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

I'll just take the mic off for announcements and leave it up there. Thank you. Thank you. All right, everybody, seven o'clock. Let's go ahead and get started. Thank you all for being here. Here at Words Baptist Church. I got to get used to saying that, I'm used to saying steadfast. Great to be down here. My family just moved yesterday, so we're still getting settled in, but I'm here for good now. Let's get started with our singing. If you'll take out your hymnal to song 63, What a Day That Will Be. Great song to remind us about going to heaven. Song number 63, What a Day That Will Be. Let's sing it all together on the first. There is coming a day when no heart aches shall come. No more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day that will be. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. And I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land. What a day, glorious day that will be. There'll be no sorrow there, no more burdens to bear. No more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there. And forever I will be with the one who died for me. What a day, glorious day that will be. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. And I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land. What a day, glorious day that will be. Amen. Good singing. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you that we could be gathered tonight to hear the preaching of your word. I just pray you'd help us grow in wisdom and our understanding of the Bible. You fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit right now and help us Lord to grow and become better Christians and bless this church and our soul winning efforts. We love you Father. We pray these things in Jesus Christ's name, Amen. Next we're going to be 191. In my heart there rings a melody, Psalm 191, 191, sing it all together on the first. I have a song that Jesus gave me, it was sent from heaven above, there never was a sweeter melody, tis a melody of love. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love. I love the Christ who died on Calvary, for he washed my sins away. He put within my heart a melody, and I know is there to stay. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love. It will be my endless theme in glory, with the angels I will sing. It will be a song with glorious harmony, when the courts of heaven ring. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love. Amen. Great singing. Good evening. Thank you so much for coming to Peewer's Baptist Church. If you need a bullet, then there should be a couple still on that back cabinet. We're on Bible and memory verse, Romans 4, verse 1. On the inside we have our service and soul winning times, as well as our church stats. We have upcoming guest preaching. We had brother Salvador Alvarez come for us. This Sunday is going to be brother Duncan Urbanic, who has been recently ordained as an evangelist for Peewer's Baptist Church, so him and his family moved down here. I think they moved today? Yesterday. Okay. So yesterday they came down. That's right. Wednesday. I'm getting my days mixed up. Yesterday they came down, and so they've been getting into town, settling, and so it's really exciting to have him be here and his family. And it even is his son's birthday. Titus is one years old today, so congratulations to him, that's exciting. And so we're going to have cake after the service in honor of Titus, all right? And so not in honor of Duncan, in honor of Titus, okay? We're excited he's here. No, I'm just kidding. But brother Urbanic and his wife are a great couple, and they've been a blessing to us at steadfast, and so we're really excited that they're willing to come down here and help lead this church and to help minister down here and help with the soul winning and everything. And brother Urbanic, his mission or his job duty, as it were, is to be the evangelist of this church until this church has its own pastor. And so we don't know who that will be necessarily, could be brother Urbanic potentially God willing one day. He definitely has a desire, but it could be someone else, but at least his goal is to be the evangelist for this church for the time being and to help fill that role. And I'll still be the pastor of Heurist Baptist Church, still going to be here, I'm still going to help lead everything, but it's going to be even better having another ordained leader, an evangelist here that can lead things and preach on a regular basis and to help lead things. So starting Sunday, brother Urbanic is going to be a leader here in the church, and really my goal of him being an evangelist here is that he's going to be fully empowered to essentially make all the decisions that I would make if I were here. And so I am going to invest all that power into him and give him that opportunity. So if you have some kind of a question or issue or anything, you can always go to brother Urbanic and talk to him. And obviously if there's something that he needs help with, he can always talk to me. Not that you can't talk to me or come to me with questions or concerns or anything like that, but I want you to realize you have another advocate with Pastor Shelley, you have brother Urbanic, okay. You have another person that you can talk to, you can go to, and he's going to be fully deputized to make decisions and lead things and really we want to empower him and get behind brother Duncan and really help him with the evangelism here. And again, the goal of an evangelist is to most importantly evangelize, which would be lead, you know, soul winning and help assist others in soul winning and going out there and knocking doors and trying to reach people and, you know, the Houston area is a very unevangelized area. It's an area that needs people to go out and preach the gospel. It's a very diverse city, that's one of the reasons why I wanted to plant a church here is because there wasn't a lot of churches soul winning and it's just so many people. In fact, in about a five mile radius of our church is a half a million people and it's probably one of the most diverse in the sense that virtually all manner of demographic. I mean, it doesn't matter really how, it doesn't matter if you go very far, you could find virtually everything. You could find Jew, Muslim, Hispanic, you know, white, all of it just like everything you could ever want so close to our church building and, you know, that was on purpose to try and reach a diverse crowd and to try and reach a lot of people and try to help them get saved, get baptized and also then get plugged into church. And because Brother Duncan is going to be an evangelist, he's going to have the ability to baptize and do pretty much all the functions here that a pastor could or would and so we're really excited about that. He's already baptized a couple of people so he's ready to go and we've got our nice Baptist tree over here. Although since he has been from steadfast, he's going