Thank you so much, folks, for doing the great work, getting us ready for the singing. It was good. I love that. Sing. Just sing. Just sing. A church body of believers ought to sing. And by the way, next week, just to let you know this, Isaiah 24 is about singing. Yes. All right? So we'll get to talk about that next week. But today, It's much more serious, probably. This is another oracle. This is the final oracle, all right, before we get into 24 through 27, which we'll talk about later. Isaiah 23, if you have that, we're gonna read through the entire text this morning, and then we'll jump right into the message. Isaiah 23, the oracle, concerning the city of Tyre. Not what's on your car, okay? But the city of Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them, be still, O inhabitants of the coast. The merchants of Sidon who cross the sea have filled you. And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihur, the harvest of the Nile. You were the merchant of the nations. Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women. When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre. Cross over to Tarshish, wail, O inhabitants of the coast. Is this your exalted city, whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away? Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? The Lord of hosts has purposed it. to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth. Cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint anymore. He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. The Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds. And he said, you will no more exalt, O oppressed virgin of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus. Even there you will have no rest. Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This is the people that was not. Assyria, destined it for wild beast. They created their siege towers. They stripped their palaces bare. They made her ruin. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste. In that day, Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years like the days of one king. At the end of 70 years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute. Take a harp, go about the city, oh, forgotten prostitute. Make sweet melody, sing many songs that you may be remembered. And at the end of 70 years, the Lord will visit Tyre. and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord. This is the reading of God's word. May we be careful how we hear it this morning. Achievement is the alcohol of our time. That's what one counselor said to some high-level business executives. He said, these days, the best people don't abuse alcohol, they abuse their lives. If you're successful, You go through a lot of good things. A lot of good things happen. You complete a project and it gives you an incredible high. But that feeling doesn't last forever and you slide back to normal and you think, I've gotta start a new project. Eventually the highs don't seem quite so high. And he goes on describing this common experience. Many of us perhaps live on a treadmill. trying to achieve, perhaps trying to live up to the expectations of others, perhaps trying to generate a self, a sense of self-worth from what we do. An achievement addict is no different from any other kind of addict. And what we're feeling in this, the allure of the world, This search for success, the quest for achievement, is something that in many ways is ungraspable. An achievement addict carries on these things and the effects goes on at so many high levels in business executives, but I think it also speaks to just about everyone here. So what about you? Is it possible that maybe even without realizing it, You're being seduced by what the world calls success? Is it possible that you're just beginning now to put your hope in someone or something that is not God? My friend, there's really no limit to the God substitutes that our wandering and wayward hearts can devise. Think about this with me this morning. Isaiah is some 2,700 years old. It's a prophecy situated in the setting of the ancient Near East of which we know really so little of. But across all those years, the human condition is still the same. We're still tempted by the same things that they were back then. The final three oracles from Isaiah all boil down to three alternatives the world wants to hold out as worthy of our allegiance, our affection, and ultimately our worship. And if we're not careful, we give ourselves to them. Remember chapter one, we're tempted to trust the power of other people. In chapter two, we saw this last week, we're tempted to trust ourselves. And now in chapter 23, we're tempted to trust in the world and all it has to offer. And the common melody Isaiah addresses in all 10 oracles tells us that all of humanity while we're here on earth will constantly struggle with this thing that I think Isaiah has in the back of his mind as a contagious idolatry. It's an idolatry that you bump into and you get it all over everybody else. It's contagious. And in this final oracle, Isaiah gets very specific concerning the realities of idolatry. This is a lesson for you and me this morning, if we're honest. If you're here today to hear God's word, here's the point. Guard your heart against false gods of affluence and influence of the world. They will not endure. Let me say that again. Guard