getting kids established, I mean think about this, what would make you more happy as a parent? Would you be more happy to have a son grow up, be extremely intelligent in the ways of the world and in mathematics, science, maybe be an engineer or a lawyer or a doctor and have a lot of wealth? One scenario but they're living a wicked life, they don't love God, they don't, you know, they're just living for themselves, right? But they're successful and the world dies. Or someone who, now I'm not saying it has to be this way but I'm just using two extremes, right? Someone who doesn't have, you know, as much knowledge of calculus or physics or some of these other things but man, they are a really good person, they love God, they know God, you know, they're keeping themselves righteous, they're doing what's right in the eyes of the Lord, they love other people, they're helping other people out. I mean what's going to make you more impressed or more happy as a parent? Obviously. Yes, absolutely. Amen. Now, I'm not saying that a homeschool child or somebody else can't be extremely brilliant and learn all these other skills. They definitely can. And that's how we plan to do with our children, teach them as much knowledge as they can get. But they need, what's most important in their life is God's Word. What's most important is living a moral, righteous life and serving the Lord. That is the most important function, the thing that they could learn if they learn nothing else as children growing up, I want my kids to learn that and we're going to, we spend time focusing on that. We're not forsaking the reading and the writing and the arithmetic and everything, you know, we don't forsake that at all. Of course not. It takes a lot of work and a lot of effort to raise up kids right and to make sure that they're taught properly. Turn if you go to Proverbs chapter 29, Proverbs 29, but if you're taking the method of just sending your kids away and you're spending, you know, allowing them to spend more time with someone that you might not know or know very well, they're going to have more influence over your child than you will. Another aspect, especially when kids are young, but even throughout their entire childhood is discipline. Kids need to be disciplined. They need proper discipline, they need proper punishment. Discipline and instruction go hand in hand. And if your child's away from you for 10 hours a day and just every day, there's got guaranteed there's going to be times where they're going to need to be disciplined. They're going to need to be corrected and they're going to need to be corrected appropriately. But sending them off to the public school system is definitely guaranteed not to have proper discipline. Look at Proverbs 29 verse number 15, and to be honest with you, I wouldn't want them disciplining my child that way anyways. That's your job as a parent. Because who knows what that person is and what they're like and what they're going to do. I mean, there's proper discipline, there's abuse, and then there's no discipline. We need proper discipline. Look at Proverbs 29 verse number 15, the Bible reads, the rod and reproof give wisdom. You need both. You can't have one without the other. You need the rod and you also need reproof. They also need to be taught and told of why you're wrong. This is what you did and this is why it's wrong. But one without the other isn't going to give you the intended result. It says, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Why? Because it's the mother's job to raise him. Verse 16, when the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases, but the righteous shall see their fall. Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest, yea he shall give delight unto thy soul. Transgression is important. Put it back if you went to Proverbs 22. But training takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of time. You're going to need to rearrange your schedule. You're going to rearrange your priorities to make sure that your children are a priority. If your children are a priority in the way they're being raised, then other things are going to have to go by the wayside because it takes a lot of time. You're going to have to give up all the time you spend on Facebook and all the time you spend doing whatever. I mean, who knows, however you decide to choose to spend your time, when you have children, you need to make sure that they're getting the proper focus and attention and not just focusing on them for 30 minutes and then just going off and doing whatever else you want to do for the rest of your day. Verse number five says, thorns and snares are in the way of the froward. He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now think about how great of a task that is, training up a child, but it says when you train him up the way he should go, when he's older, he's not going to depart. Look, it's going to have a lasting influence, it's going to have a lifelong influence. The influence that you have on your child when they're young lasts a lifetime. It's going to stay with them forever. All the virtues, all the good things that you spend time to teach your children when they're young will stay with them. And training, obviously it says train up a child. Think about training, when I hear the word training I think of physical training, I think of something that's going to be a lot of work, a lot of effort. In the sports that I was in when we were training, it was always difficult, it was always hard, right? You're always pushing yourself, why? Because you want to excel and do that much more. If you're going to train up your child, it's going to require a lot of work and the more work you put in it, the better the result is going to be. Just like in physical training. You need to dedicate the time and understand this is training and it's not easy. The easy thing is just say, let someone else deal with it. Let them raise my children. Let me hire a raiser of children to take care of these nuisances. And it's sadly enough, there are a lot of parents that have that type of an attitude. Not everybody that hires a raiser of children has that specific attitude, but I'll tell you what, the Bible, if we're going to follow a biblical example, turn if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 6, just one more place before we get back into 2 Kings. Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Bible places the emphasis on the parent to raise the children and to teach them, not just raise them, teach them, train them, do everything. You're never going to find the institution of sending your kids off to be taught and trained by someone else, regardless of what you call it. We call it school or Bible school or whatever. The command is given for the parents. God has blessed you as a parent with a child and it's become your responsibility to raise them. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse number 4, we're going to see one more admonition here. The Bible says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. This is talking about God's law, it's talking about the word of the Lord. For a lot of people today you say, wow, that's really extreme. But this is the way that God wants us to value His word and His law and say, look, it needs to be in front of you all the time. You need to make sure you're diligently teaching your children, not just in passing, not just every once in a while, not just, okay, it's Sunday, I'm going to send you off to be taught about the Bible from someone else. It's diligently teach your children, thy children, singular, you, your children, and you teach them diligently, you said, talk about them when you're sitting in the house, when you're at home, when you walk by the way, when you're on a trip, hey, you should be talking about God's word. When you lie down, when you're ready to go to bed, and when you wake up, you say, basically this is saying pretty much every waking moment, He wants you focused on God's word. He wants you teaching your children, every opportunity you get, teach them God's laws, bind them for a sign upon thine hand, I don't want you to forget this, it's this important, put them on your hands, frontlets between our eyes, He's like everywhere you go, put them up in your household, write it on the posts of the doors of your house, write it up everywhere, don't get away from God's word, because God's word brings life, God's word gives us instruction, and it's way more important than the instruction that we receive from this world. I mean when we read through Proverbs, flip back if you would to 2 Kings chapter 10, but when you go through Proverbs, how many times, Proverbs is a book of wisdom, right, knowledge, instruction, love the book of Proverbs, there's so much great wisdom packed into that short book, 31 chapters, all kinds of wisdom, but what do you find when you read through Proverbs for, I would say probably the majority of the chapters, my son, my son, hear my words, my son, listen to me, my son, don't forsake the law of the Lord. It's directed at his son, why? Because it's a parent's job to teach their son, to teach their children wisdom and instruction from the Lord. We saw in 2 Kings chapter 10 that ultimately, even though these people raised these children up, and taught them, and trained them, they weren't their parents. At the end of the day, they didn't care about them, I mean if they really cared about them, they'd put up a fight instead of chopping off their head, wouldn't they? As parents we're given children as a gift, Bible said that blessed is the man to have his quiver full of them, that children are an heritage to the Lord, they're a blessing, and your child was given you as a parent, they were given you to instruct them, to teach them. You're going to equip them for this world and the world to come, they need to be equipped, trained, ready for this world and the next world, they need to know about Jesus. And you need to do what's best for them and not just what they want, you need to be their parent and not their friend, give them what they need, more than just the things that they want. II Kings 10. So Jehu just commanded them to cut off the heads of Ahab's house, and they did that, they listened to him, they hearkened him to him, so verse number 8, we're going to pick back up here, the Bible says, And there came a messenger and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons, and he said, Lay them in two heaps at the entering end of the gate until the morning. And it came to pass in the morning that he went out and stood and said to all the people, Ye be righteous, behold, I conspired against my master and slew him. But who slew all these? Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab. For the Lord hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah. What Jehu did here was really wise because ultimately what he was doing is saying, Yeah, I conspired, right, I commit treason, I was, you know, treacherous against the king, which in normal situation, they'd be like, Well, you deserve to die now because you conspired against the king. And then he says, Yeah, I did that. But now who killed all these, all the heirs? He didn't do it. You know, other people were the ones that carried out that act. So basically, he's making them complicit with him and saying, If you're going to come against me, you come against yourselves as well. And then he also mentioned, he makes sure that he points out that, Look, now you're going to know that this all came from God. This is that which the word of the Lord spake by his servant Elijah. Now remember when he was anointed by one of the sons of the prophets. The sons of the prophets, the son of the prophets was sent to anoint him by Elisha, but he didn't even mention the son of the prophet, he didn't mention Elijah, or Elisha. He knew that Elijah prophesied this and he already believed it. It didn't take him any convincing. He knew the prophecy. Remember from last week, he was with them when Ahab was prophesied against. He was working for Ahab back then. And he knew the prophecy that came against him. And once he was anointed, he realized he was the one to be carrying it out. And he did so wholeheartedly. Look at verse number 11. The Bible says, We see here that the house of Ahaziah is still yoked up with Ahab's wicked household. Remember he killed, he was told to kill Jehu. He ended up also killing Ahaziah, the king of Judah. Now after that's already happened, we have the brethren, the kinsfolk of Ahaziah coming down to see, oh yeah, we're just going down to hang out with the house of Ahab. Still don't get it, you know, didn't receive instruction. And they came to Samaria. They came all the way into Israel. They were definitely going to see the house of Ahab. And now, of course, we see here Jehu takes