Thank you, Gail and Alan. That
song was a sermon in itself, wasn't it? That's good. That's a gospel hymn. I wish
that sometimes I had the gift to put words together like that. I don't, but I think, you know,
Brother Shepherd, he does, and Brother Bird, both of them write
hymns. Like a lot of the hymns we'll sing on Sunday morning
in our call to worship are written by them. The Lord inspires him. You know saying that beautifully
and it's God honoring. That's the main thing is that
it honors the Lord and lifts up Christ. All right. Well let's that's that's a good
preparation for worship and the preaching of the word. So let's
look at Zachariah chapter 5. This is the seventh vision that
the Lord gave Zachariah in the night. Eight night visions, eight
visions in one night. This is the seventh. This is
the vision of the woman in the ephah. That's how you pronounce
it, ephah. The woman in the ephah. It's
kind of strange to read through that. Look at all this and you
wonder what in the world could he be talking about? But you
know, you know, this one thing as you go through these eight
visions, you know, the explanation, you know, each one kind of kind
of show the vision and then it's been Zachariah asked what is
this? And then you had the explanation pretty much spelled out for you.
But as you go along through the visions, the explanation gets
shorter. And and less and less interpretation. And the reason for that is this,
that the vision are to be taken together. They represent gospel truths,
truths about Christ and Him crucified and the grace and mercy of God
in Christ. And it also brings forth the
truth about sinners without Christ. That's really what this one is
about, that a sinner without Christ is deceived and bound
for wrath and condemnation Without Christ, there's no hope of salvation. And when you look at a vision
like this, they all come together, and the earlier visions kind
of set the precedent. They've laid the foundation for
the latter visions. And so we have to interpret Scripture
with Scripture. In the previous vision of the
flying scroll, you remember the flying scroll, which is the Word
of God, You remember that Zechariah saw as recorded in verse 3 there
of chapter 5, the curse that goes forth over the face of the
whole earth. And that's the curse of God's
holy law upon all men and women without exception who are not
found in Christ, who are not found washed in his blood and
clothed in his righteousness. For the law says, cursed is everyone
that continues not in the book of the law to do that. And so
he builds upon that in this next vision, the vision of the woman
in the ephah. It says in verse 5, it says,
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.
Here's what's coming next. God's not finished with this
revelation. And Ezekiel, verse 6, I said,
what is it? And he said, this is an ephah
that goeth forth. And he said, moreover, this is
their resemblance throughout, through all the earth. What is
an ephah? Well, an ephah, it can be several different things,
but basically it's like a basket going forth here, this basket,
or moving through all the earth, just like the curse in verse
three moved throughout the earth, the scroll pronouncing the curse. Well, here's an ephah. Like a
basket that's going through the whole earth. And here he sees
a vision of the wickedness. That's what it's representing,
the wickedness that covers the earth. And it's set before us
as a woman who's in the midst of this ephah. She's cast into
this ephah, a woman in a basket. And an ephah, exactly what is
it? Well, an ephah was the largest
Hebrew dry measure. It was like a measuring instrument.
And it's kind of like a bushel basket. That's the measure. And it was used in commerce.
That's how they would measure an amount of grain or something
like that. But the point that he's making
here in this ephah, by using that symbol of an ephah, and
I'll say this a couple of times during the message, you know,
sometimes when you want to interpret the Bible and understand the
Bible, you've got to stop thinking like an American. You've got
to think like a Hebrew. For example, he mentions a stork
down here. Now, what do you think of when you think of a stork?
You think of a big bird, white bird flying by with a baby. Delivering
babies. Well, you know, it's a symbol,
you know. But a Hebrew wouldn't think of that. A stork was an
evil bird to a Hebrew. A stork was an unclean bird.
