Okay, 2 Kings 10.1, Ahab had
70 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. You remember Jehu is the one
that was one of the captains of the host of Israel that the
Lord picked out and anointed as king for this very purpose
of what we're fixing to read. He said to those ones who were
raising up Ahab's children, and as soon as this letter cometh
to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and that there
are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armor,
look even out the best and meatiest of your master's sons, and set
him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house.
So he's saying you get ready, we're coming. The
Lord anointed Jehu specifically to destroy the house of Ahab,
and that's what he's fixing to do. Put one of your master's
sons on the throne and let's get after it. But they were exceedingly
afraid and said, behold, two kings stood not before him. How
then shall we stand? You remember Jehu's already eliminated
Jehoram Ahaziah, I may be wrong about
those two, but you remember from our last study, this is not Jehu's
first fight. 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 we'll do all that thou shalt
bid us. We will not make any king. Do thou that which is good
in that eyes." So they're thinking if they just let him rule over
them and not make any stink about it, that
he'll be okay with that, but that's not it. Then he wrote
a letter the second time to them saying, if you be mine and if
you will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men,
your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow
this time." Now the king's sons being 70 persons, that's the
sons of Ahab mentioned in the first verse. The scripture says
sons for grandsons and great-grandsons. I think he would have had grandsons. by this time for certain. Now
the king's sons being 70, they were with the great men of the
city which brought them up. Verse seven, and it came to pass
when the letter came to them that they took the king's sons
and slew 70 persons, put their heads in baskets and sent them
to Jezreel. 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 in of the
gate until the morning. He's making a show of this. He
wants everybody to know that the house of Ahab is finished
in Israel. 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. God had already
prophesied this. For the Lord hath done that which
he spake by his servant Elijah. So Jehu slew all that remained
of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his
kinfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining. 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? And they answered,
we are the brethren of Ahaziah. We go down to salute the children
of the king and the children of the queen. So they were going
to pay homage to Ahab's family. 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. And when he was departed thence,
he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Reca, coming to meet him,
and he saluted him and said to him, is thine heart right, as
my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, it is. If it be, give me thine hand.
And he gave him his hand and he took him up to him into the
chariot. And he said, come with me and
see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his
chariot. And when he came to Samaria,
he slew all that remained under 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. When you first read that, you're
thinking, what is he talking about there? But he's got a little
plan going here. Now therefore call unto me all
the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests,
let none be wanting, for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal. Whosoever shall be wanting, he
shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtlety,
to the intent that he might destroy the worshipers of Baal. And Jehu
said, proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal, and they proclaimed
it. And Jehu sent through all Israel,
and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a
man left that came not. And they came into the house
of Baal, and the house of Baal was full from one end to another. And he said unto him that was
over the vestry, bring forth vestments for all the worshipers
of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments.
And Jehu went, and Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, into the house
of Baal and said unto the worshipers of Baal, search and look that
there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but
the worshipers of Baal only. And when they went, you see there
was blurred lines. There were some in Israel that
worshiped God, they said, but they didn't worship God, just
like now. They say they worship God, they're
not worshiping God, they're worshiping an idol. And so he said, be sure
that everybody here is a loyal Baal worshiper. And verse 24,
they went in to offer sacrifices and burn 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. We start seeing some cracks in
Jehu's armor here. He uses deception to get the
prophets of Baal together, which wasn't really necessary, he's
mocking. And that's, you know, that could be seen a couple of
different ways. You'd have to know more, a little
bit more about the situation to really say that was an evil
thing to do, maybe, but then, He threatens these 80 men and
says, if one of them escapes, you're gonna die in their place.
That doesn't sound right, does it? It's starting to sound like,
and when he said, come see my zeal for the Lord, that sounds
a little boastful and a little bit hypocritical maybe. So we're starting to see that
Jehu's not maybe all he's cracked up to be. 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. And they smoked them with
the edge of the sword and the guard and the captains cast them
out and went to the city of the house of Baal. And they brought
forth the images out of the house of Baal and burned them. And
they break down the image of Baal and break down the house
of Baal and made it a drought house unto this day. Thus Jehu
destroyed Baal out of Israel. He's doing a good thing. He's
accomplishing the will of the Lord, and that's clear. The Lord
even says that here, as we'll see. Verse 29, how be it? 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. You remember that they raised
up these calves. They changed the place of the
worship of God. They changed the manner of the
worship of God, which was very meticulously laid out by God. This is how you're gonna worship
me in every detail. They changed all that and they
made it convenient. They made it convenient for people.