them and kills them as well. Verse number 14. And he said, Take them alive, and they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men, neither left he any of them. And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab, the son of Rekab, coming to meet him, and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart right as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot. And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot. Now I love this passage here, Jehu in particular, I mean, he wasn't the most righteous person in the Bible. But I really like the way, you know, last week we saw, they said the riding is like the riding of Jehu, why? Because he's driving furiously. He's going with intent, I mean, he was going on a mission, and he was a mighty man of valor, and he sees here, Rekab, excuse me, Jehonadab, and he's like, Is your heart right with my heart like I'm right with you? Because he just did a lot of bold things. I mean, he killed two kings, he's taking over the kingdom, he's saying, Hey, are you right with me like I'm right with you, Jehonadab? And he's like, Yeah, he said, Well, come on up here with me, come and see my zeal for the Lord. And this is what a great leader does, this is a true sign of a great leader, come with me and see my zeal, not listen to me, listen to my zealous talk, and you go out and do something, I'll just go tell you what to do. Which is what the, you know, we have this executive branch today in our government that's supposed to be the, you know, the President of the United States is supposed to be the one who's in charge of the military, right? To execute stuff. I mean, if we're having wars, why aren't they going out and leading the charge? That's the way the mighty men of valor did. That's what David did. He was going off to battle. I mean, if there's going to be a war, guess what, he's going to be involved. But the politicians, you know, they don't want to get their hands dirty. They want to send your kids out to the battle. They want to send other people out to go and fight their battles. The true leader is saying, look, come with me, come see my zeal for the Lord. See how I'm going to do God's work and see how zealous I am to get this job done. The Christian life can be very exciting. There's a lot of people that get turned off because they think it's just a big bore. And the reason why I think it's a big bore is because they're part of churches in general that aren't doing anything. They're not leading any battles, they're not going off and doing anything. It's become more of a social club than anything else. But when you're around someone, when you're around a leader, when you're around people who are excited and have a zeal for God and are actually going out and doing something, hey, that's exciting. That's fun. What is a prophet if you spend your whole life reading and studying the Bible and you never lead one person to Jesus Christ? What's the prophet there? Believe me, I'm all for reading and studying the Bible, don't get me wrong. You ought to be reading your Bible every single day. But what good is it going to do if you're not putting it into action, if you're not going out and reaching the lost? That's the whole point. Once you're saved, the whole point is to go out and reach the lost. Bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people who are out there just dying and need a savior. You're not going to get saved unless you go out and do something about it. And if you're not in a place where you've got the leader saying, hey, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord, hey, come with me in the chariot, come get in my chariot, we'll go out at soul winning time and we're going to go knock on some doors and we're going to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we're going to do the work of the Lord and we're going to get some people saved. Hey, that's exciting. That's what a good leader needs to be doing. People get so sick of the pontification from the pulpit from someone who's just a big hypocrite and just wants to say like the Pharisees did and do not. Jesus Christ was talking about when He said, they lay all these burdens on you that are grievous to be born and they won't even lift up their finger against any of them. He told them, do what they say but don't do what they do because they don't do anything. Jehu is not that way. He says, come with me, come see my zeal for the Lord, let's go do a great work for God, come with me. Verse number 17, and when He came to Samaria, He slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria till he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord, which He spake to Elijah. Now I'm just going to pause, I don't even have this in my notes but these are very bold actions taken by Jehu in this situation, He says, come see my zeal for the Lord. And this was definitely of God, He's not doing anything here that was not sanctioned by the Lord when He's going and killing the house of Ahab and just setting things right and we're going to see, we're going to get into a little bit here when He gets rid of Baal out of Israel. All the devil worship, all the satanic worship, He kills the prophets and gets them all out of the land. He takes care of business by taking action. See people, the problem, the reason it got to this point is because you've got a bunch of people who sit around and do nothing. They may believe, they may hear some things but nobody's taking action, no one's doing anything about it and then the wickedness just abounds because nobody's standing up, no one's standing in the gap, no one's saying, hey, we've had enough of this. I think about, you know, the word zeal isn't really used that much. I've done a sermon on this I believe in the past. One of the times it's used is when they remembered the scripture, the zeal of my house had eaten me up, talking about Jesus Christ when He went in and flipped over the tables and drove out the people from the temple with a whip. When Jesus Christ Himself made a whip and drove the people who bought and sold making God's house a house of merchandise because things were being sold and bought in the house of God which is abomination, they got Jesus so fired up that He made a whip and He drove everybody out of the temple. Everyone who bought and sold, you ought not be buying or selling anything in the house of God. If you're buying, you're just as guilty as