This morning, we return again to the book of Zechariah, chapter five, if you would like to turn there. I have most of the texts, as you know, on the screens in front of you, but we will be looking at verses five through 11 under the title, "God's Coming Judgment on Global Wickedness."

Judgment is certainly the theme of this particular vision that God gave to Zechariah, and we see that theme all through Scripture. And the greatest form of judgment fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for the sins of all who placed their faith in him. But the world, of course, doesn't want to think about judgment. They mock at it. They laugh at it. They scoff at it, even as they did in the days of Noah. But it is coming as certain as the sun comes up in the east; and as we come to the seventh of eight visions that God gave to Zechariah - actually given to Israel through the prophet - we must remember that these people, about 50,000 of them are returning now from from the captivity in Babylon. They're glad to be home, but they have no home, so they have to build homes; and they had no temple, and the Lord commanded them to make that the priority, to build a temple. But they encountered great adversity with the Samaritans and they were a beleaguered, depressed, forlorn people, very discouraged, wondering if they had a future, wondering if the promises that God gave them through Abraham and through David - the new covenant promises - wondering if any of those things were really going to come true.

And you will recall that in the first five visions, we see that they are "gracious and comforting words," promises of material and spiritual prosperity and blessing. You will recall that in chapter three, we read how their filthy garments are going to be removed. In fact, it says iniquity will be taken away, and Israel will be clothed with the festal robes of righteousness. And of course, this would not be possible apart from the atoning work of the righteous servant that that vision, or those visions, talk about, especially that one, which is the Branch, we see in chapter three, verse eight - the Messiah - and it makes this future promise, "I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day," verse nine. And that, of course, is going to happen when the Messiah, the Priest-King returns to establish his millennial kingdom on earth, as we read in Daniel 9:27, it will be that day 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 together, I want you to remember that these these visions, reveal the central role of ethnic Israel in the end time drama, and when the redeemed of Israel will finally worship their Priest and King Messiah and become the political and religious center of the world.

And I also want you to remember, before we look at this seventh vision, what we talked about the last time, and that is that, obviously God hates sin, and he deals with its removal in two ways, either through grace or through judgment, through forgiveness or through punishment. And that is true for everyone. Every one of us must either pay for our own sins eternally in hell, or we can trust in Christ, who paid the penalty on our behalf. And we see both of theseremedies portrayed in the eight visions God gave to Israel through this young prophet Zechariah. The first five visions dealt with the remedy of graceprimarily, that God has sovereignly chosen his way to deal with sin.

Then in the sixth vision that we looked at the last time we see the remedy of divine judgment; sin must be punished. It must be eradicated. In verse three of that passage, we read how it must be, quote, "purged away from the Earth." And it's important to also bear in mind, before we look at this next vision, that in the sixth vision, this really pictures God's judgment, primarily for Israel, and we see this through the symbolism of the flying scroll of judgment. But the seventh vision that we will look at today depicts God's predetermined plan to judge the nations of the world that have embraced Satan's deceptions. And together the sixth and the seventh visions describe the future and final purging of wickedness by means of an outpouring of God's wrath.

But specifically, as it relates to the seventh vision, God is going to reveal here how he sovereignly constrains wickedness from absolutely taking over the entire world, and he's going to help us see how he has a plan to destroy it. Now I also want to just say from the outset that what we are about to look at should bring great comfort to each one of us, all of us who know and love Christ, to know that things are not random, to know that things aren't just going along and God really has no control over any of it, and that you just hope that someday righteousness will prevail. But rather, what we see once again is that God has a plan, and he's working it perfectly. As the old preacher said, "There's payday someday." And all the chaos and the corruption, all of the immorality and the violence and the deceptions that we witness in our world are going to one day be judged when King Jesus, who has been given all authority over heaven and earth, and who has been granted an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, will finally pour out his wrath upon the nations and establish his kingdom.

So now what we have is the interpreting angel comes back to Zechariah. Zechariah has no doubt now had time to contemplate. I mean, imagine you're receiving all these visions in one night, alright. He's had this vision now the flying scroll of judgment. And I'm sure he's he's just trying to process all of that. And now we see what happens. Zechariah five, beginning in verse five.

