I think he may have read Esther
before he wrote that. That was very good. Alright,
let's open our Bibles again to the book of Esther. We're going
to go through this book a second time. And Lord willing, see this
truth. God's sovereignty in salvation. God sovereignly saves His people
from their sin. Now God is a covenant God. This
is the thing that Mordecai knew we saw in our lesson this morning.
God's a covenant God. And everything that God does,
whatever it is that God's doing, he's doing for this reason, to
fulfill his covenant, to keep his promise to his people, to
save them through the person and through the work of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And God's sovereignty. is seen
when you look throughout the life of the man Christ Jesus,
you see God's sovereign hand directing everything. God overruled
men who hated our Lord, didn't he? He overruled them so that
when they thought they were doing what they wanted to do, what
did they do? They accomplished God's purpose because God's sovereign
in this matter. God promised that he would save
his people through the life to the death, to the burial, and
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And God used his
enemies, those who hated our Lord, to do it. He accomplished
his purpose, didn't he? And that's what's pictured in
this book of Esther. And as I told you in the lesson,
you won't find God's name anywhere in this book. But his fingerprints
are all through it. His character is all through
it. God's name is hidden, but his work for his people is obvious
as you read this book. Now, there are four main characters
in the book of Esther. There's King Asuserus. His name
means venerable father. He is a picture in this book
of God the father. Then there's Mordecai. His name
means little man. Mordecai is a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who by men of his day were considered, they
considered him to be nothing. He was despised and rejected
of them. They thought he's a little man.
Then there's Esther, Queen Esther. Her name means star. She's a
picture of Christ, who's the star, the center of God's creation. And then there's Haman. His name
means magnificent. He's a picture of this flesh.
We think we're magnificent, don't we? And he's a picture of Satan,
who's the accuser of the brethren. Now, we'll review this a little
bit for those of you who aren't in here, but in chapter 1, the
king threw a big party. This party lasted 180 days. There was plenty of food, there
was lots of fancy decorations, and the king wanted his wife,
Queen Vashti, to come out and pray in front of his buddies
so he could show his buddies. Look what a pretty wife I've
got. And she wouldn't do it. She refused to do it. And the
wise men told the king, now, king, you'd better set an example
of her. You'd better divorce her. You'd better do something
pretty bad to her, or all our wives are going to follow Queen
Vashti's example. So that's what the king did.
He divorced her, and Vashti lost everything. She lost her position.
She lost all of her wealth and influence because of her disobedience. Now, she knew better than we
do what's going to happen to her or what could happen to her
anyway if she disobeyed the king. Well, what do you reckon came
over her mind? I mean, why would she do such
a thing? God didn't control her. Isn't
that right? God was directing her mind for his purpose. God
put this woman with some backbone, some spunk. He put her in the
right place at the right time to accomplish his purpose. God
put that woman's liver, made her a queen to accomplish his
purpose. God works in all the small things. We think, well, that's not that
big a deal. You know, the king divorced her. It was the king
cut off eight wives' heads. I mean, you know, they just seemed
replaceable to the king, right? And this seems like a disaster
to the kingdom, you know. Everything's right on schedule.
Because you know what God's doing, how He's working His providence
here? He's doing this to give us a picture of our ruin in Adam
and redemption from sin in Christ. You remember God created the
world, made a beautiful garden and put Adam in it. Adam had
it all, didn't he? And what did Adam do? He rebelled
against God. And when Adam sinned, Adam lost
everything. He lost his position. He lost
his communication, his fellowship with God. He couldn't live in
God's beautiful garden anymore. And all of us were ruined in
Adam too. Adam did with us what those wise
men were afraid Vashti would do to all their wives. They were
afraid she's going to teach our wives to rebel against us. Adam
taught us real well how to rebel against God. And he did it by
giving us his nature. And we read that story of man's
fall in the garden and we think, oh, what a disaster for the human
race. Couldn't Adam have kept one law
and stopped all this madness? Well, this is not a disaster.
