of the book of Esther. Esther
chapter 5. Esther chapter 5. I find so many
things between Esther and the book of Numbers where we've been
in the 22nd, 23rd, 24th chapter of the book of Numbers between
Balaam, Balak, and the situation there. And over here in the book
of Esther we find that the overriding, overruling, of all things is
the Almighty God in heaven. He not only permits things, but
he purposes things to take place. It is interesting that he spoke
to Abraham many, many years before Abraham had a son and said, your
people will be in bondage for 400 years. And we find that that
is fully true. And it was carried out exactly
to the day. God did not get caught by shortage
of knowledge, he has purpose at all. Well, here in the book
of Esther, we find out that God has overseen and overridden all
the things that take place to bring this to exactly the right
place at the right time. Tonight in a study that we were
looking in the book of John, John chapter four, one of my
favorite verses out of many, many thousands of favorites,
he must needs go through Samaria. Now that's what God is doing
here in the book of Esther. He must demonstrate his power.
And he could have said, as well as to Pharaoh, as to Artaxerxes,
or Ahasuerus, he could have said, for this very reason have I raised
thee up. He could say that to Haman, for
this very reason have I raised thee up. And he could also say
that to Esther and to Mordecai, for this very reason I might
show my power in thee. So as we look into this fifth
chapter, we find out that Esther comes before and no doubt very
timid, very... not knowing for sure what was
going to take place when she came into the presence of the
king, her husband. She did do what was right and
honorable. She dressed for the occasion.
She went in her royal apparel, and that was good. It was an
apparel that the king had given her. That was good. She was a
pleasant lady. That was good. She was pleasing
in speech. That was good. She made no demands,
that was good. And she comes into the presence
and we find that the finger of God is on that scepter and he
helps Ahasuerus push it down so it recognizes Esther and she
is brought into his presence. Now the request that is made
is found in this passage of scripture. In fact, there are two requests
that are made in this passage of scripture and they're both
made by Esther. And you know the overwhelming
thing that I've noticed about Esther's requests? how small
they were. I just want to have a banquet
with three people. Now, if we turn to the first
chapter, we find there was a banquet, but there was representatives
from the entire empire. But she wants a banquet for three
people, Queen, King, and Haman. Now, for us, without having any
other knowledge, that would be the three appropriate people,
because we have the king, the second person in command, and
the queen. Haman has been elevated to a
very high position. Now, we can say whether he deserved
it or not. In the eyes of God, he deserved it. God put him there.
He is there by divine appointment, just like the king is, and just
like the queen is. Normally we'd never find a Jew
being promoted to the position that Esther is in. But it is
God's eternal purpose that that took place. So this request,
the king said, ask anything up to half. You can have anything
up to half. And you know, She said, I want
one thing, and then I want to complement that with one other
thing, and that is two banquets. That's all I'm asking. And she
tells us this here in the book of Esther, chapter five. It says,
and Esther answered, if it seemed good, verse four, and Esther
answered, if it seemed good unto the king, another time, she shows
great respect to the king. She's there by the pleasantry
of the king, and she says, let the king and Haman come this
day, this afternoon, in an hour, whatever. unto a banquet that
I have prepared for him." Now she's already taking care of
the banquet. I believe she's expressing a
great deal of faith here when we find that she's already had
this small banquet prepared, but she wants the king and she
wants Haman there. And she is going to make one other request
when this banquet is up there. The king said, "'Cause Haman
to make haystack, he may do as Esther has said.'" Verse five,
"'So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had
prepared. So we have everybody that's been
invited there. Esther is there, her husband
the king is there, and Haman is there. He is second in command
and there's been a special invitation. Now if we didn't have chapter
6, 7, 8, and 9 and the rest of it, we would say this is quite
an orderly way of dealing and doing business. And that's no
doubt true. But we find out that Esther has
in the back of her head a great deal of people that she's looking
out for. She has all of the Jews in the
kingdom that she's looking out for. She wants to save them. we find out that there is going
to be that very thing. The king said, cause Haman to
make haste, verse six, and the king said unto Esther at the
banquet of wine, what is thy petition? And it shall be granted
thee second time. What do you want? What is your
petition? And I'll grant it up to half
the kingdom. And then answered Esther and
said, my petition and my request is, if I have found favor in
the sight of the King, and if it please the King to grant my
petition and to perform my request. Now, in many respects, she is
giving us an ideal demonstration of prayer. If it please you,
if it is your will, if this is my request, but I need it to
be your will, if you could do this, Let the king, if you perform
my request, let your request be made known unto God. Request from God. Now we know that God has knowledge
of what we have need of before we ask. He said that, and you
know what? We're glad to have a God like
that. It is good that we do not ever inform God of anything. That He has full knowledge of
everything about us and everything that's going on. And that not
only does He have knowledge of it, but He has purposed it just
like that. But He has asked us to pray. He says, pray, enter your closet,
pray. Don't be as, but enter your closet. And that means, Don't use it
to show. Don't be like the Pharisees.
