← ArchiveGenesis (Foundations)Sunday, May 29, 2016DateMay 29, 2016SpeakerBrad TollisonTextGenesisPassages in this sermonGenesis 110:20Genesis 11:1–90:55Genesis 33:32Genesis 1:2811:26Genesis 9:111:33Genesis 112:10Revelation 7:9–1034:05TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00All right, let's go ahead and get started. I have a timetable here. Some of you said, amen, I heard that. I want to continue our study in Genesis, and it's kind of landed, I knew ahead of time where I was going, and that's what's so great about having, doing a series in Genesis chapter 11, as we're going to be at this morning.0:27A couple weeks ago, I looked at the schedule, and Josh said, you're going to be on the tower. I'm like, wow, okay. And so I've been kind of mulling through that, really studying everything about what this was all about, what happened, and I've learned quite a bit over the past couple weeks as to this incredible, incredible story. Chapter 11, Genesis chapter 11, verses 1 through 9, let's go ahead and read that.0:55Now, the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them accordingly. And they had brick for stone and butumen for mortar. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with this top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole1:21earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is the only beginning of what they will do. And nothing they will propose will be proposed to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one other's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of the earth, and they left off building1:52the city. Therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there, the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much, Lord, for your word. Thank you, Lord, for its power. Thank you, Lord, for its truth. And Lord, I pray, Lord, that we would look at this story, we would look at ourselves, we'd look at our society today, and we would learn, and we thank you, Lord, for what you're going2:19to do today. And in your name we pray, in the name of Jesus, amen. This event in history took place about three or four generations after the flood. And so this was kind of still new. The flood took place three or four generations previously, and so you could kind of imagine that the flood was still fresh. It wasn't like it happened yesterday, but it was still fresh.2:46Generations pass things down to one another. And first I want to look at man's condition. Man's condition. Then we're going to look at several different things this morning. We're going to look at God's response, and then we're going to look at Christ's redemption through this story. The first thing we're going to look at is man's condition. Verses one through two, this is what it says. Now, the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated to the east, they found a plain of land of Shinar and settled there.3:13To go east, especially, particularly in Genesis, is to go away from God. Whenever you see the term east, to go east, in the Old Testament particularly, it means that they're going away from God's presence. When Adam and Eve were exiled from the presence of God in Genesis 3, 24, and from their access to the tree of life, they went east. They went eastward to reenter the garden, they would have to travel west.3:42Also, Cain murders his brother, and guess where he goes? He's driven further east from the garden. So moving eastward seems to relate to exile, while moving westward is a return to the garden in the presence of God. And it was the same thing here, except for the only difference is it says they migrated. They willingly went. They wasn't pushed out. They wasn't exiled. They willingly went east, away from the presence of God.4:10And so this is where they find this big chunk of land, and they decide that it's a good place to build a city. Now, the materials that they had there probably wasn't a whole lot. It was a desert land. They didn't have any trees. And so this is what it says in verse 3. And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. So they needed building materials to build the city.4:38They needed the building materials to be able to build this massive, incredible mecca of a city. They didn't have the ability or the luxury to go to Lowe's, to go buy stuff. They had to literally go and cut out the land and build this city, and they had the technology to make bricks. I think it's very important that we notice that. So this is a display of the advancement of their society that they were in. And at the beginning of this, this is the beginning of architecture.5:09This is the beginning of several different incredible things. The beginning of urban design. This is the beginning of structural engineering. It's the beginning of a highly advanced, technologically advanced society. And so they said, Come, let us make the city with bricks. Now, I want to ask a question. Is that a sin? Is it a sin to build a city? No, it's not. You have a group of people that decided, Hey, we need a city, and we're going to build a city.5:37So we know that that necessarily is not a sin. So cities are good. It's not a problem to build a city. In verse 4, it said, Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops to the heavens. And so they're going to build a tower, and its tops are to the heaven. We call these skyscrapers. We have them today. If you look at different cities, you have different—New York is very well known for the Freedom Tower.6:05You have Chicago that has tall buildings there. You