you have your bibles would you turn with me please to the book of esther and chapter eight esther and chapter eight Esther chapter eight, beginning at verse one. I'm afraid I had an apple this afternoon. I've got a bit of skin still loose inside. If I cough tonight, that's what it is. Okay, verse one. On that day, King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told her, told how he was related to her. So the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther appointed Mordecai over the house of Haman. Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite and the scheme which he had devised against the Jews. The king held out the golden scepter towards Esther. So Esther rose and stood before the king and said, if it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seems right to the king, and I'm pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hamadath of the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king's provinces. For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen? Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, Indeed, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews as you please in the king's name and seal it with the king's signet ring. For whatever is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's signet ring, no one can revoke. So the king's scribes were called at that time in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the 23rd day. And it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces in all, to every province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language. wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed it with the king's signet ring and sent letters by couriers on horseback riding on royal horses bred from swift steeds. By these letters, the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather together and protect their lives, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions. On one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province and published for all people so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. The couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king's command. And the decree was issued in Shushan, the citadel. So Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple, and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor. And in every province and city, wherever the king's command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday. And many of the people of the land became Jews because fear of the Jews fell upon them. Please keep your Bible open now. Oh, look, we've already got that up there. I don't know how that happened. That was the covering picture, wasn't it? Right, OK. Well, I'm sure most of you are familiar with the film Lord of the Rings and are familiar with the story where one of the hobbits in Tolkien's famous story, Bilbo Baggins, finds in a cave a little gold ring which had been in the possession of a strange creature called Gollum. And he puts it in his pocket, and at one time, Later, he puts his hand in his pocket, puts it in the ring, and finds the ring makes him invisible. And as a result of that, he's able to escape in many situations. But it has a negative effect upon him. And it's a very powerful magic ring, which is being drawn towards other magic rings for the purpose of evil. And there's a great battle to get rid of the ring. into the fiery pit of a volcano, which I think his nephew, or something, I'll be criticized for this later, which one of his relatives manages to achieve at the end. But the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's famous story. And he's not the only one to have the idea of a ring for a story, either. C.S. Lewis, in his book The Magician's Nephew, written around the same time, had a similar idea. I can't help wondering whether these two friends, whether they shared the idea or whether one nicked it off the other or whether one did it to rub the other up the wrong way. I don't know. But in The Magician's Nephew, the first of the Narnia series, there's a young lad called Diggory who actually appears later on in the series as well as the old professor in the house at Narnia, in the house of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But when he's a young boy, he has an uncle, Andrew, who's a strange fellow who's into esoteric things. And he has two rings, and he's trying an esoteric experiment with these rings, a gold ring and a green ring. And he manages to persuade Diggory's little friend, Polly, to try one of the rings on. She tries it on, and instantly she vanishes. and it takes her through like a portal to another place like Narnia, only in a sort of Narnia multiverse really. And this ring becomes a ring of power taking you to different places. Well, neither of those men actually were the originators of the idea of a magic ring, because even before them, there was a famous writer by the name of Plato, the philosopher, the Greek Plato, and he had the story in his book Republic No. 2 of the Ring of Gyges, and this was a ring that some shepherds found in a field, which when they put it on, it made them invisible, and they realized then that they could do all sorts of things with this ring. And there is a story, I don't know if it's based in any way on history, but that that Plato was friends with the king of Lydda who had a ring which he claimed would make him invisible and enable him to see other people. I don't know if that was just a legend or if the king really did claim to have such a ring, but that's also in the annals of history. So, fascinating, these rings that seem to be so significant and powerful and changed everything. Well, in the story we have here before us today, this is a true story, and the turning point is a ring that has been put on the finger of a man called Mordecai the Jew. The back story is this. The Jewish people, after their exile in the Old Testament, they were in the land of Persia, and they'd been taken away captives in the days of the Babylonian Empire, which was then succeeded by the Persian Empire, and now in the Persian Empire, They are under the threat of annihilation. A wicked prime minister