Sermon: God’s Judgment on Sin

God’s Judgment on Sin
Zechariah 5:1-11
November 13, 2022

We live in a sinful world.  We are well aware of the sinfulness of the world:

• There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness. (Prov. 30:12)
• For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord. (Ps. 10:3)
• Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. (Ps. 51:5)
• “[The ungodly] count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness…” (2 Pt. 2:13–15)

It has always been this way: 

“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5 — the beginning of the flood story)

It seems that our day is particularly heinous, though Paul also spoke of depraved days:

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Rom. 1:28-32 — that could be a theme song for our culture)

R.C. Sproul wrote about that short paragraph —

“Despite the scope of his list, it is only partial. It is merely representative of our corruption. If Paul had enumerated all the sins that the Bible spells out, he could have filled the entire epistle and then some. He gives us a representative list that should be enough to stop every mouth and convict every conscience. Surely there is something on the list that we recognize as a part of our own experience. [Sproul, Romans]

Don’t you sometimes wonder, “How long, Lord?  Will the unjust go unpunished?  Will the perverse continue to prosper and the obedient continue to be oppressed?”  Something like that had to be on the minds of the Israelites after they returned from their Babylonian captivity.  They were back in the land, but they were still facing opposition that was so strong that they gave up rebuilding the temple.  The foundation was poured and there it sat undeveloped for 15 years while the Israelites held back from building in fear and apathy.

To that people, God spoke to the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to exhort them to repentance and to stimulate them to obedient action.  To stimulate these dispirited and perhaps rebellious people to action, God revealed His nature and part of His plan.  In Zechariah’s prophecy that revelation began with eight visions on the night of February 15, 519 B.C.

In chapter five we find two related visions regarding sin.  But there is something of an unexpected emphasis; rather than focusing only on the sins of Babylon and Medo-Persia, the vision from God also addresses the ungodly in Israel.  Combined, these two visions reveal the character of God in His justice towards sin and both comfort and warn the Israelites about sin (their sin and the sin of others) —

God comforts and warns His people with the promise of His judgment on sinners and sin.

This morning, we consider Zechariah’s sixth and seventh visions:

1. What Zechariah Saw in the Sixth Vision (5:1-2)
2. What Zechariah’s Sixth Vision Meant (5:3-4)
3. What Zechariah Saw in the Seventh Vision (5:5-7)
4. What Zechariah’s Seventh Vision Meant (5:8-11)
5. What Zechariah’s Visions Teach About God

Download the rest of this sermon on Zechariah 5:1-11.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.

Clouds and Sun rays by dotcompals is licensed under CC BY 2.0.