Genesis 11. Let's read the first
nine verses. Genesis 11. The whole earth was
of one language and of one speech. It came to pass as they journeyed
from the east or to the east that they found a plain in the
land of Shinar and they dwelt there. And they said one to another,
Go to, let us make brick and burn them throughly. And they
had 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. Let us make us a name, lest we
be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And
the Lord came down. see the city and the tower which
the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the
people is one. They have all one language, and
this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from
them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down,
and there confound their language, that they may not understand
one another's speech. But the Lord scattered them abroad
from thence on the face of all the earth, and they left off,
or did not finish, building the city. Therefore, it is the name
of it called Babel, or confusion, 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." Now,
from the beginning. Here in Genesis, that's what
the word basically means, the beginning. God is still saying
and doing the same things, and man is too. God hasn't changed. His truth hasn't changed. And
man hasn't changed. He repeats the same thing. He's still repeating the same
sins and rebellion against God. There was a history professor
one time who said, If you don't study history, you will repeat
it. Well, men don't give God a thought,
certainly not God's Word, so they are doing exactly what men
have been doing from the very, very beginning. Here it says
the whole earth, in verse 1, was of one language and one speech. There was a one world order. Have you heard that these days? That's what they're calling for.
Mark, that's what people want. That's what they have. They always
have been united together and we'll see about what here in
a minute. I remember back in the 60s and
70s there was a magazine, kind of a hippie magazine, that was
called The Whole Earth Catalogue. Anybody ever see that? The Whole
Earth Catalogue. It was a back to the earth movement
in the 60s and 70s. Back to the earth. And there's
the same thing now. If you go up to places like Floyd,
I'm sure they still have those magazines hanging around. Whole
earth catalog. Back to the earth movement. Let's
all get together and love our mother and save our planet and
reject God. That's what it's all about. One
line, one speech. Our Lord said this. Scripture
says it. They are of the world, therefore
speak they of the world, and the world hears them. And they
have big assemblies. Big assemblies that meet together.
But God has not left Himself without a witness. In every generation
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. There
are small, remote assemblies like this one who meet together
not in their own name, but in the name of God. I have been
reading for some time now the account of the Reformation. A
man, a Frenchman, wrote the best account of the Reformation that
has ever been written. And he went way far back into
the first century, the study of the early church. There were
something like twelve centuries 1200 years of dark ages where
people did not have the Word of God. The Word of God is life.
People did not have the Word of God. Those who did have a
copy of it were corrupt. Roman Catholics were corrupt. And they kept the Word from the
people because the truth sets people free. They don't want
people free. They want them in bondage. So
they kept the Word back from the people. Most people did not
have the Word. And the men who had it corrupted
it, twisted it, perverted it, kept it back, and told the people
what they wanted them to hear, which was lies. And it's still
going on today. But the thing is, and this man
brought out how God had a remnant even in the midst of those dark
ages, and He gave many accounts men and women back in those dark,
dark ages who knew the Lord. And they would say things just
like you and I would say. That they were trusting Christ
and Christ alone. And that He and His righteousness
were their only hope. And it just rejoiced my heart
to read in the midst of darkness, light. Light. Well, they were
eager There's somebody here in the midst of this crowd, this
big world order. There was a few. Verse 1, one
language and one speech. What's man's language? What's
man's speech? I just quoted it to you from
1 John. Of the world, therefore speak
of the world. How do you get a big hearing?
How do you get the world to be the path to your church house
door? If you'll talk about man. You talk about man's glory, man's
works, man's will. If you brag on people, tell them
what they want to hear, you'll get a big crowd. So what does
that tell you? Our Lord said, Now the lofty
looks of man, the lofty speech, the glory of man shall be humble
and brought down. The Lord alone will be exalted
in that day. They journeyed to the east, verse
2. They journeyed to the east. And
they found a place where they could all dwell together. They
were looking for a land to dwell together. And I remember this
back in the 16th century. And Dan, you're older than me.
