Continue to worship our God this morning by considering his word. I want you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the penultimate book of the Old Testament, the book of Zechariah, the book of Zechariah. And I'm just going to read one verse in your hearing this morning. If you're visiting and you have no idea where the book of Zechariah is and what we've been doing, I encourage you to listen to the sermon from last week on Sermon Audio. I'm not going to give a lot of review this morning because there's plenty for us to dig into. So this morning, I'm going to read in your hearing one verse, Zechariah 1.8. Zechariah 1.8. Listen carefully, for this is the word of the living God. The prophet says, I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. As for the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever, and we are thankful for it. Would you bow with me this morning? Let's ask the Lord for help as we come to the ministry of the word. Father God, we are indeed in need of your help this morning. Lord, it has been expressed in song, in prayer, in response of reading. We are needy and dependent people. Father, we need your grace, we need your stability. So often, Father, it seems, especially in certain seasons of our life, that we are walking in the midst of chaos, and we need order, and we need stability, and there is no other power in heaven or on earth or in all of the cosmos that is able to bring order out of chaos than the God of all creation. Yahweh is His name and all the creation of the earth will do obeisance to Him. Every knee shall be bowed and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Father, give us a more robust vision of the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all things this morning. Even the things, Father, that in our weak faith we think that you can't overcome, because we are like doubting Thomas at times, Lord. We don't really believe the things that you say. Rebuke us, but rebuke us in your kindness. Rebuke us in your mercy. Give us strength to lift up our weak limbs. Give us brothers and sisters who will come around us and rally around us and put in their mouths the precious promises of God's kingdom that our sails might be filled with the wind of God's word. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Last week, we looked at Zechariah chapter one, and I told you that we're beginning a series on the night visions of Zechariah. But before we can even get into the night visions of Zechariah, we must understand the identity and the meaning and the richness of these three figures that Zechariah saw in his night vision. The man that is mounted on the red horse, the myrtle trees, and in a moment, what I'm going to submit to you is the deep. But before we get there, very quickly, I just want to remind you of a few things. The book of Zechariah has a main purpose. And its main purpose is to convey to the people of God, in this context, the people of God was Israel, 70 years after their captivity in Babylon. The world is now under the domain of Persia, that is the world kingdom at that time, and Darius had allowed them to come back, and they're beginning to rebuild the temple. This is what is known as the post-exilic era or period. If you care, it's about 520 BC, before Christ. And you must remember that this is a very discouraging and depressing time for the people of God. Their identity has all but been lost. Meaning for themselves as a people, promises that had been given to them, they seem to not be there. They seem to have dissolved. They seem to be non-existent. And what they needed then, just as we need now, is a man of God to come into their presence and to say, God's promises still stand. And what Zechariah gave to these people in this time of discouragement and despair was a vision. And I want you to think about that for a moment. We commonly go to the New Testament, and the New Testament commonly has what is called didactic teaching, which is very logic, western, linear thought. You look at Paul, and I know of a lawyer who is not even a believer, but has memorized the book of Romans because it's so logical and so linear and so coherent. And Paul is faithful, together with Peter and the other apostles, to just give us these arguments that put on display the splendor and majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what we often forget is that there is a robust plethora of images and figures and pictures that are given to us in the Old Testament, and then later in that last book of the New Testament, in the book of Revelation, that instead of giving us logical syllogisms, give us pictures and images of Christ ultimate defeat over chaos. And that is what we have here. We have pictures and so you may need in the coming weeks to come as we go through the book of Zechariah to kind of shift your expectations of what you're going to hear and receive in the ministry of the word. It is not so much going to be logical and linear, it is going to be picturesque. So Zechariah is painting a picture for us where God's kingdom will be restored. And what I want you to understand is that that same promise had relevance in the context of the Persian kingdom, but you can cut and paste that same promise into the kingdoms that now are, and it means the same thing. Whatever you see, I love how Pastor Jim said it. The God who was the God before the elections will still be the God after the elections. I don't care who gets in there. We don't believe in a God who is not sovereign. We believe