Would you join me tonight in
our study of the book of Esther in chapter 8? Chapter 8 of the
book of Esther. What a glorious, delightful,
blessed gospel presentation we find here in the book of Esther.
And we're enjoying these parts, these blessings, and these verses
that have what God has sent out, is going to have sent out a message
to the Jews. A message to the Jews. In verse
7 of this 8th chapter, we read these words. Then the king Ahasuerus
said unto Esther the queen, and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold,
I have given Esther the house of Haman. And him they have hanged
upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Now, notice verse 8 with me.
Write ye also for the Jews as it liketh you. in the king's
name and seal it with the king's ring for the writing which is
written in the king's name and seal with the king's ring may
no man reverse." Now I'd like to say just a few words about
that verse 8 because we find a very important principle brought
out in this verse of scripture and that is this writing For
freedom, this writing for liberty, this writing for God's grace
is written to a specific group of people. It was not written
to the world in general. It was written to God's people.
And in this passage of scripture, we hear their name as Jew. Now,
we find so often that this name is symbolic to us as the church. We find, in fact, in the New
Testament a number of places where the church is called Jews. And not all Jews are of Israel,
not every Jew that was ever born. It's those who have been descendants
of Abraham by faith. Not those that are physical,
but those that are spiritual. Well, this message is addressed
to all Jews and all Jews that are in captivity in this passage
of scripture. And we find that this message
to all the Jews and only for the Jews is as the Bible is written
to the church. You know, only the church will
ever truly benefit from the Word of God. Only saints will truly
benefit. Now, we have people that have
used it for good instruction. We have people that have used
it for teaching people how to be good neighbors. But when it
comes to spiritual benefits, only saved people, only the church,
only the elect will ever have spiritual benefits from the Word
of God. He that hath an ear Now, we find
when the Lord was teaching, the Pharisees had a physical ear,
but they caught very, very little of what He had to say, except
they perceived that He spoke of you. So, we have this. The benefit of the Word of God
is for the church. The Bible will not enlighten
any. but the elect. We visit with
family, we visit with friends, we visit with neighbors, and
we walk away and say, ìWhy in the world canít they see that?î
Well, once we study the Word just a little bit, we understand
why they canít see it, the same reason we couldnít see it until
we were born again, until God enlightened us with His Spirit. The Spirit reveals the truth
of Godís Word, and we find the Bible will not bless any but
the elect. And the Bible will not encourage
any but the elect. I mean true encouragement. These
people needed true encouragement. Mordecai needed encouragement.
Job needed encouragement. Esther needed encouragement.
You and I need encouragement. And we find that only true believers
get encouraged by the Word of God. We don't get discouraged
when it says you must keep something because we have an advocate that
kept it for us. We have an advocate that has
kept the law on our behalf and we will not come into judgment
as a result of not keeping it because he was judged for us
and we have his imputed righteousness granted to us. The Bible will
not encourage and the Bible will not lead any but the elect. Now,
God used some non-elect people to say some things about God
that we delight in. You know, for a long time I thought
it was Nebuchadnezzar was the only one, but then I found Balaam.
He had some really good things to say about God. And we go over
there and we delight in them, but Balaam didn't. Balak didn't. All the hosts that they represented
didn't have any encouragement in it, but God did use them to
encourage the church. And the Bible will not be a seed
to any but the elect. It is the seed that is sown.
