I'd like to welcome you to our Bible study at Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne, Wednesday, March the 12th, right? All day. We'll begin with number 231, Jesus saves. 231. We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Spread the tidings all around. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Bear the news to every land. Climb the steeps and cross the waves. Onward is our Lord's command. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Waft it on the road. Jesus saves! Jesus saves! Tell to sinners far and wide, Jesus saves! Jesus saves! Sing, ye islands of the sea, Echo back, ye ocean caves, Earth shall keep her jubilee, Jesus saves! Jesus saves! Sing above the battle's strife, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Mine's death and endless life, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing it softly through the gloom, When the heart for mercy craves, Sing in triumph for the tomb, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Give the winds a mighty voice, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Let the nations now rejoice, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Shout salvation pulling free, highest hills and deepest caves. This our song of victory, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Heavenly Father, we're thankful this evening that we can sing about the fact that Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Savior of mankind. That message needs to go out across all the hills and valleys and mountains and nations, and we're thankful that we have an opportunity and a privilege of helping with that in this time in which we live. We're thankful for those that come out to meet here with us, and we're thankful for the opportunity to broadcast through the internet Those that also pick it up later on through sermon audio or through our website, we're thankful that we have these electronic avenues open to us. We pray for wisdom and knowing how to take advantage of these things in the time in which we're living. And we do pray that more people in this area would see the importance of coming out to the services and to learning of thee. seeing the importance of knowing the truth in these last days in which we live as we see that people are preoccupied and busy with a lot of other things that are worthless. But we pray that we can help people to know thy peace and forgiveness. We thank thee for providing us a place to meet and for those that come out and we ask that thy will be accomplished as well in regard to The Amatis, that they would honor thee and know thy peace and blessing in their hearts and lives. Pray for their families in the Philippines, that they would want to know the truth. Thank thee for our Zoom meetings that we have, that we can be a blessing to people through that avenue as well. And we ask that thy will be done. With regard to the Dicks, as they look to sell their place, that thy will be done in that matter. They'd be able to find a buyer and know where they should be purchasing. As they make their plans for the future, we pray for thy will to be done in Danielle's life, that she would want thy peace and blessing in her heart and for Sarah and for Carl, for Ken, that they would see the importance of truth in their lives and allow thee to direct them. We ask that thy will be done. With my health, that my voice would return and I'd be able to continue to serve thee in the capacity that thou wouldst want me to. We ask that thou would guide and direct in the situation in Israel. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that many Jews would be saved both in Israel and outside of Israel. Pray that we could be a help with that in our area. Thy will be accomplished as well. The war in Ukraine, that the Christians there and in Russia would be faithful to thee. Pray that others would get saved. And as there's a potential for a ceasefire, pray that people would see that the importance is to know the Prince of Peace for Mr. Trump as well, as he wants to see peace and yet he doesn't know how to bring real peace. Pray that he might see his need to be saved and that his threats and arm twisting will only go so far. We pray that people would wake up and see the need for knowing true and lasting peace in their hearts. We pray for our own country as we are in a leaderless position, that we have no direction as a country, and we know that the world economic forum wants to destroy free trade and freedom. We thank that we still have freedom. We pray that we would use it for thy glory and be able to help others to know the truth in these days of grace. So may thy will be accomplished as we spend this time together today. And we thank you for each one that has joined us. We pray that others would come as well. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Number 378, stand up for Jesus. I have to forgive my voice this evening. I'm just getting over a cold and my voice is not back to where it usually is. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner. It must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory, his army shall he lead, till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey. For to the mighty conflict in this his glorious day, Ye that are men, now serve him against unnumbered foes. Let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose. Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you. Ye dare not trust your own. Put on the gospel armor. Peace put on with prayer, Where duty calls or danger, Be never wanting there. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, The strife will not be long, This day the noise of battle, the next the victor's song. To him that overcometh a crown of life shall be. He with the King of glory shall reign eternally. Then over to number 439 No 438 438 Footsteps of Jesus Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling, Come unto me. And we see where Thy footprints falling Lead us to Thee. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus where'er they go. Though they lead o'er the cold, dark mountains Seeking his sheep Or along by Siloam's fountains Helping the weak Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. If they lead through the temple holy, preaching the word, or in homes of the poor and lonely, serving the Lord. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. Then at last, when on high He sees us, our journey done, We will rest where the steps of Jesus, and at His throne. Footprints of Jesus make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus where'er they go. Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 27 You're reading there the first 11 verses of that chapter Well Stan clears the reading of God's Word Ezekiel 27 beginning there at verse 1 and The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Now thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus, and say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles. Thus saith the Lord God, O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas. Thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ships, thy shipboards, of fir tree, or of cynar. They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars. the company of the Asherites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Kittim. Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail. Blue and purple from the isles of Elisha was that which covered thee. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad are with or were thy mariners, thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee were thy pilots. The ancients of Giebel and the wise men thereof were in thee thy conquerors. All the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise. They of Persia and of Lud and of Foot were in thine army, thy men of war. They hanged the shield and helmet in thee. They set forth thy comeliness. The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the gamidims were in thy towers. They hanged their shields upon thy walls round about. They have made thy beauty perfect. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful for thy word, thankful for the continued warning that Tyrus received. As a nation, as a people that chose to defy thee, that chose to follow their own paganism, their own imagination, had false gods, chose not to believe the truth, had influence from Israel and Judah. Sadly, much of that was a bad influence. But they still had a conscience, and they still could have known the truth, and they chose not to. But we are reminded here again of the danger of defying the true God, of not recognizing thee, not recognizing thy blessings and thy goodness to us and providing for us, and imagining vain things. We pray today as we know that Canada is a nation that has chosen false gods. They imagine a vain thing. They believe that if they can fix climate change, it'll fix everything else. If they can stop the spread of the gospel, that'll be a help to them, they think. And we pray, Father, that Many in Canada would get saved, many in government, many in our police force, doctors and nurses, firefighters, people of influence that have an opportunity to impact other people's lives and yet choose to use their mouths for wickedness, their hearts are intent on doing evil. We pray, Father, that we would be bold and faithful to Thee and be able to help others to know Thy peace and blessing in these days of grace. We ask that thou would guide us as we study that word here this evening, and that we would take heed to the warnings that were given to Tyrus, and to see the blessing of knowing thee and serving thee, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this evening is, Misappropriation of Material Blessing. Misappropriation of Material Blessing. As we read in these verses, we began in the study of Tyrus. The warning against Tyrus began in chapter 26, goes through chapter 27 into chapter 28. And God is spending a fair bit of time with these people. And he points out how that they had been blessed as we look at this passage and how that they had misappropriated that blessing. And as we look at what's going on here in our text with Tyrus, and we look at our country of Canada today, the Bible tells us that these things are written for our learning. There are things that we can see in Tyrus that we can also see in Canada and the United States, as those of us that are living in Canada and others in the United States, we do have people that pick us up on the sermon audio from the States. Other countries may not be as familiar with what's going on here in the West, but in our two countries right now, we're in the midst of somewhat of a trade war. Mr. Trump, the president of the United States, took over in January of this year and promised to govern in a different way than what Mr. Biden did. And Mr. Biden, of course, was not even the leader of the country for four years. They were governed by unknown people and they made a mess of the country and pretty well broke it. And I don't know how much Mr. Trump is going to be able to turn things around. But he has taken a much different approach, and on the same vein as he did in his first term, but with a much different way of going about it this time