MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH MARCH 11, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON

Transcription

1 MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH MARCH 11, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON >> LON SOLOMON: You know, last week I was here in the auditorium greeting people before the 10:45 service. And some people brought up a visitor from Israel that was here. And he and I immediately started talking a little bit of Hebrew with one another. Which was great. A few minutes later some folks brought up another visitor from South America. And we did not start speaking Spanish. With one another. Because the only thing I know in Spanish is hasta la vista, baby. And the only reason I know that is because I watched Terminator. Where did all these languages in the world come from, anyway? You know, we're told by anthropologists that there are over 3,000 languages and dialects in our world today. The Bible says it happened at a place named Babel. And we're going to go back to Genesis 11 and see what happened and then we're going to bring all of that forward and talk about, okay, so what difference does that make for you and me? So are you ready? Ready. Here we go. Little bit of background. Remember, after the flood that God starts over with eight people. Noah, his three sons, his three daughter-in-laws and their wife. And they repopulate the earth. Genesis 11 now, Verse 1, as we pick up in Genesis 11:1, what we find out is we're about 150 years after the flood. Here's what the Bible says, Genesis 11, 1. Now, the whole world had the same language and a common speech. And as men moved east ward, they found a plain in Shinar, and they settled there. Shinar is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates River. Modern day Iraq. They found good land for cultivating, abundant water, established an urban community here. And they said to one another, come, let us make bricks. And bake them thoroughly. And they used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar, and they said, come, let us build for ourselves a city. With a tower whose top will reach to heaven. Let's stop for a moment and talk about this tower that the Bible mentions. Archeology has discovered numerous towers in the land of ancient Babylon. They're referred to as ziggurats. And their construction technique was exactly the way the Bible described it. They didn't use stones to build these things, they used furnace-baked bricks made out of mud. And they didn't use concrete or anything like that to stick the bricks together. They used for mortar, they used tar from the tar pits that were all around Babylon. And in fact in the city of Babylon itself, we have found the massive remains of one of these ziggurats. A huge one. And the name of the ziggurats, in Babylon itself, is called E. sag Ila, which means literally the temple whose top is heaven. Does that sound familiar? Well, it should. Verse 4 these people said, come, let us build for ourselves a city with a tower whose top will reach into -- what? Heaven. Yeah. Very interesting. Huh? You say, well, Lon, does that mean that this tower in the ancient city of Babylon that we found, that this is the tower of Babel, the Bible is talking about? No. Can't say that for sure. But what I can say for sure is that this tower in the Bible in Genesis 11 fits with everything we've discovered in archeology about towers in ancient Babylon.

2 And therefore, we are safe to say that here in Genesis 11, we find the first Ziggurat being built and there's no doubt it was a real literal structure. All right, Verse 4 continues. And the said: let us make a name for ourselves and let us not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. The idea of building this city and this tower was for these people to build a strong centralized society. You say, well, what's the problem with that? I mean, so what if these people wanted to build a tower and start a city and consolidate themselves. Well, the problem is that of the flood, God had specifically told Noah and his sons not to do this. Genesis 9:1 says and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Well, you don't fill the earth by all consolidating in one place. But even to be more specific, Verse 7 of that chapter, God said to Noah, be fruitful and multiply, and swarm all over the earth. God wanted the human race after the flood to scatter. He wanted the human race to disperse. Those were his wishes. But in direct defines of his wishes, the people at the tower of Babel decided to coagulate. They said, Verse 4, let us not be scattered over the face of the earth. And this is really important for us to understand here. That what we have in Genesis Chapter 11 is not just a few nice people getting together and deciding to build a city and a tower. No, what we have is direct disobedience on the part of these people to the clearly stated wishes and command of almighty God. God said I want you to go in this direction, and they said, huh-uh, no, we want to go in that direction. Well, you say, Lon, that raises another question. And that is, why did this even matter to God? I mean, as though -- so these people wanted to build a city. What did God care whether they scattered or they all got together and concentrated themselves? Let's let the Bible answer that. Verse 5. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building, and the Lord said, because they are one people, and they all have the same language, this is the only the beginning of what they will do. Nothing they imagine to do will be unachievable for them so long as they speak one language. Hey, you know, when we look at the pyramids, and when we look at the Sphinx, and we look at the ark that Noah built, we realize that ancient man was not an ape-like, pea-brained subhuman ignoramus like some would think, ancient man was smart. Was erudite, was intelligent and highly skilled. And with all these busy little beavers running around working together the way they were, setting up an imperialistic city-state the way they were, dedicated to their own glorification, like they were, God knew that nothing but trouble could come of this. You see, my friends, God knew that they would go on from here to corrupt the world all over again just like they had done before the flood. And he would have to judge the world with a cataclysmic event just like he did with the flood. We need to understand it was out of mercy that God commanded these people to scatter. That he was protecting them from themselves. They were their own worst enemies. But if they scattered, if they stayed separate, there was far less chance that their sin would get out of hand again on a global scale as it

