I think everybody knows Brother
Gabe this morning is preaching in Danville, Kentucky for Brother
Don Fortner. And we miss him and pray that
he'll have a safe return. The Lord will bless him there
as he preaches. Brother Cody Henson will be speaking here
this evening. And let's pray too, there's so
many of our children that are sick and others that, let's pray
for them that the Lord will have them, heal them and have them
back with us soon. For our message this morning,
I want you to turn to Genesis chapter 11. By way of introduction, it's been over 40 years ago that
I had my first of two visits to Mexico. to visit missionary
Walter Groover and his wife, Betty. And it was quite an experience
for me at that time, because I'm not gifted in languages,
to say the least. But it was a great blessing to,
and back then, y'all have to realize, there weren't many paved
roads in the Yucatan back then. And brother Walter, who lived
in the city of Merida, he'd just go a few miles outside of town
and all of a sudden you were on a dirt road in the jungle.
And he would go to a Pueblo and look up for the head man and
get permission as the sun went down to put up a, a movie screen
and show a little, uh, short movie and then stand on the back
of his the tailgate of his vehicle and preach the gospel. And after
doing that for a number of years, there was when I, by the time
I had come to visit. There were about 11 churches
that had been established there where the gospel was being preached.
And Walter was having a school in Merida where these men would
come in every week and he would teach them. And, and they were
then preaching to their congregations in these in these villages. And
I was stunned to go out there the first time and find out they
were meeting in a house in this village that it had a dirt floor. They slept in hammocks. But they would just be leaning
in the windows to listen when Walter would come to preach.
But we went one day to a service where Jose was the pastor. And it was about 10 or 11 o'clock
that morning. And afterwards, we were heading
back to Medina, and there was a restaurant that Walter liked.
And by restaurant, in the Yucatan, you had to understand it was
not what we think of as a restaurant. There were tables and places
to sit, but no windows, anything, and it was pretty primitive.
But Walter liked this place. He said it had good tacos. So
we were all sitting around this table and there was about 12
or 14 of us and I'm not gifted with languages. Some people are,
I'm just not, but I was trying to get into the Spanish thing,
and so the waiter got to me, and I mean, I had mastered, you
know, bueno, and buenos dias, and gracias, and so I thought
I would order my own. And I said, I'll have papas fritos. That's French fried potatoes.
And then, what I said, and I still have to, check these words because
I still don't get them straight all the time, but what I said
was, I ordered Fritos Pecadores. And the waiter looked at me a
little funny, and Betty, who was sitting next to me, said
something to him, said, he'll have Fritos Pecados, Pescados. And I didn't think anything about
it, but in a minute she went in and said, I'm sorry, but I
didn't think you wanted French fried sinners. The word for sinner in Spanish
is pescados. And the word for fish is pecadores. I was trying to order a French
fried fish with my French fries. So the point of that is that
God gives different people different gifts and mine is not languages.
But have you ever wondered why there are so many languages in
the world? Do we realize in the beginning
when God created Adam, they had one language. They communicated with one language. It was a heavenly divine language
which God had taught Adam. What is that language and why
don't we still speak it? The answer to that is in Genesis
11. Have you got it there? Genesis 11. This is about 100
years after the flood which William read about, where in Noah's day
God destroyed everyone on earth by rain, by water, except the
eight people that were in the ark. And that is of course a
picture or type of God's salvation. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone
on earth, including Noah and his family, deserved to die because
they'd all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But God
in mercy chose to save eight people. He was gracious to Noah
and his family by putting them in the ark. And that ark pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where all the mercy in
the world is, is in Christ. Everyone God has chosen to save,
do you know what he does? He puts them in Christ. And God brought that ark when
the rain stopped. He brought that ark to rest on
a mountain called Ararat. And they all got off the ark
and they started families. And soon there were villages
and towns around this mountain and they spread out. How often
do we suppose that story was retold? The story of the Ark. And I'll tell you what, they
all gave the same account, all told the same story of Noah and
the Ark. As a picture of salvation from God's wrath, by God's chosen
vessel, the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Lord, it was told over and
over and over. And by the way, what languages
did they speak? they still spoke the language
God taught Adam, that hadn't changed. And the evidence of
that, look at verse one of chapter 11, and the whole earth was of
one language and one speech. Everybody had the same words,
they had the same meaning, and you know what there wasn't any
of? There wasn't any of y'all, hi y'all, as opposed to how are
you? Y'all okay? You know, there's
people, I go north and they go, what's he talking about? We can
even get confused among the same language. But back then, nobody
had any problem understanding anybody else. There was no confusion
about the account that was given of the Ark. No one misunderstood
what happened in that day and exactly who did what Because
they, I don't understand what he's saying. There wasn't any
of that going on. When they told and retold the
account of the ark, everybody knew exactly what they were talking
about. There was one true account of
who did what and why. God chose and delivered Noah
and his family from the wrath of God. Not because they deserved
to be saved, but by God's divine sovereign grace and mercy. It
did not get confused by translation. Do we see that? That's still
true. God has preserved the truth of
salvation in one book, in one true word. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Spirit You know what they're called? One.
