I trust you are as humbled by the word of God as I am whenever I come before it; I find myself having a profound sense of inferiority knowing that these are the God breathed words that he has given us. And it is my task, and certainly my joy, to be able to read them to you; and by God's grace, explain them to you so that you can not only understand them, but more importantly, that you might apply them to your lives and enjoy the fullness of all that is yours in Christ. And this morning, we do this by turning once again to the book of Zechariah in chapter five. And my discourse to you will be under the heading, "The Judgment of the Flying Scroll." Let me read the first four verses that we're going to look at this morning.

"Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll.

And he said to me, 'What do you see?' And 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 is going forth over the face of the whole land; surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side.

'I will make it go forth,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.'"

Ours is a culture that has manufactured various forms of a false god; a false god that only loves and never judges; a God that is kind of a smiley-face God that is tolerant of everything and everyone, a god that's only known for his grace, for his benevolence, for his compassion; certainly a God that would never send anyone to hell unless they're really wicked, assuming there is a hell. Indeed, ours is a culture that is so distorted the one true God that is revealed in Scripture, that their definition and understanding of him bears no relevance whatsoever to who he really is, no resemblance. I heard a self loathing transgender woman who also went through the litany of other things that she was claiming to be a man, you know, dressed up like a man and queer by all kinds of things. I don't even understand all that stuff, but she said this, "I would rather go to hell than worship a God who would send people to hell for being LGBTQ." So sad, and yet, that's the mindset of our culture.

And of course, this is always an issue of spiritual authority. If your spiritual authority is the culture, if it is man rather than God, then obviously the Bible is meaningless. The idea of judgment is meaningless, if not ridiculous. And yet God has said in his word regarding this particular issue of the LGBTQ, Deuteronomy, 22 verse five, "A woman shall not wear man's clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman's clothing. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God." And in Leviticus 18 verses, 20 through 22 you see the vile perversion of homosexuality, sandwiched in between child sacrifice and bestiality, all of which are abominations to the Lord our God; perversions that profane his name. First Corinthians six, beginning in verse nine, "Do you not know that the righteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God."

And in First Timothy one, especially around verse eight, you see Paul speaking about murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars. They're all in a list who are called the "lawless and rebellious, ungodly and sinners, unholy and profane." And we read at the end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 21 verse eight, "'But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'"  

So in the phony Christianity of our culture, you see people defining God in such a way that there is really no sin, there is no judgment, no need for repentance, that God is just so loving that he will justify and even celebrate all manner of deviancy, everything from the LGBTQ plus perversions, the transgender insanity, the killing of unborn infants, the whole woke cult; and of course, they have a special hatred for true Christians, whose spiritual authority is the word of God rather than the word of man. And the idea that there is a holy God that is completely righteous is folly to them, although they can look at the geologic record, and you can see very clearly that there was once a worldwide flood, consistent with the judgment that is described in Genesis. And yet people scoff at the idea of judgment.

You can look at the Bible and you can see hundreds of prophecies that have been fulfilled literally, and yet they laugh at the idea that others will also be fulfilled literally, ignoring the prophecies pertaining to the judgment that is coming upon the world. They scoff at that. They scoff at divine judgment of nations and the unprecedented period of judgment during the time of the tribulation. All of that is absurd. And many modern-day pastors who are bent on bringing people into their church, what they would call seekers, define sin in such a way that really no one could be offended. If you study them, you will see that the essence of their definition is that sin includes basically all things that we think and do that would rob us of fellowship with God, and some somehow steal away our happiness that he wants us to enjoy. Therefore, the gospel is reduced to nothing more than Jesus dying so that he can save us from our unhappiness.

Dear friends, I would submit to you that as we look at Scripture, we see that describing sin apart from the offended holiness of God is not just irresponsible, it's heretical. Apart from an understanding of man's condemnation that evokes the wrath of God, the gospel, the good news is no good news at all. But we must understand that sin is to God what radiation is to us - it is toxic. In fact, it's much greater than that, but that's the best analogy I can come up with. And we get a sense of this in Psalm 11, beginning in verse four, where David said, "The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face."

