(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're here in Esther chapter 2, and I'll just give you a heads up, my throat's a little bit sore tonight, so if I'm not yelling as much, then I guess you guys get a day off from getting yelled at, so. But anyways, we're in Esther chapter 2, and Esther chapter 3, 4, 5, and 6, there's a definite theme that we're going to be going through, there's more of a practical sermon, but kind of like last week's sermon, this is kind of more of a verse by verse, just a lot of information, not necessarily like a main theme, but the name of the sermon is, The Truth About King Xerxes or Ahasuerus, The Truth About King Xerxes or Ahasuerus, and I would say that if you've ever heard anything about Xerxes, you know, outside of the Bible, it's probably been all bad. You know, if you've seen the movie 300, which I saw back in college, you're basically seeing this effeminate guy, you know, with a shaved head, and all of these, you know, piercings and everything like this, and it's like the Ahasuerus here in the Bible, I believe this is Xerxes, that's what most people believe, you know, people could debate about that in history with the timing and things such as that, but when you're reading about this guy King Ahasuerus, which we're looking at tonight, you're not going to walk away and say this guy's a really wicked, effeminate weirdo, you know, in the movies they make him out to be like he wore tons of makeups, he had all these face piercings and all this stuff, you don't get that from the book of Esther. When you read the book of Esther, just as we saw the Persian kingdom was really not that bad of a kingdom, I'm not saying King Ahasuerus was a soul winner, but he also wasn't some sort of reprobate when you read this, and I have heard a priest before that he kind of was a reprobate, you know, they didn't use that terminology, but the way they described him and the things they said in this chapter were just completely unbiblical, it's not what the Bible teaches, and I'll show you here what the Bible says about him here tonight. And it says here in verse number one, after these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed against her. Last week, King Ahasuerus is basically having this big feast, and there's some alcohol, and although it was not required to drink, it was actually against the law to try to compel people to drink alcohol, King Ahasuerus had drank wine, and his wife had as well, and he asked his wife to basically come before the people, he doesn't tell her to take off her clothes like I've heard a priest before, but he does ask her to kind of come before and show her beauty, and she doesn't want to. And you're seeing two people that are affected by drinking alcohol, and they kind of make foolish decisions, both of them, and they make bad choices. But I want you to notice here it says, after these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti. Isn't it interesting sometimes that when you get in a fight with someone, you can get so mad and you can forget what you're even mad about? You're like, man, I'm so mad at my wife, I don't remember why, because anger has taken hold of you, but you're just really mad about that. Then once the anger is calmed down, he remembers Vashti and what she had done. So basically he was so filled with anger, it took him over, he lost control of his emotions, he didn't even really know why he was so angry at her, and then all of a sudden when it calmed down it's like, oh, this is what started the original fight. And when you really look back to the original fight, it's pretty ridiculous how it ends up leading to basically a divorce, and he's marrying somebody else. And it's like oftentimes that's the way it is with fights. Oftentimes with fights, they're really small things that take place, and then anger takes control and we have such little control over our emotions that we just lose it, we get so angry, we don't even know why we're that angry. And oftentimes we go back to the original situation and it's something very, very minor, and yet we allow our emotions to take control of us. And you say, why? Why do we do that as people? Because quite honestly, none of us have that great of control of our emotions. That's why we're doing the Fruits of the Spirit series on Sunday morning, because we all, including myself, we need to get control of our emotions and work on our personalities. Not just learning more things about the Bible and more doctrine, but also just our personal characteristics, because all of us have a lot of work to do. And what you see in verse one is Ahasuerus, or Xerxes, he's so mad that he forgets, but once the wrath is appeased or gone or done away with, all of a sudden he remembers Vashti, oh, I had this wife Vashti, and this is what's decreed against her, this is what happened, and now I'm going to be marrying a new wife. Now he obviously is going to end up marrying a very godly woman, so I'm not saying it necessarily worked out horribly for him, but I'm just showing you that according to this verse, you can basically get so mad about something that you really forget what you're even mad about. A lot of us could relate to that and say, yeah, there's been times I was really mad, and when you really look back to the original situation, it's like, why did you get that mad about that? That's what you're seeing here in verse number one. Now in verse number two, the Bible reads, then said the king's servants that ministered onto him, let there be fair young virgins sought for the king. And so here they're saying, let us find fair young virgins. He's finding a wife, and it's interesting how he's looking for a virgin, someone who has not been defiled. Now right here's some pretty strong proof that he's not some really wicked evil person. Look at Prince Harry over in England. He married Meghan Markle, which was known as a Hollywood whore. Those aren't even my words. Those are the basic newspaper tabloids. She was known as a Hollywood harlot. That's how she was known. Didn't bug him, did it? Now as a prince, you would think, don't you want someone, a potential queen that's virtuous, not somebody where they can pull up parts of your movies where you're basically completely nude, doing all these scenes with other men? But that's who we marry. Because in today's world, in England, and probably pretty much every country, it's not really that big of a deal of marrying someone who's pure or who has some sort of godliness to them. But in this day, this king, who I do not believe is saved, at least at this time, look, he ends up wanting a virgin. And that's what even the people that are underneath him, his servant said, you need to find a virgin. You say, why? Because that shows some character from someone. It shows character. And especially back in this day, it was not a common thing for you to basically sleep around before you're married. In fact, in the Bible, actually, let's get to that later on. But basically, they're looking for a virgin. That's the person for the king. And you say, why? Because he's looking for a queen. He's not looking for a one night stand. And if you're looking for a queen, you need somebody who has some sort of character. It was