Zechariah chapter 5. The book of Zechariah chapter
5 and in this passage of scripture we're going to spend most of
our time in the last two verses but I'd like to start reading
with verse 5. Zechariah 5 beginning with read
down through verse 11. I'll get into Zechariah here. Alright, Zechariah chapter 5
beginning with 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? And I said, what is it? And he
said, this is an ephah that goeth forth. He said, moreover, this
is their resemblance through all the earth. And behold, there
was lifted up a talent of lead. And this is a woman that sitteth
on the midst of the ephah. And he said, this is wickedness.
And he cast it upon the midst of the ephah, and he cast the
weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up my
eyes and looked, and behold, there came out 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 the heaven. Then said I to the angel that
talked with me, whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto
me, to build it an house in the land of Shinar, and it shall
be established. Set there upon her own base We'd
like to spend the bulk of our time tonight on these last two
verses of this chapter but these The destination of this measure
and in this measure, and it's a great measure is Filled with
wickedness, the destination of this measure is called a place
called Shinar. Now that's another name for Babylon.
And it's interesting that many of these people that Zechariah
was going to bring this message to had just returned from Shinar. And they were there for a reason. They had been put in captivity
for a reason. And that reason was they failed
to obey God. God put them there on purpose. Now, we're going to look at this,
the condition of the Ifa, that it is large, and it's covered
with lead, a great amount of lead, over the opening of this
Ifa. Now, it's a measuring device,
but it's so large that it contains the wickedness of every nation,
people, kindred, and tongue. I mean, it's speaking through
picture language of a situation that this is the conglomeration
of all the errors and all the wrongs of people put into a measure,
and it's a great measure. Now, we look into the scripture
in other places and find out that everybody has sinned in
every area of their life. It is a great ifa. The measuring is great. Body,
mind, and spirit. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. Adam died instantly, spiritually. He moved on through life some
900 more years, dying daily. He died and left this world. He was spiritually dead. Mentally
he was not the man he was he did not have for at least a short
time Did not have any of the relationship that he had once
had with God Because he hid himself from God and it just tells us
a whole lot about our natural condition there in our father
Adam and it's a great a It is so great, it covers every atom
of our being. And it is greater than that,
it covers every atom of everybody else that we ever meet in this
life. And it goes beyond that, it covers every atom of every
bit of this earth and our solar system and from there on out.
The fall is so significant. It is mentioned here in this
passage of scripture of being an ephah, a great ephah, a measuring
ephah, and inside is the wickedness. Now, we could look at that woman
that's in there, and you know, it was Eve that brought that
fruit. I don't know why people call
it an apple. I just don't know. But there was some fruit that
was brought, but she's not the one that caused the sin. I've
had preachers tell me that when she ate, sin came into the world.
No, no, nothing happened. She didn't fall. Things were
still bright. There was no darkness, but when
Adam sinned, then darkness fell upon both of them. So we have
this issue. Now there are two women that
are mentioned, and then we get down to the latter part of this
chapter. There are two women mentioned in scripture that are
going to have a great deal to do with the coming of the one
who would take care of the ephah of wickedness. Eve, remember
the promise made about her. It wasn't to her at the moment,
but it was about her as the Lord spoke to the serpent. said that
the serpent will bruise the seat of the woman's heel, but he will
bruise the seat of the serpent's head. And this is the first promise
that we have in the scriptures about the Messiah coming and
taking care of this ephah of problem that we have. And then
we move down through many centuries, some millennia, And we come to
a woman in the book of Matthew. Would you turn with me to the
book of Matthew chapter one? Matthew chapter one, verse 23. Matthew chapter one, verse 23. In this wonderful passage of
scripture, it shares with us something about this woman that
is going to be used specifically by the Lord. Many women were
used to bring this to this point. Generations of women had been
used to bring this history of the world to this point. But
none of those women, including Eve, and she thought for a moment,
I believe, that she had the Messiah when she had her first son. I've
gotten a man child from the Lord. I think she thought that this
was going to be the end of the problem. Well, it's going to
take centuries and millennia before this whole process comes
down to this time in the book of Matthew when we have a specific
woman identified by the Holy Spirit for us to look at, not
worship, but to gaze upon that God would move in such mysterious
grace as to choose this one. And I'm just speaking from her
standpoint. How shall this be? She saw herself in a position
and a condition that normally would not have to be. But it
tells us here in the book of Matthew chapter One, in verse
23, behold, a virgin shall be with child, and she shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted as God with us, the one that was promised in the
book of Genesis, centuries, millennia before, is now coming into the
world, and we will know him as Emmanuel, or God with us. Now
we've mentioned in the past that this is the only time in the
earthly life of the Lord Jesus that he's ever called this, but
his character commands it. He is God with us. He is the
one that God had set aside before the foundation of the world.
