I'd like us to turn in our Bibles
to Zechariah chapter 5. And I want us to be reminded
that what we read in Zechariah chapter 5 is a description of
what is going on in this world right now. And I love the fact
that this is a word that covers all humanity and covers this
time that we're living in now, but it's a word that declares
the absolute power and sovereignty of God. I love God being God. I love God being God as he proclaims
himself to be. I love the fact that this same
God who displays this almighty power over all wickedness is
the same God that constrains and controls all the wickedness
that's going on now. I'm thankful that there is a
God in which there will be and there must be perfect justice. And that perfect justice that
was poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the glorious
causes for the hope of all of God's people. It is impossible
for God to pour out His wrath on wickedness in the Lord Jesus
Christ. that again. We are saved by the
sovereign hand of God and we speak of sovereign grace and
we speak of eternal grace in electing grace but we also need
to speak of the powerfulness of grace and the efficacy of
our Lord and his purposes. Let's read verse 5 We looked
at this last week in brief, but I wanted to go back and not just
look at this again very briefly so that we would be comforted
by what's going on in this world, but I want us to go in a sense
in the Bible forward to Revelation chapter 17 and a little bit of
18 and just read those verses so that we can see that what
God says 2,500 years ago is what God is doing
now and what God will do in the future. I want us to go back
and have a look at Proverbs 1 and see how this personally relates
to us. Now thine eyes and see. The only
way we ever see is to have our eyes lifted from this earth and
lifted up to heaven and see the throne of our God. And I said,
what is it? And he said, this is an ether.
An ether is a measure of commerce. It's about 38 liters, 10 gallons
in the old measure. That goeth forth. And he said,
moreover, this is their resemblance through all the earth. So this
is a universal declaration of what's going on in this world,
this fallen world. And behold, there was lifted
up a talent of lead. And this is a woman that sitteth
in the midst of the ephah. So we have a basket, a big basket
that was to hold the biggest measure they had for grain. And
then in the basket is a woman, and on top of the basket is a
lid of lead. And the lid of lead weighs 60
kilos, 125 pounds. So we're talking about an enormous
weight on a relatively small basket. And this is the woman
that sitteth in the midst of the way. And he said, this is
wickedness. All of what goes on in this world
is characterized by two things, isn't it? Just wickedness and
holiness. Either there is holiness in the Lord Jesus Christ or there
is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst
of the, and I love the absolute sovereignty of a God, he cast
this wickedness, he cast this woman into the midst of the evil
and he cast a lead weight upon the mouth thereof. Our God casts
things. Then I lifted up mine eyes, and
looked, and behold, there came two women, and the wind, the
spirit, was in their wings, and they had wings like the wings
of a stork. And they lifted up the ephah between earth and heaven. Don't you love the power of God?
He can gather all the wickedness of all of the world together.
He can personify it in this wicked woman, and He can put it in a
basket, and He can put a lead weight on it, and He can pick
it up and can carry it between earth and heaven. And He can
carry it to wherever He wishes to carry it. Is that comforting for you? We
live in a world where there is just so much profound wickedness
going on. There is just wickedness at every
level. Jeremiah 51, his remarkable passage
of scripture about the fall of Babylon, but one of the statements
that he makes there, and it's just so profound, and he says
in verse 57 of verse 51, 51. He says, speaking of the power
of God over these things, Babylon has been a golden cup in the
Lord's hand. He holds it just like this heifer.
He holds it in the Lord's hands, Babylon and all that wickedness.