your heart against the false gods of affluence and influence of the world, because they will not endure. There are two sections to this, and we'll fly through both sections this morning. The ruin of Tyre and the restoration of Tyre. Look first of all with me, the ruin of Tyre, verses one through 14. If you remember with me the very first oracle, in chapter 13, was the oracle concerning Babylon. Now at the end, here's an oracle concerning Tyre. These two cities are like bookends that detail to us two mighty sources of human control and human power. There's the military power and control. And then there's the economic power and control. We've already heard about Assyria, about Babylon, about Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. All of those represent this military power with military control. Tyre, on the other hand, represents the economic dominance. Tyre was a worldwide empire of trade. It's interesting that we're talking about this when our nation's still talking about trade and tariffs and these kind of things. But Tyre's control and power was built not by terror and death, like the great muscle machines of war, but by smooth talk. and a sly, warm handshake. The traders of Tyre were experts at setting up trade relations with all the regions around the Mediterranean Sea. I mean, they had gained confidence of many of the rulers around the water, forged these trade alliances with merchants in some nations, and soon the ships of Tyre, and yet another trading partner by which to become even wealthier, and their wealth quadrupled in a matter of days. And little by little, they became the hub of all commerce in the Mediterranean. And their widespread trade, they became astoundingly rich. But as this chapter opens, something seriously has gone wrong. I mean, the first section leads us to ask two questions. Look with me at verse one. Wail, O ships of Tarshish. What happened to Tyre? What is going on here? Or what will happen to Tyre? And for many of us, I think, like I did this week, we never stop to think about the amount of economy, how much the economy depends on this vast oceans of the world. I mean, at the time of Isaiah's writing, Tyre is one of the financial capitals of the world. It would be like our Wall Street in New York City, one of the great cities on the coast. I mean, their ships were the greatest ships of the age. They were like the mighty, big super tankers that we have today, those huge ships that sail the seas. Both Tyre and Sidon are two major Phoenician cities north of Israel along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. You can see them in any Bible map, only now it's the area known as Southern Lebanon. They were both seaports, thus trading centers with ships that docked there and traveled across the unknown world, bringing all kinds of products across the Mediterranean into that entire region. They had a wide span of a grip on the world. Tyre was 25 miles south of Sidon. There are two parts of the city of Tyre, which is very interesting. It will kind of show itself in this text. There's the main part of the city, which was on the shore of the Mediterranean. And then there was this other part of the city that was an island fortress by combining two rocky islands just off the coast. It was a citadel. And it was built on these two now combined islands, 2,000 feet off the shore of the mainland. Tyre means rock, because it was built on a massive rock in the sea. And when the main city was under attack on shore, people could flee by boat to the island fortress. And so the Phoenicians became the dominant seafaring nation of the ancient Near East. And because of that, they became enormously wealthy. Listen to what one writer says, Tyre, represents human striving after wealth. The material possessions that will make its people comfortable and happy, prosperous and satisfied. Though each of these possessions is a good gift from God, like anything, any created thing, each of these can become an idol. The center around human existence. Thus, Tyre represents idolatry. It also represents human pride, the great enemy of God. And notice how God deals with the city. Tyre is exposed. It's very interesting when you read scripture. Let me read to you a verse in Ezekiel 28, where God literally rips the top off so that we can take a look into the heart of the city of Tyre. He does so to let Tyre know how God is viewing the city. And he says this in verse two. If you read it this week, just go through and read how God talks about Tyre in Ezekiel 28. But verse two says this, son of man, Say to the prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord, because your heart is proud and you have said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God's in the heart of the seas, yet you are but a man and no God, though you make your heart like the heart of God. You see, my friend, it isn't wealth that moves God to judge. It's the heart of idolatry. You set yourself up as God of your life. And God says, listen carefully, your heart is proud. It's amazing just how the heart of pride is exposed all throughout scripture. It's good for God to do this. Scripture becomes a mirror. God takes and reflects his holiness back on us. And what is exposed is how we really are, our hearts. So the fuller picture of Tyre, we've got to stop just for a moment and look past the externals