“ Our Biblical Worldview” ( 10 ) God and the Nations 11/21/2021

2 Thessalonians 3 and the Closing Prayer

Pastor Jason will do so. What is it? 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. So today we conclude this epistle and then Pastor Jason will pray for us. Thank you.

2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful.

He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you have received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you.

It was not because we do not have the right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

And may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine.

It is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do exalt your righteous and holy name. Lord God, you are just, you are good, you are gracious, you are merciful, and you are a God of peace.

And Lord, we thank you for the work of Jesus Christ that he achieved peace with us, with.

You.

And we pray, Lord, that we would remember these things, that we would remember your great character, that we would remember our great salvation and the work that you accomplished on our behalf. Lord God, we thank you for all of these wonderful gifts and these promises.

We pray, Lord, that as we open up your word today, that we would be mindful of what it.

Says.

We pray that we would keep focused on your word, that you would take the word from our ear and implant it in our hearts. Help us to live out these truths every day of our lives. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Purpose of the Nations in Genesis 11

Well, this morning, we're going to consider the passage of Genesis chapter 11 and its implications. So let's turn there. You who are visiting with us today, we extend a welcome to you and would ask if you would take a moment, fill out a visitor card for us.

It would be great. You can hand it to me after service. When you come here, we welcome you as a visitor, but we also assume the responsibility to become your servant on behalf of Jesus Christ. We're here to help you.

And if you have come here, we would hope that you would realize you cannot say, no one cared for my soul, because this congregation does. And so if you'll leave a record of your visit, we'll send you some information about our church and contact you and just see if we can assist you in any way in walking with the Lord.

Well, in order for us to better understand the worldview that Christians are to formulate in their thinking, worldview derived from the scriptures, the word of God, it's important for us to consider the purpose and role that God has for the nations of the world and how God has governed the nations through history.

And so it's a broad theme, but we want to address this today. And so we'll do so initially from the 11th chapter of Genesis, in which we read of God initially creating or forming the nations. And it was really a manifestation of his judgment.

He formed the nations of the world and then scattered them across the face of the earth. And so this passage describes an event sometime after the flood of Noah in which God had destroyed.

The former world.

But here is the account of the Tower of Babel and God's resultant judgment upon the people. Here's Genesis 11, 1 through 9. Now the whole earth had one language and 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 dwelt there.

Then they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone, they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens.

And let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of man 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 purpose to do or 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 and 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. Last Lord's Day we gave attention to the judgment of God upon the world when he called forth the great floodwaters in the days of Noah.

He destroyed all living things except for Noah and his family and of course the animals that were with them in the ark. Noah and his family and the animals came forth into a new world and it set forth in Genesis as a new creation that God had established for them.

And at that time God commissioned Noah and his family just as he had done Adam and Eve, he used the same language just as Adam and Eve when he put them in that first creation here in this new creation God said to Noah, be fruitful and multiply, same language he gave to Adam, and fill the earth.

But though God had given the human race a new beginning and a new world it soon became apparent that sin also survived the flood, it was in them. For it soon emerged in Noah and his family. We won't go into detail there but it's a sad commentary.

We read in the following narrative that the population of the world greatly increased after the flood and also culture, civilization developed in many different ways and that's recorded for us in Genesis 10.

Sadly, however, sin also once again greatly increased, culminating in another great intervention of God, another judgment of God, bringing judgment upon mankind here at the Tower of Babel that we just read about.

God had declared that unless he brought judgment upon them, nothing that they proposed to do will be withheld from them, Genesis 11, 6. Matthew Henry commented on this, now nothing will be strained from them, this is a reason why they must be crossed, in other words confronted, countered, and thwarted in their design.

God had tried by his commands and admonitions to bring them off this project but in vain and therefore he must take another course with them. See here first, the sinfulness of sin and the willfulness of sinners, ever since Adam would not be restrained from the forbidden tree, his unsanctified seed, her descendants have been impatient of restraint and ready to rebel against it.

And secondly, see the necessity of God's judgments upon the earth to keep the world in some order and to tie the hands of those who will not be checked by law. And so God is active through history bringing judgment upon people.

Well the result of this incident, this act of God's judgment was that the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth and they ceased building the city. And so God had divided humanity at this point into separate ethnic groups, nations, each with a different language so that their desires for uniting humanity against God would be prevented.