Oh, I was so mortified. Yesterday, a couple of young
men, a man, a father and his son came in and I just learned
the wife and the mother had passed away. And I just gave him a hug
and said, I'm so sorry about what's taking place. I've known
about it for some time. And the guy in there came in.
It's just religious. He just oozes religion. And he
found out, and oh, he had this prayer right there, and be with
your mother in heaven, and brother this and brother that, and had
no knowledge at all of anything about it. And I just wanted to
throttle him. That's not prayer. That is not
prayer. Prayer is alone. If he wanted
to take them to the back of the store, that would be one thing.
But out there, I just, I find that that is so onerous, so opposite
of what we find in the scripture to do. So anyway, let the king
and Haman, if it please you, If it is in your will, you know
what? The Lord never moves upon us to ask for things that are
not according to his will. The Holy Spirit is the one that
moves us to pray as we ought. And the Holy Spirit will never
move upon us to make requests of God that are not in his will.
In fact, we want to pray in your will. We want your will to be
done, and we want to be happy with it. We want to be pleased
with it. And sometimes God's will chafes us. We're natural
people, it chafes us. But God's people want God's will
done. All right, it tells us, let the
king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare them, and
I will do tomorrow as the king has said. Why didn't she say, let's take
care of business right here? Well, when we get to chapter
five, we find out why. Now she didn't know what was
going to happen. She didn't know the king was
going to have insomnia. She didn't know that the king
was going to have the chronicles read. She didn't know that her
cousin was going to be honored the next day, but God moved upon
her to request an audience today so that I can make requests for
an audience tomorrow. And that's just the way that
it was carried out. Now, we wouldn't know much about
it if we didn't have a headstart on it. If we hadn't read chapter
six, because there is where we're going to find out that some things
are going to happen. Well anyway, we find out that
Haman, he leaves the meeting in verse 9. Haman leaves the
meeting. Now Haman is an example of those God has made for wrath. Haman is an example of those
plots that the potter has made to demonstrate his wrath. Some
are made for his honor and for his mercy, and some are made
for his wrath. That's what we read in the ninth
chapter of the book of Romans. The potter has the right to do
with clay as he sees fit, and some pots are made to demonstrate
his wrath. And right here in front of us
is a man by the name of Haman, and this man is made to demonstrate
the wrath of God. Now, when we get to studying
the scriptures, we find out that God's people, the elect people,
never were under the wrath of God. Now, we deserved it. We would admit that we deserve
it, but we find out we were never under the wrath of God. The wrath
of God abides on those who are the non-elect and he has that
prepared from the foundation of the world, but he has never
prepared wrath for his children. He has delivered us from wrath.
He put his wrath, God put his wrath on his son to prevent it
from falling to us. Never was ours. So we find out
there are some that God has determined to pour wrath out and Haman is
one of them. We're going to see that demonstrated.