"Then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, 'Lift up your now your eyes and see what this is going forth.'

I said, 'What is it?' And he said, 'This is the ephah going forth.' Again,  he said, 'This is their appearance in all the land

(and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.'

Then he said, 'This is wickedness!' And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lid lead weight on its opening.

Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind and their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens.

I said to the angel who was speaking with me, 'Where are they taking the ephah?'

Then he said to me, 'To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her pedestal.'"

I want us to examine this and understand this and be able to apply this under three headings we're going to see, first of all, God's constraint of wickedness. Secondly, God's sovereign consolidation of wickedness. And finally, God's sovereign conclusion of wickedness. And I might add that the Bible helps interpret itself. So we're going to be looking at a number of other passages to make sense of all of this, especially Revelation, chapter 17 and 18.

So first, let's look at God's sovereign constraint of wickedness. Verse five. "Then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, 'Lift up now your eyes and see what is going forth.'" "Going forth" indicates that there is direction here, there is movement, there is progression, like you will recall the flying scroll of judgment in the preceding vision. There, in verse three, we read that, "This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land." And in both cases, the expression indicates the pervading influence of the scroll of divine judgment. And now the basket, the ephah, as we will see, which really symbolizes greedy materialism, and the woman inside, depicting false religion.

"Then the angel who was speaking with me went out, said to me, 'Lift up now your eyes see what is going forth.' I said, 'What is it?' And he said, 'This is the ephah going forth.'" Now, an ephah was the primary measure of dry goods, a dry measure that the Hebrews used. It was essentially a basket that held about 1.05 bushels or gallons of grain. And it would have been able to to hold a small person. And we're going to see that it's carrying a woman, and we'll talk more about that in a moment. But what we see is that this is certainly a parallel of Revelation 17 verses four through five, where we read about a woman that's clothed in purple and scarlet. She's the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. And scripture often equates worldliness and false religion with harlotry, with spiritual harlotry that is, spiritual adultery. You can read about this, for example, in Ezekiel 17, read about it in Hosea. Read about it in James 4:4, and certainly in Revelation, 17 and 18.

So you've got this, this basket that he's seeing. It's carrying a woman. She's sitting inside, and we see that she's been really thrown down. It's like she's been trying to get out. She's thrown down into the middle of it, and it's covered up with a lead lid, and it's described as "Wickedness." So obviously, the first thing that we can see here is that somehow, in the wisdom and in the providence of God, he sees all of this, he has a plan. He's allowing this to happen. He's allowed evil, we know, to enter his created universe, but he also has a plan to eradicate it. And I want you to remember that it is the clear testimony of scripture that God has ordained to allow evil to enter into his perfect universe in order to dramatically display the glory of His attributes, because as we see him deal with these things, we see his holiness, we see his wrath, his mercy, his grace, his love, his power, and so forth. And you also must remember that whatever God allows, no matter how bad it might seem to us and how bad it really is. It's all part of God's plan. He has ordained to allow it, and ultimately, he is good. He is allowing these things for our good, for his glory. He is a sovereign God. He is not a contingent God that reacts to what man does. Nor is he some distant God that it's just kind of let the whole thing spin out of control. Ephesians, one, one tells us that "He works all things after the counsel of His will."

Now, why did the angelic interpreter want him to focus on it "going forth?" This basket? And most commentators would agree that the basket is a symbol, especially in that ancient day, a symbol of trade and commerce. And we see in scripture here that it is used figuratively to portray the wickedness of greedy materialism. And we see that this was something that wasgaining momentum in Israel in that day. It continues to do that in Israel today, and with Jewish people in many places around the world, but not just with them, but with the Gentiles, with everybody in the United States, and on and on it goes. And the small woman sitting inside symbolizes the seduction of a false religion religious system that will one day dominate the world. This will be the harlot of Babylon that we will look at in a moment in Revelation 17 and 18.

