It's a joy and a pleasure to be back with you again. Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 11. I believe that's on page 10 of the Pew Bible, Genesis chapter 11. Give your full attention now to the inspired, inerrant word of the living and true God. Genesis 11, verses 1 through 9. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, calm. Let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, bitumen for mortar. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves. Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, behold, they are one people, and they have all one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come. Let us go down, and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of the earth, and they left off the building of the city. Therefore the name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth And from there, the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. Let's ask God's blessing now on the preaching of his word. Lord God, thank you in your might and your power and your wisdom for not only authoring but preserving through the millennia. this word for your people in bringing us here this evening and bringing your servant here this evening that your people might hear your voice. May they not hear the servant's voice, but may they hear the Lord's voice, even the voice of Jesus Christ who speaks to his people in the preaching of his word. We ask these things in his very name. Amen. Well, throughout history, throughout the history of the world, there have been certain movers and shakers who have tried to bring humanity, all of humanity, into an alliance. Sometimes that alliance, it's sought to be forged from the top downward, sometimes in a brutal way through war or conquest. Sometimes alliance is sought in a more artful way. through arranged political marriages and the like. But eventually, those alliances which are from the top down, at least humanly speaking, collapse. They fall apart. The right recipe, the secret sauce to effect a perfect, permanent, top-down alliance by man has always proven elusive. It's always failed. But what if, what if there already was an inbuilt, agreed upon purpose within the human heart itself? A purpose which would not have to be forced upon unwilling participants from outside, but wells up from within. If there were such a thing, That might bring about the ultimate human alliance, wouldn't it? Well, we see such a thing and we see the attempt to achieve that desire from within in our text. No secret sauce from the outside needed. The fallen rebellious humanity already has an inbuilt unity of purpose that pulls disparate parties together. What is that agreed upon purpose? It really comes into view in verse four. There we read this. Humanity, as it comes together, says, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves. To ascend to heaven. to gain heaven independently, autonomously, and from that highest height, exalt the name of man. That is humanity's mission. That is humanity's quest. That is the purpose of the fallen city of man. It's inbuilt into every unregenerate heart. so that whatever else human beings disagree on, they agree on that. Indeed, verse four shows us the goal of the earthly rebellious city as it stands in opposition to God and to his holy city, his people. This city of man, it's on a quest for heaven. and for a name. That's why the title for the sermon is an alliance for heaven and a name. That's what verse four tells us. So I'd like us now to, with that sort of overview and seeing really the mission statement of fallen humanity as the peoples come together here in Genesis chapter 11, see how that purpose works itself out and we'll look at it in terms of Two other themes that work through this text. There is an ascending and a descending theme. You'll see that as we work back and forth through this passage in Genesis. And so I'd like to have my two sermon points be this. Verses one through four will be man's ambitious ascent. Verses five through nine will show us God's victorious descent. Ascending, descending, man's ambitious ascent, verses one through four, and then God's victorious descent, verses five through nine. That's kind of totalizing in our text. Let's look at it now. First of all, man's ambitious ascent. In Genesis, the hope, the hope of heaven doesn't come late. It's right at the beginning. In Genesis 1-1, we read, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And that the heavens mentioned in Genesis 1-1 are the invisible heavens, the place that God enters into creation where he's enthroned. That's made clear both in Colossians 1-16, where Paul says that all things were made through the sun, things in heaven and earth, things visible and invisible, but also in Genesis 1-2 itself, as God the Spirit entemples himself in verse 2, in those invisible heavens which he creates in verse 1, there God the Spirit hovers above the unformed, unfilled, dark, watery deep. As God the Spirit blazes forth, filling the invisible heavens. Heaven is instantly made the hope of the image bearer who will later be created in Genesis. Indeed, if that's where God is dwelling, God the Spirit, Father and Son, is there in heaven. Where else could man desire to be except where God is in all of his unveiled glory. Now the path to gain heaven, which was through the covenant of works through Adam, that was lost. That was closed. But the desire for heaven is inbuilt into the heart of man. It