Men.
Men, chapter nine of Second Kings
is the very famous story about judgment
upon the house of Ahab.
Of course, Ahab himself is already dead.
If you remember, even the very first verse
of the book of Second Kings talks about the fact
that this is taking place after the death of Ahab.
But other people surrounding Ahab are now finally
going to be judged and get what's coming to them
because of the whole Naboth incident.
If you remember, there were false witnesses,
two men that lied and then they caused Naboth
to be put to death for a crime that he didn't commit
just so that Ahab could get that garden of herbs
and Elijah had come and prophesied
and talked about the horrible punishment
that would come upon Ahab and Jezebel
and their whole household.
So if you actually kind of do the math
and figure out the timeline,
it's hard to figure it out exactly,
but pretty much about three years went by
before Ahab is killed and is judged by God.
But by the time these events happened,
it's more like 13 or 14 years have gone by
when the full prophecy is being fulfilled
and you have Jezebel being eaten by dogs
and all of these other people surrounding Ahab
and his household being smoked in this chapter.
So it's kind of a long chapter.
We're not going to be able to cover
every single thing, obviously.
But look at verse number one.
It says,
So Elisha is obviously kind of the big name prophet.
He's the main man of God in the northern kingdom of Israel.
But there are a lot of other younger preachers
that he's training different protégés,
the sons of the prophets
that he's working with and advising
and training and teaching.
So he sends one of these young preacher boys
to go and anoint Jehu king.
And it says in verse number two,
when thou comest thither, look out there, Jehu,
the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshai,
and go in and make him arise up from among his brethren
and carry him to an inner chamber,
then take the box of oil and pour it on his head
and say, thus saith the Lord,
I have anointed thee, king, over Israel,
then open the door and flee and tarry not.
So this Jehu is a military man
and he's not the king of Israel.
He's not in the succession to become the next king.
He's not the prince or family or anything like that.
God is going to destroy the house of Ahab
and end that dynasty and start a new dynasty with Jehu.
And so he is kind of privately doing this,
taking him into the room and saying,
you have been anointed by God,
you are going to be the king of Israel.
You're going to be used by God to destroy
and wipe out the house of Ahab
and then you're going to take over and become the king.
And the purpose of pouring oil upon his head,
this is symbolic, this anointing
was something that would anoint prophets, right?
We saw Elisha being anointed prophet.
We saw kings and priests throughout the Bible
being anointed.
And the idea here is that the oil pictures the Holy Spirit.
And so the idea is that in order to preach powerful sermons,
you have to be anointed by the Holy Spirit, right?
In order to be a prophet of God,
you need that anointing of the Holy Spirit.
You're not going to be able to just in the flesh,
go to Toastmasters and learn how to be a good speaker
and read a book about it and imitate other preachers
and even studying and learning the Bible is not enough.
Ultimately, in order to be a spirit filled preacher,
you got to be filled with the spirit of God.
That's how you're going to be effective.
That's how God's going to use you greatly.
You know, if you don't abide in the vine,
you're not going to be able to bring forth fruit
because Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing.
And so in order to have success in the ministry,
you got to be tapped into the power of God.
That is the essential ingredient, the spirit of God.
You got to be walking with God and so forth.
And so the pouring out of the oil upon his head is,
hey, if you're going to be a great leader, right?
Because the king is not necessarily a preacher,
but he's a leader.
He's an authority.
In order to be a great leader,
you need to be filled with the spirit of God.
In order to be a great Christian,
you need to be filled with the spirit of God.
So whether you are man, woman, boy or girl, right?
In order to be effective at soul winning,
you want to be filled with the spirit of God.
In order to be an effective father,
an effective mother, an effective husband,
you know, just an effective Christian in general,
you need the power of God.
You can't do it on your own.
You can't just follow a human formula.
You need to walk with God,
pray unto the Lord, pray for boldness,
pray for the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
read your Bible.
And you know, I was thinking recently
about the story of Mary and Martha.
And you know, Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus
and Jesus says she has chosen the better part.
Martha's really busy doing stuff,
but Mary's over here sitting at the feet of Jesus
and we need to have that walk with God
so we can have the power of God
so that we can be greatly used by God.
So we need to be in our Bibles,
praying, walking with God, spirit filled,
singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, et cetera.
And that's what that oil anointing stands for.
That says in verse number four,
so the young man, even the young man, the prophet,
went to Ramath Gillian.
And when he came, behold,
the captain and the host were sitting
and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain.
And G.U. said, unto which of all of us?
And he said, to thee, O captain.
So the first thing I wanna point out here
is that he shows up and there's a whole group
of military captains.
And when this young prophet comes in,
he says, I have an errand unto thee, O captain.
And that doesn't necessarily narrow it down
because there are multiple people in that room
that have that same rank.
So then G.U. said, unto which of all us?
And he said, to thee, thee is singular, to thee, O captain.
So notice the one who speaks up is G.U.
So even though they're all captains,
you can already see that G.U.
is kind of doing the talking for the group.
So he seems to be a very well-respected member
of the group, and we're gonna see that in a moment,
that he is someone that is already kind of looked at
as the chief guy in the room
because when somebody's gonna do the talking,
it's him when the young prophet comes in.
And so he says, you, O captain,
verse six, and he arose and went into the house
and he poured the oil on his head and said unto him,
thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
I've anointed thee king over the people of the Lord,
even over Israel, and thou shalt smite
the house of Ahab thy master.
And again, remember, it's not Ahab himself,
but rather it is his relatives,
and his descendants, and so forth,
and his wife, that I may avenge the blood
of my servants, the prophets,
and the blood of all the servants of the Lord
at the hand of Jezebel,
for the whole house of Ahab shall perish,
and I will cut off from Ahab,
him that pisseth against the wall,
and him that is shut up and left in Israel.
So he's saying, him that pisseth against the wall
means every male, right?
Because obviously women sit down
when they go to the bathroom,
whereas men pee standing up,
they piss against the wall, it's called a urinal,
now they're starting to put urinals
in the ladies' room at some places,
but that's because we're living in crazy times, okay?
