Jezebel & the Myth of Neutrality.

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And Elijah is restored to his lack of fear, to his bravery, to his courage.

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But it was Jezebel that he ran from. Then we have the story of Jezebel and Nabal, and isn't it interesting that the

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Scriptures give so much time to that story? You'd think, after she murdered all these prophets of Yahweh, that a simple story about, you know, a vineyard, some land, and the fact that she got people to falsely testify against this man so that he ended up being stoned, and then once he was stoned and executed, then the land could be given to her husband, who was all depressed about the whole thing.

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That guy seems like a real interesting fellow as well. Of course, if you're married to Jezebel, if you already had problems, you'd have a whole lot more after that.

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But all this time spent talking about what? The fact that she subverted justice.

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And she did it by using God's law as the mechanism of subverting justice.

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She dresses up, she puts on her makeup, she looks out the window.

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You know what happens, some of the servants grab her and throw her out the window to where she falls in the street, and they leave her body there and go in and have a feast.

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And they just decide, well, we should, you know, she was a princess, she was a queen, we should go bury her.

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When they go outside, the dogs had already taken care of the business. What's fascinating to me is when we look at Jezebel and we look at the things she did, her perversion of justice, her promotion of idolatry, her utilization of her authority so as to weaken the nation.

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It is that example that our Lord Jesus then used to warn about a false prophetess in Thyatira.

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Look at Revelation chapter 2. Yep, all the way to the other end of the book.

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Book of Revelation chapter 2 in the letters to the seven churches. Right in the church at Thyatira, in verses 20 through 23, we read the following.

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But I have this against you. You tolerate the woman

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Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads my servants astray to commit acts of immorality and to eat the food of idols.

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I gave her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her acts of immorality.

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So look, I will cast her upon the sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.

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Not their deeds, her deeds. I will strike her children with death, and all the churches will know that I myself am the one searching the minds and the hearts, and I will render to each one according to your works.

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Strong words. Most scholars believe that there was not a woman specifically named

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Jezebel in the church at Thyatira. There was a prophetess, and that the

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Lord uses this name. It's not exactly the name you'd have in Asia Minor, okay? But that this is the utilization of the example of the wickedness of Jezebel from first and second kings being applied to this woman in the church at Thyatira.

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She calls herself a prophetess. She is claiming authority.

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She claims to speak for God, but she is leading His servants, the servants of Christ, astray.

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And even though she's been given time to repent, she's not willing. She does not want to repent of her acts of immorality.

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And so God is going to strike her down. And those who have been involved with her in her teaching.

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Now, why would the Lord Jesus choose this name,

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Jezebel, to describe such a person? Well, because what she's doing there in the church is the same activity that Jezebel did for years in Samaria that eventually led to her utter overthrow.

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That's what makes the analysis so perfect, the parallel so perfect.

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I am sure if you had first seen Jezebel, can you imagine? I think this is what made

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Elijah run for the hills, literally. Because he had probably seen her in all of her finery, in all of her majesty.

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And when he received that word from her, I'm going to make sure that what you did to the prophets could be done to you.

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He ran because he knew she was a woman of her word, of her evil word.

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And so here you have a prophetess in Thyatira, and she's teaching.

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She teaches and leads my servants astray. Jezebel exercised her authority as a queen.

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And I'll bet she exercised her authority as a queen in such a way at times as to solidify her base, keep her power.

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But what did she do? She fundamentally destroyed the very fabric of the society of Israel by being one of the main mechanisms by which all worship was brought in amongst the people.

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Syncretism. Remember, eventually you're going to have altars to other gods in the temple itself.

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Syncretism. Never a true, pure worship of God any longer.

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And all worship degraded a people. It degraded a people.

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I've only been to Israel once. Glad I got the chance to go when I did. But we saw a major structure from this time period may have been built at this time under a period of Ahab and Jezebel.

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It was huge. And here you would have these priests and priestesses, and you'd have the ecstatic dances and the offerings and the immorality that would take place just as you have with the prophetess in Thyatira.

