[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] Genesis chapter number 11. The Gospel brings people from every tribe, nation, and language together to worship Him. The Gospel unifies like anything else in this world can.
[0:27] And we'll see that in heaven for all of eternity, and we get a glimpse of it now. And getting to hear them sing, I see what you're trying to do, it ain't gonna work, alright? But thank you for that. I knew that you could sing, but Miguel and Daniel, that was nice.
[0:40] You know, I know I can't sing in English, so maybe I should try different languages. And maybe I'd find that I could sing in Portuguese, or something like that. Genesis chapter number 11.
[0:51] We know it as the Tower of Babel. And I would like to refer to it tonight as a prideful city. Visited by a loving God. Because, Brother Kendall, flannel graph theology isn't faulty.
[1:02] It's just oftentimes incomplete. So you learn at the very beginning, through Sunday school, you'll see a tower. And you know there's a tower. And you know it's man's vain attempt at trying to become God Himself.
[1:15] But as you get older, you learn more about it. The story gets bigger. And you learn more about it. I think before our Sunday school teachers teach our children on bite-size amounts, as they can learn and they can grow.
[1:26] But as we get older, we see that it's more than just a tower, but there's a city around it. It's a society. There's a culture. There's a mindset. And there's a whole lot going on. I like this picture. It's not from the actual Tower of Babel, for those wondering.
[1:39] But I found this this week, and I liked it because it pictured a whole lot going on there, besides just the tower being built. But many people would say it's square, if you follow towers that were built around Babylon.
[1:52] During times you would find it more like a staircase and go in a rectangular. But you'll see that it's more than just a tower, that it was a city that had a tower. It was a culture. It was a society. It was some people that had a tower.
[2:04] And we're going to look at that tonight. Before we get to Genesis 11, I'm going to read verses 1 through 9. Let me give you a little bit of context. As you know, we're in the book of Genesis, which is the book of beginnings.
[2:15] And not just beginnings as in Genesis 1.1, in the beginning God created, heaven's earth. That's one beginning. But we also see the beginning of marriage. We see the beginning of sin. We see the beginning of death.
[2:25] We see the beginning of many things. Genesis 12, we'll see the beginning of, we'll see Abraham and his children. And then we'll follow through the Old Testament, the children of Israel, who God will bless to be a blessing.
[2:37] The promise made in the covenant, Abraham in Genesis 12, the pastor will go over a week from the night as he goes over the covenants. Then we get to New Testament, so we hear the gospel.
[2:47] And then we see the church being written to. But this is the beginning here, the beginning of nations, the beginning of different languages. And we have another beginning in Genesis 12. If you follow this piece of land that the people leaving the ark, the three sons, they begin and will follow the genealogy, and they begin to travel.
[3:06] And they land on this piece of land that later on becomes, it's called Babel. And then it's Babylon. We see it in Revelation chapter number 18, verse 5. Patrick, if you'll look that up, it's not in your notes.
[3:17] But in Revelation 18, verse 5, we see it's spoken about, For her sons have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquity. Then verse number 18 of that same chapter we'll mention, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying that this city is like unto this great city.
[3:33] So we follow it all the way to Babylon, which starts here and there, that it's zoned for pride. You know, we talk about this building zoned for something. We'll find that this piece of property, in Genesis chapter number 12, gets zoned for prideful people, and it stays like that all the way until the millennial, where Jesus Christ reclaims that piece of property, and every piece of property that there is.
[3:57] Then in Daniel chapter number 4, and verse number 30, we see Nebuchadnezzar speaking here, and he says, The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, for the honor of my majesty?
[4:11] We see a very proudful place, a proudful person, very proud of the kingdom that he was building. And then, so we're going, we're looking at context, we went all the way to Revelation in the future, Daniel in the future, and then in the future, before Genesis 11, we have Genesis chapter number 10.
[4:28] If you look at the couple verses there, that Genesis chapter number 10 gives us a summary of what we find that gets broken down for us in Genesis chapter number 11.
