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Bob Davis: So again, why was it done? Human pride. We're going to make a name for ourselves to defy God. Rebellion and defiance. We're not going to do what You say to do. We're going to do what we feel and what we want.

And for religious purposes because mankind is made to worship. And if you don't worship the true God, you will worship the hummingbird, or mother earth, or the moon, or the stars, or you will worship the trees and the little bugs. Because we're built to worship, and if we refuse to worship God, we're going to worship some kind of squiggly something. That's what God says.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply what is within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Beginning in Genesis Chapter 11, we examine the Tower of Babel and humanity's attempt to reach heaven. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: We now move into Chapter 11. And here's what we know, but we're going to read it out loud anyway. "And the whole earth"—how much? The whole earth—"was of one language and of one speech."

How many languages were there on the earth when Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives, got off the boat, so to speak, the ark? One language. One tongue. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? And everybody came from them. So everybody spoke the same language. Everybody. The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

"And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they stopped there to live." They stayed. That's what the language means. They dwelt there. "Came to pass as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. And they said to one another, 'Go to,' or if you like, 'Yo!'" Everybody.

"Let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. And they said, 'Go to. Let us build a city and a tower, that tower whose top may reach to heaven.'" Very, very high, in other words. "And let us make us a name."

We'll build something for us. We'll put our name on it. We'll be known. "Let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Okay, if you've been paying attention to especially Chapters 9 and 10, you realize all kinds of problems right there. All kinds. I won't go into it, but check this out when you get some time.

Mankind, guys and girls, we're prone to build with bricks. If you'd like to see the way God builds, He uses stone. When they built the temple, those are carved out of rock and they fit together. You don't need mortar or slime or anything to hold it together. God says that we, the true church, you and me, anybody that belongs to Jesus, we are living stones. He is building His temple and we are the building pieces. We're stones.

But mankind does stuff that's a little bit more temporary: brick. It's a whole Bible study if you'd like to follow it through. I won't do it now because you might get bored, but just think that through. When God's going to make something, it's stone. When man makes something, it's brick and mortar and it's glass and it's all going to collapse and go away.

Well, when Noah and his family got off the ark, God gave them a command, a couple of commands. I'll read it to you, Genesis 9, Verse 1. I know you'll remember and you could turn there; it's just right around the corner. Genesis 9:1: "God blessed Noah and his sons and He said unto them, 'Be fruitful'—this is a command now—'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.'"

Do what? Fill the earth. How much of it? All of it. Spread out, man, there's lots of room. Be fruitful, multiply, have children and children and children. Go! And replenish the earth; in other words, fill the earth. The command is not complicated or confusing, is it? Be fruitful, multiply, have children, scatter all around the whole earth. Fill the whole earth with people.

Now, at that time, the Bible tells me and you they—all the people—spoke one language. So they're going to build a city in the plains of Shinar, Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, the Tigris River, the Euphrates. And along with that city out in the plains, they built a tower. But not just some old tower.

The language says here, a special tower. A tower very, very high, the highest thing that's ever been built on the planet so far. "Let's build it to reach up to heaven." How far does it go up there? I don't know, let's just go as far as we can. High. Very tall, to reach up to heaven itself. For what purpose?

The Bible tells us; it's all written here. I don't even have to make it up. Don't even have to dig it out. Here it is. Number one: for pride. For human pride. Nimrod is in charge. "We're going to make a name for ourselves." That's what it is, right? "Let us make a name for ourselves." We're going to start a magazine with our picture in it. Self, self, self.

And God says, "Deny self." And Nimrod says, "Ain't no way we're going to do that. We're going to make something for us. Make a name for ourselves." It's also to defy God; in other words, rebellion, defiance. What do you mean? They use brick. Not just brick, they fired them. They fired them through the kiln. They burned them. That makes them much stronger.

And look at this. That's to make it last a long, long time. And they used for mortar, slime. It's pitch, if you will. And what does that mean? Not only does it hold together well, but it is—get this—waterproof. In other words, "We're going to build something so high that the water can't ever come up higher than that again. And if it does on the way, it won't get through; it'll be waterproof. You'll never do this to us again, God."

He promised He wouldn't. They don't care what He promised. "You're not going to do it to us. We're going to build something You can't get Your water over." So it's not just pride. It's also to defy, to rebel against the Word of God and to rebel against God. We do that. All have rebelled against God. All have gone their own way. Not one seeks after God.

God has to come and find us under little rocks and things. You pick up rocks in the sunshine and all those little critters that scurry to get out of the sun—that's us. We're the sinners. The Webster's Dictionary calls it a ziggurat. And the Webster's Dictionary describes it this way, and this is exactly what the Tower of Babel was: "An ancient Mesopotamian temple to the gods."

It was a tower consisting of lofty, pyramidal structure, shaped like a pyramid, built in successive stages, which means you could walk up it because the blocks are made so that you can walk up it all the way to the top. And that's where you would worship at the shrine at the top, whatever god you chose to worship. And that was the Tower of Babel.

