The burden of Tyre howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in.
From the land of Chithim it is revealed to them, Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle.
Thou whom the merchants of Zidon that pass over the sea have replenished,
and by great waters the sea of Syar, thou harvest of the river is her revenue, and she is a mart of nations.
Be thou shamed of Zidon, for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying,
I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.
As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
Pass ye over to Tarshish, howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.
Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days?
Her own feet shall carry her far off to Sojourn, who hath taken his counsel against Tyre, the crowning city,
whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth.
The Lord of hosts hath proposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.
Pass through thy land as a river, or a daughter of Tarshish, there is no more strength.
He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms.
The Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strongholds thereof.
And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon.
Arise, pass over Shittim, there also shalt thou have no rest.
Behold the land of Chaldeans.
This people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness.
They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof, and he brought it to ruin.
How, ye ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste.
It shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king.
After the end of seventy years, shall Tyre sing as in harlot taken harp.
Go about the city, that harlot thou hast been forgotten.
Make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
And it shall come to pass over the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre.
And she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
And her merchandise and her hire shall beholdness to the Lord.
It shall not be treasured nor laid up, for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing.
Let's pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible, dear Lord.
Thank you for this wonderful church you've given us.
And we thank you for our pastor, dear God. Please bless him tonight as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Okay, we continue this evening with our Bible study in the book of Isaiah. We're in chapter twenty-three.
Of course, in chapter twenty-two, we saw preaching against Jerusalem once again, but we mainly focused on the key of the house of David,
referring to the fact that it's kind of given us a prophecy of the millennial reign and the reign of Jesus Christ,
and how he's going to be the one who's the fulfillment of Eliakim, essentially ruling over all of the world.
And these last few chapters, beginning in chapter fourteen, it's been a lot of preaching and prophesying against the nations.
And so Isaiah is just kind of laying it on thick on every nation for their sins, for their abominations.
He's leaving no stone unturned, so to speak. He's covering all his bases.
Every nation that has sinned against God, every nation that has behaved wickedly, he's calling them out.
And so there is no exception here in chapter twenty-three, where he begins to judge Tyree and Sidon by proximity.
Now, Tyree is often also referred to in the Bible as Tyrus.
So sometimes you'll see that term Tyree and Zidon, but you'll also see Tyrus and Sidon with an S,
essentially referring to the same exact regions.
And Tyree and Sidon essentially have been around since the very beginning,
and they've had a bit of mixed emotions regarding Israel and their company.
Sometimes there were grief unto them. There are instances where they assisted them.
But in general, they were essentially a region or a nation of pagan worship, which is, in my opinion, the reason they're being judged.
Now, Tyree or Tyrus is essentially a two-part city, what we would consider today to be Syria and Lebanon.
And it was known for its commercial trade, which is very interesting,
because when you look at the judgment that comes upon Tyree and Sidon, it's almost identical to the judgment that comes upon Babylon.
You look at what happens to them and their seaports and all of their merchandise.
You compare that to the judgment of Babylon and Jeremiah and Revelation chapter 18, it's almost identical.
And I'm going to explain why that is in just a bit.
But let me give you a couple of things regarding Tyree, the history of Tyree, in respect to Israel.
First and foremost, Tyree was never completely subdued by Joshua.
You see this in the Book of Joshua, of course.
They were supposed to go into the little promised land and subdue it and give those regions to the different 12 tribes.
But some of them didn't really conquer certain regions that were designated for them.
For example, the Canaanites, right? Some of the Canaanites still survived.
You have a lot of people in Tyree, which is considered a Phoenician nation that still survived.
This is why the Book of Judges talks about the Zidonians dwelling carelessly.
Zidonians is referring to the inhabitants of Sidon.
Not only that, but we see later on during the reign of the kings that David makes an alliance with Hiram, king of Tyrus.
And if you remember the story, he makes an alliance with him in order to utilize his resources to build his palace,
you know, his cedars, the wood, the stonemasons in order to create a home for himself.
And then that alliance essentially carries over to his son Solomon.
Solomon sees no war in his day and God chooses him, he allows him, should I say, to construct the temple, right?
Well, because he's being used to construct the temple, they're also using Hiram, king of Tyrus,
as a means of resources for skilled laborers to construct the temple as well.
So there's somewhat of a friendship there, an alliance that's being created there.
And you think to yourself, well, what's the problem with that?
You know, that's good, you know, they're being used to construct the temple.
Well, here's the thing is that Tyre and Sidon, they're very much pagan.
And in fact, the Phoenician gods are known as what? Baal and Ashtaroth.
Baal and Ashtaroth are the deities, the Phoenician deities of Tyre and Sidon.
And of course, that becomes a snare to Israel and Jerusalem down the road.
And so we see that there.
And as I mentioned, when you observe the destruction of Tyre and Sidon,
you can't help but notice the striking similarities between Tyre and Babylon
and the spiritual significance there.
They're almost identical.
And you think to yourself, well, why is that?
You know, why is the destruction of Babylon and the destruction of Tyre so similar one to another?
You know, why is that?
Well, it's because of the fact that Satan is at the helm of both, okay?
He's the one who's ruling both.
And you think to yourself, well, you know, you're just making that general statement, Pastor.
You're just saying because, you know, the principalities rule over the nations.
Yeah, but the Bible specifically says, though, that in Isaiah 14, as we studied a couple weeks ago,
that Lucifer was essentially the spiritual ruler over Babylon.
And when you study Ezekiel chapter 26, 27, and 28, it's also a prophecy of Satan ruling over Tyrus.
And so he's essentially the one who's ruling over Tyrus and its power.
And then he was also ruling over Babylon and his power, okay?
Now, the point that I want to make there is that Tyrus and Babylon are in opposition one toward another.
They're two separate parties, okay?
They don't necessarily agree with one another, but yet they have a spiritual entity that's over both.
Now, you say, well, what does that have to do with anything?
Well, you know, it's just nothing ever changes, right?
You have Republicans and Democrats, and they're in opposition one toward another.
But let me just tell you, they are the left wing and the right wing of the same dragon known as the serpent.
And this is the same tactic and method that Satan has used for thousands of years.
You have Tyrus who's worshiping Baal, they're worshiping Asheroth, but you also have Babylon who's also worshiping false gods.
They are both wicked, godless, pagan nations in opposition one toward another, but Satan is ruling both of them, okay?
