Verse by verse teaching - Daniel 7:2(cont) "The Great Sea"

If you take God's precious word and turn to the book of Daniel, book of Daniel, and while you're turning there, we had 108. Gospel contacts for the week, and that brings up to 2,452 for the year. Just keep sharing God's Word. You don't know where that seed's going to land. Just keep sharing the gospel. Daniel chapter 7. We're going to be studying verse 2 again. So it'll be the second part of verse 2. The title of the message this morning is The Great Sea. The Great Sea. Last week it was the four winds. Remember? We learned about the four winds in this verse. Daniel 7:2 says, Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. So we learned about the four winds of the heaven. We're going to learn the last part of this verse, and that is them striving upon the great sea this morning. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you for your precious word. We pray, dear Lord God, that your Holy Spirit will teach us this morning. Feed us, Lord. Teach your word, Father, through me. May all eyes be on you. Give us the understanding we need as we look to you, Father, to discern your precious word to us. We ask it in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen. Last week we learned about the four winds of heaven, and again this morning by God's grace we'll be learning about them striving upon the The great sea. And we learned last week that the number four is the number of the earth. Very good. I love hearing people beat me to that. And we learned that the wind represents God's Spirit. We need someone other than the associate pastor answering, though. Now, I want him to answer, of course, but I mean, I want to hear others. Don't be bashful. If you remember it, say it out. So the four winds, the four earth winds, remember we learned that they represent four angels, four spirits. Of God that's carrying out God's will on earth. And sometimes the four winds, as I just said, they're referred to as four spirits. We're going to learn this morning, they're also sometimes referred to as four. Chariots. We'll be looking at that here as well this morning. And they speak of God's Sovereign rule upon the affairs of this world, ensuring us that wherever fallen men and fallen angels rule, our God will ultimately overrule. In spite of the affairs of unrighteous men. The Four Winds taught us that God ultimately works out His righteous plan. Through his righteous angels, by the power of his Holy Spirit over all his creation. And keeping all that in mind, a little synopsis of what we learned last week, keeping all that in mind, let's now go back to Daniel 7:2 and continue our study this morning. Look at Daniel 7:2 again. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove. Strove. So these winds were striving. And at first glance, when you're reading this, you might think, well, the winds are fighting with each other, right? If I said there were four people striving out in the front lawn, we would think that they were arguing with each other. They were fighting with each other. So if you're reading through Daniel and you say, oh man, Daniel saw the four winds striving. You think, well, they're fighting with each other, but what do we know about the four winds now? We know who the four winds are, we know what the four winds are. They are God's angels. Do you think those God's angels are going to be fighting with each other? No. So, knowing who and what the four winds are and what they're accomplishing. We know they're not fighting with each other. Okay? These are not for unholy wins. These are four holy ones. So they can't be striving against each other because of the four angels of God who are going forth to do his will in the earth. Zechariah chapter 6, verse 5. Zechariah chapter 6, verse 5. And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth. They're not fighting with Each other. These four angels, on the contrary, are in absolute harmony. With one another. They're working together to accomplish God's will. So they are not striving with each other, they are striving together to accomplish God's purpose. And guess what? It God works that way through us today. What you see God doing through these angels, He does through you and me. Are we not His ministers here on earth to carry out His will? Is that not what Jesus did whenever he left? He left, but then he told his apostles what? Go into all the world. Preach the gospel to every creature and then teach them to do what I told you to do. So, what are we doing today? We are going into all the world. We are preaching the gospel to every creature. That's why we're sending gospel literature and things to these other countries. That's why we've been doing that, and that's why we have. Missionaries who go out to other parts of the world. And so, as God works through the four spirits. God works through us, His people. So the four spirits are striving together to accomplish the will of God. Now keep that in mind. And write down in your margin Philippians chapter 1, verse 27. Philippians chapter 1, verse 27. Paul said, Only let your conversation, that means your lifestyle, be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs. that ye stand fast in one spirit or one wind, watch this with one mind set with me, striving together for the faith of the gospel. So we can strive against each other. That's what the devil wants the church to do. Man, we've had I've had enough church trouble to last me several lifetimes. Okay? Isn't that right, Abel? Man, I have. But I tell you what, thank God I hadn't had hardly any here. Striving together is what we're to do for the faith of the gospel. Do you know what that tells us? As long as the church keeps our mind and our objective