The Bible, sir, would be pleased
to 2 Kings chapter 10. I'm going to read from verse
12 through the end of the chapter. And he, that is Jehu, arose and
departed and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing
house, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah. And
he said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the
brethren of Ahaziah. And we've gone down to salute
the children of the king and the children of the queen. And
he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive. And
he slew them at the pit of the shearing house. even two and
forty men, neither left he any of them. And when he was departed
thence, he lighted upon Jehonadab the son of Rechob, coming to
meet him. And he saluted him and said to
him, Is thine heart right, as mine heart is right with thy
heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is,
if it be. If it be, he said, Give me thine
hand. And he gave him his hand, and
he took him up in him in a 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 was come to Samaria, he slew all that
remained unto Ahab in Samaria, until he destroyed him according
to the saying of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. And Jehu
gathered all the people together, and said unto him, Ahab served
Baal a little, But Jehu shall serve him much. Now, therefore,
call unto me all the prophets of Baal, and his servants, and
all the 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. Jehu
said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed
it. And Jehu sent throughout all Israel. And all the worshippers
of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not.
And they came into the house of Baal. And the house of Baal,
it was full from one end to the other. And he said to them, there
was over the vestry, bring forth vestments for all the worship
of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments.
And Jehu went and Jehonadab the son of Rehab into the house,
or sent rather, went and Jehonadab the son of Rehab 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 to the other
offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed four score men
without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into
the hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for
the life of him. And it came to pass, as soon
as he had made an end of the offering, the burnt offering,
that Jehu said unto the guard and to the captains, Go in and
slay them, and let none come forth. And they smote them with
the edge of the sword. 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. They break down the image of Baal, break down the house
of Baal, and made it a draft house unto this day. Thus Jehu
destroyed Baal out of Israel, howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam,
the sons 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. The Lord said unto Jehu, Because
thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes,
and hast done it of the house of Ahab according to all that
was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall
sit on the throne of Israel. But Jehu took no heed to walk
in the law of the Lord, the Lord God of Israel, with all his heart.
For he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made
Israel to sin." Let us pray. Our Father, we praise You and thank You that
in Your Word we get a clear picture of your hatred for idolaters, of your willingness to punish
them. But we are thankful also that
we who were former idolaters fell under thy longsuffering. And in that longsuffering, you
brought us salvation by Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, that you
are a just God and a Savior. We know you could not accept
us on the basis of any merit we had, for we had none. We had
no works to offer thee, no kind thought toward thee. In fact,
our heart was at enmity with thee. We thank you in your great,
gracious, wondrous covenant of grace that you sent your Son to die
the death we owed you. and to be buried and carry our
sins away, and be raised to our justification and ascend to your
right hand for our protection. And we thank you, Father, that
such a thing took place. For no matter how great a man
might be, it could have never thought of such a thing. Only
the great wisdom of God could fix it where you, Father, came
down to this earth in the person of your Son. and actually died
unto Yourself and satisfied Your own justice, exacting full execution
of justice upon Your Son, punishing Him for our sin. And then our
Lord Jesus Christ willfully, voluntarily, and wonderfully
gave up His life, for that was the debt that we owed. We're
thankful that we can sing songs like we just sang, Blessed Assurance.
and sing songs about the glory of what Christ accomplished. That He set us free from sin
that has already counseled on the cross of Calvary. We pray,
Father, for those of our company who are sick. We remember especially
Dave as he's again suffering under this. We remember Ralph
as he's picked up a cold this week. We pray, Father, for uh... gary at the lost of his mother
for jim bird as he prepared for these operations also for pat
swaney mass lord of the doctors might be able to come up with
something will cause this prefer the others of our company was
sick going through trials would remember wayne and laverne henry
ralph and jenny were all suffering from various illnesses We ask,
Lord, that you be with them and watch over them. We pray for
ourselves tonight, Father, that you might be pleased to cause
us in our hearts to worship you as we consider your greatness
and your justice. But also, Father, to take an
honest look at ourselves. As though Jehu acted in the name
of the Lord and did what the Lord had commanded, he still
retained an idolatrous heart. May it not be so with us. We
desire to do your service and do your will. We want it to be
with a heart for Jesus Christ and not for some man-made idol.