by the name of Haman has risen to power and has made a decree that all the Jewish people should be annihilated on a particular day in the month of Adar. And he has, as the prime minister, sealed it with the king's ring. What he doesn't know is the king's wife, Esther, is a Jewess. and when she reveals this to the king she says somebody's trying to kill me and he says who's trying to kill you and she reveals that it's Haman with his plot against the Jews and the king realizes what's happening and he has Haman hung on a gallows that he had originally made to hang Mordecai on and then the ring is given to Mordecai in his place. And this is the turning point in the story. And I've called the sermon tonight, This Changes Everything, because that really is how the story develops, the action here in this story. And I want you to see tonight the three things that came as a result of this, as we look at the text tonight, because it really is such a powerful thing. It reminds us, of course, of when Pharaoh gave the ring of authority to Joseph. What did that make Joseph? That made Joseph head of the land, didn't it? And as a result of that, he was able to do great things for the people of God. Well, that's what we have in this story too. The ring being given to Mordecai means they have a new leader over them, they have a new law made about them, and they have a new legitimacy to them as the people. So let's have a look at this text tonight and we'll share these thoughts together. First of all, then, this changes everything because there is a new leader who is over them. We see back in verses 1 and 2, on that day, and by the way, that phrase there, those three words, on that day, If you're using a King James, you'll notice that's how the chapter six begins, only it begins on that night. And now, a chapter later, in between, you've had the death of Haman, and we've gone from night to day. Can you see the significance in that in the story? This is actually, you know, not only something that literally happened at night and day, but this is a daybreak in the story. On that day, King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther, the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Now, it's been proven by historians, Herodotus and Josephus and others, that this was actually Persian law, that if a man was your enemy and he died or was found to be guilty of criminal activity and he was executed, then his property would pass to you. And the house of Haman was given to Queen Esther. And then we see, and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. Earlier on in the story, Mordecai had saved the king's life by passing on some information of a plot he knew about to assassinate the king. And the king had not rewarded Mordecai. And chapter 6 is the turning point there for Mordecai when he is rewarded. But now the king finds out he's related to his wife, the queen, Esther. In fact, he is her cousin and he's her acting parent because her parents have died and he is looking after her. And so he told, she told the king that Mordecai was related to her. Now look at this, verse 2. So the king took off his signet ring which he had taken from Haman and gave it to Mordecai and Esther appointed Mordecai over the house of Haman. And basically what you have now is where Haman was prime minister, now Mordecai is made prime minister over the Persian Empire in his place. And all because he's been given this ring, which is the authority to act in the king's name. and the power to do so. And what we have, if you look at these chapters, if you look at the Book of Esther in a symmetrical fashion, you'll find that this chapter corresponds to Chapter 3 when Haman comes to the throne and the king gives Haman the ring. We're now in Chapter 8, Mordecai comes to the throne and he is given the ring. And what it means is for the Jewish people is they have a new leader over them. And he's no longer their enemy. Now he's one of them. And you'll notice he's called Mordecai through the story, apart from in verse seven, where he's called Mordecai the Jew. And that's a phrase that's used very often in the book to emphasize the fact that he is Mordecai the Jew. And for the Jewish people, this changes everything. They have their man in power now. You know, this to me has been very real to me this week because I've been thinking about Donald Trump coming into power and what that means for the Christians and what that means for the people who are of the same political views, perhaps, in America. You know, whereas they'd seen so many things against them in the previous administration, now The man who holds the beliefs that we have is in power. Now, you heard me warn last week, and I hold out that warning still. There is a warning, I think, to be had there, not to be deceived. But it's a feeling of this changes everything, isn't it? And this is exactly what the situation is for the Jewish people. Now, actually, What struck me when I was reading this chapter in my quiet time this week was verse 16. If you go on to verse 16, you'll notice it said, the Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor. That's a beautiful little verse on its own, just one little verse. And I was struck with the lovely description of what this meant. The Jewish people had, they had light and gladness and joy and honor. What a beautiful thing. And what a contrast to the days before when they were fast in sackcloth and ashes, praying that God would rescue them from this plan to annihilate them. But now they have light and gladness and joy and honour. And verse 17 says, And in every province and city, wherever the kings commanded and decreed came, the Jews had joy and gladness and a feast and a holiday. Or the King James says, a good day. And that's the literal Hebrew, the yom tov, good day. They had a good day. They had a good day. This was a good day. Mordecai had come in. Now, what struck me about this was this. Actually, nothing had changed. Nothing had changed. There was still the decree of Haman set against them. There was still anti-Semites who were going to rise up and kill them. They were still in a foreign land. But this