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[0:00] And Father, we thank you that, Lord, as we are looking at this picture this morning of your judgment, but also your mercy, because Lord, as we learned before, judgment and mercy are always combined.

[0:12] Your mercy upon man, that they would not again bring themselves to a place and a condition that they were in before the flood. And so, Lord, you scattered them.

[0:23] But Lord, if you didn't scatter them, you would never have then had the opportunity to then draw. And you've drawn us, Lord. You've drawn us out of every walk of life, out of language and people and family and nation.

[0:34] And you draw us back into one people in Christ. I pray that we would see in this text this morning, we would see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.

[0:48] So, in Genesis 11, I guess our theme today would be a tale of two cities. And last week we had a, our theme was Shakespeare quote, and this is Dickens, so I guess we're just going with the old authors.

[1:03] Old classics. If you remember in Genesis chapter 10, as we went through the genealogies, it mentioned multiple times this idea in verse 5 of Genesis chapter 10.

[1:16] By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, everyone after his tongue, after their families in their nations. But Genesis 10 is before Genesis 11. And it's in Genesis 11 that Babel happens, that the languages and the tongues are confused.

[1:32] And so Genesis 10 is giving us almost like the pre- and the postscript to Genesis chapter 11. Because some of these people were born before the incident at the Tower of Babel, and some of them were after.

[1:49] And then in Genesis chapter 10, we see as we move through the text in verse 25, it says this man named Peleg, that in his day was the earth divided. And that was that division of languages.

[2:01] We're going to see that even in some of the ages as we go through it. So as we move into the text, this is kind of stuck in the middle of what's happening in Genesis chapter 10. So the whole earth was one language and of one speech.

[2:16] And that word language is literally lip, and speech is word. And this is the first use of the word word, as in the word of God.

[2:26] If you turn over briefly to Genesis chapter 15, just a couple pages over. Verse 1, the Lord is speaking to Abraham at this time.

[2:40] It says, And that's the same word for word.

[2:53] This is the first use of it. The whole earth was of one lip, one language, one speech, and of one word. The whole earth was of one word. Unfortunately, it was not the word of God.

[3:05] The whole earth will again one day be full of one word. In the new heavens, in the new earth, not even in the thousand-year reign, will all men speak the same word, shall I say.

[3:18] Even then, there are those who will not turn their hearts to the Lord. But at this time, you have one speech, one language, which, of course, they've all just come from Noah. When we get to Babel here, Babel, if you remember, was built by Nimrod.

[3:30] Nimrod, the first monarch. Nimrod, the first conqueror. He would have been Noah's great-grandson. So Noah had Ham, who had Cush, who had Nimrod.

[3:41] Nimrod then built this city. So we're only a couple generations removed. And they're all still alive, because they lived hundreds of years. So they're one language. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar.

[3:56] And they dwelt there. So Shinar means a country of two rivers. We're going to see it situated between the Euphrates and the Tigris River. This is after the flood, so these geological features are still there.

[4:10] The flood, remember, rearranged everything, but this is all still there. And so the Lord had promised, if you remember, in Genesis 8.21, He said, I will not again curse the ground anymore for a man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

[4:24] Neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. And so as man moves forward from Ararat, they move from the plains of the mountain, and they move down into Shinar, this is the condition of their heart.

[4:38] Because we're going to see a couple generations from Noah, and already God has to step in in his mercy and take care of a situation because of sin. It's happening so fast.

[4:50] And like we talked about before, we almost can't put ourselves in that situation because we're so used to the effect of the Word of God and of Christianity and of centuries now of the effect of the resurrection in this world.

[5:06] That when we go through Genesis, you realize you're usually looking at one man and one family at most, right, in the world. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. We don't really see another righteous man until we get to Abraham.

[5:18] Then you have Abraham alone and his family. From that becomes one nation, a small nation. Now to us, the nation of Israel is very important because most of our Bible deals with it.

[5:30] But to the world and to Rome at the time when Jesus came, what was Israel? I mean, at their zenith under Solomon, they were somebody. But it's still not compared to Babylon or Assyria.

[5:42] And so we're used to a worldwide recognition of our faith and of our God, where even the day and age we live in where we're almost in this post-modern, this post-Christian world, there's still remnants of it.

[5:58] Wherever you go around the world, you're going to see remnants of this Christianity, the Word of God, the effect it's had. But you don't see that until the cross, until after that, the resurrection.

