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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, everyone. Good evening. And welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. I'm going to ask you all to turn to song number 206, if you would. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Song number 206. On the first. There is a heart today Something I never had Jesus has taken my sins away Oh, say, but I'm glad Oh, say, but I'm glad, I'm glad Oh, say, but I'm glad Jesus has come and my cup's overrun Oh, say, but I'm glad Wonderful, marvelous love He brings Into a heart that's sad Through darkest tunnels the soul of sings Oh, say, but I'm glad Oh, say, but I'm glad, I'm glad Oh, say, but I'm glad Jesus has come and my cup's overrun Oh, say, but I'm glad On the third. We have a fellowship rich and sweet Tongues can never relate Abiding in Him the souls retreat Oh, say, but I'm glad Oh, say, but I'm glad, I'm glad Oh, say, but I'm glad Jesus has come and my cup's overrun Oh, say, but I'm glad On the last. Won't you come to Him all your care Wary and worn and sad You two will sing as His love you share Oh, say, but I'm glad Oh, say, but I'm glad, I'm glad Oh, say, but I'm glad Jesus has come and my cup's overrun Oh, say, but I'm glad All right, at this time we will have the announcements. All right, well, good evening. Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. We'll go through these announcements here real quick. Weekly church service time, Sunday mornings are at 1030. Sunday evenings are at six and Wednesdays at 7 PM. Underneath there is a list of soul winning times. Like I said this morning, soul winning this month is every single day because we have a challenge going on called March Madness. So, if you want to go any day, just let me know and I'll tell you when and where we're going. Let's see here. Next page under announcements tonight will be in the book of 2 Kings chapter number 16. I'm sorry, chapter number 10, not 16. Chapter 16 is the one Denver is waiting for. I'm just kidding. Let's see here. March 26, we're going to have brother Corbin Russell from Faith Ward Baptist Church, Tucson. He'll be preaching for us both services that Sunday. Anniversaries for March is Kinley on the 22nd. Verse of the week is Matthew 16 four, which says, A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. There shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them and departed. We talked about that this morning. So, we are a family integrated church. What that means is we don't separate children from their parents for any reason. Moms, you can use the room right across the hallway. And dads, you can use the break room, that room over there for the time being. Let's see here. Don't forget to turn your phone off or place it on silent so it's not a distraction. And I believe that is it. So, we are going to have one more song and then we will have the Bible reading. Now, one thing I did forget is we're doing a chorus this evening. So, if you could, thank you. So, the pastor is going to pass those out. Instead of turning on the hymnal, we will be singing, Be Thou My Vision. Be Thou My Vision. On the first. Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart. Not be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best thought by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my true word. Thy ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father and Thy true Son. Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise. Thou mine inheritance now and always. Thou and Thou only first in my heart. High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art. High King of Heaven, my victory won. May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heaven's sun. Heart of my own heart, whatever befall. Still be my vision, O ruler of all. Heart of my own heart, whatever befall. Still be my vision, O ruler of all. Good evening, everybody. Open your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 10. 2 Kings chapter 10, starting in verse 1. And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria, and Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria unto 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, and armor, look even out the best and meathest of your master's son, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house. But they were exceeding afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him. How then shall we stand? 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 do thou that which is good in thine eyes. 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, 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 son, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel. And there came a messenger, and told them, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay ye 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. So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab and Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolk, and his priests, until he left him none remaining. And he arose in the parter, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah, and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. 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 any of them. And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him, and he saluted them, 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 in the chariot, and he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot. 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. And 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, and subtly, to intend that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it. And Jehu sent through all Israel, and all the worshippers 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 them that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them four vestments. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rekab into the house of Baal, and said unto the worshippers of Baal, And looked at there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only. And when they went into the other 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. 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 into 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 images of Baal, and break down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel, howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan. And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast 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. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord of Israel with all his heart, for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam which made Israel to sin. In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short, and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel, from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manasites, from Arur, 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 they not written in the book of the chronicles of the king of Israel? And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoiah has, his son reigned in his stead. And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty and eight years. Dear Lord, I pray that you would just be with pastors who are going to preach on 2 Kings, and give us all ears to hear, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Alright, Amen. 2 Kings chapter number 10. So, again, last week, we took last week off, obviously, because Pastor Shelley was here, preached a great sermon, you can still find it, well you can find a link to it on our YouTube page, you have to go to this platform called Odyssey, because even Rumble took it down. But, we are back in the book of 2 Kings, and we're going to be going over chapter number 10 this evening. And so, just to get you caught up, we'll do a little bit of a background, remember, we're dealing with a divided kingdom. Remember, you have the southern kingdom of Judah, which is made up primarily of the tribe of Judah, Benjamin, Levites, primarily, and then stragglers from the northern kingdom. All the other 10 tribes pretty much reside in the north, and if you remember from our study over the last few months, what we've seen is that the northern kingdom started off on the wrong foot, they started off with idolatry, they started off with the golden calf worship, remember, Jeroboam the son of Nebat put one in Dan and one in Bethel, and that eventually led to a man named Ahab marrying a very wicked person named Jezebel, and what she did is she killed the Lord's prophets, hated God, and actually basically persuaded him to build a house for Baal, which Baal is just another synonym for Satan, devil worship, that's basically what you have going on here, and God has sent Elisha the prophet Jehu and a Syrian king, which we're going to take a look at here in a second, to deal with the idolatry, to deal with those issues in the northern kingdom. And so before we start in chapter number 10, let's go over to 1 Kings chapter number 19, and we'll just take a look at something here before we get started, because you're going to see this completely be fulfilled tonight in chapter number 10. So great story tonight, definitely some hard things in this chapter for a lot of people, and to be quite honest with you, most of Christianity today has no clue that these things are in the Bible. If you go up to the average so-called Christian person today and you say, hey, do you remember that story in the Bible where Jehu had Ahab's son's caretakers provide 70 heads, you bring that up and they're like, that's not in the Bible, what are you talking about? But it is, and we need to know and understand what these things mean. But going back to 1 Kings chapter number 19, so just to get you caught up here, 1 Kings chapter 19, this is after Elijah the prophet had his victory over the prophets of Baal, and he slew the 400 prophets of Baal back in chapter, well, early on in chapter number 18, and through the rest of chapter number 18 for that matter. And if you remember, Ahab was excited about that. He went back and he told his wife, and she's like, oh, really? So at the beginning of chapter 19, she orders his execution. And so what Elijah does is he flees and he's running because he understands that his life now is in jeopardy. Ahab is really not the one in control. Jezebel's calling the shots. And so God is dealing with Elijah the prophet, and he tells Elijah something here. Let's start reading this in verse 15. It says, and the Lord said unto him, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. You're going to see his name come up tonight. Verse 16, and Jehu, the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel and Mullah, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And obviously we've already gone over that. We studied that out. Look at verse 17, and it shall come to pass that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Now obviously Elisha, if you remember, when he came on the scene, he received a double portion of Elijah's spirit. That's why these verses read the way that they do, because Elisha is the one who sent a prophet to anoint Jehu. It wasn't actually Elijah, but it still counts because of the double portion of the spirit of Elijah that's on Elisha. Hopefully that makes sense. Verse 18, this is what God says to Elijah. It says, Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. So what that's telling us, and we've gone over this extensively in the past, is that in the northern kingdom, just like in today's day and age, you have people that are saved. You have people