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Thyatira. And just as Jezebel contributed to the degradation of the state of Israel, here this prophetess in Thyatira is contributing to the degradation of the congregation of Christ there in Thyatira.

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She is creating division. Because we see later in the letter that there are those of you who have not sullied yourselves with her.

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So there had been a division there in the church. And so what do we see her doing?

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She is a powerful woman. And she uses her power to promote idolatry, immorality, sexual immorality, so as to damage the very creation of God that He has made.

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And Jesus feels it is appropriate to draw a parallel to this prophetess.

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Now, someone might say, well, now, let's think about this. Really, Lord, honestly, was that really kind?

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I mean, Jezebel, her actions resulted in the deaths of many people.

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And her actions impacted an entire nation. Is it really fair to take someone in the congregation like this and identify them with such a term as calling them

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Jezebel? Drawing a parallel between what the historical figure did and what this prophetess is doing?

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Is that really nice? We live in a day where the things that Jezebel did can be excused and passed over in silence for fear of not being nice.

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That's where we are today. But Jesus chose to use that parallel because why?

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Because they were accurate connections between what the historical figure had done and what the current person in Thyatira was doing.

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And therefore, what should all of us understand? What should everyone in the church at Thyatira have understood?

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They knew what happened to Jezebel. They knew that God prophesied her utter destruction.

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And he brought it about. And so now in Revelation chapter 2,

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God says, I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to cast her on the sickbed. I'm going to afflict her children with death.

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And if he followed through with Jezebel in history, then you better take very seriously what he's saying to the church at Thyatira now.

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Especially when you place Revelation chapter 2 within the context of the revelation it's making of who

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Jesus is. The one walking amongst the seven candlesticks, the churches.

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The one who has that sharp two -edged sword coming out of his mouth. The one who will rule the nations.

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And he says, I am going to do this. We need to hear. We need to recognize that the end result of this kind of idolatrous worldview is destruction.

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And it's not just destruction of the person doing it. They normally take a lot of other people with them.

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They take a lot of other people with them. So let me go back to what my brother said and make the connection that he made.

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And ask the question, are we being mean -spirited? Are we being too unkind?

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I mean, the new regime's only been in power for like, what? Less than two weeks?

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Yeah. 10, 11 days? How can you possibly be saying anything negative yet?

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Well, because I'm reading the flood of executive orders, maybe? Because I'm seeing that this new regime is doing exactly what it said it would do.

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Six months or more ago, in regards to abortion, transgenderism, all these things, because they're being consistent with their worldview, maybe?

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What was said was, I don't think the people of Israel would have looked at Jezebel as an example of a woman in power and said to their daughters, emulate her.

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Why? Because it doesn't matter if you're a woman and it doesn't matter if you have power. If you are corrupt on the inside.

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If the worldview that you are presenting is corrupt, then you do not take your children and go, be like that person.

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Yes, the worldview they're promoting is the culture of death.

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But oh, they're so good at promoting it. And maybe you can be good at promoting something else someday.

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No, you don't do that. I honestly think,

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I don't know where this is coming from. I obviously have theories, but it's difficult for me to fully imagine this.

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But I'm hearing so many men who five years ago, 10 years ago,

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I wouldn't have even hesitated to see this person as a brother in Christ.

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And yet, where is this hesitation coming from? To boldly, openly, fairly and biblically say to the world around us, the culture of death is evil and must be repented of.

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Holding to that cultural perspective will bring you death, not life.

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And not just for you, but for all those around you. Why? How can there be a hesitation?

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For any father, for any husband to look to the commitment of the current regime, to press through, to ram through the legislative process in this nation, the

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Abomination Act. They call it the Equality Act. I think we need to describe it for what it is.

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How can people be sitting back going, well, that's just politics?

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No, that's your daughter, sir. That's your son, sir.

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That's your children. How can anyone say, well, you know, you just don't want to be partisan.

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This is not something about Democrats and Republicans. This is between life and death, and we need to be partisan about that.

