Esther chapter 7. I'm told the message Haman exposed. So the king and Haman came to the banquet with Esther, the queen. And the king said unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, what is thy petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee. And what is thy request? And it shall be performed. even to the half of the kingdom. Then Esther the queen answered and said, if I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. For we are sold and I and my people to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish. But if we'd been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I would have just held my peace or held my tongue. although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. And King Azarius answered and said unto Esther the queen, well, who is he? And where is he that doth presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, the adversary and the enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and before the queen. And the king, rising from the banquet of wine and his wrath, went into the palace garden, I guess to cool off just for a minute, and Haman stood up to make requests for his life to Esther, the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the palace of the banquet of wine, and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me? In the house, as the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. And Habanoth, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also the gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman hath made for Mordecai, who hath spoken good for the king, it standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, well, hang him there on. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified, dissatisfied, his justice. Let's read verse one and two of chapter eight. And on that day that Haman was hanged, On that day, the King Azarius gave the house of Haman, the Jews, the Jews' enemy, to Esther. He gave it to Esther, the queen, and Mordecai came before the king. He'd never been in the king's presence, for Esther had told the king what he was and to her that he was her cousin. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, And he gave it unto Mordecai, and Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman while a turn of events in God's providence. Let me remind you of a few things here in the introduction. As we saw last week, I mentioned these individuals, they are pictures and types and metaphors. Haman, as we saw, can be a picture of the flesh, that old man that we were born with. He loves to be worshipped. He wants to be worshipped, that's it. He wants the rule. He can't stand no one else having the praise or anything. He wants all the praise. King Azarias is a picture of the soul of man that was persuaded by Haman. And the king, whatever he said, whatever he did, affected his whole kingdom, affected the whole realm. And Esther, the human spirit of man, the part that's regenerated by God's grace, and then we have Mordecai, the spirit of God. Turn with me, I wanna show you this in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, verse 23. Speaking of the body and the soul and the spirit of man. Paul writing, encouraging the Thessalonians, and we know from chapter one that he knows that they are the elect of God, he said, in the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, complete. And I pray your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The work of grace and sanctification begun in a believer is far from being perfect in this life. We know that. We know it. This work, let me read to you what Mr. Gill said, and I was taken back a little bit, but I just want to read to you what he said. Now just listen, listen to what he said. Sanctification is a progressive gradual work, and it is. I know men take that, they take it and pervert it because they think it's of their own will and their own ability that they make themselves holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, perfect, complete, and they can't be, but God does. God does. He said it's like a seed cast into the earth. which springs up, first you have the blade, then you have the ear, then you have the full corn in the ear. And as is light, which shines more and more to the perfect day. Sanctified persons are first newborn babes, and then they grow up to be young men. It's like to my little granddaughter, Hadley. When that child's born, she's not gonna grow any more fingers. She's not gonna grow any more toes. She's got two ears. She's got a mouth. She's got everything that she will ever need. But I can show you a picture of three months from when she was first born. Something's happened to that child. You know what it is? She's grown. We do grow in grace, and it is a progress. God grows us in grace. He grows us. It's like Paul when he said, oh wretched man that I am, this man making this statement, he's been converted 25 years. It's not of our works, it's not of our will. And the work that God begins, don't you listen to me, he will finish it. He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. There's been a change in the palace. Things are not the same. Haman come in and he convinced the king and he ruled the whole realm. The whole realm was under judgment because of the flesh. But now we see there's gonna be a change. It's taken from Haman's hand and the ring is put on Mordecai's hand. If God begins to work, he'll carry it on. And he will finish