[4:39] That it doesn't happen here in chronological order. That we learn about the genealogy of the children of Abraham, I mean of Noah, of his three sons, and then we get to a guy named Nimrod, and then we jump to chapter 11, and then we learn how that happened.
[4:53] They call it the table of nations. So that gives you a little background, that this story here has a huge impact. All the way to the book of Revelation, later on in the Old Testament, and the way that we do missions today is affected by what we're about to read here in Genesis chapter number 11.
[5:12] Before I read it, on Friday night, Edgar, which left for the military today, and some of our teenagers, we went to Sky Zone. It's an indoor trampoline place. And we had a lot of fun getting to see him off, and we prayed with him before he went to boot camp today.
[5:26] But there was one guy who wasn't having any fun at all. Christopher Bridges, he couldn't jump freely. Because everywhere he went, people followed Christopher Bridges. And they wanted to take pictures of him.
[5:39] And Christopher Brian Bridges had no fun at all that night, and got frustrated and left. Those in the couples class know I'm talking about. The guy's name is Ludacris. He's not a ludicrous name.
[5:50] His name really is Ludacris, okay? And so Ludacris was there. This famous rapper who's the founder of Disturbing the Peace Records was there that night. But he couldn't jump with his...
[6:01] He had his daughters there because he had created a name for himself. He was, hey Luda. Everybody's yelling at him, you know? Everybody's talking to Ludacris. And so he doesn't get to jump. Trent gets to jump, okay?
[6:12] Nobody bothered Trent or Thatcher or any of us. We got to jump around and do whatever we wanted at that place. But he had created a name for himself. I want you to think about that. Because here in a second I'm going to read Genesis chapter 11.
[6:24] And it says they want to create a name for themselves. And that's what it's talking about. It's talking about creating a reputation, an image, a brand for themselves. And in doing that...
[6:35] And Ludacris is learning something that you should learn from this story tonight. Is that the pursuit of self-glorification will make you self-destructive. And we are not made to live for ourselves or for our own name's sake.
[6:49] Teenager once asked, why is it okay for God to be jealous and to be so selfish and only live for himself? And that's what's best for man because he is the creator. When we live for ourselves, it's a very dangerous thing for us and those that are around us.
[7:03] So this pursuit of self-glorification, living for your own name, is not only is it sinful and wrong and against what you're created for, but it's eventually self-destructive as we will see.
[7:14] Genesis chapter number 11, verses 1 through 9. 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.
[7:24] And they dwelt there and they said one to another, go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had a brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. And they said, go to let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach in the heaven.
[7:38] And let us make a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children and men built in.
[7:49] And the Lord said, behold, the people is one and they have all one language. And this they begin to do and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go let us go down and there could found their language that they may not understand one another's speech.
[8:05] So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel 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 all the earth.
[8:23] Heavenly Father, I pray that you'll be with us now, Lord, as we look at this passage and what you want to teach us, Lord. We know this was written and recorded that Moses knew this story, Lord, and it's been preserved for us today to learn it and to feel the impact upon our lives and the application that needs to be made.
[8:39] Lord, we live in a world where self-promotion is so prevalent and it has affected my life and so many more. And I pray that tonight, Lord, we will be people that will leave here declaring that we want to live for your name and for your fame only.
[8:53] Pray that we'll be obedient to your word and that we will grow as a result of hearing this message. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. As we look at Genesis chapter number 11, let me try to give you a little background.
[9:06] I want you to think about the audience of the children of Israel. Think about the first audience. When you read the Bible, that's what you do. You read and you think, who is this talking to and what are they thinking when they first hear it?
[9:17] Then you ask yourself, what is the application that's made today in the context I live in? So a story like this would have been passed down orally one to another and they would have heard it. We know Moses gets to write these stories down and that God gave them to them and they recorded for us.
[9:32] But a story like this surely would have been told from one generation after another. And so Moses going through the wilderness wondering with those children of Israel, it's almost certain, but very probable, that this story is being told.
