Would you turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. Now we're going to get back to
Acts chapter 16 in a moment. I'd like to read from 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. Tonight I'm going to be speaking
on Jacob and Esau out of the book of Obadiah. Jacob and Esau. Beginning in verse 12 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. Furthermore, when I came to Troas
to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of
the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus
my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into
Macedonia. That is where Philippi was. Now turn to Acts chapter 16.
Now Paul had gone to Troas with this
intention, to preach Christ's gospel. Wouldn't that be a blessing
if that's what takes place this morning? If the gospel of Christ
is preached. And while he was in Troas, he
was given a vision about a man in Macedonia saying, come over
here and help us. He'd gone to these different
places to preach and the Lord closed the door. And as a matter
of fact, forbid him to preach in these places. And then all
of a sudden, he has this vision of this man from Macedonia who
says, come over here and help us. And so he went to Macedonia
to preach Christ gospel. And that's where the church at
Philippi. was established. Now turn to Acts chapter 16.
Here we have the story. Acts chapter 16. I've entitled
this message, When God Opens a Door. He does open doors. When God
opens a door. Well, if He opens a door, I want
to step through it, don't you? when God opens a door. Now when they had gone throughout
Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the word in Asia, that's a sobering thought, isn't
it? The Lord forbid them to preach the word in a certain place.
Those people didn't know it. Life went on as usual. And they
didn't know they were under the judgment of God. And they were
not allowed to hear the word preached. Verse 7. After they were come to Amysia,
they were saved to go into Bithynia. But the Spirit suffered them
not. He didn't allow them. They wanted
to go there and preach the gospel. And God, the Holy Spirit said,
no, you're not going there. You know, when I read scriptures
like that, it just scares me. The Lord saying, no, you're not
going to hear. We're so dependent upon him. Now, verse nine. Verse
8, And they, passing by Mysia, came down to Troas. Remember
when he said, I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and
a door was opened to me of the Lord? Now he's going to tell
us what that door opened was. Verse 9, And a vision appeared
to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed him, saying, Come over unto Macedonia and help
us. There's the door opened. And
after he had seen the vision, immediately he was endeavored
to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called
us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, loosing from
Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracea, and the
next day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is
the chief city of the part of Macedonia and a colony. And there
we were in that city abiding certain days. And look at these
humble beginnings. And on the Sabbath, we went out
of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. And
we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. Now, the Lord sent Paul to Macedonia
to Philippi for this purpose. He had some people there he was
going to save. When God opens a door, it's with
the purpose of salvation. He opened this door. Paul had
this vision because there's some people in Philippi that he's
going to make himself known to. We read of all these people he
passed by, that the gospel was forbidden to be preached to these
people. But here to these people in Philippi, he's going to have
mercy. Now, I desperately want to hear
the word of God, don't you? I don't want to be passed by.
And I know that if he passes me by, he's just Don't think,
how can the Lord do this to these people? Don't think anything
like that. God is just. Whatever He does
is right. I really believe that. Whatever He does is right. But
oh, how I want to hear His Word. I want Him to speak to me from
His Word. Now Paul goes to Philippi. And
the humble beginnings of this church are just a few women gathered
by the river where prayer was want to be made. And they sat
down and began to speak to them. Now, I have three points to this
message. A cause. A conflict. And a confession. When the Lord
opens the door. All these things take place.
There's a cause. He's the cause of the door being
opened, isn't he? There's a cause. There's a conflict. And there's
a confession. All of these things are seen
in Acts chapter 16. Now, my first point is a cause. Who initiated this trip to Macedonia? God did. Paul tried to go to
all these other places, and the Lord wouldn't let him. But he
initiated this trip to Macedonia. And he gives this vision to Paul
in the night. Come over into Macedonia and
help us. Now, anything that man initiates is doomed for failure. You believe that? Anything that
man initiates is not going to be any good. But anything that
God initiates, it's going to be successful. And we're going
to see some true success in Philippians chapter 16 where God does something. Now we read in verse 14, And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple. She was a
businesswoman. She was of the city of Thyatira,
which by the way, Thyatira was in Asia. Remember, Paul was forbidden
to preach in Asia, but one of God's elect is there. So he's
going to pull her out and bring her to where she can hear the
gospel preached. She didn't know that. She was
there to get rich. She was there to sell purple.