Normal people understand
that men piss against the wall, women don't,
because men are standing up, women aren't.
And so that's just a way of saying,
and this comes up six times in the Bible,
it's just a way of expressing
all of the males are gonna perish.
Maybe some of the females will survive,
none of the males are going to survive.
And so God is gonna completely wipe out
the household of Ahab
because of the blood of his servants, the prophets,
because not only did Ahab murder Naboth,
through Jezebel and that whole thing
with the false witnesses,
but also just killing the prophets of the Lord,
persecuting the people of God.
And here's the thing, God is going to avenge his servants,
God is going to avenge his people.
The Bible says, touch not mine anointed
and do my prophets no harm, right?
And the Bible says God even reproved kings
for the sakes of his preachers and prophets.
God will protect his people,
and when people go out and persecute the people of God,
attack the people of God, assault the people of God,
slander the people of God, especially prophets,
especially preachers and men of God.
When you attack and harm those people,
God is going to bring vengeance upon you.
It might come three years later,
it might come 13, 14 years later, but it is coming.
The Bible says, vengeance belongeth unto me,
said the Lord, I will repay.
And so you can take that to the bank,
that's what the Bible says.
And so it says here that they're going to avenge,
you know, the blood of these prophets
and the persecution of God's people
and so forth.
And it says in verse number nine,
I will make the house of Ahab,
like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,
and like the house of Baasha, the son of Haidja.
These are other failed dynasties
of the northern kingdom of Israel.
Because what's interesting, when the kingdom split
into the northern kingdom of Israel
and the southern kingdom of Judah,
you know, David's line is pretty much just king
the whole time down in that southern kingdom,
all the way to the bitter end.
And you're pretty much staying
with that same Davidic dynasty,
whereas the northern kingdom, it keeps switching
and people just keep getting wiped out
and smoked and replaced.
And that's what we're seeing again in this chapter.
And so it says, and the dog shall eat Jezebel
in the portion of Jezreel
and there shall be none to bury her.
And he opened the door and fled.
And this is obviously a curse in the Bible
when you don't get a proper burial,
when you're just left outside
for wild animals to eat you.
This is a cursed way to remain.
You know, the Bible says,
the eye that mocketh at his father
and despiseeth to obey his mother,
the ravens of the valley shall pick it out
and the young eagles shall eat it.
And that's exactly like being eaten by dogs.
And I remember when I was a kid,
you know, there was a band called The Doors,
obviously long before I was a kid
because I was a kid in the 80s
and the Doors were in the 60s.
But I remember watching a concert on TV
from The Doors being replayed years and years later
and the lead singer of The Doors, you know,
during his songs,
they just go off on all these musical interludes
and he would just start to just kind of freestyle
at the mic and just start waxing poetic and saying things.
And I mean, those are some of the most wicked things
that he would say, you know,
because he's just a wicked person
out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
Maybe he was even under the influence
of the devil or something.
And I remember just watching this super long version
of one of his songs and he's up there just freestyle.
And I remember he said,
I don't wanna die in an automobile.
I wanna die in an open field.
I want the birds to pick my eyes.
And I remember listening to these lyrics
as he's going through this.
And I was thinking to myself,
this is exactly what Proverbs 30 says.
You know, because I was familiar with Proverbs 30,
the eye that mocketh his father
and despised to obey his mother,
the ravens of the valley shall pick it out.
And he's literally saying, I wanna die in an open field
and I want the birds to pick out my eyes.
And then in the same song, he says,
Father.
Yes, son.
I wanna kill you.
And he's talking about killing his father
and you know, doing something else horrible to his mother.
And you know, it just goes to show you
how a lot of these musicians are just satanic
and it's like, they're almost like quoting the Bible,
but like from the wrong angle here.
You know, instead of saying,
hey, I want to honor my father and mother.
I don't wanna die in the open field.
I don't want them.
He's saying like, yeah, I just hate my parents
and I just wanna harm my parents
and I just wanna die in the open field
and I want the birds to pick out my eyes.
And you know, it's just amazing.
Like, is Bro over here studying the Bible
or are the demons telling him this or what?
But I'm just telling you that spirit
of long haired teenage rebellion of that music even
is just coming across in the lyrics
just the exact opposite of what the Word of God
is telling you.
Honor your father and mother.
You know, and that's not the message
that the doors were preaching.
And so most kids today
probably don't even know who the doors are, you know?
But I'm sure that you older folks
know exactly what I'm talking about.
And so it says in verse number 11,
then Jiu came forth to the servants of the Lord.
And I think this is the most interesting part
of the whole chapter for me personally.
I've always loved this part.
It says, then Jiu came forth to the servants of his Lord
and one said to him, is all well?
Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?
So remember, all the captains are in there.
The young prophet comes in and he says,
hey, I have an errand to the O-captain.
Hey, which one?
Oh, me, okay, yeah, let's go step in my office.
You know, they go in a private room.
He anoints him as king and then he just leaves immediately.
He just jets out of there.
He says what he wants to say,
preaches the sermon and he's out the door.
But I think it's clear from this
that these guys all know who this young preacher is.
Like they're familiar with this guy
because when he comes in,
they say, well, what said this mad fellow under thee?
And this goes to show you
that they have a low view of this guy
because they think he's a lunatic.
They think he's crazy
because when the Bible says mad here,
it's the British like, are you mad?
Like insane, not angry, okay?
So like, what's this crazy guy?
What that crazy preacher have to say to you, right?
And then notice what Jiu's response is.
He said, well, you know the man and his communication.
So he's kind of like trying to maybe,
I don't know, give into the peer pressure a little bit
because the people around him are like,
oh, what that idiot tell you, that crazy guy,
that crazy preacher?
What that crazy preacher have to say to you?
And he's just like, oh, you know, you know how he is.
Almost like agreeing with them.
And he seems a little bit shy
or reticent about wanting to say
that he was just anointed king.
Like maybe he doesn't really know
if his peers are going to accept him as the king.
You know, because remember what happened
when Joseph said, hey, I had a dream
and you know, you guys were all bowing down to me.
It didn't really go over very well.
So if he's on the same rank with these people,
they're all equally captains or whatever.