to see the true power behind all of this. There are two prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the fall of Satan. I think you will remember Chaz preached Isaiah 14, the fall of Satan, and Ezekiel 28, once again, the fall of Satan. And amazingly, both of them deal with, on the surface, oracles of judgment against human kings, the prince of Tyre. He's called, in Isaiah 14, the king of Babylon. But in Ezekiel 28, he's called the prince of Tyre, or the king of Tyre. And as Chaz pointed out to us in Isaiah 14, these powerful men are literally puppets dancing on the strings held by the puppet master, Satan himself. And Satan is called the god of this age in 2 Corinthians 4.4, the most powerful ruler on earth. And one of Satan's fiercest weapons is man's own pride and arrogance. Man's own godness. He boasted to Jesus that all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor had been given to him, Satan said, that he could give them to anyone who wanted them. In Luke chapter four, verses five through six, he tested Christ there. And yet Satan remains hidden. the invisible, the ruler and the power of the air, Ephesians 2 says. So if the two great patterns of world domination are military and economic, it seems reasonable that the true king of Babylon, the true king of Tyre is Satan himself, and that the human kings are merely puppets to rule in the battles, to rule in the economy. and how wise for God to speak these words of judgment to the deceit-filled, invisible puppet master through his puppets. They will share the same eventual fate, both languishing in the lake of fire that Revelation 2010 tells us about. But until then, we learn what happens to Tyre here and now. Its own idolatry, God lays waste. And God takes and runs, comes into Tyre, and at this point, both the house and harbors are decimated in verse one. Do you see that in verse one? For Tyre is laid waste without house or harbor. Just think about that. What does that look like? A place that had these big ships coming in, big place for big ships to dock. It's completely leveled. A deathly hush comes over Sidon. Did you see that? Egypt weeps. It's filled with anguish. Why? Because everything is leveled. And they hear this, they hear of Tyre's downfall through the little areas outside, some of the outer places. Farmers of Nile will no longer have a market for their grain. No longer does Tyre have his many sons and daughters out working in the Mediterranean, verse four says. That's simply reference there to laboring but not being able to give birth. In verse four, many people had much to lose over Tyre's demise. And this would be kin to the stock market falling in 1933 in our own Great Depression. It was devastating to the entire world. Then we see in verse eight that Isaiah asks a question. And he's actually asking a question with the idea of not getting an answer. He's not trying to get an answer. It's a rhetorical question. Who planned this against Tyre? Or we would say, what is God doing in this? You see, there's a reality here about worship that is very compelling. If we were to stop and say, why is God doing this? Or what is God doing? I think the answers would surprise us a bit. But the idea of idol worship is very compelling to each of us. It's just why we so quickly turn to it. One, it's because you believe you really are successful. And you really are important. Many people don't have the answers, but you do. And there's a bit of a rush that comes across our hearts when we think that we have it figured out. But it's such a dangerous game. And if you wonder if you've been bitten by this disease of idolatry, just watch when things don't go your way. and how much it just flares up from within, and it makes you angry. That's when you know, ooh, there's a bit of idolatry that's going on there. Secondly, not only you believe you really are successful, but secondly, your heart gets a taste for stolen glory. Your heart gets a taste for really what belongs to God. You see, you pride yourself of all you have, all you think you've accomplished, and how full of discernment and wisdom you are, and it becomes your badge, and you want everyone to know about that badge. But God is very jealous and his glory, he says he will not share it with another because all glory goes directly to God. But the idolater seeks to take what belongs to God and use it for self-glory. This is Luther's favorite line. There's two kinds of glory. There's self-glory and then there's God's glory. And verse eight then, here's the reality. Look at verse eight with me. He has taken away, oh, excuse me, who has purposed this against Tyre? The bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princesses, whose traders were the honored of the earth. Very interesting verse. Tyre fell prey to this contagious idolatry with pompous pride. They saw themselves as the giver of crowns. We're the ones that give out crowns. We're the ones, we're the glorious ones who would divvy out honor. I mean, their traders were princesses. So wise and discerning, they were the originators of let's make a deal. And they saw themselves as the honored ones of all the earth, verse nine. They were glory thieves. They're so filled with self-glory, they become delusional. Warning, this is just how arrogance and pride works. So verse nine, Isaiah answers the question. The Lord of the