I know that my wife and I have been praying, in fact, our whole family have been praying about something specifically for months. And we've been praying and praying and praying and waiting for the Lord just to give us that right moment to do something. And the person that we were praying for, that we wanted to talk to, came to our house, walked into our yard, and started talking to me about the very thing I wanted to talk to them about. And I came in and I said, you know, honey, God is at work. Here we've been waiting for just the right moment to reach out to this person, to us, and it reminded us we need to believe what we're praying about and reach out to those around us. You take your Bibles and open to the book of Ezekiel. Maybe it's not very often used in your Bible, especially if you have a new one, it's not a frequent haunt. But I hope it will become a real precious treasure this morning. The book of Ezekiel, and as you turn there I want to share with you how a beloved man of God who has pastored for about 60 years began his ministry in Dallas. And it's been a joy to have been influenced and blessed by the life and ministry of W.A. Criswell. But many years ago, this famed Southern Baptist preacher came before his congregation, who had been taught already for many years by George Truitt. And he followed Truitt as the pastor. And he was struggling with the Southern Baptist inroads of what is called modernism. And it's kind of divided them. And there are the moderates and the conservatives. The conservatives believe the Bible's literal. And the moderates kind of edit out the creation account, and the flood account, and Jonah, and you know what I mean. And so that bothered Criswell, as it bothers us, and I'm sure would be a tragedy if that ever took place here in our church. But Criswell stood up with his Bible his first week, and he's a pretty bold fellow. And he had the Bible and he says, you know what? He said, you need to believe the whole Bible. He said, there are people in our congregation that don't believe that the creation is literally true as God said. And he took his Bible and he ripped out the book of Genesis and threw it out. You know, there are thousands of people in the congregation. I mean, there was a gasp. Some of those ladies with, you know, the white hair and rouge on, they just about fell out of their chairs, you know. And then he said, there are others that don't believe that Revelation's true. And he ripped the book of Revelation out and threw that in the congregation. Then he said, there's others that don't believe that the children of Israel really walked through the middle of the Red Sea. And he tore Exodus out. And then he just went through and he said, others don't believe miracles. And finally, when he got all done, he'd torn every page of his Bible. Those poor people in the front row, I mean, they were just covered with pages. And he said, you know, if you don't believe the Bible, he said, all you have left. And he had his cover and he shook it. He said, that's all you have left. Yeah, I'm not going to do that quite this morning because for one thing, this is my favorite Bible and I'm not going to tear it up. But I will tell you this, that this summer we've kind of taken a little break from going through the Bible verse by verse to do a series on the book that you can trust. And we're not done because what I'm hitting are the key parts of the Bible that talk about the veracity, and the authority, and the infallibility, and the fact that the Scriptures cannot be broken. And we're looking this morning and concluding biblical prophecy. And biblical prophecy is one of the strongest evidences that this is a book you can trust. And then in a couple of weeks, we're going to look at the flood. And that's going to be kind of where we'll wind down this series. We're going to look at the fact that this book you can trust with where we came from, with where we're going, and with everything in between. And this morning, in the book of Ezekiel, in the 26th chapter, if you want to look there specifically, we're looking at what is perhaps the most well-documented evidence of biblical prophecy. And for those of you that kind of come and go, I'm going to give you everything right now. We're looking at a flat tire. That's the title, a flat tire. And that's not T-I, it's T-Y-R-E. And basically what the Bible said to the most Lofty economic power of the day to the most proud city of the ancient world, God told them that they were going to be absolutely destroyed and flattened, scraped off, and that people were going to spread nets. Fishermen were where the city was. Now before we start reading the 26th chapter of Ezekiel, let me read this to you from Probably my favorite book that describes biblical prophecy, it's called Exploring Prophecy by Dr. John Phillips. He said this, of the hundreds of specific and detailed prophecies in the Bible we could examine, and there are hundreds, remember a third of the Bible is prophetic as it was written, and a great number of those have not yet been fulfilled, but hundreds of them have been specifically and detailed. But this is what Phillips said, here, this is chapter 26 of Ezekiel, is one of the most famous The body of prophecy concerning the destruction of Tyre is one of the most profound evidences of God's fulfillment. It says that, he continues, that magnificent Phoenician city on the coast of Palestine, just north of modern-day Israel, was leveled to the dust by Alexander the Great in 332 BC in one of