[6:12] That's the day and age we live in. These people, what we're looking at is we're going to see a man and a family. And then we're going to see from that a family become a nation, but even then a small nation. And so right now you have Noah and you've had Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

[6:24] We already know that Ham and his son Canaan, they weren't doing so great. They're already cursed. They've sinned. And yet they're moving together now from the mountain of Ararat, and they're moving to this location in the plain of Shinar.

[6:43] And there they dwelt. And that word means to sit down. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all wrong with that. If you remember what the Lord had told Noah, he told him to go forth and be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth.

[6:56] The same thing he had said to Adam, he said again to Noah. He said he would establish his covenant with him. If you remember, we looked at that because God had just said that now the animals would also be at odds with man.

[7:13] And you have man still at odds with man. And then the Lord says, Hey, but don't be afraid to go forward and be fruitful and multiply because my covenant's with you. So, so far, so good. They're moving forward.

[7:25] They've sat down and dwelt there. Nothing wrong with that. And then we get to verse three. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly.

[7:36] And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. We're going to see that phrase, go to three different times in the text this morning. It means to give, give place to, or give help to. Like pay attention to this, give yourself to this.

[7:48] Let's help one another in this. Give me help with this. And here we see this man-centered focus that begins to develop. Where they said to one another.

[7:59] They turned to each other and said, Hey, let's help one another. Let's give ourselves to this. And what are they going to give themselves to? So we're going to make brick. We're going to burn them thoroughly.

[8:10] They had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. And they said, go to, here they say it again, that same phrase. Give yourself to this. Give help to this. Give place to this. Let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven.

[8:26] Let us make a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. That word name is the same word as Shem. Shem's name meant name.

[8:38] So here's man moving into this region. Remember we talked about Nimrod is here. Nimrod is kind of like the spearhead of this. The one kind of driving this whole building project. But what are they doing?

[8:50] Well, they're going to build a tower. And it says something very interesting there. It says they covered it in slime. Slime they had for mortar. Now that's not like slime. Those of us who grew up in the 90s, you think of like, you know, double dare and all that and the slime.

[9:04] That's not that slime. This is the same word that Noah, when it says Noah covered the ark within and without with pitch. That's that same word. And we're going to see it again. The next time you see this word is Exodus chapter 2 verse 3, where it says that Moses' mother, she covered the little basket with pitch.

[9:22] It's this type of, well, they call it slime, but mortar or substance in that area that was waterproof. So what are they doing? They're building a waterproof tower.

[9:34] What does that tell you? Have they believed God's promise? No, they did not believe God's promise. They're going to build this tower. Now, it's not actually a tower that's going to like keep them from a flood in a sense, because they're building in a valley.

[9:47] They're in the plain of Shinar. It's not on top of a mountain. But still, the representation is there. They're like, we're going to do this. You know what? We just had a natural disaster. It was crazy.

[9:58] A big flood. This really bad disaster. And now we're going to take care. We're going to get together and figure out how to make sure this never happens to us again. So they begin to build this tower.

[10:09] Nothing wrong with building a tower. Nothing wrong with waterproofing a tower. But they set aside the promise of God. And instead of believing the promise, they're now trying in their own effort to bring about what God had already promised to them.

[10:24] There's another word in here I thought was really interesting, just for food for thought. In verse 3, where it says, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. The word for brick is literally let us make white.

[10:35] It's the same word in Psalm 51, verse 7, where David says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. That's the same word. Let us make brick.

[10:47] Isaiah 118, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. The idea being that this clay, it was a white kind of clay, but as you burned it in the fire, the impurities would come out and it would be even whiter.

[11:06] And it's that same word. And so here we have this picture of this word that's used so many other times to represent what happens to us when our sins are washed away.

[11:17] And how are the bricks made white? It says, let us burn them thoroughly. Or literally, let us burn them to a burning. You know, a complete consuming. And that's what happened on the cross.

[11:27] Our sin was completely consumed so that we could be made white. Just as these men were making this brick white. And so they said, hey, go to, let us build a city and a tower.

[11:39] So we're going to build this. We're going to make this ourselves. The word city, we all know what city means, but it has in the Hebrew word, also has within it this meaning of excitement, anguish, and fear. But you think of a city and the idea of building a walled city, something to protect you because of fear, fear that someone may attack you.

