I should have looked at my notes
first. Turn over to Genesis 6. We're going to be in Genesis
11, but I want to show you something in Genesis 6 first. We've been
going through Genesis here for a while. We've come to that story
of the Tower of Babel on every continent. Antarctica too. Russia built a church down there,
didn't it? On every continent, this story is told. All the native
cultures around this world have a story about a tower. Everyone
spoke the same language, and something happened, and then
everybody spoke differently. Just like every culture in this
world, every indigenous population has a story about a big flood.
Something happened. The Lord dropped these things
on the hearts of His people, of those that He's created, on His
creation. There's a historical story of
what happened. It's what we're going to read
today. Everyone spoke the same language. Everyone had the same
word to speak. And over time, things came to
pass and people were scattered. And now we have many different
languages on this earth. What led up to this? Going through
Genesis, we begin there in Genesis 1, and we looked at each day
of creation. It's a picture of Christ and Him crucified. The person and work of Christ,
day one. Day two, every day. We've looked
at that. We saw Adam and Eve, the Lord
made them. That first Adam, they walked with God in that garden. God came down to Adam and Eve,
to His creation, and walked with them. Imagine that. Talked with
them. Then earshot. Talked with them. Then the serpent came. spoke
to the woman. There was a fall that happened.
Something happened in that garden. There was nakedness. They realized
they were naked. And of course, Adam did everything
he could. He was going to ascend. He was going to do something
right. He took fig leaves and sewed them together to make garments,
to clothe themselves. But God came down. He wasn't
there with them. He come to them. And He slew
an animal. Blood was shed, and that covering
of another robed those two that were naked. Cain and Abel, first murder.
What was it over? How to worship God. If so, well,
we'll agree to disagree. That might be what comes out
of your mouth because of man's laws, but you'd kill one another if
you could. Mankind go to war, have, they will again. How to
worship God? You either bring Him the fruits
of this cursed ground that you worked so hard for and you sweated
and you had calluses of carrying buckets of water. Hard work. Or you bring the blood of another.
The blood of a lamb. One or the other. The Lord still
had a people. Adam and Eve were there whenever
Cain had killed Abel. And they had another son, Seth,
the substitute. And they lived and populated
the earth. But the Lord had a remnant. This whole time, all this wickedness
going on. Enoch walked with God. And then
he wasn't. He was translated. He was on
this earth. How did he walk with God? Did Enoch translate first
to go up to the heavens and walk with God? God came down. And
Enoch was able to walk with Him. He walked with Him. Enoch had
a great grandson named Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And then, A good period of time
went by. God told Noah that He had found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. How did He tell him? He said,
Noah, I'm going to destroy this whole earth. Ooh, that was a
conviction of sin, wasn't it? You're right, Lord. You're right. And He said, but make thee an
ark of gopher wood. I'm going to provide salvation. God came down and talked to Noah. Noah didn't climb some ladder.
He didn't go on top of a mountain. He came down to Noah. He told
Noah what to do. He told Noah about it. He told
him first he was going to destroy the earth, and he told them why.
Here in Genesis 6 verse 4, it said, There were giants in the
earth in those days. And also after that, when the
sons of God came unto the daughters of men, they bare children to
them. And the same being mighty men, mighty men, which were of
old, men of renown. Oh, those are big time, big shots. Everybody around knows about
them. There's stories about them. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. I sat on that for a little bit.
I thought, how could I word that to make it stronger and more
clear? Of mankind, of every man born
of Adam, always, all of the thoughts of their heart and even their
imaginations. What color do you want to paint
that picture? That's evil. Let's just blue. God says so. Well, Kevin, I don't think it
means that. That's in plain black and white English, isn't it?
That's an eighth grade reading level. We either bow to it or
we butt. We either shake our fist in God's
face and say, you're a liar. Or we say, you're right Lord. You're right. These big men,
how could they be evil? They're so well known. They're
so successful. They're blessed. God says their hearts are evil.
