Esther chapter 10 tonight, our
last chapter, it's three verses long, but it is like all the
rest of this book, it's full, it's chock full. And it certainly
has some wonderful statements about our Lord as he is, Mordecai
is given some words about him as he's promoted, and truly we're
gonna see many things there with regard to our Savior, the Lord
Jesus. But let's read those three verses of scripture from the
book of Esther, chapter 10, verse one. It says, and the King Ahasuerus
laid a tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea.
And all the acts of his power and of his might and the declaration
of the greatness of Mordecai Whereupon the king advanced him,
are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings
of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was next
to the king of Asuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted
of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people
and speaking peace to all his seed. Now, before we go into
this passage of scripture, I just want to review a thought about
this, and that is, as we look at this, God prepared an advocate
and a protector of his people years before Haman ever became
a danger. This Esther had been born, no
doubt, in Judah. She'd been taken care of there
by her parents until they died. She's now under the custody of
Mordecai when she went over there or when she was born in that
Persian empire. But the Lord had her marked out,
had her parents marked out, had her grandparents marked out so
that that any trouble that was going to be brought was already
going to be taken care of. And we certainly see that about
our Lord. Before Adam had ever sinned against the Lord, there's
already a plan, a purpose, the covenant of grace. Everything
has been set in order. Now, keep your finger right there,
but would you turn with me to the book of Jeremiah? It's interesting
where we find things out about the Jews, and particularly about
those who were carried off into captivity. And here in the book
of Jeremiah chapter 24, book of Jeremiah chapter 24, and I
want to begin reading with verse one. And we have a little history
here about the Jews that were carried off into captivity. And
there's some interesting words here with regard to God's purpose
of doing that very thing. It says, the Lord showed me,
and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of
the Lord, after that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away
captive Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and
the princes of Judah, and the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem
and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs,
even like the figs that were the first ripe, and the other
basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they
were so bad. Then said the Lord unto me, what
seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, figs, the good figs,
very good, and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they
are so evil. Again, the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, like
these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive
of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of
the Chaldeans." Now, notice that last three words, for their good. Now, I'm sure that there were
some people that argued with that. But God said he put them
in Chaldea. He put them in the Persian Empire
for their good. Now, we're going to find out
that God's going to take care of them. And it's certainly a
picture that we have here of the church. He's going to take
care of them. And as we were looking there
in going back to the book of Esther, We want to notice there
that the King Ahasuerus, he's laid a tribute. He's going to
collect some taxes upon the land and upon the isles of the sea.
Now, the history of the world is largely unknown, except how various peoples and kingdoms
were in contact with the church. Now, that's why we have this.
because of the contact with the church. We're gonna have the
Persian Empire written about. Now, there are so many civilizations
that nothing is recorded about, and we can just take it to the
bank. They had nothing. There was no relationship whatsoever
with anybody in the church, or they would have had something,
at least in national history, our history. No doubt the history
of the Persian Empire and the king would have, been unnoticed
in scripture if it hadn't been for this relationship that God
was going to put his people there. And so we have the entire book
of Esther. We have a lot of Jeremiah. We
have a lot of the Chronicles. are subject to God's will and
purpose with the Jews that are going to be put into captivity.
So those Persian empires beginning with Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon
and then the Persian and Medes and so forth, we'd have very
little notice of them. if it wasn't for their contact
with the church. And that's the same with us.
We have a lot more contact with people, a lot more history about
people in the world because of the contact with the church.
The history of Germany, the history of England, the history of France,
and lots of the eastern countries and things like that, where the
gospel was at one time. we find nothing is written down. There isn't even a written history
of all of the tribes down in Central America or South America. They didn't have the gospel.
