Scattered By Languages

Well, let me, invite you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 11 for our time of study in God's word, this morning. We're doing a verse by verse study, through the book of Genesis, and as we, continue in our study of this book, we come. this morning to chapter 11 of Genesis verse 1, and my goal this morning is to cover verses 1 through 9. 1 through 9, so fewer verses than we tried to cover last week.

And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be Scattered by Languages. scattered by languages. how many of you, can speak more than one language? Raise your hand.

OK. I took French in high school, 2 years. And the two, I remember two things from that class after 2 years, how to say a word that my parents taught me not to say. And how to say, can you speak French?

So, but if you can speak more than one language, then your life has been impacted. By what happens in our passage, today. If you have ever experienced the frustration of trying to communicate with somebody who does not understand English, then your life has been affected by what happens in our passage, today. If you have ever had somebody try to communicate with you in a language that you did not understand and they were frustrated by that and you were frustrated by that, then you have been affected by what happens.

In our passage today. If you've ever been in a room with people who speak Spanish and you do not understand any Spanish and they are talking to each other and you intuitively begin to know that they're talking about you, yet you don't understand a word of what they are saying, then you have been affected by what happens in our passage today. If you've ever been in a room. Full of people who speak Spanish and they are talking quite freely to one another, perhaps about you because they think that you don't know Spanish and yet you do know Spanish and you understand every word of what they are saying.

Then you have been affected by what happens in our passage today. or, and this has happened to me a handful of times, if you've ever been reading a commentary on a book of the Bible, on a passage of scripture, and the commentator says, by far, the best thing that's ever been said about this passage was said by Martin Luther, and then what follows is a lengthy quote in German. which you don't understand, then your life has been affected by what happens in our passage today. If you've ever taken a foreign language course and found yourself pulling your hair out over the frustration of learning verb conjugations and noun declensions and all the exceptions to the rules of that foreign language, then you have been affected.

By what happens in our passage today. If you've ever tried to communicate with somebody in another language and you got the pronunciation of a particular word ever so slightly off, which radically changed the meaning to something embarrassing. Then you have been affected by what happens in our passage today. The truth is that all of us have been affected.

By what happens in our passage today. Where we read of God essentially creating multiple languages that serve to scatter mankind over the face of the earth. And we see this story in verses one. Through 9 of Genesis chapter 11.

Before I read the passage, just a quick word about the connection of this story with chapter 10. Last week, we studied Genesis 10 and we observed how the descendants of Noah emerged as nations and how they separated according to language and nation and lands and family, and for the most part, everything in chapter 10 is depicted in a morally neutral way. If Genesis 10 was all that we had to go on, we would be left with the impression that mankind just naturally separated and scattered and migrated and fulfilled God's commission to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth.

But we would also be left asking the question, where did these languages come from?

The word language shows up 3 times in Genesis chapter 10. In verse 5, we have the word language, and in verse 20 and 31, we have languages being referred to, and you'll notice the last 2 of those references, the word language is in the plural. This provokes the question, where did these plural, multiple languages come from? The final verse of Genesis chapter 10 tells us that the descendants of Noah were separated on the earth after the flood, and in verse 5 we're told regarding the sons of Japheth that they were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language.

So Genesis 10 is telling us how the peoples of the earth became separated, and it tells us that a part of that separation was caused by differing languages. How did that come about? Well, Genesis chapter 11 verses 1 through 9 is designed to unpack that detail and tell us how that happened. It turns out that mankind did not just naturally separate and fill the earth.

God had to do an intervention to make that happen. And Genesis 11:19 is the story of that intervention and how God used languages to generate this separation and to get mankind to be scattered over and fill the earth. Let me read the passage to you beginning in verse one. says now the whole earth used the same language and the same words, and it came about as they journeyed east that 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 use brick for stone and they use tar for mortar. And they said, come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name. Otherwise, we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

The Lord said, behold, they are one people and they all have the same language, and this is what they begin to do. And now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and they confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth.

And they stopped building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face. Of the whole Earth. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand His word to us this morning.

Here's how we'll break down our study of this passage. We're gonna observe five developments in this story of how the inhabitants of the earth became scattered by languages after the flood. Our world today has multiple languages as we're going to see. How did that happen?

Why is that so? Our passage today will help us to answer that question. 5 developments. The first development we see in verse one, and that is that they, speaking of all of mankind, are united in language and in location.