[11:57] And so you have this idea within the city of excitement, anguish, and fear. And so they're going to build this city that's man-centered. And anything that's man-centered is always going to have a lot of excitement, but also going to result in anguish and fear.

[12:12] There's a quote. I can find it. Here it is. The whole account of what happened at Babel with its anti-God dictator, its organized rebellion against God, and its direct distrust of God's promise shows man has not gotten any better since the flood.

[12:29] Time, progress, government, and organization have made man better off, but not better. I looked at the word humanism. I was thinking of like, this is so human-centric.

[12:41] This is so man-centric. It's devoid of God. It's we can do this. And my idea of humanism in the world I grew up in and my schooling and education is like, well, that which focuses on man's ability, you know, to better man.

[12:56] Well, if you Google humanism, the definition today is so in-your-face, anti-God. The definition is an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters.

[13:11] Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings. It emphasizes common human needs and seeks solely rational ways of solving human problems.

[13:24] In other words, humanism is God's out. We don't need him. We got this. I was like, wow, that's very in your face. So my definition as I redefined humanism is man's attempt to fulfill the promises of God apart from God.

[13:38] The humanism is God has promised. Man says, don't need that. I got this. Right. What did Jesus say? Take no thought what you will eat, what you will drink, what you will wear for after all these things that the Gentiles seek.

[13:50] But your father knows that you have need of all these things. But you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Man says, hey, don't do that. Instead, we're going to figure out a way that we can provide for you what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, what you're going to put on.

[14:05] Now, do we not worry about them, but do we put value in those things? Of course we do, but not apart from the promise of God. And here you see a group of people who have moved into this region and in their hearts, they've turned from God's promise.

[14:20] Two generations. I mean, Noah's alive. I mean, is Noah there? I hope he's not there, but he's alive. Maybe he is. Maybe he's still the preacher of righteousness. Don't do this. This is what led to the flood.

[14:32] And man says, no, no, that's just natural disaster. It's just climate change. That's all that is. And it was God's judgment. And so they move into this plain and they build this tower.

[14:46] And why do they do it? They said, let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Look at how they've redefined God's promise. God says, Noah, go forth, be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth.

[15:00] And they said, oh man, we don't want to be scattered. We don't want to be scattered. God wants to tear us apart. He wants to scatter us. God's like, this is a blessing, but you can't see it right now. God's blessing comes in the form of a promise.

[15:15] God gives us a promise. It's a blessing. We don't experience the blessing until we act upon the promise. And then we experience the blessing. We want to experience the fulfillment of the blessing before we believe his promise.

[15:27] It doesn't work that way. And so here, man is saying, well, I don't see a blessing in that. I don't see how that's going to work. God scatters us. How are we going to be blessed?

[15:39] And God says, you need to believe my promise, which is based on what? His word. God gives us a promise based in his word. We act on it in faith. We then receive his blessing. But we want to do it in reverse.

[15:51] We want to receive his promise, receive the fulfillment of his promise, and then act in his promise. But it doesn't work that way. That's not walking by faith. That's walking by sight, right?

[16:04] So I want to look at briefly the history of Babel, of this city, before we go into what the Lord is doing. Because we see these things in Scripture, and I don't know if any of you have grown up in the church.

[16:16] I did. I went to Sunday school. The flannel graph, the stories, and all of that. You know, and the Tower of Babel, the ziggurat. And these are great stories. And I'm very much appreciative of that history I've had, because it laid a foundation or groundwork for me in my mind to like, oh, know the sequence of events.

[16:35] Know the history. But then you get older and you think, well, is it real? Is it really real? Well, there was this guy. His name was, well, you can figure out how to pronounce that, Orosis.

[16:49] But he was in the third century B.C., so 300 years before Christ. And he was writing. He was a historian about Babel. And this is the account that came out of Babylon.

[17:00] Because Babel, Shinar, Chaldeans, Babylon, it's all the same thing used interchangeably. And he quotes, They say that the first inhabitants of the earth, glorifying in their own strength and size, and despising the gods, undertook to raise a tower whose top should reach the sky, where Babylon now stands.

[17:23] But when it approached the heaven, the winds assisted the gods and overturned the work upon its contrivers. And its ruins are said to be at Babylon. And the gods introduced a diversity of tongues among men, who till that time had all spoken the same language.

