The sermon by Scott Brown explores Isaiah chapter 23, focusing on the downfall of Tyre as a lesson in God's judgment against pride and excessive reliance on commerce. Tyre, a prosperous trading city, is used as an example of how God brings contempt to worldly glory and honor. The speaker outlines six imperatives given to Tyre: to wail, be still, be ashamed, cross over, overflow, and arise, each representing a step towards acknowledging sin and seeking redemption. The sermon draws parallels between Tyre's historical context and modern-day commerce giants, emphasizing that God's judgment is universal and purposeful, intending to bring about repentance and ultimately salvation. The speaker asserts that historical events are orchestrated by God to glorify Himself through the judgment of the wicked and the salvation of sinners. In the end, some of Tyre's people are redeemed, setting apart their gain for the Lord and illustrating the transformative power of the gospel.

Good morning. Hosea chapter 23. The burden against Tyre, wail you ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no harbor from the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whom those who cross the sea have filled, and on great waters the grain of Shihur, the harvest of the river is her revenue, and she is a marketplace for the nations. Be ashamed, O Seidon, for the sea has spoken, the strength of the sea saying, I do not labor nor bring forth children, neither do I rear young men, nor bring up virgins.

When the report reaches Egypt they also will be in agony at the report of Tyre. Cross over to Tarshish, wail you inhabitants of the coastland. Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is from ancient days, whose feet carried her far off to dwell? Who has taken this council against hire, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

Overflow through your land like the river, O daughter of Tarshish. There is no more strength. He stretched out his hand over the sea. He shook the kingdoms. The Lord has given a commandment against Canaan to destroy its strongholds, And he said, You will rejoice no more.

O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon, arise, cross over to Cyprus. There also you will have no rest. Behold the land of the Chaldeans, this people which was not. Assyria founded it for wild beasts of the desert. They set up its towers, they raised up its palaces, and brought it to ruin.

Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste. Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre, as in the song of the harlot. Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten harlot. Make sweet melodies, sing many songs that you may be remembered.

And it shall be at the end of seventy years that the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. Her gain and her pay will be set apart for the Lord. It will not be treasured nor laid up, for her gain will be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently and for fine clothing. Would you pray with me?

O Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day that you brought us to this word. We know and trust, Lord, you have given it to us this day that we might be built up, that you might convict us, that you might encourage us. Oh Lord, may your spirit be at work in our hearts. May every heart here receive from you. May we open our hearts and minds to hear from you, our great God.

We thank you for this eternal word that you have preserved. We lift up to you your servant Scott Brown. May he be used mindedly by you today. I pray that he would speak boldly the words that you've given him, that each heart would receive, that we would all be instructed. We pray that you'd be honored and glorified as we hear your word.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Isaiah chapter 23 brings us to the end of a long section that we've been teaching through over the last several weeks. It is a fascinating conclusion for all the things that have gone before. And there's much to say about it, and we'll say a few things about it here for a while.

But When your whole life and your identity is defined by the commerce that you're involved in, you have to recognize what that does before God for you. And there's contempt. God deals with that contempt entirely. And so this chapter now is at the close of chapters 13 through 23, where the prophet has been explaining his view of the nations. The prophet is speaking to Judah about various nations and he's in this prophecy he declares that he's going to bring down Tyre, this last prophecy.

And there's an inescapable problem that those who bear the sins of Tyre, God purposes to dishonor the pride of all of your glory and he'll bring contempt on all of your worldly honor and and we'll understand why when we get to the very last verse of this. This is really this is really Christianity 101 The judgments of God change your life and that's really the heart of this whole passage of Scripture. Well chapters 1 through 12 had their focus on Judah and Israel and I'll just try to sum it up by this. God will bring down everything raised up against him. You're building a legacy for yourself.

It's going to come down. You're living for your own glory. It will be destroyed. That's chapters 1 through 12. And it's a picture of a people who are really under judgment.

The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. There are people in travail. They have no men, they have no leaders. Womanhood is so disfigured, beauty has died.

It's a remarkable picture of a society that's in collapse. But that first section ends in chapter 12 where the hope is of the Lord and of the Lord alone. God redeems his people. God does redeem a sinful people. And chapter 12 begins, in that day you will say, O Lord, I will praise you." And then he goes on to talk about how they'll draw water from the wells of salvation with joy.

And so the first 12 chapters really are a picture of the gospel and the redemptive power of God. And then the second 11 chapters, which were the concluding chapter of now, God delivers to Judah his analysis of the nations and he's been walking through one nation after another. And he's telling Judah how to interpret the world, how to understand what's going on in the nations around them, and particularly how to understand the effect of the nations upon them. Because as it turns out, the sins of the nations are also their sins as well. And so in chapters 13 and 14, there's the oracle or the burden against Babylon.

