Esther and chapter number three from the passage we read earlier. And our title for this evening's message is this, When the Wicked Rule, When the Wicked Rule. If we look at the end of Esther chapter number two, which we saw last week, Things seem to be going well for God's people from a certain point of view. Esther, a Jew, is now the queen and a place of influence and power. Also Mordecai, who has the year of the queen, has this influence. And you see all these Jews spread throughout what was then the Persian Empire. And this is the largest empire that the world had seen up until this point. They were in a foreign land. So in many ways, they were probably thinking this is as good as it could possibly get. Things may have looked comfortable to many. Yes, Ahasuerus as a king, certainly imperfect. but so were the ones before that as well. Thousands of years later, when we look at the book of Esther, we can see, by faith, God's providential hand guiding these events, leading to such a place where Esther could be used, and Mordecai as well, as instruments of God's deliverance for his people under attack. See, nothing takes God by surprise. Things take us by surprise all the time, but not with our God, who is almighty and all-knowing. But in Esther chapter number three, things turn for the worst. A wicked man, vain and ambitious, rises to power. His name is Haman. And what happens when the wicked rise to power in any nation? Is there contentment among the people? For some, there is. Some people who will share the same values as that wicked leader, they'll be perhaps quite happy for a time. But as John Calvin once said, if God wants to judge a nation, he gives them wicked rulers. What happens to those people who care about God's law? They suffer. They suffer under such things. And in our own day, what happens if you are in the public eye and you stand against the murder of the unborn child in the womb, or you dare to say what the light of nature says, which is there are two genders, male and female, or You believe that marriage is between one man and one woman for life. Not that long ago, these opinions, if you want to call them opinions, facts really, were not at all controversial today. They are very much. People who stand for the truth today suffer, as they have for thousands of years. What can we learn from this passage? Today, friends, we also live in a day of wicked rulers. Haman was his own kind of wicked ruler, but we live in a day of wicked rulers, not just in the state, but also in the church, in the state and indeed in the wider church as well. So that brings us to our first point that we're going to look at here this evening, the rise, the rise. How did this happen? Verses one and down to the middle of verse number two, beginning of verse number one, after these things, the King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agite, and advanced him and set his seat 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. So, humanly speaking, how does he rise to power? Through that king of Persia. He's promoted through Ahasuerus. But who is far more powerful than Hasuerus was in that day and still remains to be so powerful to this day? Is it Hasuerus himself or is it God? Where does real power lie? If we turn to Daniel chapter two and verse 21. Daniel chapter two and verse 21. number 21. It says this, and he changes the times and the seasons, and he removed kings and set up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. And then we'll also read in verse 23, I thank the and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hath given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desire of thee, for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. But here is the God, the king, who setteth up rulers and removes them from power. If anyone rises to power, no matter who they are, Good, bad, or indifferent, it's by the sovereign permission of God. It's by God's power that they are there. Now, there's all sorts of reasons that political leader can be there, even indeed in the church. Every ruler, no matter what position in society, nothing is outside of the control of God. But what can happen if we as believers today in Jesus Christ forget this? That God is the one who is sovereign, in control of all things. Well, we can have a situation where a new political party gets elected into power. And we are dismayed, and probably rightfully so, at their beliefs. Look at what they're doing. And we can be tempted to despair. thinking that they're all-powerful. Are they? Not at all. The rulers of this world wish to do many, many things, but the real power is in heaven. We can begin to speak about wicked rulers, whether it be Haman or anyone else, the Hamans of our day, as if all the things that they want to do, they can do it. They can't. They are limited. God is infinite in power and glory. Wicked rulers are not. Why is our current government in Westminster? By the sovereign hand of God. We don't have all the reasons why certain things happen in society. We don't have infinite wisdom, do we? Or infinite knowledge. But at the same time, we know the God who rules both heaven and earth. Yes, from a human point of view, we can say, well, the electorate, they voted a certain way, so they came into power. But the real power is not the people. It's not popular opinion or anything else. It's not the rulers who take power. They're there for a brief moment. It's the God who made both heaven and earth. See, it's very interesting in this book in Esther where there's no mention of God's name. But we as believers in Jesus Christ, we look with the eye of faith and we see God's sovereign hand guiding history, that he would be glorified. That all things work together for good to them that love God. And yes, individual moments in our lives are horrible, and we wonder how do these things happen, but they work together for good. God knows the end from the beginning. God knows what is the wisest thing to do. And yes, God even uses wicked rulers. Humanly speaking, Haman, owed his allegiance and his loyalty to Hasuerus. Why was he in that position? Well, he probably flattered Hasuerus, told him how wonderful he was. For some reason, he came into the king's favor. But whatever the reason is, he was there, humanly speaking, because of Hasuerus. But then he was also there for an even more powerful sovereign and