and I'm going to take the time
to read Esther chapter 4 and Esther chapter 5. Esther chapter four, verse one,
when Mordecai perceived all that was done. Okay, perhaps you'll
remember something of the earlier parts of these chapters. We read
them at length last week. We spent a little bit of time
on them. The point is this, that here
a man called Haman was intent in destroying the Jews. He had
come to a high power in the court of Ahasuerus, the king of the
Medes and the Persians. He had employed the law of the
Medes and the Persians, the irrevocable law, which could not be changed.
He had passed a decree that all Jews were to be slain in the
whole empire of the Medes and the Persians. And it was for
personal pique. It was because he had been offended
by Mordecai the Jew. And this decree went out to the
cities and the towns of the city. It had the stamp of the King
Ahasuerus upon it. And it seemed as if there was
nothing that would stop the enactment of this terrible crime against
a whole nation. So Mordecai is the man that we
are speaking about here, the Jew. And he saw, he perceived
all that had been done. And Mordecai rent his clothes
and put on sackcloth with ashes and went out into the midst of
the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry. And came even
before the king's gate, for none might enter into the king's gate
clothed with sackcloth. In every province whithersoever
the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great
mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing,
and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So Esther's maids, Esther
was the queen, Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and
told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly
grieved, and she sent Raymond to clothe Mordecai. and to take
away his sackcloth from him, but he received it not. Then
called Esther for Hatash, one of the king's chamberlains, whom
he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment
to Mordecai to know what it was and why it was. So Hatash went
forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city which was before
the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all
that had happened unto him and of the sum of the money that
Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the
Jews to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of
the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy
them, to show it unto Esther and to declare it unto her and
to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication
unto him and to make request before him for her people. And Hatash came and told Esther
the words of Mordecai. All the king's servants and the
people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come
unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there
is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom
the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. but I have not been called to
come in unto the king these 30 days. Did I miss out a couple of verses
there? Yeah, I'm sorry. So I missed out verse 10. Let
me read it again. Again Esther spake unto Hattash
and gave him commandment unto Mordecai. All the king's servants
and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever,
whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner
court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him
to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden
scepter, that he may live. But I have not been called to
come in unto the king these thirty days.' And they told to Mordecai
Esther's words, Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think
not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more
than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest
thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance
arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's
house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou
art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade
them return Mordecai this answer. Go, gather together all the Jews
that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither
eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens
will fast likewise. And so will I go in unto the
king, which is not according to the law, and if I perish,
I perish. So Mordecai went his way and
did according to all that Esther had commanded him. Now it came
to pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel
and 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 it
was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court,
that she obtained favour in his sight. And the king held out
to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther
drew near and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the
king unto her, What wilt thou, Queen Esther? And what is thy
request? It shall be even given thee to
the half of the kingdom. Then Esther answered, If it seem
good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto
the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said,
Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to
the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said unto Esther
at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? And it shall
be granted thee, and what is thy request, even to the half
of the kingdom, it shall be performed. Then answered Esther, and said,
My petition and my request is, if I have found favour in the
sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition,
and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the
banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow
as the king hath said. Then went Haman forth that day,
joyful and with glad heart, But when Haman saw Mordecai in the
king's gate, that he stood not up nor moved for him, he was
full of indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman refrained
himself, and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends
and Zeresh his wife. And Haman told them of the glory
of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the
things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced
him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman said, Moreover,
yea, 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. Yet all this availeth me nothing,
so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.'
Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let
a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and tomorrow speak thou
unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon. Then go thou
in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased
Haman, and he caused the gallows to be made. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. We do no harm to Scripture to seek Christ wherever he may
be found. To search for him, even where
he is not at once obvious to us, If a thing is precious, it is
worth seeking for. If it is worth having, then it
is worth finding. I spent time this week, I spent
time this week with a lady who pans for gold. I just think that's
great. She pans for gold. She searches diligently in spoil
heaps and along river bed bottoms for little flakes. She showed
me some tiny little flakes that she keeps in the bottom of the
smallest jar that you can imagine. Precious metal. How much more ought we to search
diligently for Jesus? Let us do it. Let us not assume
that we can come here on a Sunday morning and just receive and
that that's sufficient, that's enough. Be here, certainly. But we need to search for Him.
