So to turn back to Genesis 11,
I've entitled the message for this
morning, The Language of Babel. The Language of Babel. Babel and Babylon is the same
Hebrew word, and it means confusion. It's where the languages were
confounded. Now, I did a little bit of research
into this, and I was surprised. There are some 7,000 known languages
in the world today. And I don't know if you're like
me, but anytime I hear people speaking in a foreign language,
I feel a little bit intimidated. I don't have any idea what they're
saying. And I asked Lynn and Aubrey both, I said, do you all
feel intimidated? They said, no. So maybe something's wrong
with me. I guess I'm thinking that they're
talking about me or something. It's, have you ever wondered
where all these languages came from? How men started speaking
different languages? Well, we learn in this passage
of scripture. Like I said, I thought it was
interesting. I've read several articles on what linguists thought,
where they thought languages came from, and every one of them
said, we really don't know. And I thought, I do. I know exactly
where they came from, because the Bible lets us know about
this. Now, this story that I just read out of Genesis chapter 11
took place about 100 years after Noah left the ark. And the largest
the earth's population could have been at that time was 30-some
thousand. From what I've read, some estimates
smaller than that, but that's the largest estimate. And that
is one-tenth the size of Lexington. That's how small the population
was at that time. And can you imagine verse seven,
let us go down there and confound their language that they might
not understand one another's speech. Verse nine, therefore
is the name of it called Babel, confusion, because the Lord did
there confound the language of all the earth And from thence
did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth."
Now, can you imagine how bizarre that would be? People you grew
up with, you knew them, and all of a sudden they're speaking
another language, and you don't understand a word they're saying. The Lord did this, and the Lord
did this for a purpose. Now, we know from the book of
Revelation, hold your finger there in Genesis 11 and turn
to Revelation 17, that Babylon, Babylon represents man's religion. Verse 1, And there came one of
the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with
me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the
kings of the earth have 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 colored beast full of names of
blasphemy. having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet collar and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations
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. And I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered
with great imagination." Now you'll remember from last week,
Nimrod was the founder of this city. Now back to Genesis chapter
11. And the whole earth was of one
language, and of one speech. 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 throughly. And they
had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. Now these
man-made bricks were what they were going to use to build this
tower that would reach heaven. Look in verse 4. They said, Go
to, let us make us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto
heaven. And let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad from the face of the whole earth. Now
these Man-made bricks, and I think this is very interesting, the
root word of these man-made bricks is purge and purify and white. These are the man-made bricks
of religion supposedly to purify and to make us white and to make
us acceptable. And they were held together with
a petroleum substance fitly named slime. the slime of human works. Now, we know and they knew that
this tower could not reach the sun and the stars or actually
go into heaven, the place God dwells. They knew that, but this
is typical language. This is man's attempt at reaching
God. That's what religion is. It's
man's attempt at reaching God. And they said, this is what we're
going to do. Come to, let us get together, let us make these
bricks and build us a city and make a tower that will reach
heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves,
the City of Man." Now, humanly speaking, this would
have been quite an achievement, wouldn't it, for them to be able
to get together and make this huge city and this huge tower? I was thinking about that in
light of really man being created in God's image. Man has been
able to do some very remarkable things. You know, just this week,
evidently, we landed a ship on Mars, and there's a Some kind
of car that goes along, and it's amazing the things we've done
with technology. I'm just amazed, but I like to
read about it. The advances in medicine, the
advances in science, the arts. Man has been quite a remarkable
creature in that sense. But there's a remarkable arrogance
to all this. Let us go, too. Let us do, there's
nothing we can't do. If we put our minds to it and
unify together, there's nothing we can't do. We can defeat this,
we can defeat that. It kills me the way men talk.
