Let's open this morning's service
with number 37 from your hardbacked hymnal, from the hardbacked hymnal,
number 37, How Great Thou Art. Let's all stand together. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great thou art! How great thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down From lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook,
and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly
bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great thou art! How great thou art! When Christ shall come, with
shout of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill
my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, My God, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Please be seated. Good morning. My hope this morning is that
the Lord will show us just a little bit more of His greatness. We're not capable of comprehending
it in its fullness, but oh, if we could just catch another glimpse
of His glory. And if we are, He will draw us
to Himself and bless us with His grace. ask you, if you will,
to turn with me in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 5. Zechariah chapter 5. I've titled
this message, The Judgment of God. The Judgment of God. Let's pray together. Our great and merciful Heavenly
Father, What joy does fill our hearts
when we consider thy greatness in creation. We look, Lord, and
we see your wise and powerful hand putting all things together,
your omnipotent voice speaking and creating all the worlds that
we observe. Lord, there's so much more that
we can't see, but we know that you are the cause behind all
the created order. Lord, we, we pause to reflect
on thy greatness when it comes to your providence, your purpose,
and your goodwill in the lives of your children. Lord, to know
that all things truly do work together for good for them that
love thee and those that are the called according to thy purpose.
Lord, might we. Have the. God given faith to
trust you. In the good providence and circumstances
that you have ordained for each of us. And Lord, to reflect on
thy greatness when it comes to salvation. Or the greatness of
your glory revealed in the person of thy dear son. The greatness
of your holiness and your righteousness. Your justice. Your love. Your mercy. Lord, we. We pray that you would enable
us to. To look unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher
of our faith. Lord, that our affections will
be set on him, and that in looking to him we would see more of thy
greatness this day. For it's in Christ's name we
ask it. Amen. Zechariah chapter 5, the judgment
of God. Only the people of God understand
that there is a great and terrible day of the Lord pending whereby
God's judgment is going to come against all wickedness. And knowing that to be true,
we find ourselves fleeing in faith and in hope to the one
who has suffered the full wrath of God's justice in order to
put away our sin. that we would be saved from the
wrath that is to come. Now, the world does not believe
that there is any wrath to come. They have no fear of God. They
have no bans in their death. The scripture says in Psalm 73,
they don't fear death. They made a covenant with death.
They think all is well. With hell, they're in agreement.
I've never been to a funeral that I didn't hear the false
prophet stand and preach the deceased person into heaven.
Never been to a funeral where everyone there wasn't rejoicing
over the fact that the deceased person was in a better place.
Everybody thinks that death is no big deal. It's just a passage
We understand what's at stake when it comes to life and death. And we understand that there
is a holy God that demands justice. And if we deny that, we'd have
to rip out half the pages of our Bibles. Scripture's very
clear. The Lord has told us. And here in this prophecy, he
reveals that same truth. In Zechariah chapter five, beginning
at verse five, then the angel that talked with me went forth
and said unto me, lift up now thine eyes and see what is this
that goeth forth. This angel is the angel of the
Lord. It's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And we must
be taught of him. He's the one who has to speak
to us and to reveal to us. And if he does, we'll be taught.
And whatever he teaches us, no man can unteach us. People who
are able to recite truths from the Bible and then walk away
from the gospel have only learned those truths from men. Once they
learn them from God, they'll not be able to leave. They shall
be all, the scripture says, taught of God. Father, I thank Thee
that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent,
and revealed them unto babes. Might the Lord make us to be
as little children, lest ye become as a little child who should
not enter the kingdom of heaven. Suffer the little children to come unto
me, for such is the kingdom of God. So, Lord, teach me. Teach me like a child caused
me to look up. That's what he's saying. The
angel said, look up here. Look at me. I'm going to show you
something. I'm going to teach you something
that you'll never forget. Lift up thine eyes. How much
of our life we spend looking down or looking parallel to the
things of this earth. We get consumed with the temporal,
physical things around us, don't we? might the Lord gently take
us by the chin, like he did that blind man. Remember the blind
man, he said, can you see? He said, well, Lord, I see men
like trees walking. And the Lord took him and turned
his face. He said, can you see now? And
he focused his eyes on himself, on the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
And the man said, oh, I see clearly. I see clearly. Might the Lord
be merciful to lift up our eyes, because if he doesn't, we will
spend all our time looking at the physical, walking by sight
rather than by faith. The Lord has to lift us up in
order to enable us to see things as they really are. The things
that we see are temporal. The things that cannot be seen
are eternal. The Lord, the scripture says
the Lord is going to shake all the things that are temporal.