actually a position that was pretty important. And he wants someone who's basically befitting of being a queen. His last wife had embarrassed him. Now I don't think he should have gotten a divorce. But he's trying to find a woman who's a godly woman, who even though he doesn't believe in the same God, even though he's not saved, he wants a woman who is a virgin. Now in today's world, or in wicked societies, that wouldn't be a big deal. But in this day, they said, you know what, you're trying to find a wife, we want to find a virgin. Why? That shows she has some character. Verse number three, and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Heg the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women, and let their things for purification be given them. Now what you see is there is this man, Heg the king's chamberlain, and this guy's job is to basically have the custody or to take care of these women. Basically he's making sure that nothing happens to these women. It is his job to make sure these women stay pure as the king's trying to figure out who he's going to marry. It is his job. So look, if he decided to go rogue and try to have a relationship, he's probably going to be killed for it. It's like his job is to basically make sure these women are pure and that they're taken care of. This is not a king who's being just really evil to these women like they try to make this story out to be. I don't understand where they're getting that because when you read that, there's actually somebody in charge of making sure they're keeping their purity because he's looking for a wife that is actually pure. And let me just say this up front. I'm not trying to get you to walk away from the sermon saying, man, Xerxes is one of the greatest people who ever lived. But the truth matters and Hollywood makes him out to be some wicked, disgusting perverts. And that is not reality. He's not that bad of a guy. And I'll tell you what, if I had died and you know, that's what was said about me. It would, it would, it would anger me that that was kind of my name. Your reputation matters. The Bible speaks about having a good name or a good reputation and we're just going verse by verse. One of the most famous kings in history has been basically outed as being one of the most wicked people who ever lived. And it's really just these wicked sodomite Greeks that are lying about and people have bought into it. And when you read the book of Esther, you're just not seeing that he's not that bad of a guy. Verse number four, and let the maiden which pleases the king be queen instead of Ashtai and the thing please the king and he did so. So basically there's the qualifications of this woman needs to be a virgin and then he's going to pick the one that he wants. Now look, I don't think it's right that basically whoever gets chosen is going to basically be the queen whether they want to or not. I'm not defending that. I don't agree with that, but I will say that in most societies it was what's known as a patriarchal society where basically men rule the society and obviously we believe that men are the head of the home, but the way it was in most times in history and even in other cultures today, basically women are forced to do things they don't want to and that's not right. This is not talking about someone who is married who needs to obey their husband. He's basically saying I want to marry someone and she's going to have to just go along for the ride whether she wants to or not. Obviously that's not right because both man and woman should have a choice in the matter, but I would say this with verse number four. When you think about us marrying somebody, we are basically given basic qualifications of they need to be one, the opposite gender. That's one qualification. Now, in past I wouldn't have to say that, but it's just something you got to preach now. They have to be the opposite gender. They have to be saved and I do believe they should be basically having the same basic beliefs as you. I'm not saying they have to be exactly like you, but you're going to end up running into problems if basically you just disagree on every doctrine and you disagree on the type of church and things such as that, but outside of that, marry who you want to marry. What you have here with this king is the basic qualification. She needs to be someone who's a virgin and what he's going to do is he's going to get to know these women over the course of one year, not physically, and we'll prove that through the Bible, and he's going to determine who he wants to marry after one year of getting to know them. So this is not someone he's being physically involved with for this year. He's actually just finding out who is the person who's going to be the queen. It's something that's very important. Verse number five, now in Shushan the palace, there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jer, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity, which had been carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, who Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon had carried away. And so Mordecai is basically being taken into a foreign land. And last week I mentioned Texmars and I mentioned how ridiculous his viewpoint on the book of Esther is, but one thing he said for why he thinks Mordecai is such a wicked person and why Esther's so bad, he's like, well, if they were godly, they wouldn't live in Persia because every godly person lived in Jerusalem. Now wait a minute, I believe you can serve God in any country. There are saved people that live in North Korea today. Now I'm glad that's not me, but I'll tell you what, there are saved people that live in North Korea and they might be in a situation where guess what? If you're in a country, sometimes it's not that easy to leave the country. You know, if you're in some country, you know, you can't just say, well, you know what? I decided I want to live in the United States. I decided I want to live in the Philippines. No, there's legality to these things. You can't just leave country automatically. And so we don't know why he's in this. For first off, Persia is not that wicked as he preached in the sermon that I listened to for a couple hours. Persia is not that wicked. And secondly, you know what? You can serve God in any country. Wasn't Daniel in the Chaldean Empire in Babylon? Look, he was in a wicked empire, but he was still used to God. Wasn't Joseph in Egypt? In fact, a lot of the great characters in the Bible are in these wicked empires. Now this is why I personally, now there are jobs that would be sinful to take, but quite honestly in the world we live in, almost any company you're part of is doing something wrong and you almost can't avoid it. And so as long as you're not actively doing something sinful, I would say in general, it's okay to take that job. Now obviously there could be exceptions to this. It could be situational basis, but I'll give you an example. My original plan when I moved down here, not realizing that I'd still be able to work for Verity Baptist Manila was to work as a school teacher. I know people that think it's a sin to work as a school teacher. And the reason why they say that is because we're