Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 685
Delivered on Sunday Morning, April 15, 1866, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
2 Kings 10:31.
JEHU was raised up by God to be a great reformer in the kingdom of Israel. No sooner did he receive his commission than he was at his work with a daring and a perseverance never excelled. He was commanded to cut off the whole house of Ahab, and the task was a very congenial one—he slew right and left and spared none. Unlike Saul with the Amalekites, who spared Agag and the best of the cattle, Jehu utterly exterminated the race whom God had doomed. When full vengeance had been worked upon Jezebel and all Ahab’s brood, he scarcely paused by the way to congratulate himself and say to Jehonadab, “Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord,” but proceeded at once to gather together all the priests of Baal and to annihilate them at a blow.
He was a thorough root-and-branch reformer in this matter and cut off the Baalites without remorse and without exception. He was not one of those who of old were cursed for doing the work of God deceitfully, holding back their hands from blood. He made a thorough and clean sweep of the abominations of Baal worship and accomplished the work for which he was raised up with the most wonderful thoroughness and zeal. But—oh, that but—how unhappily does it mar everything! While he was thus ready and earnest in a work which suited his furious taste, he had no true heart toward God! While he was a destroyer of Baal he was not a servant of Jehovah—he was an iconoclast of the very first order, breaking idols right and left—but he was no builder up of the house of the Lord!
He did not yield his mind reverently and obediently to the worship of Israel’s God. Neither did he care to know His mind and Law. He followed a sort of animal impulse which drove him forward in opposition to Baal and to Ahab’s race, but he knew nothing of that spiritual force which would have led him to enquire, “What more would God have me to do?” His actions as God’s executioner were right enough, but his heart was wrong. He was impulsive and impetuous and drove furiously when the work was to his mind, but, had no heart to other service for Jehovah.
Having overthrown the worship of Baal, he almost immediately established another form of idolatry in its stead and bade the nation prostrate itself before the calves of Bethel. Hating one sin, he loved another, and thus proved that the fear of the Most High did not reign in his breast. He was merely a hired servant and received the throne as his wages. A child of God he never was—he did God’s work, as did the lion who slew the wicked Prophet—but he still remained a lion.
Anxious care to know and serve God did not suit Jehu’s headstrong disposition. He was all flash and dash, but careful, humble obedience he knew nothing of. Do not suppose that this rash heedless Jehu was a man alone and without a companion—he was, alas, only one of a very numerous class! I have selected the text because of an impression upon my own heart that the Jehus are increasing in our land and that there will be found thoughtless professors in this congregation to whom this text may cause great searching of heart. I only trust that such may really be led to examine themselves and use fitting tests to discover whether they are truly Believers in the great God of Israel, or are only hasty, inconsiderate, unrenewed imitators of Jehu.
The fault of heedlessness of God’s will which is mentioned in the text is a very terrible one—fatal to all our professions of genuine piety—and all hopes of entering into eternal life. While I speak upon the holy caution and earnest heed which the text suggests, may the Holy Spirit enable us all to search ourselves—whether we have received from the Lord by faith in Jesus a renewed heart which is anxious to know and to do the will of the Lord—or are mere creatures of impulse, picking and choosing as to our Lord’s commands and obeying or disobeying according as the circumstances of the hour may influence our thoughtless spirit.
In the first place this morning we shall have to speak upon heedlessness in religion, showing the one peculiar point in which it mainly discovers itself. Then we shall proceed to testify, secondly, that in this point heedlessness in religion is fatal. We shall then, thirdly, go on to show the usefulness of holy care and heedfulness. And we shall close by endeavoring to exhort you to practice that heedfulness before you leave this House of Prayer.
I. First, may the Holy Spirit enable us to SHOW THE POINT IN WHICH HEEDLESSNESS MOST OF ALL DISPLAYS ITSELF. Jehu took no heed to what? He took great heed to kill Ahab’s family! He took great heed to totally destroy Baal’s worshippers. But he took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. This is the point in which a great many flaming professors show their want of vital godliness—they exercise no holy circumspection and show no anxiety to walk in the Law of the Lord their God with all their heart—which they would be very desirous of doing if they were saved men.