And so again to recite some words of Matthew Henry who I think gave a good summary of what occurred, the builders were scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, they departed in companies after their families and after their tongues or languages to the several countries and places allotted to them in the division that had been made which they knew before but would not go to take possession of until now that they were forced to do.

Observe that first, the very thing which they feared came upon them, they feared they would be scattered, the result of God's judgment they were scattered. That dispersion which sought to be to evade by an act of rebellion, they by this act brought upon themselves for we are most likely to fall into that trouble which we seek to evade by indirect and sinful methods, that's a spiritual principle isn't it in history.

Second it was God's work, the Lord scattered them, God's hand is to be acknowledged in all scattering providences, if the family be scattered, relations are scattered, church is scattered, it's the Lord's doing, if we had time we could go into Acts and see how the Lord persecuted the church so they were scattered and everywhere they went they were preaching the word and so the gospel greatly expanded through God's scattering them.

Third though they were as firmly in league with one another as could be yet the Lord scattered them for no man can keep together what God will put asunder, of course that's an allusion to about marriage, what God has put together let not man put asunder and here he's saying that no man can keep together what God is determined to put asunder.

Thus God fourthly justly took vengeance on them for their oneness in that presumptuous attempt to build their tower, shameful dispersions are the just punishment of sinful unions. Simeon and Levi, two tribes of Israel who had been brethren in iniquity were divided in Jacob, in other words in Israel and fifth they left behind them a perpetual memorandum of their reproach in the name given to the place, it was called Babel which means confusion.

Those that aim at a great name commonly come off with a bad name and then sixth the children of men were now finally scattered never did nor ever will come all together again till the great day when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory and all nations shall be gathered before him.

I question whether that sixth point is true with the movement of spirit of globalism in the present world, it may come to that who knows. And so it's here at Babel that we begin to learn of the purpose and role that God has for the nations of the world, I'd like us to consider several matters from this passage and from other passages to which this is related, first let's recognize the important biblical theme of God's judgment in the word and the idea the theme of exile.

In God's judgment he separated sinful people from the place where they might encounter the presence of God, they were scattered, exile, he excludes evil people from his presence and this results in their forfeiture of the blessings of life that come to them who know him and live before him in faith and obedience, God excluded Adam and Eve, he exiled them out of the garden.

Second we'll also consider briefly the quest of mankind in exile suggested in our passage and elsewhere which is a uniting of fallen mankind to produce or attain that which they forfeited through their departure from God, in other words they continue to desire for personal glory and immortality rather than seeking the glory of God, secondly an attempt to secure personal safety and protection, that's why they wanted to build a city, one of the motivations and third to obtain continuance or permanence, to establish themselves.

But then we'll also speak to the corollary of the theme of exile in the Bible and that is the idea of exodus and exodus is coming back from exile, actually God going down and taking his people out from exile to return to God and so through exile God in his judgment excludes people from the blessing of his presence and through exodus he restores people to the blessing of his presence and the blessings of life that he gives his people.

Sin excludes, it's like an exile away from God, from God, forfeiting the blessings of God but salvation is an exodus, a returning to God and all the life and privileges and blessings that come with knowing God and living in his presence and so after addressing this few overarching themes we'll consider more specifically God's role for the nations and how they're to be regarded in the light of the kingdom of God over which Jesus Christ reigns as king and of course that took place upon his crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, enthronement in heaven at the right hand of God, Jesus Christ is Lord, he's king.

Exile, the City of Man, and Babel as a Pattern of Rebellion

And so let's consider first a few words regarding the biblical theme of exile, this is a biblical theme and it's found throughout the Word of God. From the opening chapters of Genesis it's clear that the goal of God's creation was for the fellowship of humanity with God its creator.

As one described what is set forth, created in the image and likeness of God, humanity's highest purpose, the meaning of life and existence was to be found in the all-inspiring prospect of engagement with the uncreated being who transcends all creation.

That's why God made us. God had created humanity that he, God, might live among them on the earth as we have in the garden but with the entrance of sin and that Adam and Eve broke covenant with God, God excluded them from his presence in the garden paradise where they and God could meet and have fellowship with one another.

