Very frequently, we hear somebody
make this statement, it looks like the world is going to hell
in a handbasket. It's a very commonly used statement. I don't have a clue where it
originated, but that's exactly what Zachariah saw in his seventh
vision, Zachariah chapter 5. He saw the world going to hell
in a handbasket. Zechariah chapter 5, verse 5. Then the angel that talked with
me went forth and said unto me, Lift up now. You remember in
the first four verses he saw a huge flying scroll with the
curse of the whole earth written upon it. He says, Lift up now
thine eyes and see what this is, what is this that goeth forth. And I said, what is it? And he
said, this is an ephah, a basket that goeth forth. He said, moreover,
this is their resemblance through all the earth. And behold, there
was lifted up a talent at 125 pounds, a talent of And this is a woman that sitteth
in the midst of the ephah, in the midst of the basket. And
he said, this is wickedness. Now write this word in there.
It ought to be there. This is the wickedness. This is all wickedness. This is the wickedness. and he
cast it into the midst of the ephah, and he cast the weight
of lead upon the mouth of it. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and
looked, 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 the heaven. Then
said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear
the effort? And he said to me, To build an
house in the land of Shinar, and it shall be established,
that is, this basket, the lead weight and the woman sitting
in it, the wickedness shall be established, and set there upon
her own base. The woman cast into the cast
into an effort, describes these two things. All the full measure
of wickedness for which God shall judge the earth, and the limitation
of that wickedness by God's hand, God's decree, and God's providence. In the first vision of chapter
five, that's Zechariah's sixth vision, The vision of the flying
scroll, he saw the curse that goeth forth over the face of
the whole earth. The curse of God's holy law upon
all men, and it has to do with the tabernacle and the holy place.
Here he sees and sets before us a vision of the wickedness
that covers the earth. It's set before us as a woman
cast, shoved, forcibly, violently thrown into a basket. The woman
is sitting in this basket. Now let's look at the picture.
First, Zechariah saw an ephah. The ephah was a large measure,
a dry measure, which was used among the Jews in ancient times
for trade. It was a measure that would,
a basket that would hold about ten gallons of our measurements
today. It was a large measure. 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,
this is a ten-gallon basket that goeth forth. And he said, moreover,
this is their resemblance. through all the earth. This basket
is going forth, moving and spreading through the earth, like the curse
that's described in verse 3. And then the angel told Zechariah,
this is their resemblance through all the earth. That word resemblance,
sometimes it does good to look up the words. It's really not
a very good translation. The word would better be translated,
This is their eye through all the earth. This is the eye of
all men. This is the eye of the whole
race. This is the eye of Adam's race. A better translation would be
this. Essentially the angel points to the basket, the wickedness
that's in it, and said this is the thing to which the people
the world over look. This is the thing people the
world over trust. This is the object of faith and
hope and joyous expectation the world over. The wickedness sitting
in that basket. Then a huge 125 pound weight
is taken off the basket and Zachariah sees sitting in the midst of
the basket a woman. Obviously, he has a vision. People who want to interpret
everything literally have difficulty with these things. Hard to fit
a woman into a ten-gallon basket. Zechariah has a vision of things
intended to be allegorical. This woman is the thing to which
the world looks, verse 7. And behold, there was lifted
up a talon of lead, and this is a woman that sitteth in the
midst of the ephah. She's the personification of
wickedness, verse 8. And he said, this is the wickedness. And he cast it, this angel, the
Lord Jesus Christ who's speaking to Zechariah, he cast it into
the midst of the ephod. And he cast the weight of man
upon the mouth thereof. Now I have no question at all
there is an allusion here to the universal depravity of our
race. the wickedness of all men and
women the world over, and this huge lead weight that seals and
clamps down and shuts the basket. indicates the utter impossibility
of our being able to change our circumstances, the utter impossibility
of a man or a woman being able to change his nature, to escape
the curse under which we are born, and to escape the sin which
we are by nature. It is a picture of universal
depravity, universal corruption, universal wickedness, the wickedness
of the whole race, and of man's utter inability That means you
do not have the ability, much less the desire, to change your
nature. People today brag about man's
free will. I get so tired of hearing it.
