In his message on the day of
Pentecost, he addressed those Jews with, ye men of Israel. And I can stand before you and
address you as ye men of Israel, Israelites. Hear these words. Hear what God has to say. Jesus
of Nazareth, a man approved of God. That's who we're going to
talk about. So we've been talking about,
we're going to continue talking about him. He's approved of God. God's pleased with him. Who among you by miracles and
wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you,
as you yourselves also know him being delivered by the determinant
council and for knowledge of God. The cross was purposed by
God from all eternity. It wasn't just something that
happened, it's, well, matter of fact, everything that happens
is because of the cross. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain whom God hath raised up, having
loose the pains of death because it was not possible that he should
be holden by it. Not possible for the Lord Jesus
Christ to behold. He conquered death. He conquered
the grave, and it was our sin that put Christ on Calvary's
cross. Pray the Lord will give us eyes
to see and ears to hear and mouths to speak of Christ this morning. Good morning. Tom, we're gonna
sing the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. There's one little typo, there's
a word missing in the fourth line of the first verse after
it says, the Lord placed, there should be a me in there, the
Lord placed me in his fold. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
me, paid all the sin debt I owed. Now I am condemnation free. The Lord placed me in his fold. When I stand at the judgment
throne, I will have only one plea. I'll say with no merit
my own, I'm with Him and He loved me. God accepts me in His beloved,
by His blood I've been redeemed. His Spirit called me by His love,
I am God's Son elected. My hope is only in the Lord,
the Lord alone is my plea. This will forever be my word,
I'm with Him and He loves me. Now all the riches of his grace
that are promised in his word are mine forever in heaven's
place. I'll see my eternal Lord. There in glory I'll be like Him,
I'll praise Christ who made me new. The Lord God will say, enter
in, you're with Him and I love you. Please be seated. It is good to be here turn with
me for the Lord's call to worship to Matthew 19 Matthew 19 and
Brother I want to thank you for your words this morning I'll say there's two things the
Lord is having to teach me every day and I pray it's give me the
his spirit to believe it two verses of scripture that He has
to remind me. You know, the Lord put a lot
of people, always remembrance, remembrance. The first one is
when the Lord says that God the Father gave him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, all power and authority over heaven and earth. That tells
me no matter what happens in this world, I know it's by the
hand of God. and ordained of God. And then
the other verse that always encourages my heart is when Abraham was
pleading for a lot. When he asked God, he said, shall
not the judge of the earth, shall not the judge of all the earth
do right? That's not a question, that's
a fact. I take comfort in knowing that whatever events happen,
It's ordained of God, and it's right and good, no matter whether
I like it or not. Thank God he does right, because
if he did what I wanted, it'd be to my destruction. But that's
our comfort. That's a comfort to my soul. I pray, I try to teach that to
our young people. I say, there's nothing to fear.
If God takes my life, it was ordained of God, and it was right
and good. And thank you, Lord. Thank you that you don't give
me what I asked for. I want to read here in Matthew,
starting at verse 16. And I want us to see two things
here. Don't think of this just about worldly goods. Think this
is about righteousness and self-righteousness. That's what we're guilty of.
And behold, one came and said unto him, he approached the Lord
and he said, good master. What good thing shall, you see
those next two words? That's the problem right there.
That's what's being told in false religion all over this world
today, I do. What must I do that I may have
eternal life? And he said unto him, why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. But if thou will enter into life,
the commandments. He's not talking just about God's
law. He's talking about everything
that God has commanded. That's what you must do to have
eternal life. And he said to him, I always
laugh about this just like our grandchildren. They always want
to negotiate. Which? And Jesus said, thou shall do
no murder. Thou shall not commit adultery.