And so just to kind of open your eyes a little bit to realize the spiritual battle is not with these particular nations,
but with Satan who's essentially ruling them, okay?
So it's not about choosing one side or another, it's just about not being on the dragon at all.
Get off the dragon, okay?
And so that is the introductory point that I want to share with you that I thought was very interesting.
Now let's get into the destruction of Tyre here.
And a lot of what we're going to see tonight is essentially the same exact stuff that we see throughout all the nations and their destruction,
but God put it in the Bible, so it's important for us to look at it.
Let's look at the burden of Tyre. It says in verse 1, the burden of Tyre,
How ye ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in, from the land of Kitim, it is revealed to them.
Now the first thing we're going to look at here is the fact that he talks about the burden, meaning this is a heavy message that's going to come upon Tyrus,
and we also see the grief of the Mediterranean nations.
This is essentially showing us that Tyrus was a major center or epicenter of commerce, okay?
People were constantly coming to Tyrus to purchase things, to get merchandise, they were import-exports of goods,
they were used by various nations, and he first addresses Tarshish, which would be considered the southern part of Spain in modern terms,
but he's saying there, hey Tarshish, who's using Tyrus, hey look at it, it's laid waste, it's no longer there for you, okay?
There's no house, there's no entering in, he's essentially saying that he's just going to completely decimate it, he's going to lay it waste,
nothing is going to exist there, this is how bad the destruction is.
Now when it says from the land of Kitim, Kitim is actually referring to Cyprus, okay?
It's just another way of saying Cyprus, referring to that particular area, and later on in the passage we'll see that he addresses the Isles, okay?
And what is an Isle? It's not referring to this per se, it's just another way of saying island, okay?
Because many of the Mediterranean islands relied upon Tyrus for its merchandise, for its resources,
and so he's addressing the other nations saying, hey, you guys are going to lament, you're going to howl, you're going to be sad over the destruction of Tyrus.
Verse 2, be still ye inhabitants of the Isle, meaning island, thou whom the merchants of Zidon that pass over the sea have replenished.
So Tyrus and Zidon are replenishing nations, they are giving them the goods, they're helping them to essentially function as a nation because of their resources,
and he's saying, you know, they're not going to be there anymore. Verse 3 says, and by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue,
and she is a mart of nations. Now what is a mart? A mart is a trading center, a good way to remember this is market, right?
So Tyrus and Zidon is essentially a center of market for all of these seaports, all these nations that essentially sail to Tyrus to receive their goods.
He says in verse 4, be thou ashamed, O Zidon, for the sea hath spoken, he's using poetic language here,
even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.
What does that mean? He's using poetic language to describe the fact that the oceans that surround Tyrus and Zidon will no longer bring customers to Tyrus anymore.
When he says bring forth children, the strength of the sea, the sea is just like, hey, I got nothing. No one's coming to you because you got nothing.
You got nothing to offer anymore.
As at the report concerning Egypt, verse 5, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
So just as people heard in times past what God did to Egypt and the destruction that came to Egypt and how that news spread abroad to everyone,
well, in like manner, that's how people are going to receive the news of Tyrus.
This is before social media, Instagram, Facebook, just by word of mouth.
And so obviously this destruction is so severe that it compelled many to just talk about the destruction of Tyrus and Zidon.
So Tyre and Zidon, God describes it as being the power of the sea, and you can almost essentially classify it as being like the Babylon of the sea.
Because as you look at some of the descriptions here, he's talking about how people are going to howl because of their merchandise.
It's not going to be there anymore.
And this is pretty much parallel to Babylon and how he does the same to Babylon.
Now turn with me, if you would, go to Ezekiel chapter 27, if you would hold your place there in Isaiah and go to Ezekiel.
The main passages that deal with the destruction of Tyrus would be Jeremiah.
You have Ezekiel, you have Zechariah, you have Joel and Amos, and they all address the fact that God is just going to destroy Tyrus.
Now, as you turn into Ezekiel 27, I'm going to read to you from Zechariah chapter nine and verse number two, it says,
And Hamath also shall border thereby, Tyrus and Zidon, though it be very wise, and Tyrus did build herself a stronghold.
And heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.
Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire.
So what we're seeing here, because you can't really gather why Tyrus is being judged just by reading Isaiah 23.
You kind of have to take like a holistic view of all the passages dealing with Tyrus.
And the picture that it paints is that Tyrus is very affluent.
They had a lot of money.
It says there that they have silver as the dust.
You know, if you live in a desert area and there's tons of dust everywhere, it's basically saying that's how abundant their silver was.
And even their gold as the mire of the streets is just found everywhere.
Okay, so it's a very wealthy city.
And what does wealth do to nations and people?
It makes them prideful, arrogant, causes them not to seek the Lord.
So they have all these riches and these precious stones that they possess.
They are the power of the sea.
Meaning they are like the authority of the Mediterranean Sea.
You want to get a pair of Nikes, you go to Tyrus.
You want to get a pair of sandals, some nice leather-bound sandals or whatever, you go to Tyrus.
You know, all the goods, you know, that's where Walmart goes.
That's where Costco gets their stuff from or whatever.
It's basically like the epicenter of where everyone gets their merchandise.
Look at Ezekiel 27 and verse 12.
It says, Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches.
With silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
They were thy merchants, they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.
Skip down to verse 25.
The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market, and that was replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.
Now, what's one thing we can gather from all these descriptions of Tyrus?
Well, it seems that people really love Tyrus and Sidon, but not because of any reason, any spiritual reason.
It's all because of what they possess.
It's all because of their riches.
It's all because of their money.
It's all because of what Tyrus can offer them.
I mean, they're even singing songs of Tyrus and making ballads of them.
And so even though, although Tyrus was a city of substance, they really lacked substance,
because all the people could talk about is what they physically had, okay?
And so the nations wailed not because it was noble or because it's godly,
but rather because of the fact that they just were a city of immense merchandise which can no longer be available to them.
Now, what is the lesson that we can learn there?
Don't waste your life trying to be rich, because if you waste your life, and that is a true statement,
you are wasting your life if that's all you want to do is be rich.
If you waste your life being rich, all people will remember you for is your riches and nothing else.
And in fact, you know, probably not even that.
