-Transcript-
00:28 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:32 Welcome to the cafe. Hopefully you’re having a great day, a great week. Man, it’s good to be back here today.
00:40 I’m so happy to be here. I’m glad you’re joining me today. Today we are getting into the second part of a three-part series on Tyre.
00:49 Tyre is not a car tire, but Tyre as in the biblical port city that is now modern-day Lebanon. It’s T-Y-R-E. I used to say Tyree, but I heard some other preachers saying Tyre, and I said, well, they’re saying Tyre.
01:01 Maybe they know. So if you know, you can always reach out to me, kjvcafe.com. You reach out, tell me what it is. But as far as we know, it’s a biblical city, Tyre.
01:09 Very important city. This is where Jesus went to heal the daughter of the woman that asked him to do so. And this is where he said, we don’t cast the children’s bread to dogs.
01:23 And she said, yeah, but even the dogs get the crumbs. And he said, hey, great is your faith. Your daughter’s healed.
01:29 And so he healed in Tyre. As I understand it, Paul was there. They’ve mentioned this place has been mentioned throughout the Bible, David and Solomon arranged to get cedar, cedar wood there for the great temple, Solomon’s temple.
01:44 That was these great, beautiful trees that came from Tyre as a port city. They were trading. They were very active.
01:48 And as I mentioned last episode, port cities are important in Bible times because they didn’t have things like air travel, trucking, interstates, didn’t have any of that.
01:59 And so if you look at a map and you look and see where Tyre is, it’s real close to Israel, modern day Israel, and it’s on the water and they kind of, you could easily see how they could kind of trade throughout the Mediterranean there and by trading there. And again, without having other methods logistically that we know about, right.
02:19 They became a powerhouse because they were doing business with everybody and anybody. And that drew the ire of God, a holy God and a righteous God, which we’ll get to in a little bit. But they were a very powerful place.
02:34 They were part of Phoenicia and the Phoenician people are known as the purple people. The reason why is because they were able to harvest a purple dye from these shells and you’d have all these shells and they would equal just a little bit together.
02:46 All the hundreds or thousands of shells would be enough dye to just dye the hem of a garment.
02:52 But that purple was considered more valuable than gold by some and that was their entire. So they were very rich. They were educated.
03:01 As I understand it, the first alphabet was developed there. They had talented crafts people. And again, they were on the coast.
03:08 Yet if you were to go there today, it would look kind of just like a ruinous place. There’s the water and yet there’s not a whole lot going on. I guess the tourism would be the industry there, but they found a better way to make dye or a cheaper way to make purple dye somewhere else.
03:26 And all of a sudden they don’t need this port anymore. And so it is a kind of a bygone place. You can go there and travel.
03:34 But again, you look at pictures not too long ago and you’ll see U.N. tanks and army soldiers there on the beach. And so it’s it’s not too far from Beirut. You know, there’s been conflict there.
03:43 So it’s an interesting place for sure. And it’s got a ton of biblical importance and it was growing and doing great. And then God judged this place and he allowed Babylon to take over for 70 years and to pretty much wipe it out.
03:59 And then the God allowed it to be rebuilt and people could go there and so forth. But it wasn’t the same as before. My research had showed.
04:10 And then Alexander the Great, as part of the Roman army, wiped it out completely later on. And then, like I said today, it’s nothing more than kind of just a little, little small town there on the water. And so we see here in our text verse something fascinating.
04:27 Isaiah 23:17-18. And it shall come to pass after the end of 70 years that the Lord will visit Tyre and she shall turn to her hire and she shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth and her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord.
04:44 And it shall not be treasured nor laid up for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing.
04:55 In these two verses, we see something fascinating. And throughout Isaiah 23, it’s not a long chapter. You should definitely read it for time’s sake.
05:02 We can’t go through it. I went through it in the last episode, but in Isaiah 23, you know, I would say every verse but the last is condemning Tyre saying, look, you are no good. You are a harlot.