Thou shall not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness,
honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. And this is the response of every
unbeliever, every religious unbeliever. It's happening today. When they,
what can I do to be saved? Keep his commandments. And here's
what the young man said to him. All these things I've kept from
my youth up, what lack I yet? I've worked the works for salvation. verse I want you to see, verse
21. And Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be, and I even highlight
in my Bible, that next word is what changes everything. If thou
wilt be perfect, perfect. That's God's standard, absolute
perfection. From the first breath you take
to the last. Don't be foolish as this man
and think you can do that. Thou will be perfect. Go sell
that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shall have treasure
in heaven and come and follow me. Verse 22, but when the young
man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great
possessions. He had great righteousness. He
didn't want to hear that he wasn't perfect. Brethren, when the Lord
makes it clear to you what He commands, absolute perfection,
do you think you could stand before Him? Well, Brother Burt,
I need a substitute. There's only one that can stand
before Him in absolute perfection, and that was the God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. I love this in a hymn. said,
when it's time for you to stand before God's judgment throne,
will you stand in Christ complete, or will you stand alone? That's
the only two positions, either complete in Christ, that Christ
has done all the saving, he's my only hope, or I stand alone
in my own deeds and works. When it's time for me to stand,
I'll not be full of fear. Christ will stand when my name
is called, and for me say, I'm here, Father, I'm here. Brethren, that's how I can get
up in the morning and face whatever it brings. Christ is my substitute,
and he alone is perfect. He meets every command that God
requires for the salvation of this sinner's soul. Let us try to pray to the Lord.
Lord, we. We're thankful that you're present
this morning for you've promised to be here and we know that everything
you promised will come to pass or has come to pass and is true
and right and good. We ask that you would send your
spirit to us to give us the ability to worship you in truth and spirit. We ask your hand upon your servant.
wherever your people meet, our brother Greg, this prophet you
sent for us, Lord, that you would speak through him, that you would
give him the ability to organize the thoughts that you put in
his heart and mind and to speak them clearly to us. And Lord,
we plead for you as his people. Oh God, give us your spirit of
faith to believe what is preached and to glorify you and to honor
you and to give all praise to you. For you alone, Lord, are
perfect. We plead for you to speak to
our hearts this day. Amen. We're gonna sing it as well with
my soul, but it's the version which is the same as in our hardback,
but it's inside cover of your softback, the spiral hymn book.
It's got all six verses in it. So let's stand and we'll sing
that hymn. It's on the back cover of your spiral hymn book. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trial should come, let this blessed assurance control. that Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ,
hence to live. If Jordan above me shall roll,
no pain shall be mine. For in death as in life, Thou
wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. But, Lord, tis for Thee, for
Thy coming we wait. The sky, not the grave, is our
goal. O trump of the angel, O voice
of the Lord, blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, haste the day when
the faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trump shall resound and the
Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul, with
my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Please be seated. Bert is going
to bring special music. before the sun had ever shone
its light upon the land. Christ was slain in sinners'
stead, more numerous than the sand. Jesus died a substitute. In my place stood he. All of my sin in him he bore
on blasted Calvary. Was this justice, was this right,
that God would die for me? How can I, condemned to die,
by Jesus be set free? Jesus died a substitute. In my place stood he. All of my sin in him he bore
on blood-stained Calvary. Now I know who my pardon is,
how it is I live. Jesus' blood, the reason is,
his form I did give. Jesus died a substitute. In my place stood he. All of my sin in him he bore
on blood. Thank you, Bert. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Acts chapter two, Acts chapter two. All my sin on Calvary, what a
blessing. I've titled this message Pentecost,
the reversal of Babel. Pentecost, the reversal of Babel. The Tower of Babel in Genesis
chapter 11, by the way we'll be looking at that story as well
if you'd like to put your finger in your Bible there, is God's
curse on man-made free will, works religion, and all the confusion
that it brings. The message in Genesis chapter
11 is the curse of God brought upon man's attempt to earn his
way to heaven by his own works. And the judgment of God came
by bringing confusion of speech. That's what the word Babel means.