on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be striving together. When you get your objective in the church off of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's when you can start striving with one another. The biggest fight, or not the fight, we never had a fight here, but the biggest controversy that I can ever remember in the going on, I've been here, what, 15 years now? 15 and a half years, the biggest controversy I can remember, it's been a long time ago, thank God it's been a long time ago, was the color of the wall that was going to get painted. That was it. Do you know why the striving together happened? Because people's minds weren't on the main thing. If our heart is on the main thing, it won't really matter what color the walls are. Right? I do have some preferences, I must admit. I'd rather not have, you know, some colors, but we want it to look nice. But you know what? If this wall was painted like back in the 60s with tie-dye colors, we could still preach the gospel and come here each and every day, and it wouldn't affect any of us. It's okay. It's okay. So the four winds, when it says they strove, they are striving together. Now, The Chaldean, we're reading Chaldean translated into English here. And the Chaldean word translated strove. It literally means to rush forth if you're taking notes or you're writing in the margin of your Bible. Underscore the word strive, draw your line out there to the margin of your Bible, put down you know, maybe Philippians 1. 27, and then put down, rush forth like water. It's based on a root word that has the idea. You know, like when you have a dam And you've got all this water here, and finally, the dam breaks, and then that water just rushes forth. That's what this word translated as strive or strove here means. It has the idea of water rushing forth in all of this power. And this is happening upon the great sea. The rushing of mighty waters from heaven. It's what it's like. Now you got to ask yourself because could you imagine the four spirits rushing striving together In a forceful way, like rushing water coming upon the Great Sea. It almost sounds A little, kind of like a double negative, or it just seems odd because the sea itself is known for having rushing water, is it not? So, do you see the enigma here? You have powerful rushing water. Coming upon powerful rushing water. Hurricanes. The rushing forth of that water from that sea is devastating. And just the waves of the sea, it rocked ships, it sunk many ships. So keep all of this in mind here. Because this is going to begin to paint a very detailed picture for us as exactly what's going on. Now some people think when we're looking here at the striving, it's upon the Great Sea and some people think, well, the Great Sea must be the Mediterranean Sea. Or maybe it's the Sea of Galilee or some other sea here on earth. And they just don't really remember, or they don't, excuse me, they don't understand. But here's what we have to understand: here: the four winds are what? They're four spirits. What is this telling us? This is not a physical sea like the Sea of Galilee. This is a spiritual sea. Like the sea of the lost world of men. A spiritual sea. This great sea is not a geographical mass of water. It is a great mass of fallen souls living in a fallen world. Isaiah fifty-seven verse nineteen Isaiah fifty-seven verse nineteen Look what God says. God says to the prophet Isaiah, I create the fruit of the lips, peace. Peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him. God gives peace. He creates the fruit of the lips, he says. Do you know what? Let me explain what that's saying there in verse 19. The fruit of the lips, it's what comes from the word of your mouth, right? It's the fruit of the lips. You got the fruit of a pear tree. We just got some pears off our tree the other day. Those pears, the fruit of the lips are words. And God gave us fruit from his lips. You know what they were? Peace, he says. I speak peace. Remember what the angels said when Jesus was born? On earth, Peace. What did Jesus come to give us? Peace. How did He give it? The Bible says he gave us peace through the blood of His cross. So, based upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God can speak peace to the world. And I want to tell you, I live in a crazy world, but there's peace in my heart. I have peace in my heart because I have peace with God. Jesus took me from being a sinner and an enemy with God, and He died for my sins and brought me back to God. So I have peace in a troubled world. But the world that does not accept the word of God's peace that comes through God's Son, they have no peace. Because they don't accept the fruit of God's lips, you see? Because they don't accept God's Son. So he goes on in verse 19. Let's read verse 19 again. I create the fruit of the lips. Peace. peace to him that is far off. Do you know who that is? That's the Gentiles. We learned that from the book of Ephesians. So he says, I speak peace to him that's far off. Whoever lives in the most remote places Far away from Jerusalem, I can pronounce peace to you through the Savior who's going to come and die for you, my Son. Also, he says, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, he'll save the Jews, because the gospel is to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, the Bible says. He says, I will heal him. He'll heal us of our sins. But, look in verse 20 now. But the wicked That is, those who don't accept my son. Let's go on. There you go. But the wicked are like the troubled set with me. See. Ah. Now we see what those four winds are striving upon. They're striving upon the sea of the wicked. He said, But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. Now