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Would you take your Bibles and
turn with me please to the 11th chapter of the first book in
the Bible, the book of Genesis. Chapter 11, verse 1. Genesis chapter 11, verse 1. that the whole earth had one
language and one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed
from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar
and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another,
come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had
brick for stone, they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, come,
let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the
heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves
lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which
the sons of men had built. The Lord said, Indeed, the people
are now one. They all have one language, and
this is what they begin to do. Now nothing that they propose
to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down there and
there, confuse their language that they may not understand
one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad
from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building
the city. Therefore, its name is called
Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all
the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over
the face of all the earth. The Lord add his blessing to
the reading of his word. As we explore Genesis, we are
revisiting our roots. So many of the themes we encounter
here help us better understand where we are today and why. Last time we stood beneath the
ancient battered ruins of the massive Tower of Nimrod. We're calling this the Dark Tower. Since from here a dark and prideful
rebellion was launched against God, the repercussions of which
are reverberating still. The thing is, there were followers
of God among the multitude at Babel. They were surrounded by
a fallen culture the false gods of idolatry by the lie that man
doesn't need God. Man is perfectly capable of running
the world by himself. This led to an immoral world. increasingly so as time went
by, ever more corrupt and ever more insane. In fact, what is
happening at Babel is raising the specter of the world before
the flood. So man seems bent on heading
in that same direction. Once again, these righteous are
watching their culture descend into madness. demon culture,
just as we are today. To the righteous, it must have
seemed as if they were alone. But were they alone? Had God abandoned them? Last time we noted the place. The events in Genesis 11 take
place in central Iraq on the plains of Shinar between the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers. We noted the people. Genesis
chapter 10, we call this the table of nations. This traces
the lines that descend from Noah's three sons after the flood. In
verses 8 through 12 here of chapter 10, we see events recorded that
almost certainly relate directly to what happens then in chapter
11. Here we meet Nimrod, who forges
the first empire that rises after the flood. I think most of us are aware
that Saddam Hussein claimed to be the reincarnation of the great
king Nebuchadnezzar. What most of us probably don't
realize is that Nebuchadnezzar claimed to be the reincarnation
of the great Nimrod. Under Nimrod's rule and regime,
the idolatry that had proved so fatal to the pre-flood world
is now officially reborn at Babel. Does the term slow learner come
to mind? Nimrod marries his own mother,
and together they introduce a vulgar religion of idol worship to replace
the worship of the true God, who had been worshipped by Noah's
family since the time of the flood, and now that's all changing.
Nimrod and his wife, Mother, are worshipped, themselves worshipped,
as gods. Semiramis, Nimrod's wife, mother,
has titles conferred upon her. She's called the queen of heaven.
She's called the mother of God. And they established the cult
of the mother and child. This cult was intended to mimic
the promise of a deliverer God gave to Eve in the garden. Genesis chapter three, verse
15. Later, this same cult, cult of the mother and child, becomes
a major theme in the idolatry of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Greece,
Rome, China, India, on and on. And over time, elements of this
cult even make their way into Christianity. Gods and goddesses
proliferate as corrupt and immoral as man himself. Worship becomes
sensual, it becomes profane, man-centered, incorporating every
form of sexual perversion, approving it, encouraging it. Evidence
of child sacrifice has recently been uncovered. Occult demonic
practices now become religious practice. Here, astrology takes
hold, and it's the occult sister to idolatry, Satan's counterfeits
to God's truth. High towers are built throughout
the region, serving as religious centers for the worship of the
stars and the planets. Proud Nimrod is most likely the
instigator of the Tower Project, which we read here in chapter
11. We talked about the problem. What is the really heart and
basic problem that got man into this situation? In verses one
and two there of chapter 11, the problem was disobedience. Man thinking he knows better
than God. For good reason, God had told
man to scatter after the floods, to scatter and fill the earth. And instead man decides to huddle. God, you see, was trying to prevent
a repeat of what happened before the flood. Unfortunately, those
who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. This is what happened
at Babel. They forgot the lessons of the
past, just as we are forgetting them today, just as Jesus prophesied