She was there to have a good life. But the Lord meets her
with the gospel. A certain woman of Thyatira,
which worshiped God, she had some desire for the things of
God. She heard us, whose heart the Lord opened. God opened this door for this
purpose. to open this woman's heart, whose heart the Lord opened,
that she attended unto the things which were spoken of by Paul. She heard. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. She heard, and it says that the
Lord opened her heart. It means you have a heart. We
have a heart. And you know, I'm not talking
about the muscle that pumps the blood. In the scripture, the
heart refers to the whole man, the intellect, the understanding.
You've got an intellect. It refers to the will. You have
a will. It refers to the emotions and
the affections. You have emotions and you have
affections. We all have a heart, but the
heart of the natural man is closed to the gospel. We have an understanding. We have a will, we have affections,
but that heart is closed to the gospel. Now, what do I mean by
that? Well, the intellect. the mind, there's no way you
and I can understand the gospel. It's beyond us. We may understand the theory
of relativity. We may understand the E equals
MC squared. I don't even know what that stands
for, but if anybody does, more power to you. You may understand
all that kind of stuff, yet You are unable to understand the
gospel unless God is pleased to make it known. We're totally
dependent upon revelation. Listen to this scripture. But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither indeed can he know
them. Because they're spiritually discerned. You and I are unable to know
the things of God unless God is pleased to make it known.
Our minds are unable to comprehend the gospel. The affections are
perverted. Turn with me to John chapter
3. John chapter 3. Verse 19. And this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. The light of the gospel
comes into the world, and men love darkness rather than light,
because their deeds are evil for everyone that Doeth evil,
hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds
be reproved or exposed. The natural man hates what he
ought to love, the gospel, and he loves what he ought to hate. The affections are perverted
and the will is chained to an evil nature. The Lord said, you
will not come to me. that you might have life. It's
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Now, we have a will. And we do
what we want to do. Everybody in here, you do exactly
what you want to do. But that will is controlled by
an evil nature. So here is Lydia with this closed
heart. She's got a closed mind. She's
got evil affections. And she's got a perverted will.
And the Lord opened Her heart. It takes a miracle of God's grace
to open the heart, and He does. He opened this woman's heart.
And we see once again, remember this first verse is called the
cause. Who opened her heart? She didn't open her heart to
the Lord. Somebody says, open your heart to the Lord. No, He's
got to open your heart. Now if He opens your heart, your
heart's going to be opened. But He must initiate this. He must begin this. The cause
is God himself. And isn't that true with regard
to every aspect of salvation? God's the cause. Talk about election. You know, he's the cause of that.
You weren't even born when he elected the people. If you're
justified, it's because he declared you to be just. It's not something
you accepted. It's something he declared you
to be. If you're redeemed, it's because he redeemed you. If you've
been born from above, it's because He birthed you into His kingdom
and He gave you life. If you believe, He gave you the
faith. If you repent, He gave you the
repentance. If you love Him, He gave you
the love that you have to Him. If you persevere, it's because
He caused you to. In every aspect of salvation,
God is the cause. He opened this woman's heart. And what is the evidence that
he had opened her heart? Look once again at verse 14.
Whose heart the Lord opened. And so here's what she did. She
attended. She listened carefully at 1614. She attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul. She listened to the gospel. She
became a hearer of the word. She listened, and she listened,
oh, so carefully. Would to God that that takes
place right now, as we hear the word of God. She attended to
the things which were spoken of Paul. And verse 15 says, And
when she was baptized, she believed And she was baptized. She confessed
Christ in believers' baptism. Now, when somebody has their
heart opened by the Lord, number one, they're going to believe.