we have rest, Jesus said. Come unto me, all ye who are weary and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. So I have rest. I don't have to work for my salvation. I don't have to try to do something to make God accept me. Jesus, like the Sabbath day, is my Sabbath rest. And I can look at the cross and see that all the work is done, and I can just rest in what He's accomplished for me. That's what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be a believer. to be a Christian. But the wicked, on the other hand, they're like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. You see those waters? And what do they do? They're casting up How? By the rushing of that water. They're casting up mire, filth, they're casting up dirt. You ever been to a, or you ever seen an ocean after a hurricane? And you see all that foam, that nasty foam? Does it make you just want to go stick your toes in it? No, it doesn't. It's filthy. And so the idea is this: that the rushing of the waters of the earthly sea, that is, the sea of unredeemed people. The collection of the lost world. When they get together and they're trying to do something, do you know what the world does? It comes up with something wicked. Man, it comes up with communism. It comes up with socialism. It comes up with atheism. It comes up with all kinds of wickedness. That's what the world does. That's the mire and the dirt. That it cast up. When the world, and listen, when you're watching this right now, we're living in an age in America that we haven't got to experience before. We watched other countries go through it. Now we're watching our country start to go through it, where we have this great swelling of people. Who have this idea that they want to bring socialism, which is the gateway to communism? It's all the same. And to do that, the state becomes God. The individual becomes the worshipper of the state. Nobody owns anything. The state owns it all. And they promise all of this wonderful stuff, and they end up delivering misery. And so that's the devil. Trying to conquer the world because you know what the two objectives of communism and socialism are? Number one, you've got to stamp out Christianity. Christianity doesn't work. You've got to stamp it out because you can't have any competition between gods. That's why you don't have. You look at all the communist nations, Christianity can't thrive there. They don't allow it. The other thing it does is stamp out the family unit. Oh yes, people, men and women will have babies. You've got to keep the babies coming. But they stamp out the authority of the home to where mom and dad don't have control over what the children are being taught. The government does. We've got to have the kids looking to the government as the authority for what they learn, not the parents. So it's the breaking down of God's social spiritual network. And that's mire and that's filth. And the very first place you see that at is in the book of Genesis with the Tower of Babel. Very first place. And the devil's been trying to repeat that ever since then on a global scale, which he will do. In the end of time, he'll attempt that in a great way. And so the wicked are like the troubled sea. Now, I want you to notice that Daniel called it a great sea. Do you see that? It's a great sea. This is no little trifle thing to deal with. This is a great sea. And this refers to the great dominion. That Satan has over this fallen world. Do you remember when Jesus was being tempted of the devil? The devil takes Jesus up to a high mountain, and he tells Jesus, he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, is what it says. And he's pointing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. He says, Look, as far as the eye can see, all the kingdoms of the world I'll give you if you'll just fall down and worship me. Remember the devil telling Jesus that? When the devil was pointing to all the kings of the world and the glory of them, Jesus didn't say, Well, you can't give me those kingdoms, they don't belong to you. He didn't say that, did he? Because the devil was pointing to the fallen world that he has great influence over. In the world that the devil was pointing to Jesus, that was the great sea here in Daniel. All the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. He's pointing to them. That's the great sea that the four winds are striving upon. Okay? The same great sea that cast out the filth and the dirt. How do we know they cast out filth and dirt? What happened? I taught this morning in the Genesis of Jesus class. We looked at Jesus' trial. In his crucifixion. Did you know Jesus was tried by two governments? First, he was tried by the Jewish government with the Sanhedrin Court. Second, he was tried by the Roman government under Pontius Pilate. Do you know what that was? That was the Great Sea. Do you know what the Great Sea did? They cast out mire and dirt. They crucified the Savior. They crucified the very person who walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and who made them coats of skins and clothed them. They crucified that same person who came as a man to die for their sins. They rejected him. That's the great sea. And that's why Jesus didn't want to rule over that. No, not that way. And not under the power of the devil. But that's the great seed that great dominion that Satan has over this fallen world through Which he influences his unrighteous will over the pagan empires that ruled the world during Daniel's time. So there was Babylon. This is when Daniel had this dream, was during the reign of Babylon, which ruled the great sea at that time. And the Babylonian dominion, Debuchadnezzar's dominion, it consisted of many waters, that is, many