Turn with me again to Esther
chapter three. As a recap, Esther chapter one
is all about this great king with his great, vast kingdom,
King Ahasuerus. He represents in the beginning
God. He represents God the Father. His wife, Vashti, sinned against
him. And that's what all of God's
people, that's what every human being on earth has done in Adam,
sinned against God. There's not a soul on earth that
has not committed sin against God. And she was condemned by
his law and cast out of his kingdom just like every soul on earth
was. Vashti represents us. Vashti represents man, mankind. She represents sin. She represents
condemnation. Chapter 2 says Vashti's place
was taken from her and given to another who was better. And that's what God's word says
about Christ. He is better. I just love the
sound of that. I love saying that. That's what
the whole book of Hebrews is all about. Man is terrible. Women are terrible. We're all
terrible. He's wonderful. He's better. He's so much better. Well, of
all the women that were in the eyes of King Ahasuerus, he said
that Esther was the one in whom he was well pleased. And that's
what God the Father said about Christ. God is pleased with Christ. Christ, he's not pleased with
me and he's not pleased with you. He's pleased with Christ. He's the one. Esther is our picture
of Christ. Chapter 2 said that she was numbered
with all the rest, but she was preferred over all
the rest. It said she obtained favor in
the sight of all that looked upon her. It said she required nothing
to be given her over what she already was and already had.
She was perfect. She was perfect. And that's exactly
how it is and that's how it was concerning Christ when he was
on this earth. No one could find fault in him. Pilate couldn't find fault in
him. Herod could not find fault in him. The law could not find
fault in him. The Pharisees tried, but they
couldn't. They had to hire some liars,
some false witnesses against him. But chapter two went on
to say, the king loved Esther above all the women. And that's
what the scripture says about God the Father. He loves Christ
above all. He loves Christ, and he crowned
Christ above all, just like King Ahasuerus did to Esther. And
the scripture says that God the Father has decreed a feast in
Christ's honor, a marriage supper feast, and that's what King Ahasuerus
did for Esther. He called it Esther's Feast.
God the Father has called his feast the marriage supper of
the lamb. I love the sound of that. I'm
excited about that. Whatever that is, I'm excited
about it. It is the marriage supper of
the lamb slain. The lamb that was slain for the
sin of his people. It is a marriage supper honoring
that lamb. That lamb was Christ. And that's what the last three
verses in chapter 2 spoke of. Look at chapter 2, verse 21. It says, In those days while
Mordecai, and he represents God's Holy Spirit. In those days while
Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains,
Bigdon and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth and
sought to lay hand on King Ahasuerus. And the thing was known to Mordecai,
who told it unto Esther the queen, and Esther certified the king
thereof in Mordecai's name. And when inquisition was made
of the matter, it was found out, therefore they were both hanged
on a tree, and it was written in the book of the Chronicles
before the king. Bigthen means the wine press. Tiresh means the strictness of
the law. By this transaction of Ahasuerus,
Esther, and Mordecai, they represent father, son, and spirit. By this
transaction, they put an end to the wine press and the law. And that is the transaction of
the cross. Christ endured the pressing wrath
of God's judgment. I told, somebody asked me Sunday
night when we were done, are you gonna do a message on just
those three verses? And I said, I don't think so.
I think I'm gonna go to chapter three. And then I was with somebody
last night who asked me, are you gonna do a message on those
three verses? And I said, no, I don't think so. I'm just gonna,
you know, I kinda gave the gist of it. And I said, if I had a
message, I would do it, but I'm just gonna, I'd already started
on chapter three, and we're gonna do chapter three. But I was driving
home last night and the most glorious message came to me from
these three verses. And I'll give it to you at the
end of this story. Because this is a critical component
to the whole story. I'm not gonna bring the message
now. But what I wanna say while we're sitting right here at this
critical component of the story is, this is the cross of Calvary. And if anybody has any interest
in the cross of Calvary or what happened on the cross of Calvary,
it's this. You are terrible. I listened
to a message today and this dear pastor and preacher was saying
that if the details of our sin was made known to us, we would
not be able to handle it. We couldn't handle hearing, you
know, we think we know a little bit about ourselves. we wouldn't
be able to handle the truth of how sinful we are. Well, Christ
came into this world to stand in the place of his sinful people,
to bear this crushing winepress. That's what the scripture says
about him. He bore the winepress. And you know, in a vineyard,
you take grapes and you put it in a winepress and they are crushed
and broken and split open and they bleed out. this juice of
the grape, and that's what Christ had to endure to pay the debt
for our sin against God. He had to be completely pulverized
by God. And because he was pulverized
by God, his people do not have to be. He wasn't pulverized for
everybody, but for every soul who God gives faith to look on
him and say, I need to know that he did that for me. And I'm looking
to that as my justice and satisfaction before God. Every soul that God
gives that faith to, Christ came to do that for that soul. And
not only did he come to do that, he came to fulfill and satisfy
everything that this Bible says we have to do to go to heaven,
and none of us can do it. You realize how many commandments
are in this Bible? Just start with 10. Just start
with the 10 commandments. Number one, don't have any other
God before that one. Has anybody, has anybody fulfilled
commandment number one? Christ came and he endured this
wine press. He endured the judgment of God
by taking sin out of his people. I committed it. You committed
it. And he removed it from us to
the point that when God now looks at us, it's not there. Yeah,
but I did it. Well, I know, but it's not there
anymore. And he took it on himself, in
himself, endured this wine press and he endured and fulfilled
and satisfied all the laws that we couldn't do. He fixed everything
we broke and he fulfilled everything we couldn't fulfill. He did that alone. He did that alone for his people.
