Dear congregation, I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn in them to Zechariah chapter 5. If you're visiting this morning, we've been going through the night visions of the prophet Zechariah. Zechariah is the second to last book in the Old Testament. And this morning we find ourselves in the sixth vision, in the sixth vision. So, I'm going to read for you the entire chapter of Zechariah chapter 5. It is 11 verses, and I would urge you to give your attention to the reading of God's Word. Zechariah chapter 5 verses 1 through 11. Listen carefully, for this is the Word of the living God. Again I lifted my eyes and saw and behold a flying scroll. And he said to me, this is the interpreting angel, what do you see? I answered, I see a flying scroll. Its length is 20 cubits and its width 10 cubits. Then he said to me, this is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. and it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones. Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out. And I said, what is it? He said, this is the basket that is going out. And he said, this is their iniquity in all the land. And behold, the leaden cover was lifted and there was a woman sitting in the basket. And he said, this is wickedness. And he thrust her back into the basket and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening. Then I lifted my eyes and saw and behold two women coming forward. The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork. and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. Then I said to the angel who talked with me, where are they taking the basket? He said to me, to the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base." That's for the reading of God's word. Dear congregation in the grass, withers and the flower falls, but the word of our God stands forever. And we are grateful for it. Would you bow your heads with me as we ask the Lord for help this morning? Father God, we have been and continue to be and evermore shall be dependent upon you and your grace and your mercy, not only, Father, to save us and get us to heaven, but even for the very breath that we are now taking into our lungs. Father, we pray this morning in the ministry the word that you would speak to us, Father, and more importantly, that we would have ears to hear that voice, that we would have eyes to see this picture that Zechariah is painting for us, that we might see our need of you and how your Son answers that need. Father, we ask all these things in Christ's name, amen. One of the benefits of expository preaching, and for those of you that don't know what expository preaching is, expository preaching is when you choose a book of the Bible and you systematically work through it, whether that's a chapter at a time, a section at a time, or a verse at a time. And one of the benefits of expository preaching is that you're going to inevitably preach passages that you probably wouldn't preach if you were just choosing something in a topical kind of way. And the reason why that's important is because the Word of God is given to us as a steady diet, and the whole counsel of the Word of God is meant for our well-being to get us to heaven. You see, the God of the Bible not only gives us encouragement in our congregation, He not only gives us wisdom in His Word, He not only gives us promises that serve as the foundation by which we will get to heaven, but listen to me very carefully to what I'm about to say. The Lord also gives us warnings, solemn warnings. You say, well, yeah, He gives warnings to non-believers. Oh, He certainly does that, but listen to me. The Lord gives warnings to professing believers to serve as guardrails to keep them on the ancient paths that lead to the kingdom of God. And this passage this morning, this vision, which by the way is just one vision, this is the sixth vision, although it has two scenes to it, is meant to do precisely that. What is this vision about? This vision is a declaration of a curse that goes out to false believers. It is a declaration of a curse in the context of Old Covenant Israel that is meant to come against apostates. People who, perhaps from the cradle of their life, have been in the community of faith, were circumcised on the eighth day, were from a particular tribe of Israel or Judah, and all they've ever known is Yahweh, the God of Israel, and yet Though they have participated in the outward ceremonies, wearing the clothes, going through the cleansing and the dietary restrictions and everything else, they have not been converted on the inside. This is a solemn warning and a curse that goes out to all apostates, people who will eventually fall away. And I want to make a distinction this morning between two kinds of apostates. An apostate is somebody who falls away from the faith at some point in their life, but there's another kind of apostate who walks away from the faith, who is not exposed as such until the day of judgment. These are people, beloved, who deceive not only those around them, but they deceive the most important person of all, and that is themselves. They make themselves think that they are actually