The Moment of Truth (Part 2)

[0:00] At this second banquet, and now as she pours her heart out to the king, I don't really know!

[0:30] Something's different here. Remember he had built that gallows in his backyard garden between the two banquets at the behest of his wife and friends, and so that he could get permission to go and hang Mordecai before the second banquet. But you remember the scenario that the king wanted to honor Mordecai after he found out and remembered that he was the one, that Mordecai was the one that was able to find out that people were trying to kill the king. And so the king wanted to know what good thing has been done to Mordecai, and nothing had been done. So he wants to honor Mordecai, now you recall. And of course, it turns out that Haman was the one that was in the palace at the moment the king wanted to do this, so he assigned that task to Haman, unbeknowing that everything he was going to do to honor the man was not going to be himself, it was going to be Mordecai. And so he has to do that, he does that, takes him through the street, dressed in the king's garments, and the king's crown, and the king's apparel on the king's horse, and talking about this is the idea of the king honoring Mordecai. And so he now cannot ask permission to put Mordecai to death, because this is a man the king wanted to honor above everyone else. And so now he's sitting there at the second banquet, and remember as he had told the shameful thing to his wife and family again, the king's chamberlains come and escort him to the second banquet. And so that's where we left off last week, and in Esther 7 verses 3 and 4, if I have found favor in your side, O king, this again is

[2:32] Esther at the second banquet speaking to the king. If I have found favor in your side, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. Now here it is, for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, slain, and wiped out of existence. Of course, again, remember now, I don't even think the king knew she was a Jew at this point, up to this point. But now she's given indication here that something's amiss. He said, if we had already been had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I would have held my tongue, for our affliction is not to be compared with the damage this will do to the king. And so the king's surely curious about what this is all about. And so in verses 5 through 7, Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?

[3:35] And Esther said, The adversary and his enemy is this wicked Haman. Don't you get the picture here? She's now, for the very first time, labeling Haman as wicked Haman. All right? A picture here of the spirit of God, having revealed and exposed to Esther, the human spirit, the wickedness of Haman, or the wickedness of the sin nature.

[4:06] All right? So, then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. Remember last week, some of you saw in your translations, it was written, written, written, written, written, and I looked that up more, and for the largest percentage of translations, it's written as terrified. So he was terrified before the king and the queen.

[4:31] And the king, arising from the banquet of wine, in his wrath, went into the place of the garden. 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.

[4:51] Can you imagine what the king felt? Not only anger, but betrayal. Amen? Haman was his right-hand man. The king had given him his ring as a picture of the authority he had given Haman over the kingdom.

[5:07] And now he finds that this is the man that's now betrayed his king, because of the mandate that affects the queen that's in the palace.

[5:18] All right? Now, what do we see? What's the picture that we see in all of this? We see the human soul, represented by Esther, being influenced by the Holy Spirit. That's Mordecai.

[5:31] Exposing the flesh, which is Haman, to the human soul, which is King Ahasuerus. Enabling the flesh, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, the human spirit, and the human soul, to put to death Haman.

[5:46] All right? And then ultimately changing the actions of the human body, which is the kingdom of Ahasuerus. And we'll see that a bit later. So again, remember, that's the picture that we're looking at here.

[5:57] The picture that's being painted for us. The influence upon our lives. It's got to start with an influence of our spirit.

[6:12] The spirit's going to influence the soul, the mind, the will, and the emotions. And that is going to determine then what we are going to do outwardly through our body.

[6:24] All right? Our activities, our actions, our thoughts, everything. All right? So, there's only one or two things, remember. It's either going to be influenced by the spirit of God, or our spirit is going to be influenced by the flesh, the nature of sin.

[6:45] There's no middle ground to hide in. Amen? No middle ground. No vacuum there. All right? Now, continuing on then.

[6:55] In verses 7 through 8 of Esther 7. Now, notice this.

[7:17] Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was.