[9:46] Maybe it's an older man sitting around a fire with the young children of Israel. Maybe it's Moses himself telling the story. Maybe when they're in the promised land, they're hearing the story. But think about this first audience.
[9:59] So when they would hear about Genesis chapter number 10, verses 8 and 9, which wouldn't have the verse references there as they're just hearing the story, it says, And Cush began Nimrod and he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
[10:09] And he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Wherefore it is said, Even the Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. Can you picture there an older man telling this story and a bunch of kids hearing about this new person named Nimrod.
[10:22] And he must be a scary fella, a character in the story. And it gets to become a scary story around the campfire. And so now they knew Satan had used a serpent in the past. And they're about to see that he is going to use a person named Nimrod.
[10:36] It said that he was a mighty hunter. It wasn't said about this of anybody else up to this point to be called a mighty hunter. And maybe it's true of the fact that he's a mighty hunter of animals. But we see very clearly that he is a mighty hunter for people and for souls.
[10:49] And that he destroys what he comes into contact with. His name means rebel. It reminds you of Satan as described in Isaiah 14, 12-14. That it's just full of pride.
[11:00] And then it says that he lived before the Lord, which meant he knew him and saw him, but he did not submit to him. Nimrod, this mighty hunter, lived before the Lord. He is the founder of Babel.
[11:11] He is the founder of Babylon. In the Bible, this symbolizes rebellion against God and confusion in religion. And all the new revelations, we find a confused church state, ecclesiastical Babylon, all the coming together and worshiping.
[11:25] And then we see a political Babylon and it gets its roots here. He was building more than a tower. He was building a city. He was building a way of life. He was building a system.
[11:36] So there's these kids around the campfire and they're hearing about a young, they're hearing about a guy named Nimrod. But the story goes on. They go through the genealogies and they probably fall asleep as you do when you read the genealogies in your Bible reading.
[11:49] But some of it would begin to make sense to them and they would begin to see where it connects together. Maybe they would relate to a couple more aspects when they would hear this. They would relate to the fact the benefit of one language.
[12:01] Children of Israel being in Egypt knew what it was like for the Egyptians to speak a different language to them. And their homes, maybe they're speaking Hebrew and they're working, but they live in a world that speaks a different language than them.
[12:12] So it would blow their mind as it blows our mind to think about a place where there is only one language being spoken. They would see the difficulty in building with little resources. They made these bricks out of this slime that was being used and they knew what it was like to have the hay taken away as they were building this.
[12:29] They could relate to that. They desired to see a city protection and comfort and renown. You know, they're traveling through the wilderness and they're there and they're going to spend 40 years there. A city sounds pretty good about that time as they're being nomadic and some comfort and some protection for them, a fenced-in area for them.
[12:50] And can I tell you tonight as it would relate to them and they would be plugged in and listening to this story that it relates to you just as much today in 2013. You know, there is a culture that is trying to get their best to have you chase your own selfish ambitions.
[13:05] We are people who are told to live for His namesake but we go, so we go to the ends of the world. We're told to live for His namesake but so many times we live for our own. We desire to live for our own kingdom and stay together.
[13:19] The people have done what seemed convenient instead of what was commanded of them. Self-promotion in the Western world is simply the air that we breathe. Now when we read Genesis chapter number 11 and we quickly pass over the fact that they said let us build us a city so that we will not be scattered upon the face of the earth, we skip over that verse and we don't even think about the significance but we had just been commanded in Genesis chapter number 9 and verse number 1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.
[13:56] So as we would sit around the campfire and they would say and they were going to build a city for their namesake so they wouldn't be scattered you could almost hear all the kids going really? Because this was rebellion.
[14:07] I have three ways I want to help you remember this chapter. In college I got in some trouble for writing a sermon that said that alliteration was powerless in preaching pointless in personal application and perturbing and I don't know what it was but precious in poetry.
[14:23] I didn't like alliteration but now I've come to appreciate it. I want to give you first of all we're going to see in the first part we see a grotesque rebellion. They get off the ark. They've just seen the world wiped out.
