three great glorious facts which
constantly sustain, strengthen, comfort and inspire my soul.
When difficulties arise, troubles come, when heartaches seem to
press my spirit down, these three great gospel truths are things
to which I look, upon which I cast my hope and calls me to rejoice. First, obviously, is the substitutionary
work of Christ. Thank God for Jesus Christ the
Lord, by whom alone I stand before God righteous, whose blood alone
atones for my sin, who alone gives me access to and acceptance
with the God of glory. That ought to be enough to keep
our hearts from being downcast. That ought to be enough to keep
our souls full and rejoicing before him. Second thing is God's
absolute sovereignty. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. All things are his,
and he does his will everywhere at all times for the good of
his people and the glory of his name. There again, that ought
to be enough. Why should my soul ever stand
in doubt when my God sits on his throne? Why should I ever
be troubled when my God rules the universe absolutely? And
the third thing is the wonder of God's providence. Do you ever sit back and look
over the things that you know? I'm not talking about the things
that you don't know, just the things you know. You look back
and see the hand of God in so many ways, the hand of God moving
in so many minute details in your life. You sometimes wonder
how you got where you are, why it is that things turned out
in your life the way they have, and then you realize that God
Almighty has graciously, secretly manipulated all the affairs of
your life and all things affecting your life to bring you to faith
in his Son, and to bring you this day to rejoice in his goodness. As the books of Ezra and Nehemiah
display the salvation of our souls and the rebuilding of the
walls of the Temple at Jerusalem and of the walls surrounding
the city, the book of Esther shows us a picture of the secret
workings of God's providence. The book of Esther shows us how
that God worked behind the scenes to accomplish his purpose, to
bring his people back to Jerusalem, to deliver them at last from
their captivity. The book of Esther is intended,
this is the purpose of the book, to assure us that our God sovereignly,
absolutely, and always manipulates all things for the salvation
of his people, to assure us that no matter how things may appear,
all is well, because our God still sits on his throne. Let's
begin tonight in chapter 4, verses 10 through 16. Again, Esther spake unto Hathak
and gave him commandment to 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 into the king. these thirty days.' And they
told 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?"
Now, watch this. Mordecai was a man of faith. Most folks I've read after in
this passage fail to realize this. They speak contrary to
this. But Mordecai said to Esther,
It doesn't matter whether you go in and intercede for the people
or not. God is going to use somebody,
and he's going to deliver his people. If you refuse, then you're
going to perish in your father's house. Then Esther bade them return
to 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 nor day. I also and my maidens
will likewise fast, and so will I go unto the king, which is
not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish.' The book
of Esther is a symbolic, historic narrative, very simple. There is nothing profound at
all in the writing of the book. It is a narrative of the events
that took place, particularly in the king's palace, in the
province of Shushan, in the great, great empire of Persia, over
which Ahasuerus was ruler. The things that took place here
took place during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and Esther. Many have suggested that this
could not be an inspired book, because there is no mention of
God's name in it. Going on that premise, we would
have to say the Song of Solomon is not inspired either, because
there is no mention of God's name in it. But the fact is, neither
case is so. Both this book and the Song of
Solomon were given by divine inspiration. Though God's name
is not found there, his fingerprint is everywhere. The hand of God
is seen throughout the book. And still, according to the scholars,
I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but according to Hebrew scholars,
the name of God is recorded in this book, secreted away. It's
written in an acoustics. There are five of them in the
Hebrew text that reveal the name of Jehovah, the Lord our God. But there is a reason why his
name and his face was hidden. Hold your hands here and turn
back to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 31. When God hides his face from
us, when God doesn't make his presence known with us, to us,
and in our midst, there is a reason. Here in Deuteronomy 31 verse
16, The Lord said to Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,
and this people will rise up, and go a-whoring after the gods
of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them,
and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made
with them. Then my anger shall be kindled
against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will
hide my face from them. And they shall be devoured, and
many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will
say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us? because our
God is not among us. And I will surely hide my face
in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought,
in that they are turned unto other gods. The Lord hid his
face from his people because they had turned from him and
hid their faces from him. They had gone a-whoring after
other gods. And even when the time of their
captivity was up and commandment had been given by the King that
they should go back to Jerusalem and build again the house of
God and the walls of the city, There was still this remnant
that remained by their deliberate choice in the land of their bondage
and captivity, preferring to dwell in that land where they
found prosperity as slaves to another kingdom than to dwell
in the house of God and in the land where God revealed himself
and made himself known. And so the Lord hid his face
from them. The events in this book took
place during that sixty-year span of time. between the return
of the first remnant under Ezra and the return of the second
remnant under Zerubbabel, and then sixty years later, the return
of the second remnant under Ezra. Now, let me give you the story.
