God's Word NEVER Fails
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Esther is now completely Queen.
Mordecai is completely King.
Haman, the enemy is dead, but his death decree is going to be enacted.
Mordecai drafted a life decree to be enacted too.
The day has finally come, what will happen?
Will God’s people be saved?
Will the life decree actually work, when it’s time for it to go in action?
God places those in Authority
God places those in Authority
Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them. The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples. All the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful.
Finally the day comes when Haman’s decree was to go into effect.
But my how things have changes since he issued it.
The one he who provoked him to write this decree was now 2nd in charge and Haman is dead.
What plays out in sort of an anticlimactic way is the battle of the decrees.
Well it is clear from the first verse that the decree of life is going to win.
But think about this makes sense,
Haman is dead and Mordecai is alive.
Mordecai has been clothed in these royal robes and looks very powerful and impending.
When the decrees are to be inacted on, the decree coming from the one who is alive is going to have more traction!
So the Jews killed everyone who attacked them.
This fear of the Jewish people and of Mordecai sweeps through the nations.
All the government officals helped the Jews, while the jews enemies were killed.
It’s important to say the decree of life was not a one day liscense to go on a killing spree free of charge.
It was a decree to protect yourself.
So all those who were killed were attacking the Jews.
What stand out to me so much in this section is the decree of life has caused people to fear God’s people and the leader of God’s people.
It brings up this biblical idea of fear.
And really what we see here is you either fear man or you fear God.
So the Jewish people through this story have really honestly not completely feared God there have been times when they failed.
But when the rubber met the road, they feared God more thant they feared death by the King.
In theory we will all, if we are believers says, I fear God.
But in practice this is much more difficult to do.
Here is why it is so important for us to fear God.
God places those who are in authority in Authority.
God is ultimate.
When we fear man our emotions, hearts, souls become uneasy and respond in sinful negative ways.
Anger, worry, distress, fear, selfishness, controlling, etc.
When we feel out of control we will do anything and everything to feel better or get control back.
God’s authority is final and God is good.
Fear God not Man
When we do this.
When we fear God, which looks like trusting God.
When we live lives of delightful obedience to God.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Fear of God is not shaking scared of what God is going to do to you.
Fear of God means being in awe, in wonder, struck by God.
recognizing that God is infinite and you are finite.
That was existed before you.
It is knowing that God is God and that God loves and cares for his people.
It produces a holy fear, that responds in joyful obedience to Him.
The Jews were broken and afraid because a death decree had been called for them, but they know that God would not let His people be destroyed.
Their hope arrived in an unexpected way, and now that the decree of life and the decree of death are in play for 1 day, they trust God they fear God, and they are saved.
Is your life one that is marked with this fear of God? Trust in God? Obedience to God even when that looks foolish to you and the world?
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Fear God.
God’s enemies will be destroyed
God’s enemies will be destroyed
The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. In Susa the citadel itself the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men, and also killed Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha and Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha and Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, but they laid no hand on the plunder.
That very day the number of those killed in Susa the citadel was reported to the king.
What we see in this passage is a hard passage to stomache.
500 men, not women and children only the men attacked, were killed in one city.
and specically all 10 of Haman’s kids.
They are named.
Our temptation in passage that have lists of names is to skim them, but let me caution you.
This isn’t a made up story.
All 500 people that died have souls.
And as enemies of God the moment they died they thought death would be the worst thing for them, and what they found was rebellion against the God of the people they were trying to kill was much much worse.
Their souls are in an eternal punishment.
I know that is an uncomfortable truth.
And passage like this that talk of killing and destroying are hard for our ears to take, but can I offer a word of caution.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
ALL scripture is breathed out by God and good for us, not just some.
The reality of the world we live in, is they know that this stuff is in the bible and they know that you and I are uncomfortbale with it.
So it will be thrown at you when you say that God loves you and cares for you.
Oh really what about all the people that are slaughtered in Esther, and other places in the bible, that doesn’t seem like a loving and caring God.
You and I need to be prepared to answer those questions not just for others, but for ourselves as well.
We worship a God who we claim is absolutely good, and whom often get pegged as wrathful and vengeful in the Old Testament and in the New Testament is full of grace and mercy.
But the truth is the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.
So we cannot ignore hard passages like these ones, they are good for us, because they teach us more about this God that we claim to love.
So to help us understand this we need to answer the quesion.
Who are God’s enemies?
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
This goes back to what we talked about last week.
When Adam and Eve sinned they brought sin into the world, and now everyone who have ever been born, is born with a natural sinful nature.
We are born sinners.
To sin means to rebel against God’s Word.
God’s Word is given to us from God for our good.
So to rebel against God’s Word is to rebel against God.
To rebel against God is to be an enemy of God.
Nobody makes those t-shirts.
This is what makes to Gospel so good.
We were enemy’s of God.
We HATED the light.
We do not get to define who enemies are and who they are not, they are defined in God’s word for us.
We all are born enemies of God.
In the past God has destroyed His enemies with a flood, Noah’s Ark, Fire and Brimestone reigning from the sky, Sodom and Gomorah, Jewish people attacking and destorying them, Esther other.
Under the new covenant God deals with his enemies in two way.
He makes them sons and daughters, destroying them.
He will put them in judgement in the end.
So if we genuinly and truly belive that, then we desperatly want to be Sons of Daughters of God NOT enemies.
that adoption has been purchased by Jesus Christ, the fristborn of all creation.
The Second Adam who where the first Adam fail and brought death, Jesus now succeeds and bring life.
This life, this family adoption cost Jesus tremendously.
He died, and bore the penalty the punishment for our sin.
The perfect Son died so that the sinful enemies might become sons and duaghters.
We recieve this subsitution this salvation this aoption by Grace through Faith
AND we live out our lives as Christians by Grace through Faith.
Striving to enjoy obeying God’s word more and more.
Become a son and daughter of the King who reign for eternity.
God will defeat His enemies, are you one?
God will not forget his promises
God will not forget his promises
And the king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and also the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.” And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day’s edict. And let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.” So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder.
Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder.
Way back King Saul sinned against God in how he dealt with the Amalekites.
What we see here is God has not forgotten his promise that he would destroy this nation.
God uses Esther, Mordecai and the Jews to do so.
Saul took plunder when he was not supposed to.
Mordecai in his decree allotted the Jewish people to take plunder.
Noone did.
This was not killed to get, this was killing to preserve.
This was God’s people obeying even then commands that do not seem to make sense in the moment.
What hard does it do for the Jewish people to take the plunder from those who attack them?
They would become much more wealthy had thus could have much more influence around them, they could feed the hungry and clothe the poor.
They would have much more to offer God in worship.
They would be better off… in the worlds eyes.
But what that would mean is they would be rebelling against God and rebellion at the expence of rational things that make sense temporally.
It’s never a good thing to get more money, the have more wealth, to be happier, at the expence of obedience to God.
Little things become big things.
God keeps his covenant promise.
Cultivate in your life a heart that desires to obey God.
WHEN your heart does not want to obey, begin searching out why it is rebelling.
Expose the lies, die to sin, live for Christ.
God will be worshiped
God will be worshiped
This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness. But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the rural towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.
Through out Esther there has been this subtle theme of feasts and party’s.
It opens with a party from the King.
Esther serves two feasts, and now we see one more time people are feasting and have a general gladness.
These feast are important because they call the Jewish people to remember.
Be reminded of who the God you claim to worship is.
We are about the enter into the Thanksgiving week, remember the God you claim to worship is the real reason you can give thanks at all.
We are about to enter into the Christmas, Advent, season, remember that God came to you and me.
We could not get to God.
God came to save sinners like you and me.
The Lord’s Supper is meant to be an apetitzer to remind us of Jesus life, death, bruial, and ressurection and acention so that we can worship God fully and completely.
That is essentially what worship ought to be.
Its not about songs that make me feel good or move me, its about remembering who our God is and what our God has done for sinners like you and me.
We could not save ourselves so God came to save us, and now if we are beleivers we continue living lives that seek to grow, to mature, in Him.
THis doesnt happen naturally, it’s not like physically growing, we do not wake up one day and become spiritually mature, this is habits that we cultivate that push us into Jesus more and more
This is a commitment to live a life of worship,
We worship in spirit and truth.
One does not get elivated over the other.
and we Worship all the time, worship is not just what we do before the sermon and after.
Worship is how you work in your job.
How you parent your kids.
How you love your grandkids.
How you care for and love your spouse.
How you sit under the proclaimation of God’s word.
How you serve as an active member of a church.
How you go about every aspect of your life.
More Worship happens for you outside of the church building walls that what happens inside.
So if I could for one week follow you around, who would your life point to as the one you are worshiping?
Conclusion
Conclusion
What this teaches us, is God’s word NEVER fails.
He has placed those who are in authority over us.
He will destroy his enemies
He will remember his promised
He will be worshipped.
Mordecai issued a life decree on top of the death decree.
Jesus has given us a new covenant over the sinful born spritually dead decree we have.
God promised Adam and Eve that one would come from her line who would crush the serpent, and set back the way things are supposed to be.
Jesus has come and done just that.
deafeated sin and death.
But though we have been ransomed from Sin free from it’s power and it’s hold, we have not been completely taken from our sinful nature yet.
We have been left on earth were we are to wrestle and fight for Jesus.
To plant and build and cultuivate healthy churches.
To disicple one another in Jesus.
To show others who are lost the way to Christ.
We do this because we know deep deep down, that Jesus has promised to never leave or forsake us.
We do this because we know that though it is difficult to obey God’s word, deep deep down we know that it is what is best for us.
If we are Chrisitians then we do not live like those who are not.
We stand on the word of God, and we speak truth in love.
This hurts sometimes.
When I was growing up, I am sure this is true of yall too.
When I got cut and our wounded.
We had a simple but effective way of treating those wounds.
my mom would put peroxide on the wound and then rubbing alchol. until it stopped bleeding and I stopped crying from the pain not of the cut but of the medicine.
Peroxide and Alchol stink bad when they kill germs but they are vital. Those germs need to be killed or the wound gets worse and worse.
the next step was mom would put on Neosporine and a bandaid.
The neosporine had a pain relieving something in it and I would put it on and almost immidiatly my would would feel better. The bandaid was really to keep the medicine all on the right spot, and also to make me look cool because as I was taught growing up, girls dig scars.
Thats how the Moores handled wounds growing up.
This process was repeated on each wound multiple times a day until it healed.
each time to pain of the peroxicde and achol got less
the neosporine wasn’t gooped as much,
the bandaide still looked cool.
This is where many of you are at.
God’s word is clear in so many ways.
You know the death decree, the sinful nature, the longing to love the dark more than the light.
We will always wrestle with sin on this side of heaven, the difference in believers and nonbelivers is a genuine deep down longing desire to be rid of sin and live for Christ no matter the cost.
Some of you are walking around with open sinful wounds that are bleeding everywhere and you are acting like it’s ok.
friends, if you are a Christian then I hope there is a desire within you to put on the peroxide and alchol and clean the wound.
It’s going to sting
It’s going to hurt.
But the remedee is not the issue, the infected wound is.
If Christ has saved you then the wound can be healed.
If you are an unbeleiver you are walking around with all sorts of wound and a death decree, only Jesus can fix that.
Repent and believe in Him today.
For Christains, this is what the church is for.
Care enough about others to have the hard talks with them, and pour the biblical medicine that hurts and stings but is good and cleanse.
That might be where you are at.
You or someone you love needs their wounds cleaned by the Word of God, that might be the kind of love God is calling you to right now.
Will you fear GOd enough to love in this way, or will you fear man enough to not?
Some may have wounds that they are pouring perocixe into and alchol into and repenting and turning to Christ and still feel the pain and sting of the wound, that they need is neosporine and a pbandaid.
they need you to encourage and point to the GOspel.
Do you fear man and keep pouring on the pain and hurt or letting them keep beating them sleves up, or do you fear God and love them by giving neosporin?
God’s Word never fails.
Know it better.
Know is more.
Love it more.
Obey it more.
Enjoy it more.
THis isn’t easy, but God’s word NEVER fails.
Learn to Love God’s word, by doing God’s word.