One Lord, One Human Race, One Hope

Father, thank you, Father, that you have given men and women wisdom to be able to put very,

very difficult truths and mysteries into words that can help us to try to get our minds around

them and to form us.

Father, we're going to read a part of your word now that is very, very challenging to

who we are before you.

It will challenge, Father, our love of appearances.

And Father, we ask that you would draw us to your word, that you would help us to hear your

word, that your Holy Spirit would move to take away the barriers within us that push your

word away or think it applies to somebody else other than us.

Father, bring your word home to us.

And as you bring your word home to us, make us disciples of Jesus who are gripped by the

gospel, living for your glory.

And this we ask in Jesus's name.

Amen.

So the actual text that we're looking at today is Genesis chapter 10, verse 1 to 11, 9.

Genesis 10:1–11

But I didn't have Jeremiah read all of chapter 10.

A part of it is because that's 32 verses on top of 9.

That's 41 verses.

That's a lot of verses.

But the other reason is we should maybe have a little bit of a contest sometime in a church.

What is the most boring chapter in the Bible?

And I don't know.

Maybe we should do something like that.

Christians are allowed to say that.

Some parts of the Bible we actually find very boring to read, if we're honest.

So maybe we should have a little contest.

What do we think is the most boring chapter of the Bible?

I don't know.

We could have a little vote afterwards.

And I bet a lot of people, if they knew about Genesis 10, they would put that as one of the

most boring chapters in the Bible.

And so just, if you turn up, we're just going to read two or three verses and you'll see

why I didn't have Jeremiah read it.

It's called the table of the nations, by the way.

It's Genesis 10.

Now this is relevant to the rest of the sermon, by the way, but I just, it says something important.

Let's just look.

Genesis 10, 1.

Here's how it begins.

These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Sons were born to them after the flood.

The sons of Japheth, Gomer, Magog, Madi, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiraz, the sons of Gomer.

Ashkenaz.

Okay, have I put you to sleep yet?

You get my drift.

For many of us, this passage of scripture is really boring.

And so why on earth would it be in the Bible?

Here's something first to keep in mind.

When I first learned how to read, not just a few weeks ago, I was very young, but when

I was a child and I learned how to read, shortly after I learned how to read, I discovered

Hardy Boy novels.

People, Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew, do they still read that?

Like, do millennials still know about that?

Sort of maybe, yeah, but so.

Anyway, there were like young boys and young girls books.

And I discovered Hardy Boy books and I could not believe how fantastic they were.

In fact, I became an evangelist to my family as to why my parents should be reading.

Stop reading those books you're reading.

You should be reading Hardy Boy books because they're just so good.

In fact, I thought, I actually worried when I went into the store and I saw that there

were only like, I don't know, 40 or 50 of them at the time.

And I thought, how am I going to read these for the rest of my life if there's only 40

or 50 of them?

Because I just, I just love them so much.

At some point in time, I don't know when it was, it just all of a sudden one day I

discovered that I wasn't reading them anymore.

I wasn't looking for them in the store.

Or I'd moved on to other stuff.

And then, you know, later on, I happened to come across when I was visiting somebody,

I was visiting a cottage or something and I took one down and I tried, I could hardly

read two pages.

It was so childish and boring.

So here's the thing.

God didn't write the Bible just for people who are, who have certain types of literary

tastes and like certain types of things.

He wrote the Bible for everybody.

He wrote the Bible for people in all sorts of different conditions of life.

And this long thing of the table of nations, it teaches a very, very simple truth, which

it's only sort of a something which seems uncontested by many people in Canada because even people

in Canada who don't know that it's ultimately a Bible idea that's sort of in popular culture

in Canada, but not all over the world.

And the simple truth, if you could put the first point up, is this.

The simple point is that the one true and living God created, sustains, and loves one human

race.

The one true and living God created, sustains, and loves one human race.

Now, a lot of us, maybe not you, but a lot of us love statements like that.

But for a lot of people, this puts them to sleep.

I mean, if you're trying to communicate to a very young child, maybe, that God loves people

from all over the planet, you might say, well, you know what?

