Let's go back to Genesis 11,
if you happen to have closed your Bibles, open them back up
to Genesis 11. And as Joe was mentioning the
different folks of our congregation, I also, we need to be mindful
of those who who don't feel comfortable coming
back to worship yet, and we look forward to seeing them. As with you, I'm sure, I'm encouraged
in the medicine and the shots that they're beginning to administer
to people, and so we look forward to it being a wonderful day when
we can again, all of us, gather together in the name of our Savior,
and we'll sing the praises of our God and King once again,
and it will be a blessed day to do that. Alright, this evening
I want to speak to you on the subject of a city and a tower. A city and a tower. And of course this is the tower
of Babel. But let's ask God again. speak to each of us tonight,
magnify his name. Lord, we do bow in the blessed
name of our Savior, and we have already been led in prayer by
our brother, yet we once again come before you very much aware
of our need tonight of the Spirit of grace to minister to us. Lord,
show us our Savior, show us the truth of the gospel of grace. Once again, may our hearts be
made to rejoice in your goodness and in your grace to us through
Christ Jesus. Lord, as we speak about the error
of false religion a bit, we pray that you would keep us from error. Lord, keep us from forsaking
the truth of God. And keep us always looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. We thank You, Father, for Your
grace that You've given us, and for leading us to the fountain
of cleansing, to the sin-cleansing sacrifice and blood of the Lord
Jesus. And in Him, we're made fully
whole. and we wear the garments of your
great salvation. We're not worthy of the least
of your mercies, and yet we find that we've been given all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So bless tonight. As we meet together and these
who have come aside for a bit tonight, Lord, open up our minds
and our hearts to receive the things that you have for us this
evening. We shall seek to give you the
praise and the glory and the thanksgiving for all things.
In the name of the Lord Jesus, we ask these things. Amen. Now,
look at the first verse of Genesis 11. It says, and the whole earth
was of one language and one speech. Now, if you would, go back to
the previous chapter, chapter 10, and look at verse five. By these were the Isles of the
Gentiles divided in their lands, everyone after his tongue, after
their families, and in their nations. So actually, in chapter
10, there has already been a division of languages. And then when we
get to this chapter, we're instructed as to this is how it all came
about. So what the Spirit of God did
in chapter 10, he tells us that the division of languages has
already happened. And then we get to the next chapter,
the one we're in this evening, then the Spirit of God tells
us, in essence, this is the way it all came about. This is the
reason that God divided men and literally scattered them abroad. and he confused their languages,
he confounded their languages so that they could no longer,
all of them, understand one another, and then they began, of course,
to go their separate ways. Now, as we look at Genesis chapter
11, and then next Wednesday, the Lord willing, we'll be getting
into chapter 12, These two chapters are of deep interest to those
who are studying true religion and false religion. Here we have recorded about two
men and their great statute, I guess we'd say, their vast
importance in their respective beliefs. One of them is Nimrod. And of course, he's the one,
we go back into chapter 10, and we find out that the beginning
of his kingdom, this is chapter 10 and verse 10, the beginning
of his kingdom was Babel, which means confusion. And then of
course he had other cities that he conquered as well. He was
a mighty warrior, and he was an ungodly man, he was an idolater. But then as we get into chapter
11, in fact, toward the end of chapter 11, we're introduced
to a main, main figure in the book of Genesis. In fact, in
the kingdom of God. And that's a man by the name
of, verse 27, Abram. Now there's all the difference
in the world between Nimrod and Abram or Abraham. But the difference
is the difference God made. Because both of them were idolaters. As you read, chapter 11, verse
27, these are the generations of Terah. And Terah begat Abram,
Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his
father Tira in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees. And then we find that Abram takes
a wife and now drop down to the very first verse of the next
chapter. Now the Lord said, the Lord had
already said, unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from
thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will
show thee." Now here are two men, Nimrod and Abram. They, by nature, they're very
much alike. They're enemies of God. They're
aliens against the truth of God. They are idolaters, both of them. There's no difference in them
as far as their own natural abilities in believing error. This is the way both of them
that came into this world, all of us came into this world believing
false religion. Okay, we all believe in salvation
by works. And we may have a different idea
as to what that work is. It may be the work of baptism.
