Turn back to Genesis chapter
10 and 11. This is on the Tower of Babel. A confused people. We'll give
it that title. A confused people. That's what
works religion is. Works religion is nothing more
than a bunch of confused people. that do not know the truth. Now,
we've been going through this book for a few weeks. We have
witnessed creation. God created the heavens and the
earth. They did not evolve. They were
created. We have the creation of man.
God created Adam. He created him upright, And then we witnessed the fall.
Adam rebelled against God. And that's how sin came into
the world. That's how it came into this
world. And then we have the promise of a Savior and the promised
seed of the woman. We have the introduction of Satan. But the Word of God would you
find these things. You find all these truths. No
place else. No place. We find that Satan
is a very real person. He is a very real adversary to
our souls and to God's glory. He's very real. And then we see
Cain and Abel. First murder. It was over how
God saves sinners. That's what the first murder
was over. How God saves sinners. Through a blood sacrifice, through
another's righteousness. That's how. And Cain slew Abel
over it. Jealous. And then we see and witness Enoch
who walked with God By faith, God took him. He had this testimony. He pleased God. Without faith,
it says, it's impossible to please God. Enoch believed God and he
walked with him. And then we have Noah. Salvation
in Christ represented by the ark. All the great doctrines All the
great doctrines of the Bible, all the great doctrines that
we preach are found in these chapters, found in these first
few chapters of Genesis. It's such a powerful book. And
now we have Nimrod in the Tower of Babel, works religion. Babylon always represents works
religion. She's called the grey whore throughout
the Scriptures. She's called Mystery Babylon.
And Babylon was started by Nimrod. And Nimrod was the grandson of
Ham. And you know from last time we
looked at chapter 9, Noah cursed Ham, cursed Canaan, cursed the
whole posterity of Ham. And Nimrod's his grandson. He's
the grandson of Ham. And he was cursed of God. He
was a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction. His name means
rebel. Nimrod means rebel. And it fit
him. He was a rebel against God and
he was a rebel against man. And it says in verse 8, we have
to pick up here in order to understand chapter 11. He began to be a
mighty one in the earth. Here's what it says. He began
to be a mighty rebel. A mighty rebel. A tyrant. This man became a tyrant. An
enemy of God. An enemy of God's people. An
enemy of true worship. He became an enemy. Just go back
and read all the stories of Babylon throughout the Scripture. It's
an enemy of God. It's a works religion. And it is said that
in verse 9, that he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. And this
would be better translated, it would be better translated, a
mighty hunter against the Lord. That's the better rendering of
it. He was a mighty hunter against the Lord. He not only hunted
beasts, but he hunted down innocent men. He was a bloodthirsty man. And he was against all that God
is. And all that God stood for. That's
the kind of man Nimrod was. And Babylon was his city. He
started it. He started it along with some
of those other cities. And his goal? It's no doubt that
his goal was to be universal monarch. He said he was the king
of these cities. This man's goal was to be universal
monarch and he would really receive the worship. He would share in
the worship. He would receive divine honors
and favors from the people that belonged to God. This was Nimrod's
attitude. This was his sin. And his city,
Babel, means confusion. Confusion. It means mix. To mix. And this story is given
to show us the religion of salvation by works does not work. It does not work. And it's not
of God. It's of man. It's of man. It's like Cain. He's of the same
spirit and attitude of Cain. Cain brought the works of his
hands, the works of the ground. And Nimrod, same attitude, same
person. But the original meaning was
this. The original meaning of Babel meant the gate of God. Before God confused the language.
It meant the gate of God. Now here is the arrogance of
this man. He built this city. He's built
this walled city, and they are going to build this tower to
reach unto heaven. And if you want to meet God,
if you want to do anything with God, you come through this gate,
through this city, and we'll go up this tower. Boy, what arrogance. He said, this is the gate of
God. This is where God is in this city. No, He's not. He's
not in works religion, and no way, shape, or form. But he was
determined to worship God his way and to share in that worship. Pink likened this man to the
Antichrist. And he really gave some good
points on the likeness of Nimrod and the Antichrist. But I'm not
going to go in that direction with it tonight. God did not
command him to build this city. Frank read you those portions
of Scripture. Did you hear anywhere where God
said, build a city? This man craved power over men
and the way they worshiped. He didn't think he was going
to control worship. That's what his attitude was. That's who
he was. Now, we know that Babylon throughout the Scriptures represents
all works, all free will, all Arminian religion. That's what
it represents. That's what it represents in
the script. Look over in Isaiah 48. Isaiah chapter 48 in verse 20. Go ye forth of Babylon. Flee
ye from the Chaldeans. with a voice of singing, declare
ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth, say
ye, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob." But go out of
Babylon. Flee. Flee away from this works
religion, this free willism. He says, flee it. Get away from
it. Go out from it. The Lord's redeemed
you from this. He saved you from this. Look
over in Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 51. Jeremiah 51, verse 6. Notice how the Scripture
speaks of Babylon. This was Nimrod's city. In verse
6, he says, flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every
man his soul. Be not cut off in her iniquities.
