Our text this afternoon is found in the book of Esther. If you'll turn back with me to our first reading, Esther chapter 5, for those who haven't been with us, just as we've been going through the book of Luke in the morning, we've been going through the book of Esther in the afternoon, and we come in our study to chapter 5. And let me just set before you something of where we find ourselves. Haman has been exalted to a high position in the regime of King Ahasuerus, a regime which encompasses everything from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, an empire on a large scale. The Jews who have not returned from exile have remained scattered among the Persians within the Persian Empire. And specifically, this Haman, this close colleague and ruler under the king has been provoked by the audacity of one named Mordecai who refuses to show the appropriate or the expected measure of respect and homage to him. Esther, as all of you well know, has married the king. She's been placed in a significant position And now Haman's fury has been elevated to the point that he wants to wipe out all the Jews. Mordecai has talked Esther into going before the king to seek his provision and to seek a way of escape for the destruction of the Jews. Big picture background is that we have God's people in a very hostile, polytheistic, pluralistic, anti-Jehovah context who are being pressed into a mold of the world and who are being forced or tempted to assimilate. And we see all of the messiness that's attached with that in the lives of Esther and Mordecai. And now we find ourselves in a position where Esther is rising to the occasion after much compromise and much that has lacked being commendable. She is now set aside three days of prayer and fasting and preparation for going before the King. And so when we ended last Lord's Day at the end of chapter 4, we ended on a note which highlighted, humanly speaking, a very grim picture. Humanly speaking, it is very unlikely that Esther would be successful. And we highlighted about five or six or seven reasons why that would be the case. When Mordecai said, perhaps the Lord has raised you up for such a time as this, he didn't know, she didn't know whether in fact that would be the case. And if anything, everything seemed to point in the opposite direction. And so she's engaging from a human perspective and something like Russian roulette in her decision to go before the king. And so here we are at the end of chapter four, we're sitting as it were on the edge of our seat, waiting to see what will happen. And we come to chapter five. Chapter five, we see three things. First of all, we see Esther's appeal in verses one to eight. Esther's appeal. She's engaged in this three day fast. Not only herself, her maidens and Mordecai and the other Jews in Shushan, the palace, have set aside three days to seek the Lord, to humble themselves and to invoke His blessing. And now we're told at the beginning of chapter 5 she gets dressed up. She dresses up in her finest royal apparel. She tries to spruce herself up, to beautify herself as best as she can, so as to be pleasing to the eye of the king. And she goes in before the king. And to our surprise, if we didn't know the book, and certainly to their surprise, the king extends his scepter, showing his favor and receiving her into his presence. And so we are all left, as it were, wiping our foreheads with a that her life has been spared, Esther, at least at this juncture, is not going to die. However, as exciting as this gesture of the king is, and for all of the meaning that is behind it in terms of Esther's favor with the king, we still have overwhelming odds that are being faced. We are staring into the face of overwhelming odds, because after all, the king has determined that with the seal of his ring, the wishes of Haman would be enacted into law. And as you well know, the law of the Medes and the Persians is unchangeable. So there are still overwhelming odds. So here we find the king receiving Esther. Now the king knows, of course, the enormous risk that Esther has taken. He realizes something very significant must be happening because this woman has just put her life on the line coming into my courts. And so, recognizing that it must be important, he asks in verse 3, what is it that you are desiring? I'll give you anything up into half of the kingdom. If we were Esther, undoubtedly, it would have been tempting at that point to respond, having offered so generously. One would have been tempted to say, this is my request, this is what I need. You know, please give me all of it. And yet Esther decides not to. Perhaps she's reflecting on the challenge that is before her. Perhaps, I think more likely, she recognizes the circumstances and she's playing her cards, if you will, skillfully, or she's acting with prudence and with skill in how she's approaching this situation. This is an irreversible law that has been enacted. You know, this is going to cost the king 10,000 talents, which is probably something like half of all of his tax revenue for a whole year. The king is going to be at the risk of losing face with the empire, having said one thing and going back on the other. Esther is going to have to reveal her Jewish identity, which she has carefully hidden from her husband, the king, and everyone else over these years. And so there's all sorts of things that are stacked against her that are causing pressure to come down upon her. And so he says, what do you want? And she says, I want you to come to a feast. I'm preparing a feast and I want you and Haman to come to this banquet