You remember this too. That everybody looked to the
east for wisdom then. You remember that? You remember
this youth movement where they, let's go to the east. Let's go
over there and find us a Swami Maharishi. And he has wisdom. You can climb up some high mountain
and this fellow with a long beard, he's got to have wisdom. Wisdom
doesn't come from the East, it comes from above. Wisdom doesn't
come from man, it comes from God. Well, they journeyed to
the East. They've been doing it and still
doing it. And they said one to another,
verse 3, they said one to another, go to, let's go now and make
us brick and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone
and slime for mortar. They said one to another. They
took counsel together. You take counsel. If men take
counsel together, you can count on this. It's going to come to
naught. It's going to come to nothing.
They can decide whatever they want to do. But unless God Purpose
different. It's going to come to naught.
They took counsel together. That's a confederacy. A confederacy. Go with me to Psalm 14. Psalm 14. Were any of these people,
did you hear anybody say, God willing, we'll do this or that? Anybody? Did you hear anybody
say, what is the Lord's will? Is it the Lord's will for us
to do this? Do you hear anybody saying that today other than
a believer? Have you ever heard out of the
mouth of anybody, even religious people, the Lord willing, we'll
do this or do that? And Psalm 14, verses 1 through
3, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They're corrupt.
They've done abominable works, even though they're religious
works. Our Lord called them works of
iniquity. There's none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that
did understand and seek God, that did understand that this
is all about Him, His glory, His honor, the fear of the Lord,
and seek His will, seek His faith. No, He said, they're all gone
aside. They're all together. They're together in this. And though they meet together,
the Lord says it's an abomination. None to do with good. The only
good works is those done in His name, for His glory, His honor.
And back in our text it says, they said, let's go make brick. Verse 4. This is also relevant
and also contemporary. They said, verse 4, let us build
us a city and a tower. a tall building whose top may
reach to heaven. Let us make us a name." Right
there is the key. Let's make us a name. Let's do
this in our name. Let's be scattered. We need to
join together. We need to be united in this. The whole earth. Let us be united. As we said, they weren't all. There were a few. There were
a few. Just a few. But the fact of the
matter is, and you can write it down, whatever the whole world
believes is wrong. Whatever the whole earth gets
together and decides, it's wrong. It's the opposite of what is
true. Whatever the whole world seeks after, you better run the
other way. The majority has always been
wrong. The majority has always been
wrong. The whole earth perished in the
flood, didn't it? In the days of Noah, our Lord
said the whole earth is corrupt, every single person on it, but eight people. Now, the Lord spared
millions and millions of babies and children, but adults, Those
accountable? Eight. Eight. So the whole world
perished then, and the whole world is in the wrong now. And
men and women scoff at this. They scoffed at it then when
Noah said it. Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
Noah was preaching God's judgment upon this world. And that there
was one way, one truth, one Lord, one faith. And they said, that's
foolishness. We have many faiths, but we're
all together. Can't you see? Can't you get
together with us? No, I'm not going to perish with
you. You've come down with us, Noah said, and you've come into
this ark because this is the only way. God doesn't love everybody. He's angry. But the love of God
is in this ark. Now, that's foolishness, Noah. And it was a united front. The
whole earth was united back then. And now, what were they united
in doing? Listen to what the Word of God
said. Why do the heathen rage? Why
do the people imagine a vain thing? Our Lord said they do
what they imagine to be right, the imagination of their heart.
Why do they imagine a vain thing, a useless thought? The kings
of the earth set themselves, the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against His anointing, His Christ and
His people. And they say, let's break these
bands, these little, these are cults over here. You see, it's
a cult if you don't follow the crowd. No, not necessarily. Let's break their, let's cast
them away from us. They're not with us. And it says
this in Psalm 62, listen, they only consult. They only meet
together to cast him down from his excellency. They delight
in lies. They bless with their mouth.
They curse inwardly. People come and so-called worship
God on Sunday. The rest of the week they're
saying, Oh, my God. Not God's people. No, sir. They don't dry their lips. And
they don't take that name on their lips unless it be in praise. Anybody that does, takes his name in vain. God said,
I will not hold them guiltless. That's a serious thing. Let us
build us a building. A building. Go back to the text.