armies has planned this. Yahweh has spoken. God planned this. And then he outlines just how he'll do it. God knows what we need and we need humility. We need to be humbled. It's one more illustration of man desperately trying to out God God. and their wealth had created in them an illusion of self-sufficiency would have made the true and living God just seem irrelevant. God isn't who he says he is. I can have my own way. It would take this swift and severe judgment to jolt them back into reality. And so what does God do? Look carefully at the word, at the scriptures. Look at verse 10. First of all, he takes away all restraint. Do you see that in verse 10? God takes away all restraint. He says, cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint anymore. Restraint there is the word, it means a belt. And it's like, Tyre has this complete control or this belt in keeping Tarshish in check, but no more. Take off, Tarshish, you're free to go now. Tyre has no power over you. It's no longer restrained. Notice secondly in verse 11, he no longer protects them from destruction. In fact, God is the one who brings the destruction. God stretches out his hand over the sea and he shakes the kingdoms. This would have been a fearful thing to go through. But Isaiah declares that the God of Israel is the only one who is in charge of the sea. But they think they're in charge of the sea. Isaiah declares that the God of Israel is the one who oversees the sea, as it were. It's not their territory. Belongs to the creator. And God controls all that happens on the oceans and to all the nations who live by them. He has shaken the kingdom. By the way, you don't want to be on the water or on the land when God is shaking the world. But he controls it by his own power. the rising and the falling of the economic fortunes of nations on earth, God controls. Then notice verse 12. He says, no remaining power. And he said, you will no more exalt, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus, and even there you will have no rest. Verse 12, this idea of no remaining pride. You will not exalt. You will no more exalt or oppress. The party's over. The good times are gone for these cities. No more dancing. Now only destruction. All till you get down to the end of verse 12 that there's no lasting rest. Arise, go over to Cyprus. Yes, even there you will have no rest. Cyprus became a little bit of a haven for them. like a vacation spot. So if they try to escape over the sea, even the land island of Cyprus, you'll not be a safe place for rest because they cannot escape God. Isaiah proclaims that when the Lord brings judgment against Tyre, it will lose everything they once lived for and presumed that they would enjoy forever. They will lose all security, all pride. They would lose their home and even buy any place to truly rest from all the distress and suffering of this life. Notice there's an inclusio here. In verse one, if you remember, up at the top, verse one, it says very, very interestingly, verse one, O whale, O ships, for Tyre is laid waste without house or harbor. Now look at verse 14. Whale, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste. That's that island. It's laid waste. God means business. They will not escape. The fortress is laid waste. All is exposed and all is brought to nothing. The lesson here, my friend, is the way of pride is death. The way of pride is death. It's good for God to stop us in our pride. It's good for God to go stop, just wait. And God does it on purpose to get them to where we're going now. Look at verse 15. Verse 15, this is the restoration of Tyre. Have you noticed this as we've gone through these different oracles? Have you noticed this? No nation has ever had the last word. These nations get up, they tout all these things about God, God, God, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, and God goes, yeah, no, this is what's gonna happen. And he says, God speaks, Tyre will be forgotten. Their idolatry included a lasting legacy so they will be remembered forever. That was their desire. But Isaiah shows now that God's judgment on nations and history for their pride are often not his final dealings with them. It is not the final word on their national destiny. Because under God's sovereign authority and timing, he ordains a national recovery which is absolutely stunning. Tyre will still have a place in God's purposes. But as he unfolds this, he gives us two warnings that I want us to get this morning. One, the dangers of worshiping success. You see this in verses 15 through 17? In that day, Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years, like the days of one king. At the end of 70 years, it will happen to Tyre, as in the song of the prostitute, take a harp, go about the city, oh forgotten prostitute, make sweet melodies, sing many songs that you may be remembered. You see, Tyre's commercial prowess is compared to that of prostitution. And so God comes in and sees how they're taking advantage of people. And he takes and he says, for 70 years, I will silence you. It's the approximate lifespan of a king. And there's all kinds of deliberations about what exactly God was saying when he says that. But the idea of prostitution seems very appropriate for how they handled life and business. Why? Because success and all that comes with it is deceitful. It seems like money or