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Isaiah 23-25
Skip Heitzig

Isaiah 23 (NKJV™)
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.
2 Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland, You merchants of Sidon, Whom those who cross the sea have filled.
3 And on great waters the grain of Shihor, The harvest of the River, is her revenue; And she is a marketplace for the nations.
4 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."
5 When the report reaches Egypt, They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish; Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
7 Is this your joyous city, Whose antiquity is from ancient days, Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?
8 Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, Whose merchants are princes, Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
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.
10 Overflow through your land like the River, O daughter of Tarshish; There is no more strength.
11 He stretched out His hand over the sea, He shook the kingdoms; The LORD has given a commandment against Canaan To destroy its strongholds.
12 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."
13 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.
14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For your strength is laid waste.
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:
16 "Take a harp, go about the city, You forgotten harlot; Make sweet melody, sing many songs, That you may be remembered."
17 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.
18 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.
Isaiah 24 (NKJV™)
1 Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste, Distorts its surface And scatters abroad its inhabitants.
2 And it shall be: As with the people, so with the priest; As with the servant, so with his master; As with the maid, so with her mistress; As with the buyer, so with the seller; As with the lender, so with the borrower; As with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3 The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered, For the LORD has spoken this word.
4 The earth mourns and fades away, The world languishes and fades away; The haughty people of the earth languish.
5 The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed the laws, Changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, And those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, And few men are left.
7 The new wine fails, the vine languishes, All the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The mirth of the tambourine ceases, The noise of the jubilant ends, The joy of the harp ceases.
9 They shall not drink wine with a song; Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down; Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
11 There is a cry for wine in the streets, All joy is darkened, The mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city desolation is left, And the gate is stricken with destruction.
13 When it shall be thus in the midst of the land among the people, It shall be like the shaking of an olive tree, Like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.
14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing; For the majesty of the LORD They shall cry aloud from the sea.
15 Therefore glorify the LORD in the dawning light, The name of the LORD God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
16 From the ends of the earth we have heard songs: "Glory to the righteous!" But I said, "I am ruined, ruined! Woe to me! The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously, Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously."
17 Fear and the pit and the snare Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall be That he who flees from the noise of the fear Shall fall into the pit, And he who comes up from the midst of the pit Shall be caught in the snare; For the windows from on high are open, And the foundations of the earth are shaken.
19 The earth is violently broken, The earth is split open, The earth is shaken exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, And shall totter like a hut; Its transgression shall be heavy upon it, And it will fall, and not rise again.
21 It shall come to pass in that day That the LORD will punish on high the host of exalted ones, And on the earth the kings of the earth.
22 They will be gathered together, As prisoners are gathered in the pit, And will be shut up in the prison; After many days they will be punished.
23 Then the moon will be disgraced And the sun ashamed; For the LORD of hosts will reign On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem And before His elders, gloriously.
Isaiah 25 (NKJV™)
1 O LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, For You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For You have made a city a ruin, A fortified city a ruin, A palace of foreigners to be a city no more; It will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore the strong people will glorify You; The city of the terrible nations will fear You.
4 For You have been a strength to the poor, A strength to the needy in his distress, A refuge from the storm, A shade from the heat; For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You will reduce the noise of aliens, As heat in a dry place; As heat in the shadow of a cloud, The song of the terrible ones will be diminished.
6 And in this mountain The LORD of hosts will make for all people A feast of choice pieces, A feast of wines on the lees, Of fat things full of marrow, Of well-refined wines on the lees.
7 And He will destroy on this mountain The surface of the covering cast over all people, And the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.
9 And it will be said in that day: "Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."
10 For on this mountain the hand of the LORD will rest, And Moab shall be trampled down under Him, As straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.
11 And He will spread out His hands in their midst As a swimmer reaches out to swim, And He will bring down their pride Together with the trickery of their hands.
12 The fortress of the high fort of your walls He will bring down, lay low, And bring to the ground, down to the dust.

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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23 Isaiah - 2004

During His ministry on earth, Jesus quoted Isaiah more than any other prophet. In this series, Skip Heitzig takes a look at this well-known book in which Isaiah called for Israel to repent from their sins, pointing to the ultimate Deliverer who would bring salvation.

Please note: this series is missing chapters 1-16. No recording of these chapters are available.

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Transcript

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Paul the Apostle commended a New Testament church because they received the word of God as it really was-- not as the word of man, but as the word of God. We've gathered tonight much the same way they did, because we truly believe that God has something to say in His word, and we hold it all to be true. But not everybody does.

In the state of Indiana there are six inns within the national park system. And in those inns, those hotels, the Gideon Bible Society has placed Bibles, like they do all over the country and all over the world, in each hotel room. But because it's part of the state system, the Department of Natural Resources has been pressured by the ACLU and demanded that warning labels be affixed to all of the Gideon Bibles--

[LAUGHTER]

--in each of the rooms. The label has a picture of the Bible and then a large warning sign: "Warning!"-- exclamation mark. "Literal belief in this book can be hazardous to your health," says the warning label. Then it goes on to further warn the reader, saying that the Bible is a violent, racist, sexist fable.