that we would. Babel represents the rebirth
of the big lie. The big lie began in Eden. What is the big lie? You shall
be like God. Knowing good and evil, Satan
promised man. Today the same big lie has been
reborn. Today we call it humanism. Humanism
is the lie that man doesn't need God. Man knows better than God. Man is God. Man can create a
perfect world. This, my friends, is really what
it comes down to. It's not a political rivalry,
our ideas versus your ideas. This is really what it comes
down to. This is why the left hates Christianity. The left, with its Marxist, atheist
dreams of utopia, hates Christianity. And never doubt for a minute
that they do. They hate Christianity. Why? Because Christianity promotes
the worship of God over man. It says, no, God is in charge,
and man can't do this without God's direction, God's help,
God's leadership. And because humanism is petty,
and it's prideful, and it's weak, and its beliefs are deeply flawed,
It cannot tolerate competition. Competition is a positive threat. To win, humanism must silence
its opponents, which is precisely what today's whole woke culture
is trying to do, and might I observe successfully so. Silencing the
opponents. The worship of man as the ultimate
authority, the ultimate arbiter of all things right and wrong,
appropriate, inappropriate, good or bad, that lie is the foundation
of humanism. This same lie now steers Western
culture. It places man's will over God's
will, the big lie. Since the 1960s, humanists have
gradually gained control over America, especially our media,
our courts, our schools, our government. In their eyes, you
see, God is an anachronism. God is an outmoded notion. He has no place. God has no place
in public policy or in the public square. And what we've done is
forget the lessons of Babel. Now we are doomed to do what? Repeat them. And where, I ask
you, has this taken us? Because we've been on this track
now. We've been down this same road for a number of decades.
Is our nation a better, safer, more peaceful, more prosperous
place as a result? Have we created the perfect world
that these strategically placed atheist, Marxist, humanist, university
professors promised us? An honest look at America's cities
and university campuses, particularly at the present moment, should
give us the answer. Now note with me the project,
which we see in verses three and four. The project, verses
three and four here, Genesis chapter 11. Then they said to one another,
come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had
brick for stone, they had asphalt for mortar, and they said, come,
let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the
heavens. Now let me ask you, is there
anything wrong with building? No, no indeed. Noah was a builder. Was that a bad thing? No. Is
there anything wrong with ambition and working together with others
to accomplish something? No. No, unless we're doing it
for the wrong reasons. Now, some believe these people's
motives were good. Oh, see, they loved God so much
they wanted to climb up to heaven to be with Him. Nothing could
be further from the truth. This is not what this was about. What brilliant scheme did the
humanists come up with about 4,000 years ago? The people of Babel decide to
build a major city and a great tower, stone there being scarce. They use the plentiful clay to
bake bricks and have tar to use as a basis for their mortar.
By the way, the ruins of Beers Nimrud, the picture with which
we began today, those bricks, and it's all bricks and tar. Everything you see there's bricks
and tar, just like the Bible says. So they're going to build
a city to man's glory and a tower whose top is in the heavens.
And they're doing all of this because they love God? No, they're
ignoring God. They're ignoring what God told
them to do. And when we ignore God, we do foolish things. In Eden, man said, oh, I can
ignore God. And so he came up with the bright
idea of eating the forbidden fruit, and then once having done
that, he came up with the even more brilliant idea of fig leaf
coverings. In Babel, man decides it's okay
to ignore God, and we'll all stay together, and we'll build
a soaring tower of clay, brick, and asphalt. Now, were any of
these notions a resounding success? No, not at all. Why not? Because
none of them were based in reality. This has kind of been man's track
record. Whenever he imagines he doesn't
need God, does it not? Has it not been pretty much man's
track record? He comes up with the most breathtakingly
foolish ideas, and he thinks they're brilliant. Marxism, Nazism,
Socialism, all godless, all colossal failures, along with many others. These are perfect examples of
what man is able to do without God. And yet despite the fact
that these systems have failed and failed and failed again,
man continues, he persists in trying to make them work. And we all know the definition
of insanity, do we not? With what brilliant notions have
modern humanists filled the minds of America's and Western culture's
youth? To what flashes of genius has
humanism treated us today? Well, let's see if we can identify
some of them. How about, let's take God out
of education because religion traumatizes children. Now, there's
a good idea. And I would simply ask you to
be honest about what's happened to education since we bought
into that notion. And if you know anything at all,
you know that today we are barely educating at all. Our schools
are colossal failures. Or let's take absolutes out of
education and let the kids pick their own truth. Oh, there's
a wonderful idea, right? So two plus two equals five.
