When a Nation Forgets God

The cry for independence may be good for a country against the motherland. It's not good for a society against God. Dr. Tony Evans says declaring independence from God is a culture's biggest mistake.

The more independence you insist on, the more confusion you will have. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Forget your keys and you'll be inconvenienced.

Forget your bills and you'll pay a penalty. But when a person or a whole nation forgets God, well, the results are deadly. And that's what Dr. Evans laid out in this classic sermon called When a Nation Forgets God. Let's listen in. I want to talk to you today about what's happening in our land and what's happening in our life.

Because we have made a declaration of independence from Almighty God. Much of what you're seeing today has been incorrectly diagnosed. There's political diagnosis, economic diagnosis, social diagnosis. Everybody has an opinion about what's wrong.

I just want to give you God's opinion. Our scripture today is Genesis chapter 11. It's the story of the Tower of Babel. We begin by reading, Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. Everybody was talking the same noise. Everybody was saying the same thing. They were using the same speech. They had a common confession of agreement.

So the whole earth was on the same page. With this unity, they decided that they would journey east, verse 2 says. They found in a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. So they went east. Now, you have to understand, to go east up until this point in the scripture meant to go away from God. It started with Cain. When Cain rebelled against God, it says, and he went east from Eden. He wanted to get as far from God as he could get, and he went east.

So let's follow the story now. We have the then known world on the same page wanting to leave God. In other words, they wanted to be one nation away from God, not one nation under God. So that's the whole world. The whole world was thinking and feeling and communicating this way. So they came up with a plan, verse 3. They said to one another, they said, let's have a meeting now that we've established the United Nations of the world. Let's have a meeting.

Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly, and then use bricks for stone and then use tar for mortar. In other words, let's come up with our own plan for how the world should work. Let's come up with our own plan for how life is to be lived. People are to be functioned.

Societies are to be organized. Let us do this. We're smart enough. In fact, let not only us come up with a plan to do this. Let us inculcate our technology in order to produce it. Back then, it was the gathering of bricks for stone and tar for mortar, the technology of the day. Let's use our own ingenious way of constructing the world in order to build the world that we want built. Let's use our stuff, even though the stuff had to be borrowed from the creation. I don't know if you've noticed, but the further man has gone in technology, the more independent he's become.

Because when you can create things in a masterful way that demonstrates the brilliance and intelligence of man, then you don't need to depend on a creator. You can go east, because you've got your bricks, your stone, your tar, and your mortar. They wanted to do three things, according to verse 4. Come, let us build for ourselves a city. So the first thing they wanted to do was build a city. They're in the land of Shinar, but they want to build a city. You and I would call it a capital.

That is the centerpiece of the organization of the culture, the capital. Let's create a Washington, D.C. Let's create a central unit that will govern the operation of civilization. Let's build a city. We've got the technology to build this city, because we've got bricks for stones and tar for mortar, so we have the capacity to build us. And let me tell you why we're going to do this.

We're going to build this for ourselves. This has nothing to do with God. It has nothing to do with religion. This is for us.

This is about us. However, we need some religion to make it look okay. So we need some religion, but we don't want real righteousness, but we want to give the impression that there's a God thing related to this. So in the city, let's build a tower. Second thing he wants is a tower. You and I would say a steeple, like a steeple on a church.

How do I know this is a religious symbol? Because he says, and let's stretch the tower to the heavens. So we want to build civilization for man, but in the middle of the city, in the middle of the capital, city of the world that we're going to found for ourselves, we're going to build ourselves a religious, the Babylonians would call it a ziggurat, a religious tower, and this is going to be a bad boy, because this thing is going to go all the way up to heaven. In other words, it won't be that heaven will come down to us.

We're going to go up to it. But we're going to keep God enough in the vicinity to the tower that it will legitimize the city that's operating the society. So there will be enough God presence to give the impression of God without his reality. God's name pops up all over our culture.

His reality we've gone east from. His name is regularly recited in invocations and benedictions as long as he doesn't get in the discussion in between the two. People will name him on Sunday and ignore him on Monday. They got a tower on Sunday. They got a secular city on Monday.

They got enough religion to make them have the form of godliness without its reality operating. And then they said, we want to do one other thing. Verse 4 says, we will make for ourselves a name. You see, a name signifies significance. That's your name.

It's your significance. Now, why do they want their own name? Because they do not want to be known by God's name.

Remember, they're going east. You see, they wanted to create their own name because they wanted to be their own authority. And they did not want to have to answer to a higher being. Well, the only way to not answer to God is to become God. See, there's only one way you don't answer to God, and that was you must give yourself a God name. And so you walk around saying, I know my truth.