Now Haman went forth that day joyful. Can you just imagine
how he felt? I've been invited. I've been
invited once. I'm going to be invited back
and I'm going to be honored with great honor. Now there's one He says here, but when Haman
saw Mordecai, every bit of good feeling, every bit of smile and
gladness disappeared instantly when he saw A man that lived
by grace. I was so caught up with one of
the ladies that mentioned here tonight, Cheryl, that she heard
the message about, you know, those, those antinomians, all
they have is grace, grace, grace. Isn't that wonderful? My goodness,
I'll take the name Antinomian if I can be recognized as someone
who believes in grace, grace, grace. Well, there's a man that
believes in grace and he honors God and this man cannot stand
him. So it tells us there, Mordecai,
Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate that he stood not up nor
move for him. He was full of indignation against
Mordecai. Now I found it very interesting
to get to the meaning of that word indignation. It comes from
the term to make cheese. In the old days they put milk
in a skin and they hung that skin out in the sun and they
moved that skin back and forth and some enzyme from the skin
and the heat caused the cheese or the fat to separate and they
had their cheese and they had the whey. This guy is in the
sun being shook up. He is indignation towards this
person. He has indignation. You know,
there's a verse of Scripture, would you turn with me over to
the book of Luke for just a moment, and then we're going to the book
of Romans. Because the preacher of righteousness, the apostle
Paul, truly understood and was preaching what the Holy Spirit
is sharing with us here in Haman. And this is a natural thought
of all men without grace, without Christ. So, but stop with me
at the book of Luke. The book of Luke chapter 16.
The book of Luke chapter 16. And in verse 15. The book of
Luke chapter 16 and verse 15. Now, every once in a while, I'm
glad I leave just a little room because there's a study that
I have got part of, and verses bring up, and they say, oh, that'll
go real good in the lesson tonight. And there's one of them. It says,
and he said unto them, ye are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knoweth your hearts. Now, I can just say,
Haman, there you are. God knoweth your hearts, for
that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the
sight of God. Now what was he, who is highly
esteemed? The man that smote on his breasts
and did not raise his eyes to heaven and said, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. There's where we find Mordecai.
He knew something about grace. He knew something about sin.
He knew something about God. And this man did not. And he
was really, he had a lot of cheese against him. He'd been in the
sun too long. He has indignation against him. And we find that the preacher
of righteousness, in the book of Romans chapter 3, the preacher
of righteousness, the Apostle Paul, had much to say as he gathered. You just look through here. And
he just gathered so much of the Old Testament and synthesized
it and put it together in one spot here in the book of Romans
about this great problem that we find with Amon and those like
him. A man who is set aside for the
wrath of God. This is the reason. God has every
right. He has every right to do with
him as he sees fit. In the book of Romans chapter
3 beginning with verse 9, The scriptures share this. What then? Are we better than they? No,
in no wise. For we have before proved both
Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. Now you know that
just slammed in the face of all the Jews? Under sin? We are of our father,
Abraham. We don't have that problem. Well,
that's exactly what the Lord tells us there in the book of
Luke. Highly esteemed among men, abomination to God. He says,
as it is written. Now, He's taking us right back
to the Old Testament. Why? Because that's all He had
at the time. He didn't have what we know as the New Testament.
He had the Old Testament, and now He's preaching a message
about it. As it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. You know, that's the first thing
that Mordecai and Esther would admit, that I do not have my
own righteousness, but I have the righteousness of Christ.
I'm depending upon the blood and righteousness of Christ for
all my salvation. Now, Haman knew nothing about
that. There was nothing in him to have
any knowledge about that. And then it tells us here in
verse 11, there is none that understandeth, there is none
that seeketh after God. We have here a description of
what we had pictured over there in the book of Esther chapter
five, when Mordecai, excuse me, Haman comes out of that banquet
and he is just full of gladness and pleasure and goodness and
honor until he sees a man who knows something about grace and
he turns indignation immediately. So wrathful toward this man that
we're going to find out. He goes home and it doesn't take
anything for someone to suggest hang the man. Good idea. Hang the man. All right. They
are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. You know, we're reading some
passages of scripture that we by nature disagreed with. I know for a surety that most
of us said we're the exception. I know my mother and dad are
just like that, but no, they are all gone out of the way.
There is, they are together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. What do you mean? I've done lots of good things.
Maybe towards our fellow man, but cannot do a good thing towards
God. We cannot earn one scintilla
of righteousness. Their throat. What's it talking
about there? It didn't take very long to find
out just how glad Haman was when he saw Mordecai, he could have
bit him. You know, it's kind of like those
folks over there, they gnashed on him with their teeth. Now that's indignation. They
gnashed on Stephen. I mean, they were serious. They
hated him to the core. And there's a man among them
that we read about later that said, oh God, I did that in ignorance. Saul of Tarsus. All right. Their throat is an open supplicant
with their tongues. They have used deceit. They've
lied and lied. They poisoned asps under their
lips. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Jesus told a whole group of people,
you know, you honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from
me. And they're the folks that can't
say shibboleth. You have to have a heart transplant
to do that. You have to have a new heart.
