Satan's master plan by which he seeks to dominate
the world, by which he strives to destroy the souls of men, by which he toils night and day
to do what he knows he cannot do, topple God's throne and destroy
God's people. Yet his master plan by which
he constantly seeks in his rage to topple God's throne and destroy
the people of his love is deception. Hellish deception. Religious
deception. Satan is a master at deception. The Prince of Darkness is the
great imitator. It is not now, nor has it ever
been, his aim to destroy the souls of men by drugs, alcohol,
pornography, adultery, fornication, abortion, and murder. By these things, men and women
destroy their own lives and the lives of others, but Satan's
devices are more crafty. He seeks to destroy the souls
of men by getting them to fight drugs and alcohol and pornography
and adultery and fornication and abortion and murder in the
name of God. By getting them to practice religion
and practice righteousness. He can't destroy the Christ of
God, he knows it. So he raises up false Christ,
anti-Christ, by which to deceive men's souls. He cannot keep sinners
from Christ by making them ever so wicked. That'll never keep
you from Christ. Your sin will never keep you
from him. No, sir. Your righteousness does. Righteousness is what keeps men
from Christ. They're imaginary righteous. So he raises up men
and sends them out as angels of light, preachers from hell,
teaching sinners how to do good. That's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians
11, isn't it? He transforms himself into an
angel of light, the prince of darkness. And he sends his messengers
to preach righteousness, yours. not the righteousness of God
in Christ, your righteousness. And I'm telling you, God help
you to hear me. Every man, every woman who would
have you to believe that somehow you can make yourself righteous
before God is sent of hell and his message arises from the prince
of darkness. A preacher of that just, you're
right. You're right. But what you're
saying so, nobody I know outside here knows anything about God.
Well, you search this book and find out whether or not what
I'm saying so. But Bobby, either it's so, or I'm a deceiver of
your soul. You better not hear me again.
And if it's so, you'd better hear me. You'd better hear what
I'm saying. Satan cannot destroy the church
and kingdom of God. the woman of Christ's choice,
his virgin bride. Though she is herself vile and
wretched and undone and unclean and acknowledges it with brokenness
of heart, she is made the virgin bride of Christ by the imputed
righteousness of Christ given her by the grace of God and only
by the grace of God. Unreprovable, unblameable, holy
in God's sight. Satan cannot destroy Christ's
chosen bride. So the destroyer has from the
beginning raised up and maintained a religion to rival the worship
of God. A woman to rival and seek to
destroy the church of God. This rival religion This rival
woman by whom the prince of darkness rules over the minds of men and
women throughout the world in every age is referred to throughout
the scriptures as Babylon the great whore, the mother of all
harlot religion. Has she spoken of that way throughout
the scriptures? Throughout the scriptures. You
see, this business, Merle, of false religion, is so horrid,
so damning, so deceitful, it is absolutely abominable for
anyone to speak of it respectfully. In the word of God, the religion
of the world is referred to as a whore without any cleaning
things up, because that's what the religion of the world is.
It's exactly what it is. The wine of this old, old whore's
fornication By which he keeps the heads and hearts of men in
a spin of drunken stupor. A self-righteous, freewill, works
religion by whatever name you call it. It doesn't matter whether
it's Baptist or Buddhist. It doesn't matter whether it's
Islamic or Pentecostal. It doesn't matter whether it's
Presbyterian or Papist. It doesn't matter whether it's reformed
or non-reformed. It doesn't matter what you call it. It is the doctrine
of free will works religion by which men are taught that somehow
they make themselves acceptable to God Almighty with a little
help from God. We're warned and commanded of
God to come out of her and to have nothing to do with the blasphemies,
the soul damning blasphemies and charms of our many and free
will works religion. The word of God, the gospel of
God's grace is given as a lamp and a light and way of instruction
in life. Listen now to what the wise man
says, to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the
tongue of a strange woman, Lust not after her beauty. In thine
heart neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means
of a whore, a man is brought to a piece of bread. And her
purpose is to seek your precious life. That's her purpose. We're called over and over and
over again throughout the Old Testament and the New to come
out of Babylon. Come out of Babylon. Deliver
every man his own soul. Come out of Babylon! Lest you
be partaker of her sins and of her judgments. The Apostle Paul,
writing in 2 Corinthians 6, says to us, be not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers. He's not talking now about going
to work and working somewhere where they've got a union and
you have to work in the union. That's not what he's talking
about. He's not even primarily talking about believers marrying
unbelievers, though that's foolish and horrid and contrary to the
teaching of Scripture. What he's talking about is religious
association, Linda. The whole passage is talking
about that. What fellowship has light with
darkness? What concord has Christ with
the devil, with Belial? What part has he that believes
with an infidel? Verse 17, he says, wherefore,
come out from among them. Not separate yourself and live
like a bunch of hermits somewhere and dress funny and act funny.