In chapter 14, Assyria and the Philistines, in chapters 15 and 16, Moab, in chapter 17, Damascus and Israel, in chapter 18, the Sudan, in chapter 19, Egypt, and also in chapter 20, Egypt and Sudan, in chapter 21, Babylon again in Arabia in chapter 23 Judah and so he's been walking through all these various nations And what he's been saying to the people of God is, you know, Babylon will corrupt you. Assyria will use you and lie to you. The Philistines will hate you and slander you. The Moabites will always lure you into doing evil with them. Egypt will enslave you.

And here we get down to Tyre. And I think one of the things that God is saying to Israel about Tyre is that she will steal your soul for the love of all of your commerce. And so ends this great section here with the destruction of Tyre. And so God is telling his people what's wrong with the surrounding nations. But the real question for us is, you know, how am I like Babylon?

You know, how much Babylon has gotten into me? How has Egypt worked its way into my thinking and my living? And now, what about Tyre? How has Tyre affected my own way of living and thinking. And the lesson here is, you know, that God judges, when God judges nations, He judges individuals for the very same things.

And so here's, there's an outline in front of you. I hope you have it. You can kind of see where I'm going with this. In verse 1, we learn that they are destroyed. The second section is that they are instructed.

This is a long section in which there are six imperatives that really form Isaiah's argument. And then they are forgotten in verse 15 number four they are revived in verses 16 and 17 and finally some of them are redeemed in verse 18 so it the verse one begins with this picture of destruction and and the destruction is really as a result of the burden, the burden against Tyre. God has a burden for Tyre. There are particular sins that Tyre represents, And God is burdened about those sins. And that's true for all of us as well.

Every person sitting in this room here today, there's a burden from God. God has a burden for you. He has a burden for sins that you've let run in your life. God cares about you. God loves you.

He knows all of your sins. And He sees every one of them every day. And God has a burden for us as sinners. And I think one of the important questions that we ought to ask whenever we see this phrase, the burden against, we should ask, what is burdening the Lord about my life? Oh Lord, show me my ways.

Teach me what my sins are. Help me Lord. Help me to be sanctified. And so there's a burden against the people of Tyre. And who are these people?

Well, they're Canaanites. And they're also known by names such as the Sidonians, the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians. These are the people of Tyre. And Tyre was built after Sidon on the edge of a deep water port. And the inhabitants of Tyre were Canaanites.

Now, they should have been wiped out when Joshua and the rest went through the promised land, but they were not. And in Judges chapter 1 verse 31, we read, Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Akko, or the inhabitants of Sidon. So there was a failure among the people of God to refuse to drive out all the inhabitants of the land and those entire and the Sidonians were there. They were fearful. They were fearful people and their chariots scared the people of God away.

And so they didn't fulfill their duty there. And what's remarkable is that this great deep water port that became such a magnificent center of international trade. It could have belonged to the people of God, but it did not belong to the people of God because the people of God didn't obey God. And you can read about the remarkable relationship that Israel had, particularly with the king of Tyre, Hiram. He was on friendly terms and in league with David and with Solomon as well.

Solomon took wives from Tyre. You can read about that in 1 Kings 11, and these Phoenician women brought with them the Asteroth and really formed the destruction of Solomon's life, as he did not finish well at all. And then Tyre is destroyed first by Nebuchadnezzar and then by Alexander the Great. Those are the two great destructions of Tyre. Really, really remarkable stories.

But What's happening here in this first verse is there's a disclosure that there's an invisible hand that is ruling the economies of the world. And it's ruling this economy as well. And the invisible hand of The economy is the hand of God. You can always know that whatever happens in this economy has happened because of the sovereignty of God. God uses everything for his own glory, including a collapsing or an improving economy.

He's no respecter of economies. He's actually the controller of them. And he uses them for his own glory. And when Alexander the Great came to destroy this place, he spent over six months. There were two parts to this region.

You had Tyre, which was out on a small island. And then there was lots of commerce going on right there on the shoreline on the other side. And it was difficult to conquer because it was offshore. Alexander the Great built a great causeway. It took six months.

He could not destroy the city. So he built a causeway out there. And he came and it was a mile and a half from land. And he destroyed that city. He killed 8, 000.

He crucified 2, 000 on the beach. And he put the remaining 30, 000 under slavery. But that was Alexander the Great in the year 332. But modern day parallels of Tyre, I think really abound. Tyre was known for its commerce.

That was it. They were not a military power. They weren't aggressively and militarily going after other territory. What they were doing, though, is they were seeking the expansion of their wealth through their trade. And they were doing business across many waters.

I think Tire is like modern day Apple computer and Google and Facebook. They're the marketing titans around the world and they're involved in, their commercial footprint is absolutely everywhere all over the world and they're doing business everywhere. Instead of traveling by ship, they're traveling over the internet, really the modern day trading seas. So not military but rather economic. Verse 2 says that she is the marketplace for the world and as a result of her fornication with the world through her commercial activity, God is going to destroy her.

Verse 17 says that they were committing fornication with all the kingdoms of the world. But Remarkably, that's not how the story ends for everyone associated with Tyre, as we'll read when we get to verse 18. But I think what we find here in this first disclosure of the destruction of Tyre is that God purposes to dishonor, pride, and glory, and He will bring contempt on all your desire for glory in this world. And then they are instructed. First of all, there's this disclosure of the destruction.