And you know, even when he says,
I got a message to you captain.
They're like, well, which one of us?
You know, it could be the Jiu is thinking,
I don't know if these people are gonna want to hear
that I was just anointed king.
Especially when they're saying,
oh man, that crazy preacher, what did he say?
So he kind of tries to just go along with them
and kind of play it off.
Like he doesn't really want to tell them what he said.
So he's just like, hey, you know the man
in his communication, you know, you guys know him
and you know what he's like.
So the first thing I want to point out,
you know, before I get into the really interesting thing
here, I want to just stop and say this.
Is that to this world
and to the unsafe people of this world
and to backslidden Christians, good preachers are crazy.
They're seen as crazy, just wild man, lunatic.
And you know what's funny is that a lot of people are just
like, oh man, you know, that crazy preacher over there.
You know, I want to go to this church where
everybody in the community thinks he's normal and cool.
It's like, well, okay, but is he really a man of God?
Because when you're accepted of this world
and loved of this world, you know,
the Bible says, whoa, unto you
when all men speak well of you,
for so did their fathers under the false prophets, right?
And if you would, let's come back here,
but let's go over to 2 Timothy chapter four
to that other very famous passage
in 2 Timothy chapter number four.
Look, the world is going to look
at the preachers of God's word as crazy, as mad.
As lunatic, they're going to say,
oh, you're nuts, you're crazy.
And I think that the reason why
the Old Testament prophet is characterized as a mad man
is because he's preaching dynamic sermons.
Because if you look at Old Testament sermons,
they're very dynamic.
They have a lot of wild object lessons
and they're lifting up their voice.
They're crying out.
They're smiting with the hand.
They're stomping with the foot.
They're preaching hard sermons.
And so a lot of people are just like,
these people are crazy, too extreme, too fanatical.
They're too into it.
You know, when you're just sitting there
and following Elisha every day
and you guys are just reading the Bible
and preaching and doing all that stuff,
it's just you guys are too into it.
You know, go to church a couple of times a year,
a couple of times a month.
Hey, go once a week, but don't get that into it.
So the preacher is seen as a fanatic, a wild man.
And it's the same thing in the New Testament
because you know what they said about Jesus?
Quote, he is beside himself.
That's an expression for saying he's crazy.
He's beside himself.
He's crazy.
And then what did they say about the apostle Paul?
The apostle Paul is preaching a Bible sermon
in the Book of Acts.
And what happens when he's preaching to King of Gripah?
What does Felix say?
He says, Paul, thou art beside thyself,
much learning doth make thee mad.
He said, you have spent too much time studying.
And so you've studied so much that you've lost your mind
because you can tell that Paul's a very intelligent guy.
He's super scholarly, super academic, super learned.
But he's like, you're nuts.
This has driven you nuts.
But then Paul says, okay, well, what about you, King of Gripah?
You know though what I'm saying is true.
Believe it's thou the prophets at Gripah.
I know that thou believest.
And what does King of Gripah say?
The famous words, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Even as the guy next to him is saying, you're insane.
A Gripah has to kind of get over that peer pressure
too because the guy next to him is saying, he's insane.
And he's just like, well, okay, I'll admit it.
I'm almost convinced.
I'm almost persuaded to be a Christian.
Well, almost isn't good enough.
And that's why Paul says, well, I wish that you would just
get all together all the way there.
And I wish all of you all would get all the way there
and not be almost because almost is close but no cigar.
And you gotta get saved.
It's binary.
It's on or off.
You're either saved or unsaved.
There's no almost.
You get in or you're doomed.
And so here we see in 2 Timothy chapter four
because we said, hey, they called Jesus crazy.
They called Paul crazy.
Old Testament prophets are called a mad man
and seen as crazy to this world.
It says in 2 Timothy chapter four, verse one,
I charge thee therefore before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick
and the dead it is appearing in his kingdom,
preach the word, be instant in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering
in doctrine for the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lust shall they heap
to themselves teachers having itching ears
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth
and shall be turned unto fables.
So notice here that they don't wanna hear the good doctrine,
the real stuff from the Bible.
So what they will do is they will heap
unto themselves teachers.
Notice not preachers but teachers
because typically this world wants something
a little mellower than preaching.
I mean, what's the difference between teaching
and preaching because really all good preaching is teaching.
I mean, if a preacher is getting up
and preaching hopefully you're learning something.
Hopefully something's being taught.
Hopefully there's doctrine.
Doctrine just means teaching.
So hopefully there's some doctrine in the preaching.
Okay, so what's the difference
between preaching and teaching?
You know, preaching is teaching
but just with some fire with it, right?
You know, someone said preaching is teaching
with a tear in the eye, you know, whatever.
But it's, you know, it's the zeal, it's the fire,
it's the passion, right?
It is the dynamic aspect that turns it from just teaching.
You know, Ben Stein up in front of the class
explaining economics during the depression
versus preaching, right?
That's more animated and so forth.
So notice they will heap to themselves teachers.
The other thing that's different
between teaching and preaching
is that preaching is reprove, rebuke, exhort.
All of those three words
are telling people to change something.
You're wrong about this, you need to fix this.
Teaching could just be, oh, hey,
let me just explain to you some things about the Bible.
Preaching is like, hey, you need to fix this, okay?
And so some people will say like,
hey, you're getting preachy, right?
Or I think there was a big Madonna song in the 80s.
Papa, don't preach, right?
And so it's like, hey, don't preach at me.
That is the mentality of this wicked world.
I don't want to be preached at, right?
I want to have itching ears.
I want you to come and basically scratch my ears
and make me feel good.
Like a dog that wants you to rub it behind the ears
and pet the dog.
They want to come and be coddled and petted and stroke.
They don't want to actually get the real sound doctrine
that involves reproof and rebuke and exhortation.
And it notice says they will heap to themselves teachers.
You know, a heap is a giant pile of something.
So there is no shortage of these teachers
that are gonna tell people what they want to hear.
Whatever America wants to hear in 2026,
there will be a heap of pastors
that are ready to teach them
and tell them what they want to hear
and scratch that itch
and they turn their ears away from the truth
and they're turned to fables.