God would have a different label, wouldn't He?

Yeah.

One that might say, "A failure to believe in this book"-- or you might say, disregard for this book-- "is hazardous to your health, eternally." I've discovered something about people who want to dismiss the Bible as the word of God. They have trouble with the Bible, they say-- and it's not really because it contradicts itself, though that's what they'll say-- but because it contradicts them. And because it contradicts them, they will say wrongly-- usually with absolutely no evidence at all-- that it contradicts itself.

That's why it's great to read through the prophecies of the Bible and see how they have been fulfilled. And tonight we're on chapter 23 and 24 and 25. And what's great about doing these three chapters is you get a dramatic sweep of past and future. Some events have been fulfilled. Other events are yet to be fulfilled.

We're going to read about the fall of the Phoenician city of Tyre, the seaport city. That's past tense. Done. It's history.

But then chapter 24 is going to go into the day of the Lord. It's eschatological. It will take us into the tribulation period. And chapter 25-- praises sung during the millennial reign of Christ upon the Earth, a 1,000-year reign.

And what's great about that is, in one sense, you can look at what has already been fulfilled and you could rightly figure, if God can do that, and if those things that he predicted so long before have already been fulfilled, then you can bank on the fact that all of the things written in the chapters that come after 24 and 25 that speak of the future will also be fulfilled. Therein lies, by the way, the purpose of prophecy.

In Isaiah 46, we'll read-- and I'm reading ahead-- God says, "I am God. There is no other. I am God. There is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things that are not yet done."

Jesus referred to the scriptures, and He said, "The scripture cannot be broken." He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, not one jot, not one tittle, will pass from the Law till all is fulfilled." It will be fulfilled down to the smallest letter-- the yod, the jot-- and the little marks that are made on the Hebrew letters, the tittles. Everything will be fulfilled.

Solomon wrote, "There is nothing new under the sun." And I thought about that this week when I started reading the first few verses of chapter 23, because we're dealing with Tyre, which is in present-day Lebanon. It's an ancient city that is in ruins today.

But history and scripture reveals that in ancient times, the people of Tyre would capture Jews and sell them as slaves to the Greeks. I thought about that because this last week, the Hezbollah guerrilla group, the terrorist organization in southern Lebanon, which traditionally has lobbed Katyusha rockets over into northern Israel-- they're at it again. They're after God's people, the Jews, again. They fired anti-aircraft missiles just for the sake of terrorizing those people that live in the settlements. Nothing new under the sun.

Well, let's read what God has to say in judgment of that ancient city. "The burden against Tyre. Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for the land is laid waste, so that there is no house, no harbor from the land of Cyprus"-- the ancient word Chittim-- "it is revealed to them." "Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whom those who cross over the sea have filled."

The seaport of Tyre was located about 35 miles north of Mount Carmel, at about 25 to 30 miles to the east of Mount Hermon. It's an ancient city, one of the oldest. Herodotus the Greek tells us it was founded somewhere around 2700 BC.

It had a glorious history. In part, the king, named Hiram, was good friends with King David down south. Their friendship grew over the years, so much so that when Solomon, David's son, was upon the throne of Israel, the united monarchy, Hiram shipped down wood, timber, to construct the Temple there in Jerusalem.

And there's two cities that are mentioned in our text, and they are often coupled together in the scripture-- Tyre and Sidon. Sidon is about 25, 30 miles north of Tyre. And she was referred to as the mother city of Tyre, simply because Sidon came first, and people from Sidon went down and settled the area of Tyre. But soon the city of Tyre grew in wealth and prominence throughout the world, so that people didn't hear much about Sidon, but they heard about Tyre because of her wealth.

She derived her wealth from the Phoenicians, who were traders-- not traitors, but traders-- businessmen, entrepreneurs at the sea. The way Lebanon is constructed, it's a very shallow coastal plain. So you've got sea, a strip of land, and then the mountains rise quickly just to the east. Because of that, there wasn't much agriculture, and the Phoenicians turned toward seaports of the world, conquering the world, and making merchandise through its entrepreneurial trading, gaining the wealth thereof.

Verse 3: "And on the great waters, the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the river is her revenue. And she is a marketplace for the nations." The picture that is drawn in the first few verses is a fleet of Phoenician ships. They've been out on the waters, and they're now coming back from Tarshish, that southern coastal city in Spain. And they're on their way back to Tyre.

They make it to Cyprus. And they're in Cyprus. The news has already spread that their mother city, the city where they started from, their capital, Tyre, is fallen. It's destroyed. It's too late. The houses are gone. There's no place to lodge.

The Phoenicians penetrated most of the ports of the Mediterranean. I'd already mentioned Tarshish. That's Spain. That's where Jonah, by the way, tried to escape from God.