There are four primary characters in these ten chapters. Ahasuerus,
the king, his name means venerable father. Mordecai, Esther's who
had adopted her as his own child, his name means little man. But that little man God would
make to be great. Esther, her name means star. When God raised her up to sit
with the King on his throne, there was a star of hope for
Israel. And Haman, their great enemy, the enemy of God and the
enemy of the Jews, his name means magnificent. And God brought
his magnificence to nothing. Now this is how the story goes.
Ahasuerus had a great king, a vast, vast empire stretching all the
way to India. And this great king made a huge
party to celebrate his greatness, according the scripture says,
to the state of the king. It lasted for many, many days.
One day, when he had a little too much to drink, he called
his wife, Ashti. Her name means beautiful. To
come and show herself to his guest, for she was fair to look
on. But Vashti didn't come. She said,
No. Gloria Steinem wasn't the first
feminist. This gal burned her bra a long time before Gloria
Steinem was ever born. She said, No, I ain't coming.
I ain't coming. She refused the king's request.
But that wasn't a good idea, because the king's request was
considerably more than a request. He was king over all the land,
and what he said goes, what he said people do, at peril of their
own lives. So Vashti refused the king, and
he was embarrassed publicly, humiliated before all the men
who were gathered at his party, and the people around there,
those men were enraged by Vashti's behavior. If the king's wife
could get by with such arrogant defiance of his will, then all
their wives would try to do the same thing. So King Ahasuerus
divorced Vashti, and after a while he began to miss female companionship. He got tired of sleeping in an
empty bed. So they had a huge beauty pageant in chapter 2,
and Esther won the beauty pageant hands down. She was crowned Miss
Persia. She took everything. And the
king could not have been more thrilled. Ahasuerus couldn't
have been happier. This old king was about to marry
the fairest, most beautiful woman who could be found in the land.
Look at verse 17 of chapter 2. After Esther had been purified
for twelve months, we read here, the king loved Esther above all
the women. and 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 Vashti. Then the king made a great feast
unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast,
and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts according
to the state of the king. Then in chapter 3, the king promoted
a man by the name of Haman. magnificence. Promoted him to
be his prime minister over all his great empire. Everybody bowed
and scraped to Haman. Here's the king's prime minister.
He walked proud. He stood tall. And he expected
everybody to bow and scrape before his magnificence. Everybody did,
except one man, Mordecai the Jew. He would not bow and scrape
before this magnificent specimen of humanity, because this magnificent
specimen of humanity was but a depraved, corrupt idolater,
wearing the symbols of idolatry in his clothing, and Mordecai
refused to bow. Look in verse 5 of chapter 3.
When Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence,
refused to worship him, then was Haman full of wrath. There was some backbone in this
old Jew. He was made of stern stuff. He was not about to prostrate
himself before such a haughty, depraved man as Haman, even if
he was the king's favorite. And Haman hated him. He was enraged. He despised him. And he hatched
a plan not just to kill Bordecai, but to kill all the Jews. He
was determined to destroy them all. And he connivingly managed
to get Ahasuerus to agree with his plot. He said, now what we'll
do is we'll destroy all these Jews. They've been opposed to
us all the time anyway. And when we do, we'll take their
spoils and we'll put great, great sums of money into the king's
treasury. And so the king said to Ahasuerus,
here's my ring. you take and write a decree,
and stamp it with a ring, giving it the seal of the Medes and
Persians that cannot be broken, that on a given day all the children
of Israel, men, women and children, boys and girls, even infants,
shall be slaughtered, and their spoils taken in the name of the
King.' Then Haman was exalted even more greatly. He built a
huge, huge high gallows upon which he planned to hang his
enemy, Mordecai, whom he hated. Everything was set. The hated
Jews were about to be eliminated. Let me show you what that would
mean. This man, Haman, with the order of the most powerful king
in the world, was set to destroy all the seed of Abraham at one
time in one day. What would that mean? That would
mean the promise of God would fall to the ground. That would
mean that God's will would be frustrated. That would mean that
the seed of Abraham would be destroyed contrary to God's word.
That would mean that he who should come as Abraham's seed, the Lord
Jesus Christ, could not come into the world as Abraham's seed.