And number two, they're going to confess Christ in believers'
baptism. Now, baptism doesn't save anybody, but it's our confession
of Christ. That's what your first thing
is. She believed and she was baptized. Now, if the Lord opens
your heart, let me tell you two things about you. You're going
to believe. And if the Lord opens your heart, you're going to confess
Christ and believe His baptism. If the Lord opens your heart,
that's what's going to take place. Now, what was the cause of the
Lord Himself? He initiated the call to Macedonia,
and He opened the heart. Now, there we have the cause.
The cause of salvation, the cause of everything, is the Lord Himself.
Now, let's go on reading. Now, next point is a conflict.
A conflict. Verse 16. And it came to pass as we went
to prayer, still in Philippi, still where Lydia lived, a certain
damsel possessed with the spirit of divination. She was a soothsayer. She could tell the future. You
know, there's people that do that right now. You know, they'll
go have their palms read and all that kind of stuff. Is there
anything to that? I don't know. Maybe there is.
Not truth. It's demonic. No doubt about
it. But this woman was a soothsayer. She met us, which brought her
masters much gain by soothsaying. Now, the same followed Paul,
this woman who was demon possessed. And we know she was demon possessed
from verse 18, where Paul told the demons to depart from her.
So we know she was demon possessed. But what did she do? The same
followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants
of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation."
Now, you find me one thing wrong with what she said. It's pretty
good, isn't it? What she said was the truth.
These were the servants of the Most High God. It was true. And
they did show the way of salvation. That's what she said. And she
kept doing it for many days. Now, I don't see anything wrong
with what the woman said. Yet she's demon possessed. Look
what verse 18 says. And this she did many days with
Paul being grieved. turned and said to the Spirit,
I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that same hour.
And this woman couldn't do this soothsaying anymore. And her
masters lost a bunch of money on this. Now, the conflict. This woman was demon possessed.
She told things that were true. But she didn't tell the truth. She told these men are going
to show us the way of salvation, but she never said the way of
salvation. And this is so important. A false prophet, and no doubt
this woman was that, is identified not by what they say, but by
what they fail to say. It could be that everything they
say is true. How many times have you heard
a preacher and said, well, I agree with everything he said? Well, it's
all Bible. What did he say? What did he say? Did he say the gospel?
This woman never said the gospel. Now, Paul could have kept his
mouth shut and never said anything, and there wouldn't have been
any conflict. But when he says something and it costs some people
something, that's when the conflict begins. He said this woman was
demon possessed. You're going to call her demon
possessed? That's what he called her. And he called upon that
demon to come out of her. And that's when the trouble began.
That's when the conflict began. He spake regarding this woman
as to who she really was and what she really represented.
And then all kinds of trouble happened. Now, he could have
just kept his mouth shut because what she was saying was true,
but she wasn't speaking the truth. She wasn't speaking the gospel.
Now, let's go on reading. That's the conflict. And this she did many days. But
Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command
thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And he came
out the same hour, and when her master saw the hope of their
gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into
the marketplace under the rulers, and brought them to the magistrate,
saying, These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city
and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither
to observe, being Romans." Now, they wouldn't have been upset
with Paul if he would have left this woman alone, would they? Paul
could have gone on preaching and teaching and going to the
women at the river and everything would have been okay. But when
they do this, what happens? Verse 22, and the multitude arose
up together against them. And the magistrates rent off
their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had
laid many stripes upon them, now remember in 2 Corinthians
where Paul said, five times received I 40 stripes, save one. That's
what this is talking about. This is where you, they took
that whip with all the stuff in it that would rip flesh off
and beat him over the back, him and Silas with 39 stripes. And when they laid many stripes
upon them, can you imagine how painful that would be? They cast
them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who
having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison
and made their feet fast in the stalks. Now, there we have the
conflict. Now, put yourself in Paul's place
right now. He's preached the gospel. He's been faithful. He's
told the truth. And what happens? beat up, he's
thrown into a prison, and there he sits. The conflict. Now the confession. Verse 25, And at midnight Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God. How powerful. How beautiful. You know, the Lord will give
you grace when you need it. He'll give you grace when you
need it. And they needed it this time. And in this horrible, horrible
condition, There they sit, praying and singing praises to God. There is never a time when he's
not to be praised. Amen? That's so. And suddenly, verse 26, there
was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison
were shaken. And immediately all the doors
were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of
the prison awaking out of his sleep. Now, in the past, I thought,
you know, he probably heard Paul singing and singing praises and
probably was impressed with that, didn't understand it. But no,
he was asleep. He was just asleep while Paul was singing his praises.