And it says there that it was written in the book of the Chronicles
before the king. I may not go to chapter three
or I'll start it. We'll see how far we get. Everything that Christ did and
everyone that he did it for was written in the Lamb's book of
life recorded in the Lamb's book of life, all written down. All right, let me find a spot
here. Okay, chapter three. In chapter three, a new character
in this story is introduced to us. We have a new character.
He represents why God's lamb had to be slain in the first
place. This new character represents
where the source of all of this sin came from, all of this sin. The adversary. It all started
with the adversary. Now look at verse one. After
these things, did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadathah,
the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the
princes that were with him. This man, Haman, represents the
adversary, the devil. The name Haman means magnificent. And to this world, the adversary
is magnificent. To this flesh, sin and the adversary
is magnificent. He has this world held captive
by captivating them. The world, this sinful world
is so captivating. And he became the adversary for
this reason. This is what the name Agagite
means. It means I shall increase. I will overtop. Does that sound
familiar? That's exactly what the adversary
said. That's the very thing that made
him to be the adversary. Turn over to Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14, and look at verse
12. It says, How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut
down to the ground which didst weaken the nations? He was an
angel. And he sinned against God and
God cast him to this earth. Everybody thinks he was cast
to hell. That's coming. He was cast to
this earth. Verse 13, for thou hast said
in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit.
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee,
saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that
did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness and
destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of
his prisoners? For our comfort, I want us to
realize two things from our text. It says that Haman's seat, who
represents the adversary, his seat was above all the other
princes that were with him. But it says Ahasuerus was the
one who promoted him and sat him there. Our adversary is called the little
g god of this world. That's what he's called. He's
called the prince of the power of the air, the little pea prince
of this world. And you know what, our Lord's
temptation in the wilderness, he was there in the wilderness
for 40 days, tempted of the devil. And the devil said to him, all
the power and glory of this world I'll give it to you if you bow
down and worship me. He said, that is delivered unto
me and to whomsoever I will give it. Some power has been put into
his hands by God almighty. By God almighty, God put what
power he has in his hands. He has been for a time promoted,
but God is the one who created him. And God is the one who promoted
him. And this is the reason why God
did it. Why would God do that? You're
telling me God made the devil and gave him the ability he has? Yes. Why would God do that? Turn over to Colossians 1 with
me. Colossians 1. This is speaking of Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 15 says, who is the image of the invisible
God. Christ is the only image of God
that there is. The firstborn of every creature,
for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth. Visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by Him and for Him. God created the
adversary. He came about by Him. Why? For Him. For His glory. How could the
adversary be for him the same way Pharaoh was for him? God
said to Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, have I raised you
up that I might show my power in you? So go back to Esther
chapter three. Verse one after these things
did King Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hamadathah the Agagite
and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that
were with him and all the king's servants that were in the king's
gate bowed and reverenced Haman for the king had so commanded
concerning him. King Ahasuerus commanded for
it to be this way. And our God has commanded and
ordered all things as they are, even the wicked for the day of
evil. We worship a sovereign God. We
don't worship a weak, trying, hoping. You know, the adversary is our
adversary. He's not God's adversary. God
is not at war with the devil. The devil is God's pawn doing
God's business. We worship a holy and sovereign
God, almighty, all-powerful God. Our God knew that the adversary
was the adversary before anyone or anything else knew that the
adversary was the adversary while he was an angel in heaven with
all the other angels. It was no surprise to God. He
knew that Judas was the betrayer before anyone or anything else
knew that Judas was the betrayer. In John 6, the Lord said, have
not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? He said, I'm the one who sovereignly
chose it to be that way. Verse two, it says, all the king's
servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman,
for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai
bowed not, nor did him reverence. Mordecai represents the spirit
of God, and God does not bow to the adversary. The adversary
bows to God. Turn over about three or four
pages to Job chapter one. Job 1 verse 6. Now 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 Satan answered the Lord and
said, From going to and fro in the earth. From walking up and
down in it. He had to present himself before
his God. And he had to bow and give an
account of his matters. And he has to do that continually. Look at chapter two, verse one.
