The 4th Presbyterian Church defies the Merrill in Sunday evening October the 7th 1990. Dr. Norris speaking in the same confunctions God's enemy, Scripture references from Esther the 7th chapter verses 1 through 10. This is the 9th in the series, The Book of Esther. With me in God's word to the 7th chapter of Esther, as we follow this night, that story of faith and courage. You'll remember that payment has for the first time been drawn to the place where he has seen that he will not triumph over his enemy, more the care, and that for the first time it is possibility that he will face defeat and that Israel will be saved. And so the king and him and went to dine with Queen Esther and on the second day at the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, what is your petition, Queen Esther? It will be granted to you and what is your request up to half my kingdom? It will be done. Then Queen Esther answered and said, if I have found favor in the sight of a king and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. For we have been sold my people and I to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. And we've been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never come to say for the king's loss. Then King as you asked, answered and said to Queen Esther, who is he and where is he who were there presuming his heart to do such a thing, and Esther said, the adversary and enemy is this wicked harem. And so harem was terrified before the king and queen and then the king arose in his rust from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden. But harem stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that he was determined against him by the king and when the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, harem and had fallen across the culture Esther was. And the king said, well, he also sought the queen while I am in the house. And as the word left the king's mouth, they covered harem and space. Now, had Bono one of the eunuchs said to the king, look, the gallows, 50 qubit high with harem and made for Bono the Kiai, which were good on the king's behalf, is standing at the house of human. And then the king said, hang him on his feet. And so they hanged him and on the gallows that he had prepared for Bono the Kiai. And then the king's rust subsided. Now men, may God bless this year's holy word to us this night. We have already seen that harem had purposed the destruction of the Jews in Persia. And he had contributed 10,000 elements of silver, a great amount to the royal treasury. And in exchange for this, he had presented to the king a bill that the king had signed to law, a bill that declared that all the Jews in the Persian Empire would, on a particular day, find themselves attacked by those who would kill them. And there would be no recompensing law against those who would slaughter the Jews. And particularly, he cheesed more the Kiai, particularly, he hated this man whom God had exalted, who had refused to bow before him as he walked through the court, who had refused to give him obeisance. Kaman had built a gallows as he chewed it high in his palace and had surfaced to hang more the Kiai, on his back more the Kiai had been saved. For the king in a sleepless night had remembered that this man had heard a plot against him and had been unrewarded. And thus, elevated him both in the kingdom and before his own attention and caused him and to walk in front of more the Kiai and to take the horse and cause all to bow before him. And him and unnerved went home. And therefore, the first time his consul is and his wife reminded him that if he finds himself in the position to more the Kiai, the Jew then he will surely perish for, ultimately, being the Jew was being one who was a chosen son of God and God would protect. And even as the drama draws to its conclusion in the house of him and we find that a messenger enters and bids him and comes to the feast prepared by Esther, that once was Haman's great triumph that he would dine alone with the King and the Queen. And yet now, Haman is unnerved by the invocation and is apprehensive as he enters the presence of the King. And in here, you have the perfect drama unfolding. There is a sense in which the dramatic element of this story is remarkable because there is constant development both of story leading to the climax in which the enemy of God is dealt with and destroyed. And the drama begins to unfold. It is that why this story is so remarkably easy to memorize and why it lets him continue to abide over these centuries. Haman leaves the go to the banquet ill at ease. The King on the other hand is impatient to fulfill his vow to Queen Esther while having behold her beauty, having seen her. The King has promised to Esther anything that she should ask up to half of his kingdom and the Queen asked only that she should be given time to be able to suck with the King and the King and then present her request. And so the King seeks from Esther that she might give her request. And Esther as a person in these 8 chapters, 7 chapters are grown from one who was timid, who was young, one who was not clear about her faith and what she had to do to one who having exercised faith now has grown