But all of a sudden, there's an earthquake. You know, this
is glorious. The Lord sends Paul into this
prison to make himself known to this man. All this took place
just to make himself known to this man. And the keeper of the
prison, verse 27, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison
doors open, he threw out his sword and would have killed himself,
supposing that the prisoners had been fled. This man was getting
ready to commit suicide because he thought, it's all over for
me. There's no way I'm going to get out of this. He just assumed
that Paul and Silas and the prisoners fled. Verse 28, But Paul cried
with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all
here. What a man. He was concerned
about this man's well-being. Verse 29, Then he, that present
keeper, called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling,
and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out,
and said, What must I do to be saved? Now, this is the most important
question that you or I can consider. What must I do to be saved? What is necessary? What must
I do to be saved? And I know the way some brilliant
preachers would answer, and they'd say, well, nothing you can do.
Nothing you can do. You're coming on legal grounds. Nothing you can do. You shouldn't
be asking questions like that. Paul didn't say that, though,
did he? Paul and Silas gave an answer. This fellow said, what
must I do Let me know what is it that I myself must do to be
saved? And he answered him, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Beloved, if you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. Saved in the fullest sense of
the word, as the writer to the Hebrew says, saved to the uttermost. If you believe on Christ. Saved. Saved by the grace of God. Saved
by the work of Christ. You're saved if you believe on
Christ. You are saved in the fullest
sense of the word. That means your salvation is
complete. That means you can't get any more saved than you are
saved. You can't get any more justified, sanctified, or glorified.
It means you're of that number. Paul said, For whom he did foreknow,
then he also did predestinate. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
then he also called. And whom he called, then he also
justified. Whom he justified, then he also glorified. It's
all spoken of in the past tense. Past tense. That's how saved
my salvation has already been done. It's historical. It's not something in the future.
It's something past tense. That's the kind of salvation
I want. A salvation where nothing can
go wrong because it's already accomplished. It's already past
tense. It's history. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And we know that's not all he
said, because if all he said was believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved, the gospel wouldn't have been
preached. Now, prove that. Well, look in
verse 32. And he spake unto him the word
of the Lord. He preached the gospel to him.
If all I say is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved, nobody will be saved. That's all I say. I must preach
the word of the Lord. I must preach the gospel. the
gospel message. He preached the gospel message
to this man. He said, You believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Now, I realize
a lot of people will take this and say, this is a promise. If you're saved, your household
will be saved, too. Well, his household was. But
that doesn't mean everybody will be saved in your house. In his
house it was. And I pray the Lord saves everybody
in your house. But this is not a promise of
household salvation. But to this fellow, everybody
in his house was saved. Isn't that a blessing? Ask the
Lord to save everybody in your house. Ask the Lord to save every
one of your children. Don't let Him have any peace.
Keep praying, Lord, save me. Save my household. Save me. Now, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe and be saved. If I believe, I will be saved.
Now, no doubt. I'm talking about myself now.