Help us, Lord, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Our Lord used means which men
would not always agree with to do His bidding. Cyrus was used
to deliver Israel. The Lord spoke of Cyrus, though
he was speaking spiritually of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he
spoke of Cyrus in Isaiah, I believe it's chapter 41 or 42, Behold
my servant, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. He was talking
about Cyrus, who delivered Israel from Babylon. But Cyrus died
an idolater. The history of Cyrus was, and
it's in libraries where you can read it, where he surrounded
himself by his pagan priests as he left this world and entered
the next. And here we have an example of
God using a man, raising him up to be a king, raising him
up to be his own sword of vengeance, and then telling the truth about
him in the end. The title of my message tonight
is, How Be It? For that one little word changes everything in this
passage of Scripture. The events that transpire in
Judah's final push here against the house of Ahab are clearly
defined in the passage that we just read. The sword of vengeance
is swift and sure, and Ahab and the God he worshipped are on
borrowed time. He doesn't know it, neither does
his descendants, and Baal doesn't know anything because he's just
a stolen god. God's long-suffering has afforded
them ample time to live in the lap of luxury, but also ample
time for repentance. But their time was used to fill
up their iniquity and become as fatted beasts primed for the
slaughter. That's how they used the time that God had given Him.
And Jehu first meets with the kinfolk of Ahaziah in verses
12 through 15. We read, These folks said they
were headed to pay homage to the children of the king and
the queen. Exactly who is meant by the children
of the king and queen is not really stated. It could have
meant A.S.I. and Jezebel or Joram and his
queen. The fact that they stated their
plans so freely, however, suggests that they were unaware that A.S.I. and Jezebel were both dead because
they were going to go offer praises to them. The fact that they stated
their plans so freely suggests that they were unaware of that.
Jehu killed all 42 of these men that were going down to offer
homage to the king and the queen. And then he tossed their carcasses
in the pit of the shearing house. In Jeremiah 23, verses 1-3, our
Lord speaks of His pastors who shear His sheep, but don't take
care of His sheep. And this is where the carcasses
of these 42 Israelites were. They were tossed down into that
pit of the shearing house. And this is an appropriate end
in that the house of Ahaziah had sheared the sheep of Israel
and had not fed them, had led them further into idolatry. And
now they are cast into the pit where the filth was washed from
the fleece. Then in verses 16 through 28,
Jehu, after finishing off the house of Ahab in verse 17, and
it's just simply stated that way, He finished off the house
of Ahab. The rest of Ahab's house is gone.
All of Ahab's descendants are dead. He goes after the prophets
of Baal. These men have a rich history
in God's book. We meet them on Mount Carmel
where they cried day and night beginning at sunrise, the beginning
of a sunrise surge. Remember Baal, their god, was Nimrod renamed after he died. Nimrod, who tried to build the
house of Babel or the Tower of Babel to reach to God, was talking
about human merit and human ability. God confounded the language.
After Nimrod died, he was married to a woman named Semiramis. After
he died, they appropriately named him Baal, the sun god. And they worshipped him at sunrise
when he would come up and they were worshipping Nimrod. Several
years later, Semiramis found herself pregnant, gave birth
to a son named Tammuz, and they said, he is the son of God. Baal
had visited me in the night and got me pregnant, and now I have
the son of God. His symbol for his priesthood
was the cross. This is all early, early pagan
religion. The prophets of Baal on Carmel
had cried day and night, and God didn't send down fire from
heaven. And Elijah, you remember, took
the buckets of water, 12 of them, and poured them on the sacrifice
under the ditches, and called on the Word of the Lord in one
of the most beautiful prayers that's ever been prayed in all
of Scripture. If you want to look at that,
hold in your place, turn back to 1 Kings chapter 18. I often read this before I come
over here to preach. Or when I'm at a conference,
I'll sit down on the front pew waiting for my turn and I'll
read this passage of Scripture. In verse 36, it says, It came
to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that
Elijah the prophet came here and said, Lord God of Abraham
and Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou
art God in Israel, that I am Thy servant, and that I have
done all these things at Thy Word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me,
that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and Thou
hast turned their heart back again. I can't think of a more
beautiful, short, concise, wonderful prayer than that prayer right
there. Show up, show yourself for who you are, and let people
know who you are. And let them know what I'm saying
here is because that's what you told me to say. There's hardly
anything better than that. We see the prophets of Baal there.
