GATE OF THE GODS OR JUST CONFUSION? ~ EXPOSING HYPOCRISY ~ Part 11

 

Yesterday, I talked about amazing grace and man-made religious ‘grace’ that isn’t all that amazing. People throw this word around in religion all the time, thus many have lost the wonder and beauty of God’s grace. The truth is this, however: God’s grace is the one thing human beings cannot live without. To think that a church system can administer grace to whomever it deems worthy is ridiculous. God’s grace, alone, redeems us and reconciles us to the holy One. If we are to understand our dire need for this amazing grace, we must also understand two things: the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.

 

All sin is a failure to recognize the holiness of God. R.C. Sproul said: “If we understand who God is, and catch a glimpse of His majesty, purity, and holiness, then we are instantly aware of the extent of our own corruption. When that happens, we fly to grace—because we recognize that there’s no way that we could ever stand before God apart from grace.”

 

To think that sinful man could ever make his own way to God is to not understand one’s own sinfulness and God’s holiness. Many ‘But God’ passages of Scripture are pure grace. Romans 5:8—But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31—For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no human may boast before God. But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written: “LET THE ONE WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

 

And the most beloved ‘but God’ passage of all: Ephesians 2:1-10—And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

 

This passage in Ephesians shows us exactly why all mankind is in dire need of God’s grace. We are born spiritually dead. We previously walked under Satan’s control. We were slaves and in bondage to sin. Living in our flesh, we were by our very nature children of wrath. In other words, God’s wrath was upon us. In Jonathan Edward’s famous sermon, he describes our standing before God’s grace is poured out on us. Of the greatest, most powerful rulers in the world, kings and popes alike, God views them as ‘feeble, despicable worms of the dust’ and ‘grasshoppers’. Sinners are described as spiders or other loathsome insects which ‘God is dangling over the fire in preparation for destruction.’ Man thinks he is all that and a bag of chips (as we might say today.) In reality, before God, he is a puny, weak, disgusting sinner. One can never stand before holy God and boast in his own justification. Born spiritually dead, no matter how respectable or morally upright, every man is wicked before God and must be ‘born again’. There is no doubt that Jonathan Edwards was trying to scare the hell out of his listeners, and rightly so. The judgment of God is truly terrifying. He uses strong images of fiery pits as in the ‘dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God.’ He talks about the abyss and falling with ‘nothing to stand on, nor anything to take hold of’ as one plummets into this chasm which is wide and bottomless full of fire and wrath.

This violent judgment of God uses themes of the grapes of wrath that describes God’s retribution against sinful human beings: ‘He will crush out your blood, and make it fly…so as to stain all his raiment.’ There are no second chances. Once judgment begins, ‘your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain.’

The only response? All sinners who have been given eyes to see their own status before God must fly to Him for His grace and mercy. Fly to Him! Not to a church, a man-made religion, or any man other than to the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made one way to Him—through Christ.

 

The builders at Babel and every false religion known to man expect to ascend to heaven to meet God. But God descends to earth to meet us! Rebellion, pride, and unbelief instead of obedience, humility, and belief/trust in God who knows best is always us trying to build our own way to finding a god we can worship our own way. It is the god we most want to worship, this god of me, myself, and I. This is man shaking his fist in the face of God. It makes me think of a certain wealthy man in our day who believes he is ‘all that and a bag of chips’. He believes he has made a name for himself that will last because he believes he has the answers to all of life’s most pressing problems. He has a fix for problems in technology, healthcare issues, and now he thinks he can fix the supposed global warming issues by spraying dust into the atmosphere to block the sun. Imagine, man made out of dust, believes he can block the sun with a little dust. God sits in His heaven and He laughs. When man attempts to go up in his sin, God comes down in judgment.

 

Genesis 11:5—And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord descending does not imply that He didn’t know what was going on and shocked by any of it. God knows what is in the heart of man.

 

Genesis 11:6—And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” Man placing his confidence in the works of his own hands will ultimately destroy himself. With an attitude of self-confidence independent of God, man may be extremely successful in a worldly sense, but all his efforts will be worth absolutely nothing for all eternity. This judgment, seen in the next verse, was God’s grace showing these puffed-up men just how insignificant their building projects were in the light of God’s Sovereignty.