3 had done before the flood, and it was far less chance that God would need to carry out another global judgment against the world. Now, do we all understand that? We do. Okay. All right. So how does God solve this looming problem? Well, look, Verse 7. God said, come, let us go down and confuse their language so that they will not understand each other. Man, that's a simple way to solve the problem. And that's what God did. Verse 8. So the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth. And they stopped building the city. And this is why the place is called Babel, which means literally in Hebrew confusion, because it was here that the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from here the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. You say, all right, Lon, stop for a second. Do you really believe this happened? I mean you really believe there was a tower and the Lord came down from heaven and he scrambled all their languages sore one moment they could all understand each other and the next it was like blah blah blah, and nobody could understand? You believe that happened? I certainly do. I hope you do. It's what the Bible clearly says. And you know, it's interesting that scholarly research has actually come up with two pieces of confirming evidence that Genesis Chapter 11 is telling us the truth. Number one from archeology, archeology confirms that all of modern civilization had its beginnings in Mesopotamia, right between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, exactly where Genesis 11 says they all started. And then from the world of linguistics, linguistics confirms that all human languages can be traced back to one common ancestor language, commonly called proto indoeuropean, a lot like Sanskrit, but it's more ancient than Sanskrit. And isn't this exactly what Genesis 11 says? Let's summarize. When we look around in the world today, we see all the languages. Genesis 11 tells us God did this on purpose. The fact that we can't all understand each other, the fact that we can't all work harmoniously with each other, and the fact that we can't all see eye to eye on everything with each other is God's way of reducing mankind's ability to devise evil and rebel against God on a global scale. And remember, what's the very first official act of the antichrist? What's the first thing he does? The first thing he does is unite the world. Under one society. Under one economy. And why does he do this? He does it so that he can maximize man's sinfulness and turn it into mass rebellion against God. That's what the Bible says. Taking us back to the days before the flood when global sin forced God to enact global judgment. And my friends, that's what the return of Christ is all about. It's global judgment against a world that is in absolute rebellion against God. And how did the antichrist pull this off? Well, by doing exactly the opposite of what God said here in Genesis 11. He didn't scatter the populations of the world, he brought them all together and consolidated their evil against God. Global rebellion against God that God has to come and globally judge.