the most spectacular battles history you say really I've never even heard of the Battle of Tyre you know you've heard of you know Appomattox and Gettysburg but you never heard of this this one is profound when you leave today you're gonna have a deep respect for the Word of God as God tells the future look at chapter 26 it came to pass in the 11th year the first day of the month that the Word of the Lord came to me saying son of man that's one of the titles of Ezekiel in this book, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, aha, she is broken who was the gateway of the peoples. Now she is turned over to me. I shall be filled. She is laid waste. Therefore, verse three, thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against you, O Tyre. and will cause many nations to come up against you as the sea causes waves to come up. Verse 4, they shall destroy the walls of Tyre. They shall break down her towers. I will scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken, says the Lord God. It shall become plunder for the nations. Verse 6, her daughter, villages which are in the fields will be slain with a sword. They shall know that I am the Lord. Who's going to do this? Well, verse 7, for thus says the Lord God, behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings with horses, chariots, horsemen, and an army of people. And it goes on to describe it, finally, verse 14. And I will make you like the top of a rock. You shall be a place for spreading nets. You shall never be rebuilt. For I, the Lord, have spoken, says the Lord God. It's interesting, the spot where the city is, has a natural source of water that pumps out millions and millions of gallons of fresh water in a parched, arid land. And did you know, to this day, that city is still desolate and never been rebuilt, and it's still a place. If you go up the coast and if no terrorists are shooting and no gunboats are going by and no planes are going over, you can still see the fishermen spread their nets out on the flattened top of what remains of this city that God cursed. Well, what's going on here? Tyre was the proudest and most prosperous city on earth when Ezekiel wrote these words in chapter 26. It was the emporium of the world. Every day its markets would bulge with gold, with precious stones that were brought in from Ethiopia, from Arabia. Silver would come in from the far western part of Spain. Tin would come from Britain. Emeralds were brought in from Damascus. Ivory from the east. Its streets were overflowing with wheat, with honey, and oil from Palestine. It was the commercial Walmart of the ancient world. It was the largest purveyor of objects of wealth and commodities of need. And Ezekiel said, you're going to be utterly destroyed. Just to give you a little idea, this city Tyre had colonies. It was a naval power. They traded all over the world. One of their colonies was called Carthage. One colony of Tyre. Tyre was up here by Israel. Carthage is down in the center of Mediterranean Africa, right on the coast below the boot of Italy. One colony of Tyre, called Carthage, almost conquered Rome. That's how powerful this nation was. You ever heard of Hannibal and his elephants? That was one colony of this gigantic, powerful place. Let's look at what God is doing. Because the simplest and most profound evidence that the Bible offers for its veracity is fulfilled biblical prophecy. And these hundreds of prophecies are fulfilled to the letter. And because of this undeniable verification, at the end of our time together this morning, I'm going to give you a few points of what we should do with this book, because it's true. But last week we looked at the first of five events, five prophecies that God directed that he foretold that changed the course of the world. And the first one we looked at was the birth of a man that was an anointed servant of God. His name was Cyrus. And we covered that all last week. And what was written in 740 BC was fulfilled nearly 200 years later. And God said that I raise up rulers and they do my bidding. But that was the first prophecy, the king by the name of Cyrus. But secondly, this morning, we're going to look at the fall of this city, Tyre. But what I want you to see is, when God wanted to describe the fall of Satan, and I want you to turn over to chapter 28 of Exodus, because I want to show you something that's very interesting. how significant this city was in its destruction, because it was telling about what God thinks about pride, it was telling of what God thinks about those that think that they are impregnable, that they are beyond his control, and it's very interesting that two chapters later that God proclaims against the king of this city. Verse 1 of chapter 28, the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Ethbaal was his name, and This man was so bloated with pride. Well, look what it says. Son of man, say the Prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord, verse two, because your heart is lifted up and you say, I am a God. Now, you know, it's interesting. This King thought he was a God and this King was bloated with pride and thought no one could touch him. And God said, you are merely a puppet in front of the God of this world, Satan. And listen to this. I sit in the seat of gods in the midst of the sea, yet you are a man and not a god, though you set your heart as the heart of a god. Verse three, behold, you are wiser than Daniel. Remember Daniel, the exile that's off in Babylon right now? Daniel really was wise. Daniel