So they're gonna have story time with a pastor
who's not gonna give them sound doctrine,
but he's gonna tell them what they want to hear.
Now with that in mind,
go back to 2 Kings chapter nine
and let's think about that scripture
as we read the reaction here.
Because I think this is hilarious.
I've always enjoyed this in my personal Bible reading
when they ask him, you know,
what did this mad fellow say to you?
What that crazy preacher say?
Oh, well, you know him, you know how he is.
You know the stuff he says, right?
And here's what I think is funny
is that D.U. says you know the man
at the end of verse 11 there,
he says you know the man and his communication.
And then their response is it is false.
And it is false as a reference to the communication.
Well, you know the man, you know his communication.
Yep, and we know that it's false.
Now notice they have not heard what the communication is
as far as actually what was just communicated to Jihu.
They don't even know what it is
and they're already just rejecting it out of hand.
They've already decided it's false.
Okay, now the Bible says that when we listen to preaching
we should be, you know, searching the scriptures daily
to see whether these things are so.
We're not supposed to just blindly believe
whatever is preached unto us.
We're supposed to be getting in the Word every day,
searching the scriptures daily, whether these things be so.
But in the same passage where it says
that the Bereans search the scriptures daily,
it also says that they received the Word
with all readiness of mind.
So we wanna find a balance here.
You know, searching the scriptures daily,
whether these things be so,
it doesn't mean you show up to church
and you're super skeptical and you're like,
ah, I wanna figure out if Pastor Anderson
is really telling the truth here.
You know, I wanna see if this is really right
and you're just kind of frowning,
kind of just fact checking everything,
like just to try to catch me making a mistake.
No, because the idea is you come
with all readiness of mind to receive the Word.
So you wanna come with an attitude that says,
hey, I'm ready to receive truth.
I wanna learn.
I wanna hear this.
This is good stuff.
You know, and then you go and you check
and double check and make sure that it matches the Bible.
But you don't wanna have a skeptical negative attitude
going into preaching.
I mean, if you show up here with a bad attitude
and a skeptical mentality,
you're not gonna get as much out of the preaching
as the person who shows up wanting to learn
with a positive attitude.
And look, when I'm out, you know,
on the mission field or whatever traveling
and I end up visiting some random church
because I'm just in another country
and I'm just Googling whatever the church
that's preaching out of the King James Bible
and just trying to find something.
You know, when I show up,
I don't show up like ready to pick it apart
and find all the problems.
You know, I show up like assuming
that this is gonna be a good church.
I just walk in like ready to learn, good attitude.
And here's the thing, what if I walk into a church like that?
And let's just say that this church
has some seriously screwed up doctrines
that they just kinda don't happen to talk about it
the night that I'm there.
You know, what I don't know can't hurt me.
So if I'm on the mission field,
I'm just visiting, I can just show up
and I got a good attitude
and I'm just sitting there, big smile,
turning to my Bible.
I can learn something from the word of God,
I can listen, I can worship the Lord,
have a good time and go about my merry way.
And I'm not just trying to pick apart
and find all the problems and so forth
and being super critical.
And a lot of times I've been with people
visiting churches and they're so super critical
they'll get offended by every little thing,
even if it's not a big issue or a deal breaker,
just every little thing that the church says or does
that's wrong, they're just on it, you know.
And it's just a bad attitude.
We wanna have, whenever we're at church,
worshiping God, learning from the preaching,
you know, we wanna just have the readiness of mind,
like just ready to hear, wanting to learn,
giving the benefit of the doubt,
being optimistic about where we are.
And then, yeah, we go and fact check things,
we go double check things.
I'm not saying to blindly believe it,
but I'm also saying not to just be,
you know, already negative before it even starts.
And I'm telling you, a lot of people
go to one extreme or the other,
where they're just, they just blindly believe everything,
or they're just super critical and nothing's good enough
and no church is good enough
and every church is bad and whatever.
And look, I've known people that were great Christians,
soul-winning Christians, effective Christians,
but they became so critical
that they just got completely out of church
because they're just like, no church is good enough.
And then they just start doing church at home
and they're just at the kitchen table,
husband and wife, and they're not attending anywhere
for years and years and years.
And guess what, they're gonna get less people saved,
they're not in obedience,
they're not growing like they could be
because they got too puffed up in their knowledge
and just, oh, I know more than every pastor,
so I'm gonna stay home.
You know, it's a bad place to be.
And so, you know, wanna make sure
that, yeah, we're ready to hear and we're searching.
Okay, these people are,
they're already super negative about the man of God, right?
The true prophet of God,
this guy is truly sent by God,
Elisha is obviously right with God,
this guy's right with God,
this message is straight from the Lord
and he comes and preaches it,
but do they have an attitude that's ready to receive?
No, cause they're like, he's crazy
and even before they've even heard the message,
they're just like, well, I already know it's gonna be wrong.
I already know it's gonna be false.
I mean, if Pastor Anderson's saying it,
I already disagree, it's false.
Okay, that's the attitude that they have
toward this particular preacher.
But they say, tell us now.
Now, here's what's funny,
is that they still wanna hear it.
Like, even though they think it's crazy,
they don't like it, they've already decided
they don't agree with it,
but they're like, tell it to us though.
Tell us anyway.
You know, it's kinda funny,
people who kinda just hate watch content
of preachers that they don't like,
you know, and they just can't get enough
of preaching that they don't agree with
and they just listen and just stalk preachers that,
you know, it's like, wow.
You know, that's one way you could look at this,
but another way you could think of it is just,
you know, they're just still curious, right?
I mean, the guy came and took him in the other room
and, you know, he comes back
and his head's a little greasier than it was before
and they're wondering what's going on
and so they're like, well, it's, you know,
it's false, it's false,
but go ahead and tell us what it is anyway,
you know.
So what does he say?
He said, thus and thus, spakey to me,
saying, thus saith the Lord,
I've anointed thee, king over Israel.
Now, watch this, watch just the turn on a dime
in verse 13, then they hasted.
So are these people, they're not stopping
and think about it, they're not deliberating.