That's not what he's talking about. Come out from among them and be separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. You see, the
sacrifices of the heathen, the sacrifices of self-righteous
men, the sacrifices of Babylon are all unclean, no matter how
pretty they look to men. Don't touch the unclean thing. And God says, you come out, touch
not the unclean thing and I'll receive you. How are we going
to get along? The whole world's engulfed in
this thing. The whole world follows after Babylon. The whole world
drinks of her wine. How are we going to get along?
I'll receive you. Let the world do what it will
then. I'll be a father to you. I don't care who else is. I'll
be a father to you. And you shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty. The religion of Babylon,
Arminian freewill works religion is the religion of the damned.
It's the religion of the world. And it began as an organized
form of religion. It began as an organized system
of religion back in Genesis chapters 10 and 11. Turn with me to those
passages and just hold your Bibles there. The religion of Babylon
began in an organized way in the days of Nimrod with the building
of the Tower of Babel. Let me give you a little background.
Noah, you'll recall from the message a couple of weeks ago,
was found in a drunken stupor. God's saints in this world, the
most imminent, the finest, are still just sinners saved by grace.
There's no extenuating circumstance described, no excuse offered,
Noah got drunk. Noah got drunk. Lots of folks
try to justify it one way or the other, excuse it one way
or the other, God doesn't. He shows us plainly salvation by
free grace alone, by the righteousness of another, not by our own. Noah
wasn't saved because God found grace in his sight. Noah was
saved because Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. And
while he was drunk, one of his sons exposed himself for what
he really was. Ham saw his father stark buck
naked, like drunks do. behaving in a manner he wouldn't
think about behaving if he was sober. There's Noah, that old
man, that old man, that old preacher of righteousness, buck naked,
laying in his tent. And Ham did what all self-righteous
religionists always do in such a circumstance. You know what
he did? He uncovered his father's nakedness. Folks wonder, what was Ham saying? This is what it was. He walks
in. I got you now, you old goat.
I've always known you as a fake. I've always known you as a pretender.
I've always known that you were putting on. Sham! Japheth! Come here and look at daddy.
And he just gleefully uncovers his father's nakedness. Sham
and Japheth did what all believers endeavor in all such circumstances
to do. They said, that's not daddy.
No, that's not daddy. We know him better than that.
That's not Noah. No, sir. No, sir. That's that
old man. That's not Noah. And we're not
going to look at it. And we're going to fix it so
nobody else does. They walked into the tent carrying a blanket
backwards. and covered Noah's sin. Covered it up. It's what love
does, isn't it? The book's so plain. Well, we're
gonna be honest and we're gonna deal honest with this thing.
No, you're dealing in your self-righteous pride and haughtiness, exposing
a man's sin. Shem and Jacob covered it. And
when Noah awoke from his drunkenness and saw what his son Ham had
done, he pronounced a curse on him. He said, Ham shall be servant
of servants, the lowest form of servant imaginable. He shall
be a vessel, a constant, stooping, bending vessel to Shem and Japheth
and Japheth. Oh, you're going to be scattered.
Oh, Gentiles are going to be scattered here, yonder, and everywhere.