The world is the field, the seed is the word of God, and that
word, the truth of the word, must go out, and God uses that
seed, that seed of the gospel, as he does everything, comes
forth after his kind. That's why we have children,
they're like us, they come forth after our kind, and they come
out spiritually dead, without help, without hope, without God
in the world, and then by God's grace, he can reproduce after
his kind, spiritually. The letter for the Jews was written
in the king's name, and so it is when we begin to look at the
word of God. This is written in the king's name. He has authenticated
it. The King of heaven has authenticated
His Word. It is God's Word. I've mentioned
a number of times a translation that has the Old Testament where
God spoke in red, and you flip through there and it's like the
New Testament. Well, like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, a lot of
it is red, especially the book of Leviticus, the book of Numbers. God spoke much, and He spoke
to a representative, to Moses. It was sealed with the king's
seal, his ring. He said, God said, it is my word,
and it will not fail, and it will not fall, and I will stand
by it, and I will guide it to the hearts of those I intend
to have it guided to, and I will have it preached where I intend
to have it preached, and it will not be wasted. God did not waste
any of the preaching of the apostle Paul when he went to wherever
he went to. Now Paul, like some of us, have
had desires to do things and were shut down. I thought when
I, the Lord saved me, my goal was to go to 13th Street Baptist
Church and sit down and listen. And the door was closed. So I
listened to tapes. We just, we have things we want
to do, but the Lord shut down the Apostle Paul and didn't allow
him to go east, north, and sent him west. And since it was written
in the king's name and sealed with the king's seal, it could
not be reversed. Now this is good news to the
Jews. This is going to be really good news. You know, the fall
is bad news. The fall is effectively bad news
for all of us. We dislike having to admit that
we're caught up in that fall. We'd like to be like those folks
who say, I am the exception to the fall, but we're not. And
we're only fooling ourselves. Well, the fall was bad news.
Well, the edict by this Haman was terrible news to the Jews.
On a certain day, every one of them were to be slaughtered,
and the property that they owned was to be taken by those who
slaughtered them. Well, now we find that a queen
has appealed to the king, and Mordecai has appealed to the
queen, and the king says, write a letter, and get it out as quickly
as you can, and this is going to be good news. In fact, the
last two verses of this chapter is the Jews in Shushan, the palace,
are saying, hallelujah, we have hope, we have hope. Well, as
we follow this, the letter for the Jews was written in the king's
name, it was signed with the king's seal. You know, turn with
me if you would, keep your finger right there, and I know it's
hard to do with your electronics, but would you turn with me over
to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter
1 and verse 24 and 25. Here we find God saying this
about His Word. It's almost like we read over
there in Esther chapter 8, where it says that it cannot be reversed. We send this out. Now, God told
Adam, the day you eat, you shall surely die. And when he ate,
he surely died, and he passed that on to all of his children. And you know what? The good news
is, someone come and took that death, that second death, that
it was due us, the Lord Jesus. Well, look here at this word,
for all flesh, verse 24 of 1 Peter 1, for all flesh is as grass.
Now, I love March and April in the Klikatats. But it's not long. It is brown,
brown, brown. And we go 50 days without rain
and we say, is it going to burn up? Is it going to burn up? Is
it going to burn up? And sometimes it does. Well,
the flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower
of grass. It may look good for a season,
but it's going to die. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof fadeth away. Speaking about us, this is a
statement, a metaphorical statement about us. but the word of the
Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you." So, the gospel is going to be an everlasting
blessing to the church. Throughout eternity, the word
of God is going to be a blessing to the church, and it will not
pass away. It will not give up. You know,
we are thankful, as we read in the scriptures, From the very
beginning until now, God's word has not changed. And the gospel
is still and always will be the gospel. But I do appreciate some
of the Old Testament being fulfilled. Book of Leviticus. I'm thankful
it was fulfilled in Christ. We don't have to have animal
sacrifices. In fact, if we do, we're idolatrous. We have Christ. We have Him, the Lamb of God,
that has taken away our sin. We have Him to worship. We have
no need of anything else. And so if we're going to appropriate
some of our love for these things that's just idolatry and it shares
with us, well, we're in the very serious wrong if we have those. We appreciate that we don't have
all that Old Testament sacrifices. We're not required to go to Jerusalem
four times a year and have sacrifices there and that sort of thing.
We have the privilege of doing that every day. We bow before
the King and we have sacrifices of joy and sacrifices of thanksgiving. We get to do that every day.
