Centennial Park Baptist Church – Sunday, November 18th, 2007 – 10:30 a.m.

 

BABEL – WHAT IS GOD’S PLAN?

 

I           BEFORE the foundation of the world

 

a.       John 17: 24 - "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

Jesus was LOVED

b.      I Peter 1:20 – “ For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world.”  In eternity past, before Adam and Eve sinned, God planned the redemption of sinners through Jesus Christ.

c. Revelation 13:8 – “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

d. Ephesians 1:4 - just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love

CHOSEN

II          BABEL - Genesis 11: 1-4

            1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.  2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.  3 They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.  4 They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

A. MISSION- of Nimrod

   Right after the flood, God said, “Fill the earth” – Genesis 9:1

Instead, Nimrod tried to unify all mankind under one government, one city.  Three things were needed:

·        Strong centralized leadership

·        Control over resources

·        Project that would lead the people’s hearts away from God.

MOTIVE - SELFISH

METHOD - SELF-CENTERED

MISUSE OF GOD’S GIFTS

B. MANDATE- OF GOD – Genesis 11: 5-9

5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.  6 The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech." 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

COUNCIL - Let us

CONSTRUCTION stops

CONFUSION

 

C.  MIND and heart of God

            - A reversal of Babel!

PRELUDE - Acts 2:8

 8"And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

An elimination of the language barrier occurred with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, enabling the wonderful salvation of God to be declared in many languages

PURE speech – Zephaniah 3:9

 9"For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, That all of them may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder.

PERSONAL Choice