Again, he said the end of verse seven or six, "'This is their appearance,'" referring to the appearance of the people of Israel. I would say that because, since the pronoun "their" has no immediate antecedent in the vision, hermeneutically, what we would do is connect it to something before that, and that would be therefore connected to the thieves and perjurers and the former vision that will be purged away when Christ returns. And you might remember that the thieves and the perjurers were both sins represented by both tablets of the Decalogue, and therefore a violation of the Mosaic covenant. We see that they are both in the middle of of each of the two segments, each of the tables, the first one being how we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and the second one on how we should love our neighbor as ourselves.

So back to verse six again. He said, "'This is their appearance in all the land.'" In other words, this is what they look like, the religious and political nation of Israel. This is what they look like. They are filled with the idol of greedy materialism that must be purged away. And to be sure, remember now, where they've come from. They've come out of Babylon, and in that day, in that captivity, they were a part of of the the commercial center of the ancient world. I mean, ancient Babylon was wealthy and affluent beyond anything that we can imagine. You can see some of the remnants of it, for example, in the British Museum. It was a place like modern day Dubai or Abu Dhabi or Saudi Arabia, places where just fabulous wealth, primarily because of our oil, the oil we use, we've made them wealthy. But the Israelites had become intoxicated with materialism, like the people of the United States; consumed with greed and avarice and covetousness. And this became, therefore, as the text says, "'Their appearance in all the land.'" In other words, this is what not only defined them, but frankly, in all the earth. And this is going to be true even more so during the time of the pre kingdom judgments the time of the tribulation, right before Christ returns.

And the ubiquitous nature of this wickedness is supported further by where the baskets going to end up. It's going to end up in the land of Shinar, which was then and eventually will be, according to Revelation, 17 and 18, the commercial and ecclesiastical center of the world during the reign of the Antichrist and the False Prophet. So Israel had had the eyes of this selfish materialism. They had become like the thief and the perjurer; they were visibly greedy. They were craving to fill up their baskets with with affluence, with prosperity. And again, this defines the world today. In fact, the one of the greatest deceptions that has ever invaded evangelicalism is the prosperity gospel that is so prevalent today, where people come to Jesus to somehow, you know, become wealthy. And all of that, of course, just feeds into this avarice. People worship a God of their own making for the purpose of earthly treasure.

Now to give you a little more context to understand, when these people heard what the vision was, historically, they did not come back into the land and worship pagan idols, but Satan is so clever in how he deceives people. Instead, they began to fall for another deceptive idol, and that is the idol of materialism. We see this, for example, in Zechariah's contemporary who spoke to the people right before Zechariah, Haggai one beginning in verse two, "'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "This people says, 'The time has not come, even the time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt.'"'" In other words, yeah, we're going to put that off. But, "Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, 'Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?' Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Consider your ways!'" There was warning about this. If you look at Nehemiah chapter five, about the first 13 verses, you will see that in that day, Nehemiah rebuked the rulers for exacting, heavy interest upon the people - impoverished people - causing them to sink more into debt and to lose their property and to basically be forced into servitude. And God confronted his people as well through Malachi concerning their godless secularism and their obsession with material things and prosperity. Malachi three, beginning in verse eight, "'Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, "How have we robbed You?" In tithes and offerings. 'You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!'"'" Soyou have this godless commercialism that it gained control of the hearts of the people. I'll give you one other passage through the prophet, Amos in chapter eight, beginning in verse four. "Hear this, you who trample the needy to do away with the humble of the land, saying, 'When will the new moon be over? So that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, to make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, and to cheat with dishonest scales, so as to buy the helpless for money and the needy for a pair of sandals, that they may sell the refuse of the wheat?'" And of course, we're familiar with this type of thing. You understand it, even in our country we're seeing right now, the theft of US taxpayers being exposed by the DOGE people in the Trump administration. I was reading how that they've discovered how billions of dollars were used by FEMA to accommodate illegal aliens, put them in five-star hotels, give them credit cards, give them free food, free health care, free education, basically, to buy voters. And New York is even now giving voting rights to these people. And of course, that's been the socialist progressive plan to let millions of people into this country so that you have more Democrat socialist voters to basically overthrow the country. And of course, every country has corrupt leaders. The people that are that are obsessed with power, they're obsessed with prosperity, and it's going to continue to get worse. And of course, commerce is always the primary mechanism that is used to both gain and maintain power.