Pentecost, Pentecost on the other hand, is God's blessing restoring
all of these different languages to one speech and one message. Pentecost is the reversal of
Babel. Now you and I live in Babylon. This world is referred to as
Babylon. The religions of this world are
referred to as Babylon. The churches of this world are
referred to as Babylon. And in Revelation, we read of
Mystery Babylon, the great mother of the harlots, and the judgment
of God that brings her to her end. And God saying to his people,
come ye out from among her and be separate, saith the Lord. It's not a coincidence that the
children of Israel spent 70 years in exile in Babylon. The scriptures make it clear
that the life of a man here on earth is three score and 10.
That's 70 years. And, uh, and we are exiled from our home. One day, our Lord will take us
home and we'll be delivered from this land of Babylon. The confusion of man-made religion
is seen in the confusion of speech brought about in Babylon. And the unity, the unity of the
gospel that God brings to the hearts of his people is seen
in the miracle that God performed on the day of Pentecost. You
have your Bibles open to Acts chapter 2. We'll begin reading
at verse 4. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues. Now, every
place that this miracle of tongues is spoken of in the New Testament,
it is a reference to preaching the gospel in a language that
that person did not learn by natural means. It's not some
sort of some sort of gibberish. It's not some sort of sound that, you know, that proves,
you know, people use that gift of tongues in order to prove
that they have a special place with God because they've been
given this. You are able to, you're given the gift of tongues
when you can go to a foreign country and preach the gospel
with clarity and with unambiguous clarity. from the scriptures
in a language that you never learned before. Now that's exactly
what's happened on the day of Pentecost. And that gift of tongues
was a gift that was given just for this period of time, is not
to be continued on. They were filled with the Holy
Ghost, began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them
utterance. The Spirit of God enabled them
to speak in a language that they didn't know. They weren't just
talking. They were preaching the gospel. And there were dwelling
at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven.
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and
were confounded because that every man heard them speak in
their own language. Now I don't know how this worked
out, was each Was each one of the apostles meeting with a different
group of people? I don't know, but they were speaking
in their language, and they were hearing them clearly in their
language. And they were all amazed and
marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which
speak Galileans? Now, to be a Galilean, that was
a slur. You're a country pumpkin. You're
uneducated fishermen who could not possibly learn a foreign
language and yet you're speaking with such clarity in a language
that we cannot, how can this be? They were confounded, they
didn't understand. And how here we every man in
our own language wherein we were born? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, The
dwellers of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia,
Phrygia, Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya, also Cyrene,
strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear
them speak in our languages the wonderful works of God. Oh, that men would praise him.
We just see that in Psalm 107, and declare the wonderful works
of God. These men were preaching the
gospel. They weren't standing up, having
lost control of themselves, speaking in some unknown language. They were declaring the wonderful
works of God to men in their own language. And they were amazed. And we're
in doubt saying one to another, what meaneth this? Now, Peter's
going to tell them what it means when he goes on to say, this
is the fulfillment of the prophecy that Joel had made, that when
the spirit of God comes, your young men will prophesy and your
old men will prophesy and your young men will see dreams. And
this is the fulfillment of that prophecy that God had made for
when the spirit of God is poured out and the gospel is preached
in the world. Others mocking said, these men
are full of new wine. Always the response, isn't it?
Some wonder, what are we hearing? I understand what he's saying.
I want to speak with such simplicity. You know, Paul said to Timothy,
he said, I fear. I fear, lest by any means, as
Eve was beguiled by Satan, that you should be deceived, that
you should be brought away from the simplicity that is in Christ
Jesus. Oh, the gospel is clear, the
gospel's plain, the gospel's simple. And when God gives a
person an ear to hear it, they say, well, I understand what
he's saying. That's pretty simple. That's not confusing. That's
not convoluted. Religion is confusing. Religion's
very confusing. Religion will tell you, well,
you're saved by grace. And then they'll turn right around
and cause you to look at your works in order to see if you're
keeping up with the law. Which is it? It can't be both. If it is of grace, it can no
longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
You can't mix grace and works. Religion will tell you that God
is omnipotent, all powerful, and God is sovereign. He reigns
in the heavens and has sovereign control over all things until
he comes up against man's free will. And now, he's impotent. and dependent upon man to let
him have his way. Now that just doesn't make sense.
