Alright, in Isaiah 23.1, we begin with this word, the
burden of Tyre. Now, Tyre is a great seaport
city in Phoenicia. During the time when this prophecy
was delivered by Isaiah, it's the daughter city of Zidon. And
we're going to learn about it in the order that the Lord gives
it here in our text. And we're going to go in that
order with it. Now, what I want you to see this morning is that
this judgment that's coming up on Tyre, we've seen up to this
point in our study through Isaiah, we've seen five judgments that
can be placed under five headings, five judgments. They all had
to do with self-righteousness. Now we see the sixth judgment.
This is the last one, the last burden, and this has to do with
covetousness. The love of money is the root
of all evil, Scripture said. It's the love of self-dependence. It's the root. It's the heart
of all evil that we are by nature if we want to be independent
of God. We want to be independent, self-sustaining,
and that's all our religious works, all our religious endeavors
until God gives us a new heart. That's what Paul said. When the
law came and sin revived, he said, I heard the law say, thou
shalt not covet. And I realized all of my religious
endeavors, everything I was doing in religion was world, the world,
it was a love for self-sufficiency is what it was. And I had to
be brought down to see I have no sufficiency in myself, have
to trust Christ. That's what we're gonna see here
as we go through. Now this word is gonna be a word
of mercy and a word of grace to some, to God's people in these
nations, in all of these nations. He had a people and this is a
word of grace to those that remnant in this land. But to the others
this word would be nothing more than a word to harden their hearts. They would hate what they heard
because their heart was set on the world, on their religion,
on their riches, and all those things. And their heart would
be hardened. All right, I want to begin here
with the first word. The first word is howl, mourn. We're going to see as we go here,
the Lord is giving specific directives. He's telling His people what
to do. When He speaks this word effectually, you will do what
this word says. He says, mourn, verse 1, how
ye 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. Tarshish and Kittim or Chittim,
I don't know how to pronounce, I think it's Kittim. These are
two sons of Javan, they're Gentiles. Genesis 10, 5 says, by these,
These sons were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their
lands, every one after his tongue, after their families and their
nations." This is a word to the Gentiles. The first word from
the Lord to those who were so dependent upon Tyre, who were
so dependent upon this seaport, was to mourn and weep. Mourn
and weep because the rumors that they had heard We're all true. The harbor, the source of all
their income, their livelihood is destroyed. Gone. The picture
of this rumor going about, of this word going about, and he
says, how? He says, go with the rumor you
heard. It's true. The picture is what
I'm doing this morning. I'm spreading the news that tire
this world. Everything about the religion
of this world, the falsehoods of this world, the sin of this
world, it's devastated. It's already laid waste. It's
already laid waste. You'll find no salvation in anything
in this world. How badly is Tyre destroyed?
There's no house, there's no entering in to Tyre anymore. Here's the second word, be still. Verse 2, be still ye inhabitants
of the isle. Now when we correct our children
and we take something from our children, that's coming in and
interfering with them, heeding our word and listening to our
instruction and following the word of their father. We tell
our children, you can mourn, mourn, weep, that's fine. But do it silently. Why? Don't cry out in rebellion. You
can't cry out in rebellion against your father. Listen and heed
what I'm teaching. Heed what you're hearing. The
Lord's children, His elect, chosen children are being stripped of
everything that would come between them and God. That's what He's
doing with Judah. And Judah specifically, the remnant
there. But He's got a remnant scattered
in all these nations. And this is what He's done in
this world from the beginning. He's stripping His people of
all confidence in everything that we naturally put confidence
in. And He's saying, trust in the
Lord alone. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. And He's saying, you can mourn,
but be silent and hear what I'm teaching you. That's what we
saw this morning. Brethren, let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Lay aside your thoughts,
your wisdom, your understanding, what you've always thought, how
you thought God always was and always has been, and what you've
always been taught by traditional men, and hear what God says.
Now hear Him. Verse 2. He says, 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 Sihur, the harvest of the river, her revenue. She's a mart
of nations. Now Tyre is described here as
a mart of nations. And the example is the seed of
Sihur that's given here. The Egyptians, this is Sihur,
the Egyptians, they raised great crops by the river Nile because
of the floodwaters of the river Nile. And they would take those
crops to Tyre, the seaport. and from Tyre, as other nations
would bring their merchandise to Tyre. This was the trading
center. This was the economic heartbeat of all of the land
that surrounded Judah and Israel. This was supporting everybody.