They are united in language and in Location. It says now the whole Earth used the same language and the same words. Literally, the text says the whole earth used the same lip. Referring to spoken language just like some parents tell their kids, don't give me Don't give me no lip, with a double negative to reinforce the meaning of that.

Don't give me any lip and what they're saying is don't talk back to me. Speaks of language, spoken language, and then the text tells us that the whole earth used the same words, meaning the same vocabulary. So everyone is united in speaking the same language and in using the same vocabulary words. Observe what happens next, verse 2.

And it came about as they journeyed east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there. The Hebrew word that is translated journey here has the literal idea of pulling up stakes. As in tent stakes. Wherever they were all dwelling at the time, they pull up stakes from there and they go on a journey looking for somewhere else to put down their stakes.

To put their stakes in the ground and settle. To use modern day language, the text is saying they loaded up their moving vans and they went on a journey looking for somewhere else to settle. And they all did this together. It says the whole earth in verse one, so the impression you get is everybody is migrating together in this way.

Which direction did they go? It says that they journeyed east. It's actually hard to know what's meant by the expression east. Literally, the Hebrew of the text says they journeyed from the east and some of your translations actually say from the east.

And if we take it that way, then it would mean that they actually traveled in a westward direction. However, the expression could simply be saying that they journeyed in the east, and if it's understood in this way, then it either means that they journeyed in an area that was east of Ararat, where the arc we have seen had settled. Or it could simply mean that they journeyed in an area that was east of the land of Canaan, which would have been the vantage point. Of the original Israelite readers of this book as they're reading this story.

Where did they settle? The text tells us they found a plane in the land of Shinar and they settled there. And I have to admit we honestly don't know where Shinar or the land of Shinar is with absolute certainty. Many suggest that Shinar is located in what we would think of, today as Southern Babylon, southern Iraq, and that's what's represented on the map that is behind me.

This would mean that everyone journeyed together as nomads a few 100 miles down to this region, but others suggest that it's located, Shainar is located in northeastern Syria near the Sinjar. Mountains, which would be a much shorter migration. It's hard to know the location for certain, but most commentators locate Shinar where you see represented on the map behind me, which is consistent. So they located in what amounts to southern Babylon, which is consistent.

With the fact that Shinar and Babylon are mentioned together a number of times later in scripture. In fact, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Greek Septuagint, there are occasions where the word Shinar is translated as Babylon, showing that these ancient translators understood it in this way, connecting Shinar with what we think of when we think of as Babylon. Well, it seems innocent enough that everyone would journey together and settle in the land of Shinar, but notice what they do at some point after they arrive and settle there.

This brings us to the second development in our story of how the peoples of the earth became scattered by languages after the flood, and that is they unite in a building project to keep themselves from being scattered.

Look at verse 3, it says, and they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly, and they use brick for stone. And they use tar for mortar. Literally, in the Hebrew, they're saying, come, let us brick bricks and baking, bake them. And they use brick for stone and they use tar for tar.

In the Promised Land, the Israelites used stones for their buildings. However, in Babylon, they use dried clay that had been shaped and then connected with tar. This detail of the story is actually very consistent with what is known about how religious towers were built in ancient Babylon. In fact, in one ancient religious Babylonian document, the gods determined to build a tower and in the document, the god Marduk, who was the chief deity, says, listen to this, construct Babylon, let its brickwork.

be fashioned and you shall name it the sanctuary. And in response to this God's instruction, the document goes on to say for one whole year, they molded bricks and then they built a tower for Marduk and other gods to dwell in. The language here in Genesis 11 is very similar. Verse 3 tells us, and they use brick for stone and they use tar for mortar.

Observe what they intend to do with these materials, which is revealed in verse 4. Look at verse 4. It says, and they said, come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven. So notice how communal they are in their approach.

They invite each other into this task. They resolve to work together on this project. Whatever they build, it will be a product of their unified efforts. Their joint building program is twofold.

They want to build for themselves a city, and they also want to build for themselves a tower whose top will reach into heaven or literally into the heavens. Now there's nothing wrong with making bricks, right? Some of you make bricks, you lay bricks. There's nothing wrong with that.

There's nothing wrong with building a city. There's nothing wrong with wanting to build a skyscraper per se. but notice what they're wanting here. They're wanting a tower whose top will reach into the heavens is literally the idea.

