Participants: Pastor Stephen Bohr
Series Code: CGC
Program Code: CGC000017
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01:12 Shall we bow our heads for prayer?
01:14 Father in heaven, we thank You so much for this beautiful day 01:19 that You have given us. 01:20 We're thankful that in spite of the sin in this world 01:24 there still is so much beauty to thank You for. 01:27 We just ask that as we open Your Holy Word, and we study about 01:33 the Tower of Babel and end time Babylon, 01:36 that Your Holy Spirit will be with us and help us to 01:39 understand how from antiquity You were preparing to bring 01:43 the Seed into the world to bless all nations. 01:45 We thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayer, for we ask it 01:49 in Jesus' name, Amen. 01:52 We'd like to begin our study today in the book of 01:58 Genesis 9:1, Genesis 9:1. 02:05 This verse is describing God's plan for Noah and his family, 02:12 and their descendents after the flood. 02:15 And we find the following words: 02:34 You notice that God's plan after the flood was that humanity 02:39 should scatter abroad over all of the earth, 02:42 and fill the earth. 02:45 Now the Tower of Babel episode took place approximately 02:52 one hundred years after the flood. 02:55 And as we read Genesis 11, we discover that human beings 03:01 did exactly the opposite of what God had told them to do. 03:06 Instead of scattering abroad over all of the earth, 03:10 they conglomerated together, they consolidated 03:14 together in one place. 03:15 Let's go in our Bibles to Genesis 11:1, 2, 03:22 Genesis 11:1, 2. It says: 03:36 Actually, a better translation is "as they journeyed 03:39 toward the East," because if you look at the geography, 03:43 you'll discover that Mt. Ararat is in Turkey, and Babylon, 03:50 where the Tower of Babel was built, 03:51 is actually southeast from Turkey. 03:54 And so a better translation, as many modern versions have it, 03:58 is that they traveled towards the east. It says that they: 04:09 Now undoubtedly the reason why they decided to dwell there was 04:13 because Ararat is a place where there are many mountains. 04:18 The land is not so fertile. 04:20 Therefore they looked for more fertile ground. 04:24 It's interesting to notice that Genesis 11 begins by saying 04:28 that they all spoke the same language. 04:31 Now if you look at the world today you'll discover that 04:35 people who speak the same language tend to band together. 04:39 Language unites people in a national unity. 04:45 It's much more natural to unite people who speak the same 04:48 language and the same dialect. 04:51 We're going to find in this story, however, that the devil 04:57 had a very special plan in mind, taking into account that there 05:02 was one language and one speech. 05:05 And that is that the devil, instead of wanting them to 05:09 spread abroad over the earth, he wanted them to consolidate 05:13 together in one place. 05:15 Because when you have this type of consolidation, 05:18 apostasy is much easier when people band together. 05:24 And, of course, ultimately the devil's purpose was to 05:28 demoralize the human race, to totally corrupt the human race 05:31 shortly after the flood, as he had tried to do before the flood 05:35 in order to make the Holy line, from which the Messiah would 05:40 come, disappear from human history. 05:43 The whole Tower of Babel episode needs to be understood 05:47 in the light of Genesis 3:15. 05:49 The devil, in this story, is trying to consolidate humanity 05:54 in open rebellion against God, to destroy the Holy line, 05:59 to totally corrupt and demoralize the world, 06:02 so that the promised Messiah, who would crush the serpent's 06:06 head, would not be able to come. 06:09 Now it's interesting to notice who the builder of the city 06:16 and the Tower of Babel was. 06:19 If we go back to Genesis 10: 8-11, we discover the name 06:25 of the builder of the city of Babylon and of this tower. 06:29 It says there in Genesis 10:8: 06:58 And then several other cities are mentioned as well. 07:03 And, by the way, the cities that are mentioned are the worst 07:06 enemies of Israel in the Old Testament. 07:10 Now Nimrod was a descendent of Ham, and the line of Ham 07:15 was the most wicked line of the three sons of Noah. 07:20 Of course, Shem continued the Holy line. 07:23 Ham brought into existence the kingdom of Babylon, Assyria, 07:28 also other kingdoms that were inimical to God, 07:32 and inimical to God's people. 07:34 Now it's interesting to notice that the name Nimrod means 07:39 rebellion. In Hebrew the name Nimrod means rebellion. 07:44 And, of course, this whole enterprise at the Tower of Babel 07:47 was a rebellious enterprise. 07:50 Now lest you think that that's not important, 07:53 over seventy times in the book of Genesis we find God 07:57 emphasizing the meaning of a name. 08:00 In Genesis names are not just given to identify people. 08:04 Names are given in order to describe the character of the 08:07 bearer of the name. 08:09 And in Genesis you have God changing names very frequently 08:12 when the character changes. 08:14 And so the name Nimrod, rebellion, 08:17 is very, very important. 08:19 This descendent of Ham, who was intent on establishing 08:23 an apostate religion against God. 08:26 By the way, later Babylonian tradition said that Nimrod 08:31 married a woman called Semiramis. 