And they would bring their merchandise there and then these ships would
go out into all the isles and to Greece and Italy, the different
places, and they would take this merchandise to all the Gentiles. The Gentiles and the isles that
scattered about. And then those people in those
places would get those goods, and they had their shops and
their markets, and they had all their businesses, and they were
selling those goods. And people that didn't have business
that depended upon those goods in those cities where they went,
they depended on them, just like our world works. This was the
epicenter of it all right here at Tyre. It was a mart of nations. We saw this, we've seen all the
news reports on Haiti and all of the world's reaction to that
country. And that's just a small, poor
nation. We saw the reaction when New
York City was attacked, when this nation was attacked in New
York City. Imagine if the major economic city of the whole land,
was devastated, was wiped out. Imagine the reaction of the people. Now, Tyre was the Wall Street. It was the Wall Street of the
world in this area. And the Lord had not only devastated
Tyre, but as we've seen in these judgments, He's devastated Moab,
He's devastated Syria, Ethiopia and Egypt, Lesser Babylon, the
Chaldeans, Duma, the desert of Arabia, Israel, even Judah. He's wiping the whole thing,
that whole land off the map. That's what I'm here telling
you this morning. This world and all the goodliness won't
save you. It's been devastated. The judgment
has come already. There's a judgment to come, but
judgment has come. This is what Isaiah is declaring.
Judgment is about to come. Judgment has come already. And there's one yet to come.
Now, I want you to notice a word here, replenished, replenished. Thou whom the merchants of Zion
that pass over the sea have replenished. The word is filled in abundance.
They hadn't only supplied the needs of these people, they had
fulfilled in abundance. They were spoiled. This was thriving
and they had made so much money, everybody involved and was so
dependent on this economy and the way everything was set up
that they considered it to be their life. They considered it
to be their life. Now you put yourself in their
shoes. They're devastated in their hearts when this would
come. They'd be devastated in their
hearts. They're thinking, how am I going to feed my children? How am I
going to provide for my home? How am I going to put food on
my table and clothes on their backs and pay the bills? They're
crying. They don't have any idea how they're going to live, how
they're going to go on. I was speaking with somebody
recently and they told me that their congregation had been praying
that we would, would the Lord be pleased to give us a building.
And they made this statement to me. If he's pleased to do
it, he will break this world's economy to make it affordable
for you. That's right. It's exactly right. And brethren, for us personally,
He will take away everything from us to make us behold that
Christ has put away our sin and to keep us trusting Him alone,
whatever it is. The Lord says they can mourn,
but they mourn in silence and not rebellion. Consider what
I'm doing. Now here's the third word. This
is a word of rebuke. Verse 4, Be thou ashamed, O Zidon,
Now the word goes to these merchants, the Zidonian, who were carrying
these goods to all these isles and to all these people. And
he says, be ashamed. They were up early in the morning. They went off to work. They worked
hard all day. At your leisure, go to Ezekiel
27 and read verses 4 through 25, and it just describes the
ships. The wood for the ships came from
a certain country, from the cedars of Lebanon. The oars were made
from the oaks of Bashan. The seats where the rowers sat
on the oars were made out of ivory. They had all the ancient
men, the wise men, to chink the ships. They dressed in imported
blue and scarlet. I mean, this was a people who
were good at what they did. They worked hard. Were there every day trying to
provide for their families just like in our day just like people
today But this was what the Lord said about their heart. They
said I'm perfect in glory the word is I'm blessed and have
need of nothing Got everything we need We're sufficient Nobody
can bring us down. Nobody can harm us. We've got
it all That's what we think That's exactly what we think. And God
won't let His people continue in that. He won't do it. He says
here, verse 4, Be thou ashamed, O Zidon, for the sea hath spoken,
the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth
children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up merchants. The sea throughout Scripture
represents spirit. It speaks of power, spirit. And the spirit within a sinner
is so full of the world, so full of self-righteousness, that there's
no way, absolutely no way we can produce any fruit unto God. When God speaks into the heart
that He has made, When He says, Be thou ashamed, Poseidon, when
He speaks into the heart He's made, He makes His children truly
ashamed. of that worldly, self-righteous
confidence they had in themselves. And that's the first thing God's
got to do. If He's going to make you glory in Christ and stop
being ashamed of the cross of Christ and glorying in yourself,
He's got to make you ashamed of yourself so that you'll glory
in the cross of Christ. That's got to take place first.
