Turn with me please to the book
of Esther. The book of Esther. I've been studying this book
for a little while, particularly these first couple of chapters,
and I think there's some things to be seen here, some types and
as Tim James liked to call them, anti-types, of our Lord and His
goodness to His people, things that I think will cause us, if
the Lord will enable us, to see them to rejoice in His goodness
toward us. Just to give you an overview
while you're finding this book, these first couple chapters,
it talks about the king, Ahasuerus, the kingdom that he ruled over,
And it tells us about a feast that he gave. It was a seven-day
feast. And on the seventh day, he called
for his queen to come in, because he was proud of her. She was,
as we like to say, smoking hot. And everybody, he wanted everybody
to see how beautiful she was, so he could swell up with pride. But she refused to come. So some
of his advisors, he asked them, what should we do? So they advised
him. to, throughout his kingdom, which
was vast, which we'll read of in a minute, to gather up young
virgins, and whichever one pleased him, she would become king, or
queen, I should say, in the queen's place. And we'll begin our reading,
we'll just read the first 12 verses of Chapter 1, but we'll
also be looking into some things in Chapter 2. And now it came to pass in the
days of Ahasuerus, this is Ahasuerus, which reigned from India, even
under Ethiopia, over 107 and 20 provinces, that in those days
when the king Ahasuerus sat down on the throne of his kingdom,
which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign,
he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants. the
power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces
being before him. When he showed the riches of
his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty
in many days, even in 104 score days, pretty much six months. And when these days were expired,
the king made a feast unto all the people that were present
in Shushan the palace, both under the great and small seven days
in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were
white, green, blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen
and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. The beds were
of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and
black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels
of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another, and royal wine
in abundance, according to the state of the king. And the drinking
was according to the law, none did compel. For so the king had
appointed to all the officers of his house that they should
do according to every man's pleasure. And Vashti, the queen, made a
feast for the women in the royal house, which belonged to King
Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the
heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Maokum, Bastra,
Harbanea, Bithra, Abagtha, Zetha, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains
that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring
Vashti, the queen before the king with the royal crown, with
the Crown Royal to show the people and the princes her beauty, for
she was fair to look upon. But the Queen Vashie refused
to come at the King's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore,
was the King very wroth and his anger burned in him." Now, in
this first verse, we read of the vastness of the kingdom over
which this King reigned. It covered much of the then known
world. But that cannot be compared to
the kingdom of our God. He not only rules this world
and everything in it, He rules the entire universe. He hung
the stars and spoke them into being. And unlike the kingdom of Hosea,
which has long since been relegated to the ash heap of history, the
kingdom of our God is an everlasting kingdom. We're told this in the
Psalms. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. and thy dominion endureth throughout
all generations. And this kingdom of God is ours,
because we're told in Daniel, but the saints of the Most High
shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever
and ever. Now verse 4 in our text, it says,
He showed the riches of His glorious kingdom in the honor of His excellent
majesty many days. Here is another type of Christ
in our story. It speaks of the king's riches
and how they were seen for many days. Paul and his writings speak
much of the riches of our God. Our text speaks of how king Osirius
showed his riches many days. So our God has been displaying
His riches toward His people for many, many days. Allow me
to just list a couple of these riches of our God. First, He's
been showing the riches of His grace, that text that we so love
in Ephesians 2. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we are
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, for
by grace are you saved, and has raised us up together and made
us set together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, and this is
why, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. When we read of the exceeding
riches of His grace, we read that His grace is extraordinary,
that it's more than sufficient. Another way that our God has
been showing His riches is by displaying to His people the
riches of His mercy. In 2 Corinthians, it tells us
God is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. 1
Peter tells us that our God has abundant mercy, plenteous, sufficient,
more than necessary. The Psalms are full of references
to God's mercy. There's an entire psalm where
each verse ends with the words, for His mercy endureth forever. David wrote of this. He said,
I will trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will sing of the mercy of the
Lord forever. The earth, O Lord, is full of
Thy mercy. And it tells us that God's mercy
is great above the heavens, and that God delights in showing
mercy. that's spoken of in a text that we looked at a few weeks
ago in Micah 7, how our God is merciful to His people, that