One. They are of one mind, they are
of one heart, they're of one purpose, and that's all revealed
in one book. So there should be no confusion,
no excuse, no disagreement. We don't need another translation,
especially one that subtly changes the meaning, one that changes
the truth into a lie. As time passes in this day, a
bunch of folks made a decision. That's where the trouble started.
Look at verse two. And it came to pass as they journeyed
from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar
and they dwelt there. Let me explain that to you. Where
did they live? They lived near a mountain. They lived near the rock. And you know what they decided?
Let's leave the rock and go out here someplace else. And they
got out here and they found, Shinar means two rivers. They
found a place between two rivers that was a plain. It was so fertile
and so inviting and looks so good. And they said, let's leave
the rock and go to this good place. Well, that's a shame that
they did that. You see, they decided to leave
the place where God had put them on the rock to go to what they
thought was a better place. May God prevent us and our children
from ever leaving the place where the gospel is for the place where
it is not. Examples of that are in the scripture. What happens in the book of Ruth?
Ruth and her husband decided, not Ruth, I'm sorry, Naomi, Ruth's
mother-in-law, Naomi and her husband decided, let's leave
Jerusalem. Or Bethlehem, let's leave Bethlehem
and go down to Moab. What's Moab? That's a pagan city
where they worshiped idols. And we all know how that worked
out, don't we? Naomi came back and her husband
and both their sons were dead. It'll end badly. What about when
Lot and Abraham got down to this place and Lots settled in the
mountains? I mean, Abraham settled in the
mountains and he says to Lot, pick what you want. Lot says,
I'm going down to that fertile plain. That looks good. Didn't
work out too well, did it? No, it didn't. Terrible result.
So these folks in this day left the mountain, the rock for Shinar,
and what happened next? Look at verse three. And they
said one to another, And perhaps here's where the trouble starts
is that when we get to talking with each other without any regard
to what this says, it says, and they said one to another grow
to let us make brick and burn them throughly. And they had
brick. You know what that means that
they had to make bricks? They didn't have any stones.
They didn't have any rocks. They didn't have a foundation.
So let's, and let's use slime. That even sounds bad, doesn't
it? So they made brick for stone and slime had they for mortar.
And they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose
top may reach unto heaven. and let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. They said one to another." Boy,
we need to be careful what we say one to another. I'm interested
in your opinion. I really am. Especially, I wouldn't
think about doing anything plumbing without asking Tony. I wouldn't
think about picking up a hammer without calling Eddie first.
Because these men know things. They know things. And let's avail
of one another that kind of wisdom and experience. I'm interested
in your opinion, especially if you're older and wiser. And I
tell you what, if you ask for my opinion, I'm probably too
willing to give it to you and tell you what I think. And so
maybe you ought not listen too much to what I have to say, but
believers ought never limit a discussion or a decision to what I think. or really even to what you think. If we just keep the discussion
to what we think, we're apt to do what these folks did, which
is the wrong thing. We need rather to ask our Lord
what we ought to do first and last. The one who proclaims,
I am the way, he certainly knows the way I should go, and you
should go, and we should go. In Genesis 11, this all went
very wrong from the beginning. It became obvious, no one asked
the Lord what they should do. And bless our hearts, if the
Lord leaves us alone, we'll do the wrong thing every time. So
they decided what they thought was best. And there's no mention
of anyone asking God. They set about doing what they
thought without God's leadership. And that's a hallmark of false
religion. And God's not in it at all. The
first error they made was they said, let us build us. It's right there. They said,
what are we gonna do? Let's us build us. What's good for our glory? What's
good for our financial gain? Let's do what's best for us.
