Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 28, 2022 | Cities & Altars - Building Cities

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August 28, 2022 | Cities & Altars - Building Cities · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: All right.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Man, it's good to see you all.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: I was walking over here this morning to this building, and um I ran into Connie.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know Connie, and she yelled across the across the parking lot, Oh my gosh, I thought you weren't wearing a shirt.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Um so it's not something I thought through very well.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Traveled a long way to come here, and uh this is the only shirt I had that didn't wrinkle.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: So um I didn't realize it was my skin tone.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: So I promise, if you're just case the camera's not like quite up to par, I am wearing a shirt.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: We did a lot of things to spruce up Sunday mornings, but we haven't gone that far.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: So anyways, I'm not allowed to say that, I'm sure.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Um but it is good to be back.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh I've missed so many of your faces, and so it's so good to see you guys.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Um for those of you who don't know me, uh I'm Alex Wolfe.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm the former young adults pastor here.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Um and I have the honor of coming back.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: I've been asked to come back to guest preach this week and next, um, though it doesn't feel I don't feel much like a guest.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh I guess, you know, in in so many ways, uh y'all are family to me and my wife and and my boys.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: That unfortunately they weren't able to come, but uh uh even from a distance, I I'm sure that I'll continue to feel that for a long time.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: The love and support you guys have showed over the last few years was just absolutely amazing.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: And we we love you guys.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to be back uh to do this.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: And so as family, just kind of update you a little bit in case you're unaware of what we've been up to.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Me and my family, we uh moved about a month and a half ago to Texas.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Um and we're living in a you know, uh renting a house in far north Dallas.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh uh we went back so that I could uh work on my PhD in Bible exposition.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: So I'm working on a doctorate in in a fancy word called Bible exposition, which essentially just kind of boils down to they want me to be really good at uh noticing and expositing the themes that sort of tie scripture together, that help us to understand a book as a whole or the Bible as a whole narrative.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: And so I'll be doing a lot of that, and and so as I was sort of thinking about uh what I wanted to do, knowing that I'd sort of come back here and have the opportunity to preach to you guys again, I was thinking about what I wanted to do, and I thought it'd be fun for me to be able to share with you guys a little bit of that, a little bit of the type of thing that I enjoy doing and that I'll be doing throughout my program.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Um and as I was thinking about what themes I wanted to trace, um, we were driving down to Texas, and uh, as you go further south, uh churches get bigger and bigger and bigger, uh, and the pastor's uh personalities get bigger and bigger and bigger.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: And so you'll start to notice really quickly there's billboards with a pastor's face on it and his name under it.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And and I remember thinking to myself, very in a very judgmental way.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Um it's very strange.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Why are they doing that?
3:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, the pastor, the position that's supposed to be the the the most humble of the flock, the example of humility and teachability and the role that exists for the soul glorifying of God through the body and faith, name.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, this is ridiculous.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's got to do something about this.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then as I'm reading my Bible looking for the themes in which I would like to exposite this morning, uh, I came across this theme of cities and altars that goes all throughout the Bible.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I realized that it's not just big celebrity pastors who fall prey to billboard things.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is something that's at work in all of us.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: This selfish ambition, this desire to make a name for ourselves.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh and as I trace this theme through the Bible, I realized that the biblical authors intentionally put these here because this is not something just a few deal with, but this is all humanity.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And so uh as we're kind of tracing it through, uh I want to see that we're nobody's immune from this idea.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Right?
4:40
SPEAKER_00: And so as I was tracing it, I realized even as I was thinking about my own life, why am I going to get a PhD?
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Right?
4:48
SPEAKER_00: I like to think my motivations, and I think primarily are, you know, I would, I would really like to influence the next generation of pastors.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: I want to I want to hone my skill of teaching and my understanding of the Bible so that I could pass it on to the next generation, so that I could most effectively use my gift of teaching, so that I can take the amazing gift that's been given to me, that is, all the men and women who have poured into my life and who have taught me the Bible, I can take and turn and be faithful and do the same for them.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: And while that's my primary motivation, I I'd be lying if I told you there wasn't a small part of me that doesn't like the name Dr.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Wolf, right?