around, much smarter in what he's doing. But he's still a lost man. And all he can see, because he's a lost man, is economics. He figures that if he can fix the economics of the United States, then he can make it more powerful again. He can buy more weapons and make more planes and have more sophisticated defense systems and so on. He thinks that's going to be the savior of his nation. Of course, as he does this, he is flexing what muscle he has. to try to influence other countries, including ours. Our country, of course, is a puppet country of the World Economic Forum. We don't have a functioning leadership in this country. We have a man who tried to be a dictator and did wield some power, and he has somewhat left office now and there's a different man in place, but he's worse than the last one. So we'll see what that's going to do for us as Christians. But we know that we have a God who is bigger than our governments, and it's up to us to know him and follow him. We need to understand that economics is not the root problem that we're facing, not in the United States and not in Canada. The root problem that our countries are facing is a moral bankruptcy, which is far worse than economics. When you reject God, when you decide that you don't need God, you don't want God, and you're going to do everything you can to push God out of the picture, you're in trouble. And our country, instead of choosing to serve God, is catering to Islam. Islam is gaining more and more of a foothold in Canada all the time. Of course, this is the month of Ramadan right now. We do not honor Ramadan, but Muslims are forcing their way into more and more places and demanding that other people honor their wicked festival of Ramadan. We will not do that. We want to honor God, and we want to help people to know the truth. And it's time for Christians to act like Christians. The nation of Israel was a failure at the time that God is writing these things about Tyrus. They were being judged. Israel was being judged. Judah was being judged by Babylon because of their rejection of God. They knew God. God had given them the law. He'd given them prophets, priests. He'd given them good kings, and they had every opportunity that they could know God and serve him and be blessed by God. And if they would have done that, Tyrus probably wouldn't be what they were here in our text. But Judah rebelled against God and chose not to serve him. And Tyrus laughed at that. They were happy that Jerusalem had fallen. That was a mistake. It's never a wise thing to cheer on the failure of Christians. In the Old Testament, they weren't called Christians, but there were some saints in the Old Testament, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Nazariah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, others. They were saved individuals. They were saints. They believed in the true God. They honored him in their lives. But the majority of the people had rejected God. And Tyrus had been happy that Judah was a fallen state. And in our text, God is continuing to speak against the city of Tyrus, the corruption that was there, the economic successes that they had, but they were losing now, and how that they had not appreciated the source of their economic blessings that they had. So we see in the first point we have a necessary lamentation. And again we are reminded where this message is from and who is the messenger, the human messenger in the text. So verse one, the word of the Lord came again unto me. So the word of the Lord, Jehovah again, God is the one who is the author of all scripture. We need to keep that in mind. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. So that's important to understand that. And so man needs to know that we are living in a time when people are playing around with the word of God and changing it. The corruption of the word of God is astounding. And there are even people who profess to believe in the King James who think it needs to be upgraded. And of course, they are foolish. They're proud, thinking they know better than the men that God used to give us the English language King James Bible. And they maybe will wake up one day, maybe they won't. But it's important for us to believe the truth and stand upon the truth. This is the word of God that came again to Ezekiel, verse two. Now thou son of man, Ezekiel was not the author, it wasn't his authority, it was God's authority that he was standing upon. And the people, in this case, Tyrus, needed to pay attention. This was God's word. Ezekiel was a man chosen by God to give the message. And his message, it says, take up a lamentation. So it was a lamentation that he was giving in this passage. Now that word lamentation here, just looking for the meaning that I had for that. I have it here, but it's not showing up to me right now. But yeah, lamentation is like a requiem. I should have bolded it. A requiem is a type of a service for the dead. And Tyrus in our text, 26, 27, 28, is dying. It's going to be destroyed. And so God tells Ezekiel to take up a lamentation for Tyrus. So it's like an obituary, but there's nothing to laugh about in this obituary. It talks about the blessings that Tyrus had, but how that Tyrus had rejected the source of those blessings, not appreciated them for what they were really worth, And the result was that it was going to come crashing down. And as we've already pointed out, Canada, as well, has been blessed by God. It's a great land, very fertile soil in much of the land. The north is not so much for farming, but a lot of fishing in Canada, a lot of mining. We have rare earth