have several different icons. London, you have the Big Bend. You have several different icons for the high places in the cities. Is it a sin to have a high place in a city? No. No, it's not. And so it's not a sin to build a city.6:34It's not necessarily a sin to build a tall tower. We have one language, and there's a lot of people. And so we need a big city. We need to build a city. We need to build a tower so we can live together as one people in harmony. And that's what they were doing. They had one language. They were one people. They wanted to live in harmony. Let's build walls around this city. Let's go in, and let's just live the great hippie dream. That's basically what they were doing.7:03You notice there wasn't a king, so they got along with each other. Was it a sin? No. So later on, we're going to ask the question, why was God so displeased with them? Why was God so displeased with them? You don't necessarily see the problem with the city. You don't necessarily see the problem with the technologically advanced that they were. But there were problems.7:34There were two problems with their goals. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth. These are their sins. And there's two of them. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. The first sin is make a name for ourselves. Some might think, well, that's not a big deal.8:04That's just self-esteem, right? Let us make a name for ourselves. That's just pride, isn't it? Yeah. It is. You see, it becomes a sin when you esteem yourself more than God. And so that's exactly what was going on here. They esteemed themselves and not God. They didn't want his name to be great. They wanted their name to be great. And our great privilege is to make Jesus famous.8:32That is our great privilege. The name of God to go and make his name great. Our goal as a church should not be to make Bethel's name great, but to make Jesus' name great. And I hope and I pray that we continually do that and we press forward to do that. The goal of every believer in this room should be to make the name of Jesus famous. To make him famous. And that means that we have to take the back seat.9:00That means we may have to take a little bit of the high road and not make a name for ourselves. It may mean that you get persecuted because you put Jesus' name first. It may mean, students, that you get made fun of or ridiculed because you put Jesus' name first. You don't always have to do what makes you look good, but what makes Jesus look good is most important. What makes God look good is most important.9:30The Babylonians had one aim. One aim. To make a name for themselves. God is not present in their aim. They are aiming for their own greatness. And this is man's first attempt to build a society from which God is completely excluded. He's completely excluded from the plans. He's completely excluded from the very get-go. And so, man has a desire, even today, man has a desire for godless independence.10:01We're bent that way. Especially those that don't have Christ in their heart. We're naturally bent to move toward godless independence. And we see this even in our society today. They had no communication barrier. They had one language. Just one language. Everyone is very well connected. Geographically, they had the ability to travel and move east in vast numbers.10:32They were also technologically advanced. They had the means to fire brick up and to build this incredible city. And they had the means to develop materials and build with instructions and construct the tower. Here's the second sin. Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. So, their first sin is pride. Let's esteem ourselves.11:01Let's make a name for ourselves. Let's put a stamp on this. We did this. God is excluded. And here's the second sin. Lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth. This statement is in complete defiance of God's will. At this present moment in time. Genesis 1.28. Be fruitful and multiply.11:28Here's another one. Genesis 9.1. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And so, when they said, Lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth. It's almost like they're looking up at the heavens and going, No. We're not going to do what you said in your word. We're going to stay right here and congregate. Build four walls around us and a tower.11:58And we're going to make a name great for ourselves. And we're going to thumb our nose up at God. Because we know what he said to do. And we're not going to do it. This is ultimately God's plan from Genesis 1 has always been and always will be. To cover over the earth so that they can spread his name and his goodness over the earth. And so, what the Babylonians are saying is, No, we're not going to do that. Because we have arrived.12:29We have arrived. We want to make a name for ourselves. We don't need God. So, the sin of man is that even after the flood, it turns out that we're no better off than we were before. The human condition is just like it was with Adam and Eve. They will decide for themselves what is best. It is the total depravity of the human condition.13:00They will decide what is best. They think they can even rise up and claim the place of God. This is the story of mankind to the very day, apart from the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ. They were not satisfied with God's plans for them. They were not satisfied with God's plans. You want us to be fruitful and multiply? No.13:30No. We're going to congregate together. And we're