You know, think about all the billionaires of this world, the millionaires when they die,
all of the movie stars that have heeded themselves riches and fame,
all people will remember them for are things that are not of substance.
Oh, he was great. He was worth one point billion whatever dollars or something.
You know, he had this much money and all this, but what is that worth?
This is what the Bible tells us.
Take heed, beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.
You know, your life is worth more than just money.
You should seek out righteousness, holiness, that which is just, that which is godly, that which is of virtue.
We should, you know, flee, the Bible says fornication and pursue, you know, godliness and that which is pleasing in the eyes of the Lord,
because that's actually something that will last.
Money can pay the bills, absolutely, and money has its place.
Possessions have their place.
But you know, there's people in this world who just want to heap to themselves as tyrants the silver and the gold.
They want to have all of the possessions, the merchandise, all of the glitz and glamour of this world,
but when they die, what is it worth?
Yeah, people will lament for you because of all the money that you have.
You know, and then they'll fight over your money.
You know, they'll say, who did you leave everything to?
You know, that's the real big thing.
You know, where is all that millions of dollars going?
They don't even care about your life or maybe the lives that you changed or the exploits that you've accomplished.
The, you know, whatever it is that you did good in this world, they're only going to focus on the money that you had,
and that's, you know, let that money perish with you, okay, at the end of the day.
And it reminds me of the parable that Jesus Christ gave in Luke chapter 12 regarding the rich man.
You know, he had so many possessions and money, and he had so many goods to the point where he tore down his barns
and built greater to house his possessions.
So he's like, he's tearing down barns and building greater in order to store all his corn and wine and wheat and riches and silver and gold,
but then the Lord tells him, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
And then he says, then who shall those things be which thou hast provided?
And my father-in-law often used to say, her next husband.
You know, your wife's next husband, that's who he's going to go to, okay.
He's basically saying, you know, you basically heap to yourself all these riches, but then you might just die tomorrow,
and then someone else gets to enjoy your riches because you never did anything with it.
And this is not a sermon against riches, because he's given us richly all things to enjoy,
and every good gift, every perfect gift coming from above, from the father of lights,
and we obviously know that God blesses certain people with money and possessions.
The problem is this, is that when they begin to hoard those possessions,
or they build up an identity based upon those money and possessions, and not off of anything godly, okay.
Leave a spiritual inheritance behind, amen.
You know, leave Christian virtue behind.
Change lives by getting people saved, by discipling people, by teaching people the word of God.
People will remember you, not for being a wealthy, rich person, but rather because you're spiritually wealthy, amen.
And in fact, later on it says, so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
So you can actually be rich in both ways, but most people just choose one way, okay.
You say, what about people who are just rich towards God? Well, they're not choosing, okay,
because some people just can't make money, amen.
But some people just come from money, right.
Some people just come from wealth, they come from money, and they have to actually choose
and make that choice to actually become rich toward God and not allow possessions to have them,
not serve mammon, but serve the Lord and identify with that instead.
And so this lamentation over Tyrus is the fact that everyone, they're not like, oh man, what a godly city,
and you know, the epicenter of worship, and man, there was such a great nation that proclaimed the word of God.
It was just like toilet paper, you know, and all the bulk, all the bulk of toilet paper, and coffee,
and grains, and weed, and all these things that we could have, it's no longer available to us anymore.
You know, it's just nonsense. I mean, think about this, when Las Vegas is destroyed,
will anybody remember anything good about Las Vegas? They're just going to be like, oh, I can't gamble anymore.
I can't make millions of dollars anymore, or I can't lose millions of dollars anymore.
And so they can talk about, and I'm sure there's songs about Las Vegas.
I'm sure people talk about Las Vegas and how great it is, and you know, all the lights, the glitz, and glamour,
and all the money, and the wealth, and the party life, but at the end of the day,
if God were to just destroy Las Vegas with fire and brimstone, no one would remember it for anything good.
And so, Tyrus literally wasted its entire historical identity on just nonsense, money, riches, okay,
when they could have been using it for something else. Go back to Isaiah, and hold your place there in Ezekiel,
because we'll come back to that in just a bit. So the first thing we see here is the grief of the Mediterranean nations,
not because Tyrus is a godly nation, but because now they don't have anywhere else to buy.
They're like, oh man, now we gotta find another, well let's go down to Egypt and see if they have anything to sell,
and any commerce, or any possessions, any goods.
Looking at verse number six, we're going to see the lamentation of the refugees that says,
Pass ye over to Tarshish, how ye inhabitants of the isle.
Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
This is simply referring to the fact that many of them will go into captivity.
Goes on to say in verse number eight, who hath taken this council against Tyree?
Meaning, who's the one who decreed for Tyree to just be destroyed like this?
Because it's a massive, it's a major destruction that comes upon it.
Who hath taken this council against Tyree? The crowning city, whose merchants are princes,
whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth. The Lord of Hosts hath purposed it,
to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring and to contempt all the honorable of the earth.
So at the end of the day, what he's saying here is, you know, people are observing Tyrus and Sidon,
seeing all the death, all of the fire, the destruction, the desolation,
and just they naturally ask like, who would allow something like this?
And you know, people today would ask the same question, and the answer is very simple, God.
Now, people have a hard time coming to that conclusion, because they think that God is just all love,
but you know what? God has a lot of hate too. God has a lot of judgment.
God has a lot of justice, and he is angry with the wicked every day.
And so, you know, Tyrus became an example, they became a byword and a proverb of a nation
who disobeyed the Lord and received the destruction and the judgment of God.
And he's taking credit for it, he's like, I did it. Had there been an evil in the city, the Lord had not done it.
And this is not the sermon, but folks, any time you hear about any natural disasters,
any destruction that comes upon a nation, just give God the credit, because he's the one who allowed it.
He's the one who decrees it. Oh, it's the devil. The devil doesn't have that power.
And if the devil was responsible for doing some of those things, it's because God allowed him to do those things.
Because at the end of the day, it's God who allows that destruction to come upon people.
And why? So that others may fear. When you hear about natural disasters and tsunamis and tornadoes and floods,
when you hear about destruction upon cities, you know, states or nations, the first thing that should come to mind is,
you know what, this is why we need to stay right with God. Because God can allow that to happen to us.
Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. That's one of the major themes of the Bible,
where God punishes a particular people, and then everyone's like, whoa, and God's like, that could be you.
So shape up. That could be you, so you better get right with God.