against the public school. So you're basically supporting them and it's a sin. Now look, I don't preach the public school system. Everybody knows that. I don't preach and believe in homeschooling, but I would like to see a verse that would say it's a sin to teach kids math in a public school. I think that you're basically adding something that's not there because once you do that for teaching, well you can do that for just about any job. I mean just about any job. You say, well you can't work for the government in the Philippines because the government's bad. So every governmental job is just off the books. You're basically just getting rid of every single possibility. I wouldn't take it to that sort of extreme. And so he is in this society and he's working for the Persian Empire. And first off, Persia is not that wicked of an empire when you notice, you know, what I preached last weekend in this chapter as well. But Mordecai just happens to be here. You might not necessarily be able to leave an area. And I do believe that God has left people in certain areas to preach the gospel and get people saved. There are godly people in Singapore that meet every single week. And you know what? I'm glad I'm not in the situation of not having a great church to go to. But I do believe those people are there for a reason. And I don't necessarily think God wants them to just leave and move to a great church because who's going to get people saved in Singapore then? There's a godly group in Hong Kong that are meeting regularly, also going to church, but they don't necessarily have a church just like this. In fact, most of the world, they don't have a church just like this. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't want to save people in Romania. He doesn't want to save people in, you know, Ukraine or whatever country you want to name. I mean, you can serve God in any country. Obviously, there are certain countries that would restrict you from being able to go soul winning and stuff like that. Like in Russia, it's illegal to preach the gospel. And so it could be very dangerous. But I also know someone who was in Saudi Arabia as an OFW. And he led people to the Lord in Saudi Arabia, because he just focused on the Filipinos that were OFW's over there. And he got people saved. And so I believe that you can serve God wherever if you have a willing heart and you really love God. Even if you're stuck in the worst situation, God can find a way to use it for good. And so Mordecai just happens to be here in Persia. And I'm sure that wouldn't be his first choice, but I don't even think Persia is that wicked of an empire. Notice verse number seven, and he brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful, who Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So Esther and Mordecai are cousins, okay? But Mordecai is a good bit older than Esther. We don't have the exact age, but the fact that he is the father to her would suggest that he is a good bit older. But what I want to highlight to you in verse number seven is you can biblically say this is his daughter, because it says who took for his own daughter, okay? You can say that Mordecai's daughter was Esther, even though that's not biologically his daughter. This is actually throughout the entire Bible. Now turn in your Bible to Ruth chapter one, Ruth chapter one, and so this is a question people might ask. Well, what about if you adopt somebody, you know, are you really their parents? Well biblically, yes, it does use the terminology that you are their parents. If you would adopt a child and basically raise those children, they are referred to as your children throughout the Bible, and if you pay attention to the Bible, you're going to notice this pops up, and also you would be the parents, you would be the father, you would be the mother of those children. It says in Ruth chapter one, verses 11 through 13, and Naomi said, turn again my daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? And notice in verse number 11, Naomi says these are her daughters. Now these are her daughters-in-law. She didn't adopt them, but basically the husbands die, her sons, and she is now basically the mom to Orpah and Naomi. The Bible uses this terminology, and throughout the book of Ruth it uses that terminology. Throughout the book of Genesis I've seen this terminology, but basically you see that these are her daughters. Verse 12, turn again my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have an husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would you tarry for them till they were grown? Would you stay for them from having husbands? Nay my daughters, for grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Now in this reference, she's referring to them as her daughters. I didn't do this, but I should have looked up references. There are references though where the narrator of the Bible refers to someone that you basically would adopt as your children, and we sort of saw that, not necessarily quite as explicitly in Esther 2, but there are examples where the narrator will refer to them as your children, where the narrator will refer to the father and mother of those. And so the Bible would show you that if you were to adopt children, that you are the parents. You say, why is this significant? Well, turn to Titus chapter 1, and I'm going to say something that might be considered a little bit controversial in this room, but I'm going to basically give you kind of two thoughts and say that you're basically welcome to choose either one, and I could see both viewpoints, okay? And so what I'm basically going to be talking about, I'm going to show you the part where the Bible says that to be a pastor, you must have faithful children, okay? Now the question that would pop up though is, what if you raised children as your own? Would that count? And I would say that's a very gray area, and I wouldn't say it would, I wouldn't say it wouldn't. And I'll give you the perspectives, and I would say that I am using Bible though to prove this, okay? And so I'm basically in the middle of this. Now let me say this, that when I mention this and I go through this, let's say for example that you started raising a child, well let me just read you the verse, and then I'll kind of explain to you what I'm saying. In Titus 1 verse 6, it says, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. So the Bible teaches that you must have children to be a pastor. You say, Brother Stuckey, are you qualified to be a pastor? Well, I do have two children, but you know, I can't refer to the child that's still in the womb as being faithful at this point. So I wouldn't be able to be called a pastor at this point. I wouldn't be biblically qualified in terms of having faithful children. Now what does it mean to have faithful children? That age, there's a lot of different opinions, and it's one of those things that I have my opinion, but I'm okay with people having a different opinion, because the Bible's not explicit, and when the Bible doesn't explicitly say two plus two equals four, I don't think we should just rail on someone who has a little bit of a different opinion. Now the Bible does say faithful children though, and so I do believe