What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on?

The greatest enemy of Christians today is our shallow knowledge of the Bible.

As Christians, even though we fight against the Devil and his forces, our greatest downfall is that we do not know God’s Word. Many of us were outraged at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but if we knew our Bible, we would not have been outraged. Instead of being outraged, we would have received a blessing because what that opening ceremony did was even more verify the Word of God.

How many of you said something like this? “God is going to strike them down for that.” “I bet God is furious.” Did you know the Bible tells us God’s reaction is to laugh at open mockery?

Psalm 2:1–4 “Why do the heathen rage, And the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord, and against his anointed (The Messiah), saying,

Let us break their bands asunder, And cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision.”

Do you know how the Bible tells us how to react to such ungodliness from the lost world?

Psalm 37:1–3 “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”

The Bible literally says that we should waste one minute worrying, fretting, or considering evildoers and workers of open iniquity. We have no control over the lost world. The lost world is lost. All we can do for the lost world is pray that they get saved, or we need to pray as the Bible taught us to pray, and I want you to pay careful attention to this.

The Apostle John, in exile on the Isle of Patmos, literally saw what was, what is, and what is to come. He literally saw what was going to happen. He did not see what could happen. He saw what was going to happen, and do you know what John’s last prayer in the Bible is? I do believe this should be our prayer too.

Revelation 22:20–21 “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

Do you ever pray even so, come, Lord Jesus, or are your prayers focused on things of the world of which the Bible tells us not to fret over?

Our shallow knowledge of the Bible leads us to believe that what we see around us is new, but dear friend, the Bible itself says this.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

There is no new thing under the sun. Did you know what we see today has plagued mankind from the very beginning, and including that display at the Olympics the other night?

Can I explain? Are you going to open your ears and minds to the truth of God’s Word? I am going to go ahead and tell you that some of you are going to dismiss what I am going to say tonight, and if you do, you do not want to advance in God’s Word, and you misunderstand the depravity of man.

At the opening ceremony the other night, there was an image of Ishtar. Did you know that God gives some serious warnings about Ishtar in the Bible?

In the Bible Ishtar also appears as Ashteroth and other names. In Greek and Roman culture, it is called many other names such as Dionysius. Ishtar is also called the queen of heaven in the Bible.

God absolutely hates the worship of Ishtar, and I am telling you that the worship of Ishtar has almost overtaken society and even the church.

Marty Goff, do you want to quote my verse? Do you guys remember what Jude said?

Jude 4 “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This verse is specifically talking about those who infiltrate the church appearing to be as sheep, but in reality they are goats who are caught up in the cult worship of Ishtar.

Now, I am going to attempt, in road gear, to show you what is happening today in the world is what has always happened. There is nothing new under the sun, and our response should not be to fret but to pray even so, come, Lord Jesus.

1. Who is Ishtar/Queen of Heaven?

Ishtar was/is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, war, and sex.

Babylon even had a massive gate to the city called the Ishtar Gate, and the remains of that gate are in a museum in Berlin, Germany. Hopefully, I will more on that in a bit.

The queen of heaven, Ishtar, was said to be the wife of Baal.

Worship of the queen of heaven and Baal involved, temple prostitutes, male and female including both heterosexual and homosexual activities, child sacrifice, entertainment, and the worship of mother earth. (1 Kings 18:26-28)

Some of those elements should sound very familiar to you today as many people look upon church as an opportunity to be entertained.

Now, I want to show you the progression of the worship of Ishtar throughout the Bible right up until the Antichrist commits the abomination of desolations by declaring himself to be God.

Do you remember this passage?

Luke 17:26–29 “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”

Now, we think that Sodom, because of our shallow knowledge of the Bible, that Sodom was destroyed because of homosexuality, but if you read Luke Chap 17. vv. 26-29, do you know what you are not going to find? You are not going to find not one sin mentioned specifically, but what you see is the inference of one major sin. Do you know what the sin of Noah’s days and Lot’s days was that brought God’s judgment?

Exodus 20:3–5 “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;”

This days of Noah and the days of Lot were marked by a total disregard of God. They did not think about God. They just did as they pleased.

As a result, the people of Noah’s day were described this way.

Genesis 6:5 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Because they had no regard for God, they were constantly devising evil. Does that not sound familiar?

In Noah’s day, man did what man wanted to do. God had said a man should cleave to his wife, but man, with no regard for God, changed God’s Word.

Genesis 6:1–2 “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”

I do not want to get too graphic or explicit here, but the indication is that they were just having sex with whomever and whatever they wanted, but that level of deprivation was reached because man disregarded what God said about marriage.

Genesis 4:22–23 “And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah,

Hear my voice; Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: For I have slain a man to my wounding, And a young man to my hurt.”

God never, ever intended man to have more than one wife, but when God is not first, you have no regard for what God says, and you will constantly seek evil which means you will do what you want to do with no thought of God.