It says, again, there came a day when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among
them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said, what
have you been doing? God does not bow to the adversary. The adversary bows to God. And
not only will God not bow to the adversary, but God in his
people will cause his people to not bow to the adversary.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were supposed to bow down
and worship the golden image. And they said, we're not going
to do it. They said, it goes against this sinful king's commandment,
you know, you're going against the King's commandment. We know
it's going against this sinful King's commandment, but we're
not going to do it. Why not? Because the glory of
our God is at stake. We worship the true and living
God. And by God's keeping grace, we're
not going to bow down to anyone else. Look back at, um, Esther 3. Verse 2. All the king's servants
that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for
the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not,
nor did him reverence. Then the king's servants, which
were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest
thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass when they
spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that
they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand,
for he had told them that he was a Jew. They said, why won't
you bow down to Haman? He said, it's because I worship
the true and living God, I'm a Jew. He told them he was a Jew, and
that's what all of God's elect are, spiritual Jews. Verse five, and when Haman saw
that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman
full of wrath. And he thought scorn to lay hands
on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai.
Wherefore, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout
the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
Because the adversary is against God, Father, Son, and Spirit,
The adversary is against all of God's people, all of God's
chosen, elected-to-be-saved people. Verse 7, in the first month,
that is the month Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus,
they cast pur, and that means they cast lots. And the lot was
cast against Christ, wasn't it? Verse 7 goes on to say, they
cast purr, that is the lot, before Haman from day to day and from
month to month to the 12th month, that is the month Adar. They
cast lots to see how and when was the best way and the best
time to do away with Mordecai and all of his people. The adversary
is not all knowing. It's important to know. Our God
is all-knowing. He knows everything that's gonna
happen. The adversary does not. He is nothing like the sovereign
God. He has to wager, he has to scheme, he has to try to connive. The scripture calls it the wiles
of the devil. Here's the good news. Even though
he may be casting lots, The whole disposing is of the Lord. Verse
eight, and Haman said unto King Ahasuerus, there is a certain
people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces
of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people,
neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it's not for
the king's prophet to suffer them, the accuser of the brethren. Verse nine, if it pleased the
king, let it be written that they may be destroyed and I will
pay 10,000 talents of silver to the hands of those that have
the charge of the business to bring into the king's treasuries. You know that the adversary's
main destruction happens in the name of the king. You know that
the adversary's main destruction happens in the name of Jesus
Christ. False religion is the house of
the adversary. And what I mean by that is church. Church is the house of the adversary. And he said, we will destroy
them in your name. That's exactly what's going on
in false religion. Verse 10. And the king took his
ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hamadathah,
the Agagite, the Jew's enemy. My margin in my Bible says oppressor,
the Jew's oppressor. Verse 11, and the king said unto
Haman, the silver is given to thee, the people also, to do
with them as it seemeth good to thee. I can't help but think
of Job. The Lord told the adversary,
he's in your hands. Everything he has is in your
hands. What came from that? The glory
of God, the glory of God came from that verse 12. Then where
the King scribes called on the 13th day of the first month. And there was written according
to all that Haman had commanded unto the king, unto the king's
lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province,
to the rulers of every people of every province according to
the writing thereof. And to every people after their
language in the name of King Ahasuerus was it written and
sealed with the king's ring. And the letters were sent by
posts into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause
to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and
women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth
month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them
for a prey. The copy of the writing for a
commandment to be given in every province was published unto all
people that they should be ready against that day. The post went
out being hastened by the king's commandment and the decree was
given in Shushan the palace and the king and Haman sat down to
drink, but the city Shushan was perplexed. These letters went
out on the 13th day of the first month. That was the very night
in which our Lord was betrayed. Okay. The Passover started on
the 14th day of the first month. That is the day that our Lord
was crucified. The adversary schemed to do away
with God and his people on the cross of Calvary. Is that not
ironic? Is that not bring glory to God? The world by its wisdom, thinking
itself to be wise, became fools, starting with the adversary. At that time of our Lord's crucifixion,
the whole thing was so perplexing to God's people. The disciples leading up to it,
they didn't understand it. They didn't understand it. It
was perplexing. What do you mean you're going to go to Jerusalem?
They want to kill you. After it was over at first, they
didn't believe it. He's risen. I don't believe that.
Those two on the road to Emmaus, they said, we cannot understand
this. He was supposed to be our redeemer,
but he died on a cross. They by wicked hands crucified
and killed him. He was our savior and they killed
him. Thank God it wasn't very long
after that the mystery of the gospel was revealed. The mystery
of the cross. Oh, they only did what God had
predetermined for to be done. That's all that happened. That's
all that ever happens. what God predetermines to be
done. Everything in your life was predetermined
to be done. That's an amazing statement,
isn't it? I've had a terrible life. I know. He came to save sinners. Everything that happens was predetermined
by God to be done. And it was through this oppression
that deliverance came. It was through the oppression
of God's people, through the cross, that deliverance came.
And in this story, it's through this oppression right here that
deliverance is going to come to God's people. That was the
whole reason for the cross of Christ. That was the whole outcome
of the cross of Christ, deliverance for God's people, deliverance
from all of this sin. And we'll continue to see that
as the story continues, all right? To be continued. Okay.