You know the story. God told him to go to Nineveh. He went in the opposite direction, like he wanted to take a vacation to Spain. But God got his attention, and when he was really down in the mouth, he called out to God, and he went to the place God told him-- to Nineveh. Great revival broke out.

Also the Phoenicians made their way to Britain, the land of tin. "Britannia" is a word that means "the land of tin." They settled parts of that land and took materials and brought it all over the world.

Verse 3 mentions her status among the nations. She is a marketplace for the nations. The wealth of the nations, including Egypt, from the Nile, et cetera, all made their way to this city. "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.'"

As I mentioned, Sidon birthed Tyre. And the city of Tyre developed because people came from that city to start a new settlement, the settlement of Tyre. But the prediction here is that destruction that is coming upon the city of Tyre would leave it vulnerable to the storms at the sea. There would be no redevelopment of that town.

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?"

You should probably know from this prediction, from the time of this prophecy, that Tyre would fall. Tyre was besieged five separate occasions by a few different groups of people, including Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes, Persians. But the city didn't ultimately fall, in terms of being absolutely destroyed, till the year 332 with Alexander the Great.

Now, eventually we're going to get to the book of Ezekiel on Sunday nights, and around the 26th and 27th chapter is a detailed description of the fall of the city of Tyre, much more detail than even this chapter gives. And in Ezekiel, chapter 26, that prophet says-- it's the voice of the Lord-- "I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock."

If you follow history, especially Alexander the Great, you would swear that he was going by the script of the Bible when he took over that city. It's as if he read it first and took his cues from the scripture. Let me tell you a little bit about Alexander the Not-So-Great.

[LAUGHTER]

He had a thirst for power that was unparalleled. Somebody once said, "Power is like salt water. The more you drink, the thirstier you get." That was Alexander.

His dad was named Philip of Macedon. And Philip, incidentally, thought that his son Alexander wouldn't amount to much. He was worried about him. And so he brought in a tutor just to help the boy out.

His tutor was interesting. His name was Aristotle. And he discovered that Alexander took to books. He loved to learn, was a visionary, a bookworm.

When Alexander was 19 years of age, his dad Philip of Macedon, was murdered. And it so inflamed Alexander, he decided to take up his father's cause. He marshaled an army that moved from west to east, and he decided first to attack Medo-Persia because of what they had done to the Macedonians about 150 years before.

And as Alexander went-- and he was a young man. In fact, by the time he was 31 years of age, it is reported that he, in Babylon, sat down in his bed and wept that there were no more worlds for the boy to conquer. No more challenges left. But prior to that, he had taken over so many nations, slaughtered so many people.

And he made it to the city of Tyre. And because the city of Tyre did not give him the supplies that he asked, he attacked it. He marshaled that army, and he attacked it.

Now, after the Babylonians destroyed the city of Tyre-- that is, the city on the coast-- There were two, by the way. One was located on the shore. Another was located, because it was rebuilt some time later, about a half a mile offshore on an island. The Babylonians came and attacked the city, and after that city fell, at least partially, they relocated it to an island, as I mentioned, about a half mile off the coast.

It was smart, because they were seafaring peoples. They could fight battles on the sea like nobody's business. Alexander knew that. And so he was wise not to take a navy and surround that island, because he knew what the Phoenicians could do by sea.

So Alexander took some of the ruins-- the potsherds, the bricks, the timbers, the dust-- scraping the ruins of the ancient city of Tyre on the coast-- and threw it into the sea, building a jetty, a causeway. And compacted it. And after it was built, walked out on toward the island out in the sea after scraping the dust, and he took the city, and it fell in 332.

You would think that the guy read the book first, scraping the dust and taking the city, as the prophet declared. And I love the Bible. It's so accurate. And it's funny to watch the skeptics, when you tell them these kinds of things, say, "It must be a coincidence," or, "There must be some natural explanation."

Dr. A. Cressy Morrison, New York Academy of Science, illustrates the problem. He said, suppose I have in my pocket 10 pennies, and they're all marked-- one, two, three, all the way to 10. And I put them all in my pocket. I can't see them. I mix them up, and then I make a prediction.

Here's my prediction. I'm going to reach into my pocket, and I'm going to choose penny marked number one. What are the odds? One in 10.

If he says, now I'm going to reach in my pocket and select penny marked number two. Now I exponentially reduce my odds of selecting that to about 1 in 100-- to 1 in 100. And as I go to three and four, it becomes increasingly more improbable that I can say that I'm going to get all the pennies, one through 10, in sequence. If I could do it-- the odds are 1 in 100 billion.

Now, if I could do that, that would be quite a trick. But somebody would say, something's up. The game is fixed somehow. And so when we read the Bible and we discover that these predictions were made so long before the events actually transpired, some people, in their skepticism, say, "The game's fixed." You betcha the game's fixed.

[LAUGHTER]

We have an omniscient God who has no problem at all speaking things into existence before they happen. That's His calling card. Isaiah 48. In fact, He calls upon the gods of other nations and challenges them-- as if to say, let's have a battle of the gods. Let's see if you can do this. And they can't, of course. Fulfilled prophecy.