They didn't have any contact with the church. And so there's
nothing there. We know they were there. They
have their temples and all that stuff that
go on there. So many civilizations have appeared
and disappeared, but they had no interaction with the church
whatsoever. So we're thankful that God used this particular
Persian empire to make contact with the church and had Mordecai
there, had Esther there, had a lot of people that were there
that are pictures of the church. And so we have that history given
to us. Now there's a word used in that
first verse that is used several times in the scripture that's
very interesting the way it's used, and that is that word aisles. You know, when Nancy and I were
gone on this trip, A fellow asked us if we knew how many islands
there were that made up part of Norway. 50,000. Wow. 50,000 islands are part
of Norway. And you know, I just went to
Wikipedia. I think of the few islands in
the Hawaiian chain. But if you look it up, there's
137 islands in the Hawaiian islands that are recognized by the state
of Hawaii. And most of them we don't think much about. I didn't
think much about the islands of Norway. We saw some that were
inhabited and probably some that were not. But the ones that are
inhabited, they're crowded like chicken houses on there, you
know. And most of them have some way to get down to the sea because
they have a boat. Well, we find here that there was going to
be a taxation of some isles, islands. To many people, islands
are pretty much unnoticed. I've never thought about Norway. And I think Sweden probably has
about the same on the other side of the, there in that water. And all over, we saw some names
of islands on the maps that I said, what? I've never heard of that
place before, that are up there in the North Sea. Well, it's
interesting. If we'll turn over to the book
of Isaiah, to the book of Isaiah, in chapter 11. This same word
is used here. Isaiah uses this word about 17
different times, but it's interesting here that we find out that this
is going to be a very special place that God is going to deal
with. In the book of Isaiah chapter
11, as Mordecai was gonna tax these people, we find out that
God is gonna take care of some of the peoples on the isles.
And here in the book of Isaiah chapter 11, we find this brought
out. Isaiah chapter 11, verse 11,
the scriptures share this. It says, and it shall come to
pass in that day. Now we've looked at that term
several times when we've studied Well, I hate to use the word
minor prophets, but Zachariah and some of those, and that seems
to be the gospel day, the day that God brought the gospel to
us. or brought it to some people.
And it says, in that day, it shall come to pass in that day
that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover
the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, and
from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam,
and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
So the same word. Now those are some, Not much is said about some of
those folks in the Bible. And what is said oftentimes is
their tendency to worship false gods. And in preparation for
our next study, I think we're gonna go to the book of Judges.
And in the book of Judges, it's time and time again, the hindrance
to Israel was that they would not remove all of those people
that God told them to. He says, I'll be with you and
you can take care of it and you can remove them. But they fell
in love with their women and fell in love with their idols.
And he just brings that up time and time again with those, the
judges that he raised up to help get rid of that. And then we'll
not spoil the story. You know already the story, but
God's gonna have his people wherever they are. He's gonna get the
word to them. And many of them may be on some unknown island.
some place that's just, and you know, there have been islands
in the middle of property too, in the middle of countries where
the gospel was brought, and it doesn't seem like it was anywhere
else. Well, a couple more verses here in the book of Isaiah chapter
55. Let's look at that verse of scripture, Isaiah chapter
55, and there in verse five, the scriptures share this, and
it says, Isaiah 55, verse five, behold, thou shalt call a nation
that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee because the Lord thy God and for the Holy One of Israel,
for he hath glorified. Now I've, oh, excuse me, it's
Isaiah 51, verse five. Isaiah 51, verse five. Let me
get there. Isaiah 51 verse 5. And in this passage of scripture,
it says, So as Ahasuerus was sending out tax collectors, we
find out that the Lord sends out the gospel. And it's a glorious time for
those that God has chosen before the foundation of the world on
these isles. Wherever they're far flung, whatever
place, God's gonna get his word to those places. And to many
of us, we may not think much of that island, but God has it
in his eye. He has it because he has his
people there. He's gonna make sure that they
either come to hear it, or he's gonna take somebody there. And
Nancy and I met a fellow down in California that was in one
of the Polynesian islands, and as a result of World War II,
he was forced to leave. He ended up in Holland, and then
he ended up here in the United States, and that's where he heard
the gospel. So God does his business like that. He's from the isles.
And also in the book of Isaiah chapter 42, Isaiah chapter 42,
we have Verse 12, Isaiah chapter 42 and
verse 12. Let them give glory unto the
Lord and declare his praise in the islands. So God's gonna get
his word. So I just, it struck me that
Ahasuerus had the islands as a place of garnering funds and
God has a business of going to the islands and garnering sheep,
and he's going to take care of that. Sometimes I think we're
on an island here in the Dalles. I wish, and I'm sincere, I wish
there were other folks closer to us that we could fellowship
with. I wish that happened. But for as long as we've been
here, there hasn't been that much. So we're kind of an island,
a bastion. As Brother Rupert used to call
it down there, he called it a light in a dark place. So we just have
to consider that sometimes. We're just a light in a dark
place, an island. Well, going back there to the
book of Esther, the last two verses have some things to say
about Mordecai. Now, there is no question in
our mind that he, Mordecai, has been promoted to a very high
place. He has the care of Israel, of the Jews. He has the care
of the queen, and he has a care of the king. He is second in
command. Now he doesn't have an underlying
desire to destroy people like Haman did. He doesn't have that
lion spirit about him. He has an interest, I believe
he has the interest in the Jews as well as the Persians. He has
some knowledge about God that the Persians didn't have by nature.