We might say that God had sent them into exile from the garden of Eden. Away from his presence into a harsh world that is often depicted in the Bible as a wilderness where there's little life, little that would sustain life or bring blessing to life.

They forfeited their life before and with God and all the blessings of life that flow from that relationship and so they're exiled out of the garden into a hardened world. But then we read of course in Genesis how very soon the sin of Adam and Eve showed itself and their children Cain murdered his brother Abel as we considered in Genesis 4 and in this act of Cain's murder of his brother not only was sin shown to have been more egregious but the consequences of sin are shown to have been pronounced.

And so just as the Lord God had sent Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden so we read that God sent Cain out further from his presence who came to dwell in the land of Nod as one wrote estranged further from God even more than his parents.

Cain's place on earth is no home but a vast no man's land bare of comfort in Hebrew the word for wandering is Nod, N-O-D. So there's no small irony when the narrative goes on to recount how Cain departed from the face of Yahweh that's the actual Hebrew name of God Jehovah commonly said but Yahweh actually and dwelt in the land of Nod that is he made his home in the land of wandering located east of Eden.

The farther ones removed from God the greater ones disorientation becomes one who's far from God is a confused person chaotic person and without self-control or discipline. Such rebellion welling up out of a heart polluted by sin is all the more tragic as the maker of heaven and earth reveals himself to be abounding in mercy and steadfast love and God chose himself that way even to sinners and so God had exiled Cain into the world in which he became a wanderer with no settled home or people with whom he could dwell in peace and rest.

But Cain didn't want to be a wanderer for he desired to settle down and that he built a city and the city has important significance and meaning. Genesis 4 17 records. Cain knew his wife she conceived bore Enoch and he built a city and notice called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.

Here we see that Cain desired what all fallen people of the world desire. He purposed to build a city by which he could obtain personal recognition or glory. I'll build a city for myself he named it after his son showing that it was really his personal ambition.

He desired to be the recognized originator of the city. Its founding and building would be the credit to him bring glory to him or he must have thought. He wished to leave a legacy of himself. He built the city for the protection it would afford him in a hostile world.

He'd no longer be a wanderer he thought but he would have some protection. He'd settle down. And he also built the city with a view to establish himself and his posterity a sense of permanency stability.

When we come to the events that led up to the Tower of Babel before what we read in Genesis 11 we see a similar pattern emerged that was suggested earlier that we've already read. We didn't draw attention to it.

It's been pointed out that the Tower of Babel portrays humanity in ways remarkably like the earlier depiction of Cain back in Genesis 4 just as Cain desired to build a city Genesis 4 7. So these people of Babel wish to build themselves a city.

And so Genesis 11 3 and 4 again come let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone. They had asphalt for mortar. 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 whole earth. And so these people seem to be motivated just as Cain was who due to the fear of a dangerous world before him and with a sense of vainglorious pride and a sense of self-sufficiency he'd build himself a city.

These people would also make a name for themselves just as Cain desire. They desire to unite themselves believing they would be stronger together than apart. They had stated their motivation they said let us build lest we be scattered abroad.

In other words exiled further over the face of the whole earth. They sought human glory human achievement even a name for themselves. They would leave their mark their legacy upon the world. They desire to build a tower which was no doubt a ziggurat.

And over there in Iran today there's a ziggurat. This thought this may have been the Tower of Babel. Tradition certainly says it was. Whether it wasn't is or not we don't know a ziggurat a man-made temple for themselves dedicated for their own glory and advancement.

They would ascend to a lofty position on this tower in which they could either reach their God or gods in order to control them manipulate them get them to serve them or maybe obtain for themselves the authority and glory as gods.

They were filled with lofty opinions of themselves of their capabilities and opportunities. And then we read again of the judgment of God upon them. 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. They've all have one language. And this is what they begin to do. And now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come let us go down. Probably the Blessed Holy Trinity father to son son Holy Spirit.

Come let us go down there confuse their language that they may not understand one another speech. And so the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth. And they ceased building the city and 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. And so God brought his judgment upon the human race. And due to his judgment God had caused the various nations to come into existence by confusing their languages.

God scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. The entire fallen world now is seen as the place of exile. They're scattered. And that word scattered that verb carries the idea he exiled them he scattered them as it were across the world excluded from his presence.