That would mean that none of us could be redeemed and saved
by God's free grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. That would mean
that God should cease to be God and his throne topple. What a
great scheme. Not a chance. Not a chance. Oh, it caused fear with Mordecai. And it caused fear with Esther.
And the Jews were terrified. But God Almighty was still on
his throne. He hid himself from his people,
he did not make himself known to them, he did not manifest
himself to them, but secretly he was absolutely in control. This book is about the wonder
of his providence. All that it transpired, though
it appeared to everyone to be against the God of Israel and
against the people of his choice, against his purpose of grace
and against the accomplishment of his promise, everything that
it transpired was just the secret working of God's providence to
accomplish his purpose. Everything. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain."
Never were those words more accurately displayed than in this book of
Esther. Now, there are many things that
I want you to see here, and I'm going to have to be very brief.
But let's focus our attention on divine providence, and then
I'll give you some lessons. Divine providence is the direction
of God ruling everything in the universe. Heaven, earth, and
hell, animate and inanimate, men and angels, good and bad,
the very devils of hell are under his absolute rule. It is the
hand of God determining history. In fact, it's the hand of God
in the glove of History is best understood with two words. History is just his story. That's all it is. History is
his story. Read the pages of your history
books, but read them with clear understanding that what you're
reading are not just matters of circumstance and luck and
fate and the whims of men. History is his story. It is God
accomplishing his purpose, and when he gets done and closes
the book of time, everything that is, has been, or shall hereafter
be, shall praise his holy name. Everything. Our God is at the
steering wheel of the universe. Providence means that God is
always behind the scenes, shifting directing, controlling, manipulating
everything for the salvation of his people and the glory of
his name. Providence is the way God forces
the man to do his bidding who will not
do his bidding. Forces hell to do his will who
will not do his will. As recorded in the book of Esther,
The entire Jewish nation would have been slain had it not been
for God's providence. Oh, thank God he works all things
together for good to them that love him, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Thank God he sits upon his sovereign
throne, unmoved, unaffected, unchanged by anything. He stands
in the shadows, constantly keeping watch over his own. Let me show
you something about what this book tells us about God's providence.
We won't read it now. Time won't permit that. We'll
just pick up some highlights, and I hope you'll read these
ten chapters again before you go to bed tonight. Number one,
God always puts the right person in the right place at the right
time to accomplish his purpose. always. Look in chapter 4, verse
14. Mordecai raises this question
to Esther, the very last thing in this verse. Who knoweth whether
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Mordecai puts it as a question.
Let me put it to you as a statement. You, my brothers and sisters,
have been put in God's kingdom, in this world, in this place,
at this time, according to God's will, for the accomplishment
of his purpose. This is our day. This is our
day. I enjoy reading and studying
history, and I enjoy reading about God's works in history. But there's never been a better
time in the world for Rex Bartley and Don Fortner to live than
this time. This is the day God's given us.
He didn't give us days gone by. He didn't give us days ahead.
He has given us this day. He's brought us to his kingdom
for such a time as this. Let us then be found faithful.
Not only that, but he does it all the time. God Almighty always
uses men to accomplish his will. He always uses human instruments
to perform his doing. But when God has something to
do, he raises up a man or a woman in the place where he would work
to do his bidding. When he would call Naaman, there's
a little Jewish maiden down there, who'd been taken captive in the
house of that mighty, mighty man. And there, at the time when
God would be merciful to Naaman, she said, I sure wish you knew
about the prophet of God down in Israel. He could help you.
Who is he? Where can I find him? God always
puts the right person in the right place at the right time
to accomplish his purpose, always. Number two, God graciously, wisely,
and sovereignly. restrains evil, and governs his
enemies and ours to perform good for us according to the good
pleasure of his will toward us. So that with regard to those
whom God has made to differ by his grace, not even a dog shall
bark against you. No evil shall happen to the just. It can't be done. Did you hear
that? No evil shall happen to the just. It cannot be done. God has warned
it. Though all hell oppose, and it
does. Though Satan roar, and he does. Though men shake their fists
and wag their tongues, and they do. No evil shall happen to the
just. Not possible. Some of you are
familiar with a bit of the history of the Civil War. Stonewall Jackson
came riding into camp one night, and he got the name of Stonewall
because he stood like a stone wall, leading his troops. When others trembled, he was
unshaken. When others fled, he stood firm. When others were ready to retreat,
he stood fast to his ground and led his men by example. wanted to know his courage, the
source of his strength. It wasn't a matter of bravery
in the man. It wasn't a matter of the constitution of his character.