Verse 8. Who has taken this counsel against Tyre? The crowning city"-- literally, "the giver of crowns"-- "whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth." Tyre was the crowning city. Tyre would go in and establish city-states. They would establish colonies.

We call them vassal states. That is, they owe their allegiance to the crown, to Tyre. They did not have the right of self-governance. That's how they operated.

And Tyre was a prestigious city, known around the world as being wealthy, cosmopolitan. And she knew it, and she was prideful because of it. That was her downfall.

Verse 9. "The Lord of Hosts has purposed it to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt the honorable of the earth." God hates pride, and I'll tell you why. God hates pride because of what it does.

Pride destroys. It destroys families, marriages, churches, ministries, groups, and individuals. No wonder, then, in the book of Proverbs, we read, "Six things the Lord hates, yea, seven are an abomination." And first on the list, a proud look.

Here's the picture. Tyre is puffed up, arrogant because of her wealth, her prestige, her beauty. And that gets God's attention. And God judges that city for the way they treated the Jews and because of the pride of her wealth.

Jesus said, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." You might look at it this way, then: the way up is the way down. The way down is the way up. I mean, think about it. Think of the difference between the approach and the life lived by Jesus Christ and the approach and life that has been lived by Satan.

Remember Isaiah chapter 14? "I will exalt myself above the stars of God. I will be like the Most High." I'm going up, man. You know what God says? "You will be brought down to Sheol"-- down to the pit. So Satan says, I'm going up higher. God says, you're going down.

Jesus, on the other hand, had the opposite approach. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," Paul writes to the Philippians, "who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery or a thing to be grasped at all costs to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation and came in the form of a servant, wherefore God has also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name-- that is, the name of Jesus Christ. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess." Jesus said, I will humble myself and go low. The Father said, I will exalt you.

That must mean, then, that we are never more like the devil than when we exalt ourselves, and perhaps were never more like Jesus than when we humble ourselves. Tyre exalted herself. She was brought low in judgment.

10th verse. "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"-- or "the merchant city," as it is in the King James-- "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"-- they wouldn't come for another 100 years-- that is, the Babylonians--

"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 70 years, according to the days of one king. At the end of 70 years, it will happen to Tyre as the song of the harlot: 'Take up a harp. Go about the city, you forgotten harlot. Make sweet melodies, sing many songs, that you may be remembered."

It's a pathetic picture, really. It's a picture of an old harlot who has passed her prime, passed her time, and in her old age she takes a harp and goes and hits the streets and sings songs, as if to get business back from previous supporters, because now she is poor and now she is forgotten, is the picture of Tyre.

Verse 17. "It shall be at the end of 70 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. 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."

There's a couple of different dates that are given to this last couple of verses, and most scholars really aren't sure what it applies to. One is the date 700 BC to 6:30 BC, when the Assyrians stifled trade there in Tyre and its revenues greatly diminished. And afterwards, that was reversed, and the trade opened up once again.

The other thought is the 70 years refers to the period of Babylonian captivity, that same period that Judah had been taken-- or would be taken-- captive later on in Babylon. And the thought is that, in Israel coming back, that Tyre would be opened up and help rebuild the temple that had been broken down. That did happen, and that is a thought as to its fulfillment.

But the last 11 chapters, before we jump into chapter 24, are over. Hallelujah. The judgment part of this, of all the nations, we're done with. Now we open up into an entirely new and distinct section.

Before we do, though, there are some lessons, lessons that come out of chapters 23-- or chapters 13 through 23, the 11 chapters that we covered. Lesson number one: God is in control of the nations of the world and can do with them whatever He pleases.

It's funny how human beings from time to time want to shake their fists at God and question God. Why would God? How could God? As if they could ever enter into the mindset of perfection and omniscience and omnipotence.

Bottom line is God created the earth, created the universe. He can do whatever He wants. It's His.

Nebuchadnezzar had to learn the hard way, didn't he? He was prideful. "This is the great Babylon, which I have built." God humbled him.

And after a period of eating grass and acting like an animal and living out in the field with his nails growing long, he finally discovered the truth. "The Most High, he said, "reigns in the kingdom of men, and he gives it to whomever he chooses." So God is in control of the nations of the world, the nations of the earth, and He can do as He pleases.

Second, God especially hates the sin of pride. And you find a string thought that runs through all of these chapters that God judges. They were haughty. They were prideful. They trusted in their armaments.

Pride is dangerous for an individual. It's dangerous for a nation. Any nation that would trust in its wealth, its prestige, its power, its history, its armaments-- it's a dangerous position.

Third lesson is God judges nations for the way they treat His people, the Jews. You can look back through the lens of history, and you'll discover all of those nations that hassled and came against God's people, the Jews, how God dealt with them eventually. No wonder, then, God says, "Whoever touches Israel touches the apple of my eye."