And it's not drudgery. It's not work. It's our life
is to bow before the King because He does all things well. The
gospel has never and will never change, and the good news of
a Redeemer that actually redeems is our message, and a Savior
that actually saves is our message. That's just glorious. I don't
know how you grew up, but I grew up, he's trying to get something
done. I read something across a rafter down there in Rescue,
it said, if your preacher is preaching a God that's trying,
your preacher's lying. And that's the truth. If he's
trying, the preacher's lying. Well, our God never tried to
do anything. He always does what He said He
would do, and He accomplished it always according to His eternal
purpose. All right, going back to the
book of Esther again, if you would, there in Esther chapter
8, in Esther chapter 8, we want to look there at verse 9. Esther
chapter 8, verse 9. We've seen that the letter has
gone out. It's been dictated, good news, good news. This is
gonna take place before the destruction of the Jews. Haman said, we're
gonna wait a year. By God's providence, he moved
Haman to take a year. And three months into this, Haman's
gone, and we find out good news is coming. The letter's going
out. That was bad news. And the Jews,
oh, they shuddered at it. But now the good news is going
out, and it says here, then were the king's scribes called at
that time in the third month, that is the month Sivan, on the
third and 20th day thereof, and it was written according to all
that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants,
and to the deputies, and rulers of the provinces. Does that cover
about everybody? This is going out, and it's going to be good
news to the Jews. Now, it may not be good news
to those who thought they could overthrow the Jews. From India
unto Ethiopia, a large piece of property was under the rule
of Ahasuerus, and guess what? Who's second in command now?
We'll find out it's Mordecai, and he has the interest of the
church. We'll get there in just a minute. 127 provinces, unto every province
according to the writing, unto every people after, now notice
this. What language did Mordecai, using
the signet of the king and the command of the king, send these
letters out in? The language of the people. It
didn't have to be interpreted. It was in the language. There
might have been 127 languages. There might have been 500 languages.
I don't know. But whoever got this message,
it was in their language. That's so important. That's so
important. And to the Jews, according to
their writing and according to their language. The king's command
went out to all the realm, to 127 provinces, all of his realm. He's king over 127 provinces,
and he intends for that letter to get out to 127 provinces. Not one is going to be left out.
Now, there's some people that are going to be left out, but
the Jews are going to hear it in 127 provinces, in the language
that they understand. Now it just tells us that they
have been assimilated in some places and they have languages
in those places that they've moved to. How wise is that? How
wise is that? Unto every people after their
language or tongue. You know, turn with me. I heard part of this in Brother
Mike's message on Sunday. Acts chapter 2. Would you turn
with me to Acts chapter 2? over in Acts chapter 2, what
a blessing it was and it wasn't gibberish. Just, you know, Elamite language might have been
gibberish to me, but it wasn't gibberish to an
Elamite. We knew some folks that were down in South America, in
one of those countries, and they spoke Spanish, but their heart
language was Guatani. They loved you if you learned
a little Guatani. Now, they could understand Spanish,
and they could read Spanish, but the heart language was Guatani.
Now, it doesn't matter what language it's in, but the heart language
is what we want to hear it in. All right. Here in the Book of
Acts, Chapter 2. The Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Now, here in Acts, Chapter 2,
we find out that God really is interested in getting His Word
to the peoples and languages that he has appointed heirs according
to grace in. He is very interested in them
hearing the gospel in their language. I think it's preposterous for
us to think that we have to educate Russians in English so they can
read a certain translation of the Bible. Why not just put it
into their language? That's what they understand.
All right, over here it says in Acts chapter 2 verse 8, and
now here we every man in our tongue wherein we were born. What did these Jews in the, under
Ahasuerus, what was their letter coming in? Oh, this isn't for
you. That's for that group of people
over there. Here's yours. They gave them the good news
in the language that they understood. How important is that? Parthenians
and Medes. Now, I don't know whether a Parthenian
could understand a Mede, but a Parthenian could understand
a Parthenian. And somebody that was preaching that day preached
in Parthenian. And someone preached in Mede,
and some preached in the Elamite language, and dwellers of Mesopotamia,
and in Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia. Phrygia,
Pamphylia and Egypt and parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers
of Roman Jews and proselytes. That's why we have 12 people
preaching on the same day. Now, they weren't all standing
right shoulder to shoulder preaching out there. They had their part,
their people. As soon as they started preaching,
the people that understood that started gathering around them.