You remember that? 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. So the Lord approved of what
he did. The Lord had prophesied of it. And if you read the account
in Chronicles chapter 22, it says that God anointed Jehu to
cut off the house of Ahab. That's why he anointed him king,
that's it. He had one purpose for Jehu, and he accomplished
it. And the Lord blessed him for
it, at least temporarily. But Jehu took no heed, verse
31, 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. In those days,
the Lord began to cut Israel short, and Hazael smote them
in all the coasts of Israel, from Jordan eastward to the land
of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites,
from Arur, which is by the river Arnon, seven even Gilead and
Habation 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 and they are 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 and Samaria was twenty and eight years so Now the Lord
in his good purpose allows evil to abound in this earth, often
for long periods of time. The house of Ahab, the Lord raises
up one and puts down another. He put Ahab on the throne of
Israel. And the Lord's elect, for by far the most part, were
in Israel and Judah in those days. And the Lord allowed Ahab
and Jezebel and their house to vex his people terribly for a
long time. And so we see that, we understand
that. We bow to God in that. We don't say, well, the devil's
winning. No, the Lord does what he pleases in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? The remnant, according to God's
election of grace, lived in these lands and were led as a nation
by the most openly evil people that ever lived. God does that. God does that. Doesn't mean we have to be partakers
in that. Now, God also, when he's pleased,
gives his people relief from the evil influence and tyranny
of evil men and women. And there are times that he does
that too. What God was done with the house of Ahab and Jezebel,
he was flat done with it. We saw that very graphically
in our text. Jezebel in the previous chapter
was thrown from a high tower, from a balcony. And it was a very bloody thing. and her corpse was eaten by dogs,
and this man Jehu was anointed by God, and the account of this
story in the Chronicles, as I said, says that God anointed him for
that purpose. Whether the Lord saved him or
not is questionable, clearly questionable, and people can
make bold statements about that one way or another, but it's
not the point of the text. It's not the point of the story.
and it can't be known for sure. God anointing a man as king doesn't
mean that he's God's man in Christ, in a saving way. Jehu May well
be an example of that. We can't say 100% that God didn't
save Jehu, but Jehu certainly represents, if you were gonna
say, was Jehu the type of king that was an example to people
and we would want to follow him, you'd have to say no. He represents,
in the language of this chapter, somebody who God used, but who
himself didn't have much use for God. at least in the portion of his
life that's recorded in scripture, and there's no reason whatsoever,
because the point is not to judge Jehu's soul. It's not our business. God gives us these lessons, and
we can learn both of these lessons through the story of Jehu. First
of all, God blesses the honoring of his word. That's what Jehu did now, he
did what God said do, what God sent him to do. Jehu said in
verse 10, know now, and this is strong language now, he said,
know this now, understand something, that there shall fall unto the
earth nothing of the word of the Lord that the Lord spake. Can we learn to be like that
from Jehu? What did Paul say? I determined
to know nothing among you. Not to say a single word except
Christ and what he did for sinners. Not one word shall fall to the
ground of what the Lord spake. He's talking, of course, about
what God said concerning the house of Ahab. But this should
be our attitude and the desire of our heart, not one word. All
that God has said, we will carefully and meticulously take heed to
and act upon, not neglect a single word of it. I've not shunned
to declare unto you the whole counsel of God, Paul said. When
it comes to that gospel of the word of Christ, the gospel of
Christ that's given to us and we're made ministers of, All
of the word of the Lord, like the way Jehu put it here, every
word is Christ, every word concerns God's Son. Believe on Christ,
honor Christ, serve Christ, worship Christ, trust Christ, reject
all but Christ. Our heart's resolve can be an
imitation of Jehu's here, In that very thing, man shall not
live by bread alone, but by how many words? Every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God, not one's gonna fall. May that be the desire
of our heart and the determination of our heart. Here's how the
Apostle Paul described all that has proceeded from the mouth
of God. Listen to, he's talking about all of the word of God
here. Romans 1.1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be
an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Parentheses, the
gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the
holy scriptures. In other words, the gospel of
Jesus, a servant of Jesus Christ unto the gospel of God, that's
the same gospel that the prophets preached. minor and major, that
the great psalmist of Israel wrote of. He expounded the things
in the scriptures from the prophets and the Psalms and all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself. And in parentheses, verse three,
so we'll read it without the parentheses for a second. Separated
unto the gospel of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ. What the
prophets spake of was Jesus Christ. God hath spoken unto us in these
last days by Jesus Christ, our Lord, our owner and the one who
has the power of deciding when it comes to us, which was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to
be the Son of God. You see the two-sided aspect
to that? According to the flesh, the seed of David. but an eternal
glory and power declared to be, not David's son, but God's son.
