Our scripture reading this morning will come from 2 Kings chapter 10. We'll begin with verse 18 and read to the end of the chapter, which is verse 36. That's on page 317 of your Pew Bibles. Beginning with the 18th verse of the 10th chapter of the 2nd book of Kings, hear now the word of our Lord. Then Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, they have served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshippers, and all his priests. Let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live." But Jehu did it with cutting in order to destroy the worshippers of Baal. And Jehu ordered, Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal, and so they proclaimed it. And Jehu sent throughout all Israel, and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. And they entered the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other. And he said to him who was in charge of the wardrobe, Bring out the vestments for all the worshipers of Baal. So he brought out the vestments for them. And Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rachab, and he said to the worshipers of Baal, Search and see that there is no servant of the Lord here among you, but only the worshipers of Baal. And then they went in to offer sacrifices and burn offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and said, the man who allows any of those who might have given into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life. So as soon as he had made an end of the offering, the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, go in and strike them down and let not a man escape. And so they put them to the sword, the guard and the officers, cast them out and went into the inner room of the house of Baal and they brought out the pillar that was in the house of Baal and burned it and they demolished the pillar of Baal and they demolished the house of Baal and made it a latrine to this day. Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam, the sons of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin, that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and you have done in the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin. In those days, the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel, from the Jordan eastward and all the land of Gilead and the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Arur, which is by the valley of Arnon, that is, 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 kings of Israel? So Jehu slept with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz, his son, reigned in his place. The time that Jehu reigned over Israel and Samaria was 28 years. Thus we've read, verses 18 through 36 of 2 Kings 10. Let us go to the Lord now in prayer. Gracious Lord in heaven, This is Your Holy Word, and You have given it to us for us to read and for us to meditate upon. You've given it to instruct us. So Lord, we ask that that would be done this morning, that You would be with the proclamation of Your Word, and that You would hide Your Word in our hearts through Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, Amen. One of the things that we're supposed to be thinking about as we're reading through the Book of Kings is we're supposed to be thinking about similar events that happened earlier. Remembering that this really is one giant book. We've broken it up into First Kings and Second Kings. But we ought to be thinking about it as one continuous story, one continuous series of events. and we see one that reminds us of a similar event that happened earlier, we ought to be thinking about them and comparing them and contrasting them. And so when we see Jehu kill the prophets of Baal, it ought to bring to our minds what we saw Elijah do, when he too struck down the prophets of Baal. Because destroying the prophets of Baal is something that kings were supposed to have done. To destroy false prophets is part of the job. Elijah, though not a king, as a prophet of God, did it. The law requires the putting to death of those who came to lead people to worship a false god. And the prophets of Baal did indeed just that. They led people astray and they lied about God and they tried to get them to worship a different god. They were doers of evil and teachers of it too. Their death and punishment is not wrong. It is, in fact, keeping with the law. Deuteronomy 13, 1-5 tells us what to do with those who speak and lead you to other gods other than Jehovah. That they are to be put to death. And the prophets of Baal clearly fall into this category. They deserve death. But the method Jehu uses is not the method that we see prescribed in the law. It's not the method that we see Elijah do. What Jehu does is he uses lying. He again has no problem with breaking the law of God. He fights evil with evil. Yes, the prophets were to be purged and put to death. But Jehu doesn't have a trial and he doesn't find them guilty. He doesn't give them a truth or a chance to repent. What he does is he lies to them to get them where he wants them. He says, Ahab, serve Baal a little. I'm going to serve Baal a lot. We're going to have a great, big, giant worship service to Baal with the king. Come on down. If you don't come, I'll kill you. And he goes through and he says, does everybody have their robes on? Are we all ready for the worship? And he's even there so that there's a sacrifice made, a burnt offering made so that he can see, yep, all these people are really worshippers of Baal. And he goes outside and he says, kill them all. Lock the doors and kill everybody inside. He lies to them to get them where he wants them. And lying is not necessary to fight against the prophets of Baal. Elijah doesn't lie when he challenges the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. There we see