So again, why was it done? Human pride. "We're going to make a name for ourselves." To defy God. Rebellion, defiance. "We're not going to do what You say to do. We're going to do what we feel and what we want." And three: for religious purposes. Because mankind is made to worship. And if you refuse to worship the true God, you will worship the hummingbird, or mother earth, or the moon, or the stars, or you will worship the trees and the little bugs. Because we're built to worship, and if we refuse to worship God, we're going to worship some kind of squiggly something. That's what God says.

So Verse 5: "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. And the Lord said, 'Behold,' or look, 'The people is one. They have all one language and this they start to do. Now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.'" The language Lord says that if we put our minds together, there's almost nothing that we can't get done.

Isn't that interesting? Two heads are better than one. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 19:21: "There are many plans in a man's heart or a woman's heart, nevertheless the Lord's counsel, that's what will stand." You can come up with all kinds of plans. You can say, "We're going to build a barn on the moon and we're going to raise little moon cows."

You've got all kinds of plans. But you've got to understand that there is a God who might not let you or He might, depending upon how far He'll let you go. True? Isn't that amazing? God is not going to let certain things go on. He shut down Sodom and Gomorrah. And because He shut down Sodom and Gomorrah, you realize that something's going to happen to America, don't you?

At this particular point. You realize that God never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And when it comes to a certain point, it's got to be shut down. Jesus promised to come back because if He doesn't, we will obliterate the entire planet. We will nuke it away.

And God says, "No, I don't want that." So He's letting everybody have nuclear stuff and they're trading and figuring it out, but you can believe He's going to stop us before we do something even dumber than we already have. They've rebelled against God. Look at one of the first things they do. They build a tower up to the sky, as far as they can get in the sky, so they can worship other gods and they try to make it waterproof so it can't be flooded in case God's silly wants to try it again. "We'll beat Him this time."

He comes down to see the city and the tower. The language doesn't mean that God didn't know what was going on. The language means God is paying attention, specific attention to exactly what they're doing. That's all it's telling you. He knows what's going on. The language is to teach us that God is always looking over the affairs of mankind.

He knows what's going on in the secret meetings in Russia or in America, or He knows what's going on in Israel. He's there. God is everywhere. You think He's going to let this tower continue? He said no. The Lord God says, "The people—these people—well, they're the only people on the earth, everybody. I don't know how many of them there are, maybe a million, two—who knows how many there are?

But they're all in one location here and they're not going to—we're not split up like You told us to. We're staying right here and You ain't going to move us. We'll build the temple and we'll just do whatever we want. We built the city." And the Lord God says, "They have no language barrier right now. They're all one language. Nothing will be restrained from them. They'll put their minds together and conceive as much evil as they possibly can."

Look at Verse 7. God says this: "Go to. Let us go down." God's talking and He says, "Let us." Hmm. "Let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." Oh, that would be cool. "So the Lord scattered them abroad"—Verse 8—"from there, upon the face of all the earth. And they left off to build the city."

He went down and He confounded their speech. They couldn't speak. They weren't all speaking the same language. All of a sudden, it was different. God scattered them. What did He say? "Scatter around the earth." "No, we're not going to." Yes, you will. And He did. He scattered them abroad from there, upon the face of all the earth.

And they stopped building the city. Therefore, because of that, the name of the city is called Babel because the Lord did confound their language of all the earth. And from there did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. He took care of that, didn't He? God said, "Let us go down." Now, the language isn't confusing. The language is simple. Who is us? That's what people want—who is us?

That's easy. God is one what with three whos. One person—three in one. In other words, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is fully God, but He became flesh and dwelt among us. He's still fully God, but He's God the Son. He's always been, always will be. So, three in one. So He's talking to Himself. They're discussing it.

"Let's go down and confound their language." Confuse it so that they can't communicate with each other. Interesting. Think about that. Even though they may have the same thoughts, they can't communicate those to others. We may be thinking alike—we're all going to build a tower—but now we don't understand what each other's saying. Have you ever been to a country where you do not understand one word and try to get by?

God confounded their language so they can't understand. You think about it. They have the same thoughts, but they can't communicate those thoughts to one another. I say that's God's mercy. And you say, "That's weird." No, think about it. He could have gone ahead and flooded the place again. He probably swore He wouldn't do that.

So He could nuke everybody and start over with the rest of Noah's family and do it again. But in mercy—because He just could have killed all the builders, anybody that knows how to build, kill them—He could have, right? He could have crushed the tower, just destroyed the tower to bits.

But in His mercy, because He could have blown it to bits, He leaves the tower there and the people are fine and everybody—nobody's harmed. It's just that they can't communicate. You've got to picture yourself. You're right there and you go, "All right, give me another brick, dude." And he goes, "Cosa?" Anybody speak Italian? Cosa?

What? Cosa? God bless you. Now give me another brick. "Was? Was?" I don't know what you're talking about, man. We're building a tower. Are you crazy? Are you drinking? "Qué?" What would you do? What is wrong with everyone on this wall? I'm getting out of here. You guys are nuts. I don't know what's going on.