I mean, he has them at hello.
It's just, they hasted and took every man in his garment
and put it under him on the top of the stairs
and blew with trumpet saying, Jihu is king.
Now, whoa, what happened?
Because a minute ago they're like, oh, this guy's crazy.
Well, you know, yeah, you know how he is,
you know what he's, well, it's false.
Tell us what it is.
Well, he said that I'm gonna be king.
That's it, you're king.
Now here's why, because remember,
even at the start of the story,
who's doing the talking?
Jihu, he obviously is a respected guy among his brethren.
He's obviously the most important person in the room
because when the prophet comes in,
he's the one who addresses him and speaks up.
And so I think one way that we could look at this
is that backslidden Christians
or just bad people, rotten people,
backslidden people, whatever,
you know what they tend to do
is they tend to just only like preaching
when it's just telling them stuff
that they already believe and that they already like.
You know, it's not that these people
had a different view, different opinion,
and then, oh, well, if the man of God's saying it,
I mean, if that's what the Bible says,
if that does say it to the Lord, well, yes, sir, Lord,
that's not what's going on here.
These people don't respect the man of God.
These people have a bad attitude.
These people are writing off the preaching
before they've even heard it,
but if it's something that they like,
now all of a sudden they like it.
And again, this reminds me of Second Timothy 4,
where it says that they will heep
to themselves teachers having itching ears,
meaning that they want preachers to tell them
what they wanna hear
or to tell them what they already believe.
And you know what a lot of people want
when they go to the Bible too?
They basically just wanna hear God,
they just wanna hear their own opinion
coming out of God's mouth is what they want.
Like, they approach the Bible with a preconceived idea,
with a belief, with a definition, with an idea,
and then it's like, okay, now let's figure out
how we can make God say what I want him to say
and make him actually agree with me,
and then they'll go visit churches
and they want to just agree
with every single thing that the pastor's saying.
And they just wanna find a pastor
where they can hear their own opinions
coming out of the pastor's mouth.
Now this is the wrong attitude
because at the end of the day,
we are all wrong about something,
we all have blind spots,
we all have areas of ignorance in our life,
and so we should expect that sometimes
we're gonna come across things in the Bible
that go against our beliefs.
We're gonna come across things in preaching,
in church, where the pastor gets up
and preaches the opposite of what we believe.
And those are the things that challenge us
where sometimes we need to change
and realize, hey, I was wrong about this
because I read this verse in the Bible
and it actually fixed my belief.
Or you know what, I used to believe this way,
I showed up at church, the pastor preached a sermon,
boy, now I see things totally differently.
I mean, I would hate to go to church
for years and years and years
and the pastor has never changed my mind about anything,
the pastor's never taught me anything new,
I'm never challenged by anything coming from the pulpit,
nothing in my Bible readings ever challenged me that,
what would even be the point?
If you just already know everything
and you already just believe exactly right all the time,
then it sounds like you just know everything,
you don't even need any church.
You can go have church in the living room
with your wife and you're better
than everyone and so forth.
But that's just not true.
We all need to keep learning and growing
and we don't wanna be these people
who just only want to hear stuff
that we already agree with.
We need to be okay with God correcting us
and rebuking us, reproving us,
exhorting us, challenging us.
And so here you have a good, spirit-filled man of God
preaching a true sermon and these guys are on board.
They actually respond positively,
but it's not because they're great guys,
it's not because they just have so much respect
for the word of God,
it's not because the preacher has changed their minds,
it's because the preacher is telling them something
that they already wanted to hear.
So in the past, he's been preaching against their sin,
they didn't like it.
Now all of a sudden,
he's preaching something that they're into
and they're just like, let's go, let's do it.
So God is obviously going to use these people
to carry out his will.
He's gonna use Jihu and all his buddies
to carry out his will to destroy the house of Ahab,
to destroy Jezebel, but here's the thing,
what you're gonna find is that
as soon as these people take over,
you know what they're gonna do?
They're gonna bring in the same old sins
and Jihu's not gonna end up unfortunately being a good king
because Jihu starts out awesome.
Like in this chapter, you're just loving Jihu,
next chapter, you're loving Jihu
and you're seeing Jihu carry out all of these great acts
and he completely just obliterates Baal worship,
just gets rid, he kills so many prophets of Baal.
I mean, he's just totally bringing down the wrath of God
and he's not doing it alone,
he's doing it with his buddies here.
But as soon as he takes power though,
you know what he's gonna do is,
yeah, they're not worshiping Baal anymore,
so it's like a lesser evil,
but he gets them back on the sins of Jeroboam
and he gets them back on the golden calf
and it's still idolatry, it's still false religion,
it's not like as bad of a false religion.
Like he takes them from like,
I guess takes them from Islam to Catholicism
or something, you know what I mean, or whatever.
He basically just takes them
from one false religion to another, okay?
He ends up being a bad guy,
so we don't wanna get too excited about these people
just because they're responding to the preaching
because just a minute ago, they hate the preacher
and everything he says is false
and then he says something that they like
and they're like, oh, we can, yeah, we can do that.
I mean, Jihu is king, we like Jihu, cool, yeah.
Tell me more things that I wanna hear.
And you know, there are people that'll get really excited
about my preaching on certain subjects.
You know, you have some guy online
who's just super negative about the Jews or something,
so he'll hear me preach some super hard sermon
against Jews and Judaism
and he's just smashing that follow, subscribe,
oh, this is so awesome.
Then I start preaching the rest of the Bible
and it's like, oh, you need to go back
to just talking about the Jews.
It's like, shut up, you're out of here.
Block you fool.
You get these one issue people, right?
Where it's just like,
or they're super into the end time stuff
but then they're a heretic over here on this other thing.
And you get these people that just get super excited
when you're telling them what they wanna hear
but they don't want the full compliment
of God's doctrine and the whole Bible.
And you know what?
I have striven over the years
not to be a one trick pony.
You know, I don't wanna be this pastor
that's just only always ripping on homos.
I don't wanna be a pastor
that's always talking about science.
I don't wanna be a pastor
that's always talking about King James' onlyism.
I don't wanna be a pastor
that's just always preaching only salvation sermons
or just only in times, only political,
only against the Jews.
And there are people like that you could point to
where just everything is political.
Everything's creationism.
Everything is King James.
Everything is this, that or the other.
It's imbalanced, right?
I wanna be a guy where I'm preaching the whole Bible,
all different subjects, positive, negative,
you know, just going the whole gamut of the whole Bible
and you'll get these immature people
that only want that one issue.
And they're not gonna pan out in the long run.
Those are the people that don't pan out.
The people that are panning out.
The people in this room
that have been at this church for years,
serving God for years,
they're not just here just only.
I just love it when Pastor Anderson rips on sodomites
and that's why I'm here.
It's like, no, they're here for all of it.
The people who've been here for five years,
10 years, 15 years, 20 years,
they're here for all of it.
They love all of it.
They love the whole Bible.
They love soul winning.
They love end times.
They love the King James.
They love hearing the deep sermons.
They love to hear the face ripping sermons.
They love to hear the encouraging sermons.
We wanna be well balanced people, right?
And that love the Lord,
and we love him with all our heart
and we love everything about the Bible.
That's what we need.
These people aren't like that.
They like only one sermon that this guy preached.
The one where he says,
Jihu's gonna be the next king
and he's gonna smoke the house of Ahab.
They're like, yeah, great, we love that preaching.
So they say, Jihu is king.
I don't have time, obviously,
to go through all this,
but it just kind of gives all of the details
of them going and bringing the wrath of God upon them.
Let's just jump down to verse number 21.
It says in Joram said,
make ready and his chariot was made ready
and Joram king of Israel
and he as I, king of Judah went out
each in his chariot
and they went out against Jihu
and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.
So notice the poetic justice here
that Naboth was the one that they had killed
and it's like God's gonna bring judgment
in Naboth's exact parcel of land
just so that everybody realizes,
okay, even though this happened 13 years ago,
this is a punishment because of what y'all did to Naboth
and it's all coming to get you right now.
And here's the thing,
it's not just the king of Israel
but it's also as I, king of Judah.
And again, remember,
the kings of Israel are worse than the kings of Judah.
Kings of Israel are a bad influence on the kings of Judah.
The kings of Judah should not be hanging around
with the kings of Israel because they're bad influence.
But because the king of Judah is hanging around
with the king of Israel,
he's gonna get smoked too because here's the thing.
You know, you don't wanna be hanging around
with the enemies of God when they get punished.
When God is bringing down his vengeance and his wrath
upon people who have done wickedly
and persecuted the people of God,
you know what, you don't wanna be near them.
Remember when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
are speaking against Moses and Aaron
and God's about to destroy Korah, Dathan,
Abiram and all their company, hundreds of people,
he says, anybody who fears God,
get away from the tents of these wicked men.
You do not wanna be standing near them
when God brings the judgment upon them
because you will end up getting caught in the crossfire.
You know, if some church is cursed by God,
if some pastor is involved in super wicked behavior,
you don't wanna be a part of that team
when God is coming and bringing down
the hammer on those people.
You don't wanna be hooked up with those kind of people.
You wanna separate yourself from the company
of those wicked men.
That's why we shouldn't be in the company
of people who've been church disciplined, right?
These people have been delivered over to Satan
for the destruction of the flesh.
They're supposed to be a heathen and a publican on us.
Why would you want to fellowship
and hang around with people that have been church disciplined?
You know, I'm talking about people
who've been church disciplined for a legitimate reason.
And I'm not even just saying from our church.
People who've been church disciplined
from any church for a legitimate reason.
I mean, imagine this.
Imagine a guy getting church disciplined
for denying the Trinity.
I mean, that's pretty bad.
When you're denying the Trinity,
saying it's polytheistic and you're full blown,
just one this modalist denying the Trinity
and your independent fundamental Baptist church
kicks you out, right?
And there's a guy like this.
He was kicked out of a church in Texas.
And, you know, this is not a church that we approve of.
This is not a church that we're friends with.
But as a church in Texas,
kicks this guy out for being against the Trinity,
for being a damnable heretic,
he's thrown out of the church,
legitimately thrown out of the church.
But then another fundamental Baptist
decides it's a good idea
to bring him on his podcast
to hear about his views on why the Trinity is wrong
and let's give him a platform,
let's put him on YouTube
and let him just get his message out
to thousands of people.
Let's help this guy.
It's like, if this guy was excommunicated
from a Baptist church for a legitimate reason,
then the Bible teaches he's under the curse of God.
So why would we want to then,
hey, we gotta be nice to this guy,
and he even said, be nice to him.
Be nice to him.
Let's give him a platform.
You know what?
You are now a partaker of his evil deeds is what you are.
You're participating in his evil deeds.
You know, and there's a saying in German,
mitgegangen, mitgefangen, mitgangen, okay?
And it means, you know, you went together,
you were caught together,
and you're hung together, right?
Because you know, when you're hanging around the wrong people,
you end up getting smoked along with them.
And we do have a few German speakers in the crowd
that just got that right away.
So the Bible says here,
that Isaiah, he's there in the mix,
king of Judah, they went out against Jehu,
met him in the portion of Naboth the Jeseralite,
verse 22, it came to pass when Joram saw Jehu,
that he said, is it peace, Jehu?
I mean, can we all just get along?
And he answered, what peace?
So long as the Hordom's of yo mama, Jezebel,
and her witchcrafts are so many.
How can we have peace when your mom's a whore?
And when she's killing the people of God
and persecuting the people of God.
What peace as long as the Hordom's of my mother,
Jezebel, and her witchcraft are so many.
Now right away, when he hears this answer,
he realizes this peace talk isn't really going
the way that I thought it was gonna go.
And so he says, Joram turned his hands and fled
and said to Isaiah, there's treachery on Isaiah.
And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength
and smote Jehoram between his arms
and the arrow went out at his heart
and he sunk down in his chariot.
Then said, Jehu to bid car his captain,
take up and cast him in the portion
of the field of Naboth, the Jezreelite,
for remember how that when I and thou rode together
after Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him.