going to build this huge city. And it's going to be great. We'll make a name for ourselves. We don't need God. And in these ancient Babylonians, we can see the picture of ourselves. We're very well connected. Like them, we are sinners too often full of pride and selfish ambition, giving way to too much thought about what others think about us13:59and what legacy we will leave. Like them, we too have often ridiculous, exaggerated desires for our own glory and can put great effort into positioning our resources and systems to achieve whatever we want. Today, in our time, we can't even decide on what sex goes to what bathroom.14:23Because this is what we've done. We've thumbed our nose up at God and said, I don't like this image that you've given me, God. I don't like this image. And so I'm going to decide what I want to be. Because I'm not satisfied with what you have given me. And we thumb our nose up at God.14:54It's the same thing.15:04We're trying to be like God because we think we know what's better. God's will for human beings is that we find ourselves satisfied of being in praising Jesus. That's God's will for us.15:27I can get into all kinds of different things here. I can go on a rant. But I'm not going to. God's will for us is that he be praised. And we find our satisfaction in knowing him. So here's God's reaction. Here's God's reaction. What does God do? Now, he could have done something drastic. He could have just wiped them out. But he had promised them after the flood that he would not flood.15:54He would not destroy at that point in time. So this is what we see in God's reaction. It's very simple. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. And I think it's really interesting here. I like to think that God sometimes has humor. And so here's God. He looks down. And he has to come down to see this city. The Babylonians, I thought, was so great.16:24And so God had to come down and see the city. The fact that God came down to view what man had built puts us in our place. It puts us in our place and it gives us an incredible perspective. So God always has to come down to examine our anthill achievements built in the sidewalk cracks of his creation. And so the Babylonians had a high view of man and a very low view of God. And so God comes down to view the sin.16:54And by the way, you can't have a high view of both. So if you think you're all that, you think you're something else, you really might want to check that out. Because you can't have both. And every knee will bow one day. And every tongue will confess. And so we need to go ahead and start practicing that now. So the Lord came down.17:26And this is what it said in verse 6. And the Lord said, behold, they are one people and they have one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them. Now, let me just say this. God made us great. He did. He gave us the ability to do amazing things for Him. And so don't think for one minute that, you know, what does God want us to do?17:55Does He not want us to work? Does He not want us to achieve? Does He not want us to be successful? The answer to all those questions is yes, He does. But in the process of doing those things, He says to go and make disciples. And so wherever your vocation is, make disciples. Go make disciples. Keep His name first. Now, for some of you in situations that you may be in in your vocation, for some of you may, you know what?18:25This is not godly. This is not good. I'm going to have to back out. Because I'm making a stand for the Lord. Even our students have to be faced with this, oftentimes. They're taking a class, and sometimes they have to just take the high road. Because they have teachers that are atheists. And they're very vocal about it. So God is saying that they will succeed, and they will do great evil.18:52Power always corrupts prideful people. Always. The more power, fame, resources, technology you put in the hands of a group of centralized people in one area, the greater the sinfulness and the greater the corruption will be. No different than today. You can't turn the news on and hear of a governor or a politician in corruption.19:17And so this time period is no, we're no different. And it's a sad thing to see. So what does God do? What does God do in this situation? Come, verse 7. Let us go down.19:48Let us go down. And they'll confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. Could you imagine? I'll make them into multiple languages. The way they will have communicated will be almost impossible. They won't have common understanding. They won't be able to work together.20:17They won't be able to build the city. And they won't be able to do great evil like the way they had before. This is the kindness of God. This is the kindness of God. He could have destroyed them. But God is always, listen to me, God is always saving us from ourselves. He's always saving us from ourselves.20:44And I'm sure that they were thinking that they had a good thing going on and God messed up their plans. Oftentimes we, in our carnal minds, think the same thing. Lord, I had it all going on. I had a future. Man, I was going to go to this school. I was going to marry this girl. I was going to have this car. I was going to have this house. I was going to have this many kids. But something happened along the way. And we look at God and we go, why did you mess my plans up?21:15And God's going, man, I saved you from yourself. We don't know, oftentimes, what God's up to. We just have to be faithful and push through. Verse 8. So the Lord dispersed them over the face of the earth. And they left off building the city. Can you imagine?21:45You have 10 bricklayers. 