He delights in mercy. And as King Erasurus showed His
riches many days, so our God has been showing His riches of
His goodness toward undeserving sinners throughout the ages of
time. In the book of Romans chapter 2, we read, And thinkest thou
this, O man, that judgeth them that doest such things? and do
the same that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despiseth
thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? When a God begins bringing a
sinner to repentance, He begins by showing them the many ways
that He has been good to them throughout their life. how He
had been gracious to them. There's never an account in Scripture
to be found where the judgments of God bring a man or woman to
righteousness, to repentance. They only harden the hearts of
sinful men. That's why we're told that the
goodness of God leadeth us to repentance. It doesn't drive
us like you drive a herd of cattle. It leadeth us like a good shepherd
would lead his sheep. In Exodus, Chapter 34 tells us
that the Lord has abundant goodness and truth. And in Zechariah we
read, And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as
a flock of His people. For they shall be as the stones
of a crown lifted up as an inch upon the land. For how great
is His goodness and how great is His beauty. And the Psalms
tell us that the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
The Scriptures also tell us about the riches of God's wisdom, about
the riches of His forbearance, about the riches of His long-suffering,
about the riches of His glory, and lastly, about the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Paul tells us in Ephesians, that
the riches of Christ are unsearchable, that they cannot be found out
by study. They need to be and must be revealed
to sinners through the Spirit of God. And they're hidden. These are hidden. Some are hidden
for generations, as we're told in the Scriptures. And if something's
hidden, the only way to see it is if it's revealed. And our
God has been gracious to us in revealing this very thing to
us. Colossians says that their heart
might be comforted being knit together in love and in all riches
of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid
all the treasures are all the riches of wisdom and knowledge. This tells us that everything
we ever need to know about the holy triune God, we find out
through the person of Christ. You cannot know the true God
without knowing the person of Christ. And in our text in verse
four, it says, that King Ahasuerus showed his excellent majesty
many days." Now, how can we even begin to speak of the excellent
majesty of our God? How the words of a finite man,
how can they possibly describe the glories and the magnificence
of an infinite God? David tried. He said, I will
speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wonderful
works. He said, All thy works shall
praise thee, O Lord, and the saints shall bless thee. They
shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power,
to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious
majesty of his kingdom. We will never be able to remotely
even comprehend the glorious majesty of our God until we see
Him in glory. Only then will we realize how
majestic He truly is. And in verse 7 of our text, it
speaks of royal wine in abundance. Now you can bet that this wine
was the best to be had anywhere in this vast kingdom. And the
love of our God is spoken of many times and compared in the
Scriptures to wine. Several times in the book of
the Song of Solomon, We read of these two lovers that are
types of Christ in his church. It says, let him kiss me with
the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Draw me, we will run after thee.
The king hath brought me into his chambers. We will be glad
and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more
than wine. The upright love thee. And in
chapter seven, now also thy breast shall be as clusters of the vine,
and the smell of thy nose like apples, and the roof of thy mouth
like the best wine of my beloved that goeth down sweetly. And
notice in our text in Esther, chapter one here, that it tells
us that there was wine in abundance. And so it is with the blessings
of our God. Every day He immerses us in blessings,
even those things that we look upon and think of as heavy trials. If it weren't for our limited
eyesight and understanding of the things of God, we would understand
that those heavy trials are indeed blessings, and even as I say
that, My own heart rebukes me. I get irked sometimes at the
stupidest things. You might get caught by two or
three traffic lights in a row. Just silly things. It doesn't
seem like it's the big things that irritate you. It's the little
silly things. But we need to realize that every
day our God puts us on a path that He has chosen before eternity
and will one day lead us to Him. But the blessings of God are
given to his people in abundance. We read, but the meek shall inherit
the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. And
Paul told Timothy and said, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has
enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor
and injurious, but I obtained mercy. because I did it ignorantly
in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. And Peter tells us, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to
His abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And Romans 5 talks
about abundant grace, and the gift of righteousness that we
find in Christ. The sovereign God who we worship
is not a miser. He doesn't dole out His blessings
like some kind of tight-fisted Scrooge. He gives them to us
in abundance, and yet He's none the poorer, unlike even the richest
man in the world who becomes poorer with each dollar he gives
away. Our God is so majestic, has such an abundance of blessings,
that even though He doles them out to His people in abundance,
He's never any the poorer. Numerous scriptures speak of
this, of the unlimited, exceeding riches of our God. Now in verse