Well, hey, if that's your reality, who am I to argue with that?
And if a child thinks she's a cat, she's a cat, because you don't
argue with a child's sense of identity. Where is that taking us? What
is it getting us? Here's another one. Never spank
children, it teaches them to be violent. So we stop spanking
children. And we now have done away with
violence. Right? How about teaching kids, which,
not in so many words, but this is what we teach every day in
our public schools especially, every single day we're teaching,
science shows the universe is an accident. Nothing that was
nowhere blew up and made everything. There's no God. Life evolved
from rocks, and it has no meaning. Man's just an out-of-control
ape that's destroying the planet, and we're all going to die. Now
go have a nice life and make the world a better place. How has that worked out? Well,
you know, it's been really good for therapists because they're
doing a land office business and everybody can make a money
hand over fist. And then we wonder why kids are so miserable. Young
adults are on drugs and suicide is out of control. How about
this one? We'll help the poor by destroying
the family and pay unwed women to stay single and have kids.
Hmm, how far need we look to see how good that idea was? Or
maybe to achieve equity, we'll stop punishing criminals and
instead turn them loose as soon as they're arrested. Or how about
this one? We have no right to keep people
out of our country. We'll open the borders and let
drugs and disease and criminal gangs and whoever else come in
as they please. Or how about this one? We'll
legalize drugs and encourage their use by setting up drug
dispensaries and free clean needle exchanges. Let the addicts live
in tents on the street, defecate where they please, because it
would be unfair to restrict them or to arrest them. Shall I go
on? If you don't like your gender,
just change your pronouns. Presto change-o, you are a new
gender. Or how about this one? To be
inclusive, we'll let any man who claims to be a woman use
the ladies' restroom, undress in the women's locker room, and
compete against female athletes in sports. Oh, that's working
out great. Just great. To promote diversity,
equity, and inclusion, we'll normalize perversion. We'll let
fat, bearded men in tutus into our schools and into our libraries
to recruit young children. And if parents complain, we'll
investigate and threaten the parents. or if any child questions his
or her biological sex will immediately start lopping off body parts
and giving chemicals and if you protest against that you're a
child abuser. I especially like this one. Israel
is a genocidal oppressor will champion Hamas. Oh yes, humanism is loaded, just
loaded with brilliant insights and perfect solutions for every
problem, none of which are anchored in reality, anchored in truth. And therein lies the problem. Victor Davis Hanson says we are
now approaching insanity. As much as I like Victor Davis
Hanson, I have to disagree with him. We are not approaching insanity. We're already there. That's the thing about God. And
it's the thing about God that man hates. God is truth. And what he says is based in
reality. Man simply doesn't want to face
reality because reality doesn't pander to his bases, desires,
and his pride. So he rebels. He lies. He builds a city and a tower
that will pander to his pride. which brings us to the purpose. In verse four of chapter 11 here,
again, verse four, the rest of the verse, and they said, come,
let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the
heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered
abroad over the face of the whole earth. Was this tower being built to
adore God? No, it was being built to defy
Him, wasn't it? Its purpose isn't to promote
the true faith, but to establish a competing faith, lest we be
scattered abroad. Man wanted to put his desires
in the center of the religion he was building here, and keep
those desires firmly in focus. The intent was not to promote
the glory of God, but the glory of man. This was a pride thing. It wasn't built to promote God's
will, but to subvert God's will. God had told them to scatter. God told them to fill the earth. At Babel they said, lest we be
scattered. Lest we do what God told us to
do. Lest we do fill the earth. This, folks, is the essence of
humanism. Humanism puts man's will in place
of God's will. Man is in control. Man is running
the show. And as I challenged you last
week, again, look across this nation. Tell me, where in America
today we are seeking the will of God? And they answered him, not a
word. The Tower of Babel was the tower
of humanism. In Eden, Satan told man, you
shall be like God. At Babel, Satan told man, you
shall be like God. How much had Satan's lies and
deceptions changed over the centuries? Not at all. You see, Satan knows
if you let man have his way, Satan will soon be running the