that are just questioning, not sure, they're just not saved. Then you have people that are, what we would say, reprobate or rejected. People who are converted wholeheartedly to another ideology which always points back to Satan worship. And in this case here, God is making this distinction here, saying there's seven thousand which have not bowed the knee to Baal. Meaning a lot of people in the northern kingdom have. What was Elisha's responsibility? What was his job? Well, obviously it was to start helping to rid the northern kingdom of idolatry, of Baal worship, and to get them on the right path. So he slew people with what? With the sword. With the sword of the Lord, with the sword of his mouth, but also with the help of God. And so after him, and as his ministry is progressing, you have Jehu, the son of Nimshi, who is now king in Israel. Go back to 2 Kings chapter number 10. So you have Jehu now who is doing the cleanup work. He's really going to put the final stamp in Baal worship, and he's going to execute judgment on Ahab's house. Last week, or not last week, I'm sorry, but the week prior, we took a look at Jehu and what he did. What did he do? Do you guys remember? He killed Joram, king of Israel, who was part of the Omri dynasty. And he also killed Ahaziah, who was the southern kingdom of Judah's king at that time. Now what's unique, and I'll preach this again here in a couple weeks, but what's unique about Ahaziah, the southern kingdom of Judah's king, is that his mother is a woman by the name of Athaliah. And she was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and you're going to see her come up here, I think, next week. And so you can see how the idolatry, the Baal worship from the northern kingdom of Israel and their false religion spread to the southern kingdom of Judah, and it infected them. Why did that happen? Well because of Jehoshaphat, a couple kings prior to Ahaziah, he made an affinity, he made a friendship with the king, with king Ahab. And when king Ahab was done and he died, well Jehoshaphat made a friendship with his sons, and just kept trying to push forward this ecumenical type relationship. And we always say, you know, that's just horrible, it never works. God has his truth, he has his lines drawn in the sand, and you either stand on those or you step over those and you're on the other side. That's just the way that it is. And so, you know, a lot of times we get people who think, well I'm just going to hang out with this crowd over here even though they believe in work salvation or they believe in something different. And I believe I can win them over, I believe I can change their minds, I believe that I can, you know, what always happens? It goes the other way, doesn't it? Because evil communications corrupt good manners, that's what the Bible tells us. So that's kind of the situation that we're in here in 2 Kings chapter number 10. Jehu is continuing on, he took out those two kings, he took out Joram, took out Judah's king, so now Jehu is king of Israel, the northern kingdom, and he is the tenth king. And remember what we said, what's different about Jehu versus the other kings? Well Jehu was anointed by God, so he's kind of like a type of Christ in a way when you read his story. But Jehu is anointed where these other kings were just appointed. So everything Jehu is doing that you're reading right now is from God. God told him to do this, God has ordained him to do this. You say, why do you bring that up? Because some of these things that the Bible is describing are pretty intense, aren't they? I mean, what did he do when he came up to Jezebel's castle? He looked up and saw two or three eunuchs and said, who's on my side? And apparently they answered him by throwing them out the window. And it says he trode on them and he went inside and made himself something to eat. Look, Jehu was a boss of bosses, this guy took no junk from anybody and just had a crazy zeal. But sadly you're going to see his life kind of ends on a sad note. But for now we get to continue on with his conquest here. Look at verse number one of 2 Kings chapter number 10. So the Bible says this, And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders and to them that brought up Ahab's children, saying. So what you're about to read here is a challenge. Again, the Bible is full of challenges. And Jehu is going to challenge these guys to face him, challenge him to a fight. But notice here, you ever wonder how these kings ever had time to raise their children? Well, this is how they had other people do it for them. They had other people raising their children, which is why oftentimes the kings were just all messed up. Because you're not the one actually passing on the training and the doctrine to your kids. But that's what you see here. Verse two, look what it says. 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, and armor, look even out the best and meatest of your master's sons and set them on his father's throne and fight for your master's house. OK, you see that there? Jehu, again, not afraid of anyone. He knows that he's following God's statutes. God said, hey, whoever slips through the cracks from Elisha, whoever slips through the cracks from Hazael, king of Syria, Jehu's going to get. And Jehu's like, I'm determined. When I read this, I almost imagine if Jehu's like, hey, I'm determined to have the least amount of people escape my grasp because I'm coming for everybody. Now look at the response here when these guys get this letter. Look at verse four. But they were exceedingly afraid and said, behold, two kings stood not before him. How then shall we stand? OK, so they actually consider this request. They're like, wait a second. He took out the king of Israel. He took out the king of Judah. We don't stand a chance. Look at verse five. Hey, that's a good response, right? That's the response that needs to be had because Jehu would come and fight them. He would mop the floor with these guys. Why? Because of his character. OK, this guy is extremely zealous, but he has the Lord on his side. OK, out of all the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, he is the only one that you're going to see that has any kind of good relationship with God. Verse number six here, you're going to see the second letter. So Jehu gets this letter. He reads their response and then he wants to prove them. So look what he says. Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, Now the king's sons being 70 persons were with the great men of the city, which brought them up. OK, now obviously these great men of the city here are also following the same path that Ahab and these other wicked kings are. They aren't worshipping the Lord. They aren't saying, hey, you know, maybe we should go down to Jerusalem here and actually talk to the priests. They want none of that. OK, they're going to raise up because people are going to ask you, OK, well, why is something so horrible in the Bible here? You know, that's the mind frame of a lot of people today. You know, why did he have to go and kill all these people? Why did God send him? OK, the Bible's trying to tell you and I something. The fact is God hates idolatry. OK, God doesn't want that in his nation. He doesn't want that in this place here. And he's going to make that known. He's going to make that established. Now, if Jehu doesn't go and kill these people, what's going to happen? Well, they're going to continue to try to take over. They're going to continue to push idolatry. They're going to continue to forward bail worship. That's what's going to happen. OK, and God said already, no, I'm not going to allow that to happen in this land. It's my way or the highway. So verse number seven says this, and it came to pass when their letter. I'm sorry, when the letter came to them that they took the king's sons and slew 70 persons and put their heads in baskets and sent him them to Jezreel. OK, look, again, this is proof here that God wrote the Bible. You have people today, if they were tasked with writing the Bible, what would it do? It would lift up man. It would cover things like this up, and it just wouldn't be the same. Now, understand something here. This is their idea. They came up with this. Jehu, I mean, they actually of their own accord out of fear decided, you know, we better follow what Jehu said. He said he was going to, you know, believe us if we provide their heads. So they say, you know what, we better just do this. And they do it. Look at verse number eight. It 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. What a sight would that have been to see? He's walking by the gate of the city and there's just two heaps of heads. Be like, oh, OK, yeah, I'm leaving here. I'm turning around. There's definitely a statement being made here and I want nothing to do with it. Verse nine. And it came to pass in the morning that he went out and stood and said to all the people. Now, look at this. Ye be righteous. He says, behold, I conspired against my master and slew him. But who slew all of these? You know, what Jehu is saying there, he's just speaking from a humanistic perspective because that's what it looks like he did. But remember, God commissioned him, God appointed him and I'm sorry, God anointed Jehu to kill Joram and to be the king of Israel. And he's just simply basically saying, hey, look, I conspired against my master and killed him. OK, you know, I did this, but who actually went through with what I said? So it kind of lets you know that maybe Jehu thought these guys probably aren't going to do that. But what did you say? Well, if you really be mine, if you were really on my side, prove it. And these guys understood the severity of that and said, yeah, well, we're going to go ahead and we're going to have to prove this. Otherwise, it's going to be our heads that are going to be in these baskets here. So very interesting here. But notice what Jehu says. He says ye be righteous. OK, so what does that mean? Well, that proves the fact that they weren't bleeding hearts. That proves that they weren't double minded. OK, obviously, they are against everything that Ahab stood for and that type of wickedness. Otherwise, their hearts would have smoked them and they would have been like, oh, you know, this is really we were of the philosophy of be kind. Love is love. Can we just go along to get along? OK, but no, they said, OK, you guys are done. We're going to cut these heads off and that's it. Now, does God rebuke Jehu for even putting that out? No, not at all. Why? Because God wanted this to happen. He's making a statement. Verse 10, 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. OK, that's where that's why I had you go back to First Kings Chapter 19 at the beginning so that we would understand that this act here is from God. You know, and a lot of people, oh, the Old Testament God is horrible and the Old Testament God this and the Old Testament God that. You know, God's unchanging. This is still how God feels about what's going on in the world today. You take all of these nations that are worshipping their idols. You go and you look at images down in Brazil, how they're parading around these devil looking characters. You know, God hates that stuff. You know, their idolatry, their big, tall Jesus statue that who's seen the picture that recently that got struck by lightning that's been floating around the Internet pretty substantially lately. You know, I think it's very interesting. It's almost like God's trying to make a statement. OK, God hates it. He hasn't changed. The