Tower Building

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 98

Psalm 98 ESV

A Psalm. Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

Scripture Memorization: Genesis 50:19-20

Genesis 50:19–20 ESV

But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

NT Scripture Reading (Micah): Acts 2:1-13

Acts 2:1–13 ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Sermon:

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00:00

Well once again, and as always, good morning church. I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord. But today, we turn our attention to. A very famous story. A very important story and a story that is. In some ways, very close to my heart.

00:23

We'll be looking at the Tower of Babel. And I have been getting ready for this sermon. Uh, since the beginning of the year, we could say. Maybe even since last year? I wrote I took a class last semester. I went to. A intensive class in Dallas. I took Genesis through Deuteronomy.

00:48

I ended up writing my paper in this in that class on this. Vary text, and just to be honest, I'm cheating a little bit. The bulk of what we will talk about today. I'm stealing from myself. I'm plagiarizing myself. And that paper. So? For fun. For me, maybe it's fun for you.

01:12

I printed out a few copies of that paper. I put it on the back table. I'll warn you, my professor in grading the paper. Said that it was a an a paper in terms of content. A, b paper. In terms of editing NAC paper in terms of correct formatting of footnotes.

01:36

And so. Do without what you will. The important part to me is the content, and that was the a part, so it's back there for you. I haven't edited it since I turned it in, so all the typos all the everything else they're still in there. But the bulk of what we'll talk about today.

01:57

Is found there. In that text, we are talking about the Tower of Babel. And in this text, what we have is. In many ways, the transition from. Pre-History, the creation of the world Noah, and those stories into. Covenantal history. The Patriarchs, Abraham Isaac, Jacob Jacob's son, Joseph. A story from.

02:27

A moving from times when the stories cover vast time frames to one person's life coming into Focus. And so it's important for that reason. It's important because it offers insight into how the world works. It also offers insight into how we live even now currently. So, again, our text, the Tower of Babel, Genesis chapter 11, verses 1 through 9, will be our text this morning.

02:58

Let's begin by reading God's word. Starting in verse 1. Now, the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the East, they found a plane in the land of shinar, and they settled there. And they said to another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.

03:21

And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. And they said, come, let us build ourselves, a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

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And the Lord said, behold. They are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do now will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech.

04:02

So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the Earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel. Because there, the Lord confused the language of all the Earth. And from there, the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the Earth.

04:20

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let's open our time together. With the word of prayer. Oh Lord, our Lord, how Majestic is your name and all the Earth? And we do praise you, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And you are God Seated on the throne of?

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And we ask. Looks like the psalmist. Who is man that you would be mindful of us? And you have loved us, saved us, and redeemed us according to your goodness and mercy and Grace. Thank you for these precious gifts. We thank you for your word given to us that we might know you and hear from you and understand what you have done and said, teach us according to your word.

05:03

Reveal yourself to us. May we be a people changed by the hearing of your word. It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Here. The Tower of Babel is a fascinating and well-known story. It's one of those stories in scripture that. Has moved past in many ways, just a text in sacred scripture and moved into a, a sort of.

05:31

The whole world knows of the Tower of Babel. The the story is famous or Infamous, I guess, depending on your point of view. And this is the the origin of languages is well known. And yet, I would say. That it's not well known. Though we could go to almost anyone, and they could tell you what the Tower of Babel is, and there's movies and shows and video games at all reference and talk about and are based on this sort of story.

06:00

I believe they missed the point. And so the goal is to to look at to understand what exactly is happening in this text to try to get the point of what's being said here. And the first thing we have to do, is, is, evaluate, well, what's going on? And it, the heart.

06:21

This is a a narrative about a tower. That is being built. It is a story that is on the surface level. About Tower building.

06:35

But to see the heart, we have to go deeper than just Tower building. We start by looking at what is the towers? Origin. Well, this starts in verse one. We're given an introduction to the whole scene, but also, it's important. I think this tells us the beginning of the tower, the whole earth had one language and the same words, the Hebrew.

06:58

Here, they had one lip. And one word. They had a common language. Now, there's argument amongst biblical Scholars is this sort of one language across the entire world? Is this, there's one sort of? It's, we call the language of Finance. There's one sort of business language that everyone knows, and everyone has their their tribal languages in our current world, it's largely English, right.

07:29

Business is done in English and most places you go. You can speak that. But there are different languages all around is, that's what's being spoken of. It's hard to tell exactly, but this is what we know all people could communicate, and there was Unity part of the tower's origin comes.

07:48

From a overwhelming sense of unity. That the people had. And they migrate verse 2, they migrate from the East, and they found a plane in the land of shinar and settled there. Just to remind us if we go back to last week's sermon in Genesis chapter 10, verse 10.

08:08

We were talking about Nimrod. This is what we talked about, a Grace group last week. The beginning of his kingdom, the ESV says, was Babel Eric Acadia and kalna in the land of? Shinar. So, this is our tie part of the tower's origin. Ties back to Nimrod, a mighty Hunter before the Lord.

08:30

Again, we talked in Grace group. That's not a good thing. He's opposing the Lord part of the tower's origin, then. If it's growing in a city that is set in opposition. To the Lord. Verse 3, they said to one another. Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.