minerals in Canada. We have lots of oil in the West. There are a lot of things that Canada has that are good. But the thing of it is that with all of the good that God has blessed us with in this land, we have just squandered that and used it for our own good and fought against other people and been greedy and wasted a lot and gone to worshipping Mother Earth instead of God, and the result is that we still have a lot of minerals, we still have a lot of oil, we have many natural resources, but we're not long for this Earth by the looks of things in this country because we have forsaken God. And so we're collapsing economically because we have already collapsed morally. We have governments that are promoting drugs. Marijuana is legal in Canada. Alcohol has been legal for a long time, which is a poison as well. And we are now looking for ways to help people to use harder drugs to kill themselves. And we are also encouraging people to take their own lives in other ways. Government-assisted suicide. They have a more genteel term for that, but it's still government-assisted suicide. So our country is collapsing, and we have a picture here. This is a picture for Israel, but it's also a picture for Gentile nations. You don't want to serve God. You don't want to know him. Everything is going to fall apart on you. The second thing that we see is location, location, location. That's one of the mantras if you're going to start a business. It's important to make sure you choose a good location. We're not a business here, we're a church, but we bought a business. We bought a building that had a business in it. We didn't buy the business, we bought the building. And we are in a part of Trehearne where there used to be other businesses. There's a bank across the street from us. There's a bowling alley next to us. Used to be a welding business beside us. It burned down. And there used to be a pharmacy also, which also burned down. And after we bought this building, we were told by some people in this community that this should not be a church. It should be a business. Well, it should be a church. This town didn't have a church in it. It had a Catholic cult meeting here, and it has United Church, which is also a false religion, but there was no true church in this town. And so God gave us this building, and we're thankful for it. And we don't apologize that this is a church. And people walk by here, they drive by here. It's on one of the main roads in town. God has blessed us with this, and we're going to use it for His glory for as long as He allows us to. So location is important, and we have a good location for this church. People know we're here. They drive by, the sign is there. People walk by. It's a very well-used area of the town, but also a very hardened town where people walk by, they know we're here. We've spoken to many of them, given literature to all of them. And yet most people are rejecting this place. And they will answer for that. But we are here to give people the truth. So in our text, God speaks about the location of Tyrus. Tyrus was in a good location. Tells in verse three, and say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situated at the entry of the sea. Now, Tyrus was built on the seashore. and on an island, two locations for the Tyrus. And it was a place of commercial business. Now, in the past we have talked about Israel in the days of Solomon. Jerusalem was a central location. God placed that in its location, Jerusalem in her location. And he caused the nations around there to have to travel through Jerusalem to get to where they wanted to go. Jerusalem is not on the sea, but it's in a central location. And Jerusalem was a booming place in the days of Solomon. A lot of merchandise traveled through there, and God blessed Jerusalem with wealth in the days of Solomon. But Solomon squandered the blessings that God gave him, and he took up with many women, and they led him into idolatry, and it was the beginning of the fall of Jerusalem. Tyrus was never a God-fearing city, but it was blessed also with a good location right on the sea. Right at the entry of the sea, it says, which are a merchant of the people for many isles. It was a busy place, lots of things going on, lots of seafaring things going on, fishing and other things that were ship by ship. They came to Tyrus, and from there they went elsewhere. And so it says, thus saith the Lord God, O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Now one of the things that secular people do, and it's a danger for all of us, is that we tend to spend too much time on materialism and outward appearance. And so it's not enough to have a common building as a church building nowadays. You have to have a fancy building. You can't just have a church building where people come to hear the word of God. You have to have a kitchen, and you have to have a dining area where people can sit down to eat because that's all part of today's culture. And then you have to have a gymnasium so that you can have sports going on. And of course, in fundamental circles, we don't want to call it a gymnasium, so we call it a life center, family life center. Same thing. But those things are seemingly essential nowadays in order to get people to come. That's a bad, sad story for where the heart of people is at. That if you don't have those things, people think, well, what's there for us? What's there for our children? We have to give something for our children to do. And so we are missing out. because we are distracted by materialism and outward appearance. So Tyrus here was in the same situation. They