It may be the work of doing charitable deeds for other people. It may
be any number of things, but this is our natural religion. The natural religion of man is
the religion of both Nimrod and Abram. Both of them were idolaters. But God made a difference. He made a difference between
these two men in old eternity. One of them, God purposed to
leave him as he was, to his natural depravity and his natural guilt. The other one, God purposed to
use him in a mighty way and to reveal the gospel of his grace
to him. And that man is Abram. As we
get to chapter 12, the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out,
get thee out from thy country. Get out of Ur of the Chaldees.
Leave all of that behind. Leave your idolatry. Leave your
false ideas of God. Leave all of that behind you
and go forward. Of Nimrod, we read that he sought
to build a city and a tower. Of Abraham, we don't read anything
like that about him. Of Abraham, we read he didn't
build a city, he looked for a city. He looked for a city, the scripture
says in Hebrews chapter 11, whose builder and maker is God. This
is a man who understood by the grace of God that this salvation
is all of God. It's God Himself who made the
distinction, who made the difference between Nimrod and Abram. It's God who makes the distinction
between those who believe and embrace and hang on to false
religion all their life, And then those who, upon hearing
the truth, believe the truth of the grace of God, of the goodness
and the mercy of the Lord to sinners through the Lord Jesus.
God makes the difference. In fact, we read that in 1 Corinthians
4. This is what the apostle Paul
said. Who maketh thee to differ from another? Why are you different?
And I tell you, if you believe the gospel, you're absolutely
different from the religious world. Because the religious
world, you see, like Nimrod, and those who are with him, they're
making bricks. They're bricklayers. It's the
bricks of their works, and that's what they're building as a monument
to their own glory. But here's a man, Abram, And
here you and me this evening, and we believe this salvation
is according to the purpose of God. We believe God chose us. We believe God redeemed us. God made us righteous. God called
us. God left the Nimrods of this
world and those who will continue in unbelief, He purposed to leave
them as He found them, dead in trespasses and in sins. And God
purposed to save us. He purposed to reveal to you
the truth. The only reason you're not wrapped
up in false religion tonight, the only reason that I'm not
still in false religion and trying to get people down the aisle
and make a decision for Jesus and all of that kind of Tommy
Rotten nonsense, the only reason we're not in that but rather
we're here rejoicing in the goodness of God to us through the Lord
Jesus and His redemptive work that actually satisfied God and
put away our sins. The only difference is the difference
God made. Let us give thanks. Let us worship. You see, Abram, or Abraham, as
God changed his name a little later, and we'll be studying
about that, he's the father of the faithful. And this is the
one who's in the genealogy of our Lord Jesus. This is one of the men of God.