10 guys laying brick. And they're getting at it. If you've ever seen bricklayers, man, they go after it. And then they're just throwing them things out there. And all of a sudden, they start talking again. They can't communicate. The boss comes up, starts yelling. He's yelling at a different language. He's like, what's up with that? And they cannot, they can't move any further. I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to actually speak through a translator.22:17It's very difficult. I've done it on several different occasions. In Russia, we had a translator, and my translator wasn't that great. And I knew this halfway through because there was a young lady in the crowd that could speak very good English. She'd actually gone to Dallas and worked at the oil refineries there. And she was in the group that we were with. And this translator was having a hard time. I thought it was me. And he looks at me, and he starts talking to me in Russian.22:48And I'm like, I can't understand you. And so finally, the young lady speaks up in perfect English. And I'm like, hey, you need to come up here and sit in his seat and translate for me. And, of course, he said, I'm good with that. But it's very difficult. Think about this. If I had a translator up here with me, translating my language, it's double time. And so what would typically be an hour-long sermon?23:18You'd have two hours because you have to say it twice. And then the vernacular is different. There's words that some of the Russians may not have, and some of the English language don't translate. The word change was not a word in Russian for years, and they had to make up a word for change. While we were in Russia, I'll never forget this. There was a pastor friend of mine.23:47And he would go around, and he would kind of kid around a little bit, and he would always just walk up to people and go, hey, Bubba, how's it going? Hey, Bubba, how you doing, man? Hey, Bubba, can you go get me a glass of water? Hey, Bubba, did you? So he used to be talking to calling people Bubba, a good old southern boy from Huntsville. And I didn't know Russian really well, but some of the translators were like, why is he saying Bubba?24:12It's just a slang in our language. And the translator says, this is not good. It's upsetting everybody. I'm like, really? And so these pastors got this other pastor together, and they brought us all in this room. They're very serious. And this is what they said. And this pastor's name is Rodney. Brother Rodney, this word Bubba, it's not good.24:42And he goes, Mom, Bubba, what's up? Well, what's wrong? In Russian, Bubba is prostitute. And so at that point in time, I just rolled out of my chair laughing because if you knew Rodney, God rest his soul, he's passed away. But if you know Rodney, he was a cut up. And he just turned really red in the face, and he goes, I guess I don't need to say that anymore, then do I?25:09And they went, no, you've offended a lot of people. And hence the reason why his class got smaller, because he was calling everybody prostitutes. Relation in language is something that is very difficult. And so when God confused the languages, he saved them from themselves because they were headed to destruction.25:32And you may be asking the question, why did God do that? Why did he change the languages? And we're going to find out here in a minute. Pride in our lives will always eventually lead to confusion and destruction. Pride in our lives will always lead to confusion and destruction.25:57So the Babylonians just give up. They can't go any further. They just give up, and they kind of disperse. And everyone that is speaking one particular language goes on this side of the earth, and another language goes on this side of the earth, and this is where we get nations. This is where we get culture. This is where we get the prism of what we see today. Lands among lands, among nations, among nations.26:23Different places. They become different nations and different cultures. There's a verse 9 that says, Therefore, its name was called Babel, which means confusion, because their Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord dispersed them from over the face of the earth. Here's a question. What is the city and tower that you are selfishly building in your own lives?26:52Where is the pride? Is it your job? Is it your social status? Is it your popularity? Is it pride? Is it your name? And evaluate yourself. We often don't know what we are really building in our lives27:19when we embark on our own achievements. And here's what happens. We start tracking through life, and we start to find success. Which is good. But oftentimes we forget who the author of that success is.27:47Remember the Lord God in everything that you do. We often aren't aware of how deep and how pervasive and motivating our pride is. And we often aren't blind to how much we cherish the glory of our own name. And so we've seen man's father. We've seen God's response. Now let's look at Christ's redemption.28:17God could have destroyed them. But God showed his mercy and his grace, and sometimes God graciously messes up our plans so that his glory can be revealed. And keep in mind when God permits a thing, he does it for a reason. Always, he does it for a reason. And that reason is part of the plan. God does not aimlessly, all of a sudden, look down and go, wow, look what