Because we fell on Adam. Something happened in that garden,
didn't it? What happened next? God flooded the entire earth.
He killed a lot of people. Most of those people are very
educated in anthropology. They study these things. Estimate
between one to four billion people on this earth. But God, they
deserved it. That's what their heart word.
They sinned against the holy God. They cannot be in his presence. But God had Noah build an ark
and he put him and his family, eight people he put in that ark.
And God called them in there, said you and your family come.
And that ain't an open invitation if you just pretty well please.
That ain't a God. That's a man. You can reason
with a man. You don't reason with the Holy God. He said, come,
and you come. Just like He spoke to those waters
and said, waters, you come up out of the earth and you come
down from the sky. And the waters said, well, give me 20 minutes.
Them waters came. We just think we're so much better
than water, don't we? God came down. He saved them. And for
a year they spent in the ark. You think Noah spoke to his boys
about what happened? You think he explained to them,
Daddy, why are we doing this? Sit down, son. We're in the house
together. I'm going to tell you something.
Here's what's happening. Scriptures say that Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. What the Lord did was told to Noah's family. He told them. And he told his
grandbabies whenever they started showing up. And he told his great
grandbabies. He lived for 350 years after
the flood. He didn't stop preaching When
he got to old enough to collect Social Security or whatever,
he didn't quit. That was in him. He was, and
he kept telling them. So his children told their children.
Sam, Shem, and Japheth did. And they told their grandbabies.
Ham might have had something to say, but I wouldn't have wanted
to sit under it. But they told. This was known, wasn't it? That's
a great humbling story. Now I want to make children mind.
God punishes sin. Can you imagine him telling his
grandbabies? There's still bones laying all over the hillside.
We think this is a little kid's coloring book. This really happened.
That was carnage. So you see what happens? There's
a holy God in heaven. We've offended him. You better
come to him with a blood sacrifice. His son. That's what you better
come to him with. He won't accept nothing else.
I love you. I'm telling you this. That's
what they told their grandchildren. So this word was scattered about.
Once that's done, why don't you tell them children, make a mind.
You tell them God provides salvation. Anything God requires, He provides.
Now mankind's squared away, ain't they? We're good to go. We hit
the reset button with the flood, everything's fine. It's gonna
be roses from here out. No. What did those people that
were so learned and mature and experienced do? Such knowledge,
such understanding, such a visual of what God does. Noah grew a
vineyard and he got drunk and he passed out. And then Ham came
in and saw him. And he went out to his brothers
and said, you know what daddy did? Come look. Look here. He exposed the sin of his father.
And Shem and Japheth, they believed God. God used their dad to preach
to them. And they believed him. And they
said, we've been covered with the skin of another. We've been
robed by somebody else. How am I going to love like Christ
loves his church? Cover them. That's what's on
our shoulders. And they walked in backwards
and they covered their father's nakedness. Don't speak about
it. Let it go. Hush. What's for dinner, Mom? What are we doing tomorrow? We
got to build something. When Ham did this and exposed
it, Noah woke up and he cursed Ham and all of his house. And
that was a spiritual curse. Physically, they prospered. Oh,
business was a booming. Oh, they prospered. They had
lots of children and houses and big tall buildings and everything
was going great. Spiritually, they were cursed. People said,
well, Noah must have lied. He missed the mark on that one.
Look how good. They're so blessed. Look at them.
Maybe outwardly. Here in Genesis 10, verse 6,
we'll see this grandson of Ham. Here's Ham's lineage, and I'm
going to do the best I can reading these, so you bear with me. Genesis
10, verse 6, and the sons of Ham, this cursed one, Cush, and
Mizraim, and Foot, and Canaan. and the sons of Cush, Sheba,
Havilah, Sabbath, Ramah, and Sabbathah, and the sons of Ramah
and Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod, and he
began to be a mighty one on earth. Nimrod's a rebellion, rebellious. We all know what a Nimrod is.