And it's made that have made all the earth drunken. We'll
look at that in Revelation chapter 17. And the nations have drunk
her wine. This is God's description of
the nations of this world. Therefore, Because they have
drunk of the wine of this woman, therefore the nations are mad. God says that he puts over the
nations the basis of men. What a great description of the
nations of men. When you look at what's going
on in this world, when we have had the most remarkable privileges
of amazing technology and amazing peace and amazing prosperity,
and you look at the nations of the world, According to God,
the nations are mad. Amen? The nations are mad. They've always been mad. But
it's just that we get to see their madness. The nations are
mad. And they lifted up this ephah
between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. Then said I to the
angel that talked with me, whither do these bear the ephah? Where
do they carry this ephah? And he said unto me, to build
it a house in the land of Shinar. The land of Shinar is the place
of Babylon. It's the place where Babylon,
the Tower of Babel was built. We looked a little bit last week
at Genesis chapter 10 and 11 about that Tower of Babel. It's
man's free will works religion, man gathering together saying,
let us make a name for ourselves. Let us make a name for ourselves
and let us get to heaven and escape the judgment of God by
the works of our hands. That's what the Tower of Babel
is all about. It's where Nebuchadnezzar built
a palace. That's where Nebuchadnezzar kept
all the vessels that he took from the temple in Jerusalem. So Babylon has extraordinary
significance in the scriptures. To establish it shall be established
and set there on her own base. God gathers all the wickedness
and he takes it back and he dumps it all in Babylon and he sets
it there. So here we have a picture of
false religion all over this world. We have a picture of wickedness. We have a picture of the absolute
sovereignty of God. And the question is, you know,
why? Why does God do things this way? Why must there be so much false
religion? Why must wherever the gospel
comes, whether it comes to a people or whether it comes personally,
whenever the gospel comes, there's always opposition. Satan is enraged
against the gospel. I want us to remember that God
holds this basket, and this basket is carried by the wind, by the
two, by the Spirit of God, and God carries it where he will.
Why? Why? Listen to what the New Testament
says. It's interesting, isn't it? I've
often challenged people to find a page in all of the New Testament
where there isn't a warning about false teaching. It's just littered
all the way through it, isn't it? Why do we have the New Testament
letters? Almost universally they're written
in response to troubles. People say, well, let's go back
and have a church like the New Testament church. Which one would
you want to have? Which one would you want to be in? Philippians
are best, but there are people squabbling in Philippians. The
Galatians have got false teachers all over the place. The Corinthians
are squabbling so much amongst themselves you wouldn't know
who to follow. It's extraordinary. Why? Part of the reason was that
we would actually see all of the heresies and all of the problems
that would befall all of the church in our day and that we
would be comforted that God holds this ether and he puts a great
lead weight on top of that woman and he controls it all. So this
is God's doing. In 1 Corinthians 11, when the
Corinthians are being put to death because of the way they're
abusing the Lord's Supper, he says, there must also be heresies,
1 Corinthians 11, 19, among you that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you. There must be heresies. The New
Testament is written, and it's glorious, isn't it? All of these
glorious words are written in the face of opposition to the
Church. This woman of wickedness, and
that's what I spoke last week very briefly about, but in 2
Thessalonians there's a great description of the absolute sovereignty
of our God and the power of him and his rule over all things. But this word wickedness in in
Zechariah chapter 5 verse 8. In the Greek translation of the
Old Testament it's exactly the same word that's used in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 verse 3. Has there been a falling away?
Is there a falling away? Enormously so. There will come a falling away
first and the man of sin, that word wickedness in Zechariah
5 verse 8 is the same word that's used for the man of sin. So we
mustn't think of the man of sin as a particular individual. It
is free will works religion. It is just free will works religion. It's man trying to earn his way
into the presence of God and remain there by his own works.
And so I'd like us to turn to Revelation chapter 7, and I just
want at 17, I'd just like to read the verses and trust that
we, having seen something of the picture last week, might
see more of it again this week, and that we might hear from God
about these things. But in these pictures in Revelation,
we have a picture of two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. There
is mystery Babylon, and that's the mystery of iniquity that
we read about in 2 Thessalonians. And then there is the mystery
of godliness in the scriptures. And there are just two forms
of religion in this world. There are only two. One lot has
as many names as you could wish to poke at it. And that's why
Babel, the word Babel, means confusion. If you look at this
religious world, it's confusion. I worked in a missionary school
in India and we worked with hundreds of missionaries and missionary
children. We were caring for them. And
the one thing that you would have to say that would come over
any child that spent their 10 years of schooling there being
taught by missionaries and being The children of missionaries,
there's just one word that covers that education system in the
spiritual sense, is confusion. Completely and utterly confused. Every time you got a message,
it was a different message. It was extraordinary. I prayed
that the Lord might give me an opportunity to unconfuse the
confused. But sadly, that's the work of
God Almighty. There are two cities. There are
two origins. One's from below and one's from
above. There are two methods of operation, isn't there? One
is to confuse people. But ultimately, in that confusion
is a comfort of people because it says to people, you can do
something. It says that your salvation is
in your hands. And how does the whore of Babylon,
as we'll read in Revelation 17, come into this world today? God
loves you. God loves you. God has a wonderful
plan for your life if you do something. God loves you and
God wants to save you. As soon as you hear those two
words together, God wants, God always gets what he wants. He's
God almighty. God loves you and Jesus died
for you. He's just dying for you. There
was a sign on a church down the road which says, you mightn't
think much of yourself, but Jesus thinks you're worth dying for.