God loves people from North Korea.

And he loves people from South Africa.

And he loves people in Algeria.

And he loves people in China.

And he loves people in Canada.

Isn't that one of the ways that you would maybe communicate to some people, to young children,

maybe?

This truth that God loves all people, that there's ultimately only one human race.

And that's what the Bible is trying to do here.

In fact, it does it also in a very subtle other way.

Just, I know this is a bit of a geek moment, but there's 70 different people groups mentioned

if you count them up.

And in the Bible, the number seven often represents wholeness and completion.

And the number 10 often represents wholeness and completion.

So for those of you who like number patterns, seven times 10 means completion times completion,

which means it's very complete.

And it's not that the Bible writers thought that this was the only, that they were exhaustive

of every single people group that existed.

It's sort of dynamic.

But it's the Bible's one way for the Bible to try to communicate that.

And this is very, very important, right?

Because as we all know, I mean, look what's going on.

It's like a lot of times famines in Africa and other parts of the world are caused because

one tribal group or people group don't care for another people group.

And they take the food from them or they keep the food from them.

Or, you know, in our culture, we might think that people who voted for Clinton are way better

than people who voted for Trump or the opposite way around.

Or the gay community can feel superior over the heterosexual community or vice versa.

That we live in a world where often in our people groups, we think that we're privileged

or we're special or we're better than other people.

And so this Bible text, which on one hand is boring, is a very, very, very important thing

for when we're looking at different people groups, street people, or just people who

are very different than us, that there's ultimately only one human race.

There's only one human race because there's only one God.

And the one God who made the one human race has a care and concern for the entire human race

and all of its different people groups.

It's a very, very powerful Christian truth, which is why, you know, at the end of the

day, part of the reason why, at the end of the day, we send missionaries to Libya

and we send missionaries to Angola and we send missionaries to China and we send missionaries

to other nations of the world.

Because we have, we should have this basic concern for all people groups.

In our community, we should have concern for people groups that are very different than us.

Now, some of you might say, okay, and by the way, I didn't know this up until very recently,

but Genesis 10 and the part that Jeremiah read, the Tower of Babel, it's actually all

one literary unit.

So here's the very, very interesting thing.

You know, it's a very, it's always, it's an interesting question when you're reading

the Bible yourself is to ask, well, what follows from this?

So in Canada, we now have the story of the, okay, we have this table of the nations, God loves

all the people group.

This is a really good time for us all to stand and hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

Or maybe we will all stand and be like good socialist workers and sing the International

or We Shall Overcome.

Or maybe we'll have a bit of a care bear moment or something like that.

I don't know what, but what's going to follow from this?

Maybe, in fact, nowadays, there'd actually be a soft drink commercial, which would somehow

connect that all of this differentness is somehow all just one great marketing moment.

So the very interesting thing is, so the Bible uses this very, very, to us boring, but not

to everybody, but to us right now, boring way of trying to communicate a very, very important

spiritual point.

Now the question is, well, what follows from it?

Well, what's going to happen next?

Kumbaya, soft drink commercial?

We Shall Overcome?

What's going to happen?

Well, the very, very interesting thing is, is that God moves it in a very, very curious

direction that goes, because on one hand, we know that, so we can understand that one human

race is not a biological truth, and it's definitely not a sociological truth.

It's ultimately a biblical truth, a theological truth, but what comes from it in a world where

there's lots of division?

Well, how do we sort of put together all the prejudice and hatred and suspicion that's in

the world, and that's where the Bible moves us, and it moves us to the level of the heart.

So let's now look after this, what could be a Kumbaya moment, what is it that God moves

us in to consider, and it's the story of the Tower of Babel.

So once again, if you have your Bibles, it'd be really helpful.

Let's look at chapter 11, verse, actually we'll read chapter 10, verse 32.

These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to the genealogies, in their nations, and from

these nations spread abroad on earth, and from these, sorry, the nations, or the people groups,

spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

Now, the whole earth had one language and the same words.

Now, just sort of pause here for a second.