nations. So you had many waters that made up one great sea. You follow me? The waters were the nations. Because Babylon was a world empire, just like Greece was, just like Persia was, just like Rome was during the time of Christ. It was a world empire that was made up of many nations. Many waters collected together all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them a great sea. Everyone with me? All right. So keep all that in mind. Now Babylon was a pagan kingdom. They were pagans. They were ruling over men. So Babylon wasn't ruling over the Great Sea under God's righteous authority. And if you'll remember back in the previous chapters, Babylon was ruling over men in the power of the devil. And Babylon. Caused all nations, that is, all the waters in the great sea, caused them to bow down and worship that idolatrous image. You remember that when we started learning in the beginning of Babylon? And we learned that's going to happen again, and we read that same thing in the book of Revelation. What happened in Babylon was a prophecy of history in that time of what's going to happen in the history to come. And so Babylon ruled a great sea. They were pagan. And understand how this is supposed to work. Do you know what the Bible calls the church? The Bible calls the church the bride of Christ. The way it's supposed to work is this: God creates mankind. God loves mankind. Mankind to God is like a bride to a groom. that God governs over, God protects, God guides, and the bride does the will of the groom. And that's the way the church is. We're the bride of Christ. We do His will. He protects us, right? But at the same time, we're very close to Him, and He loves us so much. He loves us as Himself. So much he died for us. Now, if you have a great sea that is a pagan government, They're not worshiping God, they're worshiping false gods. You no longer have a faithful bride. You have an unfaithful harlot. You follow me? Now the world, now mankind is no longer in a relationship with God as a bride, a faithful bride to her spouse. In this loving union. Now you have a world that is in a relationship with God as an unfaithful harlot that goes out to play the harlot on God to do fornication with false gods. So a harlot is someone who's cheating on God, running around with other gods. Make sense? All right. Now keep all that in mind. Babylon. It had many waters making up a great sea that was a pagan great sea. It was a great harlot, therefore. Make sense? Okay? What Babylon was to the world in Daniel's day, as I said before, it's going to be similar to how the world is going to reign under the man of sin in the last day. Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17. The prophet John says, verse 1, And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials and talked with me, saying unto me, Come up hither. And I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore which setteth upon, set with me, many waters. You see how that works? You have many waters, that is, many nations, that make up the great sea that the great whore sits upon, that is, the great whore sits down and rules over that great sea. Okay? The the the mass of wicked people that we were talking about, that spiritual sea. Revelation seventeen, verse five It's going to explain that many waters more. Watch. And upon her forehead, that is the great horse's forehead, was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great. In other words, where it says mystery, it means this is the fulfillment of what Babylon really meant in the Old Testament. Okay, Babylon was a real kingdom that happened at a real time under kings that are mentioned in the Bible. It's all history. But it was a mystery. When you see a mystery in the Bible, here's what it means: a mystery is something in the Old Testament that you saw. But you didn't understand completely. It was a mystery. It was unknown. When you get to the New Testament, you have fresh prophecies. That then reveal the full intended meaning, prophetic meaning of what was written in the old. And so, mystery Babylon the Great. What's going to happen in the end of time is going to replicate what happened during Daniel's time just on a much greater scale. Make sense? It's going to replicate it on a much greater scale. So, watch what he says here. Revelation 17:5, and upon her forehead Was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great. That's why we have a great sea, you see. The mother of harlots. Harlots, many harlots, many nations, many waters, and abominations of the earth. Verse now Revelation 17:15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the horse sitteth, or sits like on the throne to reign, are peoples. In multitudes, in nations, in tongues. You see? So, what we're reading in Daniel here, when we're looking at a great sea, We're looking at a collection of many waters, and those many waters are peoples, nations, multitudes, their tongues, different languages, all kinds of people. That makes up this great sea of unredeemed, lost people. It's the collective mass. Of the fallen people of this world. And here are the four winds, the four spirits, these angels sent from God to rush like rushing water. Upon the Great Sea. And that brings us back to our original question What are these four spirits rushing upon the Great Sea for? Why are they rushing upon the Great Sea? Like the breaking forth of water. And here's the answer: they are rushing upon the Great Sea. As a breaking forth, the rushing forth of water to interrupt the wicked agenda of men and to impose the righteous plan of God. The Great Sea has its own rushing waters. The Great Sea, right now, this is why these communists won't. quit. This is why these homosexuals won't quit. You you