Neither did the Jews. But he has an interest in him.
And it tells us there that all the acts of his power, that is
might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai. So
Ahasuerus is saying, this guy that I've chosen for this position
has these four qualities. It says here, all the acts of
his power, and his might, and the declaration of his greatness
of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written
in the book of the Chronicles?" So there's four things about
Mordecai that really lend themselves to our relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ. We find that Mordecai had been
given a lot of power, and he has acted with that power. And
as we look at the Lord and we find out that the Lord has all
power and all authority given unto him, all the acts of his
power or all the acts of his authority. Now we don't have
all that was written in the books of those Persian kings. They
did. They have a lot more than we
do. But you know what? We have exactly
what God wanted us to have. Nothing short and nothing more. We have exactly what God wanted
us to have, and we have here. Now, as we look at this, we find
out that if we think this, that Mordecai is a type of the Lord,
and I do, I just see it through and through, we have the Lord,
well, let's just read this verse of scripture over in the book
of Matthew. It's an amazing verse of scripture. It was so eye-opening
to some of his disciples. In Matthew chapter eight, Matthew
8, verse 27. Now, the captain of the ship
we were on, now that ship was about 900 feet long. and had
900 people on it, or 900 plus people, passengers, and then
there's a lot of crew, and we are in the North Sea, and we're
in the middle of a storm, and he told us the next day that
we had 40 to 45 foot seas, waves, and we had winds of 100 miles
an hour across the bow of that boat. Now, it shook that boat,
And you could tell that there was some effect on it. Now, it
wasn't like being in a dinghy. It wasn't like being in a Viking
boat, the old fashioned Viking boat. This had power enough to
deal with the waves. He had to slow it down. Now,
when I was in that storm, it reminded me of this incident
is here in the book of Matthew chapter eight. Now in Matthew
chapter 8 verse 27. Now the Lord has just rebuked
the winds. And he's rebuked the waves and
it's silent. An instantaneous glass sea. And the wind isn't howling. And
this is what they said, verse 27, and the men marveled, saying,
what manner of man is this? that even the winds and the sea
obey him." Now, the convex of that is, he brought the wind
and the waves in Jonah's day. And there's no question about
it, he brought this wind to demonstrate his power. Now we're gonna find
out that Mordecai, he is attributed with having a lot of power, and
most of it was political. He was able to do things from
his political position that most people could not. And most of
that had to do with the deliverance of the church, the care of the
church. It's a wonderful thing when people
are in charge that have an interest in the church, and very seldom
do we find that. Even in history, we find very
little of that. We listen to several discussions
by people, and they talk about the church, and the only church
they can talk about is the Roman Catholic Church, and they were
not the church. They were persecuting the church,
but they were not the church. So it's wonderful to have people
that are interested in the care of the church, even if they're
political, and if they're not, it's great to have an interest
in the care of the church, just as deacons and deaconesses, the
care of the church, the body. So here the Lord is caring for
his body, his church, by doing what he did and causing them
to look at this and say, Who is this? What manner of man is
this that even the winds and the waves obey him? What manner? Now, move ahead in the book of
Matthew for just a little bit to chapter 14. Matthew chapter
14. In Matthew chapter 14 verse 22,
we have this recorded about the Lord Jesus. He is power. All
the acts of his power of Mordecai were written down in a book.