Now back to the text. Notice this ephah going forth has something on top of it and something inside of it. Verse seven, "(and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah." And again, the ephah, we believe, would symbolize the idol of godless materialism, and the woman symbolizing false religion. And I might add that combined, these two form a symbiotic relationship, because the love of prosperity requires some kind of a false god to gain that prosperity. The two forms of idolatry are inseparable. I mean, you see, for example, the vast wealth of like the Roman Catholic Church and Mormonism and Islam and so forth. And you see how they work with government to subdue the people.

Verse eight, then he said, "'This is wickedness!'" The Septuagint uses the Greek term "anomia" (ἀνομία), which is lawlessness. In other words, this is lawlessness. "And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening." So obviously, the woman, this religious system, wants out, but it's being constrained in this small basket, and it's even sealed over with a lead cover. And I believe that one of the things that certainly stands out here is we can understand that God, in his divine omniscience, is able to see all of this, nothing escapes him; and we can also see that he is in complete control, and we can also see that he has a predetermined plan. The angel that says, "...threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening." We can assume here that her time to fully flaunt her harlotries of religious deception across the globe has not yet come, but as we're going to see, and scripture attests, it will reach its full force during the time of the tribulation under the rule of the Antichrist.

And I want to take you to the book of Revelation to help you see some of this. Help you see how the Bible really helps interpret itself. If we go to Revelation 17 as well as chapter 18, we have details concerning the nature of Satan's world system, what it will look like just prior to Christ's return, the time of the tribulation, also known as Daniel's 70th week, something that many of us call the pre-kingdom judgments. Let me give you a brief overview.

As we look at these passages and others like them, we see that, first of all, the satanic system that will come into full force just prior to the Lord's return is already operating today. We understand that, but it's certainly restrained by God, and eventually it will explode into a one world government, a one world religion ruled by Satan, by the Antichrist and the False Prophet, a counterfeit Trinity. Bear in mind that Satan always counterfeits that which is true. And the Lord calls that final empire "Babylon." The headquarters of the Antichrist, an appropriate name given the the exceeding wickedness that has always characterized that ancient region of the world and the ancient kingdom of Babylon. And this will include a final world religion that will be thoroughly demonic, therefore irresistibly appealing to many people. It will be so vile and blasphemous that the Lord describes Babylon sins in Revelation 18 five as being, quote "piled up as high as heaven." And this will be the unholy counterpart to the bride of Christ.

Now, if we look at the book of Revelation, we see how in John , in 17, John sees this amazing woman riding a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and 10 horns and so forth the beast, referring to the antichrist. And then, beginning in verse four of Revelation 17, we read this,

"The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality,

And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery,

'BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.'

Now a little more background, 1,656 years after God created Adam, we read in Scripture that he judged the world with a global flood. The geological record tells us that that has happened, and all except eight people who quote, "found favor in the eyes of the Lord," which was Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, all of them, or everyone else, was destroyed. The three sons were Shem Ham and Japheth. And after the flood, according to Genesis 10, verses eight through 10, one of the descendants of Ham, named Nimrod, tried to build, quote, "a kingdom called Babel." And this is the Hebrew form of the word Babylon, or I should say the Hebrew form of the name is Babylon. And where did he do this? In Genesis 10:10, in the land of Shinar. That would be the region of Iraq, today, the same region of the original Garden of Eden, the land of Mesopotamia. And according to Genesis 11 one, the whole earth used the same language and the same words, in other words, the language that Noah spoke, whatever that was. And in verse two, we read that they journeyed east to the land of Shinar and settled there.