The new heart gives you the Shibboleth. Without it, it's Sibboleth, and
you just can't wrap your tongue around it. Their mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. The way of peace have they not
known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Now we know that what things
whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in the sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. So even to the Jews, best of
the people. He tells us there no one is justified
by the law. All are under sin and no one
is justified by the law. So we read here in this passage
of scripture as we read in Romans chapter 3, we find a preacher
of righteousness bringing up God's word about men and specifically
God's word about Haman. because he's so obvious. He demonstrates
what's in his heart. He hates this man so much. Well, as we follow this through,
we find that he's a child of Adam. Did you know Jews and Gentiles
were children of Adam? There is no difference in our
descent We have the same heart. We have the same problem that
Adam did after the fall. He was dead in trespasses and
sin. We find that the only difference between Mordecai and Haman is
grace. Not because he's a Jew and not
because he's a good man, but grace. God's grace is the only
thing that made Mordecai different in any way than Haman. Verse 10, going back to the book
of Esther, if you would with me. The book of Esther again,
chapter five. The book of Esther, chapter five.
As we find going on with what's taking place here, here's a man
left to himself. Here's Haman. I can just see
him as he is in that banquet of wine with Esther and the king,
and then invited back the very next day, how he fell. What honor
he was having, what position he was, how glad he was. Oh, he was so thankful to be
second in command under Arnaz Xerxes. He was so glad to be
in that position. He left the door with such singing
and gladness because tomorrow is going to be another great
day. We'll be right back here and she's going to honor us again.
And one man stepped in, what was it that Adam didn't have
one thing. Now he was in a state of innocence. He wasn't in a fallen state.
He's in a state of innocence. He is innocent before God. Some
people call him holy or some people call him perfect. Whatever
you want to say, he's in a state of innocence. No sin had gone
through his heart or mind. He has every tree of the garden
except one. He has all the animals to take
care of. He has everything. He is in bliss. He has everything
going for him. And then we find this rascal,
our father, sinned against Almighty God and caused the fall that
we're still dealing with in our own hearts and minds. Now, he
did it in that state. How in the world in the state
we're in can we ever get out of the mess we're in? It is an
impossibility. Because Adam couldn't even get
out of the mess he was in. And I'll tell you, he's first
generation. God had to get him out of the
mess he was in. God had to give a substitute. And he demonstrated that by a
lamb. The slaying of a covering that covered Adam and Eve from
their physical as well as their spiritual nakedness before God,
undoneness before God. So as we follow Haman out, we
find out he is spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. And in
reality, he could do nothing more than what he was doing.
He couldn't get above his level. So when he got away from those
things that make, got away from his religion for a minute. Got away from the preacher for
a minute, got away, got out there. His heart is so demonstrated
right here. I hate that. And he goes home, chapter five,
there in verse 10, if you'll follow that. Nevertheless, Haman,
oh, he didn't grab a stick and start beating on Mordecai. Who
prevented that? Almighty God. Nevertheless, Haman
refrained himself. And when he came home, he sent
and called for his friends and there is his wife. We gotta have
a meeting. And we want to have people that
agree with us. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches. Isn't that interesting? He enumerates
the glory of his riches the multitude of his children, I have posterity
now and forever. And all the things wherein the
king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the
princes and servants of the king." My goodness, there's nobody in
the kingdom like Haman is, and yet he has a serious flaw. He hates God, and he hates God's
people. Now he hates God, and we know
he hates God's people, and when you hate God's people, you hate
God. You don't have any choice in it, you hate God. God, we're
God haters. You know, is it wonderful that,
and we know, that all things work together for the good of
them that love God, who are the called according to his purpose,
that love God, God took us from God-haters to God-lovers. He
changed our heart. He gave us a heart to love Him.
And that's the promise of the covenant. Haman goes on and said,
moreover, Let me tell you what I just found
out today. Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king
unto the banquet that she had prepared, but myself and tomorrow
am I invited unto her also with the king. Oh, one more time.