And in the end they will not stand. And only that which cannot
be shaken will remain. And that which cannot be shaken
is the eternal. And in order for us to see the
eternal, the Lord has to cause us to look up. Look up. See what is this that goeth forth? And I said, what is it? And the
only way that we'll be taught is if we're teachable. You can't
teach someone something that already knows everything. You've
had that experience. And sometimes people are just
not teachable. If the Lord not only has to cause
us to look up, but he has to give us a teachable spirit, doesn't
he? Lord, how can I unless the man should guide me? Lord, I
don't know. I don't understand. I'm blind. I can't see clearly. I've been looking at the things
of this world for so long that, Lord, you're going to have to
open my eyes. You're going to have to take
the scales off my eyes. You're going to have to anoint
them and enable me to see. What is it? What is it? He said.
This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said, moreover, this is their
resemblance through all the earth. Now, an ephah is a Jewish measurement
of commerce. It's a sack or a barrel that
holds about 10 gallons of grain. And here's the picture here.
It's a measure of commerce. It's going to, God's going to
put into this sack, into this measurement, all the evil of
the world. And behold, there was lifted
up a talon of lead. So now you've got an ephah, and
you've got a very weighty plate of lead. And now there's a woman. And this is a woman that sitteth
in the midst of the ephah. So there's a measurement, and
there's a woman in the measurement, and there's a plate of lead over
the measurement. And that's the picture. There's no way for this
woman to escape. She's bound up by the weight
of the lead cover over the ephah. It's got
a lead lid. No way for her to escape. And
he said, this is wickedness. This is wickedness. Now, to God
Everything is either wicked or it's holy. There's no in-between. You know, we measure things sometimes
in the gray area, but not so with God. With God, everything
is either perfectly wicked or it is perfectly holy, and that
which is acceptable to Him is only that which is holy. So this
is everything outside of holiness. This is everything that God is
offended by and that God's justice must punish. And he cast it into the, verse
8, this, and he said this is wickedness and he cast it into
the midst of the ephah and he cast the weight of lead upon
the mouth thereof. So again, we've got the Ifa,
the measurement of commerce. We've got the woman representing
the wickedness of the earth in the Ifa and it's sealed up with
a cover of lead. Then I lifted up my eyes and behold, It's where, behold, oh, I see
now. I see something I didn't see
before. Might God enable us to say, behold, every time we listen
to the gospel? I'm so encouraged when I hear
a believer, a brother, a sister say, you know, I just heard the
gospel for the first time again. That the Lord would make it fresh,
that He would make it living. that it would be like the first
time we ever heard that we would that we would leave this place
saying all behold behold lord has been merciful to open my
eyes and show me something that i didn't see before you know
we we see things but when the lord teaches them to us a fresh
we see them but in a in a different life and more light. That's the miracle
of the gospel. It opens up to the truths that
we already hold dear and that we already believe to be true.
The preaching of the gospel sheds more light on them and they become
more precious and more relevant and more truthful to us than
before so that we can say behold, behold I see something now that
I didn't see before. lifted up my eyes and looked,
verse 9, and behold, there came two women, and the wind was in
their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and
they lifted up the ephah between the earth and heaven." Now there's
a lot of speculation about who these two women represent who
have wings like a stork, but I know this, they're sent by
God and they're carried by the wind. In the Old Testament Hebrew,
the word for wind is the same word for spirit. And in the New
Testament Greek, it's also the same. And so, the wind, when
God created our father Adam, out of the dust of the earth,
and there was no life in him. And the Lord breathed life into
him through his nostrils. That's the word for wind. And
when the Spirit of God came in the New Testament on the day
of Pentecost, he came like a mighty rushing wind, didn't he? so that
the wind of the Spirit. When the prophet Ezekiel was
called on to preach to those dry bones in the valley, and
yet there was no life in them, and so the Lord said, preach
to the wind, call upon the wind, the Spirit of God to come and
blow upon them and give them life. So here we have the Spirit
of God, the reapers if you will, the angels sent of God to gather
up all the four corners of the earth and to put them into an
ephah of wickedness and seal it up with a lead cover. This is the judgment of God.