5:32
SPEAKER_00: I know.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm not proud of that fact.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Really I'm not.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, I thought to myself, how many of us, well, not how many of us, all of us.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: There's something inside of all of us, if we're honest, that has these desires.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to do both of these things, to kind of trace a theme through scripture, but also deal with something that's very real in my life and I think everybody's life.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: And so to be transparent, my my primary goal this morning uh is as we trace these themes through Scripture and next week, uh, that you would come to just a deeper appreciation of the Bible.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's my main goal, first and foremost, that you will see the beauty and how the biblical authors orchestrated this narrative and that you would come to a deeper understanding of the Bible.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: So that's goal number one.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: If that's accomplished, I'm happy.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Goal number two is I hope that you actually see yourself through this theme.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's there.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: It's not just there for us to marvel at, it's there so that we honestly deal with the stuff that's inside of us.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: And so uh so that's what we're gonna do.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be tracing uh building cities and building altars.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: That's the theme.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: These are the two contrasting ideas.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: And whenever we trace a theme through scripture, uh it's best to start at the beginning.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you don't start at the beginning, you're gonna be very lost.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: And so uh this is another one, it's kind of my MO, but this is gonna be one of those things where we bite off a little more than we can chew.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: And so uh we're gonna cover a lot of scripture, but uh it's gonna be a lot of fun, and and I hope that you appreciate it as much as I do.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: So uh let's get into it.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: So, in the beginning of the story, God creates heaven and earth, and he fills it with all the living beings, and he creates a man and a woman in his image to rule over his creation on his behalf, according to what he says is good and right.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: They are to represent his character.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Right?
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And so he places them on the earth, and he sets up their rule on his behalf, and it's for his glory.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And so, Genesis 1, 27-29, God created man in his own image.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: In the image of God, he created him.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Male and female, he created them.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: And God blessed them.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna focus a lot on this word blessed, uh, because this is probably one of the most important parts of the biblical story.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: This blessing that they receive is a blessing of life.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: He gave them life, he breathed life into them.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna read, continue to read, God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: That's another word I want us to kind of tuck away in our mind, that he has told Adam to subdue the creation and rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over every living thing.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh then God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the earth, and every tree which has fruit-yielding seed, it shall be food for you.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: And so God has blessed them, placed them in the garden, given them life, and now he's provided, he's beginning to provide for their needs through the garden.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And so uh we go to Genesis 2, and he says, Then the Lord God took the man and he put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate and to keep it.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh the word put, I've underlined, because it's interesting, the the Hebrew word behind this is Noah.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: It's the the name Noah, it means rest or comfort.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Right?
9:01
SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord God, I think is better translated, the Lord God took the man and he rested him in the garden.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: He had no need to strive for anything.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: He rested him in the garden.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: And because God has served man and has protected him by giving him this garden and provided for his needs, he's asked God to, or God has asked man to subdue, to cultivate, that is the word serve and to keep it, to protect it.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: So just as God is going to serve and protect man, uh God asks that you mimic me and you serve and you protect, and you subdue, you protect what I've given you.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Right?
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And so, but what I want to focus on is this idea of blessing.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Right?
9:46
SPEAKER_00: The point is, the significance of the blessing is that it main first and foremost is the breath of life given to man.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: They get to live, they get to represent God.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: But it's also provision, provision of life, provision of needs, protection.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: Right?
10:04
SPEAKER_00: And the interesting thing about blessing is that the glory goes to the source.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: So God blesses man and man represents God, then God is glorified through man as he lives out his created task.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: Um so uh the he goes on to say, uh, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, I've provided for you, but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Remember that blessing is that breath of life.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: They have that opportunity to live.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh so, in other words, in the day you eat of that tree, you'll lose the blessing.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: You'll lose the blessing.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: And so this is a big part of the biblical story that, you know, as we know, man falls, they're gonna lose the blessing.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: In the rest of the story, you're just trying to get that blessing back.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to get life back, you're trying to get protection and security.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: And so uh so we see that Adam, his task was to subdue, and that word subdue is the word tread underfoot.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: The noun version of this word is footstool.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: You might recognize that, Jesus in the Psalms, right?
11:14
SPEAKER_00: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet is the same word, uh, subdue.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: And so the idea is he's to protect the garden as the garden protects him.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: And so when something comes and threatens God's created order, you stomp on it.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Pretty simple, right?