you have to have multiple kids, but if somebody's age is below or above what my standard would be, I'm not going to rail against them and preach against them, as long as it meets the standard of children as in plural, faithful children, okay? And so basically, there could be two different viewpoints, and thought number one is this, that unless God biologically gives you children, that you're not qualified to be a pastor. And so this is what some people say, that unless God blesses you with multiple children, you wouldn't be qualified to be a pastor, because God did not give you children biologically, and basically, if God wanted you to be a pastor, then he would give you multiple kids. I would say that's probably true, okay? That if God wanted you to be a pastor, he would give you multiple kids. But I do want to mention this, because I'm just trying to be fair, that the Bible does use the terminology of children if you raise children. Thought number two would be this, what if you raise children at a young age, because if you raise them at the age of starting at 16, they determine whether they are faithful before you had anything to do with it. See, let's say, for example, you took over two kids, and they were already ages 14 and 16. Whether or not they're faithful was not based on what you did, it was based on somebody else, because the Bible says if you can't rule your own house, how can you rule the house of God? So some people would say, well, wait a minute, if basically you raise children at a very young age, and they end up being godly, that proves since you were able to rule your own house, you'd be able to rule the house of God. But if those kids were like 10 years old when you started, whether or not they were going to be faithful or not was not determined by you. They were determined by whoever was the father, whatever happened before, okay? Now I would say this, that I've never heard of a situation of someone who desired to be a pastor, and actually was very godly and doing a good job that God did not give multiple kids. So I'm basically talking about a situation I don't think would ever even happen. I'm just kind of being fair about the situation, that if somebody raised two kids starting at the age of six months, and they ended up being godly, biblically you could call those their children, okay? But I don't believe that situation is probably going to exist, because I do believe that if God wanted you to be a pastor, he would give you multiple kids. So I don't think probably the situation would ever occur of basically somebody has a desire to be a pastor, they're very godly, they've done a wonderful job raising kids at the age of starting at six months, but you know, they never had biological kids. This is probably a situation that's never going to happen. So it's kind of one of those things where it's just like, I'm just being fair though with this, that according to the Bible, if you raise kids as your own, it is referred to as your children, okay? But I do believe that if God really wanted you to be a pastor, he probably would biologically give you multiple children. Now turn back to Esther chapter one, Esther one. But I will say this, although I do believe God would probably biologically give you children, I wouldn't be against someone who thought otherwise. And my standard for what the Bible says of being a pastor, I don't get too mad at people that are in gray area situations that disagree with me. What I would get mad about is someone who just brazenly doesn't care what the Bible says and wants to be referred to as a pastor, even though they do not biblically meet the qualification system. And that is a situation you usually see. You know, this gray area situation is a situation I don't think will ever exist. Someone who basically is very godly and has that desire, because probably God won't even give them that desire because he would probably give them kids if they would also have that desire that he would give them. But basically though, people though just disregard this altogether, they say, I don't care about having faithful children, I'm just going to be a pastor or a bishop anyway. Well, it doesn't matter whether someone ordains you, because if you don't meet the qualifications, you're not a pastor. And so I don't understand where people are looking for basically the title, but not really the work. What is so special about having the title of pastor? If I had the title of pastor here today, would that really affect much here at Verity Baptist Manila? I mean, aren't I freely able to preach the Word of God? It's not like I'm basically told, oh, you got to take that sermon down, you got a little bit too extreme. I've never had a single sermon where Pastor Menes says, well, that was a little bit rough. I've basically been given free rein to basically, you know, and obviously I know what Pastor Menes wants, and obviously I'm respectful and I stay within the lines of what Verity Baptist Church teaches, but you know, I'm perfectly fine if I was never called a pastor, because I'm still able to do the work of running a church, but you know, being able to go soul winning preach sermons, which I enjoy doing, but there's a lot of people here in the Philippines, they want the title, not really the work, they're just really after the title. And there's a problem with that because of the fact if you're just so interested in getting the title where people will call you pastor, you're not going to be the person who's going to humble yourself and do a good job of basically teaching that church. And so in Esther chapter two, this is on my mind because I want to preach a sermon called the title versus the office of a pastor or the title versus the work or something like that. I just haven't put it together yet, so I've kind of mentioned it in a few sermons, but in Esther chapter two, verse eight, the Bible reads, so it came to pass when the King's commandment and his decree was heard. And when many maidens were gathered together on the shoes in the palace to the custody of Haggai, that Esther was brought also under the King's house to the custody of Haggai, keeper of the women. And so basically once again, Esther is going to be here. This person is the keeper of the women. Now later on, we're going to see the term concubine mentioned in Esther chapter two. And there's a bit of a misconception when you see that because Esther is not a concubine. And basically people are looking at all these women as basically King Xerxes has this big harem of women and he did have concubines, but these virgins are not just added to this title, this big group of concubines like Solomon. That's not what you see in this story because at the end, we're going to prove that all of these women are still referred to as virgins at the end of the chapter, towards the very end of the chapter. So he's not just going around and sleeping with all these women, which is what I basically heard people say, basically, all these women are coming before King has awareness and he's figuring out which one he wants. So he basically is, you know, spending physically time like test driving each woman to determine, you know, which car he wants is basically how I've heard it referred