We use that as a slang, don't we? We always use it as dummy
where I grew up. I don't know about here. He begat
Nimrod, but he was a mighty man. He was a mighty man. He was a
mighty hunter before the Lord. That doesn't mean that he could
kill a whole lot of innocent. The proper translation is that
he hunted the Lord and he hunted the Lord's people in a mighty
way. He went against God, he went
against His Word, and he went against God's people. They're
a hunted people. It says in verse 10, in the beginning
of his kingdom, he had a kingdom. Mighty man was Babel. and Eric,
and Akad, and Kalani, and in the land of Shinar. And out of
that land went forth ashore, and builded Nineveh, and the
city Reboth, and Calah, and resumed between Nineveh and Calah, the
same as a great city." Here's this man. Noah said, your whole
lineage, Ham, is going to be cursed. And Nimrod comes, a great
and mighty man. Good imagination. Invent him. Oh man, Dustrious. He built a
city, and then he built another city. Then he built a whole mess
of cities. He's prospering. Babel was the first one, means
the great whore. Throughout scripture, Babylon,
that's false religion. The wine of Babylon is what natural
man gets drunk on. We remember Nineveh. It was another
great city, wasn't it? That's who Jonah went to go preach
to. He got puffed up. The Lord said, go preach to Nineveh.
And he said, well, I'll go down to the Tarshish. Went down to
the boathouse. Well, there's a ticket to Tarshish.
This must be the Lord's will. I'll go. He got puffed up and
he ended up getting swallowed up by a whale, didn't he? And
the Lord spit him out after he prayed to God, after he cried
out to God on the dry ground. After such a horrible trial,
he obeyed God. All through his providence. And
everything's looking wonderful. for Ham's family. Cities popping
up all over. This great city of Nineveh, one
day the Lord is going to save. And about that time man gets
comfortable and they start thinking they know what success is and
they know what right looks like and their thoughts are just the
way to go. Do it my way. Boy, look how we're
prospering. And the Lord is going to deal
with them. All these great cities raising up, man just let go and
it looks like it's wonderful and God's going to deal with
it. Boy, we're thankful God intercedes. We'll see in a minute. Genesis
11. I'm going to go verse by verse, and I'll try not to keep
you too long. Genesis 11 verse 1, it said,
"...and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech."
Does that mean they said something twice? No, those words mean things.
The Lord's language is direct, strong words. It means something.
It's not by mistake. What language are they speaking
of? What language did the whole earth speak? The same language
God taught Adam to speak in the garden. When God spoke to Adam,
whatever that language was, that's the language that Noah and his
children spoke. That's the language they spoke
there in Babel, and in Nineveh, and all throughout. What a thought. What a thought. Anytime, if you
go around this world and you meet somebody that speaks another
language than you, that's absolute proof by God's Word, sin still
on earth. And we've offended God. And we
need a substitute. We need a mediator. But what
a thought to have all of one language. The Lord's children,
those that Christ came and died for, to redeem, we're going to
speak one language again. What language is that going to
be in heaven? What language are we going to speak? Oh, it's going
to be Aramaic. It'll be whatever language glorifies God the most.
That's what language it'll be. And we'll all know it, and we'll
speak it fluently, and ain't nobody you gonna bump into that
you ain't gonna be able to speak of Christ and Him crucified with.
You'll be able to speak plainly. But it's all one language. Right
now, we have many brothers and sisters we can't talk to unless
we have someone to interpret for us. That's a gift of tongues.
When I grew up, they said, well, you ram around on the floor and
babble like an idiot. I said, no. The gift of tongues
what Lord gave now is if I can speak Spanish and English and
I go down to Mexico and preach to those, somebody translates
for me, they have the gift of tongues. They can speak more
than one language. They had one language and they were of one
speech. That means one word. What word? The Word of the Lord. They spoke what the Lord did.
