The sermon titled 'The Tower To Make A Name' focuses on Genesis 11, where humanity attempts to build the Tower of Babel to create a name for themselves and avoid being scattered across the earth. This act of rebellion against God's command to fill the earth illustrates human pride and a desire for self-glorification. The sermon highlights the absence of God in their plans and their failure to follow His command to spread out. In response, God intervenes by confusing their language, creating linguistic barriers that lead to their dispersal. This divine intervention showcases God's sovereignty and the futility of human efforts when they go against His will. The sermon draws parallels to modern-day life, emphasizing humility and the importance of exalting God's name over personal glory. It also contrasts the city of man, represented by Babel, with the city of God, which is characterized by obedience and humility. The ultimate message underscores the need for a transformation through Christ rather than mere new beginnings, pointing towards the unity and praise of God as the end goal.

Title of the sermon this morning is The Tower to Make a Name. People of earth decide to make a name for themselves. How exciting. So they embark on making a wonder of the world. So these nine verses are about the tower to make a name.

Last week we had chapter 10, it's a genealogy, it's known by theologians as the table of nations. Where do nations come from? Genesis chapter 10 tells us you can archaeologically really substantiate almost all of the 70 names. It's amazing. This is really the best, most accurate history of antiquity of anything on the face of the earth.

It shouldn't surprise us, but it is wonderful, isn't it? I find it wonderful. Each of the three sections, so Noah has three sons, Japheth, then Ham, then Shem, reverse the order from what we had seen. Each of those three sections in chapter 10 ended with a summary verse. Let me just give you an example.

Just one of those summary verses was verse five, chapter 10, verse five. From these, the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations. So this spoke of separation into lands, spreading out into different geographies and with different languages. So chapter 11 actually backs up and explains how those geographic separations happened. We were just with Noah and his sons getting off the ark, and they start having children.

When did the separation into different geographic areas happen? This tells us when that happens, and how the earth came to have different languages. One family's getting off the ark, they all speak the same language. Noah and his son spoke the same language, and their children spoke that language, and their grandchildren spoke that language. So how do we get to a place where we have all these different languages?

Genesis chapter 12 explains that. When Noah and his three sons got off the ark, they were in one place, they had one language, they began to have children who had children who had children. And this is taking us forward in history. Let's pray. God, here we are again, opening your word, putting our fingers in our Bibles, going phrase by phrase to try to mine gold out of this.

And I thank you for the abundance of gold in this passage. I pray that you would help me to do some sense of justice to it. I am eager to preach it and I pray that there would be eager ears here, people hungry to be fed by your word and that you would do it among us in Jesus name. Amen. Just two subdivisions today, one through four and five through nine.

So hopefully your Bibles are open to Genesis chapter 11 still and follow along as I reread verses 1 through 4. Genesis 11 verses 1 through 4. And the whole earth had one language, one speech. They came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.

They had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar and they said come let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth. Did I say 135? I meant 134. I don't know what I said. In 134 we have a unifying wonder to keep from being scattered.

So if you're taking notes on the handout, wonder is the word that fills in the blank. A unifying wonder, a wonder of the world to keep from being scattered, a grand project to rally around, to be this unifying thing that keeps people together. Start with one language and one speech and One general geographical area. People have stayed together. None of the families have yet moved off very far at all.

By one language and one speech, I assume it means one and the same language spoken in one and the same way. Meaning that they didn't have the significant regional differences that can develop even within the same language. We went to Boston years ago and Janet didn't think they were speaking English. They were speaking English, but Connor, don't look puzzled. I know it's English, Connor.

Just didn't sound like it to Janet's southern ears. This singular population body migrates eastward. I prefer the NASB translation journeyed east instead of what we have in the New King James journeyed from the east. You can make arguments to translate it either way I preferred I preferred journeyed east not because of the linguistic considerations I'm not qualified to make arguments one way or the other but simply because I think that they are moving from modern-day Armenia or Turkey, the mountains of Ararat, to modern-day Iraq, which is where Shinar and Babel, which later becomes Babylon. And that is an eastward movement.

So the translation I like just reflects that I think there's an eastward movement happening from modern-day Armenia or Turkey to modern-day Iraq. Shinar is an area in modern-day Iraq where both the great rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates flow and There are great plains in this land, so this is an excellent place to settle. You have two great rivers and a good plain for settlement. They do that, they settle there. Then the declaration start.