[17:39] And a war arose between Cronus and Titan. But the place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon, on account of the confusion of the tongues. For confusion is by the Hebrews called Babel.

[17:52] So even within Babylon was this, they had their own mythology that they based upon, the truth of what actually happened. So is it there?

[18:04] The structure was situated in the southern portion of the city, not far from the right bank of the Euphrates, you have the Euphrates and the Tigris, and is now represented by a depression within which is the original rectangular core of unbaked bricks.

[18:19] The foundation was the unbaked bricks, but then they built upon it. And from its shape, the Arabs have called the site Sahan, or the dish, as the bricks of the structure, unlike other ziggurats, which were built of dried mud bricks.

[18:34] The tower, which they call Etimanaki, was built of fired bricks. There's only one in the region that has bricks that were baked. Interesting. But the bricks were all stripped away in favor of structures or to repair the banks of the canal.

[18:48] So that was this guy who wrote of the actual historical location. So Google it yourself. If you Google the Tower of Babel on Google Maps, you can zoom right in and see the actual rectangular depression that's still there.

[19:02] And then you'll see on that map as well, a little north of there, you'll see ancient Babylon. And so at the time, like you think of Daniel, Daniel would have had access to the Tower of Babel.

[19:14] Think about that. But it would have been there. It was not the main central tower. They rebuilt another one, their temple. But it was still there, and it was considered an ancient tower in Babylon.

[19:27] And so the city and the tower they built, what was it for? Well, they built it for man. The city and the tower they built, it was for the making of man.

[19:39] It was for the manipulation of man. Go to, they had to say to every single one, all of you, you must be involved. You have to be part of this. And that's what man's system does.

[19:50] They cannot handle it. When somebody says, no, I don't want to be part of that, or I don't agree with that. They have to get everybody on board. It was for the majority of man. They all were involved.

[20:01] It was for the paranoia of man. The city and the tower. Because that word city had within it the meaning excitement, anguish, and terror. And so they built this tower. Because man's paranoia, instead of trusting God's promise, man turned in their own fear to supplying their own ends.

[20:19] But for the elevation of man, they were going to build a tower that reached where? Reached to the heavens. That word literally means to put its head in heaven. Not that it was tall enough to reach the heavens, like we said, to protect them from a flood.

[20:31] But the idea was, they were going to now take the place of God. And so man is still, as they were from the garden, they are still attempting to be like God.

[20:44] And then it was for the presence of man. Remember they said, let us make a name for ourselves. We will make a presence in the earth. Instead of trusting in God's presence. And so this city and this tower of man, it led to all of these things, but it will always lead to something else.

[20:59] And eventually, God's going to scatter them. Their greatest fear is going to be realized. They don't realize it's a blessing. And it will always lead to the further brokenness of man as well. Which is actually God's mercy, if you remember there.

[21:14] And so then we move into verse 5. The Lord kind of now has this response. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. It's a really interesting word here. When was the last time we saw the Lord come down?

[21:28] Remember? We saw him already. He was in the garden. He would come down in the cool of the day to walk with Adam and Eve. In the garden. The next time this wording that he comes down will be when he is overlooking Sodom and Gomorrah with Abraham.

[21:42] He's standing there. He says, we will go down and we will see what is going on in these cities. The sin that is there. He's going to check it out. And so the Lord is coming down for fellowship?

[21:53] No, not for fellowship. Two generations removed from Noah. And the Lord has to come down again because of the sin of man. The Lord will come down again in our text after the Old Testament, won't he, for the sin of man.

[22:07] But he will come down and once for all and it is finished. He will never again come down for the sin of man. What happens the next time he comes down? For the redemption, the resurrection of man.

[22:20] And then for the righteousness of God. We kind of think still he's coming to deal with sin. No, sin's been dealt with. He's just coming to establish the righteousness of God that was won on the cross and our resurrection.

[22:31] So he's going to come down again. But anyway, he says, we're going to go, he says, the Lord said, behold, this people is one and they have all one language and this they begin to do.

[22:44] And now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. The word there begin means to lay open, to loose, or to profane. It's a weird word, the weird meaning there.

[22:56] But it means like to lay it open, to start something, to begin. And so the word meaning in there profane is like something that is beginning to corrupt. It's taking something and it's begun to corrupt it.