times have changed. OK, but his statutes and his judgments have not. This is what God wanted. God wanted to make a statement. And even in doing this, there's a silver lining. You can still see God's mercy. God is still trying to get the attention of the northern kingdom of Israel so that they will what? Stop with the idolatry. Get rid of it and go back to the Lord. That's the whole point. And so Jehu confirms that. So this, again, don't ever let anybody tell you, oh, this is, you know, this is bad. Old Testament got this. Old Testament got that. None of that ought to stand. You got not to tolerate that whatsoever. Look at verse 11. It says, So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab and Jezreel and all his great men and his kinfolks and his priests until he left him, none remaining. What does that mean? That means that Jehu did a complete job. I believe Jehu was a guy again who just said, you know what? I don't want anyone slipping through the cracks. You're going to see that come to full effect here in a minute. Look at verse 12. And he arose and departed and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? Stop right there. OK, their answer here is going to determine whether or not they live. OK, now look at their answer at the end part of verse 13. And they answered, We are brethren of Ahaziah and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. So notice their language there. They're referring to Jezebel as the queen. So they're giving her that respect. OK, so what does that do? Well, the fact that they're actually going to pay their so-called respects to Jezebel and to the king, both kings that died, you know, he's like, oh, I see where your heart's at. OK, I see what's going on here. You're of that sort. So look at verse 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 40 men. Neither left he any of them. So there was 42 of these guys, 42 of these people here. And Jehu said, Eliminate every single one of them. He is doing his absolute best to rid the land of any kind of sympathetic person that would even possibly bring back bail worship. OK, that's literally what this guy's doing. And I've said this before, we need a politician like this to come clean house in America. I mean, that'd be about the only way that this country is going to ever survive. But, you know, it is what it is. Verse 15 says, And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab, the son of Rekab, coming to meet him. And he saluted him and said, 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 into the chariot. And he said, this is a very famous verse in the Bible, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot. Now, keep your place right here in Second Kings Chapter 10. You go forward in your Bible to the book of Jeremiah. Have you go to Jeremiah Chapter number 35. Jeremiah Chapter number 35. And let's take a look at who is this Jehonadab character and what is special about him. Because it's kind of weird. He just shows up. You know, Jehon seems to know who he is. And he seems to know that he's got the right heart, that he's got a similar heart. He knows it so much, in fact, that he says, You know what? I'm going to actually take you with me and we're going to go do something to these Baal worshippers that you've never seen or heard before in your life. And it's going to be glorious. So Jehonadab here is the son of Rekab. What you're going to see here in Jeremiah Chapter 35 is some very interesting facts about the zeal that this man had. And notice this, too. Jehonadab was zealous for the Lord and he actually, you're going to see this, he passed it down through several generations. So Jeremiah Chapter 35, I don't have time to develop all this. This is just many years after where we're reading. The northern kingdom is gone. We're literally on the last king of the southern kingdom of Judah before Nebuchadnezzar comes in and wipes out the southern kingdom. But Jeremiah 35, look at verse number 1. And this is God speaking here. He says, The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, Go unto the house of the Rekabites and speak unto them and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. Okay? So God wants Jeremiah to take these guys and offer them some wine. Look at verse 3. It says, Then I took Jazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habsaniah and his brethren and all his sons and the whole house of the Rekabites. Jump down to verse 5, just for sake of time. He says this, And I set before the sons of the house of the Rekabites pots full of wine and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine. Okay? Now here's the response. Look at the response of these Rekabites here. But they said, We will drink no wine. For Jonadab, same character that we were reading about in 2 Kings 10, it says, For Jonadab the son of Rekab, our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons forever. Okay? Verse 7, Neither shall ye build house nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any, but all your days ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers. So Jonadab taught them to have this humble lifestyle and to stay away from wine, which we obviously know when it moves around in the cup, as the Proverbs say, corrupts judgment. Okay? So Jonadab told his sons and his grandsons and future generations to stay away from that. Look at verse 8. They say this, Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rekab, our father, and all that he hath charged us to drink, no wine, all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters. So these guys were excellent men. Okay? Remember this, guys. Everybody who's a male is a man. You just need to understand that in today's day and age, and it was true even back then. These guys took full responsibility. They walked the walk. I mean, they took care of their wives. They ordered them properly, you know, how to live, and raised their sons and their daughters accordingly. I mean, what more could you ask for? Look at verse 9. So it goes on, Nor to build houses for us to dwell in, neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed. One more verse. Skip down to verse number 18. It says, actually, back up to verse 17. So basically, God's saying because they obeyed the voice of Jonadab, they're going to get a blessing here. Verse 17 says, Therefore, therefore means for this reason, okay? Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them. Because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard, and I have called unto them, but they have not answered. Verse 18, And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me forever. So he's basically saying there, and you can go back to 2 Kings 10. He's basically saying because you guys have followed Jonadab's teachings, that you're never going to lack a man to stand as the head of your household. You're never going to be lacking in that area, though I'm going to destroy and basically allow the Babylonians to come in and conquer. Okay, so that's the Jonadab that we're dealing with here. And obviously, he has that reputation because Jehu sees him and says, Hey, is thine heart right with mine heart? He's like it is, come on up in the chariot then. Okay, so look at verse 17, it says, And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab and Samaria. So look, Jehu's just crazy. Like he's killing everybody that had anything to do with Ahab. He literally wants to leave no stone unturned. Okay, you want to talk about somebody who's not a bleeding heart? Somebody who you could give a task and he could just, Oh, yeah, I'll take this dude's head off. No problem, man. Yo, you hate God? Oh, I got something for you. You know, just no hesitation. You know, you got to appreciate that, especially living in today's day and age. You know, you get so many people who would just pay lip service to serving God and, you know, I'm going to be there on this day. I'm going to do this for you. I'm going to do that. And then you never see or hear from him again. You know, but here's a guy for a change who's like, Oh, I'm going to do it. Okay. Oh, you hate God? Guess what? I hate you just as much. You know, and look, he takes John a dab and he's just, let's just go kill everyone else who has anything to do with Ahab and Samaria. And then look what it says the rest of the verse. Till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, which he spake to Elijah. So please keep remembering it. I'm sorry, but remember this. Anytime you see these killings in here, okay, the Bible is careful to tell you that he's fulfilling the word of God. He is not a psychopath. He is not a reprobate. He's not a madman. Okay. He's doing what God has ordained. Look at verse 18. And Jehu gathered all the people together and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu shall serve him much. Okay. So the story is continuing on here now that they're done with the house of Ahab. Now they're going to go after everyone who serves Baal and they're going to do something very special to them. That's why I titled this sermon From Baal to Bathroom. Okay. I might have forgot to mention this, but this sermon is called From Baal to Bathroom. And it's just short from, it's a short way of saying from Baal worship to the bathroom, because that's literally what happens to the house of Baal that Ahab established back in 1 Kings 16. Look at verse 19. So now all of a sudden it's interesting here how Jehu's like, oh, you know, I'm going to serve him much. I'm going to serve Jehu, I'm going to serve Baal much. And people just, these guys are just so gullible. They're like, oh yeah, I believe that. You know, I get they didn't have the internet. They couldn't see all the, you know, YouTube videos of people with their cell phones out as Jehu was going around killing people. But I mean, just crazy how they're like, well, that makes sense. Why are they so quick to believe him? Well, because every other king went that way. You know, most of the people in the northern kingdom basically are not wanting to serve God. So they're like, oh, he's just going like everybody else. You know, he's finally coming around. So verse 19, he says, 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, I'm sorry, but Jehu did it in subtlety to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. And, you know, I guess you could say some lies or I'm sorry. Yeah, some lies serve righteous purposes. OK, and that's what you're going to see here. Jehu's lying. OK, he's lying to these guys. But guess what? He doesn't get slapped on the wrist for it. OK, this is just his plan. He is ordained. He's appointed. He's anointed. He's all of that from God to do this. So he has the autonomy to figure out, OK, how can I get all of these people into one place so that I can kill them all and get Baal worship out of Israel? And he says to himself, I got it. OK, every other king's worshiping Baal. All these people worship Baal. I'll just tell them I'm going to do a sacrifice. I'll actually start to go through with it and then I'll smoke them. OK, that's literally what he's thinking. That's what he does. And it works. Look at verse 20. And Jehu said, proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it. And Jehu sent, verse 21, and Jehu sent through all Israel and all the worshippers 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. You know how hard it is to get a church like ours full from one end to the other? You know, consistently it's difficult. You know, here you see a call for a sacrifice to Baal and people are just flocking to it. You know? And