God's son. According to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead. So you see how that our
story of Ahab and Jehu all has to do only with the glory of
Christ. Now think about this. What did
Ahab corrupt? What did he pervert? The worship
of God. How? by a sacrifice at a mercy
seat, where blood was splashed, where God was sought, where propitiation
was sought through the blood of an innocent victim. By faith,
Abel offered that lamb unto God. And by faith, God's people were
taught to offer sacrifice unto God in a certain place, a certain
way, at a certain time, for the glory of the Lord Jesus. And
when Ahab corrupted that, among others, but nobody in more great
a fashion than Ahab, that was the problem with it. It circumvented
the worship of Christ. It rejected the worship of Christ. It opposed the glory of God in
Christ. That's the problem. the way that God had clearly
and in perfect detail prescribed that Israel was to worship Him,
approach Him, be accepted of Him, all of it exalted and set
forth and appointed to His Son. Every bit of it, the priesthood,
all of the furniture in the tabernacle, the tabernacle itself, the place
of worship, the time of worship, the manner of worship, it was
Christ all through. just like it is now, except not
in picture and type, but in all things, all spiritual
truth. Ahab and all that he did was
an anti-Christ denial of that and an abomination unto God.
And that's why God said, that's enough. He let it happen for
a little while. And he has in many other times
and places in history as well. But our prayer is, Lord, when
is it enough? And that's the way the psalmist
cried, Lord, make it enough. Let's worship you again. Give
us grace to worship you in spirit and truth again. We see God's
jealousy here in this story for the glory of his son. That's
what this is. king is making a marriage for
his son. And there he said, you will honor
my son. You will honor my son. God made
a universe for the glory of his son. And those who are not in
on that are not just expendable. They are annihilated magnificently. As we saw in our story, God is
to be admired and wondered at in his judgments. And we certainly have opportunity
for that in this story. And never forget now, never forget
this, in these Old Testament stories that this didn't happen
just because Ahab was a bad guy. The definition of bad guy in
terms of our text is an anti-Christ hater of God's son and God's
worship by his son. That's what a bad guy is. in
spiritual terms. He hated God's son in his heart,
and he hated him in everything that he did. And God said enough,
just like he's going to at the end of this world. He's gonna
say one final time, enough. We also learn from this text
though, can we learn this too? If we can learn that God's word,
God blesses faithfulness to his word. But we learn from this text also
that verses 29 and 31 are a death sentence. Look at this. 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 there's
something important about those golden calves that we're going
to talk about, Lord willing, in a minute. But look at verse
31 also. But Jehu took no heed to walk
in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. Who
does the Lord say is going to find him? Those that seek after
Him with all their heart. There's not much to our heart.
But when God reveals His Son in us, all of it is gonna worship
His Son. God's people can't compromise
with that. You're not gonna sit somewhere
where they're blaspheming the name of God's Son and be happy.
Can't happen because all of your heart is to the Lord Jesus Christ. Such as it is, pathetic as it
is, you'll seek me and you'll find me when there isn't anything
else but me. And that wasn't true of Jehu. He took no heed to walk after the Lord with all
of his heart. We can learn that here too. We
have to keep in mind that Solomon The scripture says the Lord loved
Solomon. And Solomon was not incapable
of compromise with idolatry we see in the scripture. And our
purpose in studying this again is not to pass judgment on Jehu,
that's not our business. But what is our business is to
learn from this what God teaches in all of his word. Trust in
the Lord with all your heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him.