Then God is instructing regarding these people. And there are six imperatives, six commands, that form the structure of it. And we're just going to walk through each one of them to get a sense of what God is saying to and about Tyre. And the first imperative is in verse 1, and then you can see them there on your outline. The first imperative is to wail.

Wail, O Tyre. In other words, do not brush this off. We read in verse 1, the burden against Tyre, wail you ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no harbor from the land of Cyprus, it is revealed to them. So this term wail, the Hebrew word yallah, it's a word that sounds like our word yell, to lament. And that's exactly what is being commanded here, to wail.

There are many commands in the Bible for people. There are commands to rejoice. There are commands to be patient. Well this is a command to wail and why? The ships, the house, and the harbor are being destroyed.

And Isaiah is really just disclosing what they ought to be doing. They ought to be wailing about this whole matter. Ezekiel 26 and 27 and 28 really give significant backdrop to this whole matter. Isaiah 26, we read, O Tyre, you have said, I am perfect in beauty. Your borders are in the midst of the seas, your builders have perfected your beauty.

They made all your planks of fir trees from Seneer. They took a cedar from Lebanon to make you a mast. Oaks from Bation, they made your oars." So here, all of these marvelous things that they're doing, they ought to be wailing about. I think one thing that we can take from this is, you know, when you know that God is punishing you for your sins, You should wail. Don't brush it off.

Wail. Don't brush it off. We live in a time where everybody wants to be so happy. The problem is there is no happiness without first repentance. And if there's going to be any healing for Sidon.

It will have to begin with wailing. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And no one can come to Jesus Christ until they recognize their sinfulness and they recognize that their only hope is the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse them from their sins. And so there's this lesson, wail, don't brush it off. You cannot escape it.

God has purposed it. He will dishonor your pride and your glory and he will bring contempt to all of your worldly honor. And then the second imperative is be still. Be still. Be still, verse 2, you merchants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whom those who crossed the sea have filled, and on great waters the grain of Shihur, the harvest of the river, is her revenue.

And she is a marketplace for the nations." You know, be still. That is the command. In other words, stop. Meditate. You know, be dumbstruck.

Be speechless. Be stunned. Stop trading. Consider your ways. Strong's Concordance translates this word, silence, six times, still, six times, cut off, three times, rest, cease, quieted, teary, wait.

This is the idea. Of course, you have the context of the verse really forms the meaning of it. It's a command to stop. Stop what you're doing. Take account.

Meditate on your ways. And there's this contrast of the bustling activity to make everything happen so beautifully and the command of God to stop and and and and literally to be still and it says here that She is the marketplace for the nations. Now, I want to show you really the glory of the marketplace that Tyre had developed. Go ahead and turn to Ezekiel chapter 26. Ezekiel chapter 26, and once you get there, find verse 5.

And you'll see this remarkable picture of what this economy had become, the beauty of it, the power of it, the remarkable goods that are being traded. Ezekiel 26, verse 5. They made all your planks of fir trees from Seneer. They took cedar from Lebanon to make you a mast. Of oaks from Bation they made your oars.

The company of the Asharites have inlaid your planks with ivory from the coasts of Cyprus." So you have these beautiful oars and wood products coming out of this place. And then in verse 7, fine embroidered linen from Egypt was what you spread for your sale. Blue and purple from the coasts of Elisha was what covered you. Inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen, your wisemen. Oatire were in you.

They became your pilots. Elders of Gabal and its wisemen were in you to cock your scenes all the ships of the sea and your oarsmen were in you to market your merchandise Tarshish was your merchant because of your luxury goods they gave you silver iron tin and lead for goods And he just goes on in verse 14 about horses and steeds and mules. And in verse 16, emeralds and purple and embroidery and fine linen and corals and rubies. In verse 17, wheat of Minneth, millet, honey, and oil and balm. In verse 18, many luxury items.

He mentions that twice. White wool in verse 18. Verse 20, saddle cloths for riding. In verse 21, lambs, rams, and goats. This was a remarkably productive market.

It was a remarkably beautiful enterprise in many ways that trafficked in amazing things and this market is getting shut down by God. God is throwing the switch and he's going to end it because God's hand is that invisible hand behind the economy. Man does not manipulate the weather or the economy or really anything else. And so this amazing picture here, There's this idea of the ships of Tarshish were carriers of merchandise. And you have this picture of the shipping trade going back and forth, And they're doing business.

So he says, be still. Be still. Stop all that. Stop all the trade of your beautiful items and meditate. Your activity has ceased.

Contemplate what has happened to you. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth says David in Psalm 46 But you cannot escape it God God will dishonor the pride of man and his glory You know earlier in Isaiah Isaiah asked what will you do with your glory? What will you do with your glory?

What will you do with your glory? Like all the things that you've accumulated around yourself to make you feel good about yourself, your house, your car, your family, your life, the way you think, your friends, your own glory, the things that shine on you to make you so glorious. He says, what will you do with your glory? And then be ashamed, verse 4. This is the third imperative.