You can't defeat anything. God rules, God reigns. Psalm 10, four says, the wicked
through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God
is not in all his thoughts. I'm not thinking about the Lord
all the time. Sometimes I'm not thinking about him at all, same
as you, but he's in all of our thoughts in the sense that we
can't think of anything independent of him. But the wicked are able
to compartmentalize God. He's here, but he's not there. And what is their motive? Look
in verse four. They said, go to, let us build
us a city and a tower whose top may reach into heaven and let
us make a name. Let us make a name for ourselves,
something we can take credit for is what that means. Let's
make something that we can take credit for. It's called salvation
by works. That's what this is all about,
salvation by works. Now let me say this as plainly
as I know how to say it. If you put any work anywhere
in salvation, you're of the religion of Babylon. Now let me explain
what I mean. If you put a work at the beginning of salvation,
there's something you need to do before you can be saved. You need to accept Jesus as your
personal Savior, then you can be saved. Or you need to stop
committing a certain sin, start doing a certain thing, then you
can be saved. That's the religion of Babel.
if you put a work in the middle of salvation. Well, through my
works, through my efforts, I can become more holy and less sinful.
Through prayer, through Bible study, through fighting off temptation,
I can become a better person. I can become more holy and less
sinful. That's the religion of Babylon.
That's works. If you put a work at the end
of salvation, well, at least I can maybe get a higher reward
in heaven because of the things that I do. It's a work somewhere. I mean, I can at least take some
of the credit, be it a little bit. That's the religion of Babylon. Now, somebody says, don't you
think works are important? Yes, I think works are. There's no salvation apart from,
well, let me read the scripture to you. Listen to it. Revelation
14, 13, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. From henceforth,
yea, sayeth the Spirit, that they may have rest from their
labors, and their works do follow them. And that's talking about
every believer. So somebody says, don't you think
works are important? Of course I do. With regard to every believer,
their works do follow them. Now somebody says, what in the
world does that mean? Well, first of all, they don't come out in
front as the cause of salvation. They don't walk along the side
to give you some assurance. Well, I must be saved because
look, I'm doing this and I'm not doing that. But they walk
behind as evidence. Every believer will have evidence
that they really believed what they said they did. And I think
the best example of that is Lot. Lot didn't look behind, did he? Abraham proved he believed God.
So I'm not saying that works are not important. They are important
for every believer. But if I make them the cause
of salvation in the beginning, the middle, or the end, if I
think my works have anything to do with my salvation, things
I've done, then I'm of the religion of Babylon. Verse five. And the LORD came
down to see the city and the tower, which the children of
men built it." Now, this is given to accommodate our weakness. The Lord could see the city from
heaven. He didn't have to come DOWN to see it. He could see
it. The Lord came down to see the
city and the tower, which the children of men had built it. You know, I think of the Lord
listening to this language. Let's make us a tower! will reach
heaven. And the Lord hears the arrogance
of that language, the arrogance of that thinking. You know, the
scripture presents men as a drop in the bucket, lighter than vanity,
a grasshopper. And men have these high thoughts
of the things they can do. If we just unify, we can get
together and nothing's beyond us. Well, you're going to find
out that's not the case. So the Lord came down to observe this. And the Lord said, behold, the
people is one, and they all have one language. This they begin
to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they've
imagined to do. Go to, let us go down there and confound their
language, that they may not understand one another's speech. Now, picture
that in your mind. All of a sudden, no one can understand
one another. I mean, one guy's speaking in
Russian, and another guy's Spanish. People you've known all your
life, and now you can't understand what they're saying. All communication
has stopped. You sure can't build this building
anymore. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon
the face of all the earth, and they had left to build the city.