remains there even in his rebellion. And the story of Babel shows us that quite clearly. Not only does verse 4 show us that those who gather desire to storm heaven. Later in the book, in the scriptures, later in Isaiah, the prophet speaks of a rebellious king, not of Babel, but of Babylon. Two places are meant to be identified with one another. Here's the anthem theme of the evil king of Babylon, Isaiah 14, 13 and 14. It helps us understand our text and the trajectory of fallen humanity. There, the king of Babylon says this, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. This one who aspires to heaven's throne, who says, I will make myself like the most high. almost sounds like the words of Satan himself back in Genesis 3, doesn't it? Where he says to Adam and Eve, you can be like God. You can have glory all for yourself. Well, as we look carefully at this text, we see that verse one shows us that humanity already has a certain unity, a unity in terms of its shared language. But verse 2 shows us that the unity which humanity has is already being threatened. We see that because humanity is migrating eastward. Now I know the ESV translates this migrated from the east. A number of other translations, New American Standard, New English translation, NIV, they all say something like journeyed to the east or journeyed eastward. And I think that's really what's meant here. And that there is an eastward migration is very significant. Why? Because if you think back to Genesis chapter 2, it's toward the east that rebellious humanity is forced to go. They go eastward. Therefore, as we look at this passage, we're seeing God's providential hand pressing down on the neck of rebellious humanity, as it were. In fact, in verse 4, they're already feeling that. They're saying, we need to build this so that we are not scattered. Now, when we read in verse 2 that the people stop and settle in the land of Shinar, it's as though in light of that pressing of the hand of God upon the back of the neck of rebellious man, it's as though they're saying, we're going to stop here. We're going to try to hunker down and make our stand, a last stand, as it were. As what we see here is a kind of pre-enactment of the final battle of Armageddon. In the land of Shinar, the nations, the kings of the earth, take their stand against the Lord as though to say, we will break your bonds. We will not be scattered. In fact, we will gain heaven for ourselves. How do they plan to gain heaven? Well, technology to the rescue. Kids, if there are kids here, there are some young kids here. When you think of powerful technology, what do you think of? You think of cell phones and computers and smart watches, right? But of course, each age of humanity has had its own cutting edge technology. In the ancient world, to be able to make your own building materials, bricks shaped into the exact form that you wanted them, and to be able to cement those together by the strength of mortar, and then assemble them into a structure which could externally realize the internal plans and thoughts of your hearts, To do that is to achieve glory in terms of the cutting edge technology of the day. And so they look to technology, they look to the work of their hands, aspects of creation. Their plan and their glory is in those things. Now, the tower of verse four would have undoubtedly been what archaeologists sometimes call a ziggurat. That is to say, it's a massive, solid brick staircase type of a building. And its outward appearance perfectly embodied the inward goal, to build a veritable staircase to heaven. But if the original hope of heaven set forth in Genesis 1.1 and 1.2 was that humanity might enter into heaven one day to stand alongside the angels to praise the name of the living and true triune God, our text shows us that these people desire something quite different. Here the goal is to ascend to heaven to praise the name of man. Verse four, let us make a name for ourselves. I've already indicated that heaven, which is spoken of here in our passage, doesn't appear first of all here, so also the quest for a name doesn't appear just here. It's earlier, in fact. There's what I call kind of a name theology running through the book of Genesis. And it appears earlier in a time of great rebellion. Back in Genesis chapter six, verse four, we hear of the mighty men who were of old. Most English translations say something like this, men of renown, literally men of name, name men. People who want to make a name for themselves, who want to magnify their own names. And once you see this, once you understand that the quest for a name in Genesis 11 goes back to that great event of Genesis chapter 6, you see that what goes on here invites the judgment of God. And it receives the judgment of God, just as it did in Genesis 6, as the great flood judgment comes soon after those men of name. Man's insane, idolatrous infatuation to glorify his own name brings the judgment of God. We're now going to see that. We've seen man's ambitious ascent, his desire to ascend to heaven. Now we'll see God's victorious descent. The bolt of lightning in the text which indicates God will not allow man's wicked ambition to go unchecked is verse 5. There we read this, the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. God came down to see, wait, Didn't God already see? Didn't God know what was going on? Well, of course He did. Here, human language is used anthropomorphically of the