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[0:00] You go with me to 2 Kings 8 and verse 18. But before you get there, let me remind you of what's happened because I have been gone. And Robert's already preached the next part of the scripture here.

[0:11] And I'm going back to a message I didn't finish here. But God took care of the lady. There was a lady that had given a prophet's chamber to the man of God as he went through.

[0:21] The famine is coming. And when the famine is coming, the man of God says to her, the famine's coming. You need to get somewhere. Go find some place to live. She's been gone a long time. He sent her out of the country.

[0:32] She came back. She wanted her stuff back. She walks in and she goes to try to talk to the king. And the king is already talking to Gehazi, the guy that tried to do wrong and got leprosy because he tried to take the stuff that was meant for Elisha.

[0:46] And he's telling the story about Elisha and about what he did. And she walks in. He said, that's the woman right there. And God took care of her. God takes care of his people.

[0:58] Amen. If you belong to him, he loves you. He takes care of you. He's going to work in your life. The next thing we saw is how this traces all the wickedness that happens here.

[1:08] Oh, Ahab and Jezebel, and it all goes tracing back to them and their wicked families and the influence they had and their children. Father, the example I'm going to show you a little bit about tonight.

[1:18] They follow their parents' example and they do wrong. You know, Hazel kills the king of Syria. He goes to Elisha to ask for the king. He says, hey, the king wants to know, is he going to live or is he going to die?

[1:31] Is he going to recover from this sickness? And Elisha said, you're telling me he's going to recover. And then Elisha gets really sad and he puts his head down and he looks terrible. And it doesn't take Hazel long to figure out something's wrong.

[1:45] He said, what's wrong? He said, because I know the truth. The truth is you're going to kill him and you're going to be a wicked and a horrible king. And I'm just feeling sorry for all the people who are going to get hurt because of you. And he goes home and the king says, hey, am I going to live?

[1:58] He said, yeah. He said, you'll recover. And then he grabbed a cloth and got it wet, laid it on his head and killed him. So that was not a very good, nice part of the story. And then Jehu, which I've always called Jehu, but I was listening to the audio Bible today.

[2:11] They probably speak better than a Tennessee hillbilly. And they call him Jehu. So if I say Jehu, it's just because I'm a hick. But anyway, he's anointed king and Ahab's family is going to be destroyed.

[2:24] I love the story, which Robert would have already told you. He is riding towards the castle. He's riding towards the walls of the city. And as he goes riding towards the city, the wicked king sends a rider out to see what's happening.

[2:40] And the rider gets out there and says, hey, we just want to know, are you coming in peace or not? And Jehu says, what do you know about peace? Just fall in behind and hush. And the next guy, they look and say, hey, he didn't come back.

[2:52] And they said, well, send another one. They send another one. He said, what do you know about peace? Come on, get back here behind me. And then he arrives at the city and Jezebel will be thrown out and killed. But I want to bring to you tonight some truths that apply to your life.

[3:05] Go with me to 2 Kings 8 and verse 18. The Bible says, and he walked in the way of the king of Israel, as did the house of Ahab. For the daughter of Ahab was his wife.

[3:18] And he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Would you underline the word for in that verse? There's a colon, then it says for. If you'll notice, it says he walked in the way of the kings of Israel.

[3:29] That's not good, as did the house of Ahab. That's horrible. And then it says for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. The daughter of Ahab was his wife.

[3:41] And so write this down somewhere if you would. It's more caught than taught. It's more caught than taught. You see, you see these kids, they don't necessarily, they don't necessarily get taught to do wrong.

[3:53] But when that's what you hang around, and that's what mom and dad do, and that's what's happening, it influences you. And your life and marriage have a direct effect on your children and your grandchildren.

[4:05] And that's very plainly seen in the story here. You see, Ahab married the wrong woman. He married Jezebel, a wicked woman that worshipped Baal, a demon god. And after marriage, the bad man just got worse.

[4:19] And the children walked in that same way. Look at 2 Kings chapter 8 and verse 27. It's just a recurring theme. The Bible says, And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab.

[4:35] For he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. All I can say is, what a sad story. What a sad way to think. It is caught, not so much taught.

[4:48] You know what? Can I just say this to you parents here? Sometimes we talk so spiritual. Sometimes we talk like we love Jesus. Sometimes we talk like we put Jesus first.