into a mature person and one who wishes to deal ultimately as God's servant. And we have seen almost as a basic principle the faith as it is exercise grows. The timid girl is one who was uncertain that she could ever gain entrance into the royal chamber. The same one who dared everything in that courageous act of going undidding into the King's throne, this is the same one who purposes now to confront the enemy of her people and the enemy of God. And here is a lesson book to ask in the nature of growth and in the nature of courage that as we are obedient to those things that God gives us to do as he is timing unfolds so he will strengthen and so he will prepare and so faith will grow as we face the challenge of obedience. Well now this evening I want to draw your attention to two verses in this chapter which outline to us two great truths that God would teach us. The first of them is in the sixth verse and that's the said the adversary and the enemy is this wickie entertainment and human was terrified before the King and the Queen. We have seen unfolding and we see dramatically revealed to us to mention this verse the fact that there is a confrontation with evil that is unavoidable. All the story has been leading to this particular point for the place at which Esther and him and our brought together in which the one servant chosen by God is to deal with one who is the enemy of God and of God kingdom. One who has purpose the destruction of Israel one who stands as the whole place up by God to save his people. Here is the confrontation with evil and there is a thing which it has been limitable from the first day and we learn the inevitability of confrontation with evil is part of the circumstance of our own spiritual growth and the reality of living for God in any day and in any generation. Well we are always set apart by God to be engaged in spiritual warfare and that warfare will come and we are will be called to deal with reality and to confront evil. However much like Esther we would have thought to avoid it however much we make ourselves ill prepared and you'll remember this. This is what she offered. I cannot do anything. I am not big enough. I'm not invited. I have no influence on power. I do not have all that it takes to fight this evil. God will linklessly and will mostlessly draw her his servant to the place where she has to confront the evil of her day and there is a spiritual lesson for us that however much we try to avoid it we will if we are following God in Jesus Christ. Always face the reality of confrontation with evil. For it is unavoidable that the light will continue to shine in the darkness that darkness will struggle with it. The darkness will seek to overcome it and to destroy it and we will always be set unavoidably for a confrontation with evil. Now it is a remarkable thing that most of Christ's people would rather avoid that confrontation. Most of us if it is possible to avoid anything like that would seek to go in a different direction and I suspect that all of us would prefer peace around confrontation because confrontation is never peaceful. It is never easy and it is rarely enjoyable. But the reality is that each of us is set in this world with that unmistakable call and with that unmistakable purpose that we will have to confront evil where we find it and we will find it. We don't have to search for it. We do not need to engage in which hands to find evil so running at both at home, be siege in our homes, find it in our workplace, be siege, morality and integrity in workplace. We will find it wherever we are engaged in spiritual work for God then there will be the hostile environment, there will be opposition, there will be the hostility of the evil ones and whether we seek to avoid it or not ultimately God will draw us to the place of confronting evil for we cannot live peaceably with it, tend to work together, say they agreed, same as, and we recognize that it is not possible and good and evil do not coexist, they fight, they battle, for darkness will always seek to overcome the light. And here we see Esther ultimately drawn to face her adversary human and she seeks to avoid that, she does not seek to avoid it but ultimately to face that with purpose and if necessary with sacrifice. We notice about the nature of that confrontation that Esther is both reasons and deliberate and polite. Now this is a distinct lesson for many of us who have to engage in controversy at one time or another, to be both reasonable and deliberate and polite is almost the hallmark of those who are not evangelicals. Too often we sound rigid, too often we are impolite, too often we are less than reason than we are far from deliberate and we sound as though we have not been touched and quickly by God as people, even amidst controversy, even amidst the very places which we have difference at the places which we have confrontation, we are people who are touched by God and if we stand for him there is no standing for him in ways that he will become his name. That is Esther's collectiveness, if I have found favor in looking side, he was always polite. There is a mark of our generation but collectiveness is not something we engage in. Everybody regards