thought their buildings were in good shape. They had fancy buildings for the time. They had people there that were craftsmen. They knew how to do sculptures and so on. And so to the naked eye, it looked good. It was a tourist attraction. It was a place to go. And of course, that's what we want today. We have places where they try to have things going on there, attractions that will draw people in. Tree Hearn is built along the number two, but the town itself, you have to come off the number two to see the town. And so Tree Hearn has a museum. They have a couple of structures that are made completely out of glass bottles. Used to be out in the country, but it was moved into the town. And there's a swimming pool, and there's a campground, and there's things here that are designed to draw people to turn off of the number two and to come into this town and spend money. That's what it's all about. They want the money. And that's what keeps a secular town going is money. And of course, there's never enough of it. It's not that our roads are perfect. They're not in bad shape in this town, but there's a lot of money that gets wasted just as in any other place. There's a lack of accountability. And so you just need to, instead of fixing the lack of accountability, you just need to bring in more money. That's the standard approach. We're not looking for ways to save and be more efficient, but we're looking for how we get more greenbacks, more money. So Tyrus was a place that was attractive, tells us that. And they knew it. They believed that's what it was that kept them going. And then in verse four, it says, thy borders are in the midst of the seas. Thy builders have perfected thy beauty. So there was a constant improving upon what they had. And there's nothing wrong with upkeep. We try to keep our building up. It's bad stewardship if you have a place and you let it fall down around yourself. You want to keep it in shape. You want to make sure that it lasts as long as it can. But it still needs to be practical, and it doesn't need to be fancy. But it says here, thy borders are in the midst of the sea. So as we mentioned, that part of the Tyrus was an island, and part of it was on the seashore. But it was right there, close. Nobody had to go far out of their way. They could see it. The ships could see it as they came by. Then it says, thy builders have perfected thy beauty. So they were always busy making sure that things looked as attractive as possible for the people. And then in verse five, they have made all thy ship boards of fir trees, of cienar. They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make mass for thee. So their ships, again being a seafaring area, Built on the sea, you're going to have ships. I grew up in a town called Leamington, Ontario, and that's right on Lake Erie, and there's a marina there. You got Kingsville, which is next, which has a marina as well. Lots of fishing going on there, lots of boats there. It's to be expected when you have water, big body of water, you're going to have boats. And of course, most of that was, again, for pleasure. So here we see that the ships, they were made of wood, and it says they were made out of fir wood, and fir wood is strong wood, and so it would be durable. The fir trees, the fir tree, we used to have lots of fir lumber in Canada. It's a harder wood than cedar or than spruce, and it's more durable than spruce wood is, but we don't have as much in Canada, and it's quite expensive now. But here they had the ship boards were made of fir trees and then the mass for the ships were made of cedar. And of course they had tall mass and the cedar wood is more weather resistant and the natural oils in it. It is very durable as well, but it has some give which a mast would have to have more than the cedar would have. And so they were making their ships to be durable ships that would last for a number of years, that they could use them for their various fishing and shipping needs. Then in verse six, of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars, and of course your oars on the ship Big ships, they were not moved by steam, not moved by paddle wheels, but by oars. So you have a lot of oars, and those oars are constantly working in the water. And so there's a lot of friction there. So you have to have a hard wood that can withstand that for a long period of time. You don't want to have your oars wear out on you halfway through your trip. You don't want them breaking on you. So oak wood is harder than fir. And it makes a very good wood for making oars. And so it tells us here that the oars are made of oaks. And then it says, the company of the Asherites have made thy benches of ivory. Now, ivory is a very hard material. And it comes from the Isles of Kittim, it says here. The CH has the K sound. And that's where their ivory came from. Ivory generally comes from the tusks of elephants. and walruses, things like that. We know that Solomon loved ivory and he had ivory on his throne in Jerusalem. So ivory is a very expensive material. You don't have that in the average house. But they had ivory here for their benches. I'm assuming that's their benches that would have been in the ships where the rowers would be sitting as they're moving those oars back and forth and moving that ship along. And so they came in. There was no restriction on the amount of effort that was used to bring the best materials available to be able to make Tyrus a successful place. Verse seven, it says, fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail. Blue and purple from the isles of Elisha was that which