If you have your Bibles tonight, we're going to go back to the book of Genesis chapter 11. If you watch the videos that were provided for you through this time, you'll know that one of the brief series I did was through the flood event. And I had had this particular passage on my mind for some time. And tonight I thought it would be good to address the Tower of Babel, one of the most important events in Genesis to understand, and I think is a great help for us today, understanding the things that are happening, and how the Lord looks at things, and how he addresses things, and how he deals with things, and what is the grand purpose of the Lord that is unfolding. If you understand that, that gives you perspective through what, when we look at the world are terrifying and scary things that are happening, the Lord has a big grander purpose through all of it. And something like Genesis 11 really helps us with that. So I'm going to read the first nine verses tonight of Genesis chapter 11. Now 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 thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. 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 only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the 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. And there'll be a few names that follow after this that we will give attention to but such an important passage tonight. I didn't think, I wasn't so smart to put together the two messages from this morning and tonight that I planned this. But as I was working through the second one, I thought, this is really remarkable that in the first message you heard today, we had the city of God described to us and pronounced to us and proclaimed to us. And then now we're studying the city of man, aren't we? We're studying another city that the world is trying to build. And that's really important for understanding these two cities, lest we get too caught up in the wrong city. That's the point of this and the theme, I think, that is running through both messages today. The chapter really does capture the development of what was separated in Genesis in the separation of the two seeds. You'll remember that when Genesis 3 happened, the Lord made a division in the earth, a division between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And Genesis is giving that progression and showing us the development of these seeds in the earth side by side as they go. It's somewhat of a complex subject for us addressing this in 2020 and living in the United States because whatever good we have enjoyed in this life, in the city of man, whatever things we have enjoyed as citizens of this kingdom is really a good gift from the Lord. That's something that he has in his common goodness given so that society functions well. That's not the kind of thing we're addressing tonight. We're addressing the opposite thing that happens in the city of this world, captured and pictured for us as a city, is the development of a spirit of antichrist that happens in the city on this earth. It's really important you understand that, that in the city on this earth, the city of man, there is an undercurrent. There is a spirit that develops in the city that the Lord has to always, at times in history, come and break up. That's why no nation or kingdom has stood throughout this history of the world. You've seen them all topple at some point. Rome's gone, right? They all fall. They all fall. there's a dispersion. And that's why this is important, because we understand what God is doing. We understand the bigger picture through this passage, that this would reoccur throughout history. There would be Babel-like events throughout history. I'll show you that. But here we have the development of Noah's blessings and curses here in Genesis chapter 9 and through 11 of what has happened, as Noah has now blessed and given the curses through these three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And you have to understand a little bit of what's happened here in the development of the separation to know what is going on in Genesis chapter 11. You'll remember the story that Noah had these three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And there was one really bad son there who did something very perverse in looking on his father's nakedness. And he was cursed. He received curses. But there were remarkable blessings promised to Shem and that Japheth would be blessed through Shem. So this was an important division of mankind that we understand that we're seeing the development of all the nations of the earth through these three sons of Noah. It's important because his name, Shem means name, his name, through him, God would raise up the one with the name. understand that through that line would come the one who would be given the name above all names Shem name and that's why you trace the line of Shem and you end up with Tara and you end up with Abraham and you end up with Israel and then you end up with Jesus and so that would be the name and then of course the great promises is that Japheth would be brought into the tents of Shem That's the promise of the ingrafting of the Gentiles. That's the promise that one day the Gentiles would come into Shem, into that name. God had a plan to bring the Gentiles in. And that was all over the Bible from Isaiah chapter 11. He will set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. If you go through this list, what you have here in these