in a God who has raw, ultimate control over every single detail of life. And we do not, when we hear things like that, say, well, then that just makes us just robots. You know what we do? We fall on our knees and we worship this sovereign God. We say thank you that we have a sovereign God in the midst of such an unstable time. And Zechariah is going to give us a message this morning, beloved, that is going to calm your souls and the chaotic waters of affliction that you may be walking through right now, the chaotic waters of doubt and despair and discouragement and despondency and apathy that you may be walking through right now if you will but let it. God gives us pictures. And we saw last week that this first figure, a man who is mounted on a red horse, is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. It is the angel of the Lord. But now I want you to see in verse 8 what this next figure is. In your ESV, it says that he was in the glen, in the glen. Now a glen is something like a ravine. And in fact, in the New American Standard version of the Bible, the New English Translation and the New International Version, it says ravine. In the ESV and the RSV, it says glen. In the New King James Version, it says hollow. And in the Christian Holman Standard Bible, it has valley, and in the King James Version and the Authorized Standard Version, it says bottom. Now, why is there such a diversity of translations, difference of translations in this text? Well, here's the deal. In the text itself, in the Masoretic Text, which is the Hebrew text that most translators are following, The way in which the Hebrew word is pointed as far as its vowels, it should be translated the deep or the depths. But here's the thing. Number one, you need to understand, and just tuck this away for a moment, please follow me. The Hebrew language is a language of consonants. So I want you to think of the English language for a moment and take out all the vowels, boys and girls, A, E, I, O, and U. And if you were trained 20 years ago, sometimes Y and W, okay? A, E, I, O, and U, take all of those out, and what you're left with is consonants in the English language. Now, try to make words with just those consonants. Well, you could kind of figure it out. Well, that's how the Hebrew language is. It is a language of just consonants. Now, it doesn't mean that they don't have vowels. They instinctively know how to pronounce a word with what vowels. But the original Hebrew was probably written without vowels, and then later, a tradition known as the Masoretic tradition came along, and they put what's called vowel pointings into the text. And these vowel pointings, many scholars believe, and I happen to believe this as well, for what it's worth, they believe came from oral tradition passed down from Moses himself all the way down to Nehemiah and Ezra after the captivity as to how to pronounce these words in the text. You see, long, long ago in the time of Moses, not everybody had their own versions of the Bible that they could just click on their smartphone. They memorized large swaths of the Bible. And so it was passed down and certain vowel pointings were given. So in the Masoretic text as we have it today, the way that this word is pointed with its vowels, it means the deep. But translators came to it and they said, okay, Zechariah sees a man on a horse, that makes sense, among the myrtles, that makes sense, but by the deep. And they said, well, this doesn't make any sense. And oftentimes what translators will do is if something doesn't make sense, listen, they will change around the vowel pointings to make it say something else. And that's what they did. They changed around the vowel pointings to make it be rendered ravine or glen. Now, it's similar to something that's deep, right? If you can conceive of it, a ravine is something that is deep. You might say something like that. But why did they do that? They said, well, it doesn't make sense that he would be by the ocean among myrtles. But here's what you have to remember. This is a vision. This is a dream. Now, I don't know about you, but especially with a certain unnamed holiday that just passed, you might eat a lot of chocolate. And when you eat a lot of chocolate late at night, you may then lay your head on a pillow and have dreams. And those dreams may be really, really weird, okay? And that's how dreams are. Dreams are very fluid. They could shift from one scene to a completely different scene, and there's no explanation as to why. Well, that's how dreams were when they were given to the prophets. In fact, in the book of Revelation chapter one, John sees a vision. He has something of a prophetic dream. And he sees the risen Lord Jesus Christ described in very vivid imagery, and it says that Jesus had seven stars in his hand. And John began to weep, and then all of a sudden, John had Jesus' hand on his shoulder. Now wait a minute, somebody could say, we hear the dispensationalists in the background, what happened to the stars? Well, John doesn't care about what happened to the stars. You see, dreams are fluid. He's not trying to explain literally what happened. He's trying to give you images, and they are very fluid in how they change. And so, coming back to Zechariah 1, verse 8, when we see in the Masoretic text that it says, by the deep, we should translate it by the deep. And by the way, just tuck this away, later on in Zechariah 10, verse 11, Zechariah uses this exact same Hebrew word, and that's exactly what it means. Let me