Stop taking my love for granted, stop taking the grace of God for granted, because that could be you.
And so he's using Tyrus as an example, and he's saying, look, you know, I purposed it. Why?
So I can stain the pride of all glory. Now, let me give you a couple reasons why I believe God specifically is judging Tyrus and Sidon.
And it goes all the way back to, for example, Ahab. Okay, so what does Ahab have to do with God judging Tyrus and Sidon?
I thought Ahab was the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. So what does he have to do with it?
Well, he marries a woman by the name of Jezebel, who's a Phoenician, meaning she's from Tyrus.
And, you know, Jezebel brought all her pagan worship with her. And she was essentially a blotch.
She was a thorn in the side of Israel, killing prophets, bringing paganism into the land, to the point where God judged Jezebel severely, too.
I mean, he didn't even let her have, like, an honorable funeral. You know, she was, look, look, let me just explain how Jezebel died.
Okay, it's a really good story. You know, they, eunuchs, okay, and if you don't know what a eunuch is, it's a man who has his privy member cut off by someone else.
Okay, you know, in order to lower the testosterone so that they don't, nothing takes place between them and the queen.
You know, all these eunuchs throw her over the balcony because, you know, Jehu, I believe it's Jehu, the son of Nimshi, one of the greatest kings of the north.
You know, he's sanctioned by God to take out all of these wicked people. He rides up on his horse.
And, you know, the Bible says that she paints her face on, which is really funny that the Bible puts it that way.
Right? It says she paints her face on. She tries to flatter Jehu. Jehu ignores her and just tells the eunuchs, like, hey, throw her down.
And they're just like, eh, you know, they're just like, whatever the last amount of manliness that they have, they just throw her over.
And look, if this makes you mad, then you just get mad at the Bible because the Bible says this. In fact, I'm giving you, like, the soft version of it.
Jehu throws her over. She splatters on the ground. Okay. The horse tramples on her. Jehu doesn't even regard her, just goes into her palace.
He kicks up his feet and starts eating. And then he's just like, all right, let's give her a proper burial because she is, you know, she's like a daughter of a king or whatever.
But by the time they go there, the dogs already ate her up. And the only thing that left behind was her feet, her hands, and I think a little bit of her hair.
I might be mistaken on that, but for sure, her hands and her feet. That's all that was left. And that was a judgment that came upon Jezebel that was declared by Elijah and said this is what's going to happen to Jezebel.
Why? Because she was wicked. She was a pagan. She brought the Phoenician gods to Israel and, in fact, tried to impose that wicked religion in Israel to the point where they were killing prophets.
They're trying to set up these false gods. You don't think God's mad about that? Of course he's mad about that. And he takes account of that.
So, yeah, Jezebel suffered the consequences, but the nation that she's coming from is also going to suffer the consequences as well.
And so there were major pagans. And, in fact, as I mentioned, Solomon, he utilized the tyrants and Sidon in order to construct the temple.
But he ended up going after Asheroth, the goddess of the Sidonians. Why? Because he married some unsaved pagan woman.
Which, by the way, this is a good point here. This is why the Bible says you should only marry believers. Christians should only marry believers.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And if you have been, if you've married that, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to those who have not yet been married.
That's what the Bible says. You say, why? Well, because of the fact that God considers that to be an unequal yoke, you end up introducing paganism into your family.
And if they're like a Catholic or something, they're like a Mormon or something, you're going to have trouble in the flesh for a very long time.
Okay? And so, you know, Solomon liked strange women, the Bible says. And he married, I mean, he had, the man was just like, had a major woman problem.
And he had the money to, you know, fund it. He had a bunch of princesses and concubines, but a lot of these were just pagans.
And so he ended up, you know, lowering his standard to worship Asheroth, which is the goddess of the Sidonians, it's a Phoenician god.
And of course, Baal is also a Phoenician god. So these are being worshiped and then God ended up punishing Solomon thereafter.
Okay? He ended up splitting the kingdom because of that, because Solomon got away from God.
So the ripple effect of worshiping false gods is huge. And just as it is with you or I, if, you know, we marry a pagan or someone who is not a Christian,
someone who does not believe the Bible, someone who is a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness or Catholic of sorts, you know, that's going to create a lot of problems in the marriage.
And it has a ripple effect. Okay? Now, thankfully, you know, there's a lot of people even in our church who, you know, they married, maybe they were unequally yoked,
but then they ended up winning their spouse to the Lord and thank God for that. And the Bible also talks about that.
Sanctifying the husband or sanctifying the wife because the spouse is saved. Okay?
It's one of those things where you can see the glass half full or half empty. It's like, oh man, I married a Catholic or whatever. I don't know what I'm going to do.
Well, just win them to the Lord. Win her to the Lord. Okay? Because now your spouse has a higher chance of getting saved because they live with a believer. Right?
And then your children have a higher chance of getting saved as well because there's a believer in the house, etc.
But, you know, it doesn't always work that way. As with Solomon, he ended up, you know, worshipping false gods.
Not necessarily because in his heart he was worshipping them. By proxy, he's worshipping them because his wife was dragging him to, you know,
an Astaroth church, to the Astaroth temple or whatever. I mean, you know you hit rock bottom when you're worshipping a female god.
Like, you couldn't go for male, bro? Like, you had to do the female thing? Like, that's, man.
Go to Joel, if you would. Let's see here. Yeah, go to Joel and then we're going to go to, we're going to go back to Ezekiel.
So why is God judging Sidon and Tyrus? Well, Ahab married a Phoenician woman that brought all kinds of problems to Israel.
Solomon married pagan women that brought Astaroth and he's even constructing temples of Astaroth and altars to Astaroth.
I mean, it's like horrible stuff going on here. But also, Tyri and Sidon took precious stones and used it for temple worship.
Okay, look at Joel 3 verse 4. It says,
It says,
So somehow, we don't know exactly what this is referring to as far as the timeline is concerned.
There was a time when Tyrus and Sidon, they plundered the house of God or they just plundered the precious stones that were found in Israel and they brought it to their own temples to use to worship their false gods.
He says,
This is also referring to the fact that they took advantage of the Israelites and those of Jerusalem. Look at Amos, if you would, Amos chapter 1.
So they're using the silver and gold to worship their false gods.