things can solve all the heart problems, but when they become idols, something shifts in the heart so that they are pursued with a relentless pursuit at all costs. And idolatry always throws off the presence of God and faith in God, and you sell your soul to that idol. And faith in God is no more a thing. It's I'm in control and I will give only to this. And so the Lord will visit Tyre at the end of 70 years. That idea of visit, it's not just this idea of sit down and have coffee. It literally means that God will come in and take ownership. That's what it's talking about. He'll take ownership. And notice what happens again. The Lord will visit Tyre, and what will she do? She will return to her wages and again, quote, will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. And what you begin to see is the stubbornness of idolatry. Tyre will actually suffer at the hands of many enemies. Assyria comes in, and that's what it's talking about in that text, that Assyria comes in and wipes out Babylon. But then Persia, and later Greece, and it went on like many enemies, off and on like this, all being finally crushed in BC 332 BC under Alexander the Great. Finally, this prophecy comes to play. Tyre suffers greatly. But after each invasion in the next generation, Phoenicia, or Tyre, will rise up again with great merchant skills and resumed her trading expertise." Why? Because of the rebellion of the heart. And so he says, this song of the forgotten prostitute underlines how seductive is this success, this worldliness, this materialism, this desire for wealth. It rises back up and they fall prey to it again. This is contagious idolatry. But I love the fact that idols never get the final word. Look with me at verse 18. Prosperity belongs to God and God uses it for his own glory. Do you see that in verse 18? Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. You understand that even in prostitution, the prostitutes could not send a tithe of their money, as it were, into the temple, it wasn't allowed. But here, God visits Tyre and is in charge and it becomes something that God uses for holiness. There's a lesson to be looked at and to be learned about this. God takes the wealth that was hoarded up by Tyre, he takes it from her, and then all of a sudden it flows, oddly enough, into Zion as the rightful inheritance of the people of God. You see, my friend, God's glory is what this life is all about. Do you understand that everything belongs to God? The rightful inheritance now becomes to the people of God. We tend to think that our life consists in what we possess or what we've achieved and here's Tyre. There's a lesson to be learned by looking at Tyre and her failure. Here's a city who had everything on earth but nothing in heaven. And so when Tyre fell, they fell and they had nothing to fall back on. But in our text, God opens a tiny window for us to get on our tiptoes, as it were, and peer into it so that we can ask ourselves this morning, where is your true wealth? What does it mean for you to be alive? How have we worshiped at the feet of human success? I loved that song called Sing. Did you draw a breath as the dawn awoke and does your heart still beat? Pretty much, all of us here, our hearts are still beating, right? It's God that's done that. Sing. Not right now, but in a few minutes. Where's your true wealth? How have you sold, how have we sold ourselves to the affluence and the influence of this world in pursuit of a savior? And can we say like with Paul, when Christ who is my life appears, I will appear with him in glory, Colossians 3, 4. And is God enough? Idolatry comes from a heart filled with self-glory and pride, and Christ was completely the opposite. He lived for the glory of the Father and humbled himself for us. And you see the great arrogance of your heart, and it loudly proclaims, you need a Redeemer. And my friend, this is why we take the Lord's Supper. Men, come if you would, and prepare for the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a constant gong in our world that directs our attention to two things. This is why we do this. One. It directs our attention to the awfulness of sin. With the broken body and the blood, the supper reminds how broken and torn our lives are because of our sin. Two, the stunning perfect work of Christ on our behalf. He covered everything. He covered the curse of sin. He covered the need for righteousness. He covered the opportunity to live for him today in a sin infested world. Jesus really did pay it all. And if you are a child of God this morning and you're turning from your sin and trusting in Christ's righteousness for your salvation, then I would say to you this morning here at CBC, you are welcome to join us in this communion. But if you have not turned from your pride and your own godness, I would beg you not to partake of this small meal because it represents Christ's work on your behalf. It has nothing to do with what you have done. And this is for remembrance of him, not a celebration of your own striving to be God or doing in order to get God. Just pass on the elements and listen and watch. Men, would you stand and pass out the elements this morning. And while they're passing them out, we will wait for everyone to receive them and we will participate together. So sit and pray and ask God's forgiveness and direction for your own life.