This is one of those that God chose. God picked him out. God ordained him unto salvation,
and God came to him with this special call of grace. Get out
of her of the Chaldees! Get out! And I'll tell you, when
God says get out of false religion, you will get out, because that
is an effectual call of grace. And so, Here we have before us,
even in chapter 11, two unusual men. And make no mistake, our
God used both of them. He used both of them to fulfill
his purpose, just like he used Pharaoh. God says, for this purpose,
I raised you up. I'll make my power to be known
through you. And then God drowned him in the
Red Sea. And I've said this before, God
uses everybody. And he manipulates in every situation,
every event, to bring about his good and perfect purpose. that He set Himself before the
world ever began. Nothing ever shocks God. Nothing
ever fazes God. When the Lord said, after hearing
these men say three times, Go to, let us. Go to, let us. Did you notice that? Three times
they said, Go to, let us. It says in verse three, Go to,
let us make brick. Again in verse 4, go to let us
build. And in verse 4 again, let us
make us a name. Let us, let us, let us. That's what they said. And then
God came down. He speaks in language that we
can understand. Obviously, God doesn't have to
come down as we do. What is intended here, of course
we understand, God surveyed the situation as He always does. He is the omniscient God. All
things are naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we
have to do. And God said in verse 7, Go to
let us go down. Us? Father? Son? and spirit. Let us go down and there will
confound their language. Man says three times, let us,
let us, let us. God says one time and what he
says one time trumps what they said three times. Because the
will of God always, always is successful. And he may or he
may not permit men to do what they set out to do. It just depends
on whether it's in his purpose or not. Will it serve his purpose? If it serves his purpose, then
sure. If it doesn't serve his purpose,
he prevents it from ever happening. Now, what's really going on here
in the first part of Genesis chapter 11? Certainly no one
would ever really think they could build a tower that's so
high that it would reach all the way to heaven. If they were
trying to reach heaven literally, If they were trying to build
a tower literally that would reach heaven, they wouldn't build
it in the valley. You'd first of all start up on
top of a mountain. Does that make sense? You'd go
up on that, let's pick that highest mountain over there, that's where
we'll build. You wouldn't go down in the valley. These men under the leadership
of Nimrod, they're going to build a city. They're going to build
a city and they're going to build a tower. The city is going to
be a city that is religious. And this tower that they're going
to build, actually, if you look up that word, look up the word
tower sometime, it's more like a castle, a castle or a temple. This is the first of the organized
religion in the world. There has been false religion.
There's no question about that before this. You got false religion
back in Genesis chapter four with Cain, with his religion
of works. But here it is organized. Here's a man who establishes
religion and he builds a city It's all for the glory of man.
He builds his castle. He builds a tower. They're building
a refuge for themselves. They're building a way to God. That is, and let me give you
this, the word bapel. Now later it does mean confusion. But originally, the word Babel
doesn't mean confusion. It means the gate to God, the
gate to God. You need to make a note of that.
This is man's effort. We're gonna build a gate to God,
a gate to God. Now, God had already said, He'd
said this, look back in chapter nine. Go back to chapter nine. God blessed Noah and his sons
and He said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
earth. You need to scatter here. Now 300 years goes by and there's
not much scattering. Because you see, this is one
of the issues here. with these people. Look at verse
four, chapter 11 now. And they said, go to, let us
build us a city and a tower, a castle, whose top may reach
unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered. We don't wanna be scattered.
You see, on the Nimrod, they were defiant against the word
of God. They're going to do things their
way. This is the way it is in religion. You do things your way. And they're
building an edifice. They're building a house of worship. They're building a castle. They're
building a temple to their own glory. Look at it again. Let us make brick and burn them. Burn them throughly. This city and this castle is
going to be made of man-made brick. That's works religion. This is what people do. They're
laying brick. They're making brick and laying
brick. They're building their way to
God. This is the gate to God. And of course they had, what
did they have for water? Slime. You know, I tell you what
I think this slime is, it's the slime of free will. It's what
sticks it all together. Here's all these building blocks
and here's man's free will and we're building this magnificent
edifice, this castle, this temple. And we'll make a name for ourselves. Watch the language again. Let
us make brick. Let us build us a city. and let us make us a name. Let us make us a name. If this
is ever the way with false religion, men are making a name for themselves. But those who, like Abraham,
who have been instructed in the gospel of the grace of God, We're
not interested in making a name for ourselves. We're interested