Imagine getting a speck of dust in your eye. You're blinking all the time. It hurts. "Whoever touches Israel touches the apple of my eye."

Now in chapter 24, we're moving far into the future. The next four chapters are a unique section of scripture. They're apocalyptic.

We're speaking now of the day of the Lord. They're global in nature, global in scope. And they will correspond in part to the Book of Revelation chapter 6 through 20, especially chapter 24, which deals with the great tribulation period.

"The tribulation that is coming on the earth will be worse than the earth has ever seen at any time in its history." This is what Jesus said, Matthew 24. "Then there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be."

What a statement. Think of all of the past dark periods of history. Think of the Dark Ages, a time when education was low, enlightenment was low. There was a suspension in progress. They call it the Dark Ages. You could look back to World War I or World War II.

But of all of human history, the worse is yet to come, Jesus predicted. It will be worse than any other time. Now, you should also know that there's more space devoted to the tribulation period in the Old Testament than there is to the Second Coming. It's written about in graphic detail.

One of our astronauts who went to the moon was up in space, and he looked down upon the earth, and he said, "It's perfect. It's beautiful." But if that same astronaut were to get that same view after the tribulation was over, it would be the exact opposite view. The earth will be destroyed. The earth will be judged by God.

All of the judgments we've read about so far are sort of like the story we mentioned last week of Big John. Big John's coming-- and in chapter 24, it's here. When we get to the Book of Revelation, we're going to see that the intensity of judgment is progressive.

It begins with the opening of seals. Seven seals are opened, and judgments come upon the earth. But then the opening of the seventh seal ushers in seven trumpet judgments.

Again, wrath is poured out upon the earth in more intensity and more volume. And then the seventh trumpet sounds, which brings in the pouring out of seven bowls of God's wrath upon the earth. So its progression intensifies as the book goes on.

Let's look at it in Isaiah 24. "Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty, makes it waste, distorts its surface"-- or as the King James says, "turneth it upside down"-- "and scatters abroad its inhabitants."

The word for "earth" is the Hebrew word eretz. It's the generic term that the Hebrews used for the entire world. Even in their prayer, their kiddush, they speak about ha-motzi lechem min ha-eretz, "God who brings forth bread from the earth." It's that generic term for the world. It's the scope of the tribulation as God judges the earth. That's what's in view here.

The place that I moved from a few months ago was up at about 7800 feet in elevation. And I could look out my back deck-- most nights were clear-- and it was as if you could pluck the stars right out of the sky. And I have this little telescope-- I know that Pastor Chuck, he used to always talk about the stars, and so I got a telescope, and I'd look up at the moon and some of the brighter stars at night, and I'd think about our universe.

I'm looking at a little portion, I'd think, of the Milky Way galaxy, stunning in beauty. The Milky Way galaxy has billions-- they say up to 100 billion stars in it. If you were to measure it, astronomers will tell you it's about 10,000 light years wide by 100,000 light years long. That's your backyard.

What that means is if you are traveling the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, it would take you 100,000 years to get from one end of it to the other. And after 100,000 years, once you're out of the Milky Way galaxy, you're barely out the backyard, because there's billions-- some say up to 100 billion-- other galaxies besides. God holds them all together. Colossians, chapter 1, speaking of Jesus Christ: "In Him, all things consist" or are held together.

Question is, what happens if He lets go? Total destruction. Devastation. The earth is laid waste.

Some people believe that verse 1 refers to the shift, or a flop of the polar axis. Those who study-- the physicists who study this stuff will say that the magnetic poles on the earth are different now than they used to be years ago, and some believe it has been flipped once. And scholars, some will believe this is another flip of the polar axis.

Verse 2. "In it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor. The land shall be entirely emptied, utterly plundered, for the Lord has spoken this word." Everyone on earth, high and low, rich and poor, famous and infamous, will be affected.

"The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The haughty people of the earth languish. The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws"-- now watch this-- "changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant."

If you were to look through the scriptures, you will discover that God often refers to the covenant he made with Abraham as the "everlasting covenant." Genesis 17: "I will make with you and with your descendants an everlasting covenant." And that's the covenant of the plot of land over in the Middle East today called the nation of Israel.

Now, originally, when God gave to Abraham that promise, he promised him about 300,000 square miles. Israel, at its peak, at its zenith under King Solomon, only occupied about 30,000 square miles. So they've never totally occupied that everlasting covenant of land that God originally promised-- only a tenth of all that God promised has she enjoyed.

Now, today, even what Israel occupies is under huge dispute, and the nations that surround Israel today would love it if Israel were pushed into the sea and totally obliterated. I think about this verse, and I think about another judgment that is coming. It's called the judgment to the nations.

It's in Matthew 25. What Jesus said is, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory"-- this is his second coming-- "He will sit upon His throne in glory, and all nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."

Now, there is a group of people-- amillennialists, we call them-- they don't believe in a literal kingdom age, a thousand-year period on the Earth-- who look at Matthew 25 as being just the generic judgment at the end for everybody and all people. But it's not so. This is when Jesus comes back the second time.