covered thee. So there are those who look at this passage and they say that the talking here of a ship is symbolic of the city itself. But it is talking about ships, and I know that when we come to chapter 27, the same thing is used there to, when it references the prince of Tyrus and talks about Satan, and we'll get to that when we get there. But I tend to believe that everything is describing here is talking because it is a seafaring city. And therefore, I believe that it is describing the ships that they had there. And the fact that they had very impressive ships, linen from Egypt, blue and purple, colors of royalty. So as these ships would sail in the seas, they would be noticed. They would be recognized by the quality of the materials that were used in making the ships, and they would gain respect. If you have good-looking equipment, it is respected. Other people will either fear it and respect it, or they will try to take it away from you. And so together with that, as we're going to see in this passage, you have to have good army as well to protect what you have. And so that's important. You can have a lot of things, but if you don't know how to protect them, you won't keep them, because we live in a corrupt world. So others are always trying to take away what you have. And if they don't have to work for it and steal it from you, they'll do it. So that's the situation. So Tyrus was a wealthy area. but they didn't respect where this wealth came from. So the third point we have is a skilled labor force. In verse eight it says, the inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners, thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee were thy pilots. So the people that were rowing these big ships were from Zidon and from Arvad. They were the mariners, that's their rowers. And you need to have strong people to operate those oars because you're going for 10, 12 hours at a time. And so you need to have good, strong backbone, strong back, strong legs, strong arms to be able to pull and push on those, lift and pull and push those oars to keep that ship moving. when the wind is not there. And so they had these people from Zidan and from Arvad. And then it says, thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee. So Tyrus had people that were skilled in being the pilots of the ships. Now the pilot of the ship needs to be someone who knows the waterways. He knows where the rocks are. where the sandbars are so that the ship doesn't run aground, it doesn't smash against a rock, because you can have rocks that are sticking up even in the sea. You can have a rock, a large rock like an underwater mountain that sticks up and may be under the water but too shallow for a ship to get over it. In Canada, in the east there we have the Welland Canal in the Niagara area. And when the ships, the big sea ships, tankers and that would go through there, cargo ships would go through there, they had to wait for a pilot from that area to board the ship and to guide them through the locks. They had to pay them to do that. Then when they got back to the other side, then the pilot would leave them again and the ship would carry on. So the pilot is a very important person on the ship, the one who knows the waterways and knows how to keep that ship safe as well. Off the coast of England right now, there are two ships. I believe they're both out now, but it was a tanker, U.S. tanker ship loaded with jet fuel that was anchored, and a cargo ship from Portugal that rammed into the side of that tanker, and they both caught on fire. And, of course, when you've got all that jet fuel, you're going to have a very hot fire. And they don't know yet what happened, whether it was an intentional ramming or whether they say it was foggy. But even if it's foggy, especially with today's technology, you would think that they would have instruments on their ships that would warn them well ahead of time that there's something up there. Don't go there. And the anchored ship, they said they had all their quadrants marked off. And so it wasn't that anybody in that area wouldn't know that that ship was sitting there. But regardless, the two hit, and they won't be going anywhere. So that's the danger when you don't have good pilots. When you don't have things in control, you have a mess on your hands. So here they had good pilots. They had pilots that could move the ships, guide the ships, and get them going where they needed to go. Then it says in verse 9, the ancients of Gibel and the wise men thereof were in thy cockers. Again, the cocking of the ship is important. When you have your four boards running along that ship and one atop the other, you have to seal in between the boards. You don't want water seeping through. You want a tight ship. And as that ship moves in the water, it's going to be creaking a little bit. The boards are going to be flexing. And so your caulking has to be such material that it can handle that caulking or that shifting in the water. So these caulkers, it says, the ancients of Giebel. So these were people who had done this for a while. They were skilled in their craft. Now, we know back in the days of Noah, that God told Noah to build an ark, and he told him to use pitch in that ark, and that's how he sealed between the boards, and he was directed by God. There's nobody wiser than God, and God told Noah how to do it, trained him in doing it, and Noah followed instructions, and that's why that ark didn't sink. It didn't leak. They didn't have to be busy bailing water. It was a tight ship. and brought them safely to its resting place, and