place because Satan knows how to play man like a violin, like
a Stradivarius. This monument to hubris with
its man-made counterfeit religion became the foundation for most
of the false religions that came after, including every form of
occultism ever practiced. It's the heart, it's the spirit
of idolatry. Now this is why, Christian, this
is why God expressly forbids our involvement in the occult
in any form. There is no good occult. Please understand this. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse
15, verse 16, verse 19. we are to have nothing to do
with occult practices. Now you might be saying this
thing, well what is, does that mean you belong to a cult? Or what
does occult mean? Okay, what are we talking about
occult? We're talking about manipulating the supernatural world to get
what we want. Horoscopes, palm reading, tarot
cards, Ouija boards, fortune telling, tea leaf reading, casting
bones, seances, mediums, intuitives, getting readings, et cetera,
et cetera. The occult is Satan's lie to
lead men away from God's truth. It's Satan's counterfeit. We
need to treat it like what it is. We need to treat it like
the plague. Because indeed, a spiritual plague,
that's what the occult is. And it has sent countless souls,
has put countless souls in bondage to Satan and sent them to hell. What do these practices promise?
They promise to put man in control, to put supernatural power into
man's hands so man can get the results he wants. They promise to elevate man to
godhood, to make man a name for himself, and to subvert what
God has said. In other words, what Satan accomplished
in Eden, he's busy repeating at Babel. This was at the heart
of the Babel project. and let us not deceive ourselves.
The Babel Project is with us still, very much so. Despite
the setbacks God has dealt it through the ages, the Prince
of Darkness has never given up, and his rebellious human minions
haven't given up either. The Dark Tower has risen again
and again. We see it throughout history,
not just here at Babel. the French Revolution and the
Reign of Terror, same thing, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia,
the rise of Hitler in Germany, the Communist Revolution in China,
in Cuba, elsewhere. Today, the World Economic Forum
and the Great Reset sweeping up all of Western civilization
is just another form of dark tower rising. nor have its dangers grown any
less lethal with time. This was the engine that drove
Nazism. This was the engine that drove Marxism. It's the spirit
that drives today's secular humanism, the religion of modern culture. As the Babel Project was the
single greatest threat to the spiritual line of Well, let me
ask you, who was the godly line that descended, was going to
be the one that was going to have a special relationship with
God of the three sons of Noah? Who was that? That's Shem, that's
right. And the Babel project was the
single greatest threat to the spiritual line of Shem and the
fulfillment of Shem's divine mission to do what? To bring
Messiah into the world. So the Babel syndrome, the counterfeit
religion of humanism, is the greatest threat to the church
and its divine mission today. What is its divine mission? Go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. What will give rise to the Antichrist,
do you suppose? Folks, that's just going to be
another extension and outgrowth of the Babel Project. Now I know
a lot of Christians are feeling pretty defeated of late. But now, let's suppose you were
one of those religious lunatics who still walked with God when
all this madness was going on. What would it have been like
for you? Well, all around you see idolatry being installed
in place of God. Everywhere you look, you're seeing
it. You see a dark tower rising, and you know what it means. Your
world is tottering toward Lord of the Flies, and there's nothing
you can do to stop it. In other words, you find yourself
in a day just like today. There's every reason to despair,
is there not? Every reason to expect the worst,
every indication that the world is out of control, including
God's control. Nothing man can do or that God
will do to prevent the train wreck, the inevitable disaster
you see coming. Well, that's how things looked
at Babel. But is that how things were? You see, dear friend, this is
precisely where faith comes into play. Faith isn't faith when things
look great. Faith is faith when things look
terrible. And we trust God See, faith isn't about how things
look, it's about what God says. In Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
1, what do we read? Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things, what? Not seen. What does Paul say? We walk by
faith and not by what? Sight. At the dark tower, things
looked pretty hopeless, but looks were deceiving. And my friends, that's just as
true in our personal lives as it is in our culture. Most of you know I've been through
some stuff lately. I've had some physical challenges.