king, the king of kings and the lord of lords. His greatest allegiance for being in that position, for the time that he was in there, ought to have been unto God. We turn to Romans 13. Romans 13 and verse 1. Romans chapter 13 and verse number 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that are ordained of God. And verse number 4 of Romans 13 as well. For he is the minister of God, that is a civil ruler. For he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath on him that doeth evil. All rulers in this world will answer to God one day and will be held accountable for what they've done in their role. They are ministers of God. They ought to serve God. All authority, both in heaven and earth, has been given to Jesus Christ. He's not just the head of the church. He's also the head of state. Whether the kings of the nations acknowledge it or not, it is still the truth. God shows this to Nebuchadnezzar, if we can see this in Daniel chapter 4. Daniel chapter 4 and verse 24. And Daniel is speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, it's really God speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, but Daniel chapter 4 verse 24 says this, This is the interpretation, O King. This is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord, the King. Verse 25, that they may drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat the grass as oxen. They shall wet thee. the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomever he will. Now at that time, Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful ruler at that time. He's arrogant, he's proud, and what does God do? He shows him where real power is, and Nebuchadnezzar lives a period of time as a beast, as an animal. so that He would know why He's in that position at all. So that He would know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will. Friends, we must never forget that as believers in Jesus Christ. We must never forget that. We can act like we've forgotten that when we panic, when things go in society. And yes, we are frail human beings. We tend to go from one extreme to the other. We're all a bit like that. But shouldn't we be calm? We should be the calmest people of all. Yes, we will hear about all the stuff happening in the media, and this kind of information, by the way, has gone on for thousands of years if you think about it, but knowing that God is in control of things that look like they're out of control, and even the small things, the things that we don't think very much about. Yeah, we take comfort in that. No matter what's happening in society, no matter who rules over us, God has placed that person there. Doesn't mean that that person is God or we should owe ultimate allegiance to that person, but they're there because God has placed them there. This brings us to our second point, the rebel. Number one, the rise. Number two, the rebel. Who are seen as the troublemakers when the wicked rule. Who are those meddlesome, bad citizens according to the state whenever, well, we'll see it here in halfway through verse number two, down to verse number five, but Mordecai bowed not, nor did he 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 manners would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. Verse 5, and when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath." There appears to be a pressure placed upon Mordecai here, not just from Haman, but also from others as well. And verse number three says, then the king's servants, which were in the king's gates, said unto Mordecai, why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Now, perhaps they were just curious. They were like, why would you do such a thing? You're going to put yourself in trouble. That's strange. Or perhaps they were looking for harmful information so they could look better before the king themselves. Or there could be other reasons as well. We're not sure of the exact motives, but there is that none of us like to stand out. None of us really like to be the odd one, usually at least. Mordecai is now seen as a problem. He's seen as a rebel, which is very interesting because right at the end of Esther chapter number two, he's the reason the king, humanly speaking at least, the king is not killed by that plot. So things can change very, very quickly. Mordecai is not rewarded yet, but he is seen as a troublemaker. He will not comply to give reverence to this wicked ruler. Now, it's not exactly clear why Mordecai felt he could not do this. It's possible that the character of Haman was so wicked that he felt he could not do so. Romans 13 and verse 7. Romans 13 and verse 7 speaks about how honor to whom honor is due. Romans 13 and verse number 7. It says this, render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom is due, Fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. We should honor those in authority with appropriate honor to that position. And we should show respect for people in various positions. But perhaps he didn't want to unduly flatter a vain leader and basically lie in the process. Mordecai, through his conscience, felt that he could not. And from earlier in the book, it doesn't seem like Mordecai is a rash person. He's not thinking things through. He felt in his conscience he must say no to this. And this is going to put him in jeopardy. He knows this. He knows this is going to cause trouble for him. Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 20 and paragraph 2 says this, God alone is the Lord of the conscience and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word or beside it, if matters of faith of worship, so that it belongs to such doctrines. or to obey such commandments. Out of conscience is to betray true liberty of conscience and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blithe obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also. God is alone the Lord of the conscience. And if God tells us to do one thing and the ruler tells us to do something else, we obey God. That's our duty. In Jude, verse 16, Jude, verse number 16, it says this, These are murmurers, complainers, walking off their own lusts, and their mouths speak of great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. It's very tempting, because of a person in a certain position of authority and position, to start saying, oh, you're wonderful, you're amazing, to start flattering