God & Country

Week 2 New Days, Old Demons
Last week we started a new series called God & Country. The series is based upon two books that I have been reading, New Days, Old Demons by Mark Driscoll and Return of the Gods by Jonathan Cahn. 
The point of this series is to open up our eyes to what is going on in our culture. 
National Geographic has reported that there is a significant increase in the worship of ancient pagan demon gods. 
At least 1.5 million people in the U.S. identify as Pagans—up from 134,000 in 2001. They range from witches to heathens. There is, in general, a move away from organized religion to spiritualism. 
Meanwhile, the church has had its head in the sand or even worse, distracted by the “color of the carpet” or arguing over who does the music, or who “runs the finances of the church”. 
But church, we are in a WAR!!!
Ephesians 6:12 NKJV 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places
We are fighting. We're fighting for freedom. We're fighting for faith. We're fighting for family. We're fighting for future. 
We are not fighting against flesh and blood. It's not people that we hate. It's the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places that are deceiving and using and enslaving and destroying those people. 
Today’s title is New Days, Old Demons. Let’s get started…we will talk about King Ahab and Jezebel…
1 Kings 16:29- ESV
29 In the thirty-eight year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 And Ahab the son of Omir did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 

31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.
Everyone worships something if you don't worship the real God you worship a demon god. 
32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah…
That's a phallic symbol that was like a marquee sign encouraging people to come and to have sexual sin and immorality.
 Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
Every generation gets more evil and wicked. We are not evolving. We are devolving. We are not getting better. We're getting worse. And we're so deceived and evil that we live under the myth that we are somehow closer to being like Jesus than they were a few thousand years ago. 
What we have done is take what God says and what God forbids and try affirm both. That’s called Syncretism. 
And what we have here is Baal was considered the chief male deity. Asherah was considered the chief female deity. It is said that they had illicit sexual intimate relations. The ancient worship was very pornographic, and when people would gather for church, they would do the unthinkable, unspeakable, and unimaginable. 
1 Kings 17: 1 ESV
Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”
These two “deity’s” were considered the god and goddess over fertility, crops, birth of children and the rain. That's why when God answers Elijah's request and doesn't allow rain to come for three years, it is a direct declaration of war against Baal, the god of rain. 
They were also pro-abortion. To worship these gods and goddesses, you would commit sexual immorality and then you would take your child and you would literally offer it as a sacrifice to a demon God. And so what you have in these days of Israel was syncretism. 
You have the history of the worship of God according to the Ten Commandments of Moses in the Bible and you added to that the worship of demon gods. 
This very same thing that's happening here and now. New Days, Old Demons. 'll give you an example: 
This is the state Supreme Court in New York. Standing for many years was a monument to Moses. He, with the Ten Commandments opening and showing that we are to be governed by rule of law. 
Recently a statue was added of demonic looking figure as a tribute to abortion and Medusa to symbolize the MeToo Movement.  That's where people go for justice. That's exactly what syncretism in ancient Israel looked like and it looks like today. 
When there is syncretism, there is apostasy. The original Greek word for apostasy was derived from treason in battle.  
In other words, they say they are for God, but they live that is anti-God. They follow in the ways of Judas, not Jesus. 
What is true physically is also true spiritually. Spiritual Adultery or prostituting. 
2 Chronicles 21:13 English Standard Version
13 but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and have enticed Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom, as the house of Ahab led Israel into whoredom, …