I'm my own standard. So they wanted their own significance. They wanted their own value statement. They were unwilling to be identified as being overseen, ruled, and regulated by God like Satan. They said, I will establish my own kingdom. I don't like Lucifer anymore.

I want my own name. They wanted to define themselves by themselves, making themselves the own source of themselves that they might glorify themselves. Because they keep saying, let us for ourselves. That's what men do. That's what women do. That's what young people do. That's what families do. That's what even churches do. And that's most certainly what cultures do.

They decide, I'm doing this for myself, and I will give you a religious symbol, but I won't God take your name. I won't operate under a theocratic rule. You don't tell me what to do, but keep cooking the meals. Keep providing the air conditioning. Don't mess with the oxygen.

Don't do that. But I want my independence. I'm sure there are numbers of families either that you have or that you've been in where your mother and daddy say, well, you got to move. You can't be independent and here. You can be independent away from here, but you can't be independent and here. The only problem with that in the world is there's no place to go. You can't build your own world. You can get to another house, another apartment.

You can't get to another world. So they did not want God. They wanted their independence, and that is what's happening today.

Individuals, families, churches, societies want a tower and want a city but want their own name. That is their identification apart from the living and true God. Dr. Evans will talk more about the consequences of turning from God when he continues our message in just a moment.

Stay with us. Democrats, Republicans, independents, they all want to claim that God is on their side. But Dr. Tony Evans says we all need to line up on God's side. The word of God must trump your political alliances if you call yourself a Christian. In his booklet, How Should Christians Vote?, he explains what every believer needs to know before stepping into the voting booth. I kind of want to know where God stands, so I know where I'm supposed to stand as a child of God, and I would think that would be any Christian's concern.

Believers depend on the Bible to guide our lives, strengthen our families, and structure our churches. Dr. Evans believes we need to stop changing books when it comes to politics. Whether it's immigration, taxation, abortion, since it's a nation under God, what does the God over us think about what the nation wants to do? Everything you need to sort through the spin, the hype, and the double-talk this election year and make a truly godly decision at the polls. Get your copy of How Should Christians Vote? For a limited time, we're packaging a copy of How Should Christians Vote? along with the 13 full-length messages in our current two-volume teaching collection, Turning a Nation to God.

These are available to you with our thanks when you make a contribution to help support the ministry of the Alternative Broadcast here on the radio and around the world. Together, this resource package will help you understand how to place God's agenda first when you cast your ballot, regardless of what you hear in the media, from the candidates themselves, and even from friends and family. Just visit TonyEvans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222 to make the arrangements before this special offer runs out. And if you want to go even deeper into this important topic, be sure to look into getting a copy of Dr. Evans' comprehensive book and Bible study called Kingdom Politics. Find out more when you call us at 1-800-800-3222 or when you visit us online at TonyEvans.org. Details are right on the homepage.

I'll repeat that contact information for you after the second part of today's message, coming up right after this. The threat of global catastrophe looms over us. Earthquakes, fires. It seems like the world is falling into turmoil. Are you ready to face Armageddon? Dr. Tony Evans' latest book, Thy Kingdom Come, emerges as a light amidst the sin-ridden depths of our world, guiding you through the murky waters of uncertainty. Within these insightful pages, wisdom intertwines with revelation. You'll dive deep into the mysteries of enigmatic prophecy, where solace awaits the weary soul. Dr. Tony Evans' unparalleled mastery in deciphering the complexities of Scripture will ensure clarity in the face of confusion and illuminate the path towards hope. Arm yourself against the impending storm and let not the hour of reckoning catch you unaware. Be prepared for what's to come by picking up your copy of Thy Kingdom Come at TonyEvans.org. Comes with a bonus sermon series, Staying Right with God.

Do not be caught off guard. And now let's return to Dr. Evans for the second part of today's message, from Genesis chapter 11. Ah, verse 5. The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. No matter how high you get, no matter how big your name is, how much money you have, how nice your car is, how great your neighborhood is, how big your job is, no matter how high you get, God still got to come down because you ain't getting but so high, okay? And when God comes down, the Lord said, behold, there are one people and they all have the same language and this is what they began to do and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come let us go down. So they came and they checked out the big city and the awesome tower. He said, now we got to handle this. We got to do something about this plan.

Stay with me here because I'm going somewhere. When God created man, He said three words that would forever change history. He created man.