it. That's why Paul said, I pray that your spirit and soul and body be preserved, what? Blameless. When will it be blameless? Now your spirit is perfect. Your spirit cannot sin that new nature, that divine nature. But your soul can sin. Do you still have wrong thoughts? Yes, where does that come from? That's that old man. His thinking's still wrong. We still think wrong. We still can put confidence in ourself. Let me read to you what Mr. Hawker said. By the spirit, means the heart, the immortal part which because of Adam's nature is dead in trespasses and in sin. That's what's dead and it affects everything. It affects a man's thinking. It affects his attitude. It affects what? The whole realm. The whole man is affected by it. There's not a little good in man. That heart, out of the heart proceed, what's the first thing mentioned? Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. Where did evil thoughts come from? From the heart, the spirit that's dead, that's dead. This is the governing faculty of the soul. But that spirit, God said, I'll give you a new heart. And it will never perish. That's what salvation is. It's life. It's life from the dead, which affects the thinking, which affects the attitude, which affects the way we look at things. Now we see things differently. Why? We have a new spirit. We have life. The soul, as Mr. Hawker said, may include the will and your affections, which are influenced by our understanding. And in a regenerate man, the will is brought into resignation to the will of God. He works in you. What is he working in you to do? The will and the do of his good pleasure. Our will is to draw back. Our will still draws back. Before conversion, our affections were set upon the things of the earth. Now we're to set our affection, not affections with an S, we're to set our affection all bundled up into one upon eternal things. But the world wants to draw your affection after the things of the world. And we know those things are still real. Those bad affections, they're not gone. They're not gone, they're still there. The spirit of God with the new nature has been given life. What was life in the palace? Esther. What was there before? King ruled. Haman had been around the king for a long time. But then when Vashti won't come, won't give in to his, what he wants, now Esther's queen. Why is she queen? God raised her up. God put her there. She's been taught of the spirit of God, Mordecai. She's been adopted of the spirit of God, Mordecai. But who's the one in the palace? What did the spirit of God tell Mordecai? Tell Esther, God has put you there for what? Such a time as this. And she was afraid. She said, you don't know, I can't just go into the king's presence. I've not even been called for in the last 30 days. Listen. He said, the child of God with a new nature is being given life, is born perfect in all of its parts, like a newborn babe. And it is as holy as it can ever be. We're not gonna grow in holiness. When God declared you righteous, he declared you holy, complete. I tell you, here's how holy I am. I am as holy as his son sitting at the right hand of the father. It's not something that I'm going to be, it's something that I am. The new man, now listen, now this is hard for us to grasp. The new man, that new man, cannot sin. Would you like to explain that? Why can't he sin? Because he's perfect. Now you still sin, you know it. Who sins? You do. We do. Whosoever, 1 John 3, 9, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. He's not born of the flesh. He's not born of the will of the flesh. He is born of God. The soul. So I want you to see this. The spirit is being regenerated, but the soul, the thinking, the part we reason with, How many times have we admonished not to lean to our own understanding? Abraham was a believer, but he leaned unto his own understanding, and he went down to Egypt because there was a famine. Why didn't he trust the Spirit of God? Like the man said, Lord, help thou mine unbelief. Listen, Hebrews 10, 39. We are not of them that draw back to perdition and there's many that do. Why would people go back to perdition? Why would people go back to works religion? Why would people apostatize? You're not of them that draw back. If God left you alone, you would go back if God left you alone. But we are of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Now listen, the soul is never renewed during this life upon the earth. Here's where men miss it. They think that by their efforts, they can become sinless and you reach a point where you never sin again. But you think about it, that soul, we will struggle with it till the day we die. We will have wrong thoughts, we will get angry, you know, we can make a whole list of things. But listen, but Paul groaned under the daily burden of sin and death. I remember sitting in a Bible class years ago, this is probably back in the late 80s. I didn't hardly know anything. I still don't know, I still know very little. But I heard men say that this right here was talking about a carnal Christian. It was talking about an unbeliever. It was talking about someone who'd fallen back into sin. Oh, I don't think so. He's basically saying what we want to say. And sometimes the shame to admit it. We're sinners. We struggle. We struggle. Turn with me to Romans chapter seven. I just want to take a few minutes and just read this. This is what we see pictured here in the book of Esther. Romans chapter 17, verse 18. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. What'd he say? Nothing dwells there. Something dwells, it mean it lives there. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Notice the word I. He said I do it. Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I found in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law warring in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am. If you ever see yourself as Paul saw himself here, that will be your confession. Oh, wretched man that I am. He's talking about a struggle. Now listen, before conversion, there was no struggle. At one time in the palace, there was no struggle. There was no light. There was just total darkness. One time in your life, there was no struggle. You may have struggled a little bit, but it's not like when God comes to dwell, that's the struggle. Because it's struggling against the flesh. The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Oh, wretched man that I am. Not that I used to be, but that I am. You don't hear many people talk that way, do you? Oh, would call yourself a wretch? That's pretty low. A worm? A maggot? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I sure can't do it. What I want to do is what I don't do. And what I don't want to do is the very thing I find myself doing. But I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the old nature, with the flesh, the law of sin. Let's don't stop there, verse one of chapter eight. There is therefore, thank goodness, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. We still have the flesh, we still sin in the flesh, but the tenor of our life is not the walk after the desires of the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak to the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. Esther, who you gonna listen to? Who's giving you the advice? Who told you, Esther, not to tell anybody that you was a Jew? Who told you, who instructed you not to do that? Who instructed you what to do? Mordecai did. Ain't that right? And who was it that told her, maybe the Lord's brought you here for such a time as this? He told her, he instructed her. And she trusted him. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit do things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death. We can still be carnally minded. No question about that. Read 1 Corinthians. Didn't he say, are you not carnal? He said, you're worshiping preachers. Some say, well, I like this preacher, I like Paul, I like Barnabas, I like another preacher. He said, you're acting like children. That's no way to act or behave, or to think. That's what he's saying. To be carnally minded is death. You want death? It's not life, it's death. Death. Death. What are they doing? They made the decree that all should die. Who made the decree? The king, the soul did. They all got to die. Well, not life. The carnally mind is, carnal mind is, Verse six, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Thou, he will keep you in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Oh, that by God's grace he would enable me to do that. Peace, he gives us perfect peace. because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so, be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raises up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors. Children, I'm talking to us. After everything is just said, We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. We're not here to serve the flesh. We're here to serve him. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. What does mortify mean? Put to death. For as many as are led of the spirit, they are the sons of God. You've not received the spirit of adoption again to fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Mr. Hawker said on 1 Thessalonians 5.23, even though the soul and the body or in an unrenewed state in this life, Paul prayed that the whole spirit and soul and body we be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that he would answer that prayer. When he prayed, prayed, and he told him, he said, I'm praying, I'm praying that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless. Watch over you, keep you, preserve you, because you do not keep yourself. He keeps you. He watches over you. Now in light of this, let us consider Esther chapter seven. You think she's afraid. I guarantee you she is. Nobody knows she's a Jew, not in the palace. She knows everything. Because Mordecai has told her. She knows who Haman is. And she knows who the king is. The king was in cahoots with Haman. He's the one gave him the ring and made the decree. All is not well in the palace. Galatians 5, 16 and 17, this I say, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to another so that you cannot do the things that you would. Mordecai has done exposed the plot that was the plot against the king. And now there's another plot. Now there's another conspiracy. Haman has plotted and the law has been made. The commandment has gone forth and it cannot be altered. Now you think about this too. The king can't even change it. Once the law's made by the Medes and the Persians, it cannot be altered. All the Jews must be destroyed. He plotted, he schemed, who did? Your flesh. You see the picture? He's gonna plot. And why does it intend to kill all the Jews? Because one man named Mordecai, the spirit of God, will not bow to the flesh. He will not recognize him, he will not bow to him, and Haman the flesh cannot stand it. So some way he convinces the king to make the decree and he give Haman the ring and said it's done. And they sit down to drink, have a party. Now they're invited to another party. And it's all gonna be exposed. You know what the gospel does? It exposes the plot. It reveals it. Only a change in the government can save the people. The plot has to be exposed. And there's only one in the palace that can expose the plot. And who is that? A woman named Nestor, who has been raised up for such a time as this. You imagine when she hears how it affects her, that unless something happens, they're going to perish. Queen Esther here is going to hold a banquet, and she invites two people to come. She didn't invite Mordecai. He will eventually come, but he didn't come here. He's not here this day. It's just the king and Haman. Haman is used to King to get what he wants. I want you to see this. This banquet is not a banquet of celebration. It is a time of revelation. They don't know what Esther's request is going to be. They're not sure. They don't know. She won't ask for riches. She won't ask for fame. You know what she asked for? She asked for her own life. She asked to be spared. You know why? She saw the seriousness of it. You know what we see? We see that God must spare us from ourself. And not only her, the life of her people. She's just not in this about herself. Before, I think when she didn't want to go to the king and she was afraid, she was thinking about herself. What does she reveal also? She reveals why, that she's here to plead for her life and the life of everyone else. And can you imagine what they think when she says, I'm here to request for myself and for my people, I'm a Jew. She's a Jew. The king didn't know it. Haven didn't know it. I guarantee you they're shocked. Shocked. Can you imagine the thoughts that's going on in the king's mind? How could I be so foolish? How could I be so foolish as to make a decree that would, hey, even have my wife killed? She kept this hid because of more decay I told her to. Can you imagine when she says, when she confesses this, she knows her life could be in danger. She don't know what the king meant. She said, if I found favor in your sight, my life's in your hands. And then what else does she reveal? The king says, who would do such a thing? Who would make such a plot? Who would order such a commandment to have everyone killed? Here's the revelation. The adversary is this wicked Haman. You know what's just happened? The flesh has been exposed for what it is. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And now it's exposed. He thought he had it hid. Only one that knew it was those in his house that encouraged him. And this is the same man that's plotted to have Mordecai hanged. In the flesh dwelleth no good thing. The flesh is a wicked, vile, conniving animal. He's deceitful and he's also real charming. Don't you know he buttered up when he came in and seen Esther now? She says, it's you. It's you, buddy. You're the one I'm talking about. King, it's that one sitting right beside of you. And King is the one you were in cahoots with. Yeah, he did. Haman plotted against Mordecai and the Jews They are revealed. Haman wanted all the praise he wanted to be worshiped. Listen to this in Romans 16 verse 17. He said, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which we have learned and avoid them. And this right here describes Haman. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but they serve their own belly, and by their good words and their fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. Mordecai wasn't deceived. Mordecai knew who he was, and Mordecai told Esther, you have the spirit of discernment, you know all things. You mark him. That man's evil. He named, Paul called a man one time Alexander the Coppersmith. He said he had done me much evil, conniving, sneaky, envy. That's Haman. He's always in the shadows and the dark. He wants to rule. He wants you to give in to his sinful, ungodly desires. That's Haman, and that's your flesh. Like I said, it will be revealed that the king has been deceived. Can you imagine what the king thinks? Can you think about what he also thinks? My wife that I love, She's my queen, I chose her as queen. How am I going to undo what I've done? The law says she's a Jew, she must die. How in the world can God save you and deliver us and remain just is the just for the unjust. who is the adversary of this wicked Haman. Haman, the flesh, has to be exposed. This is painful, it's painful to the flesh. When you actually, if you ever come and face who you are, that's terrifying. There's not a one of us in this building this morning could stand to hear how bad we are. We would want to go somewhere and crawl in a hole and pull the dirt in after us. I know that is in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Okay, now that Haman is exposed, he thinks he can beg to the queen, justice must fall He must be hanged. Turn with me to Colossians chapter three. I'll show you this. We must crucify the flesh with the affections and lust. Colossians three, verse one. If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on the things of the earth. Why? For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Mortify, put to death, crucify, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Now he lists several things. fornication, uncleanliness, inordinate affections, evil conspicuousness, covetousness, which is idolatry, for which thing's sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which you also walk, you walked that way sometime when you lived in them, but now you put off all these, put them off. Anger, wrath, Malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after him that created him. And in Galatians 5, 24, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. Is that a one-time thing? You know it's not. Anger? Wrath? Idolatry? Covetousness, which is idolatry? Haman must be hanged on the gallows. Listen, in Ecclesiastes 9.12, for man also knoweth not his time. As the fishes are taken in the evil net and the birds are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon him. He's snared in his own trap. hanged with his own gallows. The instrument that Haman thought he would destroy his enemy, Mordecai, he ends up destroying himself. Here's what David said in 1 Samuel 25, 39 about Nabal. And when David heard that Nabal was dead, He said, blessed be the Lord that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil, for the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And in Esther nine, verse 25, and when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that his wicked which he had devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head. And he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. He meant to kill the Jews. He meant to have Mordecai hanged. He's gonna be hanged and all his children. Your flesh produces a lot of children and they're just like you and the same thing has to happen to them. It has to fall on their head. Now here in verse one and two of chapter eight, the king gave the house of Haman to Esther. When a criminal was executed, everything that belonged to him became the property of the crown and was disposed of according to the king's pleasure. He didn't go to Haman's family, he went to the king. I want you to listen to this, Proverbs 13, verse 22. Now listen. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children. And you think, look at Heyman, he was probably a wealthy man. And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for who? The just. It's all laid up for the just, everything Heyman had. Who'd he go to? He went to Esther. Haman, I can see him, he conniving to get what he wants, and he was all after himself. He was trying to pretend to the king he was going to add a lot to his treasury, but it was all about Haman. It's all about influence, it's all about power, it's all about welding power. He says, okay, I'm gonna take it from them and give it to the just. Then Job chapter 27, verse 16. Though he heap up silver as dust and prepare raiment as the clay, He may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. I'll work all this. You know why? They do it for the Lord's people. Here's a good example. Remember in Canaan? Imagine how much they worked to build all those houses, and they tended all those grapes, and they took care of all that land. Why? For the children of Israel. It's laid out for the just. Oh, Haman, he thinks I've got the world by the tail. Everything's going my way. You just wait. Everything in this world is our God's. And if it's my God's, it's ours. It's King's. And he said, I'm giving it to her. And he did. I'm going to read you this, and we'll be closing. Someone said our narrative that we've just looked at over the last couple of chapters includes in the history of one day, of something that happened just in one day. We have the king who couldn't sleep, he reads the chronicles, the adoption of Haman's device, setting up the gallows, the honoring of Mordecai, the humiliation of Haman, Hester's banquet, the acquisition, the conviction, and death of Haman, the bestowal of Haman's wealth on the queen, the promotion of Mordecai to Haman's place, and the successful intercession on behalf of the Jews. God may bear long and patiently with the wicked, but when the time arrives, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and you remember it. Haman may seem to rule, but his day is coming. How many examples have we in the history of the world of the benefits conferred on nations by the promotion of the wise and good to offices of power and to the misery and ruin affected by the promotion of the wicked. This principle still stands when the wicked rule, the people mourn. As the head thinks, the decisions it makes, it affects the whole realm. You see how it affected 127 provinces, what this one man said. You think about that just on the other hand. When a good king rules, oh, I didn't read on into the end of the chapter, but I'd say it's gonna be a little different when Mordecai's reigning. I'd say it's gonna be a little different when Mordecai has the reign. He rules. It will be different in our life when Christ rules and he reigns. Now he's in us. God help us to crucify the flesh, that old flesh. You know the problem is he won't stay dead. I thought I took care of him. No, there he is. I heard Henry say one time, talking about when Abraham died, that when Abraham died, Ishmael and Isaac both came to his funeral. Till you leave this world, they're both gonna be there. And Ishmael's gonna be behind the corner going, it's all mine. He's mocking you. That's your flesh. But here's the promise, here's the grace. The elder shall serve the younger. In this whole story so far, Haman is serving God's purpose. You see it. And we see it in our life. I hope that's a help.