Turn with me and your Bibles
to the book of Hebrews again. Hebrews chapter 1. And this is the second part, as we
said, the first hour of the message, the throne and the scepter. The
first hour we looked at the throne, how that, the Lord's throne is
forever. everlasting and never had a beginning.
It never had an end. There'll be no there'll be no
end to his rule. He is successfully seated as
the lord and savior of his people. He alone by right has the throne
of grace. He alone by right. He's the only
one that could have obtained eternal redemption. And he did.
And he is seated on that throne. This is the throne of judgment.
And at the end of the last message. And I would remind us that there's
only one throne. It's the same throne, the throne
of judgment and the throne of grace. And the only way that
we obtain grace and obtain mercy, the only way we can approach
this, this glorious throne of God is through and by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus. It's the scepter that the Lord
has mentioned. It's what appeased the wrath
of God. It's what satisfied God's demands
on the cross of Calvary. It's what saved the Lord's people,
his precious blood. This is what the scepter represents. Let's read our text here before
I talk too much. Hebrews 1 verse 7. And of the
angels, he said, who maketh his angel spirits and his ministers
a flame of fire, but into the sun, he sayeth, thy throne, O
God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Now a scepter, The scepter of
righteousness is what he said. The scepter of righteousness
is thy scepter of thy kingdom. The scepter is the insignia of
a king. It's an item, I suppose would
be a way to describe it. It's smaller than a staff, but
it sits in the hand of the king. It represents his position, his
authority. It shows sovereign rule. Nobody
else has a scepter. Nobody else is seated on the
throne. This pertains to kings. This doesn't pertain to you and
I. We don't have a scepter, do we? We don't have a crown of
ourselves. We don't have a throne that we
sit on that we're all powerful. Now, some men like to think so,
but that's not true. God is the only one that's sovereign.
He's the only one that's seated on the throne of eternity with
the eternal scepter. Scepter is to declare or show
forth His royalty, a king's royalty, their sovereign rule, their right
to rule. This is my kingdom. This is my
throne. This is my scepter. This is the
only means by which people are accepted into the presence of
the king. Whenever you were to enter in
into the king's throne room without being summonsed, without being
called, without being fetched, You had but one hope, and that
would be that the king would raise forth that scepter unto
you. At that time, it became a scepter
of peace. But if that scepter remained
at his side, or upon his lap, or on the chair, and he did not
raise that, the penalty was death. The penalty was death. You have
to be beckoned. You have to be summoned. You
have to be called. This is the king. This is his court. The
only hope is that the scepter would be raised. There's a beautiful
allegory of this in the book of Esther. Turn with me to the
book of Esther. It's right before the book of
Job. Esther. is a Jew that was taken
into captivity along with her uncle Mordecai and many other
Jews at that time. But because of the transgression
of the king's wife Vashti, he had put her away to not be queen
anymore and called for the fair virgins of the land and ended
up making Esther queen. Esther became queen. Esther hid
her bloodline. She hid her standing and her
origin from the king and all of the king's men according to
the word of Mordecai. He said, don't tell them you're
a Jew. They hated the Jews. And during this time, Esther
had found grace. She had found favor in the king's
side. So he had made her his queen. Now her uncle Mordecai
had sat at the gate in concern for his niece, who was his sole
purpose. He was the sole protector and
provider for her. Esther, it says, had no father
and mother, meaning they had passed. We see Mordecai sits
at the gate to daily inquire how is Esther doing, keeping
an eye on her from a distance as best he could. He was a Jew.
He couldn't go into the gate. He had to stay outside the gate.
Well, he overhears two men who are speaking against the king.
They're speaking, against Ahasuerus, the king, and they want to kill
him. They want to lay hands on him. And Mordecai brings word
of that to Esther through a messenger, and it's found out by the king
that that was to be true. And so they took those men and
they killed them. Now, nothing happened at this time for Mordecai
that was good. This plays into effect later
on. During this time, in the next chapter, Haman, we don't
know anything about Haman, he just pops up in the next chapter,
says that he was promoted above all the princes of the land.
So he'd been the prince of the princes. He was in charge. He
was the head guy. It doesn't say he was second
unto Ahasuerus, doesn't say he was second unto the king, but
it does say he was the prince over the princes. Haman, was then given by the king's
word. Everyone was to bow down at the
time that he was promoted and to give reverence to Haman. Oh,
there's Haman. Let me bow down. Let me reverence him. And Mordecai
wouldn't do it. Mordecai said, I don't bow to any man. I bow
to God. He was a believer of God. He said, I don't bow. And
that infuriated Haman, made Haman very mad. to have all of the
Jews killed, not just Mordecai, but all of the Jews. I'm gonna
wipe them all off. You ain't gonna bow to me, I'll
show you. What a picture of this. We know of Nebuchadnezzar being
one like this, don't we? Nebuchadnezzar built a statue
60 foot tall and said, everybody, when you hear the music, you
bow down, you worship. What do you think was on that
statue? Had to be, it would have been Nebuchadnezzar's face. He'd
have been, look at me, look at my glory, look how big I am,
look how amazing a king I am. Bow down and worship me. And
you know what happened. The music started, but the Hebrew
men would not bow. And what happened? He said, well,
I'm going to throw you in the fiery furnace. And he did. But the Lord spared
them from the furnace, didn't he? Went into the fire with him.
This is the same mentality here that Haman has. I'm going to
kill you. It goes all the way back to the garden, or all the
way right up to the garden, when Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel,
doesn't it? Cain slew his brother. Why? Jealousy. I want the glory. Me, I want the glory. Bow down
and worship me. This is all false religion. Doesn't
matter what the religion is. All false religion says, look
at me, look at what I'm doing for God. Look at how good I am
living. Look at what I don't do. I'm
not like this person over here. I'm not like this person over
there. That's what the Pharisee prayed in the temple, wasn't
it? He said, Lord, I thank Thee. I thank Thee that I'm not like
other men. I tithe, I fast, I pray. I thank You I'm not like this
publican in the back. And what of the publican? was in the very
back of the temple and would not approach, looking down, would
not lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat upon his breast, saying,
Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. And the Lord said these words.
He said, who do you think went down to his house justified?
It wasn't the self-righteous Pharisee that tithed and fasted
and lived the life that men thought was good. It wasn't that he dressed.
The Lord didn't see that. The Lord looked at the heart.
That's a heart issue, isn't it? Who was justified? It was the
one that said, have mercy on me, the sinner, beat upon his
chest. That's him confessing. I have a heart issue. I need
a new heart. Well, Haman being angry, being
angry, wanted all the Jews killed and he goes to the king. He goes
to the king and he says that these people, these Jews, they're
among us. They don't profit us. They don't
profit us. They're not good for us. They're
not good for the economy. They're not good for the life
that we want to live. They're messing up the culture.
Whatever all he said, you know he was making it bigger than
what it was because of his vendetta, his objective. He wanted the
Jews dead. And the king, the king hearkened
unto him. The king hearkened unto him.
There's those, brethren, that we will be around in life where
you know the truth and they hate you for it. They hate you for
it. See, all that Mordecai did was
tell the truth. No, I worship God. I don't worship
man. He was hated for it. He was hated. If you love the truth, you believe
the truth, you're going to be hated for it. You're going to
be hated for it. There's going to be some controversial
situation. There's going to be some issue
that you'll have to face. But the Lord's grace is sufficient.
The world knew not Christ. And it hates God's people. The
world didn't know Christ and does not know God's people. Your
flesh right now hates God. Your flesh wants to be God. That's
what the problem is here. Naaman wanted to be God. Nebuchadnezzar
wanted to be God. Cain wanted to be God. Eve in
the garden wanted to be God. That's the root issue of all
of us. We want to be God by nature. Flesh hates God and will not
come to Him. Satan wants to be God. Satan said, I will ascend
above heaven. Satan wants to be God. I'll ascend
above and no you won't. Lord's not gonna allow that.
He's not gonna share with anyone. He's not gonna share his glory
with anyone. Satan wants to be God and hates
everyone that believes the truth. The same, the same from the beginning. The same as it's always been,
isn't it? Naaman wanted to be praised,
and because he couldn't have what he wanted, he requested
to have all the Jews to be killed. And what happened? Well, after
conversing with the king, after talking with the king and telling
him all these things, Ahasuerus unknowingly sentenced his wife,
Esther, who was a Jew, and all the Jews to death. He sentenced
all of them to death, all of them to die. It's interesting
because the scripture tells us that part of what Naaman did
was he didn't just say, these people, they don't benefit us.
They don't, they're not, they're not good for us. We need to get
rid of them. Part of what he said was in his request is he
bribed the king with 10,000 talents of silver. Now I'm not sure how
good, and I say this sarcastically, none of us are good at Babylonian
calculations to today's times, so I did all the math. I looked
up how much is 10,000 talents of silver, and it came to be
$281,040,000. That's what he offered the king. If you'll kill
him, I'll give you $281,000,000. $281,000,000. Well, let's read here in Esther
chapter three, what the king says, verse eight. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus,
there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the
people in all the provinces of thy kingdom. And their laws are
diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws. Therefore
it is not for them not for the king's profit to suffer them.
If it pleased the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed,
and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver to the hands of those
that have the charge of the business to bring it unto the king's treasuries.
And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman,
the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. And the king
said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, and the people
also, to do with thee as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king's scribes
called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there
was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto
the king's lieutenants and to the governors that were over
every province, and to the rulers of every people, of every province
according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their
language, in the name of King Ahasuerus was it written, and
sealed with the king's ring. and letters were sent by post
into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause
to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and
women, in one day, even upon the 13th day of the 12th month,
which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for
a prey. The copy of the writing for a
commandment to be given in every province was published unto all
people, that they should be ready against that day. The post went
out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was
given in Sushan, the palace, and the king and Haman sat down
to drink, but the city Sushan was perplexed." All this happened
over power, over greed, over jealousy. where Naaman demands
that the Jews die and begs the king to do so, bribes him to
do so, and the king hearkens into him. And I would remind
us what the scripture said in Ecclesiastes, where the word
of a king is, there is power. Where the word of a king is,
there is power. And who may say unto him, what
doest thou? What doest thou? King's word
is law to be obeyed. The king's word is law to be
obeyed. It's not optional. This is not
a democracy. That's why many people don't
want to hear it. They don't have any interest in the truth. It's
not a democracy. This is a dictatorship. He's
God and he's seated on his throne and where his word is spoken,
there is power. Now this in Esther is an allegory. We're gonna look
at this allegory when we're finished, Lord willing. My hope is to see
Christ in all of this and see the gospel in all of this. Understand that when the king
speaks, the law that's given, the penalty for breaking the
law, it's not the same as breaking the law today. You steal something
and you may have to pay a fine. You might even have to go to
jail. But when the King's given his word, the King's law is in
effect during this time, the penalty is death. For disobedience
unto the King's law, it is death. King had spoke and said, kill
the Jews. Ahasuerus doesn't know Esther is a Jew, but he gives
his ring and authority to kill the Jews to Haman. And Haman
puts it into motion and all the letters are sent out to all the
provinces in their own language for everyone to read. Mordecai
finds out at the beginning of the next chapter, and he rinses
his clothes, and he prays, and he cries out unto the Lord, and
Esther hears word of it and sends it to him and says, stop doing
that. She doesn't know exactly what had happened thus far, so
Mordecai communicates to her by the servant, or by the one
doing the communication, I don't know if it's a servant or not,
but said, don't do that. And he said, no, you don't understand,
we're gonna die. There's a death sentence upon
our head because of the word of the king. We're going to die. It's been sealed with his ring
and it can't be undone. We're going to die and nothing
can change what's been spoken. Nothing can change what's been
spoken. He said, I need you. All the Jews need you, Esther,
to go into the palace of the king. and speak on our behalf,
plead with him, figure out some way that this can pass, figure
out something that we can do that would prevent us from dying.
And Esther says to him, what I mentioned earlier, she says,
if I go in and he raised not the scepter, he'll kill me. He'll
kill me. I'll die. If he doesn't raise
his scepter, when I'm not bidding, when I'm not, when I'm not told
to come in, when I'm not summons to the King's throne, if I'm
not, if I'm not bidding, He'll kill me. It's certain death if
he doesn't raise the scepter, if he doesn't raise the scepter.
There's the only hope that I have is that that scepter would be
raised. It's the scepter of mercy. It's the scepter of grace. Understand the severity here.
You and I have anxieties and we have fears about life and
different things. We're talking about a young woman
going into the king's throne room with the possibility of
literal death. She's going to possibly die by
going, I mean, how frightening would that have been? That's
exactly what it came down to. He said, either you do it or
we're gonna die. Speak on our behalf. We don't have a voice,
Esther. We're just a bunch of Jews. We don't have, they hate
the Jews. And that's, you and I, being
in the flesh, being born in sin, we have no voice to the throne
of God where he'll hear us. We're nothing but sin. We have
no ability to speak, to approach. We're not gonna find favor in
his sight, not God. He's holy. He's holy. This is
the picture here. We need one to go before us.
We need one that represents us, one to speak on our behalf, one
that is pleasing unto the king. She found favor in his sight
when she entered into the throne room. And he raised the scepter
and he said, ask what will be given. Ask what I should give
thee. up to half the kingdom. I'll
give it to you. You just ask. See, she was, she was well pleasing
in his side. Is this not the Lord Jesus Christ
being well pleasing of his father who didn't say, ask what I'll
give you. But the son said, ask what I shall do, knowing that
it was certain death for him to go to the cross for his people,
that he would redeem us back to God. And yet we see that he
did that successfully redeeming his people And the only way that
you and I could ever have the scepter raised to us is if the
death penalty upon us he took." After King said, what should
I give you? She said, I want to make a banquet.
And my intention wasn't to preach the entire book of Esther, but
it's kind of hard not to. You can't just pick and choose
what you're going to say. You have to understand the whole
scene, I mean, the whole setting. Think about the wisdom that the
Lord gave Esther in asking for a feast for Haman and the king.
She said, I just want to make a feast for you and Haman, that's
all. That's all I want to do. Think
about the grace and the wisdom in that, to separate Haman and
the king together. And she does so, she makes a
feast for them. And at the feast, or before the
feast, Haman goes home and tells his wife, guess what happened?
The king's wife's asked me to come to a banquet. The king's
wife, it's just gonna be me and the king and the queen. Think
about how puffed up he was then. How much more worship he thought,
no, I'm really getting adored now, look at me. Look at how
amazing I am. What he didn't know was is that
night, by the Lord's gray. Oh, I forgot to mention this.
His wife talks about Mordecai and they ended up building gallows
to hang Mordecai on. So not only is he rejoicing in
the glory he's getting, he's going to, he's going to get his
glory by executing Mordecai. He's going to be wiped out. And
he said, I'm going to get all the glory here. Boy, that's the flesh,
isn't it? That's exactly what it is. That's
the flesh. And that's, That's to a T, look at me, I want all
the glory. And we see that that night, for
the sake of time, I'll just let you know that the truth came
out. And Esther said, I'm a Jew. And this man, the one that's
trying to kill, he's Haman, he's the one trying to kill me and
my people. And then whenever the king went out, Haman went
over and started to entreat of the queen, no, no, no, try to
help me here. But it appeared to the king that he was making
a pass on Esther when he came back in and he He hung Haman
on the very gallows that Mordecai was supposed to hang on. What
a picture of the Lord putting away the sting of death, the
flesh that we are, that we could not accomplish, that we could
not beat. He's killed, we died in Christ. We died in the Lord
Jesus Christ and therefore we've died to the law. The law, the
word of the king that goes forth that says death to anyone that
sinned. We've died to the law because we died in Christ and
all of our sin has been put away. See, where the word of the king
is, there's power, and his word is death to anyone that breaks
one of my laws. One. You must be perfect in every
way, in every thought, in every deed. Your heart must be pure.
And you and I do not qualify, do we? We do not qualify. What is our hope? Well, we know
that if we was to approach him, we can't even get past the gate.
We're nothing but born in sin, shaping into iniquity. We're
not part of the, we're not even part of his kingdom. We're not
even part of his rule and reign. We're just, we're nothings. We're
outcasts. We can't get into his throne
room, even if we wanted to in and of ourself. But if we could,
would our hope be that he would raise the scepter based upon
what we have done? Because if it is, we're going
to find out one day that scepter is not going to raise. He's going
to say, depart from me. Now our hope's found in our Esther, the
Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? Who, when he entered into the
throne room of God, the scepter raised, the father was satisfied,
the father was pleased. And in putting away our sin,
we can enter boldly to the throne of grace ourself. Because of
this scepter, because of the scepter being raised, we know
that we can enter boldly to the throne of grace, having obtained
mercy, to find grace to help us in the time of need. We no
longer examine ourselves to see if we're good enough. We know
we're not. We know we're not. We're just like Mordecai. We're
in sackcloth and ashes and can't do anything about the state we're
in. Lord, we're going to die if you don't do something. If
you don't intercede for us, we're going to die. There's only one who has favor
with God, only one. The only reason the Queen's people
were saved is because she found favor in his side. Everything
about Esther hinges upon one moment, that scepter being raised. Think about that. If that scepter
did not raise, there would be no book of Esther, but the scepter
was raised. And in the thing in the in the
thing that's glorious in the gospel is it all hinges upon
the son satisfying the father, not you and I satisfying the
father, but the son satisfying the father, the scepter being
raised on our account being found in him, our hope of glory. There's
only one that finds favor in the king side, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You would have you and I have no ability. We have no
strength. We're just like the blind men
that the Lord healed. Lord, how, what if they would
have said, okay, blind man, walk to Jesus and he'll heal you.
Think about that. That's what men are declaring
today. Just come. Well, we're blind. I can't, I don't know
how to get there. That's the point. What about the lame man?
Walk to him. You can't, we don't have any
strength in our legs. But what's the word? What's the word that
he puts in his people's heart? Lord, have mercy on me. Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. That's what blind Bartimaeus
cried. And every time he would cry it,
they said, hush, be quiet. You're bothering him. He said,
you don't understand. I have a need and he's the only one
that can meet it. I have no other hope. I'm going to die. I need
him. And the Lord said, bring him
to me, go fetch him. And they brought him. He said,
what would you have me do for you? It's the same cry every time for the
believer that seeing the Lord seated upon his throne, Lord,
I need sight to see you. I need faith to believe you. I need your peace because I have
none. I don't have the ability to do
anything. Lord, you're going to have to
intercede on my behalf. You're going to have to save
me. What does the Lord always say? I will be thou made whole. The reason that we pray that
is because we've already been made whole. Don't you love that?
The only reason that you cry out and I cry out into him, Lord
saved me is because you've already been saved. Nobody cries that
unless Lord's already saved them. Not from the heart of faith.
Every time he gives the heart of faith, the Lord causes us
to cry out, Lord saved me because he's already saved us. You and I have no ability, no
way of approaching God. The law has been spoken by the
king. Listen what Romans chapter five tells us. Wherefore, as
by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. And
so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. For
until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed
when there was no law. There was no death sentence on
Mordecai and the Jews and Esther until the law came, until the
king's word was spoken. But once that went forth, it
was death, certain death at the king's word, certain death. So what is our hope? That Esther
found grace in the eyes of the king, that Esther found grace
found favor in the eyes of the king to intercede on all of those
who cannot intercede for themselves. All of the Lord's people, the
Lord Jesus Christ interceding for his people. There is a redeemer. Jesus Christ, God's son, there
is one who can intercede, who does intercede, who continually
takes our sinful prayers, our selfish prayers, and washes them
in his precious blood and presents them perfect to the father. He
really hears his people when they pray. He intercedes on our
behalf. There's one who is worthy. One
who hath obtained favor in the king's sight, he alone was the
one able to enter to the holiest once by his own blood, having
obtained eternal redemption for his people. He alone had the
blood of the New Testament. He alone is pleasing unto the
king. You and I are born with a death
sentence upon our head and the law demands justice. The throne
demands judgment because of what we are. Not because of what we
do, but because of what we are. Can't fix what you are. Men talk
about changing their lives. They're talking about morality.
They're talking about changing their behavior, changing their
actions, changing their habits. Doesn't do any good before God.
We haven't changed what we are, but Christ can. Christ can, because
he on the cross of Calvary bore our sin. He made us the very
righteousness of God in him. That's a change, isn't it? That's
a change from complete corruption to incorruption, to complete
mortality to immortality, from death to life. It's the parallels
from light to darkness. He did it all. He did it all. Well, what of Mordecai? What
if he could have done a good work? What good would it have
done? Would it have changed the king's word? Death still had
to come. King's word doesn't change. God's
law is still demanding justice today for anyone that's not found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that simple. We must be
found in him. Not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, not doing that which is good in our sight,
having his righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ being robed
in his righteousness. Matter of fact, every work we
do, every work we do for self in salvation is called iniquity
and the Lord hates the workers of iniquity. Psalm chapter five,
verse five. The reason is because it's a
blasphemous insult to the one that is worthy. What we're saying
is, is yes, Christ is worthy, but I can do something also to
add to it. I can, and that's taking away
from it, isn't it? That's exactly what it is. It's
a, it's insulting. It's blasphemous. Nothing less
than the very holiness of God will do. Here's the good news. Our surety entered to the covenant
of grace before time ever began. I would remind us what a surety
is. It's one that says, I will become surety. So you remember
Judah, when Judah was going to be going down to Egypt and Benjamin
was there and Jacob said, you're not taking Benjamin. I've already
lost Joseph. And now you're wanting to take
Benjamin too. And Simeon's held in captivity down there. You're
not taking him. He said, we don't take him. Judah said, if we don't
take him, they will not give us Simeon back. They will not
give us the grain that we need either. We'll die. Jacob said,
all this is against me. He didn't know it was his salvation
in the process, did he? His physical salvation, but what
happens? Judah spoke up and said, I will
be surety for him. Whatever happens to him, I will
bear the reproach. I will stand in his place. No
matter what happens, I will take care of him. I will bring him
back to you on my life. That's what a surety is. Our
surety, the covenant head, the Lord Jesus Christ, very before
time ever began, between the Father and the Spirit, entered
into that covenant saying, I will be surety for all of those who
are mine who have the death sentence upon them. I will. And he did. On the cross of Calvary,
putting away our sin, satisfying the law's demands. The law has
nothing to say against the child of God anymore. Now the scepter
is raised, come, take of the water of life freely, because
of the finished work of Christ, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy, according to his
grace. Come, you that are heavy and
you that are burdened, heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Come,
and the spirit and the bride say come, and whosoever will,
let him come, take of the water of life freely. Come without
money, don't bring money, you can't bribe God. Naaman tried
to bribe the king and did a good job, didn't he? Can't bribe God,
can't bring my money, can't bring my strength, can't bring my mind,
can't bring my heart. I can't bring anything to give
to God that he'd be pleased with. So what's my hope? That he provided
everything. And he did in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And now the scepter's raised because of his finished
work. The Lord knew entering into that
covenant, he'd have to drink the cup of damnation dry. He
would have to drink of all the bitter dregs of that cup by himself.
Nobody could help him. Esther knew when she entered
into that throne room that she could die and nobody could help her.
There would have been none, if the king would not have raised
that scepter, there would have been none to help. But the scepter's
raised to the Lord's people because the Lord Jesus Christ died in
their stead. King's wrath must be satisfied. The law must be upheld. Look
what he says in chapter seven, verse 10. Chapter seven, verse 10. So they
hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
Then was the king's wrath pacified. Pacified. I like that word, don't
you? The king's wrath was pacified.
The Lord Jesus Christ, when precious lamb of God was slain on the
cross of Calvary, his wrath was pacified. The Lord was satisfied
with his son. Satisfy with his son, the very
death do us, Christ has once suffered and bled and died as
our substitute. He entered to the throne room
of the holiest by saying, I will take their place. I will die
in their stead. I will be surety for them. The
only way the scepter of the righteousness of God could be raised to you
and I is if Christ Jesus is our righteousness. If he is our righteousness. You understand something? Where
the word of the king is, there's power. And it's law. And that law cannot be changed.
The Lord's not going to water it down. The Lord's not going
to look at you and I when we enter into his throne room. He's not going to change his
law because we're nice people. He's not going to change his
law because we were good parents or we were good grandparents
or we've lived a good moral life or we've ties to the church or
we haven't or whatever we've done. None of that's going to
matter. What matters is, is do you have the blood of Jesus Christ
applied to you? If you do not, you have no hope
of that scepter being raised. The law cannot change. This is
the judgment of God. Justice must be satisfied. This is what his throne demands.
I would remind us the title is the throne in the scepter. My only hope is that the scepter
raises. And the only reason the scepter
would raise is if we're found in the one who he is pleased
with, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in what our Lord accomplished
for his people. Look in Esther 8 verse 15. The judgment is someone must
die, but even if you and I die, it's still not going to appease
the wrath of God because it's not a perfect sacrifice like
the Lord Jesus Christ. It didn't, it was just the law
enacting its judgment, but justice is never satisfied. That's what
hell is there for because it it's eternal. It never satisfied,
never satisfies the justice. God's not pleased with anything
about us, He's pleased with one, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in
verse 8, verse 15. This is what the Lord does for
His people. Mordecai went out from the presence of the king
in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown
of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple in the
city of Sushan. rejoiced and was glad. And the
city of Susanne rejoiced and was glad. And the Jews, now here's
us, brethren. This is what our surety's accomplished.
This is what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. He's given us light
and gladness and joy and honor. Light and gladness and joy and
honor. Why? Because the scepter was
raised to Esther. That's why. That's what it comes
down to. It wasn't even that Mordecai
was good. The king didn't even remember Mordecai had done any
good deed unto him. You remember he saved the king,
the two men that were gonna kill the king. Mordecai told Esther
and Esther told the king and it was recorded. One night, and
I forgot to mention this, I'm gonna mention it now. One night
the king had bad dreams. They said, well, bring the books,
the history books out. Let's see, read some history. Maybe I'll be able to rest then.
Who gave him that dream? You know, who caused him to read
the book? Lord did. And he found where Mordecai had
saved the king and said, what's been done to this man, Mordecai?
And they said, nothing's been done to him. And he said, okay,
I'm going to call for Haman, my right-hand man. He said, Haman,
If there was a man that deserved all the glory and all the honor
and all the praise and what should be done to him? He said, Oh,
King, he thought he's talking about him, didn't he? Old Naaman
said, I'm going to get more glory. This is going to be great. He's
got to be talking about me. There's nobody else that compares to
me. That's our old flesh. That's our old flesh. That's
Satan too. He wants all the glory also. He said, you ought to put
your ring on his finger, your robe on his back, and your crown
on his head, and have your best man parade him around the town
and declare, this is the man that saved the king. And he said,
that's a fantastic idea, Naaman. Would you do that for Mordecai?
Now I remind you, Naaman wants to kill Mordecai and there's
gallows built, or being built. You understand what I'm saying?
But think about the preciousness of the Lord's blood upon his
people. Every time Satan tries to do anything in declaring that
we have sinned, all he's doing is just parading us around the
city and saying, look at what the king has done. Look at what
the king, look at what the Lord has done. Robed him in his own
righteousness, gave him a ring on his finger and a crown on
his head. That's what the Lord does for, that's what the Lord
did for his people. Here we have the Lord's people
robed again. They're robed again in scarlet
and fine linen. That's the blood and that's the
royalty. We've been made the heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. We've been made the very righteousness
of God in Him. Mordecai got, he didn't get any
glory in this, did he? No, certainly not. Certainly
not. He was given the king's ring.
You and I are, we're heirs with Christ. We've been given all
in him. You think Mordecai bragged on
himself? No. No, just as you and I do
not. We brag on the king. We brag
on our Esther. We brag on the Lord Jesus Christ
and what he accomplished. We're given light and gladness
and joy and honor. How is that possible? There's
only one reason. There's only one reason. It's
the whole If you want to use the word hinge, I use that sometimes. Everything about the gospel hinges
upon the scepter being raised, the scepter of mercy being raised. If Christ did not satisfy the
Father, we're all damned. It's that simple. But He satisfied
the Father. How do we know? His promise to
us and God, it is finished. It is finished. And how do we
know the Father was pleased and the scepter was raised? Because
He resurrected His Son. Now, you and I have been resurrected
in him, been made the righteousness of God in him. If you believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed his people and put away your
sin, if your hope is in nothing less but Jesus' blood and his
righteousness, if your hope's in nothing less than Christ,
then we can enter boldly to the throne of grace because the scepter's
raised, having obtained mercy, and to find grace to help in
the time of need. What help is it that we need?
Lord, save me lest I perish. Lord, we're going to die. Save
us. Save us. The scepter's always raised to
mercy beggars. Did you know that? The Lord's
the one that makes mercy beggars, mercy beggars. Those who do not
come begging for mercy never receive it. Don't make mercy
begging a work. But if you beg for mercy from
the Lord, if you beg for Christ alone, it's because he's put
that there. He's put that there. It's a work
of grace in the heart. And what does the Lord say? John chapter
6, 37, all, there's that word again, all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I'll
in no wise cast out. I'll in no wise. You come to
Christ, he's not gonna cast you out. The call goes forth and
says, come to Christ. How do I do that? Well, don't
move a muscle. Look to him through the eyes of faith. Come to him
begging, Lord, save me. Thank God all that the throne
required was satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. Scepters raised,
brethren, to the Lord's people. Scepters raised. Because it was
raised to Christ? Because Christ died and we died
in Him? Our sin being put away because He was resurrected? We've
been made the very righteousness of God. What does He say in Romans?
He was raised because of our justification. We've been justified
by the law. The law has nothing more to say.
Now the spirit says come, the bride says come, and whosoever
will, I'm glad it says whosoever will, I'm a whosoever will, come,
take of the water of life freely. Don't try to buy it, don't try
to bribe for it, don't try to pay for it in any way, freely,
freely by grace alone. Let's pray. Father, thank you
that you didn't make a way, but you are the way. Lord, that you
didn't create a scepter, you are the scepter. Lord, that your
throne is forever settled and you're successfully seated. Calls
us to believe now and now and now and never forget. In Christ's
name, amen.