everybody else's fair game and there is no sense of dignity and there is no honouring while honour is due and yes, Esther honours looking, no the thing was not a godly man, he was a truly man of God but he honoured the fact that God had set him and God had ordained that he should sit there and she did not seek to abuse nor yet to use that. There was a sense of her for license, there was a sense of recognition about the way in which she dealt with the king and she was reasonable. The enemy could never compensate, now here is that strange little verse in the verse 4. The enemy could never compensate the king for his loss, nobody is actually sure what led the verse to, it certainly involves the fact that 10,000 talents of silver offered by him and to bribe the conscience of the king would never compensate for the destruction of the Jewish race both because of the integrity with which they came into his presence and because of the economic strength that they brought in the cultural benefit, we don't know exactly what it is that is referred to but we do know that 10,000 pieces of silver would never restore that which was destroyed. Now here is the deliberate reasonableness of this great woman of faith. She sat before the king an argument that he is absolutely unrefeatable. We've seen it work out in the very history of the world where God's people have been destroyed or eradicated, the cost has been tremendous. In the 17th century the Hulganers, the Protestants of France, were banished, they had no crime against them simply that they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and would not change their faith and they were banished from the French kingdom and with them they took the skills that enabled the kingdom to survive economically. It was not only an act of grave injustice, it was a great wonder for the French economy was ruined for a hundred years as it lost the whole class of people that had prospered. The little class described them guessing it. Now this is precisely what Esther said. It is not reasonable to imagine that this king could give away the people of Israel who stood as citizens and as those who contributed to the kingdom and this compensated by a mere 10,000 species of silver. The confrontation with evil is deliberate. We recognize that it is there and we do not run from it. It is reason that it is not simply screaming and shouting as we deal with those who are in opposition to the gospel who are hostile to the things of Christ and to that which God has ordained for his kingdom. We do so with reasonable arguments and with full life but firm and deliberate opposition for God's sake. Now you can apply that in any number of ways to a myriad of circumstances. The hostile environment that surround our families were immediately confronted with the whole question of the education of our children. We are confronted with any number of places at which we are facing hostility for Christ's sake and for the gospel mandate. How do we oppose it? Not simply screaming, not shouting, but deliberately in Christ's name opposing that which is wrong, deliberately but politically and reasonably confronting that which is deficient and not God honoring and dealing with it in that way. We see them first that the confrontation with evil is inevitable, unavoidable and however much we feel as unprepared. It must come and it will always come because it is the way that God deals with his world. It is the way in which God has shaped us, his people, to stand for Christ and for his kingdom. But we see a second great truth in this passage. And it's this. We find it in the tent veress and I draw your attention to it. And so they hand him on the gallows, the gallows that he had prepared for more the AI and the King's wrath subsided. Well, the second truth, that we look at this evening is here, that the justice of God is absolute and unrelenting. Him and his unprepared for the accusation that comes from the mouth of Esther. He is sitting there eating, he is apprehensive, he is nervous, he is certainly not at ease, but suddenly we find the very plot and the darkness that he has espoused. We have seen the very scheme that he has built for climbers. It's posed and by this young queen who now reveals herself to be one of God's people. And him, I'm suddenly confronted, suddenly opposed, tries for mercy. The king of a home stands and goes out into the night air. The drama continues where Esther thinks upon her couch, lying back reclining as it was the Eastern way of eating of the feast. And suddenly the hamen begs this queen for his life and casts herself, cast himself upon her for mercy, said touching at her and beginning of all at her feet and the ponds, that calcium which he reclined on the king walks in. And where the powerful word and the king looked at him and said where he was sought, the queen, while I am in the house. Now there is no evidence that the hamen was assorting Esther or anything of the sort. Actually, anger of the king is caught in a phrase with his perhaps one of the most powerful phrases in the whole of the Old Testament. And as the word left the king's mouth, a covered hamen's face. Here's a picture. The king speaks and his words of condemnation are so