you to turn in your Bibles now to 2 Kings chapter 10. 2 Kings chapter 10. We'll begin reading at verse 18, reading through to the end of the chapter. You can find it on page 317 in your few Bibles. Listen carefully for what it is, God's word. Chapter 10, verse 18, it says, then Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore, call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers 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 cunning in order to destroy the worshipers of Baal. And Jehu ordered, sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal, so they proclaimed it. And Jehu sent throughout all Israel, and all the worshipers 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. 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. Then Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab, the son of Rakab, and 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. Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed 80 men outside and said, the man who allows any of those whom I have given into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life. So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, go in and strike them down, let not a man escape. So when 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 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 son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin, that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, because you have 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 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, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Arur, which is 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." So far from God's holy word. with your congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Over time, we've taken on some sermons in the life of the prophet Elijah. And most recently, touching on this era, we had read about Ahab's abuse of power and the deceptive murder of Naboth to steal his property. And maybe that's one of the most well-known sins of this era in the scripture. And in that passage, among other things, Elijah confronted Ahab, and we learned about the way that Ahab and Jezebel raced into sin. They were the Formula One racers of sin. At incredible speed, and with purpose and drive, they plunged the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, into more and more sin and idolatry, especially connected with the cult of Baal and Asherah. Nobody had provoked God to anger quite like them. That was the indictment. No one had pushed so much against the Lord quite like them. And so according to God's judgment and his pronouncement through Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel and their whole family would be punished, and not just a little bit, but completely cut off, and in a rather grotesque way, so that they would be eaten by dogs and worms and birds, you know, sort of killed in the most ignoble way and left to rot. That's what God had pronounced on the house of Ahab. And not only that, but through Elijah, God had purposed to use the neighboring king of Syria, Hazael, and a new king in Israel, Jehu, and a new prophet, Elijah, to achieve the judgment and justice that God had decreed. And you remember, those were the three names that God mentioned to Elijah when he was out alone in the wilderness. You're gonna go anoint Hazael, and Jehu, and Elisha, and those who escape from the one will be caught by the other, and those who escape from the two will be caught by the third. And this is God's plan that he set in motion. to achieve His judgment and justice. So now we're focusing in on just one part of that judgment and justice, a rather dramatic part, to be sure, which God accomplished through Jehu. to destroy the idol cult of Baal and to destroy his worshipers and priests. And we note here that King Jehu followed the word of the Lord with blood and cleverness or cunning. He followed the word of the Lord with blood and cleverness, but not with his whole heart. That's sort of the summary we get at the end of the chapter. He followed God, but not with his whole heart. Now this passage lets us into the middle of a deadly plot, and we are, in a manner of speaking, parachuting into it. And Jehu plays his part well. He just made a successful coup against the former king of Israel, Ahab, his former master, and now the people who might not know much about him. Ahab has been the king, and that's been the dynasty. We don't know maybe so much about Jehu. The people who are now Jehu's subjects, they might not know a lot about him, but they do know that he's a deadly, serious man. In other words, he has the power to kill kings. He slaughtered Ahab's family and all the leading men. And in fact, in the last chapter or so, he sat on a throne with a pile of heads on one side of him and a pile of heads on the other side. And that was the platform from which he gave his orders to the people. So you can imagine that while they don't know a lot about him, a man who sits with two piles of heads at the foot of his throne is not a man to be trifled with. And you can read all about it. So you know that bad news travels fast, I would say, even without the internet. So we don't know what was known by everyone about Jehu and his leanings and what he intended to do as a political leader and a king. But that news would have gotten around. And so now when it's time to make his decree and when he has everyone's attention, this is the proclamation. This is his self-description. You want to know what kind of guy I am? This is who I am. Ahab served Baal a little. I will serve him much. That's my self-description. And for some, this is great news and a great opportunity. He uses this understatement in a powerful way. This is like saying Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, they dabbled in computers, but I'm gonna show you what computer science is all about. I'm the computer genius of this