We see the prophets again of Baal when Micaiah was called
out of prison to tell the truth about Jehoshaphat and Ahab going to
Ramoth Gilead where Ahab would die. There the prophets of Baal
lied again. They were liars. And now Jehu
is going to deal with the prophets of Baal. It is interesting to
note that this was not in the command of God for him to do
this, but we can respect the fact that Ahab's house worshipped
Baal, and he thought, well, I'm here, I might as well get this
done too. And so he does. He does that. He goes after the
prophets of Baal and after their God. He hatches a plan to fool
the whole outfit by lying to the prophets and their servants.
He says, you think Ahab served Baal, he served him a little
bit, I'm going to serve him big time. And of course the prophets
of Baal just loved that. They thought that was a great
thing. In all probability these false prophets had not heard
of the demise and dismemberment of their greatest supporter and
advocate and staunch political ally, Jezebel. Had they known,
they would not have so readily agreed to Jehu's covert scheme. Jehu played to their religious
ego. part of which was to gain political power, some kind of
power. The reason is religion without
Jesus Christ, since it is void of true power, which is the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The gospel is the power of God and the salvation everyone
believes. Because of that, religion often seeks alternate sources
of influence by which it can exercise control over people.
Fear, of censure, fear of punishment, promise of reward, bringing people
under the law or under personal local convictions. These are
ways that men assume power and control people's lives. And that's
what religion wants. The reason it wants it is because
it doesn't have power. Those who believe the gospel
and those churches that are gospel churches have the power of God.
Now they don't have it that they can suddenly go out and use it
in some fantastic manner. They have it in words as they
preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men are brought
to Christ and men are sealed in their doom when the gospel
is preached. Jehud declares his allegiance with Baal in a most
grandiose manner. He says, I'll serve him better
than Ahab ever did. That's in verse 18. He lied with
the zeal and the charisma of an evangelist. The bold-faced
prevarication worked like a charm when Jehu told the false prophets
that he was going to institute an enormous worship, worship
service for Baal and offer great sacrifice to that false deity.
It was a boon to the false prophets as the nod that the king gave
them to their mind, he gave them legitimacy in Israel. How many preachers have got some
kind of legitimacy because some politician or powerful person
shook their hand and got a photo op for it. I will never forget
a picture I saw of Jim Jones shaking hands with the President
of the United States and several senators, even the senator whom
he later killed once shook his hand and said he was doing a
wonderful job. It gave him legitimacy and that's what these prophets
of Baal want. They want legitimacy. Jehu even made it a matter of
life and death. By as much as saying, who is
on Baal's side, show up for the gala on pain of death, deny that
Baal is God by your absence. Then in verse 20, Jehu commands
the prophets to proclaim a solemn assembly. This proclamation was probably,
more than likely, properly a sanctification of a day, or setting apart of
a feast day of total Baal worship. And on that day there was no
work to be done, all turned out to be just a mockery of the Sabbath
of God, which is the rest of God in all eight Sabbaths. It was a mockery of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every prophet and his servant
attended the worship service. All of them. It was a packed
house. Probably wasn't a dry eye in
the house, as people say. They couldn't hit the altar because
they covered the altar. They were all around the altar.
Perhaps they covered their altar with tears, as the Lord said.
But the place was packed to the brim with those who came out
of love for Baal or either fear for their own life And the original
language suggests that they were shoulder to shoulder. The whole
house was packed. Literally, it's mouth to mouth.
Suggesting a single voice in praise of Baal. Everybody was
on board on this thing. Jehu had done it in subtlety.
He was going to kill them all. But until that time, since they
didn't know it, they were joining in on the party. And it was a
grand old time hadle by all. Then Jehu ordered that the vestry
be visited and the proper Baal worship robes be issued to everyone
there. The reason being the robes of
Baal worship are usually white as snow, showed blood well when
it dripped down on it, but they were different from the robes
of Israel as they worshipped. This further distinguished the
attendants from the worship of the true God. He even sent in
Jehonadab. Now Jehonadab was a descendant
of Jethro, who was Moses' father-in-law. And he was a pious man. He was
a very pious man. We see him introduced in verse
23. not introduced, but he was asked
to go in. It said, Jehu went in and Jehonadab
the son of Rahab into the house of Baal and said unto the worshippers
of Baal, Search and look out that there be here in none of
you the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only.
