[Not only do we see Christ pictured in the book of Genesis, but we also find the antichrist pictured in the book of Genesis.] 

[This is a picture of the coming Anti-Christ and his kingdom known throughout the bible as Babylon.] 

Three things about this city: 

A.  The Ruler of Babel (Gen 10.8-10) 

1.   His Pride (vs 8-9) [- And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. – Notice Nimrod’s arrogance.]

[His Name - Nimrod means "Let us rebel."  His rebellion makes him like the antichrist.] 

[The Bible calls the anti-christ the wicked one (Matt 13.38; 1 John 2.13-14), or lawless one and he is a rebel against God.  He opposes everything that is from God.  He stands against God.] 

[Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the lord - that word before could also be translated against and would then mean he was a mighty hunter against the Lord.] 

[He reminds us of the Anti-Christ because of His Arrogance against the Lord.] 

[You will never be more like the anti-christ then when you, in Arrogance stand against the Lord.] 

2.   His Power (vs 8-9; 2 Thes 2.9; Luke 19.10; 1 Pet 5.8-9) [– And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. – There are two things we should notice in these verses about Nimrod’s power.  Notice,] 

a.   [His Abilities - three times the word mighty is mentioned - And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before [against] the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. - He was a mighty man prefiguring Satan's superman that was coming.  Without any doubt the anti-christ will be mighty.] 

[2 Thes. 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, ] 

[The anti-Christ will have unbelievable power.  Supernatural power.  As Nimrod had in the Old Testament.] 

b.   [His Authority (vs 9) - He was a mighty hunter before [against] the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.] 

[Hunter - This word does not refer to hunting game, but the ancient rabbis say he hunted the souls of men.] 

[Jesus Christ is seeking the souls of men (Luke 19.10)] 

[Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. ] 

[Nimrod sought to subjugate mankind; he sought to enslave the world of his day.  He did it, as we will see, through force and falsehood.] 

[The Anti-Christ will seek after the souls of mankind, and will do it through force and falsehood.] 

[1 Peter 5:8-9 ⁸ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: ⁹ Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. ]

3.   His Purpose (vs 10; Isa 14.13-14; Luke 4.5-8) [-  And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, . . . - Ambition - Nimrod wanted to rule.  This is the first mention of a kingdom in the Bible.] 

[This has always been the devils desire rule in God's place (Isa 14.13-14; Luke 4.5-8)] 

[Isaiah 14:13-14 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.]  

[Satan tempted Christ with authority and power.  Christ rejected his offer.] 

[Luke 4:5-8 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.]  

[The beast and the Anti-Christ will accept Satan's offer for power and authority.  The Anti-Christ may be alive in our world today.] 

[Adrian Rogers once said,] 

[The evolutionist would like for us to believe that man sprang from the Beast, but the Bible teaches us that we are headed for the beast instead.] 

[The history of man began with the Sin of Man and it will end with the Man of Sin.]

 [Nimrod is placed in Genesis that we might see the Seed of the Serpent.] 

B.  The Rise of Babel (Gen 11.1-2) [- The Babel we see in Genesis represents the inception of the city of Babylon recorded throughout the Bible.  Whenever you see a reference to Babylon or the city of Babel it is a reference to the system of rebellion that started right here with Nimrod and is seen finally destroy at the end of revelation.  Notice of this great city of Babel,] 

1.   Their Rebellion (vs 1-2) [- And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. ² And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. - God's plan for mankind after the flood was that they were to spread all over the earth and replenish the earth.   The Bible records,] 

[Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. ] 

[God did not want them gathered in one spot, because God knew the dangers of a one-world government.  A one-world government is exactly what the Anti-Christ wants to set up.  It is exactly what we see him set up in the book of revelation.] 

[The problems with a one-world government:] 

1)   [It's a centralization of power. Whats wrong with that? The issue is that wicked people cannot be given too much power. You have heard it said, "Power corrupts and total power corrupts totally."  When the Anti-Christ assumes power he will have total power and that power will be corrupt.] 

2) [It is Humanism - Not to be confused with humanitarianism.  Humanism is a godless religion - some call it atheism. Humanism elevates mankind to the level of god.  Their greatest desire and driving force is the desire for a one-world government. Humanists want a centralization of power.  They believe that when every government unties then there is no one else to fight.] 