It stands to reason, therefore, that if the sinfulness of man is trivialized, the same fate will befall the idea of the holiness of God, because both ends of the spectrum must be understood as equally infinite - the holiness of God in his transcendent purity and sin in its vile corruption. To mitigate one is to diminish the other, and that's what we see so often in our culture; both must be held in equal tension; both ends of the spectrum of good and evil. And naturally, those who are ignorant of God's revelation of himself in his Word, and those, of course, who scoff at it, show little, if any, remorse for having violated his righteous standards. In fact, A W Tozer made this insightful observation. He said, quote, "The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done, not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge. And her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic. The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of 100 lesser evils everywhere among us." And he went on to add, "With our loss of the sense of majesty, has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence."

Folks, please understand God hates sin, and as we see in his word, he deals with sins removal in two ways, through grace or through judgment; and we see both remedies described in the eight visions God gave to Israel through his prophet, Zechariah. You will recall that the first five visions, according to verse one, or verse seven, in chapter one are considered to be "gracious and comforting words." They're promises of material and spiritual blessing that will one day come upon Israel and the world and the kingdom.

In chapter three, we see how the filthy garments of sin are going to be removed, and quote, "iniquity will be taken away, and Israel will be clothed with the festal robes of righteousness," a cleansing which will occur according to God's sovereign choice. Verse two says, "'the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?'" And this is all made possible because of the atoning work of the righteous servant that is called "the Branch" in verse eight - Messiah - and he makes the future promise in verse nine, "'I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day,'" referring to the time when the Messiah, the Priest-King, returns to establish his kingdom.

And later on, in Zechariah 12, that familiar passage in verse 10, we read, "'I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping of a firstborn.'" And the way God has chosen to publicly display his glory to a wicked and watching world is through his covenant faithfulness to the nation of Israel, when he saves them and restores a generation of that people unto himself, consistent with so many prophecies. Daniel nine, verse 24 says that will be, "a time to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.'" And of course, these magnificent promises are in fulfillment of the Abrahamic, the Davidic and the new covenants, which underscore the central role that Israel will once again play in the end-time drama, when redeemed Israel will finally worship her king, priest, the Messiah, and become the political and religious center of the world.

So the first five visions that we've been looking at in Zechariah have dealt with the remedy of grace that God has for sin, one that he has sovereignly chosen to use to deal with sin. But now we come to the sixth vision, and there's a marked shift here. Here we're going to see the second remedy for sin, and that is judgment; a remedy that the world refuses to acknowledge, even unbelieving Israel refuses to acknowledge as it pertains to themselves. But we must realize biblically that sin must be punished, and here we're going to see that it must not only be punished, it must be eradicated. In fact, in verse three, it says it must be, quote, "purged away"; purged away from the Earth.

Now, remember, a little technical concept here, but it's important to help you understand what God is saying here. Remember the chiastic construction of these eight visions, the first parallels the eighth, the second, the seventh, the third, the sixth and the fourth and the fifth parallel each other. And the sixth vision that we're looking at here today parallels the third vision. Both visions describe God's future plan for ethnic Israel. And the emphasis in the third vision was on the millennial glory of Jerusalem, as you may recall. And there's the remedy of grace. But now the parallel vision, the sixth vision, speaks, as I say, of the remedy of judgment; because there's a question that must be answered, and that is, "What is God going to do with the people of the earth that rejects his grace?" What is he going to do with the people that continue to sin with impunity, that mock his word, that scoff at the person in the work of Christ who refused to bow the knee to the Lordship of Christ - wicked Jews and wicked Gentiles? And in our culture, we see the wicked parading their sin everywhere we look. Every time you turn on the TV, you see this, and it appears that there are no consequences, right? I'm reminded of Psalm 10, where the psalmist laments over what he sees to be rampant injustice with no consequences. He says, beginning in verse two, "In pride, the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boasts his heart's desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, 'There is no God.' His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, 'I will not be moved; throughout all generations. I will not be in adversity.'"

So what's God going to do with those people? He's going to judge them. In fact, later on in Psalm 10, verse 12, we read, "Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand." And then in verse 15, and following he, it says, "Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, seek out his wickedness until You find none. The LORD is King forever and ever; nations have perished from His land. O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror."

