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 Chittim 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 seed of Syar, the harvest of the river, is a revenue, and she
is a Mart of nations.
Be thou shamed, O 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 you over to Tarshish, howl ye in evidence of the isle.
Is this your joyous city, whose in antiquity is of ancient days?
Her own feet shall carry her far off to Sojourn.
Who hath taken his council 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 Assyrians founded it for them, that dwell in the wilderness.
They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof, and brought it to
ruin.
Howl ye ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste.
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 an 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 shall come to pass
after 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 be holiness to the Lord, and 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.
Pray.
Thank you, Holy 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're continuing this evening with our Bible study on the book of Isaiah.
We're in chapter 23.
Of course, in chapter 22, 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 14, it's been a lot of preaching
and prophesying against the nations.
And so Isaiah is just kind of laid 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 23, where he begins to judge Tyree and Sidon
by proximity.
Now Tyree is often also referred to in the Bible as Tyrus, okay.
So sometimes you'll see that term Tyree and Sidon, but you'll also see Tyrus and Sidon
with an S, okay, 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, okay, which is, in my opinion, the reason they're being
judged.
Tyre, or Tyrus, is essentially a two-part city, what we would consider today to be Syria
and Lebanon, okay, and it was known for its commercial trade, which is very interesting
because when you look at the judgment that comes upon Tyre 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 Tyre, the history of Tyre in respect to Israel.
First and foremost, Tyre 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 Tyre, which is considered
a Phoenician nation that still survived.
This is why the book of Judges talks about the Zidonians dwelling carelessly, okay?
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 stone masons in order
to create a home for himself.
And then that, 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 is 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 know, 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 of 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.
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.
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 one, the burden of Tyre, how you ships of Tarshish for it is laid waste
so that there is no house, no entering in from the land of Kittim.
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 epicenter of commerce.
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 Kittim, Kittim is actually referring to Cyprus.
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 referring, 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.
He says in verse two, be still you inhabitants of the aisle, 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 three says, and by great waters, the seat 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 Sidon is essentially a center of market for all of these sea ports, all
these nations that essentially sail to Tyrus to receive their goods.
He says in verse four, be thou ashamed of Sidon for the sea have spoken.
He's using poetic language here.
Bring 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
Sidon 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 five, so shall they be sorely pain 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.
You know, this is before social media, Instagram, Facebook, you know, 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 Sidon.
So Tyrie and Sidon is, or 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 here 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's just going to destroy Tyrus.
Okay, now as you turn into Ezekiel 27, I'm going to read to you from Zechariah chapter
nine.
And verse number two, it says in 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 have a lot of money.
It says there that they have silver as the dust.
You know, if you live in a deserty 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.
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, uh, 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 are lead, they traded in their in thy fairs, Javan, Tubal, Meshech.
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?
What things that people really loved 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 the 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 the city of substance, they really lacked substance
because all the people could talk about is what they physically have.
And so the nations wail, 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 he to
themselves riches and fame, all people 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, be aware of covetousness for a man's life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
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 tyrus, 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, 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, who do you leave everything to?
You know, that's, 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, the lives that you changed or the exploits
that you've accomplished the, um, 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 the game at the end of the day.
And it reminds me of the parable that Jesus Christ gave in, 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 them, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
And then he says, then who shall those things be which thou has provided?
And my father in law often needs to say her next husband, you know, your wife's next husband.
That's who is going to go to.
Okay.
He's basically saying, you know, you, 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, maybe 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, so is he that lays 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 said, what about people who are just rich towards God?
Well, they're not choosing.
Okay.
Cause 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, you
know, choose and, you know, make that choice to actually become rich toward God and not
allow possessions to have them, you know, not serve mammon, but serve the Lord and identify
with that instead.