Really? Let's read Revelation chapter
17 and read about this whore. And I want us to spend the last
bit of our time going back into Proverbs chapter 7 and see this
whore's work in our lives. I just pray the Lord would just,
once again, rather than a confusion, would just allow us to see the
simplicity of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Let's listen to our
God's sovereign declaration of these things here and be reminded
when we come to Revelation and places you're actually seeing
just a fleshing out of what the Old Testament was saying. So
this is what Zechariah 5 is saying. And there came one of the seven
angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying, Come
hither, and I will show thee the judgment of the great whore
that sits upon many waters, and the many waters are all people.
And why can the great whore sit upon the many waters? Because
of the fall of man she has a home in the hearts of all of Adam's
descendants. She 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. And so he carried me away in
the spirit into the wilderness. I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet
colored beast, and we don't have a lot of time, but the scarlet
colored beast is Satan, and he just reveals in the scarlet,
the red color, the depth and the fullness of his sin. full
of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And
the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked
with gold and precious stones, having a golden cup in her hand
full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
And upon her forehead was a name written. Mystery Babylon the
Great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth. And I saw a woman, drunken with
the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. That's
not the normal admiration we have of God in the scriptures.
He was just amazed at the power and the strength. Listen to it,
isn't it? Drayed in purple and scarlet
colour. Where have you seen that? It's
in religion all over the place, isn't it? And whether they've
dampened it down, they've still got the vestiges of it all over
them, haven't they? No doubt this refers to the great
harlot of Roman Catholicism and the great Antichrist, but nevertheless
it refers to something broader than that as well, this whole
business of free will works religion. It doesn't matter whether it
wears those robes or it wears the the robes of modern religion
that is prevalent all over this world today. It's still ultimately
the same spirit at work. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore
didst thou marvel? I will tell you the mystery of
the woman and of the beast that carrieth her. which has seven
heads and ten horns, the beast which thou sawest was, and is
not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into
perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life
from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that
was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath
wisdom. The seven heads are the seven
mountains. That speaks of Rome of course. But once again we
see physical things and we need to see spiritual pictures behind
them. There are seven, and there are
seven kings. Five are fallen, one is, and
the other is not yet to come. And when he cometh, he must continue
a short space. And the beast that was and is
not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven and goeth into
perdition. And the 10 horns which thou sawest
are 10 kings which have received no kingdom as yet, but received
power as kings. One hour. Who limits the time? who has put all this wickedness
in an ephah with a lead seal on the top of it, and then carries
it between earth and heavens. God Almighty, He limits it one
hour. These have one mind and shall
give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make
war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is
Lord of lords and King of kings. And they that are with Him are
called and chosen. and faithful. Isn't that a wonderful
description in the midst of all of that? The one who holds this
ephra and carries between heaven and earth has his people with
him, doesn't he? They are the called. They are the chosen, and they
are faithful in his faithfulness. And he saith unto me, the waters
which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and
multitudes, and nations, and tongues, and the ten horns which
thou sawest upon the beast. These shall hate the whore, and
shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and
burn her with fire. Ultimately there is a self-destructive
activity going on under the judgment of God for those who stand opposed
to him. For God, and the reason is, he
just wants to think of that ether and the lead and the wickedness
that's in the basket that God carries between heaven and earth,
for why do they turn upon her? as they do. For God has put it
in their hearts to fulfill his will. Does he rule over everything?