You can't make sense of that. That's why you cannot make sense
out of nonsense. You just can't do it. No wonder
the irreligious world mocks religion today. Anybody with any sense
listens to what's being said in religion and says, well, that
doesn't even make sense at all. You see, we believe that our
God is absolutely sovereign under all circumstances, especially
over the will of man. And then when he's ready, he
makes his people willing in the day of his power, that he sovereignly
takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh.
And he makes us to come unto himself. And if he didn't do
it, we wouldn't come. We wouldn't come. And we believe that salvation
is all of grace. All of grace. We don't look to
works for any part of our salvation, not for our regeneration, not
for our sanctification, not for our glorification. We depend
upon the grace of God alone in the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ for all our righteousness before God. That's
simple. That's clear. You see, they were
preaching this message in a language that could be understood. What
do they say in religion? God loves everybody. But most of the folks that he
loves, he's going to torment for eternity in a devil's hell. Now, how do you make sense of
that? What kind of love is that? We believe that God loved Jacob
and he hated Esau, that God's love is particular and that God's
love is eternal and that God's love is effectual. And that,
that, that, that he brings to himself, those whom he has chosen
to love and that the wrath of God will
fall on those outside of his mercy
and outside of his grace. Religion is just convoluted. It's confusing. It's like babble. What do you hear in religion?
Christ died for everybody. He died for everybody. But most
of the folks he died for, he's not gonna save. He can't save. His hands are tied. Well, what
was accomplished in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing was accomplished. It's an offer of salvation made
to man. No. We believe that when the
Lord Jesus Christ willingly laid down his life for his sheep,
he was making an offer of himself to his father, and the father
saw the travail of his soul, and the father was satisfied,
and that he actually accomplished the salvation of those that he
died for. Successfully accomplished. Now
you see the simplicity of the gospel compared to the confusion
of religion? It doesn't make sense. Now what's
happening at Pentecost is God is clarifying the confusion of
Babel. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
11. Then you have all the different,
not only those examples that I just gave, but you have all
the different religions of the world saying, oh no, you need
to do this. And another one say, oh, no, you need to do that.
And another one say, oh, no, you need to do the other. You
see, the truth is, the truth is that there's no difference.
There's no difference between Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, what's
popularly known as Christianity. They're all the same. They're
all the same. in that they're all a works gospel. The only difference between one
religious persuasion and the other is what are their particular
list of do's and don'ts that you have to accomplish in order
for you to be right with God. And what do we say? It is finished. Everything that God requires
is already done. It's done. Christ did it all. He did it all by himself. He
finished the work. You remember when Paul went to
Athens in Acts chapter 17 and he walked around the city and
he saw all of those statues and he said to the Athenians on Mars
Hill, he said, I perceive I perceive, I see now that you are very superstitious. Very superstitious. That's what
religion is. And superstition is confusing,
isn't it? We went to a mosque one time,
a Muslim mosque in Istanbul. And on the door of the mosque
going in, there were six door handles. In a row, six door handles. And on the door going out of
the mosque, there were six door handles. And I asked the tour
guide, I said, what's the door handles all about? He said, well,
you spin them to the right when you're going in, you spin them
to the left when you're going out. You spin each one of them. And I watched him do it. I said,
what's that for? He said, just good luck. Well,
what if you spin them the wrong way? You know, that's a silly example
of the kind of stuff you see in religion. I grew up kissing
the feet of statues and lighting candles to dead saints, thinking
that somehow I'm going to, you know, get, it's all super. Paul said, I perceive that you
are very superstitious. And I see that you even have
a monument to the unknown God. Just in case you missed one,
you created a monument to a God that you don't know. You got
all the Greek gods and then you got the unknown God. That's the
God I'm going to preach to you. That's what he said to him. That's
the God I'm going to preach to you, the one you don't know.