Don't be partakers of it. For this is the time of the Lord's
vengeance. He will render unto her a recompense. He's going
to judge her. He's going to judge that gray
horse. It is the religion of the damned. When Noah cursed
Ham, it had to do with a spiritual curse. And here it is. It's a religion of the damned. It's a religion of the cursed.
It's a religion of works, given to works. Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. That's who they are. And now we come to verse 1 of
chapter 11. Let me turn back over here. Chapter
1 of verse 11. And the whole earth, he says,
was of one language and of one speech. One language is great. It's great if it's used in true
worship. Paul said be of the same mind,
of the same spirit. Speak what? The same things.
Paul said do that. But when it's used in works religion, when it's used
in false religion, it's bad stuff. One language is bad, bad stuff. If it's used to separate men
from God, and that's exactly what it did. And like Cain, like
Cain over here in verse 2, it came to pass as they journeyed
From the east, that's what happened. Cain went to the east. He went
to the east of Eden when he was kicked out. Where did he go?
East of Eden. They went the same way as Cain. They were of the same spirit
and attitude as Cain. Same, same thing. They went further
and further away from God. They went further and further
away from the people of God. Further and further away from
Shem and Eber, which the Hebrews came out of. They went further
away from worship. And the further away they went
from God, The worse it got. The worse it got. And they said
one to another. They took counsel together, one
to another. Let's make brick. Let's speed
the process up here, getting to heaven. Let's make brick. Instead of using stone, let's
make some brick and some mortar and build us a city. Who? Us. Build us a city. I'm glad God
built us a city. which hath foundations, whose
builder-maker is God." That's what it says in Hebrews. Well,
what's wrong with this? What's wrong with building a
city? What's wrong with having a nice tower? What's wrong with
it? Well, here's the first problem
with it. They did not seek the Lord in it. James said, if we go into this
city or that tomorrow, if we do this or that, if the Lord
will. They never sought God's will
in this matter. This was Nimrod's will. This
was his will. It was satanic. They said one to another. They
didn't say anything to God. They didn't call upon God. Well,
we should never do anything. We should never do anything that
we don't pray about. Seek the Lord's will in it. They let God out of it. And they
went their own way. That city was built by a confederacy
of rebels. Babble. Confusion. Works religion. And here's what
they said. Let us build us a city. Let's build us a place. Let's
build us a city. And the towers whose top may
reach unto heaven. Let us work and build this thing
out of brick and mortar and work our way to heaven, to where God
is, to God's throne. Let's work our way to that place. Turn over to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." Let's
build a tower. Let's climb our way to God. Our
Lord said he's a thief and a robber. Let's make it impressive. Let's
make this tower Impressive. Look at the buildings that men
build, worship places. I went to Utah 16, 17, 18 years
ago. I went over to the Mormon Tabernacle
and over to that church. My, my, my. Impressive. Expensive too. Very expensive. Look at the buildings that the
Catholics have built. Look at these monuments these
men have built to themselves. and to their religion. Look what
they've done. It says over in Hebrews that
God's people lived in what? Caves. Desert places. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dwelt
in what? Tents. They tabernacled in tents. See, this wasn't good enough
for Nimrod. They wanted to build a city. You don't hear of Eber
doing that. Or Shem. You don't hear of them. Or even Noah. See, this was 300
years after the flood. Noah lived for 350 years. You didn't see Noah do that,
or Shem, or none of that. You know, I'll tell you who did
it. It's that cursed crowd that worked for religion. They wanted
to build an impressive, an impressive tower, an impressive city for
generations to come. The Lord said, all their works
they do to what? Be seen of men. And by doing this, by doing this, they said in verse
4, we will make a name for ourselves. Are we here to make a name for
ourselves? We're here to glorify His name.