No, it's not. God overruled Adam's rebellion
and he used it for the eternal good of his people. So his son
would come and save them eternally, give them a righteousness that
they could never lose. See, Adam had to fall. He had
to plunge all of his race into death so that Christ could come
and get the glory in saving them from their sin. Look at the end
of verse 19 of chapter 1. The wise men said that Vashti
come no more before King Hasucerus and let the king give her royal
estate unto another that's better than she. And that's what God
said when Adam fell. Adam could no more come into
the presence of God. Adam lost all of his honor. He
lost all of his glory. He lost his royal estate. And
God said, let his estate be given to another, better than him.
Let his estate be given to the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God was in control of
this. What we think is this awful event, God was in control of
it. And God allowed it to happen for this reason. What's God's
purpose? To save His people from their sin. God allowed it to
happen so that Christ would be glorified. Only God could accomplish
His will this way. Our God is in such control. Now,
at this point, when Vashti was no longer queen, nobody had ever
heard of Mordecai and Esther, had they? They were completely
insignificant people in the kingdom. but not to God. They were important
to God. He was already working all these
things behind the scene in the kingdom for their good and for
the good of the Jews and all around the world for God's purpose.
And God's doing the same thing today. This is given to us in
picture, but God's doing the exact same thing today. God doesn't
change. God has a people. Some of them
aren't even born yet. I'm just convinced that that's
true. because the gospel is still being
preached. And God has a people. He chose them for the foundation
of the world. They're not born yet. But you know what our God's
doing? He's already divinely ordering
the steps of their ancestors so that they'll be one day put
in the position where they can hear the gospel. And He's going
to give them faith. He's going to give them life.
The path is already set. And people are already traveling
according to God's eternal purpose. Now Vashti, remember in the story,
she was removed from being queen. But you know, there's got to
be a new queen, doesn't there? Got to be a new queen. And the
wise men said, let's have a beauty pageant. And the winner will
be the new queen. Well, Adam fell. He lost his position with
God. But there's got to be a second
representative. There's got to be a new representative, man.
And in a way, God held a beauty pageant. The father looked around
and he saw none as beautiful and as worthy to take the place
of the, to be the second Adam. God could find no one better
than his son to step into the breach that Adam caused and save
his people from their sin. Now in chapter two, you remember
the story, Esther, she was entered into this beauty pageant and
she won. She became the queen. In verse
17 of chapter 2, look here. The king loved Esther above all
women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than
all the virgins. So he set the royal crown upon
her head and he made her queen instead of Vashti. And that is
exactly what God the Father did for his son. He crowned him with
glory and honor. Great grace was given to our
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the fountain of grace. Grace
pours from his lips. He obtained such favor from the
father. The father spoke audibly from
heaven and honored his son. This is my son in whom I'm well
pleased. He honored his son so much. God
turned his son off when his son died. That's honoring his son. And one day that glory is going
to be seen. There's going to be a great feast.
There's going to be the marriage supper of the Lamb. And all creation
is going to join together in His praise. And that's good news. Because if you and I are going
to be saved from our sin, we're such sinners, so depraved, so
completely lost in our sin. This is who our Savior must be. Our Savior must be King. He's
got to be sovereign over all so that no one can stop His will
to save us, including us. He's going to override our will. He's going to save us against
our will with our full consent. That's how sovereign He is. And
our Savior's got to have all beauty. He's got to have all
righteousness so He can make His people beautiful in His beauty
that He puts on us. He's got to have all grace. It's
going to take grace to save sinners like you and me. He's got to
have all grace, and he does. Now, there were many dark days
during the life of the Lord Jesus, the man, Jesus the master. There
are many dark days, then and since. The world hated him then,
the world deserted him then, and they do the same thing now.
They hate the Lord now, they desert him now. All those dark
days. Are those things going to work
out for the eternal good of God's elect? Absolutely they will. Absolutely they will. Christ
is going to get to victory and he's going to be crowned with
all glory and honor and one day every knee will bow. Every tongue
will confess that he's Lord of all. When our Lord returns and
people see him as he is, they're going to have to bow. I mean,
it's just the natural thing. bow and when you see Him, you
confess, He Lord of all. That's what God does in the new
birth. He gives you faith to believe. He gives you sight to
see Him. You bow and you confess, He Lord of all. My Savior is
the King. He wears the crown royal. But there's the flesh. Now there's
the flesh to deal with. In chapter 3, that's who we meet,
Haman, the magnificent one. The king, Asuserus, he made Haman
second in command in all the kingdom. And Haman represents
our flesh. He represents the religious people
who hated our Lord Jesus. They hated salvation by grace. Now, they liked election. They
liked election as long as election means Jews. They didn't like
God sovereignly, graciously electing Gentiles. They didn't like that.