So, that's what I'm talking about. We're just like an ephah. And
the ephod to a Hebrew back then was something they would use
to go to market and measure out certain amounts of grain. It
would be something like eight, like a bushel basket. Like I
said, eight to 10 gallons, something like that. And that's how they
would measure how much they owed, how much it weighed. And it was
a measurement. And so what's being taught in this ephod, the
fact that everything that God is talking about in these visions,
everything that's going to come to pass concerning the salvation
of his people through Christ, concerning the condemnation of
the wicked, concerning how all that's going to unfold in history,
in Providence. Everything has been measured
out. It's all been measured out. Remember,
he gave us the measurements of the flying scroll. It had certain
dimensions. And it was not, those dimensions
were not to be exceeded or to be lessened. It's like the word
of God, as he says in Revelation chapter 22, he says, if any man
adds to or takes away from this, see, it's measured out. And all
the measurements, all the dimensions are set by God himself. In chapter
two, we saw the man with the measuring line. Everything measured
out. Well, that's what this ephah
does. That's what this bushel basket does. It's a measuring
instrument. And just like that flying row
was measured out in its dimensions, what he's saying here in this
vision is simply this, the wrath of God, the just wrath of God
against all evil, all sin, all wickedness in the earth, is measured
out by God so that we can take comfort that the full measure
of God's wrath will not come upon us. if we're in Christ. If we're in Him. In fact, we
can take comfort that the full measure of God's wrath that will
fall upon the earth will not come unto us because it's already
fallen upon our Savior. It's already fallen upon our
substitute. This bushel basket of God's wrath,
as it were, symbolic of the full measure. In other words, the
punishment's going to fit the crime. That's what he's saying.
Not going to be one degree more or less than what's required
and what's earned. And so this was the measure of
it out. Now look here in verse 6, he
says, this is an ephah that goeth forth. And he said, he said,
moreover, this is their resemblance throughout the earth. That word
resemblance can be translated several ways. Sometimes it's
translated eye. But most of the time it's translated
appearance. This is their appearance. throughout
the earth. One commentator I was reading
on this, he made this comment because sometimes there's a couple
of translations of the Old Testament that translate this word resemblance
as iniquity. And that's really what he's talking
about. One of the commentators said you could take a slight
extension of a single Hebrew letter here and translate that
word appearance as to be iniquity. And what it's picturing here
is the wrath of God upon the iniquity of the land. This is
their sin. This is their wickedness. This
is their iniquity, filling up the measure of this basket because
God is going to punish all sin. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. Nobody's going to get away with it. Nobody's going to get
out from under it. God's not going to ignore it.
He's a just God. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Yes, he will. That's what this
ephod, this measurement, this bushel basket, so to speak. It's
used figuratively here. Essentially, this angel points
to the basket and the wickedness that's inside of it, and he says
this is their eye. This is the thing to which people
look to, the people of the world. The people of God look to Christ.
The people of God have their focus set upon Christ and his
glory. and the salvation that he freely
provides by his obedience unto death. But the people of the
world have their eye focused right here on this bushel basket
of wickedness. Because they think that's their
hope. They think that's their assurance of salvation. And I'll
show you what that means. That's the object of their faith,
their confidence, their hope. So when we look at this look
at what he says here in verse 7 He says and behold there was
lifted up a talent of lead. That's a lid of Lead a talent
was about 125 pounds and in that inside that bushel basket inside
that ephah there was a woman that sitteth in the midst of
the ephah a woman in the ephah and that's strange and He says
in verse 8. He said this is wickedness and
A woman sitting in this epoch is wickedness. What a vision.
Well, what's he saying here? Well, you know, I started to
entitle this message, A Woman Out of Place. A Woman Out of
Place. And ladies, this is not an indictment
that says that all women are evil. Not at all. Bible speaks
of godly women we know all humankind all men and women by nature are
evil but there are godly women by the grace of God but you know
there are two things about gender male and female in the Bible
that are always wicked or symbolized wickedness and that is a man
who gets out of his place and a woman who gets out of her place
now a man who gets out of his place What do you think of me? I'll tell you what I thought
of. I thought about Adam in the fall. What brought the fall of
the whole human race down into sin? It's when Adam sought to
be as God. That's man out of his place. When a man doesn't take the spiritual
authority and leadership and responsibility of his home, what
do you have? You have a man out of place.
That's evil. That's wicked. But same thing
with a woman. A woman who gets out of her place
in the scheme of things according to the Word of God is evil. And
that's what you have here. This woman, that's what she symbolizes,
a woman out of place. This talent of lead, this heavy
piece of lead covering the basket kept her in. Then it was taken
off, and there's that woman sitting in the center of the basket.
And the woman is the thing to which the whole world looks.
This is their appearance. This is that woman, you see.
That's their hope. It's not just the basket itself,
it's what's in the basket. And this lid on it might symbolize
man's inability to see the truth, to see the reality, because things
are covered up. And it could symbolize the impossibility
of man freeing himself from this deception. He can't remove the
covering. You know, even to know issues of sin and righteousness,
God has to reveal that to you. You don't know it by nature.