the Lord have a clear-cut victory over Baal, where Baal is unable to light the fire that he's proven to be no true God. And all the people of Israel are able to see and decide for themselves which one is the true God. Is it Baal who all day and all night can do nothing, or is it Jehovah when Elijah prays a simple three-line prayer, fire falls down and lights up what's been wet? that's not what you know who does here jay who does here says i worship bail with us all worship bail us all worship bail not kill him he's break the he's breaking the ninth commandment and it's not justified just because the people being lied to or worshipers of bail admitted Makes Jehu's plan very easy to accomplish when he's the king and he lies to everybody. But God does not justify the means by the ends. What Jehu is doing is a sin. And there's no changing that fact. Jehu lies. He sins when he lies to the prophets of Baal in order to slaughter them. And notice also that Jehu only does the first part of what is required. He's willing to turn against Baal, but we don't see him turn to the Lord. Elijah was able to prove that Baal was no true God, but also sacrifice and worship the Lord. Jehu here has no problem refusing to worship Baal. But where is the turning to God? Where is the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ? True repentance is not only turning from sin, but a turning to the Lord Jesus in faith. And that part we never see from Jehu. The Catechism calls that turning from our sin and turning to the Lord Jesus Christ, the dying of the old man and the making alive of the new. The dying of the old man being a heartfelt sorrow for sin, causing us to hate it and turn from it more and more, and making alive of the new the heartfelt joy in God through Christ, causing us to take delight in living according to the will of God. We see plenty of hate from Jehu as he slaughters the prophets of Baal, but we never see him delighting to live according to the will of God. We never see him desiring to follow after God. In fact, we're specifically told he kills the prophets of Baal, but he doesn't worship God as he should. There's still these false images in Dan and the false image in Bethel. Jehu does not worship the one true God. Just because He's against Baal does not make Him for Jehovah. We are told here that Jehu is indeed an instrument of God's wrath in verse 30 where the Lord says, because you've done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. He was indeed an instrument of God's wrath. Through Jehu, the Lord wiped out the house of Ahab. The king and all the lineage that should have come from Ahab are now gone, killed without mercy. The Lord did accomplish His wrath against Ahab through Jehu. We've seen this wiping out of houses in first kings before. It was a common practice in the ancient world. Not exactly a godly practice, but a common one. Sometimes it's hard for us to imagine because we live in a world today where we go to the ballot box and power changes rather peacefully in an election and nobody gets slaughtered and nobody's killed. Praise the Lord for that. We should be grateful and thankful Jehu follows that practice and kills not only Jehoram, who was king of Israel, and Jezebel, his mother, Ahab's wife, but anyone related or descended from Ahab. And such actions made the throne secure for Ahab. He was used by God in doing this to accomplish all that was in God's heart regarding Ahab and Ahab's house. The destruction of the house of Ahab had been predicted and promised by the prophet Elijah, and now it's come to pass through the sword of Jehu. Jehu was the instrument of the wrath of God. After Jehu's anointing in chapter 9, the reader is to have little doubt that it is God who is behind this, that Jehu accomplishes the purpose of God But that is not meant to make us think that Jehu is good. As verse 31, make sure we know, right after we're told that he's going to have his four kids, are going to sit on the throne, because he did wipe out the house of Ahab, just as God wants. He makes sure we know, but Jehu is not careful to walk in the ways of the Lord. And he didn't walk after God. And He continued to sin as all the other kings of Israel had sinned before Him, and walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Because one of the things we're supposed to see here is that our motives matter. Even when Jehu is accomplishing the wrath of God, it does not mean that God is endorsing all the behavior or all the actions that we have just seen Jehu do. God is not endorsing Jehu's lie to the prophets of Baal when he gathers them with the promise of a great big worship service in order to kill them. Jehu is not exempt from the law of God just because he is being used by God. His motives matter. Yes, God gives His family time on the throne, but it's not a reward for their good deeds. It's God acknowledging that Jehu was an instrument of His wrath. But that does not mean that God is happy with Jehu's sin and how He did these things. Hosea 1, verse 4 speaks of Jehu being punished for the sin of Jezreel. which is the place where He struck down the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. This is not a contradiction in the Bible where Jehu is rewarded for it here and punished for it elsewhere in the prophet Hosea. It's only a problem if we read 2 Kings as God saying all of these actions that Jehu has done are perfect and fine. We just confessed this morning that even our best works are guilty and tainted with sin. Jehu was an instrument of God's wrath, but his motives were sinful and wrong. They weren't to bring God glory. They were done for sinful and selfish reasons. And in doing so then, he has sinned. Chapter 9 and 10, I believe, are supposed to be showing us through its word choice that it often uses