There are three, come let us statements. Come let us make bricks. When you bake a brick thoroughly, it is hard as a rock and It's strong and made to last there's been recent research on the Coliseum in Rome and they've wondered about the characteristics of the brick that make the Colosseum that have outlasted so many of the other structures of antiquity and they found out that they can tell by the way they made the bricks they baked them at high temperatures and it made them harder and longer lasting than the other bricks of antiquity. Isn't that interesting? You should look that up on Google later, but that's why you can go visit the Coliseum today when so many of the other structures built around the same time don't exist.

You bake a brick thoroughly and it's hard as a rock and strong and made to last. This is what they were doing. Come let us build a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens so something great not a little structure a marvel of the world a tower whose purpose is to be a marvel, to be seen far and wide, known to the ends of however far spread the population would become. So we're not solving for adequate office space here. Is it tall enough?

Do we have enough office space? No, no, no. This is to be a marvel of the world, to make a name for themselves. Finally, let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. Earth.

A unifying grand project. Now, what are the identifiable problems here? You can tell from how our text ends that there are big problems here. What are the identifiable problems? At least two.

Where is God and why aren't they doing what God said? Let's take them one by one. Identifiable problem number one. Where is God? There's no mention of God.

Want to make a name for themselves, but nothing is said of God. These are the descendants of Noah, the man who walked with God. But these appear to be a people who are very, very different than their forefather Noah, the man who walked with God. Why is the key objective their own greatness? The making and magnifying of their own name What about the name of Jehovah Elohim Remember that from the early chapters?

The Lord God, Lord in all caps, Jehovah God, which is the translation for Elohim. Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God, the self-existing divine one, the self-existing transcendent one who transcends all the limitations that we know God doesn't have any of those limitations of time or power or knowledge. God walked with their forefathers, What about his name? Problem number two. Why aren't they doing what God said?

God told Adam and Eve and therefore the race of image bearers be fruitful and multiply fill the earth Genesis 128 God told Noah and his three sons and therefore the race of image bearers be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." Genesis 9, 1. God didn't want a singular population body all in one geographical region. He wanted his image bearers to fill the earth. Now of course that couldn't happen all at once. But these people are actually guarding against, in our text, they are guarding against what God said people were to do verse For the end of verse 4 last we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth Less we do what God said we should do my translation of that Calvin said this this is a truly memorable history in which we may perceive the greatness of men's obstinacy against God.

Obstinacy is stubbornness. How stubborn men are against God and the little profit they receive from His judgments. How many generations Are we from a global flood for rebellion? Now there's a picture painted, but God's nowhere in the picture and they're making a name for themselves and they won't do what He said to do. How little profit they got from the worldwide flood, even though it was reduced to just Noah and his family and their descendants.

Noah is probably still alive when this is happening, by the way. He lived 350 years after the flood. Rebellion against God resulted in the global flood and here we go again. Have we learned nothing? Apparently not.

As Noah and his family were coming off the ark God said the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. And here they are. And here's what they're imagining, guarding against what God told image bearers to do and making a name for themselves. So what God said is they're coming off the ark. The imagination of their heart is evil from their youth.

Here they are. What are they imagining? Let's build a tower. Let's stay together. Let's make a name for ourselves.

Let's be great. Oh God, would you please have mercy on us? You see any of yourself in this? I see so much of myself in this. So that is the plan for a unifying wonder to keep from being scattered.

Now verses 5 through 9. We're already Halfway through the sermon at 14 minutes. We have a 28 minute sermon here. Don't you believe it? Verses 5 through 9 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

And the Lord said, Indeed the people are one and they all have one language and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

In these verses we have the overriding hand. If you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, hand fills in the blank, the overriding hand. They had plans, they were taking actions, they were overridden by the hand that overrides. This is the hand of God. Let's take verse five, phrase by phrase.

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. The image bearers had made their come let us declarations and acted, but the Lord." Here comes the overriding hand. They made their declarations, they acted on it, but the Lord. In Jeremiah 44 verse 28, listen to this, Jeremiah 44 verse 28, God says, they shall know whose words will stand, mine or theirs." So Jeremiah 28, the people in rebellion of God had said one thing and God had said another and God says, oh, now we're going to see. Now we're going to see.

Somebody's word is going to stand and somebody's word is not going to stand. We'll see. Will their words stand and my words fall to the wayside or will my words stand and their words fall to the wayside? Now we'll see. Okay, This is one of those moments where they've made these come let us declarations and now God's getting ready to say come let us and now we'll see.