And He calls this word, He says, all your labor is spoken for
itself. The Lord says you've brought
forth no children, no young men, no virgins. And as long as we
think we have life in anything in this earth, any earthly security,
we don't have life in Christ. As long as we think that there's
any refuge in these things, we don't have refuge in the Lord.
If we think there's any salvation, security in these things, we
don't have salvation and security in the Lord. The Lord is very
clear. No man can serve two masters. You either serve Mammon or you
serve Christ. Now we're seeing here that these
people had no power, no ability to stop themselves from serving
Mammon. And you don't either and I don't
either. How then are we going to be saved from that? That's
what we're seeing right here. This is how we're going to be
saved. When Christ takes over, there is one master, and He reigns,
and that sinner is brought into subjection to Him, and He follows
Him. There's sin with Him, that old flesh of nature is still
with Him, but He follows Him, and He worships Him, and trusts
Him, and He quits serving the world. Quits serving the world.
We're going to see that. Verse 5, He says, as at the report concerning Egypt,
shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. 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." Now, in Egypt, when the Lord passed through,
you know why the Egyptians were sorely pained when He passed
through? Because those that didn't have
a lamb, those that didn't have a Passover lamb, all their firstborn
children died. He said, this is going to be
the same way. That's how this pain is coming about. Those that
are not in the lamb are going to perish. They're going to perish. Now, they had lived in great
affluence all this time, and he says, When I do this, he says,
you're going to walk on foot, you're going to be led, you're
going to be driven into a foreign country, not as inhabitants,
but as sojourners and strangers, not as freemen, but as captives
and slaves. Your own feet's going to carry
you away. You've been God floating on the sea and on this ship all
this time. Now they're going to carry you
off to their lands and your own feet's going to walk like a slave,
captive to them. But for those who are in Christ,
those that He put in Christ Himself before the foundation of the
world, when God speaks this Word into the heart, when He causes
them to enter into this trial and are pained in this trial,
they're going to be taken captive as well. And they're going to
become sojourners as well. But they're going to be the... willing bondservants of Christ
Jesus the Lord. They're going to be willing and
happy to serve Him and to walk after Him and to follow Him.
And they're going to be sojourners in this earth now. Sojourners
and pilgrims, not counting on this world anymore. Alright,
here's the fourth word, is to consider who's done this and
why he did this. Verse 8, Who hath taken this
counsel against the crowning city, whose merchants are Princes
whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth who could possibly
overthrow a people whose very merchants The people who were
doing all the trafficking and the merchants were themselves
princes This is the crowning city all the kings all the rulers
in all the land Wanted this city protected Those who profited
from her traffic, from all this merchandise and all this selling
of goods, this importing and exporting that was going on,
were the very honorable men of the earth. How in the world,
who could possibly have power to bring this city to nothing?
Verse 9, the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts. He's purposed
it. to stain the pride of all glory,
to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. Now since
the beginning of this book of Isaiah we've been going through,
the Lord has said over and over, He said, Behold the Lord, the
Lord of hosts shall lop the bough with terror. I'm chopping the
tree down, He said. I'm chopping it down. The high
ones of stature are going to be chopped down. And the haughty
are going to be humbled, He said. He said, I've purposed it, I've
sworn, as I've thought, so shall it come to pass, and so shall
it stand. Here's why, because there's no
glory but the Father of glory. There's going to be no glory
but in the Father of glory. He said, I've done this to stain
the pride, to pollute the pride, to show the world that the pride
of all the glory of men is vanity. It's nothing. It's contemptible. The Father has purposed that
in His name, His name alone, in His Son, Christ Jesus, is
going to be glorified. The Lord of hosts hath purposed
it, Ephesians 3.11 says, according to the eternal purpose which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. This purpose has been determined
from eternity. This purpose has been determined
before He ever made the world. God's not out of control of anything.