We are here to preach His name. to give honor to His name. We
are not here to make a name for ourselves. But they said, we
will make a name for ourselves. Where is God in all this? Where
is God's glory in all this? In all this building of the city,
in this tower, God is not mentioned. God is not worshipped. Not at
all. Works religion always tries,
always tries to make a name for itself. Always try to leave monuments
behind. Leave something behind for the
next generation so they'll know who we were. We were nobodies. The only thing I hope to leave
behind here is the Gospel. Just leave the Gospel. John was what? Just a voice. If it can just be said of me,
what was said of John the Baptist, he was just a voice in the wilderness.
But no, they said, we're going to make a monument. We're going
to build a city. We're going to build this great tower. It's
going to reach into heaven. This is going to be the gate
of God. And anybody that worships God has to come through this
gate into this city. Of course, you know they're going to make
money on that. There's some merchant going on here. They're going
to make some money. Then they said, lest we be scattered
abroad on the earth. Now, if you just read that, you
really don't catch the rebellion that's in it. God said to Noah,
to his sons, He said, multiply and replenish the earth. Scatter
over the earth. God told them to scatter over
the earth. And here they are. Nimrod, here's
what Nimrod wants to do. He wants to build this city and
these other cities, and he wants to keep everybody under his authority. Under His power. And He's going
to control this matter of worship. Just like the Antichrist is going
to do. He's going to try to control this whole matter of worship.
Lest we be scattered abroad on the earth. He was bent. Nimrod was bent on being king
over all. He was lifted up with pride.
I wonder where that came from. His father the devil. his father
the devil. He was lifted up with pride.
He was arrogant. He thought he would be the king
over all. He was ruthless. And he had some
great power here. The Lord let him have some lead
way. He let the rope out there a little
bit on him. And the Lord, in verse 5, the Lord took notice
of this. It's not as if He didn't know, but He's speaking in a
language that we understand. In verse 5, "...and the Lord
came down..." That is, He took notice to see the city and the
tower which the children of men built, not the children of God. Not the redeemed. He said the children of men.
Cursed men. They built this. He said He came
down to see it. "...and the Lord said, Behold,
the people is one. They're one. They're definitely
one in evil, one in imagination, one in wickedness. That's the
world. They have all one language. It's
evil. And this they begin to do. And
now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined
to do. The people are one language.
Their works of wickedness will only grow. That's all it'll do. It'll just grow more and more
and more. They won't get better. They're
of one language and they will get in confederacy with one another
and they'll just become worse. Become worse. 300 years goes
by and it's as bad as it was when he flooded it. But all the
long suffering of God here, this time he didn't flood it. Because
he has a people. He has a people. that He's going
to save. He has a people in this world
that He's going to redeem and they are His. And He's just going
to confuse their language. He's going to confuse their language.
And He says here in verse 7, let us go down. And there confound
their language so that they may not understand one another's
speech. Can you imagine that when today
that happened? Speaking one language and all of a sudden everybody
in the crowd speaking this language of babble, confusion. They just
couldn't understand each other. Just totally couldn't understand
each other. So here's a group that speaks this one language
and they go off, another one, they go off. He scattered them. Oh, the wisdom of God. The wisdom
of God. This explains all the different
languages. Tell this to a college professor.
Tell this to some educated professor. Here's how all the languages
came about. God confused the language at
the Tower of Babel. Well, they'll think you're a
babbling idiot, but that's how it happened. That's why we have
all these different languages throughout the world. Right here.
Right here. Now God did not confuse their
language because He was afraid of competition. Or He was afraid
they would actually make it to heaven. No, that's not so. He did this to show that no man,
no man, no person can work his way to heaven. No person can
do anything by way of any type of work whatsoever and please
God, not in this flesh, The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one
who pleased God. He's the only one who kept the
law and made it honorable. He magnified the law and made
it honorable. Jesus Christ, the man Christ
Jesus, is the only man that was able to please God. No other
man can do it. And God confused the language.
He scattered it. Salvation by works, by works,
is a damnable religion. And that's the curse that fell
on him and that generation. And that's a curse on everyone
who does not believe the gospel. Fellow, by grace are you saved
through faith. And that faith is not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. You can't
even brag about that faith. You cannot boast about believing
God. If you believe God, He gave it to you. And if you believe
God, you're not going to boast about it. But you know, you absolutely
know if it was not for the grace of God, you wouldn't believe
Him. You'd still be in unbelief. And you know that if it wasn't
for the work of the Holy Spirit, you would not believe now. I've said this before. I'll say
it again. I believe God because I can't help it. You believe
God because you can't help it. He gave you faith and you believed. You believe. You can't help it.