This is like Belshazzar doing the same thing, essentially just kind of defiling the instruments and the cups and the things that are used to worship the God of the Bible, they're using it to worship false gods.
But they're also taking advantage of Jerusalem in their vulnerable state. Look at verse 9 of Amos 1.
It says,
So obviously, it's an unspoken rule that you treat your neighboring nation with respect. You don't deliver them to their enemy. Whereas here, they're delivering up the whole captivity to Edom and obviously because they're a nation known for money and, you know, trafficking, they're probably doing it for money.
Okay, look at Ezekiel 26, Ezekiel 26.
If you want to read about the judgment of Tyrus in the Bible, in the book of Ezekiel, excuse me, you go to Ezekiel 26, 27 and 28.
Look at Ezekiel 26 and verse number 2 says,
Therefore, thus saith the Lord, God, behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
So we see here that when Jerusalem is in need, they're broken. What does Tyrus and Sidon do? They take advantage of them.
They kick them while they're down. They use them to be replenished.
They either take their goods or they just traffic the people and sell them to Edom or whatever nation is around who's willing to pay for them. It's very wicked.
And so Tyrus is an extremely wicked nation. They deserve this punishment.
They say, well, no, we should pray for them. Yeah, but Tyrus had thousands of years to get right with God.
And one thing people don't realize is how long God's grace period is. They see destruction and they're like, oh, man, you know, that's not very merciful.
Well, how if he's given them hundreds of years or even thousands of years to get right? Think about that.
And this is why we should never become so, you know, frustrated with, oh, man, when is God going to execute judgment on this particular person for their sin?
Well, he's given them a grace period. OK, God gives people grace periods and it varies. There's not a particular number that God gives us.
We know that he suffers long with people, that he's very merciful to people, that he's very gracious to people.
But just know this, you know, Tyree had it coming. And no one could look at Babylon, Tyrus, America or any other nation for that matter and think to themselves, oh, man, that was just unjust.
No, he gave, you know, America 400 years. He's given other nations hundreds, even thousands of years to get right with God.
It's showing that he's very long suffering towards nations and he wants them to get right. OK, and think about this.
You know, thousands of years, that means one generation dies off, a new generation arises. That generation dies off, a new generation arises.
So he's literally waiting for a generation to rise up to get right and start worshiping the God of the Bible.
But when you just have every single generation just worshiping false gods, after a while, God's like, you know what, it's time to judge this nation.
They've gone too far. OK, and so people don't seem to really go to Chapter 27 of Ezekiel.
People don't seem to realize that, you know, God has a cutoff point. There's a time when God just has to bring the hammer down.
And you know what? He is the judge of all the earth. He is justified in destroying nations and they have to answer to him. OK.
Now, according to Isaiah 23, one of the main reasons why he's judging them is the reason why he judges every nation.
And that is because of pride, a lack of humility, which is a result of what?
The riches that they have, the fact that everyone looks to them because they have all the possessions.
They end up getting lifted up in their hearts. They become prideful and God has to bring them down.
He has to humble them. He has to bring them down a notch.
He has to abase them because it's in the condition of humility that they seek after the Lord.
OK, look at Ezekiel 27, verse one.
The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus.
And by the way, lamentation is just another way of saying sorrow.
OK, to lament means to sorrow, to cry out. OK.
If you speak Spanish, that makes 100% sense because that word is still used in that way in Spanish.
But in English, we don't really say that. You know, I'm lamenting, you know.
I don't even know what's the slang word for sadness now. Is there a Gen Z version of that?
You guys are just never sad. What?
Ohio. OK, that makes sense.
You know, but I guess I don't know.
I mean, the modern term would be like, you know, I'm freaking sad or something.
I don't know. What would you say?
You know, I'm not really sad all the time, so I don't really know exactly what to say.
But lamentation is just that.
And sometimes it's associated with a song of sorrow, a declaration of sorrow.
In fact, there's a book in the Bible called The Book of Lamentations where Jeremiah is essentially lamenting.
He's sorrowing because of the destruction of Jerusalem.
So this is the lamentation for Tyrus says in verse three and saying to Tyrus,
O thou that are situate at the entry of the sea, which are a merchant of the people for many isles.
Thus saith the Lord God, O Tyrus, thou has said, I am perfect, I am of perfect beauty.
Thy borders are in the midst of the seas.
Thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
So they're prideful because they're beautiful.
And it's no wonder why in Ezekiel 28 he starts talking about who?
Satan, because he was created in a perfect way.
He was perfect in beauty and in wisdom, which caused his heart to be what?
Lifted up.
This is the sin that gets anybody.
Angels, demons, nations, individuals.
And here's the thing.
You don't actually have to be physically beautiful to be prideful because you think that you're beautiful.
There's people out there who are just probably ugly as sin, but they think they're beautiful and that makes them prideful.
You know, you got the lizzles out there.
This is a real thing.
You got the lizzles out there.
You have, you know, the body positivity nonsense taking place out there and they're prideful.
They're arrogant.
It's arrogance.
And look, you know, it's wicked and it's sinful when a skinny model is, you know, in a bikini or whatever.
Right?
But it's prideful also.
But you know, now you have the lizzos doing the same thing.
No shame.
But you know what it is?
It's pride.
No humility.
No shame facedness.
Now, if God has blessed you with looks, God bless you.
Your spouse will appreciate it.
Your future spouse will appreciate it.
But you know what?
Regardless if you're ugly or you're beautiful,
you know, just be humble.
And you're like, well, you know, I'm not beautiful.
I'm pretty ugly, you know.
I'm pretty, but I'm pretty ugly, you know.
Well, you know, thank God for that.
I'm serious.
Because then you don't have to worry about
becoming prideful.
That's a legit thing.
Okay?
If you're just like, you know, I'm just ugly.
I just got a good personality.
You know, just.
Well, you know what?
Thank God for that.
Because there's a lot of people out there
who are, you know, good looking.
And you know what?
It makes them prideful.
It makes them arrogant.
And it makes them not seek after the Lord.
And so, you know, but if you're ugly
and you think you're beautiful, though.
If you have that delusion or something.
Just be humble still, though.
Okay?
You know, you think you're of perfect beauty.
Now, the thing is with Tyrus,
is that, you know, God is saying that it's beautiful.
Because of the fact that this city is magnificent.
It's filled with silver and gold.
It has all of the luster, right?
Of a city that has just everything.