[23:09] It's turning it towards something that is now profane. And they begin to do this. And so the Lord says they've opened something up that they've started. And if we allow this to continue, then what does he say?

[23:21] Nothing will be restrained. The word restrained means to be fenced or inaccessible. There will be nothing inaccessible to them. This gives us kind of a view and an idea of what was going on before the flood.

[23:34] They had all one language. They had all one speech. And they lived 900 years. And look what it led to. Look what they went into that was restrained and fenced.

[23:45] They delved into the spiritual world in such a way that they were, that fallen angels were cohabitating with the daughters of men and creating these hybrid monsters.

[23:59] Right? And the Lord comes down at that time and what do you have to do? Wipe out the whole world and start afresh. Because of the one language and one speech and nothing that was restrained them. And so the Lord is looking at this and saying, I can't let the conditions of the flood, the cause of the flood, happen again.

[24:17] For nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined or literally do purpose in their own mind. That's all that man is about right now. Just purposing in their own mind the things that they want to do.

[24:32] He said, go to, and now the Lord's using this terminology in verse 7. He's saying, go to, go to, give yourself to this, pay attention to this, let's help one another, let us go down.

[24:44] And here we have the language of the Trinity, don't we? Because who would God be speaking to? The angels? Come on, come and help me. He doesn't need the help of the angels. Let us go down.

[24:55] It's the Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Spirit. And so we see when God moves or when God acts in the affairs of men, it's never just, well, that's just God the Father. It's the Old Testament God.

[25:07] He's angry. And then there's the New Testament God and Jesus. No, it's everybody. It's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Because they're all there saying, let us go down. One God, three parts.

[25:20] And there confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech. And so the Lord has purposed that he's going to do for man what they essentially would not do.

[25:34] They could have chose the promise and walked in the truth of the promise, but God's will is still going to be done. His word doesn't return void. Babel, we didn't get to look at it, but the tower was said to be in three stages.

[25:49] It was 300 feet tall. And in Babylonian folklore, it was called the Gate of the Gods. And that was the idea. They were hoping to open up access to the gods like we saw before the flood, what they did.

[26:03] And here, they did, in a sense, get access to God. God is coming down. He's coming down to deal with them. But not in the way that he would have liked or that they ultimately should have sought him.

[26:19] If you turn to Psalm 61, we have access to God, too. We have a tower we can go to. We don't climb it by stairs.

[26:37] Psalm 61, verse 3. Psalm 61, David writing says, speaking of the Lord, he says, for thou has been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy.

[26:48] So we have a tower. We have a tower that we can go to. We don't climb it by stairs. We don't build it with our hands. But by receiving God's promise and walking in the truth of his promise, we get to enter into a very strong tower that protects us from our enemies.

[27:02] We don't have to live in fear and paranoia. When we have anguish, we run to our tower. Imagine these men running to their tower. It was said that at the top of the Tower of Babel, there was no statue of a god up there.

[27:14] It was just kind of like this empty chapel or room so that they could gaze up into the stars for their astrology. There's no hope there. If you turn briefly, Proverbs 18 tells us again about our tower.

[27:34] Proverbs 18, verse 10. It says, The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runs into it and is safe.

[27:44] So where David told us that God has been a shelter and a strong tower from our enemy, now we're given more insight into what that tower is. But the name of the Lord, the name of Jesus, is a strong tower the righteous run into and are safe.

[28:00] How much better to walk in God's promise? Seemingly alone, right? If they had obeyed, if they had spread out upon the world, if you take your family and say, all right, we're going to go west and then your brother and his family say, well, we're going to go east and you shake hands and you go and you go alone.

[28:21] Oh, this is kind of nerve-wracking. But you say to your kids, you know what, guys? We're walking in the promise of God. We have a strong tower to walk in. Right? As we have stepped out to plant this church.

[28:32] Same kind of thing. Like, we're going to kind of go it alone. You know? Do you have any support? No. Do you have a sending church? Not really. Just kind of like, you know, they were in support and we stepped out and we're just doing it.

[28:44] We're completely just relying on the Lord and the Lord is blessing it. We could. Believe me, they're out there. We could subscribe to a whole lot of programs that'll tell us how we can get XYZ done.

[28:57] We don't need God's promise. We don't need the Holy Spirit. We don't need edification. We don't need the Word. We need a few programs and we can get a lot of people and we can start things rolling. But what's that going to lead to?