Because all those other gods are not gods at all. Now, that's
exactly what happened. That's the curse of Babel. You
see it all in the world. The confusion of speech that
you see all over the world today in every form of manmade free
will works religion is the consequence of the curse that God gave at
Babel. And what he did at Pentecost
was reverse that curse. Look at Genesis chapter 11. And the whole earth was of one
language. This is after the flood. Noah's
sons have multiplied and now there's a bunch of folks in the
world. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. Now that word speech is the word
word. In other words, you can be of the same language, but
you might have different words that you use that the other person
may not be familiar with, depending on where they come from, different
part of the country, different part of the world, whether it
be Spanish or English or whatever. These people all spoke the same
language, and they all knew exactly the same vocabulary. I mean,
they were of one language and of one word. Never did somebody
say something that somebody else didn't understand. And it came to pass, as they
journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land
of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Now, Shinar translated means
two rivers. And that's where Babylon was,
between the Euphrates and the Tigris River, which is exactly
where Baghdad is today. This is Iraq. This is where Babylon
was built, the great country of Babylon and they said one
to another, they all were in agreement, we
need to build a city and we need to build a temple with a tower
that reaches up into heaven. What were they doing? They were
trying to get to God. That's what they were trying
to do, which is exactly what every religion of the world is
about today, trying to get to God by something that they do.
Now the Lord makes it clear in his law to the children of Israel.
He said, when you build an altar, make it out of earth. And if
you use stones, do not use hewn stones. For as soon as you put
a tool to the stone to build the altar, then you have polluted
the altar. Why? Because you put your hand
to it. And what's that a picture of?
Don't put your hand to the work of Christ. He's the rock of ages. He's finished salvation by himself. Don't be like the rest of the
Babylonian religions of the world, trying to add to what Christ
did. He gets all the glory. Because
as soon as you put your hand to it, you've polluted it. You've
destroyed it. You know, it's kind of like when
the ark stumbled. Do you remember when the ark
was being carried on the, and Uzzah reached up and put his
hand to the ark to stabilize it, and God killed him right
there on the spot? Why? Because he put his hand to Christ.
The Lord said, if you build an altar, build it out of earth,
and if you use stones, don't use hewn stones. Don't put a
tool to it. Don't try to make it look pretty.
Just take a raw stone and stack it up and use that for your altar,
for that altar is Christ. We don't have an altar here physically.
Why? Because our altar is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself and we're not gonna put our hands to him.
He finished the work by himself. Oh, what hope, what peace, what
comfort to know that salvation is finished and it's all of the
Lord. Now what happens in Babel? Let
us go. and let us make bricks and burn
them thoroughly. Now what they're saying, this
word thoroughly means burn them with a burning. You remember
when Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter six was putting the Hebrew
children into the furnace and he said, heat it up seven times
the normal heat. And then he threw Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego in there and he said, I see a fourth man like
unto the son of man. Who's that? Well, that's the
one absorbing the heat of the fire. And they thought if we
put enough heat to these bricks, we can make stones out of them.
Let us burn them thoroughly. And what does man say today?
You know, if I can put enough passion into my religion, then
perhaps I can make my bricks look like stones and God will
be pleased with them. That's what's happening here
in Babel. They've got brick for stone and they're burning the
brick thoroughly trying to make them as hard as stone. Now the difference between bricks
and stone is that God made the stones and they're a whole lot
older than bricks and man made the bricks. and he fashioned
them with his hands and he polluted them. Let us burn them thoroughly
and they had brick for stone and slime for mortar. Now that word slime is the same
word that we find Noah used when the scripture refers of pitch. Noah built the ark. And he pitched
it within and without its tar. There are places in the world
where there's open tar pits that come up out of the ground. And
that's what they did. They took the tar and they put
the tar on the arc and tar works really good as a water repellent.
