In Unity Nothing is Withheld
Genesis 11:1-9
Introduction.
One amazing story early in human history shows the power of unity.
About 100 years after the Flood, the entire world had but one language.
As a result, they were able to work together.
The Lord had already told them to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 8:17).
Instead, they had all gathered in one place and wanted to “make a name for themselves” (Gen. 11:4).
They were interested in themselves, their pride, their legacy.
Many kings after them would do similar things, e.g. the Pyramids at Giza.
Then the Lord says something rather remarkable in Gen. 11:6.
The people are one.
The people have the same language.
Nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.
As a result of their unity and their purpose, the Lord had to intervene.
He had to show them who was really God by confusing their languages.
As a result they were scattered and the tower lay in ruins.
The Lord intervened because their purpose was sinful.
He had told them what to do, and they blatantly disregarded it.
Not only that, they did it out of their own vanity.
Solomon wrote, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psa. 127:1a).
The Lord wasn’t involved in building the Tower of Babel, but what if He was?
What if the Lord commanded it to be built and the people had the right motives for building it?
Nothing would have been withheld from them. Had the Lord not intervened, they could do anything and it would have succeeded!
Our purpose is righteous, to help people and spread the gospel.
In order to succeed, we need to do as the Lord commands.
We also need the right motivations.
And we also need to be united and work together.
It’s this last point that I want to focus on this morning—in order to work together, we must:
Be One.
Speak the Same Language.
Have the Same Goal.
Body.
In Order to Work Together, We Must: Be One.
The whole population of the world at that time was united as one.
I don’t pretend to know what exactly that looked like.
I don’t know how many people were around back then.
But I estimate about 11k to 12k people at that time based on some numbers we see in the genealogies in Gen. 10.
That’s about 1/6th the population of Rutherford County.
They they were still willing and able to work together to build something massive.
Jesus prayed for His believers to be one (John 17:20-21).
In Jesus’ prayer before He was betrayed and crucified, He prayed for Himself, the Twelve, and “for those who will believe through their word.”
The first thing He prayed for in that last group was unity, “that they all may be one.”
Then He compared how they are to be one: “as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You.”
They are to be in agreement, one in mission and purpose.
They are so united, it is often very difficult to delineate between them.
We didn’t even know that it was the Second Person who executed the Creation plan in Gen. 1:1 until John 1:3 and Col. 1:16.
We are to be so united that we are inseparable.
Then Jesus said why they are to be one: “that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
This goes to our purpose as well, our goal that we must all share.
We want the world to know about Jesus and to believe in Him.
Our best evangelistic tool is the love we share for one another.
While Jesus prayed for this unity, that does not mean it would automatically occur.
The church in Corinth struggled with unity (1 Cor. 1:10-13).
They had a severe case of “preacheritis.”
If you’re not familiar with that word, it’s a condition that manifests itself whenever a preacher leaves a work—several in the congregation will quit coming or go somewhere else. They were more attached to the preacher than to the congregation or even to the Lord.
Paul cautions against this—he didn’t die for them, Christ did.
Paul urged them to be united, speaking the same thing, having the same mind and the same judgment.
This attitude of division has been very prevalent since then and has resulted in tens of thousands of denominations in the world—many agree on certain key doctrines, yet they are still divided.
The unity of the church is important, but it must be based on something.
In Order to Work Together, We Must: Speak the Same Language.
The builders of the Tower of Babel all spoke the same language.
We have no idea what that language was.
Some think it was Hebrew, but that’s highly suspect.
Others have tried to look at all known languages, trying to find a common ancestor, but they forget that the confusion of the languages was sudden and miraculous, therefore the origin of the new languages was also sudden and miraculous.
Regardless, they were all able to communicate with one another effectively to get the job done.
Once that ability was taken away from them, they all went their separate ways—the Lord essentially forced them to obey His command to be fruitful and multiply.
After the Jews returned from Babylonian Captivity, language became a major problem (Neh. 13:23-24).
Many of them had married pagan women of Ashdod (a Philistine city), Ammon, and Moab.
The Law stated that Ammonites and Moabites were not allowed in the assembly of the Lord, neither them nor their descendants to the tenth generation (Deut. 23:3-4).
This was a reminder of how they refused to help the Israelites by allowing them to pass through their land when they were about to enter the Promised Land.
The Philistines were also major adversaries of the Israelites who brought down men like Samson, and even Nehemiah uses Solomon as an example of a righteous man whose heart was turned by pagan women.
What’s worse, half the children could not speak Hebrew, but the language of Ashdod.
This was clear evidence that they were not taught the ways of God, but pagan ways.
Recall, those in the Corinthian church were told to “speak the same thing” (1 Cor. 1:10).
In a way, they had to all speak the same language.
I’m not necessarily talking about our shibboleths, though that helps (Jdg. 12:5-6).
If you recall, the judge Jephthah was fighting against another tribe of Israel, the Ephraimites.
He stopped them from crossing the Jordan River by asking them to say “shibboleth,” but they could only say “sibboleth” and were not permitted to pass.