We need to seek Him. Seek ye the Lord while He may
be found. Call ye upon Him while He is
near. Let us be a people with a passion
for finding Christ, for knowing Him, for walking with Him, and
talking with Him, and getting to know Him better. Let that
be your passion and mine. The people of the world have
their passions. They become fanatical about pursuing
their interests. The men of the world, let us be a people who are passionate
for seeking Jesus. Let us not be satisfied until
we hear his voice and until we see his face. A little verse in Isaiah chapter
13, verse 12, which kind of weaves these thoughts together. Listen
to what Isaiah the prophet says. I will make a man more precious
than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Ophir was a place of richness
and opulence where many precious materials were called by Solomon
at the time when he was building the temple. It had a great reputation. But the wedge, the golden wedge
of Ophir, there would be a man who would be more precious than
all the gold that you could conceive of. And surely that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Surely that's our saviour, a
man more precious than fine gold. So let us seek him and let us
find him. We may be certain that our saviour
is that man more precious. And he may be uncovered in Esther's
story, though he is not mentioned there by name. He may be traced
In the deliverance of the Jews, though we do not see him actively
involved, he may be discerned in the safeguarding of his people
and in God's way of salvation that is promised. We spent a
little bit of time last week reflecting on the fact that Apollyon,
the destroyer, Satan, has always desired to bring an end to the
Jews because he understood that it was through the Jews, from
the Jews, through the line of David, through the seed of David,
that the promised Messiah was coming. If he could kill the
father, then he could stop the son being born. And that's what
Satan endeavoured to do repeatedly throughout the Old Testament.
And we remarked upon the Philistines and the Egyptians and the Syrians,
the Assyrians, the various nations that came against Israel. With
this endeavour, with this attempt, to destroy them as a nation,
to break them up, to slay them. And here, Haman's efforts are
coming to fruition. Satan tried to destroy the Jews
in order to stop the messianic promise of Christ's birth. And Haman, well, Haman's was
another failed attempt Another failed effort in that diabolical
series of murderous attempts that had been made on Christ's
life. So what I want to do this morning
is just look at a few of the key aspects of these two chapters
that we have read and see if we can find Christ in them. and
see if we might be encouraged in some of the lessons that are
in the story. First thing I want to draw your
attention to is Mordecai's faith. Mordecai's faith. Little is said
in the book of Esther, which is explicitly religious. Nothing is said, which is explicitly
religious. You know, God isn't even mentioned
in this book. The Lord isn't mentioned at all
in this book. And there's nothing here to say
that there's God at work in this passage at all. But just because God isn't mentioned
doesn't mean he's not present. Just because people don't think
about God doesn't mean to say he doesn't see them and know
exactly what it is that's happening. Just because this world ignores
God doesn't mean to say God isn't in control of this world and
the eventualities of men's lives. Lord Jesus Christ is indeed present. I wanted to read you hymn that
I thought would be appropriate at this time. It's a hymn from
William Cooper. Some of you will be familiar
with it. It's called Light shining out
of darkness. It was written as a poem originally,
although it has been put to music subsequently. Light shining out
of darkness, and it speaks of the fact that God is present
even when darkness is all around. Even when we can't see him, that
light shines out of the darkness. Here's the verses. You will,
I think, be familiar with it, some of you. God moves in a mysterious
way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of
never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works
his sovereign will Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds ye so much dread are
big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence
he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err,
and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and
he will make it plain. I think those words could have
been written perhaps especially for Esther's time and circumstances. How is it possible that God's
people could face annihilation, extinction, and that under a
decree written by the Medes and the Persians that was unchangeable? There was no stopping this. We're reminded of the Lord's
words to his disciples in John chapter 13, verse seven. What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. I want you to remember that verse.