Be ashamed. Feel the weight of the shame for what has really happened. It's very difficult for people to really acknowledge what's going on in their lives. We're so blind. We need a lifetime of the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of the preaching of the Word of God, our friends, our private meditations to reveal our sins.

And it goes on and it'll go on until you go to glory. But here he says, be ashamed, be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the strength of the sea saying, I do not labor nor bring forth children, neither do I rear young men nor bring up virgins." The idea here in Hebrew terminology is to become pale, be ashamed, become pale. And why? Because you see the judgment of God. Because you've come to poverty as a result of that.

And it was even more than just poverty. They had no offspring as a result. God removed their productivity. And There really was no way to keep the society going because there were no children. There was no productivity there.

Now, I don't know if he's speaking literally about literal children or whether it's figurative. If it's literal children, then somehow they cease to have children. Or perhaps it is figurative. And he's speaking about their lack of ability to produce in the way that children create a productive society. Right now we live in a world where the major economies of the world are in a state of collapse because people aren't having children anymore.

It's one of the greatest global problems. You know, people have so many slanderous things to say about the people who think that you should have lots of children and to be fruitful and multiply. I want to have a disclosure on the quiver empty movement of the world because it's a disastrous and terrible movement in the world today that despises children and wants to compromise the Word of God. But here, so now the speak, the see is speaking out. There's no pregnancy, there's no children, there's no rearing of young men, there's no bringing up of virgins.

You know, that terminology is so distinct here because he really speaks of the whole life cycle of a parent there. There's the pregnancy, there's the children, there's the rearing of young men, there's what you do with your daughters. But this is just a whole collapse of family life that seems to have existed here. You know, we often think that commerce can't cease, that The world economy is just going to keep on going just like it is. Well it will.

It will as long as God desires it to go on. And the moment he desires it not to go on, it's not going to go on anymore. And he will throw that switch. Now in this economic collapse, in verse 5, Egypt hears about it. So, the word begins to spread around the ancient world for what has happened entire.

So Egypt hears about it, and Egypt is in agony when they hear it. They're lamenting that their seed is cut off as a result of this. And you see this interconnection of economies and the cascading effect of one economy after another. And you know, maybe you've heard the saying, you know, when the US economy sneezes, the whole world catches a cold. Well, that was what was happening in Tyre.

Tyre was falling down, and the dominoes just continued to fall down around her. And that statement just means if America starts to falter, you'll see the whole world economy also falter and that's really what's happening here in this context. It's interesting you know today there are several of the major ports in the world that have pretty significant political upheaval right now. Singapore, Taiwan, and you have the whole thing in Crimea. This is a gigantic port city.

And there, in that port, is a tremendous threat. So it does happen that port cities are threatened from time to time. And right now, many of the largest ports in the world had this specter of political upheaval over them. Who knows what will happen? Here's what we do know, is that God has purposed that He'll bring down the pride of those who trust in all of their commercialism, and you can't escape it.

So he says, be ashamed. In other words, feel the weight of it. The word will spread. The report will be heard. Be sure your sins will find you out.

And so now Egypt has heard of it. And he says, be ashamed. Be ashamed of what you've become. And then the fourth imperative is crossover. Crossover, verse 6.

Crossover to Tarshish, wail you inhabitants of the coastland. And I think what he's saying here is find refuge. Tarshish is hard to identify exactly where it is. It's either a long way off or it's not very long way off. And that's kind of a long discussion that I don't think we really have time to deal with.

But I kind of think it's a ways off. But The command here is flee. Flee from your country. In times of economic downturn, people have to move. It's always been that way.

Hey, some of you have moved because of a changing economy. Maybe it was your personal economy that changed, and you had to move. And this was the situation that was here. And then the question Isaiah asks is in verse 7, is this your joyous city whose antiquity is from ancient days, whose feet carried her far off to dwell." You know, it would be really interesting to collect up all the questions that Isaiah asks. He asks some of the most amazing, jaw-dropping questions, And I think this is one of them.

Is this your joyous city? Is this your joyous city? He's just helping them see the reality of what's happened to them. He says, whose antiquity is from ancient days, you know, founded by Babylon, had been around a long time. And the spirit of Babylon had worked its way in to Tyre, whose feet carried her far off to dwell.

So she was a powerhouse for a long time. How could she fall? How could she be so vulnerable? Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World indicates that When Nebuchadnezzar came into the city, it was just a shadow of its former glory. There was very little there.

It had already been in a state of collapse by the time Nebuchadnezzar got there. I'm not sure if that's accurate. But here, it's time to cross over. It's time to leave. They were people whose feet were carried far off to dwell.

They enjoyed the mobility that resources bring, and she went wherever she wanted to go. She did whatever she wanted to do. But she didn't travel for conquest. She traveled for commerce. And she was not militarily imperialistic.

But she was very economically impetuous. That was her joy. And now her joy has fled from her and her exiles are fleeing from the enemy. And I think one of the lessons here is you can always count on this. Sins of the love of money always result in some kind of displacement at some time in your life.