in His name, the Lord's name. Let the Lord be glorified. Let
the Lord be magnified. But natural religion is always
geared toward doing something. Doing something. Let us make
brick and burn them throughly. Now, they're gonna build this
not on rock, but on man-made bricks. That's the difference
between false religion and true religion. We build on the rock
Christ Jesus. You see, these man-made bricks,
and you can read a little bit about it, under intense heat,
They wouldn't hold up. They wouldn't hold up. And under
the intense heat of the judgment of God, this won't hold up. Now you can build on these bricks
with the mortar of your free will. But I'll guarantee you
one of these days, it's all going to come crashing down. You're
not going to be successful. You see, this wasn't successful. Notice at the end of verse eight,
they left off to build the city. You see, that which man endeavors
to do is always incomplete because man is a failure. You get excited if somebody says
to you, six, six, six, oh no. I went and rented a safe deposit
box and they said, your box number is 666. I'll give you another
number. I said, I don't care. Give me 666 because I'm just
a man anyway. Failure, failure, failure. That's
all. That's all that is. It's not
something put in your forehead or put on your wrist. The number
666 is man is a triple failure. He's always a failure. And you
can burn your bricks, you can make your bricks, and you can
get your slime together, and your free will, and you can build
you an edifice to the glory of man, but it'll never be complete. It'll never do the job. Because it's a man. It's of man. That which is of man is destined
to fail. It's always that way. Only that
which is of God will last forever. That's God's salvation. In Matthew chapter seven, look
over there, Matthew seven. Let's take the time to look at
it. We got some people over here in Matthew 7, and they bragging
about what they've done. In Genesis 11, they bragging
about what they's gonna do. Let us, let us, let us. Here
in Matthew chapter 7, people are bragging on what they did,
and they bragging to God. In Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, many, not a few, but many will say
to me in that day, in that day of judgment, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? and in thy name cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works." Look at all we've done,
we've been busy. That's what they professed to
the Lord. And verse 23, then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. You said you knew me, You didn't
know me, and I didn't know you. I didn't love you. I didn't set
you apart. You're not mine. I never knew
you. You're among the workers of iniquity,
and I've always hated the workers of iniquity." And he says, He
says, depart from me because all of your works, now watch
this, everything you've worked is just iniquity. And the natural
man, the man in false religion kind of throws up his hands and
says, What? You can't call all my deeds iniquity. I've given to the poor. I've
given to the American Cancer Society. I've helped down here. I've helped feed the... the hungry
folks and provide rooms for those that don't have shelter. And
I've helped out women who have their babies and they don't have
enough formula, they don't have enough food, they don't have
enough money. I've done this, I've done that.
And the Lord says, it's all iniquity. You see, there's one work that
matters to God. It's the work of redemption accomplished
by our Savior. That was a successful work. And
he gets all the glory. All the glory. You see, salvation is of God. It's not man making a name for
himself. See, these folks over here in
Genesis chapter 11, they're interested in making a name for themselves.
Now let me tell you something, if you're interested in making
a name for yourself, You're not bowing to the Word
of God. Because the only name that matters
is the Lord's name, not yours. The psalmist said, not unto us,
not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy's
sake, for Thy truth's sake. And of salvation, the Lord says
in Psalm 106 verse 8, nevertheless he saved them for his name's
sake. It's not about you. Not about
you getting more stars in your crown. It's about the Lord being glorified. We know the child of God desires
that our names be forgotten and his name raised up. Oh, the day
is going to come when everybody praises the name of Jesus Christ. Some will be forced to. We bow
to him and we bless his name now by the grace of God, by the
grace of God. Let our names be forgotten. Turn to, I was reading, excuse
me. I was reading this earlier this
evening. First, look at 1 Corinthians. First of all, chapter one. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
one. Look at verse 11. For it hath
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 saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas,
and I of Christ. You're following men. You say,
well, you know, I was converted under the ministry of the apostle
Paul. Somebody else said, well, I was
converted under the ministry of Apollos. Another one says,
I was converted under the ministry of Cephas. Somebody else said,
well, I was converted under the Lord's ministry. And he says
this in verse 13, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? And of course, he deals with
this again in the third chapter. Turn over to chapter 3. Look
at verse 3. Chapter 3, verse 3. He says, For you yet, carnal,
for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions,
are you not carnal and walk as many walking like the men of
the world? You're walking like you don't even know the gospel.