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh now, we know that didn't happen, right?
11:37
SPEAKER_00: A serpent comes along and he starts saying, God didn't say, did he?
11:43
SPEAKER_00: You won't die.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: So if you're Adam, you're like, wait a minute, kill the serpent.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: That's all you gotta do.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Done.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: He allows the serpent to talk, and the serpent uh deceives them and entices them and says, you can become your own gods.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And they say, Oh, yeah, that sounds good.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I'll do that.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:03
SPEAKER_00: And so then the fall happens, and as a result, the blessing has been lost.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh so the provision, the protection has been lost.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: We we're we're told that the breath of life is going to leave them and into dust they will return.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they're going to be expelled from the garden.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: They will no longer have protection in the garden.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they will no longer have the provision of the garden.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have to till the land now, and it's gonna yield thorns and thistles, and it's gonna be horrible.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:33
SPEAKER_00: So they're gonna lose the blessing.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh the problem with this is that when man doesn't have blessing, God doesn't have the glory that he created man to give.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: And so, this is a problem.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: But there's a solution.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: God gives a solution in Genesis 3, 15 and 16.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: And this is where God outlines uh that he's going to send one, a seed of the woman, who is going to stomp the serpent's head, like Adam should have done in the beginning.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Right?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna come, he's gonna stomp up the serpent's head, he's gonna take care of that old serpent.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: But not only this, he is going to secure the blessing.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: He's going to return them to the garden, he's going to give them rest that they lost at the expulsion from the garden.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: This is God's solution.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to send a man, uh, a new man who's going to secure blessing, who's going to return rest and provision for all men once and for all.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, post-fall, the only way to escape the curse, that is the removal of the blessing and the rest, is to wait for the blessing of God that'll come through this one man, the seed of the woman.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: That's the only way that you get out of the curse.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Period.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Right?
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And so from this point on, we're tracing the story.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: And so God made the promise to the woman that this son was going to come forth from her and he was going to fix it all.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: He's going to secure blessing, right?
14:04
SPEAKER_00: And so we begin to watch the story unfold.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: And we see her first two sons.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: And they're set up as a contrast.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: We have Cain and we have Abel.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: And Cain is going to represent team Satan, and Abel is going to represent team God.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And so right off the bat, you have Seed of the Woman, you got one who's trusting in God's promises, you got one who's going after doing the same old stuff.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: I'll be a God to myself.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:30
SPEAKER_00: And so the interesting thing is as this develops, right, these two lines, you have Abel and Seth, and then you have Cain, they continue to develop simultaneously, and they contrast with one another.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: And the theme that's used to contrast them is that Team God builds altars, team serpent builds cities.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting theme.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: This is what the biblical authors have chosen to use to illustrate the characteristics of these two teams, of Team God and Team Serpent.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: And so this week we're going to be looking at building cities.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be looking at Team Serpent because in the Bible, the Bible always details Team Serpent first and then looks at Team God.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: And for example, Cain is first and he has Enoch.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to look at what he does.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: They're going to build a city.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Surprise, surprise.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: But then on the top line, Abel, he dies.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Seth comes on the scene, and he has an Enoch, and he walks with God, and he's taken up.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: And so you have these parallels that contrast with one another.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: We're going to continue to see that, but today we're going to look at building cities.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: And so we see Cain first.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: He's killed Abel at this point.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: And he says, My punishment is too great to bear.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: He says to the Lord, Behold, you have driven me this day from the face of the ground, and from your face I will be hidden.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: I won't be protected anymore.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm going out of your presence.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: You're kicking me out of the garden.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: What am I going to do?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: You're going to I'm going to wild beasts are going to kill me.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, whoever kills Cain, the Lord says, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain so that no one finding him would slay him.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: In other words, out of God's grace and mercy, he's going to protect Cain from death at this point.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: He's going to die eventually.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: This is interesting.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Not good.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Anytime anybody in the Bible journeys east, it's bad.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: They're going away from the presence of the Lord.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, you got red flags going up, east is bad.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: Cain had relations with his wife, she conceived, gave birth to Enoch, and he built a city.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: And then he called the name of the city Enoch after the name of his son.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God said, I'll protect you.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'm going to go east and I'm going to do it myself.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe it.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: And so he sets up a city.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is, why build a city?