It's probably just a,
it was probably a wonderful city to visit.
It's by the port.
You know what I mean?
Everyone looks to it.
There's songs about it.
So therefore, its heart is lifted up.
It becomes prideful and arrogant,
thinking that it's something when it's nothing.
Look at chapter 28 and verse number one.
Chapter 28 and verse number one says,
the word of the Lord came again unto me,
saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus,
thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up.
So what do we see here?
We see that the nation is lifted up.
The nation thinks it's beautiful,
but it's because of the leader, right?
So the heart of the leader is reflected in the nation.
It says, and thou hast said, I am a God.
I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas,
yet thou art a man and not God,
though thou set thine heart as the heart of God.
You know, this guy is an antichrist.
And we'll see later on that it's also parallel.
It's a parallel passage to Satan
because he wants to be as the most high, right?
The antichrist ends up claiming,
proclaiming himself to be God in the end times.
But here we have a literal prince, a physical prince,
who's being puppeted by Satan.
But this literal prince is saying, I am a God.
I sit in the seat of God.
I'm in the midst of the seas.
And God's like, you're a man.
You're not God.
You can set your heart as a God, but you're not God.
You're a man, you're gonna die as a man.
Verse three says, behold, thou art wiser than Daniel.
There is no secret that they can hide from thee.
With thy wisdom and with thine understanding,
thou hast gotten thee riches,
and then hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic
hast thou increased thy riches,
and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.
So what do we see here?
We see that not only beauty,
does beauty lift up a person's heart to become prideful,
so does knowledge and wisdom.
You know, some of the most arrogant people in this world
are smart people.
They could be very arrogant, prideful,
because of their wisdom, because of their knowledge,
and because they can actually utilize their knowledge
to make money, as Tyrus did.
He said, well, I don't got a problem with that.
I'm as dumb as a bag of rocks or whatever.
Well, you're smart enough that you sought the Lord, though.
And in fact, the Bible would deem you to be wiser
than the smartest man with the most money in this world
who does not seek after the Lord, okay?
And so, you know, everyone has a certain level of knowledge
and wisdom and smarts, you know, in this world,
but if you're a person who has wisdom and has knowledge,
you better temper it with humility as well,
because God in any time could just remove
that little thing from your brain
and you could just become an idiot, okay?
And by the way, if you are, you know, you have,
if you're book smart,
but you're making spiritually bad decisions,
you're an idiot, according to the Bible.
You know, if you have all of the wisdom and the knowledge
to increase your riches and gold and silver
and your possessions, but you don't seek after the Lord,
you don't repent when you're not right with God,
you're not reading your Bible, you're not going to church,
you're not praying unto the Lord your God, you're stupid.
That's what the Bible says.
You're a fool, because at the end of the day,
those things mean nothing to God.
Where is the wise?
Where is the scribe, the Bible says.
You know, all of these things that lift itself up
because of knowledge and wisdom
is nothing in the eyes of God,
because God could at any moment take that from you
and make you an invalid, He can make you an idiot,
He could just completely just destroy your life
if you wanted to.
You know, the goal would be this,
is to have knowledge and wisdom coupled with godliness.
That, you know, you would have wisdom
that can cause you to get riches,
but also pray unto the Lord your God and give glory to Him.
That's a great balance right there.
You know, because at the end of the day,
God is the one who gave you knowledge,
He's the one who gave you wisdom,
He's the one who gave you discernment to gain riches.
He allowed you to be a hardworking individual,
to have the book smarts to get those things,
but you know, there's a lot of people in this world though.
You know, for example, Bill Gates, he's an idiot.
He's going to split hell wide open.
You know why?
You say he's an idiot, but you're here
and he's in some boat somewhere, you know,
in some mansion someplace.
Yeah, but I'm going to live forever and he's not.
I have something that all the money
that he has can never buy.
And guess what, I have the wisdom to get saved.
He has, he's absent of that wisdom.
So he can have all the money he wants,
but at the end of the day,
my riches are in heaven and they will last forever.
His will rot away.
Yeah, then people may talk about how rich he is
and how much money he has, but you know, the Apple guy,
I mean, what's, I don't even know his name.
What's his name again?
Steve Jobs, he's dead.
One of the richest men in the world, he's dead.
Now what?
See what I'm saying?
So at the end of the day, you know, yeah,
have wisdom and knowledge.
We don't want to just like negate that and ignore that
and say, well, I'm just going to be dumb and spiritual.
No, because the Bible actually says,
when you read the Bible, you become smart.
You gain wisdom and knowledge, you gain discernment.
He increases our quality of knowledge
when we become Christians and read the word of God.
But here's the thing is that we can have both, right?
You know, we can have both and both in its rightful place.
Give glory to God.
Don't allow your knowledge to puff you up.
Knowledge puffeth up and allow it to cause you
to forsake the ways of the Lord
because God can bring you down.
He can humble you.
It says in verse number five,
by thy great wisdom and by thy traffic
has thou increased thy riches
and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God,
because thou has set thine heart as the heart of God,
behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee,
the terrible of the nations,
and they shall draw their swords
against the beauty of thy wisdom
and they shall defile thy brightness.
They shall bring thee down to the pit
and thou shall die the deaths of them
that are slain in the midst of the seas.
Wilt I yet say before him that slayeth thee?
I am God.
And he's basically saying no.
When you're staring at the end of a sword,
you think saying I am a God is gonna deliver you?
Don't slay me, I'm a God.
But thou shalt be a man and no God
in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
He's like, oh, you're God?
Well, let's go ahead and test that out real quick.
Nope, you're a man.
Look at verse 12.
Son of man, take up a lamentation
upon the king of Tyrus and say unto him,
thus saith the Lord God,
thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom
and perfect in beauty,
thou has been in Eden, the garden of God.
And I'm not gonna go over all of this,
but obviously this is a prophecy against Satan.
So it's beautiful how the Bible
just kinda like segues into that, right?
Because this is referring to a real person here,
but then the Bible's so deep and so layered
that now it's telling us,
oh, this is referring to Satan,
showing us that Satan has the same heart as this person,
but also showing us that Satan is the one responsible
for leading this person into wickedness
and pride, arrogance, et cetera.
And of course, Satan is filled with every precious stone,
covering, he has wisdom as well.
Go back to Isaiah 23, Isaiah 23.