Therefore it is the name of it called Babel. Confusion. What an apt name for the language
of men. What an apt name for the religion
of men. Confusion. I don't know of anything more
confusing than religion. Seven great religions in the
world, supposedly. Christianity, Christianity, I
would call it Christian insanity, is the largest one, but you have
all these different religions. And then within, quote, Christendom,
you have Catholic and Protestant. You have East and West. You have
how many denominations? How many different types of Baptists
are there? There are so many denominations within, quote,
Christianity, all of which claim to have a little bit tighter
view, a little bit more grasp of the truth, a little bit better
than the other denominations. Now let me say this, there's
no such thing as denominations in the scripture. No such thing. They're purely man-made. I think of the way churches advertise
themselves. There's Armenian and Reformed. There's Calvinist and there's
New Calvinist. There, you have different, some
churches advertise, well, we have contemporary worship. Others,
we have traditional worship. And some combined together, we
have both. We'll have a contemporary service and then a traditional
service after that. I mean, talking about confusing
and, There's so many charismatic, non-charismatic. Um, the answer
to the question, how can a sinner be saved is never answered either
that, or they're given so many different answers. It's the same
thing, the confusion, the confounding of the religion of Babel. It can't be understood, nor can it understand the language
of the gospel. Now let me show you what I mean
by that. A man dead in sins cannot understand or hear the gospel,
no matter how clearly it's preached. He cannot hear or understand
the gospel. Now turn with me for a moment
to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Now this is after the Lord has
given this sermon. You could go back and read it
in John chapter six, but in this passage of scripture, he dealt
with election. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me. He dealt with the effectual atonement
of Christ for the elect in such clear language. He said, this
is the father's will, which sent me that of all, which he has
given me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up again the last
day. He dealt with total depravity. No man can come to me. No man
has the ability to come to me except it were given him of my
father, except the father would just sit and draw him. He dealt
with all these glorious truths of grace, the doctrine of grace. Go back if you have an opportunity
and read it. Now, verse 59. These things, said he in the synagogue, as
he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard, look, this is in italics, they heard what
was said in this message. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
people who claimed to know him, people who claimed to be followers
of him, Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard,
said, this is an hard saying, harsh, inhumane, rough, stiff,
stern, dry, offensive, intolerable. That was their conclusion after
hearing the Lord's preaching. This is a hard saying. The word
comes from the word dry and austere. This is a hard saying. Who can
be expected to listen to this? Now let's go on reading. Verse
61. When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, doth this
offend you, what you've just heard? Are you offended by this? What and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Now what he's saying
by that is when you see me ascend back into the presence of my
Father, you'll really be offended then. That's when you'll really
be offended. Now look what he says about his
words. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth, nothing in salvation the flesh profits
nothing the words that i speak into you that you call harsh
that you call severe that you call dried up the words that
i speak into you they are spirit and they are life now let me
give you a hint about this if you hear the gospel as a sinner
this is the key if you hear the gospel as a sinner This stuff
that may seem harsh to humanity is necessary for you. You must
have God choose you to be saved. You must have Christ put away
your sins all by himself with no help from you. You must be
preserved all the way to the end. It's necessary. It's not
just doctrine. It's not just stuff that I see
in the Bible. Yeah, I see the Bible teaches
that. No, it's necessary. necessary, words of spirit and
words of life. This is the language of life.
Someone that doesn't have life, it's not life to them. It doesn't
make sense to them, but this is the language of life. Now
let's go on reading. He said in verse 64, but there are some
of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they
were that believe not and who should betray him. And he said,
therefore said I unto you that no man can come to me except
it were given to him of my father from that time. Many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. They said, we've had
it. We've had it. Verse 67, then said Jesus under
the 12, will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered and
said unto him, Lord, to whom shall we go? It's not like we
have a choice. It's not like we have any other
options. To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words. Now, these are the same words
that these other people said. These are harsh sayings. These
are disagreeable. We don't like this. The same
harsh words to these people were what to Peter and every believer.
Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are
sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, same words. with a completely different meaning.
There's some who understood, and there's some who did not. Now, I think it's interesting
on the day of Pentecost, you know what took place? Back to being able to hear. All
those different languages, there's 17 different languages mentioned
in Acts chapter two, and now they can all hear in their language. Now the people of Babel had tried
to unify, but what unity there really is between believers.