I've got my elect scattered at four corners of the earth. But
Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem, for this thing's all
over with, and Ham's going to serve him forever. But then we
come here to Nimrod. The first declaration of any
of Ham's arms is Nimrod, a mighty man, built the mightiest empire
the world had ever known. And it takes possession of the
land of Shinar where Shem was dwelling. Doesn't look like he's
serving him to me. God's ways are not our ways,
Ron. He's serving him. He's serving him. He's serving
him. Takes him into bondage, in captivity.
And Shem and Japheth serve him. Oh, no, no, no, no. They're just
serving them in bondage with their bodies for a time. Ham
and his sons are serving to save God's people. That's the curse. Nimrod said, I'm not about to
serve them. I'm not about to. And so he builds this city. Now
the story of Nimrod and the great tower of Babel was very prominent
in medieval folklore. As a matter of fact, it was so
prominent in medieval folklore that when you start to read various
comments concerning this 11th chapter of Genesis, there are
fantastic tales. You children, I haven't even
looked at it. I guarantee you that if Shelby
is teaching on this passage downstairs and you got a picture of Babel,
you're going to have a picture of a tower. The top of it just
gets hidden in the clouds. The mythology said, the folklore
said, it was a wall nine miles high. Nine miles high. By which men
thought they could climb up bricks and walk into heaven. And God
came down and destroyed it so they couldn't do it. That's exactly opposite of what's
taught here in the passage. Let's look at it together. You
see, the men and women of Babel were men and women who were built
together in a city by a man whose name was Nimrod, a mighty rebel
against God. This man, Nimrod, we should read
of him in chapter 10, verse 8. Cush begat Nimrod, that makes
him the grandson of Ham. Verse 10, and the beginning of his kingdom
was Babel. The name Nimrod means rebel. He was a cursed son of a cursed
son. He knew the curse of God on his
father Ham and Canaan. He knew the reason for the curse.
His father, Ham, had gleefully exposed his godly father Noah's
nakedness, his sin. But being the proud man he was,
Nimrod dared to set himself up in judgment of God's judgment.
He said, it's not right. It's not right for God to do
that with my daddy. It's not right for God to put a curse
on my family. It's not right for God to do
that. I'll fix this. And he was a rebel. And the scripture
tells us he was a mighty rebel. He was a hunter. It's how it's
translated in our King James Bibles, but he was not the hunter
of quake. He was not a hunter of lions
and tigers. Oh no, this was a bloodthirsty
man. He was a hunter of men. He was
determined to make himself an empire no matter whose blood
he had to spill and no matter how much of it or how often.
He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He took possession
of the land of Shinar and all the peoples of the East. And
Nimrod was a mighty rebel against God. When we read in verse nine
that he was a mighty hunter before the Lord, it would better be
translated, he was a mighty rebel against the Lord. The beginning
of this God-hating rebel's empire was Babel. It had been at least
300 years since the flood. At least 300 years since God
came down and destroyed the earth in the flood of his wrath, and
the memory of the terror of God's wrath had been forgotten. The
people were of one language, doing great, impressive, mighty
things. Nimrod made himself powerful
among these powerful men. The words in the Council of Eber
that godly man were ignored. The gospel he learned from his
grandfather Noah through his godly father Shem was held in
utter contempt. The worship of God was trampled
underfoot. The sheer power of Nimrod's wealth,
the terror of his might, the influence he had with all the
world around him caused all men everywhere to follow him. All
except for God's chosen remnant, whose names were written in the
book of life before the world began, they'll not be deceived
by him. The city of Babel, which Nimrod
built, it was more than a place of government. Babel was a religious
refuge. Today, we all associate Babel
with confusion. That's what the name has come
to mean in our time and in our society. But originally, the
name Babel didn't mean confusion at all. When Nimrod built his
city, Lindsay, and said, we're going to call this Babel, he
said, God says. God says he's worshiped down
there in those little old pup tents where Shem lives. God says
he's worshiped by those nobody's nothings. He says let's go build
us a city and we'll call it the gate of God. Now then, we'll see who God accepts. We'll see who God turns in judgment
against. Nimrod like Cain before him determined
that he would worship God only on his own terms. In other words,
he was in reality worshiping himself, calling it the worship
of God. Look at Genesis chapter 11. The
whole earth was of one language 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. And they said one to another,
go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they
had brick for stone and slime had they for mortar. And they
said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top
may reach into heaven. And let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. It was
a refuge, a religious refuge, a refuge of lies, but a refuge
of lies in which men convinced themselves they could hide and
protect themselves from the wrath of God. Babylon, like all other
false religions, was built by a confederacy. They said one
to another, go to let us. That's how rebels always act.