Now, we have the book of the acts of the power of the Lord
right in front of us. And it's a delight to read through
here and find out what he did and how he performed for his
disciples. how he blessed them with increased
faith. Now, we have the impossible,
we're impossible to grow our faith. It's just absolutely impossible. We cannot grow our faith. But
God gave us the word that he uses us to grow in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But
we sitting down someday cannot come up and have more faith today
than we had yesterday. and not have less today than
we did yesterday. It's a gift of God. Faith is
a gift of God. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. All right, here in the book of
Matthew, chapter 14, verse 22, it says, Jesus constrained his disciples
to get into the ship and go before him into the other side while
he sent the multitudes away. And when he sent the multitudes
away, he went up into the mountain apart to pray. And when evening
was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And
in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. I had a good friend down in Klamath
Falls that went to a religious show, and there was a guy that
was walking on water. Well, my friend went to remove
one of the planks, and he removed a plank the guy was walking on
under the water, And when he got to that place, he could walk
on no water no longer. And he told that as a funny stunt. But you know, he proved the guy
at Charlton, there is only one that can do this. And that's
the Lord. He was walking on the sea in
his turbulence. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were trouble saying, is a spirit,
and they cried out with fear, and straightway Jesus spake unto
them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid." Now,
we know the rest of the account. Peter gets out on the sea, and
when he takes his eyes off the Lord, he begins to draw. Well,
he makes a comment there, Lord, save me, lest I perish. He understood
the fact that he was not going to be stable if God did not stabilize
him. He was not going to be delivered
from the position if God did not deliver him. He was not out
there trying to swim around. He demonstrated what we all know
about ourself. We can't do anything. The flesh
profiteth nothing. Well, the Lord demonstrated what
great power there. And we find this so often as
it's presented in the scriptures. As he is presented, he demonstrates
his great power. All the times he healed people,
we find him demonstrating his great power and it's written
in the book. We have the record of it. It's right here. And you
know, I, I may be strange, but I read that and it's just as
real as if I was standing on the shore and watched it. And
I believe that's what the Holy Spirit does for his people. It's
just as real when we read it. as if we were standing there.
And we do not have to have Him do it physically for us. We don't
have to see the real ark. We don't have to see the chariot
wheels that came off there at the Red Sea. We don't have to
see that. God said, this is what happened. So we just say, well,
I can see it in my mind's eye. By faith, we can see those things. And we just trust the Lord because
He said it in the book. And He reveals that this is His
word. So the power that he demonstrated
in the book of Mark, turn with me to the book of Mark if you
would, chapter one of the book of Mark, chapter one, and this
is a very telling statement here about the power of the Lord.
Now this We recognize the power that he had to walk on water.
We see the power that he could calm the sea. We see the power
that he could stop the wind. We see the power that he could
take a maniac and heal him. We see the power that he could
take a woman all bent over and straighten her up and heal the
blind and all that. But my goodness, the greatest
of all is when he saves our soul. That is it. That is his greatest
demonstration of his power. That he would be interested in
saving one of Adam's fallen children. and not only be so interested
in it, but write about it before the foundation of the world,
that this is what I'm going to do. All that the Father giveth
me shall come unto me. So the power of the Lord to save
us. Now we realize from the scriptures
that the same power it took to raise Jesus Christ from the dead
is the power that he takes to raise us from the spiritual dead.
So this is power. And there's nobody else in all
the world heaven or earth, that can do what he does with a lost
soul. And it's not because the person
cried out loud or prayed hard, it is because of grace. And then
we cry out and pray hard. It's of grace that he does this.
And it's the power of his grace. So here in the book of Mark chapter
one, verse 23, Mark chapter one, verse 23, we read this and it
says, and there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit,
and he cried out, saying, let us alone that we
have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth, art thou come
to destroy us. I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. Now this demon made a greater
confession about God And we read in James that even
the devils believe and tremble. And these guys, these beings
are trembling. And Jesus rebuked him saying,
hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit
had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him and
they were all, notice this, amazed in so much that they questioned
among themselves saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine
is this? For with authority commandeth
he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him." What a
statement. They noticed that even the demons. Now, I remember one of the last
times that Brother Rupert was with us, he brought a message
on the maniac of Gadara. And he just brought out very
clearly that Those demons are us, our demons. And I have my
own feelings about demonology and all that stuff. I don't waste
13 seconds in my 35 years of ministry of studying that stuff. Because all we have to do is
look at natural man and we find out where the demons really are.
And we find out it takes the Lord to cast out that lifestyle,
that old life. And so that's what he did here. And the people said, What in
the world is going on? This man can even cast out, well,
in other words, they're saying, they're confessing, this man
can save a man from this. Our sin is such a demon. Our sin is such sinful that God
would take that and remove it as far as the East is from the
West that would make us clean and be presentable before the
God of heaven and earth without spot or wrinkle. What power is
in the blood of Jesus Christ who cleanses us from all sin. And I just delight in that. I
just, we relish in that. So he has all power. And then we found with regard
to Ahasuerus and his comments about Mordecai, the second one
is he has might. Now he didn't have might of his
own. He had God-given might. He had
God-given power. He had God-given might. Well,
turn with me as we think about the Lord to the book of Isaiah.