Stonewall Jackson believed in God's absolute rule over all
things, and he said there's no such thing as a stray bullet. It can't hit me until God aims
the gun. You understand that? No evil
shall happen to the just. No evil. Now, I love this. You remember how the Lord said,
the very hairs of your head are all numbered? Why? To teach us that God sovereignly
manipulates, arranges, and controls the smallest, most minute things
in order to accomplish his great, great purpose. You see, you can't
control great things if you don't control the small things. You
can't control the big things if you don't control the things
leading up to them and the things that bring them to pass. I think
I've told you this before, but several years ago I was out here
mowing one day, I was in a hurry, as I usually was, and I was on
that lawn mower, just moving fast as I could, and where they
covered up something over in the ditch, I uncovered it. I
hit a stump that big around. And you know what that mower
did? It quit cutting grass. It was still running. The engine
was still making a lot of noise. I was still sitting on it moving
around in circles, but it wouldn't cut a blade of grass. Because
it had stripped a little old tiny shear pin about that long.
That's all. You mean that little bitty ten
cent piece of metal would keep that John Deere tractor from
doing its work? It sure would. Everything depends
upon everything else. Everything. Everything. Everything. And the whole depends on God.
Everything. Let me give you an illustration.
Look in chapter 5, verse 1. Esther at last had made up her
mind, I'm going in to intercede to the king for my people. If
he kills me, he kills me. And she's trembling as she goes.
But just as Esther goes up and was about to enter into the king's
court, uninvited, he just happened to pass by. For some strange reason, he walked. Oh, there's Esther. Honey, come on in here. I want to talk to you. What is
it you want? You ask anything you want to,
to half of my kingdom I'll give it to you." And she just asked
for a little thing, just a little thing. She could have asked for
anything. She could have said, King, I want you to break your
decree. He probably wouldn't have done it. She said, Tina,
I'd like for you to overturn the laws of the Medes and Persians,
even though that law has your stamp on it. He probably wouldn't
have done it. He said he would, but he probably wouldn't have.
He said, ask whatever you want. Half of my kingdom, I'll give
it to you. She said, I sure would like for you to come to a party
I'm going to have tomorrow. Well, I'll do that. All you want, bring
Haman with you. Now why she asked for Abraham
to come? Perhaps she knew, perhaps she didn't. I don't know. We're
not told. God knew why she asked Abraham to come. One night, the
king just couldn't sleep. So he asked his servant to bring
out some things to read to him. Now, if you want to go to sleep,
one sure way to do it is to read legal records. Just pick one
up and read it. Five minutes, you're gone. You're
gone. So he asked the servant to bring him the chronicles of
the empire of Persia. Now, don't think about those
chronicles as being a little book like this. They were rolls. A hundred and twenty-seven prophecies. A hundred and twenty-seven of
them. And you know where that servant began to read? He just
reached in and slipped out the chronicles of Shushan. And he
began to read to the king. And he read to the king about
a specific event the king had long ago forgotten about. Look
at chapter 6. On that night could not the king
sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of the records of the
chronicles. And they were read before the
king, and it was found written that Mordecai this old Jew that
Haman hated so much, had told Bithena and Teresh, two of the
king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay
hands on the king Ahasuerus. In other words, Mordecai had
saved the king's life. And the king said, What honor
and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this. and the king's
servants that ministered to him, they said to him, Well, there's
nothing been done for him. He's just an old Jew. Nothing
been done for him. And Hazorah said, I'll fix that. And as he's thinking about what
he's going to do for Mordecai, Oh, this old man saved my life,
this little man. Because of him, I'm still here
on the throne. Because of him, I still have my kingdom. Because
of him, my greatness is spread throughout the world. Men everywhere
know who I am because of that little man. What am I going to
do for him? About that time, Haman came in, the king's prime
minister. And King Ahasuerus said to him,
What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?
Well, his magnificence was just sure what he was going to do. He's fixing to exalt me even
more. He's fixing to make me somebody sure enough. And he
said, I'll paraphrase it for you. I might leave something
out, but you can get it. He said, tell you what you ought to do,
King. If you really want to honor a man, put him on the king's
horse, and put a royal robe on him, and put the king's crown
on his head. And have him paraded through
the streets, so that everybody in all the kingdom of Persia
knows, the king honors this man. And Hazor said, that's a good
idea. That's just what I'll do. Go fetch Mordecai. Or can you
imagine, go fetch Mordecai. That man that I built those gallows
fifty cubits high to hang him on, that man, Mordecai? Mordecai
is a Jew? Mordecai is a Jew that you have
always said you're going to kill, along with all those people?