That's how ungodly men always act. Ungodly men can never stand
alone. Ungodly men can never walk alone. Ungodly men can never defy the
odds. Ungodly men will never walk in
a way to cost them. They won't do it, because they're
cowards at heart. So they make a confederacy. James,
come here. Noah. Man, wait. You remember
Noah. He was wrong, buddy. He was wrong. He was wrong. Him wasn't such
a bad fella. Bob, come here. Let me talk to
you. Come here. Now, let's forget
their way and we'll walk our way and make us a name. We'll
make us a name that everybody's gonna remember. We'll put our
footprints in the sands of time and everybody's going to acknowledge
us. Babel, like all false religion, was a religion whose refuge was
built according to man's wisdom. The scripture tells us that they
built this city like no city had ever been built before. They
built this tower like no tower had ever been built before. Previously,
men had taken God's work, stones of the earth, We're told later,
as God was required of Moses in the building of the tabernacle
and building of altars, and later in the building of the temple,
you take them not of hewn stone. They just took stones and piled
them together. Took a stone and built an altar to the Lord, but
not Nimrod. We got a better way. Those stones
are so ugly. Those stones are so plain, so simple. There's
nothing impressive about those stones. Let's make some bricks. and we'll get us some slime and
we'll make the mortar and we'll build us an impressive temple
like nobody has ever seen. We'll build us an impressive
city like nobody's ever seen. We'll build it so that it's Now, that is a hyperbole, nothing
more than a hyperbole. We're going to build a great
walled city. You say, well, pastor, how can
you say that? Because that's exactly how Canaan and the cities
of Canaan were described in the book of Deuteronomy. They were
fenced up to heaven. The walls reached heaven. That's
all it means. It was a great, huge wall, a
great, huge city. But God wasn't afraid they were
going to step out on their balcony and walk into heaven. But that
wasn't the problem. The sin was not in building the
city. The sin was not even in building a great wall around
the city. The sin was not building a fortress against the invading
armies of men. The sin was building themselves
a fortress by which they defied the God of glory. That was the
sin. Babel was built with the bricks
of man's self-righteous works, held together with the serpent
slime of man's free will. Built of man-made material for
the honor of man. Let us build us in that city.
Let us make us a name. And you know what they dared
do? They called it the gate of God. Everything centers on man, but
we're worshiping God. Paul calls it will worship. They're
worshiping themselves. Like all false religion, the
city and tower of Babylon were built by men and for men to protect
men from the judgment of God. That's the meaning of verse four.
Go to let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach
into heaven, lest we be scattered abroad. Obviously they understood the
judgment of God upon him and Canaan. They understood that
being the vassals of Japheth and Shem would involve them being
dispersed throughout the earth because these men were doing
what God told them to do. They were multiplying, replenishing,
and possessing the earth. And if we're going to be their
servants, we've got to follow them around. They said, no sir,
no sir. We're not gonna have our family
and our tribes destroyed and scattered here and there. We'll
build us a tower right here and we'll force God to accept us
and we'll twist his arm. We'll put him in a bind. We'll
get God in a headlock. He'll have to honor us because
we're gonna impress him and everybody. Now hear me. God help you to
hear me. It matters not what your refuge
is. It doesn't matter. If your refuge
is not the free grace of God, Jesus Christ the Son of God.
If your refuge is not in Christ crucified, if your refuge is
not solely and alone in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ,
that man seated yonder on God's throne where we find in him the
gate of God. If that's not your hope Rex,
your hope is Babylon. If that's not my hope, my hope
is Babylon. No matter what your refuge is,
if it is not Christ crucified and Christ crucified alone, your
refuge is a refuge of lies. Oh, it'll serve you for a while.
