Would you turn to the 137th Psalm?
Psalm 137, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept. when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the
willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried
us away captive required of us a song. And they that wasted
us required of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's
song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer
not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, the children
of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, raise it, raise it,
even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art
to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as
thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh
and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. Lord, we come into your presence
with thanksgiving. We're so thankful for the salvation
that's in your son. We're so thankful for your word,
Lord. We're so grateful that you have given us this book that's
inspired by you, that's without error to teach us who you are.
Lord, we thank you for Christ Jesus and his beauty, his glory,
and the salvation that's in him. Lord, give us the grace to look
away from ourselves and look to him only. We confess our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing.
We pray for your mercy and grace upon us. Be with all your people
wherever they meet together. And Lord, those that are going
through sickness, trials, we pray for your Hand upon them
for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen. Notice verse nine. Happy shall
he be that taketh and dasheth thy little
ones against the rocks. Now the picture is taking an
infant child and dashing that child. against the rocks. That's hard language, isn't it? I can remember one time when
I was in a Bible study. This is when I was still in school
and there was a young lady in that Bible study that said, I
can prove that the Bible is not the word of God. Why was she
going to Bible study if she wanted to do something like that in
the first place? But she used this verse of scripture and said,
this proves the Bible is not inspired. Because how could it
be inspired if it talks of an approval of somebody who takes
an infant and dashes it against the stones? Now I want us to remember, By
the rivers of Babylon, there we set down. Babylon is highly typical in
the scripture, and we're going to see that. It represents human
religion. Hold your finger there in Psalm
137 and turn with me to Revelation 17. Verse one. And there came one of the seven
angels, which had the seven vows, and talked with me, saying unto
me, Come up hither. I will show unto thee the judgment
of the great whore that saith upon many waters, with whom the
kings of the earth had committed fornication, and the inhabitants
of the earth had been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and
I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-collared beast full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of the abomination
and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery. Babylon, the great, the mother
of harlots and abominations of the earth. So we see that Babylon
represents human religion. And there's a lot of other scriptures
that back that up. So keep that in mind as we consider
this one who dashes the child against the rocks. We want to
dash all salvation by works against the rocks, don't we? That's strong
language, but let's go back to our text. Psalm 137. Now in Isaiah
chapter 13. God said, with regard to Babylon,
your little ones are going to be dashed against the stones.
This is what is going to happen to you. Verse one. By the rivers of Babylon. They'd
been carried away captive. And that's why they were in Babylon
at this time under the direction of Nebuchadnezzar and Darius,
however you pronounce it. Ohasuerus and these kings in
Syria in the city of Babylon. This is where they had their
base of operations. By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We remembered
Jerusalem. We remembered Mount Zion. And
here we are carried away. And so we sat down and wept in
the thought of us being in exile away from Jerusalem. We hanged
our harps upon the willows, verse two, in the midst thereof, weeping
willows. We have no reason to play with
our harps with joy because we're in exile. Verse three, for they
that, for there, they that carried us away captive, and remember
they're there because of their disobedience to God. God allowed
them to be carried away captive out of Jerusalem into this land
of Babylon. For there they that carried us
away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required
of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. They
were making fun of them. Here you are in captive. Sing
us one of those songs of Zion. They were making fun of them,
ridiculing them, probably trying to make them sing. We want to
hear them sing. And then the psalmist says, How
shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning, her ability. If I do not remember thee, speaking
of Jerusalem again, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Now, once again,
this is typical. Turn to Revelation 21. Verse one. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away and there was no more sea. No more separation. In heaven, there will be no separation.
How many times have you looked at the sea and thought what's
on the other side? Who's on the other side? What's going on over
there? There will be none of that in
heaven, no sea, no separation. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband." And this is talking about the
church. the new Jerusalem. Look in verse 10 of the same
chapter. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and
high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God. This is not a man-made city.
It descends from heaven down from God, having the glory of
God. Remember when the Lord said, with regard to his people, the
glory thou has given me, I've given them. That's the possession
of every believer, having the righteousness and marriage of
Christ. And her light was like a new stone, most precious, even
like a jasper stone, clear as a crystal." Now, this is the
New Jerusalem, and this represents the church. And so, yes, the
psalmist is saying, oh, I miss Jerusalem, my hometown, but more
than that, this is talking about the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. their glory given to them by
Christ himself. And that's why it says, if I
prefer you not above my chiefest joy, let my tongue cleave to
my mouth. Now let's go back. Psalm 137,
verse 7. Remember, O Lord, the children
of Edom. Those are the descendants of
Esau. And he's saying, I want them to be judged. Remember them,
O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who
said, raise it, raise it, that means level it, even to the foundations
thereof, just completely destroy Jerusalem. Remember them, O Lord,
O, now look what it says in verse eight. O daughter of Babylon,
who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that reward thee
as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh
and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. Now that was actually
a common practice. An army would come in to destroy
a city and they would take their little ones, their children. How cruel, how barbaric that
it would happen. dashed them against the stones.