[29:09] Stress. It's going to lead to what we said the definition of city was. It's going to be very exciting, but there's going to be a lot of anguish and a lot of terror. Anguish and heartache is maintaining something in the flesh and the terror of losing something you've built by your own hand.

[29:25] How many men and women who've built their own kingdoms, their own financial fortunes, have lost their lives because of the terror that's come upon them over the fear of losing what they had when they've committed suicide or just gone into hermitage.

[29:41] You look at Solomon and he gets into Ecclesiastes. He's essentially the same place. But anyway, so we have a strong tower and we can run into it and it's the name of Jesus.

[29:53] And so God comes down and he says, we'll confound their speech. And so the Lord scattered them, verse 8, abroad from fence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city.

[30:04] Therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth and from fence the Lord scattered them abroad. Excuse me, upon the face of all the earth.

[30:17] So God's word will not return void. He spoke it to Noah as a blessing but it was going to happen one way or another. We say all the time, you can either be Joseph or Pharaoh.

[30:29] God was going to bring his people into Egypt and God was going to bring them out. But which do you want to be? Do you want to work with the Lord or do you want to be used by the Lord as you work against him? But the Lord's still going to fulfill his word.

[30:41] Pharaoh could have softened his heart and said, yes, let's do this. And then we would have a whole other account. But he hardened his heart but God's word did not return void.

[30:53] And so what do we see here? We see God confusing a language. By one miracle of tongues, men were dispersed and gradually fell away from true religion.

[31:04] by another miracle of tongues in Acts 2 verse 4. National barriers were broken down and all men now have access to be brought back into the family of God under one language.

[31:20] One of the things we have in Christ, we have a new language. We have a new language. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10 says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that name which is our strong power, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

[31:45] And so in Christ, we gain a new language. One language again. One speech. And that's the same all over the world. You meet a believer, it's just this one language of the Spirit.

[31:59] Ephesians 4. Remember in Ephesians 4, Paul is giving kind of like the order of edification for the church that he gave some prophets and some apostles and some pastors, teachers, for the growth and edification of the church.

[32:11] He says, Till we all come into the unity of the body, into the fullness of the stature of Christ. And as he gets down, he's talking about all this oneness and edification, he gets down to verse 29 and he says this, in Ephesians 4, 29.

[32:25] He says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

[32:38] And so this new language in Christ is to bring edification. There's to be one. The Lord came down and said they are one and there's nothing that will be withheld them.

[32:49] Well, guess what? In Christ, as one, there's nothing withheld us in Christ. Jesus said, if you believe, if you ask in prayer and believe, you have those things for which you ask.

[33:00] And so we have the promise of God renewed and re-given in Christ in this new language. And that was the Tower of Babel. So as we've looked at this, we think, well, that's a pretty bad place.

[33:14] I don't want to live there. Good thing, you know, that's just for those Babylonians. Well, everybody was there. If you remember in the beginning of our text, it says, and they, they dwelt there, they journeyed there, they journeyed from the east and found a plain.

[33:31] This is everybody. They're all moving there. We're going to find out eventually that's where Abraham is. That's where his family is. It's not just where Abraham's living. We're going to see that it says that it is the place of his nativity, so that his ancestors are there.

[33:46] So when we see the genealogy of Noah, we see Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We think, oh, the godly line came through Shem. Just as we look back before the flood and we see Seth, we think, well, the godly line came through Seth.

[34:01] Enoch walked with God and he was not. Noah, a preacher of righteousness. Yes, there were men in that line that were godly. Well, I think there's probably other people from other lines that knew the Lord as well.

[34:15] But the reason that these specific, this specific ancestry is given to us through these lines is because this is who the Messiah comes through. It doesn't mean they're extra holy people.

[34:26] It just is who this Messiah comes through. And then there are people highlighted along the way. And so now all of the family and all of the people that are in the earth, they've moved to this one place and they're all kind of buying into this.

[34:39] And now we're going to be given the genealogy. We'll just read through it. I'm not going to give you any meanings of names. You can go through those on your own. Some of them are interesting. But these are the generations of Shem.

[34:51] Shem was 100 years old and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood. So that tells us, kind of gives us an age range for Shem and also puts in perspective how long they might have been building the ark because Shem, Ham, and Japheth would have had been old enough to have wives at the time to go on the ark.