everybody got off in good shape. Here, the caulkers were necessary. They were there, and they were the ones that would keep the ship when it was first built. They would make sure it was watertight, and then as that ship would come back from its journey, and if there was any issues, that they would go back in and repair anything that was needed to keep that ship in good order. So it tells us there, and all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in need to occupy thy merchandise. So as these ships would come in and as the mariners would be there, and of course the mariners there, by the text we learn that they must have gotten paid. So they have money, and when the ships come to shore and the mariners have a couple of days off to rest and prepare for the next trip, they want to spend money. So they have that opportunity and that's what you have. That's again why you hope to be able to have something in your town, in your community that is attractive to people because again you want them to come and spend money. That's what it's all about. Now we all need money to live. You can't go to the grocery store without money. You've got to be able to have something to pay for what you're going to get. And the merchant has to be able to keep his building up so you can come there and buy something. So there's money needed. But the problem is when you make money, you're God. And that's what Tyrus had. They had materialism as their God. That was the chief thing. And everything was focused on how do we attract more money. and of course that eventually falls apart. So in verse 10 it says, they of Persia, Persia of course being today Iran, they of Persia and of Lod and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war. So Phut in that area, that's talking about Egypt, that area. And so an army, again, we talked about that before. You have to have a good army. If you're going to have something that's of value, you have to protect it. That's true today. It's been true ever since the fall of man. Cain was a wicked man, and his descendants were wicked like he was. The time of Noah, wickedness was abounding on the earth. So there would have been a lot of corruption, a lot of crime at that time as well. Cain, of course, being the first murderer. So here we see that they had an army and it says here that they hanged the shield and the helmet in the, they set forth thy comeliness. So again, if you have a good army and you have nice shiny shields and nice looking helmets, that are hanging up when they're not being used. And it's impressive as people walk by and see your military equipment. Places like Russia and China, they like to parade in their streets with their military equipment at least once a year to show off what they have and to remind their people of the power that is in their army. They want to keep the people under their thumb. And Mr. Trump would like to have something like that. He talked about in his first term of being able to parade in the streets to show off his military prowess. Only the difference there is that he was not a dictator. So it wasn't to try to scare his country, but try to impress the world with the armaments that United States has. Canada, of course, we don't have much to show off. We don't have any modern jets. Our helicopters are not in good shape. We're in a mess in Canada. That's part of why Trump is trying to take advantage of us. Well, not really take advantage, trying to get us to pay our own way. And Canada is threatening, but Canada has to back off. As soon as Trump threatens a little more, Canada just cowers in the corner. They cannot defend themselves. in any way. We're a puppet of the WEF, as I said, and the WEF doesn't want us to be strong. They want us weak so they can take us over. They want to take out the wealth of Canada for themselves, and they don't care about us as people. As long as they can use us, they will, but otherwise they don't need us. But so we see here that The army that they had, it says, they of Persia and of Lod and of Phut were in thine army. So their army was not just made up of the people of Tyrus, but there were foreigners in their army, but obviously their army was a loyal army. They were patriotic to the cause. They were not there to overthrow them, although the army of Nebuchadnezzar was going to overthrow this army here. So again, it's not a matter of how strong your army is, but if you are trusting in God, because any army, God can break through any army. Even Israel with its Iron Dome is not stronger than God, and that's why some of the rockets have gotten through. And It's going to be God that is God now, even that is protecting Israel. And it's God that has given us in Canada the opportunity to live here, to proclaim the truth, and to be able to reach out into other countries because God has given us that opportunity because he wants people to be saved. That's why we have this building. It's not for us to show off. It's not for us to have bingos in here, to have a dance hall or anything like that. This is a place to proclaim the truth. And God has protected us. He watched over us here. We're thankful for that. Because this place, and not just this place, but across the world as we broadcast to different places, we have the opportunity to do so. And we don't want to squander that. We want to use this for God's glory. We don't have to show off any armaments here. We need to tell people who's in charge, and that's why we have a screen in the window that has Bible verses going across 24-7, because we want people to be reminded who's in charge, who they need to know, and