didn't think he was God. Ethbaal was a fool, and he thought he was God. And how many people in our world are that way, that are just infected with Satan's pride? Well, look at 11. Behold, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God. And now, all of a sudden, in this prophecy, we find something very amazing about biblical prophecy. God is shooting past Ethbaal, the king of Tyre, and he's shooting to the real God of this world that's behind him. And who's that? Satan. And in the 28th chapter, and if you always wondered where this was, this is the chronicle of Satan's fall. where we got Satan, and where the one-third of the angelic host that went with him in his rebellion came from, and where the prince of the power of the air, where he came from, what was he doing before? And God uses none other than the King of Tyre on this planet as a physical representation of the God of this world, Satan, and his fall. Let's look at that for just a moment. Verse 12, Continues, you are the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You are in Eden. Well, right away, the bell should go off. The king of Tyre was not in Eden. Satan is who he's talking about. In the garden of God, every precious stone was your covering. And this gives us a little glimmer of what Satan was like before his fall and his perfection as he was the anointed cherub. You've heard of cherubim. That's I am is plural in Hebrew. one cherub, two cherubim, with an i-m on the end. He was a cherub, and he was covered with every precious stone. The sardius, the topaz, the diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, emerald, with gold. Nine of the twelve stones that were on the high priest's breastplate. Remember the high priest, Aaron, when he came in had one stone for every one of the twelve tribes, and he would bear them on his chest as he walked into the very presence of God in the holy place? Satan had nine of those twelve stones as his covering. And it doesn't stop there. It says, the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes. You see, music has always been associated with the worship of God. And Satan seemingly was the God, or excuse me, the angel to God of music. And now he's become the God of of the music of this world. I won't even go into that right now, but be very careful about music because that's one place Satan is always at work trying to take God's new song and twist it into his old song. Hey, I appreciate that. Can you believe my son can tell because I was in the garden and getting all allergated that I'm going to lose my voice if I don't drink water? Thanks. Wish it was a Pepsi, but water's great. So thank you, John. And so, the workmanship of timbrels and pipes, music was associated with the worship of God. It was prepared for you on the day you were created. Remember, Satan was created. Verse 14, you were the anointed cherub who covers. And the Hebrew speaks of this cherub. over the very throne of God and that Satan, before he fell, Lucifer, the anointed cherub, was like a covering hood reflecting God's glory back down upon him to kind of multiply the praises to God. As all the angels were singing and all the pipes and timbrels and all the worship was going on, Lucifer was there reflecting it back at God, the anointed cherub who covers. I established you. You are on the holy mountain of God. He had a special access into God's presence. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. This is telling us a little bit about God's throne and how God is flaming fire because the consuming fire, speaking of his holiness, is ever before him. And of all the universe, Lucifer was allowed to come into the very presence of God. And he would walk back and forth on these fiery stones. Verse 15, you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created. till iniquity was found in you." Remember, God created all things and they were perfect, and that's an absolute statement in Genesis. Everything was perfect. God said, it's all good, it's all perfect. And so Satan could not be malignant yet. Somewhere in that creation week, elevated with his pride, Satan becomes very proud and If you want to keep your finger here, I'm going to read in Isaiah 14, because the rest of the story, it's amazing that Ezekiel stops, but Isaiah finishes this story. Why did he fall? Isaiah 14, I'm just going to read to you what happened. How you are fallen, verse 12 of Isaiah 14, O son of heaven. Lucifer, son of the morning, you're cut down to the ground. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the furthest sides of the north. I will ascend into the heights of the clouds. Listen, I will be like the Most High. See, Lucifer in his mind couldn't imagine being greater than God. He knew how great God was. He just said, I want to be like you, God. You know what pride is like? Pride isn't saying, I'm better than God. Pride is saying, I'm going to be like you, God. I'm going to run my life. I'm going to do things my way. I'm not going to submit. And Lucifer was so proud, he said, I'm going to be like you, God. I'm going to get the reflection of your glory. I'm going to have people praise and worship me. And what does the scripture say? But you'll be brought down to the grave, to the lowest parts of the pit, Isaiah 14, 15. Well, this, and the only reason I brought this to you is this is a description of Tyre. God said the people of the land of Tyre, the people that lived in that city, this ancient marine capital of the Mediterranean, those people were just like Satan, bloated