Today, we would call it wokeism, deconstructionism, progressivism, we have social Marxism, and it shows up most prominently today in issues of sex and marriage and gender and parenting. 
In the days of Elijah, they closed the churches, they closed the Bible teaching schools, and they canceled and ultimately killed the prophets. These are the same days. The church was closed, Christian schools and education are under attack, the authority of parents to decide what their children learn and don't learn is now suddenly debatable. And if you should say anything, you will be deplatformed, and you will be canceled. 
And what has happened now is the Church of Jesus Christ has been closed, and it has not bounced back. We are now seeing record low church attendance in the history of our nation. Not surprisingly, we're also seeing historic levels of mental health problems. In addition, a lot of churches that are now open, they were so gripped by a spirit of fear during the season of false prophecies that they are cowardly. They've lost their courage.  
 Let me tell you first about the Ahab spirit and then the Jezebel spirit.
Ahab and Jezebel are an ancient king and queen in Israel, but working behind them and in them and through them are demonic forces that continue to this very day. 
NEW DAYS< OLD DEMONS
1 Kings 16:30 ESV
30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. 
Ahab did evil. 
That word evil is also translated in a separate story regarding a man named Saul in the Bible as a tormenting demonic spirit. The reason he is so powerful is that there is a power working through him that is supernatural, but it's not the spirit of God. 
1 Kings 21:25 English Standard Version
25 (There was none who sold himself (hear that line) to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.
Ahab sold his soul to the devil like Judas Iscariot did for 30 pieces of silver. He made a deal with the devil. That's what we are told. The Ahab spirit can be working on, in, or through a man or a woman, but in my experience, most of the time, it affects men. 
It causes those men to be passive, cowardly, weak, fearful. 
Evil doesn't stop itself and passive men who allow it are complicit. 
Men who say nothing are a problem. Men who do nothing are a problem. Men who stand up for nothing are a problem. 
The Ahab spirit causes men to be passive, effeminate, castrated, neutered, weak, fearful, avoiding confrontation or responsibility. It's gripped an entire generation of young men. That's the day we live in. 
When evil comes, they don't fight, they surrender. They don't proclaim, they negotiate. The Ahab spirit is alive and well. It's passivity. 
The Ahab spirit works in concert with the Jezebel spirit. Jezebel was a woman, but working in and through her was a powerful spirit that continues its work to this day. I'll prove it to you. 
About a thousand years later, Jesus in Revelation speaks of the Jezebel spirit. 
Revelation 2:20-24 English Standard Version
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.
You tolerate it.
 It's all you need to do. Now this is obviously a different woman. It's a thousand years from the original Jezebel. Same spirit, named a Jezebel spirit, working in and through a woman who got herself into the church and she got her way into the church because all the men, especially the male pastors, were a bunch of Ahabs. 
Jezebel spirits come in and hurt women and children. 
Well, when she married, Jezebel was young, beautiful, sensual, and purely evil. Her father was a Sidonian king who actually gained the throne by assassination. He was a high priest of Asherah. He worshipped a demon god. Their family was demonic cult leaders for generations. 
Now they're marrying in with supposedly God's people. Her father's name, it's mentioned, Ethbaal. What it means is, “with Baal” And it also means enjoying his favor and protection.  
In the spirit of modern day feminism, her name Jezebel means “un-husbanded” and Baal is my prince. What she literally means by her name is this: 
“I am not committed to my husband. I am committed to my demon.” 
Jesus shows up and says, let me render my verdict. Do not tolerate her.  
Old demons, new days, friends. 
It can be a man or a woman with the spirit, but fiercely independent, under no authority, exercising supernatural authority that is derivative from the demonic realm. Very manipulative, very controlling. 
They will threaten you if that doesn't work, they will manipulate you.
If that doesn't work, then they will throw a fit in and emotionally confuse you. 
And if that doesn't work, they'll go on the internet and get a bunch of more Jezebels to create a mob. The Jezebel spirit hates the Elijah spirit. The Elijah spirit is the Holy Spirit. That's why the Elijah spirit goes to Elisha and later goes to John the baptizer. Jezebel hates Elijah because he won't tolerate her. 
Sometimes you just need to say no. 
Sometimes you need to walk away. 
Sometimes you need to leave the relationship. 
Sometimes you need to say, you need to get some help. 
Some of you don't have the conversation. 
Some of you won't have the conflict. 
Some of you won't draw the line. 
Some of you won't hold the boundary and you're tolerating. 
You're tolerating. 

Friends, are you dating Jezebel? Have you invited Jezebel into your life? You need to repent. 
Because here's the problem: 
Tolerance is demonic.
That's my next point. Revelation 2.20, Jesus says, I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel. 

1 Corinthians 5:1 English Standard Version
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.

Anywhere the Jezebel spirit is tolerated, sexual sin is celebrated. And of a kind that is not even tolerated among the pagans for a guy has his mother's wife. The church gets naughtier than the culture. 

We've got a few denominations like that. Denominations that are abominations. Tolerance is only mentioned a few times in the Bible. It's always negative. It's always advice to be repented of. Never a virtue to be celebrated. 
Tolerance is the counterfeit of repentance.
So I right here in Revelation 2, Jesus says, you have tolerance and you need repentance. 