In this building program, they're not just wanting to build a tall building, they're wanting to build a building that will reach into the heavens. Its base will be on earth and its top will reach into the heavens. To understand what's going on here, there's 3 things to consider and if you're taking notes, you might want to jot. these things down.

First of all, this area of the world is known for its religious towers. The purpose of which was to provide a dwelling place. For the gods at the top of the towers. These towers were basically man-made mountains with a temple to their deity on the top of those man-made mountains.

Secular history tells us that in Babylon, a tower was built for the god Marduk that was 300 ft high. And made up of 7 tiers that from a distance would look like 7 steps. Each major city in this part of the world in ancient times would have its own religious tower of this sort called a zigguro, which served as a place for their patron deity to reside and where people could worship him. So, think of that, that in this day, in ancient times, This part of the world was known for its religious towers.

Secondly, think of Genesis 28, verse 12 and the surrounding context. You guys know the story in that passage. Jacob has a dream and he sees a staircase that was set on earth with its top reaching to the heavens. And in verse 13, we learned that the Lord stood at the top of that staircase.

And he spoke to Jacob and gave him some promises, and when Jacob awoke from his dream, he said, How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. This is the gate of heaven. Apparently, a staircase that went from earth into the heavens made that place the gate of heaven.

Thirdly, consider that the ancient Babylonians, how they would have defined the word Babel? The gate of God. The gate of God, and you put these pieces together and you realize that these people are uniting in their efforts to build a path to heaven, a gateway to heaven through their combined efforts. Nowhere in this passage does God ever speak to them and tell them to build such a tower.

This is an idea of their own making. And if indeed their plan is to build a tower and to build their way to God, then their thought would have been, as one writer says, by the use of the right bricks and mortar, and through teamwork, we can make our way to God on our own. This mindset is the essence of all man-made religion that we can get ourselves to God through our own individual efforts or through our own communal efforts. And the motive of these builders is made all the more clear as the passage continues to unfold.

Look at what they say as verse 4 continues. They say, and let us make for ourselves a name. Otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. They're wanting to build a city and a tower that reaches into the heavens in order to make for ourselves a name.

Their motive is not to exalt the name of Jehovah. Or to make a place for his name to dwell, but to make for themselves a name. Think about this for a moment. What does it mean for them to want to make for themselves a name?

If all humanity is living in this one plane of Shinar and the text indicates that they are, then what is the use of making a name for yourself? Normally today when somebody wants to make a name, For themselves. He's wanting to build a reputation that makes him famous and highly esteemed in the eyes of other people. But that cannot be what they're after here because everyone Is a part of this project.

Everyone has settled here. Evidently this was not a desire for a name so much among men. This was their desire to make a name for themselves before God or as opposed to God or distinct from or instead of God. Literally, their intention is to fashion for ourselves a name.

Think about it this way. We learned back in Genesis chapter 4 verse 26 that after the birth of Enosh, who was the son of Seth, that people began to call on the name of Jehovah. Here in Genesis 11:4, people are deciding to make a name for themselves. Rather than calling upon the name of Jehovah, they want to fashion another name for themselves.

This either means that they want to create their own deity rather than Jehovah God, the true God, for themselves to worship, or they're wanting themselves to collectively be the name. And the tower in the city. would be a symbol of that. Either way, what is going on here in this passage is not good.

They're creating a new religion, a new name to rally around and to worship. By the way, we learned in Genesis 10:10 last week about Nimrod. And we were told that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel in the land of Shinar. And Moses probably gives us this detail about Nimrod and Genesis 10:10 to provide a foreshadowing of what we're now looking at today.

There's a high likelihood that this whole endeavor that we're looking at here today in Genesis 11 is being spearheaded by Nimrod, who is described in the last chapter as a mighty hunter in the face of Jehovah. In fact, the name Nimrod itself means we will rebel. That's the meaning of his name. As I mentioned last week, the Jerusalem Targum, which reflects ancient Jewish tradition.

About a variety of things represents Nimrod as saying this to the people, this is not the Bible, but this was their paraphrase of Genesis 10, as it speaks about Nimrod, where he said to the people, depart from the judgment of the Lord and adhere to the judgment of Nimrod. So an ancient Jewish interpretation, Nimrod was a man who called people away from Jehovah. And called upon them to follow himself. All of this serves to indicate why ancient interpreters, including the first century historian Josephus believed that Nimrod was the one who was leading this effort in Genesis 11:1 through 9.