we trust that over time people will wake up and repent and see the importance of truth. So in verse 11, it says, the men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about. So we see they have walls. We've talked about that before. You need good, good security. They have walls. The gamadims were in thy towers. So you've got to have watchtowers. Today we have satellites and we have even every airport, they have a tower where the People sit control tower where they sit and they operate from and they can see what's going on on the runways and so on, but they also have radar equipment and other things, they didn't have that fancy stuff back in the day. But they had towers and they had telescopes and different things they could see what's going on around them. And then again, it talks about, they hang their shields upon thy walls round about. They have made thy beauty perfect. So Tyrus was a place to be admired. It was a place that was envied by the people around them. It was impressive, but they lacked the main ingredient. They lacked the fear of God. So because of that, Ezekiel is told, as we see again in verse two, take up a lamentation for Tyrus. So even though they have all these things, they didn't understand how they got these things, who gave them the ability to build those ships, who gave them the favorable weather to sail those ships. Where'd the power come in the men that were used to move those ships, the oars? Didn't appreciate what God had given them. And so their time was at an end. All their shields, all their beauty, all their wealth, all gonna come crashing down. And that's what we see as well in our world now. We see that all that we have in Canada, 100 and some years, 60 some years that we've been here as a country, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears gone into building this country. And yet, over the years, God has been here, And there's been talk of God. Most of it has been false gods. And even the talk of God is becoming weaker in this country. As I mentioned before, even within fundamental Baptists, there's a greater concern nowadays with the secularization of churches rather than the spiritualization of churches, the blessing of strong spiritual churches. that has gone. We had that stronger in the early part of, well, the last century and the 1800s as well, but we've lost that. We don't have that anymore in our time. And that's a sad thing that we don't have that interest and we don't have that drive to preach the word and we don't have conferences like we did have. We're missing out on things people talk about, well, we're past the conference stage, we don't need that anymore. Well, that's not true. We still need them. God established for the nation of Israel, he established feast days where they were to get together and not just to pig out on food, but to remind themselves of the blessings of God in the past and in their present. So we still need that today. We still need to have times where we come together outside of our regular service times. We still need that where we can be reminded of what God has blessed us with and how important it is to know him and to honor him. But we are seeing that our country is not interested and even the spiritual part of our country is becoming weaker. So for those of us that realize that, we need to continue to hold to that which is right and true and see what is important. What is it that Canada needs today? What is it that our world needs today? And as we humbly submit to God, we can have an impact upon others, maybe not many, but that's not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to be faithful. And if people don't want to accept the truth, they'll answer to God for that. And so as long as we do what God tells us to do, then we're not guilty before God. So it's important for us to be careful and not to misappropriate the material blessings that God has given to us, but that we seek to help others to appreciate those blessings and where they come from and to know the God who gives us the blessings. So again, if you're listening today and you're not saved, that's the place to start. You need to understand that everything that we have is from God and it's important for you to know him. And so for those of us that are saved, we need to be faithful. continue to live by faith and not allow the world to creep into our own lives or into the lives of our churches, that we stand strong and true to God so we can be a help to others that they can know him as well. So let's be sure that we're doing that so that we can be a blessing to others in these days of grace. Let's pray together, Heavenly Father, we're thankful again for this lesson today, how that Tyrus had been a booming place, a busy place, a commercial place, lots of activities, lots of energy, lots of thinking, went into the ships and so on. They had a lot of things going for them, but they missed the most important thing. And so they were so busy. making their city beautiful, attractive to the eye, physical eye, but there was nothing good there spiritually. And the physical came crashing down. I pray that thou would help us today to see where our priorities need to be, how important it is to build that spiritual health, that spiritual life that's so important, that will stand the test of time. and that will be that testimony that people need to see what is important. So help us to be careful that we are exalting Thee, glorifying Thy name, and helping others to know Thy peace and blessing. May Thy will be accomplished through this ministry, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.