This is actually really, really important to the story, and it's actually really important

for you and me for some of the troubles and problems that we face.

Now, to understand the problem, turn back in your book.

So just look, they're traveling together, verse 2, right, and as a people, as people

migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

So, okay, why is that a bit?

Look, turn back in your Bibles to chapter 9, verse 1.

And in chapter 9, verse 1, God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and

multiply and fill the earth.

And then there's a bit of an, we talked about this a week ago, other things that are said

there.

Look at verse 7, it's bracketed.

In other words, it's very important because it's said twice and it brackets the other commands.

All the other commands about the image of God, about murder, about the importance of life,

they're all bracketed, all to be understood within the context of this basic command.

Verse 7, and you be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.

And increase greatly on the earth.

In the underlying language, it's the same as verse 7, this idea that you're to increase

and spread.

So twice God tells them, I want to bless you.

I want to make you fruitful.

I want to have you multiply.

And I want to have you fill the earth.

Now look back at chapter 11, verse 2.

And as people migrated from the east, they found a place in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Now you might be wondering what's going on.

Well, here's the point.

If you could put it up.

Here's the point.

I can appear to be listening to God and obeying him when in reality I am disobeying him.

So what could they all be saying?

Well, God, we're moving.

We're moving.

We're walking.

But they're not filling the earth.

They're staying together.

You see, it's really, really, really, really easy.

It's, you know, probably not much, you know, nowadays, here's one of the things.

Nowadays, only weird people go to church on a Sunday morning.

I just insulted you all there, by the way.

You didn't laugh at it, okay?

But only weird people go to church on Sunday mornings.

Because, you know, it probably was in 1957, they might say in the office or at the school,

you know, they seem like a really normal person, but they never go to church.

And now it would be more likely that people say, you know, he or she seems like a really

normal person, but, you know, they go to church on Sunday.

So it's a bit of an odd thing here, but it's been a case in many, many places of the world,

and it still is in some ways, that people come to church because it's a good place to

make connections for your insurance business.

Or it's a good place to make connections for your real estate business.

You know, in the United States, which has a very, very different, you know, custom,

what would Clinton do?

I'm not picking on Clinton.

You can multiply this with president after president.

What would they do when they're in trouble?

They'd go to church carrying a really big black Bible, like two or three times the size of this.

You see, it can look like you're obeying some, but you're not.

You know, it can be, it appears if you're listening to God and obeying him, when in reality,

you're actually disobeying him.

So they're, in the people, they're moving, but they're not filling the earth.

Now, so here's the thing.

The Bible's not going to take another bit of a funny turn.

It's going to say, well, why is this sort of going on in their lives?

You know, we are addicted to the fact that maybe if they just had like a better church,

if they had a better preacher, if they had better education,

maybe if they had a little bit of therapy to deal with some of the wounds of their family of origin,

if we just did a few couple of things and maybe they would fix it and they would be better.

But the Bible actually points out here that there's something at a far deeper level,

at a heart level, which is relevant to you and me.

It's all very interesting.

See, one of the reasons why in Sunday school and reading the Bible,

it's so important to know stories like this,

is that the stories like this in the Bible go along with the different other types of moral teachings

and stories have an ability at some point in time to start to touch our hearts

and help us to realize something that's going on deep inside.

Look at verses three and four to see the very funny turn it takes.

We'll read verse two again.

And as people migrated from the east,

they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

And they said to one another,

come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.

And they had brick for stone and bitumen, which is a type of tar for mortar.

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.

So remember in chapter nine, twice, God says,

I want to bless you.

I want to make you fruitful.

I want to multiply you.

And I want you to fill the earth.

And they here, just think about this for a second.

How many of us would like it if God all of a sudden just appeared before us and said,

well, I'll use myself as an example.

George, I want to bless you.

George, I want to make you more fruitful.

George, I want to multiply you.

George, I want you to do this.

Now, here's the thing.

It's a very, very, very important thing for us to understand about ourselves

and how we read the Bible.

If you could put this next point up here.