[7:29] Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in this house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Now, we'll look at that in a minute. Again, as the king goes out angry as can be, he comes back in.

[7:47] Now, doesn't it, doesn't express to us here what attitude the king had when he comes back in. All right? He's no doubt mulled things over.

[7:58] I'm thinking he's probably cooled down a little bit. And he comes in. What does he see? He sees his thoughts go to something that's not really taking place.

[8:09] But knowing how wicked now Haman must be. His thoughts carry him away here a little bit. But Haman, no doubt, the flesh, has stood up and confronted Esther.

[8:27] Frightened, weary, whatever you want to say, to beg for his own survival. All right?

[8:39] The sin nature, begging for survival, if you will, to the human soul. Now, as the king comes in, evidently, I mean, she's probably reclined on the couch there.

[8:51] And he, Haman, has just gone crazy. He's just falling at her feet on that lounge and begging her. And the king comes in and sees something that's not really there.

[9:06] But no doubt it makes him more and more angry. All right? And so, Haman's got a problem here. Now, as the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

[9:23] Now, we'll see what that means here in just a moment. Haman had recognized how deeply the influence of Mordecai had penetrated the palace. He's recognizing that now.

[9:35] Never been there before. And also, the arrogance of the would-be murderer was turned into sulky, sentimental pleadings of a frightened coward. So, Haman the Agagite was providing or proving true to his breed, as the flesh itself to the spiritually discerning must always bear the stamp of its satanic pedigree.

[9:59] Notice that again. You know, when the Spirit of God enlightens our soul to the reality of what the nature of sin is, then it doesn't take long for us to recognize where all that comes from with the sin nature.

[10:19] Paul said it satanically has its origin in Satan. All right? And so, that's the picture that he gives to us here. It just doesn't take long to see what that is.

[10:31] Now, history here is about to repeat itself. Notice again, it stipulates Haman as the Agagite. All right? Remember King Saul.

[10:42] When King Saul, back in the Old Testament, had fallen prey to the persuasions of Agag. You remember the conflict there. All right?

[10:53] He was the Amalekites with Agag, was king of the Amalekites. And God then had rejected him because he rejected the Word of God. Samuel comes in, you remember.

[11:05] God uses his prophet Samuel to move in and announce against Haggai the sentence of death, which God passed upon him, and from Saul, which had spared him.

[11:18] All right? That's found in 1 Samuel 15, 32. Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately.

[11:31] And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. Now, in his own persuasively deceptive way, Agag tried to bluff his way through this thing, as though it would be quite unfair of God to be as merciless to him as he had been to others.

[11:52] I mean, after all, he's the king of the Amalekites. And then 1 Samuel 15, 33, though, says, Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women.

[12:08] And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Now, how quickly, how quickly the boastful swagger of the flesh in the day of its ascendancy can be reduced to the sobbing cry of self-pity.

[12:26] All right? When the moment of truth has come. That just always reminds me. You know, all the pictures that are painted of who Satan is, right?

[12:38] We know how powerful he is, how influential he is in the life of man upon the spirit and the soul. And he causes so many to stumble and fall outside of God's will.

[12:52] We think of him as some terrifying object with horns and a pointed tail and a pitchfork in his hand. But that's not what he is.

[13:04] That's not what he is. Is it Ezekiel that tells us that when people will see him, they'll be astonished at what he is? Lions paraphrase, he's a weenie.

[13:20] Amen? Frail looking little. Yeah. And here's a good picture of that. The flesh being seemingly so powerful in influencing the king and the conduct of the kingdom itself.

[13:39] Now, when it's about to succumb to death, it's just the opposite with him. He just begs and cries like the weakest individual that you can find.

[13:51] Now, beware of this subtlety and never be sorry for yourself. Just be sorry for your sin.

[14:03] All right? If your pride is hurt and you feel that you've been misjudged and you become sensitive and begin to sulk, you can be quite certain that it's only Haman groveling in the dirt, sobbing for the mercy that he doesn't deserve.

[14:18] All right? So, again, anytime you feel like throwing a pity party for yourself, remember it's Haman that's knocking at the door, wanting to take control again.

[14:33] Haman is only fit, of course, for the gallows. Now, remember the phrase, they covered his face. I thought about this earlier. It's interesting.

[14:44] Over in chapter 6. Let me find it. Look over in chapter 6 real quick. And there's a statement here that is interesting.

[14:58] Now, this is, of course, verse 11.

[15:17] They took Haman, the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai with that. But look in verse 12. Mordecai came again to the king's gate.

[15:28] But Haman hasted to the house mourning, having his head covered. That's when he goes back to his family, feeling sorry for himself because Mordecai wouldn't bow.

[15:42] But take notice of the little phrase. He came in with his head covered. All right. Now, here, as King Ahasuerus sees what's going on, and is angry as he could be, they come and they cover Haman's face.

[16:08] That's it. Yeah. They cover Haman's face. Now, what that means is this. It was a sign of his being devoted to death. For the attendant saw that the king was determined on his destruction.

[16:23] He didn't even have to tell him. It's like putting the hood over the guy's head when you're going to put him on the gallows or hang him from the neck.

[16:36] They just automatically do that. Now, I found it interesting that when he comes into the house feeling sorry for himself, he's got his head covered.

[16:51] To me, that's just kind of an omen of what's going to take place here, what's going to happen here. Got to recognize, got to realize, God never intends or intended for the sin nature to be in control of our lives.

[17:10] Never has determined that. And I think the sin nature knows that. All right. Satan knows that. That's why he's working hard, particularly against the people of God.

[17:23] Now, when a criminal was condemned by a Roman judge, he was delivered into the hands of the sergeant with these words. I love this. I like that word kaput there.

[17:38] All right. Obnubito arboree infelisi suspendito. That's the word. Suspendito.

[17:49] I get that again. I like that word kaput. Obnubito arboree infelisi suspendito. What does that mean? Go, Sergeant.

[18:02] Cover his head and hang him on the accursed tree. That's what those words mean. All right. I just like that kaput. All right.

[18:13] All right. Now, verses 9 through 10. Harbona, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also the gallows 50 cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman.

[18:29] Then the king said, hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

[18:42] Now, great picture here. Haman. Haman's now hanging on the same gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.

[18:55] You think about the joy and the thrill that no doubt Mordecai, or Haman, experienced as he saw those gallows being built in his backyard, back in his garden.

[19:08] He could feature, picture in his mind, Mordecai hanging from those gallows. All right. All right. Carried on most of the day until he finds out he has to honor Mordecai.

[19:25] Now, he's hanging from those gallows. All right. His own gallows. What's going to happen?

[19:39] What's ultimately going to happen? Go over to the Revelation. Take a look. Revelation chapter 20.

[19:54] Look in verse 11. No, back up there. Verse 7. Start in verse 7. And when thousand years were expired, that's the millennial reign, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

[20:13] He shall go out to deceive the nation which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

[20:25] And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

[20:36] And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.

[20:49] I saw a great white throne, him that sat on it, from whom faced the earth, and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.

[21:01] And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And then the sea gave up the dead which were in it.

[21:14] The death and hell were delivered up. Delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man, according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

[21:26] This is the second death. Okay? Haman's hanged, and he's hanged for good. Amen? At that juncture, at that point.

[21:39] So, that's the book, or that's the part that we see here. Now, can somebody say something? Okay.

[21:53] I thought I heard somebody say something. Okay. 1900 years ago, it was a Roman gallows, of course. And of those who put him there, the Lord Jesus said, You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do.

[22:10] He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in truth, because there was no truth in him. What was, well, with that ecstatic delight, Satan must have incited the crowd as they looked and stared upon him, shouting, He saved others.

[22:27] Himself he cannot save. I was going to ask, what was, what was the real reason for Satan's fall?

[22:40] Or Lucifer's fall? Pride. Pride. What else? What goes along with pride? He said he was going to be like God. He wanted to be like God.

[22:50] Yeah. In reality, he wanted to control everything. And everybody. Just like the nature of sin within us. Alright? Wanted to take control of our lives.

[23:02] Now, think about it. Satan must have been, must have been so pleased with all of this, as he begins to incite the crowd, and incites them to say, he saved others.

[23:17] Himself he cannot save while he's hanging on the cross. So, this was to be the hour of his triumph, but one thing he did not realize. That's Satan.

[23:27] There was a sterner business to be accomplished upon the cross that Satan never guessed. This was not just the sentence of death upon a man by fellow men, nor spectacular public execution, nor the untimely end of a noble martyr who drifted to disaster because he lived before his day and generation.

[23:49] Die? He did as man must die, whose blood is spilt. But it was not a son, but Satan himself, who bore the mortal blow of God's relentless wrath, as the Savior tasted death for every man, according to Hebrews 2.14.

[24:08] For as much then as children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

[24:22] Romans 8.3, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.

[24:36] Now, just think about all of this just a minute. Satan's like Haman. He's headed for the gallows. Amen? Amen? Everything he did to prevent, first of all, Jesus from being born, and then Jesus from becoming king, he did, thinking he had succeeded when he saw Jesus on the cross.

[25:07] But that's not where the story ended. Amen? Again, I don't know whose car we see parked out in the parking lot on Sundays that has on the back window, I've read the book, and God wins.

[25:25] But that's true. Amen? Amen? Satan ultimately will perish. And God will be the victor.

[25:36] So, let's be victorious in our own lives at this point, and yield to the Spirit of God, and not the nature of sin.

[25:47] When the Lord Jesus Christ died for you, He not only paid the price for your redemption, but there was identified with Him, but there was identified with Him, and nailed to His cross.

[25:59] The old sinful nature, which for so long, has dominated our souls, and frustrated all of our hopes. Oh, that we burn that down in the very soul of our heart and our mind.

[26:14] Everything, again, we were in the old Adam, was nailed to the cross with the Lord Jesus. I know we're human, and we use that as an excuse so many times, but got to realize, folks, God's tired of excuses.

[26:33] Amen? When He's given us the Spirit of God, the divine nature, through which He directs us, and leads us, and guides us, and gives us the ability, to walk in righteousness, then, we have no excuse.

[26:51] We've got to remember that that nature died with Christ on the cross. So this is something that God wants us to know. For we know that our old, unrenewed self was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our body, which is the instrument of sin, might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.

[27:20] This is the truth being expressed in the book of Esther, when Haman was hanged upon the gallows, that he had prepared for Mordecai.

[27:31] So, no longer might Haman exercise the executive powers of government, and abuse the king's authority. No longer would he bring disrepute upon the kingdom, through his malicious evil influences over the behavior of his people, throughout the length and breadth of the land.

[27:52] The kingdom, of course, representing the human body, was no longer to be the instrument of its evil acts, but by his death, it would become ineffective and inactive for Haman.

[28:05] So, as Haman hung by the neck, so the stage was set for the radical change of government, which would produce so great a change of government, and also produce so great a change in behavior, that from one end of the country to the other, everyone would know that something very wonderful had happened in the palace of the king.

[28:28] The wrong man was out, the right man was in, so we could rejoice and be glad. We'll pick that up next week. Let's pray together. Father, again, thank you for your loving kindness, and your goodness and grace today, and for your love for us.

[28:44] Thank you, Father, that you've enabled us to come back together, to enjoy your word together, and to speak to us through it. So, Father, again, I just pray that you'll do that work within us, that will enable us to grasp hold of the truth, that you have been victorious over death, hell, and the grave, and Satan needs not have any power over us, because of the spirit of God that dwells within us.

[29:12] So, enable us to sense that, to know that, but also to live that, and total yieldedness to you, through your spirit. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name.

[29:23] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.