You don't know it by natural ability. If we know anything
of our own sin, if we know anything of the holiness of God, if we
know anything of salvation, where does it come from? It comes by
revelation from God, doesn't it? He has to reveal it to us. He has to give us eyes to see
and ears to hear, hearts and minds to understand. But this
woman, it says this is wickedness. And this wickedness symbolizes
the wickedness of his own people, Zechariah's own people. And how
that wickedness has been measured out and culminated in this woman. Now first, the literal translation,
you know a lot of times in the scripture, When it talks about
wickedness, it can be translated the wicked one. And that's how
this should be translated. This is the wicked one. This
wicked one, symbolized by this woman, is the same deceptive
Babylonish false religion that pervades humankind. That's what she symbolizes. Look
over at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. One of the reasons I read this
passage to open up with is because it speaks of things that are
dark, depressing, but it ends with a ray of hope, a ray of
light of salvation in Christ. You know, Paul's speaking here
of the second coming of Christ in 2 Thessalonians 2. And many
of these Thessalonians, they were They were deceiving themselves
and thinking that that day was going to come in their time.
They didn't know. And they were doing some pretty
crazy things, you know, because they thought, well, the Lord's
coming back. So they quit their jobs and they quit their responsibilities. And Paul tells them that's not
right. He says in verse three of Second
Thessalonians two. He says, let no man deceive you
by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a
falling away first. That's the great apostasy. And
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, that's
Antichrist, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that
is called God. There's man out of his place.
He says or that is worship so that he as God said it in the
temple of God showing himself that he is God Claiming to be
deity or that be acting under the authority of deity, but preaching
a lie. That's what it means here He
says remember you not that when I was yet with you I told you
these things and now you know what withholdeth that he might
be revealed in his time this spirit has been restrained not
to Fully let loose and revealed at that point in time that there's
coming a time when he's going to be let loose to deceive the
whole world But he says in verse 7 look here for the mystery of
iniquity death already worked and now that that That spirit
is already at work in Paul's day. It's at work in our day
I believe he's already been let loose to deceive the whole world.
It's false religion that comes in the name of Christ and And
he says it already were only he who now leadeth will lead
until he be taken out of the way. In other words, God's restraining
hand is there by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then one
day God's going to remove that restraint. And he's going to
be set loose upon the world. And then he speaks in verse 8,
and then that wicked, that's the same, in the Greek, that's
the same term that's used in the Hebrew back in Zechariah
chapter 5 there, that wicked, this is the wicked, when he says
back here. This is wickedness. With the same term, equivalent
term, he says, then shall that wicked, that wicked one be revealed,
be exposed, to whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth. In other words, the only way
you're going to defeat him is with the word of God empowered by the Holy
Spirit, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,
the second coming of Christ, that's going to be the final
end of it. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness, the deceptive unrighteousness, and what he's
talking about here is false religion. And he says, because that's the
deception, you see. That's the darkness. And he says,
and then they perish. And why do they perish? Look
at it. Because they receive not the love of the truth. Who is
the truth? Christ. Who is the way? Christ. Who is the life? Christ. Do you
love the truth? It's one thing to read the truth.
It's one thing to understand it mentally. But do we love the
truth? That's the key. That's the way
God, by his power, uses to bring the defense of his people against
this wicked one. And he says in verse 11, And
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they
should believe a lie. Now all of this is a good description
of what Zachariah is talking about here, and that woman in
the ephah. Go back to Zachariah 5. She's
the embodiment of wickedness. She's the mystery of iniquity
or lawlessness. It's a good picture, good foretelling
of Antichrist. And as we move toward the second
coming of Christ, man will become more lawless in that way, that
is, in false religion that calls itself Christianity. But God,
who is now restraining this, will continue to restrain it
until he arises out of the midst of it, and Antichrist will arise,
that wicked one, And that's the, this is a wickedness identified
with the rule and reign of Antichrist. It's the same spirit, see? And
Zechariah's prophesying of that, elements of it, came to Jerusalem
before the first coming of Christ. Came to Israel before the first
coming of Christ. Think about those days of darkness
between Malachi and Matthew. What rose up, now think about
it, what rose up in religion of the Jews between Malachi and
Matthew? Pharisees, Sadducees, the Essenes,
the Zealots, all those different segments that claim to be the
children of God. But it was all what? It was all,
bring it down to its lowest common denominator. What was it? It
was all salvation, not by the grace of God in Christ, the promised
Messiah, but salvation by the works of men. Every bit of it. And they all denied some parts
of the truth and claimed to believe some parts of the truth. And
then when our Lord came upon the scene and he confronted them
and he spoke the word of truth and it made them angry and they
wanted to crucify him. The world wanted to crucify him.