And so this lamentation over Tyrus is the fact that, you know, 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 it? 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,
riches, when they could have been using it for something else. Go back to Isaiah and
hold your place there in Ezekiel. Cause 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,
because now they don't have anywhere else to buy. You know, they're like, Oh man, now
we got to find enough. Well, let's go down to Egypt and see if they have anything to
sell and any commerce or any possessions, any goods. Look at verse number six. We're
going to see the lamentation of the refugees. It says, pass he over to Tarshish. How you
inhabitants of the aisle? 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. It goes on to say in verse number eight, who hath
taken this council against Tyre? Meaning who's the one who like decreed for Tyre to just
be destroyed like this? Cause it's a massive, it's a major destruction that comes upon it.
Who had taken this council against Tyre? The crowning city whose merchants are princes,
whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth. The Lord of hosts has 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, at the end of the day, what he's saying here is, you know, people
are observing tyrants inside on 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 Tyrus became an example, they became a byword and a proverb of a nation who disobeyed
the Lord and received the destruction, 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 has not done it.
And this is not the sermon, but folks, anytime you hear about any natural disasters, any
destruction that comes upon the nation, just give God the credit because he's the one who
allowed it.
He's the one who decrees it.
Oh, how it's the devil.
The devil doesn't have that power.
And if the devil were, 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 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 you repent, you 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 to shape up.
That could be you.
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 of 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 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 an honorable funeral.
She was...
Look, look, let me just explain how Jezebel died.
Okay?
It's a really good story.
So 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 that 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.
Throws her over, she splatters on the ground, the horse tramples on her, Jiu 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'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 they left behind was her feet, her hands, and I think a little bit
of her hair.
I might be mistaken on that.
For sure, her hands and her feet.
That's all that was left.
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?
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 tyrus and Sidon in order to construct
the temple, but he ended up going after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians.
Why?
Because he married some unsafe 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.
So the Bible says, okay, 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, you know, had a bunch of princesses and concubines,
but all of, a lot of these were just pagans.
And so he ended up, you know, lowering his standard to worship Asteroth, which is the
goddess of the, of the Zidonians, 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, the ripple effect of worshiping false gods is, is huge.
And just as it is with, with you or not, 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 could 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.
We'll 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, et cetera, but you know, it doesn't always work that way.
As with Solomon, he ended up, uh, you know, worshiping false gods.
Not necessarily because in his heart, he was worshiping them by proc, by proxy.
He's worshiping them because his wife was dragging him to, you know, uh, Asteroth church
to the Asteroth temple or whatever.
I mean, you know, you hit rock bottom when you're worshiping a female God.
You couldn't go for male bro.
Like you had to, you had to do the female thing.
That's man.
Go to Joel if you wouldn't 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 Asteroth, and he's even constructing temples of Asteroth
and altars to Asteroth.
I mean, it's like horrible stuff going on here.
But also Tyre and Sidon took precious stones and used it for temple worship.
Okay.
Look at Joel 3 verse 4, it says, "Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon,
and all the coasts of the Palestine?
Will you render me a recompense?
And if you recompense me swiftly and speedily, will I return your recompense upon your own
head, because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried it into your temples,
my goodly, pleasant things?
So somehow, and we don't know exactly what this is referring to as far as the timeline
is concerned, there was a time when Tyre 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, "The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have you sold unto the
Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border."
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
in 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, "Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of
Tyrus and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they delivered
up the whole captivity to Edom and remembered not the brotherly covenant.
But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof."
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 two, it says, son of man, because that Tyrus had said
against Jerusalem, aha, she is broken.
That was that gates of the people she's turning to me.
I shall be replenished.
Now she is laid waste.
Therefore, the say the Lord, God, behold, I'm against the Tyrus and will cause many
nations to come up against thee as the sea causes his waves to come up.
So we see here that when Jerusalem is in need, they're broken.
What is 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.
You 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.
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 giving them a grace period.
Okay.
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, giving 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.
Okay?
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."
Okay?
So people don't seem to realize ... 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.
Okay?
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.
Okay?
Look at Ezekiel 27 verse one, the word of the Lord came again and to me saying, now
that son of a man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus, and by the way, lamentation is just
another way of saying sorrow, okay, to lament means to sorrow, to cry out, okay.