Let us build us a tower. A tall building. Babylonian religion. That's what this is all about.
They were united. It was a religion. They were
devoted to this cause. Religion means to be devout about
something you believe in. They believed in this united
front, this confederacy. It was a great ecumenical movement. Ecumenical movement. There's
a place down on 122 that goes by the name Trinity Ecumenical
Parish or something. It's made up of Lutheran. What
else? Who cares? Methodist Presbyterian
Baptist. I saw the other day in Kingsport,
the name of the place was the First Pentecostal Baptist Independent
Free Wheelchair. Unbelievable. I said, Gabe, look
at that. And it's getting more and more ridiculous. They all
believe the same thing anyway. Error. Heresy. Don't believe
the same God. They say, let us build us a building,
a tall tower. Again, you didn't hear anybody
say, the Lord willing, we'll do this. The Lord willing? No,
because man doesn't believe in God's will. Man doesn't believe
God's will is free. They believe man's will is free.
They believe we're going to do what we will do. And God will
do what we let Him do. Isn't that right? That's what
they believe. That's what the God of this world
started this whole thing by saying, I will be exalted. God said,
we'll see about that. And He's blinded the minds of
men and women to think, to actually think, that man has a free will.
And his seat is in religion, the seat of Satan. And the free
will religion is an abomination to the God who reigns and rules
and says, I will. No, we will. We'll see about
that. We'll see about that. You just wait. And men actually
think that men can do what they will and God can't. They say
that. limited to his will to keep from
violating the free will of man. That's exactly what they say.
And so they say, here's our goal, here's our four-year plan, we're
going to raise money, we're going to fund raisers, raise money,
we're going to raise our buildings, we're going to raise our roof,
and all they're raising is hell. We're going to make bricks, not
make bricks, we're going to sell bricks. Does that sound familiar?
We're going to sell bricks with your mother's name on it. And
place it, if you give $1,000 to our cause, we're going to
build us a tower to reach heaven and bring all these people in
for the Lord. Yeah, right. For your name. First Baptist Church of Babylonian
religion. Does anyone stop to think, does
anyone stop to think, is this scriptural? What we're doing? Is this what the early church
did? Did they do this? Did they raise money? Did they
sell things? Did they? What did the Lord do
about those that sold things? What did the Lord do to those
that sold things supposedly in the name of God? He cracked up,
whipped them, drove them out. Is this God honoring before the
world? What's the world think about
what we're doing? I think we need men's Let's sell our junk. Let's bake our cakes. What's
the world think of this stuff? They're laughing at God. God said that. If I were hungry,
I wouldn't tell you. Oh, I don't need your money.
All the gold and the silver and all the mines is mine. Where'd
the early church get its money? Where'd they get their money?
Somebody stop and think, where did they get their money to do
everything? God gave it to them. The people gave sacrificially.
They didn't ask the world to provide for God's cause. God provided it. This man was
on TV for many, many years. It cost a lot of money. Back
in the early 70s, it cost $1,000 a week, which was big money. Never asked anybody for one dime. Never had one fundraiser. Never
had one car wash. Not one spaghetti dinner. Not
one bake sale. God provided it. If God's in
it, God will support it. God will do it. I don't need the world. It's not of the world. They're
of the world, though, therefore, so that's who they depend on. Let us build us a building. Let
us make us a name. Biggest, tallest. Most people... You know, from a child, we have
associated the church with a building, haven't we? From a child. From
a child, we had that silly little... Remember that silly little thing?
Here's the church, and there's the steeple. Where'd that come
from, the steeple? Where'd that start? Where'd they
start putting steeples on there? I went outside before I said
this. I knew there was one up there.
And I went outside to make sure it wasn't still there. If it
was, I was going to tear it down. But apparently there was one.
Now it's just a cupola. You know what a cupola is? It's
a vent on a roof. But Steve, where did that come
from? Right here. Right here. It was a tall, big
spire. A steeple. Here's the church.