That's your takeaway verse for today. Because in so many instances
and episodes of your life, you will find yourself saying, What
on earth is happening to me? What on earth is going on? How
is God glorified out of this? How does this in any way accomplish
his purpose or do anyone any good? You will see it and correct
me if you've never been there already. What I do thou knowest not now. but thou shalt know hereafter. Lay that to heart, friends, this
morning. Mordecai was a man of faith,
and I think his faith was extraordinary, given that there is so little
mentioned of religion or of spiritual matters in this book. His faith is extraordinary. The
example that I am about to show you is quite staggering in its
magnitude. but then maybe all faith is.
Maybe we shouldn't underestimate the wonder and the marvel of
the fact that we have faith in our own hearts. How did it get
there except a miracle was performed? Here's three quick things with
respect to this first point of Mordecai. He believed that God
would be faithful to his promises. And we see that in the phrase
that he uses when he speaks in verse 14 to Esther. He says,
there shall be enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews. You see that? Here is a man that
knew the promises of God with respect to the coming Messiah.
and he took the promises. I want you to see this because
I think this is so important. Here's a man that had been out
in the street the previous day crying and weeping in bitterness,
tearing his clothes at the thought and implications of what was
about to happen. He knew the implications of that
law, that that was unchangeable. He knew what was coming down
the line to meet the Jews. He knew that everywhere in that
great empire, that huge empire, the swords would be drawn, the
spears would be unhoused, and they would be, the Jews would
be attacked. But despite that, he makes this
statement, enlargement and deliverance shall arise. That's faith. That's faith. That's hope against
hope. That's faith against the possibility
being a tall rule, remotely obvious as to how it's going to happen. And what he's saying there is
that the Messiah will come. God's promised it. I don't know
how the Jews are going to be delivered here, but I'll tell
you this, this is God's work, and he will accomplish his promises. That's faith, that's believing. The word that is used there,
actually, the idea of enlargement and deliverance, it means respiration. It means breath will come back. And I don't know whether he was
making any comment about the fact that these Jews would rise
again or that the breath would come back into the Jewish nation,
the Jewish people, in some way at some time. But he was making
a reference there that living breath would return. As Christ
had once breathed life into Adam's clay body and made him a living
soul, so new life would come to the people of God. And I think
that's a wonderful testimony. We remark, do we not, upon some
of the comments that Moses makes and Abraham makes and Job. Job says, I know that my Redeemer
liveth and that he looked forward to that time when he would see
his Redeemer walking upon the earth. Well, Mordecai ought to
be up there amongst them all because he believed the same
thing. John 11, 25 says, Jesus said
unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Mordecai believed
that, and we should believe it too, because believing in him,
we live. Second thing that Mordecai knew
was he knew grief. We've made reference to this.