He is God in human flesh. He is 100% human and He is 100%
God, yet without sin. That is so important to realize
that this part, this human part of the Lord Jesus was in no way
ever touched with sin, bringing Him down to this point. And then
we find even on the cross that our sin was imputed to Him. Now
we're going to go back into the book of Leviticus momentarily
and read about a goat over there. And that goat, Aaron confessed
all the sins of all Israel over it. But it didn't disturb the
character of that goat, even though symbolically he was carrying
all the sins of all of Israel. So we'll see that about the Lord. Only this one could have the
ability of dealing with the oppressed conditions that we find Zachariah
sharing with us here in the book of Zachariah chapter 5. Now leading
up to this point we have the sunshine. When we get to chapter
5 we have a serious condition among natural man and Zachariah
is in and among these people. He is a person that is contaminated
with this Ifa, and he must, if he is ever to see God, he must
have the gospel presented to him and the new birth given to
him, and then that fellowship or engraftedness that we have
with the Lord God Almighty is ours to enjoy. So we can take
that, that Zechariah had this because he is a friend of God.
He's a gospel preacher. He's had this experience. Emmanuel
or God with us now this place that we find of Shinar is like
a verse That we find in the new testament now that there's only
one of two places that this ifa can be left This ifa of wickedness
can be left. There's only one of two places
now It's evidence when we get over there to the last day when
all peoples are gathered before the Lord at that great day and
he separates the sheep from the goats as a shepherd would divide
his sheep from the goats. And he puts a group on his right-hand
side and he puts a group on his left-hand side. Now the only
reason that they can be in one side or the other, those on the
right-hand side, the only reason that they can stand there is
that this ifa of wickedness was taken to one place. and no other
place. Now the only reason that the
others are on the other side is that this Ifa of wickedness
has settled down in another place. So we have these, looks like
women, and it says they have wings like stork. They don't
have stork's wings. It's like that. There's an appearance
that way. They're able to take this Ifa
someplace. In the book of Would you turn with me to the
book of 2 Corinthians chapter 2? And this verse of scripture
here shares with us there's only two places that this can go.
Only two places. This ephah cannot be just settled
down and dispensed with. It has to be dealt with, but
it can be dealt with in one of two places. All right? Here in
the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 2, and there in verse 16, we
have these words shared with us by the apostle Paul. Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 2 and there in verse 16 now this is the preaching
of the gospel and this is the results of the preaching of the
gospel and when the gospel goes out there is going to be this
happen just as the Ifa is carried off and For one group, it's going
to go in one place. For another group, it's going
to go in another place. And here, in the book of Second Corinthians,
chapter two, and verse 16, it says, to the one we are a saver
of death unto death. You know, in the preaching of
the gospel, God has determined to identify those who will suffer
eternal death. And they will. They will suffer
eternal death. The gospel makes and is a dividing
line. And there is no way around it. We're not going to mince words
when we come to the gospel. This is the gospel and there
is no other gospel. And that is that Christ died
for his people's sins completely. He took upon himself our sin,
it was imputed to him, and he dealt with it in the appropriate
fashion And that was he gave his life a ransom for many. Now, on this side, it says it's
a saver of death unto death. And people without this There
is death, and it is death, and that's all there is. And then
it goes on to say, to the other, a saver of life unto life. It's
so interesting that when we see the gospel preached, particularly
in the book of Acts, that one day we see, men and brethren,
what shall we do? And the other day, we say, we'll
have nothing of this. And they bid on. I think they actually did that.