You believe. Salvation is either all of grace
or all of works. And this is proven throughout
the scriptures. It's so evident. It's not confusing.
Satan confuses it. Men confuse it who are under
Satan's power. But it's not confusing. You know,
truth is never confusing. It's never confusing. It's either
all of grace or it's all of works. They cannot be mixed. Babble
means mixed. It can't be done. Turn over to
Romans 11. Romans chapter 11. Let me start reading verse four.
But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved
to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to
the image of Baal. Even so, then, at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace, and if by grace, then is it no more works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
It's either all grace or all works. Well, we know it's not
works because God does not save us by our works. He saves us
by the blood and righteousness of His Son. Salvation. Now listen, they built that tower. They were trying to what? Reach
unto heaven. They said, let's build this all
the way to heaven. Salvation is not man reaching
up to God. Salvation is God reaching down
to you and getting you, calling you, plucking you like a bran
from the fire. That's salvation. And the city
that we look for is in heaven. It's not on this earth. Our citizenship
is in heaven. And you know what? Our high tower
is Christ. Turn over to Psalm 18. In Psalm 18, verse 2, the Lord is my rock
and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I
will trust, my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high
tower. We don't need to build a brick
house to heaven. Christ is our high tower. Look
over in Psalm 144. Psalm 144, verse 2. My goodness. Let me read verse
1. Blessed be the Lord, my strength,
which teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight, my goodness
and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield,
and he in whom I trust, who subdueth my people under me." You notice
all those things that he says that he is? When a man goes to
war, you know, they usually shoot from a tower. He has a shield,
a buckler, and all those things, but he said, God is all these
things to me. My Lord is all these things to me. I don't need
a handmade shield. I don't need a handmade breastplate. Those are works of men. I need
Him. He's all those things to me.
Now notice in verse 7, the Lord said, let us go down. In the beginning, He said, let
us make man in our image. and in our likeness. Now listen, the Godhead never,
never works independently of each other. They are never independent
of each other, ever. He said, let us go down and confound
their language. Now in closing, Babylon means
confusion. Ever since that day when God
confounded their language, It went from meeting the gate of
God to confusion. Confusion. And all works religion
leads to confusion. I've had people ask me this.
I've had people I've worked with over the years say, well, why
do you have so many churches around? Why do you have so many
denominations? Why do you have Baptists and
Methodists and all? It's confusion. Satan is a master
of confusion. He is the master of deception.
Where you have one true church preaching the gospel, you'll
have hundreds around it confused. He's just throwing out confusion.
You know, that's one of the greatest weapons in war, isn't it? One
of the greatest weapons that any general can use in war is
confusion. Satan's a master of it. He's a master of confusing. He
knows what we are made of. He knows we're clay pots. He
knows we're fallen men and women. He knows what nature we have.
He knows how easy it is to confuse men and women. And he does it. God allows him to do it, but
he does it. Confusion is his choice weapon. Confusion and
vanity. But truth is never confusion.
Never. When I heard Henry preach the
gospel 30 years ago, I said, that's what
I'm reading. That matches what I'm reading.
It just came together like a puzzle. I wasn't confused anymore. I
could see it. You can see it. You know how
God saves sinners. It's not confusing. But Satan
throws in all these free will and all these works of religion
that confuses people. And all that is for is to keep
them away from the Gospel. Keep them away from God. His greatest work, it's not done
out there in the honky-tonks. It's not done on the streets.
It's done in religion. His greatest work is right out
of the pulpit. Right out of the pulpit. But listen, the Bible teaches
us that man fell. Adam fell and he's dead spiritually,
totally dead spiritually and totally depraved, just absolutely
depraved. The Word of God teaches us that
God sent his Son into the world to redeem his people that he
has chosen out of the world. God has a people. He said, I
have a remnant according to the election of grace. And that He
sent the Holy Spirit to call them and regenerate them and
give them faith and repentance in Christ. And this, this is all of grace. It's all of grace. Not one ounce. Not one ounce of anything we
do ever enters into it. It's all of grace. And if you
ever hear somebody stand and preach And start to mix it. Flee. Flee. Shun it. God said concerning Job, you
consider my servant Job perfect, righteous, and his shoes evil.
He shuns it. He gets away from it. Don't hang
around and debate with him. The last thing you want to do
is debate with Satan. You'll lose. Michael didn't do
it. Who do we think we are? Michael
wouldn't do it. He'd durst not answer him. He'd
say, the Lord rebuketh thee. All right, Mike.