can't get a Supreme Court ruling and them say, oh, okay, well, we lost. They won't quit because It is the devil's agenda to absolutely break down God's pattern for creation. in his authority over this world. So he is going to keep pressing and pressing and crushing the family, crushing sexuality. What what is he doing when he does that? He is taking God's design by nature And destroying it. He's taking God's design between creature and creator and destroying it. The rushing of water. And just like with the Tower of Babel, God said, If I sit around and do nothing, I'm paraphrasing that, if we don't stop this, there won't be anything to keep them from fulfilling their plan. That's why God came down, confused the languages at the Tower of Babel, and scattered the people all over the earth, like they were supposed to have done to begin with. That was the four winds rushing upon the rushing waters. Do you know what will stop Rushing water from going one direction, stronger water going the opposite direction. You see? That's what we see here. So, God saying, I'm going to take my influence here. And to keep this world from completely falling apart, I am going to impose my will and reclaim this world for myself. So, the rushing or striving here by the four winds is the power of God overcoming the fallen powers of this world. Now, keep that in mind. Look with me now in Isaiah chapter 17, Isaiah chapter 17. Look with me now in verses 12 and 13. You'll see. Listen to what God says to the many waters or the many nations of this world. Woe to the multitude of many people. Which make a noise like the noise of the seas. You see that? And to the rushing. Of nations, waters, that make a rushing, like the rushing of set with me, mighty waters. The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them. Look at that. You see what's happening? There's a prophecy here. In Isaiah, that says the nations are going to rush like the rushing of many waters. That is, in the end times, They're going to put all their power, all their energy, all their collective, all the many waters are going to rush together like a great sea. They're going to combine their forces and they're going to rush, like the rushing of many waters, against the powers of God to overcome the powers and the influence of God in this earth. And God says, This is what they're going to do. The many peoples are like many waters, and they're going to rush like the rushing of many waters. But I shall rebuke them. That is, I want to turn those waters back. And when he turns those waters back, that's the four spirits striving, breaking forth like water upon those waters that we see here in Daniel. All that makes sense? Folks, what we're reading here in Daniel, it's going to happen. The fact that Babylon didn't stay in power The fact that Persia didn't stay in power, the fact that Greece didn't stay in power, the fact that Rome then did not stay in power. Was God reminding us that the devil will not stay in power? He's going to rush again. The children of God, the church, we can anticipate this happening. It's going to happen. Don't be afraid when it does. Don't wring your hands. Just say, praise God, it's happened, just like the Bible said. And as it does, you can rest assured that when the biggest wave of this world starts coming up, and it looks like it's going to crush the people of God beneath it. Here come the four winds with a rushing mighty water of God and they're going to come back and rebuke The plans of this world and impose the eternal plan of Almighty God. It says, verse 13: the nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them, and they shall. Flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind. Listen to that. They'll be chased as the what? The chaff of the mountains before the wind. Do you remember what John the Baptist said? He said, I baptize you with water. There's coming one after me, he'll baptize you with the spirit and the fire. His fan is in his hand, he'll thoroughly purge his floor. The wheat he'll gather into the garner, the chaff. He'll burn with unquenchable fire. He's talking about this. When it says here, Shall be chased, that these waters, these wicked people, shall be chased as a chaff of the mountains before the wind Do you know where they're going to be chased into? They're going to be chased into a lake of fire. And there they're going to burn. It says, and like a rolling thing before the world. Wind. There's the wind again because the mighty wind and the mighty waters are one and the same because they're coming from the mighty God who's executing these to the four winds, the four spirits. So these four winds rushing upon the great sea, they're rebuking the world's agenda, instituting God's agenda. And much like when, again, God disrupted Babel's plan in the Tower of Babel. Now, the fact that these four angels rushed to impose God's will. Like mighty rushing wind, the four winds, forcefully imposing God's kingdom agenda, is, I believe, in Ezekiel chapter 1, 4 through 6. Where I believe the four winds are described here as four living creatures. The four living creatures are the same as the four winds. Look here in Ezekiel. 