read Zechariah 10, verse 11. He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea and all the depths, there's our word, the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. So this same word that was used in Zechariah 1.8 is used in Zechariah 10.11, and it means the deep. So I would submit to you that this word means the deep, and what he is referring to is the deep of the sea, and that is oftentimes how it is used, just as we saw in Zechariah 10.11. So here is the picture. We have a man mounted on a red horse among the myrtles by the deep. Now here's the question. How do we understand this? And what I submitted to you last week is that whenever you come across images, especially in the latter prophets, and they don't really give a lot of explanation as to what those images mean and how they are to function in the context of that book, What you need to do is you need to go to the prior revelation, what Moses has given us, what the major prophets have given us, what the chronicler and the historian has given us, and say, is there a motif or a theme of the depth, the depth of the sea that is recycled throughout biblical revelation, used over and over and over again, such that I could take that motif, and when I see deep in Zechariah, I could plug it in, so to speak, and say, that's what it means. And the answer is yes. And let me just give you an analogy, okay? If you took a Christian and a non-Christian, and you said to them, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. A non-Christian would say, oh, you must be a baker. But the Christian would say, I know exactly what you're saying. A little sin in the congregation, it spreads. So that Christian knows what that term means because he is familiar with scripture. And he has taken a simple word that in any other context, if you were baking bread for Christmas or whatever, would mean nothing more than leaven that causes bread to rise, but in the context of a little leaven, leaven's the whole lump, it means something different. Well, see, that is what Zechariah is doing for us here. He is taking images that the people of God, the covenant community of God are familiar with, and he's saying, plug and play, and you will see and hear and understand what it is I have to say. So what I want to do very briefly this morning is I just want to give you a sample. I want to give you a sample of how this term, the deep of the sea, is used in a few different contexts and then plug it into Zechariah and draw some application from it. So here's the first way in which it's used. At creation, the deep was the chaos out of which the creator king imposed the order of a life-giving world. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one. And we are gonna be moving around a lot, so I hope to hear the fluttering of pages. It's one of my favorite sounds in the context of the corporate worship of God's people. Genesis chapter one, verse one. Here we find these first words of revelation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and as I've said in weeks past, this is kind of like a summary. He created the heavens and the earth, but he doesn't say anything about that earth, and then he will descend into details in verses two and following about what that earth was like and what he did to it. Look at verse two. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the, what? The deep. There's our word. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. What do we see here, beloved? We see a picture of this globe we call the earth, but without land, it was a watery chaos. In fact, the word in the Hebrew, the two words in the Hebrew, and I'm gonna tell you these words, because I want you to think of them. The earth was formless and void, tohu v'bohu. That means chaotic, no order, no stability, no solid ground. There was just this swirling of chaos going on around the world. It was the deep of chaos. But what was over it? The Spirit of God was hovering over this chaos. I want you to come back to Zechariah 1.8. The deep, chaotic waters, but the man on the red horse was there. The image, the glory, theophany image of God himself is there by the chaos, coming back to Genesis 1. The chaotic waters are there, but the Spirit is there. And what is he going to do? The glory presence of God was hovering over the deep, watery chaos. And what did he do? He spoke and creation leapt into existence. On those days, on those respective days, he created the realms of the kingdom, and then in the last three days, he created the kings who would reign in those realms. Light, and then sun and moon, and so on and so forth. He caused the land, listen, the land to come up from the watery chaos, and he imposed upon that chaos order and stability. And not only that, in that state of chaos, there was no life. But in God's creative fiat and in his word, he brought the fructifying land that brought bushes and shrubs and trees that bore their fruit according to their kind, and animals that gave birth according to their kind, and man and woman who were the vice regents of the suzerain creator God, who were to impose dominion upon the old earth as image bearers of God. What did God do? He brought order out of chaos. I want to make a very, very important clarification here. This image of chaos is used often throughout ancient Near Eastern literature in other Babylonian epics and Assyrian epics and so on and so forth. But here in the Hebrew epic, it is not sin, and that is very important, because sin does not enter until after the fall, but