Armageddon is over. The tribulation has ended. And the nations of the world are judged based upon their treatment of what Jesus calls "my brethren"-- the Jews-- most specifically, how they're treated during the tribulation period, their persecution by the peoples of the earth.

You know, I would never want to be in the shoes of any government or nation that would go against Israel's right to exist as a nation, based upon what I know of history and of the scripture and what God calls this "everlasting covenant," nor would I ever want to be a part of a belief system, a religious system, that in its holy book curses the Jews for their unbelief, curses them as infidels. [INHALING SHARPLY] I know too much of history to want to stand in those shoes. Part of that judgment-- well, because they changed the ordinances and broke the everlasting covenant.

"Therefore"-- verse 6-- "the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell on it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few are left." You read through the Book of Revelation, you get to chapter 6, and you find that that pale horse of death rides forth, and 1/4 of the population of Earth is obliterated in that one judgment. You read a few more chapters, and 1/3 of the population of the earth that's left is obliterated. So now you've reduced the earth to 50% of its original population from those who entered the tribulation to those two judgments.

As it says in verse 6, "And few men are left. The new wine fails. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted side-- the mirth of the tambourine ceases. The noise of the jubilant ends. The joy of the harp ceases.

And they shall not drink wine with a song. Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. The city of confusion is broken down. Every house is shut up so that none may go in.

There is a cry for wine in the streets. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. In the city, desolation is left, and the gate is stricken with destruction.

When it shall be thus in the midst of the land, among the people it shall be like the shaking of an olive tree, like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done. They shall lift up their voice. They shall sing for the majesty of the Lord. They shall cry aloud from the sea."

Now here's a question. Who would ever sing at the judgment of God during the tribulation period? I'll tell you who. I can think of a couple of groups.

Those who were martyred during the tribulation, the souls under the altar. "How long, O Lord," they cry, "until you avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" Another group would be the tribulation saints, those who make it through-- even though there will be few-- to the end of the tribulation. They're singing.

Now, people will be saved during the tribulation, for good reason. There's going to be two outstanding witnesses who are going to lead to Christ 144,000 Jews. Imagine 144,000 Jewish evangelists. Have you ever seen one?

[LAUGHTER]

They're pretty amazing. They're on fire. Imagine 144,000 of them.

And then also the Bible describes an angel flying through heaven proclaiming the everlasting gospel to all who dwell on the face of the earth. God's got it covered. Even in that period of judgment, great mercy is shown, and people can turn to Christ. And so there is singing, because finally God is acting and judging the earth that has so persecuted God's people.

And by the way, I think we're going to be singing as well. I'll tell you why. Every time we read a newspaper article where a child is molested, where a woman is raped, where an evil tyrant rules-- and we walk away from reading that, and we are disgusted.

The very idea that God would just let it slide and not judge is repulsive. It's reprehensible. It goes against God being a just God. God must judge sin-- and He will. And when He does, the world is going to rejoice.

And by the way, you don't have to worry about the judgment of God. So many people say, how could God judge? He's going to be perfectly fair. He's the only one capable. He's omniscient. He knows everything, every motive.

Revelation 20 says, "And the books were opened." God will be able to be perfectly just. As the books are opened, He knows everything that has happened.

"Therefore, glorify the Lord in the dawning light, the name of the Lord God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we have heard songs: 'Glory to the righteous'"-- that is, to the righteous one, God.

"But I said, I am ruined, ruined"-- or, "my leanness, my leanness." "Woe to me. The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously." Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

Now here's Isaiah. He's pondering the pain and the anguish as he sees this vision of judgment. And he's not singing at this point, because he's pondering all the pain that's going to happen before the end of the tribulation, before the kingdom age.

It's very similar to John in the Book of Revelation when the strong angel gives him the scroll, and he eats it. And he said, "It was bitter to my taste"-- or "It was sweet to my taste but bitter in my stomach." He knew that eventually sweetness would come, but it caused him to be upset in his stomach because of the judgment that must precede the kingdom age.

"Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitants of the earth." There is a very popular clothing brand out there called No Fear. Have you seen it? It's everywhere. Kids think it's cool.

I was in an airport not long ago, and I saw a No Fear T-shirt with a different spin on it. It said, "Absolutely, positively, 100%, most definitely, without a doubt no fear." And as I looked at that shirt I thought, that won't be a good shirt to wear in the tribulation.

[LAUGHTER]

It just won't work. Jesus described that time as a time when men's hearts will be failing them for fear because of the expectation of those things that are coming upon the earth. It will be a fearful time. Think of the fear that we experienced after 9/11. Think of the fear people now are living with with the heightened security risks.

I had an FBI briefing a few weeks ago-- I'm a chaplain for the FBI-- and the whole briefing was on terrorist organizations in the state of California and in the United States and what possibilities to expect. Could have heard a pin drop in that room. Fear. That marks the tribulation period.