As we think about this, the Lord is the greater Mordecai. I'm
just gonna say it that way. He is the true Mordecai. He is the true deliverer of Israel. He's the true one. And it tells
us that Mordecai was second to the king. But while the Lord
was on this earth, we find out he is called the Logos. the word,
and I heard a preacher one time say that that word was used among
the Greeks that the king was sitting on his throne and he
grew weary and he would draw a curtain, he would have his
next in command sit down, he would opened the curtain, and
this man sitting on the throne spoke for the king. And that
word is used with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks
for the king. He is the king, but he speaks
for his father. So as we look here in the book of Isaiah chapter
11 now, Isaiah chapter 11, as we think about his might, Mordecai
is given this qualification And it certainly speaks about the
Lord as he's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the book of
Isaiah chapter 11, verse one and two, it says this, and there
shall come forth a root, excuse me, a rod out of the stem of
Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding
and the spirit of counsel, and might, the spirit of knowledge,
and the fear of the Lord. And they shall make him a quick
understanding in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge
after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing
of his ears. But with righteousness shall
he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the
earth, and he shall smite the earth with a rod of his mouth
and with the breath of his lips, and shall slay the wicked." So
this one identified here by the prophet Isaiah as the coming
Messiah. And it tells us here, he has
all of these qualities. And they're not with quantity. He doesn't have a quart of it.
They're with all power is given, and all might is given to him.
And as Mordecai, he was given this power and he wrote about
his might. And then we read about his, there in that second verse or
third verse, it says, or second verse, and of the declaration
of his greatness. Now, these are all synonyms,
if we look at them. We have his, there in verse two,
it says, it talks about his authority and then his might and his greatness. Synonyms. It's kind of like us
saying, Lord God Almighty. Now we shouldn't have to do that,
but we do. And the Lord does. Book of Revelation, Lord God
Almighty. Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
That's what it says over there. So they're all synonyms for the
same person, emphasizing that. So as we look at this, we find
out that, well, let's stop in Psalm. I wanna make another stop
there in the Psalm, Psalm 145, as we think about this second
point here of his might. In the book of the Psalms, Psalm
145, Psalm 145 verse four. One generation shall praise thy
works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. Now in preparing
for the book of Judges, it says there that Israel served the
Lord all the days of Joshua. in all the days of the elders
that lived after Joshua. But as soon as those guys were
dead, every man did what was right in his own eyes. Now, this
passage of scripture says, one generation shall praise thy works
to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. That's what
we do with the gospel. one generation to the next. Now
we don't know the outcome of it. We don't know the effect
of it. But that is our responsibility.
And we find that that is one of the things that the Lord shared
with Joshua about taking those 12 stones up. When your children
ask what this means, be sure you tell them. And that's what
we have. Just honesty is all he said. Tell them what happened here.
All right, in that third part, it says it's a declaration of
his greatness. And again, would you look here
in Psalm 45, in Psalm 45, I would like to read verses five, six,
seven, and eight here. As we think about this characteristic
that is spoken of with regard to Mordecai, and as he is a type
and a picture of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, the true Mordecai,
we read here in Psalm 145, And there in verse four, we just
read that verse five, I will speak of the glorious honor of
thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of
the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness.
and they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness
and shall sing of thy righteousness." And we have a lot to say there
in those two verses of scripture with regards to our privilege
of sharing these things about the Lord. Just as the disciples
said, what manner of man is this? That even the winds and the waves
obey him. And at the other place, what
manner of man is this? That even the evil spirits obey
him. It was something they'd never
seen. And, you know, we can honestly
say we've never been down to the ocean and had someone walk
up and say, be quiet, and had it happen. Now we're thankful
for the days that we go down there and it is kind of calm.
But we had nothing to do with it. But here the Lord had everything
to do with calming the winds and everything to do with calming
the sea. And he had everything to do with
bringing Peter up out of that water and putting him back in
the boat. Peter said, Lord, save me lest I perish. And that's
truly a sinner's prayer. Lord, save me lest I perish.
I don't have the ability of doing that. You have to have that.