Chapter four, verse one. When Mordecai perceived all that
was done, he rent his clothes, put on sackcloth with ashes,
and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud
and bitter cry. and that he was echoed by the
Jews of the empire. But here's my point, simply this,
faith and sadness are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they're intimately connected. If we shall enter the kingdom
of God, we've noted this before, but we will repeat it no doubt
many times, it must be, it will be, through much tribulation. Acts 14, 22. The church of God
will know hardship. You as a believer will know hardship. Mordecai had faith, but Mordecai
still wept bitterly in the streets of the city and clothed himself
with sackcloth and ashes as a picture of that state in which he was
in. Third, Mordecai held firm to
his principles. I don't know what it was that
inspired him to oppose Haman. We remarked that it might have
been something to do with the fact that Haman was of the nation
of the Amalekites. And if you want to know more
about that, then you need to think about the previous sermon
that we had. He was an Agagite, that was his
name. And maybe there was something
in there between Haman and Mordecai that caused Mordecai to refuse
to honour this man. But faith, and principle in faith
cannot, will not be compromised. If the gospel is true, if salvation is of the Lord, if grace is free, if faith is
a gift, we will not, we cannot, bow the
knee to the false god of man-made religion and we'll have to be
brave and we'll have to take a stand when everyone else is
kneeling around about us. Let me think about Esther for
a moment. Esther's bravery and her sense of destiny also comes
through in this passage. We read about it in verse 14
of chapter four. She was a young woman and she
was in a strange life. She had been chosen to be, maybe
we would call it a trophy wife today. She was young, she was
beautiful, she was made beautiful with her perfumes and her apparel,
her clothes, her makeup, everything was done to please the king. To please the king. It wasn't
a relationship. It appears to have been much
more physical than that. And yet she had a sense of destiny
in the midst of that. She was a queen, but she must
have felt like a pawn in some great game of chess. where governments and politicians
and prime ministers and kings moved the great affairs of state. She was just an ornament on a
mantelpiece to be used at the pleasure of the king whenever
he desired to call her into his presence. She hadn't been there
for 30 days. But little pawns have a part
to play. And in the divine purpose of
our God. Each little piece performs its
function perfectly. The New Testament uses the analogy
of the body and how one part of the body is not more important
than the other. Don't ever think that your role
and your part in the body of the church is unimportant and
insignificant. We all need one another and we
all must play our part. God puts us in a place for a
reason and for a purpose. And maybe it takes a long time
for us to see what that purpose is and why something is important. It might be that our presence
in a place stops something from happening. or it might be that
it causes something to happen. And these things are bigger than
us, but God has placed us there because he knows that our presence
there will be effectual in making something happen or preventing
something from happening. We may not know the strategy,
but we are called to play our part, to do what is right, And
Esther rose to the challenge. Do we not know what to do? At work? In the home? Do we not know what decision
to make? Do we not know how to make a
stand? Maybe it's with children. Maybe it's having as a parent
to decide what's right and what's wrong for our children. Maybe
it's at work because we see something happening and we know that's
just not right. Maybe it's in some relationship
that we have. Maybe it's our own personal circumstances
and we see an opportunity to do something that cuts a corner
but nobody's going to know and we'll be better off for it. What
do we do? How do we deal with decisions? How do we deal with the things
that come to us? Can we find a verse in the Bible
that will give us the answer? Oh no, no. You just do what's
right. and the Lord uses his people
to accomplish his purpose and accomplish his plans. Esther resolved to lay her life
on the line. She said, if I perish, I perish,
but for the sake of my people, for the sake of what's right,
I will go and I will do that which is needful. Mordecai said
to her, who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such
a time as this? I think that is one of the most
inspirational sentences in the whole of scripture because each
one of us can own that sentence. Each one of us can say, maybe,
maybe, The Lord has placed me in this place for just this very
moment. Second thing about Esther is
that she valued fellowship. And I doubt that we realise just
how important fellowship is. Spiritual battles need spiritual
weapons and spiritual resources. And I want you to choose to be
the person who is present at every possible meeting where
spiritual ammunition is to be obtained. Choose to be where
the gospel is preached. Choose to be there when the gospel
is declared. Realise its value. Arrange your
week around your worship. Don't arrange your worship around
your week. Let's think about Ahasuerus and
his complicity in this whole thing. He's the king. And here
we might find something about the predicament of free will. All the pieces play their part And Ahasuerus, though he seemed
to be so high and mighty, the king, he had a part to play in
this great design of God's also. Esther, I think, the book of
Esther is a lovely case study of God's sovereign will and purpose
unfolding in the history of the world and of life. Here we see the promised purpose
of God playing out on a world stage. We could take the book
of Esther and we could superimpose it probably on so much of what
goes on in the world today, whether it's to do with nationhood, whether
it's to do with wars and battles, whether it's to do with politics,
whether it's to do with economics or whatever it is. We could see
the book of Esther, you can change the name, Ahasuerus, give him
another name, and we could see the very same things working
out. people doing what they want to
do, people doing what they think is good for them, people acting
in a way which says, this is my accomplishments, this is my
pattern, this is my way of bringing good to me and to my family.