absolute that utterly and completely they overwhelm the hamen. And he is faced with the word of the king with the absolute punishment of the monarch that he has betrayed and he withers and he has faced and he has utterly described him and reeks the reward of evil. You could look at the 7th Psalm and the 15th and the 16th verses and you see there that God with tributeive judgment comes upon those who plan destruction for his people, for his plan and for his purpose. God judges with doom and with finality. He judges with an unrelenting justice all that is opposed to him, all that affects himself against his way, against his purpose and against his direction. And God doom is pronounced and God justice is absolute and complete. We need to recognise that when sometimes we're overwhelmed by the power of evil as it displays itself in the world. When we see the triumph of the kingdom of darkness in so many areas of thinking and human achievement and activity, so remind ourselves that God purposes destruction and doom for that which is opposed to him and he is inevitable. It is unrelenting it will consistently purpose itself in the life of individuals and of peoples. I don't know if some of you have read, I'm sure you have, that poem, The Inscrede Rock by Sati, it gives us a picture of God's providence and its impact upon human life. The poem begins with a picture of Sir Ralph Rover, he's a pirate, not a happy person at all. And he purposes to steal the Inscrede Rock Bell, the great bell that sounds a warning to ships, lost at night as they come close to the Inscrede Rock. The bell sounds and they know that they are approaching the rock that has lured so many to doom and to destruction and he feuses the bell and carries it off in triumph and uses it for himself. And the poem goes on, he is lured himself in the midst of the night of that same rock and is destroyed at the place where he has taken the bell that sounded a warning. God's providence, his guidance of human affairs of individual destiny of our life, is a providence that ultramatry is unrelenting and is based upon justice. God's justice, not ours, God's purpose, not ours and he will direct in that way. And also a lot of them. We see that providence return the fruit of evil as thousandfold against ourselves. I'm reminded and you will see what sort of monstrous use I had of one dreadful occasion. I still laugh at it, when at college I had prepared for some who had been particularly caustic and with friends, a particular birthday party. I made them a chocolate cake from less than a chocolate. And they ate, and the month they ate, they punished by. I of course did not eat any of the cake. Avoiding it carefully, I asked Cate that I had bought for the occasion and kept for that alone. They were uncomfortable for two whole days, but Cate was poisoned and I was in dead for a week. They of course claimed that the justice of God was unrelenting and as I had shown, so I had reached, but in much more important things, that is exactly true, but she so comes back to Francis so many times. For God's administration of this world, of his kingdom and of all things is moral and it is attributed. God will work justice and he will bring doom upon those who work opposed to him. Ultimately, we pay the price for the crimes that we commit, and our sins are in this measure. Justice of God is brought against all who defy him and his ways. It was God's justice that was brought against the very single son of God, Jesus himself, that if he was raised to the cross of Calvary, it was the justice of God against your sin and against mine. It was the justice of God against that which would work evil in his world and disobeyed him. It was the justice of God that placed us there, guilty as we were and visited our guilt upon the sinless king of kings, Jesus of God, and it was the mercy of God that gave us his son to go in our place. That the doom that was written for us was brought against him. It is only as we claim his mercy. It is only as we claim to that cost if he is only as we escape to the cross of Calvary. But we find ourselves in joy in the mercy and the justice of God, lingual and net and complete in the disc of his son, I say to you. It's why our tongues can never be filled in adoring, in worshipping and in proclaiming him. It is why we can never cease to oppose the evil that opposes God and his way. It is why we are as unrelenting as God in his service. For we have tasted of a mercy of heaven and we have shared in the glory of the king.
That's why Christ wants to accursed us to satisfy the justice of God. For I say, it is unrelenting and it claimed the life of the perfect and sinless. That we might have lived this night. We have nothing else to do but to glorify this Christ in our lives and in our hearts, to season by season and to rejoice in him who is our perfect God. That's right. Our Father, we come and we would bless you who in Christ has satisfied that unfailing and unrelenting justice guide us in the way of faith that hungry we might ever seek and follow again that we might pursue with zeal the call of your name and of your kingdom to the praise of our Master, Jesus Christ, to whom now we bring our lives to His praise and glory.