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We have to be. How can we be silent? And so, people have said, well, you need to understand.

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That term Jezebel can have other meanings. Okay. That term

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Jezebel, I've been told, I don't know this, but I've been told, has specific meanings in the black community.

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Okay. Which is more important, Jesus' interpretation of who

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Jezebel was or an interpretation of any community 2 ,000 years later? And what was

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Pastor Buck talking about? What are we talking about when we try to wake people up and say, listen, there is no neutrality in these things.

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If you have an entire governmental structure that stands up and says, we may have once believed that these rights were given to us by God, but we don't believe any of that anymore.

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We don't believe there's any God. We don't believe there is any law above that of the state.

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And we are going to say that we now get to define what marriage is, and we get to define what humanity is.

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And if we want to promote the idea that one day you can be a male and the next day you can be a female and the third day you can be a combination of something, a free spirit to tribe,

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I don't know, I can't even keep up with them. When that society turns its back upon the

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God that blessed it and says, we're going to take every good gift you gave us and pervert it, what are we supposed to tell that society?

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Well, you know, I wouldn't suggest that, but we can't really talk about politics if you love them, what will you tell them?

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Run! Flee! Repent!

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Jezebel did not come to a good end. The Jezebel and Thyatira did not come to a good end.

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And if we have people today who take positions of power and then use those positions of power to fundamentally promote rebellion against God, we need to tell people your end will not be a good end.

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God will bring judgment. And that judgment is absolutely certain.

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But who's willing to say that anymore? Oh, but I know what some people say.

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Why weren't you saying this the last four years? Right?

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Heard that one? Why weren't you saying this the last four years? Something tells me that most of you know that we have been warning this nation about the sin of abortion for a lot more than just four years.

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And personally, I had a number of times expressed my deep concern that once the

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Equality Act was passed by the House of Representatives, that I could see a way with certain very left -leaning senators in the

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Senate that that thing might end up on President Trump's desk. And I expressed a concern.

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I wasn't sure he'd veto it. I really wasn't. He's a New Yorker. That's not meant to be a joke.

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That's a cultural comment. The homosexual community is just an accepted thing, especially in the city of New York.

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And it was very obvious to me, President Trump really didn't have much of a problem with the idea of homosexuality and those things associated there, too.

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I was concerned that the Equality Act might possibly make it through, even in the situation that prevailed until only a few weeks ago.

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But I can tell the difference between a deeply flawed man who was unfortunately surrounded by deeply flawed

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Christians, if they were Christians at all, false prophetesses,

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Paula White and her, oh, why does she have to have that last name?

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Well, you know who found the seventh day of Venice, right?

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Ellen G. White. I was concerned that in that situation we might be facing the same thing.

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But if you can't tell the difference between that deeply flawed man who then spoke at the

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Rally for Life in Washington and who clearly attempted anyways to hold the brakes on for at least some aspects of cultural decay, if you can tell the difference between him and the united, purposeful, intentional promotion of a worldview that is utterly in rebellion against God that is now in Washington, D .C.,

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I don't know what to say to you. I don't know what to say to you.

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Can you not see the intentionality? Can you not see the consistency all across the board?

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My. So here's what may happen. As you know, the

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Senate is divided, but because Kamala Harris is the vice president, she has the tie -breaking vote.

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So even if the vote were to be 50 -50, it's automatically 51 -50, and so the one side now controls everything.

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And so if the Equality Act comes from the House, which it will, my gut feeling is certain

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Republicans will demonstrate that they're not really anyways, so I doubt that Kamala Harris will have to cast a tie -breaking vote.

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But if she does, the Equality Act will become law.

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When you enshrine the direct, open, knowing rebellion against God's truth that everyone, everyone knows deep down inside, everyone knows it's absolute deception to think otherwise.

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To add this kind of moral insanity to the law, you fundamentally corrupt the law itself.

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Who did that in the days of Ahab? Jezebel. That's exactly what she did.

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And she did it with immorality, sexual immorality, idolatry, and folks, the culture of death.

