Okay, now we're taking a look
this evening at Esther chapter 3. Esther chapter 3, I don't
have a particular verse like I usually do to point out the
title, other than the fact that it says there that Haman was
full of wrath and that Haman was an enemy. down there in verse
10. He was the Jew's enemy. And notice
a marginal reference on the word enemy there is he was the oppressor. He hated these people. But I'm going to give the message
here from chapter 3 in the book of Esther. I'm going to give
the title, Our Enemy and our adversary, and we could add this
to it, our enemy and our adversary defeated. Defeated. Always remember
this, any enemy we have is also an enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. Now, that gives us great comfort,
doesn't it? Any enemy that comes against
us comes against the Lord. That's why we read in scripture,
God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? Now, when you read through this
story in the book of Esther, one thing is absolutely clear,
Haman is the enemy and adversaries to these Jewish people. These
Jewish people? God's chosen people. He's called
over here in chapter 7, if you want to look there, chapter 7
verse 6, Esther said to the king Ahasuerus, the adversary and
the enemy is this wicked Haman. He's the adversary and he is
the enemy. And he is to the Lord's people.
Four times in this book, Haman is called the Jews' enemy. They had one that wanted nothing
but, as it says there in verse 13, to destroy, to kill, and
to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children,
women, and kill them all in one day. He wanted mass execution,
mass slaughter of all these people known as Israel. I want to look
at chapter 3 in this book this evening and see that believers
do have an adversary. The chief enemy, Satan as he's
called, over here in that verse that we read a moment ago, the
great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil,
and Satan, he's nothing but a deceiver, and he was cast out of God's
presence when he rebelled against God. Satan is also called the
accuser of the brethren, He too is our enemy. He too is our adversary. But remember, he's a defeated
enemy and completely controlled and manipulated by God Almighty. Satan is not out doing his own
thing, trying to change the purpose of God. He is doing God's purpose. He is doing the purpose of God.
He too serves God's purpose and he too serves God's glory. But thank God the accuser of
the brethren is cast out, and the Lord God omnipotent reigns
forever and ever. Remember I told you in chapter
1 what Haman's in the introduction to chapter 1. Haman's name means
magnificent or an important man. It can be rendered, he was a
big man. But Haman, we see, was full of
pride, he was full of ambition, being promoted by the king to
be the ruling prince over all the kingdom of Persia. Now, he
must have been politicking for this position for a long time.
We don't see the backstory behind the scenes as we read in verse
1, The king Ahasuerus promotes Haman and he just all of a sudden
seems to appear out of nowhere. But we know this too is in the
Lord's purpose. Satan too is called, as Haman
here is called the prince over all the province, Satan too is
called the prince of this world and he's called the god of this
world, small g. You remember our Lord said, he
refers to him three times in the book of John, in John 12,
31, where it says, now is the prince of this world cast out. The Lord referred to him as the
prince of this world. And then in Ephesians 2, the
adversary of God's people is called the prince of the power
of the air, that deceive us, the children of disobedience.