it is, if I could put it this way, a chaotic mess that God must impose order upon. And this is what our Creator God does. He brings life out of chaos. And it's very interesting, I want you to note this. And I've mentioned this before, some of you will remember. in other ancient Near Eastern epics of creation. And by the way, all accounts of creation in other ancient Near Eastern cultures came from God's account of creation, okay? There are variations on the theme, there are copycats, they are following what God, the God of the universe, has put in the mouth of Moses. But what's interesting is that in that garden that God made, the Garden of Eden, There are subtle hints that Moses gives as he describes that garden and as he describes Adam's function in that garden that give the impression that that garden is to be a microcosm of the temple of God. In fact, he says, Adam is to guard and keep the garden. And that word keep in the Hebrew, shamar, is the same word that is used later of the priests who would shamar, serve in the temple. You see that Garden of Eden, that place where man and God, listen to me, had unfettered communion and fellowship with one another was the temple where God and man met. And that's why when that serpent came into that garden temple and sought to defile that temple with his deception and his lies, what Adam, the priest, was supposed to do is to take out his sword and lop off the head of that serpent. He was an intruder in the temple garden of God. But he didn't, and here we are. What's interesting is in other ancient Near Eastern epics, this is so interesting, In their epic story of creation, that temple was meant to expand into all the earth, and the whole earth would eventually be this concept of temple. But that didn't happen, and the temple did not expand, because sin entered the world. So we see this first image, this first motif of the Spirit of God, the glory theophany of God, the presence of God, the appearance of God over the face of the deep, the chaotic waters, and by His sovereign power, He brings order out of chaos. What does this show us? It shows us that the glory Spirit over the waters was a revelation of the absolute sovereignty of the Creator King. And it was, listen to me, a guarantee that whatever the conditions that seemed unruly and contrary, they would be overcome and God's kingdom would be established and consummated in the form of a living and everlasting temple. That's what this image shows us. So this motif, this theme of a theophany of God appearing by the deep in order to overcome it will continue to come up through the Bible. Let's look at a second example. A second example. You know in the flood that the deep was the judgment waters of chaos out of which a recreating God brought a flood. So we know from 2 Peter, and just some time ago we were in this in chapter three, Peter depicts the flood as judgment on the world, the world that then was, but then he also says, it's interesting, That that world that was flooded, think about it for a second, kind of returned to the state that it was in in Genesis 1-2. It was this ball of watery chaos once again. Out of judgment, God took things, so to speak, back to pre-creation state. And then, this is what's interesting. We find this image, we're thinking in pictures now. We're thinking in pictures and we find this image of a watery ball of chaos. Once again, now I want you to turn to Genesis chapter eight. Genesis chapter eight. Genesis chapter eight, this is Moses explaining what happened after the water subsided. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep. and the windows of heaven were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained." Now, I want you to notice in verse one, we see this watery ball of chaos and God sends a wind. Now, what you need to know is that in Hebrew, the word for spirit, okay, is the same word for wind, ruach. And so here we are again, Genesis 1-2, the spirit of God was over the waters of the deep. Genesis 8-1, after the world has been inundated by water, the waters of judgment, and we go back to pre-creation state, God sends his ruach, there's wordplay going on there, very intentional wordplay. In fact, some versions actually translate it as spirit, and I think that there's good reason for doing so. This is what is called double entendre. There is a double meaning, so to speak. It is the wind, but it is the spirit. And the spirit is once again over the face of the deep. And what does he do? He causes the waters to subside. And just as in creation, God brought land up from the waters, so now in the flood, God once again brings land up from the waters, and he causes the ark to land on Mount Ararat, and Noah comes out the second Adam, so they thought at that time, into a new world. These are images of God's power over sin and the enemies of God. Now it's interesting, it's interesting because in the Bible the concept of the deep is a familiar synonym, listen to me, for death and Sheol. for death and shale, the nether world, the world of the dead. In Psalm 18, Yahweh appears in a glory theophany as a mounted warrior and snatches the psalmist from the deep waters. The deep waters are the enemies that surround him, the enemies that entangle him. We might call it, as Christians, the world, the flesh, and the devil, the beast, as it were, those who are oppressing the people of God. The deep waters are surrounding me, oh God, and so I cry out as the supplicant of Yahweh and say, Yahweh, save me, and he comes down as a