"And it shall be that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit. He who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare, for the windows from high are open. The foundations of the earth are shaken." Sounds like the prophet was living in California--

[LAUGHTER]

--on the San Andreas. "The earth is violently broken up. The earth is split open. The earth is shaken exceedingly."

Anyone who looks at the surface of the moon through a telescope discovers that we don't live in a peaceful universe but a violent one, as the moon has been barraged with craters and debris for a number of years. Even our Earth has seen some of it already. There's a crater out in Arizona-- and I drove by it on my way back to the state of California-- the Barringer crater, a mile wide, 570 feet deep. They say that the impact of that crater was 1,000 times the explosive force of the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together. What if God decided to throw a few more?

Now, you read about, in the Book of Revelation, hailstones coming from heaven that weigh 125 pounds. Ever bought one of those blocks of ice that weigh 25 pounds? Imagine 125 pounds.

Question: Why would God send hailstones? Well, we know in the Old Testament what the punishment was for blasphemy: stoning. It's as if God is stoning the earth according to His own law for its idolatry and its sin.

"The earth is split open. The earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard, shall totter like a hut. Its transgression shall be heavy upon it. It will fall and not rise again.

It shall come to pass in that day the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth, the kings of the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit. They will be shut up in the prison. After many days, they will be punished."

Environmentalists-- bless their hearts.

[LAUGHTER]

And I am not advocating go out and litter or trash the planet. But environmentalists want us to call the earth "Mother." It's "Mother Earth." It's "Mother Nature." And there is even Earth Day, where we are to pay homage to this earth and to respect it.

And it is something to be respected. God did give it to us. We should be good stewards of it.

But if you're worried about the environment, you really shouldn't read the Book of Revelation--

[LAUGHTER]

--because as you read through the Book of Revelation, if you think we're messing up the world, wait till you see what God does to it in the tribulation.

[LAUGHTER]

He trashes it completely. It is destroyed.

And also, "The Lord will punish on high"-- as we mentioned-- "the host of exalted ones. They will gather together"-- verse 22-- "as prisoners are gathered in the pit and shut up in the prison. After many days, they will be punished."

When Jesus comes the second time, His second appearance to planet earth, the antichrist and the false prophet-- they are going to be cast into Gehenna. Satan will be bound 1,000 years in the abyss. Afterwards, he's going to be released.

But what's great to know is that all of those demons, that demonic horde, the host of Satan's buddies have hassled us-- for we wrestle not against flesh and blood-- they got something coming. God's going to deal with them. All of the years we've been tempted and hassled and the earth destroyed by false doctrine-- their day's coming.

Now, in chapter 25, the glorious kingdom of God is in view, as in the following chapters. We have time to breeze through it.

"O Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things. Your counsels of old are faithfulness and true, for you have made a city a ruin, a fortified city a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more. It will never be rebuilt.

Therefore the strong people will glorify you. The city and the terrible nations will fear you, for you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the blast of the terrible one-- or the terrible ones-- is as a storm against a wall."

After the tribulation, there's going to be 1,000 years of peace upon a recreated earth. Now, I've been asked the question, why would God need to give us a millennium, a kingdom age, upon the earth? Why not just take us, after the tribulation period, right into the eternal state of heaven and the new Jerusalem, et cetera? Why?

Couple of reasons. Number one is because God is going to judge the earth, and it's going to look really trashed by the end of the tribulation. He'll pour out His judgments and wrath upon it. And creation has fallen under a curse as well. So God will renew, restore.

Second, because God has made promises to the nation of Israel, that there would be a geocentric nation in Mount Zion upon which Jesus Christ would reign with his people, the nation of Israel. All of the promises he made to Abraham, to David, confirming it with an oath like in Psalm 89-- God has yet to fulfill those promises. And they will be fulfilled for 1,000 years.

Verse 5. "You will reduce the noise of aliens." Don't think Roswell here. Think foreigners, outsiders, unbelievers.

"As heat in a dry place, as heat in the shadow of a cloud, the song of the terrible ones will be diminished, and in this mountain, O Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well refined wines on the lees."

I love it. You won't have to worry about anything you eat in the kingdom age.

[LAUGHTER]

All of the fat things you can eat, and don't worry about putting on weight. You'll have a new body anyway. Isn't that great? Holy calories.

[LAUGHTER]

And we'll be gathered together. Maybe we'll be called Calorie Chapel at that time.

[LAUGHTER]

Eating the choice things of the earth in the kingdom.

OK, verse 7. "And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever." The text that Pastor Chuck gave this morning. "And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken."

God has created you and I with interesting little holes at the corners of our eyes called lacrimal ducts attached to glands, lacrimal glands. They exude tears. It's for the health of your eyes. It's to put an enzyme in there to kill bacteria, to wipe away foreign bodies.

But it's also-- those ducts are attached to the emotional centers of your brain. Especially when you're sad, tears are shed. I believe, in the kingdom age, your new body won't have lacrimal ducts, won't have lacrimal glands. You won't need them.