And the word pitch and the word slime here is actually the word
covering, covering or atonement. The pitch that was on the ark
of Noah's ark was a picture of the atoning work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ himself is that ark and
his work on Calvary's cross to atone for the sins of his people,
to satisfy the demands of God's justice with his precious blood
to put away their sins, that's what atonement is. When God's
pleased, And God covers our sins and we're, and they're put away.
That's what these stories, they're all about Christ, aren't they?
So they had brick for stone and they had slime for mortar. Now slime works really good as
a water repellent, but can you imagine in the middle of Iraq
summer at 130 degrees using tar for mortar? That building is not going to
stand, is it? What is the picture here? The picture here is that
men speak of the atoning work of Christ. They put a statue
on a crucifix or they'll put a cross up on their building
and they'll call themselves Christians and they'll talk about the death
of Christ on Calvary's cross and they're using the atoning
work of Christ to hold together their works. That's what this is about. You
see, this is exactly what's happening today in all these religious
meeting houses. They talk about the death of
Christ, and they're trying to hold together the bricks that
they have fashioned with their hands, their works, and their
will with the work of the atonement. It's Jesus plus. It's Jesus plus. That's what Babel's all about.
Babel is the beginning of Babylon. It's the beginning of all the
corruption of religions that we see in the world that robs
Christ of his glory. And when he sent his spirit on
the day of Pentecost, he reversed the curse of Babylon. And he gave all of his people
one speech and one language so that in Christ they're not divided
anymore. And here's what I'm saying to
you this morning is that all God's people believe the same
thing. And all this confusion of religion
that we see in the world is not of the Lord. It's not of the
Lord. The Lord teaches all of his children
the same thing about Christ. He uses the same word. It's the
same message, the same gospel. And they all heard in their own
language, every word clearly what was being spoken. And they said, look at verse
four, let us go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top
may reach up into heaven and let us make us a name. That's the motivation behind
all Babylonish religions. All error in religion is motivated
by man wanting a name for himself. And it all goes back to the garden.
The very first temptation, the very first time that Satan drew
man away from God. What do you say? That's what
Paul said, I fear. I quote this, I fear lest as
Eve was deceived by Satan. That you might be corrupted from
the simplicity of Christ. But that's what he's doing. And
what did he say to Eve? God knows in the day in which
you eat of the fruit, your eyes will be open and you'll be like
God. What is the motivation behind all free will religion? Man wanting
to be God. And that's all when you hear
somebody talk about God loves everybody and Christ died for
everybody and God wants everybody to be saved and bless his little
heart. He's in the heavens wringing
his hands and he can't do anything about saving you unless you let
him. Who does that put on the throne of God? You see, man wants to be God.
Let them call it religion. Let them call it Christianity.
Let them put on their fake humility all they want. They have put
themselves, 2 Thessalonians 2, on the throne of God. That's the bottom line. And that's
what's happening here in Babel. You see, the simplicity of what
we believe is that God is God, and we're not. And he always
gets his way. Michael, what you were saying
earlier, I, I, I realized, you know, if, if we had the power
of God, we would be tempted to change everything, wouldn't we? And if we had the wisdom of God,
we would change nothing. Nothing. Our God reigns and he's
right on schedule with everything he's doing. What a comfort, what
a joy, what a blessing to be able to rest in knowing that
he does all things well. A man wants to let us make a
name for ourselves. Isn't that what people are doing?
You know, we want a legacy. We want our name to be up there. Man wants to glorify himself
and rob Christ of his glory and God says, Believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. God says, he saved us for his
name's sake. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ said. And at the name of Jesus,
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. For God has given him
a name that is above every name. Every name. Who's, who are we
making a name for? Our names. Well, the Lord said,
Rejoice not that the demons are subject unto you. That's what
they do in religion, especially the people who are pretending
to have the gifts of the spirit of God and pretending to speak
in tongues. What are they doing? The devils
are subject unto us. And when the disciples came back
and said the devils are subject unto us, what'd the Lord say?
