Book of Esther - Part 16

Park Meadows Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

All right, well let's go into Esther chapter 6, and I'm going to start about halfway through verse 13.

00:08

I'm not even going to read the whole verse because the main message today is in the book of Colossians, but we're studying the book of Esther verse by verse, and when we come across a major Bible theme, we usually stop and park there for a while, and we go out and see what the rest of the

00:26

Word has to say about it. And so we're on a major theme right now, and so let's read this, we'll talk about it, and then we'll go and see what we have for today.

00:35

In Esther chapter 6 verse 13, you have this story of Mordecai, who was a

00:43

Jew. Remember the Jewish people had been destroyed in battle and taken captive into Babylon, and here we have

00:51

Artaxerxes, which was probably one of the most famous kings in all of history because he ruled over the entire known world of his day.

01:02

And the Jews were taken captive, and by this time Mordecai, who was raising Esther, whose parents had been killed, he was raising her, and he lived right at the gate of the palace, and he was well known there.

01:16

And Esther then was chosen to be the king's new wife, if you remember that story.

01:23

And she was a young girl in her teens, and she became the king's wife, and here she is a

01:30

Jew. Her dad had instructed her not to tell the king she was Jewish, so she didn't. And then you have this other person come on the scene in this story named

01:37

Haman, who was a descendant of Esau, which is a picture of the flesh, by the way, in the

01:44

Bible as you study those things. And so Haman, his whole lineage going all the way back, had a hatred for Israel and for Jews, and so he hated the

01:55

Jews, and when he found out that Mordecai refused to bow down to him because the king had passed a law and said everyone will bow down to Haman and worship him, he'd walk down the street and Mordecai would be there and he wouldn't bow down and worship this man, and it made

02:09

Haman furious. So he decided in his heart he would not only kill this man, but he would kill the entire

02:15

Jewish people, all the Jewish people in Babylon at the time.

02:20

That was his desire. He got the king to pass a law that said that could happen legally, and he even funded it and said we will pay people who will kill

02:28

Jews. And so it was a precursor of Hitler, actually, and you have to remember this.

02:35

The scripture says that we battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.

02:42

It's not ever another human being that is your foe. It may appear that way, it may feel that way, but it's not that way.

02:50

We battle not, our battle is not with other people. It is a spiritual unseen battle that's going on all the time.

02:57

And so the same Satan who inspired Haman to try to destroy the entire

03:03

Jewish race inspired Hitler to do the same thing many years later. And what's interesting about it, the book of Revelation indicates very clearly that Satan will then inspire the leaders of the world to not only kill the

03:14

Jews, but also the Christians in coming days in our future. Isn't that interesting to know? So that same hatred,

03:21

Esther is a great book for you to read if you want to prepare for such a time as this. Because that same hatred that this man had for Mordecai and the

03:30

Jews will be placed into the hearts and minds of leaders at your future, at some future date, to hate you that way and the

03:39

Jews, you being a Christian and the Jewish people. And so it will not make any sense.

03:45

And you know, one thing that you look about in this life, you look at politics, you look at the way our leaders handle our country, and do you ever see times when it doesn't make any common sense?

03:55

Raise your hand and tell me if you ever see such a time as that. Like the leaders just don't seem like to even be able to think common sense like you and I could.

04:02

It seems like it's impossible for them. When you see things happening and come into play that make absolutely no sense whatsoever, then you know there is demonic activity behind the scenes because the demons come and they convince people of wrong thoughts.

04:17

The Apostle Paul spoke of doctrines of demons many times. So demons will come and place thoughts in leaders' minds, the leadership of the world, and put thoughts in there that seem so real to them and so right to them that they act upon them.

04:31

And to you and I, they make no sense whatsoever. They're totally the opposite direction than what would make sense.

04:36

And we see that today. And so this is not new because it's the same

04:42

Satan, the same spirit of Antichrist that is behind it then is behind it now and will be until the

04:49

Lord puts an end to that, which he shall someday. So there's our story, and it comes to this point where Haman had plotted to kill

04:57

Mordecai. He had even built gallows to hang the man, were already built and ready to go, and he had this plan where he was going to go before the king.

05:05

And what's interesting about it is Esther also had a plan. She had already invited the king to a banquet for just the king and one other person.

05:13

Guess who the other person was? Haman got invited. He was so prideful. He went home, he told his wife, he brought in all of his friends and told them how wealthy he was, how fortunate he was, how loved he was, out of all of the entire nation, who got invited besides the king?

05:28

Who did Esther invite besides the king? So she loves the king number one. She loves me number two.