if you're selling. Don't make God's house a house of merchandise. That was one example. Another example I think of is when Phineas, when the children of Israel were still going into the Promised Land and there was the Midianitish woman where there was a man that was married and they were whoring around with the heathen of the land which they were commanded not to do and they were committing fornication and Phineas picked up his spear, his javelin and went and thrust them both through. That's actually where God decided to say, hey, the house of Levi, you guys are going to be my servants. Good job, Phineas. Good job. You took action against this. You didn't just let this wickedness run rampant. You actually did something about it. In the Bible records, he had zeal. He was zealous. We need more zeal. If you have zeal, you're not just reading, you're not just something you're doing. You are going out and doing something with what you've learned. You're going out and doing the work of the Lord. Jehu is doing the work of God here. Look at verse number 18. Jehu gathered all the people together and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu shall serve him much. Now therefore, call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. Let none be wanting, for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal. Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live, but Jehu did it in subtlety to the intent that he might destroy the worshipers of Baal. So basically, Jehu makes this proclamation and he's saying, look, Ahab, I know he worshiped Baal. He worshiped Baal a little bit, but you ain't seen nothing yet. We are going to put on this big sacrifice. I'm going to be the biggest worshiper of Baal you've ever seen. This is going to be a big event. You need to go and get me all the prophets of Baal. I need them here. We're going to do a big thing for Baal. If anyone doesn't show up to this who's a prophet of Baal, he says they're going to die. I want all people here, all prophets of Baal here. Obviously, he's doing this in subtlety. The Bible says that. He's not serious about it. He's setting a trap for the prophets of Baal to come in so he could destroy them. Verse 20, it says, And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal, and they proclaimed it. And Jehu sent through all Israel. And all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was full from one end to another. And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshipers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments. So he wants to be able to identify these people. These are the people we're killing. So he gives them these vestments. Verse number 23, And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab into the house of Baal, and said unto the worshipers of Baal, Search and look that there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshipers of Baal only. He wants to make very clear and make sure that he's not going to be killing any of God's people here. Only the terrors, only the sons of the devil, the worshipers of Baal. Verse number 24, And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed four score men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him. So basically he's saying if you let any of these people go, then I'm going to kill you. Very very very strict, right? Very hard man, but he got things done. Look at verse number 25, And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in and slay them, let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword, and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal. And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them, and they break down the image of Baal, and break down the house of Baal, and made it a draft house unto this day. So we don't know what a draft house is. If you remember in the New Testament, Jesus Christ was saying when he was explaining, people were complaining that his disciples didn't wash their hands before they ate. And he says, that which cometh into the man through your mouth, that doesn't defile the man. And he explains it's that which comes out. And he says, that which comes in through eating, it comes in and it goes out in the draft. So when you eat food, it comes in your body and then it's expelled. That's what the draft is. So when it says here, they made the house of Baal a draft house, you know what that is. They made it a porta potty. They made it this restroom, an outhouse. The house of Baal was turned into an outhouse. And that's what they thought about Baal. It's just like a dung hill. So it says, thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Jehu had a zeal. Jehu break down and destroyed Baal from out of Israel. And the only thing that's going to stop the spread of the Satan worship and everything else is going to be people, men of God standing up with zeal and saying, we're not going to tolerate this. You know, today's world is preaching over and over and over and trying to cram it down your throat, tolerance, tolerance, tolerance, coexist, tolerance, tolerate everything, tolerate sin, tolerate homosexuality, tolerate pedophilia, tolerate everything. No! That's what Satan wants. That's what the Baal worshipers want. That's not what the Lord teaches. Now we know already from being in this Bible study how entrenched Israel had become with the Baal worshiper. I mean, think about it. This is even after Elijah made that great sacrifice to where the Baal worshippers were all cutting themselves and everything else. And he had those Baal worshippers slain, but look at how much this was just infected in Israel. I mean, that was a huge event. When God answered by fire, the Lord answered and took up the sacrifice that Elijah had made. And they killed all those prophets of Baal, yet here we are, maybe a few decades later, not that much time has gone by. And what do we see? Still, all these Baal worshippers. And now Jehu is saying, we've had enough of Baal in this country. We're getting rid of Baal. And Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Look at verse number 29. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel the sin, Jehu departed not from after them to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. And this is, you know, it's great that Jehu got rid of Satan. And this is kind of what brings Jehu down a little bit because he didn't, and we'll see a little bit later, he didn't follow the Lord with, he didn't really care that much to follow with all of his heart. He did these things. He was a man of war and he was really good at what he did. But when it came to other aspects of his life, he kind of failed at that with following the Lord. And this is a big deal and this, you know, God makes mention of this because it is such a big deal. The sin that Jeroboam the son of Nebat did was horrendous. And a lot of people think, well, what's the big deal? He just made these golden statues, just calves, statues of calves, go from graven images and just told them to worship that. He said, but they're still worshiping the Lord. And I bet you Jehu probably thought he's still worshiping the Lord with this idolatry. I mean, that's what the Catholics do. When they bow down to a graven image of Mary or to these saints, they'll tell you they're worshiping God, they're worshiping the Lord, they're worshiping Jesus. But they're not in reality. I mean, the people who were claiming to follow the Lord when they were worshiping these idols, God's real clear about what they were doing. It's idolatry. It's wicked. And it's turning their hearts away, but they would tell you, well, we're worshiping the Lord. This is the Lord. These golden calves. No, it's not. You don't make graven images or bow down and worship them. So he was getting rid of the house. I mean, Satan was obvious. He's like, the house of Baal, yeah, we're getting rid of that. We're getting rid of Satan. But wasn't able to see clearly enough to say, you know what, these idols got to go, too. Let's really clean up the house of God. Let's really clean up this nation and get rid of the idolatry. Verse number 30. Let's keep going here. We're almost done. Verse number 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou has done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and has done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. So God blesses him for this. He wasn't perfect. He didn't get rid of the idolatry, but he did do what God commanded him to do in regards to get, you know, destroying the house of Ahab, getting Baal out of the land, you know, doing these great things. So God says, you know what, as a result, I'm going to grant you, your household, up to four generations are guaranteed to be on the throne of God. He says that that's his blessing unto Jehu for what he did. But look at verse 31 says, But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. And then why did he not take heed? It says, for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin. He did not want to give up that idolatry. In those days, the Lord began to cut Israel short, and Hazeel smote them in all the coasts of Israel. See, this is not a coincidence, the order of here and the way that this story goes. Right after the Bible says that he didn't follow God with all of his heart, all of a sudden the Lord begins to cut Israel short. Had he gone after God with all of his heart, look, God would have been in defense to them. He wouldn't have allowed the encroachment of their enemies coming in and attacking them and kind of weakening their borders and having them lose ground and lose land to the enemy because if their heart was right with God, he would be there to protect them and defend them. But because he wasn't really following with all of his heart, in those days the Lord began to cut Israel short, Hazeel smote them in all the coasts of Israel, from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassehites, from Arror, which is by the River Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did and all his might are not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. Jehu slept with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria, and Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead, and the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty and eight years. Jehu had done so many great things. He destroyed the idols of others, he destroyed the Baal idols, but he couldn't get rid of his own idols. God recognized the good he had done, and he blessed him for his zeal, but he could have done so much more. Let's be sure when we do right, when we start doing right by God, not to just stop with one victory. I mean, it's a great victory. Jehu did a lot to clean up things in Israel. He really did. I'm not taking that away from Jehu at all, because God praised him, God blessed him, God gave him to the fourth generation for his children to sit on the throne. It was a good thing that he did, for sure, but we don't want to just stop once you have a great victory like that. Let's follow God with all of our heart, and be willing, as much as you're willing to tear down other people's idols, tear down your own idols. Get yourself right with God. He was easy to spot what other people were doing that was wrong and got rid of it, but he had a hard time figuring out what was wrong in his own life. We need to make sure that we keep that focus, not always on others, but on what's wrong in our own life. Also make sure that we get the … If you're going to help someone out, the Bible says to get the mote out of your eye, so you can help someone else who's got a beam in their eye out, or you get the beam out of your own eye, excuse me, backwards, so you get the mote out of your brother's eye. You need to be able to see clearly, so focus on yourself first. Get yourself right with God, and then you can help other people. Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your words. Thank you for all the lessons that we could learn as we read through these stories in the book of 2 Kings. God, I ask that you would please help us all to get some more zeal to serve you, to put our knowledge and action, to put it into use, dear Lord, that we don't just become forgetful hearers, but we're doers of the work. I pray that you would please just light up a fire in this church to help us to be more zealous towards doing the work that you've laid out for us to do, dear God. I pray that you would please just grow this church, help us to reach more people with the gospel of Christ, and help us individually to identify the idols that we've set up in our own lives, in our own hearts, dear Lord, that might not be easy necessarily for us. I pray that you would please just open up our eyes to them so that we can just be right with you and get all the idolatry out of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.