2 Kings chapter 10. If you're using a Pew Bible, you'll find this starting on page 516 and going through to page 518. And so 2 Kings chapter 10, we'll be reading this chapter in its entirety. Second Kings chapter 10, my friends, listen now to the word of God. Now Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria and Jehu wrote and sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders and to those who reared Ahab's son saying, Now, as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and weapons, choose the best qualified of your master's sons, set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house. But they were exceedingly afraid and said, look, two kings cannot stand up to him, how then can we stand? And he who was And he who was in charge of the house, and he who was in charge of the city, the elders also, and those who reared the son sent to Jehu saying, we are your servants. We will do all you tell us, but we will not make anyone king. Do what is good in your sight. Then he wrote a second letter to them saying, if you are for me and will obey my voice, take the heads of the men, your master's sons, and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow. Now the king's sons, 70 persons, were with the great men of the city who were rearing them. So it was when the letter came to them that they took the king's sons and slaughtered 70 persons, put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him at Jezreel. Then a messenger came and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning. So it was in the morning that he went out and stood and said to all the people, You are righteous. Indeed, I conspired against my master and killed him. But who killed all these? Know now that nothing shall fall to the earth of the word of the Lord which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab. For the Lord has done what he spoke by his servant Elijah. So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests until he left him none remaining. And he arose and departed and went to Samaria. On the way at Bira Eked of the shepherds, Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and said, who are you? So they answered, we are the brothers of Ahaziah. We've come down to greet the sons of the king, the sons of the queen mother. And he said, take them alive. So they took them alive and killed them at the well of Beth Eked, 42 men, and he left none of them. Now, when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, coming to meet him. And he greeted him and said to him, is your heart right? As my heart is toward your heart. And Jehonadab answered, it is. Jehu said, if it is, give me your hand. So he gave him his hand and he took him up into the chariot. Then he said, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. So they had him ride in his chariot. And when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke to Elijah. Then Jehu gathered all the people together and said to them, Ahab served Baal a little, Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests, Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live. But Jehu acted deceptively with the intent of destroying the worshipers of Baal. And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. So they proclaimed it. Then Jehu sent throughout all Israel, and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. So they came into the temple of Baal, and the temple of Baal was full from one end to the other. And he said to the one in charge of the wardrobe, bring out vestments for all the worshipers of Baal. So he brought out vestments for them. Then Jehu and Jehonadab the son of Rechab went into the temple of Baal and said to the worshipers of Baal, search and see that no servants of the Lord are here with you. but only the worshipers of Baal. So they went in to offer sacrifices and burn offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself 80 men on the outside and had said, if any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escapes, whoever lets him escape, it shall be his life for the life of the other. Now it happened as soon as he had made an end of offering the burn offering that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, go in and kill them, let no one come out. And they killed them with the edge of the sword. And the guards and the officers threw them out and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal. And they brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them. And they broke down the sacred pillar of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump to this day. Thus, Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel. However, Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. That is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan. The Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well in doing what is right in my sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, your son shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart, for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam who had made Israel sin. In those days, the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel and Hosea conquered them in all the territory of Israel from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, including Gilead and Bashan. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, 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 rested with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria. Then Jehoahaz, his son, reigned in his place. And the period that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was 28 years. Well, indeed, amen. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, this Chapter here, chapter 10, is a continuation from chapter 9. Both cases we're using as the theme, God cleanses his people by wiping out the house of Ahab. God cleanses his people by wiping out the house of Ahab. But you know, if chapter 9 was bloody, this chapter is really bloody, is it not? And it's going to cause us to think, then, what exactly does that mean? What does that mean in terms of ancient Israel? What does that mean in terms of us? Now, one of the themes that we have here in this chapter, as we will see, is genuineness in religion. Wherein does genuineness in religion consist? What does it mean to be genuinely committed to the Lord? And how does one lay hold of the truth? Indeed, is zeal in one particular, in one particular matter or several particular matters, is zeal in one theme, one idea that we have, one thing that we want to pursue, is zeal in that one particular sufficient to demonstrate genuineness in religious matters as a whole. This chapter will address that issue. Now more than giving us moral lessons, however, this chapter is the continuation of the story about Jehu and the destruction of Ahab's house. In chapter 9, as we recall from last week, Jehu was anointed to be king over Israel, He thereupon killed King Joram of Israel, and at the same time mortally wounded King Ahaziah of Judah, the nation of Judah, and at the same time killed Jezebel, that wicked Jezebel, the wife of Ahaz. So as we look at chapter 10, then, the first thing we see is Jehuz carrying out of the divine edict, the divine decree. And he does so in terms of dealing with Ahab's 70 sons. Notice what is going to happen to them. By the way, he sort of challenges these elders and those who were in charge of Ahab's sons. He challenges them and says, look, You know, since verse two, your master's sons are with you, you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons, choose the best qualified of your master's sons and set him on his father's throne and fight for your master's house. Now, he wasn't really hoping they would do that, of course. He was challenging them, if you will, and reminding them of what he had done. And in point of fact, they became very afraid. Verse 4, two kings couldn't stand up to him. And therefore, as a result, he says to them as they respond, verse 6, he wrote a second letter, if you are for me and will obey my voice, take the heads of the men, your master's sons, and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow. Come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow." Okay. Now notice then that the king's sons, So notice what happens then. Notice what happens in terms of the 70 sons. Their heads are taken off from them. Decapitation. Now, were these elders of Jezreel, were they righteous? Well, in one sense, no. They were merely kowtowing to power and authority. And yet God is the one who is righteous and used their wickedness to carry out his justice. He used their wickedness to carry out his justice. And so we have the decapitation of the sons, the 70 sons of Ahab. Not only that, but we also see, we also see in verse 11, that Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests until he left him none remaining. This is totally wiping out Ahab, his house, and all those that were affiliated with him. And then we have the story of the Brethren of Ahaziah, the Brethren of Ahaziah. These, of course, were branches of the house of Ahab, having descended from Athaliah, whom we'll look at, Lord willing, next week from chapter 11. We see then, in terms of them, they were branches of Ahab's house descending from Athaliah, They were tainted with the wickedness of Ahab's house. And they were linked by affection with Joram and Jezebel. And as a result of these things then, as a result of these things, they too were killed by Jehu. They too were killed by Jehu. And then we come to the worshipers of Baal as part, again, part of the judgment that Jehu is laying out here, is meeting out here. Notice the worshipers of Baal. And here we have the story of Jehonadab, of Jehonadab, who, by the way, is a godly man, a good man, And there's the importance we see here of having the friendship of a good man. He was well respected. He had a godly seed. He had a godly seed. And therefore, Jehu was wanting to affiliate with him. But at the same time, we need to recognize that Jehu had to ask of himself, is my heart right? Am I? sincere with God. Yes, it's good that he wanted to affiliate with Jehonadab, but that does not mean that Jehu was in a right relationship with the Lord. Then we have this very interesting story. Again, we talk about the bloody nature of this chapter. We have this in terms of the destruction of the followers of Baal. There is total destruction of Baal's worshipers and everything associated with it. And you'll notice here that Jehu, notice what it says here in verse 19, Jehu acted deceptively with the intent of destroying the worshipers of Baal. He said, we're going to proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. We're really going to worship Baal here. We're going to have a great worship service for Baal. And why did he do this? In order to distinguish between the ones who were going to follow Baal and the ones who were going to follow Yahweh or the Lord. As a matter of fact, in verse 23, Jehu says, search and see that no servants of Yahweh are here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal. So we're going to have this burnt sacrifice. Everyone's going to be dressed up in his funny little garments and investments and so forth. We're going to have this worship service so that those who are really committed to Baal can be all gathered together in order that they can be wiped out. And that's exactly what happens here. They are wiped out. This, of course, is divine justice. And not just justice, but also what we call, let me use a fancy term, iconoclasm. Isn't that a great word? So, an icon, an icon is like an image. And of course, we have images in terms of church history, images of Mary that are worshipped, images of Jesus that are worshipped and so forth. All these things, of course, are improper. But of course, there are also icons of false religions as well. And so everything then, including the images and the temple, everything was being destroyed. Everything was being cut down and burned. And not only that, did you notice what it says here in verse 27? And they broke down the sacred pillar of Baal. So they're destroying the temple there, tore down the temple of Baal, and made it a refuse dump to this day. So it's not just a garbage dump. This is