Connecting Through the Word Man s Humanistic Brick vs God s Living Stone Genesis 10-11

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1 Connecting Through the Word Man s Humanistic Brick vs God s Living Stone Genesis Peter 2:4-6 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Genesis 11:1-9 1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then 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. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 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 will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another s speech. 8 So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 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. Remember Genesis is the Book of Beginnings The Book of Generations Genesis 1 & 2 - Creation Genesis 3 Fall of Man Genesis 4 Cain & Abel.. Seth Genesis 5 Enoch, Methuselah, Noah Genesis 6, 7, 8 The Flood Today we will cover Genesis 9, 10 & 11 Genesis 9 after the Flood several things in this chapter.

2 Only Noah, his wife, his three son, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives 8 people survive the Flood. Noah lives another 350 years. What was the first thing Noah did when he came off the ark? He built an altar and makes a sacrifice. He worships!!!!!! Genesis 8: Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Maybe here the first mention of seasons spring and fall, summer and winter. After the flood everything had changed. Noah and his sons are given command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The beginning and institution of human government in vs. 6 Genesis 9:6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Important to note: this is the basis for capital punishment in the Bible. Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. In the New Testament Paul writes: Romans 13:1-4 1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword

3 in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God s wrath on the wrongdoer. The Noachic Covenant Genesis 9 Genesis 6:18 first mention of covenant In Genesis 9 7 times God uses the word covenant God is a covenant God A covenant is an agreement between two parties. An agreement that God makes with man. Two kinds of covenants in Bible Conditional begins with if Unconditional no if Usually confirmed by the shedding of Blood Major covenants in Bible: Noachic Covenant a promise not to destroy Abrahamic Covenant a people covenant Palestinian Covenant a land covenant Davidic Covenant a throne covenant Old Testament Old Covenant - Law New Testament New Covenant Grace The Blood of Jesus Christ Hebrews The Bow. The bow of promise comes after the altar of sacrifice. As all the colors of nature are in the bow, so all the promises of God are in Christ. Every divine perfection is manifested in the resurrection glory of Jesus. Christ as our Sacrifice is seen on the altar of the Cross; Christ as our Intercessor is seen in the bow of His mediatorial glory. The bow is 1. A Token of God's Goodness. How kind of God to give such a visible expression of His love and favour, such an assurance of heart. If Christ is not risen we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen (1 Cor. 15:17-20). 2. A Token of God's Fullness. There is fullness of color and beauty in the bow, a fullness that is in sweetest harmony. Think of the fullness of the Godhead in Jesus Christ, in Him for us, and all in perfect harmony with a just and holy God. O the riches of His glorious grace! 3. A Token of God's Faithfulness. "I do set My bow for a covenant" (chap. 9:13). The setting of Christ at God's right hand is to us who believe a token of eternal security. He is faithful who hath promised. "Do you believe on the Son of God?" (John 9:35). Then Genesis 10 Description of the family lines of Shem, Ham and Japheth

4 The line of Christ is going to come from the line of Shem. The next chapter 11 gives a more detail account. We are introduced to Nimrod a son of Cush, a son of Ham. Genesis 10: Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. Therefore it is said, Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD. 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. Nimrod his name means rebel Mighty powerful, strong, famous Hunter before the LORD before or against many believe he was a hunter of men he subdued men under him. Nimrod "began to be a mighty one in the earth" (10:8), that is, he became a hero. He enabled men to break away from the shackles of true religion, which bound them to God. He was "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (10:9). The word translated "before" is rendered "against" in some versions. He campaigned in a spirit of defiance and with evident success. Nimrod was a Hamite. No doubt the people of his day looked upon him as a champion, one who would rid them of the restrictive religious notions kept alive by Shem, the godly founder of the Semitic race. He was the first, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini He led the world in rebellion against God Mighty Builder Babel Nineveh Nimrod's empire was founded at Babel (Babylon) the word is Semitic and means "the gate of the god." After the dispersion of the nations, Babylon became a great city ruling over the destinies of men. Wherever men went they took with them the Babylonian pagan mystery religious system. By the time of Nebuchadnezzar the city covered an area of 225 square miles. God sent the apostate, idolatrous Jews back to Babylon in exile so that there, in the homeland of idolatry, they might be forever cured of idolatry. Now Genesis 11 Man s Brick vs God s Stone The Cause of Man's Dispersal (11:1-9) The root cause for the dispersal of the nations was the building of the tower of Babel, a project which,