That's our spirit too by nature now. Understand that. We were right with them in human
nature, fallen, sinful, unregenerate human nature. And then when he
died and his disciples began to spread the word in Jerusalem
and Judea, what did they do? They persecuted the prophets
and the apostles. And the gospel began to be shot
out throughout the whole world. And God used evangelists and
men like Paul to establish churches in the Gentile world. And pretty
soon the gospel began to spread. Remember that gospel was going
to spread throughout the whole world before the Lord Lord come
back. He said the gospel must be heard throughout the whole
world before he comes back. But in the meantime what's happened
in history you see a false Christianity that has taken over and pervaded
the world. That's what this woman in the
EFA symbolizes. And it has to do with with buying
and selling to. Think about this. If an ephah
is an instrument of measuring grain for the purpose of selling
or buying it, which is mainly what, that's the way the Hebrews
would think now, then it symbolizes commercialism, marketing, trade. And the wicked one symbolized
by its identification with commercialism, buying and selling. You have
a great picture of that in the temple during our Lord's earthly
walk. Because you remember when he
went to Herod's temple, And there was a court outside. You see,
you had different courts. You had a wall that separated
these courts. Inside was a court where only the Jews could go.
Outside of that was called the Court of the Gentiles. And that's
where the money changers were buying and selling, marketing.
Remember, he went in and drove the money changers out. And what
is false religion but a big, think about it now, a big money-making
commercial endeavor? Anytime they talk about seed,
you can go on TV today. Listen to them talking about
seed. Plant your seed. What are they talking about?
Write the check. Or give me your credit card number.
That's what they're talking about. That's all they talk about anymore.
I mean, you can't get... There's one fellow, his whole
ministry is based on that. It's like an investment banker.
You invest so much and God gives you so much in return. And that's
what it is. It's commercialism. It's measured. It's success. They measure the
power of the Spirit by their sizes, their numbers, their bank
accounts. It's all like that. That's what
this wicked one represents. But you have to ask yourself
out of all this, where's the truth? Where's Christ? Where's
the glory of God in all this? Where's the gospel preached?
Where's the message of the cross in all of this? It's gone. It's
taken a background seat. Well, it's obliterated, really.
It's really obliterated. That's what this woman is. She's
out of her place. The place of a godly woman is
under the authority of God himself. And here, she symbolizes evil. And if you remove the lid from
an ephah, you'd expect to find rain, not a woman. But here she
is. Now, throughout the Word of God,
false religion is set before us in the image of a harlot.
Did you know that? A harlot, a prostitute, a deceitful
woman with flattering lips. Proverbs tell us her house is
the way to hell. The scripture speaks of the deceitful
woman or the strange woman who will lead the young man astray.
That's what he's talking about, false religion. spoke a parable
in one verse, in Matthew 13 and verse 33 when he talked about
the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven. And you know what
leaven symbolizes? It symbolizes sin. He says, which
a woman took and hid three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.
She hid it in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. Three ephahs, you might say.
The Bible speaks of the seven churches that were being infiltrated
and attacked from the outside and from within. One was attacked,
as recorded in Revelation 220, by a woman symbolized under the
name of Jezebel. Remember, Jezebel was the wicked
queen, wife of King Ahab, who introduced Baal worship into
Israel. And then look over at Revelation
chapter 17, and this is really significant in understanding
this woman in the ephah. Here, false religion, false religion
that serves Satan and promotes the beast that come up out of
the sea, which is the nations, And in these verses, I won't
read the whole thing, you can read 17 and 18 and you can see
this, but you'll see commercialism in it too. It's to get gain. And it says in verse 1 of Revelation
17, And there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven
vows, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show unto
thee the judgment of the great whore. That's the prostitute
with flattering lips, false religion. that sitteth on many waters."