chapters are known as the Indo-Europeans. You'll notice here Japheth being our great ancestor, if you will. The descendants of, we know of Asia Minor and southeastern Europe. Japheth meaning to enlarge. So, I'm not spending a lot of time on that, but I want you to see the basic structure here that God had promised to bring Japheth into Shem. They would be grafted in, and that would be a glorious gathering when that occurs. That's why the Old Testament kept talking about J-Peth. The coastlands will wait upon me, and on my arm they will trust. That's the important truth about the coming of the peoples through the Messiah, the nations. So right after they exit the ark, God gives a great command. That program of redemption, when Jesus would finally come, would take time. So he tells them when they exit the ark, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. I want you to disperse throughout all the earth. And in the fullness of time, I will gather you again through the promise Shem. the seed, and we'll look at there will be a healing of the division. Here's the problem. The children of Ham didn't like that. The Canaanites, direct descendants, always Israel's thorn, weren't they? In fact, this section shows us how hostile the kingdom of darkness is to God's evangelization program of the world. And this shows us how God dealt with the rebellion that happened to this command to be dispersed throughout all the earth. So the focus of chapter 10 and the first part of 11 now is the sons of Ham. And that's what's here. You have the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Canaanites, the Philistines. Everyone mentioned here were the bitter enemies of Israel. And they would become throughout history the objects of God's judgment to be a lesson to those who are outside of Jesus. and outside of the name given above every name. And that's why as we go through this section here, you have one figure that is meant to really stand out here, a fascinating figure. And he is mentioned in this section, Cush begot Nimrod. You'll notice that in verse 8 preceding of chapter 10. Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on the earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore, it said, like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord, the beginning of his kingdom was Babel. What a figure. This was one great, powerful figure that rose up in the earth. It was the first time in the Bible kingdoms used, by the way. Nimrod's kingdom. Nimrod's kingdom. And you'll notice here that Moses describes him as just this impressive warrior who is the cult figure of this great city that now stands in opposition to the city of God. Here comes from the line of Ham, this man named Nimrod, which means we shall rebel. We shall rebel. That's his name meaning. lest we be scattered over the face of the earth, let's make ourselves a what? A shim. A name. Same. We're going to make our own shim. We're going to have our own salvation. We're going to have our own plan. We're going to build our own kingdom. And we're going to solve the problems ourselves. That's the spirit of this. This text is telling us that this mighty name was associated with the building of the Tower of Babel. The gate of God, as it's been known. I want you to keep in mind that the Lord said, fill the earth. He said, fill the earth, and I'm going to gather under one head the line of Shem, the name, and I will be placing my name there. And that sets us all up now for what's here, doesn't it? Now the whole earth, verse 1, 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 thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. So they journeyed from the east again toward back the Garden of Eden. We're going to get back. We're going home. And they came to this plain in the land of Shinar, who was the land of southern Mesopotamia, better known as the land of the Chaldeans or Babylon. Babylon. Listen to the spirit here. Can you imagine Nimrod standing up as this tower is being built? This curse has brought shame on us. We're going to make our own shem. Forget the shem. We're going to make our own shem. You watch the fear we'll bring on the earth when my name is mentioned. This is an antichrist. So they build this city in the center of rebellion against God that would be a chief rival to the city of God and the temple of God where God would dwell. That is what Babylon was always represented as throughout history. Isn't it something that the very last thing in Revelation says to the whole earth, Babylon is fallen, it's fallen. So what do they construct? This lofty tower, the ziggurat, as they used to call them, a giant staircase mountain that they said, Listen, if God has banned us to the earth, we'll solve that. We'll go back. We'll go right to him. We'll solve this our way. A massive, solid brick structure like a giant porch all the way, as high as they could go, into the heavens. In the ancient world, there were these ziggurat-like structures you would find out of a city named Larsa. One was called the house of the link between heaven and earth. They found these things. They would have great brick-making ceremonies to praise man's achievements. And at Babylon, their structure was called this, the house of the foundation of earth and heaven, the top of the structure they know, and these things were painted blue to make it a home for the gods to come down and dwell with them. So the spirit of autonomy, this spirit that comes out