mountain warrior and he snatches me out of the waters. In Jonah chapter two, that famous poetic section, Jonah describes his descent into the heart of the sea as an experience of shale. Being in the heart of the sea in that fish was being in shale, as Jonah described it. And the Lord delivered him from bringing him up from the netherworld. So this passage of the ark through the deep floodwaters of death now becomes an image, and it's interesting in 1 Peter 3.20 and 21, you can turn there if you like. Peter describes the ark passing through the waters, the floodwaters, as an image, listen, of resurrection. because the ark goes down into the waters of death and down into the waters of chaos, and yet, despite its descent into Sheol, despite its descent into death, God, by His sovereign power and delivering power, brings that ark back up, and that's why Peter makes the ark an image of baptism. The ark being brought safely through the waters corresponds to baptism, Peter says, on appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism means a lot of things, but one of the things we constantly try to declare in this place is that when one of our brothers or sisters goes down into the waters of baptism, that brother or sister is going down into death. That brother or sister is going down into the judgment waters, the chaotic judgment waters of death, and the only reason he or she is able to come back up from death, listen, is because of their union with Jesus Christ through faith. Because Jesus went down into the chaotic waters of death and He came up by His resurrection power. God raised Him from the dead because He was righteous. And by our faith in Jesus Christ, we come back up from the waters of baptism in new life in Jesus Christ. God's use of the floodwaters as judgment upon the wicked who oppress God's people in Noah's day also shows us God's unsurpassed sovereignty over death, hell, and the grave. So there is rich imagery here. You know what's interesting? In Revelation chapter 20 verse 13, you don't need to turn there, the sea, The sea is paralleled by death and Hades, and each of them gives up the dead that are in it. John says, and the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them according to what they had done. So even in the book of Revelation, what is John doing? He's using and borrowing the recycled motifs that the Old Testament has given us and equating the sea, metaphorically, symbolically, ideallically, with death and shale. But now let me give you a third example. And boys and girls, I want you to listen carefully, hope you've been listening carefully anyway. In the Exodus. In the Exodus, the deep of the sea of death threatened the life of the covenant people. Remember, the Israelites had gone out of Egypt, they plundered the Egyptians, they're going out, they're going into the land that God has promised them. In fact, in those beginning chapters of the book of Exodus, it says that the people of Israel were in bondage to Egypt and God heard their cries and remembered His covenant with Abraham. A covenant that promised him land. And so now God is bringing them out of slavery, and they're going, probably a million strong, they're going into the wilderness, and then Pharaoh has a change of mind, right? And Pharaoh starts to come after them with all his retinue of horses and warriors and soldiers, and they get to the Red Sea, and now they're blocked in. The Red Sea stands as an obstacle that threatens the life of God's covenant community. And not only that, but now the Egyptians are coming to slay them, to slaughter them in the wilderness. What do God's people do? They cry out. And all of a sudden we see once again a presence of God's glory theophany. What appears in Exodus chapter 14 verses 19 and 20? A pillar of cloud appears in front of the Israelites and then moves behind them. and then between them and the Egyptians. Here we have another image of God's spirit, another image of God, a theophany, the glory spirit, the glory theophany comes. And then this is so interesting, here we go again. Exodus 14, 19 through 22 tells us that a wind, ruach, appears and splits the waters. We see the Spirit of God again, the ruach, among the waters, the waters that stand as a threat to the covenant people of God, and what does he do? He splits them, and just like in creation, land comes out of water, just like in the flood, land comes out of water, and now in the Exodus, as God gives us this picture of deliverance, land appears out of water, and the covenant people of God are redeemed. These are beautiful pictures that God has given us. The watery deep in Scripture is also portrayed as a monster that needs to be conquered. The same word that is used here in Zechariah 1.8 for deep is used in Exodus 15.5. That is the song of the sea, probably one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Hebrew Bible. I know because this is part of my dissertation work, looking at the oldest and most archaic pieces of poetry in the Hebrew Bible. And in Exodus 15, Verse 5, it describes the Red Sea as the deep, the deep of the Red Sea. And it stands as a monster. We see in both Psalm 74 and Isaiah 51. that the psalmist depicts Yahweh appearing in his storm chariots of glory to save Israel from the monsters, from the Leviathan, and from Isaiah 51, 9 and 10, the dragon of the Red Sea. So the Red Sea in the guise of a monster of the deep is made to represent here the forces of Satan. The sea stood as an obstacle in the way, threatening the existence of fleeing