that person in authority. And it's also possible that Mordecai felt he couldn't, because it would be lying. This is a wicked man he saw before him. But it's also possible that there's some kind of idolatrous worship of him, treating him as if he is a god of some kind. The world will learn of our sincerity, friends, not so much in what we profess to believe, but what we will say no to, and what will cost us dearly. That's when the world knows the sincerity of our beliefs. How many people around the world say, Jesus is my Lord and Savior? Well, there's over two billion people around the world who claim to be Christians. And how many of those people do you think that actually are converted and truly trusting our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? I don't have the exact numbers. God alone knows the exact numbers are upon the face of the earth. But we will often learn of the sincerity of our faith in great trial and difficulty when we say, here is the line, I will say no. Here's a line I'm unwilling to cross. And then what will you have? You'll have people gathering in, curious to why you would do such a thing. It's a great witnessing opportunity. Basically, obey God. faithful to him. And the Lord will, in his providence, often provide you with opportunities to share the truth. Because friends, there's many people around the world who claim Christ. Today there are more and more people who are saying that they are homosexuals and that they're Christians. Or that there are drunkards, that's nothing new about that, and that they are Christians. Or Serial adulterers, and that there are Christians. I've met such people. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. And it's out of love that we warn. All these people through their lives say no to Jesus Christ. Mordecai had to say no to the world. And no to the authority of man above that of the authority of God. And he said, he was placing His faith and his hope in God. Now, we're not seeking to be rebels. We're not seeking to, you know, the more rebellious we can be in society, the more faithful you are. We don't seek to do that. That's not our primary role. We seek peace. Blessed are the peacemakers. It doesn't say blessed are the troublemakers. But where it's possible. Romans 12 and verse 18. Romans chapter 12 and verse number 18. Romans chapter 12 and verse number 18. Number 18, if it be possible, notice that, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men, if it's possible. But often it's not. We ought to seek to be a good citizen, but we ought to obey God rather than men. That brings us to our third point, the ruin, the ruin. There is a wicked intention of the wicked. And notice how I say the wicked. Haman, in many ways, is not very unique. He just has the power to carry out the wicked's intent. There's a defiance that Haman spots, and he doesn't like it. In verses Verse six, 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 Hazoras, even the people of Mordecai. His wrath didn't just finish with Mordecai. He wanted to wipe out anyone who would hold the same ethical or moral standards as Mordecai. Oh, there's more people like Mordecai. Really? Well, that's a problem. I don't want anybody else not giving me the reverence and the honor that is due to me. They seek to be removed. Why I say this is not anything unique. There's been a war for 6,000 years. There's been a war since the fall of Adam. And there's an enmity between two groups. Going right back to Genesis chapter three and verse number 15. Genesis chapter three and verse number 15, a very, very important text in the Bible. And this is after the fall and man has fallen into sin. And it is said in Genesis chapter three, verse number 15, and they will put enmity, that is hostility, or division between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." There are two seeds identified here, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And the seed of the woman crush the head of the serpent. Now, at the same time, there is and thou shalt bruise his heel. There's a striking out almost of the heel. Imagine if you were standing next to a snake, what will a snake do? It'll often try to bite you around the heel. Christ is far more powerful. You see, the enemy can't harm God, but he can harm for a brief moment in time. the people of God, the body of Christ. There's a war taking place. There's a war taking place. And in any war, when there's an opportunity for one side to wipe out another, Now, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are not fleshly. We pray for people. We pray that people come to know Jesus Christ. We pray that they, by faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, will trust and be brought into that seed of the woman and be victorious in Jesus Christ. Haman is part of the seed of the serpent, as many horrible men in the past have been. Joseph Stalin. Adolf Hitler, all those people who hated the Church, strikes at the heel. Satan, their father, leading them in this. Against real believers now. Revelation 12 and verse 12. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you having great wrath. Why? Because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. The devil's very angry. He wants to defeat the foe. But he has a short time of wrath and fury. And he intends to inflict as much pain as possible while he's allowed to. Remember, God is far more powerful than the devil. Evil is not out of control. But this is what the devil does in this world, and he's the father of all those who reject Jesus Christ. And what happens, the devil, will use deception to attack the people of God. In our text verses 8 and 9, Esther chapter 3 verses 8 and 9, there is slander or there's distortion of the truth. Verses eight and nine, and Haman said unto the king Ahasuerus, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of the kingdom. And the laws are diverse from all people. Now up until this point, this is true. They are dispersed in very different places and their laws are different. But here is where Poisoning of the well comes in. Neither keep they the king's laws. Therefore it is not for the king's prophet to suffer them. Yes, God's people are to serve God above all else. They found themselves in trouble in the Roman Empire when they recognized Christ as Lord rather than Caesar. But we are still to be good citizens. And where we're not