And what we see here in this sixth vision is the terrifying judgment of God on all who reject Him; the way he is going to purge the earth prior to the establishment of the kingdom, how he is going to deal with sinners also who were born during the time of the kingdom age itself. I have divided this section into two basic categories that I hope will be helpful to you. We're going to see, first of all, the righteous standard of divine judgment, and then secondly, the comprehensive scope of divine judgment.

Now remember the fifth vision that we looked at the last time revealed the astounding promises concerning the Messiah's dual role of both king and priest, and how he will operate in the midst of a redeemed and restored Israel, and how Israel beat will be at the center of blessings for all of the nations of the earth. But now there's a big shift in the sixth vision, notice in verse one of chapter five. "Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll." And here we come to the first of our little outline. Here we're going to see the righteous standard of divine judgment. What is, what's a scroll? What is that all about? Well, in order to understand scripture, you need to use scripture to help you interpret scripture. Let me take you to a few passages. Throughout scripture, we see that the scroll was a symbol of God's word. For example, in Psalm 40, beginning in verse seven, then I said, this is David speaking, "'Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book as it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.'" Likewise, Jeremiah 36 two, God says, "'Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day.'" And a fascinating passage, passage in Ezekiel, chapter three, verse one, Ezekiel says, "Then God said to me, 'Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.'" I might add here that he didn't literally eat the scroll, but rather that was a Hebrew idiom for receiving knowledge, a concept that we would understand. And in our English language, we might say that we need to devour a book or digest something that we've just read.

Now, when this was written in 520 BC, a scroll was either a long piece of papyrus or animal skins cut into sheets and then sewed together. In either case, the materials were rolled into a single scroll, or more often than that, they were wound around two sticks. When reading the scroll, one portion would simultaneously be wrapped around the one stick, and while the other was being unwrapped around the other. Now, papyrus was an ancient paper made of the cutting of the pith part of papyrus, the pith was the white fibrous material on the inside of the stem of the papyrus plant, which, by the way, grew plentiful in the region of the Nile. And they would take this pith, fibrous material, and they would press it together and in two or three layers and overlay it crosswise and let it dry. And the most common single papyrus in that day was around 30 feet in length and about 10 inches wide. To give you a perspective that would be big enough to put the book of Genesis on, or the book of Isaiah on, in writing.

Now as a footnote, Egyptians had a few large papyrus rolls that we have found. There is the Papyrus Harris. Harris, by the way, was a guy that bought the roll. That's why it's called the Papyrus Harris. But it was discovered in an Egyptian tomb in 1855, and it is 133 feet in length and 17 inches wide. It contains 1500 lines of text, and if you look at it - by the way, it's housed in the British Museum - it includes a full color vignette showing Ramesses the Third before the triad of Memphis, which include Ta his consort, the lion headed goddess Sekhmet and Nefertam, the god of Lotus. And what it really is a detailed account of the reign of Ramesses the Third; all of his good works and great deeds that he did over his 31-year reign.

But they've also discovered what's called the Book of the Dead, and it's 123 feet in length and 19 inches wide; and it is an ancient collection of Egyptian spells and charts that acted as a guide for a deceased person in their journey to the afterlife, all right? Very occultic, wicked, demonic, religious perversions. You might say, well, when did books come along? Books, by the way, were called a codex, C, O, D, E, X, and that came around, came along around the third century BC, in which leaves were then sewed together.

Now, little background there, historically. Let's look at the text more closely. "I lifted up my eyes again and looked and behold there was a flying scroll." Now the Hebrew participle here denotes the idea that it is continually floating, alright? Moreover, according to verse three, we see that it's written on both sides, which indicates that it is unrolled, that it is flying around, kind of like what? A kite, perhaps, if you can think of it that way. And the fact that it is written on both sides is significant because this coincides with the stone tablets that contained the 10 Commandments, which also had writing quote, "on one side and the other." Exodus 32:15; and there is therefore an obvious connection here between the contents of the scroll and the covenant the Lord made with his people at Sinai; a covenant that promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. So he sees divine revelation here, unfurled, floating in the air, spread open like a giant sheet moving about. And this probably symbolizes the active energy and the obvious public display of God's message of coming judgment, not only the message of judgment, but also the execution of it, as we will see.

My mind immediately goes to Hebrews four verse 12 and following, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Likewise, Isaiah 55:11, "My word by which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." So there's this idea that what God said is active, it's powerful, and it is obvious.