with pride. And God used them as an example of what he was going to do to Satan, is what he did to them. Well, pride was the very first sin. And every sin after it has been in some way an extension of pride. Pride led, of course, Lucifer to exalt himself above his creator. And that bright star of the morning said five times in Isaiah 14, I will do this. I will do that. And pride swelled him up. And he was cast out of heaven. The original sin of Adam and Eve was pride, as they trusted their own understanding above God's. The writer of Proverbs says in chapter 11, verse 2, When pride comes, dishonor follows. Pride goes before destruction. A haughty spirit before stumbling. Proverbs 16, 18. Proverbs 21, 4. Haughty eyes and a proud heart are the lamp of the wicked. They are sin. Pride comes in many forms. We may be tempted to be proud of our abilities. Some people take pride in their possessions. Some people in their education. Some people in their societal status. Others are proud of their religious accomplishments. Some are even proud of their humility. But throughout the scriptures, the Lord calls his people to be humble. Before honor comes humility. And the reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are riches in honor and life, Proverbs 22.4. Proverbs 27 says, let another praise you, not your own mouth. Let a stranger, not your own lips. And I guess why this study of Tyre being destroyed is so powerful to me is that God said, I'm going to make an object lesson about pride. Satan was proud, he fell. Tyre became an example of Satan's pride and I crushed them. And God said, Christians who are proud, I will likewise put down. Because if we don't humble ourselves in the sight of God, then he'll humble us. But if we will clothe ourselves with humility, he'll lift us up. Humility is an ingredient for spiritual blessing. Just as every sin finds its root in pride, every blessing finds its root in humility. The Apostle Paul said in Colossians that humility is much like a garment that's hung in our closet. When you go home and look in your closet, your coat closet or your clothes closet, and you look in there and see those garments, coats, whatever, hanging on hangers, remember that you have to literally reach in there, take it off, and put it on. Did you know that every day we have to clothe ourselves with humility? It doesn't just happen. We have to consciously make a choice to put down the fallen pride that's seeking to rise up and to clothe ourselves with the humility of Christ. Humility allows us to see ourselves like we are, It shows us because it shows us before God as he is. As pride is behind every conflict we have with people, if every problem of fellowship we have with the Lord were traced, it would be pride at its root. So humility is behind every harmonious human relationship. Humility is at the root of every spiritual success. And every moment you and I have joyous fellowship with Christ. It's a product. of our humble approach to him. Well, back to chapter 26 of Ezekiel, and as you turn there, I'm going to take this prophecy apart piece by piece with you, because when Ezekiel wrote this, his prediction of chapter 26 was ludicrous to the people that were listening. It was so ridiculous that anybody would think that Tyre would fall, that Tyre, this impregnable fortress would ever be defeated by anyone, was absurd. How did God do it? How did God take the mistress of the seas, the seaport of the world, the land whose colony Carthage under Hannibal nearly conquered Rome, How did he take a city that flourished for 600 years in a location that made it impervious to attack? How did he destroy them? Well, the story of Tyre's doom originated in Ezekiel's prophecy, as he wrote in around the year 570 BC. Now, Tyre was destroyed in 332. So 240 years before the event, God said how it was going to happen. And what we see are seven things, and you can look at these. Starting in verse three, number one, there'd be a coalition. It wasn't a solo deal. Many nations would come against the city. It says in verse three, many. Now, one nation came at first, and that was Nebuchadnezzar. But Nebuchadnezzar couldn't finish the job, because God wanted to make this an example for all time of what he thinks of pride and how he will flatten nations and rulers and individuals to the ground that are proud. Secondly, it was a complete destruction. Not just a coalition would do it, but it would be a complete destruction. Verse 4 says, the actual site of the city would be left scraped clean. So God says it's going to be a complete destruction. It says that it was going to clear out all the debris to the point that fishermen could spread their nets. Now, if you know anything about fish nets, you know that you don't put it over jagged stuff because they'll catch. and it'll tear open the net and then the fish will get through. They want an absolutely clean slate to put their nets out to dry so they don't get stinky. It was also going to be a an extended campaign because it says in verse 6 that the suburbs, all the daughter cities of Tyre, you see here was this metropolis but outside were these feeder cities, people that raised food for them, people that helped them in their ship building, people that brought stuff to them, and so it wasn't just the city of Tyre that would go, it says that all of the daughter cities would be taken, the daughter villages it says in verse 6, those which are in the fields working. Also that Tyre would be absolutely conquered, it says in verse 6 