Read Isaiah 28. It'll serve you for a while.
Somebody comes and preaches the grace of God, some of you bear
witness to it. Preach the gospel to you and
you say, shoot, that's not for me. I've made my covenant with
death. I've got this thing sewn up, buddy. I took care of this
when I was a little girl. I took care of this when I was a little
boy. I walked down an aisle. I said a little prayer. I went through
my little ditty. I've done all that. I'm all right.
That's not for me. I made my covenant with death.
Hell's not gonna touch me. I'm all right. I sing, blessed
is yours, Jesus is mine all the time. I'm saved, sanctified,
and on my way to heaven. Everything's all right with me.
Everything's okay. God says, hang on. I'm going
to drop a plummet ball, and we'll see how straight your refuge
is. And in the day of my wrath, I'm going to sweep away your
refuge of lies. And if you'll search your own
conscience, you'll acknowledge your bed's too short, you can't
stretch on it. It won't give you any peace.
You tried it, didn't you, Gary? It won't give you any peace.
You can tell your wife you got peace. You can tell your mama
and daddy you got peace. You can tell the preacher, you
can tell the wife, I got peace, peace, peace, peace, perfect peace,
wonderful peace. And you go to bed at night and
think about dying, meeting God in judgment and your soul is
full of hell, the terror of hell. You're covering your righteousness.
Oh, it impresses me and it even impresses you. But try wrapping
yourself up in it and going to bed getting warm. It's too narrow. God says, I'll sweep it away.
Oh, may God come now and sweep away the refuge of lies, lest
you find it a refuge of lies in the day of his wrath. The
religion of Babel was exactly the same as the religion of this
perverse generation. It's the religion of the curse. This is the curse God put on
Cain. That's the mark God put on him. I only see in the Bible
two marks on man. Either the mark of the beast
or the seal of Christ. One of the two. That mark on
Cain wasn't the color of his skin. That mark on Cain wasn't
some kind of hideous, grotesque thing. God's curse on him wasn't
the color of his skin. God's curse! God's curse upon
man is free will, self-righteous works religion by which men are
deceived and deceived themselves into thinking by their efforts
somehow they put God in a bind and God take them. God take them. The religion of Babylon has this
creed, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach
unto heaven and let us make us a name. The religion of Babylon,
now listen, the religion of Babylon is any religion which centers
in man. Depends upon man. Gives man a
name of honor. It matters not what the name
of the religion is. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter
whether it's Judaism or Christianity or Hinduism or Shinduism or some
other ism. Doesn't matter. Oh no. Doesn't
matter what the religion is. Any religion that makes salvation
at any point to be depended upon or determined by something you
do, rather than depended upon and determined by the finished
work of Jesus Christ is Babylon. It's the religion of the curse.
It's the strong delusion God sends by which men are brought
to hell. The religion of Babylon is any religion that makes salvation
to be depended upon or determined by the will of man rather than
the will of God. Doesn't matter where. Doesn't
matter whether you're talking about God's election depending
on God seeing something good in you. Or God's redemption being
finally made effectual by something you do. Or whether you're talking
about regeneration finally being accomplished because you decided
to let Jesus save you. Or God's justification being
accomplished by something you do. Or your being made righteous
and sanctification being accomplished by something you do. Or your
reward and glory being determined by something you do. It's battle!
It's confusion. Confusion. Now the cause of God's
judgment then and now was exactly the same. We read in the latter part of
verse 16, I'm sorry, latter part of verse six, now nothing will
be restrained from them which they've imagined to do. What does that mean? If you read the fantastic tales
of religious interpreters who follow medieval mythology and
folklore, that means God was scared they were actually going
to climb up to heaven. What stupidity. Oh no. Rex, they had heard the gospel
from Eber, who heard it from Shane, who heard it from Noah.
They had heard the word of God's judgment and wrath. And they
had heard the word of God's grace and mercy. And they said, to
hell with God, we'll do it our way. We'll do it our way. We'll do it our way. We'll do
it our way. And they said, we will not be
turned from Babel, this great town, this great city, this great
religion we built, and go back to worshiping in your pup tents.