I easily hear God's word of blessing as a threat.

Maybe I'm the most wicked person here,

but I easily hear God's word of blessing as a threat.

See, look at this here again in the text.

Did you notice it in verse four?

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 earth.

What God tells them he's going to do in terms of blessing them

and making them fruitful and multiply and filling the earth,

they interpret that as a threat.

You see, here's the thing.

This is a constant problem with us,

not only when we're reading the Bible.

It often influences the way we read the Bible

because we're trying to take things out or blunt it or ignore it or whatever.

Like, you know, for very many of us,

it's just, you know,

I was just trying to explain just a little while ago to somebody about the importance.

In fact, I've had several conversations in the last month

about the importance of forgiveness.

And I know there's lots of,

there's a lot of false info around what the Bible means by forgiveness.

But when the Bible talks so much time and time and time and time again

about the importance of forgiveness,

we sort of feel that if we forgive,

it's going to make us weaker.

It's going to make us weaker.

It's not going to help us.

You know, one of the problems for,

I'll just use one example,

but a lot of problems for young women

is they might start to date a young guy

and they'll feel that if they don't sleep with him,

he won't stay with them.

And they don't trust that God's word

about sexual faithfulness is actually for their good.

You know, we hear the constant biblical teachings on financial generosity

and it's all in the context of how being more financially generous

will make us feel more free.

It will help us to take the idol of money off our back.

How God will provide for us.

It doesn't say give to me and I'll make you rich,

but you'll understand and see even more deeply

how I am your great treasure,

how I will provide for you.

But we hear these teachings and we experience them as a threat.

Many people thought, you know,

just to think that God actually caused the words in the Bible to be written.

That at the end of the day, not by mechanism,

but that every word that there is in the Bible

is a word that God ultimately wanted to have there.

And when we read the Bible,

we are face to face with God speaking to us.

But for many people inside the church and out,

that is a threat.

Not a blessing.

And that's all captured here in this very, very,

you know, in fact, if you think about it for a second,

verse four, look at verse four again.

Couldn't verse four be a motto

for just about every social movement,

ideology, and country in the planet

throughout all of history?

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.

You see, here's the other thing.

You know what that thing,

what's motivating them to stay together,

what's motivating them to hear God's word as a threat

is their anxiety and their fear.

If you put up the next point, please,

as you put it up,

one of the things,

I don't do much counseling,

but I do a little bit

and one of the things

which I constantly come across

as I talk to people

is how most,

many, many, many, many people

aren't entirely honest

or aware of the deep level of stress

and anxiety that's in their life.

In fact, sometimes what I'll have a person do

is just sort of try to articulate

the different things that are going on in their lives

that, in fact, always cause stress.

And a lot of times,

we're blind to our own stress

and we're blind to the amount of anxiety

that we're carrying around with us.

Where if we're aware of it,

it's just something we don't want to share

because Christians somehow or another

aren't supposed to be anxious.

We're supposed to have the joy of the Lord

as our strength.

But what we see here

is that they name it,

they don't sort of do anything,

but what they do

in the face of their anxiety and their fear

is, and this is what we do as well,

in vain we seek proud dreams,

fortresses,

and the scaling of heaven

as antidotes to our anxiety and fear.

This is what goes on in many of our lives.

At some time in my life,

I had some addiction issues

which I had to deal with.

And it was hard even to come to the terms

with the fact that I had some addiction issues

which I had to deal with.

And maybe this is just for those of us

who struggle with

or have struggled with some addiction issues.

One of the things that goes along

with those of us like that

is that we love proud dreams.

The strong man,

the guy or the gal

who has the right answer,

the competent one.

And we have proud dreams

and we retreat to them

in the face of the stress

and anxiety and failures

that we're surrounded with.

And we try to build fortresses,

maybe fortresses of wealth

or fortresses of degrees

or fortresses in terms of a perfect front.

And sometimes we try to scale heaven

by trying to look like

we're way more righteous than we are.

And that's just in our personal lives.