They didn't like that they could be saved by grace. They wanted
righteousness to come by their own law keeping, not by faith
in Christ. And they hated him. Oh, how they
hated the Savior. And these Jews were powerful
people. How did these wicked men, how'd
they get all that power? This, this, the Caiaphas, the
high priest is wicked. I mean, you just think that there's,
how could he read the scriptures every day and be such a wicked
man? How did he get to be high priest? God's on the throne, that's how.
God put just the right people in just the right place at exactly
the right time to accomplish his purpose in saving his people
from their sins through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you remember the story how Haman hated Mordecai. Mordecai would
not bow to this wicked man. That new man that's in you, he
won't bow to the flesh, really. That's why there's such a fight. He won't bow. And Haman ain't
going to bow to Mordecai. The flesh not going to bow to
the spirit and the spirit's not going to bow to the new man.
Oh, there's a warfare. And Haman, not only did he want
to kill Mordecai, He found out Mordecai is a Jew. He wanted
to kill them all, remember? And Haman got permission from
the king. The king said, all right, kill them all. I'll take
their money. If you'll make me rich by killing them, sure, go
ahead. That's fine. And Haman set an execution day. Not tomorrow, but one year out
in the future. Now, why'd he do that? Well,
we've already seen he did it because God's on the throne.
God's sovereign. I tell you he did it for another
reason. He did it to picture our Lord Jesus Christ. Those
Jews, those Pharisees, the scribes, and the religious leaders, they,
oh how they hated the Lord Jesus. They hated him. They listened,
even though they hated him, you know, they just come out all
the time to hear what he had to say, even though they hated
him. Oh, it would make them so angry. They're just going to
take him and take him to the brow of the hill and throw him
off He passed through their hand. Where did he go? They tried to take him and they
couldn't. He's right in front of them and
they're going to take him and suddenly they can't see him anymore. God's sovereign, didn't He? They
tried to take him and they couldn't. Herod had sovereign power. He heard about this Messiah being
born. He said, well go out and kill all the boy babies. He couldn't
lay a finger on the baby, that infant baby who can't do anything
for himself. King Herod couldn't touch him.
God told Mary and Joseph, take him down to Egypt. Herod couldn't
touch him. And you know why he couldn't touch him? Because God's
purpose in the redemption of his people must be accomplished. The Lord could not die until
he established righteousness for his people. He had to obey
the law before he could be died. where he could be killed, and
he couldn't be killed with a sword, not when he was a baby, not when
he was an adult, he couldn't be killed with a sword. He had
to be sacrificed, not as a baby, but in the prime and strength
of life to picture Christ our Passover lamb, just what we just
sang. So the blood would be shed, the blood of the perfect lamb
would be shed, so when God sees the blood, he passes over the
sin of his people. And he couldn't be killed with
a sword. He couldn't be beheaded. He couldn't be stabbed. He had
to be crucified so that he could bear the curse of sin away from
his people. See, God's will had to be done,
and it was. Herod's will wasn't done. The
Pharisee's will wasn't done. The Roman's will wasn't done.
God's will was done because God's on the throne. And his will and
the redemption of his people through the sacrifice of his
son must be accomplished. And one day, the day of God's
will came. Look over in Acts chapter 2.