believers when in reality they are not. And we know this because in Matthew chapter seven, right around verse 21, Jesus says that on the great day of judgment, many will come to me and say, didn't we prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name do many wonderful things? And he will say to me what I believe to be some of the most frightening words of scripture, depart from me for I never knew you, but don't forget the rest of the verse, Apart from me, for I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness." You see, it's not simply that they thought that they were saved, but they didn't really believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ. They may have, but it was not real faith, and how did it manifest itself? by a life of lawlessness. And at the core of that life of lawlessness, which we're gonna get to in just a moment, the essence of false religion, the essence of hypocrisy, the essence of apostasy, is at the end of the day, an apostate wants to make a name for themselves and not submit themselves to Hashem, the name, God himself, in whose image they are created. They want to make a name for themselves. They want to make a kingdom for themselves. They want to make pleasures for themselves and indulge in sensuality for themselves, even though God says these very things will damn them. And they will take up the rhetoric of religion. They will take up the symbols of religion. They may even have the symbols of religion on them, the symbol of baptism. They may take to themselves the elements every month, every week. But far from being things that will assure them of their heavenly treasure, they are judgments that declare that they are far from that heavenly treasure. This is a very frightening thing, beloved. And once again, I come back to expository preaching because I'm gonna be honest with you. I mean, you guys know me. I'm not necessarily afraid to do these things, but I recognize that these are the types of passages that are not good for church growth, okay? These are not the kinds of passages that are good for church growth. And my response to that is I'm not interested in church growth, at least not the way that the world tells me to do it. I am, however, interested in declaring to you as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ that the way to heaven is through Christ and that what that looks like is walking in accordance and in conformity to Christ's likeness. Now, what I want to show you very simply this morning is that there are two sections to this vision. that are each describing covenant curses that came upon Israel. So let's look at the first one. The first one is this flying scroll. Now, out of all the visions of Zechariah, this is probably one of the oddest ones. In fact, it probably is the oddest one. It may provoke the question, man, did Zechariah eat some bad hummus and then go to bed and have some bad dreams and then record this vision in the Bible? No, I mean, maybe he did, but the Lord, gave him this vision. And this vision, as strange as it may be, and it is strange. Remember, dreams are strange, right? As strange as it is, actually, you're gonna see in a moment when we put it together with what we know in the rest of Scripture, it's very clear what is going on. Zechariah sees a flying scroll, boys and girls, a flying scroll. And what are the dimensions of this flying scroll? Look at verse two. And he said to me, what do you see? I answered, I see a flying scroll. Its length is 20 cubits and its width 10 cubits. Now it's interesting because these very dimensions are the dimensions of the cherubim, which is called the mercy seat, that goes on top of the Ark of the Covenant that is in the Holy of Holies. That's exactly what we're seeing here, and if you want a reference for that, you can just write this down. 1 Kings 6, 23 to 27. I'm not going to read it, but you can go back and look. But what you will see if you go there is that each cherub, which a cherub is one of the angels, there's two angels on the mercy seat, each cherub was 10 cubits high, and each outstretched wing of the two cherubim was five cubits. Their inside wings touching the middle above the ark, and their two outside wings extending to the walls on either side for a total of 20 cubits, okay? Now, many of you don't know what cubits are. Even in the UK they don't use cubits, right? So what is this? This is 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. So you see this kind of massive scroll with flying wings. Well, what is it talking about? What was in the Ark of the Covenant over which the cherubim were resting? Well, among other things in that Ark was a copy, two copies in fact, of the treaty or the covenant between God and Israel. It was to be enshrined in that covenant to always serve as a memorial and a warning to Israel of her covenant obligations before God. This is very common in the ancient Near Eastern setting. You had the suzerain who is the leader and you had the vassal who is the one dependent on the leader. And the suzerain and the vassal, perhaps the suzerain would be a king and perhaps the vassal would be a smaller country. And this