This effort of the people to remove God from his rightful place of worship and the fashion for themselves a name that they could call upon and worship. Perhaps the name that they were now establishing to worship was the name Nimrod, or perhaps the name was mankind or some other name, whatever the name was, it was a name of their own making. Notice yet another underlying motive. They say otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.

We see that they're being governed here and driven here by fear and anxiety. The fear of being scattered. This is the fear that is driving them. And they think that if they can build a city big enough and build a tower high enough and make a name for themselves to worship and to rally around, then they could all stay together and not be scattered.

Their refusal to scatter is a direct violation of God's commission for them to be fruitful. And multiply and fill the earth, as we saw at the beginning of Genesis 9. Here they're resolving to stay together when God had in fact called upon them to fill the earth. Now how does God respond to what mankind is doing?

This is where it gets really interesting. This brings us to the next development in the story of how mankind became scattered through languages after the flood. Development 3, God comes down to inspect. Their building project.

It says, and the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men or which these earthlings. We're building. The Lord Jehovah came down to see. This is fascinating language here and the intention.

of Moses the writer is clearly one of satire. People are combining forces. They're building this high tower that reaches into the heavens. Yet this tower is so far from the real heavens that God must come down to see it.

As one writer says, Jehovah must come down, not because he is near-sighted, but because their work is so tiny. R. Kent Hughes in his commentary says it was as if God stooped down like a man on his hands and knees and lowered his face to the earth to see the great tower. Clearly this is the language of satire, but it's consistent with the language of the prophet Isaiah when he says in Isaiah 40:22, God sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

One writer says that the language here is simply a brilliant and dramatic way of expressing the puniness of man's greatest achievements when set alongside the creator's omnipotence. We don't want to take this irony and this satire too far. God is not laughing here. God actually takes what mankind is doing very seriously.

God is concerned about what is happening and what it means about the trajectory that mankind is on. God knows that if something is not done to abort this project, then the consequences can be far-reaching. And this brings us to the next development in this story of how mankind became scattered. Across the face of the earth after the flood, and that is that God voices his concern over the danger posed.

By their fallen unity. God voices his concern over the danger posed by their fallen unity. God voices the problem he sees. Look at verse 6, and the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language.

And this is what they began to do. And now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. God is giving voice to the fact that man is unified as one people, with everyone having the same language. And then he says, and this is what they begin to do.

And I would encourage you to mark the word begin. Or began. God is not so much concerned merely about this city and about this tower as much as the fact that this project represents the beginning of what man is going to do. The city and this tower will lead eventually to yet another thing, and then to another thing, and then to another thing.

And then eventually, nothing God says, which man purposes to do will be impossible. For him. That's a startling thing for God to observe about man. It shows us that God respects man's capabilities as an image bearer of himself.

He knows the power of mankind when man is unified in some endeavor, and God is concerned about the things that man, fallen man, is going to be able to accomplish if he remains unified in his fallen rebel state. And please understand that God is not voicing his concern here because he's personally afraid. Of what man might accomplish. He's not afraid that a united mankind might be able to overpower him.

In some way. He's saying this because he's concerned for man's own welfare. He knows that it is not in fallen man's best interest. To be unified and to be able thereby to do anything that he sets his mind to do.

God is not speaking here as a rival who feels threatened by man, but he's speaking as a concerned father who's troubled. Over the hurtful consequences that would fall upon humanity if the human family and their project here is left unchecked. So appreciate the fact that God's actually being merciful here and being concerned about man being able, fallen man, being able to do whatever man sets his mind to do. It is not in fallen sinful man's best interest that he be able to achieve whatever he wants to achieve.

And I am personally so grateful. that God has stood in my way. At times and hindered me from doing some sinful thing that I had set my mind to do. I am glad that God has not allowed me to get everything I've wanted whenever I wanted it.

My life would be an absolute wreck right now if God had never stood in my way and prevented me. From fulfilling my every whim. And the same is happening here. It's a wonderful mercy that God does not allow you and me to accomplish whatever we want to accomplish.