And the fact of the matter is

is that when I pursue idols,

when I pursue proud dreams,

when I pursue fortresses,

all I end up really doing

is making myself more anxious.

And countries and cultures,

the reason I'm using the word fortress here,

by the way,

is that if you look at verse four again,

then they said,

come let us build ourselves a city.

The word for city

is the same word for fortress.

What they wanted to build

was a fortress.

They weren't trying to build the Glebe.

They weren't trying to build Westboro.

They weren't trying to build

New Edinburgh or Rockcliffe

or Manitick.

They were building a place

with a big, strong, powerful wall

which would keep them safe.

In vain,

in other words,

it's futile.

We seek proud dreams.

We seek fortresses.

We seek to scale the heavens

as antidotes

to our anxiety and fear,

but they don't work.

So,

now here's the big question.

What is God going to do about this?

Like,

what's God going to do about this?

The question,

the thing has been set.

I don't know.

I mean,

a lot of us,

the type of God that we want

is a God

who's very,

very permissive,

like our favorite uncle

who will just

sort of nod and say,

well,

I know you've been

a little bit naughty,

but off you go.

And sometimes,

especially when it's things

which are very close

and dear to us,

we want to have,

you know,

we want to really punish.

We want to really hurt.

You know,

sometimes we want to mock.

Sometimes we want to show scorn.

Sometimes we're afraid

of what's going on.

So,

it's always very interesting.

The Bible's now set up

this situation.

The people are disobeying God.

They appear as if

they might be obeying God,

but really they're disobeying God.

There's fear and anxiety

which is driving them.

They're trying to reach heaven.

They're building fortresses.

They have proud dreams.

So,

what's God's response

going to be?

Like,

in a sense,

when we see what God's response

is going to be to this,

it gives us a bit of a clue

as to how God's response

is going to be to you and me

when we do the same types of things.

So,

look at verse 5.

And the Lord God

and the Lord

came down

to see the city

and the tower

which the children of man

had built.

Look at that.

And the Lord came down

to see the city

and the tower

which the children of man

had built.

Now,

it used to be

for many, many, many years

when I read this part of the Bible,

it used to actually frighten me.

Maybe it's just because I'm weird.

But I didn't like this language

because it made it look

as if God

didn't know all things

and wasn't all powerful.

That he actually had to come down

to see it

and to deal with it.

But here's what the text

is actually trying to communicate to us.

It's a bit of irony.

Here they think

that

they're using bricks

and they're going to build

a fortress

and they're going to build

a tower

that will take them

all the way up

to where God is.

And the very, very subtle irony

isn't that God is an omniscient.

He already knows what's going on.

But he says,

you know what?

That thing is so far away

and so itsy-bitsy,

teeny-weeny,

tiny

that I can't even see it.

That's what the text,

it's irony.

We think,

whoa,

look how great we are.

Look how fantastic things are.

Look,

look how much we are

like making heaven on earth.

Look how progressive we are.

Look,

look at our empire.

Look at our philosophy.

Look at our music.

Look at our religion.

Look at our rituals.

Look at our,

look at our yoga techniques.

Look at the things

that we're doing.

Look how high they are.

God obviously must be impressed.

And in this story,

God's saying,

wow,

is there something going on

down there?

It's so far from me.

I can hardly see it.

I guess I better get closer

to look.

That's what the text is doing.

If you could put up

the next point.

No human edifice,

that's something that we create,

of the body or the soul,

of the mind,

the heart,

or the will,

can scale heaven.

You can do yoga

and become the best yoga person

in the world.

You can learn meditation techniques.

You can learn all of the

Islamic prayer techniques,

and you can do it

five times a day,

and you can do all of those

other types of things.

You can learn religion

and creeds.

You can learn all about

gender theory.

You can learn about Marxism.

You can learn about science.

You can learn about technology.

You can be a progressive nation

and make our military

20 times stronger

to make sure

that progressive values

triumph throughout

the entire world.

But any attempt

to think that we are

making heaven on earth,

that we are scaling heaven,

it won't work.

Could you put up the next point?

It's another way of saying

the same thing.