4 Now, that's as far as we're going to go in our passage. Because we're going to stop now and we're going to ask our most important question. So you guys still awake? You look a little dazed. I know you lost an hour of sleep last night. I understand that. And I don't know about you, but that's devastating for me. Is it devastating for you? Okay. All right. Maybe we should take a siesta, right now. Should we? We're not going to take a siesta. But I need you to wake up. Pass around some smelling salts or Clorox or something. Ready? Ready for this, yes? All right. Loudoun, Prince William. Bethesda. Around the world on the Internet, down in the Edge, you all are ready? Forget the hour of sleep. You'll get it back in the fall. Are you ready? Come on now, here we go. 1, 2, 3. >> ALL: So what?! >> LON SOLOMON: That was wonderful. You say, Lon, so what? Say all right, so you know, maybe I believe this tower was there. And maybe I believe God, you know, scrambled all the languages of these people. But what difference does that make to me? When I go to work or school tomorrow, I understand everybody. What difference does any of this make to me? Well, let's talk about it. You know, here in Genesis 11, my friends, we see on display the most basic flaw in human nature. That flaw, as Frank Sinatra sang, is what? We all want to do it my way. Right. Did you know there was a thing called the national hobo festival? It's in Brit, Iowa, every year. And I was reading about it and I was struck by a quote of one of the hobos that they interviewed. He said, and I quote, the great part about being a hobo is not having to account to anybody. End of quote. Well, friends, there you have it. That pretty well sums up the human spirit. And God put it this way, Isaiah 53:6. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each one of us has turned to -- say it together with me -- his own way. There you go. Isn't that precisely what the people at the tower of Babel did? Yeah. And thousands of years later every one of us is still fighting this problem. And you know, this is the essence of sin in the sight of God. When God thinks about us as sinners, the essence of our sin is not that a murder or cheating or lying or embezzling or stealing. Those are just the symptoms, the outworkings of our sin. The essence of sin is this inbred, instinctive, unruly rebellious desire to do it my way. This is what makes

5 us sinners in the sight of God. And this is what exposes us do the judgment of God. When we give our lives to Jesus, praise the Lord. The judgment aspect of all of this is dealt with. Let's finish the Verse. Isaiah 53:6. The Verse says all of us like sheep have gone astray, each one of us has turned to his own way. Watch, now. But the Lord laid on him, the Lord Jesus on the cross, the judgment due us all. How great is that? And friends, if you're here today, I hope you know the release from judgment that comes when we trust Christ and his work for us on the cross. You say, but Lon, I've done that. So sermon's over. No, no. Not quite yet. No, no. Because even when we trust Christ and the judgment aspect of our unruly nature is removed, that doesn't mean our unruly nature is removed. Oh, no. It's still alive and well right inside of you and right inside of me. You remember the hymn, the great hymn, Come Thou Fount the last versus says prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. This is true of me and true of you. True of all of us. And I don't want it to be this way. I don't like it to be this way. I wish it weren't this way. But I'm a wandering Jew. And you're a wandering gentile. That's just the way it is. This is how our hearts are wired, my friends. And give us the slightest, slightest opportunity and we're going to do exactly what the people in Babel did. We're heading in our own direction. That's us. And we need to face it. And this is where the rub comes. Because the full blessing of God only comes from full obedience to God. Which is 180 degrees in the other direction of the way our human nature wants to go. God said, Jeremiah 7:22, to the Israelites, for in the day when I brought your fathers out of Egypt, I did not command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices u but I gave them this command, obey me. And I will be your God and you will be my people. This is why the garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22, father, if it's possible, please remove this cup from me but yet not my will but Thine be done. This is why 1 Samuel 3, speak Lord, for your servant is listening. This is why later Samuel said to king Saul, behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice. This is why Mary said to the angel Gabriel, Luke 1, I am the Lord's servant. Let it be done to me and you have said. And Jimmy Draper, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention said, Lord, the answer is yes, now, what was the question? Doesn't matter what the question is. The answer is still always going to be yes. The reason all these people adopted this attitude is because they understood if you don't get anything else, get what I'm going to say now, they understood that going our own way and the full blessing of God are mutually exclusive. They're mutually exclusive. One of my favorite writers is A. W. Tozer. And I've quoted part of this from him before, but it wouldn't hurt any of us to hear it again. Here's what he said and I quote. He said have you noticed how much