[35:11] And then we're told here that he's 102 years old two years after the flood he has Arphaxad. And then Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad 500 years and begat sons and daughters.

[35:23] So that's 602 years. Noah, we're going to find out, lives 950 years. Noah's the third oldest person. You have Methuselah, you have Methuselah's father, Jared, and then you have Noah in that order.

[35:35] And Noah lived the third longest. God allowed him to live like 300 years after the flood. He only dies two years before Abraham is born. But Noah, he lives 950 years.

[35:48] He's got that pre-flood blood or whatever he's got going on, genetics. We see here Arphaxad lives a total of 638 years or whatever.

[36:02] So it drops drastically. You know, his dad lives 900 some years, he only lives 600 some. So there's a big drop off here. And he begat Selah. And after he begat Selah, he lived 403 years and begat sons and daughters.

[36:16] And Selah lived 30 years and begat Eber. We also see they're having children younger. Shem didn't have Arphaxad until he was 102 years old. A lot of the accounts of the genealogies we looked at before the flood, they're having kids at like 100 years old or 300 or it's like, did they wait that long to have kids?

[36:38] And now we're seeing they're having kids in their 30s. And Selah lived after he begat Eber 403 years and begat sons and daughters. And Eber lived 4 and 30 years and begat Peleg.

[36:52] And Eber lived after he begat Peleg 430 years and begat sons and daughters. Peleg would have been during the time that Babel took place. So he was one generation removed from Nimrod.

[37:03] Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah, builds Babel and then the next generation down, so 30 to 50 years later when Peleg is born, during his lifetime that Babel happens.

[37:20] So Nimrod has had, I don't know, 50 to 70 years to build this kingdom and then God steps in. And Peleg lived 30 years and begat Reu.

[37:31] Peleg lived after he begat Reu 209 years and begat sons and daughters. And Reu lived 2 and 30 years and begat Serug.

[37:42] And Reu lived after he begat Serug 207 years and begat sons and daughters. Did you notice the drop-off again? That it's during the lifespan of Peleg that the earth is divided, that Babel happens.

[37:54] And so we drop from the 900 years before the flood to 600 some years until we get to Peleg. God divides the nations through the languages and now we drop to 200 some years.

[38:08] A quick drop-off again that man is living. Eber will actually outlive Abraham. He lives longer than Abraham. He dies after him. The only ones to die of these patriarchs before Abraham are Noah.

[38:23] He dies two years before and then we're going to get down to Nahor, Terah, Abraham's grandpa. He dies early. All the rest of these guys are alive at the time of Abraham and then Eber actually outlives him and lives longer than him.

[38:35] But you never hear of them. We get to Abraham and God's going to deal with Abraham and his family and he's going to say what? Get out from among your family, Abraham. Get out. Get out of there. And then Sarug, verse 22, lived 30 years and begat Nahor.

[38:52] And Sarug lived after he begat Nahor 200 years and begat sons and daughters. And Nahor lived 9 and 20 years and begat Terah. And Nahor lived after he begat Terah 119 years and begat sons and daughters.

[39:05] So he has a very short lifespan and dies early. And Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. So did he have triplets? No, he didn't have triplets. Didn't have them all in the same year. He was actually 130 years old when he had Abram.

[39:18] We know that because in Genesis 12, next week, verse 4, it tells us that Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran. And we're also told in the New Testament by Stephen that Abraham did not leave Haran until Terah, his father, was dead.

[39:34] So if we work backwards from the age Terah was when he died, that 75 years, we'll get back to 130 when he had Abraham. Abraham was probably the youngest.

[39:45] He's listed first because of prominence, like the Hebrew genealogies do. Haran will die first, but Haran's daughter marries Nahor, Haran and Abram's brother.

[40:00] And then Lot is old enough to be a contemporary of Abraham and travel with him. And so Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

[40:11] Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, Haran, and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity. This is how we know that this is where the whole family is from.

[40:23] In Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, which means princess. That was also Abram's father, Terah.

[40:35] It was his daughter, but it was a different mother. And so Abram marries his half-sister, Sarah, meaning princess. And the name of Nahor's wife, Milca, the daughter of Haran.

[40:49] So he marries his brother's daughter. And her name means queen. You married a princess? I married a queen. One-upping him. And, sorry, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milca, and the father of Isca.