Verse seven God says come let us go down. Image bearers said, come, let us. Now, the one whose image they bear says, come, let us. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, in all their oneness, in all their godness, now the image-bearers will know whose words will stand. God's are theirs.

The Lord came down to see. Did he need to come on site to investigate the public works? What's going on down there? No, of course not. God is omniscient.

Means he's all-knowing. He knows everything from eternity past through eternity future all at the same time. He knew all about it. He knew all about it before they conceived the plan. He's omnipresent.

He's everywhere all at once all the time. He was there when they thought it, when they said it, when they started building it. But, but there is a special presence of God where in crucial moments God enters the scene in a unique way to render a judgment and act. You have to know that otherwise the Bible gets really confusing and you can hit language like this. There is a special presence of God where in crucial moments God enters the scene in a unique way to render a judgment.

He's going to do that here. He's going to sort out what's what and act. This is what he's doing here. Listen to Exodus 19, 11 and 18 through 20. Exodus 19, verse 11 and then verses 18 through 20.

Verse 11. God says, and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai then 18 through 20 now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.

This is just another crucial time where God comes down to render a judgment and act and he's giving the law to the people. There is probably also some ironic sarcasm here. We have to be careful with our sarcasm, but God can be as sarcastic as he'd like. There's probably some ironic sarcasm here. You say you built a tower to the heavens?

Let me stoop. Can't see it yet. Lower, lower. Oh now I see it! That's cute!

That's so cute. Look at you in your little tower. Verse 5 says, the sons of men, the sons of men built the tower. If you look at the transliterated Hebrew, you see Ben Adam, Ben son, sons, son or sons, Adam, A-D-A-M, Adam. Remember that Hebrew word, Adam's name is man.

So they're used interchangeably. Sometimes it's translated Adam when it means that one man and that's proper noun his name Adam But in other places it's translated man. We don't see the difference because we're reading English, but in the Hebrew It's the same Adam Ben Adam, like the sons of Adam. When we see this, we should be thinking about Genesis 6 just before the flood and the indiscriminate marriages between the sons of God Ben Elohim, sons of God Ben Elohim and the daughters of men Bat Adam. Remember these indiscriminate marriages and how this accelerated the wickedness on earth that ends up in this global judgment.

These sons of men, Ben Adam in our text and daughters of men in Genesis 6 are humans in their natural state since the fall. Natural born humans. Sons of Adam. Daughters of Adam bent against God and corrupt in nature. That's who's building this tower, the sons of man.

God saw the tremendous capability for evil in a unified humanity in their natural state. What tremendous capability for evil. How capable these people are for evil. In a unified humanity, in their natural state, with all that corruption, God says, indeed the people are one and they all have one language and this is what they begin to do this is just the beginning down a track now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them The imagination of their heart is only evil from their youth and they've just started the imagining Corrupt yes, but still image bears with all the natural creative capability and strength that is implied by being made in the image of God now harness that for evil. That's what's happening in our text.

They are corrupt in nature, but they're still image bearers. God made them in his image. And so they have all that natural creative capability, all that strength that is implied by being made in the image of God, and they're starting again to harness it for evil. To make themselves great, They should be praising God, lifting up His name is great, and refusing to do what He told them to do. Now, we get the, here we get the come let us from God.

Come let us go down and they're confused their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So now God is ready to act. God determines to slow this train down. This train is getting up ahead of steam. The rebellion train getting up ahead of steam.

God determines to slow that train down by confusing the language of this people. One language to many languages. So imagine this. We have to imagine this because we don't actually have a frame of reference for it. One day you can communicate normally, naturally, freely with every person you meet.

You go to bed, You wake up. You can still do that with your extended family. Mom, dad, Kids, grandparents, cousins, they bear your name, you still communicate normally, naturally, freely. Then you run into somebody from somebody else's extended family, one of these other branches of the family tree. You say something and they have no idea what you're talking about and they say something and you have no idea what they're talking about.

If you've ever worked cross-culturally and across a language barrier, you know how much that slows the train down. I've done that for years on end. If I had a nickel for every time I've been on an 11 p.m. Conference call with China, I could buy us all lunch. The language barrier and the cultural barrier is real.

It slows you way down. That's what God is doing in this text. Because people were guarding against what God had told us to do and prioritizing our name over God's name, God confused their language and scattered the people abroad. The city with the tower that was meant to be the wonder of the world and make a name for the people was named Babel, which literally means confusion. You wanted a name?