through 11, that her walls would be knocked down, her dust will cover those that are riding their horses, their hooves will trample. I mean, it was an undeniable conquest. Then it said, verse 12, this is interesting, that the city of Tyre would be thrown into the sea. When God gives a prophecy, he doesn't vaguely speak. He says, more than one nation is going to come. They're going to scrape the city. They're going to clear it out so nets can be there. They're going to take all the daughter cities. They're going to conquer Tyre itself. Then they're going to pick it up and throw it in the sea. And finally, verse 14, the seventh element of the prophecy was going to be a cursed city, never again rebuilt. A coalition is going to come, completely destroy, they're going to clear it, they're going to have a campaign against the outlying areas, they're going to conquer them, they're going to cast the city down, they're going to see that it's cursed of God and never again be rebuilt. Well, what happened? Nebuchadnezzar, and he's mentioned in verse 7, comes marching up and started hammering at the gates of Tyre. Now see, Nebuchadnezzar came from the top of the Fertile Crescent, he was on his way down to get Jerusalem. And he wasn't about to leave this city unscathed in his path because he didn't want them to attack him from the rear. And so Nebuchadnezzar took the daughter cities of Tyre on the mainland as foretold in 585 BC as he was marching through to destroy the mop-up operation. In 586, he took Jerusalem. In 585, he comes back to Tyre, so they wouldn't attack him from the rear. He, first of all, wipes out all the surrounding areas, all the cities that brought food into Tyre. Then, for months, he battered down the defenses of the city. And by the way, this was a massive, it would be like a castle right perched on the edge of the ocean. And right on the backside where the ocean was, all their ships were moored. And the front was just one big wall. No one in the ancient world was good on shipbuilding except the Phoenicians. And so nobody had boats back then in military ways. And so they just put their boats at the back and had their big walls up and Nebuchadnezzar couldn't come around behind because he didn't have any fleet. And so he just hammered at the walls. But he had such a large army that he brought the full weight of his army, battered and lost so many men until at last he broke through the walls of the city. But when they broke through into the city of Tyre, they were all out in their boats going, you didn't get us. You just got the city. And they moved to a fortress they had built on an island offshore. And so all he did is ransack the town and burn it to the ground. And he left it a big heap of rubble. But the people of Tyre escaped a half mile offshore and never ceased their commercial enterprises. And you know, critics would look at this and they'd say, ah, Bible didn't happen. They're still in operation. But you see, the prophecies of God were slumbering in the womb of time. And God said, but I didn't say that one person would conquer. I said that Nebuchadnezzar would start and he would conquer the city. But he said, I said, a coalition would come and destroy and scrape off the rock. And so from 585 BC to 332 BC, for 250 years, time marched on. Well, what's going to happen? Well, for 13 years, Nebuchadnezzar tried to take that island. He didn't have any amphibious assault vessel, and all he could do is just shoot arrows and send people out in little boats. But he finally gave up. And in 572 BC, Nebuchadnezzar was off the scene. Tyre was just as proud as ever. And Nebuchadnezzar had won a moral victory. He wiped out the city and left it a pile. But Tyre was still proud as can be. Well, part of Ezekiel's prophecy had been fulfilled, but the Tyre known by the prophet Ezekiel wasn't anymore. But nothing had happened about the scraping down, the throwing down, the flatness, and the nets. And so it took more than just Nebuchadnezzar to fulfill the oracles of a Hebrew prophet he'd never met. Tyre set about fortifying their city against would-be invaders. On their little island, they built walls 150 feet high. That means you had to come on a boat and you looked up 150 feet at raining down rocks and arrows. And most people weren't very good in boats, and they didn't know much about shipbuilding back then, and so it was just suicide to try and attack them. On top of that, they mined their harbor with underwater obstacles that would puncture and sink unwary ships. And they took the next 200 years to totally multiply their fleet until finally that island was just overflowing with vessels, a first-class navy. And for two and a half centuries, Tyre rested in the faults while Ezekiel's prophecies were germinating in God's time. Well, the year 332 arrives, a man that we only know by his first name, rises to power, Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon, who conquered the whole world in such short time. But he had a custom, and God was waiting for him. Nebuchadnezzar's method of conquest was this. He would destroy a city, pulverize it, and then he would scrape it up and move it off its foundation and dump it in a new location to show his utter destruction of that city. In 332, he comes. And he had just won a victory over the Persian army in 333, and flush with victory, he was on his way to take Egypt. And Alexander had no intention of leaving a powerful city-state like Tyre standing astride his supply lines. I mean, he was from up there in Babylon. or he'd