In Sodom, disregard for God took this form.

Ezekiel 16:49–50 “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.”

You see it was not homosexuality that destroyed Sodom. If you read the passage as written, it seems to say that pride, gluttony, laziness, greed, and haughtiness lead to abomination which refers to not only sexual perversion but idolatry of all sorts.

The abomination of Sodom reached its zenith in Genesis Chap 19. If you read Genesis Chap 19 carefully, you are going to see that the men of Sodom were trying to have sex, not with men, but with God’s angels. They were seeking a new thrill to satisfy their flesh, and they were struck with blindness and destroyed.

When man totally disregards God, the evil imaginations of his mind knows no ends.

“Well, Jimmy that is Old Testament. That has nothing to do with today.” Really?

Romans 1:20–22 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,”

Those participating in the Olympics opening ceremony were fools. They may have thought they were being wise, but they had denied the power of the Godhead, and they became vain or evil in their imaginations, and their hearts were darkened.

They had no regard for God and what they did was just as the worship of Baal throughout the centuries.

Did you know that God addressed the idolatrous worship of the queen of heaven with Israel, His covenant people? Jeremiah Chap 18 v. 7*******

Jeremiah 7:18 “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.”

I want you to notice something very important.

In referencing the lost world, Psalms said for us to fret not, and that the lost world actually makes God laugh at their foolishness, but when God’s people act as the lost world, God is provoked to anger.

If you are saved, you are held to a different standard than a lost person. What does the Bible say? It is time for judgment to begin at the house of God.

How in the wide, wide world of sports could Israel get caught up in worshipping the queen of heaven? Do you want me to tell you?

Because Baal worship was an entertaining religion. It made people feel good. People were allowed to do whatever they wanted. It was sexual pleasure without consequences because if a child was produced from the sexual encounters during worship, that child could be sacrificed on the altar of convenience.

“Jimmy, that’s awful! We are civilized people today.”

Really? Ask the 62 million babies that have been aborted in the US on the altar of convenience because the mother did not want to be inconvenienced by a child? Can I carry it a step further?

Do we like to be entertained today? Answer truthfully, do we like to be entertained at church? Do we like to confronted by sin? Do we have the attitude that what I do is no one’s business but mine? What kind of entertainment do you watch? It all ties into whether or not you have regard for God in your life.

Do you know what the Bible says? And many Christians do not read this passage to its conclusion because we focus on the condemnation of homosexuality.

Romans 1:32 “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

Uh-oh!!!!! Did you know the entertainment you enjoy is an indication of whether or not you regard God in your life? If you can watch whatever without batting an eye, you are just as Israel worshipping the queen of heaven.

As we progress further, do you remember how Jezebel was introduced in the Bible?

1 Kings 16:31–33 “And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.”

King Ahab married Jezebel who was a prophetess of Baal, and immediately, he constructed an area to worship the queen of heaven. We know how that ends for Ahab and Jezebel, but did you know that John writes to the churches to be wary of the worship of Baal and the queen of heaven?

Revelation 2:20 “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”

Revelation Chaps 2 & 3 are written to the Church Age, the age in which we currently live. John wrote this particular letter to the Church at Thyatira.

The Church at Thyatira represents the time period in the church from approximately 538 AD through the Middle Ages ending at 1517 (The Protestant Reformation).

This period of the church began with a decree by Justinian that unified church and state. It was an era dominated by the Catholic Church who includes in their worship the worship of the queen of heaven.

Instead of Ishtar, what name do the Catholics give the queen of heaven? ____________.

And I am going to go ahead and say this. Worshiping Mary as the queen of heaven is no different than worshiping Ishtar.

Mary is not god. She was not sinless. Being a virgin did not make her sinless. She was saved by grace through faith, and she was used miraculously by God, but that does not make her god. Mary was not divine. Only Jesus Christ is worthy of worship, yet many Catholics around the world give no regard to God in the matter as they continue to worship the queen of heaven.

As a matter of fact, the Bible goes out of its way to show us that Mary was saved the same way you and I are saved. Did you know that? The Bible anticipated the heresy concerning Mary being the queen of heaven.

Acts 1:2–5 “Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”

Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

The indication is that to be saved to show their faith in Jesus they were to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit. Did you know that Mary did exactly that?

Acts 1:13–15 “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)”

Mary was the mother of Jesus, and now she is Christ’s sister, but she is not divine. She is not the queen of heaven.

“Well, Jimmy, that is Catholic doctrine. We do not worship the queen of heaven in the Baptist church.”

Really? Remember, John addressed the entire Church Age in Chaps 2 & 3 of Revelation.

I want you to think of Easter for a minute. When most people think of Easter, even Christians, they think of family gatherings with big meals, the Easter bunny, and the Easter egg.

The Resurrection should be front and center on Easter, and it should be front and center daily.