 

Genesis 11:7—“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” What we must understand, as they SHOULD have understood, is that God could have just wiped them out…again. The judgment of the Flood would have been much more prominent in their minds than ours today. This simple fact, alone, shows just how depraved man really is…that he knows all about the not-too-distant Flood yet continues to shake his fist in the face of holy, Almighty God.

 

God’s plans for any of us can never be thwarted. We would do well to always keep that in the forefront of our minds. And not just when we want to focus on the blessings we want or think we deserve, but when judgment comes, and God diverts us from walking our own way. Judgment can be God’s grace working in a believer’s life. What am I saying? Often when we believe God will do what we want Him to do, to give us the desires of our hearts (sometimes fleshly desires that we cannot recognize as such), we begin to pray and to ‘claim’ these blessings as already done. We exclaim boldly, “God’s will cannot be thwarted, so it will come to pass. I believe it!” However, when God’s will does come to pass, and it is in direct opposition to what we had hoped for, we say, “Satan’s really messing with me…such spiritual warfare I’m experiencing.” We must know that God’s will for the believer is always for our good and His glory. We must never give the glory to Satan by giving him credit for somehow ‘thwarting God’s hand.’ We were once (not now) walking (habitually, as a lifestyle, not being able to walk any other way) according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. We still struggle against our flesh, but it is God who is sanctifying us, and Satan has no power over us to mess with us unless God allows. Satan is powerful, but he is God’s puppet.

 

Genesis 11:8—So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. God stopped them in their apostasy or there would be no limits to the evil they could do. I really believe that many of the different elements of the myths and stories associated with the Tower of Babel portion of Scripture are true. It explains a lot that happened throughout history as those scattered took bits and pieces of their false religion with them. If you’ve ever played the game where one begins by whispering something to the person beside him, and so on down the line, you know how things get embellished, added to, and distorted as they are passed down. All that to say that when we know the basis of false religion (and how it is directly opposed to the one true way to God), we are able to quickly discern distortions in the many forms it takes. It’s like an octopus with many different arms but the same head.

 

Genesis 11:9—Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. God communicates with us through His Word. His Word is truth. It is not confusing to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit says to us through it. True unity is centered around faithfulness to God’s Word.

 

Those building towers of Babel try to create a false unity based on lies and distortions of the truth. It is funny that those who cry loudest for unity in ‘Christendom’ are usually those who are trying to force it through bringing all false religions together. They used to say, “Doctrine divides. Away with doctrine!” Or “God is love. He wants us just to love each other. Don’t judge!” But they now boldly proclaim, “The truth you spew is hate speech! We must cancel you!” There is some truth in all false teaching. That is how Satan comes as an angel of light. If he came in his own character, the masses would never follow him to hell. Sadly, he’s getting bolder, and people are so seared in their consciences that they are eager to follow him into the wicked agenda he has always promoted.

 

Make no mistakes about it, the ecumenical philosophy is bringing together a one-world church (the harlot church who is NOT the bride of Christ) which will clearly be recognized in the last days…only by those who God calls to come out of her. The man-made bricks used to build her up are many including the social ‘gospel’, the positive self-esteem ‘gospel’, the heresy of non-essential doctrines, and many other things. She is clearly emerging.

 

True Christians are taught to earnestly contend for the one true faith that was revealed in the days of the apostles (Jude 3). There is a great possibility that we will be thrown in prison or worse for our beliefs and our strong convictions voiced boldly (as we are already witnessing). Paul told true believers in Rome in his day to keep their eyes on those who cause dissensions and hindrances CONTRARY TO THE TEACHING WHICH YOU LEARNED, AND TURN AWAY FROM THEM. For such men are slaves, not to our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.  (Romans 16:17-18)

 

I have a dry sense of humor. It offends, I know. That is why I love to see the different wordplays in Scripture. Babel means “confusion”. Babylonian accounts tell how their city was built in heaven by the gods, proudly referring to it as “Babili” (“the gate of God”). They call their city the gate of God, but the real name they made for themselves according to God is ‘confusion’. Don’t be confused. There is only one gate that leads to God.