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And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. The origin of the Tower of Babel. To say it as plainly plainly as I can is.

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Sinful. Ingenuity. There is human good Ingenuity, a lot of progress, and good things that we see. God has given us many good gifts and one of the good gifts he's given mankind is wisdom and intellect, and even a sense of creativity. And often human Ingenuity is used for good and right purposes.

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New surgeries are developed to help people recover from different diseases and ailments different. Create I, for one, am glad for human Ingenuity that discovered. Even though I'm not a huge fan of swamp coolers, swamp coolers, the coolest and air conditioners that really get us cold in the summer. A human engineer is not necessarily sinful, but here in the Tower of Babel, I believe it is sinful human Ingenuity that comes into the Forefront.

09:56

This thought that they're making bricks and burning them thoroughly. Shows that that where they are at. There are certain difficulties that need to be overcome. They're not going to build this Tower out of stone, they're not going to carve Stone from the Mountainside and bring it down. This isn't even like if we go to, like Egypt, and we see the pyramids where stone is gathered, harvested, brought, and fashioned.

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They are using human Ingenuity to build together these bricks, burning them thoroughly, making them stronger.

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Using brick instead of stone. They have bitumen for mortar. This is human Ingenuity at its finest in their creativity, but it's worse. In what they are doing. Why do I say it's sinful human Ingenuity? Well, because the builders show their hands the tower Builders tell us. Their goals. And the goals of the tower Builders.

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To say it is plainly and simply as I can is. They desire to be God and their thought, their heart and their intention is. If we human beings do our best, we too will be like God. We, too, will be him Almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing. We can do that. That is in some their goal, but they break it into three different thoughts.

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The first thing that they intend to do to be like God is to invade God's places. Verse 4, they said, come, let us build ourselves a city in a tower. With its? In the heavens. Are not saying here to be clear. Let's make a really tall tower. Though it likely was.

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A fairly tall tower. To say we want the top of our city and Tower to be in the heavens is to say, we want to be where God is not in a humble, worshipful adoration way, but in a way that says, we deserve it. We can earn it. We will get it in our strength and our might.

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The tower Builders desire to be like God by having a place where they themselves can sit and be like God. The picture here is one where they have set up a tower. They've set even probably a throne on the top of this Tower that they can look out over all that they see and claim rulership and ownership over all of this.

12:46

This Tower in the plane of shinar. They are claiming it allows them to be able to see over all of creation and claim some sort of ownership. Because they sit. In the Throne of? They sit. In God's places. The first goal of the tower Builders is sinful human Ingenuity, seeking to invade God's places.

13:12

But in doing that, their sinful heart is even more exposed as they seek to invade God's prerogatives. Again in being in his places. That is one of God's prerogatives, but they drive it even further. They said, come let us build for ourselves. The city in a tower with its top in the heavens, we'll go to God's places and.

13:35

Verse 4. Let us make a name for ourselves. We. A name. They desire. A name above all names. They desired. Worship and adoration and eternal remembrance. Jesus Christ to give us some new testament context of exactly. So, when we hear well, okay, they want a name. What's wrong with wanting a name?

14:12

What's the name they want? They want the name that Jesus has. Jesus has the name that is above every other name, the name that to which every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. A name is your power, your influence, your importance in many ways.

14:31

And to want this name. They're saying we want? Remembrance, power, and authority. We want rule over creation. We want these things that are Gods. We want to have what God has. We want to sit in his places and have a name like his name.

14:56

We claim we praise. We should praise, O Lord, our Lord, how Majestic is your name in all the Earth? The tower Builders wanted to build a tower that would be for them a remembrance. Look at us and our name. We even see this sort of phenomenon happening in modern times.

15:20

You build a tower? You name it after yourself? Trump Tower. Sears towel. We name these things. Because the name of this building that stands there as a symbol. Icon of what our name can be. It's important to us. And the tower Builders have said we want. That same thing.

15:50

We want God's Fame as ultimately what they're saying. Because they want to sit in his places, have a name, have God's prerogatives, and ultimately, they want to be their own rulers because they seek to overthrow God's commands.

16:08

They. To not do what God has told them to do? They said, so this is all in verse four. All of their goals are listed in verse four, so one they want to invade God's places. Let us build a tower, a city and a tower with its top in the heavens.

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Two, they want to invade God's prerogatives. Let us make a name for ourselves. And three, knowing that God has said to mankind in Genesis 3. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth knowing that God has said to Mankind and Noah in the Covenant in Genesis chapter 7.

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And fill the Earth or sorry. In Genesis, chapter 8, go, you take everything that you may swarm on the earth. Be fearful and multiply and fill the Earth. Hear the tower Builders say let's build a tower. We can get to God's places. We can have a name as powerful as God's and three.

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Lest we be displaced over the face of the whole earth, we don't want to scatter. We like being together. We like our city. We like our Tower. We like it here in the land of shine. Are we like it this way? We don't want to follow God's commands. So, maybe if we build a tower and it's big enough, and our city is nice enough, and our seat is in heaven enough, and our name is strong enough, then we won't have to listen.