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And see, we normally think of the culture of death as primarily having to do with abortion, and it does, obviously.

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Abortion and fantasy, but it also has to do with euthanasia. But you must see the connection to transgenderism and the profaning of marriage as well.

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Because you see, these are all things that are meant to bring about diminishment of life, maximization of death.

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I cannot from this pulpit describe physically everything that needs to be described to understand what medical science is doing in the name of this deep depravity today.

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But it is astonishing. It is astonishing what medical doctors are willing to do to perfectly healthy bodies.

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We all know about the poor eight -year -old boy in Texas who has an evil mother who is pushing him to transition at the age of eight.

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Did you know the drugs that they inject to hold off puberty?

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Something called Lupron. This chemical.

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Not only is it pretty obvious that later on in life we'll have all sorts of massive medical negativity in that person's life, obviously.

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Nobody cares about that. Did you know that it stops brain development? It stops brain development at eight years of age.

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Yay! Isn't that great? No, it's evil. On a level that is hard for me to even begin to understand.

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And yet that's where we are. And that was happening in the past four years. And now we have individuals who have literally come before us and taken the positions of the highest offices in the

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United States and they say, we are proud. We are proud that we are now putting the

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United States back in the position of using our wealth. And of course, what do they do?

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They use language deceptively. We're using our wealth for women's health care around the globe.

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And of course, what they mean by that is the dismemberment of little women and little men in the womb.

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We will someday answer for every word we have ever uttered. And I just can't imagine the judgment that will come upon those who have used language in that way as a cover for the murder of unborn children.

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They will hear that language echoing in their ears for eternity.

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So is it fair, is it right for us to recognize the fundamental consistency of the idolatrous, rebellious worldview that was illustrated by Jezebel in history, then applied to a false prophetess in a specific situation in the church in Revelation chapter 2, and is now being promoted before our very eyes in the

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United States of America by the current regime? Because you know what? At least

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Jezebel was a theist. I mean, she wasn't a secularist.

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I don't think she promoted any type of mutilation of bodies in transgenderism.

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And yet she promoted idolatry, immorality, to the destruction of the societal fabric of the nation of Israel.

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And God judged her. Are we or are we not to be a people who warn our day that God will not be mocked?

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My friends, can we honestly, can you... Listen to me. Can we allow the fact that we've all been deeply impacted by the myth of neutrality, can we really allow that to silence us when we know what this worldview will result in?

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We know where this road goes. We know it will destroy all of those on it.

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We have the light. We are called to speak. And they're saying, be silent, be quiet.

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Remember, who did Jezebel get rid of in Samaria? The prophets of Yahweh.

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They would have been the ones saying, this is wrong. Funny how people want to silence anyone who would say, this is wrong today.

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It's the same spirit. It's the same attitude. Well, this isn't a cross issue.

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Yes, it is. Yes, it is. How can we look at our society and say that Jesus Christ took upon Himself the penalty that is due us if we have to stop there and if they say, well, where is that penalty found?

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Well, that's in the law of God, but I really can't talk about that. Really can't talk to you about what

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God said as to what is right and wrong. That's where so many in the church are today.

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We don't really believe that God's moral commands have anything to do with someone outside the walls of a church.

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And that's certainly what our society says. Just keep that to yourself. Yeah, that'll work real well until you stand before Jesus Christ someday to be judged for the deeds done in the body.

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And our job is to warn people that day of judgment is coming and you don't know when it's going to come for you. We live our lives without a single thought of our mortality, don't we?

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We get in those crazy contraptions we call cars and we go whipping down the road and you don't think that your life could be snuffed out in a second?

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We all know it can be. We all know the stories of people that have experienced that, but we put that out of our mind.

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We have to be speaking to the world about the direction this road goes and what the result is going to be and it may be very costly, but here's the point.

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We get to use whatever the Word of God gives us in that service and I think it is absolutely, perfectly appropriate for us to tell the story of Jezebel, talk about what she did, talk about her knowing rebellion, her hatred of God's truth, her arrogance, her immorality, and say, if you will stand in the positions of power in this nation and use your position to promote the very same things, you will not escape her end.