Israelites. It was a picture of death. And isn't it interesting that in the New Testament, there is a close connection between death and Satan? In fact, the scriptures apply the name Belial in Psalm 18 and in 2 Corinthians 6.15 to Satan. And that is the one who has power over death. And Hebrews 2.14 tells us this exact thing, that Satan has the power over death. And so there's this close connection between the sea and Satan and those forces that oppose the people of God and death. And the deliverance of the people of God at the Red Sea is once again an echo of the overcoming of chaos at creation. Turn very quickly to Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32, verses 10 and 11. Forgive me for my nerdiness, but there is some Hebrew goodness here. Deuteronomy 32, verses 10 and 11. This is the song of Moses, another one of those archaic pieces of biblical poetry. And it's very interesting here, listen to me, Moses is describing God finding Israel in the wilderness and saving them, okay? So he's talking about the exodus here. And notice what he says. Verse 10, he, that is Yahweh, found him in a desert land and in the howling waste of the wilderness. You know what that word is in Hebrew? That word is tohu. the very same word that was used in Genesis chapter one, verse two, that the earth was formless and void, that it was chaotic. And here, Moses, very intentional in what he is doing, is using the same word to describe the imagery of the exodus, which has echoes of creation. He found them in the howling wastes of the wilderness, he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye, verse 11. like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters, or you could render it, that hovers, the exact same word that is used in Genesis chapter one, verse two. It said the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep. He hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions. So the Exodus is seen as once again an echo of how God sovereignly brought order out of chaos. Now let me apply this, because when we come back to Zechariah, you must keep in mind that this idea of the waters being a figure or a symbol of Satan, of death, of the world powers that are doing the beckoning of Satan and oppressing the people of God, comes up not only in Zechariah, but it comes up in other exilic prophets like Ezekiel. Ezekiel's famous vision in chapter one, where does he see it? By the Heber River. It's by a body of water in Babylon. Where does Daniel see his vision in chapter eight and chapter 10? By Ulai, near Susa. It's another body of water. And then in chapter 10, by the Tigris River, another body of water. The exilic and post-exilic prophets often saw their visions by bodies of water which symbolized death and opposition and oppression of the people of God and through the vision God assured them that He would save them. And what's interesting, listen, is in the prophets, the bodies of water, the river as it were, that flows through Babylon in the case of Ezekiel, that flows through Babylon in the case of Daniel, those become representative of the powers that are ruling over those lands. And so really, the waters become representative of, in that case, Babylon. And so when we come to Zechariah, these waters become representative of Persia. And to a limited extent, restoration from exile had taken place in Zechariah's day, but the political conditions were not fundamentally changed. Persia, the second beast power from the deep in Daniel 7, still ruled over the heritage of God's covenant promise. And so the glory theophany, the presence of God, and the man upon the red horse by the deep signaled to that post-exilic community that just as God had brought order out of chaos at creation and at the flood, and just as he brought Israel through the watery deep of the Red Sea, so again he stood, surveying the land, ready to do the same thing at the cosmic and eschatological level. It reassured his people that God is in our midst. But who is standing behind these kingdoms represented by the waters where the visions are seen? Here's what's interesting. Listen to me very carefully. Notice, listen, that Daniel's vision of the four beasts in Daniel chapter seven, it came out of the sea. And in Revelation chapter 13, John reinterprets Daniel's vision as he describes the world kingdoms being summoned by Satan to persecute the people of God. At the end of chapter 12 of Revelation, Satan, after trying to persecute the people of God as he chased them into the wilderness, is unsuccessful. And chapter 12 ends with Satan standing by the sea. And then in chapter 13, what does he do? He summons the monstrous world kingdoms fashioned in his own likeness, the likeness of a dragon. from the chaotic sea to persecute the people of God. What does this show us? Satan is trying to counterfeit, he's trying to counterfeit the sovereign action of Yahweh. Yahweh has stood by the depth of the sea and delivered his people, now Satan is standing by the deep of the sea to do the opposite, to oppress God's people. We wrestle against the prince of the power of the air, Paul tells us, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness. I think it's very appropriate in our political season that we recognize this. It is very important, beloved, to recognize that there are not neutral powers at the highest level of government. In fact, there are powers at the level of government that are very intent on oppressing you as a child of God. And who stands behind them? Satan does. You