And what we read in Scripture is that 100 years after the flood, Satan tried to establish his earthly kingdom through this man, Nimrod, Noah's great grandson, who was a foreshadow of the Antichrist. And we learn more about their motivation in 11, chapter 11, verse four of Genesis, and they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven. And let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." And of course, this is commonly called the Tower of Babel. It's also referred to as a ziggurat stage tower, and it was erected to facilitate idolatry. And historically, we understand that on top of that ziggurat and many others like it were the signs of the zodiac, where priests would chart the stars to determine their future and so forth.

And by the way, it should be of no surprise to us that we still have that type of satanic practice with us today. Now we know biblically that God was displeased with their rebellion and their idolatry and knowing that it was ultimately satanic, according to verse seven, we read this, ""'Come again, let Us go down and there confuse their language,'" the Triune God. Now let's "'go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth."

Now confused, each people group coalesced around their respective languages and went forth to search for a region that would support them, and naturally, they took with them all of their idolatries. And historians have discovered their religion centered around mother/son fertility cult worship; a combination of myth, legend, history, all points to a woman named Semiramis who was believed to be the wife of Nimrod. And regardless of the veracity of the name, as many as 180 shrines dedicated to the goddess Ishtar have been documented in Babylon.

By the way, I might add that that the legends in the history of that ancient time tells us that Semiramis was impregnated by a sunbeam that came through a crack in the wall, probably a counterfeit of the virgin birth. She had a son that by the name of Tammuz. Tammuz was eventually killed, but he came back to life, and you see the parallels there, Tammuz, we know became a Babylonian fertility god, and we see this idolatrous mother/son fertility cult worship seen in virtually every form of paganism around the world, even to this day. In Greece, she became Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Gaea. In Rome, she was Venus, Diana, Minerva, Terra. In India, you see the goddess Devaki and the infant Krishna. You see, Isi and the infant Iswarah. In Egypt, you have the goddess Isis with the son, Horus. In Asia, they were known as Cybele and Dious. The Scandinavians called her Disir, she's always pictured with a child. Ancient Germans worshiped the virgin, Ertha, with a child in her arms. And on it goes. And what's fascinating is in the days of Israel's apostasy, we see that they were even worshiping the who they called the Queen of Heaven, the Semiramis and her son, Tammuz. They were rebuked for this in Jeremiah 44 for worshiping the Queen of Heaven, which was the goddess Ishtar and also for worshiping Tammuz. You read about, you see his name in Ezekiel eight and verse 14. There you read how the women are weeping over Tammuz at the north gate of the temple in Jerusalem, which God considered an absolute abomination. And of course, this included idol worship that involved the lowest forms of abomination, of immorality, idolatrous practices that they refused to abandon so in Israel, so that God judged them, as we know.

I might also add as a footnote, it should be no surprise that the name "Queen of Heaven," Mother of God, is still used by another apostate form of religion known as Roman Catholicism. And of course, that's a reference to Mary. Roman Catholicism without getting off on this, folks it is rooted in ancient Babylonian cultism, ancient Paganism with a combination of apostate Judaism and apostate Christianity.

So the Tower of Babel spawned the complex of all of these pagan religions, from Islam to Hinduism, from Shamanism to Buddhism, and they were all birthed by the mother of harlots and the abomination of the earth in ancient Babylon. And later, we know that the Great Empire of Babylon was built under King Nebuchadnezzar in the same place, again, Iraq, the cradle of civilization. It all began in the Middle East. And I might add that it will end in the Middle East, and this remains the most hostile place in all of the world, towards Jews, towards Christians. They hate God's covenant people. They hate his church and so forth.

So in Revelation 17, the Lord warns us that, just before he returns, history is going to come full circle, shall we say, all of these false religious systems will have, you might say, a family reunion. They're all going to come home to mama, and they will all be rolled into one religion that is personified by the harlot. And even today, the world is being prepared for this, for this Babylonish horror that will promise to bring all of the world's religions together so that we will all worship the same God and we can all get along, and it's going to be all under this monolithic banner of ecumenism; a demonic system that will eventually lead to the sole worship of the Antichrist, because, as we see in the prophetic Scriptures, is the Antichrist is going to eventually destroy that one world church and demand that he be worshiped alone.