The Lord must come down

and in.

By my own power,

I can never get up

and out to him.

I need God to speak.

Remember,

one of the things

about the Christian faith,

which is really,

really important

for us to understand,

is that we Christians

are not saying

that our philosophy

or our religion

is better.

We are not saying

that when you look

at Genesis

or you look at Mark

or Luke,

that you've never seen

anything which has been

written better than this,

that you've never seen

anything from our tribe.

Our tribe has

the smartest writers,

the most profound

insight to religion,

the most profound

insight to God.

That is not

what Christians are saying.

Christians are saying

as all of our attempts

to scale heaven

will fail.

God must break in.

God must speak.

Our wisdom

is in being receptive

and listening,

not in our assertions.

At the end of the day,

the gospel is one beggar

telling another beggar

where free bread

is available.

It's not us saying,

look, I'm the best baker

in the world.

I'm the most spectacular baker.

It's not that.

It's never that.

One more point,

if you could put it up.

All attempts

to reach God

on my own terms

and by my means

will fail.

See, their terms

in the story are,

we're not going to,

you know,

if we scatter

and disperse,

we're going to become weak.

We're afraid of that.

We don't really trust

that God really wants

to bless us.

I don't know what it is,

but we just don't trust it.

So we're going to make

a fortress.

We're going to try

to scale heaven.

We're going to bring

heaven down

and us to heaven

and heaven to us.

We'll have heaven on earth.

We'll be behind our fortress.

We'll all be together

and we're going to bless

ourselves in our own terms.

We're not going to listen

to what God says.

We want to improve

upon what God says.

We want to add to it.

We want to subtract to it.

We want to do our things

in our ways

with our conditions.

And the Bible is saying

it will always fail.

It will always fail.

Some of you might remember,

I've shared with you before

that when I became a Christian,

I was in grade 12.

And over the next six or seven years,

I had quite a few

very major crises of faith

where I almost left

the Christian faith.

And, you know,

I had a very secular education.

I went to the public school system,

went to university

where I majored in sociology

with a minor in philosophy,

did graduate work in sociology,

then went to a very, very, very

liberal secular school

to study theology

and to study counseling.

I've never had,

for any of my training,

a professor who was

an evangelical Christian,

a Bible-believing Christian,

never had one the entire time.

And there were lots

and lots of moments

and times and seasons

in my life

where I almost threw

in the towel

with everything.

But one of the things,

in a very odd way,

one of the things

which really helped me

was something I read,

I don't know,

I think I was in university

when I read it,

and it was,

I read several books

by Dostoevsky,

a 19th century Russian writer.

And one of the things

which he said,

I think it's in the,

I can't remember the,

I think it's in the devils,

but I can't remember now

which one of the novels it was.

He said,

no, I think it's in

the Brothers Karamazov.

If God is dead,

all things are permissible.

If God is dead,

all things are permissible.

The struggle that I always had

in my Christian,

when I was trying to figure out

whether I was going to leave

the Christian faith

or stay a Christian,

my problem was never

that I was going to become

a Hindu or a Buddhist

or a Jewish or a Muslim,

because I,

fundamentally,

I had no interest in religion.

For me,

the great danger

was always atheism and nihilism.

That's just me.

People have different things

which are their tensions.

And I have always thought

that that statement

by Dostoevsky,

that if God is dead,

all things are permissible,

is an unanswerable statement.

I still think that.

That if, in fact,

there is no God,

there is no particular reason

other than pragmatism

for me not to do

whatever I feel like doing,

whatever I can get away with.

That basically,

the entire moral world

is grounded

in the reality

and existence of God.

It actually,

thinking of things

in stark terms,

helped me to understand

the cost

and ultimately,

actually,

ultimately,

the naivety

and the foolishness

of many of the things

which were criticized

in Christianity.

It ended up helping me

to see the wisdom

and the beauty

of the gospel

and the Bible.

And in this simple story here,

a similar statement

to Dostoevsky

is actually part

of how God responds

to what they're doing.

It's,

look at verse 6.

Actually,

so we'll verse 5 again.