08:33 And when both of them died, the Babylonian belief came 08:38 that Nimrod went to the sun and became the sun god, 08:43 and Semiramis went to the moon, and she became the moon goddess. 08:47 In other words, we have this apostate idolatry, 08:52 which originated with Nimrod at the Tower of Babel; 08:56 the intention of the devil to totally 08:58 demoralize the human race. 09:01 Now go with me back to Genesis 11, and I'd like to read verses 09:06 3 and 4, Genesis 11:3, 4. 09:10 It continues saying here: 09:26 Now probably some of you have been to Israel. 09:29 And one thing which really strikes you when you go 09:31 to Israel is the amount of stones that you have there. 09:35 There seem to be rocks everywhere, and most of the 09:39 ancient edifications were made out of rock. 09:42 But we're talking here about the Valley of Mesopotamia. 09:46 We're talking about a place where even today there's not 09:50 an abundance of rocks, but construction 09:53 is made with bricks. 09:55 And, of course, there's a lot of asphalt because of the 09:57 tremendous amount of oil. 09:59 You know, the geographical location today would be Iraq. 10:03 And so this is historically true, what is being said here. 10:07 Now notice verse 4: 10:16 Notice that word ourselves, this is a selfish enterprise. 10:31 There it is again! 10:37 What didn't they want to happen? 10:39 They did not want to be what? 10:41 They did not want to be scattered 10:43 on the face of the earth. 10:44 They wanted to consolidate in one great apostate united 10:50 system against God. 10:52 You might call this a New World Order. 10:54 It was no longer a patriarchal type of existence where each 10:59 household basically was independent 11:01 of the other household. 11:02 This is the first time that you have a 11:03 monarchy in human history. 11:05 Now I want you to notice a very interesting statement 11:10 that I found in the book, Patriarchs and Prophets. 11:12 By the way, this is my favorite book on Old Testament history. 11:17 It's tremendous. It has incredible insights. 11:19 It's been given away here in the seminar to several people. 11:22 Allow me to just read you this statement. 11:25 It's found on page 119 of the book, Patriarchs and Prophets. 11:28 It says this: God had directed men to disperse 11:33 throughout the earth to replenish and subdue it. 11:37 But these Babel builders determined to keep their 11:42 community united in one body, and to found a monarchy 11:49 that should eventually embrace the whole earth. 11:53 Monarchy, that means one ruler governing over all 11:57 of the world, basically. 11:59 It continues saying: Thus their city would become the metropolis 12:04 of a universal empire. 12:07 Its glory would command the admiration and homage 12:11 of the world and render the founders illustrious. 12:16 The magnificent tower, reaching to the heavens, 12:20 was intended to stand as a monument of the power and wisdom 12:26 of its builders, perpetuating their fame 12:30 to the latest generations. 12:32 The word ourselves in this verse indicates that this 12:38 was a selfish enterprise. 12:40 They wanted to bring glory and honor to themselves. 12:43 They wanted to establish a universal empire 12:47 in apostasy against God. 12:49 In fact, later on in history, over a thousand years later, 12:54 another Babylonian ruler named Nebuchadnezzar established 12:59 what is known as the Neo-Babylonian Empire 13:02 in the same geographical location. 13:05 And we catch a little bit of the spirit of the original builders 13:08 by looking at the spirit that Nebuchadnezzar had. 13:11 Notice Daniel 4:30, Daniel 4:30. 13:18 Here we have Nebuchadnezzar's spirit. 13:20 It's the same spirit as the Babel builders. 13:23 It says here, Nebuchadnezzar speaking about his kingdom, 13:27 The king spoke saying, Is not this great Babylon that I have 13:35 built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power, 13:41 and for the honor of my majesty? 13:45 He had the same spirit as the original builders: 13:49 selfish, wanting to exalt himself. 13:53 Now you'll notice that they wanted to build the tower 13:55 to reach unto the heavens. 13:57 You need to understand this in the light of the flood. 14:00 The fact is that perhaps they wanted to build the tower 14:05 so high that they could explain the reason for the flood 14:09 which was scientifically absurd. 14:12 But even more importantly, in their minds, they felt that 14:15 they needed to build a tower taller than what the waters 14:19 of the flood had reached, so that in case there should be 14:22 another flood, they would be able to climb up on the tower, 14:26 and they would be able to deliver 14:28 themselves from destruction. 14:30 In other words, they distrusted the Word of God when God said, 14:34 I will not send another flood upon the earth, they said, 14:38 Let's build a tower just in case. 14:41 It was a project totally built upon selfishness. 14:47 Now you notice here that they say that they want to make 14:50 themselves a name. 14:52 Probably a better translation would be, they wanted their 14:56 reputation to become known. 14:58 They wanted to become renowned. 15:00 Now these individuals, the builders of the Tower of Babel, 15:03 were actually sharing the same spirit as the sons or the 15:09 daughters of men in Genesis 6. 