What's all their stories? You talk about history. Where'd
they get it all from? Noah, preacher of righteousness,
taught his children. They were of one word, wasn't
they? Talk about history class. What happened in creation? They
knew about it. They knew what happened in those
days of creation. What happened in the garden?
Man fell in the garden. He died. And our biggest problem
is we walk around this earth breathing. And we think we're
alive. We're spiritually dead. We died
in the garden. What happened but that ark? God
punishes sin unless you're inside of Christ. And He punished our
sin, those inside of Him, on the ark. It bore the waves. It bore the wrath of God for
those inside. Those put in there by God. Those
sealed in there forever by God. That's their word. They're not
ignorant of these things. Verse 2 says, "...and it came
to pass, as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain
in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there." I spend a lot of
time in this area of the world. And you can get all the dictionaries,
and you can get all the maps, you can do all the traveling.
You want to, and you won't understand the Word of the Lord unless He
gives understanding. Unless He teaches it to you.
I read and I heard so much of the people of Nimrod. They journeyed
from the east. And they said, well, you can
translate that. Proper translation is they journeyed to the east.
But they landed on Mount Ariat, didn't they? Get a map out. That's
up north. Direct, due north. That's where
it is. They went south. Boy, they really
went south. How'd they journey from the east?
They left where God was. They left from where that day
star rises. They left where the sun of man,
S-O-N, the sun, S-U-N, is lifted up every morning. That's where
they were. They was on a mountain and they
left. They went from the east. Ariat was a mountain. It was
rocky. They were on a rock. You get
where I'm going? They were on Christ the Rock,
and they willingly went into the plain of Shinar. Shinar means
the land between two rivers. That's between the Euphrates
and the Tigris, right there in Babylon. And they purposely walked
from where the Lord put them to where they thought was best.
Oh, look at that. Look how green it is. This ain't
rocky, a hillside. You've got to climb up and down.
The rocks are falling a little bit every now and then. This
is hard living. You can't grow corn up here. They went down
to Babylon. Well, it's good land down there.
We have hanging gardens. You ever heard that? I said that
yesterday, I wasn't going to mention it. Hanging gardens of Babylon. You
think about that. We'll put our food above. Give
us shade and it'll come down to us. We'll take care of that.
No, the Lord won't do that. Here to come, we'll see that
manna from heaven, won't we? That's what man's nature does.
We'll have gardens above us. But they were there. And this
has happened before, hasn't it? We've read this throughout scripture
before our time, that somebody, it was where the Lord put them,
and they went to a better place. Emelech and Naomi, they're in
Jerusalem. Boy, there's a famine coming.
We'll go to Moab. They got plenty of good stuff
down there, lush ground. Abraham and Lot, the men started
fighting, and Abraham said, well, I'm gonna give you the choice
land. You go which way you want to. We can't have this division
in our household. Twice. And Lot said, I'll take
that choice land down there. Way down in Sodom and Gomorrah.
They've got a good economy going. I pray the Lord keeps me, and
He keeps you, and He keeps our children where the Gospel is.
I pray He keeps us where He's put us. Not a place where it
is not. Where is the Gospel not? It's
in a whole mess of places. Everywhere where it's not preached.
That's not just a false church that's someplace that exalts
man. Let's make us a name. Oh, you can do it, little buddy. Not that. And not stuck in our
living rooms. Not a particular city. Not a
particular church. Not just stuck at home. I'll just stay here. That's all right. That's a place
where the gospel ain't, isn't it? Well, I can travel around
a whole bunch. That's the place where the gospel
is. I want the Lord to keep me where His Word is. That's where
I want. I want that for you too. That prodigal son, he left, didn't
he? He went out from them. Rod him off. No, the Lord caused
him to return, didn't He? You think his father prayed for
him every day? He said, Daddy, I'm tired of
going to church with you. I want my inheritance. Get me out of
here. I'm leaving. You don't have to worry about
me no more and I ain't worry about you no more. That father prayed
every day. He broke his heart. There was
no pride in that. That son may not have come back,
but the Lord just might turn his heart. I pray those that
are his who have left, return. That's a good prayer to have.