This day was not the day of the will of the Jews or the will
of the Romans. This day was the day appointed from all of eternity
by the Father. This was the day God's will was
going to be accomplished. Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, but there must come a day He
sacrificed. Here's the day. Now I know all
those Jews and those Romans, they did what their wicked heart
desired to do, to show their hatred of God. But were they
really doing their will? No. They were doing what they
wanted to do, but they weren't accomplishing their will. They
were accomplishing God's will. Isn't this what Peter tells us
in Acts 2 verse 23? Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel of the Jews. No, him being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up,
having loosed the pains of death, because it is not possible that
he should be old enough." Look over in chapter 4, verse 27. For truth against thy holy child
Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius where
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
to do whatever they wanted. No, they were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. That's our Lord and that's the
gospel that we preach. It all happens according to God's
eternal will and purpose for this reason, to accomplish the
redemption of his people. Now look back in our text, chapter
15 of chapter 3, Esther 3 verse 15. Haman had obtained permission
from the king to kill all the Jews and he had appointed that
day, one year out in the future, verse 15, and the post went out,
being hastened by the king's commandment and the decree was
given in Shushan the palace and the king and Haman sat down to
drink But the city Shushan was perplexed. Now here the Jews
were, you know, they were there in captivity, they were minding
their own business and suddenly they get this decree that all
the Jews are going to be killed this day, you know. And they're
perplexed, they're scared. We can understand that, can't
we? They read the decree of the king and they find out what Haman
could do to them and what he will do to them in the days appointed.
And they were perplexed and they were scared. Of course they were.
They sound a whole lot like the disciples, don't they? After
our Lord was crucified and he was buried, they gathered together
for fear of the Jews. You know, they bolted the door
and they were perplexed. They were scared. Why is this
happening? Where's the master? I don't understand. Have you ever felt that way? Oh, I don't understand. The more I think about it, it's
giving me a headache. I can't understand. Well, when they were
so scared and so frightened, so frightened, what was going
on? God's will was being accomplished. That's what was going on. There
was no reason for them to fear at all. And when we find ourselves
perplexed and scared, there's no reason for us to be confused.
There's no reason for us to be scared. You know what's going
on? God's will is being accomplished. That's what's going on. Now,
chapter four, this is still a frightening situation. There's a death sentence
hanging over the head of all the Jews. It's like there's a
death sentence on all the sons of Adam. Well now, do we have any hope?
Is there anyone that can go into the presence of God and make
intercession for us? Could somebody go plead for us?
Would somebody go plead for us? I mean, we're so rotten, we're
so horrible. Is there anybody who would even be willing or
able to go plead for somebody like us? Because you know, not
just anybody can come into the presence of God now. If you're
going to come into the presence of the Father, you've got to
be holy. You've got to be righteous. You've got to have the nature
of God to be accepted or you'll be killed. Well, is there one? Is there one that matches that
description? Because if anybody's going to go make intercession
for guilty, hell-deserving sinners like us, he's got to have something
to plead. He's got to have something to
pay for our sin. He's got to have something to
put away the guilt that sin deserves. Is there one? There's one. There is one, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He can go to the Father for us.
And you see, this is the reason that Christ came. Remember, I
keep telling you, God puts the right person in the right place
at the right time. The Father put His own beloved
Son in a human body. The right person in the right
place at the right time to accomplish God's purpose in the salvation
of His people through the substitutionary death, the sacrifice of His Son.