So it's kind of funny that back when Elijah
had first confronted Ahab in the portion of Naboth,
Jehu and them were actually around.
Even though back then they were just kind of nobodies.
They were kind of just young guys in Ahab's army.
And they actually heard the original sermon
like 13 or so years earlier.
And he's like, hey, let's fulfill Bible prophecy here.
We killed him, now let's throw him here.
Hey, Elijah said this was gonna happen 13 years ago.
And it's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy
because they're like, hey, let's do what Elijah said
was gonna happen and just throw him here.
And that's what they end up doing.
And he's like, man, remember, we heard that preaching.
Because it's like, this is kind of a cool moment
because as they're fulfilling prophecy
and then it like dawns on them,
whoa, we're actually fulfilling prophecy right now.
Like we, you know, it's kind of like it just clicked.
What are the, we're actually here.
Oh, remember, this is what he said was gonna happen
and we're doing it.
Well, let's finish it now.
Throw the body here in Naboth's field.
It's a good fitting place for it to end up.
Surely I have seen yesterday, verse 26,
the blood of Naboth and the blood of his son,
sayeth the Lord, and I will requite thee
in this plat, sayeth the Lord,
now therefore take and cast them into the platter of ground,
according to the word of the Lord.
But when A.S.I., the king of Judah saw this,
he fled by the way of the garden house.
And Jehu followed after him and said,
smite him also in the chariot.
And they did so at the going up to Gerr,
which is by Iblum and he fled to Megiddo and died there.
And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem
and buried him in his sepulchre
with his fathers in the city of David.
And in the 11th year of Joram,
the son of A.I. began as I had a reign over Judah.
And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it
and she painted her face and tired her head
and looked out at a window.
She thinks that somehow she's going to impress them
with her appearance, right?
She thinks that if she looks super regal
and important and impressive,
that somehow she's gonna intimidate them
or scare them or whatever.
And so she puts on her clown makeup and she paints her face.
She tired her, it makes me think of that meme
of the guy like putting on the clown makeup.
This is Jezebel painting her face.
She tired her, this is like our word attire for clothing.
So she's dressing her hair,
doing a fancy hairdo of some kind, dressing her hair.
We think of the English word hairdresser, right?
So she's tiring her head.
She looks out the window
and as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said,
had Zimra'i peace who slew his master?
So she's basically going back in the history of Israel
to a king who overthrew another king
and he ended up just immediately getting smoked
because again, he didn't have the mandate of God here.
God has told Jehu, execute my fierce wrath
upon the house of Ahab.
And so he has God on his side
whereas Zimra'i didn't have God on his side.
That's the colossal difference.
And you know, so many things are like this in this world.
It's like, well, what's the difference
between this situation over here and this situation?
Well, here's the difference.
One of them is on the Lord's side
and one of them is on the devil's side.
That's the difference.
Any questions?
A lot of things in this world can look similar
but one of them's right and one of them's wrong.
One of them is in accordance with scripture,
one of them isn't.
One of them is for the Lord, one of them is for the devil.
And so she's like, well, had Zimra'i peace?
Who slew his master?
And he lifted up his face to the window
and said, who's on my side?
He doesn't even answer her.
He doesn't even seem like he even looks at her.
He doesn't even care.
She totally wasted her time putting on all this makeup.
It probably just made the dogs choke a little bit.
They had to choke on all the chemicals
and all the human foreskins
and everything that go into makeup.
And so it's true.
Look it up.
And so basically, he's just like, who's on my side?
Who?
And they're looked out to him two or three eunuchs.
So basically, he just looks up
and she's got a tendance around her.
And what is a eunuch?
A eunuch is a man who has been castrated.
So he has had his genitals removed.
His stones have been removed.
And the purpose for this is that what they don't want
is they don't want the queen committing adultery
with one of these guys.
And obviously that is wicked because it's adultery,
but also it could produce a bastard son.
And then you think it's the king's son
and it's just the son of some random guy or whatever.
They don't want that.
So they wanna protect her chastity
and they also wanna protect her genetics here
of actually having an heir of the actual king.
So throughout history, you would have these men
that are mutilated, they are castrated,
so that they can basically work around the queen
and nobody has to worry about them fathering a child
because they biologically, physically can't even do it
because they don't have the equipment to do it.
So that's what these eunuchs are.
And so these eunuchs are up there.
They've been sterilized in the worst possible way.
And they're up there and he says, who's on my side?
And some of these eunuchs kinda give him the signal
like, yeah, we're on your side.
And then what does he tell them to do?
He said, throw her down, so they threw her down.
And some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall
and on the horses and he trod her underfoot.
So she gets thrown out the window
and she literally goes splat according to the Bible.
Okay, and then just as a little just victory lap,
D.U. just decides to just ride his horse on top of her,
just for no reason.
Just he just rides over her just to desecrate her
and just to humiliate her further.
So she puts on the fancy outfit, fancy hairdo, fancy makeup,
you know, a couple of eunuchs throw her out the window,
she goes splat, she gets ridden over
and then she's just out there in the street laying there
and then the res dogs come and take care of the rest.
Okay, now here's what I love about these eunuchs,
you know, is that, you know, if you think about it,
the last thing any of us men want is to become eunuchs.
You know, like most men would hear this and be like,
Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men,
even as this eunuch here, you know.
Thank you that the family jewels are still intact.
Okay, obviously we men, you know, it's a part of our body
that we would like to keep, thank you very much.
You know, the only thing more important to me is my mind.
You know, I don't want to lose my mind,
but second only to that is I don't want to lose
the family jewels, okay?
And so, you know, the eunuch, if you think about it,
you know, the eunuch, you know,
he hasn't really gotten a fair shake in life, has he?
I mean, this guy, he's not living his best life now.
You know, and by the way, you know, in the Middle Ages,
they used to actually mutilate men in this exact same way
to sing in the Catholic church.
And they're called castratos.
And the reason that they did this
is because they didn't want to have women in the choir.
They didn't want to have women singing in church.
They wanted it to be all men,
but they need those high voices.
So they'd get these young boys
that are really good singers and they would mutilate them.
And it was illegal, but it was just happening all the time
to thousands of them.