That man? Go fetch Mordecai." And he went and got him. And
the king honored Mordecai. Now, watch this. When God is
about to do a great work for us and with us, when God is about to do a great
work for us and with us. He graciously, secretly moves
us to seek his face earnestly. It is written, when Zion travailed,
she brought forth her children. Here in Esther chapter 4, Esther
is between a rock and a hard place. If I don't go in and intercede
for these people, they're going to die. God's going to kill the
whole nation right now. If I do go in, they may die anyway,
and the king may kill me! But if I perish, I perish. So
she says in verse 16, She sent word to Mordecai, she said, Go,
gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan,
and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days nor
nights. I also and my maidens will fast
likewise, and so will I go unto the king, which is not according
to the law. And if I perish, I perish. You see, our God always accomplishes
his purpose. He always accomplishes his purpose. His purpose is always good. But we are so hard and stubborn,
so self-centered and self-serving, so arrogantly self-sufficient
that we quickly begin to presume we really don't need him for
anything. And he puts us between a rock
and a hard place, and causes us to tremble in fear
and shake, and graciously forces us to seek his face. that he
may do good in his good pleasure to his own. Oh, what wonders
of grace are hidden in the day-by-day affairs of
our lives! What wonders of grace! How safe we are in the hand of
our God. How safe is the cause, the kingdom,
and the church of our God in the hand of our God. You see,
like the children of Israel down in Persia, we have a guardian
in the king's palace who makes intercession for us, not contrary
to the law but according to the law. For he has fulfilled all
the law's demands in our stead, who pleads our cause before the
throne of heaven." Now, let me wrap this up, giving you just
a few pictures of God's grace. We've seen Esther going in before the King, willing
to lay down her life for the salvation of her people. Our
Lord Jesus Christ was not only willing to lay down his life
for the salvation of his people, he did. The king's golden scepter. No man can come to the king except
he stretch out his scepter and receive them and bid them come. Will you hear me? The God of
glory Our great father, our sovereign
king, before whom no man can come, except he come, because
God bids him come, except he come through the righteousness
of Christ, through the blood and righteousness of Christ,
stretches out his scepter to Bob Duff and bids you come. Come, pour out your heart to
him. What is it you want? What is
it you need? What is it your soul is going
for? Come! said it to me. Let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. What a blessed picture
this is. Let sinners come. God in Christ
stretches out his golden scepter. Children of God, come. God in
Christ stretches out his scepter to you. Whatever your soul's
need is, come to the throne of grace. God Almighty stretches
out his golden scepter. Look in chapter 8, verse 8. Verse
8. Write ye also for the Jews, as
it liked of you in the king's name, and sing it with the king's
For the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed
with the king's ring, made no man reverse. God Almighty has made a decree,
a decree for the saving of his people. He has sealed the decree. It is written in that book described
in Revelation chapter 4, sealed with seven seals. No man could
open except Christ himself. And that book, sealing the decree,
declares that God's purpose of grace shall stand and it cannot
be altered by anything or anyone. And then there's another picture,
chapter 9 verse 1. Here are these poor Jews that
Haman decided he was going to kill. Haman was hanged on the
gallows he built for Mordecai. And now in the twelfth month,
that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when
the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in
execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to
have power over them, though it was turned to the contrary,
that the Jews had ruled over them that hated them. And so
it is now, and it shall be forever. You and I, children of God, by
the rule of God's throne, have ruled over our enemies. And soon,
the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your heels, and we
shall rule and reign with our Redeemer over all his creation
forever. One more thing. In chapter 10,
verse 3, we see Mordecai, a great picture of our Redeemer. This
man who had been exalted to be the prime minister of all the
Mordecai the Jew was next unto the king Ahasuerus, and great
among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren.
Let's read that this way. The Lord Jesus Christ is next
on the throne, sitting side by side with his father, for he's
one with him, great among his people. and accepted of all his
brethren. Now what's he doing? Sitting
yonder. What's he doing on his lofty
throne? Seeking the wealth of his people. Speaking peace to his seed. That's what he's doing. Ah, may
he speak peace to your soul, make you to know he seeks the
wealth of your soul, and that which he seeks he shall have. Amen. All right, let's turn to
number 13 in your Songs of Grace book.