8, it says, the drinking was according to the law. Now we
need to understand that all things that our God does are according
to His law. that law that must be honored
before a sinner can be brought to faith in Christ. And even
though He is an all-powerful God, there are some things that
He simply cannot do. And some people would say, now
that's just not right to say that God can't do something,
but the Scriptures tell us otherwise. In Titus, He tells us that God
cannot lie, that God cannot sin, James tells us that God cannot
be tempted. And Paul wrote to Timothy and
told him that God cannot deny Himself. Habakkuk tells us that
thou art of pure eyes to behold evil, and canst not look upon
iniquity. And the Lord Himself tells us,
I am the Lord, I change not. He cannot change. Therefore,
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now in verse 12, of our text
here in Esther 1, we read how the Queen Vashti refused to come
at the king's commandment. Now here we find a perfect picture
of the nation, the physical nation of Israel. Again and again, even
after the Lord had delivered them numerous times from their
enemies, after He had bestowed innumerable blessings on them,
they continued to disobey his commandments, as Queen Vashti
did to King Ahasuerus. Now this queen is a type of Israel
who disobeyed the commandments of the king, so a new queen,
a new bride, was found for the king. This is an outstanding
picture of the elect, the chosen ones of God. Speaking of Israel's
rebellion, Deuteronomy says, notwithstanding you would not
go up but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your
God. So I spake unto you, and ye would not hear, but rebelled
against the commandment of your Lord. Likewise, when the Lord
sent you from Kadesh Benara, saying, Go up and possess the
land which I have given you, then ye rebelled against the
commandment of the Lord your God, and believed him not, nor
hearkened to his voice. So when we read of Queen Vasya
refusing the summons of the king, again, this is another example
of a man being caught by surprise and having to go to plan B. Our
God is never blindsided. He's never caught in a situation
where He has to say, I didn't see that coming. Now I'm going
to have to think of something to do. And when I read this text
of the queen refusing to come at the Lord's summons, My mind
immediately went to that text in Matthew 23-27 where it says
that our Lord looked out over Jerusalem and said, O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them
that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and you would not. There are many instances in the
Scripture that tell us again and again how the nation of Israel
refused the commandments of the God that had chosen them. Let me read just one. Let's turn
over to 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 17. This is an example of the rebellion
of Israel. 2 Kings 17. We'll begin reading in verse
6. In the ninth year of Hosea, the
king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria,
and placed him in Haba by the river of Gozen, in the cities
of the Medes. For so it was that the children
of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had
brought them out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand
of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, and walked
in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before
the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they
had made. And the children of Israel did
secretly those things that were not right, against the Lord their
God. And they built them high places
in all their cities, from the tower of the watchman to the
fenced city. And they set them up images and
groves in every high hill and under every green tree. And there
they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen
whom the Lord carried away before them, and wrought wicked things
to provoke the Lord to anger. For they served idols, whereof
the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. Yet
the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all the
prophets and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil
ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes according to
all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent
to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding, they would not
hear, but hardened their necks like the neck of their fathers
that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected
His statutes and His covenants that He had made with His fathers,
and His testimonies which He testified against them. And they
followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that
were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them,
that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments
of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two
calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven,
and served Baal. And they caused their sons and
their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination
and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the
Lord. to provoke him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry
with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. There was none
left but the tribe of Judah. And Judah kept not the commandments
of the Lord their God, but walked in the statues of Israel which
they made. And the Lord rejected all the
seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into
the hand of spoilers. until He had cast them out of
His sight. In last week's bulletin, Don
had written something that ties in perfectly with this. I don't
know if you read this, but it says, Israel rejected God, therefore
God rejected Israel. Israel despised the light that
God had given her, therefore God withdrew the light. Israel
despised and rejected God's Son, therefore God cast her off forever. God's judgments upon the nation
of Israel stand as a beacon to warn us that God will not trifle