So my point with all of that give you a little background, the woman incarcerated in the basket is going to one day be released and the heavy lid of divine restraint that confines her is going to be removed, and her evil influence is going to spread like wildfire across the world. And of course, commerce is going to be used in order to get people to submit to her power. And we can be thankful, can't we, that we live in the church age where the Lord continues to restrain evil. My mind always goes to Second Thessalonians, two. Let me read this beginning in verse six, "And you know what restrains him now..." referring to restraint of the Antichrist, "...so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved."

So we've seen God's sovereign constraint of wickedness. Let's move to God's sovereign consolidation of wickedness. And next, what we're going to see is, is the ephah and the woman inside being transported by demonic forces to a house that is a temple that's going to be built for her, where she can be established on a pedestal to carry out her diabolical intentions. Verse nine, "Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens." Now the context indicates that these women represent demons. We know that storks were unclean birds, according to Leviticus 11:19, and Deuteronomy 14:18. If you read in that section, you'll read that there's a number of unclean birds, for example, included like the buzzard and the falcon and the raven and the owl, the ostrich, the seagull, the hawk, the pelican, carrion, vultures, the heron, the hoopy and the bat, and then it has various insects that are also unclean. And I might also add, just as a footnote, God used very tangible issues of life to repeatedly instill in the minds of the people the difference between what is holy and what is unholy. What is clean means what is acceptable to God. What is unclean means what is unacceptable to God. And if you read in Leviticus chapters 11 through 15, you will have the detailed code for uncleanness.

So in this vision, God uses the imagery of unclean storks to be the demonic agents, if you will, of wickedness to assist the woman who is the personification of religious wickedness, a symbol of ecclesiastical Babylon, this religious harlot. Merrill Unger, put it this way, quote, "As such, this woman represents all apostate religious movements from their inception in ancient Babylon of Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10), the seat of the first departure from God, eventuating in the judgment of the confusion of tongues (Genesis 11:1-9), to their terrible consummation in Romanism, apostate Protestantism, demon control Judaism, according to Matthew 12:43, through 45, paganism and other evil religious forces, forces of the last days."

So these two women with stork like wings assume a protective role and rapidly transport her to a special, predetermined place, that is the land of Shinar that we've already talked about. And in the end of verse nine, it says, "...they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens." So they're leaving now the land of Israel. And verse 10, and, "I said to the angel who was speaking with me, 'Where are they taking the ephah?' Then he said to me, 'To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar.'" By the way, bear in mind, what has God asked the people to do at this point? To build him a temple, to build him a house. And here we see the contrast of false religion wanting to have its house in the land of the Tower of Babel, where Satan first attempted to establish his kingdom on earth; the first place of organized rebellion against God, the capital of Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian Empire, and the place of Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth.

And folks, this is where the great harlot will one day, intoxicate the world with all of her deceptions. And people will fall for them, even as they fall for deceptions today, some of the things that people believe today are so stupid it's hard to understand, apart from just satanic blinding. And we know, according to Second Corinthians 4:4 that's what happens. Satan blinds the minds of the unbelievers so that they might not see the light of the glory of the gospel, the glory of Christ and in Revelation 17, verse 15, we even see the global reach of her religious deceptions. It says, "'There the waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.'" That's a phrase describing just a worldwide popularity of this false religious system that people will enjoy regardless of their social or cultural or ethnic or language barriers.

So again, where are they taking the ephah? Verse 11, "Then he said to me, 'To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.'" So once again, we see in the providence of God, him orchestrating all of the events of history according to his predetermined plan. And there will be the predetermined place where this religious wickedness will flourish, will establish itself. That's where, if you will, consolidate its power, and where it will be destroyed.