I've had some pretty devastating emotional challenges. But God
is showing me there is no room for self-pity. And what I've
had to come to terms with is that sitting and crying for hours
on end is, it's just what it is, it's self-pity. Because I
don't need to cry for the people who I've lost. It would be the
greatest disservice I could do them to wish them back with what
they're enjoying now. So who am I crying for? I'm crying
for me and what I've lost. And there's a word for that,
it's called self-pity. And God's showing me there's no room for
self-pity because God sees the big picture. Always remember
that. He sees the big picture, everything in view, and he knows
what he's doing. My job isn't to analyze, it's
to internalize this great truth, God knows what he is doing, and
then keep going. is realizing, okay, God's got
the whole thing under control, and he's going to work it all
out. It looks terrible right now, I just feel devastated,
but God knows what he's doing, and you're just going to keep
going and doing what God wants you to do, until he tells you
it's time to stop. I think of Job. And many of us have found comfort,
I'm sure, from his example, but everything looked hopeless to
Job. But could Job see what was going
on in heaven? No, he had no clue. And guess
what? Neither can we. All Job could see was his life
falling apart. But was that the whole picture?
Was it? No, indeed, it wasn't even remotely
accurate to what all was really going on. What was it Paul said? 1 Corinthians 13, verse 12, he
said, For now we see, see, through a glass darkly, but later on,
face to face. Now, he's talking about the kind
of mirrors they used. And folks, the kind of mirrors
they had in the first century were pretty lousy mirrors. And,
you know, wavy and unclear, and you really didn't get much good
out of them. Not like mirrors we have today
at all. And so that's the kind of mirror he's talking about.
And he says, you know, you'd see very indistinctly, you get
a really warped view of things looking in a mirror. Later on,
we're going to see face-to-face. What's that? That's plainly.
That's no obstructions. That's perfect crystal clarity. Never let circumstances dictate
your attitude, Christian. Look, Christ came the first time, despite
all appearances. You didn't look around in Christ's
day and say, oh, it's time. You can see it's time for the
Messiah. Everything looked pretty bleak at that point. Like, you
know, where is the promise of his coming? And yet he came anyway,
just as God promised. Well, folks, Christ is coming
back. just as God promised, despite all appearances. Hold on. Now, what was God about to do
that would completely upset the humanist agenda that was unfolding
here at Babel and would keep His divine plan on track? What was He about to do? Well,
we don't have time to go into that this morning, so we'll have
to do that when? Yeah, next time, that's right. Thank you, Father,
for your faithfulness. We know Satan wants to demoralize
us. And if we listen to him, we will
be demoralized. And yet again and again, your
word assures us there's never a valid reason to let that happen. You always know what you're doing.
You never lose track of us. And we thank you, Father. We
pray that you would keep us ever mindful of your faithfulness
and the truth of your word. And if there are any among us
here this morning who do not have this foundational assurance
of Christ in his life or her life, We pray that this would
be the day when that soul will find that sure foundation and
have that upon which to build a life meaningful because it
isn't just a life built on the perspectives of this world, but
of eternity. We ask these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.
“Revisiting Our Roots"57 -The Dark Tower 2
Series GENESIS-REVISITING OUR ROOTS
What was wrong with the building project at Babel? What motives were behind it? Ultimately, how wise do Man's actions tend to be without God? What is the essence of Humanism? What does God say about dabbling in the occult? Why? Is despair in the Believer ever justified?
| Sermon ID | 42924145176802 |
| Duration | 37:48 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Deuteronomy 4:15-19; Genesis 11:1-9 |
| Language | English |
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