here, trying to overcome the curse and trying to solve humanity's problems and trying to solve all the problems with one spirit and a collective mind with one speech. We will do this and we will build security within our walls. Talk about history repeating itself again. You've had a fall and a curse pronounced. Cain originally went out and built a city in his name, didn't he? And now it's even worse than before. They have gathered the peoples together in revolt as the intention of Moses is for us to understand this, in revolt against the Lord and his name, as they seek to build a center of opposition to the kingdom of God. The achievements, the abilities they use to defy the living God, to try to subdue him under their great cultural advancements. In the ancient world, this was the thought of the day that we will become our own gods. You see that in verse 4, don't you? Let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth. They want an immortal name. That's what they want. They want the rulers. They want to be rulers of their own fate. They want to become their own gods and make their own destiny and build a whole city and a structure that idolizes man. it's always been the goal throughout history of kings and kingdoms that they fall into this and they do this that can't happen here right this ship we built it's unsinkable know what it was called the titanic where does it sit right now imagine if you had told moses that we would fly a man up to the moon and walk on it doesn't it make you cringe when you hear there's nothing that is not as a nation within our reach? This is common presidential speech, beloved. There is nothing that can be withheld from us. We have unlimited potential. I'm quoting. What is that? well, let me quote a presidential speech from a while back, years ago. The March on Washington teaches us that we're not trapped by the mistakes of history. We are masters of our own fate, really. It also teaches us that the promise of this nation will only be kept when we work together. And I believe that spirit is there. I'm quoting. The truth force inside of each of us. The truth force? That's where courage comes from. When we turn not from each other or on each other, which is a true statement, but towards each other. And we find that we do not walk alone. That's where courage comes from. Change has always been built on our willingness. We the people, that's the promise of tomorrow. That in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it. Fair? That when millions of Americans of every race and every religion, every faith and every station can join together in the spirit of brotherhood, then, now stay with me, then those mountains will be made low. And those rough places shall be made plain. And those crooked places, they straighten out toward grace. Huh? Let me summarize that. When we stop all the division, when we fix all the division among the peoples, when we take the truth that is inside of us, not from the outside but inside, when we have the American spirit of brotherhood, we will make the mountains low. The rough places plain. The crooked places straight. I want you to know that's God's language. It comes from Isaiah. Every mountain and hill shall be brought low. And the crooked places become straight. And the rough places level when Jesus comes. We'll build the name. It's our shem. It's our work. That's the Spirit. And we have sat and listened to it. Is this not, Nebuchadnezzar, my kingdom that I have built by my mighty power, that I have done and built by my wisdom? The U.S. is a shining hill on a city. In my mind, it was a tall, proud city built on a rock stronger than the oceans, teeming with people of all kinds, living in harmony and peace, strong and true on that granite ridge, Ronald Reagan. It's tough for us, I understand. It's tough for us. But you have to know, this is why a kingdom of this world has never stayed on top. There's not one kingdom that has never been toppled over throughout history. There's only one kingdom that has stood with one king on a throne that can't be toppled. We read that at the beginning. The Lord sits enthroned forever. So now the dispersion. verse 5. 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're 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 now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the 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 go down for a minute. This is a language of accommodation to to help us. The Lord sees everything, and the imagery here is is that of Psalm 2. Let's go down and look what these little puny humans have made. The imagery, boys and girls, is getting down on the fours and looking, is that little speck what they've tried to reach me with? It's exactly what this is doing. If they continue this spirit, if they continue these delusions and false securities, if they continue in their own self-sufficiency, if they continue in building a name for themselves, making their own name, guess what will happen? No one will ever come to the name. No one will ever know about the name that is given above every name. So God says that's it. Scattered. Confusion. You can't help but to see that God has kind of done this again. No, we're all about globalism. We're all about making it all one. We're all about doing what we can do as a world people. Planes stopped. Everything is in tension. Peoples are ripped apart all of a sudden in ways we had never seen. Division has come on the earth. Mass