05:12 You are doing business with wicked people. You are wicked. They were pagan.
05:17 They worshipped a god named Melchor, which the Greeks called Hercules. So they were pagan to the core. They did not believe in the God of the Hebrews, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
05:28 They didn’t believe in him. They didn’t believe on him. And so God’s saying, look, I’m going to judge you guys for living like this because you’re puffed up.
05:37 You think you’re somebody. And imagine a holy God. You know, imagine God in heaven looking down being like, OK, who put the dye, the purple dye that’s worth more than gold? Who put that in the shell? Did God put that in the shell? Yeah.
05:50 Who put that merchant there in that town? Did God not have that merchant born in that town? Who put the information needed to synthesize the first alphabet in the person’s head that developed the alphabet there? Did God not do that?
06:04 Is God not all powerful? Is he not worthy of all praise? I mean, think about how long suffering God was with them to even allow them to exist at all. Amen. To not wipe them out.
06:13 But God said something interesting here through the prophet Isaiah. And her merchandise shall be and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. Well, that doesn’t make sense.
06:24 People, they’re living like a harlot. They’re going to be they’ve been judged and they’re going to be judged. And it shall not be treasured nor laid up for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing.
06:36 And so we see here this really interesting principle from God that he will use some of the things from the wicked to benefit his own people. Right. I would say it like this, you know, look around in our society.
06:58 And I’ll be honest, in our household, we do a lot of boycotts. I mean, anybody see something that’s like people are going against God? We’re not going there anymore. So we’re in the car and our kids know, like, half the places we pass.
07:04 We can’t go there anymore. OK, we’re not under the law. We’re not trying to be perfect, but we love the Lord.
07:07 And, you know, if they’re going to say something that’s against godly ways, biblical ways, we’re just going to not go there. But it’s unavoidable, right? Like I work in technology. I’m on Google.
07:17 Do the people at Google really love God? I don’t know. Some do, I’m sure. But many probably don’t.
07:22 Only God knows. I can tell you, you know, I use a cell phone. Does the person that made that phone, the company that made that phone love the Lord? Facebook’s another example, right? And you can get into all kinds of crazy stuff with Facebook.
07:36 But, you know, I know missionaries that their primary tool for communicating is Facebook, Facebook Messenger. And yet those people don’t necessarily develop the software or whatever, really know the Lord or love the Lord.
07:49 Now, I know for a fact there are evangelical groups and there’s Christian groups in all of these companies.
07:56 So by no means am I saying Christians don’t exist in these companies, but I’m saying, generally speaking, that’s the remnant, the small group. And so yet people use these tools, right?
08:07 And so it’s just part of this interesting way of God. Because think about it.
08:12 If God is all powerful, right? He’s all knowledgeable. He’s all powerful. Why not just make a godly person to make everything good and have the godly people get the stuff from the godly person that made it?
08:22 And then it’s all just in the club of godly people, right? I mean, that sounds ridiculous, but God could do it.
08:28 Nothing’s too hard for God. But he chooses to use the wicked people, right? And their assets, their designs and their tools. And he allows them to be used by those that are serving him, that are bowing before him, that know the Lord.
08:47 It’s a mystery of God. It’s a fantastic mystery of God. And it’s a beautiful thing to think about because it helps us to understand that God loves all of his creation.
08:57 God desires all of his creation to be saved. The Bible says this exact thing. Let me read a few verses here that back this up.
09:05 2 Peter 3:9-10. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
09:18 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
09:31 Well, that sums it up in a nutshell. You have God desiring all to come to repentance, that none should perish. And then you have God’s judgment coming, and everything gets burned up that didn’t come to God.
09:41 Amen. 1 Timothy 2:4-6. Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth? This says who will have all men, all men to be saved. Amen.
09:49 Jesus said himself in his earthly ministry, he didn’t come to heal the healthy, he came to heal the sick. Verse 5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Who gave himself a ransom for all.