told to sin, we are to comply with the state. We are to submit to those authorities that are of God, as we read earlier from Romans chapter 13. You see, there's enough truth in here from Haman to the king to make it sound real. And a lot of the slanders that were used against God's people in the early church, just enough of the truth. One of the accusations was, well, they eat and drink human flesh, because that was based upon the Lord's Supper. So they took a little bit of truth and then they distort it and take it in the direction they go. These are very strange people. Verse number nine, if it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed. You see, if you think that these are horrible people, these are troublemakers, these are terrible people, it's a lot easier to say, can we get rid of them please? And you might be thinking, that's a bit of an escalation. But the devil seeks to plant deception and lies, goes after the character of a people, so that when the time comes, that's how horrible atrocities happen in the world. The devil loves to do this. And I will pay 10,000 talents, it says, of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of business to bring it into the king's treasuries. Suspicion is raised. But if we have been, and I'm sure you have been, lied about in your witness for Jesus Christ at some point in the past, and I'm sure it's been incredibly painful, but there's great reassurance in the word of God for you here this evening. In Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter five and verses 10 to 12, Matthew chapter 5 and verses 10 to 12, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. And then it says something which sounds really strange. for somebody who's being persecuted, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. For great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. If you're suffering. Look, we all suffer to a degree. I know we often think about persecution. We think about prison and being whipped and all sorts of things that you immediately think of as persecution. But we all suffer to a degree. It may be you lose friends. It may be you lose opportunities to advance your career in the world. It may be that family members withdraw themselves away from you. There's all sorts of ways that believers in this world suffer. And it's why we need such reassuring. Great is your reward in heaven. No matter what the world may throw at us, grace is our reward in heaven. That brings us to our fourth and final point, the result. The result. So the rise, the rebel, the ruin, the result. When we study at school, We often work hard and it'll be a long time before the exams come along. So it's a long time between the hard work to eventually see where that leads to. From a human point of view, if you just read this chapter, you think it's all over for the Jews. Forget it. They're in trouble. Cross the empire. They are going to be round up. and in one day destroyed. Verse 13, and the letters were sent by posts unto 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. You look at that, and it's with the king's authority of the most powerful ruler upon earth. Where are you gonna run to? Where are you gonna hide? There's nowhere to hide. And we can see things in the news that look absolutely devastating on paper for the church or the witness or whatever's taking place. will the attempts of the enemy succeed? Not at all. They will try, they will swipe, they will lash out, but they won't succeed because the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. There's sure victory. So when we see devastating news, devastating things that are happening, we have to remember the result, the end of it. How is it all going to end? We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after that. We don't know what suffering we will all go through in the future. We don't know these things. God does. But we know how it ends for the believer. Glory. It may be suffering, pain now, but it's glory to come. No matter what they do to us, We are sure of victory because of Jesus Christ. What can they do to us? Early church was like, you know, they threatened with death and they were like, okay, I really want to go to heaven right now. How could they sing the Psalms while about to be burned at the stake, joyfully? And none of us know how we will react in those times. And none of us are promised an easy life. We're actually promised the opposite of that. But we're also promised glory. Complete and entire victory. There is coming, we may be weary and dismayed at times, we all do this, but there is coming a time when that suffering ends. It will end. And that'll be wonderful. See friends, There's no help in the world. You see at the end of this chapter, it says, the city of Shushan, verse 15, was perplexed. It's interesting, isn't it? It's strange, it was confusion. And it probably disturbed them a little bit to hear what was going to happen to the Jews. But was there a great outcry? Nothing that seems to be recorded about it. Oh, that's unfortunate. And they probably went back to their lives again. Do you lament, friends, as we conclude, when the wicked are in power? We should. Having said all that I've said, I know I can say, well, you know, it'll end fine, it'll be fine. No, we should lament when the wicked are in power, because we love righteousness. We lament when the unborn are murdered in the womb. We lament when children are almost experimented on these days with the gender therapy and all these things. We lament when these horrible things are done in the name of love and tolerance and all the other buzzwords that they'll put in that place. If we love righteousness, our heart aches and we weep. But friends, it's often been bleak in human history. The solution is always the same. The help is always in the same place. The king of both heaven and earth. A new political party might rise up and say, we'll get rid of this, we'll get rid of this. And they may do a few good things here and there. And the Lord may use them in his sovereign purposes to answer the prayer of God's people. But the first port of call is God. When the wicked rule, Remember who rules highest above all the Hamans and above all the temporary dictators that may rise up to cause their subjects to suffer. God is still on his throne, and he's never been removed from it, nor shall he ever be. Amen.