Here's your name. Confusion. Don't miss this in the text. This is a little more ironic sarcasm. Like, we're gonna build a tower to heaven to make a name for ourselves.

God says you want a name, you got a name. I'll give you a name. I'll do the naming here. I'll do the naming here. Confusion.

Okay. I've collected up a bunch of other things that are at least loosely related to the text. Let me say them now. I'm giving you ten. I hate preaching in lists.

Tiffany Whitaker loves preaching that has lists. So today is your day Tiffany after she's on zoom at least she wasn't she's still on zoom. All right Tiffany this is your day This is your list. I dedicate this list to Tiffany Witter. I'm on cough medicine.

Take that out of the audio. All right, 10 things. Number one, Nimrod was probably in the lead on this. Chapter 10 verse 10, And the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel, Erek, Akkad, and Kalna in the land of Shinar. So this is our empire builder from last week.

I spent a lot of time talking about him last week. Haven't mentioned his name. This is probably Nimrod, our empire builder, is at the head of this. He'll be scattered too and he'll go start the Assyrian empire and build its capital city, Nineveh. He was the father of the great ancient empires, Nimrod, he's probably at the lead on this.

Number two, listen to Matthew Poole. This tower and its vast height is noted by Herodotus, Deodorus, and others who are Herodotus and Deodorus. They're famous ancient historians. So they record, yep, there was a really tall tower there. As we don't have access to it now.

More modern historians don't speak of it because they don't have the records for it. But these ancient famous historians said, yep, there was a really big tall tower there. Matthew Poole lists that. Number three, listen to John Calvin. This is the perpetual infatuation of the world.

Okay, and infatuation is something you just get this preoccupation with. You just love it. This is the perpetual infatuation of the world. To neglect heaven and to seek immortality on earth where everything is fading and transient. Isn't that true?

We want to make a name for ourselves. Why? You're gonna be gone tomorrow. Why would you be infatuated with that? Why would you be in love with that idea?

Make me great a hundred years from now, no one's going to remember anything about you. You better put first things first. You better not get infatuated with being great here. Nobody's going to remember those things. Don't neglect heaven and seek immortality here.

There's no immortality here. Everything's fading and transient here. Calvin nails it. Number four, listen to Psalm 127 and Proverbs 18. Psalm 127 and Proverbs 18.

Psalm 127 verses one and two. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, For so he gives his beloved sleep. That's exactly what's happening in this text.

They were building a tower, but the Lord wasn't building the tower, so it was in vain. They were rising up early, they were sitting up late, they were eating the bread of sorrows, we're building, we're building, we're building, it's all vain. Whoever were his people on earth, they were sleeping great. He gives his beloved sleep. They couldn't sleep for the need to have a great name.

Just strive for it. Whoever as people were on the earth, Noah was walking with God. Noah was sleeping great if he was alive at this time. Proverbs 18 10. So that's Psalm 127.

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. So many people have done so much, all in vain. They've spent their lives for things and it mattered nothing. Proverbs 18 10. The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

The righteous run to it and are saved. They're building a physical tower. They're saying, we'll make a name for ourselves. No, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and it lasts and it protects them.

Praise God. Five. This will be developed more fully in the next two Sundays so it won't steal all the thunder. But Babel, Babel, Babel becomes Babylon And Babylon is found over and over and over and over again in the rest of Scripture in the city of man, city of God dichotomy. The separation between the city of man.

Man is always building a city. We've got to make an empire. We got to be great And so the prophets speak of it prophetically It's a type now We love our types of Jesus things that point to and teach about Jesus, but there are types of bad things too and Babylon is the ultimate type that points to and teaches about a bad thing the city of man the desire to be great the desire to be Autonomous and to be free from constraints from God Babylon represents all of that Next two weeks we're gonna start talking about the city of God. It's humble. People don't even know it's happening, but God says to a man named Abram, I think I'll take you.

I think I'll make you an object of my mercy and bring my Messiah through you. Babylon is Babylon. Babylon will be found in the late chapters of Revelation at the very end of the Bible and God will come down and judge it and it will be swept away and all the people who loved Babylon will weep, oh Babylon, where is Babylon? Number six, Better confused and scattered than wiped off the earth and a global flood am I right? So they're confused and scattered The last time rebellion started to get bad, it got really bad and God wiped everybody off the face of the earth except for eight people.