Don't get the idea that you enter heaven wailing and weeping, and God takes the hankie and wipes away the tears. This is a metaphor. No crying. It's absolute joy, absolute exultation, an eternal party.

"For God's wonders, joy over all the world. And it will be said in that day, 'Behold, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."

After a long period of darkness, after a period of the antichrist rules, the real Christ comes. The messiah reigns. And the earth has been waiting, languishing in expectation. This is the one. And Jesus will take His rightful place and rule and reign forever.

Imagine-- no hospitals, no rehabilitation clinics, no wheelchairs, no blindness, no pain, no disease. Tell you what, when we think and talk about heaven, we've got to do it with joy in our hearts. Charles Spurgeon used to tell his young seminary students, "When you talk of hell"-- or, "When you talk of heaven, let your face light up. Let joy fill every part of your face when you speak of heaven." He said, "When you speak of hell, your ordinary face will do."

[LAUGHTER]

But when you speak of heaven, there ought to be a change.

"For on this mountain, the hand of the Lord will rest, and Moab will be trampled down under him as straw is trampled down for the refuse heap. And He will spread out His hands in their midst as a swimmer reaches out to swim. And He will bring down their pride, together with the trickery of their hands. The fortress of the high fort of your walls He will bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, down to the dust."

The pride of man will be brought low, and as Jesus promised, the meek shall inherit the earth. And here we see the meek inheriting the earth.

Back to that warning label: "Disregard, for this book is hazardous to your health."

There was a wealthy businessman who came from China to the United States of America, and he saw a microscope for the first time. He was amazed. He had to have one. He bought it, took it home with him back to China.

But he made a mistake. He took his favorite food, chicken and rice, smushed it down onto a little visual plate, stuck it under the microscope, and began observing bugs--

[LAUGHTER]

--those tiny little microscopic critters, crawling all over his food. You know what his solution was? He broke the microscope.

[LAUGHTER]

[LAUGHING] That's what a lot of people do with the Bible. It examines our lives. It tells us the truth about heaven, hell, the present, and the future, and some people try to attack it because it shows them the truth. This is God's glorious word, and we've just read what has happened, and we can bank on the fact that what God promises will happen will happen.

Heavenly Father, how grateful we are that this is not fiction, but fact. You've described for us a hard future in the tribulation. Thank You, Lord, that those of us who wait for You will not go through the tribulation. We pray as we're told by our Lord, that we might escape all of these things and be standing before the Son of Man.

We're worthy because of Your blood, and we pray that we might walk and stay in that place. And I would pray, Lord, if anyone here doesn't know You or is unsure about his or her future, that they would make a commitment to You tonight, here in this place. In Jesus's name, Amen.

Shall we stand? If you feel like you would like to be ministered to tonight, prayed for, needs or problems that you might be facing, the pastors are down here at the front for that very purpose, to minister to you. So we would encourage you, as soon as we're dismissed, just come on forward, and let them pray for you. And they're here to help you tonight.

May the Lord be with you. May He guide you through this week. May His hand be upon you, and may you be strengthened in the things of the Lord.

And as Skip was pointing out earlier, the way down is the way up.

(SINGING) Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

And He--

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] And He--

--shall lift you up, higher and higher. And He--

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] And He--

--shall lift you up, up into Heaven. And He--

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] And He--

--shall lift you up. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

And He--

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] And He--

--shall lift you up, higher and higher. And He--

[AUDIENCE SINGING] And He--

--shall lift you up, up into heaven. And He--

[PARISHIONERS SINGING] And He--

--shall lift you up.

(SPEAKING) God bless you.

This is the end of this message. If you would like further information on any of our products, or to receive our free catalog, contact The Word for Today. The address is PO Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628. Or you may reach us by our toll-free number, 1-800-272-WORD. That's 1-800- 272-W-O-R-D.

Additional Messages in this Series

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6/13/2004
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Isaiah 17-19
Isaiah 17-19
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6/20/2004
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Isaiah 20-22
Isaiah 20-22
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7/4/2004
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Isaiah 26-28
Isaiah 26-28
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7/11/2004
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Isaiah 29-31
Isaiah 29-31
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7/18/2004
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Isaiah 32-34
Isaiah 32-34
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7/25/2004
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Isaiah 35-37
Isaiah 35-37
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8/1/2004
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Isaiah 38-40
Isaiah 38-40
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8/8/2004
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Isaiah 41-43
Isaiah 41-43
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8/15/2004
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Isaiah 44-46
Isaiah 44-46
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8/29/2004
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Isaiah 50-52
Isaiah 50-52
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9/5/2004
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Isaiah 53-55
Isaiah 53-55
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9/12/2004
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Isaiah 56-58
Isaiah 56-58
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9/19/2004
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Isaiah 59-61
Isaiah 59-61
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10/3/2004
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Isaiah 65-66
Isaiah 65-66
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There are 14 additional messages in this series.
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