smaller country in the ancient Near Eastern would want the protection from the suzerain who was a great king. So the vassal, the smaller country would enter into a treaty with the great king and the king would protect the vassal in exchange for the obedience of the vassal to the suzerain. And it is against this backdrop that God, the suzerain, enters into a treaty or a covenant with Israel, and God has obligations and the vassal has obligations. And in Deuteronomy 28 and 29, You see the covenant blessings that would be given to Israel if she were to obey that treaty, but then also the covenant curses if she would not. And I want to note two of those covenant curses. I'm not going to read them, but I will give you a reference. Two of those covenant curses, number one, In Deuteronomy 28, 49, and also you can look at 28, 52, God said, if you do not keep these covenant stipulations, you will be judged by a foreign entity. You will be judged by a foreign power, okay? So that's the first curse that is to be noted. But the second curse that is to be noted, and you can find this in Deuteronomy chapter 28, verses 63 to 64, is that if you do not keep these stipulations, you will be carried away to a foreign land. You will be dispersed. So number one, you'll be judged by a foreign entity, and number two, you'll be carried away. Now I want you to notice something. Look at the big picture here. There's two parts of this vision, a flying scroll and a basket being carried away. And these are the two echoes of the curses that come out of Deuteronomy chapter 28. The scroll is a curse of judgment that comes to Israel, and we'll see it more in a minute, that is a foreign power coming to judge Israel, And then the basket being carried away, that is Israel, the apostate nation, being carried away to another land. These are the two curses that are on display in these two images in the sixth vision. Judgment begins in the household of God. Now, this scroll, which is the same dimensions as the cherubim, harkening back to those covenant curses, pictures these cherubim, which the first time we see these cherubim, it's when Adam and Eve are thrust out of the Garden of Eden, right? And cherubim are put there with flaming swords, and they are there in judgment to keep out the covenant breakers from the most sacred place. And now these cherubim figures come in judgment in the scroll, the covenant curses to the land of Israel. And who do they come against? They come against thieves and liars. Thieves and liars. Now why is that interesting? because in Romans chapter 2 when Paul is lambasting Israel or the Jews for the hypocrisy two of the things that he says is number one You cause the name of God to be blasphemed amongst the Gentiles because you take upon your lips the covenant of God, and you are hypocrites. You cannot keep the covenant of God. You need an obedience that is outside of yourself. God sent that obedience in Jesus Christ. You rejected him, and more than rejecting him, you had him crucified upon a cross. So you swear falsely. You cannot keep this covenant. You are hypocrites." And then he says, what else do they do? Romans chapter 2, they rob temples. They are thieves and they are swears falsely. And these are the two things that characterize apostates. Apostates are liars. There's a text in the Psalms, I can't think of it right now, but I always come back to it when I think of people who are just messing around in the church. People who are just giving lip service, people who are going through the motions, people who have the audacity, listen to me. People who have the audacity to take to themselves the elements when they are not true believers. The body and blood of Jesus Christ, even though the minister, if he's doing what he should be doing, gives a solemn warning in the fencing of the table that if you eat these in an unworthy way, You will be judged. And yet they just think it's like snack time. And they come to the elements and they take them not thinking, not realizing, not registering what the minister of God says in solemnity before them. This is not a joke. And the psalmist says, you have the audacity to take upon your lips the covenant of God. You have the audacity to take upon your lips the covenant of God. You see, Christians have a lingo that we speak, and you know what? You need to speak that lingo. You need to know words like justification and sanctification and glorification. You wanna know why? Because that's in the Bible and you should know it, okay? But then there are those who speak those words and they have no substance behind them because there is no substance in their heart. Okay? Those are apostates, dear people of God. And this scroll is coming in judgment against them, and it is cleansing the land. It is coming against perjurers. It is coming against thieves. Judgment begins with the household of God. You remember that. Judgment begins at the household of God. And in 586, 587 BC, this is what happened. God came in judgment via the Babylonians and tore down the temple and took the Jews into captivity. But listen to me very carefully. This is not simply a hearkening back to what happened to