If you're stealing, if you're stealing because of your love of money or your love of something else, it will cause some displacement in your life later on. Here's the advice. Repent, confess, do it now before everything collapses. If you've been involved in theft or immorality or lying, flee now. It only gets worse.

What kind of people were they? Verse 8 explains, who has taken this council against Tyre, the crowning city? Whose merchants are princes and whose traders are the honorable of the earth. There's another question. Who's doing this?

Who is shutting down this economy? Who? Why did this happen? You can blame it on politicians, you can blame it on the money supply, you can blame it on whatever you want. But here in verse 9 we learn why.

Verse 9, the Lord of hosts has purposed it to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth." Now I think that that is the central message of this chapter right there, verse 9. That's it. That's the interpretive key to the whole chapter. You know, whenever you're studying Scripture, you have to ask, what is the heart of the message that's being communicated here? And you might find lots of verses that you like, that sort of warm your heart or something like that, that might make you feel good or might make you feel convicted.

But what the children of God should do is find out what God is saying, not what you're saying to God primarily. He speaks to you and then you speak back to Him. And Here, this is the heart of it right here in verse 9. This is all happening to bring dishonor to the pride of all glory. And that's what I want us to consider here today.

Where are the elements of pride and glory in us like they were in Tyre. And God is giving us a connection point with Tyre, who loved their commerce, they loved their perfections and their beauty and their activity. They loved it so much. And we should ask ourselves, In what ways has Tyre gotten into my soul? And we should recognize that verse 9 is the heart of the matter of what God is communicating.

He is doing this to bring dishonor to the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth." That's the heart of this text. Now, notice that they were honored, they were the honorable of the earth. These traitors, they're called traitors, are honorable. They're aggressive, yet they're an amiable people. They're a peaceable but an ungodly people.

They're nice, they're pagans, they want everyone to do well and be well, and they're magnanimous and they're... I think they are of that sweet genre of socially acceptable, peaceable pride. That's what they are. They were wealthy, but they weren't violent. And then we know who caused it to happen in verse 9.

It was God. The Lord of hosts has purposed it. This is one of the most important principles in all of scripture, and that is that God is in control. That God works all things after the counsel of His own will, and that He does control. He does control the economies of the earth.

The Lord of hosts has purposed it. And He purposed it to bring dishonor to pride. God is sovereign over who's honored and who's dishonored. And It says here that He will bring contempt to all the honorable of the earth. In other words, He'll make light of them.

You think you are so heavy. The word honored, by the way, is the word kavod. It's the same word that you encounter in Isaiah chapter 6. Kavod, kavod, kavod. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

Heavy. It means heavy. And they think they are so heavy, And God is going to make light of them. All these things that you have made a name for yourself by, I laugh at them. I think that's the message that's here.

And the message is, you know, cross over. I'm displacing you. I'm touching your pride. I'm setting you on a journey. You will have to find a new place to live.

Often when we're displaced, we blame everybody else except God, and we forget to ask, what of my sin was it the result of this displacement? You know, We're so self-flattering, we really don't like to ask that question. We really would like to speak of these sort of objective, impersonal issues that impinged upon us. But we would rather not ask, what were my sins that caused me to be displaced. And I'm not saying that every person who moves or gets displaced is because of their sin.

Please, I'm not saying that at all. But that's what was happening here, for sure. And It may have just happened to any one of us here as well. And so the lesson here is, cross over, I'm displacing you. The next imperative is in verse 10, overflow.

Overflow. Overflow through your land like the river. Oh, daughter of Tarshish, there is no more strength." He stretched out his hand over the sea. He shook the kingdoms. The Lord has given a commandment against Canaan to destroy the strongholds.

And he said, you will rejoice no more, O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Now, he says overflow, and I want to suggest that he says that, that this is a command, and embedded in it is that you would admit your weakness. Now follow me here, look closely at verse 10. The context shows what that word overflow means. Okay?

Overflow through your land like the river, oh daughter of Tarshish. And then he explains what this is all about. There is no more strength. There is no more strength. In other words, admit your weaknesses.

Admit how vulnerable you are before God. And it can perhaps indicate, get out. You have no strength. Recognize your weaknesses. There's this idea of overflowing of water and spreading out as well.

And you know, when the banks of a river are wide and then it has very little strength at all, the water is just dispersed and it can disappear into the ground. It could have that idea that there's just no strength in the water. But you pull those banks of that river in, and you can have a mighty, powerful torrent. But he says overflow. See the weakness.

Recognize how weak you are. He speaks of her as the daughter, the daughter of Tarshish. You have the daughter of Sidon. You have all these terms here. But God has stretched out His hand in verse 11.

He has stretched out His hand. We've been reading many times in Isaiah, his hand is stretched out still. This harkens back to that. Isaiah is connecting these things. You know, these destructions that happened to them, they seemed to move progressively.