There's nothing snuck up and scared God at all. He purposed
it all. He worked everything and works
everything together for the good of those that He chose and put
in Christ. He's called His sons from eternity. He calls them in time. He continually
calls them, and calls them, and calls them, and calls them, and
He works everything for their good according to His purpose
because He's God. And He purposed to glorify His
Son. Look down at verse 11 now. He stretched out His hand over
the sea. He shook the kingdoms. The Lord
has given a commandment against the merchant to destroy the strongholds
thereof. Now, in all the burdens up to
this point, We've seen Moab, and what the Lord's going to
do to Moab, and what He's going to do to Syria, and Ethiopia,
and Egypt, and the Chaldeans, and Edomia, and Arabia, and Israel,
and Judah. And I said we've seen five burdens
in this. Self-righteousness is what each
one of them have to do with. And Lord willing, we'll look
at this some more next week, but I'll tell you a little bit
here, but Tyre, being this covetous, this hub of all money, all traffic, all merchandise. This is the root. This is the
heart. This is the one who is sort of standing here as the
grand token of the whole thing, of what it all stands for. And
now the Lord's purposed, He's going to glorify His Son in their
judgment. In their judgment, He's glorifying
His Son. He's done this. The Lord has
done this. Now do you remember back in the beginning? Go back
with me. I want you to see this real quick. Isaiah chapter 2.
Isaiah chapter 2. In the very beginning, the Lord
said, this word is to my people because they've become polluted,
they've been wasted, they've been replenished from the east.
And he says this, and because of it they were haughty, self-dependent,
self-reliant, self-sufficient, and the Lord said, The Lord said,
and that's the whole world. And He said, in all of these
judgments, this represents the world. This represents the whole
land at that time. And He said, I'm destroying it
all. I'm wiping it all away in judgment. Look at verse 7. Their
land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their
treasures. Look at verse 11. The lofty looks
of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall
be bowed down. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Verse 22, Seize ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for
where is he to be accounted of? Look at chapter 3 verse 1, Behold
the Lord, the Lord of hosts, that taketh away from Jerusalem
and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread,
and the whole stay of water. This is what he said before any
of this judgment came. He said, this is what I'm about
to do. Okay, I want you to look now at Isaiah chapter 8, verse
7. Isaiah chapter 8 verse 7. Listen to how He describes this
judgment, how it's coming, what it's going to be like. Now therefore,
behold, the Lord bringeth upon them the waters of the river,
strong in many." He's talking about the king of Assyria, as
you see there, and all his glory. And he says, "...and he shall
come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks, and
he shall pass through Judah. He shall overflow and go over. He shall reach even to the neck.
The stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy
land, O Emmanuel." talking about water. Sounds like a flood, doesn't
it? Now the first time the Lord destroyed the world in judgment,
how did he do it? He did it with water, didn't
he? But he promised he'd never do it with water again. This
time he's destroying the whole world, as it were, in that time. Showing us a picture of what
he's doing. He's destroying the whole world. He's going to destroy
everything. He's going to do it with the king of Assyria.
And he's describing it as a flood. So we get the picture. This is
judgment. This is judgment that's coming. Now, he says this judgment's
going to fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel. Now this
is what I hope to show you next time, but let me give you this
just overview right here, and in detail we'll look at it next
time. All of the judgments we've seen, Moab, Syria, Ethiopia,
Egypt, Chaldea, all of these, Judah, Israel, everything that's
been judged here in these nations is the sin of God's chosen people. Everything. Everything that is
the sin of his people, and that's why the wrath was poured out.
It's the sin of those he shall save. They're guilty of this.
Everything that those nations were guilty of, that's what his
people are guilty of. And in these burdens, what we're
seeing is what Christ bore in His own body on the tree when
He was made sin for His people. This is the judgment He bore
Himself. You know what happened in Noah's
day? The only ones who survived when
that flood of water came through, the ones who were in the ark.
You know what Isaiah sent to Ahaz and told him? The only way
you're going to survive and the inhabitants of this land are
going to survive, Ahaz, is if you believe. If you don't believe,
you're not going to be established. You're not going to be saved.