You know, there's nothing wrong with building, there wasn't anything
wrong with building this tower they were gonna build or a building
they were gonna build. It was, what was it for? It says right here, they were gonna
build one up to heaven. For what purpose? Why would anybody
wanna build a tower to heaven? The old writers say, well, they
intended to build one up there and find God and throw him off
his throne and put themselves up there. Let us build us. It's not for us and our glory. Turn over to Philippians chapter
two. Philippians two verse. Philippians two. Let us make
us a name. That's the second mistake they
made. They said, let us make us a name. Vanity of fanaties. Make us a
name, there's already a name which is above every name. In
Philippians 2 verse nine we read, wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. and things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God, the father. Every tongue, every tongue, doesn't
matter what language it's in, every tongue that glorifies the
Lord Jesus Christ, but not me, not me. Left alone, all we care
about is our, and that's what these folks were alone. They
left the rock and went out in the wilderness. And what happened? The first thing they do is start
thinking about, let's make us a building. Let's make us a name. And that's what false religion
comes from. If we want to magnify a name,
let it be that of the son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not me, not us. Now look at verse
five, what happened back in Genesis 11. And the Lord came down to
see the city. And let me say this in the tower.
We realized that he didn't need to come down here to see what
was going on. He sees everything. Oh, if we
just realize that he sees everything we do, everything we think, it
might change some of our thinking and doing, mightn't it? And he
didn't have to come down to see that, but it's a picture, which
I'll show you in a minute. And the Lord came down to see
the city and the tower, which the children of men build it.
And the Lord said, behold, the people is one and they have all
one language. They still have it. And this
is what they begin to do. Do we get the, the, the, the
it's repugnant. When we go, I'm gonna build this
for me. I'm gonna build this for my name
and my purposes and my glory. And he said, you leave them alone
for just this little bit of time and what do they do? And it says,
and the Lord said, behold, the people is one, they have all
one language and this they began to do and now nothing will be
restrained from them that they have imagined to do. The worst
thing in the world the Lord can do is leave us alone with ourselves.
with our imagination. It'll just run in all directions
in the wrong way. If we want to magnify a name,
let it be that of the Son of God, Jesus Christ the righteous,
and not me or us, the self-righteous. Now, they were allowed to keep
this divine language. The people is one, and this is
what they do. By nature, they're all alike. They think alike, they talk alike,
they act alike. And if God leaves us alone, we'll
do the same thing. We'll all sin because we've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all sinners.
If the Lord lift his restraining hand for a minute, this is the
kind of thing we'll do. We'll set about to exalt our
name above that of Christ. But look at verse seven. Go to,
this is the Lord speaking. He said, go to, let us go down
and there confound their language that they may not understand
one another's speech. The Lord came down. The Lord
came down. Do you know this was the plan
from the very beginning? God made man, Adam fell, and you
know what? The Lord came down. Did the flood
fix it? Did, did the flood fix anything?
We read about the flood. William read about the flood.
He killed everybody on the earth except eight people. You think
that ought to fix it. You tell that story to the kids
and they'll go, I'm not doing that. How's that working? No, it took more than a flood.
It took the Lord coming down, coming down. And that's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ coming down. to live the perfect life
that's required for us to go before God and be acceptable. The Lord came down and then he
went to Calvary and died. For what purpose? To put away
all that rebellion and sin, all of that that's in us, like, let's
make me a name. Let's me do this. Let's do this
for my glory. Christ came down. Put it all
away. Why didn't the Lord just wipe
out the whole bunch of self-righteous rebels back in that day? The
answer is, in the midst of this rebellious, righteous, self-worshipping
people, there must have been some of God's elect out there
on that plain. You ever done the wrong thing
and gone with somebody for a while in the wrong direction? And then
woke up and went, like the prodigal son, I need to go home. I need
to go home. And you children, you listen
to me. There may come a time when you find yourself out somewhere
where you ought not be listening to something you ought not be
listening to. And I tell you what, come home, come home. Come home to the one, to the
one who loves you, to the one who's told you the truth always,
the one who's told you. Back then, everybody sinned.