And Christ came. He came as the Lamb of God. who
would take away the sin of his people. He was the only one who
could do it. This is the only lamb who can
take away sin. All those other lambs, they're
just pictures. All they are is pictures. Their blood can never
atone. But the blood of Christ, His blood atones for sin. He's
perfect. He's holy. He's righteous. He's
got blood to plead. He can go to the Father and intercede
for us. That's what Esther, the star,
that's what she's a picture of. She was the only one who could
go to the king, who had any sway with the king, who could intercede
with the king for the people of Israel. But, remember the
story? Esther could only come if the
king extended that golden scepter to her. Otherwise, she'd be killed,
wouldn't she? And he had not extended that
scepter to her. Well, what's to be done? Remember,
in chapter 4, Mordecai told her, you better hold your peace. Could
be God put you in the palace at this time for this purpose
to make intercession. And Esther said, all right, I'll
go. In chapter 5, she says, I'll go. Esther was willing to go
to the king as a lawbreaker, even if it meant she'd be put
to death. She loved her people so much. She loved Mordecai and
all her people so much, she was willing. to put her life on the
line and be killed in an attempt to make intercession for her
people. Well, as always, the real thing is a whole lot better
in the picture. Christ our substitute, he did
come into the presence of the Father, and he came guilty. He was made guilty of the sin
of his people. But now that guilt of sin, that's
not all he came with. Christ came with His perfect,
precious blood. That blood that would atone for
sin. And the Father saw Him. He saw the sacrifice of His Son. He saw His Son. The body of His
Son was turned into something that was unrecognizable. You
couldn't recognize it as a man. That's His body. Can you imagine
the suffering of His soul? Oh, how He suffered. And that
suffering, Isaiah said, pleased the father. It pleased him. And
the father saw his son in my place, in your place. And the
father said, I'm delighted. Oh, I'm delighted in him. I'll
not give you half my kingdom. You got it all. You bought it
all with your precious blood. I want you to turn to Hebrews
chapter 4. If you can turn and listen carefully,
listen carefully. I've got something such good
news. Child of God, because Christ our substitute
went to the Father guilty, bearing your sin, because of His sacrifice,
your sin is gone. Now, you want some good news?
Oh, this is good. You can go to the Father at all
times. You don't have to live in fear
thinking, did He accept the scepter to me so I have to wait until
I see some sign before I can come. No. At all times, sinners
like us can come before the very throne of God without fear and
be accepted. Hebrews 4, verse 14. Seeing then,
we have a great high priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the Son of God. Let's hold fast our profession.
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Is anybody here in a time of
need? If you are, at any time, you
can come before the very throne of God and obtain mercy and grace. Oh, that's good news. We come
boldly. You don't have to wait for that
scepter to be extended. And look back at Esther chapter
5. Now come boldly. Come boldly. But only come boldly
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to look how
Esther, what she put on when she came to the king. Esther
5 verse 1. Now it came to pass on the third
day that Esther put on her royal apparel. And she stood in the
inner court of the king's house over against the king's house.
And the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house over
against the gate of the house. And when the king turned and
saw Esther, what was she wearing? She was wearing the royal apparel. When you come before God to obtain
mercy and grace to help in time of need, come boldly, but only
come in Christ. only in His royal apparel, only
in His righteousness, only in His blood, in His very person. And if you come, I don't care
who you are, if you come in Christ, in His royal apparel, in His
person, you will always be accepted. Just like Esther was. She was
accepted of the king and her beauty and his love for her.
You come in Christ, you'll be accepted in Christ's beauty.
and the father's love for the son. Now, chapter 6, we saw this,
how the king couldn't sleep, and he was reminded, as they
read to him, trying to read him something so boring it put him
to sleep, he was reminded that Mordecai saved his life by uncovering
this plot to assassinate him. The king wanted to honor Mordecai. Something needs to be done for
this man who did something so great for the king. And it just
so happened, as the king was thinking, What can I do for Mordecai? It just so happened, at that
very moment, Haman happened to be coming into the king's court.
Haman was coming to get permission of the king to put Mordecai to
death. He was to do it early, you know. It just so happened. Imagine that. There's Haman. And the king said, Haman, what
should I do to honor the man of my kingdom that deserves some
honor? And you remember Haman, he couldn't imagine the king
wanting anybody but him. Oh, that's our flesh. Isn't that our flesh? I just,
God can't, couldn't possibly want to bless anybody but me.
You know, that's the way we think. You know, it's, I told Janet
earlier this week, this is how the flesh, I mean, we're so self-centered.
We hear of eternity. And you know how we think of
eternity? We say eternity past and eternity future. We even
put eternity based on us, where I am. That's His flesh. God can't
possibly want to do anything good for anybody but me. Well,
look here at verse 6 of Esther chapter 6. And Haman came in,
the king said unto him, what shall be done unto the man whom
the king delighteth to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart,
to whom would the king want to honor, delight to honor except
for me? And Haman answered the king, for the man whom the king
delighteth to honor Let the royal apparel be brought, which the
king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and
the crown royal which is set upon his head. And let this apparel
and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most
noble princes, that they may array the man withal, whom the
king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback to the
street of the city, and proclaim before him, thus shall it be
done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor. And the
king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the
horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew,
that sitteth in the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that
thou hast spoken. And then took Haman the apparel
and the horse, and he arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on
horseback to the street of the city, and proclaimed before him,
thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth
to honor. I'll tell you what, God's going
to honor His Son. He's going to honor the Son.