Jehonadab went in to see with Baal, rather with Jehu to see
if there was anybody he knew that might be a worshipper of
God which had fallen under the curse here that Jehu would put
out. We want to make sure that there were no worshippers of
the true God present. And there are two reasons for
this. First, it added to the ruse. It made the Baal worshipper
feel superior in that only true worshippers of Baal were in the
crowd. You bunch of Hebrews that worship God, you can't come in
here. This is Baal worship. This is Baal worship. Secondly,
Jehu wanted to make sure that there were no children of God
there. Because the Great Gathering was not for worship but a bloodletting. And not that of sacrifice and
burnt offering, though that was offered, the sacrifice that day
was still going to be the blood of these men, these prophets
of Baal. And when the festivities were
in high gear, after the offering had been made, Jehu sent in eighty
swordsmen right into the middle of the crowd to slaughter them
all and let none escape. And just in case one of his men
let somebody escape, he says, if you let somebody escape, I'm
going to kill you. So nobody escaped that day. I don't know
how many were killed. I don't know how many killed
them, but I don't know how many were killed. Then it says they
cast them out. Look at verse 24. And when they
went in to the offer sacrifices, Bernolphus J. 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 them. And it came to pass, as soon
as he had made an end of offering to Bernolphus J., that Jehu said
to the guard and to the captains, Go in and slay them, let none
come forth. And they smote them with the
edge of the sword, and the guard of the captains cast them out. That's the next thing you see,
that they cast them out. And it would seem like they were
saying that they cast these bodies out. But that's not what goes
on, because we see in the next verse something else transpires
here. When the effectivities were over
and when the men were slaughtered, the words cast them out does
not refer to the slain bodies, but rather to the actions of
the swordsmen after the carnage. These words actually mean they
flung themselves or cast themselves out. Why? Because they have something
more to do, there is something left to do. It does not refer
to the slain bodies, but rather to the actions of the swordsmen
after the carnage. The words actually mean, like
I said, fling themselves out or made haste. What they did,
they made haste to leave the place as the task was not yet
finished. And this is seen in verse 26,
And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and
burned them. They went out with the houses
of these images and burned these images. They brought out the
minor images of Baal. Now you think about that, that's
an image of an image. That's a duplication of nothing.
But it's an image of an image and they burned them there. Then
they destroyed the major image of Baal and made the entire place
a draft or a sewer. That's what the word is. A sewer
house, an outhouse, a common latrine. All these dead bodies,
these burnt images of Baal were cast into a ditch. How did they
make it a common latrine? You don't have to use your imagination
on how it took place. how they instituted it and made
it a sewer, because it wasn't a sewer before. But after they
were finished killing all these people and casting them into
this hole and casting all their gods into the hole, they made
it into a sewer. And this was the end of Baal
and his prophets here, who had long withstood the prophets of
God. And their covering, their atonement, was the putrefaction
of defecation on their men and on their deity. Thus Jehu destroyed
Baal out of Israel, it says. Mission accomplished. And proper accolades are bestowed. In verse 30, And the LORD said
unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which
is right in thine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according
to all that was in thine heart, or in mine heart, thy children,
the fourth generation, shall sit on the throne of Israel.
Thy children shall. But look at verse 29, Howbeit. Howbeit. That's the title of
the message. Though Jesu had done what he
was commanded, and was used successfully as the sword of vengeance, and
his children would be rewarded for his accomplishment, the word
of the Lord declares a caveat. Howbeit is not a conjunction
in this case. It is actually a phrase that
reads something like only sins and guilt. only sins and guilt. Jehu, though victorious against
Ahab's house and the idol Baal, was yet an idolater himself,
only he was full of sins and guilt. He still bowed to and paid homage
to the golden cast that Jeroboam had erected in Bethel and in
Dan. That's what it says in verses
29 and 31. Jehu was a tool in the Lord's hands to wipe out
one idol, but not another. But not another. Now His idol,
these calves, will be destroyed by another instrument of the
Lord's hand. And this is the wondrous hand of God, employing
His enemies to destroy other of His enemies. And that's the
way God works. We just can't see it when it's
happening. There are a few things I want
us to consider. The first is how thankful we
should be, every one of us, that God has turned us from idols
to serve Him. Because we were all idolaters
by nature. Had He left us to ourselves,
we might even have been employed as Jehu was and yet still have
never known Jesus Christ. Wouldn't that be something? To work with zeal for God all
your life. and then perish in your sin? Was there a more zealous man
than Saul of Tarsus, ever recorded anywhere, who went about punishing,
putting in prison, and killing people who believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ and sought to wipe his name out? I'd idolize him
surely. You say, no, he was a weapon of the God of Israel. No, he
wasn't. The God of Israel was the one that hung on a tree. People say, well, the Jews worship
the God of Israel today. No, they don't. Because several things
are necessary to worship the God of Israel. One thing is a
priest. There is no priesthood in Israel.