So there's just thousands of guys that are mutilating them.
And then these guys would make big money
and they're singing and everything,
but you know what, I don't care how good the money is,
no thank you.
And so they're up there, I guess, singing like Michael Jackson
because, you know, they've been castrated or whatever.
So if you think about these eunuchs though,
all joking aside, these guys have gotten kind of a bum
deal in life.
But you know what, they're still being used by God.
Like they're still on the Lord's side.
They still do something great for God.
They're still used by God.
And so it goes to show me that, you know,
no matter what situation you find yourself in in life,
and no matter how unlucky you are, unfortunate,
you know what, you can still be used for God.
You can still be on the Lord's side
and do the right thing.
And you know, there's actually a,
I didn't plan on going here,
but let's just go there and we can be done with this.
But, you know, let's just go to Isaiah
because there's actually a really cool passage
about eunuchs in the book of Isaiah
that I think really illustrates
what I'm trying to get across here.
And I'm doing this on the fly.
It's either Isaiah 56 or 58.
I want to say 56.
Yeah, it looks like 56.
Isaiah chapter 56, let me just find it.
Or somebody help me find it.
If you know, some of you out there know where I'm going.
Okay, Isaiah 56 verse three.
So here's the thing, you know, yeah.
Here's the funny part though,
since we're not going back to 2 Kings 9.
After she got thrown out the window
and he rides over her
and then she starts getting eaten by the dogs,
he sits down to have a meal.
So G.U. is just sitting down eating his burger and fries
and just kind of just hanging out.
And then he starts to feel bad.
He starts to feel a little guilty, I guess,
because he says, you know what?
I think that we should actually bury Jezebel
because she is a king's daughter.
Maybe that was a little much, you know,
just driving over the body
and just leaving it out there
and letting the dogs eat it.
And so he's like, you know, maybe that was too much.
Maybe we should bury the body.
He sends them out to look for it
and all they find is like a skull
and like the palms of her hand
and like an ear or something.
Like they just find like a few little pieces
and yeah, that's what they bury.
But then he's like, well, it's a fulfillment of prophecy
because the Bible said the dogs will eat Jezebel.
And so the res dogs ate well that night.
But look at Isaiah 56.
I love this passage.
It says in verse three,
neither let the son of the stranger,
this is like a foreigner, somebody who's not an Israelite,
neither let the son of the stranger
that had joined himself to the Lord
speak saying, the Lord has utterly separated me
from his people.
You know, this idea that like,
oh, you're a Jew and I'm a Gentile.
It's like, no, no, once you've joined yourself
under the Lord, you're one of the people of God.
And so don't let the stranger think,
oh, the Lord has utterly separated me from his people.
Neither let the eunuch say,
behold, I'm a dry tree.
Right, because he can't physically reproduce folks.
So, you know, the tree brings forth fruit.
The eunuch can't physically bring forth fruit.
He doesn't have the equipment.
And so he's saying, oh, I'm a dry tree.
He says, no, no, let not the eunuch say he's a dry tree.
For it does say at the Lord unto the eunuchs
that keep my Sabbaths and choose the things
that please me and take hold of my covenant.
Even unto them will I give in my house
and within my walls a place and a name
better than of sons and of daughters.
And I will give them an everlasting name
that should not be cut off.
He's saying, look, you know, even if you can't have
physical reproduction, physical fruit,
you can't bear children,
you can't enjoy that marital relationship.
You know what he says, I can bless you in other ways
and give you, you know, an eternal reward
and a name better than that of sons and daughters.
And so, you know, it goes to show me that,
that, you know, even people who don't make it
in this life, maybe they don't make it romantically.
Maybe they don't make it financially.
Maybe they don't make it socially.
Maybe they don't make it in whatever the case.
You know what?
The Bible is saying God can still greatly use those people.
He loves those people.
He's gonna bless those people
and those people could get great rewards
for all eternity because you know what?
The time is short, my friends.
And soon it won't be a difference
between the one who is married and single,
you know, or the one who has children
or does not have children.
The one who has his, you know,
stuff intact versus the one who has been chopped off
because you know what, at the end of the day, right?
We're going to heaven.
It's gonna be eternal.
It's gonna be thousands of years, millions of years
and this life is a vapor that appears
for a little time and then vanishes away.
And so, you know, if you're a eunuch tonight
and I don't think we have any eunuchs here tonight,
but you know, if you're a eunuch in some other area,
maybe, you know, metaphorically speaking,
some part of your life that's dear to you has been cut off.
You know, you've had to give up something, you know?
And so we're taking a very loose interpretation here.
You know, you've had to give up something.
You've had to skip something.
You've had to forego something important to you.
You know what?
Just realize that whatever we give up for the Lord,
he's gonna reward us a hundredfold.
And so instead of just going through life,
oh man, I can't believe I lost this
or I gave up this or I missed this opportunity
or I missed this body part.
Because you know what?
There could be people who are missing other body parts too.
And just have severe illnesses
and just have, you know, relationships
that are permanently destroyed.
Branches of the family that have been cut off, you know?
And just financial things and just whatever.
Realize that God still loves you.
God can still use you.
You can still be super blessed
and you can actually maybe even do more for God sometimes
than the one that's whole over here.
And so nothing wrong with being a stranger.
Nothing wrong with being a eunuch.
Live for God.
And God's not a respecter of persons.
He's not looking down at the strangers and eunuchs
as second class.
He sees them as first class.
Let's bribes end up with a prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
We thank you for this great chapter in Second Kings.
And Lord God, let us not give in to this world
and think that preaching is insane
or that being a fundamental Baptist is insane
or that, you know, taking the Bible seriously is insane.
Lord, help us to be ready to hear the word of God
and to listen to the real men of God.
And when they're up there going crazy behind the pulpit,
preaching hard, Lord, help us to receive that truth
and not just the parts that we already like,
but help us to receive all the biblical truth
that you have for us, Lord.
And Lord, those of us that have maybe had losses
or disappointments or whatever mutilations in our life, Lord,
help us to stay encouraged and keep serving you
and trusting you.
And in Jesus' name we pray amen.