Now notice again, the text, verse two, "And he said to me, 'What do you see?' And I answered, 'I see a flying scroll; its length is 20 cubits and its width 10 cubits.'" If you, if you want to do the math, that would be 30 feet by 15 feet. So you have this large rectangle unrolled and floating along in the air. Now, why 30 by 15? Why not? I don't know, 25 by 10 or 27 by whatever. Well, it's interesting that these are the same dimensions of the tabernacle in the wilderness that we read about in Exodus, 26 verses, 15 through 25. And this probably indicates that the judgments that are written upon the scroll were in full harmony with the holiness of God, the shekinah glory of the Lord's presence which dwelt amongst his people, Israel, in the wilderness.

Moreover, the dimensions were the same as the porch in front of Solomon's temple in First Kings six and verse three. And this underscores the same significance, you know, pointing to the holiness of God's presence and underscoring how, perhaps also, the contents of the scroll are uniquely linked to the entrance into the house of God. And that symbolism is even further reinforced when we see how this is also the same measurements of the entrance into the millennial temple in Ezekiel 41 in verse two.

Now without a doubt, these measurements would not have escaped the notice of the returning Jewish remnant, and the implications just cited would underscore to them the ineffable holiness of God. It revealed the divine standard of righteousness that must be obeyed; and if you disobeyed God would judge. It demonstrates also the absolute impossibility of entering into his presence to enjoy sweet fellowship with him, apart from perfect righteousness; apart from purification, which also required perfect obedience to the law, which no one could do. This obviously meant there had to be an atonement, which was pictured in the whole sacrificial system. Atonement requiring two things - satisfaction and substitution. There had to be satisfaction for offended holiness, and there had to be the substitution of an innocent one who would die for the guilty.

Of course, all of this pointed to the Messiah, the mediator of a New Covenant, the one who would alone could be the propitiation of our sin, the one that would satisfy or placate the just wrath of God against us, the priest who would offer himself, who would one day purify the nation and build the temple and as both king and priest, reign in absolute righteousness in a future kingdom, even from the precincts of that temple. But this flying Scroll of judgment also pointed to the threat of punishment if Israel chose to walk in violation of his law. And it's no surprise that we see the imagery of the scroll of divine judgment in Revelation chapter five, beginning in verse one. Let me read this section to you.

"I saw on the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals."

By the way, book in Greek is "biblion," and it could be translated "scroll that could be rolled up."

"And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?'"

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.

And I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it;

and one of the elders said to me, 'Stop weeping; behold the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.'

And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out unto all the earth.

And He came and He took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.

When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell downbefore the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song, saying,

"Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."'"

And we know, if you study the book of Revelation, that the scroll contain the seal judgments, and then the trumpet judgments, followed by the bowl judgments described in chapter six through 16, the pre-kingdom judgments that God will unleash upon the world just prior to his second coming, when the Messiah will return and establish his kingdom. Catastrophic judgment beyond anything that we could even begin to imagine, culminating in the battle of Armageddon. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 24:22, "'Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.'" Now I want you to understand that these are the judgments that are alluded to in Zechariah's sixth vision.

So we've seen number one, the righteous standard of divine judgment. I want you to notice next, the comprehensive scope of divine judgment. And in verses three through four, we see how this flying scroll symbolizing God's judgment upon sinners will certainly fall upon Israel, but also on the Gentile nations, and this will include judgments before the establishment of the Kingdom and during his millennial reign.

Notice verse three. "Then he said to me, 'This is the curse,'" In the Hebrew this is a term that speaks of divine punishment or retribution upon those who have violated God's Word and his law, his covenant. "'This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land.’” Andagain, curse carries the idea of punishment for having violated a covenant. I'm fascinated when I study this term. We see Moses use the same Hebrew term for curse in Deuteronomy 28 and there is a description of God's judgments on Israel if they violated his commandments. You see descriptions of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience and the conditions that had to be met for them as they go into the Promised Land and retain possession of it. But also, God spoke through Moses to describe in that same text, the final re-gathering and restoration of the people in the land, national conversion. We read in Deuteronomy 30 and verse six, "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul so that you may live."

But this also speaks of obedience in the millennial kingdom. We would see, for example, in verses eight and following of Deuteronomy 30, "'And you shall again obey the LORD, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. Then the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, and the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; if you obey the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.'"