Even the wickedness that's going on in this world? And to agree and give their kingdom
unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. I love the fact that God is sovereign
over all these things. There's just so much happening
in my world, in the lives of everyone that I love and care
for, which is way, way, way beyond. Everything that we encounter
is too big for us. It's always too big for us, isn't
it? We don't know where it's going. We don't know the destiny
of things. We can't join all the dots and
see all the intricacies of things. I just love the fact that God
says, I'm doing it all. Thank you very much. You just
rest in who I am and in my sovereignty and the words of God shall be
fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest
is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven having
great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. And
he cried with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the Great is
fallen. I just love how in his absolute
sovereignty God is talking about something in the future and he
talks about it in the past tense. That's how sure and certain our
God is of ruling over all these things. Babylon the Great is
fallen, is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every
foul spirit, and a cage of every clean and hateful bird. For all
the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her,
and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance
of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from
heaven. This is God's word to all of
us, isn't it? Saying, come out from her. Come out, my people, from freewill
works religion. You come out. He just says to
his people again and again, just flee from the religion of man. free from the religion that takes
away from the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and the completeness
of what he's done. Just flee. Just come out. You
don't have any reason to go and debate. You don't have any reason
to go and have to go. Just come out. Just come out,
my people. Come out of her, my people, that
you be not partakers of her sins and receive not her plagues. for her sins have reached unto
heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. Her sins have reached unto heaven
and God has remembered. Isn't it a glorious thing that
in the Lord Jesus Christ our sins are gone and he'll never
remember them ever again. I want us to turn back in and
I'll just be brief and we'll just read most of these verses
and not discuss them very much, but I just wanted to see how
Proverbs 7, and I want us to look at Proverbs 7 in terms of
what does this mean for me personally? God says to me to come out. What's
it mean for you and I when we see the wickedness that's going
on in this world, when we see the depravity of man-made works
religion, when we see the evil that's going on in this world,
we trace it back to the pulpits of this world and we say this
is the end result of preaching man's free will and man's works
religion and a religion that exalts man. I want us to see
as the Lord might enable us. And when we see that wickedness,
what's the response of the child of God? When we talk about God's judgment,
let's talk about it with tears. Let's talk about it with an understanding. of how extraordinary the judgment
was that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ that saved his people.
When God judged the wickedness of Jerusalem, before they destroyed
Jerusalem, he sent his angels to put a mark on the foreheads
of people. And he put a mark on the foreheads
of those, not those who boasted about what they could do or spoke
in exalted terms about how they've escaped all this. He says, you
set a mark on the foreheads of the men, Ezekiel 9, verse 4,
that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in
the midst thereof. You put a mark on those who grieve
and lament over these things. So let's start at Proverbs chapter
7 verse 6. And from the window, for at the
window of my house I looked through my casement and beheld among
the simple ones, I discerned among the youths a young man
void of understanding. Passing through the street near
her corner, this is talking about the fall of a man. This is talking
about a man on his way to the house of hell and death. First thing he does is he goes
near her corner and he went the way to her house. There is a
way that seems right to man, isn't there? And the ends thereof
are the ways of death. In the twilight, in the evening,
in the black of night, evil happens in the darkness, isn't it? May
the Lord shine light, as much light as he possibly can, on
all of what goes on in our lives and those around us. And behold,
there met him a woman with the near tie of a harlot and subtle
of heart. This is the harlot of Revelation
chapter 17. This is the wickedness put in
that basket. And subtle of heart. So she looked
amazing and she had subtlety in her heart. She is loud and
stubborn, her feet abide not in her house, her fornication
spreads. Now she is without, now in the
street, and lieth in wait at every corner. Satan prowls around
as a raging lion, but he doesn't look like a lion, he looks like
a harlot. He looks like a religious harlot.
You listen to what she goes on to say. So she caught him and
kissed him. And with an impudent face, a
strong and self-confident hardened face, she said to him, listen
to this, she's not being religious. Listen to her religious activities.
I have my peace offerings with me. I've gone and given my peace
offerings to God. I've been to the temple with
me. This day I have paid my vows. She's paid, she's given a sacrifice
of things and she has the token of it. Therefore, I came forth
to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry and with carved works,
with the fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh
and aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of
love till the morning. Let us solace ourselves with
loves, for the good man is not at home. She declares her religious behaviour
and she declares her infidelity and her wickedness before she
takes this man in. The point simply is that God
saves all of his people by free and suffering grace and everyone
that is lost is 100% responsible for their being lost. 100% responsible. "'Come, let us take our fill
of love until morning. "'Let us solace ourselves with
love, "'for the good man is not at home. "'He's gone on a long
journey.'" And you might recall the parables the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke of this long journey. "'He has taken a bag of money
with him "'and will come home at the day appointed "'with much
fair speech. "'With much fair speech she called
him to yield, With the flattering of her lips she forced him. First
when she caught him in verse 13 and she kissed him with her
lips and now she's flattering him. Everything will be fine.