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Why build a city?
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, the main reasons for building a city, nope, God has not told them at any point to build anything.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Why is he building a city?
17:19
SPEAKER_00: This is not part of the revelation of God.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: He's just going out there, he's doing what's right in his own eyes.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: This makes sense.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: I've lost protection.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: I've lost provision.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: I've lost eternal life.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: What am I going to do?
17:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, I will secure provision for myself apart from God.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: I will secure protection apart from God.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: I will secure glory apart from God and eternal life, right?
17:40
SPEAKER_00: And so Cain and his descendants are going to do what's good and right in their own eyes, and they're going to try to figure it out apart from God.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: And so he didn't tell them this is how to secure blessing.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: They just looked and said, did what made sense to them.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: They used their human wisdom, right?
17:55
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is, how do I protect myself?
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, walls ought to do it.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: How do I provide for myself?
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll gather a bunch of people, we'll have commerce, we'll sell, we'll have workers, and that ought to do it.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Right?
18:09
SPEAKER_00: How do I live forever?
18:12
SPEAKER_00: Oof, it's a tough one.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: I'll become a mortal in name.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I'll make my name great.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Right?
18:18
SPEAKER_00: And the name will live on, and as such, I'll become a God and I'll desire glory and praise.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Right?
18:25
SPEAKER_00: And this is the theme, this is the motivation from Cain.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, have a quote.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Basically, uh the goal is to mitigate the effects of the curse.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: God has cursed them.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, we're gonna make it less, or we're gonna end it apart from God.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: Right?
18:43
SPEAKER_00: So a guy named Michael Morales, he says this separated from the one who is himself the only true source of life and peace, human beings are fugitives and wanderers on earth.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Still, humanity ever endeavors to reclaim the benefits of life with God.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: That is immortality, protection, rootedness, etc., apart from God Himself.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Such pursuits in themselves are the good gifts of God, but they were used to circumvent God rather than for his glory.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: A city building is thus portrayed in the Bible 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 the deceitfully just out of reach allurements of the City of Man project.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was perfect.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Um in other words, uh city building, building cities is early man's way of attempting to return to the garden or to make a new garden apart from God.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: This is what they're doing.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna trust God.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna trust this promise and this man who's gonna come God knows when.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go do it now.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Right.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so let's trace the theme through the Bible.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do a kind of a just through a do a quick rock skip across the Old Testament and New Testament and see kind of the big ones where this is really fleshed out.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: First one we saw with was with Cain.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: He was the prototype.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh second one is Babel.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: All right, and we're gonna see all kinds of language where red flags ought to go up.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: It came about as they uh journeyed east.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: My red flag is bad.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: They found a plain in the land of Shinnar and settled there.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: They said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: And they use bricks for stone.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is the this is the uh narrator's subtle way of saying they've rejected the bricks that God has made, and they said, We can do it better.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Right, we're gonna shape bricks of our of our own design and and we're gonna do it this way.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: And they use tar for mortar, and they said, Come, let us build for ourselves a city.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Not just a city, and a tower, uh-oh, whose top will reach into the heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we will be scattered abroad over the face of the earth.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Come, let us build a city.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: Let us defy God, let us make a tower to the heavens, let us make a name for ourselves.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: We'll live forever, we'll be protected, we won't be scattered around.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: We can do this.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: We can make the garden.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: We got this.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Right?
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Not good.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: So there's Babel.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: The next one, at least on my radar, there's a lot, a lot more of this theme, but I gotta go.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: So um, Egypt is the next one that I thought was interesting.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: This is uh Pharaoh and Israel is under uh oppression in Egypt.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: This is before the Exodus.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And said they appointed taskmasters over Israel to afflict them with hard labor.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: And Israel built for Pharaoh storage cities, pith them in Ramses.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: So he's got he's he's building, he's got Pharaoh has God's people building cities for him.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied, the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously, and they made their lives bitter with hard labor and mortar and bricks.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And so they're Pharaoh's doing what they were doing in Babel, and now he's using God's people to do it.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Red flags, bad guy, not good.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: So we're we're we're firmly on bottom line team serpent here.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: When you see these things come up, this is the narrator's way of telling you, and he did evil, he did bad.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: He's on team serpent, not good.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is Israel's judges, I thought was interesting.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Um if you know the story of the judges, right, they're they're supposed to come up and make sure Israel does what's good and right in the eyes of the Lord.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: They don't do a good job.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: They do the opposite.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: They do what's good and right in their own eyes, right?