I don't listen to much television. Almost every time I turn it on,
if there's any kind of difficulty that comes up, some politician
Or some idiotic newscaster who thinks he understands something
about religion. Or some religious person will say, God has given
us free will. He's given us free will. Free. Whose will is free? Tell me. Is there anything about you in
the whole of your experience of life that would lead you to
foolishly imagine that you had the ability to do whatever you
will? Why do you think folks get rich
selling nicotine? Why do you think the pharmaceutical
industry is filthy rich selling diet pills? Because man has free
will! He can do what he wants to! Oh,
but preacher, that's not what it's talking about. We're talking
about moral free will. Oh? Oh, that's different. Which one
of you has quit thinking about vice, immorality, and corruption,
and lusting after it? Raise your hand and I'll sit
down and let you tell us about it. Free will? Oh, but no, no, no, Pastor, you
don't understand. This is talking about man's major decisions in
life. Oh! Would you like to give me
an example? Well, let's make it apply only
to man and God. That's the difficulty. You see,
man is described by the Apostle Paul in Colossians Chapter 2
as a will-worshipper. All who believe and teach that
they have the ability of their will to do anything toward God
are will-worshippers. You worship your will, not God
Almighty. Will-worshippers. But man's will
is enmity against God. And he has no will to change
himself. let alone ability. What did our
Savior say? Ye will not come to me that ye
might have life. Well, there that proves it. The
problem is man's will. He said no man, C-A-N, can come
to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him. And if
the Father draws him, I will dead sure raise him up at the
last day, for he shall come to me. And him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. The Jews heard his doctrine in
John chapter 10, where he speaks of himself as the good shepherd
and his people as his sheep. He said, I'm the good shepherd.
The good shepherd gives his life to the sheep. He said, I know
my sheep. I call my sheep. I lead them out. I bring them
in to safe fold. There'll be one fold and one
shepherd. These are my sheep. My sheep. And the Pharisees,
loving their will and their righteousness, said, we can't stand that. We
won't have that doctrine. And the Lord Jesus said that
doesn't surprise me any. You believe not because you're not
of my sheep. All but for his sheep. The Son
of God saw us bound by our nature. bound in corruption and sin,
shut up under the law of God, condemned and helpless and hopeless,
and He runs to our relief and delivers us by the sacrifice
of Himself, casting our sin into the depth of the sea of God's
infinite forgetfulness by the sacrifice of Himself. And it
comes by almighty grace, calls us to Himself, and graciously
forces us to come. Aren't you glad, Bobby? He forced
you to Himself. Forced you. Oh, I can't have that. I wouldn't worship a God who
forces me to believe Him. You will if He forces you to. And you'll be tickled to death,
He did. You'll be tickled to death, He did. Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power." That clearly is something to
be understood from the picture. But I think the vision is intended
to describe something else. This is a vision, not of mercy
and grace, but of wrath and judgment. The first visions, beginning
in chapter 1, coming all the way through chapter 4, visions
of grace, grace and mercy, God keeping and caring for his own.
These visions in chapter 5 are visions of wrath and of judgment. And throughout the word of God,
false religion is sent before us under the image of a harlot,
a deceitful woman with flattering lips. Turn to Proverbs chapter
2. We read this in Revelation chapter
17 and 18, so I won't go back there for now. But in the book
of Proverbs we're told about this deceitful woman, the strange
woman. Her beauty, her flattery, her
charms. Folks run after her with delight,
expecting life from her, but her house is the way to death. Proverbs 2 verse 10. When wisdom,
not smartness, Christ, there's a difference. When Christ, who
is the wisdom of God, and is made of God unto us wisdom, entereth
into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion
shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee, verse 16, to
deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger
that flattereth with her lips. Now, it doesn't take a wise man
to stay away from prostitutes. That doesn't take great brilliance.
That doesn't require great wills. Folks who run with prostitutes
run with death. Anybody who has any sense understands
that. Well, what's he talking about
here? He's not talking about the women you find on the street
corners in the red light district. No, sir. He's talking about religion.
That great whore described in Revelation chapter 17 and 18.
She flattereth with her words, verse 17, which forsaketh the
guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. Chapter
5, verse 3. For the lips of a strange woman,
the lips of this harlot, drop as a honeycomb. Her mouth is
smoother than oil. God loves you. We do too. God
has a wonderful plan for you if you'll just let him have his
way with you. The Lord wants you to be happy. The Lord wants
to heal your troubles. The Lord is good if you'll just
let him be good to you. The Lord would not have you to
hurt. Her words drop as a honeycomb,
her mouth smoother than oil, but her end is bitter, bitter
as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Read Proverbs chapter
7 and you'll see the cunning craftiness of that great harlot
whose influence is universal. She represents free will, works,
religion of every brand throughout the world and throughout the
ages. It is her way that seems right to a man. It just stands
for reason. If you do good, God will honor
it. That just stands for reason,
doesn't it? It just stands for reason when we stand before God
on that great day, as folks want to say these days, if there is
a God, and if we do stand before Him, just in case we'll hedge
our bets, and if our out good outweighs our bad, then the Lord
will wink at the bad and accept the good, and everything will
be alright. That just stands for reason, doesn't it? That's
the way the judge does on his bench, isn't it? That's how the
judge abrogates law and sets it aside. That's how the judge
considers things. Well, that just makes good sense. It just stands for reason that
man must have a choice in this matter. Hers is a way that seemeth
right unto a man, to all men. But the ends thereof are the
ways of death. This great harlot is that one
to whom all men look, hoping she will give birth to life.
This is their appearance. This is the one to whom they
look through the earth. But her end is eternal damnation. Now look at verse 8 again. I
told you the word wickedness is preceded by a definite article. He said this is THE wickedness. Young's literal translation reads
like this in verse 8. And he saith, This is the wicked
woman. And he casteth her into the midst
of the ephah, and casteth the weight of lead on its mouth.
The message of the text is just this. This is the woman of wickedness. This is Miss Wickedness. The one from whom all wickedness
flows. pushed her back down into the
basket and clamped the lid over her. The Septuagint translation,
I was astonished to discover this yesterday morning. The Septuagint
translation, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament
Hebrew writings, uses the very same word here as the Apostle
Paul used in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 3, and calls
this woman the man of sin. The very same word. The very
same word. The wickedness that covers the
earth is here set before us as false religion. It is universal
wickedness and the blame for all the evil that's in the world
is laid at the doorstep of man's religion. A preacher that can't
be. The church is The churches fight
pornography and abortion and homosexuality and adultery and
fornication. The churches fight those things.
And well, somebody should. But read the first chapter of
the book of Romans and you will discover that when Paul describes
the generation in which he lived, he said these men, in their moral
perversity, commonly known these days as homosexuality, this is
the result of men who when they knew God glorified him not as
God, but made God like to themselves and like to the four-footed creature
and to creeping things, and God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, look at them. Look at them. We live in the
most religious generation that has ever existed topside of God's
earth. Everybody in Denver, Kentucky,
everybody in Kentucky, everybody in the United States of America
practically has been saved a half a dozen times. Joined the church
when they were too little to know what church was, stayed
in it all their lives and go to church on Sundays, Easter
Sunday and Christmas and maybe a time or two in the more year
and we're all Christians, Christian America. This religious generation You can't find a seat or a parking
place around abortion houses. Homosexuality, fornication, adultery,
pedophilia, rape, incest. Common things. When was the last
time you turned on the news and didn't hear one of them? When was the last time? These
things are common. Because God gives men over to
their vile affections who will not worship Him as God. Be sure
you don't fail to see that the angel who spoke to Zachariah
here is our Lord Jesus Christ, the King, the Sovereign Monarch
of the Universe. And He has cast the great whore
into the ephah. And He cast the weight of lead
upon the mouth thereof. I love it. What does that mean? That means in this wicked, perverse
society, in this vile, wretched society in which we live, children
of God, you have no reason to fear anything. The wickedness
of the age is measured by Him and restrained by Him and will
only accomplish what He has purposed for us as wicked men run in rebellion
against Him. Look at verse 9. In verses 9
through 11, Zechariah sees the wickedness by which the whole
world is deceived. The wickedness that motivates
the nations. You remember in Revelation 17
and 18 we read the kings of the earth and the merchants of the
earth and the seamen who do business in the seas? All of them. All
of them enriched themselves by her. They're all of one mind.
This is that by which all men in all nations naturally are
motivated worldwide. But this wickedness is carried
away into a place called Shinar. Then I 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.
And they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven,
so everybody could see it. Then said I to the angel that
talked of me, Whither do these bear the ephah? Where are they
carrying the wickedness? And he said unto me, To build
it an house, to build it an house in the land of Shinar, and it
shall be established and set there upon her own base. Two women are used to carry the
woman and the basket away to destruction. I find it amusing and delightful
to observe in the book of God and in my own experience how
God uses wickedness to bring an end to wickedness. Assyria
and Babylon, those places of idolatry are the ones God used
to carry Judah and Israel away because of their idolatry. He
sovereignly uses the wicked of the earth to destroy the wickedness
when her cup is filled. Turn back if you will now to
Revelation chapter 17. Hold your hands here in Zechariah.
Revelation 17. I want you to see this. God,
we're told, restrains evil. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain.
Now this is what I'm telling you. Satan doesn't hiss, the
demons of hell don't hoot, and men on the earth can do no evil
except by the measure of God's decree for the saving of His
people. Can't be done. Satan is not a
rival God. He is God's servant, bound by
God's hand, and can do nothing but that which God permits. And
the Lord God uses wickedness to destroy wickedness. Revelation
17, 15. And he saith unto me, remember
he said, now don't marvel at this woman, I'll show you the
mystery. I'll show you the mystery. He saith unto me, the waters
which thou sawest Where the whore saideth are the peoples, and
multitudes, and nations, and tongues." You know, if I hadn't
read the notes that men write about this, I would just presume
that means everybody. I just presume that's talking
about everybody you can find in the water, on the earth, of
every tongue, of every nation. It's talking about the whole
human race. and the ten horns, the ten powers which thou sawest
upon the beast. These shall," watch this, he
said these are the kings of the earth, didn't he? He said, these
shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and
shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God, look
at that. I feel like falling down on my
face like Abraham when God promised him a son. Fall down and laugh
before God. What's going on? How shall this
come to pass? For God has put it in their hearts
to fulfill His will and to agree and give their kingdom to the
beast. until the words, the decrees, the purposes of God shall be
fulfilled. Back here in Zechariah 5, as
in chapter 4, two anointed ones stand by the Lord as his ministers.
Here in chapter 5, two winged women execute his purpose in
removing the embodiment of the wickedness, the mystery of iniquity,
the man of sin. whom the Lord shall destroy with
the brightness of his coming, with the spirit of his mouth,
and with his glory. And the wind was in their wings. By the power of God the Holy
Spirit, according to the purpose, will, and decree of God Almighty,
this woman is lifted up between heaven and earth. This woman
from whom everyone expects life. This woman whom everyone expects
to give birth and life, she's nicked up in a basket of judgment
between heaven and earth, for all in heaven and all on earth
to see the judgment God shall execute upon her publicly and
execute upon her continually. Now they carry this woman to
a place called Shinar. You know, the scriptures don't
say much about Shinar. But everything the scripture
says about Shinar will tell you that what I just told you about
this vision is exactly what is intended by God. Shinar was a
place in Babylon, a province in Babylon, where the Tower of
Babel, religious confusion was built by men. When men attempted
to build a tower to heaven and ascend up to God. Babel, or Shinar
rather, was ruled by a man named Amrithel during the days of Abraham. In Nebuchadnezzar's day, in Daniel
chapter 1 verse 2, you remember Nebuchadnezzar made a temple,
made an idol, commanded everybody to worship his idol. This is
one great God. This is our great God. Everybody's
got to worship Him. And He built Him a beautiful,
beautiful house. A great temple in which that
brazen, idolatrous, will-worshipping man sent the vessels that he
had taken from the house of God in Jerusalem. And he brought
all his treasures into the house of his God. Do you know where
the temple was? Shinar. And as this woman here
is carried away to China. She's carried away by these to
build a house prepared for her in China, the place of judgment,
a place for her everlasting woe. And so it shall be in the last
day when the great whore is cast into hell and the abominations
of the earth have ceased. This is what John saw in Revelation
chapter 18. Look there if you will and I'll
wrap this up. The wickedness of the earth. The religion of
the world. Babylon. The religion of Cain. The religion of Ishmael. The
religion of the world. It's set before us here with
a very clear vision. Oh, how rich. How splendorous. How majestic. And you know, I'm
as guilty as you. As guilty as John. I look at
her and I say, wow. She and I, two or three times
a year, drive around Little Rock, Arkansas. And on the beltway
up there, the most beautiful, probably the most beautiful building
I've ever saw in my life. Certainly the most beautiful church. Huge,
huge structure. I have often said I'd just like
to go inside and see what it looks like. I mean, see probably,
I'm just guessing because I've never been in an auditorium church
building anyway where there's that many people. I've seen at
least 10-12,000 people. At least that many. Huge thing. And I drive by there and I think,
you'll never guess what it is. It's a Pentecostal church. They
don't even call themselves charismatic. These are rolling the floor,
slobbering Pentecostal folks. Talking in tongues, claiming
to perform miracles, all that nonsense. And I drive by there
and I think, you know, I bet they got a lot of doctors and
lawyers, politicians, educators, smart folks who check the brains
at the door, go to church there every Sunday. I wonder what we could do in
heaven if we had just a little bit of that. And get just a little
bit jealous. Just a little jealous. God forgive
me. It's just a whore. Where everybody goes to death. Marches to hell. You want some
of that? That's where I was. And you too. And the only reason we're not
there now is because God called us out by His grace. That's how
Paul describes it in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, when he talks about
this great whore and the man of sin. Free will works religion. He said the only reason you're
not deceived by this deceiver and this deception, God shall
send upon all the earth. The only reason you're not deceived
by it is because of God's election. That's where you were, Lamenter.