just conquered Babylon and he was coming from Greece and as he was coming down to Egypt, he wasn't going to leave anybody parked along the superhighway that could cut off his supplies and communication. And since he didn't have a navy that was anything to match tires, he decided to build a causeway from the mainland to the island. And so he looked around, where can I get some stuff to build a road, a bridge, a causeway out to that island? And he looked around and he says, wow, there's a pile of rubble. And so he scrapes off the foundations of the city of Tyre. And his soldiers take months, and they take all that material until it's absolutely flat, and they take it and throw it into the ocean, and they build a channel out to this island. Well, it doesn't stop there. I mean, they had their 150 foot high walls. And before the causeways were finished, Alexander's engineers had scraped the very dust, every bit of the old ruin, and thrown it into the sea. But those people on the island, the Tyre population, fought back desperately. They tried to halt the causeway of doom, but God's clock struck its hour. Nothing now could prevent their fall. Alexander's men made giant shields as shelters from the arrows and missiles the foe was shooting at them. And they started coming forward with their causeway until it hit the island. And then retreating back, Alexander had built a 150 foot high platform, mobile. And putting shields on the outside, his army pushed the platform forward. And you know the rest of the story. They went right over the top of the walls, and they invaded the island. And they killed every last person. They set afire the fleet. They ransacked the city. They murdered every last Phoenician they could find. And then he destroyed that city. And he scraped off the island city of Tyre flat. In his typical way, scraped it off flat and dumped the rest of the rubble into the ocean. And the prophecies of Ezekiel were fulfilled to the letter. Even though the engineers of Tyre had thought they were impregnable, even though their towers were unassailable from the sea, Alexander's troops from their tower looked right down over the walls, and he destroyed the city. Tyre fell, and Alexander the Great had unwittingly fulfilled an ancient Hebrew prophet's words, because those words were the words of God. As the years went by, drifting sand converted Alexander's causeway into a peninsula, and to this day, fishermen, as I said before, if they're not getting shot at, spread their nets on this island. Look back at verse 3 of chapter 26. Because I'm against you, the Lord said, and I will cause many nations to come against you. The Babylonians And the Grecians, with all of their mercenaries, were the many nations, and God fulfilled that. They will destroy the walls of Tyre. Nebuchadnezzar did that. They'll break down her towers. Nebuchadnezzar did that. Alexander scraped her dust and made her like the top of a rock. Alexander made it a place for the spreading of nets. Nebuchadnezzar, verse 6, destroyed the daughter villages. Verse 14. Alexander finally made the whole area like the top of a rock and it became a place for the spreading of nets and to this day it has never been rebuilt. You know a mathematician by the name of Peter Stoner who was a Christian, took the laws of statistics and statistical possibility and probability, what they do in casinos. I don't know if you realize casinos usually pay out about 98.8% of the money you put in. And so you put in $6 billion and you get back $5.8 billion. But the casino gets $200 million. I mean, it's a real neat deal. It's kind of like they're keeping a part of your money every time. And by the way, gambling is ridiculous, and it's wasteful, and it's ungodly. But I'm just saying that statistically, they've computed how often they'll give a payout to keep people coming. And there are people that their whole life is doing those type of estimates. They do it in insurance. They say, you know, people are going to do this every so often. We'll insure them at this rate and make money. Well, Peter Stoner, this statistical mathematician, started to figure out what the possibilities would be that the seven prophecies concerning Tyre would all come true. Remember, when Ezekiel wrote those seven things that were going to happen, Tyre was the mistress of the seas, impregnable, there was no Nebuchadnezzar in sight, and definitely Alexander had not even been thought of. This is what he did just with raw numbers. If such a prophecy would be fulfilled, each one would amount to a minimum of one chance in 75,000. Each one of the seven. but that each one of the seven would be fulfilled as they were stated, was one in 5.76 octillion." You know how many that is? Well, Stoner said this, he said, if you took a silver dollar and put it into a pile of 5.76 octillion silver dollars, it would be like filling up our entire solar system from Pluto to the sun as one giant round ball of silver dollars and letting a child loose. and telling them to pick the one with the red spot on it, and they got five minutes to find it. That's what probability there is that these seven prophecies would all happen, as they were predicted 240 years before the people involved were even alive. And Stoner went on to take the rest of the Bible and he said, if you apply the same ground rules for the prediction against the destruction of Samaria, against Gaza and Ashkelon, against the destruction of Jericho, the Golden Gate in Jerusalem, the plowing of Zion, the enlargement of