that's why I keep saying, you know, as you read through these chapters and these challenges, God's people are always physically outnumbered but were never spiritually outnumbered. OK, remember that. Never spiritually outnumbered. But look at the, I mean, who would not want to hire Jehu for any task? I mean, when he sets out to do something, man, he does it. He's like, look, I'm serious. Every soul that worships Baal, I need them all here. OK, like he's so intense, like not even one. OK, not one person can be left out. That's what this guy's doing right here. Verse 22. OK, so we've talked about this, you know, way in the past. I'll just bring it up. What's going on here? Vestments. OK, the clothing. OK, the priests of Baal had some kind of clothing. And I imagine it like the clothing that these freaks have today. You know, the bat wings, right? They probably got the reprobate. And then they got their guys with the cone hats and the dark, you know, the Ku Klux Klan, you know, outfits but red. You know, I don't know. It doesn't say. I'm just joking around. But, you know, if you ever see memes or you ever, you know, read a book or, you know, see pictures of people, you know, doing satanic rituals, and they're all over the place, OK? You know, their dress is probably how they were dressed very similar back then. But they actually had a person, the Bible says, that kept these clothes, OK? They were very important to their religion, to their false religion, if you will. And so Jehu was like, look, let's just get it all like full-on, 100%, get dressed up, get the priests, get all the cups out. I mean, get everything ready here. This is going to be a crazy sacrifice. Look at verse 23. And Jehu went and Jehonadab, the son of Rekab, into the house of Baal and said unto the worshippers of Baal, search and look that there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but worshippers of Baal only. Now, very interesting there that Jehu wants to make sure that no believers get killed. OK, so he does a diligent inquiry and has guys go around and somehow make the determination that there are no Christians, there are no Hebrews, there are no people that believe on God. There obviously are all Hebrews, but there's no people that are saved there. That's literally what he's doing here. He doesn't want to accidentally kill one of the righteous people. He doesn't want to kill somebody whose God is their God. I'm sorry, whose God is the Lord in heaven is what I'm trying to say. Look at verse 24. It says, and when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed four score men without. So he's got 80 guys outside just ready to pounce. OK, so he's like, I got 80 guys here. He's going to give them specific instructions and a warning. So it says Jehu appointed four score men without and said, if any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth them go, his life shall be for the life of him. OK, so guess what? These guys are now going to be just as zealous as Jehu and they're going to make sure to be just as thorough. OK, I mean, if somebody gave us that command, I'd be like, oh, oh, no. You know, you're not getting by me here. OK, so this is a very serious matter here. Verse 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. So it's go time. OK, as soon as this priest or whatever, you know, finishes this offering, Jehu is like, OK, they're in a satanic frenzy at this point because the offering's just been made, right? Now's the perfect time to pounce, man. Let's go get them. Look at the rest of the verse. And they smote them with the edge of the sword. And the guard and the captains cast them out and went into the city of the house of Baal. OK, which if you remember 1 Kings 16, that'd be Samaria. And they brought, verse 26, and they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal and burned them. Verse 27, and they break down the image of Baal and break down the house of Baal and made it a drought house unto this day. So again, there you have it, from Baal worship to the bathroom, OK? I mean, think about it. You couldn't work it out any better. I mean, what a statement to the world. What a statement to the nation of Israel. What a statement to us today reading this. God thinks that Satanism is crap. That's literally what the Bible's telling you. It's all crap. It's all garbage, OK? But you have so many people today. Oh, you know, I think they could still be saved. Like, we had this group of Christians that came here, and they didn't want to sit in the service, but we were being protested out here. And they were like, well, why don't you guys try inviting them in? It's like, do you not see the horns on the guy out there? Do you not see his shirt, you know, blaspheming God, saying, I hate God? God isn't real? Did you not hear them, like, insulting women and children as they were coming into the building? They don't want to come in here for any good purposes. They don't want to have a conversation. They want to kill us, OK? That's what I'm trying to explain to people. That's what the Bible is saying here. That's why this had to be the way that it is, OK? Because if not, it would just continue to manifest and just blow up. So verse 28 says, Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. So all of that stuff that he did, which is great, it would be perfect if the chapter ended here and we went on, OK? But unfortunately, it doesn't, OK? We've got to go through the rest of it. And this is the heartbreaking part for us, the sad part. But it just goes to show the best of men, or men at best, OK? Verse 29, Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not after them, to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. OK, so God wanted Jehu and ordained Jehu to destroy the house of Ahab, destroy the