15:14 I want you to notice Genesis 6, the giants that came from the 15:20 relationship between the Sons of God, and the daughters of men. 15:23 Genesis 6:2. It says there: That the Sons of God saw the 15:32 daughters of men, that they were beautiful. 15:34 And they took wives for themselves of all they chose. 15:38 Who intercrossed here? or interbred? the Sons of God, 15:45 and whom? and the daughters of men. 15:48 Now I want you t notice verse 4. 15:49 There were giants, nephilim, is the word. 15:53 There were giants on the earth in those days, 15:56 and also afterwards. 15:58 So you noticed that the giants were not only the result of the 16:01 relationship between the Sons of God, and the daughters of men, 16:03 they existed both before and after these giants. 16:06 But now notice the expression, it says, verse 4 again: 16:11 There were giants on the earth in those days, 16:13 and also afterward when the Sons of God came in to the daughters 16:16 of men, and they bore children to them. 16:18 Now here comes the key portion: Those were the mighty men who 16:23 were of old. Men of what? men of renown. 16:28 It's the identical expression that is used in Genesis 11: 16:31 Let us make a name for ourselves. 16:32 In other words it really says, they were men with a name, 16:38 or with a reputation. 16:40 And if you read the very next verse you can see what kind of 16:43 reputation they had. 16:44 Every intent of the imagination of their hearts 16:47 was only evil continually. 16:50 That's the type of name that they had. 16:52 They were wicked. They were renowned for their iniquity. 16:57 By the way, the expression, Sons of men is used for 17:02 the builders of the Tower of Babel. 17:04 Did you notice that? Sons of men? 17:05 Now in Genesis chapter 6 you have Sons of God, 17:10 Daughters of men. Here you have Sons of men. 17:15 Do you think maybe there were Daughters of God also? 17:18 Have you ever stopped to wonder why the Sons of God looked at 17:24 the Daughters of men and they didn't pay any attention 17:27 to the Daughters of God? 17:28 Later on in this series I'm going to explain the reason why. 17:32 The Daughters of men, which are descendents from the lineage of 17:36 Cain, had something attractive that the Daughters of God 17:39 did not have, and it had to do with their external appearance. 17:43 Now the Sons of men here are the male counterpart of the 17:49 Daughters of men of Genesis chapter 6. 17:51 The Daughters of men are the descendents of Cain; 17:54 the women descendents of Cain. 17:56 The Sons of men here are the male descendents of whom? 18:00 of Cain. If you read Ecclesiastes 8:11, 18:05 it says that because the sentence is not given 18:09 against the wicked immediately, their heart, 18:12 the heart of the Sons of men, is set to do evil. 18:16 In other words, the expression, Sons of men, in Genesis 18:19 represents the wicked. 18:22 Now we need to take a look at Genesis 11:5. 18:29 Let's continue our analysis of this passage. 18:32 Genesis 11:5. It says here: 18:49 See the expression, Sons of men? represents the wicked, 18:52 the male counterpart of the Daughters of men. 18:56 The Sons of God are the what? they are the righteous, 18:59 according to what we've studied. 19:01 Now notice verse 6: 19:09 Were they united in this enterprise? 19:11 They most certainly were. 19:13 They were united in rebellion against God. 19:20 What kept them glued together? 19:22 The fact that they spoke the same language. 19:25 You see, they didn't need to scatter over all of the earth, 19:28 because they all spoke the same language. 19:31 But now notice what God says. 19:34 And this is what they... 19:37 What God is saying is this is only the beginning 19:43 of what they intend to do. 19:45 And unless I nip this thing in the bud, it is going to 19:50 totally get out of control. 19:52 The world is going to become totally corrupted, 19:55 and then the holy line will disappear, 19:57 and there will be no Messiah. 20:00 And so it says: This is what they... 20:12 Basically, their master plan was to establish a One World 20:18 Government in alienation from God, totally united in iniquity, 20:25 and to erase from the world the memory of God. 20:30 But God knew what they were doing. 20:33 And so God looks and He says, they all have one language, 20:37 they all have one intention, they all have one purpose, 20:40 so I'm going to do something to nip this in the bud before 20:43 they carry it so far that the knowledge of God disappears 20:48 from the earth. And so in Genesis 11:7 20:52 we find what God does. 20:54 And, of course, we're all acquainted with this story. 20:57 It says in verse 7: 20:59 God is speaking. 21:13 And that's exactly what God did. 21:16 Now I want you to imagine what this must have been like. 21:20 They were building this gigantic tower, and probably it had 21:26 reached a height where they had to communicate by levels. 21:31 In other words, one person communicating to another person 21:34 lower on the tower. 21:35 And, of course, they passed along the materials for the 21:39 building of the tower. 21:40 And suddenly, by a divine miracle, their language 21:45 is confused. In other words, they're given the capacity of 21:47 speaking, probably, many of the languages that we have 21:51 in the world today. 21:52 And so the one that's at the top level says to the next one, 21:57 Hey, pass me some bricks. 21:59 And the one on the lower says ¿Qué fue lo que dijiste? 