I'm convinced of that. And they heard what? Cretes and
Arabians, we do hear in our tongues the wonderful works of God. Now, when those messages got
out to the inner lands of Ahasuerus' kingdom, and it was read in their
language, you know what those Jews are going to do? They're
going to rejoice because this means liberty. This means freedom. This means we have the ability
of living. And so it is with every believer. John chapter 19, it's a very
interesting verse of scripture over here in John chapter 19.
You wonder why in the world would Herod, not Herod, Pilate, Pilate,
why would Pilate? We know why he would put the
superscription over there. This is the accusation that was
leveled against the Lord Jesus, just like those thieves had an
accusation put up there. This is why they're being punished.
Well, here in the book of John chapter 19 and verse 20, it's
very interesting that the title then read, many of the Jews for
the place where Jesus was crucified was night of the city. Now, did
you notice how many languages are there? Why in the world would
you have three languages there? So the people came could read
it. We have Hebrews, we have Greeks and we have Romans. We
have people that read in different languages and everyone could
read in their own language. What was it to those Jews that
were in the hinterlands of this great 127 different diverse peoples? They got to read the letter in
their language. how important and what blessing
it is to God's people to get to hear the Word of God in our
language, just like this. And when it's all said and done,
I got to hear the wonderful works of God. Now, down there where there's
157 languages in, I don't know, Brother Lance told me one time
how many languages are down there in Papua New Guinea. And they
have one language that everybody can understand a little bit of,
pidgin English, trade language, but when they really hear their
language. Lance's dad spent 25 years translating
the New Testament. That was a big work in their
language. All right. The importance of
declaring the word of God in the language of the people. Now
you know what the Lord led the Apostle Paul to say? If there
was a language that nobody understood, if there's no interpreter, sit
down and be quiet. That's about as simple as we
can make it. If there is an interpreter, But Paul said, I'd rather speak
five words in a known language than 10,000 in an unknown language. I went to hear a man preach in
Spanish one time, and I understood Dios. And there was two or three
other words. I went there just because I love
Brother Milton Howard. And he was preaching to a group
of Hispanics in Moline, Oregon. But to me, I could have stayed
home and watched Jeopardy. It's so important to hear the
Word of God in our language, and to hear it with heart language
then, to have the Holy Spirit revealed to our heart. How valuable
is that? The message, going back to the
Book of Esther now again, Book of Esther, Chapter 8. The Book
of Esther, Chapter 8, we look here again at this. These are
just so full. These verses are so full of important
truths. They're just crammed compact
together. But look here in chapter 8 and
there in verse 10. Chapter 8 verse 10. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus'
name and sealed it with the king's ring and sent letters by post
on horseback and riders of mules, camels, and young dromedaries. Now in a couple of the translations
that I read, they picked quick animals. They had fast horses
and fast mules. They wanted this message to get
out as quickly as possible. And we find that there was some
people that did that. It says they sent the letters
by post. You know, in the Bible we find
out that these people that were sent out are called evangelists. They have good news and they're
in a hurry to get it out. The message was sent out with
haste by posts on horseback, riders on mules and camels and
young dromedaries. There's two or three places that
we find in the Bible that this is used, but another one is found
in 2 Chronicles, Chapter 30. So if you turn with me to 2 Chronicles,
Chapter 30, we have again, posts are sent out, 2 Chronicles, Chapter
30, that it's been brought to the attention of the king that
they have not had the Passover for a long, long time. And he's,
you know, we can say he should have known about it, the priest
should have known about it. How easy it was for the priest to
forget. When you don't know anything,
it's easy to forget everything. So it come to the attention of
the king. We haven't had the Passover.
And chapter 30 beginning with verse 1. Hezekiah sent to all
Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh.
