This is the evening service of the 4th Best Veteran Church of Bethesda, Maryland for September the 30th, 1990. This evening, Dr. Robert Norris speaks in the subject a sleepless night. The scripture reference is taken from Esther 6, verses 1 through 14. You know, that is one of the great texts of humanity by Augustus Toplady, mighty him capturing the majesty of the sacrifice of Christ. Let's turn this evening to the 6th chapter of the Book of Esther, and we read that chapter reminding ourselves that here we see the hand of God stretched out to sustain his people. That night the king could not sleep, so one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the Chronicles that they be read before the king, and it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh to of the king's unix, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on king as you area. Then the king said, what honor or dignity has bestowed on Mordecai for this, and the king's servants who attended him said nothing has been done for him, and the king said, who is in the court? Now, a human had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him, and the king's servant said to him, the king said, the king said, let him come in, and so a human came in and the king asked him, what will be done for the man whom the king dear likes to honor? Now a human thought in his heart, whom would the king dear likes to honor Mordecai and came and answered the king, for the man whom the king dear likes to honor led a royal robe he brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden which has a royal crest placed on its head. Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hands of the one of the king's most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king dear likes to honor, and then for raid him on horseback through the city square and proclaimed before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king dear likes to honor. And then the king said to him, take the robe and the horse as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai that you who sits within the king's gate, leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken, and so the king took the robe and the horse, a raid Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square and proclaimed before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king dear likes to honor. Then Mordecai went back to the king's gate, but he meant he sent to his house morning and with his head covered. When he meant to his wife Zerash and all his friends, everything that had happened to him, his wife's man and his wife Zerash said to him, if Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him. And while they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs came and hastened to bring him and to the banquet with Esther had prepared. Amen, and may the Lord bless this his holy word to our life and to our understanding. I can entitle this sermon, a turning of triumph into tragedy. Yesterday afternoon, as I was minding the children, I watched a minor triumph turn into a little tragedy. As Sarah was sleeping on her bed, my little one-year-old son Adam, who delights nothing better than to torment her, came into her bedroom, and after scaling the heights of her bed, crawled up and stood triumphantly, ready to jump on her and awaken her, knowing that this infuriates her beyond all reasonable measure. And that glint in his eye of triumph as he had stood there for the first time, and as he punched forward, he lost his balance and landed on the floor. And in the very moment of his triumph, there was his disaster. He irritated her nonetheless, because he started to scream and startled her from her sleep and paid the consequences as did we all, but here was his triumph turned suddenly to tragedy. And here in the story of Haman's great moment is the place of his great fall, for he is at the place where he has built a gallows and purposes to hang his enemy, Mordecai. His counsellors have given him their best advice, build it high, these gallows, go and ask of the thing that he should give you, Mordecai, and kill him. And when he is dead, let his people die also. And so it was purposed and so it was to be executed. And so was the clarity of Haman's plan. And now as he comes into the court of the monarch to ask for the death of this man, he is met by one who asks him what shall it be for one whom the king honors and Haman, knowing that the king loved him more than others, asks for Mordecai for he would desire to be led by a prince of the realm arrayed in the royal robe on the royal horse and all the city to fall before him and to see the triumph of Haman, the prince, and then the name of Mordecai is breathed. And his triumph, that power to which he had sought, take hold, suddenly sits from his fingers and there is the disaster, beyond all measure he could never have imagined, taking shape to destroy his life. And it was in that moment as this chapter unfolds that we see the power of God displayed. And it is because of the unseen but ever present power of the living God that we see the victory of his purposes. Well, now I ask you to draw, I ask you to draw to your attention the 15th verse of this chapter because in it we see something of God's character revealed. His wise men and his wife Zeresh said to Haman, if Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him. Now, why is it that they should ask him, is Mordecai you? They all knew it. The king had already announced it, Haman had told them all that he was a Jew and all the Jews were to perish. Suddenly all those counselors that had argued for the death of Mordecai are telling him and the truth. And the truth is this, if this man belongs to the Jews, then the God of the Jews has never yet been overturned. And this was the common reality and the known history for all who would care to study it. The king knew it, the counselors knew it, the wife of Haman knew it, it was only Haman who had failed deliberately and purposely to see God in the activities of this man. And so we are introduced to the nature and the character of the God that Haman had rejected and fought against and there are three things that this text indicates to us. The first thing is this that the God that Haman attacked was a God who had revealed himself as one caring for his people, isn't it the text? If Mordecai be the Jew, now what is implied in that, well, it's precisely this. The Jewish race had been preserved in the whole of if long and tortured history miraculously by the hand of God. And what we find is that