22:03 And then he talks to the one below him, 22:08 and he's talking in French. 22:10 And the one below him is speaking in German. 22:12 You can imagine the confusion, and the division that came 22:17 as a result of God doing this. 22:20 In fact, they had to quit their enterprise of building the city, 22:27 and building the tower. 22:29 And they scattered over all of the earth. 22:33 We're going to notice that in the next verse. 22:35 They scattered over the whole earth, and they formed societies 22:39 according to the languages which they spoke. 22:42 Now why was this God's plan? 22:45 Listen folks, it's much less likely that you're going to 22:49 have a consolidated worldwide universal rebellion against God 22:55 when you have many nations, and many tongues, 22:58 and many peoples. 22:59 A universal rebellion against God is much easier when you 23:04 have everybody consolidated and gathered together 23:08 as one, to war against the God of heaven. 23:11 And so God says, If I scatter them abroad over the earth, 23:15 this will, at least for a long period of time, keep them from 23:20 consolidating one evil civilization to totally erase 23:25 from the earth the knowledge of God, which will mean that 23:28 the holy line will disappear, and the Messiah that I have 23:32 promised will not come. 23:33 Notice Genesis 11:8 on this point; why God did this. 23:39 It's explained in Genesis 11:8. It says: 23:46 The intention was not only to confuse the languages, 23:50 it was to scatter them. 23:58 God is saying, Listen, if you don't want to scatter, 24:01 I'll do it for you. 24:03 And they ceased building the city. 24:07 And now notice verse 9, critically important. 24:16 Does that have prophetic significance? 24:19 Does Revelation speak about Babel? 24:23 It calls it Babylon, yes. 24:27 And so it says: Therefore it's name is called Babel, 24:31 because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. 24:44 So now consolidated rebellion against God, 24:48 a universal rebellion against God, was made extremely 24:53 difficult, not impossible, because in the end time it's 24:56 going to happen, but very, very difficult before the Messiah 24:59 should come that the whole world gathered together 25:02 in apostasy against God. 25:05 Now do you know that every nation of the world 25:08 branched out from Babel? 25:11 You know, it's interesting. 25:14 The apostate religion of Babel has been exported to every 25:17 nation in the world. 25:18 That's why you find common practices among religions 25:23 that are radically different. 25:25 You have, for example, the rosary. 25:29 Now I don't know what denomination you belong to, 25:31 but just to give you an example, do you know that Hindu's 25:35 use beads in their prayers? 25:38 Did you know that Muslims use beads in their prayers? 25:42 I saw it myself, with my own eyes. 25:44 Do you know that Buddhists use beads, or a type of rosary, 25:51 in their prayers, as also do Roman Catholics? 25:54 Now the question is, How do you have such radically different 25:57 religions all having a common practice? 26:00 The answer is that all of the nations of the world originated 26:05 at Babel, and the religious practices, which the nations 26:09 have in common, many of them contrary to the word of God, 26:13 originated with a common ancestry at the Tower of Babel, 26:18 including worshipping the Sun god, Nimrod. 26:24 That proliferated all throughout Old Testament history. 26:29 By the way, notice Genesis 10: 32, where we are told this. 26:33 Genesis 10:32. It says there were families... 26:54 All nations were divided on the earth after the flood. 26:57 So where did all nations come from? 26:59 All nations came from the experience 27:02 at the Tower of Babel. 27:03 Now there's something that I want you to notice, 27:06 which is very significant. 27:07 Immediately after the Tower of Babel episode is spoken of, 27:13 it ends in Genesis 11:9. 27:17 The very next verse... 27:19 Don't miss this point. 27:20 The very next verse presents the genealogy of Shem. 27:27 Now you say, Why is that important? 27:32 For the simple reason that the Babel builders were descendents 27:36 of whom? of Ham. 27:39 They were the ones who built Babylon. 27:43 The descendents of Shem would eventually be whom? Israel. 27:51 And so in this early period you have the devil establishing 27:57 his system, known as Babylon, and God preparing the world 28:04 by establishing His people, the Shemmites. 28:08 And, of course, all throughout the Old Testament, 28:11 and into the book of Revelation, the final war is between 28:15 Israel and what? and Babylon. 28:18 And so in Genesis 11 you have the lines drawn. 28:23 You have the builder of Babylon, Nimrod, the rebellious one, 28:28 and then you have the genealogy of Shem, from whom Abraham 28:32 will come, and from whom eventually 28:35 the Messiah will come. 28:36 So you have the idea of the two seeds already in Genesis 11. 28:41 Already God working to establish His people, and the devil 28:44 working to establish his people to war against 28:48 the people of God. 28:49 Are you understanding what I'm saying? 28:51 Now it just so happens that living there in the area where 28:55 the Tower of Babel was built, was a man called Abraham. 29:03 Let's go to the book of Acts 7: 2-4, Acts 7:2-4. 29:12 It speaks about this man Abraham. 