We see this as well in the scroll which the prophet Ezekiel was told to eat. And again, it symbolized the same curse upon those who would violate his word and his law. Let me familiarize you with this in Ezekiel two, beginning in verse one, Ezekiel says,

"Then He said to me, 'Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you!' As he spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me.

Then he said to me, 'Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day.

I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, "Thus says the Lord GOD,"

As for them, whether they listen or not - for they are rebellious house - they will know that a prophet has been among them.

And you, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words, though thistles and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions; either fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house.

But you shall speak My words to them, whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.'"

You get the idea that they're rebellious. They got my picture right there.

"'Now you, son of man, listen to what I'm speaking to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.'

Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and lo, a scroll was in it.

When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were lamentations, mourning and woe."

Now as we examine the scriptures, we see the curse contained in the scroll here in Zechariah's vision is primarily upon Israel because of their covenantal unfaithfulness, and it's going to fall on them in full fury during the time of the tribulation - the time of Jacob's trouble, as it's called in Jeremiah 30 and verse seven. But it also, this curse, will fall upon the Gentile nations of the world that mock God and then oppress Israel. Again, Deuteronomy 30 verse seven, "The Lord God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you." And I have to pause as I ponder this and say, "My what magnificent promises of restoration and regeneration that are pledged to a recalcitrant Israel, and what blessings await them and all the redeemed in the kingdom age."

But notice again the words of the prophecy, verse three, "Then he said to me, 'This is the curse,'" in other words, the punishment; the retribution, "'that is going forth over the face of the whole land.'" I think this will obviously include Messiah's rod of iron rule during the Millennium. Otherwise, for example, the condition of Deuteronomy 30 verse 10 would really beg for relevance. There we read, "If you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and his statutes, which are written in this Book of the Law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul..." the point is, if you don't, there will be judgment then; and those who violate the Messiah's righteous commandments in the kingdom age - whether they're Jewish people or Gentile people - they will experience the swift judgment of God. Remember, everyone that enters into the kingdom will be born again, will be worshiping and honoring the Lord, but they will be human beings that will have children, and many of them will choose to reject Christ, which is absolutely astounding, and proves even more how people are so spiritually dead; that apart from God's regenerating grace, no one would ever be saved. Revelation two, verse 26 quoting Psalm two nine, we read to him, "'I will give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.'" That literally could be translated, shepherd them with an iron rod, "...as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father.'"

Now back to the end of verse three of Zechariah's vision; and here we see something very fascinating. We see two categories of sin and sinners that will be subject to judgment - the thief and the perjurer - swearing falsely by God's name. Notice what it says in verse three. "...surely, everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side." Well, what about the adulterers? What about you know, there's so many other categories. Why is this warning directed towards those who steal and those who swear falsely? And the answer is, I believe because both sins represent both tables of the Decalogue and are therefore a violation of the Mosaic Covenant. They are representative of the entirety of the 10 Commandments, both being in the middle commandment from each table. Remember, when you separate the commandments, you see that one has to do with our love for God, the other, our love for our neighbor. And just to give you a little background, before I delve into this a little bit more, remember that the supreme law is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and your neighbor, as frankly, as much as you love yourself, which is a whole bunch, right? And that is called, often in theological terms, a two-fold summarization of the law. And Jesus had this response in Mark 12, that we are to love the Lord, we are to love our neighbor.

But then there is an expansion of that, in what is called the ten-fold summarization of the law, and that is the Decalogue or the 10 Commandments: the tablets of stone. This is the Mosaic law given to Moses at Mount Sinai. You read about it in Exodus 19 and 20, and it's, it's the old covenant that if you keep the law, you're blessed, if you violate the law, you're judged. And in numbers one through three of the Decalogue are how we are to love our God perfectly, and then you have the Sabbath, and then the last six on is on how to love your neighbor.

And then I might also add that there is a manifold summarization of the Law, the words of the Covenant, according to Exodus 24 and verse seven, and that's the entire Book of Leviticus. There he goes into great detail and expansion of the law. In fact, all of that was written down and placed in a receptacle on the side of the Ark of the Covenant, along with the tablets of stone. Deuteronomy 31 verse 26 we read, "Take this book of the law and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you." The purpose of the law, remember, was to expose sin in the light of the divine standard of righteousness, which was stated in the foremost commandment and manifested in the second commandment. If you love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, you know what's going to happen. You're going to love your neighbor. That's the point.