Anytime you see waters in the book, it's the nations. This
is over the whole world. Now, this ephah, you remember,
this ephah goes out throughout the whole world, or it goes forth. It says in verse 2, "...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." That's her false doctrine. That's that doctrine
of work salvation, the doctrine of free willism. Any doctrine
that doesn't line up with the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace in Christ. Verse three, so he carried me
away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting upon
a scarlet colored beast. Notice who's got the reins here. That woman out of her place again.
And it says, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads
and ten horns. That's her authority and her
power. 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. Notice its appearance. Remember
what Christ said of the Pharisees? You appear righteous unto men,
but inwardly you're full of dead men's bones. Whited sepulchers. He says, and upon her forehead
was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great. the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth. You see that? Go back to Zechariah
5 now. Now look here, he says in verse
8, here's this woman sitting in the midst of the ephah. And
he said this is wickedness, this is that wicked one. This is a
prophecy now. And he cast it into the midst
of the ephah. He put the woman in the midst
of the ephah, and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth
thereof. She's concealed for a time, restrained for a time,
he said. And then it says in verse 9,
Then lifted up mine 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. Now remember what
I said, this is not the stork that we think of, carrying babies
around. delivering babies to homes. You
see, that's not the symbol. This is a wicked, evil bird.
Now, there's a lot of debate on that, over who these two women
are. And there's really, there's really
no set answer other than to understand, because of the imagery of the
stork there, there are probably two evil women, there are two
symbols of evil, who are in service of this woman in the ephah. And
the wind was in their wings, whatever their intent, which
obviously is evil, they operate to accomplish the sovereign will
of God. In other words, things are not
out of kilter here now. In other words, God is not being
taken by surprise in this thing. You know, I had a fellow one
time, I was preaching on television down in Albany, I was dealing
with Genesis chapter 3 and the fall of man and I made some statements
about God's predestinating purpose. And he wrote me an email. He
said, I can't believe he said, I can't believe that you believe
God for ordained the fall of man. And I wrote him back, and
I said, well, now, there's a lot of things I don't understand
about that, but I know that God's in control. He's sovereign. He
predestinated all things. The Bible says that. You can't
get away from that and believe the Bible. But I said, let me
ask you a question. Do you believe that Satan sneaked
up on God and took him by surprise? Because that's the only other
alternative for him. I mean, he said, well, God just
knew about it. No. No, you can't say that. That's not what the scripture
teaches. Whatever's happening in these visions, they are not
things that God is showing Zachariah that might come about if everything
else falls in place. God's not playing chess with
us here on earth, friend. No, sir, He's not a reactionary
God. He's not waiting to see what's your move so He can anticipate
in His next move. God's in control. Now again,
there's a lot I don't understand about that, and maybe I can't
explain that all to you, but I'll tell you what. It sure gives
me some peace and comfort to know that God is in control.
It gives me a lot of peace and comfort to know that man's not
in control. God's in control. I know that
what happened on the cross of Calvary was foreordained by God
Almighty. Do you believe that? I sure do. Read Acts chapter 2, read Peter's
sermon. Read Acts chapter, we could go
on and on. Isaiah 53, the whole Old Testament. But what I'm saying to you is
this, whatever these two women, whoever they are, whatever they're
up to, they represent evil here in service of the woman in the
ephod, that wicked one. And there are two here. I don't
know exactly why there are two. I know there were two witnesses.
testifying to the glory of God in Christ in the building of
the temple. Remember Zerubbabel and Joshua, Christ and his church. Well, here we have two women
who are the embodiment in the service of the one who embodies
that wicked one, that mystery of iniquity. And it says here
these two women, the wind was in their wings for they had wings
like the wings of a stork and they lifted up the ephah. They
took the ephah between the earth and the heaven And what did they
do with this ephah? Look at verse 10. Then said I
to the angel that talked with me, whither do these bear the
ephah? Where are they taking it? When
I look at verse 11, this opens up, I believe, the main understanding
of this whole vision right here. He said to me, to build it a
house in the land of Shinar. Where's Shinar? Well, the first
time you see the land of Shinar in the Bible is in Genesis chapter
10, verse 10. It's in reference to a man named
Nimrod. Remember Nimrod in Genesis? He
was a wicked man. Most of the time when you read
children's books about Nimrod or see TV stories about Nimrod,
they make him a hunter, like he's out hunting deer or out
hunting bear or something like that. Well, Nimrod was a hunter,
but he wasn't hunting deer. He wasn't hunting bear. He was
hunting people. He was a wicked man who wanted control. That's
what he was. He wanted to conquer people.