Ain't going to happen. God said, all right, I'll give
it to you. I'll give it to you. That's usually
the way judgment begins in this world. God says, I call and you
refuse. All right, I'll laugh at you
and you can eat the fruit of your own ways. God's judgment comes upon me,
and because of obstinate rebellion, trampling underfoot the blood
of the Son of God, doing despite to the Spirit of grace, and saying,
God, you'll do it my way. You'll be worshiped my way. You'll
be debtor to me, and I will not serve any other way. God says,
alright, take your religious refuge with you to hell. And he sent confusion. Confusion. Why did he send confusion of
tongues? To scatter the people, to divide the people, to make
them enemies of one another and servants of Shem and Japheth. to make them go where God's elect
are in the four corners of the earth and make them unwilling,
unwitting vassals, serving the purpose of God and the saving
of his elect. That's all they ever did, all
they'll ever do. We see this corrected in Acts
chapter two. Oh, when God pours out his spirit
upon confused sinners, who can't speak one another's language,
who don't understand each other, who don't know one another's
customs. Ah, but when God pours out His Spirit, Spirit of grace
and supplication, they all hear one message from the same man
in the same language, and they hear and understand and believe,
and confusion's ended. Confusion's ended. You see, the
kingdom of God is not a confused hodgepodge where, you know, well,
oh brother Don, he's a nice fella, but I don't agree with him about
this, that, or the other. Oh brother Todd, he's a nice fella.
He preaches some good stuff, but you know, I don't agree with
him about this, that, or the other. Oh brother Man, he's a
nice fella. He preaches good stuff. He's
a good preacher, but you know, I don't agree. That's the way
the world, that's Babylon. I've known Larry Criss no longer
than I've known any of y'all, personally. Never had any confusion
anyway. Not a bit. Not a bit. Well, y'all
just puppets. Think what you will. Confusion's
over, brother. The confusion's over. Why? Because Christ brings men and
women together, and in Him, confusion's end. Believers all understand
salvation by grace. Believers all understand salvation's
in Christ. Believers all understand salvation
gives glory to God alone. And they sing as they come out
of Babylon, bless God we're free. Bless God we're free. Bless God
we'll never go back again. We burned these bridges. We burned
these bridges. Tell you something else, take
it home with you children of God. Listen now, Nimrod and Ham
and Canaan and all the sons of Nimrod and Ham and Canaan, under
all the power of hell, with all the prince of darkness and demons
of hell working for them in the building of their religion to
destroy God's church and his kingdom, to topple God's throne
and overthrow God's purpose, only fulfill it. Only fulfill it. Remember in
Isaiah, Satan said, I'm going to take over the God business.
Step aside God, here I come. And when I get done, everybody's
going to worship me. See how great I am. Can't you
just picture God? Things are out of control. He says, this is the purpose
that is purposed in all the earth. In other words, Lindsay, nothing's
going to hinder God's purpose. Nothing's going to stop the process
of the building of God's kingdom or even slow it down or make
it take an alternate route. Ham is going to serve Shem and
Japheth until all God's elect among the sons of Japheth dwell
at peace in the tents of Shem and all Israel is saved. Now then, Lord, here we are. I can't see your purpose. I'll
twist my fingers and pace the floor and wring my hands and
bite my nails and I don't know what's going on. But you do. And everything gonna be alright.
Give me grace to step aside and watch you work. And he will. He will. Now, you who are still
trying to hold on to Christ in Babel, you who are still trying
to worship at the altar of God and worship at the altar of your
free will, you who are still trying to worship at the throne
of God's dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and worship at the throne
of your self-righteous works and your will and your decision,
I call you in the name of God, come out of Babylon, or you're
gonna go to hell with her. It's just that simple. It's just
that simple. Come to Christ. Believe on the
Son of God and live forever in peace and righteousness that
only He can give. Amen. in the Songs of Grace book number
35. Number 35, Sinner Saved by Grace.