Jerusalem, Palestine, Moab, Ammon, Edom and Babylon, the probability is out, the universe isn't big enough for the silver dollars. for all those things to happen. You say, what are you telling us all that? Because those figures of probability are beyond our power to comprehend. Basically, what it's saying is that the Bible predicts the future with utter certainty. And we should trust God's Word. And the Bible contains far more than the 11 prophecies treated by Dr. Stoner. Isaiah 42 21 says the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake he will exalt the law to make it honorable God will keep his word Now I said there were five prophecies that changed the world Cyrus God said that man's coming and he came and he did just what God said Flatten of Tyre the flattening of Tyre God said it was going to happen and it did There are three more. I'm just going to list them The downfall of Egypt was predicted in Jeremiah 46. God says, I'm going to punish the capital city of Egypt and bring it to naught. Remember, Egypt had the pyramids in 2600 BC. Moses came around in 1446 BC. When Jeremiah wrote those words in 600 BC, Egypt was the envy of the world for their temples, their power, their grain. And God says, I'm going to destroy Egypt. Well, do you remember Nebuchadnezzar hit Tyre on his way to Egypt? Well, he didn't stop at Tyre and he didn't stop at Jerusalem. He went all the way to Egypt. And the scriptures tell us that exactly what happened, happened. And if you go into the British Museum in London, there's an entire room dedicated to the year that Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled Jeremiah to the letter. And he burnt Well, basically, he destroyed the capital city of Thebes, he left it a heap of rubble, he marched the length of the Nile, he burned everything in his sight, and he stopped at the first cataract at Aswan and exactly fulfilled the word of God. And you know what? A few years ago, I took a pilgrimage to Egypt and we stood on top of the ruins. They're still there. It's just a pile of rocks in Thebes. And as I read chapter 42 of Isaiah, where it says, afterward, it will be inhabited as in the days of old. I looked at the little village in Thebes and stood on those rocks. And it was kind of an eerie feeling, chilling our souls to remind us that on that hot, dusty heap that God was in control. And that city of Thebes was never rebuilt, other than a little village off to the side, like God said. It said it would never have its glory again. There would be people living there in ruins. And God destroyed Egypt as we know it, and it never recovered. That's the third prophecy. You know, if God hadn't done that, we might all be Egyptians today. They were so powerful, but God destroyed them. God also said that Babylon would be destroyed, and it was. As it said in Isaiah 13 and verse 6 to the letter, Babylon was destroyed, Alexander did that. And then finally, God said that Jerusalem would be destroyed through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in A.D. 30, Jesus Christ said this in Luke 19. For the days will come when your enemies will build a bank around you, Jerusalem. They will surround you. They will close you in on every side. They will level you, your children within you to the ground. They will not leave one stone upon another. because you didn't know the time of your visitation. Luke 21, 24, and they will fall by the edge of the sword, they will be led away captive to all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Jesus said that about the year A.D. 30, 40 years went by, a time of testing. The year A.D. 70 came, and an eyewitness by the name of Josephus wrote a book giving us the grisly details, just like a newspaper reporter standing at the scene. And he said 600,000 people were slaughtered, cut up, and the rest were marched off into captivity. So the Jews rebelled again in A.D. 34, just 64 years later. And this time Hadrian ruthlessly smashes them, levels the city, plows up the foundation, and builds a pagan city on top of it. See again, a dual fulfillment. Titus left stones on top of each other. Hadrian came and left nothing above the ground level that wasn't destroyed and plowed under. Well, what's the conclusion of this? And now just take on the back of your bulletin, because I want so much to give you. Just write these down if you want a list. Because if the Bible is powerful, if the Bible is true, if we can trust this book, what do we trust it for? Number one, we trust it to reveal our lives, the sin that it can discover and convict. Write down John 16, 7 through 10, because the Bible is powerfully a revealer. It says this, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It's expedient for you to go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come. I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will reprove the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Revealing our sin. God's righteousness is judgment against sin. The Word of God is powerfully a revealer. Number two, it's not only a revealer, it's a remover. What do you do when you find skin cancer? What do you do when they find some little infection? You try and have it removed. When I read the Word of God and it shows up in this floodlight, there's something in my life, I don't just walk around and say, oh, I found a sin. I want to do something about it. Write this down, John 17, 17. Because the Word of God is a remover and through God's Spirit we can be cleansed from sin. It says this, sanctify them through thy truth. How