And we saw that last week when we were talking about Shebna and Hilkiah. There seemed to be a progressive judgment against Shebna. And we see that same thing here. But here he says overflow, overflow. Admit your weaknesses.

Say how weak you are. And then the sixth imperative is arise. That's in verse 12. And he said, this is at the end of verse 12. And he said, you will rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise, cross over to Cyprus. There also you will have no rest." You know, I think he's saying, arise, arise, see what can happen to your joy. Now, there are four things that have been lost here that he mentions in this verse. Loss of joy. He says, you will rejoice no more.

Secondly, oppression. Oh you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Third, displacement. Cross over to Cyprus like a vagabond, like a person without a country. And then finally, there's no rest.

You will have no rest. And then he says, behold, verse 13, behold. In other words, take a close look at this. Face the music. Reconcile yourself to the new normal that has taken place as a result of your pomposity and your desire to fill your life with nothing but commerce, to glorify yourself and engage yourself in such beautiful things.

So he says, behold, the land of the Chaldeans, this people which was not Assyria founded it for wild beasts in the desert. They set up its towers, They raised up its palaces and brought it to ruin. So Tyre, Sidon, was founded by the Chaldeans, by the Babylonians. And now they're going to come and destroy it. And I don't know, when He says they set up its towers.

I'm not sure if he's talking about the tower of Babel or whether he's talking about the towers of Tyre. But those who brought the city into being are now going to go in and be commanded by God to go in and destroy it. So arise. See what can happen to your joy. So that forms This second part of chapter 23 that they were instructed, and they were instructed to wail and be still and be ashamed and to cross over and to overflow and to arise.

Those are the six commands that God is bringing to reveal the sins of this people. You know, it's always helpful for us to ask, what has my capitalism done to me? What has it made me into? Has it made me like this in any way? Where the only driver of my life is to increase my wealth." That's what he's putting the finger on here.

That's the wound that the Lord is dealing with here. And he's declaring what he will do about it. And then the next section is sometimes called the Song of the Harlot, which was most... There was a song called the Song of the Harlot. We don't know the words of the song, but maybe some of the words are right in here, because These next three verses, verses 15 through 18, are structured.

First of all, there's prose in verse 15, and then there's a song in verse 16, and then there's more prose in verses 17 and 18. Do you see that? So, verse 15, now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot. So it's a picture of her being in exile for 70 years.

And, you know, this is spoken of in Scripture. It's very clear that God had ordained a 70-year captivity for his people. Some might say, well this must be a different 70 year period. I'm not sure. It's very clear that God put his people in captivity in Babylon for 70 years.

You can read about it all over the Bible, Jeremiah 25, 11. But in that 70 years, it says they will be forgotten. They'll be forgotten. And it's almost like saying, you know, Washington DC will be forgotten. London will be forgotten.

Apple will be forgotten. Google will be forgotten. You can count on it. God does this and that God is doing this with this people here. It says it's like the days of one king.

You know, the generation of a man. It's this 70 year period. Second Chronicles chapter 36 verses 20 through 21 speaks of it very clearly and I do believe it's the Babylonian captivity. Why is it that they were thrown into captivity for 70 years? Well, it's because they broke the Sabbath, explicitly because they broke the Sabbath.

Leviticus 25, verses 1 through 10 declares the Sabbath-keeping rules, and Israel did not keep the Sabbath. And so the 70 years were calculated by the 490 years that they did not keep the Sabbath. Well, why? Because they were working all the time. And then we see that they were revived.

Not only were they forgotten, but they were revived. Verse 16 and 17, Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten harlot, Make sweet melody, sing many songs that you may be remembered. And it shall be at the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre. She will return to her hire and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. So after 70 years, there's going to be some kind of comeback for Tyre.

They're going to bounce back. They were forgotten and then they come sort of out of nowhere. And the harlot starts to play her harp again. Now the kings of the earth seem to, the traders seem to hear the sound of the harp, but Ezekiel tells us that God is not hearing it. And it's the song, It's the song of one who's been left alone, the song of a harlot.

And he says, take a harp. It's because she wants to attract attention, and she plays with skill to attract attention in order to build her economy back up. And then it says that at the end of 70 years something will happen. Verse 17. The Lord will visit Tyre.

She will return to her hire and commit fornication with the kingdoms of the world. So she sings again and she reveals. Some say that by 630 BC she was stronger. She did have some kind of a comeback, wasn't a complete comeback for sure. And then finally in verse 18, we see that they were redeemed.

They were redeemed. And verse 18 discloses the purpose of her judgment. And this is what we can't miss. God does what He does in the world in judgment for two reasons. For the damnation of the wicked and the salvation of sinners who repent.

And He does that for one reason, for his own glory. And he has done all this to this economy for one single purpose, and it's found in verse 18. It's why God does everything. She changes. She changes.

God changes her life, at least some of them. And verse 8, let me read, Her gain and her pay will be set apart. If you have a King James Bible, you'll see the word holiness. In other words, her gain is now it belongs to the Lord. Her heart has changed about her whole way of thinking about money and commerce.