So there is a sense in which this is a rescue. Yes it is a judgment but it is also a preventative. God is slowing the sin train down. He does that. He's doing that in so many ways today and it's keeping us from being swallowed up by evil in this world.

Did you know that? He is restraining evil. He's doing things to restrain evil. Thank God he's putting civil authorities in place to keep people from just doing what's in their heart without any consequences. If you go to a place where there's not much restraining evil, it's scary.

It feels so out of control. Number seven, listen to Alan Ross. I think I've quoted him every week. He's been very helpful. I'm going to miss Alan Ross.

Great nations cannot defy God and long survive. Israel found out. Survive. Israel found out. Israel was scattered.

A people whose language they couldn't speak in fulfillment of prophecy swept down on them. Isaiah said it, Jeremiah said it, A people who you can't understand are coming. They're going to take you away. Great nations cannot defy God and long survive. Israel found out.

Maga will find out too. Yes, may God do good to our country. Yes, I'm delighted that Kamala Harris is not our president. All that. But you should read this passage and then think about making America great again.

Let's have a name and tremble. Number eight. Listen to 1 Peter 5, end of verse 5 and verse 6. 1 Peter 5, end of verse 5 and verse 6. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time casting all your care upon him for he cares for you don't worry about being great God actually exalts the humble in due time So you just leave all that into God's hands. You be humble. You worship God. You walk with God. At the right time, He'll actually give you a name.

Number nine. This might be a good opportunity to ask, are we too comfortable huddled up together? It's so cozy. So comfortable. We too comfortable with that?

I don't think this is the primary application of this text, but I think it is an application of this text. Acts chapter 1 verse 8. You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. Acts chapter 8 verse 1. A persecution arose and scattered the people.

I don't think you have to see that as cause and effect, you just have to know that God is going to use whatever means necessary to make us go to the nations. So don't get too cozy. Don't get too comfortable. We have been told to go. You either go or send.

That's the deal. You're either part of going or you're part of sending. This is what Christians are called to and we should never get very far like that has to stay on our frontal lobe. That has to be knit into our DNA. And we should feel really uncomfortable when we're not actively going or sending.

Number 10. This brings us to the conclusion and the dominant application. I've saved it for last. The great point of the Old Testament, wow, what am I going to say now? The great point of the Old Testament?

Yes, the great point of the Old Testament is to teach us from 100 different angles that we don't need a new start, we need Jesus. Oh, we got a new start. All those wicked people wiped off the earth, swept it, washed away. Oh, cleaned the earth, washed the earth. Now we got a new start.

Wasn't long, whoever was saying. When God said fill the earth, oh we don't want to scatter. We want to make a name for ourselves. If God gives you a hundred new starts a hundred times, you'll end up like the old end. All you need is Jesus.

You have to have a heart of stone removed and a heart of flesh put in you. You have to be born again. You don't need a new start. You don't need to turn over a new leaf that'll fail 100 times out of a hundred You have to become a whole different person only God can do that. You should cry out to God.

Oh God send salvation among us Acts chapter 2 all these people who speak all these different languages come to celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem and the Spirit of God falls on the church and they're speaking in tongues which means that these are actual spoken languages and people who haven't learned those languages are speaking languages they haven't learned supernaturally so that the wonders of God are heard by the people who have gathered in Jerusalem. It is the reversing of what happens at Babel in Genesis chapter 11. God's gonna speed that train up. Okay, he slowed the train down. Okay, now he's gonna speed that train up.

The gospel getting to the nations in Acts 2. Revelations chapter 5. People from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation are going to gather. There's not going to be cultural differences and language barriers. It's all going to be free and natural.

We'll be praising God together. The gospel reverses this. This is not the end. Genesis 11 is not the end of the story, not the end of the story, not the end of the story. God has the last word.

The last word is people praising him together. All united, all the walls broken down. We sang this last week. All glory be to Christ. Should nothing of our efforts stand, no legacy survive unless the Lord does raise the house in vain its builders strive.

To you who boast tomorrow's gain, tell me, what is your life? A mist, it vanishes at dawn. All glory be to Christ. All glory be to Christ our King. All glory be to Christ.

His rule and reign will ever sing. All glory be to Christ. God, I know this is how a Christian heart beats. I pray this would be the song of our hearts. We would be content that nothing of our efforts would stand, that no legacy would survive, but that Christ would have the name.

Name above every name. You deserve it, Jesus. We want you to have it. You have it. You have the name.

I pray in Jesus' name, amen.