[4:59] But when you don't put him first, they catch on. And when you don't live out the faith that you claim you have, they catch on. And the parents cause the children, or the children are paying the price for what they learn from their parents.

[5:14] Look at 2 Kings chapter 9 and verse 8. 2 Kings 9, 8. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish. That's horrific. The whole house of Ahab shall perish.

[5:26] And I will cut off Ahab, and him that urinates against the wall, and him that shut up and left Israel, I will cut him off. All the house of Ahab. The whole house of Ahab is going to pay for the price of the parents.

[5:39] You're going to say, well, God's a God of grace, and that's just not the truth about us. It's not going to happen that way. But the truth is, when your dad's a drunk, it's going to affect you. And the truth is that when your dad's a fornicator and adulterer, it's going to affect you.

[5:53] And the truth is that sin from the parents' life does affect the kids. There are lessons for parents and children from the passage. Parents, your influence is more by action than by words.

[6:05] Children are watching you. They're following you. They're imitating you. When I was a kid, and cigarette commercials were allowed on television, way back in the dark ages, when there were only three channels, they were all black and white.

[6:17] And even after that, they got into colors. Sam, you know, quit laughing. And so, you know, they might be smoking. And then the people, the anti-smoking people would put on a dad, and the dad would sit down with his son.

[6:29] He'd say, son, you shouldn't smoke. I'm smoking, but you shouldn't smoke. Because I'm smoking, but I can't quit smoking. You shouldn't smoke. And he'd sit down and lean against the tree, get out a cigarette, and lay his cigarettes down. And the kid would lean against the tree on the other side, reach over and get the cigarettes and put it to his lips.

[6:43] That wasn't a Christian program. They were just showing your kids do what you do, not what you tell them to do. Your actions are speaking so loud, I can't hear what you're saying. Pray for your children.

[6:54] Consider what you do and what you want them to live out. Children, evaluate what you do in the light of God's word. They do not accept what their parents have done. They do not just accept what their parents have done as right, that they'd rather obey God, or that's what they should do.

[7:11] The key, above all, is for our children to learn grace and truth. So the first lesson in 2 Kings chapter 8 and 9, I think is, man, I want to work on being a better parent.

[7:24] And I want to work on being a better grandparent. I want to realize it's important that God let me have kids. It's important that I live for him. It's important the influence I'll have on my children.

[7:35] Go with me now if you were to 2 Kings chapter 9 and verse 7. And this is sad. Because this is a bad set of chapters, just to be honest with you. Here's what you need to write down.

[7:46] Sin is judged. And sin has consequences. Sin is judged and sin has consequences. The king of Assyria is a wicked man and Hazael is going to kill him.

[7:59] Ahab already died because of the sin and rebellion in his family. And now all the prophecy. You remember old Naboth in his vineyard? And you remember how Naboth had a vineyard?

[8:09] And you remember how Ahab wanted his vineyard? And Naboth said, I can't give you my vineyard because I've got to obey God. And God said it shouldn't come out of my line and go into some other family so I can't sell it to you.

[8:21] And old Naboth stood his ground. And Ahab goes home and talks to his wife. And his wife says, we can kill him. We can take it. And they do that. And they put on this fake trial.

[8:33] And they act real spiritual. And they accuse him of wicked stuff. And they get him killed and they steal his land. And when it looks like Ahab and Jezebel have gotten away from it, here comes the man of God walking in quietly into the vineyard.

[8:45] And he says, you will die. And he said all these bad things are going to happen to him. And in this chapter, that's what happens. Look at 2 Kings 9, verses 7 and 8, if you would.

[8:57] Thou shalt smite the house of Ahab, thy master, 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.

[9:10] Jezebel has been mistreating my people. And it's time to pay for what she's done. Verse 8, for the whole house of Ahab shall perish. And I will cut off from Ahab him that urinates against the wall, him that is shut up and left in Israel.

[9:25] And then he tells them how bad it's going to be. 2 Kings 9, verse 30. You know, old Jezebel is going to become dog dung. And that's how she's going to be spread across the land.

[9:36] Read what the Bible says. 2 Kings 9, verse 30. When Jehu was come, Jehu was come, whatever his name is, Jezebel heard of it and painted her face and tired her head.

[9:48] She tried to look good. And looked out the window. And Jehu entered in at the gate. She said, had Zimri peace who slew his master. Do you really think the guy who kills his master can get away with it?