It's a mercy from God that he keeps certain things impossible. For you and for me. God has already shortened man's life span in the post flood world and here God is resolving to hinder Mankind's ability to be fully united with his fellow man in A state of fallenness. So observe what he does next, which brings us to the last development in the story of how mankind became scattered over the face of the earth and that is God scatters them by confusing Their language.

God scatters them by confusing their language. Verse 7, come, God says. Now remember, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, God is a trinity of persons and speaking. In this trinity of persons, God says, come, let us go down and they're confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech.

It's interesting in this account, the people come together. They huddle together, and they consult with one another and say, come, let us make bricks, and come, let us build a city and a tower. And God responds by huddling and by speaking to the other members of the Trinity and saying, come, let us go down there and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech. When mankind huddles together with a plan of action.

And the triune God huddles together with a counter plan to that action. Guess who will win? Who will prevail? God does.

This is exactly what God does. He confused their language. God could have just toppled the tower. But he chooses to do something more fundamental instead, he confuses their speech in order to hinder their ability to be unified in their rebellion against him.

God performs a creative act in people's brains. To the point where they go now to say something and what comes out of their mouth is what they wanted to say, yet in a completely different language that is now comprehensible to themselves, but not to the person. that they are speaking to. Imagine this happening to you if you were here involved in this project.

You get up one morning and everything seems normal and you're, you begin to speak to one of the co-workers and you're trying to say something and make yourself comprehensible. To somebody who could totally understand you yesterday, and yet they don't understand a word of what you are saying today. And you don't understand them either. It's like you have awakened inside of a foreign film, and there are no subtitles to help you understand what people are saying.

And eventually in all the mass confusion, you finally find some people who understand you. And whom you understand and you group up with them and you criticize everyone else who's now speaking gibberish, and everyone else is grouping up with others who understand them with the result being that everyone is now becoming divided rather than unified. Keep in mind guys that when this is happening, everyone involved, they're not saying, oh this is the Lord confounding languages. This is the Tower of Babel incident.

and this will be in Genesis 11 1 day. Like they're not, they're not thinking this way in the moment. In fact, their opinion is that they are the only ones making any sense. And everyone else is speaking gibberish.

And they're frustrated with one another for that reason. And this frustration would help to foster the separation that God wants to commence at this point. Did God's plan work? Well, look at verse 8.

The text says, so the Lord, so Jehovah scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. Through this means of confounding their languages, God thereby scattered mankind from there eventually over the face of the whole earth. And I am sure since this day of this incident, many languages have developed and changed and morphed. Over time, but today, guys, linguists guesstimate that there are over 6000 languages.

Spoken languages on Earth, 6500. was an estimate that I read this week. In fact, here is a map. That gives us a partial representation of how the world is divided by languages today.

And just so, as messy as that looks, that, that's just 78 languages. That are represented on this map. It would not be physically possible to show a map with all 6500 languages represented with a map this, this size. The additional impact of God confusing their languages is that they stopped building the city.

They stopped building the city. So the city was largely built, partially built at least, and no doubt some people stayed there, but the city never became what they originally intended for it to become because of God's intervention. God in His mercy prevented them from continuing with their idolatrous building project. The city they were building never reached full completion according to their original planned.

And as one writer says, the thing that they feared most fell upon them as they were scattered over all the earth, deprived of community and cooperative technology, the project fell by the wayside. Whole tribes fled to the horizons. And this was all grace. This was all grace.

This development helps us. In giving us at least one way of viewing our fractured and divided world. As much as we may bemoan how humanity is now separated by languages and by nationalities with all the conflicts that come about. As a result of those distinctions, it is a better fate.

Think about this guys, it is apparently a better fate than if we all got along and spoke the same language and we're one nation, and we could apply all of our fallen energies into a unified ambition against God. On one level, it is a mercy. That we are divided. In the human race.

There are certain evils. There are certain evils that a unified fallen mankind is capable of, that a divided human race is not. Capable of And we can be grateful that God intervened. The way that he does here.

As one writer says, a diverse humanity is for the better, according to Genesis, since God thereby thwarts the sinful intent of the collective. Human will. Does that make sense? Though in one sense what God is doing here is an act of judgment, in another sense, this is a case of God intervening in order to save these people from themselves.