Male and female, He created them and then He uttered three words. In Genesis chapter one, He says, and let them rule. In other words, we're going to allow them to choose and we're going to, watch this, give them the freedom of the consequences of their choice. That is why God did not interfere with Adam and Eve eating the fruit because He said, let them rule. So when God says in verse six, if we leave them alone, nothing that has been purposed will be stopped, what He means is that their evil will proliferate and become unstoppable because they insist on ruling apart from Me.

So in keeping evil from being as evil will become, if we don't stop the evil from becoming what evil will be, if they all get together and spread evil, then we're going to have to intervene in this situation. So here's the question you must face, individually, as a family, as a church, as a society, will you live by reason or revelation? Will you live by what everybody else thinks or by what God declares, thus sayeth the Lord? What will you live by?

Because you will bear the consequence of the choice. So the more God is pushed away from your life, my life, our culture, our society, the more the consequences of a choice you get to make fall on you, us, me. Once you decide to not be ruled by God, you will be ruled, but you'll be ruled by somebody who's imitating God, that is acting like God in your life, even if that somebody is your own brain.

The cry for independence may be good for a country against the motherland, it's not good for a society against God. Come, verse seven, let us, let us go down, and when we go down there, let's confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech. Have you been listening and hearing how everybody's talking, nobody's making sense, and absolutely nobody has an answer for anything? Do you get the impression by listening at the news there's a lot of confusion? The problem is, we think the confusion has come from the people, but did you read the verse? Let us go down and confuse their language. I'd like to suggest to you that the confusion in Washington, D.C., the confusion in churches, the confusion in your family, the confusion in your own psyche, is God is confusing you.

So watch this. If God is creating the confusion, I don't care what other person you go talk to. If God is creating a confusion, I don't care what party you are a part of. If God is creating a confusion, I don't care who you elect.

All he's gonna do is confuse the new folk too. The confusion existed because the independence existed. The reason why families are falling apart and they're fighting and fussing and cussing and they go to counseling to fix it, they go to this to fix it, they go to that to fix it, only to go back to the fighting and cussing and fussing is because they are refusing to be ruled by God and his definition of home and family and how it's supposed to work.

They wanna do their own thing their own way and then pay money for somebody to give them temporary relief that God is gonna reconfuse when they get home. What God will do is allow and bring confusion when there is an insistence on independence, even if you are the one confusing yourself. Verse eight, watch this. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building the city.

They wind up doing what God said do but it wasn't a pleasant experience after they thought they were going somewhere because they refused to do it. We started out with the statement, one nation under God, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, you know, liberty, justice for all, you know, we started out with that. But now we are one nation away from God. It is his rule that brings his presence, not the use of his nomenclature. And if he cannot rule your life Monday through Saturday, not just on Sunday morning, you have gone east from God.

It is the desire for independence, not knowing that in your independence you are dependent. The closing verse, verse nine, the name of the city was called Babel because the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. And from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth. You keep seeing this word, Lord. It's not the devil made them do it. I don't see the word devil here. It's the Lord.

Why? Because the Lord will not allow men to compete with him, but he will allow you enough success that you think you are. He'll let you get a little high so that you think you're something. You think you're going somewhere. You think you can be independent.

You think you can be on your own. But what we are experiencing today is God's passive wrath where he lets men go on their own independently from him. Chaos took place where culture should have grown because men wanted to be independent. Dr. Tony Evans talking about the danger of the wrong kind of freedom in a message from his classic two-volume collection, Turning a Nation to God. This timely sermon archive can serve as a great discussion starter for your small group or Bible study, and you can receive all 13 messages as our gift on either CD or digital download when you make a donation to help support the ongoing work of the Alternative Broadcast Ministry. And if you do that right now, we'll also send you a copy of that practical booklet you heard about earlier, How Should Christians Vote?

Now, this is not a list of candidates, parties, or propositions. Instead, it aims to help you align your voting decisions with God's priorities as you evaluate the people, policies, and practices that your vote will support. You can request these resources online at TonyEvans.org, or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222, where one of our friendly team members is ready to help. And don't forget, if you're ready to go even deeper into this important topic, be sure to ask about Tony's Kingdom Politics book and Bible study package, available as an additional resource to complement the Turning a Nation to God sermon series. All the information is available online at TonyEvans.org, or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. They're teaching courses to help you engage, understand Scripture, and not just to hear about, but to explore the Kingdom of God on your own. Find out more at TonyEvansTraining.org. TonyEvansTraining.org. It sounds reasonable to say that we'll take a good idea wherever we can find it. But tomorrow, Dr. Evans will talk about the disaster that results when we don't take time to consider the source. I hope you'll join us for that. Thank you.