God's care is over his people, his watch care is over the lives of his unchildren. Mordecai was preserved at the time when he was most frightened here at the point in which Haman was going to ask that he be hanged, he is placed upon the king's own animal and led in triumph through the king's capital. And has taken care of his servant, he has protected him. Not only is Mordecai preserved, but the whole of the Jewish race is held in his hands because they are the children of the covenant. And God honoring the covenant that he has made with that people will not let them perish even though they are disobedient and stiff-necked people. Even though they have been exiled in punishment for their sin and their rebellion, God's care is upon his covenanted people. And it was true for the Jews that great German skeptic philosopher Hegel turned round and said I can explain all things in the history of humankind by the application of dialectics, save this one thing, the history of the Jewish people defies explanation, save God preserve them. Now here is this great skeptic who is aware that there is something significant and special about the race of the Jew, why even in modern times it is clearly seen that they are something unusual, they are different. God protected them and has by his covenant preserved them as people for his purpose. Now that covenant is made not only with the Jew, it is made with those who are the new creation, the new Israel, the kingdom of God, the church, his people, you and me, if you have plung to Jesus Christ alone, we are the recipients of the new covenant in heritages of the promise of God. And here is our comfort, it is that God cares. And the care for his people is demonstrated in a protective, securing grace that is never ever overturned. The care of the covenant people was because of the glory and the word that was pledged there. And I suppose there is no greater passage in Scripture that describes the nature of that covenant than in first Samuel and the second chapter and verse 30. And there we read these words of God describing that covenant. He says, in that 30th verse, therefore the Lord God of Israel says, I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should work before me forever. But now the Lord says, far bit from me, for those who honor me, I will honor and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed, behold the days are coming and I will cut off your arm and the arm if your father's house, so they will not be an old man in your house. What is God saying here, it says, he is preserving his word given to his people. His care for his glory is in that people of his calling. And the truth was that every one of the advisers to him and saw that God was on the side of his servant. And they were able to see that if he and his plans were overturned, it was not because Mordecai was a powerful and indolential man, not because of the chance and fortune of history but because God. Behind this man and his purpose was directing and securing people for himself. And every it was us, when God is at work in his people, when he protects, when he secures all conceit, it was so at the red sea, when the Egyptians stood there amazed at the safe passage of Israel and amazed at the enormous loss of their great and powerful armies over born by the miraculous descent of the sea on them. It was true, as at the battle of Jericho, they saw the worlds of the great city tumble down because God was with his people. It was true ever in the New Testament as God is seen to care for and to be with his people. Where he is, where he is working, where his power is evident, then others will be held. You know, even this morning we have an example of that. We have, over the last few days, had as house gets in our home, two Soviet teachers, vectors of Soviet institutions and universities. They were with Karen in worship this morning and lunch just before they left us. One of them who speaks, no English speaking only to Karen, and me listening be musedly, said as they had come to church, these are men of advanced years and great dignity and position in Moscow, had done and said, well one thing is different about your church and its worship. God is very personal and very real. They may not understand all things but they were able to see that God is by his people, where he is he is there with power, where he is his evidence is that he is at work in the life of his people to make them precisely and exactly that. Now this is the truth about God. He cares for his people, he preserves them, that you, that's me, that's the promise that we cling to the Lord that we hold, but there's a second thing that this verse tells us and this passage secures for us and it's this, that the timing of God in all his purposes is perfect. Now here is something that we find it hard to believe, but listen to these words, says the counsellors to him and you have begun to fall. The timing of God is that the fall of him and should occur at the very moment when his plans seem to have come to fruition and his purposes evil and wicked were taking form in fashion and shape and at the very moment of seeming defeat God into beings and saves his people and purpose, serves the man of his own choice. His timing is perfect over his people and there are times when we are desperately concerned and worried because it seems as though God is causing us to walk so many tightrokes to the 11th hour of our endurance and to the place where decisions seem almost to have overharmed us. And we begin to despair of God's purpose and in that is timing, perfect and absolute and complete. Overwhelms our imagination or it's at the distance of the gulf between earth and heaven as a vastness, greater in all his ways is God and more perfect in all his thoughts than we, but the timing by which he controls the events and intrudes into the circumstances of your life is a perfect one. And God does not make mistakes nor does he ever let our foot slip and stumble as abiding in him he directs with grace and judgment the affairs of man and of nations. So we see here in his timing that what he has done is to interfere secretly but effectively in the heart of this king and of this empire who would have imagined that a sleepless night would have caused this ancient death but to listen to the record of unrewarded kindnesses and great acts so that as he heard of Mordecai he should be stirred at that moment of that very day to reward him with fit reward for a servant and saviour. So that is what Mordecai was here to overheard these two men at