10:09 That’s 1 Timothy 2:6. A ransom for all. Twice here in 1 Timothy 2:4-6, we see the word all for everyone. So maybe God designed this principle of allowing the wicked to create and develop things that godly people use as a way for the two groups to have some interaction and potentially for God to be able to save them.
10:35 So we plant the seeds, God does the saving, right? Like Solomon is getting the cedars from the king there for the temple, and maybe Solomon and the king are talking or discussing, or maybe the king is looking at that temple, looking at the blessings on Solomon and the wisdom he has and saying, you know, who’s his God, right?
10:51 That has to be, I don’t know, God’s ways are higher than our ways, but that has to be it because, at least I believe so, because God is going to judge this place. And Tyre is an example of a place that’s already been judged. And you say, well, how do I know that they’re wicked? There’s many examples, one being Nehemiah 13:16.
11:08 There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish and all manner of wear and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem.
11:14 So Nehemiah 13:16 tells us that people of Tyre, they were doing business on the Sabbath, that wasn’t allowed, and they were tempting those Jewish people, God’s chosen people, to purchase and conduct business on those days, which isn’t allowed.
11:31 So they were, again, being a harlot, because they were also going and selling to someone else here, there, and everywhere.
11:37 And God saw this, and he judged them, right? And so what does that say about our companies, about people here? Again, the companies that make the devices and tools that we use today, will they not be judged?
11:49 The individuals will face judgment. The companies will be burned up to a crisp, amen. The individuals will face judgment, and yet God desires them to be saved. And so you have both things still happening today that were happening then.
12:02 And you ask, what’s behind this? What would make people turn away from God? How they were then, and how they are now? And that is pride, my friend, pride.
12:13 Pride is one of the reasons why an unbelief or lack of a fear of God is the other one. And look, in verse 9 of Isaiah 23, the Lord of hosts, that’s the Lord of armies, hath purposed it to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
12:33 You know, when you’re in contempt at court, you’re in trouble. And when you’re in contempt with God, you’re in big trouble. And God didn’t say to bring into contempt all the sinners of earth.
12:44 He said all the honorable of earth. That’s those people that think they don’t need God. They think that they’ve got it figured out.
12:47 They think that, hey, I’m accepted in the world. I’m promoted in the world. I’m lifted up.
12:52 I’m proud. I’m puffed up. I’m somebody, right? And God’s saying here through his word, I judged these people.
13:00 I raised them up so I could knock them down. I raised them up again and I knocked them down again. And now I’m putting it in my word.
13:06 So you read it and take heed that you don’t act like that, that you don’t live like that, that you fear me, that you fear me enough to understand that I will judge everything and that we are to turn to God with reverence and with a fear and adoration.
13:19 And that we should praise God and serve him with our whole heart, wholeheartedly. I wish I had time to expand on that, but I don’t.
13:27 But the idea here is what had been done in the Bible times there entire, which is now modern day Lebanon. You can go look at pictures of what it looks like now. It’s ruins, okay? What had been done there will happen again.
13:43 Amen. It’ll happen again. Everything will be brought low.
13:45 In the book of Revelation, there’s a scripture about how Babylon is burning up and people are weeping. And it’s not a literal Babylon because Babylon, you can see it in modern day Iraq. It’s already burnt up to a crisp, but people are weeping.
13:57 Figure it out. London, New York City, San Francisco, wherever. They’re weeping and all the glory is just burning up.
14:06 God is going to do it. Amen. He’s already given prophecy and fulfilled it so many times.
14:09 And it will happen again. Amen. Where the Lord will come and judge this earth.
14:13 And the question is, are you ready for that day? If not, it is today. Let today be the day of salvation and today be the day you return to him. Okay.
14:21 For time’s sake, we’re done. Tune in next time for the third part of the three-part series on this message. Thank you so much for listening.
14:28 Take care. God bless and amen.