God didn't appear in this book at all. And yet, we see him. constantly behind the scenes. No direct intervention, no miracles
performed, and yet his purpose, the purpose of his people's deliverance,
the purpose of the messianic purpose of accomplishment and
salvation being set out. Ahasuerus, the king, did exactly
what he wanted to do. He saw Esther over there, and
my, she looked pretty. Yeah, he hadn't called her for
30 days, but for his own motives, without any compulsion, without
God doing anything to him. Mitch quoted last night at the
rescue mission, the verse from Daniel chapter four, God doeth
according to his will in the army of heaven. and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand. And yet we read in chapter five,
verse five, the king said, cause Haman to make haste, that he
may do as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to
the banquet that Esther had prepared. Why did he do that? Because he
wanted a drink. Because he wanted the wine. Because he wanted a
party. Because he wanted to be at the
banquet. Because he wanted to see Esther. And he probably thought
this is going to be a good day. He did it entirely out of his
own free will. He did it entirely because that's
what he wanted. And God's sovereign purpose was
being accomplished at every step of the way. Sinful men do what's in their
hearts to do. They're motivated by lust or
love. They're self-serving or they're
self-sacrificing. But God's will is accomplished.
And if that's too hard for you to understand, well then that's
why He's God and not you. Let me think about Hayman's pride
for a moment. His pride and his pleasure. Here
is a man who was full of himself. He viewed success in terms of
personal gain, in terms of status, and his preeminence in court. And we have to concede that if
such qualities mean much, then he had every right to glory, but not before God. Look at verse 9 of chapter 5.
Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart. Oh, he was so happy. He was so
pleased. He had been given the highest
accolade that was imaginable. He'd been called personally by
the king to go into the king's presence, and not only to go
into the king's presence at the behest of the king, but then
to be taken personally into the company of the Queen. He went
out joyful and with glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in
the king's gate that he stood not up nor moved for him, he
was full of indignation against Mordecai. See, that's the interesting
thing about the pleasures of this world, about the pleasures
of sin, about the joy of this world. It is so transient. It is so fickle. It's there for
a moment and it's gone. It's an illusion. It isn't real. It just feels real for a little
while and then it's gone. And that's what happened here.
He's got joy and he's got gladness, And within a moment, at a glance,
it turns to indignation and malice, and there's a malignancy that
enters into his mind and into his thoughts. Look at verse 13 and 14. Here
the man gives voice to exactly what it is that's
going on in his own heart and in his own mind. He says, yet
all this, all of these things that I've been given, everything
that I've attained, top man, top man in the country, save
for the king himself, and the whole of the empire, the Medes
and the Persians, he is on the rise. But he says, All this availeth
me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew, one old Jew, one man
in the whole empire, who doesn't get up when I walk past, who
doesn't bow down, who isn't obsequious when I walk past. And it just
gets right into my soul. So his wife had a solution to
the problem. String him up. Get rid of him. Make a gallows
50 cubits high. Let's make an example of the
man. Let's make it so that everyone can see. For all this man Haman possessed,
that bitterness reigned in his heart. He was a man without peace.
Where is peace in that? You have your fun, you have your
pleasure, you have your joy, and it's gone in a moment. That's
it, there's no peace in that. You need more, you need more.