Rejoice not that the demons are subject unto you, but rejoice
rather that your names are written in heaven. That's a rejoice over. His name. His name. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 10, now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all
speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and
in the same judgment, for it has been declared unto me of
you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that
there are contentions among you. Now this, I say that every one
of you who say, if I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulist, I'm a Cephas,
I'm a Christ, you know, they, they, they all have their favorite
preacher and the Lord's rebuking them for that. And here's the
question. Verse 13 is Christ divided. It's
Christ divided. All these divisions that we see
in so-called Christianity today is that of Christ. When the Lord
Jesus Christ prayed in John chapter 17, he said, Father, I pray that
they be one, even as I am one with thee. Is it possible for
God's people to believe different things about the gospel? No,
no. And this isn't a matter of emphasis,
is it? It's not just a matter of, well,
you know, we emphasize one doctrine, they emphasize another doctrine.
No. It's a different God. It's a
completely different gospel. And you know that God's given
you ears to hear when you can discern the difference. Because
a lot of folks will hear what we're saying and they'll say,
well, yeah, I see what you're saying, but you know, and then
they'll go back and they'll worship in a false church. And, and, We all said the same thing about
the sovereignty of our God, about the holiness of our God. Our
God's holy. He won't be satisfied with something
that we do. We're not using the atoning work
of Christ as slime to hold together the works of our hands. We've got the rock of ages that's
been hewn by God and shaped by God. We're standing firmly on
him and on him alone. We believe that he's true and
faithful, that he's immutable. I am the Lord and I change not,
and therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Our God is
the same today, yesterday, and forever. He hasn't changed. He's a God of purpose, isn't
He? He's a God of accomplishments, a successful Savior. And we're
not. But that's what's happening at
Babel. Notice, let's go back to our text in Genesis chapter
11. You see the contrast between Genesis chapter 11 and Acts chapter
2? You see what the Lord's doing? Because all those languages that
we just read about in in Genesis and Acts chapter 2 were the languages
that God created in Romans and in Genesis. Acts chapter 2 and
Genesis chapter 11. You know what I'm saying. They're
all the same. Those are the languages. Look,
look. Let us make a name for ourselves. Lest we be scattered
abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down
to see the city and the tower which the children of men built
it. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have
all one language. And this they begin to do, and
now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined
to do. The reason God cursed man at
Babel is to restrain him." The differing languages and the
different nations and the different cultures that we have in the
world are for the purpose of restraining the evil of man. Could you imagine if all men
were the same? All men say, everybody in the world spoke the same language,
didn't they? Well, we wouldn't survive. They'd be done with us pretty
quick, wouldn't they? The Lord's doing this for the
good of His church, isn't He? declaration of the gospel, he's
cursing man. Go to, verse 7, let us go down
and there confound their language that they may not understand
one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad
from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left
off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called
Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all
the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad
upon the face of all the earth. And then when the spirit of God
came in Acts chapter two, the miracle of tongues was the reversal
of the curse of Babel so that all of God's people heard the
same message and they believed the same thing. You remember when the disciples,
James, Peter, and John were on Mount of Transfiguration with
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord removed the veil of his
humanity just long enough for the sum of the radiance of his
deity to shine forth in a blinding light so that Peter, James, and
John were forced to the ground. And they saw the Lord speaking
to Moses and Elijah of those things which he should accomplish
in Jerusalem. The law and the prophets, what
was he going to accomplish? He was going to fulfill the law
and fulfill all the promises of God in the prophets. And after
Moses and Elijah are gone, Peter says, let us build a tabernacle,
Lord. It's good that we're here. And
then when they looked up, the scripture said, and they saw
no man save Jesus only. only. That's the simplicity of
the gospel. When Martha was confused, was
encumbered with many things, and she went to the Lord and
said, Lord, tell Mary to help out in the kitchen. What did
the Lord say to Martha? Martha, Martha, you've got so
many things going on, you're so encumbered with so many things,
but Mary, look where she's at. She's sitting at my feet. She's
listening to every word I'm speaking and she has chosen that one thing
that is needful. One thing. One thing that's needful. You remember when Jairus comes
to the Lord and his 12-year-old daughter's on her deathbed, and
he pleads with the Lord to come to his house and heal his daughter.