the Jews, because remember, the Jews have come back into the land. Listen to me. This is a prophecy of what's going to happen. This is a prophecy of what's going to happen. You see, in 70 AD, in the first century, God sent another foreign entity to judge the Jews. That was the Roman Empire under Titus Vespasian. And in 70 AD, God sent them in judgment against Israel and razed the temple. And that was the end of Old Covenant Israel. Now, let me say one more thing to any of you preterists or partial preterists that might be out there. That was never meant to be the end all be all of this judgment because 70 AD, listen to me very carefully, 70 AD and the destruction of the temple and the judgment that came upon Israel is meant to be a picture of what's going to happen eschatologically on the last day when God comes in judgment in the person of Jesus Christ. It's supposed to be a picture, you see. And when God comes in the person of Jesus Christ, judgment begins with the household of faith. He will begin by purging his church, just as in this vision, God purged the land of perjurers and thieves. So, Who are the objects of this judgment? It is apostate Judah. And I want you to notice one last thing before we look at the second part of this vision. It's very interesting if you look at Zechariah chapter five. If you come back to the text, chapter five, he says in verse four, I will send it out declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name, and it shall remain on his house, and consume it, both timber and stone. What is this? Listen to me. This is the reversal of the exodus. Excuse me, the reversal of the plague, the last plague upon Egypt. What happened in the last plague upon Egypt? God sent the destroying angel, And all the houses with the firstborn of Egypt, or the firstborn of anybody, were destroyed. The angel came in and judged. But the Israelites, if they put that blood over the mantle, blood which was to prefigure Jesus Christ, they were spared from it, weren't they? God was merciful and gracious to Israel in Egypt, but here we see the reversal of the 10th plague. For now the judgment is coming, look, into the house again. It is coming into the house, and notice in verse 4. It comes against those who swear falsely by my name. There's that concept again of taking upon your lips the covenant of God, and it shall remain in his house and consume both timber and stones. Why did he talk about timber and stone? Not simply because that's what Israelite four-room houses were made of in that time, but timber and stone are constantly invoked in the prophets as those materials by which the Jews made their false gods. Idolatry. Idolatry. It is idols in the house of the people of God that will be judgment against them when this flying scroll comes to judge them. Now, here's what you need to understand. In the exile, post-exile, post-exilic period, the Jews really got rid of their idolatry. They learned their lesson. They didn't make any idols anymore, but guess what? Their idolatry morphed. And I can't take the time in this text to show you from the Hebrew, but you're gonna have to trust me on this. Throughout this whole section, there are these veiled references to basically numeric entities. So it's talking about money, it's talking about trading, it's talking about exchanging. And the fact of the matter is, post-exilic Judah had a new idol, and that new idol was money. They were consumed with money. They were consumed with making a profit. They were consumed with false weights, something that they were warned against under the Mosaic Covenant. This became their new idol, even though it was not made of timber and stone, and the Lord is saying they shall be judged for it. So in this flying scroll, we see a judgment against apostate Judah, and this flying scroll is a reversal of the 10th plague. But now I want you to look at the second part of the vision, very important. And it is this business of a woman in a basket. Well, who is this woman? This woman, very simply, again, is apostate Israel, apostate Judah. And the lid is taken off for a moment so that the prophet can peer into it and see. And he sees that this woman is called wickedness, but then this, This lead lid is put back over her. Now, basically this word for lead, leaden lid, is used in other contexts to talk about some entity that is something like 75 pounds. And the idea that it is a lead lid is the idea that, try as she might, she will not be able to lift it off. The judgment is secure. The judgment is sure. She will be kept in and she will not be able to get out. But what's interesting is that she is flown away to Shinar. Now a few things you need to note in the text. Please look carefully at the text. In the text it says, Verse nine, I lifted my eyes and saw and behold two women coming forward. The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. Now, what is this business of the stork? two women with wings and they fly like a stork. Well, it's very interesting if you go back to the old covenant, particularly in the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, you will find that the stork is an unclean animal. It