omniscient, immutable God to make the following very powerful point. From the perspective of fallen, idolatrous humanity, this is something great, something amazing to behold, something spectacular, perhaps humanity's greatest achievement. Certainly, all would marvel at it, right? But God is laughing. He is mocking the puny might of man, saying basically, in essence, wait, Is that something down there? Is there something there? It might be something, but it's barely perceptible to me here on the heights of my unassailable heavenly throne. Let me go down and have a closer look. God does indeed have a sense of humor. Perhaps you already recognize the reference to Psalm 2. Here, let me make it explicit. Hear these words from Psalm 2 and know that they are depicting what's going on here in Genesis 11. Why did the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. And I think that is what's going on even in our text. The Lord goes down to sea, the wonderful, mighty tower of men. God can do nothing but laugh and derision at the vain ambition of the earthbound creature. Now, you need to know this and you need to think about this because today, as humanity goes on railing against God in rebellion and all of its technological might, glorifying its might It's technology, cracking the human genome, developing AI, which we are hearing all about these days, developing quantum computers, which will allow the computers, or it's believed they will allow computers to solve problems which took other computers hundreds of thousands of years almost instantaneously. God's response to these achievements is no different than that of the spectacular bricks and mortar of the days of Babel, it's laughter. Do you think your accomplishments are so grand they are nothing to me? They are nothing to the one who speaks the universe into existence. They don't even register on my radar screen, God is telling us from this passage, but I'll come down, I'll descend to see them, and he does descend. But as God descends in our passage, it's not merely to mock, as I've said, it's to judge. He comes down to judge. In an instant, man's might, seen in rebellious, unified hearts, clinging to their technology, clinging to earthly idols, in an instant, that strength and that power is nullified. God wrecks their unity, stripping from them their very ability to speak, to address each other. The psalmist in Psalm 115.5 says of the idols, they have mouths but cannot speak. And later in that psalm says, those who make them and trust in them shall be made like them. Here are the idol worshiper, the one who trusts in his idols. is made like them. He cannot speak, at least they can no longer speak to one another. Now here's an important question to ask as you think about our passage. Where's the church? Where's God's people in this scene, in this crisis? Well, the answer is they are nowhere to be seen. Why is that the case? Well, first of all, with the rise of Babel, we see, and if I had the time to show you this, there's an ongoing sort of oppressive activity going on from what you see developing in Genesis, what I call the city of man. there's an oppressive reign of an anti-Christ figure seen as early as the days of Lamech back in Genesis chapter 4. Like Lamech, like Nimrod, remember we're told in chapter 10 that Babel was the beginning of the mighty Nimrod's empire. With the rise of these Kings still seeking names for themselves. The people of God were being oppressed from below and they will continue to be oppressed until the end of the city of man, until the end of Babylon. We read this in Revelation 18.24, in Babylon was found the blood of prophets and saints of all who have been slain on the earth. Unless God acts, Babylon will continue on its murderous ways, seeking to destroy the seed of the woman. What hope do you and I have against Babylon the Great? The answer is none. We have no hope in ourselves. Genesis 11 shows us precisely that. There's no hope in and of ourselves. Yes, God's people are absent in one sense because Coming up to this point, there's oppression going on. Their absence in another sense because the victory over the oppressive city of man is going to be gained by God and by God alone, all by himself. He needs no human aid. Beloved, there is no counter offensive from below which secures the victory of God's people. The victory comes from above. God must descend. And so the question is, when will God descend? Well, the answer is twofold. First of all, he has already descended for you and for me in the person of Jesus Christ. As God descends in Christ, he descends, first of all, not to judge, but to be judged. and by that judgment, to secure forever the victory for his people. He does that by his own mighty hand and outstretched arm. Sin, death, Satan, and hell itself, they are defeated on judgment day, which was visited on the Lord, on his cross. There at the cross, Christ defeats hell for his people. But what about heaven? What about the hope of heaven? Perfected communion with God, does our text tell us, which speaks of God's descent, tell us anything about how we might ascend truly and really the right way and gain the hope of heaven? Well, yes, it does. It does as we compare it with other in text, which I believe we are very much invited and intended to compare it with. Listen to these words of Jesus addressing Nicodemus in John 3. No one has ascended, or I think we also could say will