What's the principle that we can learn there?
Stay humble, if God's blessed you with riches,
he's blessed you with honor,
he's blessed you with wisdom and knowledge.
If you're a smart individual, you're book smart,
you just have knowledge.
You know, there's certain people
that they're just very knowledgeable about things.
Certain people have just like a,
they just have a Rolodex of just information on them.
We have people like that in our church,
which at any given time, they just drop random info on you.
And it's just like, well,
thank you for that deep conversation
of something that I never would have thought about
if I wouldn't have met you at this point right now.
And they just drop, some people are annoyed
by people like that, they're just like,
I don't like to have those kind of conversations.
But you know, I like learning stuff from different people.
And I think it's great when people just can drop knowledge
at the drop of a hat like that.
Some people are just gifted that way, right?
But at the end of the day,
make sure it doesn't make you prideful.
And if it does make you prideful,
then you're actually a fool.
Now at the same time, don't be dumb either,
because the Bible condemns simplicity
as far as being without knowledge
because of on purpose, you know,
you just don't want knowledge, you don't want wisdom,
therefore you don't seek it out.
That's also stupid, that's also foolish, okay?
We should seek to fill up all the chambers of knowledge
with wisdom and grow as Christians.
Look at verse 10, it says,
"'Pass through thy land as a river,
"'O daughter of Tarshish, there is no more strength.'
"'He stretched out his hand over the sea,
"'he shook the kingdoms,
"'the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city
"'to destroy the strongholds thereof.
"'As he said, thou shalt no more rejoice,
"'O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon,
"'arise, pass over to Kitim,
"'there also shalt thou have no rest.'"
He's essentially talking about the extent of the ruin there,
just talking about how he's gonna lay everything waste.
Verse 14,
"'How ye ships of Tarshish,
"'for your strength is laid waste.'"
Now go with me if you would to Matthew chapter 11,
hold your place there, I'm almost done.
Matthew chapter 11.
And one thing that I wanna mention here is the fact that
in Isaiah 23, along with Ezekiel 26, 27, and 28,
the main thing when it comes to the judgment
of Tyrian-Zion is that it's gonna be laid waste,
no one's gonna inhabit it.
But we see later on that it is somewhat rebuilt,
but never to its former glory.
At the end of the day,
if you put yourself in Isaiah's shoes,
he might have not seen the destruction of Tyrian-Zion,
just like many of the prophets didn't see it, right?
But it did eventually come,
and Tyrian-Zion today is not the Tyrian-Zion of the Bible,
I mean, it's completely gone,
it's lacking its luster and its glory.
And in fact, look at Matthew 11, verse 21,
it says,
"'Woe unto thee, Chorazin,
"'woe unto thee, Bethsaida,
"'for if the mighty works which were done in you
"'had been done in Tyrian-Zion,
"'they would have repented long ago
"'in sackcloth and ashes.'"
Now, two things I wanna mention here,
is number one, when people say,
stop preaching about what it says,
all this judgment in the Old Testament,
what would Jesus do?
Anytime you talk about judgment from the Old Testament,
he's like, yeah, but what would Jesus do?
Well, Jesus is saying here what Isaiah said
in the Old Testament as well.
They're literally judging the same cities.
And he's using Tyrian-Zion as an example.
So Jesus Christ preached hard against nations,
against cities, he had no reservations about that.
But I do wanna mention here that for whatever reason,
it seems as though Tyrian-Zion did not have a witness.
There is no mighty works done.
And it's one of these things where Tyrian-Zion
could have repented long ago
if someone was there preaching the word of God to them,
or mighty works were done in them.
Now this did not negate the fact
that they were still gonna be judged.
Because it says in verse 22,
but I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable
for Tyrian-Zion at the day of judgment than for you.
This doesn't mean that like, okay,
you get a free pass to heaven or something,
you're not gonna be judged.
It's just saying like,
your judgment is not gonna be as severe as Chorazin,
because Chorazin actually had Jesus Christ
walking on your land, teaching the word of God.
I mean, you're looking at the word of God.
Tyrian-Zion is just not gonna be judged as severely.
This is kinda indicating
that there are certain levels of hell, right?
The fact that some people
are gonna be punished more than others.
And it seems to imply that certain nations
will not get it as bad as others,
only because of the fact
that maybe there wasn't a witness there.
And so that should be a motivation to us, right?
That yeah, we know nations are gonna be judged.
They're gonna get it.
But it's our responsibility to go and reckon,
at least attempt to reconcile them back to the Lord,
to do mighty works there,
to preach the word of God there.
America is definitely gonna be judged.
But it's our job to do what?
To win souls as many as we possibly can, right?
So that they could be judged as Chorazin, you know?
Where it's just like,
no, you guys had fundamental Baptist churches there.
You guys had a witness there.
You had people going out every single week,
multiple times throughout the week,
every month, every year.
You guys had the internet preaching the word of God.
I mean, you guys were saturated with the word of God, okay?
We don't wanna leave America without a witness.
We wanna do our part to get these people saved.
And so it's telling us here
that Tyron Sonnen is gonna be judged,
but not as severely as Chorazin for that reason.
Go back to Isaiah 23, and we're gonna finish up here.
So that is the conclusion of its judgment.
And then it goes into the future purpose of Tyree,
and I'm not gonna spend too much time on this.
But it tells us that essentially Tyree
will be forgotten for 70 years.
And I'm not exactly sure why that number's so specific.
70 years, he says he'll be forgotten for 70 years.
In other words, just lay desolate.
No one will think about it for 70 years.
But at the end of verse 15, it says,
after the end of 70 years, shall Tyree sing as in harlot.
That's really interesting, okay?
So basically, at the end of 70 years,
there will be a people that return to Tyron Sonnen,
a new generation, but God is telling us
that the nation will sing as a harlot.
Now what is a harlot?
It's a prostitute, okay?
Look at verse 16, take it harp.
This is God commanding Tyree.
Go about the city, thou harlot that has been forgotten.
Make sweet melody, sing many songs
that thou mayest be remembered.
That seems a little odd, isn't it?
It's just like, that's interesting.
He's telling Tyree, hey, you harlot,
go sing as a harlot.
Go, you know, get your customers.
That's what he's telling him, go get customers.
Verse 17, and it shall come to pass
after the end of 70 years that the Lord will visit Tyree,
and she shall turn to her, excuse me,
and she shall turn to her higher,
and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms
of the world upon the face of the earth.