that Jehu is doing wrong. The subtle little clues like saying Jehu slaughtered 42 persons in chapter 10, verse 14. Or he came out to the servants of his master when he led the rebellion in chapter 9, verse 11. We are to see that God was pouring out wrath upon Ahab, yes, but Jehu is accomplishing it through sinful means himself. And allowing his sons to sit upon the throne is not an endorsement of Jehu nor of his actions. And to remind us of that fact, the truth of who Jehu is still summarized for us, just like all the other summaries we see of the kings of Israel, that he still walked in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. His sinfulness is pointed out and made clear to the reader. Which should remind us that we have seen this phrase many times before. when they did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, or they walked in the sins of Jeroboam. Versions of that phrase are all throughout the books of Kings. All the kings of Israel walk in the sins of Jeroboam. What exactly does that phrase mean? It must be important and it must be something that we are supposed to see if it's repeated so often for us in 2 Kings and in 1 Kings. We're told specifically that it involves those false places of worship that were set up by Jeroboam that there was still in Bethel and Dan golden calves that Jeroboam had set out. And people worshiped there rather than going back to the temple to worship the Lord. That he had set up high places and idols that pervert the worship of God. And so walking in the sins of Jeroboam should remind us that perverting the worship of the Lord is very serious to God. The Jeroboam put up these altars without the command of God. They put up two, and they put up images on those altars, and they said, no longer should you go down to the temple in Jerusalem. Here are two places and two altars to go. Make your sacrifices there. They changed the divine command of worship. The command was you go to Jerusalem and the priests, the Levites who have been set up by God, there they take your offering and they sacrifice it on the altar that God Himself has commanded. And now it's been changed. No, no, we'll go here and we'll go there. And these other people who aren't Levites, they'll do that thing for you. Adding or taking away to God's worship is something that is not allowed. We must see the serious nature of that sin. It's mentioned over and over. Because the people were not allowed to go to Jerusalem to worship. And the law of God said you're supposed to go to Jerusalem to worship, to make sacrifices, was only to be done in the temple. You couldn't create new places. You weren't to do it. These kings, then, have all transgressed the Word of God concerning the worship of the one true God. And ultimately, by not letting them go to Jerusalem, they are rejecting Jesus Christ Himself. We are supposed to see this with regard to the picture of who Jesus is. The temple is a picture of Jesus Christ. The priests are a picture of Jesus Christ. The sacrifices are a picture of Jesus Christ. It was all a picture of the Lord Jesus dwelling with us. It was a picture of Him being the sacrifice for our sin, being that perfect Lamb. It was a picture of Him being the priest, offering Himself as the sacrifice. It was a reminder of His work of intercession. It was a reminder that we were only saved by the blood of the Lamb chosen by God. That the only way to be right with God is the way that God says you have to come be right with Him. We can't make our own way to be right with God. We can't decide there's another way, there's a third way, there's a fourth and fifth way. It's only through Jesus. when Jeroboam and all the kings after him, all the way down to Jehu, leave these false places of worship up and encourage the people of Israel to go there. They're rejecting the picture of Jesus Christ. They're saying, you don't need to go through Christ to be right with God. You can go over here to this. And you can go up there to that. Whichever is more convenient for you. You don't need the Levites and the priests. You don't need the temple of God. He set up rival Christs. And worship is now being done without Jesus. This is no minor mistake or just a political misstep. It's not a small thing to say you can worship God without Jesus. It's a complete and total rejection of the Savior and of the promise. And we see it in verse 31. Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart. He was half-hearted. He was a half-hearted follower of God. He follows God when it helped him. He didn't mind wiping out Ahab for God because that puts him on the throne. He doesn't mind wiping out the prophets of Baal. He doesn't like Baal anyway. Jehu doesn't mind quoting Elijah's prophecy when it serves him. And when it doesn't, he doesn't mind ignoring it. Jehu will follow God when it means he gets to be king, and when it means killing political enemies, and when it doesn't cause any trouble for him, when it's not too much of a burden. But when it means doing something that may cost him power, like allowing the people to go back to worship in Jerusalem and going back to the temple in another country and saying, we've come back to Christ to worship here. No, Jehu's not going to do that. Being a follower with his whole heart was not something that Jehu had an interest in doing. Which means ultimately, Jehu doesn't have a changed heart. Because true conversion consists of that heartfelt sorrow for sin and a heartfelt joy in God through Christ. Jehu does not have this heart. I think some of the applications that we're supposed to see from this passage is that we are supposed to see the importance of God's worship. And that we are supposed to see what we often refer to as the regulative principle of worship. Where we believe that we should worship the Lord only as He has told us to worship Him. We are not to substitute what we think is a good idea for what God has told us to do. God had told the people, you worship in Jerusalem at the temple. And they said, well, that's kind of far. We think Dan and Bethel is a better place. A little shorter trip for us. And over and over again, we're told, and they continue to follow this sin. They continue to walk in this sin. We don't get to change the way the Lord wants to be worshiped. We don't get to change the way that we can approach the Holy God. Sinful man is not to create his own ways to worship the Holy God. It cannot be done. He has told us how to come to Him. And we are to obey and come to Him as He desires. Another thing we're supposed to see is that the ends do not justify the means. It may be right to rid the nation of Baal worship, but that does not mean that we can lie in order to get it done. The Lord cares about the means we use just as much as He cares about the ends that we achieve. Sin is never the answer for sin. Evil is never the way to fight evil. God has told us how to get rid of sin. It's not through lying. It's not through more sin. It's not through doubling down on sin. It's not by replacing one sin with another. Committing a sin in response to our desire to rid ourselves of some other sin. That's not the answer. The answer is repent and turn to Jesus and your sins are forgiven. The answer is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Going to Him and asking for forgiveness and you will be forgiven. The answer to how we fight against sin in our life is trusting in the Holy Spirit, and prayer, and the means of grace to work in our life. That's how Christ wants us to fight against sin. Turning to Him, trusting in Him, trusting in not our physical weapons of the world, but His spiritual armor that He gives us. He wants us to see that our motives matter. that our heart is always the central issue. As I heard Reverend Kingswood say once, and I think I'll steal it here, the heart of the matter is always the heart. Always the heart. Paul tells us and explains this in the New Testament when he's talking about food sacrificed to idols. He says, those who know the truth, those that it makes no difference, you can eat the food no matter whether it's been sacrificed to idols or not, and you don't need to fear whether it's sin. He says, you know the truth and you know it's faith. Receive it with thankfulness from God and it's good. He says, but for the person who's not sure, who thinks maybe this food's polluted and maybe it's bad, in his heart it's the same piece of meat. But he thinks maybe it's not a good idea. For him to eat that food, it's a sin. It's the same piece of meat. For one it's a sin and for one it's not. Because their hearts were different. One knew that it was a gift from God and he could receive it from thankfulness. The other thought it might be evil and did it anyway. Our motives matter. You might even be outwardly obeying the law of God. But if you have a heart that's far from God and is unthankful or selfish, than what you have done is sin. Our motives matter. Which is why we're reminded here about being a half-hearted follower of Christ. Jehu's a half-hearted follower. You can't have a half-hearted follower, a half-converted heart. Whereas Elijah says earlier in 1 Kings, how long are you going to hesitate between two opinions? Pick one. If Baal's God, serve Him. If Jehovah's God, then follow Him. Now don't mistake me here. The half-hearted follower does not mean someone who occasionally doubts or someone who struggles with sin. That's not what the Scriptures are saying here. We all are going to have doubts. We're all going to struggle with sin. All of us. No, half-hearted means someone who doesn't really want it in the first place. We still use that phrase today. He half-heartedly did his chores. It didn't mean he struggled with doubt when he did his chores. It means he didn't want to do them and he didn't do it well. He's a half-hearted in going to work. It means he didn't really want to. He doesn't want to be there in the first place. And he might be going through the actions, but in reality he doesn't care. That's what it means here. Jehu's not someone who's struggling with doubt or struggling with sin. He's someone who doesn't follow God at all. But there's hope. Jehu does not seem to take this hope, but there is hope for us. If you're thanking yourself today, I sometimes might be half-hearted. I sometimes have bad motives. I sometimes do the wrong things. There's hope. Repent and believe. The Lord Jesus is the one who can take away your heart of stone and give you that heart of flesh. He's the one who forgives us when we fail, who forgives us even for our bad motives. He's the one who forgives us in all things. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief is a prayer that our Lord Jesus answers. Help me believe, Lord Jesus. It's a prayer of great faith. It's a prayer that the Lord will hear and that the Lord will answer for you, even this morning. Let us go to Him now in prayer. Gracious Lord, we thank You and we praise You. You are the Holy One. And we confess, Lord, that we are not. That we often fail to follow You as we should. Our motives are often wrong. We often make mistakes. But You, O Lord, can forgive us of those things. You can fix our hearts. And forgive our shortcomings. Forgive our failed motives. Forgive us all the times that we chose sin over You. Through the blood of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven. And so we ask, O Lord, forgive us, we pray. Give us that heart that desires after You, because without You, we cannot do it. Help our unbelief, O Lord. And fill us up with Your love. In Christ Jesus' name we pray, amen.