God's just reminding us that I know what's not holy. I'm going to gather it all up
and I'm going to carry it off. And notice that it's carried
between heaven and earth. It's not carried up into heaven
and it finds no place upon the earth. It's carried to a place
called Shinar. Look what he says. The angel
talked with me in verse 10. Whither do these bear the ephah?
So the angel, God often asks us questions in order to expose
our ignorance. You ever had somebody do that
to you? They knew you didn't know something, but they ask
you anyway to make you look foolish. Or, you know, people do that.
And the Lord does that to show us our ignorance. Where is this
ephah going? Where are these angels with these
great wings, these women with these great wings like storks
carrying this ephah? And he said unto me, to build
it a house in the land of Shinar, and it shall be established.
and shall and sat there upon her own base. Now historically
we can see the relevance of this prophecy when it comes to the
destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying off of the Jews,
the dispersion of the Jews throughout the whole earth that took place
in 70 AD and many have seen these two women as the Roman Empire
coming in and carrying them off and there's something to that. But the relevance for me and
you is that this is God taking the wickedness of the earth to
a place called Shinar. Now Shinar is mentioned several
times in the scriptures. I want to take us to a couple
of those passages. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
11. Genesis chapter 11. What is Shinar? The first time it's mentioned
I think it's in Genesis Chapter 3 when Nimrod goes to Shinar
and establishes his house there. But here's what I want you to
see in Genesis Chapter 11. And the whole earth was of one
language and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed
from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar
and they dwelt there. And they said one to another,
go to, let us make brick and burned them thoroughly. And they
had brick for stone and slime had they for mortar. So here's
all the men of the earth gathered together and they're going to
build a city. And so they take their hands and they fashion
bricks and they use tar for mortar to hold the bricks together. And they said, go to, let us
build us a city and a tower whose top may reach into heaven and
let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the
face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see
the city and the tower which the children of men built, and
the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one
language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be
restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let
us go down, and there confound their language that they may
not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered
them abroad from thence upon the face of the earth, and they
left off to build the city." Now, in one sense, the whole
earth still has one language. You know this is the building
of the Tower of Babel. This is the beginning of Babylon. Shinar is Babylon. The Lord confused their speech. In another sense, everybody's
saying something different about how to get to heaven, aren't
they? Everybody's got a different opinion as to what God requires
in order for us to be able to stand in His presence. And the Lord mercifully confused
the speech of men and scattered them abroad. And everything that
God does in this world is for the good of His church. Could
you imagine? Could you imagine if the whole
world today was united in one religion? We wouldn't be able
to have this meeting. I don't care where on the face
of the earth you are, you're not going to be able to gather
together publicly. The Lord confused the speech of the world in order
to give safety to his people so that we could gather together
and worship. him. But here's the beginning of Shinar. It's the Tower of Babel. Now in the Scriptures, Rome is
referred to as Babylon and so is Jerusalem. Now what are the
two religious sinners in the world this day? Today, right
now. Right now, as far as the world
is concerned, what are the two religious centers for Judaism,
for Islam, for Christianity? Rome and Jerusalem, isn't it? Now what did they have? They
had bricks instead of stone. And these bricks were fashioned
with their hands. So the bricks represent man is
trying to build him a name. He's trying to build a city up
to God. I'm telling you where this ephah,
where this woman of wickedness covered up with lead was being
carried to. She was being carried to Babylon. And Babylon is nothing more than
man-made, free will, works, religion. That's what Babylon is. And I've
shared this with you before, the pitch that they used as mortar,
the tar that they had for mortar is the same pitch that Noah used
to seal the Ark of the Covenant. And it's the word covering and
it's also the word atonement. And so it's the atoning work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you have a problem with
the word atonement, just think about it like this, at-one-ment. That's the word, at-one-ment. We are at-one-ment. We are in
union with the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of the work of atonement
that he accomplished on Calvary's cross. So what does the religion
of the world do? They take the works of their
hands and then they have another means of atonement. whether it
be the death of Christ on the cross, or whether it be the sacrifices
that they make in their religious ceremonies, whatever it is, and
they mix the two, they mix the atonement with the works of man's
hand, and they call it salvation. Let us build a tower into heaven. And God now, by the Spirit, is
taking all the wickedness of the world and carrying it to
Shinar. Now, turn with me to Revelation
chapter 17. verse 1, and there came one of
the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with
me, saying, Come unto me, come hither, and I will show unto
thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many
waters." It's the same prophecy. The same prophecy is given to
us in Zechariah chapter 5. God is calling John into heaven
and giving him this vision of judgment. With whom the kings
of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth
had 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 colored beast full of names of blasphemy having
seven heads and ten horns. It's the same woman. She's in
an ephah earlier. Now she's sitting upon a scarlet-colored
beast. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations
and filthiness of her fornication. She's fornicating against God. That's what she's doing. It's
spiritual fornication. There's nothing. We're not justifying. We're not excusing or ignoring
physical fornication. That's evil. But here the Lord's
giving us a revelation. He's given us a picture. He's given us a vision of the
future judgment that's going to come against the whole world.