And there are three things that are mentioned here, and I want to identify them one by one. We've mentioned this first one, her gain is set apart for the Lord. In other words, she starts doing different things with her money and she realizes that her wallet is just as much God's possession as anything. That God owns all the resources that she's been given. So her gain is set apart.

And of course you see this principle all through Scripture where the people of God are called to take of their gain and give it. Not to recognize it as their own, but to recognize that God owns it all. And so their gain is set apart. This is because of a work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Their whole orientation toward money changed.

Money became a different kind of commodity to them. It was because their hearts changed. And then, the second thing that they did is that their pay was not treasured or laid up. In other words, they didn't just keep it for themselves. There was a new generosity.

Her materialism had been broken. Her self-indulgence had been cracked. And now there was a new way of living, and it had to do with generosity, not just keeping everything for themselves. And then the third is that their gain was given to the people of God. For her gain will be for those who dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for fine clothing." So Her allegiance shifted from herself and her own gain to an allegiance toward the people of God.

And she had a totally different disposition toward the people of God. She wanted to bless the people of God with her resources. And she'd been hoarding it all to herself, and now she's hoping in God. You know, her walls used to be gold. And now she's being refined as gold by the Lord.

She was a harlot for money and now she's holiness to the Lord. She used to say or do whatever she could for money. She would steal, she would misrepresent, but now the Lord is her portion. She used to steal from the Lord, and now she wants to give to the Lord and his people. And he here identifies the sins of the church, where there are people who are actually robbing God.

There are many places in Scripture where we see evidences of this conversion. In Psalm 87 verse 4, there's a documentation of What happened as a result of this? I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. Behold Ophelistea and Tyre with Ethiopia." He's speaking of those who embrace the gospel. In Isaiah chapter 60 you hear the same thing, Surely the coastlands shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish will come first to bring your sons from afar their silver and their gold with them to the name of the Lord your God and to the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you." This is a picture of the people from all over the world who are streaming to bring their silver and gold to the people of God.

So there was a conversion of their hearts and also their pocketbooks. And her gain was now set aside before the Lord. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ went to Tyre and Sidon. He met with a Syrophoenician woman there. And she said to him, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, have mercy on my daughter.

And this whole narrative that we read of in Isaiah chapter 23, It tells us of the power of the gospel to change a person's heart. It can even change your heart about money. Let's go to some application. Question number one. Has the judgment that God has brought to you, Has it changed you?

Do you wail? Have you been still? Have you been ashamed? Crossed over, overflow and arise? Has that happened?

This people, They turned away from their hoarding and they gave to the Lord. Everything was holiness to the Lord. What was the evidence of their salvation? Well, we know that there are many evidences of salvation, but the evidence of their salvation was that they had started handling their money differently. Here's another.

There's a back story here that we should recognize, particularly those of us who are trying to interpret world events and also raising children, training children to think rightly about the world, to teach them history and to help them understand the meaning of history. And here's what I think we should lay down. All historical events are designed for one single purpose, to glorify God in the judgment of sinners and the salvation of the lost. That's it. That's the meaning of history.

Whatever you see happening to the church, that's the meaning of history. And this is the most critical historiographical principle. You know what historiography is? It's the study of how you interpret historical events. And you can interpret history in different ways, through a political lens, through a social lens, through an economic lens.

You can interpret it through all kinds of different world views, through a Marxist lens, or whatever it might be. That's historiography. How do you interpret what's going on in the world? And This passage gives us a picture of that lens. And the lens of the Christian, the lens of Isaiah, is that all of history is the result of divine intervention.

And it is designed for verse 18, that hearts would be changed. That is the purpose of all of history is to destroy the works of the devil and save sinners from their sins That's the purpose of everything that has ever happened to you in your life. You might not be able to see it, you might not be able to understand it. You might think that things have happened to you because those bad guys over there did something to you. Think again, that's not true.

That happened to you because God was wanting to speak to you about something. And I don't know what it was, but it was about something for sure. But God glorifies himself in the destruction of the pride of man. Every historical moment can be interpreted through that grid. All of history exists for one purpose, to rescue a bride and to destroy the works of the devil.

That's why we study history. That's why Christians should study history. Because they're just studying what God has done to glorify himself in the damnation of the wicked and the saving of sinners. Everything in history is for that purpose. I know some of you have been on a history tour.

Every single place that you visited has that single meaning in it. You might not be able to dissect every bit of it, but I guarantee you, this is why every single thing you studied happened. So when you're studying history, there are two really critical questions. How is God exposing and destroying the proud? Those who are trying to build their own legacy.

And then, and then secondly, how is God using this to rescue a bride and to purify His church? So, the historiography that comes out of Isaiah 23 is really very, very important. And I think also it helps us to recognize the truth about world economic changes. Economic changes in this case in Isaiah are for one purpose, to seek and save the lost. Those whom I love, I discipline.

And this economic downturn was designed for the prosperity of the Church of Jesus Christ. I mean this economic downturn in the days of Tyre. It was designed for that one thing. Here's another application. Notice the imperatives, these six imperatives.