29:14 By the way, you have three genealogies in the Bible which 29:19 are of crucial significance: you have the genealogy in Genesis 5, 29:23 which gives you the lineage from Seth all the way down to Noah. 29:29 And then you have the genealogy in Genesis 11, which gives you 29:33 the line from Shem, the son of Noah, 29:38 all the way down to Abraham. 29:40 And then in Matthew chapter 1 you have the genealogy 29:43 from Abraham all the way down to the times of Jesus Christ. 29:48 In other words, God is showing that He was preserving the Holy 29:52 Seed, even in the midst of rebellion and apostasy, 29:56 even when it looked like the Babel builders were going to 29:58 demoralize the world in its infancy. 30:01 God says, I'm not going to allow it. 30:03 I'm going to scatter them all over the earth. 30:05 And then, from this very region, in Genesis 12:1, immediately 30:10 after the Tower of Babel episode, God extends to Abraham 30:14 a call. Now notice Acts 7:2. 30:20 Stephen is speaking here. 30:35 Do you know what the word Mesopotamia means? 30:37 It means, the land between two rivers. 30:40 And the two rivers are the Euphrates and the Tigris. 30:45 So where did he live? 30:47 Where did Abraham live? 30:48 He lived in Babylon. That's right. 30:51 Now notice verse 3. 30:53 And said to him... What does God say to Abraham? 31:04 What land is that? 31:05 The land of what? Canaan. 31:08 What was in Canaan? Bethlehem. 31:12 What was in Canaan? Jerusalem. 31:17 Who would come to Bethlehem and Jerusalem? the Messiah. 31:22 So God calls Abraham. 31:25 He says, Come out of Babylon and I will take you to Canaan. 31:32 Notice verse 4: 31:38 See, there's another instance where it shows 31:41 that this is Babylon. 31:54 So God calls Abraham out of Babylon and He takes him 31:59 to Canaan, to the promised land. 32:01 And God promises He's going to establish a nation from him. 32:05 And, unfortunately, Christians have missed the point. 32:09 They focus on the nation instead of the reason why 32:13 God called the nation. 32:14 You see, God did not call Israel simply because 32:18 He preferred Israel. 32:20 He called Israel because by preserving this people 32:24 with the truth, and with the holy line, eventually from this 32:28 people established in Canaan, in Jerusalem, the Messiah 32:32 would come to the world. 32:34 In other words, the center of choosing Israel was not Israel. 32:38 It was Israel's Messiah. 32:40 Are you understanding what I am saying? 32:41 Now, why did God take Abraham out of Babylon to Canaan? 32:47 Notice what we find in Joshua 24:2, 3, Joshua 24:2, 3, 32:58 and it clearly explains the reason why God took him out. 33:01 It says there, beginning in verse 2: 33:19 What river is that? 33:20 When the Bible speaks of "the river," it's the Euphrates. 33:27 And then what does it say? 33:32 What was happening with the lineage of Abraham? 33:36 It was becoming corrupted by other gods and idolatry. 33:39 Whose agenda was this? Satan. 33:42 Did Satan know that Abraham was a member of the holy line? 33:45 He certainly... Why would he want to corrupt him 33:48 with other gods? What is the devil's battle cry? 33:53 To prevent the Seed from coming, because the Seed 33:57 is going to crush his head. 33:59 Are you understanding this? 34:00 See, there's more than meets the eye here. 34:03 God didn't call Abraham to come out of Babylon to go to Canaan 34:07 because God wanted to have a favored people, Israel. 34:10 The purpose of Israel was to proclaim the message of the 34:13 coming Messiah to the world, so that when the Messiah would 34:16 come the world would be ready to receive Him. 34:18 You're not with me tonight. 34:21 So it says in verse 3: Then I took your father Abraham 34:29 from the other side of the River; 34:30 that is from the Euphrates. 34:38 It says here. Actually it's seed. 34:45 Now notice Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 12:1-3. 34:53 By the way, what we're discussing in our lecture today 34:55 is critical for understanding Bible prophecy. 34:58 You need to remember what we're studying, because most Bible 35:01 prophecy today that is taught, centers on Israel. 35:04 But it misses the point, because prophecy does 35:08 not center on Israel. 35:10 Prophecy centers on Israel's Messiah. 35:14 The prophecies of the Old Testament are Messianic. 35:17 Jesus said, If you believe Moses, you would believe Me, 35:22 because Moses wrote about Me. 35:24 Beginning at Moses, and all of the prophets, He expounded on 35:28 them in all of the scriptures the things concerning Himself. 35:32 Now notice Genesis 12:1-3: 35:40 You see, God called him out. 35:52 Now notice: 35:53 And then He says you will be a what? 35:55 God blesses him so that he can become a blessing. It says: 36:08 Jews 36:10 No! It says, all the what? 36:18 Now if you read through Genesis you'll discover that time 36:21 and again it not only says that in you all of the nations of the 36:25 earth will be blessed, it says, in your seed all the nations 36:30 of the earth would be blessed. 36:31 The only reason why God says that they were going 36:34 to be blessed through Abraham is because from Abraham 36:37 came whom? from Abraham came the Messiah. 36:42 Now it's interesting to notice that God chooses Abraham, 36:45 an individual. From that individual He forms a huge 36:50 nation, and that nation is to focus on preparing the world 36:55 for the coming of whom? of an individual. 