age. Michael Phelps, he did a little swimming, but I'm gonna show you what grace in the water, what speed in the water looks like. You know, or the Beatles and Michael Jackson. Yeah, they had a few hits. Some people have heard of them. But I'm going to show you what it's, you know, I'm going to show you what it's like to jam. You know, Ahab with Jezebel's Help. They were the Michael Jackson of bail worship. They had all the moves. They were the best. No one doubted them. They did the dance the best. And Jay, who says, their turn is over, and my moves are better. And this is going to be good. It is a spectacle by way of this understatement. This is going to be good. So anyone who would be thrilled by the spectacle And anyone who has something to gain by the prominence of Baal worship, they're going to want to be there. They don't need to be threatened. But he adds to that spectacle the threat, the threat of fear, the one that also capitalizes on two piles of heads for those who don't want to listen to what I have to say. And the threat is there. to bail worshipers, be here or die, not be here or be there, be square, be here or die, that's your option. This is not a casual gathering. This is so important that as your new king, you'll be completely out of favor with me, the new king of bail worship, if you fail to attend my bail party. And if you want political influence, and if you want political favors, and if you want any kind of benefit from me as king, don't be missing. Come to Samaria, the center of Baal worship, for my great sacrifice." And now, you know, now the trap is, you know, is sort of like it's cranked up and it's ready. The mouse trap is ready to snap. It's full of, you know, that, you know, like buzz of potential energy. My kid was watching a cartoon the other day, you know, and it used to be like stick a dynamite in a cat's mouth and it explodes and that's the cartoon. But now his cartoon was like potential energy. I'm like, oh, this is good. It's informative. Well, this is potential energy. You know, it's ready. It's ready to spring. And the temple is filling up and Jehu continued to play his part really well. We're going to have a great sacrifice. And not only that, but pull out all the stops, get all the right clothes, hand out every kind of celebratory robe and everything we've got. Make it the best it can be. And make sure there's no one here to rain on our parade. No followers of the Lord. This is an exclusively Baal party. And so sift out, even at this last moment, sift out anyone who might love the Lord or want to talk about the Lord. Get them out of here, because this is Baal's party. And if any are here, search carefully. Bounce them out of the club. So now, at the moment of celebration, you know, he's just done the sacrifice and everyone's dressed right and, you know, the event is at its peak. Jehu turns celebration into slaughter. That's the title of this sermon. Celebration becomes slaughter. I cannot imagine. the noise, the screaming, the blood, the fear of so many people who had nowhere to run. Because I can't estimate how many people were there. I cannot imagine. There's an instance, obviously, in the life of Samson, when you have the celebratory moment where all the worshipers of the Philistine God gather into the temple to celebrate their God and to mock their enemies, and they've captured Samson, their great enemy, and he's performing for them, and God destroys them all in the temple. And now you have such a similar event. But in Israel, how many people are there? How many, you know, hundreds, thousands? Multiple thousands? It's not clear. But so many people with nowhere to run. And people say the Bible is boring. I dare say it's because we don't understand what we're reading. Or we can't read between the lines. 80 armored and armed men are charged with the complete annihilation of every last Baal worshiper in the kingdom. It will be life for life. If a man should escape, then the one who let him escape, that man will die. You can imagine that they were ready and the people inside were not. And after they killed everyone who was present, They dragged out all the things that are special to Baal worship, Baal's pillar to burn, they demolished the temple, maybe set parts of it on fire, I'm not totally sure, and it is declared to be a bathroom. Baal's temple has become the bathroom of Baal, and it's a mockery and an insult and a joke, and it's meant to be a sign and a reminder, a place of death, a place of humiliation, a place of desolation. And with that, we can make some important considerations. Why talk about a passage like this? Well, first, everything about this incident reminds us of how God's judgment against idolatry is very severe, very swift, very sudden. God explained the role of Jehu through the prophet in chapter 9, verse 7. I anoint you king. I anoint you king instead of Ahab. And part of the reasoning there is so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of My servants, the prophets. There's vengeance coming from the Lord through Jehu. Vengeance against Ahab, and vengeance against Jezebel, and vengeance against her idolatry, and against Israel that had gone astray. Ahab and Jezebel had cut off true prophets. And without God's help, they would have cut off Elijah and Elisha also. And the apostles taught about this very phenomenon, the way that God reacts to these things. They taught that those who sow in sin reap in destruction. God has a way of bringing swift destruction on those who fight against him. And he paid back bloodshed for bloodshed. because of the idolatry of Ahab and Jezebel. And there's a theme for this that runs through the whole scripture related to the sudden, swift destruction of God against sin, and particularly against idolatry. And you can think of the way that unsuspecting people, as it were, eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, and are swept away by the catastrophe of the flood. And