with those who trifle with His Son and the gospel of His grace. An awesome weight lies on the
shoulders of all those who hear the gospel of Christ faithfully
preached unto them. It will not be heard without
consequence. That is so true. It will either
be to you a saver of life unto life, or death unto death. Now, when Israel was cast off,
our God didn't have to come up with a plan B, as King Heraclius. No, He had chosen a bride of
Christ before the foundation of the world. Now, it took a
year to find a new queen for the king here in Esther. Our
God had no such problem. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Now in Romans 10, it speaks of
Israel's rebellion. It says, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. Now, in verse 19 of our text,
it said, the law cannot be altered. And as it was with the law of
the Medes and Persians, so it is with the law of our God. It
cannot be altered. God cannot and will not violate
his nature and change his law. And the only reason to change
something is to make it better, to improve it. But because our
God's law was perfect to begin with, there is no need to change
it. It cannot be improved upon. But
it's because of the weakness of our flesh, not any fault that
we find in the law, that the law cannot save us. Paul told
us this in Romans 8. He said, for what the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and forced sin, condemned sin,
in the flesh. The law of the Medes and Persians
was not to be broken. We read of this in Daniel 6,
when the conniving presidents and princes were trying to convict
Daniel of something. They despised him and were looking
for some way to convict him in the king's eyes. And they tricked
Darius, the king, into signing a law that said no man could
ask any favor or any petition of any man or any god except
Darius for 30 days, knowing that Daniel prayed to his god every
day. But after Darius saw Daniel sleep in the lion's den, this
law that could not be changed, he decided it could be changed.
It could be broken because of something he saw that was much
more spectacular than any law of the Medes and Persians. But
because of that miracle that occurred, he changed the law. Now remember, that according
to our text here in Esther and also in Daniel, this law cannot
be changed. But our God doesn't ever need
to change His law. There's no unforeseen circumstances
that take God by surprise. He never makes a statement, I
didn't see that coming, because He rules all things, and He rules
all things well. Therefore, there's nothing that
ever takes Him by surprise. When our founders wrote our Constitution,
they allowed for an amendment process, because being men, They
knew that things would change. Not so with our God. There is
no need to ever change His law, because it's perfect to begin
with. Now back in our text in Esther. In the last part of verse
19, it speaks of Queen Vashti. And it says, And let the king
give her royal estate to one who is better than she. Now was
there anything in Esther in herself that made her better than the
queen. No, there wasn't. The only things that made her
better than the queen were given unto her by the king, and so
it is with us. She brought nothing when she
came to the king's palace. Even her own beauty was not of
her own making. It was simply a matter that she
was born beautiful. Many times We're born looking
like our mother, perhaps like our father, perhaps a combination
of the two. But we have no say whatsoever
in our looks, our beauty, or in some cases, our not-so-much
beauty. But the beauty of God's elect
is this, that we are the spitting image of Christ. that in God's
sight we are one and the same, perfect in beauty, truth, and
holiness. The elect now inherit the estate
that once belonged to Israel, because they are the true Israel. Now we go to chapter 2, and it
says in verse 3, And the king appointed officers in all the
kingdom that they may gather together, the fair young virgins,
unto Shushan the palace, the king appointed officers, here
being a type of preachers, to bring in the fair young virgins.
And this brought to mind the parable of our Lord in Luke 4,
or 14, concerning the man who made a great supper, and he bade
many to come in. And in verse 23, he tells his
servants, go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to
come in, that my house may be full. Romans 9 also speaks of
the rebellion of Israel. As Paul writes, And he saith
also in Osi, I will call them my people, which were not my
people, and her beloved, which was not my beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was sent unto her, ye are not my people,
that they shall be called the children of the living God. This
is what happened in our story of Esther. At one point, Esther
was unknown to the king, but she became his beloved. As we read in verse 17 of chapter
2, and it says, And the king loved Esther above all the women. Esther was loved by the king
above all the women, and we're told that she obtained grace
and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set
the royal crown upon her head and made her queen. instead of
vasty. And this is what our Lord does
for us. This is what is spoken of in the first four verses of
Psalm 103, where it says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all
that is within me, bless His royal name. Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine
iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. who hath redeemed thy
life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and
tender mercies." There has never been a crown ever worn by any
king or queen that can match this crown, this crown of our
God of loving kindness and tender mercies. It's the most royal
crown imaginable. And in verse 9 of chapter 2,
it says, And the maiden pleased him, speaking of Esther, and
obtained kindness of Him. Again, what a perfect picture
of how our Lord deals with His elect. We obtain kindness from
Him, that kindness that was ordained for us before the foundation
of the world and accomplished when Christ died on our behalf.