And then in John 16, 11, Where the Lord said of judgment,
because the prince of this world, he has been judged. down before him and worship him
and reverence him. He was furious and what added
fuel to his fire was the fact that Mordecai had told everyone
that he was a Jew. Look at verse 4. For he had told
them that he was a Jew. Now, why didn't he just remain
silent? He wanted everybody to know that
he worshipped the true and living God and would not bow down and
worship any man. That would be idolatry, would
it not? Haman, wicked in his pride and his rebellion, and
even the king commanded Everybody to reverence Haman, but Mordecai
would not have any part of it. Mordecai was not ashamed of the
fact that he was one of God's chosen and he stood up and he
said, I am among the Lord's people. I worship a true and living God
and will not bow to wicked Haman. This enmity between Haman and
the Jews goes way back. Most of the writers that I read
after say that Haman was of the kindred and the descendant of
the Amalekites. Remember there was a king of
the Amalekites called Agag, remember? In Exodus 17, this goes back
a thousand years when Amalek fought against Israel and Joshua
went out and fought against them. Remember they held up the arms
of Moses and then they prevailed? And then the Lord, some 500 years
after that, when King Saul was told to go down and to destroy
every Amalekite, remember? In 1 Samuel 15, that was 500
years ago from this time here when Haman is appointed as the
king. Remember in that story in 1 Samuel
15, remember King Saul spared Agag and some of the sheep and
cattle and livestock? But Samuel, when he found out
about, he took that king and cut him up in pieces. This brought
great, great condemnation upon King Saul. So this enmity, I'm
bringing all that out to show you, this enmity goes way back,
500, even 1,000 years. And when Haman found out that
this Jew, Mordecai, would not bow down to him, he was full
of anger and he thought, I'm finally going to get even with
those people of God, the children of Israel. When Mordecai would
not bow down, and reverence Haman like all other men, he wanted
not only revenge against him personally, He wanted personal
vengeance. Can you just almost read the
anger? He was full. It says there he
was full, full of wrath against this man. But Haman not only
wanted Mordecai dead, he wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted
every Jew dead. He wanted to kill out and wipe
out the whole race. He wanted like One we know of
in recent history, Adolf Hitler, he had the same, same mind. He wanted to exterminate every
Jew. He wanted to commit what we call
genocide. Genocide against all the Jewish
people to wipe out the whole race. And he killed a lot of
people. But the Lord, in his purpose,
that was all on his purpose too. we still have a nation today
called Israel populated with the Jewish people known as the
children of Israel. Now Haman in verse 1 down through
verse 6, Haman suddenly appears in our story and is quickly promoted
to be a prince above all other princes in Persia. This too we
know even though we don't know how Haman, I'm sure, politicked
for this office and promoted himself into this office. But
all this too we know is all in the secret and eternal providence
of the Lord. Now don't turn to this because
I've read this to you many times, but for those who may be listening
on Sermon Audio or for those who would listen to this message
later, in Isaiah 46, The promotion of Haman, that
just didn't happen by accident. It's all in the purpose of God.
Remember the wise man Solomon said, the king's heart is in
the hand of the Lord, and he turns it whether so ever he will.
The Lord turned the heart of the king to appoint Haman. Now,
remember this scripture, Isaiah 46, 9. Remember the former things
of old. I am God. There is none else. I am God.
There's none beside me. There's none like me. Declaring
the end from the beginning, from ancient times of things that
are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand. I'll do
all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that would execute my counsel from a far
country. He's speaking of Haman and all
those whom the Lord raises up like Pharaoh, we're going to
see. I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it. I will do it. I will do it. You can't change the eternal
purpose of God. The powers that be, we're going
to see in our study in Romans 13, the powers that be are ordained
of God. They are raised up and ordained
of God. The Lord raised up this man Haman,
wicked, wicked Haman, like Pharaoh of old, and used him for his
purpose, and then disposed of him when the Lord's purpose was
completed. Now, I trust you've read through
this story, and you know the end of Haman. He makes a gallow
70 feet high to hang Mordecai, and guess who ends up on the
gallows? Amen. Amen to us. You see, the
Lord raised him up for a purpose and then disposed of him, just
like He did Pharaoh. You remember from our study in
Romans 9, For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in
thee, that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. What
is his name? Lord God Almighty. Now, we can find great assurance
and comfort and rest in the fact that no wicked man commits any
act against the Lord's church without the will of the Lord
being done." Now, there have been some wicked things done
against the Lord's church down through the years, but none of
those things were outside the will of God. but rather according
to the will of God. The prime example of that is
seen in the crucifixion of our blessed Savior. If you want to
turn and read this with me, you can. But in the book of Acts
chapter 4, the prime example is seen in the crucifixion of
our blessed Lord. Where it says in Acts chapter
4 verse 25, Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? That's from Psalm 2. The kings
of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against his Christ for the truth against
thy holy child Jesus whom thou has anointed both Herod Pontius
Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered
together for to do whatsoever thy hand, thy counsel determined
before to be done." Wow! The Lord is the absolute sovereign
even over the wicked motives and intentions of wicked men.