All wickedness. Remember, wickedness and holiness.
There's only two. All wickedness is going to be
judged. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon,
the great mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And
you can read the rest of that chapter, not right now because
I want to move over to chapter 18 to see the judgment of God
against this woman who is bound up in an ephah. The measurement
of God's justice against all wickedness. Now look over in
chapter 18. If we ignore the justice of God
and the judgment of God, we're going to cut out a lot of the
Bible. The Lord is speaking to us. Now I remind you, child of
God, the Bible is not written for the world. These are not
warnings for the unbeliever. They don't hear it. The only
person that is ever going to hear the Word of God is a child
of God, is a believer. You've got to become a believer
before you're going to believe this. This is written for our
encouragement and for our admonition. verse 1 of chapter 18. And after
these things I saw another angel come down from heaven having
great power, and the earth was lighted with his glory. And he
carried mightily, and he cried mightily with a strong voice,
crying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. has become
the habitation of devils and holds of every foul spirit and
the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. And all nations
that drank 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 were waxed rich through the abundance of
her delicacy. And I heard another voice from
heaven saying, come out of her, my people." There's the message. There's the message. For the
believer, come out of her, my people, don't have anything to
do with her. What is she? She's wickedness. She's the works of man's hands. She's man's attempt to earn favor
with God by his own works. She's the denial of the holiness
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why God's
given us this vision. Come out of her, my people. She's
been covered up with a plate of lead. She will not escape. I've taken her to the land of
Shinar. There's no coming back. Come out of her, my people, that
you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her
plagues. For her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." In Daniel chapter 1, Scripture
says that Nebuchadnezzar, when he took the vessels of worship
out of the temple in Jerusalem, carried them to Shinar and put
them in his temple there. And there again, we have the
mixture. We have the mixture of works
and faith, works and grace. You cannot mix the two. It's
that everybody in the world thinks that salvation is a mixture of
God's grace and my works. That's Shinar. That's Babylon. And what they're doing is they're
denying the Lord Jesus Christ His glory in having accomplished
all of salvation all by Himself. And the Lord's saying to me and
you, this woman's being judged. Come out of her. Don't have anything
to do with her. Isaiah chapter 11. You're going
to be encouraged with this verse. Isaiah chapter 11. You see the truth is that each
one of us was born in Babylon. we are by nature citizens of
Babylon we are by nature works oriented we will do we we we
just we just fall into this idea that that only way I can be accepted
by God by something I do Isaiah chapter 11 verse 11 and
it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his
hand against us again the second time to recover the remnant of
his people which shall be left from Assyria and Egypt and Pathos
and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and
from the islands of the sea and he shall set up an ensign for
the nations and shall assemble the outcast of Israel and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth." There's our hope. Our hope is
that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered the full wrath of God's justice
in order to satisfy God's holy law. That's what God calls holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
His glory. But Lord, what was me? What was
me? No, I take a coal from off that
fiery altar. The fire of God's wrath fell
from heaven on the Lord Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. That's
called judgment. It's called justice. And we will
either be judged before God in Him We will find ourselves bound
up in this ephah with this woman of wickedness, covered with a
cover of lead, carried off to the land of Shinar. There's only
two. There's the wickedness and there's
holiness. No in between. God, lift up our eyes. Cause us to understand and to
see and flee in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ who has suffered
the justice of God for his people. Alright, let's take a break. Okay.