But we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren
beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvage. And if you have escaped the clutches
of this strange woman, it's because God chose you, and God called
you, and God redeemed you. And this is what he calls for
all his people. Look in Revelation chapter 4. He announces the fall
of Babylon as if it had already occurred. Because it has. She's already damned. She's already
doomed. Her influence and her power is
already under the judgment of God. She's in the basket with
the lid on it. She can't do anything except
according to God's will. And then in verse 4, the Lord
Jesus speaks. In Revelation 18, 4, And I heard
another voice from heaven saying, Pray for her, my people. Sometimes some babbling Arminian
will corner me and want to fuss and argue about God's free grace
He said, well, pray for me anyway. I didn't pray for you. Brother Ralph Barnard, this has
been years ago. Ralph was in the high school in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina where I was raised. He was at a preacher's meeting
in High Point. True story. And they got done with the meeting
and said, well, it's so good to have Brother Ralph Barnard
with us. They said, Brother Ralph, why don't you pray for us and we'll be dismissed.
And he had spit and fire. He stood up and cleared his throat,
and he said, Lord, they've asked me to pray for them. They run
up and down the country butchering your gospel and butchering the
souls of men and lying on God, and they asked me to pray for
them. God, I can't pray for them. Lord, God bless Ralph Barnard.
Amen. Pray for them, my people. Love
them and see if you can help them, my people. Stay in them
and maybe you can reform them. I have some friends who will
hear this tape and say, well, the Lord's given me a position
where I can teach Sunday school in that church. Not if you're
teaching the truth, you ain't. You're hiding it. You're not teaching
it. Stay in and reform them. Maybe you can change them. I
don't like what goes on in church, but you know this is where mom
and daddy were. We can return her to her roots. If you go back
to her roots, you'll find out her roots were rotten too. What
does he say? Come out of her, my people, that
you be not partakers of her religion. David, that's what he calls her
sins. Her sins. And that you receive not of her
plagues. God says now, you come out. Come out. Give up your self-righteousness. Give up your claim to free will.
Give up your claim to goodness. Come out of there! And I will
receive you. And I will be gracious to you.
And I will be a father unto you. And then the apostle says now,
Since we have these promises, let's come out looking to and
trusting our Lord Jesus Christ by whose blood alone we can,
through faith in Him, cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of flesh and spirit. Cleanse ourselves from the curse
and corruption of our nature And cleanse ourselves from the
spiritual evil of our religion. Perfecting holiness. Perfecting
holiness in the fear of God. Look here. Here's a man. Plagued with corruption inside. Cursed by the scroll of God above
me. Cursed by God's holy law. played
with the evil of self-righteous, free-will, works religion. Now, who looks to Christ alone has
my righteousness and my redemption. What's your hope? All I have,
all I want, all I plead is Jesus. Somebody said, is that enough?
If he's all you got, he is. That's all. What about your experience? It's dung. What about your Bible
reading? It's dung. What about your baptism? It's dung, just wet dung. What
about your witnessing? It's dung. What about your soul
winning? It's dung. What about your feelings? They're dung. What about your
righteousness? The worst of the dung. I'll preach
about your hope, Christ. His blood, His righteousness,
His grace. And I dare tell you, In the teeth
of all I know about me, this man stands before you, before
God Almighty, washed in his blood and robed in his righteousness,
in the fear of God, in the perfection of his holiness. Oh, brother Don, I'd do anything
to have that. I know you would. I know you
would. That's when folks make pilgrimages
to Rome. You'll soon see folks walking around with ashes on
their forehead. Folks give up and do and sacrifice and go. I know you'd do anything to have
that. Anything. If I could just have that peace,
I'd do anything. Would you do nothing? Would you quit doing? I mean
quit doing. Doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends in death. Fall down
on Christ who is alone our Redeemer. Trust Him. God graciously make
you willing in this day of His power for Christ's sake. Amen.