do we get clean? Thy Word is truth. How do we get sanctified? How do we get holy? By this book. This book sanctifies us. It's like a radioactive source that can be targeted to kill Malignancy the malignancy of sin can be destroyed by the power of the word Here's another verse to write down as the Word of God is a remover. It's Hebrews 9 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ? Through the eternal spirit who offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve God Hebrews 10 22 draw near to God with a true heart being sprinkled from evil and washed pure of This book, through the power of the Spirit, not only reveals sin in our lives, but removes it. Thirdly, it's a restorer. The Word of God not only reveals sin and removes it, but can restore strength to our spiritual person that we are. Here's a reference to write down. Jeremiah 15, 16. Thy words were found, and I ate them. And they were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. You ever down? You know the children's song, are you downhearted? No, no, no. Well sometimes, yes, yes, yes. What do you do when you are? The Word of God is the restorer. Number four, the Word of God is also a reminder. It instructs us in going God's way. Romans 15.4, what things were written before times were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort might have hope. The Word of God, when I come to it every morning, no matter what the news might say, before I read the headlines of all the gloom in the world and all the tragedy and all the corruption and all that, I need to be reminded that God's Word can never fail. God's Word restores me, reminds me of His faithfulness. Fifthly, the Word of God is also a resistor. The Word of God, it says in Ephesians 6, 17, can help us resist the devil. It says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The only offensive weapon we have to resist Satan is the Word of God. I remember when we launched our Wednesday night, October, through the Bible ministry, and I told a little story to the folks about knowing the Word of God and having a long sword, and that we should face the devil with as much of the Word as we can, instead of just barely having enough to hold on to, a thumbtack to fight that roaring lion, because the Word of God is a resistor. It provides the sword for victory over sin and temptation. Number six, and there are seven, and then we'll go. Number six is, it's a refiner, 1 Peter 1, 7. The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, might be found unto praise and honor and glory, and then another verse to write with that, 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed in the same image. The word of God refines us to look more like Jesus every day. I got up this morning and I shaved, and in my bleary eyes I was looking in the mirror, cut myself a couple times, and I was going like this, you know, working. I was looking in the mirror and trying to shape myself in the way that would be most presentable. When we come to our time in the Word, we're looking in the mirror, and what we see in that mirror is how we look compared to Christ. And anytime we see even a whisker that doesn't compare with Him, We ask the Word of God to change us to look like Him, instead of like the flesh and the world, because it's the Word of God that refines us, that shapes our life into what will please Him. And finally, the Word of God is a reviver. It is a revealer. It reveals sin in our life. It's a remover. It takes away sin. It's a restorer. It gives us strength. It's a reminder. It tells us what to do. It's a resistor. It stops Satan and temptation from coming. It's a refiner because it makes us more looking like Christ. But listen to this, Psalm 119, 125. The Word of God is finally a reviver. because it drives us into prayerful dependence on our only source to make it through life. Listen to this verse, my soul clings to the dust, quicken me according to your word. Do you ever feel like they used to say when I pastored in Georgia, lower than a snake's belly? They have good descriptions then. We used to have vegetables with little sow belly and fat back. You know, they're very descriptive in the South. Well, they said, that they are lower than a snake's belly. You know, snakes go on the ground. You ever feel like you're just going through the dirt? You know what the Bible says when you're like that? When your soul cleaves to the dust, let the Word of God revive you, quicken you. Jesus said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will, and it will be done to you. And it's my Father's will that you bear much fruit. Have you seen that this is a book you can trust? that hundreds of years before the events happen, God predicts them and they happen with clock-like precision that even statisticians say is impossible? And if so, what should you do with this book this week? Let it reveal any sin in your life, in my life. Let it remove that sin and let it remind you how faithful God is and let it restore you and revive you and give you what you need to live for Christ wherever you are. Let's bow for a word of prayer as we go this morning. Thank you that as a child we can learn that your word can never fail and help us as men and women and young people today to look at this book that we can trust and to let it change our lives today. Whatever we need, whatever needs to be removed or revived or reminded to us, let's just come to you. and find your grace to resist the sin that so easily besets us. We thank you for Jesus' sake. Amen.