05:33

That's what he thought. And yet she had a plan to destroy Haman before he destroyed the man who raised her and all of the

05:41

Jews and her. And she had this plan developed and God had placed this in her mind.

05:47

And so she had already invited these men, the king and Haman, to a banquet that she was doing for them, two of them actually.

05:54

And so here we see that all of a sudden, God has orchestrated this. He also did another thing that was interesting, is one night the king just couldn't sleep.

06:05

Now we think little things that happen to us are accidents or it's just like life. It's just little things. And God's only interested in the big things.

06:13

And that's where we're wrong. Every little thing that happens is orchestrated. This king couldn't sleep one night and so he never wasted his time because he ran the entire world, known world of his day.

06:24

So he asked his men, he woke them up and asked them to bring in the books of the Chronicles and tell me what's been going on in my kingdom.

06:31

Bring me up to date. So they're reading from this book and they read about how there was an assassination attempt on his life.

06:37

And this man named Mordecai had thwarted that by telling Esther who told him. And so they got the two men and hung them before they could kill the king.

06:44

And the king said, really? Well, I knew about that, but I didn't know it was Mordecai. What did you do good for him?

06:49

And they said, well, we didn't do anything for him. And they were probably fearful at that point because the king wanted something done.

06:57

And the king said, well, who's here tonight? It just so happened that Haman was hanging around the palace late that night because he wanted to go get permission to kill

07:04

Mordecai. But before he could say anything, the king calls him in and says, hey, Haman, there's this guy that has done wonderful things and I want to reward him.

07:14

What do you think I should do? Well, Haman thought it was him, himself. So Haman told him everything he wished could happen and let's put him on your perfect white horse and put some of your old clothes that you don't wear anymore that you wore last week on him and give him a scepter, let him go through town and let one of your best men go before him and holler out to everybody, this is what the king does to people he loves.

07:35

And the king said, great, that man is Mordecai and you're the one that I want to lead the horse. And Haman was destroyed.

07:41

And here's where he comes in here and now he comes back to his wife and his friends. It's not the same prideful story. All of a sudden he's saying, man, everything is going wrong.

07:50

And then said the wise man and Zeresh his wife unto him, if Mordecai be of the seed of the

07:57

Jews who you plan to destroy, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him but shall surely fall before him.

08:07

His own wife told him, look, if it's true, if all this that you told us is true, this very man that you're going to kill is now raised up as number one in the king's sight.

08:16

You're a dead man. You're going to fall. His own wife told him that. And while they were telling him this, the

08:22

Bible says in verse 14, at that very moment, a knock on the door comes. He opens the door.

08:29

It's the king's men said, come with us. And they took him to the banquet. And we'll find out later what happened at the banquet.

08:35

But what's interesting about it is that the little details where we see

08:42

God's hand involved to make all of this come to pass. Now, this brings to question a couple of theological issues that have been discussed forever among theologians.

08:52

And it is the transcendence of God versus the eminence of God is how the theologians talk about it.

08:58

Transcendence means God is so holy that he's outside of time and space and sin cannot come into his presence.

09:06

And so there's a whole group of people that say that is God. And then there's another group of people that say, well, no, God is eminent.

09:11

By that, they mean he's everywhere. He's in the room. He's at your house. He's in you. He's everywhere. They even take it even too far.

09:18

They say, well, he's in the trees. He's in the rocks. And people over in Africa worship the trees. They call it animism.

09:25

And the natives there that don't know anything about Christ, they worship rocks. They worship trees because they think

09:31

God is in everything. And that's taking that too far. What's interesting about those two concepts, transcendence and eminence, is if you don't have a balance, you become perverted in your belief about God.

09:42

Because the truth is God is both. And the only way God could do that is if he existed as a triune being.

09:48

You've heard of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, right? This is the way God exists, or some theologians call it subsists.

09:56

He subsists as three, and yet he is one God. And the reason for this is because as you study

10:04

God, he is both. If you think of the one that you call the Father, God the Father, he is transcendent.

10:10

The truth is, our sins cannot come into his presence and never will. No sin will ever come into his presence.

10:16

He is holy. He is spirit. He is invisible. And he is called the

10:24

I Am, which means he is always in the present tense. Now wrap your minds around that. Like last week he was with you, but right now he's with you in your future.

10:36

And to him it's now. So he's already walking with you in your future. Isn't that interesting?

10:42

So there's nothing bad that can happen to you that surprises him. Do you ever think about that? I like what

10:48

Brother Jimmy said last week. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurred to God? You've heard that before.

10:54

It just means God doesn't have to think. Brother Otis used to say, God doesn't think. And I remember him saying, well, he doesn't have a mind.

11:01

He's omniscient. He knows everything. He doesn't have to think like we do through a process to get from A to B.

11:07

He's already there. And you think of a being like that, he is transcendent.

11:14

He's so much bigger. His, and Jimmy said this last week, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His ways are different than our ways.

11:21

We like to make God and think of him as if he's like us, but he's nothing like us. I know it says we're created in his image, but it never says he's created in our image.

11:29

You get my point? He is not like us. He, his ways are so different and bigger and his thoughts so much higher and he's transcendent.

11:37

He's, he's totally separate from sin. That is God. However, when you look at Jesus Christ and you look at the

11:42

Holy Spirit and Jesus was called Emmanuel, which means God with us, God in Christ was imminent.

11:50

Because, because of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, God is imminent. He is not only with you, he's not only around you, he lives in your body if you're saved today.

11:59

Your body is the temple of the living God, he is imminent. There is nothing in your life that he's not involved with.

12:06

The smallest little detail of your life, he is involved with. The blade of grass you drove past and didn't notice today that was blowing in the wind, he was involved with it directly.

12:14

And we call that the eminence of God. Well, let me tell you this, Esther is a book on the eminence of God. Because Esther was afraid she was gonna walk in to the palace and go before the king and he was going to kill her because there was a law that said you can't go before the king unless you've been invited and she had not been invited.

12:33

But Mordecai said, if you don't go before him, we're all gonna die. So you gotta go before him and you've got to stop this thing that Haman is planning.

12:40

So she said, well, I'll tell you what, you better pray and fast for me and I'll get my young women up here that live with me to pray and fast with me before I go in there.

12:50

So they did, and she goes in there and guess what? The king just looks at her with eyes of love.

12:56

She did not anticipate this, she thought he was gonna kill her. Eyes of love, he looked at her and says, my queen, hadn't seen you in a while.

13:04

He'd been so busy, too busy. He was a workaholic, gentlemen, there's a lesson for us. Too busy to even notice he hadn't been with his wife, that's too busy.

13:12

But anyway, so my queen, what can I do for you? He said, I'll tell you what, you're so lovely today.

13:19

I know you came in here to ask for something. So ask for anything you want, up to half my kingdom, I'll give it to you.

13:24

Do you think she expected that? No, do you think that she knew that God woke him up the night before and read the book that talked about the man that raised her and saved his life and all that?

13:33

She doesn't know about that, but through faith, she walked in that room, put her life at risk anyway, but God was in control.

13:41

She really didn't need to be worrying all night, did she? But she did, she laid there and worried all night, just like you would.

13:47

She's human, just like we are, she worried all night. She got up, she did the difficult thing, she walked in that room, it all worked out cuz

13:53

God had it orchestrated. There's a lesson for us in that, don't you think? Amen, Brother David. That's right,

13:59

I think so. Okay, now, so there's where we are. Now, we talk about all of these little details that God was working in in their lives.

14:10

And not only in Esther's life, but let me point out something's very interesting. In Haman's life, don't ever be so fearful of men, these terrible lost men that sometimes are in leadership in the world that cause terrible things to happen.

14:25

Don't think for one moment God's not orchestrating their lives as well. They're just pawns on a big chess board doing exactly what

14:32

God needs done to bring his will to pass. That's all they are, they're nothing more than that. They can't do anything that doesn't come to them from heaven.

14:40

Now, they're not aware of that, but Jesus told someone that once, you remember that? Was it Pilate? You can't, yes, you can say that my life's in your hand, but the truth is, you can't do anything that doesn't come to you from heaven.

14:54

Isn't that right? And so God is orchestrating everyone's life. We talk about the elect, those that God knew before the foundation of the world were gonna be his, and the non -elect, those that he knew are not gonna be his.

15:05

But it doesn't mean that the elect serve God and the non -elect don't. The non -elect serve him too, they just don't like it and they don't acknowledge it.

15:13

That's the only difference. They're serving him with everything they do. They're putting the groceries on the shelf that you eat.

15:19

I know Brother Otis told me one thing, I asked him, well, why is all this stuff going? He said, well, David, the non -elect do things for their own purposes, usually for their own belly, for money and all this.

15:28

They have all these motivations. But God just put all that there to cause them to put everything on the shelf that God's children needs.

15:35

Isn't that a beautiful thought? You've heard that before, cuz I've told you about it. But that's what's going on here.

15:41

So we talk about the eminence of God in Ephesians chapter four.

15:47

It talked about how God himself is above all, through all, and in all.

15:57

That pretty much covers everything, doesn't it? Above all, through all, and in all.

16:03

And then we went into John chapter 15, and it talks about how he's the vine and we're the branch.

16:12

And he has this little phrase, he says, without me, you can do nothing. And if the church has ever forgotten anything in the

16:18

Bible, it's that phrase in the modern church today. The modern church today truly thinks that she can do everything on her own, and then that will please

16:28

God. Just be busy doing all kinds of works. Be busy thinking up all kinds of programs and ministries and stuff that we can do, audio, visuals up, and just everything to make it just like Hollywood.

16:40

We can bring in a huge crowd, and that's going to please God, and then he'll take care of the big stuff.

16:47

Isn't that kind of the thought? We'll take care of all this stuff. The stuff we can do, we'll just do it, and he'll take care of the big stuff.

16:55

And yet, Jesus said so plainly, he said, look, you're nothing but a branch.

17:01

I'm the vine and the root. The life comes from me. The fruit comes from me. I create all of that, and I have allowed you to be a part of it.

17:09

I've caused you to be a part of it. I called you out of darkness to be part of this. You get to hold the fruit.

17:16

Now see, we blow that up much bigger because we're humanistic. We like to think man is the center of everything.

17:22

So we blow up our part really big, and we minimize God's part really little, like he doesn't do anything except take care of the big stuff.

17:30

And so that makes us really big. We're out here bearing all this fruit, and we start to think that the word bear just means to hold it.

17:36

It doesn't mean we created it. It doesn't mean we made it. It doesn't mean we can breathe it out of nothing or speak it out of nothing.

17:43

It just means we're allowed to be the one that the fruit grows on and hangs off of us. You see the difference?

17:50

The modern theology is that you are the tree. You're the one that created all that fruit, and you should get pat on the back for all of it.

17:58

That's the modern Christianity. Old time Christianity, 100 years ago, 200 years ago, going all the way back for 2 ,000 years as you read what different brothers and sisters have written.

18:07

They didn't ever look at it that way. They looked at it like God is everything. It's all about God. And we receive the benefit of it though because he called some of us out of a fallen race, a few of us.

18:17

He plucked out, out of his mercy, so the whole race wouldn't be destroyed. And he plucked us out, and he turned the switch on, and we opened our eyes, and we said,

18:26

Lord, what should I do for you? And we loved him because we couldn't resist him at that point.

18:32

And then we find ourselves a part of everything he's doing. But we're not the cause of it, he is.

18:38

And so you go in and you see this beautiful passage of the fact in John chapter 15 where he says,

18:45

I am the vine, you're the branches. He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.

18:51

Without me, you can do nothing. And we saw all of a sudden, God is imminent. He is so much a part of our lives that even in the spiritual realm, the religious life, we can't do anything.

19:02

Even in our regular life at home, we cannot do anything without him. God said this in Isaiah 49, 14.

19:13

But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?

19:23

God said, doesn't seem to make sense, but I'm gonna tell you something. There are women who don't love their children.

19:28

There are women like that. We've read about them in the newspapers, haven't we? All right, but he says, yeah, they may forget, yet will

19:37

I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.

19:43

Thy walls are continually before me. God has taken your name, your individual name, and carved it in his palm of his hand, so that he'll never forget you.

19:52

God is imminent in your life. Now, I'd like for you to turn to Colossians chapter 1.

19:59

Go ahead and look at verse 12. Let's start with verse 12. And this is our last little passage on this

20:06

Bible theme of the imminence of God. And then we'll be right back and see what Esther teaches us next. But in this passage, it sort of drives the nail that proves the fact that God is not just aloof.

20:25

He did not just spin everything out there and then just sit back there and watch it. It really doesn't have anything to do with it directly.

20:34

But let's look at this for a moment. Colossians 112, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

20:46

Now, I'm gonna tell you, you can take almost any passage of scripture. If you study it word for word, phrase for phrase, verse by verse, it will destroy modern

20:53

Christian theology. It will destroy it. Because modern Christian theology is nothing more than religious secular humanism.

21:04

It's what humanism is to the secular world. Modern theology is that to theology.

21:11

And look at this right here. See, modern theology teaches that, well, I found Jesus. I accepted

21:17

Jesus. I could have rejected him, but I decided that I would accept him and walk in his way and be a part of the church.

21:25

Well, you know, some of us thought that, maybe all of us thought that when we first got saved, cuz we were babies, right?

21:30

But how many of you moms would think it would be normal if your child just remained a baby for the next 12 years? They need to grow, don't they?

21:37

What if you thought you got a 12 -year -old kid and he's still drinking milk from a bottle? Would you think that's normal?

21:45

That's the modern Christian world today. You're supposed to progress to meet, and there's way more to it than I accepted

21:54

Jesus. I mean, I hope you did. But the truth is, the more you read about the

21:59

Bible, you're gonna find you didn't really accept him. Actually, what you did was you received him. Because you didn't have the thought in your mind to reject him, and you received him.

22:10

Why? Because look at this. Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us, who is us?

22:17

Well, you don't have to read the passage, but just take my word for it. It's talking to Christians. It's talking to those who know the

22:23

Lord. It's talking to, you might say, the elect. But it's that part of the elect who already know they're saved.

22:30

You know what I'm saying? Kind of like Bill talked about. They've been notified. I kind of like that phrase. It is weird, but it does say it right.

22:39

It's unusual. You don't hear it talked about in the church anywhere, but think about that. God knew you before the foundation of the world, and there came a point in your life when all of a sudden you received him.

22:51

And you knew who he was, and you loved him for who he was, and he became your Lord. It's like he called you out of darkness.

22:57

It's almost like he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Wait a minute, that is what it's like. He said that, didn't he?

23:04

It's almost like he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

23:09

It's almost like that, isn't it? Well, that is what happened because he made you meet.

23:16

Now, that old English word M -E -E -T here means fit. Just put the word fit in your

23:22

Bible. He made you fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

23:28

He made you fit. Now, think about that. In the Greek language, hikonauo means this, to enable, to qualify, to cause a person to have arrived at something.

23:43

Have you ever heard somebody say, well, I think I've arrived. In other words, I've figured this thing out, I can do this now.

23:49

You know, that concept, that comes from this Greek word. God caused you to have arrived at the point where you are a

23:57

Christian now. He made you competent to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in life.

24:03

He made you ample. There's another word. All of these little colors or shades of meanings are found in this one

24:09

Greek word. He made you fit in character. Also, it says he made you able to do it.

24:15

He made you where you had enough to do it. He made you sufficient.

24:21

He made you even, there's one word that's translated into this word. He made you worthy to partake of the inheritance of the saints in life.

24:33

So it was God who made us qualified. It was God who made us able. It was

24:38

God who made us enough. It was God who made us secure. It was

24:44

God who made us sufficient to be a Christian. It was God who, yes, made us worthy enough to be a saint and a partaker of the inheritance of life.

24:54

It was not you who did it. Does that make sense? It was not you who did it. You got called out of darkness into light by him.

25:02

He made you fit to be a Christian. He did the fitting. Are you getting it?

25:09

You already got it, I bet. You're way ahead of me. He enabled you. That's powerful.

25:16

That's the opposite of what's taught in the churches today. Let there be no mistake.

25:25

Now listen to me. Any improvement in our lives, any abstinence from sin in our lives, any gravitation at all toward God or toward that which is good and pleasing to God in our actions originates not from within us, but from outside of us.

25:49

That's not taught today, but that's the way it is. God made us fit. You see that?

25:54

Now that's great. Look at verse 13. Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.

26:07

The phrase starts out with the word who. That's a reference back to God. God himself giving thanks unto the father.

26:16

Listen, the father is the transcendent God. The father is the one who is in a place where there is no place.

26:23

There is no physical. There is no time. He is the eternal now. He is invisible.

26:30

We can't describe what he is. We call him a spirit. We don't know what spirit is. He is so big and beyond what our thoughts are.

26:37

And from him, he is the one who made you fit to be one of his. And here it says, he is the one who delivered us from the power of darkness, that's

26:48

Satan's power, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. What does this word delivered mean?

26:54

The Greek word, the best English word to translate that into is rescue. He has rescued you.

27:00

Why is it we hang around with sinful thoughts, sinful deeds, sinful people? We gravitate.

27:06

Have you ever stopped to think about this? The Bible says we're created in God's image. But who do you feel like whose image you're really in?

27:12

We're more like the devil than we are like God. If you just let yourself go, you're more like the devil.

27:19

Why is that? Because we're fallen. There shouldn't be a one of us ever get saved. Shouldn't be a single human boy, man, girl, baby.

27:28

None of them should ever be saved. We're a fallen race. And praise be to God for his mercy and his grace that he reached down into that fallen grace and he saves some.

27:39

And if you receive him as your personal Lord and Savior, you will be one of those. And it's so fascinating where it says he rescued us.

27:50

That doesn't only mean that he just rescued you so you can go to heaven. It also means he rescues you so that you can be delivered from sin while you're here.

27:56

Now, I'm not saying you can be sinless. But I'm saying you can try to be sinless. Because here's the truth.

28:03

You have the power in every moment. You have to remember, you live in moments. You live this moment to the next, to the next, to the next.

28:10

And in any given moment, you have the power not to sin. Because you cannot sin if you walk hand in hand with Jesus and fellowship with him.

28:18

Because your new man won't sin. It's only your old man. The old man is your flesh, your organs, your body, your natural man.

28:26

It will sin on any given moment. It wants to sin. It has urges to sin. But your new man is supposed to be the boss.

28:34

And the way that happens more and more, obviously, first you get saved. You receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.

28:39

Then after that, you start drinking milk out, get the baby concepts out of the Bible. But after that, you start eating some of the meat, some of the deeper concepts out of the

28:46

Bible. And as you study the word, Jesus said, look, my word is not just ink on paper. He said, my word is spirit, and it is life.

28:55

And you start partaking of that spirit and life, and all of a sudden, you start having power over sin. You can be holy.

29:00

You don't have to be like everybody else. You can say no to sin. And guess what other human beings, even lost people, will do?

29:06

As they see the character that God builds in your life that is more like Christ, they see that you're on a different plane, and they want some of that.

29:15

Now, they may not wanna go through what you went through to get it by giving up your whole life to someone else named

29:21

Jesus Christ. But they kind of observe the fact that you are stronger than they are as a human being.

29:26

And guess what? When they get in their worst trouble, guess who they're gonna run to? They may have mocked you, you teenagers, think about this.

29:31

They may mock you because you go to church, because you claim you're a Christian. And they may make fun of it behind your back, saying, they're weak, they gotta have a crutch named

29:39

Jesus, he's their crutch. But when life goes bad, they're gonna run to you and say, give me some advice. Why? Because they saw some holiness, they saw some character, they saw some strength against sin that they don't have.

29:50

And so we do have that. God has made us fit, God has delivered us, he has rescued us.

29:56

Now look at this, it says he has translated us. What does that mean? This word translate in the

30:03

Greek language means to transfer or to carry from one place to another.

30:09

It can be translated into the word depose. That's a lot of that going on nowadays.

30:15

Our nation thinks it's our job to depose Gaddafi as leader of Libya, which

30:20

I have no clue why we're involved in that. I have no clue, because it's just so the terrorists can take over and run their government,

30:28

I guess. I don't know, but the point is, we're deposing him. What does depose mean? Depose means to remove from the throne or to dethrone.

30:37

Now let me explain something to you. The Bible says that the Father, the invisible God of the universe, that is from another place that's not even a place and he's not even in time.

30:48

He is the now. That one has translated you. Do you know what that means? He translated you from what?

30:54

From the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his son. He dethroned

31:01

Satan from your life, that's what it means. When he translated you, he dethroned

31:06

Satan. You know who else he dethroned? You and me. I remember so vividly the day

31:13

I got saved. I didn't get saved until a little bit. I was already, had two degrees from college and was driving to work one day.

31:20

Thought I had the world by the tail. And I don't know why, but I was driving to work that day and it occurred to me that I didn't have the world by the tail.

31:33

And I prayed and I said, Lord, I've always known you were there. But today I'm telling you that I want you to be my boss instead of me being my boss.

31:43

And that's the day I got saved. That's the day God notified me that I had always belonged to him.

31:48

I didn't know it until then. Used to hate church, used to hate the Bible and think it was boring. Tried to read it several times because I thought maybe by works

31:55

I could get to heaven if I told God, well, I read your Bible. But I never could get past Genesis, it just got so boring.

32:02

And then all of a sudden the light got flipped in that car going to work. He translated me into the kingdom of his dear son.

32:11

He dethroned me from my own life. I was no longer the ruler of my own life, of my own body, my own mind.

32:17

He became ruler. Jesus became my Lord and he immediately freed me from every lesser

32:23

Lord in my life. The cussing, the bad habits, the drinking. I know none of you thought

32:28

I ever did that because you never knew me back then. But you could ask my wife about it. She would tell you, but don't, don't ask her.

32:35

It's not worth hearing about. But I'm saying, I got translated. It's like from one language to another.

32:42

From a worldly language to a godly language. In a moment of time, I was translated. You know what's interesting about that word translated?

32:50

It can also be put this way. You can use it this way in the English language and it is used this way. It can be translated into the word seduce.

32:58

Now isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? John Calvin had a concept that people hate today.

33:06

In fact, they hate the word Calvin, which I like to use his name. Because he didn't invent anything. He just organized stuff that was in the

33:12

Bible and been there 2 ,000 years, almost. But he had this concept called irresistible grace.

33:18

And what he meant by that was that when the Lord calls one of the elect people that he knew before the foundation of the world.

33:26

When he calls that person by name, that person cannot resist him. He cannot reject him.

33:32

Now he may have rejected him all the way up to that point in life. When it came to the point where the

33:38

Lord called his name out. But at that point, he can no longer reject him. He is irresistible. He can only say, Lord, what can

33:45

I do to follow you? That's all you would be able to say. And what's interesting about it is this word where it says that God the

33:52

Father translated us into the kingdom of his son. The word can be interpreted, seduced us.

34:00

Now what does that mean? Here we are walking in life following the devil, lost as a goose, living in darkness, doing the same stuff the whole world is doing, just as badly or as well as they're doing it, whichever way you wanna put it.

34:16

We're following down that road, totally going away from God, every step. Every step we take, we're going farther away from God.

34:22

And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit comes into your life and begins to woo you.

34:29

And you start having thoughts about God, like this young man did that was talking to me. I don't have any thought for a moment but that he will be saved someday.

34:37

Because the Lord is wooing him. And eventually, the

34:43

Holy Spirit seduces you and makes it so irresistible that you can do nothing other than receive

34:52

Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. There's nothing else you want to do. That's exactly what you wanna do at that moment, and you do it.

34:58

Isn't that amazing? So how is it that our whole theology is turned upside down today where it's all about us doing stuff?

35:06

We're chasing Jesus. No, we're not. We're running from him as fast as we can go the other direction. And all of a sudden, he just puts something in our way and stops us and says, look at me, and you look at him, and he seduces you to himself, and you can't resist him, and you receive him.

35:22

And then all of a sudden, you are translated, and you are delivered, and you are rescued, and you're a part of the family of God, and you didn't do anything to get there.

35:32

So all you can do is just say, Lord, thank you. All you can do is say, Lord, I don't even understand it.

35:38

I know me. I know what I'm capable of. I know stuff I have done. I do not deserve to be part of the kingdom of God.

35:47

I do not deserve to be part or to be a partaker of the inheritance of the other saints who are already saved.

35:54

And God comes back and says, wait a minute. I know you don't. I'm the one who fitted you. I'm the one who made you fit to be part of my family.

36:03

You had nothing to do with it. Just receive it, and thank me for it, and let me love you, and you love me.

36:09

And let's walk together. And so that's the way this whole thing is put together by our

36:16

Lord. Now, it goes on and says some beautiful things, and we're out of time. I'm just not gonna preach on them,

36:23

I'm just gonna read them and get down to the last verse that I wanted you to see today about the eminence of God.

36:28

I think you already see it, but it's put out so well in this book of Colossians. Verse 14, he says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

36:40

When you talk about God fitting us, when you talk about God wooing us, even seducing us, if you wanna use that word, where he just pulls us into himself where you cannot refuse him.

36:51

You can't do anything other than love him. And you see that in John chapter 10, Jesus said the same thing.

36:57

He was talking to the Pharisees and says, you don't listen to me because you can't. And what Jesus knew was they were not of the elect.

37:02

They were not, they didn't belong to God. God never knew them. They're never going to belong to God.

37:08

Jesus knew that. And he said, you believe me not because you're not of my sheep. See, the sheep is a synonym for the elect.

37:16

You're not of my sheep. Then he said to them, here's the difference between you and my sheep.

37:23

He says in John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

37:31

There is nothing in that passage that leaves any room for the fact that some sheep follow him and others reject him.

37:37

There's nothing in that passage. He flat says, I know them, they hear my voice, and they follow me.

37:43

And in the Greek, it's even stronger. They always follow me. That is that fitting, that compelling to come to the light.

37:53

It's like you're drawn to the light like a moth is. And Jesus is the light and you're the moth. And you can't go out into the darkness.

37:59

You have to come to that light. And you're just drawn to the light. Don't think for a minute

38:04

God just put moths out there and it's an accident that they go to light. But God put every little thing there is out there as an object lesson that teaches about himself.

38:13

So we're like little moths. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

38:20

Look at this, talking about Jesus now, it says, who is the image of the invisible

38:25

God. The invisible father is the transcendent one. Jesus is the image that comes from the

38:32

Greek word icon. And what that means is that Jesus is God physical. As Colossians says in another place, he is all of the fullness of the

38:41

Godhead in a physical body that you can see and touch and feel and smell and walk with.

38:47

That's who Jesus is. And it says about this one named Jesus that he is imminent.

38:52

He is right here with us. He is called God with us.

38:58

And it says about him, for by him were all things created. Now, here's where people miss the boat.

39:05

There are many people who say, well, it's granted that God flung it all out there. But I just don't think he cares about it.

39:12

Otherwise, why do you have all this stuff happening? Well, it doesn't occur to them that all that stuff is part of a bigger plan.

39:18

That it's gonna bring glory to the grace of God, to the fact that he can love those who are unlovely, and all this bigger plan.

39:25

We don't have time to talk about that. It doesn't occur to them about that. But they will say, okay, well, he created everything.

39:31

So, well, let's go with that. For by him were all things created. Now, let's see if it leaves anything else out.

39:37

That we're in heaven, that are in the earth. Jesus Christ created everything that's visible.

39:44

Jesus Christ created everything that's invisible, it says. Whether there be thrones or dominions or principalities or power.

39:51

So he created the devil. He created all the demons. He created all the angelic beings. He created everything that lives.

40:00

All things were created by him, and then it says, and for him. Isn't that interesting?

40:07

So the father empowered Jesus to create everything for Jesus. So the physical realm belongs to Jesus.

40:16

The father is invisible. He is pure spirit. He is not tangible.

40:21

He is not physical in any sense of the word. But Jesus is.

40:30

Now, verse 17 is the crux of the whole matter. It talks about in verse 16 that he created everything that is.

40:38

Both visible and invisible. And then it says in verse 17, and Jesus is before all things.

40:46

Now, that sounds like bad grammar, doesn't it, Mary Ann? Jesus is before all things. Shouldn't you say he was?

40:55

I mean, good grammar should say Jesus was before all things. You don't say, that sounds like Texan.

41:01

That's why I've said so many times the King James Version is written in Texan. Talks about vittles, it talks about, it uses bad grammar like this.

41:08

But wait a minute, is this really bad grammar? Because what it says is, he is before all things.

41:14

So if you can go back in time to the place before anything physical existed, Jesus is standing there, and he is the

41:23

I am, isn't that amazing? He is, he is, or you could say

41:28

I am, I am before all things. It doesn't sound right grammatically, but it's perfectly correct theologically.

41:35

Because he is the preexistent one. He existed before anything was made, which makes sense when you consider the fact that he made it all.

41:43

He had to exist first. In fact, there's never a time when he didn't exist. Because he is before all things.

41:49

But look at this, and by him all things consist. Now you have to go into the Greek a little bit on that word to figure out what that means, but this word consist in the

41:59

Greek is sunestano, and it means to set everything together.

42:06

It literally means to set together or to hold together. It means not only to introduce something and to exhibit something, but it means to stand near the thing in presence.

42:22

And it means this, it is the thing of which that other thing is constituted.

42:30

So when you look at this, it says not only did Jesus make all things, but by him all things consist, it just means not only did he make it, but he is constantly working in the present to hold it together so it doesn't blow out into oblivion and cease to exist.

42:48

You see, there has to be power imparted to hold things together, because otherwise it would go back to the state where there's nothing but God.

42:57

The invisible spirit, being, who is now. Has ever, have you ever thought about this?

43:02

If you bring a being who is now into time, it would destroy time and everything that's physical.

43:10

The Bible even says if the father came into this realm, it would flee from him. Do you understand what flee from him?

43:15

It's like an explosion. All of the particles of everything that's real would just go away, if the father came into this realm.

43:24

Therefore, he's transcendent. But he does have a way to come into this world through Jesus Christ, his son, who created everything that's physical and holds it all together.

43:36

Every moment, every nanosecond, he is working and putting work, infusing work and power and energy to keep it here.

43:44

Now, you can't get more eminent than that, can you? So we ought to walk our days and our moments thinking about, we're walking hand in hand with Jesus, because without him we can do nothing.

43:57

And you know what? It should take away every fear we have. It should cause us to be brave. It should cause us to not fear any man, not fear the future, not fear any trouble that comes today, because it'll be gone tomorrow.

44:13

And all of those wonderful things can come from this understanding. Listen, if Esther had been thinking about the eminence of God the night before she walked in, she wouldn't have been so afraid of that king when she walked in there.

44:24

Would she? But she learned a lesson after she walked away that day. I bet she never was afraid of him again.

44:32

All right, that's enough for today. You can't handle any more. Let's stand and have prayer together. I pushed you to the limit as it is, but I kind of wanted to get back into Esther next time, so.

44:43

All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you give us all of the details for life.

44:50

You answer every issue of life in this little book that you've given us. And thank you that it's not just ink on a page.

44:58

It's spirit and life and spiritual food for our new man. Lord, I pray that everyone would leave here today with a mindset of that new man being in control.

45:09

With a mindset of having many moments of separation from sin.

45:15

Many moments of power over sin. Realizing that Jesus is our

45:22

Lord and he gives us the freedom in any moment to be free from sin and to follow him and to be powerful.

45:28

And to be light and salt in this world so that other people can benefit from our own testimony.

45:34

Help us to be more and more that way as the world and the modern church goes the other way.

45:40

And Lord, we ask for your strength in that area. And Lord, we ask you to bless our time of fellowship here in a moment, our afternoon service after that, and the food we're about to have.