36:58 It begins with an individual, spreads to a people, 37:03 to bring the message about the Messiah to the world, 37:05 and then brings attention to an individual at the end. 37:09 And then we're going to notice that that individual, 37:13 who is Jesus, then calls a people on the Day of Pentecost 37:19 to proclaim the message of the Messiah to the whole world. 37:23 In other words, the plan begins with an individual, 37:26 goes to a nation, to prepare the world for the coming of the 37:30 Messiah. The Messiah, the individual comes, and then when 37:33 Jesus comes He calls a people just like He called the Jewish 37:37 nation, to proliferate His message to the whole world 37:41 about the Messiah who has come. 37:43 The only difference between Israel in the Old Testament, 37:45 and the church is that Israel in the Old Testament was to prepare 37:48 the world for the coming Messiah. 37:50 The church is supposed to proclaim to the world 37:53 the Messiah who has come. 37:54 Now this is exciting, isn't it? 38:01 Now notice Galatians 3:16. 38:05 Lest you are wondering whether I'm on target or not, 38:08 notice Galatians 3:16. 38:12 The scriptures tell us this very clearly. 38:15 It says there in verse 16: 38:22 To whom were the promises made? 38:24 To Abraham and his what? and his Seed. And now notice: 38:41 To whom were the promises made? 38:42 The promises made were made to Abraham and his Seed. 38:46 And who is the Seed of Abraham? Christ, who is at the very 38:50 center of the call of Abraham. 38:52 It is Jesus Christ. 38:56 By the way, do you know that in 2 Corinthians 1:20 it says that 39:00 all of the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Jesus Christ. 39:06 By the way, do you know that God made four basic 39:10 promises to Abraham? 39:11 You have them on your list. 39:12 We don't' have time to read them. 39:13 We'll come back to them, by the way, in our next lecture 39:16 where we'll deal more specifically with Abraham 39:18 and the covenant promises. 39:19 God, first of all, promised him the blessing; that from him 39:24 would come the blessing. 39:25 That's in Genesis 12:3. 39:28 Secondly he promised him the land. 39:32 The blessing, the land. 39:37 And some people say He promised him the land of Canaan. 39:39 Listen folks, Abraham knew that God was promising him 39:43 much more than the land of Canaan. 39:44 It says in Romans 4:13 that Abraham knew that God had 39:50 promised him that he would be the heir of the world. 39:52 And in Hebrews 11 it says that Abraham looked for a city, 39:57 a heavenly city, whose builder and maker is God. 40:02 He knew that the center of the promises was not old Jerusalem, 40:06 but new Jerusalem. 40:07 In other words, God promised him not only that little stretch 40:11 of land over there known as Israel, He promised him 40:14 the whole world, of which that land was a down payment. 40:18 So He promised him the blessing. 40:21 He promised him the land. 40:22 By the way, He promised him that he would have 40:25 dominion over his enemies. 40:27 He would regain kingship in other words. 40:30 And He also promised him that he would have a Seed through whom 40:35 all of the nations of the earth would be blessed. 40:38 Four basic promises: the blessing, the land, dominion, 40:43 and the Seed. Now allow me to share with you some 40:47 very interesting information. 40:48 You know, people ask, Did the heroes of the Old Testament 40:51 really understand that all of this was 40:54 pointing to the Messiah? 40:56 That they were called only with the intention of bringing 41:00 the Messiah, the knowledge of the Messiah to the world? 41:02 I'm going to share some information with you. 41:05 I'm not going to read it right now because we don't have 41:07 the time to read it, but you have it on your list of texts. 41:09 It's also in the copy of the lecture. 41:11 I hope that you go through that copy of the lecture. 41:13 But there's an expression that is used all throughout the Bible 41:16 and it's the expression, to call upon the name of the Lord. 41:20 To call upon the name of the Lord. 41:23 The first time that this is used is in Genesis 4:26 41:28 where it says that Seth called upon the name of the Lord. 41:33 Then you find in Genesis 12:8 that Abraham called 41:41 upon the name of the Lord. 41:42 You find in Genesis 26:25 that Isaac called upon 41:49 the name of the Lord. 41:50 In 1 Kings 18:36, 37 it says that Elijah called 41:56 upon the name of the Lord. 41:57 Do you know that each time they call upon the name of the Lord, 42:00 there's a common denominator? 42:01 They raise an altar, they offer a sacrifice, and then they call 42:05 upon the name of the Lord. 42:06 What did those sacrifices represent when they called 42:10 upon the name of the Lord? 42:11 They represented whom? Jesus. 42:14 And does anybody doubt this? 42:17 In Acts 2:21 Peter on the Day of Pentecost is preaching this 42:22 tremendous sermon, and Peter quotes this phrase from the 42:30 Old Testament: Call upon the name of the Lord, 42:32 and he says that everyone who... 42:39 And who is the Lord in that text? It is Jesus. 42:44 So upon whom did Seth, Abraham, Isaac, Elijah, and all of the 42:50 Old Testament heroes call? 42:52 They called upon the name of Jesus. 42:55 By the way, the apostle Paul also, in Romans 10:11-13, 43:01 speaks about calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus 43:05 in order to be saved. 