23:08
SPEAKER_00: And so uh Jair is one of the judges.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: And Jair the Gileadite arose and judged Israel 22 years.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: And he had 30 sons on 30 donkeys.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: By the way, you don't get 30 sons from one woman, most likely.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Right?
23:25
SPEAKER_00: That's another that's another theme of the team serpent, as they're just taking wives as they see fit against God's word.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but he has 30 cities in the land of Gilead that are called Havoth Jair.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: And in Hebrew, that's uh the towns or the cities of Jair.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, so he's got 30 cities, and he named all 30 of them after himself.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the narrator's subtle way of saying, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Not good.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Not good.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, and Jair died and was buried in Canaan.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh then, you know, as the story goes on, I won't show passages for this, but we have other big cities.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: We have Edom that becomes arrogant and prideful in their cities, and and probably the most significant ones in Israel's history are Nineveh and Babylon, that are called great cities.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: In Jonah, Nineveh is great before God.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: And uh and they're gonna get destroyed, right?
24:21
SPEAKER_00: In Babylon, same thing.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: The Babylon the Great, right?
24:25
SPEAKER_00: There's these great cities that are gonna come up against God's people throughout the thing, and they become arrogant beyond just protecting themselves and providing for themselves.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Now they're gonna go out and conquer and conquest and they're gonna spread their rule and their reign from there.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: And this is Nineveh and Babylon.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: And so the question I have is they seem to be doing this a lot.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: They seem to be building a lot of cities.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: My question is, does it work?
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Does it work?
24:53
SPEAKER_00: I think we all know the answer to that question, but we're gonna just just uh do it anyways.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh does it work?
24:59
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at Cain.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Right?
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Cain, if you if you read stories about Cain through the Old and New Testament, he made a name for himself, but it's not the name you want to make for yourself.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: This guy's the OG representative of Team Serpent.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Right?
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Abel is kind of the OG rep of the faithful ones, and then you got Cain, and you don't want to follow in the line of Cain.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh not good.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: It didn't really work.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: By the way, Cain died.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Right?
25:25
SPEAKER_00: If you want to build a city to the heavens and become God, right?
25:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh how do you know if you're not actually God?
25:34
SPEAKER_00: You just wait a little while.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: If you die, you're not God.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Right?
25:38
SPEAKER_00: God's immortal.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: That's the easy way to tell.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh Cain dies.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Didn't work.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: All right.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Where are we going here?
25:46
SPEAKER_00: There, Babel.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: I love what the narrator does here.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Hey, let us build a tower into heaven, you know, and make a name for ourselves.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna build a tower to God.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be gods of ourselves.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: The next verse.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord came down to see the city.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh apparently he didn't build it high enough because the Lord had to descend to get to it, right?
26:09
SPEAKER_00: And this is, again, the narrator's little way of saying of, I guess, God's humor, saying, hey, let me come down there and see what you're doing.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the tower which the sons of men had built.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: And obviously we know that uh God scatters them and destroys the city.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't work.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: They weren't protected, they didn't have life, they couldn't build it to heaven, they couldn't become gods.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh Egypt, you know, we know they are destroyed with plagues and destruction through the Exodus.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh Israel's judges, they, you know, by the end of their reign, all of Israel's doing what's good and right in their own eyes.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's doing it.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: And so they incur God's judgment upon his people.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: It's not working.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh Edom, uh Obadiah is all about all against Edom, right?
26:56
SPEAKER_00: The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, Edom.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: You who live in the clefts of the rock and the loftiness of your dwelling place, who say in your heart, Who will bring me down to earth?
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Though you build high like the eagle, though you set your nests among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: The higher you build, the further you're gonna fall.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna work.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Nineveh.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: Nahum is all against Nineveh.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I'm against you, declares the Lord of hosts.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: I will lift up your skirt over your face and show to the nations your nakedness, and to the kingdoms your disgrace.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: I will throw filth on you and make you vile and set you up as a spectacle.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: I will come about, it will come about that all who see you will shrink from you and say, Nineveh is devastated.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: Who will grieve for her?