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To God.

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This is the sin. Of the tower Builders. They want to be God. They want to use their thoughts, their intellect, their their ideas. Their strength, their might, and their building prowess to sit in God's places.

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To have a name. As

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great as

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God's. And to throw off the archaic. Ill thought out. Poorly planned oppressive commands. Of God.

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Just like.

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We all do today.

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Though we don't try to build towers to get to heaven. We still seek to invade God's places.

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We want to be seated on the throne. We want to be the final, the biggest place to just be Frank and honest that I see current modern Humanity seeking to invade God's places. We want to sit on the throne of judgment being able to declare what we feel is right and wrong.

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We desire Humanity to invade God's prerogatives where we can say.

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That we have the strength and we have the might.

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As Nietzsche famously said, God is dead, and we killed him.

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And surely we seek to overthrow God's commands.

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Because Love Is Love. And we should allow people to marry whoever they want to.

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And murder's not murder. If you're murdering. Someone's still in the womb.

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And we can do what we want and say what we want and live, how we want and do what we want. We don't need God's commands. And so we are in. I use. We sort of corporately Humanity that tries to do these things. For a world of hurts. Because I believe the tower's origin. The tower's goals serve to lay the foundation for us to see, oh, so clearly. God's sovereignty. The Tower of Babel is not a story I believe at its heart about the way that languages were created. Though it is that? The story of the Tower Babel is not a story at its heart, even about how incredible man is.

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Credit to man God even comes. And says, behold, there one people. They have one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. There's a way to read that that, like mankind, can do a lot. Fair warning! This is what we'll talk about in Grace group today or this week. I don't think that's praise from God. I think what he's saying, ultimately, is there is no evil that is beyond the pale of what human beings will try to do. There is nothing evil and vile and sinful that mankind, if they put their mind to it, they will not try to achieve. I think that's what God's saying here.

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But ultimately this is a story.

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About God, the high King of Heaven. Because what becomes beautiful in this text in this beautifully put together story. Moses knew what he was doing when he wrote the Old Testament, and you see it in the beauty of stories like this. The threefold goals of the tower Builders are trumped by God's sovereignty perfectly, every time. So, the first, let's take this a step at a time to see how Sovereign God is. The tower Builders sought to invade God's places. Let us build ourselves a city and Tower with its top in the heavens. Genesis 11, 5. The beginning of God's response.

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And the Lord God came down to see the city and the tower.

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Verse 7, this thought is repeated. Come, let us go down. The tower Builders and all their strength and might sought to build a tower with its top in the heavens and the tower. They built the highest Tower they could achieve was so tall. That God still had to come down from Heaven just to see the tower. This is, don't read this, literally. God sees all things he is Sovereign over all things. He is omnipotent, omnipresent. This is using language to prove a point. They didn't make it. Not even close. Mankind in their strength, their stated goal. Let's get to heaven. Turns out God still has to come down to even just see their talent.

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It is so small, so puny, in comparison to The Sovereign King of Heaven that he must come down just to see their cute little towel. Come, let us go down. God's sovereignty trumps the man's desire to invade his places every single time.

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It trumps their prerogatives. They desire to make a name for themselves and what they desired with this name. Was Fame recognition and a sense of immortality?

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God. Gives them a name. They wanted a name for themselves. God comes down. And gives them a name verse 9. Therefore, its name was called. Babble. Because they're the Lord confused, the language of all the Earth.

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This for the builders is a great tragedy. They desired to get a name. They got one. But it's not when they want it. To name a failure. And confusion. They're being made fun of. In the words of Holy Scripture from which not one jot or tittle will pass away, we have recorded. Their name. It's full of folly. And fallenness. It's Babble. Because God. Confuse their language. The Sovereign King of? Gave them this name. God's sovereignty trumped the goal of the Tower Builders to invade his places. He had to come down. He trumped their goal to invade God's progress. They wanted a name for themselves. God gave them a name, and it's not one they wanted. And finally, they desired to overthrow God's commands, their goal. We don't want to be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. Genesis chapter 11, verse 9, and from there, the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the Earth.

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You can't overthrow God's commands. Because he's The Sovereign. King of Heaven.

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God's bigger. God's greater. God's stronger. God's better. Who are you? Oh, man. To seek to build a tower to invade God's places. You can't do it the highest, most powerful, most impressive Tower. You can build mankind since the tower building. We have been able to send the Voyager probes we've sent them far outside the realm of what is even fathomable in terms of distance away from the earth, and we are still no closer? To God. Before he holds the universe in the palm of his head.

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Mankind seeks. Even since now in all that mankind can do, we have tried to invade God's prerogatives and throw off his Rule and do all these things, and we fail every single time, because God alone is Sovereign. That's the point of this story.

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The final narrative here. Before we get into the story of Abraham. Is really a story that teaches us once again in beautiful ways. That God is God. God Alone is God, and God will do what God will do. And we have no say in the matter.

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So, your options become.

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Be a tower Builder.

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Or be a worshiper.

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The tower Builders face the dire results of God's sovereignty. The worshipers. Will praise His name forever. Feels to me like a fairly simple choice. Let's pray.