is an unclean bird. And so these women who function like storks are the means by which This wicked woman is carried away. They are responsible for her carrying away, her disbursement. Well, who was an unclean people? The Babylonians. Who was an unclean people? The Romans. And it is this unclean stork Babylon in 586 BC and 70 AD, the Romans who are carrying this woman off. Now where does she get carried off to? It says the land of Shinar. Now boys and girls, maybe you know this, maybe you don't, but the first mention of Shinar in the Bible is the Tower of Babel. Shinar is Babylon. Now why is that significant? Why is that significant? because it was at Babylon that the text says that men wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted to make a name for themselves. Instead of reflecting the image of God in whose image they were made, instead of reflecting the name of God in whose image they were made, they wanted to bend the rules, if not break them. And as renegades, they wished to redefine and unbind what God had authoritatively bound. You know what's so interesting? We see the exact same thing today. God spoke and universes leapt into existence. God has creative power in His speaking. He does not call us to create as He has created. He has called us to live within the reality that He has created. But you know what sinful man likes to do? they like to create in a sinful way. And the most vivid example of this today is how men and women and even boys and girls try to say that they are something that is contrary to reality by using this word identify. I identify as this. I identify as that. Some foolish politician ended his prayer this week with awe woman. What? Awe man and awe woman. Okay, amen is Hebrew, is all women Shebrew? What in the world is this? But it is consistent with the zeitgeist of our age, dear congregation, for people to think that they could create things like God has created. No, you can't. And at the Tower of Babel, they sought to create where God did not allow them to create, to make where God did not call them to make, and God judged them. And this is the land where this wickedness, this woman, is being carried. It is judgment. I want you to notice that this woman is Babylon. If I were to take you through all the examples of how Babylon is described in the book of Revelation, you would see the parallel. Let me just give you a few, okay? Both Babylon, and the woman. Remember the woman of Revelation 12? I talked about her a few weeks back. The woman is the church. Both the church and Babylon are both called women. What's interesting, however, is that in Revelation 12, the woman is fleeing away from the dragon toward God for refuge, but here, wickedness, Babylon, false religion, is being taken away from God. They're going in opposite directions, you see. And we see this in the book of Revelation when we compare it with Zechariah 5. In the book of Revelation, both the church, who is a woman, and Babylon, who is a woman, are both referred to as mothers. So you see, Babylon, when you think of Babylon in the book of Revelation, and listen to me very carefully, some of you are more interested in this than others. When you see Babylon in the book of Revelation, you should not think as some of our dispensationalist brothers and sisters think, as some economic and political world power in the future that is devoid of religion. Here's what you need to understand. Whatever's coming in the future, what revelation teaches us is that it is going to be intricately involved with religion. It is going to be intricately involved with religion. You see it in the movies sometimes, like there'll be a one-world religion. That's common, beloved. It's common. And guess who is probably going to be at the top of the list? The Roman Catholic Church. That's why our Protestant forefathers saw the Roman Catholic Church as the Antichrist. Babylon is the false religion. And one of the members within her pale is apostates who were in the church for some time, but wanted to recreate that religion according to their own conception in this one world religion. It is a religion, beloved. It is a religion where Oprah would be very comfortable. It is a religion where, as I've seen Oprah say on some talk show, when some Christian was giving a carte blanche basic description of who the triune God was, she said in her little Oprah way, well, that's not my God. My God is not a God of wrath. Your God is a God of your own imagination. You have created God in your own image, and that will be the tag, excuse me, the tagline of this new false religion. It's coming. Babylon is the false religion. Babylon is apostate Christianity. Babylon is whorish Christianity, and those are the descriptions that are given of Babylon, the harlot, the prostitute in the book of Revelation. It is not devoid of religion. It is very much involved with religion. So this is what's coming. Now. Let me give a very practical application, okay? Listen to me very carefully. I don't know when Jesus is gonna come back. I don't know, okay? And by the way, if you ever know somebody that says they do know, run away from that person, okay? I'm