[10:01] And he lifted up his face to the window and said, who's on my side? Who? And there looked out two or three eunuchs. And he said, throw her down. And so they threw her down.

[10:12] And some of her blood sprinkled on the wall and on the horses. And he rode over her dead body. He trod her underfoot. And when he was coming in, he did eat and drink and said, Go now, see this cursed woman and bury her.

[10:27] For she's a king's daughter. They went to bury her. But they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hand. Wherefore, they came again and told him.

[10:39] And he said, this is the word of the Lord. Underline that. This is the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servant, Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel.

[10:53] And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field. In the portion of Jezebel of Jezreel. So they shall not say, this is Jezebel.

[11:06] Now, God hates sin. Sin has consequence. Lost people will spend eternity in hell.

[11:18] You need to listen to this. Every man, speak, because I don't know a bunch of you. Every man is a sinner. Every man has failed God. The Bible says in Romans chapter 3 and verse 10, there's none righteous.

[11:32] In Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, it says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every man. And then it says, the wages of sin is death. And so when we sin, all we have waiting for us.

[11:45] And we have sinned. We come from a line of sinners that we sin because we want to. And because of that, we're going to pay the price. But God loves you. And he doesn't want you to pay the price.

[11:55] Jesus has already paid the price. You can be saved today because he's already paid the price. He paid it all. He's already paid it for you. And you can be saved. And you can be saved.

[12:06] But if not, can I just stop here and say, because this is a missionary night. Even more than normal because of Austin being accepted and getting that arrow tonight.

[12:20] And just, can I just say this? They're dying all over. I just this week did a little study. It's about 1,000 people that die every hour in China without Christ.

[12:32] And since they have a higher death rate in India, it's about 1,100 that die every hour in India. 1,000 in China, 1,100 in India, and about 200 in Indonesia.

[12:43] That's the three largest countries in the world except for our country, which is the United States. And I didn't figure that out. But you all already know that everybody's saved in this country. That was a joke.

[12:54] Look, Christians, if you play with sin, you can lose God's blessings. And you cause your family to live in pain and frustration.

[13:05] Sin has no power over us. We have victory over sin. There is absolutely no reason you should allow sin to win. We've talked about how to resist Satan.

[13:17] You have victory. In this story, you find out God hates sin. And sin is terrible. And sin will have horrible consequences. But it doesn't have it for us because we're saved and born again on our way to heaven.

[13:28] And then you're a Christian and some of you are still messing with sin. You're still looking at pornography. You're still letting wicked thoughts beat you up and beat you down. And you ought to know you have victory because you know the Lord Jesus.

[13:41] Now go with me to 2 Kings chapter 8 and verse 19. Next one I want to show you. God's word is true and can be trusted. If you read 2 Kings chapters 8 and 9, you know what you'll walk away with?

[13:55] God said it and he did it. You know what you'll walk away with? God keeps his word. The Bible says that there's a woman in a famine and it happens, God happens to be the one in control of the weather.

[14:07] That's pretty much like I'm in charge. That's pretty much like because he says to Elisha, tell her I got a famine coming. Get out of the country for seven years. So God's in charge. That's in 2 Kings chapter 8.

[14:19] And then he tells Hazael that he will kill Benadad. And then he says this, he didn't destroy Judah because he'd given his word. Look at 2 Kings 8, 19. And yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake as he promised him.

[14:36] Would you underline this, as he promised him? I want you to know something. When you got a promise to God, you can take it to the bank. And so here he is. God's upset with this nation of Judah and how they're doing wrong.

[14:49] But he had promised David something. And when God was upset, he said, well, I made a promise. I keep my promises. Now here's a promise for you. Do you know that if you trust him, he'll save you?

[15:01] He's given his word about that. He'll keep his word. You can trust him because he gives his word and keeps it. And then look at this. Ahab and Jezebel both die just like he said they would.

[15:14] 2 Kings 9, verse 10. The dog shall eat Jezebel and the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door and fled.

[15:24] That's what the guy told Jehu when he went to anoint him as king. He said, now that's what God said back in the days of Elijah. It's going to happen because when God says it, God means it.

[15:35] Can I get an amen right there? You can trust God with your life. Those of you that are trying to figure out whether or not God meant it when he said it to Israel, if he didn't mean it when he said it to Israel, he doesn't mean it when he said it to us.