And He uses the evil wickedness of men to accomplish His own
purpose. Do I understand that? Can I explain
it? No, but I do believe it. Whatsoever the Lord determined
before to be done. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Even we see this in the betrayal
of Judas. Judas is called the son of perdition.
He sold the Lord, he was a chosen apostle, but he sold the Lord,
betrayed the Lord for thirty pieces of silver, went out and
hanged himself, and the Scriptures says of him, he's a son of perdition
to fulfill the Scripture. He did exactly what he wanted
to do, but he did what God determined before to be done. The Lord said,
no man takes my life from me, I lay it down of myself. And he used the wicked Romans,
he used the wicked Pharisees, he used those wicked men to crucify
his own son, all in the purpose of God. And aren't you glad that
he did? We would have no salvation without Christ and Him crucified.
The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not without its enemies
and not without its adversaries, be it fleshly or spiritual. We
call it spiritual wickedness in high places, but all things
in heaven and earth are under the complete control of God,
Almighty God, the decree of God. Nebuchadnezzar learned that lesson
himself. that great king who was lifted
up with pride, the Lord reduced him to a mere wild beast, put
him out in the field, and then when the Lord gave him his mind
back and his understanding back, he said this, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he does according to his
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of this
earth, and none can stay at his hand, and none can say to him,
Lord God Almighty, what are you doing? Daniel 4, 34 and 35. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted,
far above all principality and power, might and dominion, and
every name that is named, not only in this world, but in also
that which is to come. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ does have its enemies and its adversaries, but they
will not and cannot win. Matthew 16, the Lord said, I
will build my church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail
against my purpose. And we can pray with David. Arise,
O Lord, and save me, O my God, for Thou hast smitten all my
enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of
the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. Thy blessing is upon Thy people. Isn't that comforting? Know this
too, Satan cannot touch us or does not harm us without the
Lord giving express permission. Now, if you find the end of the
book of Esther, you run into Job chapter 1. Remember in the
case of Job? Turn over there to Job chapter
1. Now, there was a day, verse 6, There was a day when the sons
of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came
also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Whence comest thou? And then Satan answered the Lord
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and walking up
and down in it." Remember the Lord said he was cast out into
the earth? And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job? There is none like him in
the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God, one
that hates evil. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear
God for naught? Hast thou not made a hedge about
him, and about his house, and all that he hath on every side?
Hast thou blessed the work of his hands, and his substance
is increased in the land?" God hedged him about. Satan could
not do anything to him. But he said, Now put forth thy
hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee
to the face. And the Lord said to Satan, Behold all that he
hath in thy power, in thy power, in your hand. only upon himself,
put not thy hand, so Satan went forth from the presence of the
Lord." Now you know the rest of the story in Job chapter 1. He lost all of his livelihood,
his livestock, and a wind came up, a tornado or some kind of
wind came up and the house fell and killed his whole family,
except Job and his wife. And then Job arose and rent his
mantle, shaved his head and fell down upon the earth, upon the
ground and worshiped, said, naked came I out of my mother's womb,
naked shall I return the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now look over in Job
chapter two. Now, Satan, in verse 4, Satan
answered the Lord and said, skin for skin, all that a man hath
will he give his life for. Put forth now thy hand now, and
touch his bones, his flesh, and he'll curse thee to the face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand, but
save his life. So Satan went forth from the
presence of the Lord and smoked Job with sore boils from the
sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd. Job did scrape himself withal
and sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him,
Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Why don't you just
curse God and die? Look at the next word. Verse
10. And Job said to her, Thou speakest
as one of the foolish women. What? Shall we receive good at
the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? And all this
did not Job sin with his lips." His wife said, why don't you
just curse God and die? You're a foolish woman. I believe
God. The Lord has given. The Lord
has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In the case of Peter's temptation
as well, the Lord said to Simon, Behold, Satan hath desired to
have you, that he may sift you like wheat. But the Lord said,
I prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. When you're converted,
