FBC Morning Light – January 6, 2023

Well, a good Friday to you.

Here we are about to wrap up the first week of the new year.

Week number one is about to be in the history books, and only 51 more left to go in this year.

Here we are, Friday, January 6th, and we're reading today, in Genesis 11

and 12, Matthew chapter 5, and the fifth psalm.

Remember this new Bible reading plan that we're following on Saturday and Sunday,

we read just the Old Testament passages and don't read anything in the New Testament

or in the Psalms.

So tomorrow, it would be chapters 13 and 14 of Genesis, and Sunday, chapters

15 and 16.

Well, today, in chapter 11, you know, the book of Genesis,

the title, Genesis, means beginnings, the book of beginnings, and there's a lot of good reasons for

that, because we really see the beginning of everything.

We get a lot of insight into humanity, into

fallen humanity, why man is the way we are, and how

does fallen man function?

How does he work?

What makes him tick?

How does he think?

We find some of this in chapter 11, with this account of the building of the Tower

of Babel.

This might seem to some to be some fascinating story about man

trying to build a tower thousands of years ago, or something like that, but it does

give us some insight into man's way of thinking.

So this humanity comes together and says, in the first few

verses of this chapter, let's make bricks, let's bake them,

and then they said, let's build ourselves a city, let's do this for

ourselves, and a tower whose top is to the heaven, and

let us make a name for ourselves.

You see the self -focus of all of this?

Let's build ourselves a city, let's make a name for

ourselves, let's build a tower that will reach to heaven.

We don't need God, we can do anything that we want if we just put our mind to it.

That ancient idea is a modern idea.

After man landed on the moon in

July of 1969, there was a song that came out that said, I can't remember

all of it, but there was a line in it that said, there isn't a thing that man cannot do if he takes one

small step and tries.

Of course, it was built off of that statement of Neil Armstrong, one small step for mankind, one giant

leap for mankind.

There isn't a thing that we cannot do if we take one small

step and try.

If we just put our mind to it, just take it a step at a time, we can build a tower to heaven, we can

make a name for ourselves.

We don't need God.

It was that attitude that caused God to reply as he did.

He said, you don't think you need me?

I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

I'm going to confuse your tongues, your tongue, I'm going to confuse your languages, and I'm

going to scatter you abroad.

You were supposed to go throughout the whole earth and populate the earth as I commanded you to do, but

instead you wanted to congregate together and make yourselves great and make yourselves a name and all that kind of stuff?

I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

I'm going to scatter you, and you're not going to be able to be the united humanity

that you think you can be, and it's still that way today.

There are great desires for global unification among some, but

you've got the renegades that have no desire to do that at all, unless it's on their terms, unless they're the rulers of

it all.

This chapter also gives us some understanding of, why are there the

different language families?

I'm not a linguist, and I don't have all of this

mapped out in front of me, but you and I both know that there are language families,

and there are distinctions between these language families.

I mean, our English language, we can trace it back to a

lot of our English language, back to some Greek vocabulary, and so on and so

forth, and so can a bunch of other languages of the West.

But that's quite a bit different than, say, some of the Asian languages,

Chinese, Japanese.

Those languages have some commonality to them, but they're radically different from

the language of the English -speaking person.

Why is that?

You have the answer for it here.

I know the secularist looks at this and says, that was just a legend that was created to

try to explain why there are different languages.

Okay, well, you explain why there are different languages.

How is it that these language families have come to pass?

I have their theories, but their theories, just like the theory of evolution, is simply a

theory that denies the potential that what we have written

in the book of beginnings is history.

I suggest it is history, and I think we have a good reason, a good understanding, a good basis for

understanding why there are all the different languages.

Why?

Because man, in his pride, said, since he's all of one language, he's going to be all of

one mind, and we don't need God.

We have our own power.

We can do whatever we want to do.

We can do whatever we want to do.

God scattered us and made us realize, no, you can't.

He hasn't stopped us from trying, has it, and I don't think it will anytime soon.

Well, let's thank God for the insight that we have into the human mind and heart that he reveals

in the book of beginnings.

Thank you for these things, Father, and I pray that we would recognize

our total dependence upon you, and our responsibility to

live as you direct, and as you see fit.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, well, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and Lord willing, we plan to gather together for church

on Sunday, and we'd be glad for you to meet with us, studying the book of Philippians in the adult Bible study time,

morning service, and then evening service as well this Lord's Day, so join with us.

We'd be glad to fellowship together.

Have a good day.

May the Lord bless.