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Where will I seek comfort for you, Nineveh?
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh your garden project didn't work.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna destroy it.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Babylon, I mean you go all the way through the prophets, there's all kinds of prophecies against Babylon.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah, I will dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may winnow her and may devastate her land.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: For on every side they will be opposed to her in the day of her calamity.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: And uh, Babylon's gonna fall.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Their little garden project, ultimately not gonna work.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh you fast forward to the New Testament, there's a there's a new Babylon that comes up.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: It's the ultimate uh team of team serpent city that is built in the end times, and it's called Babylon as well, the ultimate Babylon.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and this is what Revelation 18 says.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: This is the last attempt at city building that will ever happen in history.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird, to the degree that she has glorified herself and lived sensuously to the same degree, give her torment in mourning.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: For she says in her heart, I sit as a this is Babylon, I sit as a queen, and I'm not a widow, and I will never see mourning.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: There's that arrogance popping up again.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: She's gonna go down like Egypt, and she will be burned up with fire.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord God who judges her is strong.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna work.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: Notice the theme.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't it work?
29:20
SPEAKER_00: God's destroying every one of them.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: It's not his garden.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: So the big question I sort of answer is, why not?
29:28
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't it work?
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus says in John 14, I love this analogy, he takes this theme and he applies it to the Pharisees who aren't building cities, but who are arrogant in their hearts, who are selfishly ambitious as the city builders are.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: He calls the Pharisees, you brood of vipers, you seeds of serpents.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: In other words, team Satan.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: They're doing the same stuff.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: They might not be building a city, but they have the same motivation in their heart.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: They're selfishly ambitious, they're taking the law, they're using it to earn their way into the kingdom.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: He says, You can't do that.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: If you're going to try to earn your way to the kingdom through human means, he uses this city in Babel analogy.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: Which one of you, Pharisees, when he wants to build a tower, right, think Babel, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: You want to get into the kingdom and back to the garden based on your own self-effort and selfish ambition?
30:29
SPEAKER_00: You better make sure that's enough to get you in.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: You have to carry the Luke 14 image.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: For when you knock on the door and say, Let me into the kingdom, I'm going to look out and say, I didn't know you.
30:42
unknown: Right?
30:42
SPEAKER_00: You better make sure you have enough to finish that tower.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, when he's laid a foundation and is not able to finish, is not able to build it into the heavens like Babel tried to do.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: All who observe it began to ridicule him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be embarrassing for you.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be more than just embarrassing, it's going to be death for you.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Right.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus takes this idea of building cities and towers, and he's applying it correctly to the same selfish ambition that's within man.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: And so the point is this that the Pharisees can't get into the kingdom or to the garden apart from God.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: The city builders, apart from God, their cities will never last.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: And so the point is there's no provision apart from God.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: No point of even trying.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: There's just temporary riches that are going to be burned.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: There's no protection apart from God.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: There's just temporary what did I just do?
31:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, there's no I meant to say protection apart from God, just temporary breath which is going to leave.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: There's no name that matters.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Just the name that is above all names.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: And for us, there's only temporary glory that'll be forgotten or remembered for the wrong reason.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: So those who seek to make a name for themselves never succeed.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: It may last a little while, but in the end, if the name is not written in the book of life, it will all be forgotten.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Right?
32:26
SPEAKER_00: When it's all said and done, that's the only thing you'll be known for.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: All the crowns and accomplishments in your life will pass away, and the only thing not burned up in the fire that's coming are the things that are built on his foundation for the sake of his family.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: I like the illustration for this, uh a guy in Ruth, the book of Ruth.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you know the book of Ruth, right, uh Ruth is married into the family that's carrying the promised seed.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh and her husband dies.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: And according to Isra uh Jewish law, to the to the Old Testament law, if your brother dies and you're an Israelite, uh, you take his widow and you provide children and you provide inheritance.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: She has a right to the inheritance of the family because one flesh, or you know, one man, one woman, one flesh, right?
33:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh Genesis 2.24.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: And so uh so the point is that her husband has died.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: The nearest uh relative, according to the law, was to take her and to marry her and to provide children for her and to give her part of his possessions, his inheritance of the family, and name it after his brother.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get any credit for it, right?