So he's like, get your, you know,
go back to doing what you were doing.
Commit fornication with the other nations.
And this is why I say that Tyree
shares a lot of similarities with Babylon, right?
Because the same lingo is used with Babylon,
that Babylon is committing fornication
with all of the surrounding nations,
meaning that the nations are just using her
for its merchandise, for what it can get from her.
Not because the nations love Babylon,
not because the nations love Tyree,
it's what they can get from Tyree and Sidon.
That's what they're looking for.
And God is saying, yeah, sure, go for it.
Make your melodies, sell yourself,
see what you can get,
be a prostitute again is what he's saying there.
It's pretty crass, but it's in the Bible, okay?
And at the end of the day,
God will allow Tyree to be partially restored,
but never to its former glory.
Now, why is it that he's allowing it
to be restored partially?
Well, verse 18 says,
and her merchandise and her hire
shall be holiness to the Lord.
So he's just like, yeah, get all the riches,
get whatever you can,
and then I'm gonna go ahead and take it from you,
and it shall be holiness unto the Lord.
You say, well, that's not very nice.
Why would God do something like that?
Well, I'll tell you why,
because the wealth of the sinner
is laid up for the just, that's why.
And it's funny, because people
who would have problem with that,
they weren't saying anything
when Tyree was plundering Israel
and using their silver and gold
to worship false gods,
and now God's recompense,
and he's like, yeah, go back to work.
He's calling her a prostitute.
He said, go back to work, whore.
Go create songs, get your customers,
make your resources,
and then once you get it,
I'll go ahead and take that from you,
and it's gonna be laid up for my people.
I mean, God is pretty awesome.
How come this story is not told
in Sunday school classes?
That's interesting.
I've never heard a sermon on this before,
but you know what?
That's what it's literally saying, though.
It shall not be treasured nor laid up,
for her merchandise shall be for them
that dwell before the Lord,
to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing.
Because Tyree is just a great place of merchandise.
It has the best clothing, best sandals,
best whatever,
and it's just like,
once she accumulates all these riches,
he's like, all right, get out of here.
This is for my people now.
But you know what?
This is literally how the millennial reign's gonna be.
Inherit houses that we did not build,
wells that we did not dig,
vineyards that we did not plant,
and in fact, the third temple that the Antichrist
spent so much time using Babylon, America,
to build this beautiful temple that he's gonna build,
and he's gonna call himself God.
Jesus is gonna come and say,
thank you, I'll go ahead and take that.
He said, what is he gonna do with the Antichrist?
He's gonna throw him into hell.
And he's like, oh, what a beautiful building.
It's just like, just build just for me.
And this is the common thing that God has done
throughout biblical history.
And people don't like that,
but it's in the Bible.
I mean, when Joshua went into the Promised Land,
God's like, just take it all from these people.
These are wicked nations,
and once you take them out, you can inherit their houses.
Why?
Because at the end of the day,
all the silver and gold is God's anyways.
All of the beasts of the field belong to God anyways.
And the principle is that the wealth of the sinner
is laid up for the just.
That's in Proverbs 13, verse 22, okay?
And then of course, ultimately,
that area Tyrian side on would be evangelized,
because you see this in the gospels,
a Syrophoenician woman coming to Jesus Christ,
and even in the book of Acts,
there are converts from Phoenice,
referring to Tyrus and Sidon.
Jesus Christ ministered in that area,
but there were converts there.
Later on in the book of Acts,
people, the Apostle Paul or Peter is going there,
talking about how the Gentiles got saved.
So many of them were saved.
So even though he made it waste,
and made it desolate, and destroyed it,
he removed the bad part of it.
And now believers are there.
He said, well, what about now?
Well, now obviously there's no believers there, per se.
There might be, not as much as before,
but there will be in the millennial reign, though.
And so the principle that we can learn there is that,
don't, you know, obviously we wanna work hard
to get riches and possessions if we're capable of doing so.
Let me just say this.
God is gonna give you riches and possessions
later on anyways, right?
He's gonna give you riches and possessions,
and authority.
This is not a prosperity gospel.
Don't mistake that, okay?
You will die.
You will get sick.
One day, you know, something's gonna happen to you,
and your life's gonna be horrible sometimes,
and being a Christian is not all roses and daisies, okay?
Just let me make that disclaimer there, okay?
Life can suck sometimes, and that's just part of it, okay?
So that's not a problem.
What I'm saying is that, you know,
the Bible tells us that we shouldn't faint in well-doing,
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not, right?
Be not weary in well-doing.
You know, God will reward you in the long term,
and this is why we should not envy the sinners.
We should not envy what they have out there,
because at the end of the day,
one day it's gonna be yours anyways, right?
It's gonna belong to God's people.
He's gonna remove it from them.
The wealth of the sinner is gonna be laid up
for the righteous, and so, you know, keep serving God,
keep loving the Lord, keep witnessing people to Christ,
keep loving your husband, loving your wife,
raising your children.
Be eternally minded, not temporal minded,
and obviously we have to be temporal minded
to a certain extent, but don't ever let that supersede
your focus on the eternal, okay?
And, you know, if you already have riches, praise God.
If you have wealth and riches, amen.
Don't be prideful though.
If you have good looks, praise God,
but don't become prideful because of it.
If you're a smart person, if you're book smart, praise God,
but don't become prideful and arrogant because of it.
Allow yourself to be humble and thank God
that you have those attributes
so that you can better serve God
and be a blessing to others, amen?
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word,
thank you for this chapter,
and to help us to learn from the example of Tyrus, Lord,
that we may not be lifted up in our hearts.
Help us, Lord, as your people
to utilize whatever wealth we may have for the eternal.
And not just for the eternal,
obviously we have temporal things
that we have to take care of,
but in general, may we be eternally minded
and set our affections on things above,
not on the things of this earth.
And may that thought never sneak in to our hearts.
And even if it does,
that if we begin to envy the sinners of this world
because of the possessions and wealth that they have,
help us to remember what you told Tyrus as a prostitute,
Lord, and how they accumulated all this wealth
and possessions, and ultimately it was taken from them
to give to the righteous.
And I pray that you'd help us to think upon those things.
We love you, Lord, and we thank you.
We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Please turn your songbooks to song number 121.