strengthen the brethren. There's two examples. Satan wanted
to destroy Job, and God said, okay, you can go so far, but
no further. Satan desired to have Peter that
he may sift him like wheat, but the Lord said, uh-uh, no sir,
he's my servant. You see, we're kept by the power
of God through faith. Know this too, the Lord had not
only taken care of Satan and defeated his wickedness against
us, so as to make it rather to the eternal glory of God. The
Lord has also taken care of all our other adversaries and all
of our other enemies as well. What other enemies am I talking
about? The law of God that was against us, that was contrary
to us, the Lord took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law. That was our adversary, that
was our enemy that said the guilty must die. The Lord Jesus Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us. How about our sin? Our sin is certainly against
us. The soul that sinneth it shall die. The Lord Jesus Christ
was manifested once in the end of the age to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. So he's not only taking care
of the accused of the brethren, but he's taking care of the law
of God. He honored it in his life and in his death. He was
manifested to take away our sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And that last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death, the Lord
Jesus Christ said, I'm he that liveth and with dead behold I'm
alive forevermore. And I'm thinking about today
one other enemy that we probably don't maybe realize as much as
we should, our sinful self, our flesh. The Lord has also delivered
us from our own wicked will and our own wicked desires. By nature we love darkness, not
light. It's only the Lord who has made
us to differ. Now we are under the lordship
of the Lord Jesus Christ and now He rules and reigns over
us. He's even defeated us, has He
not? Greater is He that is in you
than He that is in the world. So the Lord has taken care of
all of our adversaries, all of our enemies, thanks being to
God who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the second thing I want us
to notice is this in verse 2. When the king told all the servants
to bow down in reverence to Haman, Mordecai would not bow. He would not reverence. And furthermore, Mordecai let
it be known that he was one of the Lord's people. He was a Jew,
an Israelite. Here we see something of the
faith of Mordecai, do we not? His faithfulness. We're going
to see this again through this book in our study. When all others
around him were bowing down to Haman, Mordecai would have no
part of it. Now, if you did not bow down
to the king, what was the consequence of that? Death. Death. Just like when Daniel
was told to bow down at a certain time when that music played,
and he didn't, well, there was a law of God that said, or a
law of the king, that said that Daniel must die. That's why he
ended up in the lion's den, was it not? When all others around
were bowing down to Haman, Mordecai stood fast. Mordecai believed
God and he would not bow down because he feared God more than
he feared Haman. Did he not? He feared God more. The Apostle Paul put it this
way in Galatians 1, For do I now persuade men or God, or do I
seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I am
not the servant of Christ. We don't preach to please men,
nor do we bow down to please men. Believers are to stand fast
in the faith. If you'll find Philippians chapter
1, to contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Philippians chapter 1 verse 27,
Only let your conversation 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. Don't compromise. Stand fast in one spirit with
one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and
in nothing terrified by your adversaries. You think Mordecai
was terrified by the threats of Haman? And in nothing terrified
by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition,
but to you of salvation. Now read on, Philippians 129.
For unto you is given in the behalf of Christ not only to
believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same
conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me." Haman
was a wicked man. Mordecai was a man of faith. He believed God and would not
bow. The third thing I want us to
see, Haman was not satisfied just to have the head of Mordecai
removed. He wanted to exterminate all
the Jews, as it says there in verse 13. And the letters were
sent by post into all the king's providence, to destroy, to kill,
to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little, children,
women, and one day, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth
month, which is the month Adar, and then we're going to take
all their possessions. We're going to spoil their house,
spoil their prey. Take the spoil for a prey. Haman was not satisfied just
with the death of one man. He wanted the whole family of
all the Jews killed. Haman had, think about this,
had Haman been successful, the whole seed of David, the whole
tribe of Judah would have been wiped out and the Messiah would
not have been born through the house of David to the tribe of
Judah. He could not have been the lion
of the tribe of Judah had wicked Haman carried out his plot and
exterminated all the race. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
going to come through Mary because there would be no Mary. Much
like what Herod did when Herod heard the king was born Remember,
when the wise men came and said, where is he, this born king?