See, the Bible says that God is good, and we are bad. 
That the Word of God is right, and our behavior is wrong. 
Therefore, we need to repent of our sin.
Jesus Christ lived a life without sin, died a death for sin. And he rose to forgive sin and to defeat the demonic. 
And we need to repent of our sin and receive him as our Savior and ask him to change us because there's something wrong with us.
 
Tolerance says, you're good, not bad. Your life is to be celebrated, not changed. You don't need Jesus. You're perfect just the way you are. In fact, you are Jesus. What does this look like? 

This is the first non-binary priest in the Church of England. 25 million people in the UK, 85 million people as part of the extended family of churches of the Church of England globally. This is their first non-binary priest. Tolerance instead of repentance.  All you must do is just tolerate Jezebel. Just let her do whatever she wants. 

What's interesting in the Church of England, which is now an apostate cult, for any of those churches who adhere to these doctrines, there are a few that have not bowed their knee to Baal, they're also now allowing people to pray to God as father or mother, because it's not enough to have a non-binary priest, now we need to have a non-binary God. And so Jesus was close when he said, our Father who art in heaven, he just needs a little bit of a correction and edit for his error. 

My next point is this, Jezebel is a transgender spirit that castrates men. 

2 Kings 9:22 English Standard Version
22 And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?”

Now who is Jehu? He was the commander of Ahab’s army until he was anointed to be the next king. Jehu’s name means, Yahweh is he, which portrays his God-given task to obliterate the house of Ahab along with the worship of Baal…
Spiritual and sexual. They always go together. Now watch this…

2 Kings 9:30-32 English Standard Version
30 When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window.

She made sure to get her makeup done, because she's about seduction. She's going to look her best, and maybe she can get Jehu in bed. 
31 And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” 32 And he lifted up his face to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. 

and she was surrounded by her what? Let's talk about that since you read that Bible verse with me. Her eunuchs. When they go to arrest and kill Jezebel, all the men around her are castrated. To serve the Jezebel spirit as a man means you need to be castrated. 

Today we call this gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is I have a body, but my mind doesn't feel congruent with my body. So, I don't know if you know this, I'm a male. I don't know if you know that. And so now let's say I in my mind I was a female and I would say I'm a female trapped in a man's body. That means there is incongruence between my mind and my body. So one of two things need to change. My mind or my body. 

The Bible talks a lot about transforming your mind, renewing your mind. But the world says actually we need to change your body. 

Romans 12:1-2 English Standard Version
12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Now, here's what's interesting. In the history of the world, and I'll read it from a non-Christian textbook in a moment, wherever the worship of the female deity spread, the high priest and those who worshipped her who had to be castrated, transgender, wear women's clothes, makeup, and hair, and go out in public singing and dancing for all ages shows as drag queens. 
New days, old demons. 

Some within the trans community will admit this and they will say that Sibelius is quote-unquote the trans God. The same spirit may have been at work in the New Testament days of Paul. 

Julius Firmicus Maternus – Roman Latin writer who became a Christian apologist during the reign of Constantine. Speaking of the “galli, priests of Cybele” & Attis in the mid-fourth century A.D., 
“They wear effeminately nursed hair & dress in soft clothes. They can barely hold their heads up on their limp necks. Then, having made themselves alien to masculinity, swept up by playing flutes, they call their Goddess to fill them with an unholy spirit…”
Augustine,  the church father says this 
“with dripping hair and painted faces, with flowing limbs and feminine walk, they passed through the streets and alleys of Carthage, exacting from merchants that by which they might shamefully live.” 
He says one of our biggest problems we have is a bunch of men who are dressing up like women feeling as victims expecting to be compensated so they don't have to go to work.
One of the greatest threats to Christianity is transgender, sexuality, without any God-given restrictions. Okay, now let me read a historical textbook:
The History of Religions textbook goes on to say there's this very unique phenomenon world history. Wherever there is the worship of a female god, goddess, the men are all castrated and transgender who serve as our high priests and worshipers. They dress up with makeup and they go out in public and the description is exactly a drag show. 
Now what's interesting, the history of religion says we see this phenomena globally and historically. 
We see it in India, in Pakistan, in Rome. We see it in different religions, in different regions, in different languages and nations and cultures. And then this is where I literally just had a mind melt. They said and summarized, what's so interesting is we see this same phenomena, worship the goddess, castrate the men in all these religions and cultures and regions and languages. And we have no way to explain it because they didn't ever intersect and there's no point of connection. How could you have the same thing happening in all these places? And literally they came to the conclusion we don't have an explanation. 
Yeah we do. 
New days, same demons. 