the Psalms and the Proverbs speak often this way about the sudden destruction that comes upon the wicked. One minute, they appear to prosper. Nothing seems to be going wrong for them. But lest we despair, the moment comes where God strikes, and they are suddenly cut off, as if while they're still eating and laughing, and while they're still counting their coins, as it were, they're cut off. In this case, men and women who imagined that they were about to celebrate and sacrifice and feast are suddenly cut off. It couldn't be more drastic. We're dressed for a party. We're dressed for a party. We have no idea the slaughter that's coming. People who hoped they might enjoy the favor of this new king were suddenly disappointed to death, and heads were rolling. People who dress to celebrate and carry on should have been armed and armored, as it were, and they were caught completely and totally off guard, unprepared to meet the swift judgment of God. God continually warns us to pay attention to these early judgments, these minor judgments, little judgments. This is a slaughter ending in desolation. And yeah, it's a little judgment. It's a tiny one. He tells us, he warns us, pay attention to my early judgments. Or we too will be eating and drinking and the food will still be in our mouths and the riches will still be in our pockets and in our houses. And the self-congratulations will still be, we'll still be celebrating and clapping about those. when his judgment arrives, we'll still be making money and drinking and eating and coming and going and buying and selling and marrying and giving in marriage, only to perish suddenly in our way, terribly unprepared, celebrating turn to slaughter. Romans 1 tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed, particularly in Romans 1, against idolatry, particularly against the people who exchange the glory of God for images, particularly for people who exchange the glory of God for a lie. And isn't that the measure of idolatry in our culture? We're living with a worldly mind, we're chasing worldly things, which is idolatrous. to please ourselves and for our own gain and for our own benefit. And we don't count it as valuable to consider the things of the Lord, His divine power and majesty and His sovereignty on display in the world. And so the wrath of God is being revealed. And Paul said in our sermon this morning, He said it was hostility, lawlessness, displeasing to our God that we should live according to that idolatrous pattern, that we should set our minds on the things of this world. But I'm not an idolater and I'll never be caught in a pagan temple, but our whole culture is a pagan temple. And that's part of the problem. Our culture is filled with the superdome of idolatry. Every kind of devotion to sexuality, devotion to wealth and prosperity, devotion to the things of this world. Exchanging the truth for a lie. God's judgment will come just as suddenly and with as much terror to those who pleased themselves and never considered Jesus' words, that those who love me obey my teaching, that those who have any idea what kind of Savior I am will take up their cross and follow me. They will eat and drink of my sacrifice in the cross. they'll humble themselves, repenting and believing in me. And we need to repent of our idolatry and escape God's swift and terrible judgment against the idolater because such a person cannot, will not enter the kingdom of heaven. In the second place, this passage puts a strong end cap on important biblical truth about fulfillment of his word. God keeps his word. He keeps it up close and further on and finally far away and ultimately He wraps it together perfectly and He finishes it. Everything that God said about Jehu came to pass, that He would cut off Ahab's house, that He would cut off and punish so much of the unfaithfulness of Ahab and Jezebel in Israel. Everything that God spoke through Elijah came through about Hazael and about Jehu and about Elisha as yet to come. And we see it unfolding in this chapter. At the very end, it's sort of backwards when it comes to Hazael, the king of Syria, it says that God brought judgment against Israel by just eating off, cutting off a large part of the country. And if you look at that map of Palestine, you would see everything across the river to the east is stolen by him. All the way down, even south of Jerusalem, his influence now extends. And so that's one way that God's people are judged. Their country is stolen from them. And now here we see that Jehu swallowed up Ahab's household and all the leading men and even the Baal worshipers with God's judgment. God did everything that he said he would do through them. Jehu was the instrument of cunning and blood that did exactly what God had decreed. And we read that God rewarded him. for carrying out what was right in his eyes. Isn't that interesting? You might ask someone, you know, who casually reads this passage, you know, God rewards him for that slaughter? God rewards him? This is what God had decreed. It's a judgment from God's hand. And so he goes so far as to give him a four-generation dynasty in the nation of Israel. God fulfilled his word. He fulfilled his purpose. through Jehu. And third, we see a theme that has been common to a handful of our Old Testament sermons. that kings like these, they make us long for a true king, a true leader. Ahab had been an unrestrained nightmare. And with Jezebel's help, maybe he was at the top of the list. Ahab was an unrestrained disaster. He and Jezebel preyed upon the honest and abused their power and stole land and ruined lives. and promoted every kind of wickedness, especially idolatry in the land of Israel. And the land was so given over to wickedness that Elijah said, I'd rather die than deal with this. Can we understand how bad it has to be that a man who speaks with God as a prophet says, I think I would rather die than go on. Things are so bad. That's something