The psalm says, O praise the Lord, all ye nations! Praise
Him, all ye people! For His merciful kindness is
great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever.
In Isaiah we read, in a little wrath I hid my face from thee
for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on
thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. And two verses later we read,
for the mountain shall depart and the hill shall be removed,
but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy
upon me." And in Ephesians chapter 2, we read of the exceeding riches
of God's kindness toward us in Christ. Also in verse 9 of chapter
2 of Esther, we read that the king speedily gave her all things
for her purification. Now, in order to be received
into the presence of the king, These maidens had to be purified.
You have to remember that people in that day didn't shower daily,
they didn't use deodorant. But the king had royal baths
for himself, for his wives, for his concubines, where they were
cleansed. The king's nose could not be offended by the smell
of his wives in their unpurified state. And so it is with Christ
and his elect We are washed in the blood of Christ, in that
royal bath of the blood of Christ, and it purifies us, so much so
that we now become acceptable in the sight of a holy God. We're cleansed of the stench
of our so-called righteousness, and He gives us what we need
to stand just and righteous in His presence. When the Lord visited
the house of Mary and Martha, turn with me to Luke 10. I want to read a few verses over
there. When the Lord went to the house
of Mary and Martha, we read in Luke 10, starting
in verse 38. Now it came to pass, As they went, they entered into
a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him
into her house. And she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha
was cumbered about with much serving, and came to him and
said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to
serve alone? Bid her therefore that she helps
me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou
art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is
needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not
be taken away from her." This word, cumbered, means to be hindered
or overloaded, to be burdened with a heavy load. And since
the fall of our father Adam, men and women have busied themselves
with Martha, or as Martha, with trivial religious matters. As
Martha was cumbered about with much serving, so are these religious
folks that do not know the Lord. They are cumbered about with
what they call serving the Lord. But they miss that one thing
that is needful, as did Martha. The Lord calls it, that good
part which shall not be taken away. In James we read these
words, If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of food,
and one of you saying to them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed
and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things which
are needful to the body, what doth it profit? A similar question
could be asked of Christless religion. If a man or woman be
naked, naked of righteousness, and you don't tell them how that
righteousness is obtained, how can it possibly profit them? They're still naked. There's
still hunger after righteousness. There are many in the works religious
crowd who are convinced though that they can make themselves
clean, that they can make themselves pure before a holy God. Proverbs tells us there's a generation
that is pure in their own eyes. and yet is not washed from their
filthiness. But thanks be to God, He speedily
gives us all things that are necessary for our purification. You never read anywhere in the
Scriptures of God getting in a hurry to do anything, except
one thing. And that story is typified in
the story of the prodigal son, how that his father ran and greeted
him. smothered him with kisses. That's
a typical picture of how our Lord sees sinners. He only gets
in a hurry to do one thing. If we can put it in human terms,
He delights to get in that hurry because it's involving saving
sinners, bringing His elect to Christ. Now Job 4 asks this question,
Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more
pure than his Maker? And the answer obviously to both
those questions is no. A mortal man cannot be more pure
than his God. But, thanks to the work of Christ,
we can be as pure as He. Just as perfect as Christ Himself,
because all things needed for our purification are given us.
in Christ as they were given unto Esther in this text. And this text also describes
a lengthy process of purification. It took six months, we're told,
of oil and myrrh and six months of sweet odors of other things
for the purifying of the women. Many things were needed for the
purifying of these maidens. Not so with our own salvation,
our own purifying. The only thing we need, and it's
done before the foundation of the world, is the blood of Christ. He is the one who gives us all
things necessary for our purification. So as we read here in Esther,
we see one, that our God is a God who rules. all things well, that
nothing takes Him by surprise. And we see that He gives us all
things necessary for our purification, standing perfect in His sight. And what's ironic is this is
a God who will by no means clear the guilty, yet He gives us those
things that we need to stand before Him in purification as
did Esther. And as Esther was chosen to be
the King's bride because He loved her above all the other women,
so Christ chooses us and will for eternity make us His beloved
forever to bask in the warmth of His goodness and love toward
us. Jimmy, come lead us in a song.