And you're going to go where? You're going to go find the people who speak your language. I've heard people say this is not true because most languages developed slowly over hundreds of years and probably thousands of years. But God's Word says He miraculously gave them languages right there on the spot.

They didn't have to learn them; they just knew them. All of a sudden, that guy spoke Russian, and that girl over there, she spoke Italian, and that girl back there speaks French. So people say it happened over hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Really? God did it instantly. I saw Him do it in the book of Acts Chapter 2.

Why don't we read that? In the book of Acts Chapter 2, He did it again, Verses 1 through 6: "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one accord in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound of a mighty rushing wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them"—the Holy Spirit—"and they were filled with the Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them the ability."

"And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews who were devout men out of every nation under heaven." They were there for the feast, right? So they came from all over. Now, when it was noised abroad, the multitude came and were confounded because they—every man—heard them speak in his own language.

They were immediately speaking in tongues and they were speaking the languages that many people from around the Roman Empire, they said, "He's speaking my language! That guy's speaking mine! Weird!" How long did it take them to learn it? Instantly they spoke it. If He did it in Acts Chapter 2, why couldn't He have done it at the Tower of Babel? He did, everybody.

And it shut down the whole works. When the languages at the Tower of Babel were given, they stopped building the tower. They had to quit. They couldn't work together. There was confusion. "How do I—I don't know what you're talking about. I know what we're doing. Just hand me the brick and let's just don't say anything."

But after a while, you're going to have to call for some water or you're going to have to—you're not going to get it done. You're going to climb all the way back down and go get it yourself and back up? Not on your life. You're going to get out of there. And they did; they stopped. They stopped building the tower and the people scattered.

They wandered off. Since they couldn't communicate with others, they went off on their own with the people they could communicate with. And they scattered around the planet like God commanded them to do in the first place. You see? I'll read you the scripture again, Proverbs 19:21: "There are many plans in a man's heart, nevertheless the Lord's counsel, that will stand."

If God doesn't want you here, you'll be somewhere else pretty quickly. And you say, "Not me! We're not moving!" Listen, just trust God. God is big. The Hebrew words—now this is a play on words here. There are two Hebrew words and it looks like that's what the people called it: Bab-El.

El is God, and Bab would be gate. So the people were calling it Bab-El, two words: Gate of the gods. They built this tall thing—Gate of the gods—right there leading you into the beautiful city of Babylon. Gate of the gods. And that's what the people were calling it.

But the Hebrew word that's not hyphened is Babel, and that word means confusion. And that's what God did. He confused their language. And every time you and I turn from God and want to do our own thing, you know what it's going to lead to? You know God will say, "This is the way, walk in it."

You say, "I'm going to try this though. I'm not going to cheat, but I think I could..." and you end up going, "I don't even know what I'm doing or why I'm here. I forgot why I even came here." Confusion. Now, the day is coming, just like God did then, just like God did to Sodom and Gomorrah—and you'll see that coming up later in Genesis—just like God did here.

In His mercy, He didn't crush them or drown them or harm them. He just changed their language and they go, "I can't work around you guys. You're nuts. Oh, you spoke—yeah, let's me and you, we can talk. Come on." And they got their little group and they scattered, which is what God commanded them to do in the first place.

God will get me to do what He wants me to do. He always will. The day is coming when Jesus Christ our Lord will return and will set up His kingdom on this earth and He's going to restore everything. Right now, everyone, everything is in confusion. Nations are in confusion. They're infighting.

How many nations aren't infighting? You look around the planet, most of them are. They're being taken over by whatever the leadership you call it this week—dictators, whatever you like to choose to call them. But they're taking over and they're running the show and running their countries into the trash.

Look at Venezuela, one of the richest countries in the world, and in less than two years, look at them. They can't even spell rich right now. They're in trouble and they're hurting and the people are paying high prices for that in physical health, et cetera. But there's coming a day when Jesus will return and set up His own kingdom and rule and reign for a thousand years.

You can see it coming. If you just watch the way America is, you can see everything's headed down. Don't worry. Whatever the language is, we will know it. He can do that, so don't fret. Stay up on your Spanish just in case, but still, God's going to do it, everyone. God's going to do it.

He's in charge. And we can bow down now and just worship just a teeny bit, but we want to give our hearts to Him. He's got the plans. And if you want to make God laugh, what's the old saying? "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." Because that makes God laugh out loud.

Because He already knows what you're going to do. He sees it, He's got it, He's planned this. The ones that He's called to ministry, we're in the ministry and we don't know how we got here. He just did it. The ones that He's called to be really brilliant at their computers, they're just good at it; they think it's natural. Well, it is. God gave you that. And we're doing it. And we're trusting. Don't be afraid. Trust Him. And if you've never surrendered your whole heart, let's do that right now. Let's bow our heads.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM.

You can download today's message in its entirety at northcountrychapel.com/studies. That's northcountrychapel.com/studies. If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho, 83854, or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again: 1-800-572-8851.

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