they did.28:48I can't believe they've done that. No, he knew perfectly well what had happened and what they needed. My son, Luke, got an ant farm for his birthday. And it was a little ant farm. Some of my students didn't know what that was Wednesday night. What's an ant farm? Anyway, it's a little ant farm. I'll bring it next Wednesday for show and tell.29:16A little ant farm. It's a little thin thing, plexiglass, and they don't give you the ants. You have to order the ants. And I'm thinking, I'm just going to go in the backyard. And so that's what I did. When the backyard scooped them up and dumped them in there and put some sand in there and put a little food in there and we watched them and they drilled holes and all of a sudden, the ants came in. They ordered them and they came in. And the ants are called harvester ants that came in.29:45They're three times the size of the Alabama ant. So I knew what was going to happen. And I dumped them in there. And I watched their Alabama ants go all the way to the bottom. And just kind of, you can just say, they're like, oh my goodness, what's fixing to happen now? And let's just say they didn't have to feed them for a while. And so these harvester ants, I got a little frustrated with them because they're lazy. And so you have to kind of30:17rattle them around a little bit to get them to move. They just fall asleep. And you put stuff in there, they don't want to eat it, they just cover it up. I'm like, what are they doing? And every time I put something in there, they'd cover it up. Put something in there, they'd cover it up. And they started building this little tower. And I'm thinking, they're building a tower. And so like God, I went and I just shook them all up and messed their tower up. And they started all over again. And I thought,30:47this is really crazy of me, but this is just how my brain works. I thought to myself, is that how God views us? Are we just like ants? And I thought about that. I said, no. We're not just like ants to him. Because he knows the number of hairs on our head. We're so much, we're precious to him.31:16We're his children. And so God just don't aimlessly instruct us. He spanks us and he moves us along for a reason. And that's the awesomeness of this story. Is that God could have completely annihilated them. But he saves them from their self. So God came down and to look at the Babylonians31:45and he's seen their sin and he saved them from their selves. God came down once and for all in the flesh to save us from our sins and his name is Jesus. The name above all names. Which means that the people and the languages of the world are not an afterthought. It's not an afterthought. They are the judgment of God on sin and at the time32:14they are designed by God for the global glory of Jesus Christ. If there were no diversity of languages if the sin of Babel had not happened with this judgment the glory the global glory of the gospel of Christ would not shine as beautifully as it does in the prism of languages. We as believers are to go and make disciples and that means32:43we are not to be like the Babylonians and stay in the four walls of this place. we are called to go and make to the nations and spread his name because his name is great. And one day that will all come to completion. Jesus said before he left the earth that he was going to prepare what? A place. He's going to prepare33:14a place for us. And so Jesus one day is going to come back and there's going to be this place that he's preparing for us. He's building it right now. I couldn't imagine how this thing is going to be and in Revelation it's described as this incredible city on a hill is what it's called. It's got four walls. The doors are open so people can come and go. Never closed. People are open to come and go. There's going to be a high spot. It's not going to be33:45a tower but there's going to be a throne. And on that throne Jesus is going to sit and we're going to worship him because his name is great. His name is the most high. In Revelation chapter 7 verse 9 through 10 this is what it says. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples34:15and peoples and languages standing before the throne before the Lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. My friend stop trying to build your own kingdom and allow Christ to control and move in your life34:45because his name is great. Would you pray?35:02Lord Jesus well thank you Lord for an amazing story Lord almost a reflection of ourselves. My prayer is Lord that we would call upon you. My prayer Lord is that we as your people that you would not have to come down and see our sin. Lord you would see us35:32going and making disciples and going to the nations. Lord my prayer is Lord that we would not build our little kingdoms and make a name for ourselves Lord but we would make your name great in everything that we do in our worship in our ministry in our jobs in our relationships with others Lord so that the world would see your church36:02your church and they would say great is his name. Maybe you're here this morning and you're struggling you're struggling with making his name great you're struggling in different areas of your life the amazing thing about our God is you can call upon him and so would you36:28call upon him this morning? Would you stand?← Previous in Genesis (Foundations)Sunday, May 22, 2016More sermons on Genesis 11Ruth – Names, Stories, and Promises (Ruth 4:18-22)May 29, 2022 · Jared MitchellRuthRuth 4:18–22More sermons on Genesis →