That's what he really was. And his name is in connection
with the kingdom called Babel. In fact, the next time you see
the name Shinar is in Genesis 11 and verse 2 in reference to
the events of Babel, building what we call the Tower of Babel. Shinar is the region where Babylon
is located. It's just an Old Testament, another
Old Testament name for Babylon. That's what it is. It means literally
land of two rivers. But it's for Babylon. And as
the woman here is carried away to a house prepared for her in
Shinar in Babylon, so shall it be in the last day when the great
whore, that's Revelation 17 spoke of, will build her house on this
earth. Look at it. It's a house in the
land of Shinar, the land of Babylon. You know what Babylon represents?
False religion, idolatry. And it shall be established.
Now look at this, verse 11. It shall be established and set
there, underscore this, upon her own base. What's a base? It's a foundation. What foundation
is her house going to be built on? Her own. Her own work? her own ideas, her own ideas
of truth, her own doctrine. What's the church of the living
God built on? What's the foundation of the
temple of God? Christ said, upon this rock I
will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
against me. What's being talked about here?
False religion built upon the works and the ideas of man. And this woman, reinforces the
point that God's appointed time, in His appointed time, even though
these things are going to unfold and happen, even though there's
this great wide deception which is part of God's judgment against
those who reject Christ, And Christ is the only way of salvation,
the only way of forgiveness, the only way of righteousness,
the only way of final glory in heaven. You reject Christ, where
are you? In your religion, in your philosophy,
in your ideas, in your worldview. You're right here, in the house
of this woman in the eclos. Built upon her own base, not
God's foundation. Christ is the foundation of his
people. And when Babylon, this woman's
going to fall. Read Revelation 18 sometime.
That talks about the fall of Babylon. In that day when Babylon
falls, all who are not found in Christ will be established
in hell forever, their descent forever under the sentence of
everlasting damnation upon their own base because of their works. You see, I don't want to stand
before God upon my own base. How about you? I don't want to
stand before God pleading my own righteousness, my own worth.
I want to stand before God in Christ, upon the foundation of
that rock, Christ Jesus, which cannot be moved or destroyed.
I want to stand before God washed in his blood, clothed in his
righteousness, to hear God say well done thou good and faithful
servant not based on my work that's what most people think
when they hear that don't they that's not what he's saying well
done what is well doing we'll go back to Genesis chapter 4
it tells you exactly what well doing is remember he asked Cain
he said if you do well you'll be accepted well Cain wasn't accepted he
didn't do well what did he do he brought his own work Who was
accepted? Abel. What did he do? He did
well. What did he do? He brought the blood of the Lamb.
That's what doing well is. There's the precedent all the
way back in Genesis. What did man do? Like Cain, he
tried to work his way up, just like Babel, on his own base. In other words, all who are damned
will be justly damned forever. And that's why our message is
the gospel of Christ, the gospel of God's grace. That's why we
stand as ambassadors for Christ, begging sinners, be reconciled
to God upon this base, for God made him sin, Christ who knew
no sin, for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. How we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, but it is a treasure. And the earthen vessel, you may
go after him, he may diminish, but he should diminish because
just like John the Baptist, Christ must increase, we must decrease.
Let's point sinners to the foundation. Let's point sinners to the light.
Let's point them to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what is the message of this woman in the ephah? It's the same message
that he says back in Revelation chapter 18. When Babylon falls,
what does he say? He says, come out from among
her, my people. Listen to this, he says, and
I saw in verse, this is Revelation 18, and he says, and I heard another
voice from heaven in verse 4 saying, come out of her my people, that
you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her
plagues. Come out from among her. Repent. That's what repentance
is all about. Repent of ever thinking that
you could be saved, accepted, made righteous and holy upon
your own base, your own worth, and bow to Christ. Look to Him. Rest in Him. Plead His merits,
not your own. Not your own. Don't get out of
your place. That's evil. Any man, any woman
who comes before God pleading anything other than the merits
of Christ's blood and righteousness and love, that's a man and a
woman out of place. Trying to take a place that doesn't
belong to them. You know that? Just like this woman is following
that Babylonish false religion. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock,
I stand. No other ground is sinking sand.
Christ, the solid rock, he's our base. Let's sing hymn number
226, My Savior, as our closing hymn.