They are, you know, they're imperatives given to a people who've loved money too much. They've loved their commercial activity too much. And, you know, I'm struck by the very first imperative, wail. Wail. You know, I've heard people say that they pray that God would bring judgment against America.

I don't pray that. You recognize how hard judgments are. When God moves His hand in judgment, pray that God saves America, not destroys it. That's what we need to pray for. And to do that, we pray for the prosperity of the Church of Jesus Christ.

And we're part of the Church of Jesus Christ. And we're part of the Church of Jesus Christ. We dedicate ourselves to the bride of Jesus Christ. We love the brethren. We drink in the Word of God.

We're changed by God. One of the things that I love about our church is that when we bring the Word of God, people, they change their lives and they confess and they repent and they confess of really life-defining things, life-altering things. But this imperative to wail is a really important one. And also to be silent, to see what the Lord's doing, to shut your mouth and see what He's doing and saying to you, and to be ashamed and repent and be embarrassed. That the way nobody wants to be embarrassed anymore.

Everybody wants to be, you know, thought of as doing so well. But that's not always appropriate for us. I think what we found out in our church is that there's a lot of sin in this church and God's revealing it and It's a blessing. It's a blessing and what we don't want to do is despise the discipline of the Lord Because those whom the Lord loves he chases Here's another one The judgment is delivered in multiple phases often in Scripture. And it is here, you've got Nebuchadnezzar, then you've got Alexander, the great coming in in the fourth century, and God keeps the pressure up.

This is what God does with us. I think this is a parallel to how God works in our lives, is that He often, He confronts us with one thing, and maybe we don't listen, and He escalates, and we don't listen and He escalates, and we don't listen and He escalates, and we don't listen and he escalates, and we don't listen and he escalates, and we don't listen and he escalates. And then, because we did not repent at the very beginning, he throws the switch. And We should always recognize how God is rebuking us through the different things that happen to us in our lives. What is God escalating in your life?

And are you ignoring it? Are you ignoring the early warning signals that God is throwing, the shots over the bow to terrify you of your sin, but it's not scaring you enough? And you're still stealing, and you're still committing immorality, and you're still lying. And God is giving you one shot over the bow. And the shots have missed you, but they're not scaring you.

They're not driving you to your knees. I suspect there's a lot of that here in this place now, where there's a lot of hidden sins. And the fornications and the lies and the adulteries and the thefts need to be confessed. Let me say this. If you don't confess them, God will confess them to the world.

God will expose and disclose all these things at some point, most likely in this life. Absolutely at the end of your life. But don't think too much about the end of your life. My experience goes like this. It's the thing that my wife's grandfather always said to her over...

I heard him say this I don't know how many times. Beware your sins will find you out. They will find you out. And you should repent and you should flee to the Lord. So that the judgment is not so damaging and harsh and defining and wrecking of everything that you've ever done.

Flee, return, repent, confess, come before God. The judgment is often delivered in multiple phases. You know, I was with someone a while back who had been excommunicated from a church. And he said that for quite a while he hated those who had excommunicated him and considered all kinds of things. But after a while, that changed.

And he said that the pressure just rose. And he saw that what was being said. And he said to me, that excommunication was the best thing that ever happened to me The exposure set me free. That's what he was saying and he says now Instead of wanting to bring litigation against those who excommunicated me. I am so thankful they did it because it saved my life.

That's why it's good. That's why it's not good to hide sin. It is good to expose it and repent of it. And recognize verse 9. God will dishonor all pride and all glory and he will bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

That's why I titled this sermon, The Purpose of God's contempt, because the purpose of God's contempt is to cleanse. It is to destroy the wicked, but the purpose of God's contempt, and you should be afraid of His contempt, is that He would save you from your sins. And then finally, the power of the gospel, the proud and hoarding who spent all their time on their own glory, they were now living for the glory of another. And their gain and pay was set apart for holiness to the Lord. It was not treasured up or laid up anymore.

Her gain was given away for the purpose of the blessing of the Church. And what happened to them? I love these final words. Look at the final words here. To eat sufficiently and for fine clothing.

To eat sufficiently and for fine clothing. Jesus Christ said, I'm the bread of life. If you eat a meal, you'll no longer hunger. You'll eat sufficiently. He is the bread of life.

And then He says, and for fine clothing. And He will clothe you in robes of righteousness. He will take His righteousness and cover you with it. He will put the best of His upon you, and He will take the worst of your filthy rags upon Him. And He will take the judgment of those filthy rags, and He will lay upon you a robe of righteousness, and it will be fine clothing.

It will be the most wonderful clothing you've ever had. And that's the gospel of Jesus Christ, that sinners turn to God and their clothes from heaven. Would you pray with me? Lord, thank You for telling us the truth about the world, about the economies, about our hearts, about what You're doing. Thank You for disclosing to us what You are doing.

Thank you for showing us the way things really are. And I pray, O Lord, that you would give us such hatred toward our sins. And O Lord, that you would keep us from harboring them until they finally destroy us. Amen.