You know why? I know it will be fulfilled. His word says he
will lose none. None. And I believe him. I believe
him. They had one language, one speech,
one story to tell. And they left that. They left
the rock. They left the mountain the Lord put them in for a better
place. And what did they do in that
new place? Look here in verse 3. And they said one to another,
That means, translates several different ways, come, hey y'all,
that's kind of what I would say, or give. It also means give. They did a bake sale. It raised
some funds, didn't it? They said one to another, go
to, let us make brick and burn them throughly. We're going to
bake them real well so they'll be good and strong. And they
had brick for stone and slime had they for mortars. Why did
they have bricks? Why'd they do that? Why is the
Lord recording this? I mean, is He going to talk about how to
mix concrete, how to stack bricks? Why would He say something like
this? Why'd they have bricks? Why'd they make their own bricks?
They didn't have stone. There ain't enough stone down
there. That's a sandy place. It's sand
and grass, ain't it? And cattails all down the Tigris.
They didn't have any stone. They didn't have Christ the Cornerstone.
He wasn't there. And so they had to make a newfangled
way to build something. What's man do now? What's the
fastest, most efficient way I can get these pews full? I get emails
all the time. How to increase your attendance?
How to increase your giving? How to increase your online presence?
I can spend more time deleting emails than I do reading them.
What's the fastest, most efficient way? What's the modern techniques
we can use? Not these old-fashioned stones that God gave us. Let's
make bricks. That's what Babylon does to attract
more people. They bait the hook, and get them
hooks in the water as fast as you can, and slime for mortar.
That just sounds gross, doesn't it? I don't want to go into building
techniques, but they ain't got enough sense not to use mortar.
It's a thick, tarry stuff that comes up because of the oil in
the ground, and it's sticky, and they'll use that to fashion
the bricks together. That area doesn't have enough
cilia in the sand for mortar to do any good. Same things today. You take a concrete block out
there and leave it sitting outside for a year and it's just a hump. It just disintegrates and ain't
much rain. It's a cursed ground. That's what it is. In verse 4
it says, 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.
Let us build us. That's the problem. That's it.
Let us build us. Very plain, isn't it? Very open. How bold was that? I'm going
to make me a name. Make a name for myself. They
clean abandoned worshiping God and sought to make their own
name. Nothing's changed. Boys, times are worse than they
used to be. Back in the good old days, were
sinners not as sinful back then? Did they not hate God as bad
as they hate Him now? Them children's the same. Got the same blood, DNA running
through them, don't they? Sin's a heart condition. It's from
birth. It's transgiven to us. And it
says, whose top may reach under heaven. Why'd they want to reach
under heaven? One of the old writers said, they were trying
to build a tower so high so they could get to heaven and throw
God off his throne and put themselves in charge. And I thought, but
that rings true today, too, doesn't it? Well, I wouldn't think that,
Kevin. Let's get down to brass tacks.
Let me paint a smile in a corner. You get in your closet between
you and God, and what do you really want? Well, I want to
be in charge. That's being on a throne, isn't
it? That's what it is. Let's make us a name. Natural
man does whatever God gives them. They don't like whatever God
gives them or the place God puts them and they look for another.
Natural man, our birth on this earth. We come into the world
wanting to make a name for ourselves. Exalt our own name because we
don't like the name that God exalted. We want something different. What name did He exalt? Wherefore
God hath also exalted him highly, and given him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow. And things of heaven, and in
earth, and things under the earth. That's just on your continent.
That's just here. We can build up higher than that.
Nope. Heavens, earth, and under the
earth. And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. We want to build our own names.
In the days of old, God's preachers warned of modern-day Babylon
all throughout time. That's the works religion. And
they warned them of that day. You can't build something to
get to heaven. God's got to come down to you.