God said, I'm gonna punish him. But he made an ark and he put
his children in that ark. You come back to the ark, come
back. You know, as in the days of Sodom
and Gomorrah, God wiped out a lot of people, but there was still
Lot and his family. In the days of the flood, God
killed a lot of people, but there was Noah and his family. And
in this day, the day of Babel, which is what this place was
called, God had a people amongst them whom he was determined to
save. So what'd he do? He came down.
He came down. His coming down is a foretelling
that one day God would come down in a form of a man to do for
his people what they couldn't do for themselves, which was
obey God. We realize Jesus Christ lived
30 plus years. He never disobeyed his earthly
father one time. Not once did he ever smart mouth. Not once did he ever, don't do
that. And he did it anyway. That sound
familiar to you kids? Don't do that. The Lord never did that one time.
He obeyed his father perfectly, even to the point when it came
time, he went to Calvary, willingly walking up that hill with that
cross and allowed himself to be nailed to it. For what purpose? To put away all my rebellion.
His coming down is that foretelling of what Jesus Christ would do
in human flesh. He would come down, he would
obey God's law, he would live a righteous life for his people. He'd suffer the penalty and punishment
for his people's sin on a mountain called Calvary. It happened on
a mountain. Turn quickly to Revelation 21,
I'll show you one more scripture. Revelation 21. Aren't we glad that we don't
have to build a tower? We don't have to build a city.
We don't have to build a righteousness is what that's telling us. God's people don't have to build
anything. You know why? God's already built
it. He's already built it. And the
evidence of that in Revelation 21, when John got there, I'm
sure he was amazed by much he saw, but he recorded here something
he saw. He said in verse one of chapter
21, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw what? The Holy City. Folks, we don't
have to build one. It's already been made. He said,
I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. Do we
realize we don't have to build a righteousness? We don't have
to put away our sin. Coming down from heaven was the
Lord Jesus Christ who did it for us. It's already done. And
if you go back to Genesis 11, look at verse eight with me.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence and upon the face
of all the earth and they left off or they quit building the
city, they quit doing it. 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. If you
ever hear a false preacher, a believer who's heard the truth will recognize
the error. will recognize he's a vain babbler. He's just a man saying what will
advance his cause or his position or his wealth or whatever. I
tell you, thank God our pastor doesn't care about having a bigger
house, a newer car, any of those things. He's concerned about
telling us how the Lord came down to do for us what we need
done. So why did he scatter them? So
the gospel is preached to every tribe and kindred and nation
under heaven. The purpose of God will not be
thwarted or hindered by the foolishness of men. The purpose of God to
glorify Christ will be accomplished and God's chosen people will
be glad. I'm grateful that we can communicate
one with another, but the day is coming when we'll all be able
to communicate perfectly. And I saw that come to life in
Mexico. I've proven I don't speak Spanish
at all. But I'll tell you what, to sit
in a service where a little man named Jose was preaching the
gospel. I didn't understand much of what
he said. Everybody around me was rejoicing
in it, and I was too, because I, do you know the part I understood?
Every once in a while, he'd say something like, salvacion. And I'd go, that's salvation. And then he'd say, Jesus Cristo.
And I'd go, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And the way he said it,
and the power he had in saying it, and the spirit he had in
saying it, you know what I knew? The Lord had come down. was speaking
to that man. And that's what it's like when
people go, why do you all just keep coming week, after week,
after week you hear the same thing over and over again. That's
right I just want to hear Salvation in Jesus Cristo. I want to hear
it one more time. If it's in Spanish or English
or whatever. You say, what was going on down there? I don't
know what the one language is. It may not be Spanish or English
or French or anything else. But I know this it speaks to
the heart of God's people still. It still does. And that's why
we come back again and again and again. And that's why our
pastor, every week, he opens us up, looks for another way
to say, Salvation in Jesus Christ. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's all we need to hear, isn't
it? All right, may the Lord bless this word. Dwight, you come and
lead us in a closing hymn.