serious. I know somebody. I've been in conversation with him who's telling me that he knows that Jesus is coming back within the next month or so. And I say, okay, dude. I'm gonna block you on my email, block you on text. I'm dead serious. Like, we don't know, okay? But here's what I do know. Things are ramping up. Things are ramping up, and the scene is being set in such a way where it is gonna be very difficult for you to maintain your profession as a Christian, okay? I wear masks around town, but you know what? They've become a talisman. They've become a talisman. They will ward off spirits, they will ward off this, they will ward off that, and pretty soon, if you're not carrying a card that says that you're a card-carrying mask wearer or a card-carrying vaccine holder, I don't have a problem with vaccines, don't get me wrong, okay? You are going to be blacklisted. You're gonna be blacklisted. It's coming. I'm not prophesying this. I'm looking at the writing on the wall. And what I want to tell you from the word of God is that those who are true Christians will persevere through this time and come hell or high water, they're going to worship with the people of God. You hear me? They're gonna worship with the people of God. They're not gonna let the government tell them whether or not they can worship. They're gonna worship with the people of God. They're gonna profess the name of Christ. And they're not going to let Caesar set the agenda for what worship looks like. Because once you start going down that road, that is the false religion and the Babylon of which Zechariah here in chapter five and the book of Revelation is talking. It's coming, beloved. And the apostates are the ones who are gonna go along with it. So when you see Babylon, you need to think of the new false religion that is coming. True believers, listen, true believers will always come back to Jesus Christ when pressed to repent. True believers, if they are walking in sin, if they have been tempted by the siren songs of Satan and his hordes to go after things that only please the flesh, When they are oppressed by the people of God, who, by the way, are the hands and feet of Jesus, they will come back. Apostates will not. Apostates will not. And this is the thing that we need to keep in mind as we continue to move forward in these uncertain times. Hebrews 6 reminds us that anybody who has tasted of the heavenly gifts, those who have, well let me just read it, Hebrews 6 verse 4. It is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance since they are crucifying once again the son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. Guard your hearts from apostasy, dear people of God. Guard your hearts from being led away from Jesus Christ. Guard your hearts from thinking foolishly, like those at the Tower of Babel, that you could create a God in your own image. And now finally, as we think about this image, I want you to think of the fact that When this wicked woman, wickedness, Babylon, is carried away, it does not say that she's destroyed. We do know that Israel came to an end in 70 AD, but what I think we see here towards the end of this vision is that God is intentionally leaving it vague. Why? Because I think he's signaling to us that in one sense, there is an end to old covenant Israel, but in another sense, there is another Israel who is true because Paul says, not all Israel is Israel. There's another Israel is true and all those who are true sons and daughters of Christ will cling to this new Israel. And who is that new Israel? That new Israel is Jesus Christ. He is the one who came out of the waters of the Exodus and his baptism was thrust into the wilderness. And unlike Israel who failed in the wilderness, this new Israel was successful and victorious in the wilderness as he was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights. and He is the true Israel, and now all those who truly believe in Jesus Christ are joined with Him as the new Israel. So God is not done with Israel. He has always had a remnant, and you can know that you are part of that remnant this morning if you turn from your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Dear Father in heaven, Though there are uncertain times before us, Father, we do not fret, and we pray that you would help us not to fret. Because the fact of the matter, as Kohelet reminds us, is that there is nothing new under the sun. Our brothers and sisters who profess the name of Christ in other times, in other places, have been through far worse persecution than we are personally experiencing. And yet, Father, you kept them faithful. And we trust that by your grace and for your glory, you will keep your remnant faithful, Father. Help us not only to preserve till the end, but Father, as Grace Covenant Church, I pray that you would help us hold others to be faithful until the end. Because Father, we are not simply in this for ourselves, we are in this for the church. And I pray that you would give us grace to be faithful to that. We ask all these things in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand this morning. I'm going to sing the doxology. Gloria Pace.