The same spirits that were at work in the Old Testament and the days of Rome continue their work to this very day. So I'll give you an example of what this looks like. 
The United Methodist Church on the right has got Ms. Penny Cost. This is a drag queen who is finishing their ordination to become licensed clergy. And their ministry is, quote-unquote, ministry, is to go into United Methodist churches and to go up on the stage where the Bible should be taught and to do sermons “for children”. 
That's a denomination that's an abomination. I won't even say what that person says. Not sure what the pronoun is, but what they've said about the Bible. So let me say this. 

You're very uncomfortable, but it's true. 
You're very troubled, because now you're starting to see. 

You may even want to attack me, but I'm not the issue. What I want to do, I want to look at this spirit and how now it is at work powerfully in our world. 

So Jezebel and Ahab at Black Lives Matter. The original Black Lives Matter mission statement has largely been scrubbed from the internet. Now, if somebody says, well, do black lives matter? Of course they do. People are made in the image and likes of God, and God loved them so much that Jesus died for them. But the movement isn't about that. It's deception. It's fake news or false prophecy.
 
Here was the original statement that has largely been scrubbed from the internet. 
“We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead. This is a gender or sex issue. We do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege, male, female, and uplift black trans folks, especially black trans women. We build space that is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments which are men-centered. We dismantle the patriarchal practice. That means fathers. That requires mothers to work double shifts so that they can mother in the private, even as they participate in public justice work. We disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure. Mom, Dad, Kids. mom-dad kids. We foster a queer-affirming network when we gather. We do so with the intent of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather the belief that in all the world are heterosexual unless he, she, or they disclose otherwise. 

Why is this such a powerful movement? Because it's spiritual. Our war is not against flesh and blood, but powers, principalities, and spirits. 
This movement was founded by three people, all of which are non-traditional sex and gender roles. And what they're saying is, we are anti-Christ. 
If you are saying, we are anti-male, female, we are anti-father, we are anti-nuclear family, you are anti-Christ. You are. And anti-Christ means to remove and replace. And that's what this is. 

Black Lives Matter is a secular religion with a spiritual force that is now imposing itself on churches governed by Ahab leaders who will not stand up to a Jezebel spirit. 

Let me just say this, we have a whole month dedicated to pride, which is a sin. Pride is a sin. Humility is a virtue. And it is denoted by a rainbow flag, which again is a counterfeit. 
And now what we have done is we have let the Jezebel spirit take that flag rainbow and use it to mock and defy God. 

Another modern-day example, because everybody loves to go to church and get a cute inspirational talk but I want to give you a lens by which to see the world. 
Ahab and Jezebel at Disney. 

 

This is Latoya, show her photo just briefly. She's executive producer of Disney TV animation. She said, and I quote, 
“in my little pocket of proud family Disney, the showrunners were super welcoming to my not at all secret gay agenda. I felt that sense of I don't have to be afraid to have these two characters kiss in the background. I was just wherever I could adding queerness.” 

Here's what she said, “no one would stop me. And no one was trying to stop me.”
 If I could translate that for you, what she's saying is, I work at Disney, my name is Jezebel, and all my co-workers are named Ahab. They tolerate me. And so I do what I want. For 65 years, Disney was governed by four keys, safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. 

In 2020, they added one more, inclusion. Now, all sexualities, all genders, all religions need to be included, which is really weird because if you don't have a vaccination and wanna talk about Jesus, it doesn't seem like you're included. I'm just throwing that in there. 

And you're not allowed to say, welcome men and women, boys and girls. Gender pronouns are now gone at Disney. 

On Disney+, they have removed movies like Dumbo, Peter Pan, The Aristocrats, Swiss Family Robinson, Lady and the Tramp, and Jungle Book. But here's what you will find, this cartoon on Disney+. 
It's Little Demon. 
The storyline is this. A woman gets pregnant with Satan's baby. It's a counterfeit of the incarnation. Her 13-year-old Antichrist daughter is a pagan and she said, and I quote, I love that we are normalizing paganism. Now at this point, if we're still on the internet, some of you would ask this question, and I think this question is very reasonable and I think it is required to be answered. What's the motivation? 