If you don't trust in Emmanuel, you're not going to be saved.
And then in Isaiah 8, verse 13, he said this, Sanctify the Lord
of hosts Himself, let Him be your fear, Let Him be your dread,
and He'll be for a sanctuary. He will be the ark. Get in Christ,
and you'll be in the ark. You'll be in the sanctuary. You'll
be in the covering. And He says, and when this flood
passes over all of the land, it'll all go on Him, and it won't
go on you. And that's what He's showing
through this whole thing. Those for whom Christ died. He died and He bore the penalty
in His own body. He bore the wrath of God in His
own body. He satisfied justice. He made satisfaction to God. And that holy power of His glory
that demanded that Christ must die when the sin of His people
was put on Him, demanded that Christ must be brought out of
the grave when He had put away those sins. And that same glory
demands that every single one for whom He died must be born
of His Spirit. They must be stripped of everything
that would come between them and Christ. They must be brought
to newness of life through the Holy Spirit to rejoice in Christ
Jesus their Lord. If they don't, God's glory is
at stake. And He said, I'm doing this to
stain your glory, the pride of your glory, and the pride of
how you think things ought to be done. I'm doing this myself.
The only true lasting riches any sinner is going to have in
this world is if they're brought to the knowledge, the riches
of the full assurance of understanding, the acknowledgement of the mystery
of God in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and righteousness
and knowledge. So the remnant that he's doing
this for, not only is he bearing the judgment, that they gotta
be told this, they gotta be taught this, they gotta hear it. And
in every one of these burdens, Isaiah's preached the gospel.
And he said, this is what Christ is doing. This is what Emmanuel's
doing. This is what the Lord's doing.
Get in him or you're dying. Get in him or you won't, this
flood's gonna, this judgment will be on your shoulder. Well,
here's the fifth word. This is the gospel coming in
now. Verse 10. He's telling them, leave it all
behind. Leave everything you're trusting in, leave it behind. Repent to God. Turn from all
of that, everything else, and turn to God and trust God and
believe on His Son. Verse 10. Pass through thy land
as a river, O daughter of Tarshish." He's talking to the people here.
Go through, look at it. There's no more strength anymore
in your land. He stretched out his hand, he
shook the kingdoms, he's given commandments against the merchant
city. Verse 12, and he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O
thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon. Arise, pass over to
Kittum. There also shalt thou have no
rest. Isn't that a strange way for him to describe Zidon? The
virgin daughter of Zidon? To tell her, you're not going
to rejoice anymore in these riches and these earthly treasures and
all these things anymore, O virgin daughter. You read the commentaries
and they'll tell you, well, he's tongue-in-cheek, making fun of
them and speaking against them. I'm going to look and see if
I can see Christ in it before I go that route. The Lord speaks this word into
the hearts of His redeemed. And He reveals in us that all
our strongholds are vanity. And He says in our hearts, I'm
not going to allow you anymore to rejoice in any of these things
you put your confidence in. It's not going to happen. You're
a virgin daughter. You're white, washed in the blood
of the Lamb. You're not going to rejoice in
these things anymore. What's going to be the instrument
He's going to use to bring this to pass? Here's the sixth word,
verse 13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans. They looked over their land and
they're looking at all their flourishing prosperity. At the
time that this was delivered, this prophecy, they're flourishing.
Just like you would say, how in the world
could it possibly be that our nation could be just wiped off
the map? Not that we're exactly flourishing right now, but we
still got a printing press. We can make money. We're all
right. So, but that's, you know, that's what the people would
think. How in the world? And he said, I'll tell you how
it's going to happen. Look to the land of the Chaldeans.