1, 4 through 6. Ezekiel says, And I looked and behold a whirlwind. Now remember what we just read there in Isaiah. He says that before the wind and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. And now Ezekiel's talking about a whirlwind, too. He said, I looked and behold a whirlwind. came out of the north a great cloud and a fire enfolding itself and brightness was about it and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber Out of the midst of the fire. Also, out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. So here's a whirlwind with four living creatures. And this was their appearance. They had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces. And everyone had four wings. Isn't this great? Now move forward with me to Ezekiel chapter 3. Look with me in verses 12 and 13, where Ezekiel said, Then the Spirit Or the wind, the Holy Spirit, took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of great set with me, rushing. See that? Saying, blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place. Now, this voice saying, Blessed be the Lord from the glory of his place, that voice came out like a great rushing. What does that mean? It means it's being said with authority that God will be blessed in this place, not cursed. God's name will be blessed. God's people will be blessed. Blessed be the glory of the Lord from this place. Verse 13, I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another. And the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of great what? Rushing. So these four living creatures, the same four spirits, or the same four winds. That we've seen in these others. And they're rushing, they're striving, just like we read. And they have wheels like chariots. Do you know what the Bible calls angels sometimes in the scriptures? The host of God. That means the armies of God. They're coming in forcefully. Why? Because this world, through the preaching of the gospel, when those angels came, those angels said, On earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Do you know what that was? That was God reaching his hand out to the world, saying, Will you make peace with me? The world crucified Jesus. In essence, saying, we will not make peace with you. Well, you know what happens when you won't make a peace treaty with an opposing kingdom? You don't get peace, you get what? You get war. So now these four living creatures are coming in, and they have wheels like chariots. They rush like wind, they rush like water. And, like this rushing mighty wind, they rebuked this world's agenda. Now, watch how what we are learning about in Daniel applies to us today. Listen to how Luke. Describes the formation of the church in the book of Acts, and you'll see all this fall into place, and then we'll close. Acts chapter 2, verse 1 and 2. Acts chapter 2, verse 1 and 2. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord. One accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a say it with me, rushing, mighty wind. And it filled all the house where they were sitting. Folks, do you know? What the rushing mighty wind is that's rebuking this world and keeping it from falling apart right now It is the church of Jesus Christ and the preaching of his gospel. We are the rushing mighty wind of God at this particular time. Who are preaching to the world repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ? And it is like salt. Preserving what we have, what little we have left. It is light that keeps the darkness from growing, the mold that destroys and corrupts this world. And so here's the rushing. Mighty wind, the same power that we see in Daniel rushing upon the waters. The same power that works through those four angels is the exact same power that works through us. The children of God. When we stand in the power of God's word and we proclaim God's word and we obey God's word. In this earth as the bride of Christ, as opposed to the great whore that's against him. Why was the wind from having a rushing Mighty wind, because as God made these four angels a mighty force to impose His kingdom agenda on earth, so He's made the church a rushing mighty wind as well from this point forward. The apostles of God and the church of Jesus Christ, they weren't hiding in fear and confusion. They began preaching the gospel from the mountaintops in the power of the Holy Spirit. When the church shares the gospel with the world, God's word spoken through us is like a rushing mighty wind, foiling Satan's plan to condemn the souls of God's elect and ensuring God's plan. To build his church as Jesus said he would. Listen to how the prophet Zechariah Remember the four winds and the four creatures and the four and they had wheels like chariots? Zechariah chapter 6 verse 1 Zechariah chapter 6, verse 1, Zechariah said, And I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, there came four chariots. out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of brass. And now we know what the four winds are doing. When Daniel saw them striving or rushing upon the sea, we know what the sea is. And this is important because next Sunday we're going to watch powers rise up from these seas and we're going to watch them fall from this sea. But we're going to know that those powers and all earthly powers like them rise and fall by the power of heaven above them. Which moves them along like rushing mighty wind. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. Thank you for the power of your word. That even now, when we preach your word, the saints of God, the believers in Christ, are stirred by it. We are emboldened by it. We are assured, Father, of our place in your kingdom. Of how we fit into the prophetic message that we read in both the Old and New Testaments. And we thank you. That you are striving through us and rushing through us. And Lord, may we be that powerful force that you intended for us to be, which can only happen as we yield ourselves wholly to you. Living sacrifices. I pray you'll fill each one of us with your Holy Spirit. And if there be anyone among us today, Who does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior? Who's not been joined to the bride? I pray, Father, before it's too late. They'll come to understand and believe the gospel for themselves. In Christ's precious name, amen.