We're going to be advanced in this condition. We're the promotion
that we're going through here. It's just the promotion. Oh, what an advancement. Turn
with me if you would. Keep your finger right there,
but turn with me over to the book of Matthew chapter 6. Matthew
chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 30. Now in this passage of scripture,
we're going to read what the Gentiles look after. He enumerated what the Gentiles
look after. My riches, my position, my children,
my invitation, and it's all my, my, my. Oh, notice here. Matthew
chapter six, verse 34, for if God so clothed the grass of the
field, which today is that tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall
he not much more clothed you? Oh, ye of little faith. I like
what brother Mike brought up. That's a term of endearment.
He's not castigating those folks. He is, this is a term, he is
their faith. You don't have it. As I mentioned
the other day, if we had faith as a grain of mustard, now, I
wish I would have brought one of those in here. Because you
couldn't see it out in the middle of the table. If we had faith
as a grain of mustard, we could say to this mountain, so what
the Lord is telling us here, you don't have any. You have
none. You have none. I am your faith. And I am your faithfulness. Therefore,
take no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we
drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? You know, in many
respects, he's talking about it in a spiritual context. We
don't have to worry about what we're going to feed on. Open
your book. There's where we feast. You don't
have, and our clothing, what's our clothing? Our robe of righteousness. Christ is our bread, Christ is
our water, Christ is all. Take no thought about that. For
after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly
Father knoweth what you have need of, all these things, but
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. So he said, the Gentiles,
and we follow Haman, and we say, boy, look at this, he just went
right down the list here. All these things, the Gentiles,
those without Christ, without God, without hope in the world
have. This is my hope, my riches. The only way we can pass on our
posterity is our children. On and on it goes. All right,
as we go back over there to the book of, excuse me, it's not
numbers, it's the book of Esther. The book of Esther. Esther chapter five. Notice as
we get here, verse 13. Verse 12. Haman said, moreover,
yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king
unto the banquet which she had prepared, but myself and tomorrow
am I invited unto her also with the king. Yet all this availeth
me nothing. There's nothing that could make
me happy until Mordecai, the Jew, is dead. So long as I see
Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at the king's gate. Oh, I love everybody. I just love everybody in the
whole world, except those folks down there. They just will not. They will not submit themselves
to our baptism. They will not come to our meeting.
They will not listen to our gospel. I cannot handle them, but I love
everybody. Well, now we find. Then said
Jairus his wife and all his friends unto him, let a gallows be made
of 50 cubits high. Now I was reading about that,
and it seems that this seemed to be the practice, the more
offensive the offense, the higher the gallows, so more people could
see you. Now that may have been, but 75
feet high. He wanted the scouts. Now it
may have just been a tree, it may have just been a pole, but
it was something that was going to do someone harm. He said,
and tomorrow speak thou unto the king while you're in the
meeting, that Mordecai may be hanged thereon. Then go thou
in merrily unto the king, unto the banquet, and all things pleased
Haman, and he caused the gallows to be made. Now there's only,
well, there's many things, but the very next chapter, we find
out why God had Esther invite them to the second banquet. We're not gonna spend a lot of
time here. Our time is about up, but the king could not sleep. The amazing thing, to me, is
he didn't ask for the TV to be brought in. He didn't ask for
some book to be read to him. He asked for the chronicles of
his own kingdom. Now, he's just a little vain
too, isn't he? The chronicles of the kingdom, and lo and behold,
it's going to be... How did that guy open up those
scrolls to the right place to read about the king never honored
a man that saved his life? God's providence, God's oversight,
God ruling over all things. How did it happen that way? How
could it happen that way? Because we have someone that
is an absolute charge over all things. He is sovereign over
all things. And you know what we get to say?
Sovereign over salvation. He demonstrates His greatest
sovereignty when He saves enemies of the cross, when He saves enemies
of God. He saves those who are enmity
against God, who raise their fists and say, I will not have
this man rule over me. He saves those, they are thankful
for it and glory and honor and praise is poured out at His feet. and we will spend eternity thanking
him for that free and sovereign grace. How glorious. Well, we'll not spoil it much
more. Lord willing, we'll come to this
at the next time, and we'll find out the king can sleep, what's
read, and the reward that's given. We'll stop there for tonight.