Now that's Babylon. Now Babylon's not the superpower
right now. Assyria is the superpower. If
there's anybody to be worried about, it's Assyria. Look at
them. We need to make a confederacy with Assyria. He says, no, no,
no, no. Look at the Babylonians, look at the Chaldeans, verse
13. This people, they were not, they
weren't anything till the Assyrian founded it for them. They increased
their city, those that dwelt in the wilderness, they set up
the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof. Tyre and Sidon, they're looking
at Babylon going, well that's nothing. How in the world is
the Lord going to do anything with that? We're not worried
about that. That's nothing. I have no regard for that. That's
nothing. He says, verse 13, and He brought
it to ruin. The Babylonians brought it to
ruin. The Chaldeans brought it to ruin. That's who would ultimately
bring Tyre to ruin. Now the key to get this, to understand
the lesson here, is to look at the instrument used. the regard
for the instrument used. It's not so much the Assyrian,
who came up against them for about five years, or the Babylonians,
who came up against them for 11, 12, or 13 years, or Alexander,
who eventually came up against Tyrant Cockroach. The thing the
Lord is saying here is the fact that the instrument he used to
stain their pride is the very instrument that they regarded
as absolutely powerless and nothing. How do you regard this gospel
I'm preaching to you this morning? I'll tell you how the world regards
it. Just like they regarded Babylon at that time. We're flourishing,
we're not too worried about that. We're flourishing, we're not
too concerned about that. The Lord said, for you see your
calling brethren, there's not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
the base things of the world and things which are despised
hath God chosen things which are naught to bring to nothing
things that are. Why? That no flesh should glory
in His presence. Why did He say He was doing this?
To stain the pride of all glory. to pour out contempt upon all
the pride of the people. Here's the gospel we preach,
verse 15. This is the seventh thing. It
shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten
seventy years, according to the days of one king. And after the
end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as a harlot. Take a harp,
go about the city, thou harlot that has been forgotten. Make
sweet melodies, sing many songs, thou that mayest be remembered.
Now Babylon ruled over Tyre for 70 years, the time of the king
of Nebuchadnezzar. For 70 years, the time of that
one king. But when Babylon was destroyed, according to the scriptures,
at the same time, Tyre was freed. This is the gospel we preach.
Christ was forgotten for a period of time when Christ was made
sin for His people on Calvary's cross and Babylon appeared to
rain. He cried out, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Do you know the answer to that
question? Why would God forsake God? Why would God forsake His
Son on the cross? because he's made sin for his
people. This one who knew no sin is the
spotless Lamb of God, the fit sacrifice. And having been made
sin, justice requires that wrath be poured out on him. And the
whole time he's hanging on the cross, what this world regards
as victory for Babylon. And it appears that Babylon is
reigning and winning. He's hanging on that cross. But
when he goes in the grave, and he gives up the ghost, willingly
lays down his life in perfect faithfulness. When he came out
of that grave, Babylon was conquered. Death and hell and sin and Satan
were conquered for his people and Tyre was freed. The remnant in Tyre, those to
whom he's speaking, they were freed when that happened. That's
the judgment that's being poured out on Tyre. He's bearing it
for his people. That's the gospel we preach.
And look what he does with this gospel. He says, when the Lord
conquered Babylon, he delivered Tyre. And he says, after the
end of 70 years shall Tyre sing as a harlot. He says, take a
harp and go about the city, thou harlot that has been forgotten.
Make sweet melodies, sing many songs that thou mayest be remembered.
That is a good description of God's saints. You see, in these
days, the harlot, the prostitute, would get her guitar. She wasn't
on CMT or MTV and getting awards. She was walking around the streets
playing the instrument to get folks to come out and talk to
her and look to her so then she could get them to come on into
the back room and make a little money. And He says, this virgin
daughter that I've washed white as snow in the blood of My Son,
He says, when I'm done all this work on her and I've broken all
her confidence in all this world and all her treasures and all
her trinkets and all her self-righteousness, And I've made her to behold my
son." He says, now, you harlot, that's what you are in yourself.
That's what you still are in yourself. Washed white as snow
in the blood of the Lamb, but you're a harlot. You still are
in your flesh. But now you take the harp and
you go about and you make songs of melody and singing and remembrance. about my son, my Redeemer, that
thou mayest be remembered by the Father. I'll rejoice, I'll
hear you, I'll remember you, long as you're good about singing
songs about my son. Are you a harlot in your flesh?
Could you still take your place right there and say, that's talking
about me, I'm the harlot? You still got too much attire
in you if you can't. You haven't been brought down
to see, that's all you are. And what's going to happen? How
is it that one who in herself is a harlot has reason to sing
and rejoice? Look at verse 17. It shall come
to pass after the end of 70 years that the Lord will visit Tyre.