43:06 So all of these Old Testament heroes understood, 43:10 very clearly understood, that the sacrifices represented 43:16 the coming of the Messiah, who was going to die 43:18 for the sins of the world. 43:20 Incidentally, we're explicitly told in John 8:56, as Jesus is 43:27 speaking with the Jewish leaders He says, Abraham what? 43:45 Did Abraham understand Christ's day? 43:51 Did he understand that all of these promises were to be 43:53 fulfilled in and through the Messiah? 43:56 The Bible says, Yes. 43:58 So Abraham understood that Israel was not at the center. 44:02 Jesus was at the center. 44:04 Calling upon the name of the Lord, upon offering a sacrifice, 44:08 represents the fact that Jesus dies for our sins, 44:10 and we call upon His name to receive 44:14 forgiveness for our sins. 44:16 That was at the very center of the lineage of those who 44:21 were faithful to God. 44:22 By the way, the New Testament makes it very clear that Jesus 44:28 is the one who brings the blessing of Abraham. 44:31 Let's read Galatians 3:13, 14. 44:36 It could not be any more explicit than this. 44:39 Galatians 3:13, 14. 44:55 There you have the sacrifice of Christ, right? 44:56 Now notice verse 14: 45:14 Jesus took the curse upon Him so that the blessing of Abraham 45:20 could come upon everyone who what? who believes in Jesus. 45:25 All of these prophecies were Messianic. 45:28 And so you have in the Old Testament the devil doing his 45:33 utmost to keep the Seed from coming. 45:37 He knows that God is choosing Abraham, and so he corrupts 45:42 the holy line, even Terah, the father of Abraham. 45:45 God says, I'm going to take you out of there, and I'm going to 45:47 bring you to the land of Canaan, to preserve pure the faith, 45:51 and to prepare Canaan for the coming of the Messiah, 45:54 where He will be born, and where the Holy Spirit 45:56 will be poured out. 45:57 And so God takes Abraham out. 45:59 Are you understanding what's happening here? 46:02 By the way, the Tower of Babel made things a lot 46:06 more difficult, too. 46:07 It made it impossible for rebellion to consolidate, 46:09 but it also made it very difficult 46:11 to proclaim the gospel. 46:12 Because now you couldn't proclaim the gospel in 46:20 in a multiplicity of languages. 46:23 The question is, how could you do it? 46:25 This is where the Lord intervened. 46:28 Notice Acts 1:8, Acts 1:8. 46:35 Do you know that God undid the curse of Babel 46:38 by giving a gift to the church? 46:41 Acts 1:8. Here Jesus is speaking to His disciples. He says: 47:09 Now they're going to witness about the Messiah 47:11 to the whole world. 47:12 But there's a problem at Babel. 47:15 All of the languages were confused. 47:18 How could these fishermen, who spoke Arabic, proclaim the 47:23 message to the whole world, where the 47:24 languages were confused? 47:27 What did God give on the Day of Pentecost? 47:30 By the way, do you know that there were thirteen nations 47:34 on the Day of Pentecost gathered there, to whom the disciples 47:38 were preaching to? 47:39 You can read it in Acts 2. 47:41 There were thirteen nations mentioned by name, 47:44 each with its own language. 47:46 And suddenly God gave the apostles the capacity to speak 47:53 instantaneously, and perfectly, the languages of those peoples. 47:59 In other words, what God did at Babel, confused the languages, 48:05 scattered people into different nations so that evil could not 48:08 consolidate, so that the Messiah could come, which complicated 48:13 the preaching of the gospel. 48:14 Now on Pentecost God says, The Seed is already come. 48:17 He's done what He needs to do. 48:19 And so now what I'm going to do is I'm going to bridge the gap. 48:22 I'm going to give the gift of tongues 48:24 so that my followers can preach the gospel to the uttermost ends 48:28 of the earth, in the languages of all of the nations. 48:31 Wow! You see how God is working here? 48:36 It's amazing how God is weaving a pattern here, very clearly. 48:42 And now He calls a people to take His message 48:45 to the whole world; the message of Jesus who has come, 48:50 in contrast to the Old Testament, the Jews were chosen 48:55 to preach the Messiah who would come. 48:57 But it's the same Messiah! 48:59 Now we must go in the few minutes that we have left 49:03 to the end time. Do you know that the book of Revelation 49:07 tells us that at the end of time there is going to be 49:13 a gigantic consolidation, and unification of the world 49:18 of one great apostate system against God? 49:22 I'm going to go through the details very quickly. 49:24 I wish we had the time to read all of the texts, but I'm just 49:28 going to paint the picture for you. 49:29 We're going to be studying these things in much more detail 49:32 as we go along in this seminar. 49:34 We're going to talk about the beast, the image to the beast. 49:36 We're going to talk about the dragon. 49:37 We're going to talk about the battle of Armageddon. 49:39 We're going to talk about the millennium. 49:40 We're going to deal with all of these issues piece by piece, 49:43 but what I want you to see now is the global picture of what 49:47 Revelation portrays is going to happen. 49:49 You're going to have, once again, the same experience as 49:52 the Tower of Babel, only it's not going to be in one 49:55 geographical location. 49:56 It is going to be a whole world united in rebellion against God, 50:00 in spite of all of the languages. 