You need to have constantly these hits. or else you just feel that
malignancy starting to well up in your stomach and in your heart
and in your mind. The world's baubles are paste
and paint. They're superficial, they're
passing, they're illusory. And people are driven on by this
notion that if they just get this or if they just get that,
then they'll be happy and they'll be content and they'll be at
peace and they'll fulfill their ambitions and they'll know pleasure. You know, the Lord appears to
have a particular distaste for pride. And I think perhaps it's
because pride is the easiest and most widespread sin in a
person's life. Because foolish men and women
think themselves better than they really are. They think themselves
better than they really are. We were reading in 1 Peter a
few weeks ago, but 1 Peter 5, verse 5 says, God resisteth the
proud, and he giveth grace to the humble. And that's a fine
evangelical principle right there, because he resists works which
make men proud, and he instills humility, which gives people
a desire to seek after him. Proverbs 16 verse 18 says, pride
goeth before destruction. and a haughty spirit before a
fall. We've kind of summarised that
now. I guess you all know the little couplet, pride goeth before
a fall. Well, that's biblical too, and
it's a little bit of a summarised form of it. But how apt it is
for the end of the story of Esther. How apt it is for the end of
Haman's life. Pride goeth before a fall. I don't want to give too much
away, but Mordecai doesn't go on to the gallows of 50 cubits
high that Haman has just built in his garden. Somebody else
does, but you'll have to come back next week to find out who
it is. I want to end this morning with
a fine picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage. because he, as we said at the
beginning, is the one that we're looking for. We're looking for
Christ in this book. And Esther's approach to Ahasuerus
reminds us that we all, all of us, will one day stand before
King Jesus. We will all one day stand before
the throne of Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ upon his judgment
throne. We will all stand before him. Jesus will judge the quick and
the dead, the living, those who are spiritually alive, and those
who are spiritually dead. Esther feared, she feared for
her life going into the presence of Ahasuerus, because she knew
that at a whim, at a whim, for some bad feeling, for somebody
that had just annoyed him, or his porridge had been cold, or
something had gone wrong, the sun wasn't shining. A whim. What's she doing here? She's the last person I want
to see. And his guards are standing around the throne, and they're
watching the scepter in his hand, and he's sitting there. Does he dip the scepter and invite
her to come, or does he hold her up? The guards are watching
because they know that if that scepter stays up, she's gone.
They take her out and they chop off her head and that's it over.
And she knew, she knew that that was the situation that she was
in. If she had gone and the king
felt less than happy to be calling her into his presence, then her
star had waned. We said last week that star was
the meaning of her name. But it had faded, it had fallen.
Indeed, it had been extinguished. And what fear will grip men and
women on that day when they stand before the throne of judgment
and see the Lord Jesus Christ? Will they have any hope that
they might be accepted into his presence? Will that scepter be
dipped towards them as they are ushered by the angels into his
presence? Or will it stay upright and their
judgment eternally be sealed thereby? Will they be able to touch the
top of the scepter? Will we be worthy to stand in
the presence of the judge and the king? That verdict will not be a whimsical,
arbitrary decision. It won't be based on whether
the Lord Jesus Christ is having a good day or a bad day. God's law will be applied vigorously
rigorously, relentlessly. An examination will be made for
sin and transgression and the guilty will be carried out and
cast into outer darkness. But who is this? Who is this
man? Who is this woman? that walks
boldly into the courtroom of King Jesus. Who is this man or
woman that has no fear in the presence of Almighty God? Who are these blood-bought children
of God who stand upright in His presence? who are cleansed by
blood, who are clothed in righteousness, upon whom the King smiles, and
to whom he extends his golden sceptre and exclaims, well done,
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Who are these blessed people?
Who are the redeemed of the Lord? This is the bride of Christ.
These are they upon whom no sin is found, no transgression is
discovered, who have trusted in the complete work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who have tasted his free grace, who have renounced
every human effort of their own as mere filthy rags that they
might have Christ for all their righteousness. So may the Lord
grant us grace so to confess our sin this morning, so to receive
his mercy and to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ as our only
righteousness. for time in this world and for
eternity to come. If you would be accepted in that
courtroom of glory, at that judgment seat of Christ, look to Jesus. Look now to him in faith. He is able to deliver you. Amen.