[14:34] God gave them a commandment and they immediately went about doing something different. Then we're going to after grotesque rebellion we're going to see a gracious response from our God just like we did back in Genesis chapter number 3 when there was rebellion there was judgment but there was God's grace and then lastly the glorious reversal of what he is going to do from the tower of Babel.
[14:58] I'll say those again to help you remember when you get to Genesis 11. But first of all we see this grotesque rebellion. They recognize it as rebellion as I just read in Genesis 9.1 So they see that.
[15:10] Many commentators mention the fact that in Genesis 11 they head east that when they leave the garden that they head east that Cain lived in land of Nod which was headed east and that they continue to always walk away from God and they're heading east.
[15:24] At the end of the genealogy about Abraham we're going to find that somebody finally goes west. That somebody finally goes right. But these are people that are running what they believe from the presence of God.
[15:35] It says here they sought for safety through their rebellion. They built the city but for what purpose? So that they would not be scattered. Humility is often equated with trust and obedience and conversely pride is related to independence and dependence.
[15:51] 9.1 God says go across the earth by chapter number 11 they said we're going to build us a city and you're not going to scatter us and we are going to be our own people. And they had a desire for their own name.
[16:04] So we see that they were building a city. You know cities aren't bad justice. I know that the application we'd like to say is that city people here are bad so let's all move to the country. But that's not the application that we can make here because it isn't the city here that's a problem.
[16:19] We find that in Hebrews that one day we're all urbanites that we all live in the big city and we worship our Lord. We find in Psalm 107 that God leads them to a city.
[16:29] Jonah 4.11 says that God had provision for a city. So the grouping of people is not a problem. But when people group for their own namesake there's always a problem. And Morris says in the cities the fiercest battle for human minds and hearts take place.
[16:45] For that reason cities are center stage for the Christian mission. The great drama of redemption. People move to the city to find their potential. They go there to work with people.
[16:55] Because when you're in a small town in West Kentucky I'm the best cricket player in the town of Hardin. 500 people and I'm the best cricket player from there. But I moved to Alpharetta and I have to bring my cricket game up just a little bit more because there's some competition here.
[17:11] But as we're there we give and we come there to get the most out of our lives. So a city is being built and in these cities we find that musical instruments are being made and things are advancing in the cities.
[17:22] But this is a different kind of city. This is a city that pride builds. So not only are they building a city but they're building a tower here. This was so much more defiant than this trying to build a ladder to get the God in their own power.
[17:35] And that's what we learn at the flannel graph is that they're building it. You think of it often as a jack and the beanstalk that they thought they would build it high enough and that they would get to heaven and that they would climb up it possibly and they'd be able to knock on the doors of heaven.
[17:48] We're going to see here in a minute as God uses figurative language he's going to say I have to come down to see that thing. He says you think this thing's in the heavens we learn in the New Testament that there's the three heavens the heaven where the birds are the heaven where the solar system is and the heaven where God's at and they believe that they're getting it up into the heavens.
[18:06] It's our first skyscraper. But their defiance was so much more than just building a ladder up in the heaven. They were building a name for themselves. Others say there was an attempt to build above the possible level of the flood but this won't make sense because the mouth that they were upon will be much higher than the tower.
[18:23] A tower that may reach into the heavens and we see this language used in Deuteronomy speaking about other buildings. Notice that it says here God came down to see it.
[18:34] Did God really need to come down from heaven to see this? Can he not see everything? But he wanted them to know this thing that you're building that you think reaches up into heaven let me come down there and see what you made.
[18:45] This is really cute what you guys are doing down here. I appreciate you putting these Lego pieces together and thinking that you are now in the heavens. And could I please challenge you and notice that God is not intimidated by their efforts.
[18:58] He does not scatter their language because they were so close to taking over heaven. I don't believe that any of you teach your children that or would but please never do that. God was not intimidated by what they were doing.
[19:10] He came down to see the centerpiece of idolatry. It's there that attract men to Nimrod's selfish city. The people would come together. They needed a work to be done. They're building it just so they have something to build.