And God prophesied in Isaiah chapter 13 that this is what's
going to happen to Babylon. But as far as that goes, the
children of Israel did things like that. God said kill every
infant, every suckling, every animal. I mean, there was all
kinds of this kind of things going on. But like I said, there's
great typical significance to this. Babylon. Where's the first time it's mentioned?
Genesis chapter 11. Babel and Babylon are the same
word in the Hebrew. Now you remember what happened
in Genesis chapter 11? Everybody got together and said, we're
going to make a tower and build it till it reaches the heavens
and we're going to find God. Babylon is man's attempt at reaching
God. And what did God do at that time? He confused their languages. That's where different languages
came from. And I love to see the clarity
of this. Babylon means confusion. And
if salvation is by works in any way, if we can build a tower
to God and do something to get to God, what exactly is it we
need to do? It's confusion. Now with grace,
there's no confusion. It's all of grace. It's all what
he did. But if you take that away in
any level, all you have is confusion. You know, there's so many different
churches and different religions and they all give you different
things that you need to do. It's confusing. What is the One way
of approach to God. Well, Babel confuses that. Now I want us to look at the
history of Babel. Turn to Joshua chapter seven.
Here's the next time it's mentioned. It's in Joshua chapter seven. Now in this chapter, there was
a little town called Ai. that Joshua said, we won't have
to send all of our armies. We'll just send 3,000 men and
they'll go destroy this town. And what happened? This town
destroyed them. And Joshua was devastated. And
he goes to the Lord saying, what happened? What did we do? Why is it that this town has
smitten us? Now look in verse 10 of Joshua
chapter seven. And the Lord said unto Joshua,
Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel
sinned, and they also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded
them. For they have even taken of the
accursed thing, and have stolen and dissembled also, and they
have put it even among their own stuff. Now this is why they
were destroyed. They took of the accursed thing. What is this? accursed thing. We'll look in verse 19 of this
same chapter. And Joshua said unto Achan, he's
the man who took of this accursed thing and hid it. And Joshua
said unto Achan, my son, give, I pray thee glory to the Lord
God of Israel and make confession unto him and tell me now what
hast thou done? I did not for me. In an answer,
Joshua said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord, God of Israel. And thus and thus have I done
when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment. And that's
the next time that that word is used from Genesis chapter
11, all the way up to here. I saw a Babylonish garment. and 200 shekels of silver and
a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight. I coveted them. I took
them and behold, they're hidden in the earth and midst of my
tent and silver under it." Now we know as you go on reading
this chapter, he and all of his family and all of his goods were
burnt with fire because of this. The Babylonish garment, the garment
of works, religion, human righteousness, the silver and the gold, the
trade of works, religion, what you need to pay God for him to
do something for you. So we see the typical significance
of this. The Babylonish garment is human
righteousness. from the Tower of Babel, man's
attempt to reach God. Now turn with me a second. Kings
17, this is the next time it's mentioned. Now this is during that time
that Israel is in Babylon. And this is where the Jews of
the New Testament, the Pharisees, developed this hatred of the
Samaritans. Remember the way they said the Jews had no dealings
with the Samaritans? Well, this is where these people
of Samaria come from, and this is the story that begins that. 2 Kings 17, beginning in verse
22, for the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam,
which he did. They departed not from them until
the Lord removed Israel out of his sight. This is when they
were taken to Babylon. And he said, by all his servants,
the prophets, so was Israel carried away out of the land to Assyria,
and to this day. And the king of Assyria brought
men from Babylon, and this is the third time Babel is mentioned
in the scriptures. And the king of Assyria brought
men from Babylon, and from Cuthath, and from Ava, and from Hamath,
and from Sepharvim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria,
instead of the children of Israel. And they possessed Samaria, and
dwelt in the cities thereof. Now, the children of Israel had
been carried out, The king says, I want these people, beginning
with the Babylonians, to replace them and live in these cities.
Verse 25, and so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there
that they feared not the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions
among them, which slew some of them. Wherefore they spake to
the king of Assyria, saying, the nations which thou hast removed
and placed in the cities of Samaria know not the manner of the God
of the land. Therefore, hath he sent lions among them? And
behold, they slayed him, because they know not the manner of the
God of the land." This was their superstition. They didn't have
any understanding of the living God. They knew Israel had a God. Evidently, we're not doing right,
and he's sending lions and killing us. What can we do about this?