Peace. Peace is the flattering word.
God wants to save you and you can be saved at any time of your
choosing. You have free will. God loves
you. She forced him. He goeth after
her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool
to the correction of the stocks, until, until a dart strike through
an arrow, strike through his liver, as a bird hasteneth to
the snare. What's in the snare? For the
snare to work. What do you put in the snare
to catch a bird? You put the thing that they love the most,
that which satisfies and gratifies their flesh the most. And knoweth
not, that's what the Lord Jesus Christ said, isn't it? They don't
know where they're going. Those that walk in darkness,
they don't know where they're going. And know not that it was
for his life. Hearken unto me now therefore,
O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not
thine heart decline to her ways. Don't go down to her ways. There's
always a way down, isn't it? Nor go not astray in her paths. She has many paths. She has many
ways of deceiving people, this great whore, this wickedness.
For, and she's been extraordinarily successful, she has cast down
many wounded. She's been extraordinarily successful
in numbers, and she's extraordinarily successful in power, and many
strong men have been slain by her. What do they think their
strength is in? Their strength is in what they
do. Their strength is in their abilities. I can resist. I can do it my way. I'll be okay. Preaching peace to themselves
and peace to others. Verse 27, her house is the way
to hell, going down to the chambers of death. Her house is the way
to hell, going down to the chambers of death. How does he begin this chapter? My son, verse one, you just keep
my words. You lay up my commandments with
you. You keep my commandments that they may keep thee from
the strange woman, from the stranger with flatterer with her words. To go back to our passage in
Zechariah, this is wickedness. It's cast into an ephah. One of the glories of the Gospel
is that wickedness will be judged. Wickedness must be judged by
God Almighty. I love what Job said about all
of the wickedness that all of God's people have ever committed. All of the sins of all of God's
elect, Job 14, 17, is put in a bag All of our dalliances and our
delights in this great whore have been put in a bag and they
are sealed up. And God says to his people, you
must have a just ephah. You must have just weights in
your pockets. Thou shalt not have in thy bag
different weights. We just have one weight, the
true weight. But in that bag, that bag of
all of the sins of all of God's people, that justifa was laid
upon the Lord Jesus Christ and all of the wrath of God Almighty
for our joining with the whore and our enjoying her delights
was punished in Him. Babylon's gospel Babylon's delight
with people is a delight in what they can do, and the delight
of God's people is in Him. We just have one. It's just Christ.
We spoke about it last week. It's just Christ alone. All of
my hope is in Christ alone. All of my sin-bearing is Christ
alone. All of my escape from this wicked
whore who entraps and deceives people is in Christ alone. All of my hope for walking through
this world is in Christ alone. All of my sin-bearing is all
of my sins being put in that bag. and lifted up between heaven
and earth by God Almighty Himself, and those sins perfectly and
completely being punished. And now all the children of God
stand before their Father, robed with the very righteousness of
God Almighty. their sins gone justified justified
in the beloved accepted in the beloved let's pray heavenly father
we pray that you might Take your words and cause us to be warned
by your words, but also to be comforted, Heavenly Father, by
the power of your absolute sovereignty, by the fact that those you love,
you love until the end. that your love cannot fail, your
grace cannot fail, your salvation cannot fail, and we thank you,
Heavenly Father, that you speak of these things that we see happening
in this world and we see spiritually happening amongst the people
of this world. We thank you that you put them
in the past tense. And we thank you that that is
the case with all of our sins that when the Lord Jesus Christ
declared it is finished, it is finished. They have come to their
just and correct end. And now, Heavenly Father, your
children can rejoice in being accepted in the Beloved. having loved his own in this
world. He loved them to the end. Help us, Heavenly Father, as
we take these elements that remind us again. May we see something
of the wickedness, our wickedness, laid upon your dear and precious
son. And may we go from here looking
to him alone and rejoicing in him alone. May you glorify your
son in our midst, our father. We pray in his name and for his
glory.