And on the way, the Lord is interrupted by a divine interruption. As
far as Jairus was concerned, I can just imagine how anxious
he was, trying to pull the Lord to his house, knowing that his
daughter was in her final. And the woman with the tissue
of blood, And the Lord finishes with her, and about that time,
Jairus' servant shows up and says, bother the master no more,
your daughter's dead. The Lord, such great compassion,
looked at Jairus, and Jairus, be not afraid. Only. Only believe. Believe me. Trust me. Rest all the hope of
your salvation and the life of your daughter on me. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Brethren, nothing's changed.
The curse of Babel is seen everywhere. And the blessing of Pentecost
is seen among God's people. The Lord has done for us what
he said for us to do. See, everything God commands,
God must provide. What did He say? Come ye out
from among her and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And that's exactly
what He's done. He's brought us out and He's
given us one message, one language, one Savior, one God, one baptism,
one church. Wouldn't you love the simplicity
of the gospel? It's not confusing. It's simple. It's about Christ. He is all and He is in all. And look at Hebrews chapter 10
at verse 11. And every priest, I wrote a little
article in your bulletin about the missing chair. The chair
in the Old Testament tabernacle was not there. There was never
a time for the priest to sit down. His work was never finished.
They were making sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. Where
is that chair that's missing in the tabernacle? The Lord Jesus
Christ is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high.
That's his throne, isn't it? Look at Hebrews chapter 10, beginning
verse 11. Every priest standing daily,
ministering, offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which can
never take away sins. Those blood sacrifices in the
Old Testament, they pointed to the one and only sacrifice able
to take away sin. But this man, and that's who
it's all about, this man, But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of
God. There's where the chair is. The Lord is seated. Why is he seated? Because he's
finished. He's finished. from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. Now the scripture says that we
are by nature at enmity with God. Why are we at enmity with
God? Because we're trying to rob him of his glory by earning
our salvation by building bricks and putting them together with
slime. We're trying to make a name for ourselves. And because of
that, we are at enmity with God. And here the Lord says, I'm going
to make my enemies to be my footstool. I'm going to take those who are
raising their fist in rebellion against God, trying to be God
themselves, and I'm going to make them sit like Mary at my
feet. From henceforth, expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath,
there's your word, Michael, perfected. Forever. Them that are sanctified. Sanctification is something completed. We're holy in Christ. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, for after he has said before, this is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and in their
minds, I will write them. And their sins and iniquity will
I remember no more. Now, wherever remission of this
is, there is no more offering for sin. No more offering. We serve God
now out of gratitude for what he's done for us. We give out
of thanksgiving. We're not making an offering
for sin. The Lord's already done that. He finished the work, didn't
he? having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure waters and let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful
that promised. Pentecost. It's where we live
in right now. We live in Pentecost. Remember,
Passover had to happen before Pentecost. Pentecost has to happen
before the Feast of Tabernacles, and that's when we go home. So
we're living in the age of Pentecost right now. And what the Lord
is doing for us is He is reversing the curse of Babylon and giving
us one language and one speech and one Lord. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word. We pray that your Holy Spirit
would. Cause us to have the faith to believe everything you've
said and done. Lord, we trust you to keep us and protect us
and provide for us our every need in this world and in the
life to come. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Number 268 let's stand. you Thou firm of foundation, ye Saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent Word. What more can he say than to
you he hath said, To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled,
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God,
I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand, Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow. For I will be with thee thy troubles
to bless and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. you