I've read some commentary. No, no, they didn't go that far.
Well, that's what it says. They gnashed on him with their
teeth. They were so upset with Stephen that they gnashed on
him with their teeth. What was it? What he preached was a savor
of death unto death to them. But those on the day of Pentecost
that heard the gospel and God brought them great, Great salvation,
it was totally different. So the gospel is going to do
one or two things. It's a saver of life unto life,
or as the scripture share here, it's a saver of death unto death,
or to some it's a saver of life unto life. And it appears that
there are more that find that it's a saver of death unto death
than there are that find it a life unto life. It just seems to be
that way. And among most religions, there
is nothing else that could be said about it because they have
nothing to do with Emmanuel. All the work is done by them.
The destination might mean one of two places. Now it tells us
it's going to Shinar, but Shinar can represent two things. Shinar
can represent desert place and it can represent a desert place.
Now one desert place is good for the church and the other
desert place is not good for the church. One place it means
peace and safety and the other place means condemnation and
judgment. Now I want to bring up a passage
of scripture where this word Shinar is mentioned in the book
of Joshua. And in Joshua, the word Babylonian
is mentioned. Would you turn with me to the
book of Joshua chapter 7? Joshua chapter 7. In Joshua chapter
7, we find a passage of scripture. We find a place in the scriptures
where a man troubled Israel. You remember the great success
at Jericho? And yet amidst that great success,
there is one individual. And it tells us in Joshua chapter
7. And I want to read verse 1 first
of all. Joshua chapter 7 verse 1. Joshua chapter 7 in verse 1. But the children of Israel committed
a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Carmi,
the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the, did you notice
which tribe he's from? The tribe of Judah. Not all Judah is of Judah. Of the tribe of Judah took of
the accursed thing and the anger of the Lord was kindled against
the children of Israel. Backing up just a little bit,
before they went into Jericho, the command was destroy everything,
destroy everything, and destroy everything, except for one woman
and her family. The rest is to be destroyed.
Now it's so representative of of religion, when God saves us,
he doesn't ask us to stay partly where we are, because part of
it is okay. Part of works is okay. What God
is sharing with Israel here, as they take Jericho, that nothing
but God is able to save. And here is an accursed thing
that's mentioned several times in here. Well, we know what it
is, because it tells us in Joshua 7, verse 16. Let's move over
to that. There's an accursed thing. Someone
in the group of the tribe of Judah. Now, Joshua goes through
lots and sifts out this group, then this tribe, then this family,
and then this man. is identified by Joshua. And so, notice with me here in
Joshua chapter 7 verse 16. So, Joshua rose up early in the
morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of
Judah was taken. And he brought the family of
Judah, and he took the family of the Zerites. And he brought
the family of the Zerites, man by man. And Zabdai was taken. And he brought his household,
man by man. And Achan, the son of Carmi,
the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, the tribe of Judah, was
taken. And Joshua said unto Achan, my
son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel. You know what? Achan is going
to give glory to the Lord God of Israel. Now it may not be
as Achan hoped it would be, but that's going to fall out. Make
and make confession unto him and tell me now what thou hast
done. Hide it not from me. And Achan
answered Joshua and said, indeed, I have sinned against the Lord
God of Israel. And thus and thus have I done,
when I saw upon the spoils a goodly Babylonianish garment. Now that
word Babylonish is the same word as Shinar. Now he saw a Babylonianish
garment, 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, and 50 shekels
weight. Then I coveted them, and took
them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of
my tent, and the silver under it. Now it is brought to his
attention by Joshua sifting through the folks that Achan is the culprit
and Achan shares with us exactly what he did. He coveted this
Babylonian garment. Now what he is doing is saying
that the God of heaven is not enough. He wanted this, this
Babylonian garment is as wicked, it symbolizes the wickedness
of Babylon. It symbolizes the wickedness
of the people that are in the land right now. It symbolizes
the wickedness of the people of Jericho that God has commanded
that not one of them should remain. It symbolized all that and in
the midst of all that, this man Achan says, I'll take that. over the righteousness of Christ.