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Because this is chesed, this is sacrificial love, this is representing the character of God.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And so, obviously, Ruth's husband dies, and so they go out looking for a nearest redeemer, a nearest kinsman who will do what the law says, so that Ruth can have the family inheritance.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: And they find Boaz, and Boaz is a great man, and he says, I'll do it.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: But technically, the law says the nearest kinsman, and there's one older than me.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: He's technically supposed to do it.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Let me go ask him.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: If he doesn't want to do it, I'll do it happily.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: And this guy, uh, Boaz comes up to him and shares the whole story, and he's like, Well, that sounds great.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: Not doing it.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Right?
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Because now I'd lose my possessions, you know, I'd have to marry this just it's just too much.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do that.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna showcase it.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to represent God's character, right?
34:39
SPEAKER_00: It might as well be what he's saying.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: The problem is in the law, if you didn't do this, the penalty was that your name was not written in the book of Israel.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Your name would be forgotten forever.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and to illustrate this, the narrator names uh Boaz's brother, uh Poloni Alimony.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: That's how you say it in Hebrew.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: It sounds funny no matter what you say it, but uh, this is the Hebrew phrase Poloni Alimony, which translates loosely to uh old What's his name?
35:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh old no name over there.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: Right?
35:15
SPEAKER_00: He lost his name because he instead of representing God's character and trusting God to provide for him, he took it into his own hands and said, I'm not doing it, I care too much about my stuff in my name.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna raise up the name of my brother.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: And God says, You're gonna lose your name.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: It's funny because his name's Polonia Almoney, but it's not funny because you know the point is made.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: But um, anyways, just thought it was a fun illustration.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: Um but building cities and making our name great, right, is one of the greatest themes in the Bible that's used to illustrate the depravity of man, the selfish ambition that exists within us, the depravity that we've all inherited from Adam.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: And none of us are immune from this kind of behavior.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: All of us are tempted to become city builders.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: And so my question, after we read this quote, is what part of you is still living to build cities?
36:14
SPEAKER_00: Michael again says, having been expelled from his heavenly presence in Eden, humanity's natural bent is to deny the exile and to reclaim the good life through science, technology, art, work, I mean, just name it, a pursuit as hapless as it is endless, destined to failure.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Such pursuit in themselves are good gifts of God, but they were used to circumvent God rather than for his glory.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: And so, what part of you is still living to build cities?
36:42
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: What things do you do in life that aren't seeking to alleviate the effects of the curse?
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Right?
36:51
SPEAKER_00: We we distract ourselves from the sobering reality of death with drugs, entertainment, you name it, we alleviate suffering with medications and we place our hope and securities in doctors.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: We acquire possessions to distract ourselves, make it seem not so bad.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Right?
37:05
SPEAKER_00: We store up wealth for a rainy day or for retirement, and we do everything we can to delay the inevitable, right, which is suffering and death.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: So, in what ways might you be attempting to secure blessing apart from God?
37:22
SPEAKER_00: What is your motivation for providing for yourself?
37:25
SPEAKER_00: And that's really what it comes down to.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: What is your motivation?
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Is your hope in your possessions?
37:30
SPEAKER_00: What is your motivation in protecting yourself?
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Is your hope in the security of health and wealth?
37:37
SPEAKER_00: In what ways are you attempting what ways are you attempting to make your name great?
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Is your hope in your legacy?
37:44
SPEAKER_00: In what ways are you attempting to be noticed by man?
37:47
SPEAKER_00: Is your hope in your reputation?
37:50
SPEAKER_00: These are good questions to be asking ourselves, but if you really want to know if you're pursuing the way of the city, uh then think about your motivations.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Why do you do what you do?
38:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna name a bunch of things that are actually good things, and they're not bad things in and of themselves, but they're they're I'm listing them for the purpose of getting us to think about our motivations for doing them.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: Are we doing them out of sacrifice to God?
38:17
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about that next week, or are we doing them just to make our own name great, or to make ourselves look good before man, or to mitigate the effects of the curse?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Working people.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: Why are you working?
38:33
SPEAKER_00: Why are you so concerned with pleasing your boss?
38:38
SPEAKER_00: If you're a boss, why do you treat your employees the way that you do?
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Why is it so difficult for you to actually take some time off and be with your family and your friends?