the gates of the court plotting the murder of the king's axis and at that time had surrendered them into the royal care and preserved the life of the monarch. We do not know as we deal with others men and women we do not know what God is doing in the hearts and the minds of other people but this we do know is that he is working perfectly to bring about his own end and will and we should always be careful ever aware of the finitude of our understanding and imagination and when we are talking to people and when we are looking at them and when we are examining them to be aware that we do not know what God is doing, say of this that he is doing his perfect will and that he is executing his sovereign purpose through them and in them and that at the time appointed he will accomplish that which is perfect, for God takes the instant of defeat and transmutes it into the moment of victory that this metal is transmuted into a gold of splendor and the day that was lost is remade into a day of victory, the timing of God is perfect in his way, well there is a certain thing that this verse teaches us about God and it is this that his anger is against all the unrighteous and will bring just punishment, listen again to those words of the counsellor why is beyond their own understanding, looking at him and they said you will not prevail against him if he is a Jew, well they knew he was a Jew, everybody knew that he was a Jew, what they are saying is this, that him and had arranged himself against God and that you set your face against God, when you raise your anger against him, when you lift up your hands to what his purpose, when you set your hands against him and his kingdom, his way and his people, when you deny him you will earn an absolute penalty, it is a fearful and terrible thing to have God against you, that's what we learn from him, he who had denied God and his way, who had walked in a path that was seeking to destroy God's revealed will, had secured for himself a doom that was all but inevitable, and his wife saw it in his face and his counsellor saw it in the circumstances of life, the only one who could not see it all that moment was Hayman and as those words are pronounced, if modakai is a Jew then your doom is set, if you are fighting God your doom is secured, if you are arguing with God if you are walking away from him, if you know that you are opposed to heel's will, his purpose and his way and if this night you are walking in a path that is different than God's path produces an inevitable doom against his enemies, now here is a terrible thing, God is not to be trifled with and even if we set our face against him, if we walk in paths that are not his, if our minds are set in a different place than God's mind we war against heaven itself and we war against that which will ultimately overturn us for God is King and if tonight on a personal level you have not yet found in Jesus Christ your Savior your hope if you are insecure in that know that the sad truth of the matter is that you are warring against him for the scripture says that you are still in your sin and that your mind by night and arrogant argues against him and your will walks away from him and what you are to do, if you have to call upon the gracious provision of his life and love in Jesus Christ and to cling to him only,
him and us suddenly was made aware of all that was happening to him, had a failure of confidence it was in that moment all the things were revealed before him and in those last telling where the eunuchs of the king came to draw him to the banquet prepared by Esther for him it is as the Heyman had suddenly forgotten what was the matter of in one chapter a great prestigious invitation to personally dine with the king and queen, forgotten for suddenly he saw his soul embroiled in a battle with God and he saw the eternal place of his soul in jeopardy and his enmity with God leading him apart from his king and he was afraid we do well we do well if this night you are arguing with God if tonight you are arguing with him and his will in your life with his way and his purpose for who you you are and what you are doing if you are arguing with him as to the means of his establishing his perfect rule you argue early to doom and if you tremble you do well to tremble or but do more than that for given to us is the mercy of God in Christ that we might cling to that and to him and to his cross and to the gift of life that God has truly given to those who will call upon him and if you will call upon him you will find in repentance that his mercy was there before you you will call upon him and you will find that your way is prepared in your life given newness and forgiveness but if you continue at war with him know that the inevitable doom of those who fight God is secured and their ways ultimately will be overborn and overturned and God will always triumph what he is the Lord and he is the Master and his word speaks to us as clearly this night he reminds each one of us that here's is the absolute and ultimate sovereignty in the affairs of men and of nations and in the affairs of a hearts of individuals and in the eternal hope and security that each of us possess he is sovereign and he is Lord and he holds us in the palm of his hand that none will ever rip us from his grasp and he gives to us the call but we might walk with him or like him and set our face against him and know his doom against our life we cling to Christ we come penitently to his throne of grace and mercy and we find there our hope renewed let's pray our Father we thank you that you are the living God we thank you that in Jesus Christ you have revealed not only your grace and love but the justice of your anger against rebellion and sin Father forgive us for we are sinners and you have turned your hand against sin and those who share it and you have turned the wrath of God upon humankind in their ways and you have visited judgment upon us in that Christ has died and born that judgment is penalty and it's guilt and it's shame upon himself forgive us that we esteem him too lightly and ourselves and others too much forgive us that we would purpose to walk our own ways rather than line in anoint us this night that by the Holy Spirit we be remade and refashioned hearts and minds obedient to him who has called us in Christ the little love it and in the cross of his redemption for we seek it to his praise and his glory amen now make grace mercy and peace from God Father's Son and Holy Spirit come upon us and rest with us both now and forevermore amen