I will take another covering besides the righteousness of
Christ. And this cannot stand. This will
not stand. So we're gonna find out that
this ephah of wickedness that Achan committed is gonna fall
at his feet. And God is going to deal with
him only as he could deal with him. And that is judgment will
fall. Now, you know, probably almost
all of us are Achens in our religious life. And you know what? God has mercy on many, many Achens. All those that are his sheep,
he has great mercy. He has great love. And he has
a great death for them. But those Achans that are not
written in the Lamb's Book of Life, just like this man here,
this ephah of wickedness is going to fall at his very feet, and
he must deal with it himself. Now, there's no way he can deal
with it for eternity, because he'll just go on doing what he
normally has done, and that is still covet throughout eternity,
and never be able to pay for his sin. This was a goodly Babylonian-ish
garment. This man of the tribe of Judah
was infatuated so much that he would disobey every word of Joshua,
which was the word of God. He would disobey it so completely
and he coveted. That really tells us a lot about
his heart. He coveted something that he
shouldn't have been coveting. But his natural heart was so
caught up in that You know, we read over in the book of 1 John
2, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life, they're not of God. That's the same thing Adam dealt
with. And yet, it's wonderful to find out that our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, dealt with exactly those same things
as he was tempted by the devil. He was given the opportunity
to have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. And in every time, get thee behind me Satan. That's
not the word of God you quoted. And you know what? Satan was
compelled to leave him. Verse 21 of Joshua chapter 7. Excuse me, let's go down to Verse
21. I saw a goodly Babylonia or Shinar
garment 200 shekels of silver a wedge of gold and 50 Of weight
and then he goes down here So Joshua verse 22 sent messengers
and they ran into the tent and behold it was hid in his tent
and the silver under it. And they took them out of the
midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto the
children of Israel, and laid them before the Lord. And Joshua,
and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the
silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons,
and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep,
and his tent, and all he had. And they brought them to the
valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why hast thou
troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this
day, and all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned him,
and covered him with the stones that they had stoned him with. Sin lieth at the door, wickedness
lieth at the door, the measure lies at your very door, Achan,
and for eternity the same thing will go on. It's so delightful
to look into the scriptures and find out that that Troubler of
Israel, that Troubler of Judah, is just a picture of those without
Christ, and yet God has so much different place for sin to land
on the behalf of his people. As this ephah is measured out,
as this wickedness is carried about, there is one other place
that all of this can be taken to. So would you turn with me
to the book of Leviticus? The book of Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 16 Now here
in the book of Leviticus is a wonderful picture of the great work of
Christ Since we don't have animals.
I can't think of a time in the scripture when an animal was
ever raised from the dead I Just can't think of it So in
order for one to act like he'd been raised from the dead, we're
going to have to have two animals. One is going to be slain and
the other one is going to act as if he's been raised. And this
is a picture of our Lord here in Leviticus chapter 16. Leviticus
chapter 16. This great blessing the Lord
shares with us in the scapegoat. He is going to be dealt the ephah
of wickedness. He's going to be dealt the sin
of Israel. He's going to be dealt all of
this great weight of lead. Now listen to this in Leviticus
chapter 16 verse 21. Leviticus chapter 16 and verse
21, and Aaron shall lay both his hands. Aaron's a high priest. Aaron represents all Israel. But let me say this right here.
There's not one Hittite represented by Aaron. There's not one Hivite. They are not there. Now it doesn't
mean to say that God's not going to save a Hittite, because it
appears that David's captain, who was a Hittite, may have known
the gospel. Bathsheba's husband. We don't
know. He was in the presence of greatness. He was in the presence of the
gospel. But from a standpoint of a picture, we don't have any
of the Hivites or Hittites or Jebusites or any of those people
that are in the land that Israel is going to go claim. I can't
help but think from time to time that it was theirs at one time
and they gave it up willfully. Now they're going to go back.
God's gonna give it to him. Well, here in the book of Leviticus,
Aaron represents Israel. Notice this in Leviticus chapter
16 and verse 21. It says, Aaron shall lay both
his hands upon the head of the live goat. One has been slain,
the blood has been applied. He lays both his hands. Now,
this priest is not caught up in anything else but what he
is doing right now. He doesn't have one free hand
behind his back sending signals to anybody. He is so serious
about the business at hand, just as we find the Lord Jesus Christ
during his ministry upon this earth, or his ministry from before
the foundation of the world has been straightforward. As we heard
the other day, he set his face as a flint. Both hands were in
front of him. He's headed towards Jerusalem.