There's the steeple. Open the door and there's the
people. That's from a child. We've thought that, haven't we?
Building is a church. No, it's not. Here's the church.
Here's the church. The church began in homes. It
began in homes. The church is people. The temple
of God is not a building. God dwelleth not in buildings
made with hands, he said, but in the hearts of his people.
He said, you are the building of the Lord. You are the temple
of the Lord, the people of God. A building serves one purpose,
to keep rain off your hands, to keep you warm. Nothing sanctimonious
about a building. It's wood, hay, and stubble. Tear this down. Our Lord said
that too. The people took great stock in
that temple, and He said, I'm going to tear that down. He meant
his body, but he did tear it down, didn't he? He tore everyone
down that they built. And men make elaborate buildings.
The bigger, the more elaborate, the more adornments, especially
idols. Men think that's religion. It
makes you feel good. It looks religious. No, it doesn't.
It looks like an idol house. It's Babylon. When there's all this stuff,
it proves one thing. When God's not in there, idols
are in there. You go over to Paris, France.
We went over there, and there's that Notre Dame. You know what
Notre Dame means? Notre Dame? You know what that
means? Our Lady. Our Lady. That's what that's
about. Well, that's their Lady. That's not our Lady, is it? We
meet our Father, which art in heaven. for their twin spires
over there. And the ceiling is so elaborate.
And everybody's sitting in the building doing what? Looking
at the ceiling. Look what Leonardo did. God's
people. It doesn't matter where they
meet. They meet in the name of God, the name of Christ, for
the glory of God, for the glory of Christ, and they're not looking
at the ceiling. They're looking to the Lord.
They're saying, look what He did. Don't let that stuff in here.
It takes people's minds away. It takes their thoughts away
from God. The more you have of Christ,
the less you need of this stuff. The more you have of Christ,
you won't have any of this stuff. You'll worship God in spirit.
You won't have anything of the flesh. You don't need it. Don't
need it. We're united, all right. United
to fear His name. We are united in His worship.
We are united to exalt His name. You go down to Mexico, and it's
dirt poor, literally dirt poor, and you'll see what religion
does, the true nature of religion, won't you? You go down there
and you go out in those little poor villages, or as they call
them, Pueblo, and in the center of every town there is a large,
elaborate cathedral, Catholic cathedral in every town. No matter
how poor it is, you'll see one of these big cathedrals. It's the most beautiful building
in town built by extortion. Catholicism extorts money from
people that don't have it to build this building. For what?
For people to go in there and worship idols. For men to have
money. For these crooked priests to
have money and send it to Rome so they can gather artworks.
It's vile. It's an abomination. Our Lord
said, when you see the abomination of desolation, Ichabod, the Lord's
coming. Look somewhere. Try to find somewhere where there's
none of that stuff. Wherever it is, what you'll find
is just a little remnant of people, a few people meeting together. A man with a Bible open, preaching
the Word, and people singing praises to God, and worshiping,
calling on the Lord. A true people. Just a few. Just here and there. A scattering
of Scripture says a scattering of corn on the mountaintop. Here
and there. A little here, a little there. But God still has a people. But wherever you see all this
stuff, God's not in it. This is where it started. This
is where it started. Man hasn't changed. The way to
worship hasn't changed. Hasn't changed. So the Lord came
down. Verse 5. I love this. The Lord
came down to see the city and the tower which the children
of men built. Who? Who came down? Who came down? Verse 7. It says,
Let us go down. Let us. God was in Christ. In Him dwelt
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. His delights were with
the sons of men who dwelt in the habitable parts of the earth,
who came down. Now, he's speaking in a language
that we can understand. It's not that the Lord had to
come see what was going on. That's what men actually believe. He says, am I a God far off and
not just a God at hand? Come on now. The Lord saith.