to. That is ridiculous. And I would love to see the verse that shows that in this story, you're not seeing that and she's not listed among the concubines. These are actually women that are being kept pure and there's a guy's responsibility for that. And the next verse proves to you that she's just not some sort of concubine in the story because in verse nine and the maiden pleased him and she obtained kindness of him. Look, if he was just going around and sleeping with all of these women, the Bible would not say she obtained kindness of him. He was actually kind to her, which means he's not basically raping her. That's ridiculous. You're not seeing that in the story. She obtained kindness of him. So basically he is kind to her and he's trying to figure out which woman he wants to marry and he speedily gave her her things for purification with such things as belong to her and seven seven maidens, which were me to be given her out of the king's house. And he preferred her and her maids onto the best place of the house of the women. So basically he's determining and she, he's determined that Esther is the best out of all of these women, that he is not physically getting involved with at this time. Now you say, why is there such a bad opinion about this man, Xerxes? The basic opinion comes in our modern day from two things, and one of them is from the movie 300. Now the movie 300 is one of the most perverted movies I've ever seen in my life. And I had only been saved for a couple of years when I saw it, but it was weird. And if you haven't seen the movie, praise the Lord, because it was a perverted, it's from the same director that did sin city. And so you can, you can see what was in the mind of this person, but it's a wicked perverted movie. And Xerxes is basically just this guy with like makeup and basically he's got lots of, you know, uh, rings and everything in his face. I mean, it's ridiculous. That's not what you see. Show me the rings in his face here and Esther, you're never going to see that. I think it would have mentioned that if you look like some sort of freak, because looking like that, even though it's common in today's world, people didn't go around looking like that in Persia during that time period. But the main reason is this starts from Herodotus who is basically the Greek historian. He's the first guy who really wrote down history and he's also nicknamed the father of lies because in our modern times we figured out, wow, he was lying about a lot of what he said because we've dug up the ground and seen a lot of what he said is just opposite of what we see in the archeological evidence. And so obviously when it comes to as Christians, we go to the word of God to determine things. And if the Bible doesn't say anything about someone, then yeah, we could go outside the Bible and take our best guess, but the Bible does talk about this man and so we should look at what the Bible says to make sure this matches up. Now in Esther chapter two, notice verse 10 and it says, Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it. And so Mordecai basically gives her a charge and he tells her, I don't want you to tell anybody. And she listens. You say, why? Because she's basically his daughter and she's basically obeying him as the father. He's the one who can set down the rules and say, well, you know, cause at this time she's not married to King Ahasuerus or Xerxes. And so she is still under basically Mordecai's influence. He still is the father. Now obviously once somebody gets married, you leave father and mother in Cleveland to your wife, the Bible says. And so a woman would leave her parents and a guy would leave his parents and basically the husband's ahead of that home. But at this time she's not married, so she is still under basically Mordecai's jurisdiction. And I don't have time to prove this, but you go throughout the Old Testament and it talks about basically how if a woman would make a vow and her father hears that vow and he says, you know, I don't agree with that. Basically what she says doesn't stand because she's still underneath the control of her father and so Mordecai charges her and she listens because of the fact she is the daughter of Mordecai. I understand that's his cousin, but biblically this is his daughter, uses that terminology. In verse number 11, and Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house to know how Esther did and what should become of her. Now verse number 11 though shows you the heart of this man Mordecai because Mordecai looks at Esther as his daughter and he's walking every day before the court just to find out if there's any news. Now look, most of us don't really feel this way about our cousins. You know, you might be friends with your cousins, but it's not something where you're just like every single second, oh, I'm so worried about what happened to them. He looks at her as his daughter and he's walking every day before the court to find out what's going to become of her. What's going to come to my daughter? Is she going to marry King Xerxes? She is trying to figure this out because of the fact he looks at her as his daughter. It's not surprising why she listens to him because of the fact he loves her. And see when a parent loves their children, the result is those children are going to want to please their parents. And so the fact that he loved her, and you can see that in verse 11, it's not surprising that in verse 10 when he told her something, she listened to it. Why? Because she looked at that as her father and she wants to please her father. Now in verse number 12, the Bible reads, Now when every maid's turn was come to go into King Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, for so were the days of their purifications accomplished to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the women. Then thus came every maiden unto the king whatsoever she desired was given to her, given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned in the second house of the women to the custody of Shehashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines. She came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted her, and that she were called by name. So the Bible mentions here in verse number 14 that there is a second house of the women. Now that doesn't mean that she's becoming a concubine, and I'll prove that later on, but basically the concubines are ones that are wives of King Ahasuerus, and I'll biblically prove to you a concubine is a wife. Turn to Genesis chapter 30, Genesis chapter 30. And so a lot of people ask this question, what is a concubine in the Bible? And I'll give you a couple out of many references in the Bible where you see that concubine and wife are used interchangeably in the Bible many, many times, okay? And I'll explain to you exactly what a concubine is. But in Genesis 30, verses three and four, the Bible reads, and she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife, and Jacob went in unto her. So according to verse four, is Bilhah the wife of Jacob? It says, Bilhah her handmaid to wife, she is the wife of Jacob. Turn to Genesis 35, Genesis 35. And in Genesis chapter 35, it says in verse 22, and it came to pass when Israel dwelled in that land that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard it, now the sons of Jacob were 12. So in Genesis 30, we saw that Bilhah is the wife of Jacob. In Genesis 35, verse 22, we see that Bilhah is the concubine of Jacob. Now don't misunderstand me, concubine and wife are not the exact same thing, but a concubine's a type of wife. Okay, I'm gonna give you another example here, and then I'll explain exactly what a concubine is. Turn to Genesis 25, Genesis 25. Now when I say what a concubine is, I can only speak for how the Bible defines the word, because the modern day word has changed a lot in its meaning, and if you said that somebody was a concubine today, you wouldn't really think of them as a wife. But biblically, a concubine is a wife, okay? Genesis chapter 25, verse 1, Genesis 25, verse 1, then again Abraham took a wife and her name was Keturah, okay? So Keturah is the wife of Abraham. Now turn to 1 Chronicles 1, verse 32, 1 Chronicles 1, verse 32, 1 Chronicles 1, verse 32. And so in Genesis 25, verse 1, we see that Keturah is the wife of Abraham. And 1 Chronicles 1, 32, we're gonna see that this is the concubine of Abraham, okay? So in 1 Chronicles 1, verse 32, it says, Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine. So what you're seeing is that a concubine and wife, they are used interchangeably sometimes in the Bible. These are only a few examples. If you remember, when David had all of his wives, once it refers to them as concubines, and once it refers to them as his wives. When it talks about how his son was gonna lie with the women, it uses them interchangeably. With Solomon even, the word is used interchangeably, you say, I thought a concubine was a living girlfriend. That's not what the Bible teaches. A concubine is a wife, and you say, what exactly is it then if it's just a wife? Well it's not the exact same thing as a wife, it's a type of wife. Now remember Bilhah, Bilhah was a bond maid. A concubine is basically a bond woman that becomes the wife. So she's not completely free, okay? That is what a concubine is. And so it is a type of wife, and you know, you could say lesser wife if you want, but basically it's a bond maid who becomes the wife. That is what a concubine is. Now I would encourage you all to look up the word concubine in the Bible, and you're gonna see many times concubine and wife are used interchangeably. You say, why? Because a concubine is a type of wife, that's what the Bible teaches. We saw a couple examples with Bilhah and Keturah, we could look at a lot of examples here today. But I want to kind of show you this from another angle. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 8, and I want to show you something else. By the way, this is what Verity Baptist Church has always taught about a concubine, that a concubine is a bondmaid that is a wife. Now ask yourself this question in the Bible, did godly people marry multiple women in the Bible? Yes, they did. Now I'm not for that. That's wrong. You know, obviously the Bible says not to multiply wives unto yourself as for kings and anyone who saves your king and priest unto God, the Bible says, so look, sorry, sorry, young guys, you can't marry multiple women. That's off the table. Having one wife is all God's going to allow you, okay? But you do see godly people marrying multiple women. Now when you read the Bible, although that's listed as a sin, if we're honest with ourselves, God doesn't treat it as harshly as we feel like he should treat it. Don't you guys feel that way? Like when you read the Bible, it's just like, yes, the Bible refers to it, don't multiply wives unto yourself, but yet God doesn't frown on it as much as it feels like he should. And a large part of this is because in our modern day, the things are switched, okay? But what God really frowns on in the Bible is fornication before marriage. That's looked at as worse than polygamy. Now look, I understand in our modern day, polygamy feels far worse, but in the Bible, you're not really seeing that. In first Corinthians chapter 10, verse eight, what the Bible reads is this. First Corinthians 10, verse eight, neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day, three and 20,000. Here in first Corinthians 10, eight, it mentions 23,000 people being killed by God in one day for the sin of fornication. And that's in one day, another 1000 die over the next few days because it says 24,000. It's one of the great Bible contradictions in one day, 23,000, 24,000 total. There's the answer to the Bible contradiction. But 23,000 people are killed in one day due to the sin of fornication. Show me 23,000 people being killed due to having multiple wives in the Bible. You're not gonna see it, you say, what's your point? My point is that godly people had concubines in the Bible and they didn't get struck down dead by God. But if they were going around sleeping around fornication before marriage, they probably would have been struck down. And so yes, it was wrong to have multiple wives and have concubines as well as your actual main wife, but you see godly people having that. And so if a concubine was a living girlfriend and they're just constantly committing fornication, I believe that a lot of the godly people we see in the Bible would have been killed. Why? Because fornication is worse in the Bible and has worse punishment than polygamy. Now they're both sins, they're both wrong, but you do see in the Bible that fornication is treated as worse than polygamy. And so either way, the word concubine you can see is used interchangeably several times with wife in the Bible. And you say, why are you saying this? Because of the fact we're looking at King Xerxes and people could look at this man who had concubines and say, well, look at how wicked this guy is. He's sleeping with all these people he's not married to. No, he wasn't. They were his wives because a concubine and a wife are used interchangeably in the Bible. Now notice what it says in Esther chapter two, and Abraham had a concubine. Jacob had two concubines, Billa and Zilpah, okay? And so this is not committing fornication and not being married to someone. It is someone you're married to. They're a bond person who becomes your wife. Now it says in Esther chapter two, verse 14, In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Sheheshgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines. She came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name. Now look, the king is not just having her go in there and sleeping with her, and whenever he delights in her, he basically is just with her physically. You're not going to see that because these ladies are still referred to as virgins here in the coming verses. But remember, she obtained kindness of him. He's not just basically forcing her, you know, physically. Verse number 15, Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abbahel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women appointed, and Esther obtained favor in the sight of all of them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month of Tabith, in the seventh year of his reign. And so Esther obtains favor in the sight of all of them that looked upon her. Basically she's chosen above them, but it's not using the terminology that he's basically sleeping with these women. She obtained kindness of him, she obtained favor. And so basically he's looking at her and saying, I believe this is the woman that I'm going to end up marrying, and this is who he ends up marrying. Verse number 17, verse number 17, And a king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. In verse number 17, it still refers to these women as virgins. You say, why? Because he wasn't just sleeping with all these women like a lot of people are saying. They're still referred to as virgins. You say, why is it then that he waited a whole year? He's trying to find a queen. Yes, he had concubines, but he's not just trying to basically add another concubine. He's looking for a queen. He's looking for someone who's very virtuous. Now it's wrong for him to have concubines. Don't take this sermon and say, Brother Stuckey's justifying polygamy and having concubines and all this stuff. He's not doing that here today. But what I am saying is that these people, these women are still virgins, according to the Bible in verse number 17. That is proof that he was not just sleeping around with all these women. Because here's the truth. If you want to find out who you actually want to marry, the physical should have nothing to do with it. Now, you should find them attractive, absolutely. But what I'm saying is this, that if you don't want your mind clouded, if you don't want your judgment clouded, you're going to stay completely pure. The more pure you stay, the more clear minded you're going to be. Because once you're getting physically involved with one another, guess what? Your judgment's going to go as well. If you're smart, you're not going to get physically involved. And in fact, in the Bible, we see Amnon, who basically loves his half-sister Tamar. Once he sleeps with her, he hates her. You say, why? Because if you want to destroy your relationship, get physically involved. That's what the Bible's teaching you. You want to have a good relationship? Stay away from each other physically until you're married. And the more involved you are physically, you're going to destroy that relationship. You're going to start getting in lots of fights, mad at each other. That's what you see with Amnon. And instead of actually loving her for who she is, he just is, you know, lusted after and then he's done with her. Look, if you want to have a good relationship, stay pure until you're married, as pure as possible. That's what we're seeing here. And in verse number 17, they're still referred to as virgins. Verse number 18, then the king made a great feast on to all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast. And he made a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to the state of the king. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, so in verse 19, they're still referred to as virgins. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor people as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. Now let's say for a second that everything I preach was wrong and Xerxes was just like this really bad guy. Would he have just waited a year and just not been physically involved with any of these women or would he have just basically slept with all of them? What do you see with a lot of kings in history? They basically just sleep with whatever woman they want and the woman doesn't even have anything to do with it. She basically is forced to do whatever he wants. Isn't that true? If he was such a bad guy, they would not still be virgins here a time later. He would have just been sleeping with all of them as he made his choice, but he's actually looking for a queen and so he actually was a smart enough guy to keep the physical out of it. And what you see from this is that King Xerxes, he's not a bad guy. Now look, I do wonder in my own head as he married a virtuous woman, a godly woman, if he ended up getting saved one day. Now the Bible doesn't tell us this and quite honestly, even though he's not a bad guy, he still could have in his own free will rejected the gospel. But I promise you he heard the gospel. I promise you that Esther tried to get him saved and quite honestly, he's not such a wicked guy. I would not be shocked if we see King Xerxes in heaven one day. Now I would be shocked if we saw Alexander the Great in heaven. I would be shocked if we saw Julius Caesar in heaven. I wouldn't be shocked though if King Xerxes is actually in heaven. And that's kind of what we saw last week because when we look at the Persian kings, this is not a wicked empire. Remember last week we saw according to Herodotus, the reason why the Persians were animals is because of the fact they had no pedophilia in their society. And then he said, well, we introduced the pedophilia to them. That's why we're so much more civilized. What you see just from Herodotus is his own writing, his own words condemn him. He's trying to condemn the Persians, which you actually see is the Greeks were the ones that were the perverts. Now obviously something must have happened at some point to make God turn away his blessing from this Persian empire. I understand that, but for at least a long time period, they were pretty godly. You could look at the United States of America, sort of similar because the United States of America, I don't know that they were as godly as Persia was, but the United States of America was not that wicked for a time period. Now if you want to get an argument with me today about whether or not the United States is godly, then, you know, America is a wicked country now. They're by no means godly, but at one time they were not that bad because at least the foundations of the Bible were in their society. And so in Catholicism was basically rejected from society. And so they weren't saying basically they had the Bible and they had no Catholics. And so they weren't that bad. They hadn't the cults didn't exist yet. The Mormons weren't there, you know, the Jehovah's Witnesses, there was no Catholics. So they really weren't that bad because they actually read the Bible's families and stuff like that. But obviously through 250 years, the United States just became really wicked. At some point, Persia must have as well. Now we're going to look at the last three verses here in a second, but I want to read to you. This is some stuff that Herodotus said about Xerxes and some stuff I read in history about him. And I can't prove to you this stuff happened. I'm just going to read you what was said. It says, although his grandfather, Cyrus, had been a friend of Babylon, Xerxes had subjugated the city and melted down the golden statue of Marduk, their patron deity. And so one thing that Xerxes supposedly did is basically he went a step further than Cyrus and he melted down the false god. Okay, I'm not saying that makes him saved, but that's actually a pretty good thing to do. And it doesn't seem like he's so wicked. Now they might look at him as being wicked because how dare you melt down false gods? But you know what? That's what he did. Some other things that were said about him were this, and I believe this was in Herodotus's writing, but it says, my lord, a short while ago, this is when Xerxes is basically feeling really sad. He's about to go into a battle. My lord, a short while ago, you were feeling happy with your situation and now you're weeping. What a total change of mood. Yes, Xerxes answered, I was reflecting on things and it occurred to me how short the sum total of human life is, which made me feel compassion. Look at all these people, but not one of them will still be alive in 100 years. He doesn't sound like that bad of a guy to me. Now I can't prove that he said that. That's what he supposedly said, though. Now this was before the time of Jesus Christ. So I can't prove to you at all that this was said. I'm just saying that this is what they say that he said, that basically he was going into battle and being in battle was kind of the part of being a king during these days. You know, you had enemies in Persian and Greece were at war with one another for quite a long time and during his reign and he basically looked at the people and supposedly he said, you know what? I feel bad. You know, if we end up killing these people, why? Because no person, you know, naturally is going to want to kill somebody else. I mean, our life is short, especially now he's not saved at this time. I would say for sure. I would presume at least, but I would say this, that, you know, as a safe person, if an unsafe person dies, it's not a reprobate. You're going to feel compassion because you're thinking, man, they have no hope. There's no purgatory. There's no second chance. If an unsafe person dies, that's terrible as well because man, you want them to be around to try to preach the gospel and do something for God in their lives. Now here's a quote that is not as good with Xerxes, okay? Because at here he's talking about some other God, and this was the God of Zoroastrianism, but Xerxes supposedly said, a great God is Ahura Mazda, which is the God of Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Persians, who is the greatest God who created this earth, who created yonder heaven, who created men, who created happiness for man, who made Xerxes king, one king for many, one Lord for all. So at least when he's writing this, if that's what he said, then he's not saved at this time. So look, did he get saved later on in his life? I mean, I hope he did. I don't know, but I will say this. I don't think there's any indication from Esther chapter two that he is a reprobate. There's no indication whatsoever. If you're honest with those verses and don't have a preconceived idea and actually pay attention closely to what's being said, he is not an evil, wicked reprobate like society makes him out to be. That is just a Hollywood movie and a sodomite Greek. That's where it comes from. A sodomite Greek in a Hollywood movie. Now let's look at these last couple of verses here in verse number 21. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Big Thinn and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth and sought to lay hands on the king of Hazuwares. The thing was known to Mordecai, who toted on to Esther the queen, and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. When an inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out, therefore they were both hanged on a tree, and it was written in the book of the Chronicles before the king. Now Mordecai finds out about this plot to kill the king, and he makes it a point to step in. Quite honestly, Mordecai puts his own life in a bit of risk by stepping in at all. The easy thing would be pretend I didn't hear this and let whatever happen, because if you step in, these two people might want to kill you, or they could falsely accuse you. It's certified, it says, in Mordecai's name, which basically means if there's some sort of trial or something, you are responsible to prove your case. So what if it goes to trial and you're proven as wrong, he could risk himself, jail, whatever society would have in that area. So he's actually putting in a bit of a risk, and this shows the godliness of Mordecai that he's basically stepping in. Now look, once again, if Xerxes was a reprobate, guess what Mordecai would have done? Nothing. What would you do if you heard that, you know, somebody was going to kill some reprobate? You wouldn't tell anybody about it, right? It's like, hey, I'm not doing it, but it's just like, I don't really mind that it's being done. That's what Mordecai, that's what I would have done in that situation, but there's no indication that Xerxes is a reprobate whatsoever. And look, if Xerxes had basically just been sleeping with all these women, like they say, including Esther, who is Mordecai's daughter, he would have been very angry at Xerxes and he would have allowed Xerxes to have been killed. But that is not what you see take place. You say, why is it that these men wanted to kill Ahasuerus or Xerxes as I believe it is? The Bible doesn't say, but my best guess would be that they were angry at the choice of Esther as the queen. And the reason why I say that is because that's what's being mentioned throughout the entire chapter. We don't know the exact timeframe, but this is probably shortly after, not too long. It's very possible they didn't like her as the choice for being the queen. Maybe they rejected, you know, the true faith, or maybe they didn't like her. Maybe they liked someone else. I don't know. If I had to guess, I would say it was probably something to do with the fact that they didn't want Esther to be the queen. And so to recap, I know this isn't necessarily as much of a practical sermon, but you know, honestly, the truth matters and the truth about Xerxes is a fraud. And look, we shouldn't be surprised when history gets it wrong because history gets pretty much everything wrong. And honestly, studying and preparing the sermon series, especially these first two sermons, because I learned a lot from this, I will say this that, you know what, sometimes we just kind of put the Bible on the back burner and assume it doesn't talk about matters. And when we actually study closely every single verse, you see, wow, the Bible actually tells you quite a bit about the Persian empire as we saw last week and this week. It's just a matter of whether or not we have faith in the word of God, whether or not we're just going to study because look, it takes time to learn this stuff. It doesn't happen immediate. Whereas if we were just listening to what secular history says, you know, overnight, see the word of God, you have to study and learn, but honestly, the word of God has the answers to everything we need in life. Let's close an order of prayer. Dear heavenly father, thankful to be here today in your house, and we ask you to just help us to apply this sermon to our lives. And you know, obviously Xerxes is not around today, God, but help us to realize that the truth always matters, God. Help us to have a better understanding of history, especially as it relates to the Bible, God. Help us to just always look to the Bible as our final authority on matters, especially if there's something that is up for debate. Does the Bible speak about that and let us have faith and trust in the word of God, despite what history might say falsely. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.