Much like Herod, when the king was born, the Lord Jesus Christ,
what did he do? He tried to destroy the Savior,
but the Lord preserved him and sent him into Egypt. So the scripture
might be fulfilled, out of Egypt have I called my son." You see,
everything is working according to God's schedule. Nothing is
out of whack, nothing is out of kilter. Everything is according
to God's purpose. Now the last thing I want us
to see is this. When the letters were sent out
with the decree of the king to destroy all the Jews, notice
two things happen. Verse 15, the post went out,
They had a pony express, and that day I'm sure it went out
quickly. It's all those providence, and hastened by the king's commandment.
And the decree was given in Shushan the palace, and the king and
Haman sat down to drink. They celebrated. They're celebrating
here. They're having a party. But the
city, Shushan, they were perplexed. They could not understand. They
were asking this question. Why is this happening? There
were Jews that lived in this city. Don't you imagine they
were asking, well, why is this happening? They were perplexed.
They were puzzled. Now, two things we see here.
Haman and the king, they sat down to have a drink. And they
sat down to celebrate. Now, you can imagine celebrating
such a wicked thing, to kill all these people, including the
women and the little children and all people, and then to confiscate
all their goods. When the people of God are afflicted,
the enemies of God celebrate, do they not? They celebrate. Even the city of Shushan was
perplexed. They could not see how this was
just or right to carry out such a cruel and a wicked scheme and
what was decreed by the king. It says over in chapter 4 also
that in every province, chapter 4 verse 3, Whatsoever the king
commanded, and his decree came, there was great mourning among
the Jews, fasting and weeping and wailing, and many lay in
sackcloth and ashes, and no doubt they were perplexed as the people
inside the city of Shushan." Why is this happening? Now, have you ever had a tragedy
or an event in your life or in someone else's life that's close
to you, or when some horrific, evil thing takes place, we often
have, and we entertain this thought, why? Why, don't we? We do, why? We can take solace
in this fact that our God is God and that He ruled and reigns
over all events for all things are of the Lord. Now, you know the rest of the
story. Haman is the one that is destroyed
and the people of God are spared. They are spared. Let us learn
from this lesson to wait upon the Lord, and again I say, to
wait upon the Lord. You see, I remember a dear friend
of mine, pastor friend of mine, he's with the Lord now, Pastor
Scott Richardson, and he made this statement, and I've never
forgotten it. It just came to my mind just
right now, I haven't written this down, but it came to my
mind right now. He said this, if you knew everything that God
knows, You wouldn't change one thing in your past, present,
or future. If you knew everything he knew,
he knows, he wouldn't change one thing. We'd change a lot
of things, wouldn't we? Not if we knew what God knows.
He works everything according to his schedule. In our trials,
in our heartaches, The Lord has a purpose and that purpose is
our eternal good and His glory. David said this, Lord, thou in
your faithfulness has afflicted me that I might learn thy statutes. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. You know, trials
from the Lord are called precious trials. Trials do not produce
faith, but trials certainly do reveal whether faith is genuine
or not. Now, I'll close with this scripture
in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, where the apostle Paul talks
about how he was afflicted for the Lord and how he was hated
for the gospel's sake. But he called all those afflictions,
light afflictions. They're light compared to what
the Lord went through. They're light affliction than
the fact that they're just for a while. I mean, we're just here
for a while. I was telling someone recently
about this ministry. I said, do you realize that 10
or 15 years from now, I said, most of us will be gone. Most
of us older ones, we'll all be gone 10, 15 years. I'll be pushing
80 years old, 80 plus. Here's the scripture, our light
affliction. Which are but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. That gives me comfort. That gives
me assurance. That gives me hope. I can rest
in my blessed Lord and Savior knowing that what he does is
right. When he does it, it's exactly on time. Exactly on time. Well, may the Lord bless His
Word, bless that message.