The Son is worthy of all honor. He pleased His Father in every
way. And the Father is going to honor
His Son. And He's going to honor His people
in His Son. And with Mordecai, He took those
king's clothes and the king's horse and the king's ring and
put it on Mordecai. Mordecai looked just like the
king, didn't he? You look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
He looks just like God because He is God. He looks just like
the King because He is King. And God's preachers go before
and they announce, here's the King. Here's the one that God
delights to honor. You bow the knee to Christ. I
tell you, God's preachers, they've got the nature of Haman. They've
got that fleshly nature. But God gives him a new one.
But when you hear, when you hear of Christ, you know who you're
going to hear it from? A man. A fleshly man. When you look
at me, you see the flesh. You don't see a spiritual man.
You don't see this new man that can't see. You see a sinful man
standing in front of you. That's who tells you, you come
to Christ. You bow to him. But Haman's also
a picture of that defeated enemy. God made a show of that enemy
open. That enemy had to parade through the streets saying, you
bow the knee to Mordecai. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
mighty victor who comes through the town and people shout, bow
the knee. Here's the king. At the end of
chapter 6, the tables begin to be turned on Old Haman, don't
they? In chapter 7, the tables are completely turned on. You
remember how the story went, that the king found out Haman
was planning on killing all the Jews. And that included the king's
beautiful young wife, Esther. Oh, the king was furious. He
said, who dares to do this? Esther says, it's wicked Haman.
The king stormed out. He went out in the garden to
kind of calm down before he said anything. Oh, he was so angry.
And he came back in, and you know what he saw? He saw Haman
begging Esther for his life. He's begging Esther, would you
receive for me? And he had fallen across her bed, begging for his
life. And the king saw that and he
thought, this guy's trying to kill my wife and he's trying
to violate her in my own house? And oh, he was furious. They
took Haman and they hanged him on the very gallows that he had
prepared for Mordecai. You want me to tell you where
the gospel is in that? The flesh and the law want to put the bride
of Christ to death. I understand we're guilty. But
the Lord Jesus Christ, he loved his bride. He loved her so much,
he couldn't see her die. So he took her sin. In his own
body on the tree, he became guilty of her sin. And he suffered and
he died the death that she deserved. He suffered all the punishment
Her sin deserved as her substitute, and he satisfied justice for
her, so she'd live. All the while, our Lord Jesus
walked this earth as a man. Satan had been trying to get
rid of him, hadn't he? He tried to work on Herod to kill that
baby. The Lord grew to a man. Satan tempted him, trying to
make him veer off his purpose. God sent him to accomplish. He
moved the hearts of his own children to oppose the Lord. And Satan
was finally allowed to work in the heart of Judas, wasn't he?
So he betrayed the Lord. He was allowed to work in the
heart of that high priest to put him to death. He was allowed
to work in all those Roman authorities who really didn't want to crucify
the Lord, but he was allowed to work in their hearts, so they
did what they wanted to do. And they put the Son of God to
a shameful death. That cross was erected, and the
Son of God was hung on it. And Satan thought, I got him
now. I've won the victory. Yeah, God
promised me he'd crush me. I just killed his son. And the
very means that Satan thought was the end of the Lord Jesus
crushed his head. The cursed death of Christ on
that cross was exactly God's purpose. How God had always purposed
and ordained for his son to remove the curse of sin from his people.
What Satan thought was his victory was his ultimate defeat. That's
just what happened to Amy. And you read the rest of this
story. All of God's elect are spared, just like the Jews were.
They're all spared by the power of the death of Christ. Christ
died for his people. Then they can never die. It's
an impossibility. And the death of Christ reversed
The curse of the law. Now, God's justice doesn't demand
the death of his people. God's justice demands their life
because Christ satisfied the law for them by dying for them.