The highest ranking Israelite is a rabbi, a rabboni. There
are no priests. There's no priesthood. There's
no tribes anymore. They don't know who's from Dan
and who's from Judah and who's from Levi and whatever. They
don't know any of that because it's all gone. You must have
a priest and they don't have one. You must have an altar and
they don't have one. The only place the altar was
was at the temple or the tabernacle and all that's left of that temple
is a wailing wall. where men go put pieces of paper with prayers
on them and pray to the God of Israel, whom they know not. And not only that, you must have
a sacrifice. They don't sacrifice lambs anymore or bullocks. They
don't do that. No matter what the feast day
is, there is no sacrifice. And I even saw recently on the
Day of Atonement, they had an egg in there. And that was nowhere. The day of Passover they had
an egg along with the lamb and the bitter herbs. They eat lamb,
but they don't slaughter it themselves. I used to slaughter them for
them when I was in the butcher business. I used to slaughter
the lambs and the goats, or have them slaughtered, and then I'd
cut them up for them so they could eat them. They eat lamb, they
eat bitter herbs, and now they're eating an egg, which is a symbol
of fertility, which comes from ashtar. I don't know how that
got incorporated. But they had no priest, they had no altar,
they had no sacrifice, they had nothing but an empty religion. Well, who has a priest? I do. I have a great high priest
who ever lives to make intercession for us, who is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. In all points, tempted like we
are yet without sin. I have an altar. Two thousand
years ago on a hill outside Jerusalem on Golgotha, our Lord Jesus Christ
hung on the last altar. the cross. I have a sacrifice. The sacrifice who gave himself
for my sin. And I am a true Israelite. I
am a true Jew. Because He is not a Jew which
is one outwardly, whose circumcision of the flesh. He is a Jew which
is one inwardly, whose circumcision of the heart, whose praise is
of God and not of men. Thank God. that you were turned
from idols to serve the living God. Thank God for predestinating
and electing grace. I considered this in light of
my former legal religion. I remember how zealous I was
to verbally slay false religions and their practices, and the
thought of it put me in a league with Jehu, an idolater slayer,
slaying idolaters. and doing it in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, believing I had a divine commission to
do so from on high. When I pointed out people's errors,
I felt I was justifying myself. I felt like I was showing people
that I was God's man. I was like an Isaiah of old who
said, Woe unto you, woe unto you, woe unto you, until he met
Christ. And then he said, Woe is me. And I am undone. I was like those of Galatia.
Paul said this of them in chapter 6 and verse 12, As many as desire
to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised,
or to keep the law, or to keep a moral life. Jimmy Swaggart
used to preach about whorehouses and prostitution all the time.
Boy, he was hot and heavy on it, and I'm sure he felt good
about himself until he ended up in a motel with one. It changed
his whole outlook, I suppose. I haven't heard him in a long
time. I didn't hear him much, but I used to hear him talk like
that, making sure they constrain you to be circumcised. They constrain
you to keep the law. They want to put you under control.
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. Well, how would they suffer persecution? How do they
avoid that? They constrain you to keep under the law. You mean
if I stand up here and tell you you're not under the law, but
under grace? If I tell you you're dead to the law by the law? If
I tell you you are free? If I tell you you are God's free
man, that you're a servant to no man? And God says to you,
Love Me and do what you will? Follow Christ? If I say that
to you and I'll say that nothing you have ever done or will do
will ever have anything to do with your salvation from start
to finish, that you're a free man if I'm able through the gospel
to break the shackles off of you and tear down the chains
and rip from you the burdens, and say, Go free, well, I'd suffer
persecution, but not from Christ. from those
who want to make a fair show in the flesh. For neither they
themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have
you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. See what
I've done. See how I've straightened out this person's life. And Paul
said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ,
by whom the world is crucified under me, and I am crucified
under the world. This attitude of Jehu was my
attitude for so long. We see this attitude in Jairus
when he first met Jehonadab. Look back at verse 15 and 16.