And the Lord came down

to see the city

and the tower

which the children

of man had built.

And verse 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.

And I have to confess

that for many years

I was puzzled

by this

because I thought

it was telling me

that somehow or another

they were going

to reach heaven

and they could do

anything they wanted.

But God isn't talking

about that.

I mean,

the text actually,

when I've,

as I read the text

far more carefully

and I saw the irony

that here they think

they're making

this huge edifice

and they're making

this heaven on earth

and they're reaching

and scaling heaven

and God is sort of

saying there's something

so teensy-weensy

and far away from me

and completely

and utterly down there

that I have to come

down to see it

that what he's talking

about isn't that

they actually reach

heaven

but they believe

they've reached heaven.

They believe

they've reached

their heaven on earth

and are one

with the gods

and with their one

language

and this one belief

nothing that comes

into their hearts

that are in rebellion

against God

will be seen

as impossible

or wrong.

It's describing

Nazi Germany.

It is describing

the Soviet Union

under Stalin.

It is describing

Cambodia

under the Khmer Rouge.

It is describing

North Korea

and it is

potentially

increasingly

describing

our own country

as our own country

increasingly

comes to the awareness

that there is no God

and they can do

whatever they want.

And when people

believe

there is no God

that they're bringing

heaven to earth

that they can do

whatever they want

to bring heaven to earth

and earth to heaven

ordinary people die.

ordinary people die

first individually

then by the truck load

then by the train load

then by the killing fields load

with the help of bureaucrats

with the help of technology

nothing will be impossible to them.

no

basic

decent

moral

virtue

will say to them

that is a step

too far.

When I said

that verse 4

could be the motto

of virtually every nation

verse 6

can also increasingly

be the motto

for Canada

and has been the motto

for many nations

throughout history.

So how is God

going to deal

with all of this?

How is he going

to deal with this?

What will he do?

Look at verses 7 to 9.

Come let us go down

and there confuse

their language

so that they may not

understand

one another's speech.

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

or Babel.

Because

Babel means confusion.

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.

If you could put up

the point

in his mercy

and compassion

he came down

to judge

and bless.

That's what God

does in this story.

In his mercy

and compassion

he came down

to judge

and to bless.

he judges.

He does not

in his

he blesses them.

He does not

want to see

that anything

will be

nothing will be

impossible

to whatever

the imaginations

of their hearts

desire

that nothing

will stop them

from doing

the imaginations

of their hearts.

It's a judgment

but at the same time

it's a blessing

because he does not

want to see that

because he loves

all of the nations

of the earth

and all of the people

group

and his desire

is that God

takes no delight

in the death

of a sinner

but rather that

they will turn

from their wickedness

and live

said many many times

in the book

of Ezekiel

and reminded of us

when we read

and do morning

and evening prayer

and so God

does an act

of judgment

by giving them

many different

languages

and their own

sinful desires

to have their own

way

and to have

their rule

work

when they can

no longer

speak to each other

means that they

start to leave

each other

and breaks

the whole project

it has it

completely and utterly

fall flat

but at the same time

it's an act

of compassion

why is it

well not only

that he spare them

from a fate

of a land

where people

will do

whatever the evil

is

whatever comes

into the inclination

of their hearts

but at the same time

what was it

that he said

in chapter 9

in chapter 9

he says

I want to bless you

I want to make you fruitful

I want to multiply you

so go throughout

the earth

and fill the earth

and what happens

at the end of the story

God sends them

throughout the earth

in other words

he's saying to them

my fundamental desire

to you

to bless you

to make you fruitful

to have you multiply

as you fill the earth

that's still my heart

for you

that is still

my heart

for you

that is still

my heart

for you

let's just wrap it up

if you could put up

the final point

obviously

for those of us

who know the Bible

a little bit

there's obvious

resonances

in this story

with what goes on

in the rest of the Bible

Jesus invaded

to die

he died

to save

he saved

to give

he gives

till he returns

you know

it's really interesting

you look over this

that for Christians

this is pointing

this story of Babel

is pointing

to when

God will come down

and in a sense

invade

in a very

very final

and divine

and

a very

very final

way

that starts

to bring about

the end of history

and if you think about it

it's just so funny

that here we have

the mighty Roman Empire

the greatest empire

on the face of the planet,

the greatest empire the world had seen

at that point in time,

so important for law, for art, for culture,

for a whole pile of things,

for its military might.