that I'm preparing for you. One can only imagine the king's response. This woman has just risked her life to come into my presence. The king surely knows that she didn't risk her life in order to ask him to go on a date with her that afternoon. And so he's anticipating what is it that's going to come. And so he goes to the banquet and the passage tells us that immediately he asks again, what is your request? What is it? Why is it that you have brought me here? And it's almost as if Esther starts to answer in verse seven, then answered Esther and said, my petition and my request is, and you wonder if you know, she's on the verge of saying it. And then she says, if you'll come to another feast, another banquet that I'm preparing for you and Haman tomorrow. Esther is seeking, it would appear. to be setting the stage to accomplish the things that are so desperately needed. What she has done is she has brought the king to now twice publicly offer to grant to her, her wish, up to half the kingdom. And so he said in the front of several people now, two times, I'll give you whatever your request is, up to half the kingdom. And then in verse eight, you notice that she says, if I notice how meekly she approaches it, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, just being humble, and if it please the king to grant my petition, which she's not telling him, and to perform my request, which she's not telling him, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them. And I will do tomorrow as the king has said, if it please the king, if it is within the purview of the king's desire to grant my petition, then tomorrow I'll tell you what it is." In other words, the situation is, if the king goes to the banquet, it's implicitly agreeing ahead of time to grant the request that she is going to ask him. And yet it is so meekly stated, I will do as the king has asked me. if you will condescend to consider me and so on. As I say, he's implicitly agreeing in advance to grant this request. And it's it reflects something commendable. It reflects the same spirit which we read about in our New Testament reading in first Peter, chapter three, where you see Peter writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and saying in the first two verses likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands that if any obey not the word they may they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives while they behold your chase conversation coupled with fear. There's something of that there. I mean Esther has made a mess of her testimony and different Christian walk. She's been a compromising assimilating worldly person in many ways. But now we see the Lord at work. There's this mix of grace and sin in her, just like us. And we see her stepping up and boldly aligning herself with Jehovah and His people. We see her keeping covenant. We see her pledging her allegiance. And now we see her meekly, with grace, interacting with her husband, the King. Exhibiting this meek and quiet spirit within her appeal. And it's striking, isn't it? Because God is at work here. God is at work without thunder and lightning. God is not parting the Red Sea. God is not bringing down smoke and darkness from a mountain. God is not raining down fire on top of a mountain to consume an altar, like in Elijah's day. He's working, in many ways, in a quiet fashion. And yet, God is at work. because he's using Esther's skill and her meekness in approaching the king. He's also using Mordecai's unyielding refusal to compromise. And we read on here in just a moment about how Haman comes out and there is Mordecai. And Mordecai is... there's something so... so encouraging in the example of Mordecai. I read this chapter and I see the position that Mordecai takes and it just makes me smile, but it also it kind of emboldens the heart. You think this is precisely the kind of man that you would want and that commends the respect of the Lord's people. He is unflinching, unyielding, uncompromising, at least on this score, in refusing to pay homage to this godless leader. And so the Lord is working quietly. He's working through all that Esther is doing. He's working through, in many ways, the contrast in personality, what Mordecai is doing. And he's setting the stage. He knows that Mordecai's actions will set Haman off and that that will result in Haman building the gallows. And God is sovereignly at work in Esther and in Haman and in Mordecai and in Hasuerus and all of their various temperaments in order to bring about his end, the good of his people. And so we see him sovereignly disposing and superintending and overruling all of the actions of all of these figures in order to accomplish his purpose. We also see both in Esther and Mordecai the example of faith. Esther is showing tremendous measure of faith at this juncture. in her actions. Mordecai is showing a great deal of faith himself. He could have said to himself, well, now we have an edict that we're all going to be wiped out. Esther's doing her best to line things up to rescue us if the Lord's pleased. Maybe I should bend a little in order to make things easier on Esther, to calm Haman down. And so if I give him a little bow and, you know, if I stand in respect to him or whatever, then it'll appease him a little. It'll make things easier on the inside. Mordecai doesn't do that. He says, if this is going to happen, it's going to happen without violating principle. I'm going to stand my ground. And the Lord's going to have to dispose of things accordingly. So we see Esther's appeal. Secondly, we see Haman's pride. In verses 9 to 14, Haman's pride. Then when Haman, excuse me, then went Haman forth that day, joyful and with a glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. That day, he was joyful. That day, he was joyful. And yet, he's no sooner halfway home, and he becomes filled with fury. And if you were to say to Mordecai, what what ails you? What's wrong? You know, are you sick? No. You know, do you want to be king? You're not allowed to be king? No. Is it that you don't have this glorious position? You know that you rule over all these people and they have to bow before you? No. Well, what is it that ails you? Mordecai, the Jew who refuses to pay homage to me. Haman was infatuated with his own image. That's the bottom line. He was filled with pride and it was the pride which produced the fury. He's infatuated with his own image. He wants to be seen as prestigious. And so he leaves the banquet hall with Esther flying like a kite. No sooner sees Mordecai and he crashes into the ground. He's completely derailed by the mere sight of a lowly Jew standing in the gate of the king. Here is Mordecai. I mean, Haman knows that Mordecai knows. Mordecai knows that Haman knows that Mordecai knows that there's a decree that's gone out, an edict that he's going to be killed. And yet there's no visible fear in Mordecai. at the recent edict, and that irritated, that infuriated Haman. If his ego is stroked, then he's happy. Even though there's been no real change, he doesn't have more power, more wealth, he doesn't have more of anything. Just the stroking of his ego to be invited to a banquet makes him happy. And if his ego is assaulted, then he is filled with fury. Even though, again, there is no real change. The presence of Mordecai standing in the King's Gate has not diminished Haman's power. It has not diminished, you know, any of the possessions that Haman has. There's been no real change. But it's the assault on his ego that fills him with fury. This is his reaction. His reaction was a response to his idol. And the idol of his heart was a desire for public respect. It wasn't good enough that he had a public position. It wasn't good enough that he had, you know, within himself a sense of that position. He wanted to be seen by everybody else and held with public respect for his position. This is idolatry, the idolatry of self. Haman has deified himself in all of his folly and stupidity. And so what does he do? He's infuriated. There's an indignation, verse 9. What does he do? He goes home, and he calls for all of his friends, says, come from your houses to my house. He gets his wife in the living room. He brings all of his friends around. And look what it says in verse 11. Haman told them of the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things wherein the king had promoted him, how he had advanced him above the priests and servants of the king, and so on. He basically, he brings his friends and family together, sits them down in the living room, and then brags in detail about himself. Look at what I have, look at what I own, look at the positions I have, look at the awards I've had, as if his wife didn't know how many children she had born. This is the number of sons I have, this is the amount of wealth I have, this is the number of positions I've been given. And then, to top everything else, verse 12, Moreover, yea, as to the queen, to let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared, but myself. And tomorrow am I invited unto her also with the king." What's happening? His ego has been assaulted by the sight of Mordecai. In order to soothe his emotions and his heart, he has to feed his hungry idol. And so he goes home. and brags and boasts about who he is and what he's done, says in verse 13. Yet all this, everyone will admit it's a great amount. Yet all this availeth me nothing. All these things availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king's gate. I have all this and I can't stand it. It doesn't do anything for me. As long as Mordecai is sitting in the king's gate, we see Haman's pride. Pride is the first sin which swept the devil and his evil host out of heaven and into hell. Pride is what brought about the first murder, Cain killing Abel. Pride has been throughout the ages. That monster sin which has slew millions, both small and great, under its dominating influences. Now the question comes for us. We read this account about Haman's pride. We see his idol, we see his reaction when his idol's fed, he's happy when his idol and his self-respect, pride is assaulted, he's angry. The question is, what is our reaction when our idols are challenged? In other words, what makes you happy because the idolatry of your heart is being fed? And what makes you angry? when the idolatry of your heart and my heart is assaulted. You know, Haman goes home to his wife, who is as worthless, more worthless than Job's wife. He goes home to his friends, and he's obviously a wreck, and he's seeking some measure of help and counsel. What should be said to Haman that wasn't said? And what should be said to us in similar circumstances? If a godly pastor or a godly friend had been in the house, how could one who feared the Lord and loved His Word have spoken to Haman? Well, if I had been in Haman's house, I would have come alongside Haman and said, okay, here's your emotional responses. You left the king's house happy. You saw Mordecai and your indignation. Let's trace these emotions down to the root that is found in your heart. Let's find where the root is that's bringing all this emotional response that's in your heart. What is it, Haman, that's driving your life? What is it that's driving your life? What made your life happy earlier today, and what made your life angry later today? And with some questioning, and with some searching, and with some careful application of God's Word, it's very easy to discover that His idol was being challenged by the day's events. His idol was being fed earlier, and His idol was being changed later. Haman, your problem is that you're infatuated with yourself. You live, you breathe for public recognition and the praise of men. That's what makes you tick. And that's the root problem in your soul. And the answer, Haman, is the gospel. The gospel provides true significance for you. The gospel is what provides true significance. And when we come by faith in the Messiah, to rest in Him, you're not challenged in the same way by what others think. Because you aren't the center of the universe anymore. The impact that the gospel has on someone is to put God as the center of the universe. And so, being challenged by what other people think ends up becoming second seat. God loves His people unconditionally. And so there's a security in how God thinks of us, and how God looks at us, and how God receives us. And the Gospel requires of us to forsake this whole notion of seeing the world revolve around us. And it changes us so that we see that the world revolves around Christ. And that even your achievements, Haman, even the achievements that you've been given are for Christ's glory and not yours. It's not to satisfy and gratify your ego. It's not in order to bring praise and respect to you. Any achievement, Haman, in your life at all is 100% for the glory of the God who has saved you. That's what should have been said to Haman. But instead, what happens? Verse 14, his friends say, Haman, what you need to do is vent your rage. Cut loose the restraints. Feed your idol to the full. Go out and build gallows that are 75 feet high. Go to the king and lynch Mordecai the Jew." And in verse 14 it says, "...and the thing pleased Haman." This is sick. This is sickening, the nature of sin. What happens? They say, feed your idol and he's happy again. That's in essence what's happening. It makes him happy to think about the expression, the gratification of his anger against Mordecai. Little does he know, sin always turns everything on its head. What would really have happened? He builds the gallows 75 feet high, which is ridiculously high. The result would have been to exalt Mordecai far above Haman. And he would have been lifted up and he would have had all the attention of everyone. And everyone would have been asking about him and talking about him. Our idols backfire on us. In this case, as you all know, the idol is going to backfire far in a far worse way. The question comes because there's something of Haman and me and there's something of Haman and you as well. There are times when we are tempted to bow down to our idols, and it may be very, very different from the particular idol that Haman loves and worships. But you can search your own heart in the same way, can't you? You can ask yourself, what makes me tick? Why do I get depressed? Or why do I get angry about this? And why do I get so happy about that? What is the cause? Is it Christocentric? Are they things that really make me want to please the Lord and that glorify the Lord? Or are those triggers something that can be traced to a root idol in your own heart. And what is that idol that needs to be rooted out, mortified, to be killed? Where is it that the gospel needs to be applied afresh in our own souls? And for all of the negative reactions that we have against Haman, and rightfully so, upon reading this text, We need to be careful to search ourselves and to examine ourselves in light of his own weaknesses. Haman's day is coming. Nebuchadnezzar, we were reading in family worship last night, Nebuchadnezzar had all this glory that he took to himself. The Lord doesn't stand by that. The Lord won't tolerate it. So the Lord sends him into the field. His hair grows long like feathers. His fingernails are like claws. He's going around eating grass. He's soaked with the dew of heaven. He's humiliated. He's reduced to an animal. But God recovers him, and on his recovery, Nebuchadnezzar's disposition is radically different. Beforehand, he's saying, look at Babylon, all the glory that I've created. Afterward, he's saying, all glory, all honor, all praise to God in heaven alone. I've been weighed in the balance. I've been found as nothing. All glory belongs to him. You see, with Herod in the New Testament, they praise him as a God, and he takes it, and God smites him, destroys him. Haman is going to face God's judgment as well, as we'll see in the chapters that follow. His day is coming. In verse 9 it says, Then went Haman forth that day, joyful with a glad heart. But there's another day that's going to follow, which will be filled with sorrow. So we see Esther's appeal, and we see Haman's pride, and thirdly, we see Christ's reception. Christ's reception, and what I mean by that is Christ receiving His people. We can compare, as we have in past weeks, we can compare the reign of Ahasuerus with the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's an important lesson in contrast here, I think, for starts. Esther was not called into the presence of the King. We are invited into the presence of Christ. She went in against the law. We go in with the precept and promise that God provides. He says, I'll give you half the kingdom. Christ says, I'll give you the whole kingdom. Ahasuerus was a capricious monarch, a tyrant and a despot, who at some whim could say, off with your head. He's capricious. Christ is compassionate. He receives his believing people unto himself. Significant lesson in contrast. Christ is no capricious ruler. He invites us frequently. He says, come, make your requests known to me. Think of the way that it's put in the language of Scripture itself. Philippians 4, verse 6. Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Or Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You know, Christ is a his reign, his rule, his kingship is radically different than the despotic regimes of this world. There is a cost that has to be paid in access to him. But it is free. to His people because Christ has paid the cost. In other words, we have the scepter of God's favor extended to us and we have the rod of God's wrath extended to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ bears the wrath in order that we might bear the blessing. The Lord tells us that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And thus we are able to always go boldly to the throne of grace in time of need. How unlike the circumstances that Esther finds herself in. That being the case, how have you viewed and how have you used this privilege? How have you viewed the privilege given to you? Bold access into the throne. How have you used that privilege? Has it been viewed with the joy that Haman had at getting invited to an earthly banquet with some fine wine and scrumptious food to feast upon? He goes away joyful and glad and full of happiness. At an earthly privilege, is there far greater joy even equal joy in us at the far higher and more heavenly privilege given to us? Or do we depend too often entirely on our own skills to obtain the right outcome for what we desire? Say, Lord, this is what we're going to do. Or are we those who wait upon the Lord? Are we shaped by the undeserved invitation to the banquet that Christ offers to us? Are we shaped by that? You know, if you stop to think about Haman's circumstances, Haman should have been so happy about the wealth, the kids, the positions, the power, and this privilege of going to the banquet. He should have been so happy by that. that the sight of Mordecai would be dismissed as nothing. This is little. This is insignificant in contrast to all the blessings that I have had. He should have been compensated for these minor difficulties of having to look upon Mordecai. And yet again, I find myself, you must surely find yourself equally fickle. Equally fickle to Haman. We have this joy of the gospel, joy of salvation in Christ Jesus. We have heavenly privileges. We are a heavenly people. And we could, you know, take a half an hour to highlight all of the privileges, the spiritual privileges that we have in Christ Jesus. All of those things should overwhelm us to the point of overruling the minor difficulties that we are called upon to bear. And yet, what happens so often with ourselves? So often, here's how we find ourself. Yes, I know that I am an adopted son or daughter of the living God. Yes, I know I'm co-heirs with Christ Jesus. Yes, I know I'm justified by faith. But as long as I do not have blank, and you fill in the blank, I'm miserable. And so, despite all these gospel privileges, the little things we don't have, or the little things we're called upon to have, tip the scales in a completely irrational way, so that we find ourselves as fickle as Haman at times. What's happening in such circumstances is that our joy is lost because our idol is not fed. Our joy is lost because our idol is not fed. We need to ask God to transform our hearts. We need to ask God to grow us in a God-centered gospel gratitude. We need to see our lives as nothing except to be employed to glorify Christ. whether in blessing or in difficulty, whether in happiness or in sorrow. We need a God consciousness to dominate us. And we need to have our pilgrimage so sweetened with gospel gratitude that those relatively minor things are kept in our perspective in the minor place that they ought to occupy. If we have the King's favor, who cares what other thinks? We have the King's favor, who cares what other people think of us? We have the promised presence of the living God. We can live without a lot of things if we're living with that. And so the challenge to us, I believe, if we are taking the Word of God and allowing it to search us out, not just look at that out there, if we're allowing the Word of God by the Holy Spirit to search us out, then we're left with the exhortation, don't allow un-mortified idolatries to rob you of your joy in Christ. or like those in Jeremiah 2, where we have hewn for ourselves broken cisterns, which can hold no water, and we have departed from the Lord. Let us rather seek the Savior in the gospel way, and to find our joy in Him, which more than amply compensates. Almighty God in heaven, It is our joy to come with one voice and prayer before your throne room without fear that we will perish from simply asking for an audience. No, Lord, you have beckoned us to come. You have promised to receive us in coming, to hear the cry of our hearts and to grant us the fullness of your kingdom. Lord, we confess that there are idols that need to be mortified within us, which rob us of gospel joy in Christ. Search us out and crucify those sins within us and teach us, O Lord, to walk with you and before you. Our chief end being glorifying and enjoying you. We plead, O Lord, for your blessing in these things. Give us a sense of our privilege and give us the joy that comes with those privileges. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.