You walk in as though you have no knowledge or understanding
of the grace of God. Verse four, for while one saith,
I'm a Paul, and another, I'm of Apollos, are you not carnal? It's like the world. Who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom you believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man, I planted. Sure did, Apollos
watered, but don't ever forget, it's God who gives the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth,
but God that giveth the increase. I'll tell you, what we need to
focus on is magnifying the name of our Lord. And hey, I'm thankful
for preachers. I'm thankful for the preacher
from whose lips I learned the gospel. But he's a vessel of
clay just like me. We're just servants. We're just servants. Don't honor
the servant, honor the master. That's what we want to do, isn't
it? Honor the master. Well, go back over here to chapter
11. Let me just make a few more comments here. So, here's a very solemn truth. Every man who pursues salvation
by his own works and deeds is in for great, great disappointment. The religion of Nimrod, that
is the religion of the natural man, is doomed to failure. This is not the gate to God. I repeat, this city, this tower,
Mr. Nimrod, this is not the gate
to God. There's just one gate to God. That's Christ Jesus. He said,
I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. I am the door, or permit me to
just use this word, I am the gate. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture. See, here is false religion. It's man doing. Indeed, the hardest thing for
us to learn, and we won't learn it unless God teaches us. Actually,
it's absolutely impossible for anybody to learn this unless
God teaches us, is this. This salvation is not us doing
something for God. It's not us building. It's God
doing something for us. That's the simplicity of it.
But you see, Babel, the religion of Babel, the religion of Nimrod,
is very confusing. And people are very confused,
I can tell you that. People in religion. Because they
use much of the same words that we use. They'll talk about grace,
I was talking to a preacher not too many days ago, and he said,
boy, we need to preach the blood. We need to preach the blood.
Yeah, we do. But not the blood that made salvation
a possibility, but the blood that satisfied God, the blood
that saves, the blood that actually washed the sins of all of his
elect completely away. They use the same words that
we use. They talk about Jesus. They're all talking about Jesus
now. Little baby Jesus. They don't know who He is. They
don't know why He came. They don't know what He did when
He came. They don't know where He is now. They don't have a
clue. This is truly an ignorant religious
generation. And they're thinking they're
doing God's work. We're doing God's work over here.
We're making a great name. Our preacher's got a great name.
He's known throughout the world. Well, whoop-dee-doo. Oh, we have a priest. Oh, he's
such a kind man. The only name that means anything
is the name that's above every name. Above every name. When Peter, James, and John were
up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and our Lord Jesus was transfigured
before them, and they saw His glory, and then Moses and Elijah,
the law and the prophets, they met with Him. Peter said, let's
just build three tabernacles here. I'm gonna honor all three
of these men." Oh, God wouldn't have it. God wouldn't have it. He's not even gonna share His
glory with Moses or Elijah. Who is Moses? Who is Elijah? But men that God saved by His
grace. and whatever they knew, all that
they knew about the gospel and their writings in the Word of
God are only because of the grace of the Holy Spirit who led them
what to write. We're not going to give them
any glory. I was reading some of the old
bulletins, Ron and Greg. Oh, it may be a couple of years
ago, maybe more than that. Probably some of the old, old
bulletins. I like the very first ones, you
know. And in one of the articles, maybe
I'll run it here in a few weeks or something, but Henry was talking
about some preacher and he talked about He was making a great name
for himself and people in the church said, there's nobody like
our pastor and that sort of thing. Of course, Henry just, he just,
he knocked that down. He knocked that idol down. Don't
make an idol even of a preacher. Only one to worship is the Lord
our God. Lord our God. Nimrod, he pictures
the false church, the apostate church. You see what they did? Let me
give this to you also. Look at verse two, chapter 11. It came to pass as they journeyed
from the east. One writer, I think maybe he's
on to something here. He said they turned their backs
on the sun at going from the east. They've left God. Oh, they're busy. We're going
to build a city. We're going to build a tower. We're going to build a strong
tower. But it's not going to get anywhere
with it. No. It'll all come to naught. Well, I'll give you something
else and then I'll send you home. Here in Genesis chapter 11, the
Lord confounded the languages. Have you ever tried to learn
foreign language? Most of us going through high school and
perhaps in college, I didn't have to have a foreign language.