Now, back to the stealing here and the swearing. Stealing violates the eighth Commandment, which is the third command of the latter five commandments that pertain to loving one's neighbor. You can read about that in Exodus 20 verse 15, Deuteronomy, five and verse 19. And swearing, which is further defined in verse four as "swearing falsely by My name," that violates the third commandment found in the first table concerning man's love for God. Sohere's the point, the sins of stealing and swearing are samples representing God's law, completely; loving the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and loving our neighbor. And the point here is everyone guilty of violating this law, which includes everyone, will be judged - unless, and here's the good news, that person has been pardoned by grace through faith in the person and the work of the Son.

Again, the end of verse three, "...surely, everyone who steals will be purged away..." could be translated, "purged from" or "to be emptied." The idea of being wiped out and forever from the presence of God and from the blessings that he gives. "...Everyone who steals will be purged away, according to the writing on one side, what's one side of the scroll, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side." So the point is, you will not be able to enter in to the kingdom apart from judgment for sin or pardon from sin. And you cannot have a righteous kingdom age unless the criminals, the thieves, the ones that swear falsely, are purged away, are cleaned out. And that cleansing, beloved is going to occur during the pre-kingdom judgments of the tribulation.

I might add, and this is - I don't want to in any way see help you see a parallel here in terms of the glory and the severity and all of that, but we see a similar phenomenon in our country today with the Trump administration draining the swamp; trying to do something to get rid of the wickedness in our government. This administration is uncovering what we have all known to be true, and that is that the progressive  Democratic Party is basically a criminal enterprise; and we're seeing now how they want to essentially collapse the government with all of this overspending, so the government can take control, replace the government with socialism, bring in millions of people who are going to vote with them, and phone fund their woke cult with tax dollars to promote their vile agenda all over the world. And the scope of their corruption just exceeds the limits of the imagination of fair-minded people. I mean, what's being exposed today, I mean, you just see these people are as crooked as a barrel of snakes, and we've known that for a long time, and now you're seeing it manifested, I mean, so clearly, and that's why they're squealing. And so this is a perfect example of thieves and false witnesses who swear falsely against the Lord our God, and they've got to be purged away if we ever hope to have any freedom in our country and have a country that lasts. So a little bit of an illustration there.

But the point is, prior to the inauguration of the kingdom, by Messiah, sinners will be, as we read here, "purged away according to the writing on one side and the writing on the other side" the other side of the scroll of divine judgment.

And then finally, he says this, "'I will make it go forth, ‘declares the LORD of hosts." Wow, what a statement. "I" first person. I the LORD, idea - I alone - I the Lord, the Lord of heaven and Earth, the Lord over all of the angelic hosts of heaven, I am going to make it - this scroll of judgment - go forth, "declares the LORD of hosts, "and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swells falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.'"  In other words, there will be no place to hide. It will be total destruction of both the sinner and all that the sinner possesses.

And so here, dear friends, we see the promise of comprehensive and  the complete scope of the outpouring of divine wrath upon unrepentant sinners at the end of the age. Dear friends, in closing, please don't miss this - Judgment is coming. Regardless of what anybody says, judgment is coming. God has made it clear in this passage and so many others, judgment is coming because Jesus is coming. And we read in Revelation 19, what that's going to be like, beginning in verse 15,

"From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

And on His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written,

'KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.'"

Oh, how I hope you know my Jesus, because one day you are going to bow before him, and you will either bow before him as your Lord and Savior or as your judge and executioner. And I plead with you to humble yourself and place your faith in Christ, your only hope of salvation and all what glory awaits the redeemed. Amen? Oh, my, my, my, let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the hope of heaven that is ours solely because of your grace, and I pray that the realities of all that you have done for us, in us and are doing through us will motivate us to live to the praise of your glory. And Lord for those who do not know you, have never been reconciled to you through faith in Christ, I would plead with you on their behalf that you would bring them to a place of absolute humility and repentance, that today would be the day of their salvation, that today would be the day they would experience the miracle of the new birth. We ask all of this in the name of our precious Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.