Jehu had no interest in that. In all your ways acknowledge
him and he'll direct your paths. Your foot won't step wrong outside
of God's grace and purpose for you. You'll never stumble or
fall. There was a lot of politics involved
in those golden calves at this point. And this is important
too. Now, Jehu, no doubt, was swayed by the will. You think about how vehemently,
how just adamantly and just ballistically he destroyed everything that
smelled like Baal and the worship of Baal. And yet he allowed these
golden calves to stand. You know why he did that? There's
just no question about it. Because so many people, and they
claim to worship God. If you go back and look at the
story of how this, this was just to make the worship of God more
convenient for the people. But there were politics involved
in it then. That evil king was afraid if
people went to Jerusalem that their loyalty to him would be
compromised. He didn't want them going to
Jerusalem, so he set up these golden calves in these other
places. There was politics involved, and there was here, no question
about it. There were many that didn't want those calves to come
down. And they said, we're worshiping God, we're just doing it a little
different from other people. Yeah, we've got statues and we
say stupid stuff that doesn't make any sense that nobody even
understands. And we make religious symbols
with our hands and we've got all this finery that doesn't
have anything to do with the worship of God. None of it represents
Christ. But we're just worshiping God
a little different than other people are. They claimed to call on the name
of Jehovah. Just like religion today, they
worship in statues now. They're bowing down in front
of statues and saying, we're not worshiping statues. Are you
kidding me? You're worshiping statues. You're
worshiping men that say that they can forgive your sins and
they've got no ability whatsoever to do that. And it's blasphemy
to claim it. Wake up. They're claiming to worship God,
but nothing could possibly be further from the truth. They call upon the will of man
as the be all end all of all things and say we're worshiping
God. No, you're not. You're worshiping yourselves.
Because that's what people like to hear. And people like those
golden calves. And so he compromised. He didn't
do anything about it. He didn't promote it or reject
it. He just let it happen. Politics play a big role in false
religion too, don't you ever think it don't? Don't ever think
it don't. It's always been the same. Nothing's
changed. There's nothing new under the
sun. And politics is nothing but pleasing
or at least compromising with those who can benefit you. That's
it. I just defined politics. That's
what it is right there. And that is all there is in the
governments of the world now. The words that were written of
King David, where it says King David, David did that which was
right. in the eyes of the Lord and turn
not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days
of his life. It does say, save only in the
matter of your right of the Hittite. So even with David, there's a
nevertheless in there. But you think about this now,
those words about David, he did all that which was right in the
sight of the Lord his whole life. Those words are a relic. You
find me somebody like that now that's in power anywhere in this
world. Even with David there's a nevertheless,
but even kings, rulers of any kind like David don't exist anymore. They don't exist. Don't look
for them. Don't wait on them. God's not
doing that anymore. But what a comfort that God who
was on the throne then, he was pulling all the strings through
this whole thing. He still is, thank God for that.
Thank God for that. When there's an evil king on
the throne, God's pulling the strings. And when there's a good
king, if there ever would be one again, God's pulling the
strings. What a comfort, God can still
turn the hearts of rulers in such a way, though they be evil,
Good or somewhere in between. And you know, I use the word
good relatively. There's none good, no, not one. We know that.
But the Lord talks about good people in the scriptures. And
we know what that is. That's those in Christ. Somebody kind of good, whatever
it is. God turns their hearts and he can turn their hearts
in such a way as to give his people relief. in the form of
common sense and good, outward good rather than outward evil.
Maybe some honesty rather than corruption. We can pray for that. But I'm gonna tell you this,
you know this, God doesn't play politics. There's only one way
to please him. And as our text shows, there
is no compromise in it. no compromise. God is pleased
with his son and knows whom he puts in his son. It doesn't matter
how good the economy is if you don't know God. This is a spiritual lesson, isn't
it? I thank God for relative times of relief. God give us
that in this world, in this country, at least, and around the world. whatever you do in this world. Dwell in our hearts and give
us peace. Show us yourself and your love and power for us. And work in all things for our
good and glorifying yourself. Was God glorified when Ahab was
on the throne? He's God. Was he glorified when Jehu was
on the throne? Was he glorified when David was
on the throne? God's gonna get glory, one way or another, with
or without us now. He's gonna be glorified in his
people, the remnant, according to the election of grace. He's
gonna be glorified in their hearts, and for the mercy that he has
upon sinners like us. It's interesting that what things we can see Jehu
as a godly man in, we can see him as a good example in some
things. You know what it was? Killing, murder, blood, violent
death. And what things Jehu is an ungodly
example in, an example of what not to do, is just nothing. Nothing, isn't that interesting? His problem was doing nothing. Just leaving things as they were. And you know, isn't it so in
that, we see in that that unless you know God, You don't know
good from evil. People don't know right from
wrong unless they know God. A lot of people on the outside
looking in, they'd say, man, he was a bloody man, that's terrible,
he killed all those people. And then there he is, you know,
being tolerant of other religions, you know. That was bad, look
at him, we don't like that. But he's tolerant of other, you
got it completely backwards. Because you don't know God. That's
this whole world. Do you have any idea what God's
doing in this world? If you know him, you do. If you
trust him, if you believe him, you do. I just thought that was
interesting. The only way you could have seen
in this story that the violent killing was good and the leaving
people alone was evil is if you belong to the Lord and have eyes
to see. And so it is now. You have to know
who God is in this world in order to mourn that which should be
mourned and rejoice in that which should be rejoiced in. Everybody
else has it completely backwards. It has to do with knowing the
Son of God now. The death of our Savior is seen
by those who don't know God to be reason to feel sorry for God.