Where are they? They're on the other side of
the Jordan River. Get some letters over there.
And that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem
and keep the Passover until the Lord God of Israel. For the king
had taken counsel in his princes and all the congregation in Jerusalem
to keep the Passover in the second month. 17 For they could not
keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified
themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves
together to Jerusalem. 18 And the thing pleased the
king and all the congregation, so they established a decree
to make proclamation throughout all Israel." Once again, this
is where it's going to go. And it's a proclamation the Lord used the Apostle Paul
to say, it's a declaration. I declare unto you the gospel. A proclamation. He's proclaiming
this, about this. For they had not done it for
a long time in such sort as it was written. So the post went
out with letters from the king. You know, as evangelists, the
only thing we have is the word of God. We cannot make it We don't have to be offensive
because there is an offense about the cross. It's just a natural
offense. When it comes down to it, the
absolute necessity of someone way higher than we are, the Son
of God, laying down His life, a ransom for many on the cross,
is so detestable in our mouth. It is that wormwood. After the
Lord saves us, it is such a blessing to know what He did. They post-pass
from city to city, You children of Israel, turn again unto the
Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, the covenant God, the
God of grace, the God of graciousness, the God of elective grace. And
he will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of
the hand of the king of Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers
and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God
of your fathers. who therefore gave them up to
the desolation as ye see, now be ye not stiff-necked as your
fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into
his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever, and serve
the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from
you. For if ye turn again unto the
Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion,
before them that lead them captive so that they shall come again
into this land for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful
and will not turn away his face from you if you return to him.
So the post passed from city to city through the country of
Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulon, but they laughed them
to scorn. What else should we expect? They
laughed them to scorn and mocked them. Verse 11, grace. Nevertheless,
some of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulon were humbled and came
to Jerusalem. The work of grace, the work of
grace. But posts went out. Now they
had nothing to do with the growth. They had nothing to do with the
sprouting. They had nothing to do, what do we find? one man planted, another man
watered, God gave the increase. He's the only one that can. All
right, we find that in Acts chapter 21, in Acts chapter 21, we have
the evangelists, those that are sent with the good news, the
evangelists, Acts chapter 21. These are the posts of today.
These are the ones that are taking the word out today. These are
the ones God has called today. Now, every one of us are post
in some sense. In Acts chapter 21 and there
in verse eight, the word says, in the next day, we that were
of Paul's company departed and came into Caesarea and we entered
into the house of Philip the Evangelist, which was one of
the seven, and abode with him." Philip the Evangelist. Who gave this man this name,
this title? God. It wasn't something that
Philip assumed, it was something God gave him. I was sharing with
someone not too long ago about, we have a capital P. Shepard. Excuse me, capital S
Shepard. We have a capital P Pastor. All of those are in capitals
with the Lord. Now if we happen to have that
fit us, it's small. It's small letters. We don't
want to be capital P. We want to be small p's, small
pastors. We have one capital E evangelist. The rest of us are little e evangelists. That's where we find ourselves
and are glad to be there in that group. So, and in 2 Timothy,
would you look with me in 2 Timothy as we see these posts going on
127 different provinces throughout Ahasuerus' place of rain. 2 Timothy chapter 4 and there
in verse 5 it says this, But watch thou in all things, he's
writing to Timothy, watch thou in all things, endure afflictions,
do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
What's the work of an evangelist? Take the Word of God. Don't write
a book and then teach that. Take the Word of God. And finally,
in the book of Ephesians, we read this, Ephesians 4, Ephesians
4, and there in verse 11, I believe it is, Yes, and He gave some apostles
and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers,
pastor-teachers. But we have that, we are evangelists,
we are pastor-teachers, we are prophets, we don't prophesy and
things that in the future we declare what has already been
taking place. So as we look at this, we find
that those posts went out, they had good news in their saddlebags.