[19:22] This is common in history of the tallest buildings as the center of worship in a city. You know in New York in 1930 the tallest buildings were places of worship and today they're still the tallest buildings or places of worship still the money.
[19:35] The tallest building in the world right now is in Dubai built in 2010 nearly 2800 feet. Before that it was in Taipei. I don't have to tell you in here the impact that it made when our Twin Towers were hit in America because those buildings meant much more than just lives but they represented something.
[19:53] They represented our strength as a nation that's always been true and it's the impact it made. So not only are building a tower and they're building a city but they're also building a people.
[20:05] Notice it said they were building a city that had a tower. They were building a tower and they're raising a generation of kids to trust and their ability. They said let us build. Let us do this.
[20:15] This is our work. We learn in the end times that there will be a one world religion, a language and a race. Once again we'll go back to this time where people will work together in their pride.
[20:27] And this is not just something that we'll see in the last days with liberal denominations and coming together as one church that is teaching a non-gospel but we see it everywhere we go.
[20:38] We see it in the culture today. We see it in communism in the world. We also see it in songs. You're probably familiar with the song by John Lennon. Imagine a place where there's no heaven, no hell, only people living for the day, no country, nothing to kill or die for, no religion, only people living in peace, no possessions, no greed or hunger, only a brotherhood of man.
[21:05] That isn't anything I want to imagine at all unless King Jesus is at the center of it. It's something that is not imaginable, something that will not be possible. But that's what Nimrod was selling here.
[21:17] He was selling this idea. Let's worship ourselves. Let's make ourselves a name. Let's not sit down and bow down to something else. Let's make a name for us. Let's worship another God and you are going to be great and we are going to build something here that will last and we will provide protection from you.
[21:33] We will get so strong that nothing like the flood could ever happen again. Nobody will come after us. We will have a name for ourselves. But God desires his global fame. And he had already said that they are living in rebellion.
[21:45] Matthew 6.33 tells us to seek first the kingdom of God. You know God's name represents his fame. I am going to give you some verses real quick. You can write them down and we won't get to all of them.
[21:55] But we are telling Leviticus 22 and verse 2 that he protects his holy name. Speak unto Aaron and to his sons and they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel.
[22:06] That they profane not my holy name and those things which hollow unto me. I am the Lord. The city of Babel is in trouble because God has promised to protect his holy name.
[22:18] The book of Leviticus isn't written but this characteristic of God is still true. God proclaimed the note of Moses in Exodus 34 and verse number 8 that he would do a work.
[22:29] And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and he worshipped. Moses went to him and asked him would you not do this for your name's sake. Moses prays that God would not destroy the unbelieving Israelites on the basis of his name's sake.
[22:41] In Exodus 9 16 God revealed his agenda regarding his own name as it applied to the purpose for Pharaoh's life. And in the very deed for this cause I've raised thee up for the show and thee my power that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
[22:58] We just went through in class in our generation training center how missions has always been for beginning of time ever since Genesis when man sinned. But God wants his name to be declared among the nations.
[23:09] As we look at Pharaoh and we look at the children of Israel he wasn't doing that just for the children of Israel to get out of Egypt. He was doing that for his name to be worshipped. Not just by the children of Israel but by Pharaoh.
[23:21] And that every time a Pharaoh or a Nebuchadnezzar or anybody came up against him, a Nimrod, he would do something and in doing that he would let him know that his name is great. And that God accomplished his global fame throughout the deliverance of people of Egypt.
[23:34] We find that he does. We find that Jethro knows about it when he gets to him. That Rahab knows about it. The prayer of the Levites from exile. That he is worshipped. That every time somebody comes against God and they want to be glorified in their own name, that he will do something to show that his name is greater and mightier.
[23:52] And that's what we have. But then we see in his judgment we're going to see a gracious response. So this is where he divides the language. How many of you have ever learned a second language? Raise your hand, Miss Sandy.
[24:03] Don't raise your hand. I can't either. We used to take Spanish classes together. How many of you have tried and found it very difficult to learn a second language? Yeah, it is very difficult. It would be wonderful to be able to hop on a plane and go to any part of the world and you think, why is it like that?