[15:46] Some of you guys that are trying to come up with a way to figure out where Israel and Israel's not got all those promises, God keeps his word. God keeps his word. Let me show you another one.

[15:59] Go to 2 Kings 9, verse 22. Sin must be rooted out. Sin must be rooted out. We have got to get rid of sin.

[16:12] It is not only your sin, but those that sin due to your influence. See, here's the tragic story, in my opinion, of this passage of Scripture. It's one thing when I do wrong.

[16:25] It's one thing when I mess up. And if it affected me and didn't affect anybody else, maybe it wouldn't be quite so bad. And back when I first started pastoring a long time ago, they used to say, I ain't hurting nobody but me.

[16:38] But the facts are, in this passage of Scripture, what mom and dad's doing is affecting children and grandchildren. It's affecting everybody. Go with me, if you would, to 2 Kings 9, verse 22.

[16:51] This is a crazy verse here. Man, if you could act as, I was listening to the dramatized version today. You should listen to the Bible.is. You can go listen to it. And they don't really do that good.

[17:02] But it's still better than you reading it because you don't read it that good anyway. You say Jehu instead of Jehu. Say amen. And so look at this, what he says in chapter 9, verse 22. See, it wasn't just you.

[17:30] It's mama's been building a legacy of this. Your sin influences more than just you. Others learn to sin from us.

[17:44] We make them think it's normal and accepted. If I can't get victory, then I set my own children up to follow the same path. Don't you realize your children are watching you?

[17:56] And they know when you pray, God answers, or they know you don't even pray, and so God doesn't answer. They know when you love Jesus at church and when you love Jesus at home. They know when it's real in your heart and when it's not real in your heart.

[18:08] You want to hear something? Missionaries a lot of times have missionary kids, and pastors have pastor's kids that turn out to do something for God. And it has a lot to do with what mom and dad got.

[18:19] All across America, churches are empty of young people. And everybody's like, what happened to young people? I think I can tell you, mama and grandmama, daddy and granddaddy.

[18:36] Sin so affected that the king of Judah is affected. The king of Judah is a good guy. Israel guys, they're the bad guys. Judah guys, they're supposed to be the good guys. Not in this story. He married into the family of Ahab.

[18:48] You don't do that. I could stop right here for our young people because you get married a lot around here. There's a wedding taking place like Saturday. And you better be real careful about who you marry because you marry Ahab's daughter.

[19:01] You marry Jezebel's daughter or granddaughter. You're in trouble. I ain't joking about that. God's people ought to be very careful about that.

[19:16] Compromise with his neighbor and friend and bring sin into his life and his country. You know what ends up happening in the story? You got this kind of wicked country over here, Israel.

[19:29] And you got Judah that's trying to do right and do the things they ought to do. But they decide they want peace. And the wicked ones and the good ones. And so they don't want to hurt each other's feelings.

[19:41] They don't want to stand and offend. They want to be tolerant and good people and politically correct. And so they intermarry to make a good union. And instead of making a good union, they destroy a good people.

[19:57] I don't think that's very popular today. I think the United States of America is big on how correct I am and how nice I am and how sweet I am and how good I am to people and how I don't offend anybody.

[20:10] But compromise brought death to Judah. This means God makes Jehu king of Israel to root out the sin of Jezebel.

[20:22] Look at 2 Kings 9.21. And Joram said, make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel and Ahazah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot.

[20:34] And they went out against Jehu and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. So this whole point really here is to say to you, I'm going to read you another verse or two.

[20:46] But don't compromise with sin. Don't act like it's not important. Don't make like, well, I know Ahab's a bad guy, but I don't have to let his bad affect me.

[20:59] I know Jezebel's not a good woman, but I don't have to let it affect me. I just want to be friends. I just want to be tolerant. Lord, I just don't want people to think I'm mean and you don't take a stand. And that's what's happened in the story.

[21:12] So here's a Bible verse for you in the New Testament to close this two chapters out with you. Go to James chapter 1 and verse 21. You see, we need to take a strong stand against sin.

[21:24] And we need to take that strong stand in our lives. Because I know that there's nothing that would please the devil more and hurt the cause of Christ more than for me to let sin and Satan bring ruin into my life and into my family.

[21:40] Because I know that if I play with sin, you see, you know, you started out with that little bit of porn or you started out with that little bit of sin. And you kept playing with that little bit of sin and you kept, you just skip a little church.