And he went. And when he was departed from
this, he lighted on Jehonadab, the son of Rahab, coming to meet
him. And he saluted him. Hail, Jehonadab! And said unto him, Are we together
on this? I'm sure Jehonadab had heard
about his tearing up the house of Ahab. He says, Is thine heart
right as my heart is with thine heart? Are we together on this?
Jehonadab answered and said, It is. And Jehu said, If it be,
give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand and
he took him up in the chair. And he said, Come with me and
see my zeal for the Lord. So he made him
ride in his chariot. His language betrays him. Though
he mentions the name of the Lord, and I was always careful to do
so, just who was he asking Jehonadab to take notice of? Come see my
zeal for the Lord. Take note of how I pursue and
slay the enemies of the Lord. Look at my zeal. His invitation
to Jehonadab was the need for an audience to observe His great
doings. All false religions do what they
do to be seen of men. That's what our Lord accused
the Pharisee of. Hold your place at I, II Kings and turn with
me over to Matthew chapter 23. In Matthew chapter 23, our Lord
says to the Pharisees in verse 5, He says, But all their works
they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries.
That has to do with the Bible verses they've memorized. The
phylacteries are little blocks they wore on their garments.
Boxes, rather. They had Bible verses in them.
They enlarge the borders of their garments. That spoke of being
closer to heaven. The borders of their garments
was the blue ribbon. They were sewn into the priest's garments
to show that they were doing what they did for the Lord. These
folks, it wasn't just enough to have a blue ribbon like a
regular one. They brought them there and they got a big blue
ribbon, a great, great, great big blue ribbon. So everybody
said, that guy really is holy. He got a big ribbon. He got a
big ribbon. They loved the uppermost rooms
at the feasts, the chief seats in the synagogues. They love
greetings in the marketplace and they love to be called Rabbi,
Rabbi, teacher, teacher. They do what they do to be seen
of men. I rarely ever tell anybody I'm
a preacher unless they ask what I do. And I have on occasion
said, if I tell you it's going to ruin your day. Because it
usually does. The minute people hear I'm a
preacher, you can see the face change, you can see the countenance
change, they suddenly become holy and are ready to tell you
of all the things they've done for Jesus. I don't want to hear
it, so I don't tell folks that I'm rabbis did. False religionists do. Sons of
Satan do. They wear all the robes. Later
on it says, you steal from widows' houses and you do it making long
pretense of prayer. Long pretense of prayer. I remember
one time Debbie and I were invited to some kind of social for when
she was a teacher. It was at Myrtle's Table, I think
it was. Wasn't it Myrtle's Table? We
had a dinner for recognizing someone and they asked me to
pray and I prayed. And all I did, I didn't say anything
but Bible verses. All I did was pray. what other
men prayed in Scripture. And one woman come and said,
I've never heard a prayer like that. And I thought, have you ever
heard the Bible? I didn't say it, but that's what she said.
I don't like to go public prayer, because that's kind of, you get
people pedal, boy, that's a good prayer. A good prayer. Can you
imagine somebody saying that? That's a good prayer. Good for
nothing. Didn't get past the ceiling tiles,
I guarantee you. But that's why men do it. That's
why I did it for so long. So people have recognized me.
A man told me one time I was the most humble man he'd ever
known. I knew it was a lie, but I accepted the compliment. Doing all in the name of Jesus.
I was an idolater. Slaying idols. Slaying idols. And doing to be
seen of men. Our Lord says differently about
His people and instructs them differently in Matthew chapter
6. Verse 1 says, Take heed that
ye do not your alms before men. That is, you're giving your righteousnesses. Don't let anybody see it, because
if they see it, it ain't righteousness to start with. You're giving. Don't do that before men, to
be seen of men. Otherwise, ye have no reward
for your Father which is in heaven. Of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore, when thou doest your alms, Do not sound a trumpet
before Thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the
streets, that they may have the glory of men. Verily, they get
what they want, they get the glory of men. When Thou doest
alms, let not Thy right hand know what Thy left hand is doing.