So we have his greatness noted here. Now, the last thing that was
mentioned about Mordecai, and this is just so often mentioned
in the scriptures, that the king advanced him. Now, he started
out, there must have been, in retrospect, there must have been
some advancement given to him because
he stayed real close to the place where the king was. He was just
outside. He could overhear those thugs
plotting against the king. He overheard that, and he just
reported it. So he was not driven off to the
hinterlands. He was close, but now he's much
closer. He's been brought into the very
presence of the king. He's second in command of the
king, and he has these things said about him. And it says that
he, the Lord, or Ahasuerus advanced him. I like this passage of scripture
with regard to our Savior that's found over in the book of Philippians.
In the book of Philippians chapter two, as we think about the Lord
being advanced, the Lord being put into a position that we could
never be there, but God put him in that position. Philippians
chapter two and verse five, the scriptures share this. Let this
mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. All right, you
got a task on your hands. I'm being facetious. You ever
tried to do that? Let this mind be in you, which
is also in Christ Jesus? You know, in religion, I worked
at that and always failed. but I'm thankful
for one that has done that for me. And it says here, who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus," now that's being advanced, at
the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Well, when he saves
someone, they bow. And when he hears them in the
Last Judgment, they also will bow. Every knee shall bow and
every tongue shall confess, at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bow of things in heaven, and of things in earth and things
under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. If he isn't Lord, we have none. He's the Lord of glory. He is
the sovereign king. He's the ruler over all things
and especially of our heart and of our salvation. So he's been
advanced, God advanced him. In the covenant of grace, there
was this, now it doesn't mean that he got more advanced, it
just means that we recognize him as that. And let's look over
here in the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter one, Colossians
chapter one, verse eight, we have this about the Lord. Let me see here. 18, verse 18. Chapter 1, verse
18. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he should have the preeminence. There was a man by the name of
Diotrephes that wanted the preeminence. And we find here that Jesus already
has it. There's no contest. There should
be no contesting of it. He has the preeminence. He is
first and foremost. And that's been declared by the
Lord. That's been declared by God. He is first and foremost
and preeminence. He has a name which is above
every name. He has a position above every position. He is God
among all gods. He is king of all kings and he
is Lord of all lords. So he has the preeminence. All
right, and then it says in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians
chapter one. Ephesians chapter one, verse
20. Ephesians 1 verse 20, which he
wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him
in his own right in heavenly places, far above all principality
and power and might and dominion and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And
hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. I think of that when we read
about the tabernacle and the temple being built and it says
the spirit came and filled its soul completely, not a crevice
was not filled with that. And so it is with the Lord. There's
not a place that he is not in preeminence. Well, the final
thing that was said over there in the book of Esther about Mordecai.
Are these not written in the book? Don't we have a record
of them? Well, we have the record in the
book of Esther about Mordecai. We have very little said about
him other places. But when it comes to the Lord,
there are two passages I want to read, and both of them are
in John. John chapter 20, John chapter
21. And in this passage of scripture, it shares with us, as John is
writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says this about
this one that is in this book, the Bible, this one. Now the Lord made the comment
about himself to his disciples. Luke, twice in the book of Luke,
he said all things, Moses, prophets, and then the Psalms must be fulfilled.
And he did that, every bit of it. Well, here in the book of
John, chapter 20, verse 30, we read this. John was led to write
this. He said, and many other signs
truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book. Many other things happened. We're
gonna read the companion verse to this in just a moment, in
the next chapter. But it says, but these are written that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ. You don't need any other
book. You know, every once in a while
I find people advertising one of the books of the Apocrypha.
It should have been in. Nancy and I knew a fellow that
he knew there had to be at least 70 books because seven is a perfect
number. And so he read the book of the
Apocrypha that's going to decide which one should be in the Bible.
Well, I'm afraid he got lost on his process and he's soon
out of the ministry, which was the best thing for him. He should
have been a farmer all along. Anyway, it says here many other
things. But these things are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,
and that believing you might have life through his name. We
have this. We don't need anything else.
All of the other things that took place are not necessary.
If they'd have been necessary, they'd have been in the Word.
All right, now go with me to the next chapter, if you would.