changed everything, even though technically nothing had changed. The fact that their relative, the Jew, Mordecai the Jew, had now come into power, this changed everything. And they knew it. And they were celebrating as if everything was all right now. It was all over and done with. And everything, the breakthrough had come through. And as I was reflecting on this, the light began to dawn on me. I thought, oh, of course. That's us. God's people. We're still living in this fallen world. But our man, the man of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, has come into power. in heaven. What does scripture say? What did the Lord Jesus say after he rose from the dead? Oh, I have to come back to that. He said this, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Isn't that amazing? The Lord Jesus Christ Our savior is seated at the right hand of the throne of heaven. He is now on the highest seat. Now, technically, nothing is changing for us on earth, is it? We're still on earth, you know, like the Jewish people. We've still got pretty grim things ahead in history. You know, they had some pretty terrible things ahead of them in the 12th month, which is a picture of the last days. It's the last time. You know, there's still an end time program with some persecution ahead of the Christian church and so on like that. There's still the day-to-day struggles of life to contend with. We've all had difficult years in our lives, and we had a bad one as a family last year. You know, technically nothing's changed, but yet this changes everything. Because we have one on the throne who has all authority and all power. And we can go to Him, and we can appeal to Him, and we can pray to Him, and He has power and authority. And that goes for salvation. Some of you are concerned about your loved ones. Let me tell you what the Lord Jesus said in John 17, verse 2. And you have given, this is what He prayed to His Father, and you, Father God, have given Him, the Lord Jesus, authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you've given Him. Isn't that great? All authority is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's in the highest seat of honor. And this changes everything for us. And we should be like these Jewish people with light and gladness and joy and honor. You know, when we go out of here tonight, we should be saying, Yom Tov, good day. It's a good day. Our man's in power. Our man's in power. You know, I knew an old guy down in Weymouth in the church down there, and he told me whenever the politicians came round canvassing, he said, sorry, he said, my man's already in. And they said, your man's already in. Well, what do you mean by that? He said, you pull out his Bible and give him the gospel and tell him the Lord Jesus has ascended to the right hand. That's what it is for us. And our hope tonight is in that very, very truth. By the way, you'll notice Mordecai is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in this book. He is a Jew. And Jesus is a Jew. He's of the tribe of David. He refuses to bow down to Haman, you remember. And Christ refused to bow down to Satan. All the Jews are hated on account of him. And what did Jesus say in Matthew 24? He said, all nations will hate you on account of me. And that's true. We see that in Revelation 12. Haman tries to kill him by hanging him on a tree. And it was the Persians who invented crucifixion. It wasn't the Romans. And Haman tries to have Mordecai hung on a tree. And it happened at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. What a coincidence. I wonder if that's why Easter comes from the name Esther. Do you ever think about that? It's Astarte. It's a foreign name. It's a religious name of a false god, actually, Ishtar. But it's the picture of Easter, isn't it? Of Christ dying on the cross. And he's exalted three days and nights later. he ascends to the throne to the right hand. And I could go on, there's more as we see. In fact, if you look in this verse, I talked about their new leader, if you look in verse 15, when he goes out of the palace, at the end of that, it says, Sir Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple, and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. Now, he goes out dressed in all those beautiful colors and things, which were the royal colors of Persia. And you think to yourself when you're reading, you know, I've read that somewhere before. And actually, if you read through the book more than once in a sitting, and that's one of the ways to really pick up things is to read it through and then go back and read it again. If you go back to chapter one, You'll see in Esther's opening chapter, we have the great feast that the king has for all the nobles in his palace. And it says in chapter 1, verse 6, there were white and blue linen curtains fastened with cords of fine linen and purple on silver rods and marble pillars. And the couches were of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of alabaster turquoise white. and black marble. Those colors and those precious things were back in chapter one decorating the palace and displaying the king's glory in the palace. But now all that glory is on a man. You see again what a picture that is of Christ. In the Old Testament, we have the temple and the tabernacle, and they're full of glory. You come to Revelation chapter 1, you see the risen Lord Jesus, feet like fine brass, eyes like burning fire. And so you see, wow, this is an awesome vision of Jesus. It's amazing. And the glory that was on the place where God dwelt is now on a man. It's amazing, isn't it? This is what we've been told. And Mordecai is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. So dear friends, I just want to say tonight, this changes everything for us. That all authority is given to him. in heaven and on earth. He has the ring of power, he's on the Father's throne and we can appeal to him. So I don't know what's on your heart at the moment, I don't know what you're battling with, what your issues are, what your joys are, but you know what, tonight you can take it to the Lord in prayer and you have one who's on your side at the right hand. Let us come boldly then to the throne of grace, find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need, says the book of Hebrews. We can do that because of the one who sat there. Second thing we see this ring meant was not only they had a new leader over them, but they had a new law about them. I was going to say new law concerning them, but the word concerning wouldn't quite fit on the headings. But that's what we see in this, in chapter 3 to 14, the longer section in the middle. And it begins in verse 3, where it says, now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman, the Agagite, and the scheme which he had devised against the Jews. So even after Mordecai has been exalted, Esther still then feels the need to fall down and plead with the king to take action. Why? Why? Well, Mordecai has been saved, but her people still haven't been saved. And Mordecai is not going to be hung on the gallows now. It's Haman's body who's hanging on that gallows. But there's still this law which Haman made in the king's name against her people. And the Jewish people have a law made against them by the law of the Medes and the Persians. Now, you'll remember from the Book of Daniel that the law of the Medes and the Persians was an unchangeable law. When a king made that law, that was it. And I remember my parents used to say, And sometimes the youth leaders in the youth club at church would use this phrase. I think people who knew the Bible used to say, can we do this? And they'd say, you're not allowed to. And they said, go on, go on. It's the law of the Medes and the Persians. There's no shifting on this. All right, you can't do that. You can't climb out the upstairs window or whatever it was. But this was what their situation was. They had an unchangeable law against them. And it was a law that condemned them heavy. By the way, that's how persecution works. You make a law against the people, then you enforce the law. That's what Hitler did in World War II. When Hitler's stormtroopers kicked down doors and carried the Jewish men off to the gas chambers and the gutters, they weren't breaking the law. They were upholding the law. They were upholding the laws they had already made. That's why we've got to be prayerful about the legislation in our country that goes against Christianity. and against the Jewish people, because it's the first step towards persecution. That's why the Bible tells us to pray for our leaders, and we should pray for them. But they still had this law made against them that condemned them. Now, the problem was this law couldn't be changed. And even the king couldn't change it. He couldn't say, OK, we'll scrap that law. We'll just do away with it. No. It's the law of the Medes and the Persians. It's unchangeable. So what can be done? for the king has an answer. The king says in verse seven to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, indeed I have given Esther the house of Haman and they have hanged him on the gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews as you please in the king's name and seal it with the king's signet ring. For whatever is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's signet ring, no one can revoke. What he's saying is this, he said, I can't change the law, but you can make a new one. And you can make one that offsets the old one, that counteracts the problem of the old one. And by that means, you can protect yourself. And so that's exactly what they do. In verse 9, the king's scribes were called at this time. That's what happened with Haman when he made this as well. And I've seen pictures online of the Persian scribes and how they would, because there were so many different nations, 127 different countries or provinces, was it, in the empire that we read there, you know, there were many different languages. And so you would see these, it was almost like a classroom full of tables and desks with all these scribes writing out the laws, which would then be sent out around the empire. And this is what they did. The king's scribes were called at that time. In the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the 23rd day, and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces in all. To every province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own spirit and language. That's the longest verse in the Bible, by the way. But it tells us that they wrote a new law and sent it out in all those languages to the people to offset the old law. And the new law was a law which said the Jewish people could gather together, as we see in verse 11, they could gather together to form an army to protect themselves. Now, a gathering together for an army would be against the law. I remember reading a book about the Salvation Army, and I remember William Booth really wanted to meet Queen Victoria and really wanted to speak to her about Christian things, but she wouldn't meet with him because she said, nobody sets up an army in my nation except the true army of the British people. And she was quite indignant about the fact that he said, now it wasn't the same type of army, obviously, it was the Salvation Army, but kings are very touchy about having another army established in their nation. But this gave a permission that they could meet together to defend themselves on these days for their protection. And this law was going to counteract the law of the people who had been given the permission to attack and annihilate the Jews. And the Jewish people could protect themselves and even lay their hands on their property. It does say back in verse 11 that they could handle and assault not assault, they could protect themselves against little women and children as well. Now some people have said, oh that's really terrible. Well I just remind you that little women and children were part, little women, little children and women were a part of the plot against them as well. Just like you've seen in in the Middle Eastern wars, the children are also a part of the terrorist organizations. It was back then too, and the women were as well. And it's not saying they could go around attacking people at will, but it's saying if any of these people attack them, they could defend themselves against them. And this law was to offset the other law. And it was sent out by the king's couriers. You know, those king's couriers, we read in verse 14, the couriers who rode on royal horses went out. The Persians had a famous postal system. You've heard of the Pony Express. Well, it didn't begin in America. It began with the Persians. And they had a postal system all over the world. where they would send horses, fast horses out, and they could get a decree across those 127 provinces in three weeks. Now, given that's by horseback in those days, over difficult terrain, dangerous country, different languages, that's very fast. Very fast. And they had this efficient system set up. And so this is what they did. And this was all because they had that ring. They could make that seal, and it could make a new law that would offset the old law. Now, you say, well, John, that's very interesting. All right, we learned something from history here, but what's that got to do with us? Come on, what's that got to do with us? Well, dear friends, I want to tell you, we're in exactly the same place. Because you may not realize it, but there is a law that condemns you. It's the law of Moses. The law of Moses in the Old Testament. It's a law of condemnation. And when I read in the Ten Commandments, You shall not, you shall not lie. You shall not steal. You shall honor your mother and father. You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. You shall not commit adultery. And we go through the Ten Commandments. You know what, I find I've got ten fingers pointing at me saying, you're guilty, you're a sinner, you've done those things. You're condemned. And don't think that God is gonna just say, well, I'll just do away with that boy. No. God doesn't do away with his law. His law is eternal and standing. It's written in stone. So what's the answer? God makes a new law to offset the old law. It's called the gospel. And Paul says in Romans chapter eight, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. Can you see how this is a picture of that? And the gospel message is now the new law that the Lord Jesus has given. And if we flee to Christ on the basis of that, then we can be saved from the law that condemns us. Isn't that wonderful? This is the gospel here in the Old Testament all planned out. And I love it because when they wrote this law, They did so in the month of Sivan back in verse 9. Do you know when Sivan is? It's Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost? All the nations of the world were at Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost, as we read in Acts chapter 2. And they heard the wonders of God in their own languages, just like they hear it here. And they all carry the gospel home with them across the world. Isn't that beautiful? And you know, Here, this was so important. This message had to get out because the Jewish people had to know these laws were in their favor so that they could act on them if they wanted. Now, nobody was going to force them to, but they had an option to act, to flip for salvation. And if they acted in it, then they would be safe, which they did, as we read in chapter 9. Now, they needed that message, so it had to be spread out to them. Verse 10 says, it was sent out by couriers on horseback, riding on royal horses, bred from swift steeds. I know that King James says about camels and things like that. but actually there's an alternative translation there. And what we have here is the message being sent out with great haste and speed, whichever way you interpret that verse. And God wants us to do the same thing. He wants us to get this message out to the people so they can be saved. There is a law against them, but they can be saved if they turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. I love verse 14. I know we're jumping about tonight. I'm sorry, I'm not doing very well with the old verse by verse, but in verse 14, the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king's command. You know, the Lord Jesus has given us a command, doesn't he? Go into all the world. We should be hastened and pressed on with that command to take that message to the people. Wow, what an exciting turn of events this was. This changed everything. And you know, literally, for sinners like me, the gospel has changed everything. It's changed everything. It's changed my eternity. When I put my head on the pillow for the last time and I leave this world with my last heartbeat, I'm at peace. I'm going to heaven because of Jesus Christ. And even as I live now, I've got hope in this world. I've got hope, and I'm brought into a relationship with God. This changes everything. What a glorious, glorious message the gospel is. The third thing we see here, and the final thing, was that this ring brought about a new legitimacy for the people. If you look in verse 17, the last verse of the chapter, we've already talked about the Jews rejoicing and so on, so we'll just go down to verse 17, but it says at the end there, last sentence, then many of the people of the land became Jews because fear of the Jews fell upon them. And what this brought was a change in the attitude of the people towards the Jewish people. The people's attitude went from those quote unquote Jews to, oh, those Jews. Now they saw the Jews in a different light. Now these people were legitimate. They weren't the scum of the earth. They were the people who were respected because the fear of the Jews fell upon them. That's not the fear of them fighting, but that's actually a fulfillment of the covenant promise of Deuteronomy 28. God said that if they obeyed him and followed him, then the fear of them would be on the nations. And it's a respect. And it corresponds to Mordecai and that ring. If you go into chapter 9, verse 4, it says, for Mordecai was great in the king's palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces. For this man, Mordecai became increasingly prominent. Sorry, the last part of verse 3. And it said, because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. there's a change there. And I love this little twist to the story because you know what Hayman did? Hayman wanted to wipe out the Jews. But now there's more of them. Now they've increased. Now other people want to become Jews. Gentile proselytes to Judaism. And many of the people of the land became Jews because fear of the Jews fell upon them. They wanted to become Jews too and they converted to Judaism. I think, as well, they saw that the Lord had delivered them, the Jewish people. They thought, well, our gods never did anything like that. And Persia was fighting Greece at this time and suffering defeat. But here, the Jewish people, when they were prisoners of war, that their god had brought this great deliverance after these days of prayer and fasting that they'd had. They saw the Lord was real. They said, you know, I want that god to be my god. and they joined the Jewish people. Now, some people could cynically say, oh, it was just, you know, just temporary because it was, you know, popular because the queen was Jewish. Can I just remind you what it means to become a Jew? If you're a proselyte to Judaism, sorry to be graphic, if you're a man, it means you've got to be circumcised. It means, as well, you've got to switch your diet. and take on the kosher diet laws of the Old Testament. It also means you start observing the Jewish laws and the Jewish feasts and living by them. This is a major change. You're not telling me anybody did that like me. That was a shift of heart. Nobody, no man would go through that unless there was a shift of heart. So this is wonderful what happened there and the new legitimacy to the people. just absolutely was wonderful as a result of this change in the situation with Mordecai and the ring. You know what? We're in that situation too. There's a change for us. And how we respond to what's going on, you know, can be such a testimony to the world around. The world despises Christians. The world hates Christians. But you know what? The Church of Jesus Christ still grows. That's a wonderful thing. You know, one of the things I love is Satan's kingdom can never get any bigger. He can only lose people. Our Lord Jesus doesn't lost anybody. All that the Father has given me will come to me and I'll never cast them out. And he says as well that none shall pluck them from my hands, that we're his for eternity. He's not lost a single soul. His kingdom is not getting smaller, it's getting bigger all the time. Satan's kingdom is getting smaller. Isn't that wonderful? And the kingdom of God is growing day by day by day. I wonder if you've ever heard of this lady. Her name is Christiana Tsai. T-S-A-I is how you spell Tsai. And she was brought up in a strictly Buddhist home in China. But her parents allowed her as a girl to attend a Christian high school, which was run by missionaries, where she heard the gospel and she accepted Christ as her savior. When she became a Christian, her father went ballistic. He tore up her books. They brutally treated her, really punished her. And yet she just walked with the Lord through it all and just kept plodding on in her Christian faith. And you know, after time, one of her brothers came to see her one day and he sat down in her bedroom and he said, tell me about Christianity and why you became a Christian. He said, I've noticed that in spite of the way we treat you now, you seem much happier than you used to be. I think I'd like to believe too. Isn't that beautiful? as a new legitimacy and we can show that to the world as the Jewish people did in their behavior as well. So this changes everything, friends. We have one at the right hand of the throne. There's a new law in our favor, the gospel. and new legitimacy, we can win souls for Christ. I pray it will well. You know, there's a story in the newspaper a while back about a ring. Now, I've got to be honest with you. Rings like this, I just think, bling. There's nothing attractive about that to me. But you know what? That ring is worth something like 35,000 pounds. because that ring was one of only 362 that have ever been given in history to American footballers for their skill in playing. It's the Footballers Hall of Fame. And Andre Reid was given that ring. The ring itself is encrusted with diamonds, and it has his own name inscribed on it. And it has a very big diamond, a blue stone in the middle. It's a very expensive ring, as I said, and it was given to him. He had his hotel burgled, and he had the ring stolen. And it was in this country when he came to this country to watch his old team that he had played in. He came to watch them compete. They were having a contest in this country at Tottenham Hotspur football ground, and he came to see it. And somebody broke into his room, stole his wife's handbag, a Gucci handbag, and stole this ring. Now a long story, newspaper story, about how the police, real detective work, found the guy who did it. And they found, do you know where he was? By the time they caught up with him some months later, he was in prison for another offense. And they said, let's have a look at his possessions in his locker. And they found in the locker a little envelope issued by the prison service that had all these diamonds in it. Can you believe they said, you know, this, the guy said, How did you give this to him? How was he able to put this in a prison locker? And they said, you'll have to ask the other departments about that. And they never got a straight answer, of course. But they had the diamonds. What happened to the ring? Do you know what happened? He melted it down and got rid of it. Now, thankfully, they were able to return the stones to the man, and he was able to get another one made. But you can lose something like that. I want to tell you, my Lord Jesus is never going to lose his authority. He's got it for eternity. And that's why this is a message which is never going to go out of date. This changes everything, not for a season, Donald Trump come to power, it may be good news for some people, but it's only for four years. Jesus Christ for eternity. So if you don't know him as your Lord and Savior, put your trust in him even tonight. This changes everything.