50:04 One gigantic worldwide economic system, political system, 50:10 national system. It's going to be amazing, with the intention 50:17 of uniting the world in rebellion against God. 50:23 Let me portray the picture for you. 50:25 Revelation 17:5. Don't even bother to look for the text. 50:28 They're in your list, and they're in the lecture. 50:31 All of this is explained in the copy of the lecture. 50:33 I hope that you'll take the time to study it. 50:35 It's very important! 50:37 Revelation 17:5 says that the final power, 50:40 which will rule the world, is called Babylon. 50:43 And it says in Revelation 17:1 that Babylon 50:52 sits upon many waters. 50:54 In Revelation 16:12 it says that the many 50:59 waters are the Euphrates. 51:01 Any relationship between Genesis 11 and Revelation 17? 51:07 Yeah, this harlot represents an apostate religious system. 51:13 She's seated, which means that she governs 51:17 upon the waters of the Euphrates, but it's not the 51:21 literal Euphrates. 51:22 Because the angel explains that waters represent multitudes, 51:26 nations, tongues, and peoples. 51:29 In other words, she's ruling over all of these nations that 51:33 came from what happened at the Tower of Babel. 51:36 She sits upon the Euphrates, and she gives her wine to all 51:42 of the nations of the world. 51:43 Revelation 18:2, 3. 51:46 The wine represents her apostate false religious teachings 51:50 that makes the nations drunk with her wine. 51:54 Now do you suppose that God is going to have a people 51:58 who are going to warn against this worldwide apostate system? 52:03 It's no coincidence, folks, that it says that the harlot sits 52:09 upon many waters, and it interprets the waters in 52:12 Revelation 17:15 as multitudes, nations, tongues, and peoples. 52:17 Revelation 14:6-12 warns against this system, by saying that 52:24 God sends three messages, by three angels. 52:28 And these messages are to go to every nation, kindred, 52:32 tongue, and people. 52:34 The very words that are used to describe where the harlot sits. 52:37 So is God going to have two groups at the end of time, 52:41 just like at the Tower of Babel? 52:44 He most certainly is. 52:45 He's going to have one group, like the descendents of Shem, 52:49 who are faithful to God, who preserved the holy line 52:53 of Messiah, spiritually speaking. 52:55 And then there's going to be the Babel builders who are in 52:58 apostasy against God. 53:00 Are you understanding me or not? 53:02 Tremendous! And those who are building Babylon, this harlot, 53:08 and the kings of the earth, and it says in Revelation 18, 53:10 the merchants of the earth, are all working together. 53:13 It says in Revelation 17 that they will all have one mind. 53:18 Did they have that at Babel? Yes. 53:22 They will have one mind in apostasy against God. 53:26 And you will have the same experience that took place 53:29 in the days of Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar raised an image 53:32 in honor of himself, and he commanded everyone to worship, 53:36 and whoever did not worship was to be killed. 53:38 Remember that that happened in Babylon 53:42 where the Tower of Babel was built. 53:44 Revelation 13 picks up on that, and it speaks about an image 53:49 which is built by the beast. 53:53 And the beast commands everyone to worship his image. 53:56 And whoever does not worship the image will be killed. 53:59 You see, it's picking up on what happened in ancient Babylon. 54:02 Only in the end time it's not going to be a literal image 54:05 we're going to study. 54:06 It represents a worldwide system in apostasy against God. 54:12 So God raises up a people to preach to those upon whom this 54:17 apostate religious system sits. 54:19 And God actually calls His people to come out, 54:23 just like He did with Abraham. 54:25 Notice Revelation 18, so interesting, so many things 54:30 to discuss, and so little time to discuss them. 54:33 Notice Revelation 18:4, 5. It says: 54:49 Is God going to call a people out of Babylon in the end time? 54:53 Yes. By the way, do you know that Babylon has three parts? 54:57 Revelation 16:13 says that Babylon has three parts. 55:00 It's the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, and we're 55:06 going to have a whole lecture on each one of them 55:07 in this series, because we need to know who they are. 55:11 It's a triple coalition which unites the whole world 55:17 in rebellion against God, and God says: 55:31 For her sins have reached to heaven, 55:34 and God has remembered her iniquities. 55:38 And, by the way, like the Tower of Babel came crashing down, 55:42 end time Babylon will also come crashing down. 55:48 Notice our final passage: Revelation 16. 55:51 We'd better not be in Babylon if it's going to 55:53 come crashing down. 55:54 We'd better make sure that we accept God's call to come out. 55:58 Notice Revelation 16 and beginning with verse 17, 56:02 the seventh plague, the culmination of this whole 56:05 end times scenario. It says: 56:31 See, now the city that was united is what? 56:33 is divided into three parts. 56:56 That's about fifty pounds. 57:03 Babylon will fall just like at the beginning. 57:10 And then God will take His people home, 57:12 where they will live with Him forever. 57:15 Folks, we'd better be absolutely sure that we are not in Babylon. 57:20 Let's be on God's side! |
Revised 2014-12-17