ascend, no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, me, Jesus says. What, or rather who, is the true stairway who bridges heaven and earth? It's God himself. It is God who descends. He first descends in Christ, and then ascends in the same Christ. No longer in a state of humiliation, but in exaltation. He ascends to heaven, not ultimately for himself, but for his people. Later in Genesis 28, this will be revealed to Jacob who flees Esau and there he sees, well he sees the true answer or the true solution to what is proposed by humanity in Genesis chapter 11, the stairway descending from heaven. Very clear in Genesis 28, it descends from heaven to earth. And it has angels ascending and descending on it so that Jacob exclaims, Here is the gateway to heaven. When we get to the New Testament, Nathanael, in John 1.51, Jesus says to him there that he himself He is that gateway which Jacob saw and was prophetically looking forward to. There in John 151, Jesus tells Nathaniel that he will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending on him, the son of man. He is the access between heaven and earth. Does anyone gain heaven as he seeks to glorify and exalt his own name? No. Not even Jesus gained heaven by exalting his own name. I'm very thankful that we sang from Philippians 2 earlier. Let me turn us back to that now. Philippians 2, verses 7 through 11. Christ emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death. on a cross, he abandons the quest for a name. Precisely because he walks in perfect obedience to the Lord, even to the point of death, he receives a name. We then read this in Philippians. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, particularly in his resurrection and ascension into heaven, he is given the name Lord. The cross, he abandons the quest for a name and to exalt his own name. He becomes there the quintessential worshiper, giving everything in worship to the glory of his father. And precisely because of that, precisely because he is the one who first descends, he pursues the opposite path of those at Babel. Because of that, he ascends and gains a name that is above every name. Jesus Christ is Lord. Not just as God, He was that before the Incarnation, but now as the God-Man, He is Lord. Because your faith in this One who descends and then ascends, because of your faith in Him, you Not those who hate the Lord and seek to gain heaven by a work of their own doing. You are the true Shemites, if I can put it that way. Earlier in Genesis, we have the birth of Shem, whose name means name. You are the true people of the name. Not those who seek to gain a name for themselves. Well, what ought our response to God be for this passage? Well, first of all, unadulterated trust in him who saved those who look to him for salvation for their sin and delivers all from the crushing might of the oppressive city of Babylon. We must look to the Lord in faith. First of all, that's what this text calls us to do. Secondly, we must cease the pursuit of our own names. Yes, we fall into the temptation to do that even as Christians. The Christian life is a life where we do not seek to make a name for ourselves. This is true for us both individually, but also as a church. If the OPC, if Hope OPC, if Bethel OPC should be all about making a name for themselves, we're all on the wrong path. If we really want to see our name in the newspapers, in the headlines, we're not on the path the Lord calls us to be on. We read this in Westminster Larger Catechism 167. As we are baptized, we are told we are to regard ourselves as those that have therein given up our names to Christ and to walk in brotherly love as being baptized by the same spirit. into one body in our baptism, we give up our name. No longer think of yourselves ambitiously ascending to heaven so that you might there glorify your own name. That's not your path, Christian. Rather, in the God who descended, obediently serve, even if you should be called to serve to the point of death, as our Lord was. and the one who as God-man, as Savior, has gained a name that is above every name, through him alone, you now have a great name, not your name, his name. He gives his name to you in your baptism, and that's made effectual as you're united to him. One day, one day we will stand in heaven with the Lord, victorious over every enemy, victorious in our glorified, resurrected body, triumphant over sin, death, Satan, and hell, there to have face-to-face communion with the Lord forever. We will, by the work of Jesus Christ, gain heaven and a wonderful name, the Lord's name. Let's go to him in prayer. Lord God, we thank you for the fact that you have dealt mercifully with us. We know that apart from your grace, we would be those rebels who seek heaven, that we might gain heaven and ascend there to glorify our own name. What foolishness, you laugh at those on that foolish quest. Yet in mercy, you stoop down You stoop down in Jesus Christ to first be judged. You descend so that after passing through judgment, you might ascend back to heaven, to gain heaven. As you enter there, as Christ enters there and gains the name Lord. We are thankful, our father, as we look to your son, the Lord. He grants us his name. He grants us a new life, not about ourselves, but about glorifying you and serving others. Fill us with the same Christ. Lead us away from ambitious, vain, empty paths into true, meaningful, eternal paths found in Jesus Christ. We ask these things in his name, amen.