5 seemingly, was under the sponsorship of Nimrod. The building of Babel was intended to signify and promote the unity of the race. There was to be "one world." The world's first federation of nations, it epitomized the last, for human history begins and ends at Babel (Revelation 17-18). As there was a great rebel standing behind the first Babel, so there will be a great rebel behind the last one. As the first united nations organization centered everything in a cultural, political, and religious unity, so will the last. Here in Genesis is man's first attempt to build a society from which God was to be excluded. But God refuses to be ruled out of human affairs so, consequently, He came down in judgment upon the scene. 1. Their Materials (11:1-3) The narrative first indicates with what materials the world organization was to be built. Four times in the story the words "let us" occur. Three times men used the word and once God used it. The four references tell the story. First they said: "Let us make us brick and burn them thoroughly" (11:3). God builds with stone (1 Peter 2:4-8). The coming world empire of Christ is depicted as one of stone (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45). But man uses brick. "They had brick for stone and slime had they for mortar" (11:3). Brick is simply hardened clay, a fitting symbol for humankind. That ancient world empire, in other words, was humanistic. Nothing really lasting can be made out of hardened clay and slime. All human things are bound to be faulty and frail. The slime used by those old world builders was bitumen, a tenaciously adhesive substance. What a contrast between the precious stones of the heavenly city (Revelation 21:19) and the clay and slime of Babel! The slime is just as symbolic as the clay. It reminds us that the adhesive the coming Beast will use to bond together the last Gentile world empire will be equally tenacious and similarly vile. Not for nothing is he called "the man of sin." He will unite men in wickedness and bind them together in a godless union in which vice is glorified and enthroned.

6 Yet it was not all slime. Those postdiluvian builders were "of one language, and of one speech" (11:1). In other words, they had a cultural unity, they thought alike, they expressed themselves in identical terms, and they were anxious to keep it that way. Their sameness of thought and speech, their regimentation of expression is of one piece with all the rest. It points forward to the coming empire of the Beast. Already we can see how mass communication media regiment the thinking of men. Brainwashing techniques have been so perfected that China, with eight hundred million people, was able to produce in a very short space of time a uniform Maoman, with everyone shouting the same slogans, all reading the same little red book. The Beast will perfect the process and brainwash the world. 2. Their Method (11:4a) The narrative tells of the method those first world federalists used to achieve their goal. "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven" (11:4). They were to have a political unity, symbolized by the city, and They were to have a religious unity, symbolized by the tower. The expression "whose top may reach unto heaven" contains an ellipsis. The idea can perhaps be better stated: "Let us build... a tower and its top with the heavens." The idea was not to build a tower so tall it would reach to heaven, but to build a tower topped by the heavens, that is, by the signs of the zodiac. Astronomical and astrological data were to be associated with that tower. God was not in their thoughts at all. Stargazing and occultism were to be the features of their religious system. Again, the whole thing looks ahead to the last world empire, which will bear the same hallmarks. The Beast will make great use of religion, but it will be religion based on occultism and the worship of himself. Likewise he will have a world-embracing political system that will lock mankind into submission to his will. 3. Their Motive (11:4b) The motive of those ancient world empire builders is also stated. "Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (11:4).

7 The whole idea was to glorify humanity and to bind men together in a permanent union, and that in defiance of God's will. 4. Their Mistake (11:5-9) They reckoned without God. Moses tells of the Lord's appearing. "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built" (11:5). The appearing was followed by the Lord's advent. "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language." The Lord descended in judgment upon the scene. That was their mistake. They had ruled God out of their thinking and thereby imagined they had rid themselves of Him, only to find at last that His answer to such folly is swift and lasting judgment. God has never permitted men to realize a lasting social order from which He is excluded, nor will He do so to the end. The First Part of this chapter Man s humanistic brick building efforts to glorify man and his abilities. The Last Part of this chapter God s divine stone building program to produce a Godly seed that would become the cornerstone of the building that would bring salvation to man. Babel gate to heaven man s effort turns to chaos and confusion of languages. Babel becomes confusion men are disperse and divided. In New Testament on day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit men speak one language and everyone understands and come together to Jesus!!!!! And Glorify God. Acts 2: Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,

8 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. Today, you can try to build your life your humanistic way that focuses on you with the man-made bricks of secular philosophies and man-made religion that leaves the true God of heaven and His Son Jesus totally out of the picture. Or you can come to the Living Stone Jesus Christ and become one of His building Stones that build His Church and Glorifies Him and brings the gospel to the nations!!!!!! It s your choice!!!!! Ephesians 4: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. It s always been Christ or Anti-Christ!!!! Humanistic Bricks or God s Living Stones!!!!!! 1 Peter 2:4-6 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.