the latrine, if you will. One minister, PCA minister, Chip Byrd, in his title of a sermon he preached on this text, said, from temple to toilet. And that's the point. From temple. And the grandeur of it. And all of those wonderful things in that building being destroyed and being set apart to be the toilet. That is God's judgment. this false worship. So you would think as you come to the end of chapter 10 that God is going to commend Jehu and measure he does, does he not? But now there's a twist at the end which shows that there's a problem with Jehu. Despite all the good things that Jehu did, he was not perfectly following the Lord. So we come then to Jehu's imperfect following of Yahweh. He was walking in the sins of Jeroboam, the first king of those ten northern tribes of Israel, what was the point? Why was every king of those northern tribes of that nation, why was every king, even Zimri, who ruled for only seven days, condemned? Because they were idolaters. That's why. Even though they wanted to worship Yahweh, just like the golden calf back in the book of Exodus, it was worshipping of Yahweh, not a false god, but it was worshipping the true and living God in a false way. And so walking in the sins of Jeroboam by means of worshipping with these golden calves. And as a matter of fact, not only that, but notice in verse in verse 29, Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan, from one end of the nation to the other. And notice verse 31, but Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. where he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam who had made Israel sin. Not walking in the law of the Lord with all his heart. You see this matter of the heart is both internal and external. It's both internal and external. Jehu did not have the right attitude and as a result it showed that he didn't truly have faith. But notice that the way in which the attitude is revealed is by action. We are not disembodied spirits. We act upon that to which we actually are committed to. And we see here, therefore, the necessity of iconoclasm, of the destruction of icons, the destruction of idols across the board. It is not simply a matter of getting rid of the idols that don't appeal to us. It's a matter of wiping out all the false religion. Not only the worship of false gods, but worshiping the Lord improperly as with the golden calves. See, it's not good enough to aim for a six or a seven. 50%, 60%, 70%. That's what Jehu wanted to do. You have to aim for 100%. And so we see then the Lord's judgment, verse 32. In those days, the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel. All of the trans-Jordan area, that is to say, all of the area, all the land of Gilead, all of that eastward, on the other side of Jordan from where the bulk of the nation of Israel was, was overrun by Hazael, this man that we've this Syrian that we've already made reference to in the past, who murdered the king and took over as king himself. And so he then started the judgment that wouldn't be completed for another hundred years or so, but even in those days, as God's judgment, he started to cut off parts of Israel. Notice also that Jehu's family ruled only to the fourth generation. In other words, it was not forever as with David. It was the fourth generation, which was, in terms of the kings of Israel, was fairly long as a dynasty. I think perhaps the longest dynasty. But nevertheless, his reign, his dynasty, was going to be destroyed. Well, let us apply this in several ways. First of all, wherein lies a family's strength? Let's pay heed to that. Wherein lies a family's strength or a nation's strength? It is not in numbers. Indeed, as we see here, all 70 sons could be destroyed at once. rather it is in having a godly seed. Psalm 112 says, praise the Lord, blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in his commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth, the generation of the upright, the generation of the upright, those that come afterwards. will be blessed. And so let us pay heed then to where in a family's strength lies. Secondly, beware, beware of a lack of genuineness or lack of consistency in religious matters. Beware of a lack of genuineness or lack of consistency in religious matters. Now here it's easy, is it not, to point out the inconsistency of liberal do-gooders and here we're thinking especially in a church setting. We can think of liberal denominations and churches that are very good at feeding the hungry and building houses that indeed or we could say engage in interfaith dialogue for the sake of understanding or boycott restaurants over tomato picking practices, which has actually happened in the past. And so it's easy to take pot shots, if you will. But one of the things we need to recognize in terms of that From where did the social gospel come? How did it come in the church? How did it arise? It arose from denominations and churches that at one time were committed to the gospel. Or we could say it this way. From where did the social gospel come? It came from evangelicals who forgot the gospel. which is why it's so important for us to be grounded in the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. But what about those that are conservative groups as well? Are they in danger also? Are we in danger? Well, there is the danger, for example, of putting mission over theology. There are those in the church today who would say we must be zealous in doing something about the situation around us. Well, yes, that's a good thing. But most importantly, we must be concerned with all of the law, with all of the word of God, and make sure that whatever we do is grounded upon the truth, even as we had the prayer request today. as we had the prayer request, in terms of those who would, our world leaders who need to act according to the word of God. Even so, it is true here. We must be concerned with all of the law, all of the word of God. There's also the danger, and I alluded to this before, there's the danger of isolating one aspect of truth above another. For example, in terms of the doctrine of the church, we can think of purity