Chapter 21, verse 25. Chapter 21, verse 25. They were
written in a book. Now, and there are also many other
things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written, everyone,
I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the
books that should be written. Amen. We have what God wanted
us to have. Not a letter more, not a letter
less. We have what God wanted us to
have. And by it, if we stand before
God, and we even insinuate that there should have been more than
I would have believed, we're gonna have our mouths shut so
quick. Because this is his word. and his word is Christ. And we're just simply saying
he is not enough. Well, John said, and he was there
to witness a whole bunch of it. He said, if it had been written,
we wouldn't have room for it in this world. Well, you know,
much of that that was not written is going to be discussed maybe,
revealed maybe, brought forward maybe, throughout eternity. Because
the scriptures tell us that through eternity, through eternity, we're
going to learn more about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's gonna be an education,
a blissful, glorious education that we won't have to be hindered
by, what's the first thing that happens when we start reading
our Bible? I wonder what the kids are doing.
I wonder if I should... And there we go. But it won't happen. I am thankful. An elderly man that helped me
a number of times in my ministry told me one time that he used
to tell people, you need to read your Bible more. You need to
do this more. You need to do that more. And
he says, oh, what a mistake I was making because I don't do what
I should do. All right. So many other things,
but they're not necessary. So as we conclude this, our study
of the book of Esther with this one that is better than Mordecai,
the true Mordecai, the one that delivered, is delivering and
will deliver the saints of God All of them to the very presence
of the throne of God and there without spot and without blemish. Salvation completed in Christ
Jesus. A salvation that is truly a salvation. And so, Mordecai, Esther, until
we meet again, Lord willing, we plan on going to the book
of Judges. Now, I shared, I think with Mike, maybe it was on Zoom
last Sunday, many times when I come to the end of a book,
I open it up to the index, the list of Bible, books of the Bible,
and go down through there, and you know, every time something
pops out, it's, ah, I need to look at that. Well, judges did
this time and I read it and I said, oh no, this is such a terrible,
there's so much in here that is so terrible. And then you go to the people
who do some of the most foolish things, you go to the 11th chapter
of the book of Hebrews and they're the ones that are mentioned.
So Lord willing, next Wednesday we'll start the book of Judges. One of the things that I have
noticed that it takes the grace of God. Why in the world would
he be so gracious to that Ganesan people? And then I go to the
New Testament and here is a lady who blessed the Lord Jesus of
the tribe of Asher. He kept that line going so that
that child, that lamb, that lost sheep could be saved. And the
Benjamites in the book of Judges are nincompoops. And we get down
here, Saul of the tribe of Benjamin. Why did he keep that tribe intact? For that, for that one purpose
is to bring down Saul of Tarsus. the lady of the tribe of Asher. And we could just look at our
own lineage. And why did he deliver our forebears? They were nincompoops, horse
thieves, everything else in the world. And he did it to preserve
it until we came along at least. Now what happens after that?
We don't know. Well, let's go to the Lord in
prayer. Gracious Father in heaven, we're so thankful that you permitted
us to go through in such a simple way, humanly speaking, to go
through the book of Esther and try to glean some things that
your Holy Spirit would deliver to us. And we know it's all of
you and your sharing of it. We're just so thankful to go
through it and see our Savior, to see the way that he delivers
his people, to put people in the right place at the right
time, to have all those things happen just as so timely and
so on the spot, and then to realize it's as a result of He who directs
all things and carries out all things according to His purpose.
We're thankful, Lord, for the opportunities that you give to
us to get acquainted with those who have like faith and love
the Lord Jesus and his salvation wherever they be. What a bond
is knit so quickly, and we're just thankful for that. We ask,
Lord, that you would bless us as we prepare each of us to go
to services on Sunday and enjoy again the preaching, whether
it be in a home, whether it be through Zoom or whether it be
in person, we just know that you're able to do your great
purpose in any way, any capacity, and we're just thankful for that.
Bless us, Lord, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Ed, it's so good to see you. It wasn't minutes after you left.
I got another text. Lauren and Chris, did that Sunday
work? Yeah, it did. Okay. I don't know what happened.
Yeah, I don't know what happened. But Ed said he got in on Sunday,
so I thought, well, I'll just share that. Thank you so much for your help
today, Lauren. You're welcome. Enjoyed it. I did too. I did too. Nice break
in the day. Well, I'm sorry to disturb the
rest of your, or that part of your day and you had to move
things, you know, along and, you know, all that. Yeah, that
calendar is so full I can hardly find room to move anything. Okay. I can't read it. I can't read
it. Oh, how are you, Chris? I haven't read it yet. I got
it, but I haven't read it. How are you, Chris? Can you hear
me? They're frozen. Did they see
me? I think they're frozen. Thank
you, Mike.