Well, Aaron symbolizes that. He laid both his hands upon the
head of the live goats. Now notice what Aaron did to
this live goat. And confess over him all the
iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions
in all their sins. Three different words are used
very quickly here about what Aaron is placing on the head
of this scapegoat. iniquities, the transgressions,
and all their sins. So we have a huge burden being
taken from the representative to the representative. It didn't
change the nature of the scapegoat But it is a picture of our sin
being imputed to him. Now, when all of this is done,
putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him
away by the hand of a fit man into a wilderness. Now, this
ephah can be carried here too. And for all the elect, this ephah
of wickedness has been carried to this place. A place where
no one can ever find it. A place where this ephah is put
away. from memory, this place where
it is hidden, where all the sins of all the people of God, all
those confessed upon the head of this scapegoat are placed
upon it and he's carried out into the wilderness and left
there in the hands of a fit man and made sure he never returns
to the camp again. He goes out there to die. He
carries with him all the sins of the people of Israel confessed
upon him. Now, it's in the hands of a fit
man. Once again, we see a wonderful
picture of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. He's the hands of the
fit man carrying the scapegoat who is representing the one who's
carrying all the sins of all the people of Israel out into
the wilderness, a place where it will never be viewed again. Now, we know from a practical
standpoint, maybe they ran onto the bones of this goat. But when
it comes to the sins of God's people, it will never be found
again. We'll never be out someplace
and say, oh my goodness, look at that, there's my sin in front
of me. Because the Lord Jesus put it
away, paid for it in full. It is truly put upon the head
of the scapegoat and taken out into the wilderness. A place of no habitation, taken
care of completely. And the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities unto the land not inhabited, and he
shall let go the goat in the wilderness. All the iniquities
of all the people. Now there's not one literal iniquity
put on any of the goat. It's typical of all the sins
of all God's people being confessed over the head of our true scapegoat,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and only God could do that. We're not
gonna be able to do that, because we don't even know our own heart.
We don't know the wickedness of our own heart. So God is able
to place all that upon the true scapegoat, and that true scapegoat
carried our sin into the wilderness, never to be seen again. So the
symbolism found here by Zechariah as he says, as he looks up and
he sees this great ephah, heavy, heavy ephah of the wickedness
of mankind, the wickedness of people, the wickedness of Israel,
the wickedness of Zechariah, the very wickedness of himself
being carried. Knowing full well in the blood
of the Lamb that wickedness was carried out to where it would
never be confronted by God's people ever again. And God would
never ever bring it up again. So how glorious is His great
salvation. Turn with me if you would to
the book of Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter
5 verse 15. Salvation is a glorious act of
an almighty God. We need an almighty God to take
care of all our sin. It took a great high priest to
confess those sins. It takes a great high priest
to bring them all to bear upon the true Lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the book of Romans, Romans
chapter 5, I just read I think it was yesterday about the book
of Romans. It was not the first book, not first epistle written,
but it's probably put in this position because it covers everything. It is so valuable. Where are
we? We're born into sin. How can
we get out? Christ alone. Well here in the
book of Romans chapter 5 verse 15 it says, But not as the offense,
so also as the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by
grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many
by Adam. Heaps and pounds of wickedness. And you just can't measure it.
It's so heavy. The ephah just grows on a daily
basis in size. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one condemnation,
but the free gift of as many offenses unto justification.
For if by one man's offense death reign by one, much more they
which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. and He truly is our only
righteousness. Christ is the only one that makes
a difference in the direction of that ephah. It's either going
to be taken to Him and taken to the wilderness or it will
be dropped in front of those on the left-hand side and said,
ye workers of iniquity. They were workers, they knew
they were workers, but He tells them they're workers of iniquity.
It goes on to tell us here in verse 18, therefore as by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So where will this ephah land?