6 praying for revival has been going on of late and how little revival has resulted? Considering the volume of prayer that is ascending these days, rivers of revival should be flowing. That no such results are in evidence should not discourage us; rather, it should stir us to find out why our prayers are not answered. Tozer says, I believe that our problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. And he's right. Few years ago my wife Brenda and I went down to Union Station in Washington, D.C., we had to pick up something there. And I didn't want to park in the big parking garage behind Union Station. It's much to much trouble. And it's much too expensive and I didn't want to do that. So I went and looked for a space, there are a few spaces around the front where you can park. So I found one. It was great. I mean, this was like make my day parking space. You know what I'm saying? So we went in, and I looked around to see if there was any no parking signs, there were no parking signs in sight. I was like, this is awesome. No meters, no nothing. Went in. We did what we had to do. Came out, and I had a parking ticket. A $50 parking ticket. I didn't even know they made $50 parking tickets. And so I was like, a parking ticket? What is this? There's no no-parking signs around here. There actually was one. It was 30 yards away. And the reason I know that is I paced it off myself. But you couldn't even see it where my car was. No way of knowing it was there. So I get in the car, we're driving home and Brenda and I'm like, I'm not paying this. I am not paying this ticket. This was unfair. There wasn't a sign in sight. I had no way of knowing it. I just won't drive into D.C. anymore. They're not going to come boot my car in Virginia, and I just won't take the car into D.C. anymore. I'm not paying this ticket. (Pounding fist). Brenda said nothing. >> LON SOLOMON: Rode along. Halfway home, I'm not paying this ticket. This is ridiculous. And she turned to me, as she always does in her very calm way and said, Lon, she said, isn't there a Verse in the Bible, Romans 13:1 that says let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities? Beautiful. >> LON SOLOMON: 'Cause there is that verse in there. Well, I paid the ticket. >> LON SOLOMON: I didn't want to pay the ticket. There's only one reason I paid that ticket. And that was this: Friends, no parking ticket is worth jeopardizing the full blessing of God on my life and on my family. That's why I paid the ticket. And nothing you ever want to do in your own flesh is worth jeopardizes the full blessing of God on your life either.

7 Now, as followers of Christ, this is the battle that we deal with every single day. It comes with lots of different faces on, but it's the very same battle. I know I shouldn't be dating this person, but I want to. I know I shouldn't be sleeping with my boyfriend or girlfriend, or going as far as we go on dates; but I want to. I know I shouldn't be harboring unforgiveness towards this person or talking mean and nasty about this other person; but I want to. I know I shouldn't be lusting over women or fudging on my taxes or going to the bar as often as I go there, but I want to. I know I shouldn't go to Las Vegas and Atlantic City or on line and gambling away God's money, I know I shouldn't disrespect my parents, I know that I shouldn't go to this party and be there with that crowd. I know that I shouldn't order this program on pay per view or watch this program on show time. But I want to. I want to, I want to, I want to. Welcome to the disease of the human race. Folk, if we want the full blessing of God on our lives, we must deal with this part of our human nature. You say, Lon, I agree with you, I know you're right. So often I feel like I'm in a life and death struggle against doing it my way, going my way like Frank Sinatra, verses doing what I want. My question is how, how do I beat this? How do I overcome this compulsion in my life to always do it my way? That's a great question. Let's get the answer. How did the Lord Jesus do it in the garden of Gethsemane? In the garden of Gethsemane, it's clear that in his flesh, he did not want to go to the cross. He wanted to go his own way. He said Father, if there's any way to remove this cup from me, take it away from me. That's clear. But by the time it was over, he went to the cross. How did that change happen? How did he bring his will into submission to the will of God? Well, it's very simple my friends u he kept presenting his heart and his struggle to the Lord over and over again in prayer. He brought it to the Lord and honestly admitted to the Lord that he had this trouble, and secondly, he laid it at God's feel over and over again. And third, and maybe most importantly, he didn't give up. If after praying three times hadn't worked, he had have gone back a fourth time and praying four times hadn't worked, he would have gone back a fifth time and sixth time and seventh time. He was not going to give up until the Holy Spirit inside of him subdued his human existence and replaced it with full surrender to the will of God. That's how Jesus did it. And friends, that's the exact same formula that God has given for you and me to use. The secret to victory is found in presenting our hearts to God in prayer over and over and over again like the Lord Jesus did in Gethsemane and not giving up until God subdues our fleshly will and supplants it with an obedience and a surrender to the will of God. You say how does God do this? What mechanism does he use to do that? I don't know. What difference does it make? Who cares what mechanism he uses? You say, how long will it take? It will take as long as it takes. That's all I can tell you. It will take as long as it takes. But the key point is, no matter how long it takes, we don't give up. We stay there if we want God's full