[24:17] Why is the first thing we do when we send our missionaries out, why is it that they have to go and learn a language and why did God orchestrate it like that? And I want you to see some of the great things that he did that they tried to be one and God made them many.
[24:31] They said, let's get together so we're not scattered and God scattered them. God has built into the world a system by which the pride of different groups of people restrains the pride of other groups of people.
[24:43] A USSR gets too big and another country brings them down. It's the checks and balances here. There can't be one solid state that's against Christianity and can persecute us because the different languages make us a different nation.
[24:56] And at the end that will change. But it's a wonderful plan. And also in his gracious response, do you see here that there wasn't an ark that he does this and scatters us, but he still allows us to live for his global fame.
[25:09] He still allows the group of rebels that built that city to be scattered. And then in Genesis 12, he's going to send one of them after the others. And I think that's wonderful.
[25:19] Let me show you a picture here of Matt Allen's daughter. This is one of the best pictures I've seen from the mission film. And isn't it wonderful that this is still happening today? Patrick, you show us. This is from Papua New Guinea.
[25:30] And so God sends people around the world and we see that as our missionaries go to different countries and to different places. I'll post it online for you, but you see all these people in the background of Papua New Guinea and she's crossing this bridge and it's just as normal to her as anything that she's growing up here in Papua New Guinea.
[25:48] Isn't it a gracious response I want you to see that when mankind built a city for his pride and rebellion, that God's response was to change the languages which restrains the sin and the pride of the nations, but he still allows us to be involved in his endeavor.
[26:04] You see that there? I love that. She's crossing the bridge and all those people involved there in the ministry there in Papua New Guinea who are cheering her on as she crosses that bridge. Let me read this for you here about Eli and India, the Roberts kid.
[26:19] I just had to share this before my heart explodes. This is Autumn speaking. Tonight while Elijah was taking a shower, Jim and I heard him singing in the shower. We stopped to listen and were overwhelmed at what we heard.
[26:31] Elijah was singing a song he had made up about coming to India. Then the second verse was about telling the Indian people about Jesus. Then he moved on to singing about seeing them in heaven.
[26:42] Then all of a sudden you could hear him just crying. After a minute of crying, he would start his own song over again and cry some more. Jim and I both stood there with tears in our eyes. We let him finish his shower.
[26:53] And when he came out, I asked him if he was okay and he burst into tears again. I asked him what was wrong and he said, I am just so happy, mom. I said, why is that? He answered and said, I am just so happy to be saved and living in India.
[27:06] I don't think I could have asked for anything more at this point. I sat on my bed with my arms around him and thanked the Lord for a husband who is willing to lead our family to India and a great God who can speak to even seven year old hearts.
[27:18] I am so proud of Elijah and excited to see that God is using him in India. I love my Lord and my life. Isn't that wonderful? I want you all to see that as a gracious response that when our ancestors, our people, us, we built a city in pride and said, we don't need you and we're going to fortify ourselves so that we are not dependent upon you and we're going to build a tower and build a great name for ourselves because we don't care for your name that he was so gracious that he came down and scattered us and changed our languages and he didn't allow that to continue.
[27:50] And now we're spread around the world as he told us to do. And then in Genesis 12, he's going to send Abraham after them. And in the church, he's going to send us after them. He's going to send people to Papua New Guinea.
[28:01] He's going to send people down to Mapleton. He's going to send people to you, but he's going to allow us to still be continued in the work. And I think that is so gracious. I, um, I worked, um, you know, people have been fired for far less than that at their job, haven't they?
[28:15] But our God still allows us to continue in this work. He makes it harder for them to communicate thus to unite in God in the belittling global plans. He makes it harder for their sins.
[28:27] He's not intimidated. It says that he came down to verse number three. If he let their sin go unchecked, there is no telling how much worse it will get. No rebellion will be too great for them.
[28:37] Nothing will be sacred in their crooked hearts. Verse three. And he said once another, go, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly and make stone. And the God's response here in, uh, in verse number six, he says, behold, the people's one and they all win language and this they begin to do and, and now nothing will be strained for them, which they have imagined to do.
[28:57] When you read that, please do not imagine that that man is so great that if they were left alone, that we would overtake God and that he was intimidated by it. He said, I am so loving and my people are so corrupt and wicked that if I don't intervene, there will be no limit to the wickedness that they will continue to do.
[29:16] Our lives would be so different today if the tower of Babel was still there and they were building that and they were making that name for themselves. It was so gracious. We look at the benefits today.
[29:27] He sends people after them and the nations keep other nations at bay. And then lastly here, we see a grotesque rebellion. Don't think of a tall tower. Think of horrific rebellion of people that immediately said we're going to do the opposite of what you're telling us to do.
[29:44] But also see God's gracious response to us. He says, I'm going to fix this. I'm going to help here, but I'm not done with you. I'm going to send them out like I told you. I'm going to help obey that command that I'm going to send people after him.
[29:55] But then look at the glorious reversal that we have here. And that's the end of chapter number 11. We get to the genealogies. And as you look at that, it's going to connect from Noah, now to Abraham, and we're going to find what happens after the tower of Babel.
[30:10] After connecting the genealogies here, the solution is provided. Out of the scattered nations, God formed one nation, which becomes his channel for his blessings. We see the genealogy leading all the way to Abraham, and he heads west, which is the direction the children of Israel is headed to the promised land.
[30:30] And what is it that Abraham is looking for in Genesis chapter number 12? Look at chapter 11, verse 1. It says, they said, let us build a name for ourselves, verse number 4.
[30:44] And then it says in chapter number 12, and now the Lord said unto Abraham, get thee out of the country, my kindred, for the father's house and land, and I will make thee a great nation.
[30:54] I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them. And so we find here a group of people trying to make a city for themselves, a name for themselves.
[31:06] And then God says, I'm going to pick one person, Abraham, and I'm going to make a name for him, and it's going to be for my glory. So he sits out there looking for an eternal city whose builder and maker is God.
[31:19] They tried their own attempts at making that. Now God says, I will make an eternal city, and Abraham goes looking for it. At Babel, God confused man's language, and do you know that the confusion is reversed in Christ?
[31:32] On that day of Pentecost, as they would preach and they would hear the gospel, and they would hear it in their own language. It gets reversed there. This creates a unity among them through the gospel, which is stronger than any common language.
[31:46] If you've never been on the mission field and ever experienced this, or you could serve in the Spanish ministry at our church where you're at a moment, and you said, I have no idea what's going on, but I feel a connection to these people that is stronger than anything that could ever happen anyway.
[32:00] He reverses it in the gospel. During the millennial reign, it's prophesied in Zephaniah, that there will be a city created for his namesake. And then in heaven for all eternity, we will worship in one language and in one voice.
[32:13] Revelation chapter number seven and in verse number nine. And this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all the nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.
[32:27] And all that is purpose is possible because Revelation five, nine says that we were purchased by the Lamb. And they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by the blood of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
[32:46] And that God would take that men's sin and our rebellion, and then he reverses it. And now it's a wonderful thing that people from every tongue and every tribe and every nation, and he makes it as some would say as a prism, that he would take his light and he would shine it out differently, and that people all around the world are worshiping him.
[33:05] And so he took something that was ugly and prideful, and he made a wonderful thing out of it. What a great God. So we see a grotesque rebellion. You shouldn't be surprised by it. We still see it today.
[33:16] We see his gracious response that he still allows us to be involved in the mission, even though those people live for their own namesake. And then we see the reversal here. So I'll ask you a couple things in conclusion.
[33:28] People are still being, are marveling in the fact that God saved them through the flood. They quickly shifted their chief code from glorifying God and enjoying him forever to promoting their own renown.
[33:41] Mankind just got saved from the flood. God just put them in a boat. He put eight of them, and this is the ancestors. Everybody else had been killed, but this group of people that are now still alive, not that long ago, God saved them, and he built them something.
[33:55] He gave them the blueprints, and they're not going to trust him. They're going to try to disobey, and they're not going to do that. Is that not incredible at how quickly that happens? But then we look into our own lives, and we find ourselves, and we come to God, and we make him the Lord of our lives, and we know that we want to live for his namesake, but then so quickly we begin to live for our own glory.
[34:18] Let us admit that we are not above the ancient sin of Babel, thinking ourselves wiser than our God. Could I challenge you tonight? I pray, and the altar is always open for you.
[34:29] You could pray for loved ones, or say maybe something God's spoken to you about the week, and the altar does not belong to me, so I would never, I can't close it or open it, but we'll pray, and you have an opportunity to respond.
[34:39] But can I tell you where I really think the invitation comes in, in my life, in your life tonight? As you drive home tonight, and you pull into your driveway, I want you to evaluate what you're building with your life.
[34:51] Do you see your home that you're building, do you think that you built it with your own strength? I mean, have you taken where there was no resources, and the slime, and put that together? And are you building a tribute to yourself?
[35:02] Or do you see that it's a blessing that God has given you a house so you could raise a home and a family that would live for his namesake? Do you think Matt Allen thinks he's missing out because his daughter's crossing a wooden bridge tonight?
[35:15] No, that young man knows that everything God places in his hand is simply a tool to get the gospel to another group. And it looks different in Papua New Guinea, but he has given you things tonight.
[35:26] Could I ask you a Monday morning, do you see your occupation as a way to promote your name and further your position in life? Or do you see it as a resource that God has given you to live for his global fame?
[35:37] Simple question, are you building a city, a tower, a family, and a life to make your name great? So what we see there is grotesque rebellion. Why would we ever want to live for our own namesake?
[35:50] It's self-destructive. It's painful. He saved us from that. And so I challenge you, Christian, that's not just the mission we do around the world, but that's the mission here. We live for his namesake.
[36:00] Tonight I want to challenge you to abandon young people your desires for fame. And then older people in here, can I challenge you to abandon your desire to leave a legacy if it doesn't include God?
[36:11] And all the children of God we should commit to live for his namesake. As I read Genesis chapter number 11, that grotesque rebellion, I saw it in my own life. I saw my own desire for fame. I saw God giving me resources and I knew that I was spending time on it building a city and a family and a life for my own glory.
[36:30] I felt so convicted about it because I want to live for him. I believe that you want to live for his namesake. And we want to be obedient. And then going throughout and being scattered across the earth isn't comfortable.
[36:41] But we want to be obedient to his command. It doesn't mean that we don't have houses, but it means that he has the houses that we have. It doesn't mean that we don't have comfort, but it's in that comfort that we're still being obedient to him.
[36:52] What are you doing with your life to live for his namesake? So could you ask yourself that as you drive home tonight, pull up at your house, as you go to work, as you pray with your family, are you living for your own glory or for his global fame?
[37:06] Heavenly Father, I thank you for this passage, Lord. I thank you for the conviction that it brings. Lord, we see here the sin of Babel. We see the confusion in your gracious response to them and then how you change everything.
[37:18] And we're so thankful that you do, that you take this horrible situation in history and you do something so wonderful in it and helping us, Lord, and allowing us still to be involved in your mission.
[37:30] Lord, as I pray, I think about the heart of little Eli and how happy he was that you would send him on a mission to the other side of the world and how he was just so happy to be living for your namesake.
[37:41] Lord, give us the heart of that young man, Lord. Give us the heart of people who want to live for you and you alone. Lord, as we pray here, with every head bowed and every eye closed, Kristen plays the piano.
[37:53] Would you just decide right now and pray in your seat that you're going to seek first the kingdom? Would this allow to be a check in your life and to say, I'm building a family, a tower, a city, and a culture for my own namesake?
[38:05] And tonight I repent of that sin and I want to live for him and for him alone. You can do business here with the Lord at the altar in your seats, on your way home, but please do not live another day for your name.
[38:18] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
[38:35] Thank you. You You