sympathizers of Ahab, destroy Baal, the very images, the house, the worshippers, the priests, all of it. God said, Get it out. Kill them all. Jehu does it. But God wanted Jehu of his own volition, of his own accord, to say, You know what? Maybe we should get the idolatry out too. Maybe we should get this fake phony God worship that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, set up this golden calf, this new evangelical liberal type system that they had. Maybe we should get that out too. But he didn't do it. He clung to that. And God dings him for it. Verse 30, And the Lord said to Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes. What Jehu did was right in God's eyes. That's what the Bible says. And hast 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 it's like you're going to get a little bit of a blessing here. None of these other kings got that. They stole it. They fought. They killed each other. I mean, it's just crazy. But God's saying, Hey, because you did do a lot of stuff right, I'm going to give you a blessing. I'm going to give you four generations, which goes terrible. But verse 31, it says, But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. For he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin. God is serious about his word. God is serious about his statutes and he wants them followed. But what do you have today? You have people today that have the syndrome of Jeroboam. Okay? And they say, Well, we don't really need the Old Testament. We don't need to really understand and learn from that. You know, we can just stick to the love portions. Okay? Because everybody's lonely and there's just not enough love in the world. Okay? And so their solution is to just water down the Bible, water down the word of God. And God hates that. All of his statutes are true and we should follow all of it and we should preach the whole counsel of God. And we should want to walk and apply everything that we can, you know, that we can today in our lives. So verse 32, it says this. It says, In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short, and here it is, and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel, from Jordan eastward all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites, the Manassehites, from Aror, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. Verse 34, Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did, and all his might are they 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. So again, you can see there the Bible is, I love how the Bible just preserves the zeal that he had. So what are we supposed to learn from Jehu? Well, we're supposed to learn to keep that zeal and apply it to everything. You know, just like the Bible says, you know, whatever it is, whatsoever it is that you find to do, do it with all your might. Because life is short, and this is the faith that we need to avoid. Don't be zealous just for, you know, a couple years, just a little bit of time, and then start slacking off. Okay, when you feel yourself to start slacking off, and we all do, I do it, everybody does it. Do not let people tell you, oh, I'm a tough guy, I never slack off. No, yes, you do. We all have issues. You think I want to go soul winning every single day this week? I'm pretty sure I had a fever on Thursday. I mean, you know, it sucks sometimes, you know, but if you could just push yourself sometimes, right, just push yourself. When you feel yourself slacking, man, just push yourself, set back, look, reset, admit it, and just keep driving forward. Okay, and we won't end up like Jehu did where it's written, you know, he was zealous for the Lord, but at the end of his life, you know, he failed to take heed and apply his whole heart to the word of God. We don't want to be like that. We want to make, like how Paul said, right, we want to go the way of Paul, Paul said that I've finished my race, you know, ran my course, complete job well done, he said, and I know I have a crown stored up in heaven, right, that's the goal, that's how we want to finish strong, and that's what the story's teaching us. So let's stop right there, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for preserving, again, these great truths for us. I just pray you help us to remember these things and to be able to teach them to others, Lord, and to be able to defend the Bible to those that doubt it, and we just pray that you bless the fellowship and to bring us back safely on Wednesday. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, everyone, for our final song of this evening, we will be turning to song number 356. Thanks. Song number 356, I Must Tell Jesus. On the first. I must tell Jesus all of my trials. I cannot bear these burdens alone. In my distress he kindly will help me. He ever loves and cares for his own. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone. I must tell Jesus all of my troubles. He is a kind, compassionate friend. If I but ask him, he will deliver, Make of my troubles quickly an end. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone. Tempted and tried, I need a great Savior, One who can help my burdens to bear. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, He all my cares and sorrows will share. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone. Oh how the world to evil allures me, Oh how my heart is tempted to sin. I must tell Jesus, and he will help me, Over the world the victory to win. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone. All right, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you for this time we had to hear your word be preached. I ask that you please bless everyone's travels home and our travels to the Youth Rally for those who are going. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. . .