[21:51] You just skip a little bobbering. You just skip a little praying. You just skip a little putting God first. And you just kind of play that game and you think you're going to get away with it. That's the story at the last here.

[22:02] Look at James 1.21. Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. Now, that's kind of a crazy phrase, right?

[22:13] You're like, what in the stinking world does that mean? But look at this. You see, he's saying, just get rid of all the sin. And he said, I'll just go ahead and tell you it's filthy. But here's what you and I think. Your sin's filthy.

[22:25] Mine ain't that bad. What you do wrong's bad. But what I do wrong's not that bad. But God's people ought to be wanting to serve God. And, you know, when you are clean, dirt's dirt.

[22:37] Amen. I mean, I'm really weird. You know, when I travel, I get out, even in nicer motels, I take flip-flops. Because I walk on their carpet. Good night. You take a bath, walk on that nice carpet, and get dirty feet.

[22:49] Get into the bathroom. I'm like, do these people ever clean the carpet? Why do they want me to get clean so I can get dirty, so I can get their sheets dirty that they don't want to change? Because they want to save the trees. Lay apart all filthiness.

[23:02] And then it says, superfluity. All this abundance of naughtiness. And receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

[23:13] Don't compromise with sin. Because I really want you to listen to what I'm going to say here. And maybe this is more personal than it ought to be. But here it comes. I've talked to you about what you're thinking.

[23:24] I've talked to you about how you let the devil play with your mind. I've talked to you about how you think lies and listen to the liar and the deceiver and the accuser.

[23:36] And you live in a rut. And you kind of get right with God and then backslide. You get right with God and then you backslide. And you keep messing up. Because you know what you don't want to do? You don't want to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.

[23:48] You don't want to say, no, I'm finished with it. I'm all in for Jesus. And I'll be honest with you. I've been married 44 years and just a few days. And if I go to Betty and I say, look, I don't, I mean, I know I used to have this, the girlfriend that I saw every week.

[24:03] And I'm just going to go down to once a year now. Okay? I'm just explaining something to you with Betty. If it was once a week, she'd already kill me. And if I went to her and said, even if it was once a week, that's going to be once a year, she'd still kill me.

[24:15] Because she'd like to say, you lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. Say amen. She'd say, you get rid of it. Don't you think the Lord wants you to love him? Able to save our souls.

[24:29] Every one of us, Colossians chapter 3, should be busy mortifying sin. It's a mortifying. That's a Colossians 3 word. Putting to death sin.

[24:41] We should be taken off sin and putting on who we are in Christ. I got saved. I'm a new creature. I'm supposed to live it out. So here's a story.

[24:51] It's a wild story. Man, people are dying. A woman gets eaten, except for her feet, her hands, and her skull. And the Bible is like over graphic when it says she's dog dung.

[25:05] She's going to be manure spread all over the place. I mean, that's kind of graphic. That's kind of like rough. But you know what God's trying to say to me? He says, I want you to love me and not the world.

[25:18] Oh, Jezebel was a wicked idol worshiper. And old Ahab was already doing that. And she came along and he did worse. And I'm a parent. I'm a parent and a grandparent.

[25:30] I got 20 grandkids. I just got to remember something. I better not be messing around. I got 20 little souls that I hope get to know Jesus. I got 20 family members I hope want to serve God someday.

[25:42] I'll just be blunt honest with you. Whenever they want to do anything but preach, it bothers me. Unless they're women. And then I'm okay with it. I really want them to serve God. I want them to give their life, take the gospel around the world.

[25:53] You say, brother, you shouldn't push them into being in the ministry. Well, you know, you shouldn't push them into not being in the ministry. I don't push them. I just preach. And I'm excited. I want to tell people about Jesus.

[26:05] I think I ought to get your life. Isn't it time to root out the sin and say, I'm going to put Jesus first? You know, you believe that 100% about your wife.

[26:16] You believe that 100% about your husband. You believe that 100% about your children. You're just not sure you believe it about Jesus. You don't want to be a fanatic.

[26:28] You don't want anybody to accuse you of going overboard. I mean, you can go overboard with your husband, overboard with your wife, overboard with your kids. But you shouldn't do that with Jesus. That's the devil's lie to you.

[26:39] You ought to put him first. I don't want to be a child, apprehend. I don't want to be a child. It's so weird. You should learn how you might be a child. But you know, if you're such a woman that's food, you're like, she's genetically through love with you.