You can't cover yourself in your own righteousness. You don't
have none. It's fig leaves. He's got to kill His Son and
robe you to be in His presence. He's got to give you a new heart
and a new nature. What happens? What happened when
God's preachers, when His preachers of righteousness went around
and said that? They built Notre Dame, Our Lady. They built the
Sistine Chapel. All these big Catholic buildings
and Lutheran buildings, they were kissing cousins, and go
around and have these big huge buildings. And they went right
against everything God's men in those days said, didn't they?
In our day, look back in the 60's and the 70's. Hippies worshiping
Mother Earth and all these things, but they're putting spires on
church buildings. Stick it up as high as you can.
What are we doing? We're reaching a little high
to heaven. Have you read his word? I don't want to get too
plain, but come on. I mean, logic ought to kick in
before too long. Saying go to, give, have a bake
sale. You can buy a brick for the church.
You can buy a pew and have your name put on it. We've got to
have a fish fry, raise some money. for a building. God's people
don't have to do those things. If He's going to do the work,
He provides for it. And just like Paul told us the other day,
you think of that tabernacle, that's where we worship God.
He gave it to us. That's a tent of badger skin.
That thing's ugly. What about that ark? Come into
the ark. You're going to die. God's going to make it rain.
It's a big square black box. It looks like a coffin. No, I
ain't getting that. That ain't a pigling, is it? But all that's changing some,
isn't it? What is mankind making for himself
in our day? Is he reaching for the heavens?
We're kind of moving away from organized religion, ain't we?
You can do this at home. You can Skype it now. Everybody
can see your face and you can see everybody else's face when
you Skype. We're just going to meet together, be seen of men.
But what do people talk about being united for? Oh, the climate's
changing. We've all got to get on the same
page. That's a religion in our day. They're not unifying to
worship Christ. Let's all get together and bow
to God. How about that? No, we've got to save the planet.
United in healing Mother Earth, and they're reaching for the
skies. Two of the richest men on the face of this earth right
now literally launched themselves into the heavens. They're shooting
themselves into space. Why? I was the first man that's
a civilian to make it into space. They're making a name for themselves.
Has anything changed? Mass and great wealth. And so
they can run stuff. You need something, you come
to me. Well, what about one language? They want that. We don't want
to be divided. We use Google Translate. You can pick up a
phone and speak. That's what I don't get. You
can pick up a phone and say, call Kimberly, and it'll call
Kimberly. But then I said, God spoke and said this. I don't
believe that. Kidding? You can make a phone
call. You don't think God can make that sun go around the earth?
Or for the earth to go around the sun? He can make it come
up in the morning, can't he? He can save his people, too. That's not me. That couldn't
be us, could it? We can look down our nose at
anything. I would never do those things. I would never be that
arrogant. What do we have in our day? What
do we have that them old preachers of the past don't have? We have
an entire platform of social media in our hands all the time
so people can see just exactly what I ate for breakfast. Nobody
cares. I don't. Maybe other people do.
What kind of shoes did you get? Where did you go shopping? Me,
me, me, me. Look at my face. Proud of face. I don't want to preach against
things, but isn't that plain? And then what if I use it for
good? And again, if I paint somebody
in a corner, you can just get in your closet and be with God.
Share a message. I can put a message I listen
to or a scripture I thought of on a Friday morning at 7 a.m.
or something. Why? So people can say, oh, look
how holy they are. They're up listening to messages
early in the morning. Go to work. Be good for you. Go out and meet some folks. See
Christ working in your heart and giving you forgiveness and
grace. It's all bad news, isn't it?
It's what we are. God says so. You can get mad
at me. I don't care. I got thick skin.
I can handle it. But it ain't my word somebody's
mad at. Mankind, born of Adam, is a wicked and perverse being
and creature. It's horrible. Somebody's got
to save us. Somebody's got to save us. Look
here in verse 5. And the Lord came down. That's the gospel. That's the good news. Old brother
Gabe Stoniker said if David wrote this as a psalm, he would have
put a seal there. You stop, you pause, and you think about that.
The Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the
Lord of hosts came down. What a thought. To who? Somebody good and squared away?
Well, that's a good little boy and girl. That's a wicked serpent
is what that is. That's who he came down to. What
a thought! The Lord came down. If we get
our minds wrapped around that and let that sink in, we might
know something. They were lost in ignorance. They were continuing
in sin. They were building themselves
their own self-righteousness. Thriving in their rebellion.
Business was a booming and they're running full speed as hard as
they can in the most efficient manner straight to the gates
of hell is what they was doing. And then the Lord came down.
Left to ourselves. If God takes his hand off somebody
on the outside it may look wonderful. But they're going to die an eternal
death. But he came down. Same thing
happened to Saul of Tarsus, didn't it? What was Saul of Tarsus doing?
This great religious man. He said, and Saul, yet breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord, went unto the high priest to desire of him letters to Damascus,
to the synagogues. You give me marching orders,
I'm gonna go take care of this." And if he found any of his way,
of this way, whether they were men or women, he didn't care,
that he might bring them down into Jerusalem. I'm gonna go
catch the Lord's people, and I'm gonna bring them to the higher
religious people than me. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus. And suddenly, there shined round
about him a light from heaven. Did he have to jump up and down
to get to that light? That light came down to him.
Christ the light arrested him on the road to Damascus. He was
hell-bent on killing all the Lord's people. And he killed
Stephen and a couple other ones too, hadn't he? But God came
down. God came down to a maggot, didn't
He? The Lord came down and stopped him in his tracks. What did the
Lord do for each of His children? What did He do for you? Was you
doing good things on this earth? Or was you going headlong into
hell and God stopped you? He came to you and got a hold
of you. What mercy. What mercy. What love that He has. That He would come down. It says
in verse 5, And the Lord came down to see the city and the
tower which the children of men built it. He didn't know what
that tower was. The Lord's putting this in perspective.
They didn't see Him. He's putting this in words we can understand.
He sees what's done. He looks on the heart. That's
what He does. He's telling us about it. That's
kind. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they all
have one language. And this they began to do, and
now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined
to do. Everything they imagine they're
going to do, they're going to succeed in. It's so easy to read
that and think, well, the Lord's snuffing out competition, isn't
He? They're going to keep growing and they're going to knock Him
down. He better nip it in the bud quick. That is not the case.
That is not the case. This is mercy that He's showing
them. They will continue. If they continue, they're going
to go deeper and deeper and deeper in their own imagination. We
just read that in Genesis 6, didn't we? And God saw the wickedness
of man, it was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. They're
going to do everything they imagine they can do. He's going to let
them alone if He doesn't intervene. That's every one of us. Left
to ourselves, we will not be restrained and we'll go further
and further into sin and into evil. It says in verse 7, go
to, Let us go down." There's a trinity at work as
one. Let us go down. And they confound their language
that they may not understand one another's speech. So the
Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth. And they left off to build the
city. They stopped building. 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 all the face of the earth." God confounded
them. He scattered them. Who did that?
God did. Why did they not realize it was
God that was doing it? What they did not realize is
that God doesn't save a man on top of a tower. He saves them
from a pit. That's what they didn't get.
That's what most of them people didn't get. The way up is down. He's got to bring us down, doesn't
He? So God stopped them and He scattered them. He stopped them
and He scattered them. Turn over to Psalm 2. We've either read this or I've
referenced it every time the last couple of messages, but
we'll read it again. It'll be good for us. Psalm 2. It says in verse 1, Why do the
heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against
His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and
cast away their cords from us. I will have this God, you're
speaking of, reign over me. He that sitteth in the heavens shall
laugh, and the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall
he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Yet have I, that's God speaking, yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree The
Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee, ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."