And what he's saying, In a language we can understand is, I see it
all. They didn't see Him. He came
down and He was observant. Christ was there and they didn't
know it. And our Lord said that very thing,
whom the world cannot receive, they cannot see, they don't know
Him, but you know Him because He dwells with you and dwells
in you. And He's observant. He's observant. And look at verse 6. The Lord
said, Behold, the people is one. They are united. Why didn't the
Lord approve of their unity? Why didn't He approve of their
one world order? They were all together doing
what? It wasn't in His name. God wasn't in all their thoughts.
They didn't even mention God. It wasn't in the name of God at
all. It was their own name. The Lord came down and said,
Behold, the people is one, they have one language, and this they
begin to do. Now nothing will be restrained
from them." Boy, that's so isn't it? People, after you see or read something
on the side, or see or hear something they're doing in religion, you
think, well, it can't get any worse than that. And then you
see something else. And I say, like David, Lord,
don't you see this? How long is this going to go
on? Well, the fullness of the Gentiles. I believe based on these things,
it's coming to a rapid close, a definite, soon imminent end. Well, the Lord came down to show
men whose word will stand. You say you're going to do this?
You're united in this effort? The Lord came down to show them
whose counsel shall stand. He said, I am the Lord. There
is none else. My counsel shall stand. I will
do. They said, let us go. He said,
no. I will do all my counsel. I will do. You will do what I
let you do. Psalm 8. Take counsel together.
It will come to naught. Speak the Word. It shall not
stand. It shall not stand. Assemble
yourselves, he said. You'll be broken in pieces. But
now you assemble yourself in my name, you'll know why it will
be cast down. They said, Let's go to. Well,
God said, Let us go to. Let us go down and confound their
language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the
Lord, verse 8, scattered them abroad from tents upon the face
of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. The Lord
scattered and made different languages. Have men and women
ever stopped to think that if we all came from one worm or crawling creature like
evolution said, why aren't we still speaking the same language?
Monkeys do. I bet you'd say baboons understand
what chimpanzees do, I guarantee you. Why don't men? This is where it started. You see that, don't you? We see
it very clearly. The Bible was written in a language.
What language is the Bible written in? First language? Hebrew. Eber. God gave Eber and his sons
a language that stayed, that remained until Christ came. The language of his people. The
language which is Scripture. The language of God. They say
it's a beautiful language. I don't know, but they say it's
just a beautiful language. Some languages aren't They're
kind of not very pretty to listen to. You know what I'm saying?
Have you ever heard something? I'm not going to say, unless I offend
some people of that language, but there's some that are great
on the ears and some are beautiful. They say Hebrew is one of the
most beautiful. Well, that doesn't surprise me. That's the language
the Lord used for his people to maintain and to write his
scriptures in, Hebrew. What language will we speak someday?
I don't know. But I know this, it's the same
thing now. We still speak the same things,
all of God's people. God's people are speaking of
Christ. They're speaking of righteousness.
They're speaking of blood. They're speaking of pardon. They're
speaking of redemption. They're speaking of God's holiness.
They're speaking the language of Scripture. Then and now. That's how they speak. That's
how you know them. You come across a fellow son of Eber, you'll
hear him say, God willing, the Lord willing, isn't the Lord
good? Isn't the Lord gracious? Aren't
you thankful God reigns? That's what you'll hear. But
not in Babel. Not in Babel. Therefore, the
name of it is called Babel. Confusion. That's what the name
means, confusion. All men profess themselves to
be wise. Education. Oh, my. We're going
to educate our children, make them all wise. We're not going
to ever mention God. So what they're going to be is
fools. We're going to make them educated fools. If only men and
women would get together and say this, like Daniel in his
prayer. Here's what Daniel said. Here's
a wise man. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of places, our kings,
our princes, our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To
the Lord our God belongeth mercies and forgivenesses, though we
have rebelled against him. You see, everyone in here was
in that mess, such were all of you. We didn't obey the voice of our
Lord God to walk in his ways, though he set before us his word
by his servants and his prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed
thy law by departing, and don't obey your voice. Therefore, the
curse is upon us." We are under a curse. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, we are a confused people. Oh, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul,
all is within me. Bless his holy name. Brought
us out of Babylon. United us to fear his name and
his worship. All right.