Well, I had Greek and Hebrew, but didn't have to have like
French or Spanish or something like that. It's kind of difficult
to learn a foreign language. Some are easier than others,
and what people have told me who live in other countries,
English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. But you know,
our son lives in Japan, and we've tried to learn a little Japanese.
I tell you, that's a confusing language. But I will tell you one language
that you will not learn by picking up a book or studying. And that's the language of grace. You can study all you want to,
but you're going to have to have a teacher. And only the Lord
can teach you that language, the language of salvation by
grace. And we preached this gospel.
In fact, some of us talking about this, I believe it was yesterday
morning at breakfast. About a person who came here
for a while and listened to me preach. And then it finally dawned
on him. I was saying things that he didn't
care for. He don't understand the language.
The language of Christ only. The Word of God only. Grace only. People don't understand that
language. But, go over to Acts the second chapter. Let me give
you this. So, God confused their languages. The different languages was a
result of the judgment of God. Now we get to Acts chapter two,
and here we have the believers after the ascension of our Lord
Jesus, and 50 days after Passover at Pentecost, and they're meeting
together, and something happens. Verse four, chapter two, verse
four. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues, other languages, as the Spirit or whenever the
Spirit gave them utterance. And he talks about there were
dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under
heaven. They'd come in for the for this feast, one of the three
feasts, attendance was mandatory for the men. And when this was
noised abroad, multitude came together and they were confounded.
Now this being confounded was not that they couldn't understand
what was being said in their language, but rather, watch it,
because that every man heard them speak in his own language. Now God expresses his grace by giving
men the ability to preach the true gospel in languages that
they never studied. Look at verse 7, they were all
amazed and marveled, saying to one another, Behold, aren't these
just Galileans, meaning uneducated fellows? And verse 8, and how
hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born?
And we get down to verse 11, they said, We do hear them speak
in our tongues the wonderful works of God. Hear God in His
grace. enables men to speak in other
languages that they had no prior knowledge of. And they preach
the gospel. They tell people the wonderful
works of God. And then one other reference,
go to Revelation chapter seven. This will be it. Revelation chapter
seven and verse nine. Revelation 7, 9, after this I
beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number. Revelation
7, 9, after this I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no
man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues. They stood. No fear. They're not afraid to stand before
the throne of God. Why not? They washed in the blood
and robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. They're bold. They stood before the Lamb clothed
with white robes and they had palms in their hands. They cried
with a loud voice. You see, all of the people of
God of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. They all cry
the same thing, because we've all learned the same gospel from
the same source, God Himself. They cried, saying, salvation
to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And there's going to be people
there from everywhere. And they're all going to be praising
the Lord, singing one song. The song of redemption. The song
of glorifying the Lamb of God. Lord, bless the words that's
been spoken tonight. We thank you for making the Gospel
understandable to us. while we were by nature of the
Church of Nimrod, building bricks. Oh, we used a lot of the awful
slime of free will. Oh, we were doing for you. We
thought we was really hustlers in the kingdom of God. Oh, what
workers we are. And then you revealed to us with
nothing, and everything we have ever done, just iniquity. Iniquity upon
iniquity. Failure upon failure upon failure. That's us. And Lord, we thank
you that you brought us to see there was a successful work accomplished. The work of redemption by our
Savior. and the work of our salvation
which you purposed before the world began, and which you brought
home to our hearts in effectual grace by the Spirit of God. And someday you'll perfect that
work in glory and we'll be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank you, Father, for making
us different. We would have been like Nimrod.
That's how we were. but we're not like Him anymore.
We're the children of Abraham, who is the father of the faithful. We believe by Your grace on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord, and all the
glory goes to You, and none to us. For Jesus' sake, send us
home, rejoicing in Him whom to know, His life everlasting.