[41:07] So Isca would have been the sister of Milca and Lot, which were Haran's children. But Sarai was barren.

[41:18] She had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. They went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan.

[41:32] And they came unto Haran and dwelt there. Who didn't he take? He took Abram, he took Lot, but he didn't take Nahor.

[41:44] Nahor stayed back in Babylon. We will look more into this next week, how Terah moved first to Haran, how the whole family went.

[41:55] But Terah's name means delay. Delay. And so Abram called because we're going to find out Abraham was called while he was in Ur of the Chaldees to leave his family, but he doesn't.

[42:05] He travels with them to Haran. We'll get that more next week. And they left to go into the land of Canaan. So this is all of them. This is the whole family. Abraham's supposed to leave his family, and he's taking Lot and Terah with him to go to Canaan.

[42:20] It says right here to go to Canaan. We're going to find out Abraham's the father of our faith. And so Abraham is kind of walking, not fully in God's promise, a little bit unsure, but God looks at that and he doesn't condemn him for that.

[42:34] He's like, it's okay, I can work with this. We can handle this because of Abraham's heart and where it was at. And then the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran.

[42:47] And then from there Abraham will leave. And so we've set this up, but God will move now from dealing with the nations and the people, and he will move to one man and one family for the healing of the nations and the people.

[43:08] God's mercy stepped in and stopped mankind from putting themselves in the same position and condition they were in under the flood. Because they had sought religion. They had sought to facilitate their own end instead of the promise of God.

[43:22] And religion always originates not from a desire to seek God. We think that, oh, they're religious, they want to seek God. No, religion originates from a desire to seek man. Man's desire to seek man.

[43:35] They want to satiate that fear and that anxiety because man is created with a need to worship, worship God. Man is created for God.

[43:45] We saw that in Genesis with Adam. He's created for God. And so when you remove yourself from the promise of God, you have to do something. And so man creates religion for the sake of man, not to seek God, to seek man's own end.

[43:58] For us, let's not replace the promise of God with the world's provision. We're provided through the world, right? The Lord uses the world for provision, but it's still God doing it.

[44:10] And we need to recognize that, that it's God's promise. And then lastly, as we're going to see here with Abraham, as this separation is taking place, it's sanctification. Sanctification is just the continual process of separation.

[44:23] It's the continual process as we separate. Every day, we choose to separate, continuing to separate, as we separate unto God from this world and the things of this world and our fallen nature.

[44:36] So as we end, my last scripture was Romans 14, verse 17 says, for the kingdom of God, we looked at a kingdom, and last week we saw the first use of the word kingdom when it said that Nimrod built himself a kingdom.

[44:50] His kingdom is firmly fixed in this world. Man's provision, all about man, humanism. But Romans 14, 17 says, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

[45:06] The kingdom of God is not about the tangible things that make up this life. It's about the things of God. It's about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

[45:18] So we have a tower we run into. You know, I have areas in my life that I can look at and I can see the Lord's hand. And then I have areas I can look at and I can see my hand.

[45:29] And it's not always a smooth process trying to change hands, trying to get my hand off, because I'm so used to providing in that area, or I'm used to a certain system or someone or whatever, providing.

[45:44] You know, even with each other, we provide for one another. That's great, but don't ever let that supersede the promise of God. And if you have to step out alone, if you have to separate yourself out, if someone looks at you and like, I don't even get you, you're speaking a whole new language, do it.

[45:59] Step out in the promise of God. Father, thank you so much, Lord, that your word is faithful. Lord, that your word does not return void.

[46:11] Thank you for the things you use to provide, Lord, to provide for our edification, Lord. Lord, if our tower that we've built with our own hands crumbles, well, we still have you.

[46:25] Nobody can take that strong tower. Nobody can keep me from running to that tower. Nobody. No matter what they do. Paul's proof of that. They chained him and he was still free.

[46:36] Jesus, you are proof of that. You went down into death and it didn't keep you in the presence of your Father. And so we have that opportunity every day, Lord. Help us to continually separate ourselves from the things of this world, humanism, and unto the promises of God.

[46:55] Lord, we thank you that the city that is to come, whose builder and maker is God, there's no anguish there. There's no torment. There's no fear. And Lord, we thank you that we get to walk in the light of the Lamb for all of eternity.

[47:09]  And in Jesus' name, amen.