to say, oh, look what he had to go through. People say or
think stupid things like, well, if I'd have been there, I would
have stopped the crucifixion. I've actually heard that. Some
of you know who said that a long time ago. But the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ is the only thing ever to be rightly gloried in. And you're not gonna see that
unless you know him. It's the definition of love.
It's the definition of glory. He said, now I'm glorified, I'm
going to the cross. Now, the Son of Man is glorified. I was to see from God, or I was
to see everything in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ and
his glory and his salvation of his people, his certain salvation
of his people, which is integral to his glory. It's the greatest
expression of His glory. Can we see the world like that?
And the better question is, can we see Him like that? As all-encompassing, as preeminent
in all things. All of that bloodshed and all
the, everybody was going, oh boy, He sure is upset with the
House of Abingdon. They were pretty bad, yeah, you
know. We're in on that, they did some bad stuff. Most people
probably didn't have any idea what God was doing. The nations around certainly
didn't. Can we see Christ as preeminent
in all things? All it had to do with was God's
son. That's what it was over. Can we see him as preeminent
in all things, as sovereign over all things? Point of everything? Do we have eyes to see this?
Look at Colossians one with me. Colossians chapter one. Verse one. Listen to this. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timotheus, our brother,
to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae,
grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ and of the love which you have
to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
wherever you heard before in the word of the truth of the
gospel which is come unto you as it is in all the world and
bringing forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day you
heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. The gospel is
everywhere God sends it for that reason, to bring forth fruit
unto God. It has to do with faith and love
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, verse seven, You also learned
of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful
minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in
the spirit. For this cause, we also, since the day we heard
it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might
be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the
Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,
and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all
might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and
long-suffering and joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life." Sounds like everything we do and everything
we think and everything that's important has to do with Christ,
doesn't it? Verse 13, who has delivered us from the power of
darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature, for by him were all things created. that
are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. Do we see that in
our text? You read that chapter and you
say, what does that got to do with the gospel? That's God ruling
this world for the glory of his son. That's what it is. That's
what every chapter has to do with. That's why God's saving
a people for the glory of his son. That's why he raises up
empires and destroys them. It's for him, it's for, he created
it and he did it for himself. You see that? He did it for him. And he is before all things and by
him all things consist. He's more important than everything
else. Do we live like that? And everything is as it is because
of Him. And He is the head of the body
of the church. What are we doing here? It's all about Him. It's not
about our feelings and our selfishness and pride who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things, all of this, even back when he's
talking about your faith and love and your prayers, your everything,
what you do, all of that is for one purpose, that Christ might
have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. There isn't anything but Him.
All fullness is in Him. Nothing's left out. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things to Himself,
by Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven and you. Aren't you glad to get in on
that? and you that were at one time
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled, he's brought us together with Christ in the
body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. It's all for his preeminence.
All that pertains to you, all that pertains to every created
thing and person is for the preeminence of Christ. And he redeemed some
people with his blood to show his preeminence and glory. Even
me, even us. God raises up one and push down
another and he does it for him. It's by him and it's for him,
it's done. And bless his name. He has tied
his eternal glory to our eternal good. What a blessed unity there is
in his glory and our good. If one of his sheep is lost,
the very glory of God's son is lost. I feel pretty secure in
that, don't you? Jehu's zeal. He said, look at
my zeal. It was a blessing to God's remnant.
If you lived around that in those parts in those days, wouldn't
you kind of have been glad to see Ahab's house done away with
after being vexed under an evil tyrant, godless wretch for a
couple of generations. And God anointed Jehu for that
one purpose. If you ever wonder what God's
doing now, if you ever think, you wonder
what God's doing, what is all this about, whether it's in your
house or whether in his house, whether in your life or in the
whole world, you know what he's doing. You just need to be reminded
like I do. He's glorifying his son and he's
blessing his people. By His grace may we trust Him.
Let's pray.