confusion. Babel has come. And everyone is looking right now for someone or something that can unify us. I know someone. I know a name. There's only one name that God gave by which anyone can be saved. And that's where I think this passage takes us. If you look down to verse 14, if you look at the trace of names here, that's exactly what the Lord is telling us. And Shelah lived 30 years. He fathered Eber. And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 400 years and had other sons and daughters. And when Eber lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg and had other sons and daughters. And Peleg was the days of the split in the earth, the confusion. Peleg was the line of the one through whom Abraham would come. That was his desire that all the nations through Abraham would be blessed. Wasn't that the promise of the Abrahamic covenant? That in Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. From the line of Shem then would come, from the line of the name, He would come one, one day in the fullness of time who would be born in Bethlehem. And he would be a humble king. Are we so used to the proud speech of leaders that we've forgotten the kind of king that came to us? I could say a lot about that, but what about Pentecost? That the Lord said, I will be the one to heal the division of the nations that happened at Babel. And all of a sudden tongues of fire came at Pentecost and everyone heard people speaking in their own language the wonderful works of God. The division of the peoples is God's to fix and that's through the work of the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel. And no one can take that and no one can solve it except him. That's the message tonight. Only Christ and his gospel heals the division of the nations. Beginning at Pentecost with the work of the Holy Spirit, any attempt to join the world's solution is aligning with a different Savior and a different gospel. When everything's going gangbusters and the economy's great and everything's flourishing and everything's going well, who's seeking Shem? Who's seeking the name? God loves to shake the nations that they might come to the desire of the nations. And we need that right now. This is a great moment for us. There's a better city we have. That's a hard because it's so hard living still here, but there's a better city. That's the theme today too. There's a better city for us, a city which has foundations, that the builder and maker and designer is God. Can you imagine what the city will be like when God has been the architect? You got a little taste of that this morning. It's compacted together. It's just, it's beautiful. Eye has not seen. Eye has not seen nor heard the things that God has prepared for those who love him. So where are our loyalties? Isaiah 60, For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise on you and his glory will be seen upon you and nations shall come to your light. There's no other light. And kings to the brightness of your rising lift up your eyes all around. They gather together, see them. They come to you. Your sons and your daughters shall come from afar. The coastlands shall hope for me, J-Pet. to bring your children from afar for the name of the Lord your God and for the Holy One of Israel because he's made you beautiful. The Lord tells us in Revelation in closing tonight, alas, alas, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. In one hour, everything was shut down. Read it. Read Revelation 18 tonight. In one hour, God shut down the economies. All the commerce, the music stopped, and there was no more sound of the church in the world. It was over. A little taste of that, of the future. This is where the light is. It's in the name given above every name. At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, not exalt itself. And every tongue should confess that he is Lord. And doing that, you'll be saved. I close with these words. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man. And he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. Within those walls, there is peace. The lamb of God is there. And the tree is there for the healing of the nations. That's the healing we're looking for. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears say, come, and let him who thirsts, come. Let's pray together tonight. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us instruction and help to see things the way we should. Whatever good government we've enjoyed in this life, whatever prosperity, whatever good things we've enjoyed, comes through the way that you ordained government to function well. But surely, in all systems of the world, there is an antichrist spirit developing. And we have confused that often with your kingdom. Forgive us for that. Help us, O Lord, to keep our eyes on the name, on Jesus through this. And then, Father, it seems that we're making no progress right now in the world. We know that one day we'll open our eyes on that day and see that you saved a multitude no man can number, and we will see how effective your ministry was. It's like a mustard seed that grows slowly. You've told us that about the kingdom. But give us, Lord, an open door again and let the masses hear about the only name that can unite them. And let them know Jesus, the mediator of the better covenant. May that name be proclaimed and heard again. And may we be faithful in that great cause. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.