And how does God invade?

As a baby.

But it's an invasion.

He invades, we would want to invade

with dragons, monsters, drones,

X-Men or Avengers,

huge flying fortresses.

That's what we want to do.

But God invades as a baby.

And he invaded to die.

The entire, we, when we think of invasion,

and even when we're thinking of our fortresses,

when we're thinking of our cities,

when we're thinking of our proud dreams,

how we can have these cutting comments,

how we can be looked up to,

how we can be seen to be great,

and we can be putting people down,

and that's sort of part of the desire

and the cry of our heart,

but God invades to die.

We want to diminish others.

God came and diminished himself.

He invaded to die,

and we understand that his death upon the cross,

the invasion of God,

the coming down of God,

is a coming down to save.

In fact, when it says in the creed

that Jesus tastes all there is to taste of death,

even to the point of hell,

it's saying that the descent of God,

the Son of God,

to save human beings

goes down and down and down and down and down.

And there is no human being on the face of the planet.

There is no human being here today.

No matter how deep your despair,

no matter how deep your shame,

no matter how deep your sin,

no matter how deep your brokenness,

no matter how deep your addictions,

no matter how deep your poverty,

that God, the Son of God,

has not gone deeper still

so that he might take you in his arms and raise you up.

He invaded to die.

He died to save.

He saved to give.

In the cross, we see not only that Jesus takes upon himself

that which keeps us far from God,

we also get his perfect obedience and righteousness,

but this also points to a second invasion

that is a fruit of Jesus' death upon the cross,

which is, of course, the story of Pentecost.

In a sense, in a new age of the Holy Spirit,

the invasion of the Holy Spirit,

and as the Holy Spirit comes,

the nations of the world are gathered in Jerusalem,

and now the Holy Spirit comes,

and the heart of it is that they hear in their own heart languages

one message of God's mighty acts to save.

He invaded to die.

He died to save.

He saved to give not only his own life but the Holy Spirit,

and he continues to give this salvation

and the gift of the Holy Spirit until he returns.

We live in the already not yet.

We live between the invasion where he comes down to save

and the invasion whereby he will bring all things to their proper end

and make the new heaven and the new earth.

Please stand.

Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father, we confess before you that there are parts of your word

that you have only written because you want to bless us,

because you want us to be fruitful,

because you want us to multiply,

because you want us to be free,

because you want us to be whole,

and we confess to you, Father,

that there are parts of your word

that when we read them,

it does not make us feel any of these things,

but we feel threatened.

And we confess before you, Father,

that there are many ways that we can put on masks

and appear to be far more righteous and holy and spiritual

than we really are.

And we confess this before you.

And we confess before you, Father,

that often when we speak to you,

we want you to do things

and make changes in our lives in our own terms,

because we don't trust you.

Father, we thank you so much

that you do not wait for us to be perfect before you love us.

But, Father, you know the permutations

and the fears of our hearts,

and yet you love us.

And yet you died,

you had your son die on the cross for us.

We thank you, Father,

that his sacrifice is perfect and complete,

his obedience is perfect and complete,

that we cannot add to it or subtract to it,

and that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus,

his perfect covering of our sin and shame

and his perfect obedience becomes ours.

Father, grip us with the gospel.

Grip us with who Jesus is

and what he did for us on the cross.

Grip us with the gospel

so that as we read your word,

we're gripped by the gospel,

we start to lose our fears of your word,

that we have the courage and the freedom to follow

and to trust

that you who sent your son to die,

whose righteousness is perfect and complete for us,

is the same one who speaks through these words.

Father, make us disciples of Jesus,

gripped by the gospel,

learning to live in freedom

for your glory.

And this we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.