for us to consider when we think about emotional exhaustion and the kind of labor that God has in mind for us. It was a very terrible time. And now, here's the problem, or here's something to wrestle with. God sends King Jehu, and are we ready to go, yay? You know, we're saved. Yes and no. He slaughters God's enemies, and there is, in a sense, a sigh of relief. Jehu is zealous for the Lord, and he shed the blood of God's enemies, and he, in a bloody and clever way, crushed idolatry. without pity, but for all of his boldness, he's still to be counted as fickle, as not really having a heart of purity or a heart that is in tune with the things of the Lord, not to the degree that we need. while casting down Baal was a major blow to the number one, maybe, idol cult of Israel, Jehu really didn't seek for perfection and purity. He didn't seek for restoration of true religion. He allowed the golden calves of Jeroboam to stand in the south and the north of the country, and he didn't truly cast down the blended worship. and the high places and the altars of incense and so on under every spreading tree and every stone in Israel. He didn't really cleanse the nation. So God rewarded him, but it's temporary. God gave him a blessing for the zeal that he did show. But it was a long way from whole, it was a long way from complete, his zeal and his devotion to God. Not careful, it says, he was not careful to walk with the Lord in everything and according to his law. And this really then is where we see the power and the glory of Jesus. Jehu attains some relief and glory through bloodshed. But Jesus' glory is shown by the shedding of His own blood. And that's a powerful thing to consider. That Jehu sheds blood, but Jesus sheds His own. And we're delivered by the blood of Jesus. It wasn't enough for Jesus to deliver us only part way either. He's not half-hearted. It wasn't enough that he should suffer a little bit of our curse and leave the rest. We needed Jesus to walk all the way to death for our sake and come out again. And so we see in the two kings that are represented in these passages, you know, Ahab went maybe one step reluctantly when Elijah came through right in his face, God's judgment. Jehu, as it were, drove wildly towards God. He's known for his wild driving, if you read the previous chapters. He drives wildly towards God, but then suddenly he turns, or suddenly he stops. It's fitful. It's not complete, and it's not consistent, and it doesn't lead to perfection. But Jesus, we read in the New Testament, he sets his face toward Jerusalem, and He doesn't turn it. He sets His face toward the cross, and He does not divert, no matter the temptation, no matter the opposition in His way. He went all the way down the path of obedience to achieve perfection, to die on a cruel cross and rise again for our perfect deliverance. Jehu consciously fulfilled many words of the prophet. He was aware of what Elijah had said, And he pointed it out at various points along the way. This is exactly what God said would happen. Now it's fulfilled. And I'm doing this out of zeal for what God has said that he's revealed to me. Jehu often very consciously talked about the fulfillment of God's word in these passages. He said and did specific things to honor what God's prophets spoke. But Jesus went still further. All the law and the prophets carefully and perfectly fulfilled in him to achieve every purpose for which he was sent. Nothing half done. The accounts of the two men, they ring notes of fulfillment. But Jesus goes to a degree that Jehu can't understand in half heartedness. And when we read of God's swift judgments and his lasting testimony. And his purpose to provide a king over his holy people, we know that that the blood and cunning of Jehu, that it served its purpose. But he's not the king that we want. Not ultimately. This isn't a king that we can live with forever. We who know that we too are guilty of idolatry. We who know that we are also guilty of perverted religion before the Lord. And so Jesus, while He brings destruction on those who reject Him, and He does shed the blood of His enemies in judgment ultimately, will do better than Jehu because instead of slaughtering all of them, He will turn many hearts back to the Lord. And that's us. The ones who deserve slaughter for our idolatry. Instead, we're reconciled. Jehu had no power whatsoever to turn the hearts of these people in any direction. He only could deceive and slaughter them. But Jesus, Jesus reconciles so many who were rebellious and makes them whole. And that's a better king for a better kingdom. It's the power that the gospel brings in a way that was never so glorious as before. Power not just to change the outside, but the heart. And it's what makes the New Testament and the glory of Jesus shine in power. It's what shows God's goodness in sending the true King and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Father in heaven, Lord, we see your judgments. We see the power of your wrath against sin. And we're thankful for the message of the gospel that we've heard. and for the power of Christ to take away the judgment against idolaters and to turn the hearts of many towards you again. Lord, we thank you that you have, instead of delivering us over to be slaughtered, that you have turned us from the ways of this world to the way of your spirit. Lord, we pray then that we would, in every way, follow after you with a whole heart so that it would not be said of us These are a people not careful to walk in the way that you have set, but with the power of your spirit and with the testimony of Christ. And we pray that we would stay close to you and that we would finally attain by your grace, the perfection that you desire, the glory that you will achieve for us. and give to us upon the return of our Savior Jesus Christ. So Lord, draw us to you and bring us safely to that day, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.