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You will not. Now having said all of that, how can we avoid, how can we avoid becoming the hard, hate -filled people that we see sometimes in our society who may have elements of truth, but they speak as people who've never received grace?

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Because you see, it was only... When Jezebel chases

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Elijah off into that cave and God meets him, remember what

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God said? Remember when he said, I have 7 ,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal?

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But they said it in a specific way, remember? I have reserved for myself.

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You hear that? Not, I am so thankful that there have been 7 ,000 really good

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Israelites. I'm just, I mean, I didn't know if there'd be any, but by their free will, they have been good

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Israelites. It's not what he said. He said,

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I've reserved for myself 7 ,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

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And you see, if you, today, are not bowing your knee to Baal, and I would suggest to you that buying into our culture's insanity, celebrating rebellion, profaning manhood and womanhood in all of the ways in which that is being done, that is bowing the knee to Baal.

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That's offering the pinch of incense on the altar and saying Caesar is Lord. That is not an option for us.

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And so if you haven't bowed the knee to Baal, it's not because you're better than the ones who have.

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It's not because we're better. It's not because we're smarter. It's not because we have more spiritual insights.

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That's Pelagianism. You don't want to go there. The way to avoid those ways in which we are seeing people presenting certain proper truths and yet with no grace, is to recognize that were it not for the fact that God in His kindness and grace stopped you, brought that certain person into your life, changed your heart, your mind, you would not only be bowing the knee to Baal, you might well be one of those priests dancing and cutting themselves trying to get

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Baal to send fire on the altar. And in fact, if it were not for the grace of God, might there not be a number of Ahabs and Jezebels in this room?

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In fact, some of you are thinking to yourselves right now, it's exactly where I was.

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It's exactly where I was. When we strongly, clearly, without compromise, tell the world that profaning

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God's order will bring God's judgment, there is no way to ask for God's blessing upon this.

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God's judgment will come. We have to do it always recognizing that we are people who have escaped that judgment solely by grace alone through faith alone.

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That it doesn't make us better, that we fully understand the power of sin, and each one of us has to communicate that in a way that represents your own understanding, your own experience.

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But that's what we have to communicate. And that's a balance. Some people lose the one.

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They want to be so filled with grace, they won't proclaim the message. The beautiful thing is, when we look at the preaching in the

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New Testament, it's always so balanced. It's always so beautiful in that way.

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And that's what we have to strive for. We have to be the ones who say to the world,

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God will judge this evil. Flee, join us who have fled for refuge to the mercy of God and Jesus Christ.

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We must pray that God, by His Spirit, will bring understanding and repentance and faith.

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I can't change hearts, neither can you. We desire to be used of God. At this time, to warn the world, follow in the path of Jezebel, and all you'll find is death.

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All you'll find is darkness. But come to Him who is the life, and He will give you life, peace, forgiveness, and life eternal in His presence.

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Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we consider

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Your great grace toward us, the fact that You delivered us out of such darkness, then we know that You can deliver anyone, any nation, out of deep, deep darkness.

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We know that even though there was this tremendous apostasy in Judah and Israel in history,

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You still worked through Your people. You still brought Your Messiah. You accomplished Your purposes, and we trust in You in that.

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And we can't see where all this is going to lead right now outside of the fact that we know that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess.

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That will happen. It's as certain as the resurrection itself. But Father, now in this day, we pray that You would give us redeemed boldness, the boldness of those who are redeemed, those who've been delivered out of darkness, bringing the light to those who still labor in it, and indeed, in many instances, love the darkness, would much rather stay there.

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Oh, Lord, use us as Your people to warn, to be a prophetic voice in this difficult, difficult time.

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Thank You for this hour. May we remember. May You give us opportunity to speak

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Your truth, even in these coming days. And may we do so all to Your honor and glory.

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We pray in Christ's name. Amen. One of the greatest gifts given to the church.