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, oh, 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?
Okay, 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 wouldn't 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, it says in verse 3, "And say unto Tyrus, O thou that
are situate at the entry of the sea, which are a merchant of the people for many isles,
thus sayeth the Lord God, O Tyrus, thou hast said, 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 Lizzo's out there.
This is a real thing.
You got the Lizzo's 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 Lizzo's doing the same thing.
No shame.
But you know what it is?
It's pride.
There's no humility.
No shame-facedness.
Now, if God has blessed you with looks, God bless you.
You know, 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 what?
Thank God for that.
I'm serious.
I'm 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, 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, 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, the luster, right of a, 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 it's heart is lifted up and 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
sayeth 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."
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 seats."
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 going to die as a man."
Verse three says, "Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel.
There is no seeker that they can hide from thee.
With thy wisdom and with thine understanding, thou has gotten thee riches and then has
gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic has 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 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 can 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.
So I don't have a problem with that, I'm 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.
And so everyone has a certain level of knowledge and wisdom and smarts 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 at any time can just remove that little thing from your brain and you can just
become an idiot.
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
invulant, 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 until 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 have be a hard-working individual to have you know 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 gonna split hell wide open you know
why because well yeah 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 gonna 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
the Apple guy I mean what's his name again Steve Jobs he's dead one of the
one of the richest men in the world he's dead now what do 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 gonna be dumb and spiritual
no because the Bible actually says when you read the Bible you become smart you
gain wisdom and knowledge 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
5 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 thou yet say before him that slay
thee I am God he's basically saying though when you're staring at the end of
a sword you think saying I am a God is gonna help deliver you don't don't slay
me I'm a God but thou shalt be a man and no God in the hand of him that slay
thee he's like oh you're God well let's let's let's 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 to him thus saith the Lord God thou
seal us up to some full of wisdom and perfect and beauty thou has been and
eaten 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 kind of
like segues into that right because this is referring to a real person here but
then you know the Bible is so deep and so layered then 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, etc. 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 know, you just have knowledge. You know, there's certain
people that are just there. They're just very knowledgeable about things. Certain
people have just like a, 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, you know, and they just drop.
Some people are annoyed by people like that. They're just like, I don't like to
have those kinds of conversations. But you know, I like learning stuff from
different people. And I think it's great when people just can drop, 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, you know, 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, you know, 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 says, pastor, they land as a river.
Oh, daughter of Tarshish. There is no more strength.
He stretched out his hand over the sea. He shook the kingdoms.
The Lord had given a commandment against the merchant city to destroy the
strongholds thereof. As he said, thou shall no more rejoice.
O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim.
There also shalt thou have no rest. He's basically, he's essentially talking
about the extent of the ruin there. Just talking about how he's going to lay
everything waste. Verse 14, how you ships of Tarshish, for your strength is
laid waste. Now go with me to Matthew chapter 11. Hold your place there.
I'm almost done. Go to Matthew chapter 11. And one thing I want to mention here
is the fact that, you know, in Isaiah 23, along with Ezekiel 26, 27, 28, the main
thing when it comes to the judgment of Tyre and Sidon is that it's going to be
laid waste. No one's going to inhabit it. But we see later on that it is somewhat
rebuilt, but never to its former glory. Okay. And at the end of the day, you
know, if you put yourself in Isaiah's shoes, he might've not seen the
destruction of Tyre and Sidon, just like many of the prophets didn't see it.