Their project fails miserably because of God's intervention, but had it succeeded, it would have only succeeded even more miserably with results that it would, would have been disastrous for mankind. The story ends with this postscript which gives us the legacy of Babel. Look at verse 9, therefore, its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. This is a slam.

On the name Babel. If you ask any Babylonian back in this day what the name Babel means, he would have said, I know what it means. It means the gate of God. But here the Bible says, no, what it means is confusion.

And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It represents the epicenter of God's intervention when he confounded languages and thereby scattered mankind over the face of the whole earth. This place which mankind intended to be a monument to man's triumph. is now forever a monument to man's defeat.

Even to this day, whenever you refer to something nonsensical as Babble, You are harkening back to this event in scripture. After all the effort these people put into this project, in order to make a name for themselves, they only succeeded in giving us the word Babel. For us to use when we're describing gibberish that makes no sense. Let's make a few observations as we wrap things up this morning.

first of all, guys, throughout the Bible, Babylon shows up throughout the story of Scripture. Babylon is a symbol for human pride and rebellion against God. In the Book of Revelation, Babylon is described as the great harlot. As the place for the collection of every vice and every sin.

You can read about that in Revelation 18. In the book of Revelation, we're told that Babylon will be overthrown and its fall will be great. What this means is that the spirit of Babylon is still very much alive in the world today. The instinct of man to come together and to make a name for himself in the place of Jehovah God, that instinct is still very much alive.

And well, and it will persist until the very end. When Christ returns, guess what? He will not redeem Babylon, he will destroy it. The fall of Babylon is prophesized and even celebrated at the end of the Bible in Revelation 18, and here early in the story of the Bible in Genesis 11, we see the spirit of Babylon in seed form as early as Genesis 11.

Also, The desire to make a name for ourselves in the place of Jehovah still runs strong in the human heart. We see it manifested everywhere. We see it at work in our own hearts. We see it in Mormon theology which teaches that God was once a man as we are, and he became God, and we who are men now can too become a God.

New age mysticism offers this same promise, only you hardly have to wait. And new age theology, you are God. You can be God right now. Back in 2006, Rhonda Byrne wrote a book entitled The Secret.

The book has sold 19 million copies since that time. It's been translated into 46 languages. And the book, here's the premise of the book, it tells you that there is a secret that you need to lay hold of. Listen to its promises.

There isn't a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge. The secret can give you whatever you want. By it, by the secret, you will come to know how you can have, be or do anything you want. And you say, well, what is that secret?

Here's the secret, quoting from the book. You are God in a physical body. You are spirit in the flesh. You are eternal life expressing itself as you.

You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom, you are all intelligence, you are perfection, you are magnificence, you are the creator and you are creating the creation of you on this planet. Goes on to say, no matter who you thought you were, now the truth of who you really are.

You are the master of the universe, you are the heir to the kingdom, you are the perfection of life, and now the secret. The promise of books like this. is you can make a name for yourself. And you are the name.

You don't need Jehovah. You are God. This is the spirit of Babylon. One manifestation of the spirit of Babylon in our world today, and not everyone is so vocal and upfront about it as the author of this book is.

But guys, all sin, even the sins that you and I commit contains these arrogant presumptions in seed form. The spirit of Babylon may be at work in our own hearts. Another thought in our story today, we see God coming down, coming down to see what the sons of men were doing. We see him coming down to confound their languages in order to protect man from the course that man was on.

Later it's, it's impossible to read about God coming down the way he does here and not think of Jesus Christ, who came down out of heaven. To earth in order to do the will of His Father and bringing salvation to the lost. He came down to earth out of heaven to be the bread of life for us to partake of and live forever. He came down out of heaven to earth to live the life that we failed to live and to die the death that we deserve to die, so that through him we can have forgiveness of sins, atonement for our sins, and have the gift of eternal life.

Jesus, 2000 years ago, did not come down out of heaven. He did not come down to earth in order to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved. In Genesis 11, God comes down. In order to prevent man from man's attempt to be his own savior.

In the New Testament, God comes down to provide for us the savior that we need. Finally and wonderfully. In the story, we see men being unified in their rebellion against God, and this is not a good thing, so God confounds their languages so that they are divided. But Jesus Christ, has the power to take people of every language who believe in Him and actually make us one.

This is the only oneness, the only unity that is not dangerous, and that is unity and oneness that is under the banner of the name of Jesus Christ. It's interesting, we, we cannot study Genesis 11 without thinking ahead to the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, when the Spirit was poured out, when the Spirit came down, when God came down in the person of the Holy Spirit after Christ's ascension, people in Acts 2 began to speak in different languages. And people of various languages who were gathered in Jerusalem and dialects came together and they could understand these 120.

Followers of Christ speaking in a language that they could understand, rather than this varied language speaking, creating a dispersion.

It created a moment where literally thousands of people came together. Of various nations and ethnicities, they came together and they all heard in their own language, the Christ exalting praises of God coming out of the mouths of these 120. And as the crowds gathered, Peter began to preach to them, and in his sermon, I would encourage you to read it. He says to them that what this means is that the day has arrived, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, Shall be saved Whoever quits trying to make a name for themselves.

And simply calls upon the name of the Lord, that person shall be saved. And on that day alone, in Acts 2, 3000 people. Called on the name of the Lord Jesus, and they were saved. And what happened in the following verses?

They were unified. They were one They were of one mind. They were of one purpose. They had all things in common.

They live life as a unified community, a community under the banner of the name of Jesus Christ, rather than under the banner of them making a name for themselves. As one writer beautifully says, the day of Pentecost was a reversal of Babel and a sign of the last days when all who call upon the name of the Lord. will be saved Here at Cornerstone, we have descendants of Shem and Ham and Japeth. Our ancestors come from all over the globe.

Our skin color is different, our backgrounds are different, yet in Christ, we are one. We are unified. The oneness that we have. is an early ray of a coming dawn.

In which people of every tribe and tongue and language and nation are united under the banner of the name of Jesus Christ and giving glory to Him. How can I become a part of this community, you ask? How can you become a part of this community that's under the banner of the name of Jesus Christ? Very simply, you need to quit building your own tower to God and flee to Christ as your strong tower.

You need to quit making a name for yourself and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. As one writer says, let me just read this to you and we'll close. If you want to be a part of the community of people under the banner of Jesus Christ, here's what we need to do. We must leave Babel with its proud dreams and God-defying ways.

If there is to be any hope. We must abandon our Babylonian hard search for security in the city of man with its collective delusions. Man's Babylonian heart may meld political, philosophy and economic theory and technology and psychology and religion. And to a mighty self-elevating tower.

But it will never affect the security that we long for. We will never scale heaven. We must leave off chasing after a name and find our identity. In Christ And if you have never found your identity in him, I plead with you.

Put your tower aside, you're not gonna get to God no matter how hard you try. Quit trying to build your own tower to God. Quit trying to build a name for yourself. Just give up that ambition.

And leave Babylon. And embrace Jesus as your strong tower. And call upon his name. Let's pray together Lord, you are good to give us in your word.

Things that speak straight to our hearts. We trust your wisdom here in confounding languages. We thank you for Your wisdom in confounding languages and dividing up the human race in its fallen state. Because that man.

If man were fully unified in his fallenness, we would be capable of evils. that have been rendered out of reach by the separation you created. Through languages. We thank you, Lord, that Essentially what you're doing in Genesis 11 is you're confounding this.

Man exalting project to get to God. Because you've got a better plan, a plan that actually will succeed. To send Your son into the world, to put his feet under our tables, to live amongst men, and to die on the cross and be raised from the dead. And to ascend him to your right hand as the Lord of all of heaven and earth and those who call upon his name, Lord will be saved and become one gathered around your throne, people of every tribe and tongue and nation and language gathered around your throne in an eternal unity that gives glory to you.

This is your plan. For the good of men. And we thank you. For what you have done.

Such that we don't need to build a tower to you, you have come to us. We don't need to make a name that's impressive enough to get into heaven, to earn our way into heaven. You've given us the name. And all we need to do is embrace Jesus.

Who he is and call upon his name. We will be saved. I pray God that if there are any here this morning that have never called upon your name, that right now where they're seated that you would just touch their hearts and just Help them to lay aside their towers. Their ambition to make a name for themselves and that they would just be taken in with the beauty and the power of Jesus.

And look to him and say, he is my tower and he is the name. That I call upon I pray, Lord, that you would save them today. Any who do that, even now. We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord.

We ask that you would receive these funds and do much. With every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus Christ and the spread of his fame. And we ask all of these things, Lord, in the name of Jesus and all God's people said.