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.