Turn with me to Colossians 3. Colossians 3, verse 9, lie not
one to another, Colossians 3, 9. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the
image of him that created him." The new birth is the creative
act of God. Now, look at this unity every
believer has. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian Scythian, which is
the worst kind of barbarian, born nor free, they're not distinctions,
but Christ is all, in all. Now, this is the language of
the gospel. The Babylonian can't understand
this language. Christ is all. Every new creature in Christ
Jesus knows this language, and anything contrary to this simple
statement, Christ is all, is the language of Babylon. The
language of Babel. Now, would to God that I could
say a few things about this and the power of His Spirit. and
men you would be given hearing ears to hear what's being said. Christ is all that God is. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He himself is the word of God. When God speaks, what word comes
out? His only begotten and well-beloved
Son. He said, this is the Son of my
love. Hear Him. Christ is all in this book. It's
all written of Him. There's nothing that is understood
independently of Him. Christ is all in salvation. Now let me tell you exactly what
that means. Number one, He's all in election. God didn't choose
me because He foresaw, I believe. God chose me because I was in
Christ. No other reason. Christ is all in redemption.
You know what that means? The reason I'm saved is because
he died for me and put away my sins. And he did it all. He by
himself purged our sins. No help from you. Christ is all
in my justification. I stand before God just, without
sin, sinless, without guilt, perfect. God's law looks me over
and says, I'm pleased. There's nothing wrong with him.
How can that be? Because Christ is all. That's
how that can be. Christ is all in faith and repentance. What that means is, first of
all, he's the author of faith and repentance, and he's the
subject of faith and repentance. I believe he's all. I really
do believe that. I believe he's all in my salvation.
I believe he's all in the Bible. And I repent of anything that's
contrary to that. He's all in faith and repentance. He's all in regeneration. You
know, when you're regenerated is when you see he's all. That's
when you're born from above. That's when you understand the
language of the gospel. When you see that he is all. He's all in assurance. You know
what my assurance is? That he's all. If you take that
away in any way, I lose my assurance. If I got to look to my works
in any way, I don't have any assurance I'm saved. You tell
me he's all in my salvation. All God requires, all God looks
for. I have assurance. He's all in my entrance into
heaven. I'll enter heaven for one reason,
he's all, he's all. He's all in our preaching, we
don't wanna hear anything else. He's all in our hearing. Every
believer knows this simple language, Christ is all. And what does
that make everything else? Absolutely nothing. Now, what
I wanna close with, is looking at a passage of scripture in
Zephaniah. It's the fourth to the last book
of the Bible, of the Old Testament, Zephaniah, fourth to last. You
got Malachi, Zachariah, Haggai, and Zephaniah. Verse 9. For then will I turn to the people. Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 9. For then will I turn to the people
a pure language. Not a confounded, not a mixed
language. a pure language, pure grace,
pure Christ, a pure language. Then will I turn to the people
a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord.
The only time you're going to call upon the name of the Lord
is when you've been turned to this pure language. To serve
him with one consent. You see everybody in the kingdom
of heaven, they have the same language. And they serve him
with one consent. They don't believe different
things. They believe Christ. They believe he's all. And they're
all together in this. There's one consent. There isn't
any argument with this. Somebody says, I don't agree
with that. Well, you don't understand the language then. You're still in
the religion of Babel. All the people who have this,
been made a part of this new nation. And this is, Hold your
finger there and turn back to Genesis 12. Now, Abraham is introduced to
us in Genesis 11. And look what the Lord said to
him. And the Lord said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and
from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that
I'll show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation. Now I understand that's not,
it's talking about Israel in a sense, but it's talking about
the great nation of the church, God's elect, the people of a
pure language. You're no longer a citizen of
Babylon, but you're of the seed of Abraham. God's elect, God's
people, this new great nation, a holy nation. Now back to Zephaniah. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
my suppliants, even the daughter of my disperse shall bring, what?
Mine offering. You don't bring your works. When
you come into God's presence, you bring nothing but the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You don't bring your works, you
bring His offering. Verse 11, in that day shalt thou
not, in that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings
wherein thou hast transgressed against me. He's not taking away
from the reality of me and you doing these things, but you're
not going to be ashamed. How's that? Because you're justified. Those sins have all been removed
and you stand before God. Notice he doesn't say you'll
be ashamed. No, you won't be ashamed because
these things have been removed. You won't have anything to be
ashamed of. Bold shall I stand in that great day, for who ought
to my charge to lay? Fully absolved from these I am
from sin's tremendous curse and shame. Nothing to be ashamed
of. No skeletons in the closet. Nothing to be brought up. Well,
you committed those sins, they're gone. They're gone. That's what
salvation is. That's what justification is.