Just like the king reversed the law of the Medes and Persians.
Even though that can't happen, he did it because he loved his
wife, because he respected Mordecai. The death of Christ reversed
the law, the curse of the law that was against his people.
Now God's people still have a lot of enemies. But you know what? They're not defenseless. The
Jews still had lots of enemies after Haman died. But those Jews
defended themselves. The Persians helped them. And
they killed all those enemies. Well, believer, you're not helpless
in this world. Don't think you're helpless in
this world. But now our weapons, they're
not carnal. Our weapons are not, well, we're going to convince
somebody. that this is true. No, our weapons
aren't carnal, they're spiritual. Our weapon is the Word of God.
We just read God's Word and say what it says. Just repeat what
God's Word says because there's nothing more powerful than the
Word of God. Now look at chapter 10, a very
short chapter, just three verses. Here's the end of the story.
Now, Christ our Savior is lifted up on high. He's ruling and reigning
for the good of his people. Chapter 10, this is what's pictured
here. 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 his might and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai,
whereunto the king advanced him. Are they not all written in the
book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was next
unto king Ahasuerus. and great among the Jews, and
accepted of the multitude of his brethren," and listen to
what he was doing, seeking the wealth of his people and speaking
peace to all his seed. Christ our Savior is ruling and
reigning, and he's ruling for the good of his people. He's
given to his people wealth untold. He's given them righteousness.
He's given them the forgiveness of sin. He's given them every
spiritual blessing, made joint heirs with him. And He's given
His people peace. He rules speaking peace to all
of His seed. Now here's the point. The point
of this whole book is this. God's not a failure. God is not
a failure. God's not begging people to do
anything. If you don't do it, He failed. No. My daughters told... I didn't even watch anything
about it, but my daughters told me something about the Pope saying
how Even the life of Jesus ended in failure. Oh, my soul. God's not a failure. Now, He
either accomplished His will and He accomplished the salvation
of His people or God's not God. One or the other. And aren't
we thankful? God is indeed God. He did accomplish
His purpose. He did accomplish His will to
save His people from their sins. And they can never be lost. The
sovereign royal decree has declared it. Well, all right. Christ died. He accomplished
the purpose. He accomplished the redemption
of his people. Are they going to be saved? How
on earth are they going to come to hear the gospel? We think,
well, it just seems like we're not preaching to very many. How's
anybody going to hear? Somebody's in Timbuktu somewhere.
How are they going to hear? After we read that, how can we
doubt? They're going to hear. God's going to stick to it. He's
going to bring His people under the sound of the gospel. I promise
you He is. He's going to give them faith. Then what's our job? Our job
is don't hold your peace. Don't hold your peace. Our job
is to preach the word. So every time we meet together,
we're going to preach Christ. We're going to preach the word.
And that's how God is going to save his people. That's how he's
going to feed them and strengthen them and encourage them and comfort
them. So we're going to preach Christ. He's the star of the
story. All right. Well, I hope that'll
bless you. gather together and have a time of fellowship and
celebrate Gary Faulkner's 70th birthday. Nobody ever thought
he'd live to be 70, but he did. So the man will set up the tables
after we sing and y'all watch Gary. He goes through the line
and you go through the line, okay? Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
the good news of the gospel. We thank you that as we bow before
you, bring our praise and our petitions before you, that we
know you're God alone, that thou art able to do all your will. And Father, we're thankful. We're
thankful for the unspeakable gift that King of Kings gave his own
son to redeem sinners. to call us to himself. Father,
we're thankful. We're thankful that in your mercy
and your grace, you've given us this gospel. You've given
us faith to believe it. You've given a heart to believe
it and a heart to preach it. Father, we're thankful. We pray
you bless your word today and in all the days future that you
continue to bless your word, your glory, and to the good of
your people. And we thank you for this food
that we're about to eat. We thank you for this time of
fellowship. We thank you for the occasion. We thank you for
Gary and all he means to us. Father, we're thankful. Ask your
continued blessing upon him and upon his whole family. Father,
we're thankful. Thankful for this day. Pray that
you continue to bless us throughout it. It's the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. For his sake