No doubt. If God didn't save me, if He passed me by and let
me drop into hell, I'm talking about me, I'm not talking about
you, I'm talking about me. If He passed me by and let me drop
into hell, it would honor His justice. It really would. It would glorify His justice. Let me tell you this, if He saves
me, If He saves this sinner, how that would glorify the freeness
of His grace. I know that in my case, your
case too, but I'm just talking about myself right now. In my
case, if He saves me, how that will magnify the freeness of
His grace, the greatness of His grace to save somebody like me.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe on the Lord. He's the
Lord. That means He's in control. He's the Lord of creation. He's
made this world into existence. He's the Lord of providence.
He's in control of everything. Oh, most especially, He's the
Lord of salvation. Salvations are the Lord. Believe
on the Lord. Not some weak Jesus who can't
do anything unless you first give Him permission. He won't
do you any good. The Lord Jesus. The Savior, thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. Believe on the Christ, God's
anointed Messiah, God's prophet. Believe He's the Word of God,
God's priest. Believe that if He represents
you to the Father, everything's fine. He's God's King. He's the
King you need to rule over you and lay Him, subdue your sins.
I need Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now, what is this thing of believing
on Christ? And it's two phrases we read
in the scripture. Regarding believing. We read
of believing in Christ. And we read of believing on Christ. You ever notice that? Believing
in Christ. And believing on Christ. And
both of these things are essential in true saving faith. There is
not saving faith apart from believing in Christ and believing on Christ. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now, believing has something
to do with trust. Trust. If you believe in Christ
or if you believe on Christ, that has something to do with
trusting him. Now. Believing in believing on. Picture in your mind a house. On fire. And there's a little
boy up on the second floor and he goes to the steps. Smoke coming
up. He's looking all over the place.
He can't get out. He's stuck in that house on fire. It's burning. He goes up to a
window and there's a strong man at the feet, on his feet, on
the ground. And he says to that little boy
in that house burning, jump, I can get you. Now, that boy
can look at that man, and he's a big, strong man, and he can
say, I believe he can catch me. I believe he can. And that's
what it is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe
in his ability. 2 Timothy 1 says, I know whom
I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed to him against that day. Do you believe He is
able to save you? Do you believe He is able to
put away all your sins? Do you believe He is able to
make you stand faultless before His throne? Do you believe He's
able? Now, that's believing in Jesus
Christ. But we're not finished. That
boy looks down there. And he believes that man is able
to catch him. However, he's not saved until
he believes on that man in this sense. He's got to jump out the
window and commit himself to the air and fall, trusting that
man will catch him. Now, while he's going through
the air, He knows it's not his faith that saves him. He knows
it's up to that man to save him. But he's committed. He's committed. He's committed all to that man.
If that man doesn't catch me, he knows I'll be dashed to pieces. Now, he believes on that man
when he's falling on that man, when he's jumping on that man,
trusting that man to hold him up. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now, you believe his ability.
Now, commit. Jump out the window. You know
that if he doesn't catch you, you'll be dashed to pieces. But
commit. That's exactly what Paul meant
when he said in 2 Timothy 1, 12, I know whom I have believed.
I'm persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed to
him against that day. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And listen to me. This is God's
command to you. There's your right to do it.
God commands you. You don't need to worry about
whether or not you're one of the elect. You don't need to worry about
whether or not Christ died for you. God commands you to trust
his son, to jump out and commit yourself to him. That's God's
command. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. Would you turn with me to the
book of Esther? Esther. Right before the book
of Job. Now, Esther is a beautiful type
of Christ, but in this passage of scripture, she's also a type
of the believer. Let me give you the story. Esther
is the queen. She's married to Ahasuerus, the
king of Assyria. How'd she get there? She's a
Jew. How'd she get there? Well, King Ahasuerus was having
some kind of party, and he called his wife. They were all drunk,
actually. And so he calls out his wife. He wants to show off her beauty,
and she was the first female. She said, no. No, she wasn't
going to go out and participate in that kind of foolishness.
I'm not going to do that. So all of the king's buddies
said, look, you've got to do something about this. Our wives
are going to despise us, just like she despised you, and this
kingdom is going to be a mess. You need to do something about
this. So I don't know why somebody made a really good movie out
of this. But at any rate, she He says, all right, she's not
going to come into me anymore. I admire Vashti. That was his
original wife. I admire her. I like the way
she handled things. But at any rate, he's going to find him
a new wife. So he has a beauty pageant. They call for all the
beautiful ladies of the kingdom to come in. And Esther was a
Jew. She was there from the captivity.
She was Jewish. She was raised by a fellow by
the name of Mordecai. Her parents had died during captivity,
and her uncle Mordecai raised her, and somehow she's brought
into the king, and when the king sees her, he knows that's the
one. He falls in love with her, and he wants her to be the queen,
so she becomes the queen of all of Assyria. Now, the king didn't
know she was a Jew. Now, in the meantime, Mordecai,
remember him? He was a Jew. And there was a
fellow, the second in command, by the name of Haman, He wanted
everybody to bow straight before him. He wanted them all to bow
down every time they saw him. And Mordecai refused to do it.
And it just made him so mad he won't bow to me. So he goes to
the king and he says, well, these Jews, they're messing up the
kingdom. They're not to your proper. All
we need to do is exterminate all of them. The king says, OK,
we'll do it. He doesn't know that his wife
is a Jew. And so he makes a decree. All the Jews are going to be
killed. Mordecai finds out about it, and Mordecai goes to Esther,
and he says, we are in trouble. All the Jews are going to be
put to death, and that's including you, if you don't do something
about this, and you need to go into your husband. Now, here's
her reply in verse 11, in Esther chapter 4. She says to Mordecai, after he
tells her, you need to do something for us. She says, all the king's
servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that
whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come into the king, into
the inner court, who is not called, there's one law of his, to put
him to death. Now, that's power, isn't it?
You weren't even allowed to approach the king unless he called you
first and told you to come in. She's scared to come in. She
said he hadn't called me. You expect me to just go waltzing
into his presence? I'll be put to death. There's
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've not been called to come into the king these 30 days.
And they told to Mordecai, Esther's words. She was saying, I can't
come because I haven't been called. Then Mordecai commanded to answer
Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape the king's
house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether hold thy
peace at this time, then shall there be enlargement or 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 to Mordecai with this answer. Go gather together
all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast for me, neither
eat nor drink three days nor three days, night or day. I also
and my maidens will fast likewise. And so will I go into the king,
which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. And notice how she came to the
king. She knew that he could put her
to death, and she didn't know whether or not he would do it.
She didn't know he was going to put out the golden scepter
to her. But she knew, I've got no choice.
I'll perish if I don't. That's for sure. I'll perish
if I don't. Now, if I come into his presence,
I don't know what he's going to do with me. But I'm going
to go, and if I perish, I perish. Now, that's the way to come to
Christ. You come. If you don't, you're going to
perish. You come just like Esther did. If I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way and
did according to that Esther had commanded. Now it came to
pass, chapter five, on the third day that Esther put on her royal
apparel. I tell you what, I come into
the Lord's presence. There's only one apparel I want to be wearing.
That's the royal apparel. of the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing
in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight. And the king held out to Esther
the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near
and touched the top of the scepter. Then said the king unto her,
What wilt thou, Queen Esther? And what is thy request? It shall
be given thee even to the half of the kingdom. Now you come
to Christ. Not knowing whether you'll be
received, but saying, if I perish, I perish, I'm going. I'm going. I'm coming to the king. And you
don't know what he's going to do, but let me tell you this.
If you come to Christ, you will have the golden scepter extended
toward you, and you will have all the favor of God. That's a promise. He said, Him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now, believe on Christ right
now. That's God's commandment. And you will have the golden
scepter extended to you. Here's the confession. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And right now, I'm jumping out
of the window, trusting Him to catch me. Let's pray.