And it was written in the language of the people, signed by the
king or the signet, sent out by fast dromedaries, mules, horses,
whatever, camels were sent out, and it needed to get there by
a certain day, and guess what it did? Same thing. The word is going
to get out by a certain day. And after that, it's going to
be wrapped up when the full number is gathered in. The king's decree
and the authority of the king was made known, and it was in
such a way that the people knew this is right. All right. Go back to the book of Esther,
and I'd like to read Esther 8 again. in Esther chapter 8. Now if our Old Testament was
put in chronological order, Esther would be one of the three last
books. Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. Okay,
here in Esther chapter 8, And verse 11, this is the writing,
wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city
to gather themselves together and to stand for their life.
to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the power of the
people and province that would assault them, both little ones
and women, and to take spoil of them for prey. Upon one day
in all the provinces, the king Ahasuerus namely, upon the thirteenth
day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and the copy
of the writing for the commandment was to be given in every province,
was published unto all people, And that the Jews should be ready
against the day to avenge themselves of their enemy. So the post that
rode upon mules and camels went out being hastened. and pressed
by the king's commandment, and the decree was given at Shushan
the palace. So we have it given, they're
gone. And verse 15, I'd like to just
say a few words about verse 15. Our time is approaching. And
Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel
of blue and white and with a great crown of gold and with a garment
of fine linen and purple in the city of Shushan rejoiced and
was glad." Mordecai went out. Now, Mordecai had been promoted
to the chief minister. He's second in command. He was
given a royal uniform. He was arrayed in royal dress
and insignia. It was a statement of his position. When I was still teaching, I
was invited to go down to Fort Bliss. And we flew down with
several members of the Army. And one of them was a colonel.
And very easy to visit with. All of them were. They were counting
on us helping students to make some decision about a career. And a lot of students don't have
any idea in the world what they want to do. Well, anyway, we
were down there. And we were in a barracks. Now everybody is dressed in the
same uniform as that colonel. But when he walked down through
that hall, all of those young folks got up against the wall,
stood straight and saluted. for only one—now he was in command,
there's no question, but they recognized something that he
wore that they didn't wear. It was a little thing on his
shoulder. Now I can't remember what it
was, but anyway, I looked at that and we went into the PX
and here's all of those different Insignias, all of these, whether
you're private through colonel. And I said, point out the one
that you wear. And he did. And I says, I think I'll buy
this. Because I want the students at school to back up against
the wall and salute me when I go down through there. But you know,
I just said that to say this, Mordecai was dressed according
to the king's command, because he had been chosen and he had
the insignia that He was in command. Now, when He began, He's just
like our Savior. Do you remember Him there out
front? I mean, we see our dear Lord
Jesus come in common dress, just like we are. And He was rejected
because of that. Turn with me to Isaiah 53 in
verse three. Isaiah 53 in verse three. Mordecai gives us a picture that
as the Lord Jesus came down here and wore what we are, He wore
flesh like we do, there was no respect for Him by natural man
whatsoever. Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 3,
we read these words, Isaiah 53 and verse 3, it says, He, now
did you notice this verb in this? He is. I've probably quoted that wrong
a thousand times. He was, but He is, He still is,
despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows equated with
grief. For we hid, as it were, our faces from Him, He was despised,
and we esteemed Him not. He is despised. Now that's what
He went through while He was on this earth. And we find enough
verses of Scripture that declare that I'm a worm and no man. A
reproach of men, despised of the people. And this one I want
to read, and with this we'll probably close. Psalm 69. And
we'll come back to this next time. Psalm 69. As Haman gives
us a wonderful picture of our Savior. Psalm 69. And verse 10, or 20, excuse me,
verse 20. Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity,
but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. What a statement
about the Lord during His personal ministry here upon the earth.
And then we find The word was made flesh. That's exactly what
he came to do. And then on the Mount of Transfiguration,
he was transfigured before them, and he showed us his royal uniform
and insignia. that which he had before the
world began. So we're going to look at more
to KI a little bit more next time about coming out away from
the king. He's not departing the king,
he's just leaving him to go out and look what he's wearing and
look at our king wrapped in glory, wrapped in glory. All right,
we'll stop there for tonight.