It's either going to land on Christ, or it will land at our
feet. It will be taken care of by Christ,
our great high priest, our scapegoat, our lamb, all the other terms
that are mentioned in the scripture. It's going to land on Him, placed
on Him, be on Him, as we read in the 53rd chapter of the book
of Isaiah. Or it will be made accountable as even Achan confessed. He said, I coveted. It was so
important to me. even in absolute and complete
disobedience to God, he took a garment, a Babylonian-ish garment. What did Babylon have? Pretty
things. What does religion have? Pretty
things, smooth things. It might have been made of silk,
the best wool, the best color, and it's always the most attractive. The garment of salvation is not
attractive to unbelievers. We find that in the scriptures,
that the natural man receiveth not
the things of God, for they are spiritually discerned. The only
way we can receive them is by revelation, the revelation of
Jesus Christ. This blessed fact is found so
often throughout the scriptures. One other passage of scripture
that we want to read is found over in the book of Acts chapter
13. In Acts chapter 13, I keep finding myself, what a glorious
passage of scripture. What a wonderful passage of scripture.
What a good passage. Well, right here in Acts chapter
13, it's a saver of death unto death or life unto life. It's
an ephah that falls upon someone else or it falls at our feet.
Here we find that the Apostle Paul and speaking to a whole
gob of Jews Acts chapter 13 now verse 48 is a wonderful verse
for us But we're going to back up just a little bit Acts chapter
13 and verse 44 Paul has been preaching He's been preaching
the grace of God. He's been preaching not by works,
but by faith. He's been preaching that works
has nothing to do with this. You know, it hadn't been that
long prior to this that Saul would have stood up and said,
works has everything to do with this. He'd have been in the crowd.
But when he was saved, he says, works has nothing to do with
this. It's all of grace. Acts chapter 13, verse 44, it
says, and the next Sabbath day, came almost the whole city together
to hear the word of God. Now, some people might say, well,
why is Paul preaching on the Sabbath? Well, that's when everybody
went to church. All these Jews went to church.
Well, if you had a Sunday service, you probably wouldn't have three
people. But when he had a Sabbath service, now we know. We don't
worship on Sunday because it's a law. We worship there in honor
to God. The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But the Bible so plainly says it's not in a day. It's not in
a day. It's not the Lord's Sabbath.
The Lord is our Sabbath, but it's not in a day. But we do
it because the Lord raised Him from the dead. And we've often
said, what if everybody in our church had to work on Sunday?
Well, let's just move the services to Monday. It's not in a day. Well, anyway, here on the Sabbath,
Next day came almost the whole city together to hear the word
of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled
with envy, covetousness, and spake against those things which
were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. And blaspheming,
they were even going against the word that they said they
believed. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. Now notice this next phrase.
But seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy
of everlasting life. You judge yourselves unworthy
of everlasting life. How did he know that? They were
never sinners, and they didn't believe the report. They judged themselves. We turn
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. Now
he first and went and preached to those Jews wherever he found
them, but now he turns. And then it tells us here in
verse 48, what a wonderful passage of scripture, tells us just how
things happen. This is just how things happen.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they heard the gospel, they were
glad, because that's what the gospel does, and glorified the
word of the Lord, Because they believed the report, and as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. They didn't believe and then
they were ordained. They were ordained and that's
why they believed. You know, we don't know about
that when God brings us the gospel. We may believe in some form,
a Calvinist believes in some form of election, but if God
saves him, They're going to find out that I didn't know anything
about it. And when he revealed himself
to me, now I can believe. So when they were glad, they
heard the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. So here we have, an ephah fell
at the feet of those Jews, and they will stand in judgment as
a result. And the ephah fell on Christ.
And those who it fell on Christ walk away free without one judgment
against them. And there is no double jeopardy. If he took care of it, it's taken
care of. And not one of his children will
ever be called in question. Now we bring ourselves in question
at times. We know what we're made of. We
know what we are. We know that we're wicked people. But I like what that one preacher
had at the end of his title. Saved sinner. Saved sinner. So the glory of the gospel. to take that ephah and place
it on someone it didn't deserve to be on. And judgment was made. And Christ said, it is finished.
And the church walks away free.