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Students.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: Why are you getting service hours?
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Why are you asking for service hours?
38:59
SPEAKER_00: Why are you joining this or that club?
39:02
SPEAKER_00: Why are you taking AP classes?
39:04
SPEAKER_00: Right?
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Why are you so concerned about your grades?
39:07
SPEAKER_00: This one got me.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: I was always obsessive about this.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Why are you practicing so hard at sports or band or dance or et cetera?
39:14
SPEAKER_00: What are your reasons for doing this?
39:18
SPEAKER_00: Parents.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Why are we so obsessed with making sure our kids get ahead?
39:27
SPEAKER_00: Why are we obsessed with making sure our cur our kids are seen a certain way?
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Like respectful or kind.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: Why do we care about that?
39:37
SPEAKER_00: Why do you prioritize sports schedule?
39:43
SPEAKER_00: How about this one?
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Again, remember, none of these things are bad in and of themselves.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: They're just asking us to think about our motivations for doing that.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: Church members, why do you go to church?
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Is it to serve the body?
40:00
SPEAKER_00: Or is it to put on an outward appearance of faith and piety?
40:05
SPEAKER_00: Do you expect recognition when you give or when you go out of your way to serve?
40:10
SPEAKER_00: Do you expect a tax benefit or to get your name put on a brick or a plaque when you give?
40:16
SPEAKER_00: And if so, why?
40:20
SPEAKER_00: There's pastors and leaders.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: Why do we like to preach?
40:28
SPEAKER_00: Why do we put our names on billboards and advertisements?
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Why are we so concerned with branding efforts?
40:37
SPEAKER_00: Just things to think about.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: None of these things, again, are bad things, but the biblical authors are putting forth these two images, the city and the altar, which altar we'll talk about next week, so that we can honestly deal with the part of us that's living for the city.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: That little motivation within us that's selfishly ambitious.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: And so the question that really gets down to this is whose kingdom are we honestly trying to build here and now?
41:03
SPEAKER_00: I think the honest person in the room will find the answer in his or her own heart to be quite startling.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: If you're honest.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: And if you find a part of yourself living for the city, I want to remind you of this.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: It won't work.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: It never does.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: It won't last.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: It never has, and it never will.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: We won't find what we're looking for through this means.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: Even if you manage to secure a sliver of blessing, uh quote-unquote blessing, a sliver of protection or security, a sliver of provision, it won't last.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: It will all be lost.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: Michael again says this.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: Millennia of humanity's highest endeavors in philosophy, political thought, education, science, and even conquest have done nothing to reduce the ancient curse.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: Arguably, the situation has gotten much worse.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: I like this.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: In his famous song Imagine, John Lennon dared to hope for a life of peace by inspiring his listeners to imagine a world without countries.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: Such a perceptive longing for a harmony based on a unity not unlike that set forth in Plato's Republic rests ultimately on a misguided view of human nature, one that may be traced to the city builders of Babel who had been unified by language and ideal.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Yet they were opposed to God.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: They had indeed been a fraternity of man living as one, yet in imagining no countries, Lenin was tracing the source of war to its budding flower, not its root, mainly human depravity, sin nature, selfish ambition apart from God.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: So my encouragement is very simply it doesn't work because it's apart from God's plan.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: So let's stop building cities and let's begin to build something else.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: And this is a two-part sermon series.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: So to find out what I mean by that, on the positive end of the spectrum, come back next week and we will look at the other side of the coin, Team God and building altars.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: So we looked at Team Satan and its philosophy that can just so easily entangle us and our motivations used in bad ways.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: But next week we're going to look at Team God and how they respond to city building with building altars.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray, and then we'll see you guys next week.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, we thank you for our time together today.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you that for for this family here at TBC that's been such an encouragement to me and my family.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: In many ways, um encouraging us through the effects of the fall.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: Lord, and I'm so thankful for that in the body.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thankful, Lord, that you have put forth your word so that we can uh honestly deal with what's inside of ourselves so that we might in turn serve you and represent your character better, Lord.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Help us to do that.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: Help us to honestly deal with our hearts, reveal to us and convict us of the areas in our lives in which we might still be living to build a city.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: We praise you in Jesus' name.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: We pray by the power of the Spirit.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.