The father says those very same heathens that were trying their
best, doing everything possible, and are working hard at it to
reach heaven, trying to make a name for themselves, he said,
some are mine. And I'm going to draw them back
to me and I'm going to give them to Christ for His inheritance."
And the Lord said He was going to build a city, didn't He? He said, I'll build a city. Whose
maker is not a man. Ain't of this world is it? Ain't
of bricks of this earth is it? Jeremiah 31 verse 10 it says,
Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the
isles afar off and say, He that scattereth Israel." And now what
he did, didn't the Lord change their language and send them
out to every continent? He that scattereth Israel will
gather him. He did that on purpose. Everything
God does, He does on purpose. He doesn't react to man. He's
not reactive, He's proactive. He does what He wants. He that
scattereth Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd
doth his flock." That same one that came down in mercy and stopped
us from running straight into hell, stopped you from your imaginations,
and grabbed you by the shoulders and shook you and said, behold
me, and we ran away in fear. First time you hear of a true
and living God, there's going to be some scaredness. My dad
always told me, he said, a child physically fears its parents
because you spank them. And then as they grow up and
they mature some, then they fear you in honoring, don't they?
They don't want to hurt the feelings. They don't want to offend their
parents. The same One that scattered you, He'll be the One that gathers
you and keeps you. Turn over to Revelation 14 and
I'll let you go. Revelation 14. It says in verse 1, And lo, a lamb
stood on the mount, Zion." I put that in bold and highlighted
it and underlined it. Where's he at? Where he's always
been. Where he put his people. We ran like a prodigal son. He
draws us back. He scattered us in his providence
and he draws us back. That lamb's on the mount. Mount
Zion. And with him, 144,000 having
his father's name written in their foreheads. Look down at
verse 6. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth
and to every nation and kindred and tongue. Why do I have so
many tongues? Why do I have so many languages?
God scattered them. Well, what was He going to do? Were they
forsaken forever? No, His angels were going to come preach the
gospel to them. Which tongue? Every one of them. Saying with
a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him, not to man. For
the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him that made
heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of the waters.
And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen. What happened to all that sin
I did? What happened to all those horrible things and thoughts
I had? What about my imaginations? The thoughts go through my head.
It's all Babylon, isn't it? That's all it is. Man, my old
flesh, says Babylon's fallen. It's gone. Christ took our sins,
bore it in His body on the cross, and He said, I will remember
them no more. They're as far as the east is from the west.
You can't touch them. You can go north and end up going
south. You go east, you're just going to keep going east. He
took them. Babylon's fallen. Not be remembered
no more. Boy, I tell you, that's a blessing.
That's a blessing to the Lord's people for us not to remember
anymore. for him not to remember our sins and us not either. People
talk about hell. Oh, hell is fire. Fire, fire,
fire. And the scriptures do mention fire and hell. But I'll tell
you something people don't preach on. There's a memory. Well, that
rich man with Lazarus, the poor man sitting at his gate, they
both died. Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham, and that rich
man said, hey, I got some brethren on earth. Go preach to them.
He remembered this earth. He remembered his sin. He remembered
he didn't believe God, didn't he? What a frightening thought,
isn't it? Thank God He did not leave us
to ourselves. He comes to His people. He comes
down to His people. And I repeat, He pulled us from
our own imaginations and He sets us on His holy hill to worship
the Lamb. We ought to thank Him for that,
shouldn't we? If He's done a work for us, boy, we ought to thank
Him, and believe Him, and trust Him, and walk around this earth,
and deal with people, whether it's at church or it's at a gas
station, like the Lord's did a work in us. We have a high
tower, but it's much better than some tower a man could build.
His name, it's a person, His name is Jesus Christ the Lord. He came down for His people,
and right now He intercedes for them. He's with us always on
this earth. He lives in our hearts. And at
the same time, talk about a tower, something stretches a long way.
He's sitting on His throne interceding for His people. Lay down your
shotguns. Lay down your shovels and your
trowels. Quit working. Quit fighting. And bow to Him. Bow to Him. Amen.