say, you sound like a backward, ancient, Bible-thumping wingnut. Fine, I don't care. The Bible teaches that Satan stands behind the cosmic powers that currently reign in this world. What are we going to do about it? Well, you know what's interesting, beloved? Turn to Revelation chapter 20 verse 13. And hopefully now that all of this has been set, the table has been set, a window of understanding will be opened in your mind regarding at least one tiny detail in the book of Revelation. That's all I can promise you this morning. Revelation chapter 20 verse 13. After Christ comes back on a white horse with a sword in his hand at the end of the millennial period, which we take to be the church age, we're in it right now. The sea gives up their dead, everybody's resurrected, and then in Revelation, Revelation 21, forgive me, 21, verse one, listen to what it says. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the, what? Sea was no more. The sea was no more. Some of you surfers are like, that's not gonna be heaven to me. I wanna be able to, don't be overly literalistic in the book of Revelation. Okay? There's a group that meets on Wednesdays, Dispensationalists Anonymous, come to that group and we'll help you work through those issues, okay? The sea is being used as an image of the oppressive powers of this age and every other age, whether it's Assyria, Babylon, Persia, whoever, that oppress the people of God. And in the new heavens and the new earth, they're gone. They're gone. Affliction is gone. Pain is gone. Oppression is gone. Kidnapping is gone, abortion is gone, affliction is gone, depression is gone. Everything that would afflict the people of God is gone. The sea is no more and the new heavens and the new earth. This is the promise that Zechariah saw as he stood on the shore of the deep sea. You saw the man mounted on the red horse. That man is Jesus Christ, and beloved, that man, Jesus Christ, is among the lampstands even today. He is in our midst. He is in our midst. And what I wanna ask you this morning, because I know some of you are like, this doesn't have anything to do with my life. Oh, beloved, yes it does. any affliction, any turmoil, any apathy, any discouragement, any slandering of your name and your good character, any loss of earthly things, any loss of beloved people, all of those things are going to be set right as the man upon the horse imposes his sovereign will upon the chaos and powers of this present age. Whatever it is, plug it in, and God is going to overcome it. He's gonna overcome your sorrows because he is the man upon the red horse, and this morning, beloved, I call you to look to that man on the red horse. Look to that man who is mounted, who is able to overcome not only your sin, but the sin of all the world, and he will burn it up, and he will set up a new heavens and a new earth, and the sea will be no more, and those oppressive powers, the monster, the Leviathan, The dragon will be no more. This is the promise of the new heavens and the new earth. So this morning, look to Jesus. That's all I have to say to you. Look to Jesus. And some of you this morning in this place are not looking to Jesus. You're looking to yourself. And you know what you're looking to? You're looking to that chaotic power represented by the sea, and that counterfeit Satan who is summoning those beasts, those powers out of the sea, and they are ruling over you, and you're just going along in your life thinking everything's fine. Like Paul said, don't be comfortable in this world. Love your marriage, but don't be content with it, but long for something more. And there's some of you this morning that are not longing for something more. All you're longing for is the next gratifying pleasure. All you're longing for is to get just another dollar, just to get another day. All you're longing for is to lose a few more pounds. You don't care about what's coming next, and what I'm telling you, what I'm telling you is this. There is coming a time when all those things are going to mean absolutely nothing. In fact, all those things will serve as witnesses and testimony against you because in your mind and in your heart they were idols and you worshiped them rather than seeing them as good gifts given from the Creator in heaven and directed your attention to Him through the personal work of Jesus Christ. So this morning I call you to look beyond those things. Know that whatever happens in the election, it's not going to be as good as you want it to. But know this, there is one coming who will not be elected by a majority of the people, but he will be an autocratic king who will reign over all things forever and ever and ever. His name is Jesus Christ, and if you turn from your sins this morning, Recognize that you are a miserable worm that rightly deserves the condemnation of God, and you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. You can do that this morning. Come to Jesus. Look to the man on the red horse, and you shall be saved. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for that beloved man mounted on the red horse. We thank you, Father, that he has sovereignty over the monster of the deep. We thank you, Father, that the leviathans that swim throughout that deep are no match. for this man, this God-man, born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law. Father God, we thank you for Jesus Christ, and we pray, Father, that you would give us more desire to look to him in worship, in amazement, to see his majesty shining in all its brilliance, and that, Father, every single siren song and delicacy that the world, the flesh, and the devil would offer would just be completely eclipsed by the majesty of Jesus Christ. Would you do that for us this morning, we pray, in Christ's name, amen. Well, at this time, I wanna ask the deacons to come forward, and we are going to move from hearing the gospel to handling the gospel in the Lord's Supper. This is how our Reformed forefathers would speak of the Lord's Table. Not that we are physically, literally holding the gospel, but we are literally in a moment going to hold emblems or symbols that represent what Jesus Christ has done for us. So at this time, I want you to understand that in the Lord's Supper, The bread represents the perfect life of Jesus Christ, His perfect obedience which He rendered to the Father, which was necessary for our salvation, that perfect life that through faith is transferred to us. And the cup, which has the juice in it, represents the blood of Jesus Christ, which was the punishment that He took that you and I deserve. And so that when we come to the table, just as when we come to the foot of the cross, we through faith are receiving Jesus's righteousness, and he is taking our punishment in that great exchange, so that on the final day, we could stand before the Father justified. Now, as you look at these elements, we want to make it very clear, this is not literally and physically the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but we do believe, we do believe that through faith, we are spiritually feeding upon the body and blood of Jesus Christ. If you do not have faith, these things mean absolutely, well, they mean something to you. If you do not come to this table in faith, Then these elements, if you take them, are emblems of judgment. And so for that reason, I want to make it very clear, and I'm going to say it a little more strongly this morning because I know some of you check out when I say this. Please don't check out with what I'm about to say. This is what our Reformed forefathers have called fencing the table. You see, this table, beloved, is only for the people of God. Only for the people of God. If you do not know if you believe in Jesus Christ or not this morning, please do not come to this table. Not because we're trying to be mean, not because we're trying to be exclusivistic, although in some sense the gospel is exclusivistic. It is only for the people of God. But we would ask that you would refrain. Who is this for? This is for those who believe in Jesus Christ, who have repented of their sins, who have followed the Lord's command to be baptized, and who have joined themselves to a local church. And yes, that is very important. If you think that you can live the Christian life without the accountability that comes from the local church, you're not reading your Bible. The Bible says you must be joined to the body of Christ. the body, and that is the people of God. So if you have joined yourselves to a local church, you do not have to be a member of this church, but you must be a member of another church, and you are not under church discipline, then I invite you to come. If you have unconfessed sin in your life, you're walking in disobedience, you know it, you know that the Lord, through His Spirit, has prompted you to repent, and you've just said no, I'm going to do whatever I want. I'm not going to repent. I'm going to suppress that guilt as much as I can. Then I would encourage you not to come to the table. It is a very dangerous thing to come to the table with unconfessed sin. If you are in a relationship right now where there is ought between you and another brother or sister, then it is incumbent upon you, according to the words of our Lord, to make sure that that is right before you come to the table. However, if you have done that, you have sought to reconcile with your brother and sister, and they have given you the straight arm, and they don't want to reconcile, you have done your duty, and you may come to the Lord's table. Now, do you have to be perfect? No, beloved, you don't have to be perfect. In fact, we're eating of this bread and of this cup because we're not perfect, but we're looking to one who is. So at this moment, a few more instructions. The deacons in a moment are going to pass out the elements. Now, unfortunately, I don't think we have enough of the disposable cup and bread, so some of you may need to partake of The cup and bread that will be passed around in a moment, so just keep that in mind. If you need gluten-free bread, please tell the deacon, and they will provide that for you. So in just a moment, I'm gonna pray. The deacons are gonna pass out the elements. I ask that while we are waiting for everyone to receive, that you would meditate in your heart, confess your sins to the Lord, and ask for forgiveness, and then look upon these elements with joy, and hopefulness that Jesus Christ has taken your curse and he has given you his righteousness. Let us pray. Father God, what a delight and a privilege it is to partake of this table this morning. We pray, Father, that as we look upon these elements, you would help us to feel in our hands the promise of God. And I pray, Father, that we would look beyond the elements to the thing which they represent, which is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I pray, Father, that we would fall in love with that Savior once again. Help us to confess our sins. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.