I'll give you a scripture here on this. Isaiah 54. The Lord's
speaking of Tyre just like He is His elect people, whatever
the nation is. Whether you want to call it Judah,
you want to call it Israel, you want to call it Tyre, you want
to call it Babylon, you want to call it Moab, whatever. In every one
of those places, you see through Scripture, He had an elect remnant
in those places. And He says now to them, just
like He says after Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 54-1, He says, Sing,
O barren thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing
and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. Now what
he said about her before, you didn't bring forth any children.
You haven't brought anything with all your traffic and all
your merchandise. But now he says, now you got reason to sing. Now you can go about. You've
been prostituting yourself. You're just a holiday in the
flesh. Now you can go about singing songs. And your father remembers
you now. Why? For a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In
a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment." That's
when he was pouring out his sin on Christ. But he says, in everlasting
kindness I'll have mercy on you, saith the Lord your Redeemer.
What about the rest of the world? What about the rest of Tyre?
What about them? What's going to happen with them?
Verse 17 says, "...she shall turn to her hire and shall commit
fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of
the earth." You know what happened after the veil rent in the temple
and Christ cried out, it's finished, and He ascended to the Father?
After all that got out of the way and got finished, just like
what goes on today in churches. After all that's out of the way
and finished, now we can get back to business as usual. And
they went right back to the harlotry and prostituting and speaking
of their works and their self-sufficiency and their covetousness to be
God and to reign sufficient supreme and say, ah, we're perfect in
beauty again. Back in action. while His people are singing
and rejoicing that Christ has redeemed them. But here's what
the world don't know. Here's what Tyre don't know. Everything about them shall no
more the saints in the midst of Tyre, in the midst of this
world. He said, you're going to no more rejoice in this world's
treasure, though thou oppressed virgin daughter of Zion. Verse
18, he says, from now on, you're merchandise now. You still got
to make a living, you still got to go in this world and this
Tyre, but from now on, because you've been sanctified in the
heart, because you've been sanctified in Christ, because you've been
sanctified by God the Father, from now on, all your merchandise
And your hire is going to be holiness to the Lord. It's not
going to be treasure laid up for you because you're depending
on Christ now, not Him. And your merchandise shall be
for them that dwell before the Lord, your brethren. You support
in this gospel to eat sufficiently. to keep feeding on this word
and for durable clothing. And all the rest attire that
went back to her fornication and all that stuff, all of her,
she don't know it, the world don't know it, but that's exactly
what all her merchandise and all her traffic's for too, is
to provide for those that dwell in the Lord, that they can eat
this gospel and be clothed in the righteousness of Christ and
rejoice and go about playing their harp and singing to the
Lord And their father saying, I rejoice in that virgin daughter
of Zion. Well, we live in a nation right
now that's suffering trials, economic trials and woes and
all this. And some of us are suffering
and have suffered it, are suffering it, shall suffer it. But thanks
be unto our God, He's faithful to take everything away from
His children. to make us behold that Christ
has put away our sin and to keep us continually trusting Him alone. And He will use the world and
everything around us to continually provide for you that dwell in
the Lord that you may continually feed on Christ and rejoice in
the clothing of His righteousness. James said, Let the brother of
low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that
he is made low. because we don't want to trust
it in the grass. We trust it in Christ. You know what the
Lord said at the beginning before all this judgment started? You
know what He said at the beginning? When I finished all my work on
Mount Sinai, they're not going to stay. They're not going to
trust in the One that's been oppressing them this whole time.
Then they're going to trust the Holy One of Israel. That's what
he's done. Next week we'll go through those
in detail and just take a review of all that and put it all together
then. Six words of judgment come. But you know what the seventh
word is in the next chapter that's going on? A feast of fat things,
of wine on the leaves well refined. Songs of rejoicing for what my
Lord's done. That's what happens when the
judgment's over. Is the judgment over for you? If you believe
on Christ and trust Him, it's gone. But if you hate the words
you've heard this morning, you think it's a light thing regarded
as nothing, this judgment will be on your shoulder. I pray the
Lord will give you grace to seek refuge in the sanctuary. See
Him high and lifted up and rejoice and put your trust in Him. Alright,
Amen.