And so the entire earth was a wilderness void of the blessing and life that God brings to his people who dwell in his presence. And so here we see that it was in God's purpose in history to prevent this spirit of globalism from achieving its desires its ends.

And this has always been and always will be the desire of tyrants and empires. Hitler the Third Reich the Third Kingdom the last a thousand years he was attempting to build a millennium so to speak. But with God's judgment the warring factions of the nations would prevent the human race from banding together in a common cause of united sin and rebellion against God.

Thank God for the various nations. So when you have an evil nation like Germany at that time in history you have other nations rise up to put it down. There's value in nations. God has a purpose in them.

I would argue that globalism is not a good ideal when you have fallen men in charge. The Lord Jesus said this is what depicts or describes the history of the world. This nation against nation he said you'll hear of wars and rumors of war.

See that you're not troubled for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet see. Wars between nations nor wars down through history are not indications of the second coming of Christ. Jesus is basically saying that this will take place.

Nation will rise against nation kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines pestilences earthquakes in various places. This is the course of this fallen world over which Jesus is King is Lord. And so he said these things are not signs of the end.

They are the kind of events that occur through history in a fallen world filled with nations competing and conquering one another through history. Here's a good summary of what the Tower of Babel portrays in the biblical record.

Separated from the one God who is himself the only true source of life and peace. Human beings are fugitives and wanderers on earth. And still humanity ever endeavors to reclaim the benefits of life with God immortality protection rootedness apart from God himself having been expelled from his presence in Eden.

Humanity's natural bent is to deny the exile and to reclaim the good life through science and technology and art a pursuit of hapless as it is endless destined to failure. Such pursuits in themselves are the good gifts of God and that's recorded in Genesis 10.

But they are used to circumvent God rather than for his glory. City-building is thus portrayed in the biblical record here as a humanistic attempt to defy God a sadly arrogant energy of self-will and self-assertion that shakes a fist in the face of God to one's own utter and inevitable demise ever grasping for deceitfully just out of reach allurements at the city of man project the scattered nations each now within its own ethnic context returned to their building endeavors so that rather than praising the makers name the creators name they steeped in their dark plight of exile.

Continue the anthem. Let us make a name for ourselves and living to exalt their own reputation power and glory. The whole drama of human history and God's redemption of the nation's turns on this subject of the glory of Yahweh's name.

Are you going to live for your own glory or are you going to live for the glory of God and Jesus Christ. Two different ways of living. And so here at the beginning of the biblical record Babel is first introduced and as the great city-state that is defiantly opposed at God the city was the center and home of this rebellious seed of the serpent that we've been following in the early chapters of Genesis the seed of the serpent the descendants of the serpent the devil's people who are opposed to God and opposed to God's people who are the seed of the woman.

Over the course of the biblical story the entire Bible Babel continued to reappear in history as a great enemy and oppressor of the people of God not just here in Genesis 11 but throughout the whole Bible.

It was from this region from the Assyrian Empire where Babel was located which emerged this nation this Empire Assyria to destroy the northern kingdom of Israel and nearly extinguished the southern kingdom of Judah in the 8th century BC and in in its place Babylon arose.

Neo Babylonia is what it was called the namesake of Babel here in Genesis 11 the great city-state the worldwide Empire which was opposed to God's people. And so God used evil Babylon to bring his judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem destroyed the temple and to take into exile a few Jewish survivors.

This took place in the 6th century BC and later in the New Testament Babylon became the apocalyptic codename for the world Empire of the day the Roman Empire. Peter referred to Rome as Babylon in his epistle.

It's also reflected in the book of Revelation the early churches. Those seven churches would have read the term Babylon and would have immediately thought he's talking about the Roman Empire that was oppressing them.

But in the Revelation the nation of Babylon is set forth in a much larger proportion as the emblem of all the seed of the serpent much larger than just the Roman Empire the evil seed of the serpent which is opposed to God and afflicted God's people throughout history.

And so Babylon by the time you get to the end of the Bible has emerged and grown in intensity and in power from this little ziggurat tower in this region of present-day Iraq Iran to become an emblem of the entire fallen world system opposed to God.