Verse 27, then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, carry this
to the one of the priests whom you brought from this. and let
them go and dwell there and let them teach them the manner of
the God of the land. So they took a priest from Babylon
that had been carried there and brought him back to the land
so they could teach him what to do in order to keep lions
from eating him. Then one of the priests whom
they carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and
taught them how that they should fear the Lord. How be it every
nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of
the high places, which the Samaritans had made every nation in their
cities, where they dwelt and the men of Babylon made Sukkoth,
Binoth and the men of Kuth. Well, it talks about all the
different gods they had. Verse 32, so they feared the
Lord and made unto themselves of the lowest of them. Priests
of the high places would sacrifice for them in the houses of the
high places. They feared the Lord and served
their own gods." Can't do that, can you? But that's what they
tried to do. This is Babylon religion, hybrid
religion, mixing grace and works. We fear the Lord. We've got some
good stuff, but we also have our false gods, and it's a hybrid
religion. Look in verse 41 of this same
chapter. So these nations feared the Lord
and served their graven images, both their children and their
children's children, as did their fathers. So do they unto this
day. Babylon. Religion. Turn to Revelation 14. Verse
eight. And there followed another angel
saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, the great city, because
she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication. Man's religion. Look at chapter
16, verse 19. And this is talking about Jerusalem.
And the great city was divided into three parts and the cities
of the nations fell and great Babylon, came in remembrance
before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness
of his wrath. And I've already read that passage
from Revelation chapter 17. Now Babylon represents works
religion. Is that clear from the scripture? And so when he's talking about
taking that baby and dashing it against the stones, that happened.
That really happened. barbaric, cruelty, and children
of Israel did things like that, too. He would tell them to go
into a nation and kill everybody, women, children, sucklings. And somebody says, well, how
could God do that? Don't think like that. Whatever God does
is right. His character is perfect and glorious, and whatever he
does is right. If you don't understand it, just move on and just know
his character is right. But this represents human religion
and dashing every aspect of human religion against the stones and
destroying it. Now Martin Luther wrote a book
during the Reformation entitled The Bondage of the Will. And
in this book he maintained if you want to understand the error
of human religion It can all be deduced to free will. How's that? The belief in free will is the
belief that you can do whatever you will to do in religion, and
it's independent of God's sovereign will. It's up to you as to what
you do. And really, whatever work it
is that you need to perform to be saved, it begins where? With
the will. That's where it begins. And so
everything can be deduced to this issue of free will, man's
free will. Now, the will is involved. in our experience of salvation.
Nobody's denying that. You do what you want to do. But
doesn't the scripture say in Philippians 2.13, it's God that
worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. Now this issue of free will,
man, will is free. He can choose to accept God,
he can choose to reject God. He can choose to accept Jesus
Christ as his personal savior. You know, I hate that language,
accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior. Would you ever introduce somebody,
this is my personal sister, this is my personal husband? Foolishness,
but yet that's the way religion speaks. It's up to your will. Now, that
is the essence of salvation. By works, that's a denial. It's an absolute rejection of
God's sovereign will. I'm saying, I'm free from God.
I can trump His will. We'll see. We'll see. But the
fact of the matter is the belief in free will, which is absurd
in the first place. Your will's controlled by your
nature. There's no such thing as free will. There never has
been any such thing as free will. God doesn't have a free will.
God's will is controlled by his nature. God can't will to sin,
can he? He can't will to be evil. He
can't will to be anything contrary to who he is. He's glorious. His will is controlled by his
holy, perfect nature. And man's will is controlled
by their evil, sinful, wicked nature. The very thought of free
will is absurd. You believe that? It's ridiculous. And I don't
know whether I'd use this language. I'm going to use it anyway. It's
stupid. That's all you can call it. It's
stupid. It's against all every attribute of God. It's against
the gospel and the bottom line. And this is why Martin Luther
made this statement. Whatever work it is you think
you need to do to be saved or whatever it is you need to you
need to stop doing in order to be saved. It begins with your
will. Free will works religion. Any religion that makes your
will the moving cause as to why God's going to do something for
you is salvation by works, nothing less. I think of the Garden of Eden. Satan tempting Eve. What's he say? God's holding out on you. He
knows that if you eat this fruit your eyes will be opened and
you'll see good and evil. and you'll be able to make the
choice. You'll choose the good over the evil, and that's what'll
make you like God. You see, God chooses good over
evil. You're nothing but a robot. There's
nothing to your obedience. You're just following your nature.
You were programmed this way. You were born innocent, and there's
no real virtue in your obedience because your will's not involved. God, chooses the good over evil. If you choose the good over the
evil, then your eyes will be open. You'll be just like God.
That was the temptation in the garden. Free will. That's what will make you like
God. Now in closing, turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 7, for the mystery of iniquity doth
already work. I think that is really man's
religion. It's an antichrist, yes, but
there's a series of antichrists. Whoever doesn't preach the gospel,
John tells us is an antichrist. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be
taken out of the way. There's somebody who restrains
it and that's the Lord himself. And then shall that wicked be
revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth and should destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders. Impressive. Remember, Satan is called an
angel of light and his ministers, ministers of righteousness. Verse
10. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. There's
the problem. They received not the love of the truth. They rejected
it. And for this cause, verse 11, and for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie. Now,
in the original, the definite article is used, that they should
believe the lie. And what is the lie? I have no doubt that free will
works religion. That is the lie. And I think that is demonstrating
the context that they all might be damned who believe not the
truth, the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you. to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Now, anything contrary to the gospel
of grace, dash it against the stones. May the Lord enable us
to do that.