of worship. That's a good thing. That's an important thing. That's a necessary thing. Our church polity must be correct, the way we govern ourselves. And indeed, Presbyterian and Reformed theology itself. And yet, at the same time, at the same time, we can lose to use the wording of scripture, we can lose our first love. What about societally? We can talk about cultural reformation and reconstruction, or even pro-life activities, and yet again, if we do not have a full awareness of what the law of God requires, and what it requires of us individually, as well as corporately, we can miss the vote. or family issues. Caring for one's family financially, that's a good thing. Headship issues, that's, well, that's an important matter, is it not? And even the education that we give our children. Some folks are very interested in homeschooling, and that's great. But yet there is the danger nonetheless of isolating one aspect of truth and not being consistent. In each of these matters one could so focus on that matter, yet neglect perhaps weightier matters. We could be so concerned about public worship and forget that we need to have that based upon our own personal piety, our family, and our private worship. We could be so concerned about how the church is governed to the neglect of love. We could be so concerned about reformed theology in the abstract without being humbled at the same time. We could be so concerned about societal transformation but not for kingdom reasons but for humanistic reasons. We could be so concerned about family issues while not understanding the importance of the nature of the church. And we could be haughty and self-righteous while harboring pride and lust. You see, Jehu's zeal in destroying Baal and turning that and slaughtering those people and turning the temple into a latrine, into a toilet, was good, but it was not sufficient. The Lord is clear in warning against hypocrisy and that's why we read today Jesus's words from Matthew 7. These words should should grab hold of all of us in which he says Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice iniquity or lawlessness. And even, I mean, we think of the Apostle Paul. Who in the world, who in the world would ever question the Apostle Paul and his devotion to Christ? And yet in 1 Corinthians 9, he exhorts us, run the race in such a way that you may obtain the prize. Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate, exercises self-control in all things. to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified, or in the words of the King James, lest I myself be a castaway. And so beware of hypocrisy. Beware lack of genuineness or lack of consistency in religious matters. And then thirdly, remember that the key, the foundation is found in the gospel itself. It's found in the gospel itself. Love for the Lord is the motivating factor. This is what it's all about. Love for the Lord is the motivating factor. You read on the law in Psalm 119, in Psalm 119, and you read all throughout it. Verse two, blessed are those who keep his commandments, who seek him with the whole heart. Verse four, you have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. Verse five, oh, that my ways were directed to keep your statutes. Verse 10, with my whole heart, I have sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Verse 20, my soul breaks with longing for your commandments at all times. Verse 47, and I will delight myself in your commandments, which I love. You see, it's keeping the whole law, but it's keeping it with the whole heart for the right reasons, and particularly out of love for the one who is the lawgiver. Trust in the Lord is necessary. We, you know, we do not know why Jehu was zealous in destroying Baal worship. We're not sure why, but we do know this. that he was not trusting in the Lord, but in his own strength. Even a good thing or act can be or can become idolatrous. And that's why we are directed to the Lord again and again and again, we are directed to the Lord. Verse 73 of Psalm 119, your hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Verse 94, I am yours, save me, for I have sought your precepts. And remember then in this regard, that's not just the necessity of having faith, but the object of our faith, is the Lord Jesus himself. We mentioned last week that Jehu is a type of Christ. He's a type of Christ. He's called the Anointed One. He's a type of Christ. He's a model pointing forward to the Christ. But my friends, Jehu does not satisfy divine justice. Unlike Jehu, Jesus is perfect. He is the perfect avenger with perfect zeal. John 2, when he clears out the money changers there in the temple, it is said of him, quoting Psalm 69, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. I'm so concerned to serve thee, O my father, with everything that I have, with all that I am. And of course, Jesus can do that perfectly because he is God. and perfect man. He is therefore, the Lord Jesus is perfect. In that regard, he's the perfect avenger with perfect zeal, unlike Jehu. Unlike Jehu, Jesus does not disappoint us. Unlike Jehu, Jesus is our savior who by his righteousness vindicates us in his judgment of those who are outside of him. Jesus is the desire of all nations. And by failing to do what he should be, Jehu was showing God's people that the true anointed one must come. And my friends, it is in him that we must trust. We must submit to Him. We must love Him who is zealous with a holy zeal, who is zealous for us, for our salvation, but my friends, who is also zealous in the destruction of all His and our enemies. He is the one in whom we must trust. Amen. Will you please stand for prayer? Now, Father, we pray for thy grace. We pray for thy word to be applied to our hearts. We pray that we might see the vindication. Not simply of ourselves, but the vindication of King Jesus. In our own lifetime. And indeed, Father, we pray that the Lord Jesus would continue to ride on his white charger out of heaven, the sword of the Spirit coming out of his mouth to slay all of his and our enemies. So be pleased, Lord, to accomplish all these things. In Jesus's name, amen.