And so in the Revelation that Babylon is the fallen world system for which we're to be on guard ourselves as Christians. And we are called to overcome this oppressor and we overcome through faithfully enduring in and through all of the difficulty that they may heap upon us.

And so the head and power of Babylon this fallen world system is the great dragon that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He's the one who energizes and leads the Babylon the world system.

And so this is the spirit behind the movement toward secular globalism which would unite the human race with the cause of its own glory security and permanence the promise of security stability well-being for everybody.

It's a false promise. For as it has been throughout all of history there are individuals and cobbles that intend to promote and head this system for their own ends for their own wealth and power. You don't want sinners in charge of a world government.

It's actually in God's purpose that there will be a united world a single national identity. In this sense God is the ultimate globalist. But it's in his purpose that the uniting of the nations of the world will be a people wholly committed to dwelling with God as their king.

In other words God would have the people of the world all people from every nation to become citizens of the kingdom of God ruled over by God's King Jesus Christ. And so at Babel we see that God would not allow the nations to rally as one nation one people in rebellion to him.

Rather God thwarted their efforts. But we know that God intended to reach the world and bring them together. Because in the very next chapter Genesis chapter well 12 we read of the call of Abraham who would eventually through his descendants a nation would arise a kingdom would arise that ultimately would bring blessing to all the nations all the families of the earth.

And so in Genesis 11 we have fallen man's attempt you know to for a worldwide government and globalism. And in chapter 12 we see the beginnings of God's effort to bring his creation back into submission to himself.

And so God first began this work in the calling of Abraham who it's interesting was called to come out from the nations or the called ease in order to form a new nation a nation which would ultimately encompass and be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

And so the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 with the scattering of the nations. It's a precursor to Genesis 12 where God reveals his purpose for the nations. And so we read the Lord coming to Abram in the region around Babel.

Get out of your country from your family from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you.

I will curse them who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth all the nations shall be blessed. And so Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him. And so they traveled from that place to the land that was an emblem of heaven and the new earth basically.

That's why he lived in tents. He didn't see that as his homeland but rather an earthly type of a reality. He looked for a city whose builder and maker was God and so he lived in tents in that land. And so there's a few words about a few thoughts about the matter of exile.

Exodus, the Return from Exile, and Salvation in Christ

Now let's consider a few words regarding the biblical theme of exodus. The theme of exile is very important in the biblical account of history. Exile again refers to God sending away people from his presence from whom alone true life and its blessings may be experienced and enjoyed.

The term exodus is a reversal of that. It speaks of God calling and bringing his people back from exile unto himself. Exile conveys the idea of rejection and alienation. Exodus conveys redemption and reconciliation.

Exile speaks of God's rejection and condemnation. Exodus speaks of recovery and acceptance as his people who come out of sin and this result in alienation to God returning to him in faith and repentance.

Exile speaks of people experiencing defeat and bondage slavery. In Egypt for example exodus speaks of being set at liberty enjoying victory and deliverance from one's enemies. And so when God called Abram out of Ur the Chaldees he delivered him from the region of exile into which he had sent the nations at the Tower of Babel.

God was causing Abraham to experience an exodus from the nations. As one wrote in calling Abram out of Ur the Chaldees God was delivering an ancient Mesopotamian man along with his wife Sarai out of exile and initiating a relationship that would serve as a kernel for all humanity's new life with God.

The divine call to leave Ur was also a deliverance out of Ur out of the plight of the nation's exile as the first human being to experience a reversal of the spiritual exile narrated in Genesis 11. Abraham himself stands as the first fruits of an international deliverance.

The call out of Ur was in other words an exodus. And the goal of Abraham's exodus the land that Yahweh would show him was the land of Canaan. Centuries later Abraham's exodus out of Ur and entry into Canaan would be followed by Israel's exodus out of Egypt into the land of Canaan.

And so in Genesis 15 God would proclaim to Abram I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Ur the Chaldees to give you this land to inherit a divine declaration and exodus formula that will be echoed in the proclamation to Israel later.

I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. You see the similarity of language a divine declaration an exodus formula. In both instances God defines himself as his people's deliverer to his people.

Yahweh is and can only be known as the God of the exodus. And we'll point out as we get through this is that our own salvation that we have in Jesus Christ is leading to our exodus out of this fallen world and into the presence of God in the new heavens and a new earth.