Practice to go unnoticed, that Thine alms may be in secret,
and Thy Father which seeth Thee in secret may reward Thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they
may be seen of men. But I say unto you, they got what they
want. They've been seen of men. And somebody up at them on the
back said, that's a wonderful prayer. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into the closet. And thou shalt shut the door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which
seeth thee in secret, thou shalt reward thee openly." Verse 16,
moreover, when you fast, be not as hypocrites. Don't be of a
sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces
that they may appear to be men who have fasted. Somebody looks
at his face and he's all gone and drawn in dark circles under
his eyes. And they say, oh, there's a holy man. He's been fasting. And He did all that. And carried
that countenance and wore that face all twisted with pain. Somebody
would say, He's been fasting. Verily I say unto you, they got
what they wanted. But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not to
men to fast. but unto the Father which is
in secret, and thy Father which seeth thee in secret shall reward
thee openly." And our Lord goes on to say, these are the treasures
of natural men. What I do, giving, what I do. How I pray. How I deny myself. These are
the treasures of men. He said, don't lay your treasures
up here. lay your treasures up in heaven where moth and dust
does not corrupt." No doubt Jeholadab had heard of Jehu's exploits
and was wholly in agreement with them because he went with them.
We find that Jehu's true mission was self-recognition. Cruelty
came easy to Jehu because at the bottom of his ventures was
an idolatrous heart, a heart that could not survive without
acknowledging himself. I think of all the wars and the
murders that had been done in the name of religion. You ever notice when wars come,
people start calling on God all the time. They call the name
of God and try to get God on their side. Many people who call
themselves Christian look at, who is it, said in this sign,
Constantine took the cross and went out and and took all the
Muslims at the end of a sword and turned them into Christians
for a few days. Then they came back and turned that place upside
down later. Burned all the books that he had in that great library.
In this sign we conquer. Yes, the Church of God is militant,
but it doesn't appear so in this world. The Church of God is passing
through. Now it has on the armor, it has
the sword of truth, but it's here for the good of men, not
for the evil of men. It's here to tell folks good
news, not to cut them up or stick a sword in their throat and say,
you gotta be a Christian. That's not what it's all about.
That's what I did for a long time. Threaten, promise. God forgave me, and he has. Self-recognition makes for a
cruel, cruel religious man. The mark of the believer that
when sin is disclosed, he doesn't point his finger at somebody
else, he points his finger at himself. And when God's glory
is involved, he points to the Lord Jesus Christ and nowhere
else. The believer seeks to be unnoticed. As John said, he must
increase and I must decrease. Finally, God is past finding
out. As I looked at this passage,
and several others were involved in it, I found that men have poor and
sympathetic and even pathetic views of God. He's not like men
think that He is. His thoughts are neither our
thoughts nor His ways our ways. They're not even like our ways
or our thoughts. And it doesn't say, my thoughts
are not like your thoughts. He said, my thoughts are not
your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, no matter what
our ways are. No matter what our thoughts are, no matter how
we approach things, no matter how we pursue things, they're
not the way God does it. How does He do it? Just as He's
revealed Himself to do it in this book. Canst thou by searching
find out God? No. His thoughts are not our
thoughts. Thank God He has given us faith
to believe, because we couldn't have even done that had He not
given us faith. God does not give account of
His matters. We have to account to everybody for what we do. He does as He pleases, and His
creatures are not allowed to question Him, not even to bring
up a subject, and cannot stay His hand. They can't question
His methods. But how does He work? As He works. That's how
He works. He works as God. And not a man
that he should lie. Scripture makes that clear. God
cannot lie. But in his great and intricate
plan, his providential plan, he sometimes uses a lie to accomplish
his end. Jehu lied, and Jehu was a liar. He was a liar. He hated Baal,
but loved them golden calves. Rahab was used of the Lord. She
told a lie. Oh, these spies hadn't been there.
She had kept them there and fed and watered them. And interesting
to note, when James talks about justifying your faith by your
works, he mentions Rahab. He doesn't mention himself. He
mentions Abraham and mentions Rahab. God will use a lie to
accomplish what He's done. We've seen it throughout this
book. And I know religious people say, well, that just ain't right.
Who are you to say? What art thou, O man, that replyest
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Had not the
potter the power over the clay to make one vessel into honor
and another into dishonor? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels He made to destroy, to bring to glory those whom
He had made to save? What can we say about this God?
All we can say is that everything He has done and ever shall do
is right. Completely right. And that rightness is His goodness
passed before us. It's all good. We can say with Eli, it is the
Lord. Let him do what seemeth good
in his sight. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.