In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein
thou hast transgressed against me. For then I will take away
out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride. And
thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain."
You don't have anything to be haughty about, do you? Not a
thing. Verse 12, I will also leave in
the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people. This is called
being poor in spirit. And what a blessing it is to
be left and afflicted and a poor people because you don't have
anywhere to look to Christ. It's not like you have another
option. It's not multiple choice. You don't think, well, I need
to do this. No, all you have is Christ because you don't have
anything else. This afflicted and poor people. And they're
the ones who trust in the name of the Lord because they don't
have anything else to trust. They trust in the name of the Lord. Verse 13, the remnant of Israel
shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful
tongue be found in their mouth. Now this is the language of the
gospel. There's no deceit in it. There's
no deception in it. There's no lies in it. And it
makes it to where we have no iniquity. That's what the gospel
does. The remnant of Israel shall do
no iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue
be found in their mouth. For they shall feed and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid. You see, if God be for us, who
can be against us? Verse 14, Sing, O daughter of
Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all
the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Here's why. The Lord hath taken
away thy judgments. He's taken them away. They're
all taken. He was manifested to take away
our sins. Did he do it? In him is no sin. If I'm in him, I have no sin. The Lord has taken away thy judgments.
He has cast out thine enemy, your sin. The king of Israel,
even the Lord is in the midst of thee. Thou shall not see evil
anymore. In that day it shall be said
to Jerusalem, fear thou not. And to Zion, let not thine hand
be slack, or don't be discouraged. Here's why. The Lord thy God
in the midst of thee is mighty. His arm is not shortened that
he can't save. He's mighty to save. There's
no lack of power on his part. Sure, there's plenty of lack
of power on your part, but what's that got to do with the prosody
in China? Nothing. The power is his. All power belongeth unto me. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty, and he names four things he will do because
of who he is. Number one, he will save. Understand salvation is not an
offer. I hate it when people try to present the salvation
of God as an offer. God's offering you forgiveness. God's offering.
He's done no such thing. That's just foolishness. He will
save. Look what it says next. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. And that's talking about every
one of them, God's elect. That's talking about every believer.
He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He rests in the love that he
has. Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now, how
restful is the love of the Father to the Son. He's just so satisfied
with the Son. He loves Him. He's altogether
lovely. He's beautiful. He's glorious.
The Father looks at the Son and beholds the Son, and oh, how
He loves Him. As He is, so are we in this world. The Father rests in His love
toward His people. He's not looking for anything
else. He rests in His love, and look what it says next. It says,
he will joy over thee with singing. You know, the Lord looks at every
one of his people and because of Christ, it makes him so happy.
He starts singing, singing. Oh, what a song, singing, rejoicing
in his people. Now, this is how glorious the
salvation of God is. He saves. I will say, because
of his might. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He
will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful
from the solemn assembly who are thee, to whom the reproach
of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo
all that afflict thee. I will save her that halts and
gather her that was driven out. And I will get them praise and
fame in every land where they've been put to shame. At that time
will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you.
For I will make you a name and a praise among all the people
of the earth when I turn back your captivity before your eyes,
saith the Lord. Now you have the religion of
Babel. Confusing. Nothing certain. Multiple choice. Is this? That's the religion
of Babel. And then you have the pure language
of the gospel. Christ is all. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
pure language of the gospel and Lord, we stand amazed. That you
would rejoice over us with singing. That you'd rejoice with joy that
you'd rest in your love because you will save and Lord, we. We
give thanks for that great salvation. We ask that we might be enabled
to preach. the pure language of the gospel in this city and in this world. And Lord, we ask for the glory
of your son that men and women will come to glory, that he is
all. Bless us for Christ's sake. In
his name we pray. Amen.