Remember, we are tracking the worship of the queen of heaven throughout history.

The Ishtar Gate that was in Babylon has been in a museum in Berlin, Germany since the 1930s. At the behest of Adolf Hitler, the remains of the gate were brought back to Berlin so the Nazis could unlock the power of Ishtar.

Associated with the Ishtar Gate were images of lions and other cats, rabbits, and eggs.

The egg symbolized fertility.

Think of that symbolism today. What argument do we hear from women’s groups today?

“It is my body. I will do with it as I want because the egg is mine.”

The rabbit symbolized sexual freedom.

What is Playboy’s logo? ________________.

What does that logo symbolize? It symbolizes sexual freedom and hedonistic pleasure. It symbolizes doing what feels good with no regard for God.

At Easter, what do most of us have for our kids? _________________. Is it wrong to do so?

Why can’t we just honor the Resurrection on Easter? Why does the Easter bunny have to bring our kids stuff at Easter? Why can we not just tell them that we are getting them gifts to honor Christ’s resurrection? Instead, we perpetuate the myth of the rabbit satisfying our needs which is linked clearly to the queen of heaven.

Yes, the false religion of the queen of heaven has crept into the church and caught the church unaware.

Why do you think sin within the church is not confronted anymore? Because people, even in the church, do not regard what God says concerning sin in the fellowship. People do not want to repent. It is no one’s business what I do, and what God says definitely does not matter.

Do you realize how little regard the church holds for God and His Word?

We have unmarried couples in the church living together outside of marriage. We have homosexual preachers who are no different than Jezebel, the prophetess of Baal. We have a nation and a church full of people today who disregard what God says regarding sex, and we have children being sacrificed at the altar of convenience, and I do not just mean abortion.

A parent who will not take the time to discipline his or her child with the discipline that child needs is sacrificing that child to Molech on the altar of convenience. Your children do not need you to be their friends. Your children need you to be their parents.

The display of Baal worship will continue, and it will worsen as we draw closer to the return of Christ. As bad as the opening ceremony of the Olympics was, it is only going to get worse, and it will get more prominent.

Why? Because that is what God’s Word says.

Christians ask that question because of their shallow knowledge of God’s Word. God’s Word specifically describes how prevalent the days of Noah and Lot will become in the church.

2 Timothy 3:1–5 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

If you are one of these people who think this world has a chance of getting better if we elect the right candidate, I am telling you that you are not regarding God because God in His Word says that things will worsen and worsen until Christ returns.

I want you to listen to me very carefully.

The world has NEVER repented of worshiping the queen of heaven, and it never will.

Do you know what Israel said when God told them to repent of worshiping the queen of heaven? Jeremiah Chap 44 v. 16-19.

Jeremiah 44:16–19 “As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?”

Israel, God’s covenant people, has the audacity to tell God that they would do what they wanted to do. They even gave the queen of heaven credit for its prosperity. Everything was okay. As long as you can think it, do it.

If you and I had walked right up to the organizers of the Paris Olympics and told them to repent of that blasphemous display of the Last Supper, do you know that they would have said the same thing that Israel did all of those years ago?

The organizers of the Olympics said their goal with the display was to embrace tolerance. Do you know what that means? It means we embrace whatever you do or whatever you think with no regard for God.

That attitude will continue until the Antichrist proclaims himself to be God in the Temple of God. The Antichrist will be completely tolerant to whatever man wants to do as long as man worships him which is the same religion developed on the plains of Shinar in the Old Testament all those years ago.

Revelation 9:21 “Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

During the Tribulation, nothing will be off limits, and everything will be okay. As a matter of fact, the Antichrist rides organized religion to power. The queen of heaven will be his consort.

Revelation 17:1–5 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness:

and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls,

having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

Do you realize what John is telling us? He is telling us that after the true church is removed all that is left is the organized religion that sprang forth at the Tower of Babel.

Like many of you, my first reaction to the opening ceremonies was outrage, but the Holy Spirit began working on me to dig through God’s Word. I realized that the other night is further proof that God has everything in His hands.

God tells us that we should not fret over evildoers. As a matter of fact, God is laughing at them. In their foolishness, they do not realize that their sins are stacking to heaven. In their foolishness, they do not realize that they are storing up wrath against the day of wrath. In their foolishness, they do not realize who will be Judge and who will get vengeance.

Instead of fretting and getting angry, we should pray as John prayed at the Bible’s conclusion.

Revelation 22:20–21 “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

Some people say that we are not to pray for Christ’s return. I guess they can tell John that when and if they get to heaven. The Bible, in many places in the New Testament, tells us to pray for Christ’s return, and we would be better off praying for Christ to come than we ever will be worrying over some fools in Paris, France who have no regard for God whose hearts have been darkened.

They have made their choice. There is no prayer we can offer for them, but we can pray for Jesus to come, and we can pray for those whose hearts are yet to be darkened to be saved.