HOW’S IT GOING? The stats
So, how's it going in a day when we have record transgenderism, when children are taking puberty blockers to deny the natural course of life that God intended for their body, that we have gender mutilation for minors, that we're having children start taking hormones that just so you know they will be taking for the rest of their life because you're fighting gravity and creation. What does that do to your mind, your body, your soul? We don't know. It's a great experiment and it's not going well. 

We also have incredible tolerance of all perspectives and ideologies and sexualities and in some places today we won't even tell your parents because the teacher knows better than the mother. 

What we also have is record catastrophic, cataclysmic mental health. You would think with so much tolerance, people would be flourishing and instead they're dying. 

Give you a few statistics from a recent Pew research study and also the CDC. So we're just going to follow the science. 
We have historic record levels of young men who are not in church, not in college, not in the workforce, not in a romantic relationship, still living with their parents, dependent upon the government. They are addicted, broken, and fearful. Their grip strength is half of their grandmothers at the same age. Their testosterone level is half of their grandfathers at the same age. 
Literally Ahabs. 
A whole generation of Ahabs. 
The only thing they're good at is killing themselves. 
Young men are four times more likely than young women to kill themselves. It's not going well. 

 

How about young women? 
14% of young women report being sexually assaulted. It's the most underreported crime. 
60% of young women say they have had poor mental health in the last 30 days. 

What about men and women? 
Persistent sadness and hopelessness among young men and women is 42 %. 

In the LGBTQ plus community, it's 70 %. 
18 % of young men and women have a suicide plan to kill themselves. 
In the LGBTQ plus community, it's 37%. 
10% of young adults have tried to commit suicide and in the LGBTQ plus community, it's 20%. 

40% of high school students say that they have at least two weeks a year where they are incapable of functioning due to mental health issues. 

I am telling you that there is a God.  
God made us male and female. 
God wrote a book that tells us how to live a blessed life. 
If we ignore that book and we defy that God, we not only sin against God, we destroy ourselves. 

Now in saying this, what we need to ask when we're dealing with young people, and I'm a father, these people are the age of my children. I care deeply. 
You've got to ask questions like, was there childhood trauma? Maybe we deal with that before we let them make irreversible decisions for the rest of their life. 
Was there assault or abuse? Well, that certainly could have harmed and confused them. 
Is there anything demonic, spiritual going on here? 
Do their parents know? 
Do they have mental health? And if they have mental health, are they in the best state of making a life-altering decision? 

As a general rule, if you're saying, those people have mental health, and as minors, we need to let them make some of the most significant irreversible decisions of their entire life. I'm saying that's abusive. Let's get them some help and let's get them some time and let's see where they're at down the road. 

We live in a day friends where you got two options. 
You can be an Ahab or you can be an Elijah. That's it. 

Let me end with a little bit of hope. 

God, here's the story of Elijah. This is the encouraging, exciting, hopeful, prayerful message of Elijah. That God preserves a remnant to bring a revival. That's the story of Elijah.
1 Kings 19:18
18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

There's always a remnant. Paul quotes this in Romans 11:5

So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 

There's always people who do love Jesus, who do believe the Bible, who do hate sin, who do know the difference between the Holy Spirit and unholy spirits. They do know the difference between a male and a female, and truth and lies and light and darkness and heaven and hell and repentance and tolerance. 
And Elijah feels like he's alone, but he's not. 

You feel alone, but you're not. There are days that he is exhausted, he is overwhelmed, he is frustrated, and he is discouraged, as you will be. And God finds him and God meets with him and God Comforts him and God speaks to him and God heals him and God restores him and God renews him and God refreshes Him and God resets him back into the fight. 
I Am telling you That God will not be deceived Everyone will reap what they sow. We want to sow into the kingdom of God. We want to sow into the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to sow into the repentance of sin. We want to sow into strong marriages. We want to sow into strong families. We want our children to be blessed and not broken. We want our lives to be blessed and not burdened. There is a God. He sends down fire from heaven in the days of Elijah. And a little bit later, He sends down a fire to the church. And those are the two options, my friend. 
Fire of judgment or fire of revival.