Beloved, this is where the world is headed, and today we see these satanic deceptions being promoted like never before, especially because of the power of the internet and social media. All manner of wingnuts are out there proclaiming things that have no basis in Scripture. Today we witness that power of deception and even in evangelicalism. By the way, bear in mind that all through history and certainly all through Scripture, we see how false religion works in tandem with governments in order to accomplish their purposes and enslave the people. I mean, just look at the Islamic world today. Look at the Russian Orthodox Church. I've been there on several occasions, teaching pastors, and you see how closely the Russian Orthodox Church works with communism. You see that with Roman Catholicism. Many places around the world and the socialism they promote. You see it in North Korea, for example, where you're required to worship the little fat guy, what's his name, Kim Jong, young or wrong or something like that. You see it in China, where they're predominantly atheist, but they have a folk religion, which is kind of a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, which I call Confucianism.

And by the way, the church is growing rapidly in China, and also in North Korea. It's amazing. I want to remind you of something. There's absolutely nothing the world, any government, any false religion, can do to thwart the purposes of God. So you can relax with that. He will build his church. And we even see how false religion is permeating our country. While I greatly appreciate what President Trump is doing, I fear for him, because one of his spiritual advisers is Paula White, who is a charlatan, a false teacher who promotes the prosperity gospel.

Well, we've seen God's sovereign constraint of wickedness and his sovereign consolidation of wickedness, and we're going to close with God's sovereign conclusion of wickedness. And this is beyond the scope of this particular vision, but we know prophetically that the Antichrist will temporarily support the use of this Babylonish whore for his own ends. But the angel in Revelation 17:16, describes her destruction. Verse 16, "'And then the 10 horns which you saw, and the beast...'" The 10 horns was a reference to a confederacy of nations under the rule of the Antichrist. The beast is the Antichrist. "The 10 horns which you saw and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.'" And we know that at the time of the abomination of desolation and the temple, when the Antichrist desecrates the temple and demands that the world worship him alone, there will be no more need for the harlot church to help him advance his agenda. And like all false religious systems, this religious whore will amass enormous wealth that the Antichrist will want for his coffers. In fact, in verse 18 of Revelation, 17, we are told, and "The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.'" And there she is linked to the headquarters of the Antichrist and the capital city that will be destroyed, according to chapter 18.

And again, Satan has always used the combination of government and false religion to accomplish his nefarious purposes, to thwart the purposes of God. And Zechariah's seventh vision helps us see just an example of all of this and where it's going and the and we know that one day this is all going to be judged. And I want to close with this by reading to you the verses in Revelation 18, because there we read about the demise of commercial and ecclesiastical Babylon that will one day rain upon the earth. What's been symbolized with both the ephah of greedy materialism and the woman of false religion. I want to read Revelation 18, because here we read of God's judgment, as I say, the sovereign conclusion of wickedness.

"After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory.

And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison.... For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.'

I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive her plagues;

for her sins have piled up as high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities.

Pay her back, even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.

To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, "I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW,and will never see mourning."

For this reason, in one day, her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her as strong.

And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and live sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning,

standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, "Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong! For in one hour your judgment has come."

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargos anymore -

cargos of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every kind of citron wood, and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble,

and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep,  in cargos of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives.

The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you, and men will no longer find them.

The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,

saying, "Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls;

for in one hour, such great wealth has been laid waste!" And every ship master and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance

and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, "What city is like the great city?"

They threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, "Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour, she has been laid waste!" '"

Then we read this,

"'Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.'

Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, 'So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence and will not be found any longer.

The sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer;

and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.'"

Dear friends, God is going to render judgment on the ungodly, and I pray that you will not be among them, though we are all guilty sinners, aren't you thankful that there is a provision; there is a provision of mercy and a provision of grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would plead with all of you as a minister of the gospel, if you have not come to a place where you are absolutely broken over your sin, you need to examine your heart and pray that God will help you to do so, and then run to the foot of the cross and cry out for a mercy you not do not deserve. And know this - that you are never closer to grace than when you are quite certain you can never have it. And I pray that each one of us will one day be among the redeemed and the glories of heaven. Aren't you thankful for that? That we have that hope in Christ? Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. I pray that they will penetrate every heart and bear much fruit to the praise of your glory, that Christ will be exalted in all of the earth, and that the glory of the Lord will fill the earth, cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. We thank you. We give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen.