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Providence family, it's so good to see each one of you. If you're a guest with us, uh, we are honored that you have joined us on this Father's Day. Uh, let me just say to every man and every boy in the room, we are grateful that God created you and uh gave you ingredients that are not only essential to life and to your family, but to society and his kingdom. We thank God for you. You were created with intent. And we also want to honor the fathers in the room, uh, grandfathers, guardians, those who pour their life into the next generation, uh, to pass what they know and what they love. And Lord willing, what they love most is the gospel. I know for many of you that's precisely what you pour into your kids. And your instruction, your teaching, your patience, your hard work, your provision, your protection, your example in life is um it's just so meaningful, not only to your family, but to society. And so we honor you today. So let me pray. Father in heaven, we come before you today and you tell us that you're our father. We are grateful that because of Jesus, you have become our father, you have adopted us into your family. And we praise you for your instruction and your patience and your provision and protection, your example in our own lives. We are grateful. And Lord, we know that not all of us in the room are fathers, but we all have one, so we thank you for it. Ask for those whose fathers are still on the earth that you would bless him, keep him, make your face to shine upon him and give him peace. God, I pray for our heart as we think about our fathers on a day like today. Or many of us, our experiences, you know, are vastly different from someone maybe sitting right next to us. The experience of fatherhood for many, Lord, you know it creates within us these emotions. So I pray for those in the room who, when they think about their dad today, it creates within them either an extreme of gladness or sadness that you would draw near to them. You would give them either gratitude or comfort and hope. God, I pray for those who feel the sense of grief at the loss of their dad. I pray also for the dads. Lord, I pray for those who are overwhelmed with the task, for those who are perhaps going through a season where it seems like the investments are showing the fruit and the reward. I pray that you would give endurance and patience to every dad in the room. I pray for those as dads who are grieving the loss of a child, that you would comfort them in their grief, and I pray for those who within their own home, they have a prodigal who is far from home and far from you. And we know and believe that you have the power to redeem, to bring home that child. So would you deliver with open eyes and give patience to moms and dads as they wait. And now I ask, as we open your word, that you would open our hearts, that you would do what you have done many times over, one more time, and that is to speak through weakness. And I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Esther chapter 8. If you happen to be brand new to the Bible, the Bible includes lots of stories, and all those stories, when combined together, they tell one cohesive story about the Savior of the world, and that is Jesus Christ. In the beginning of the Bible, we read that man sinned against God, and when we did, God made a promise to send a savior, a son of Christ. Christ means promised one. He made a promise that one day a son would be born of a woman who would be a savior to reconcile us back to God. And he didn't want us guessing where the son was going to be coming from. So he tells us early that he would come from the Jewish line, one of the children of Abraham. Throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel are attacked. And that line is threatened time after time after time. And so to keep his promise, God had to keep this Jewish line alive. Typically, he did so through the Old Testament in very dramatic ways, where it seemed like his hand could be seen, his voice could be heard, that people would look and say, God Almighty over heaven and earth is with this people. But in Esther is very different. He doesn't save dramatically, he saves providentially. That means it looks like his hands are hidden. God, by name, is not mentioned a single time in the whole book of Esther. And yet he's the one with hidden hands who are moving the channels of people's hearts and laws and decisions and circumstances to bring about his saving plans. The book of Esther is set in modern-day Iran, Persia. That had a king. His name is Ahasueras. We know him as Xerxes. Every chapter in Esther is broken. And we're gonna read in these two chapters a lot of brokenness. In Esther, chapter one, we're told that the king, Xerxes, is that he had two feasts. At the end of the second feast, he got drunk, and he requested that his wife parade her body in front of a drunken city of men. She refused to do so, and so he removed her from being queen. And that was unjust. When we get to chapter two, we're told that the king was looking for a queen. So they gathered from every province in the Persian Empire 127 provinces, all the most beautiful virgin women, took them from their homes, brought them, some against their will, to Susa, his capital city. And there in Susa they were given a year in the king's harem to prepare themselves for one night with the king. And after those nights, the king chose his queen. Chapter two is very unjust. But the king chooses a Jewish woman named Esther, and she's the queen. When we get to chapter three, the villain of the story named Haman emerges at the very moment that he's being promoted to second in command over all of the Persian Empire. Everyone is supposed to bow to him, but Esther's cousin Mordecai refuses to do so. And so Haman has this growing hatred toward him, but killing him in his own mind is not enough to satisfy his anger. He concludes that he needs to orchestrate a plan to where literally every Jewish person could be annihilated. And so he goes to the king and urges the king that there's this people group within his empire that's so lawless that they need to be destroyed. So the king takes off his signet ring, which was his signature, hands it to Haman, and he says, You write a law, and this will authorize it. And so the law goes out and it says to all the people, if you have Jewish neighbors, you can kill, destroy, annihilate all of them, and plunder their goods. Chapter three is very unjust. When we get to chapter four, Esther, who's in the palace now as queen, she rev she resolves that she needs to mediate before the king on behalf of her people. But the king has not invited her. And so no one was allowed to approach the throne room of the king uninvited. If you did, he could either extend to you his mercy by leaning over his golden scepter in your direction, saving your life. And if he didn't, his guards would extend their swords and would take your life. And she wasn't invited, but she resolved to go. When we get to Esther chapter 5, 6, and 7, what we find is that Esther courageously approaches the king, is granted mercy, and then patiently exposes Haman's plan. In a very amazing reversal of events, what we are told in these chapters is something that really serves as a warning to every abuser in the world today and as a hope for everyone who has been abused. And that is that Haman, in the end, in this reversal, is killed. Justice is served, but there's a problem. And the problem is the edict to annihilate all of the Jewish people was nine months away and approaching. And that's where we pick up in chapter 8, verse 1. On that day, King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her, meaning her cousin. And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, Esther rose and stood before the king. And she said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hemadatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king. For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred? In this sermon today, I want to show you what God does to deliver his people. And some of us we have, we need to be delivered. Whether it's financial, relational, emotional, or spiritual. Many of us happen to be in a place, maybe it's addiction or something within us, and it feels like that we are in this prison and we need to be delivered. How does he do it? I want to show you three things. It's a long passage, so we're gonna break it into three. We just read the one, and what do we find in that first passage? It's this principle, and that is that God delivers, and he does so by providentially moving his people to pursue justice. In other words, sometimes God wants to deliver people, and he wants to use you to do it. To begin that sequence of events by having mercy in our own heart towards people. So the story begins with Haman, who is now dead. His house is offered to Esther. The ring that was on his hand, the signet ring of the king, was pulled off and placed on the hand of Mordecai. An enormous reversal had taken place. And if Esther had only been interested in herself, her own palace, her comfort, her family, the story could end at the end of chapter seven. But mercy for the Jewish people, her people, who are still awaiting a very important and very violent day. It moved her heart. And so we're told that she went to the king. But unlike chapter five, when Esther, we're told when she went to the king in Esther chapter five, what we're told there is that she went in royal robes and she stood there with beauty and dignity, the stately honor. We're told that she was patient. We were told that she was calculated in the way that she expressed her need. She invited the king to two feasts before even saying, This is the burden of my heart. Unlike that poise and patience that we saw in chapter 5, notice what it says here in chapter 8, verse 3, it simply says that she fell at his feet, wept, and pleaded. There's an urgency, there's an emotional outbreak in her heart. We're told in verse 4 that he extended the scepter, which means that she did this again uninvited. And when she stood to her feet, knowing that he had granted not only her life but a wish. It's really interesting with her cheeks, no doubt, streaked with tears, wisdom began to flow out of her heart. There is a precision to her request that is really a beautiful thing. She begins with her premise. In verse 5 and 6, it says that she said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in sight, and if it seems right to you, and if I have pleased the king. In other words, if the favor that was upon me at the beginning still rest upon me, here's my petition. Let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman. And then the plea turns personal. She says, How can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Now, if you stack up the plea, the petition, and the premise, this is what she says. If our hearts are connected because you've granted me favor, then how is it possible for you to bear my inability to bear my coming grief at the destruction of all of my people? What I want you to see here is so important because many of us, it's so easy to live a selfish life. And she could have said, you know what, I have my palace and I have my family and I have my own safety. The king's gonna protect me. I have what I need, I have my own. And that's sufficient. And there are believers all over the world today who say, you know what, I have the gospel, I have Jesus, I have forgiveness, I have a seat, I have a group. And there is a deliverance that is needed all over the world of people hearing the gospel. And if people like us don't behave like Esther and say, what I have is not enough when there is needs all around the world, then one of the means by which God intends to deliver people is shut down. So my encouragement to us as a people today, in light of these six verses, is let's demonstrate our sincerity for God and our mercy for others. Over and over and over again, God in the Old Testament had to rebuke the Jewish people for not doing this. In Isaiah 58, where we're told is that God comes to the people through his prophet and he says, I don't understand how you can simultaneously find it within your heart the ability to give spiritual devotion, to pray and fast, and at the same time mistreat your workers and your friends. And you find it within your heart a possibility. You've literally waffled off your heart where you can say, This little square is my spiritual life, and this little square is my work life, and it's okay if one of them is out of alignment with the other. He says, So you come to me and you pray and you fast, and then you walk out of church and you mistreat people. You ignore their needs. And he goes, Wait a minute, is this not the fast that I choose? That you would lose the bonds. That you would share your bread, that you would bring the homeless poor into your house. When you see someone who's naked, who's cold, and they don't have a coat in the winter, to cover it. Literally, what he's saying is this to look up to God and not look out to man is absolutely hollow. To be devoted in spiritual devotion to God by praying and fasting, and yet you ignore somebody who is hungry. They just don't fit together. It was so interesting is that this continues. Jesus comes to the earth, the Savior of the world, and he's asked, What's the most important command? And do you remember what he said? He goes, Well, you asked for one, but I've got to give you two. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the first and greatest. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Now, why would he give two instead of one when it was only asked for one? It's because he knew that the two were inseparable. You can't talk about one without talking about the other. Which is why in Matthew 25, he describes the end of time when literally he takes all the people and all of the world and divides them into two groups, those who have trusted him and those who haven't. And what he wants to do is to expose to us today the stewardship of life and what takes place when Christ has our heart. And so he describes it in a form of a parable in a way that can be a little confusing at first. And this is what he does. He looks at the people and he says, Now you've been marked for heaven, you've put your faith in me, and this is the evidence, and you are marked for hell, because this is the evidence, and this is what he says. He says, I came to the earth and I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat and you didn't. And I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink and you didn't. I was in prison and you came and visited me and you didn't. And naturally, you can imagine all the people, they're like, Wait a minute, wait a minute, Jesus was never in prison. So the people over here said, When did we see you in that state and give those things to you? And the people over here said, When do we see you in that state and didn't give those things to you? And Jesus says, What you did or didn't do to the least of these, my brothers, you did or didn't do to me. And do you see what he's saying? There is a connection between our relationship with God, our sincerity of faith, and our mercy that we extend to one another that cannot be broken. It's very important in a parable like that not to get confused, though. Jesus is not teaching there that the way to get to heaven, that the wage that we pay to get to heaven is showing mercy to others. No, that's not what he's saying. What he's saying is this when you put your faith and trust in me, when you confess me as Lord of your life, and I forgive you, and I pour out such quantity of mercy in your life, so much mercy that it spills out of you on others. It's evidence in how you give your mercy that you are a recipient of mercy. And so my encouragement is this as we love the Lord with all of our heart, that we would love people. If you like a coat in the winter, you should think about giving a coat in the winter. If you like food in your belly, it's important for us to consider where other people without food in theirs. And one of the things you need to understand is this is a meal or a coat, it only provides a temporary deliverance. But friends, listen, when we give mercy, what it does is it typically opens a door to be able to share the gospel with them where they can experience an eternal deliverance. The story continues in verse 7. Then King Ahasweris said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he intended to lay hands on the Jews. But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring. For an edict written in the name of the king is sealed with the king's ring, it cannot be revoked. The king's scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Savon, on the twenty-third day, and an edict was written according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps and the governors, and the officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its own script, and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language. And he wrote in the name of King Ahasweris and sealed it with the king's signet ring. Then he sent the the letters by mounted couriers, riding on swift horses that were used in the king's service, bred from the royal stud, saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force or any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods, and on one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, a copy of what was written was to be issued as a decree in every province, being publicly displayed to all peoples. And the Jews were to be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies. So the couriers mounted on their swift horses that were used in the king's service, they rode out hurriedly, urged by the king's command, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. When Mordecai went out from the presence, Presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a robe of fine linen and purple. And the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor, and in every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday, and many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them. The second thing I want you to see of how God delivers is he providentially enables his people to stand up under trial. Sometimes he uses other people showing mercy to us or our mercy to others as a form to begin that process to deliver. Sometimes he leaves us under the trial and under the threat, and yet he provides a way to stand up under it. Haman, of course, was dead, but his hatred lived on. It was spread through the empire, and now it was weaponized in an edict. And therefore his death could not stop the approaching massacre of the Jewish people. Edicts were irrevocable from the king, and so the king advised a counter-edict. He says, Write as you please with regard to the Jews, and you can seal it with the king's ring. The edict that Haman wrote said, and he uses the words, you can kill, destroy, annihilate women and children included, and plunder their goods. And so what Mordecai does in this counter edict uses the identical language with one exception, and that is if you were attacked. In other words, this was not to enable the Jewish people to provoke an enemy, but to defend themselves from one. Interestingly, God did not remove the trial, did he? He didn't remove the threat. But what did he do? He provided a way for his people to stand up under it. And wouldn't you know that God made a promise in his faithfulness in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13? You know what it says? God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. In other words, he doesn't always take us out of the temptation, but he always provides a way of escape. Interestingly, the fight was less than nine months away. It's still nine months away. We started at 11 months away, and so we're about two months in. This counter-edict goes out. But it's interesting is that even though D-Day is a long time from now, the effect was immediate. It began with Mordecai. If you remember in chapter three and chapter four, we're told that Mordecai was not allowed to go into the presence of the king. He had to sit outside. And when he heard about the edict, it says that he clothed himself with sackcloth, which is the clothing of mourning. But notice what it says in verse 15 now about Mordecai. Not only does he have access to the king, he walks out from the presence of the king, but now he's not in sackcloth, he's in royal robes. And this transformation wasn't just for Mordecai, it was for all the residents of Susa, because in chapter 3, verse 15, when the first edict went out, it says in the city of Susa, everybody was thrown into confusion. But now the second edict, what does it say? It says that everybody was shouting and they were rejoicing. And it wasn't only for the people of Susa, because we're told in verse 17 that wherever the king's edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, and many declared themselves Jews. This is amazing. Not only did the joy spread among the Jewish people, but there were people all around the empire that says, you know what? For a long time I was uncertain about these Jewish people, but I think I want to begin to worship their God. I think I want to be a part of them. Now, what in the world has the power to do this? Think about this for a second. What has the power to replace sackcloth and exchange it for royal robes? What has the power to take citywide confusion and to create citywide rejoicing? And what has the power? What has the power to take people who at one time hate a people group, and now those same people want to convert to that people group? It's the gospel, and it's only the gospel of Jesus Christ that has the power to do these things. You see, this story, just like every story, it points towards Christ. This is not the end of the Bible. This was simply a shadow pointing to the cause of the shadow, to the source, and that's Christ. You see, we read here of two different edicts, the first one and then a second one. And wouldn't you know it through the scriptures is that God has provided us in our sin not just one edict, but two. And the second one is so much better than the first. I want to explain it, but before I do, let me let you write it down for those who take notes. Let me encourage us, let's rejoice as a people, because God has published a better edict. He said, Now, what are you talking about right now? Well, in this story, these two edicts that were written by Xerxes, or at least authorized by King Xerxes, neither of them have any bearing in your life. Or mine. But they point to two edicts that were written by God that have bearing in our lives. The Bible says that we've sinned against God. And it says that after we sinned against God, a lot of people didn't know they were sinning against God. And so God wrote a law. He gave a law, sometimes called the law of Moses, the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, the Old Promise. And it's very interesting that a lot of people imagine, oh, well, here's a bunch of people and they weren't sinning. God gave them a law to keep them from sinning, but that's not what happened. It says that sin came before the law, but they didn't know they were sinning. You see, when he gave ten commandments, one of them is thou shalt not steal. Who did that go to? It went to thieves. It says, Thou shalt not covet. Who did that go to? To everyone who was coveting. That's what the law was for. God wanted a relationship with us. In the garden, there was one command, they violated that, and then they got sent out. And there's a lot of people, even though they were sinning and had the law written on their heart, there was not a written law that says, I need to flag that behavior so you know that that's destroying your joy. And so what God did was he gave us an edict, a law. But that law was not intended to be propped up as a ladder so that we could climb ourselves up to heaven. The law was given to show us what love is. It was given to help us to see that we have broken the law, that we've sinned against God, and it was intended to show us that we could not climb for salvation, but we needed a savior. Romans chapter 3 says it this way By works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. And yet, isn't it interesting that there's a lot of people, sometimes parents speaking to their kids, sometimes pastors speaking to their churches? And maybe not with intentionality to teach something that was false. But perhaps you heard at some point in time, if you keep the Ten Commandments, you'll go to heaven. I know that sounds really weird, but that's actually a false gospel. And the rest of the New Testament actually tells us that. And some of us we actually believe that. We think if I just keep enough of these rules, then I can get there. The law was literally written to burn down the ladder because we've already sinned against God. And so what you find is this is that for people who walk around, and there's churches right now, literally, people are sitting just like you are at a church, and someone's standing up and they're saying, You need to do better, and you need to white-knuckle obedience, and you need to stop, stop that sin, and you need to stop that sin and you need to stop that sin and you need to keep the law and keep the law and keep the law and keep the law, and 2 Corinthians chapter 3 says that this kind of preaching and teaching, even to the next generation, is a ministry of condemnation. If I literally stood up and I said, Keep the law and you'll go to heaven, and keep the law and you'll go to heaven, and keep the law and you'll go to heaven, that's similar to me saying, a little condemnation for you and for you and for you. And what's interesting is a lot of people in this world, because they live under that kind of law, the Bible says the law kills. And because in that law, when we live under it, we imagine the only way to get to heaven is to get above that law, and they can't get above that law. So what does it do? It creates this grief of guilt where a lot of people walk around in sackcloth. Anxiety and fear, they're terrified of God instead of looking forward to seeing God. And some of us, we grew up in that environment, and the weight of the law was so heavy that we grew up hating the church. But God wanted to do something, and that is sending the Christ to us to enact a better decree, a better law, that friends, that you not just hate the church, you'll be converted to join the church, to trust and to love Jesus. You see, then what is the gospel? The gospel continues in Romans 3, and he says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. In other words, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We've all accrued a debt before God that requires a redemption price that we don't have enough to pay. And so God, in his grace, sent his Christ, gave him the name Jesus, which means Savior, to be a propitiation, which is a substitutionary sacrifice, where he lived without sin, and yet he went and he bled on a cross to die for our sin. On the third day he rose from the dead and he invited all of us to put our faith in him. And everyone who does, not only are we forgiven of our sin, all of our sin is removed from us, but we are justified by his grace as a gift. To be justified is where he literally gives us his righteousness. Forgiveness takes away our sin, justification gives us his righteousness. And wouldn't you know it in Isaiah 61? Do you know what he calls justification? He calls it God giving us a robe of righteousness, taking away the sackcloth of the law and giving us a robe of righteousness. This is the better decree. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And let me tell you, it's not a suggestion from God, it's still a decree. You must believe. You must believe in Jesus Christ. You must believe. It's not a suggestion. The only way to heaven is to believe, and yet you believe in Christ. And what you find is that he doesn't give you sackcloth, he gives you a robe. He doesn't give you confusion, he gives you joy. He doesn't give you hatred, he gives you a converted heart, a transformed heart where his spirit begins to live within you. Have you put your trust in Christ? That's the point of chapter eight. Chapter nine. 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 Asqueris 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 state traps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for 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 men Mordecai grew more and more powerful. The Jews struck all their enemies with a 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 five hundred men, and also killed Parshandatha and Dauphon and Aspatha and Poratha, and I know you're rooting for me, um Adaliah and Eridatha, and Parmshata or whatever, and Erisai and Eridi and Vasitha. After he died, he couldn't name any more kids. Just very thankful. I mean, there's no like John, Amy, no, it's just anyway, okay. Verse 10 the ten sons of Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the enemy of the Jews, but they laid no hand on the plunder. And that very day the number of those killed in Seus of the Citadel was reported to the king. And the king said to Queen Esther and Sus of the Citadel, the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men, and also the ten sons of Haman. When they had done what then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? And 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 were in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to the king's or to the 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 three hundred 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 seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder. 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 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. So we have seen the God that He delivers through people and their mercy to people. He also delivers by not taking the threat away, but by enabling us to stand under that threat. But there comes a time in the Lord's will when he literally says, I'm gonna deliver myself. And that's what we find here is that God providentially grants victory to his people on the appointed day. Now the appointed day stretches our understanding that where we imagine that God's pace is such in our life that most of our decisions are what determines what happens in our life. Sometimes we imagine that, okay, God's pace, it just seems like sometimes he's not all that active, he's not all that fast, he's not as fast as I wish that he was. Perhaps in your life it seems like everything just kind of happens randomly on the basis of your decisions and that God is simply watching, but that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God is not random in his activity in your life. Let me just show you in this story. If you remember in chapter three, Haman he determined to kill all the Jews. And so it says that he cast poor, P-U-R. It's also lots. I think about it like dice. Now, I don't recommend this today. In fact, the Bible doesn't recommend this today, but in particular in the Old Testament, this was pretty common, where people would try to identify, like, what are we supposed to do? And so if you can imagine like a bowl and you have some dice and you're like, okay, what should I do? And you throw these dice in. And the interpretation of whatever comes about is either a yes or a no. And so he goes and he says, every single day, he was like, What day can I kill all the Jews? And so he says, How about today? No. How about tomorrow? No, next week, next month, no, no, no, no, no, until he gets to how about the 13th day, the 12th month? Yes, we have our day. But little did Haman know that Proverbs 16, 33 says that the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord, which means that the Lord knew the 13th day. 12th month. Just as he knows exactly what he's doing in your life today. Well, sure enough, that day arrived. Verse 1 says, On that very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain mastery over them, the reverse occurred. The Jews gained mastery over those who hated them. And this is another example here in chapter 9 of how God preserved the Jewish people in order to preserve the line that would give us the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world that we all need. Interestingly, verse 10, 15, and 16, it says that they need that they laid no hands on the plunder, indicating that they really weren't out to hurt people for greed to take their things, but out of self-defense. The king comes to the queen that's day, the first day, and says, This is what's happened. Do you have any other wish, sweetie? And Esther says, This just blows my mind. I don't quite understand. Um I probably have still a lot of like my childhood stories of Esther, the sweet little flower of a girl. And she says, Let the Jews in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict. Let me pause there and say, maybe she knew and heard, that's simply not recorded, that the people who wanted to kill the Jews, that even though they were only authorized one day, is that they were going to take two anyway. And so in her counteredict, it provided opportunity for the Jewish people in Sousa to protect themselves the second day as well. Giving her the benefit of the doubt on that one. Where I really have a hard time is when she says, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows, because the ten sons of Haman that I tried to read earlier, those ten sons were already dead. This sweet flower of a girl, you see, the Persian form of crucifixion was not like this, like we think of. The word gallows, oh, we think, oh, they were all hanged with a robe. The word gallows, it means tree. And they would impale somebody on that tree and leave them there to hang. And somehow in her heart, she thought, you know what we need to do? We need to take those ten dead men, impale them on the tree, and let them hang there. Now the only thing that I can redemptively come out of that for myself is the only thing I can give you, and this is what it is. You ready? We all need a savior better than Esther. And we got one. For Esther said, Take those dead men, impale them on a tree and let them hang. And Jesus came to the earth and allowed himself to be impaled on a tree, and he hung. What we find here is a deliverance, but it's a temporary one. In verse 18, it says that the Jewish people rested, making that a day of feasting. They rested. See, this deliverance appoints to a better deliverance. Esther secured a temporary rest, but Jesus provides an eternal one. You see, at the right time, at the appointed hour, Christ came to the earth. At the appointed hour, he began a ministry. At the appointed hour, he went to Jerusalem. His enemies, unaware of God's timetable, said, This is the time we need to kill him. And on that day when they said, This is when we need to kill him, they hoped to gain mastery over him, but the reverse occurred. Oh, they arrested him and they condemned him. But he who had no sin allowed himself to go to that tree and die in my place and yours. Paul says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. They took him off that tree and they put him in a grave. And on the third day he walked out of that grave. He's alive. He said and promised that he would walk out of a grave, and he did. And my encouragement to you on the basis of what he said next, and that is that if you will put my your faith in me, if you'll acknowledge your sin and believe in me and confess to me as Lord, I will forgive you. I will wrap you in my robe of righteousness, I will give you eternal life. I will deliver you. And this can be your appointed day. In a minute, we're gonna pray, and then we're gonna observe two people being baptized today. And as we observe people being baptized, this is being 19 and 20 on the weekend, which is amazing. Every service we've just been able to celebrate. I say two, there may be three. We'll see. You need to understand, though, that sometimes when people look at this and think, oh, they're being washed of their sins. Well, the Bible tells us that only the blood of Jesus can wash us of our sins. But he tells us that we go and we're baptized, not for a washing, but a proclamation to tell other people I've placed my faith in Christ and He's washed me of my sins. So when they come into the water, not only does it take a lot of courage, but what they're saying is not, hey, I'm about to be cleaned. They're saying, I want you to know what Jesus has already done in my life and celebrate with me as I identify publicly with him. And friends, let me just encourage those of you, there's 18 people who've indicated to me or to others that during the time in Esther that you've put your faith in Christ. And let me just encourage you to consider that your next step of obedience to your king is to publicly identify and be baptized. And so let this courage inspire courage in your own heart. So let me pray. Father in heaven, we bow before you. Thank you for sending us Christ, the Savior of the world that we need. Thank you for Esther, for the book of Esther. Thank you for what we've learned here and we see here, even in all of the injustice and all the brutality, we thank you, God, that it shows us that we have a need and you met that need. And so now we pray for those who will be baptized, that you give them courage, and you would also help those who are considering putting their trust in Christ, Lord, that their hearts will be moved and that they would believe today and be forgiven of their sin. So we look to you in faith. Help us now to celebrate. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.