3)   [Your freedom is related to the size of government in reverse proportions. The greater the size of government the less your freedoms.  We need enough government to keep us strong and safe.  We need for government to keep its hands out of our personal lives and business.] 

["In 1921 one out of every one hundred persons worked for the government, now one out of six people work for the government."]

[A one world government is Satan's plan for sinful man.] 

2.   Their Religion (vs 3-4; Isa 47.12-15; Deut 18.9-12) [- And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. ⁴ And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.- Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach to the stars.] 

[They were not trying to build a staircase to the stars.  They were not that stupid.  These were not ignorant cavemen these people were stunningly brilliant.  It is amazing what they knew.]  

[for the literal translation of the text remove the italicized words.  It reads - . . . whose top unto heaven . . .] 

[Its top was to be dedicated unto the heavens. This was to be a temple tower.  It was an astrological observatory; from this tower they would observe the stars.  At the top of many of the Mesopotamian towers, that archaeologists have found, were zodiac signs.] 

[This is the beginning of idolatry, devil worship, and paganism.  Astrology began right here in Genesis chapter 11.] 

[Astrology is the devils tool to keep people from Christ.] 

[The name they made (vs 4)- Notice the name of this city, Babel.] 

[Babel means the gate to God.  El is the Hebrew name for God. Bab is the Hebrew word for Gate] 

·         [Elohim - The mighty God.]

·         [Bethel - House of God.]

·         [Immanuel - God with us.] 

[Later on this word Babel came to mean confusion.] 

[Put 'the gate to God' together with 'confusion' and you have what it is 'confusion about the way to God.'] 

[This city was the devils way of keeping people away form God.] 

[The devil is not against religion he is in religion up to his ears.] 

[The devil wants to use religion to confuse people about the way to God.] 

[Astrology (Isa 47.12-15)] 

[Isaiah 47:12-15 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth [beginning]; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. 13Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. 14Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. 15Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.]  

[Astrology is:] 

·         [Astro means star.]

·         [Logy means word.]

·         [It means a word from the stars.] 

[Adrian Rogers once said, We don't need a word from the stars when we have a word from God who hung the stars in the heaven.] 

[When you look to the word from the stars rather than the word for God, then that is rebellion against God.] 

[Deut. 18:9-12 When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 10There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire (abortionist), or that useth divination (fortune teller) , or an observer of times (astrologer), or an enchanter, or a witch, 11Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer (someone who tries to contact the dead). 12For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.] 

[They called their city the Gate to God but it was really the mouth to hell.] 

3.   Their Rejection (vs 3-4) – And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. ⁴ And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. – Notice their open defiance.] 

[Three times, they say, 'Let us'  While there is no mention of God here.  This is humanism, the system of the anti-Christ.  They have left God out of their plans and have made themselves the center and circumference of their plans.] 

[They are living in open defiance of God.] 

[There is coming the Kingdom of the Anti-Christ. It will be based upon a one-world government, a one-world Church, and man’s arrogance.] 

C.  The Ruin of Babel (vs 5-9) - There is: 

1.   The Coming of the Savior (vs 5,7) [- And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. - Man says let us build up.  God says I'm coming down to earth.] 

[Just when Anti-Christ thinks, in his arrogance, that his kingdom is just right.  Jesus Christ will come down.] 

[This pictures the end of the seven-year tribulation period, when Christ returns.] 

2.   The Confusion of the Speech (vs 6-7; Psalm 2.4) [- And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. ⁷ Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. - Why did the Lord confound their speech?  It was God's way of showing mankind the truth of their unity and what it could do and could not do.] 

[Psalm 2:4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.]  

[They had a unity but it was a false unity.  It was a unity based upon mankind and there are some things that mankind just cannot control.] 

[True unity can only be found in Jesus Christ.] 

3.   The Crumbling of the System (vs 8-9; Rev 18.1-4) [- So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. ⁹ Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. - God fulfilled His purposes in scattering mankind around the face of the earth.] 

[God's purposes will always be fulfilled.  The victory is already God's.] 

[Rev. 18:1-4 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 4And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.] 

CrossRoads Baptist Church, August 30, 2009, Sunday Evening