Right. But it did eventually come and Tyre and Sidon today is not the Tyre
and Sidon 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 Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented
long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Now, two things I want to 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? You know, anytime you
talk about like 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
Tyre and Sidon as an example. So Jesus Christ preach hard against nations
against cities. He had no reservations about that. But I do want to mention
here that for whatever reason it seems as though Tyre and Sidon did not have a
witness. There is no mighty works done. And you know it's one of these things
where Tyre and Sidon 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 going to be judged because it says in
verse 22, "But I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the
day of judgment than for you." This doesn't mean that like okay you know you
get a free pass to heaven or something you're not gonna be judged. They're just
saying like your judgment is not gonna be as severe as Corazon because Corazon
actually had Jesus Christ walking on your land teaching the Word of God. I mean
you're looking at the Word of God. Tyre and Sidon is just not gonna be judged as
severely. This is kind of 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 at least
attempt to reconcile them back to the Lord, to do mighty works there, to preach the
Word of God there. You know, 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 Corasian, you know? Or 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 had, you guys were saturated with the Word of God, okay? We don't want to
leave America without a witness. We want to do our part to get these people
saved, and so it's telling us here that Tyrone Sonnen is gonna be judged, but
not as severely as Corazon for that reason. Go back to Isaiah 23 and we're
gonna finish up here. So that is the the conclusion of its judgment, and then it
goes into the future purpose of Tyre, and I'm not gonna spend too much time on
this, but it tells us that essentially Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years, and
I'm not exactly sure why that number is so specific. 70 years, he says he'll be
forgotten for 70 years, in other words just laid 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 Tyre sing as a harlot. That's really interesting, okay. So
basically at the end of 70 years there will be a people that return to Tyre
and Sidon, 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
an harp," this is God commanding Tyre, "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 Tyre, "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 Tyre 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 as
I get your, you know, go back to doing what you're 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 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. You know, make your melodies, sell yourself, see what
you can get, you know, 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, "In 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 you know people who would have problem with that,
you know, they weren't saying anything when Tyree was plundering Israel using
their silver and gold to worship false gods and now God's recompense. He's like,
yeah, go back to work. He called, he's calling her a prostitute. He said,
go back to work or 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 going to be laid up for my people. I mean, God is pretty awesome.
How come this story is not told in Sunday school classes? It'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.
You know, cause Tyree is just a great place of merchandise has like the best
clothing, best sandals, you know, 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 is going to be inherit houses that we
did not build, you know, wells that we did not dig vineyards that we did not
plant. And in fact,
the third temple that the anti-Christ spent so much time using Babylon,
America to build this beautiful temple that he's going to build.
And he's going to call himself God. You know, Jesus is going to come and say,
thank you. I'll go ahead and take that. He said,
what are you going to do with the Antichrist? He's going to throw him into hell.
And he's like, Oh, what a beautiful building, you know, it's like,
just built just for me.
And this is the common thing that God has done throughout biblical history.
And you know, 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?
Cause 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, you know,
ultimately that area Tyrian side on would be evangelized because you see this in
the gospels, the Syrophoenician woman coming to Jesus Christ.
And even in the book of acts,
there are converts from fine easy referring to tires inside on, you know,
Jesus Christ ministered in that area, but they were, they were converts there.
Later on in the book of acts, people, you know,
the apostle Paul or Peter is going there talking about how the Gentiles got
saved. So many of them were saved. So he,
even though he made it waste and made it desolate and destroyed it,
he removed like the bad part of it. And now believers were 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 rain though.
And so the, the,
the principle that we can learn there is that don't, you know,
obviously we want to work hard to get riches and possessions if we're capable of
doing so. Let me say this.
God is going to give you riches and possessions later on anyways, right?
He's going to give you riches and possessions, 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 going to happen to you and your life's going to be horrible.
Sometimes and being a Christian is not all roses and daisies. Okay. Just make,
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, uh,
the Bible tells us that we shouldn't faint in well-doing for a new season.
We shall reap it from faint. Not right. Be not weary and well-doing, you know,
God will reward you in the longterm.
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 going to be yours anyways, right?
It's going to belong to God's people. He's going to remove it from them.
The wealth of the, of the sinner is going to 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 game.
And you know, if you already have riches, praise God,
if you have wealth and riches, amen. Don't be, don't be prideful though.
If you have good looks, praise God. Don't be, 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 pray 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 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, 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 Iris as a prostitute, Lord,
and how they accumulated all this wealth and possessions.
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 this in Jesus name. Amen.
Please turn your song books to song number one hundred and twenty one.