Those in other churches often have a different language than we do, and it’s often easy to spot them if you’re familiar with the language.
The Corinthian Christians all had their disputes, but they needed to be of the same mind and the same judgment anyway—they needed to work through them.
Did that mean they needed to be in agreement on every little thing? No.
It meant they were to agree on matters of faith, or as Dr. Thomas Warren calls it, matters of obligation.
They had freedom to disagree on matters of opinion, or optional matters.
Matters of Obligation vs. optional matters.
Some matters we can agree-to-disagree on, others we cannot and “speak the same thing.”
When it comes to optional matters, we are free to agree-to-disagree.
Some of these are what Paul calls “doubtful things” (Rom. 14:1).
We are not to engage in foolish and ignorant disputes about such things (2 Tim. 2:23).
For example, I believe that the time Israel lived in Egypt from Genesis 46 to Exodus 12 was just over 200 years. Many people believe it was over 400 for good reason. I could have a discussion about it, but I will not resort to foolish or ignorant disputes over it and certainly won’t question someone’s salvation over it. I won’t die on that hill because the evidence could go either way. I just believe it’s stronger for the shorter period of time.
There are plenty of things like that that are doubtful, but there are also things that are matters of judgment or expedience.
For example, we are told to assemble together on the first day of the week. Where we assemble is up to our judgment, whether it is in someone’s house, a store front, a tent outside, or a dedicated building like we have.
We can agree-to-disagree on these doubtful things or on which expediency is best and still be right with God, still be in unity, so long as these matters do not divide us.
However, we must not agree-to-disagree on matters of faith, or obligatory matters. If we do, we are not in unity, but merely in union.
It is in these matters that we must “speak the same thing.”
As one might expect, these are matters that are not doubtful, but clearly taught in Scripture.
These are matters of salvation, worship, and morality.
The Bible is very clear on these matters, and we should listen to it.
That said, even on such optional matters, the Corinthian church needed to be in agreement to themselves.
That’s where the authority of the elders comes in.
While when and where we meet are optional, so long as it’s on the first day of the week, we must be agreed on when and where.
Otherwise there is chaos—one family is meeting at 10:30, another at 2; a couple families are meeting in a house in Spindale, others in Bostic.
We must also be united on certain optional matters for us to operate.
This is how we speak the same thing, the same language.
In Order to Work Together, We Must: Have the Same Goal.
The goal of the builders of the Tower of Babel was to make a name for themselves.
They had a selfish goal and were disobedient to the Lord in the process.
They were building a tower toward heaven, but they weren’t looking toward heaven.
They were really looking inward at themselves.
Their motivations were not pure, righteous, or holy.
When we are united, each of us is working toward the same goal.
When the Jews returned from their exile, they had much against them.
While the king of Medo-Persia supported them, the generals sent to escort them did not.
Despite the opposition they experienced against rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, they still“had a mind to work” (Nehemiah 4:6).
They appointed half the men as guards while the other half built up the wall.
They all had their duties and worked tirelessly to accomplish their goal.
If we are truly one and speaking the same language based on the truth of God’s Word, then our goals ought to be aligned with His.
Ultimately our goal is to get to heaven.
Second, but no less important, is to bring as many people with us as we can.
Consequently, we will be building the Lord’s church here, working in His vineyard.
Recall the three works of the church: benevolence, edification, evangelism.
If we all work together on these three things, build goals around them, then our ultimate goal of heaven will be much closer.
If we are truly one and speaking the same language based on the truth of God’s Word and our goals are aligned with His, then nothing will be withheld from us.
The more people we can teach the gospel truth, the more people we will have working toward these goals.
We may not have 11k people, but there are about six times that many people in this county.
This county has a population of a little less than 68k people.
So we have that potential, let us do all we can to live up to it.
The more workers we have, the more work that can be done.
As we discussed in the Bible class a few weeks ago, the church started with about 120 people (Acts 1:15).
A kingdom with small beginnings like a seed can grow into a beautiful tree.
By the time Paul wrote Colossians, the gospel had spread across the whole known world (Col. 1:6).
He said it was bringing forth fruit as any good seed does.
Let us pray for growth and workers for the harvest time is coming.
Conclusion.
Let us conclude with this thought.
We do not know when they started building the Tower of Babel, but we have some idea that construction ended about 100 years after the Flood.
We also know it took about 100 years for Noah to build the ark, a massive structure.
Noah only had himself, his wife, his three sons, and their wives to help him build the ark.
Most of the construction work likely went to Noah, and then his three sons likely helped when they grew up.
The ark was built by 4 people in 100 years, but their purpose was to save all types of living creatures—and they succeeded.
The Tower of Babel was built by 5 to 6k people (half are women, many are children), and their purpose came to naught for it was never finished.
It doesn’t matter how many people you have, what ultimately matters is whether your cause is righteous and holy.
Let us make sure our cause it righteous and holy, in accordance with God’s will.
We must work together, be united on the language of the gospel of Christ, and have our goals aligned with His.
That can only start when we begin our life as a Christian.
It can only continue if we continue to live faithfully.