8 blessing 'til God supplants our waywardness with the will of God and a surrender to it. Now, let me just close by saying I know a number of you are sitting here and saying, Lon, that's really sweet, God bless you up there, man, but this isn't going to work. This is not going to work. You know, I you know, this is just pulpit talk. Listen to me, the reason you're saying that is you want something more empirical, something you can put in a test tube, a process you can weigh on a balance, a process that you can diagram on a chalk board. Folks, this is deep talking to deep, this is spiritual conversation here. This is spiritual truth. This work in a person's heart is a spiritual, supernatural work. And it cannot be quantified on a bulletin board or in a test tube or on a balance. That doesn't mean it isn't real. And it doesn't mean it doesn't work. And it doesn't me be it's not powerful. Don't you kid yourself. If it worked for the Lord Jesus, it will work for you and me. You know, many of you have heard me talk about the hatred that I had growing up for my mother. It wasn't just a nice hatred. It was a visceral hatred for decades that I had. It was like Excalibur stuck in the stone in my life. That nobody could remove. And frankly, for most of the years of my life, I didn't even want it removed. I was happy about this. She deserved it. But you know, the Lord convicted me when I was a young father that this was wrong. That this was sin. And that it was going to hinder the blessing of God on my family, my life, my ministry here at McLean. So I began asking the Lord to bring my will into subjection to his will so I could forgive my mother, to pull Excalibur out of the stone in nigh life. You say how long did it take? Two years. You say two years? Two years. Friends, what did we say? We don't give up. And my mom and I ended our -- her life together here on earth, ended our relationship here on earth being able to hug each other, kiss each other, and tell each other that we love one another. I didn't believe anybody could pull that sword out of that stone in my life. But the Holy Spirit did. And some of us here have Excaliburs in our life just like that. And we're convinced I'll never beat this. There's no way this sword's ever coming out of this stone. Friend, don't you dare believe that. That is the biggest lie of Satan ever told. The Holy Spirit can pull any sword out of any rock in any heart if he's given the chance. So you give him the chance. But you can't just look at the Lord Jesus went back three times and he was the Son of God in the flesh. Don't you think this is necessarily going to happen in one day or two days or a week. But it will happen. I promise you. I don't know how. Can't explain it to you, I'm just telling you, it is the way we tame our waywardness. Is by staying before the Lord every day, every moment of every day, and saying, Lord, prone to wander -- huh -- Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave you today? I'm not just prone to leave you, Lord. If you don't help me, I'm a going to walk away and do something stupid today. Here's my heart. Lord, you got to take my heart. And you got to seal it for you. I'm telling you, it worked for Jesus, it will work for you today.

9 Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thanks for talking to us today about real problems, real struggles that we all have. In fact, this is the biggest problem we have in life. As I said, it has lots of faces, but it's the same problem. We want to do it like Frank Sinatra. Lord Jesus, remind us today that that is not the way to bless him. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the ways thereof are the ways of death, the Bible says. If we really want your blessing, we have to do it your way. And so may we become people who lay our hearts before you each and every day and say, Lord Jesus, pull the swords out of the stones in my life today. Subdue my waywardness and my will today. And bring me to the point of sweet surrender to doing it your way today. Lord, the answer is yes. Bring me to the point I can say, now what was the question? Lord, change our hearts because we were here. And change the very way we approach this problem in our life. Because we sat under the teaching of the eternal word of God. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, what did God's people say? >> ALL: Amen. >> LON SOLOMON: Amen. Hey, have a great week. God bless you guys. See you. (Music) *** This transcript is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or captioning are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ****