wanting to turn to the book of Esther, Esther chapter 3. Esther chapter 3, and we're going to read this whole chapter, the 15 verses here in Esther chapter 3. Esther 3 and verse number 1. If you get to Psalms, you've gone too far. Esther 3 verse 1. After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadathah the Agagite, and advanced him and set him above all the princes that were with him. And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did have reverence. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matter would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought scorned to lay hands on Mordecai alone. for they had showed him the people of Mordecai, wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. In the first month, that is the month Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is the lot before Haman, from day to day and from month to month to the 12th month, that is the month Adar. And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all thy provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the king's prophet to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver to the hand of those that have the charge of the business to bring it into the king's treasuries.' And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the Jew's enemy. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as seemeth good to thee. Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants and to the governors that were over every province and to rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, And to every people after their language in the name of King Ahasuerus was it written and sealed with the king's ring. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women in one day, even upon the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month Adar. and to take the spoil of them for a prey. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people that they should be ready against that day. The posts went out being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city Shushan was perplexed. Amen. We'll end our Bible reading there at the end of that third chapter, and let's seek the Lord in prayer together, and we'll come and consider these things. Let's pray. Our Father, this morning as we have our Bibles open to this passage of Scripture, we do pray for your help We pray that you would take away distracting thoughts. We pray that you would focus our mind and our attention and more importantly, our hearts on your word for us today. We pray that as we consider these things, you would encourage us by your spirit, help us by your spirit. We pray that nothing that is said today in this message would be confusing, would be discouraging, but would for each one of us, from the youngest to the very oldest, be helpful and encouraging to our growth and grace. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. As we continue this series in the book of Esther, I want to remind you that the overall, the overarching dominant theme of this book is the providence and the sovereignty of God in literally everything. In the last message, the week before last, when we looked at chapter 1, I tried to show you the pitiful nature of earthly power. That was the title that I used for that message, the pitiful nature of earthly power. And I use the word power in that message on purpose instead of the word providence, because in that particular context of what we were looking at in chapter one, to use the word providence in that message would, I feel, have been quite confusing. And so I didn't use the word providence, I used the word power on purpose. But the whole time I was talking about providence, even though I didn't use that word, I used the word power instead. Providence comes from a Latin root, a combination of pro and video. Pro, video, to see before would be quite a literal translation of that. The Latin root means to attend to something or to foresee. If you look up providence in a dictionary, a modern dictionary, you'll find one of the definitions is that it is a manifestation of care or direction. That really is what providence is. It's a manifestation of care or direction. And so it's appropriate to use the word in the sense that a parent exercises providence over a baby. a newborn that's in the crib that literally can do nothing for itself, the parent exercises providence over that child. The parent attends to that child. The parent foresees what that child is going to need, when it's going to need a bottle, when it's going to need to be changed, when it's going to need to be picked up, when it's going to need to be rocked to sleep, et cetera. The parent exercises total providence over that child. He provides for everything. Now in chapter 1, as we were looking at Ahasuerus there, we see that Ahasuerus displayed providence, or as I use the word in that message, power, but really providence. As Ahasuerus displayed providence, he did so in a very foolish way. And a lot of what is presented to us in the book of Esther is a contrast between the foolishness and the wickedness of human providence as opposed to the wisdom and the holiness of God's providence. And we have those two things set for us side by side as one of the main themes that runs through this book. In this particular chapter 3 that we have just read, we see there Haman displaying wicked intentions with the providence or the power that he exercised over the Jews. But we also see God's good hand of providence in the entire situation. We see God ruling over all the affairs of men. In this chapter we see sin on display. And we also see the providence of God on display. And so what I wanna preach to you on this morning from this third chapter is the subject of sin and providence. Sin and providence. And I do want to warn you all from the beginning. Bonnie yesterday asked me if I was going to be preaching again from Esther. I said, yes, and bring your life jacket. We are going to be in some deep theological waters. I'm confident that I am preaching to a mature congregation of believers, a well-versed in theology and biblical knowledge congregation. I'm also very well aware that I preach this morning to a lot of children and a lot of young people. And so my goal this morning is to explain things from this chapter in such a way that is so clear. that nobody drowns. I don't want to lose anybody in the deep waters that we will be treading in. We will get to the deepest part about the middle of the message, and so be ready. We'll be in the shallow end, at least at the beginning. But I wanna consider the subject of sin and providence, and I want you to see first of all from this chapter, the first point that I would make for you from this passage is that sin always has lasting consequences. Sin always has lasting consequences. We're introduced here to this man named Haman. Verse 1 tells us about this man, the son of Hamadaphah, the Agagite. Now, the Agagites were those that were descendants of King Agag, the Amalekite. Ahasuerus had promoted this man Haman to a position that was basically second in command in the entire kingdom. He was the second most important ruler in all of Persia. It says he set him above all the princes that were with him. And Ahasuerus had made a law, had made a commandment that everyone was to bow before Haman, and they were to give him the honor that was due to the position that he held in the kingdom. No different than those would have had to bow before Ahasuerus, they were to bow before Haman. And when we come to verse two, we see that everybody bowed down to Haman, except for one man. and we read about this man named Mordecai. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Now, in a previous message, the very first message, when I introduced the main characters of this book, I already explained a bit of this. We're recovering some territory that we've been on before, but I want to remind you of what is going on here. What's the behind the scenes? What's really happening that keeps Mordecai from bowing down and Haman's hatred and this conflict that perhaps from a casual reading, kind of seems blown out of proportion. What is the big deal that you're going to, like, not just put Mordecai in prison, but you're going to kill every single Jew on the planet? That seems a little extreme. So what's going on here? Well, some commentators would look at Mordecai in this particular situation as a man who is being right and virtuous. I disagree, as do many other commentators. Remember, Mordecai is a man who was a compromised Jew. Mordecai at this point in his life is not a fearer of God, right? Notice at the end of verse number four, This is just a small little thing, okay, but notice this, what the Bible says. To see whether Mordecai's matter would stand, for Mordecai had told them, the other king's servants, Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. Now notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say Mordecai had told them that he feared the Lord. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say Mordecai told them that thou shalt have no other gods before me, Jehovah. No, Mordecai had just revealed that he was a Jew. The other people in the king's gate were confused by Mordecai's actions. In verse three, they asked Mordecai why he was not bowing down. This seemed odd. This was seemingly not Mordecai's normal MO. Verse four says it went on for days. asking him, Mordecai, why do you keep refusing to bow before Haman? What's the big deal here? It would seem obvious because of Mordecai's position as one who had authority, who sat in the king's gate. Remember, when we talked about Mordecai, he would have been in a position that would have basically amounted to a civil judge. He would have adjudicated matters in the gate of the city. He had obeyed other commandments that Ahasuerus had given. He obviously had nothing against Ahasuerus because if you go back to chapter two, you'll find that Mordecai insisted that Esther go and do everything she could to win this beauty contest to be the queen. So she didn't have any qualms or she didn't have anything against Ahasuerus himself. He didn't have anything against the Persian empire himself. He was a servant of the empire. He respected Ahasuerus in that, and to get the position he had, would have had to bow down to Ahasuerus at some point. And so bowing down before another man wasn't his issue. Mordecai here is not one who is tenaciously holding on to the first commandment, and I'm not going to bow. I have no king, but Jesus' kind of attitude No, that's not Mordecai's position at all. Also in Mordecai's position as one in the king's gate, there was probably situations where lesser people would have had to bow to Mordecai. So the whole issue of bowing, it's not that Mordecai had scruples against that. And so really to understand the dynamics of what's going on here, we have to go all the way back to the wilderness wanderings. The Amalekites, who were the ancestors of Haman, attack the children of Israel after they had left Egypt. It's the same battle, and again, we're recovering some territory we've been at. It's the same battle where Joshua was fighting, Moses was on the mountaintop praying, and Aaron and Hur were holding up his hands. And as long as his hands were held up, Israel prevailed. As his hands started to slack down, Amalek prevailed. That's the same battle, it's the same situation, the same scenario. But after that battle, God promised that he would wipe the Amalekites off the face of the earth. He would destroy them. Well, when Saul became king, the first king of Israel, one of Saul's first responsibilities as the king was to go and fulfill the word of God to utterly destroy the Amalekites. And you know the story. Saul saved Agag the king alive. He saved the best of the sheep and oxen alive. And Saul disobeyed. He disobeyed the word of the Lord. And remember the point that we're making here, this first point from this chapter, is that sin always has lasting consequences. Sin has consequences. You may have thought that when I announced that point, that sin has lasting consequences, that I was going to direct our attention to Haman's sin of wanting to destroy the Jews. Well, that was a sin, no doubt, but that's not the sin that I have in view. I have two other sins in view. What I want to show you about the lasting consequences of sin is, first of all, Saul's disobedience. You're like, well, where'd Saul come from? I just explained that. Saul's disobedience, and then Mordecai's sin of arrogant pride. So look at these two sins in this chapter, Saul's sin of disobedience, because really in some ways, everything that we have there in chapter three can be traced back 600 years previous to Saul disobeying the word of the Lord. Because had Saul obeyed the word of the Lord and utterly destroyed the Amalekites as he was commanded and slew Agag the king, then Haman would never have existed. Haman would have never been born. His line would have been cut off 600 years ago. But Saul disobeyed. And Haman comes on the scene. And Saul's disobedience enabled a plan to be hatched that put the entire nation of Israel under a death sentence. Haman's plan was not just to kill Mordecai. You go back to verse 6. and he thought scorned to lay hands on Mordecai alone. What that means is he wasn't in favor of just killing only Mordecai. His wrath was kindled such that he was going to kill everybody that Mordecai represented. He was going to kill all the Jews. You see, the conflict here was far greater than one man's hatred for another man. The conflict here was really a spiritual battle between Satan and all the forces of hell seeking to put a stop to God's promise of a Redeemer. If there are no Jews, there can be no Jesus. And this is the forces of hell itself roused up in Haman to wipe this nation off the face of the earth. But it goes back to Saul's sin. 600 years previous. But the second sin is Mordecai's. Mordecai's sin of arrogance and pride. I already said that Mordecai would have bowed before another ruler. Haman, though, was different. Haman was an Agagite. Mordecai hated the Agagites. I've told you in another message that Mordecai was a descendant of King Saul. So this was a conflict that had raged for generations, 600 years or so, to be more precise. But Mordecai's refusal to bow was not because of a love for God or a desire to obey the first commandment. Instead, he was jealous, arrogant, and racist. That's what it amounts to. And he hated Haman because of who Haman represented. And Haman hated Mordecai because of who Mordecai represented. They're both in sin. They're both wrong. But Mordecai's arrogance almost cost the entire nation their life. The sin of one man, the arrogant pride of one man put a death sentence on the entire nation of Israel. There are many gospel parallels, I'll make more of that later on, but is this not where we find ourselves outside of Christ? The sin of one man put a death sentence on us all. Here's Mordecai, his arrogant pride. Did Mordecai think that his actions in the moment would have such far-reaching consequences? When Haman comes marching through and everybody else is bowing down, and Mordecai, in his arrogance and pride, refused to bow down, did he think it was going to spill over into such consequences that would perhaps destroy an entire nation of people? Well, I would think the answer to that is, of course not. But the lesson can be learned from all this is really quite simple, both looking at Saul and looking at Mordecai. And that is a quotation that I remember from when I was a child. And the pastor of the church I grew up in would quote this all the time. I have no idea where it's from. I don't know who said it. Probably Spurgeon. He gets blamed for all the good quotes that nobody knows who said. I don't know who said it. But Kenneth Bullard said it, the pastor of the church I grew up in. Sin will always take you further than you want to go and will keep you longer than you want to stay. Sin will take you further than you want to go and will keep you longer than you want to stay. Had Saul foreseen what his disobedience would have produced in Haman and the potential annihilation of the entire nation, would Saul have acted differently? If Mordecai could foresee how Haman would react and where Haman would escalate the situation to destroy the entire nation, would Mordecai have acted differently? It's impossible to answer those questions, obviously, but I think it's all obvious to us that we hope the answer to those questions would have been yes. that had they foreseen, had they the foresight to understand the consequences of their actions, they would have done something different. Saul loved his nation. Mordecai loved his people. He had no intentions of putting them all in jeopardy, but yet he did. And we learn from this that sin has lasting consequences. Your sin has lasting, ongoing, and enduring consequences. What might seem to be such a little thing in the moment, what might seem to be such an insignificant thing in the time, can come back with terrible and life-altering consequences. How many times has, we'll call it an unwise choice, but a sinful choice, made out of convenience in the moment, come back with terrible consequences weeks, months, or years later. The covetousness of the past becomes the credit card debt of the future. A sinful choice on a date can leave scars that last a lifetime. Chasing money or a career can leave a wake of destruction in your family. that outside of the Lord restoring the years that the locust have eaten can ruin a family and last for generations. The pleasures of sin for a season can reap horrible and bitter consequences. And that's one of the things we learn here about sin, providence, the foolish sin The foolish providence of Saul, the foolish providence of Mordecai had terrible consequences. And your sin and my sin does the same. But I want to move on in this passage to a second thing. And that is that God providentially uses sin for his own purpose. God providentially uses sin for his own purpose. And so now, you might want to put your floaties on or your life jacket. This is where the water starts to get deep. I want to read to you from the Shorter Catechism. It defines God's works of providence this way. It says, it is his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing of all his creatures and all their actions. Now it's those last three words that become so consternating. It's the last three words there that give us such difficulty. To what extent are we to understand that God governs all their actions? We understand God governs all his creatures, God guides the affairs of men, but here it's his powerful preserving and governing all their actions. Does that, and here's the question, does that even include their sin? Does it even include your sin? Does it even include my sin? Does it include the sin of the redeemed? Does it include the sin of the wicked? God uses, God providentially uses sin for his own purpose. Please bear with me in one another short quotation from the confession this time. Chapter 5, verse 4 of the confession. Listen to how the framers of the confession put it. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifests themselves in his providence that it extendeth itself even to the first fall and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by bare permission. But such hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding and otherwise ordering and governing of them in a manifold dispensation to his own holy ends. Yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin." Now, obviously, there's a lot there in that statement. And I said earlier we're going to get into some deep theological waters. Here we go. Haman's decree, look at chapter four now. Haman's decree to annihilate all the Jews, that sin was the thing that God used to change Mordecai. Mordecai was a compromised man with no fear of God. No talking of God at all. We've already gone through the point from this book that the name of God is not mentioned. And from a literary perspective, it's one of the tools used by the author to emphasize for us that these people were mindless of God. But look at chapter four, verse one. When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes and went out in the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry. The Lord used this to shake Mordecai in such a way that I believe this is the turning point, and when Mordecai comes to his senses, and then go down to chapter four, verse 13, then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. So he's saying, Esther, just because you're the queen doesn't mean that you're gonna be spared from this edict. They're gonna kill you too. And they're gonna kill me. They're gonna kill us all. In verse 14, that very famous verse, for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, And this is the amazing phrase from Mordecai. Then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. Here for the first time, there's a glimmer in Mordecai that he acknowledges the providence and the sovereignty of the God of heaven over the affairs of men. And it ends with, who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Esther, if you don't speak up, God is still going to do a miracle. God is still somehow, I don't know how, but God is still somehow going to preserve his promise. A redeemer will come. There will be deliverance from someplace else. I don't know how it's gonna happen, but Esther, it just might be that you're raised up for this purpose. You're raised up for now. And so we have to understand that in this, God was governing all of these actions. Even the sinful actions of Saul 600 years ago, even the sinful arrogance and pride of Mordecai, even the sinful hatred and wrath of Haman against the Jew. And we understand that God does not merely stand by as a passive onlooker to the events of history. Remember what the confession says, his providence is not by bare permission. Just a little timeout aside here, but you consider Job. Satan did not come to the Lord and say, Lord, who can I afflict? The affliction on Job, let me put it to you this way, was not Satan's idea. The affliction that Job was under, that was God's idea. That was God's suggestion to Satan. Have you thought about afflicting my servant Job? That was God's plan. That was by God's decree. It was God's idea, the affliction that Job was under. God does not simply sit back and allow passively wickedness to take place. It is not by bare permission. The Confession tells us that God ordained the Fall, while simultaneously He neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin. Now, what we're talking about here is a theological doctrine called the doctrine of concurrence. Maybe it's a doctrine that you're not aware of, but it is at the heart of this theme, what we call the doctrine of concurrence. I'll give you a definition. Concurrence is the cooperation of the divine power with all subordinate powers. according to the pre-established law of their nature. God never violates the nature of his creation. It's the cooperation of the divine power with all subordinate powers according to their nature, causing them to act and to act precisely as they do. So, some examples, perhaps non-theological. The sparrow falls to the ground by God's decree. The sparrow is fed and provided for by God's decree. The grass withers by God's decree. The rising of the sun and the setting of the sun is by God's decree. And we have the example in Joshua, if God wants to postpone things, he can do that. Your breathing, your heartbeat, is by God's decree. We can go so far, and this is not taking things to the realm of absurdity. We can go so far as to say that every atom in the universe is where it is and is doing what it is doing because of God's decree. There's not one atom out of place. There's not one atom out of control. God's providence is not on the grand cosmic level. We can say that God's providence is down even on the molecular level. God controls all things. God governs and rules all things. Every single thing you do, every single thing you don't do, is by God's decree and God's providence. And this is where the water gets very deep. And this is where a lot of people drown. And this is where, let's just face it, we're all in over our heads. Because does what I just say mean that somehow God is responsible for sin? If God decrees everything, then how can we not say that somehow God is the author of sin? God governs all things. His providence extends to every action of every creature in such a way that he uses man's sin, he uses your sin, he uses mine, he uses the sin of wicked people for his own purpose. Now, I wanna help us with the confusion here. I wanna just very briefly give you three reasons why God is not the author of sin. and we have to establish this in order to be orthodox. To claim otherwise is to be outside of orthodoxy. The first reason God is not the author of sin is because God is holy, therefore he cannot be the author of sin. I would point you simply to the proof text, James 1, verses 13 and 14, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed." And so God did not tempt Adam. God did not tempt Eve. Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan. Adam and Eve were drawn away by their own lusts, and they were enticed by that, and they sinned. God used that because Christ is our Savior, not Adam. Had Adam not eaten the forbidden fruit, Had Adam obeyed the covenant of works, and had Adam sealed that deal of the covenant of works, then all of his posterity would look to Adam as their ground of hope for eternity, to not join Satan and his angels. But Adam's not our Savior, it's Jesus, it's Christ. There was an eternal purpose even in the fall that God decreed. The second reason is because sin is not something that is created. Sin is not a tangible object. When God said, let there be, he let there be tangible objects. Light, okay, we can fuss on that for a little bit, but God created things that are physical, even light. Is it a wave? Is it a particle? Physicists can debate that. But sin is not a tangible object. But instead, sin is an act of rebellion that rises up in the heart of the creature. Again, James 1.14. Satan sinned. The angels that fell with him sinned. Adam sinned when he rebelled against God's commandments. Both the angels and Adam, as Adam was originally created, had the freedom to sin and they had the freedom to not sin. We went over some of this in Sunday school a little over a year ago. There's a Latin phrase that was used by Augustine that has been used by theologians since to explain what is going on here. The Latin phrase is passe pacari et passe non pacari, able to sin and able not to sin. Adam was able to sin and he did. Adam was also able to not sin. And he didn't. He sinned. Now you and I, after the fall, we aren't that way. We are not able to not sin. We are able to sin, and that's what we're able to do. We're not able to not sin because we have a sin nature. And so God is not the author of sin because sin is not an object, it's not a tangible thing. But the last reason is really the most compelling. God is not the author of sin, God is not responsible for sin, let me use that word, because by definition God cannot be responsible for anything. Now that comes across very confusing, that comes across as something that's very strange to our ears, but it really has to do with what the word responsible actually means. Let me read you how one theologian puts this. He says, responsibility has reference to the obligation to give a response or an account of one's actions to a lawgiver. And so if we have a church function, let's have the church work day, and I put Nolan in charge of spreading the mulch. I say, Nolan, get you a team, spread the mulch. You're responsible for spreading the mulch. And I go off, I'm on something else. And I come back an hour later, and the mulch is still on the truck. What do I do? I go to Nolan. I was like, hey, I gave you this responsibility. I put you in charge of doing the mulch. And Nolan has to give an account to me as to why the mulch isn't done yet. Now there might be a very good reason, I don't know, whatever, play it out in your mind, but there might be a good reason as to why it's not done. But he would owe an explanation as to why that's not done. A child is responsible for cleaning his room and he has to give an account to his parents for why the room is not cleaned. At your job, a man may be responsible for organizing his co-workers in some project. And he has to give an account. He is responsible for that project. And so he has to give an account to that one who is his supervisor, who probably has to give an account to another supervisor. And however big the company is, however high up the ladder it goes. A wife in the home is responsible for taking care of the home. And she gives an account for the work that she does. But yet God cannot be responsible for anything because there's no one for God to give an account to. Who is God accountable to? Who is the authority over God that demands from Him a reason why He did this, that, or the other thing? There is no one. There is no thing. There is no power. There's nothing that stands over God. And so what makes a person responsible is whether or not there's a lawgiver over that person that requires the person to give an account for his thoughts, his words, his actions. And there is no lawgiver over the God of heaven. And so to say that God is responsible for sin is really to make the claim that God owes you an explanation as if you were somehow his superior to give an account for what he has done. And God owes you nothing. God owes you no explanation. God is not accountable to you in any way. And so back to our main point here, God providentially uses sin for his own good purpose. Now here's the thing. I don't understand that. I don't understand it. But my ignorance does not change God's providence. And so we can look at all this and we can say that the horrible situations of this life, a divorce, that's all part of God's providence. I don't understand how that works. a wayward child, all part of God's purpose, a lie told against you, all part of God's purpose, an addiction, all part of God's purpose. But you see, for the believer, what I just said should not at all be any source of discouragement. But we should stand back at that in wonder, adoration, and praise as we're just baffled by the sheer scope of the providence of our God. Everything is under His control. Absolutely nothing is out of control. Regardless of how chaotic you think things might be, God has everything exactly as he has ordained them. And so from that, you can take courage that you've not messed up anything. You have not hijacked God's plan. You don't have God's train off the rails. You have not frustrated his purpose. Even your sin, as bad as it may be, has not undone the wise purpose and counsel of God. Now, when Paul, in Romans 4, was talking about our righteousness, and in chapter five, talking about our righteousness being only in Christ, he anticipated the objection of the unbeliever, the objection of the skeptic. He's like, well, if that's the case, then it doesn't matter how we live. And hey, let sin, let grace may abound. And what was Paul's answer? Pastor Kimbrough has gone through this recently from Romans chapter six, God forbid, of course not. Now what I've just said, obviously anticipates the same foolish question. If my sin is all part of God's purpose, then what difference does it make if I sin or not? Well, if you're saved, you know that's a stupid question. I mean, you know that's the wrong question. because we're to be holy as God is holy. Though God uses my sin, though God uses your sin, gives us no excuse to sin, we're still to pursue holiness in the fear of God. We are still even, as I preached not long ago, 1 Corinthians 7, we are to perfect holiness in the fear of God. And so we have no excuse to sin, though God uses sin for his purpose. But I wanna finish with the fact that the third point here, and that is God providentially overrules sin for his own glory. He not only uses sin, but often he overrules sin. Haman's decree was for the total eradication of every Jew in the world, every Jew in the empire, and they all lived in Persia. Even the ones that were back in Jerusalem, they were still controlled by Persia. Every Persian, according to this passage, had 11 months until the 13th day of the 12th month, Adar 13th. Every Persian on that day became a deputy of the kingdom. They were all officially a soldier of Persia. And it was open season on Jews. And the decree was you have 11 months to prepare. You have 11 months surveillance, make sure you got your weapons, whatever. You have 11 months. And on this one day, it's Jewish hunting season. And the law was to kill all of them, women, children, boys, girls, everybody. And the rest of the book of Esther tells us how God overruled that plan and frustrated Haman's efforts. I already, in the first message, showed you the climax, the pinnacle of the book, Esther 6, verse 1. And just those little words that you would read over and just keep on going and not pay attention to, Esther 6, 1, on that night could not the king sleep. And there it is. That's the climax of the book. On that night could not the king sleep. While everybody else was asleep in bed, while everybody else in the Jewish kingdom, or at least in this context, was giving no thought to God, God was actively at work on behalf of his people. He kept Ahasuerus awake and put it in his mind to have somebody read him a history book. And God used that seemingly insignificant event to literally change the course of history. One man that couldn't sleep, dealing with one man in his bedroom. God changed the whole course of history. Had Haman's plan gone through, as I've already indicated, no Jew, no Jesus, the promise of the Redeemer would have been stamped out. Be it God is a covenant keeping God. And he made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He made a covenant with Moses. He made a covenant with his people. A redeemer was going to come. And God overruled for his glory the wicked plot that Haman had put into place. And again, we stand back and wonder, adoration, and praise that God accomplishes such great things. Now, what do we take away from all this? There was a decree that is set against you and set against me that's worse than Haman's. Let me show you something here that I think is quite exciting. Go to chapter three, verse 12. Then were the king's scribes called on the 13th day of the first month. And there was written according to all the Amon had commanded, and here's the edict for them to go out and do this. Verse 13, and the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces. So this is Nisan 13th. Off they go. It's written, Nisan 13th. And immediately, the letters were sent out into all the provinces. Now, none of us are Jews, so we don't really have our finger on the pulse of the Jewish calendar, so you read over that and it doesn't mean anything. Until you understand that this edict was signed on the 13th day of Nisan, that day, but then the next day more people, and then the next day more people, eventually as it spread through the Persian Empire, Many, many, many, many Jews by the 14th of Nisan would have heard this. Some perhaps don't hear it till the 15th and on, but many would have heard this on the 14th of Nisan. Now again, what's the big deal? Who cares? Guess what's the 15th day of Nisan? The 15th day of Nisan is the Passover. They would have heard this decree of total and utter annihilation the day before they celebrated God's deliverance from Egypt. Any Jew with any sense, any Jew with any spiritual bone in his body, any believing Jew, would have celebrated the Passover knowing that God had delivered his people from Egypt. And it had that story recounted to them over and over and over, the most powerful nation in the world, the entire Egyptian army coming after them, the Passover, the death angel coming and the people being delivered. But in the whole context of that, the Red Sea, the whole business, the whole thing, God with a mighty arm delivered his people from the most mighty nation in the world. Here we go, round two. Here's round two. God's providence extends even to the calendar. It extends to when letters are written and when letters are received. He literally controls every minute detail. And we can take comfort in that. But because of your sin, there's a decree of judgment written against you. But what did God do with that decree? God also overruled that decree. Just as he used the sinfulness of Haman's decree for good purposes, God overruled that decree for his glory. What did God do with the decree that was against us? God overruled that one as well in the death of Christ. Acts 14, 28 tells us that the crucifixion of Christ was according to the determinate counsel of God. Christ's crucifixion was part of God's providential plan. Be it God used the wickedness of men. He used sin. He used the sin of the Sanhedrin. He used the sin and the cowardice of Pilate. He used the sin of Judas. He used all those sinful people in that whole system for the crucifixion of Christ. But yet also in that display in sin and wickedness against the Son of Man, against Jesus Christ, God was simultaneously overruling the law of ordinances that was set against us. He was fulfilling and abolishing the law that condemned us and fulfilled that in the person of Christ and rose Christ from the dead as a full acceptance of the sacrifices, of the sacrifice that Christ had made. And so just as Joseph said long before, what God meant for evil, I'm sorry, what men meant for evil, God meant for good. And we can rejoice and we can stand in awe and wonder at the providence of God, even in sin. Sin does not frustrate God's providence. God uses sin. He even overrules sin for his own glory and for the ultimate good of his people. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our Father, we do thank you this morning for what we understand of Christ in the gospel. We thank you that he took that full penalty of wrath on himself and paid the debt we could never pay. And we thank you for your wise governing and your providence over all things. And we pray that as we consider these truths, though deep they may be, that you would use them in such a way in our hearts to encourage us to press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling God in Christ Jesus. And even when we sin, We confess our sins, your faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and we keep pressing on. We pray that you would save us from despair and discouragement. And we thank you for hope and victory that there is in Christ. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.