to need some help from you guys to kind of help them understand how we do things at Pure Words, okay, and what Houston is like and so, you know, definitely it's going to be a great blessing to him if you guys help him out, give him, you know, instruction or let him know things that have been going on. Maybe he'll probably kind of try to talk to a lot of people that are, or have been helping in the church, you know, whether that be cleaning or whether that be helping take out the prat or any kind of functions and things that have been going on. He'll probably just be trying to figure out who's been doing what and trying to help them and assist them in whatever they've been doing and encouraging them as well. And so, you know, I think that this church has a lot of potential. It's a great spirit, a lot of great people have been plugged into this church and I really think that it has a great future ahead of it. I'm still working on the documentary that our church is making, the Preserved Bible is the name of the documentary and it is a Pure Words publication, okay, so, God willing I'll get to the point where I can actually preach a sermon. I'm kind of waiting because we're working on the film and I've kind of learned this in hindsight. It's nice to kind of like have your film almost done and then kind of preach a sermon because then you can like really just say all the things that you really want to say and tie things together well. So I think it'll help with the production of the film. So we kind of have to wait until we get closer to being done but the good news is once I finally preach, you'll be like, oh man, it seems like some film might be coming around the corner. So, you know, that's a good thing and we've got a lot of filming done for our documentary on the King James Bible, some cool interviews that we got and we're still working on getting a little bit more footage potentially, there's some things that we might get or might not but there's only really one interview and a couple sermons that are left to do. We already have a pretty baseline film that we've been working on and Brother Ben Naim is helping me kind of produce that film and so definitely you can be in prayer for that film. I think it's going to be a really positive work that we can get excited about and share and hopefully it'll actually make a pretty big impact and again our goal with the film is to really just take Christians that have a sincere belief in the Bible and help them realize that the King James Bible is the only option. If you believe in the doctrine of preservation, you have to use the King James Bible, there's not really another option. And I think a lot of Christians believe the Bible is inspired, I think all of them believe it's inspired and I think most of them generally believe it's been preserved but they're just confused about what that really means and I think when we release our film it's going to help make it pretty clear like if you believe in the doctrine of preservation, the King James Bible is the only Bible you should use if you're an English speaking person and I think it's going to help bring some clarity to that, some new information and I'm really excited about that. And of course, you know, what better name to put behind that film than Pure Words, right? Pure Words Baptist Church makes a film about the preserved Bible and so I'm really excited about that. Also we have our men's conference, August 18th through the 20th, definitely sign up for that. I don't know if we have an official sign up sheet yet or not but we'll make sure we get one out there. Who's planning on coming to this? Okay, great. And so we're really excited about that, we'll turn Doug and Soso into a yes or a no. And then pray for Ms. Rogers, who's expecting. We also have a couple other prayer requests, the Goodwin family from our Dallas, Fort area, Brother Edwards Health, and we've been praying for Mr. Liberty's daughter-in-law's mother, Catherine, Brother Joel, and been praying for our different churches. This week we have Oklahoma City and they also have an evangelist, Brother Fur, he recently had someone he ended up baptizing up there as well and he was pretty excited about that. Their church definitely is kind of similar to Pure Words and they have kind of a small support group but really good spirit, really good people up there and we're really encouraged about them. I'm hoping that as I kind of make this transition and Brother Duncan gets a little bit more acclimated that I might be able to spend some Thursdays up there and kind of spend some more time with them because they're the red-headed stepchild of our family, okay? So like I pretty much neglect them way more than anybody and I've been giving you guys the special treatment a little bit so eventually I'll kind of have to, you know, you're like the Rachel and they're kind of the Leah so you're beautiful and well favored and she's like tender-eyed so but you know we'll give her a little bit of attention here, God-willing to the later portion of the fall so but I am definitely going to finish through the Esther series more on Esther chapter two tonight and just to get a couple church reminders still children aren't allowed on the stage at any time, children shouldn't be running in the church, please take children that are being a distraction out of the sanctuary and then in the mother-baby room the children should be with their mother at all times and that's for safety and every other reason you could imagine. That's pretty much all I do have for announcements, we're going to go ahead and go to our third song for 147 in our hymnal, 147. And that's 147 leaning on the everlasting arms, all together. What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms, what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms, leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms, leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms, oh how sweet to walk in this built-in way, leaning on the everlasting arms, oh how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms, leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms, leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms, what have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms, I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms, leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms, leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Amen. Good singing. Let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles while the offering plates are being passed around. Take out your Bible, we're going to be in Esther chapter number two. Esther chapter number two, the Bible reads, 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. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins and sought for the king. 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 Hegi the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women. Let their things for purification be given them, and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti, and the thing pleased the king, and he did so. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jeir, the son of Shemiai, the son of Keshe Benjamin, who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity, which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadazah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegi, that Esther was brought also unto the king's house, to the custody of Hegi, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him, and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens which were meet to be given her, out of the king's house. And he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it. 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 in 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 purification accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women. Then thus came every maiden unto the king, whatsoever she desired was 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 into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shiasgaz, 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 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 he guided the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus, and to his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, and the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour 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. Then the king made a great feast unto 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, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people, as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Big Than and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king of Asherah. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen, and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when 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. So we've been looking at Esther and the previous chapter. We talked about a lot of different things, and I kind of brought up some of the typology that you find in Esther, and that's one of the fascinating things to me about the book of Esther, is what I would consider the spiritual typology, where you have certain characters in the book of Esther picturing spiritual truths about other people. And in chapter number one, we have the story about King Ahasuerus has a great feast, and he asks his wife Vashti to come, and he wants to present her before his friends, before the other chief princes and rulers. And Vashti ended up refusing, and because of her refusal, his princes and elders, the wise men and the servants of the king, suggested that she be put away. Vashti has done this wicked rebellion, not just against her husband, but really as an example to all women, and how it would cause all women to rebel against their husbands. And that's just the layer of truth and the history that we have in the Bible, but beyond that, it kind of pictures some foreshadowing of how God, the Father, is kind of pictured through King Ahasuerus as being a king of the entire earth, just like King Ahasuerus is kind of reigning over all the nations. And Vashti is a woman that's chosen out of all of the women of the land to be his wife, kind of like how Israel was a chosen nation out of all the nations to be a nation unto God. And so Vashti pictures Israel, King Ahasuerus pictures God the Father, and Israel's rebellion against the Lord is the foreshadowing, and really, it's kind of a both, it's a two-parter, because really, Esther's so late in the Bible that we already had the rebellion of Israel. So we kind of like see the same parallel there, but then we also kind of still have the future rebellion of Israel in the sense that they're going to reject the Lord Jesus Christ. They weren't really that chosen nation and how they're going to end up being put away with. And the book of Esther, like a lot of books in the Bible, kind of brings people from the past all the way back into the future again. So while a lot of this is kind of technically even past, as we get further in the book of Esther, it's going to start getting into more prophecy and more future things that were going to happen from this current timeline. And so if Israel's been discarded, if Vashti has been discarded, there's a great idea. What about replacing them? What about replacing Vashti? And we see that's kind of the starting point we have here in chapter number two, it says in verse 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. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, let there be fair young virgins sought for the king, 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, under the custody of Hegi, the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women, and let their things for purification be given them, and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti, and the thing pleased the king, and he did so. So in the first three verses here, we have this idea or this suggestion of, well, now that you don't have a queen, now that she's kind of been discarded and put away, why don't we just go ahead and just find all the most beautiful women in the entire earth and have them purify themselves and present them to you, king, and then you just pick out the one that you like the most, and he's like, I like this idea. You know, what king doesn't like the idea of truly them going out and trying to find the most beautiful, the most well-educated, the purest virgins to be his next wife? Of course, he loves this idea. He's excited. He gets behind this idea, and, you know, I think from any guy's perspective, obviously it's not right to divorce your spouse and marry another one, but just simply put, like every guy would want a virgin that's beautiful to be sought out in the land, to be presented for him, to be his wife. That is kind of, you know, the picture of what a man would want, and here King Azeris makes this idea, and they're going to go and find these young women, but as I've said, there's a lot of spiritual typology in this book, right? So if King Azeris is God the Father, what does this kind of picture? Well, what it pictures is how the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is really what caused Vashti to be put away in the sense that that's what caused Israel to be put away for the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the final straw that broke the camel's back, and what happened immediately after the gospel is that people went out preaching the gospel, and God wanted the gospel to go out into all nations, and so kind of similar in this story is we have these men going out and going to all nations and to seeking and trying to find these virgins, as it were. Now, the virgins are going to kind of represent, you know, a couple things. They kind of represent the nations as a whole, and they kind of represent in general Christians in the sense that they're going out and seeking and trying to find the elect and trying to find those that are truly saved. Now, in the goal, in the quest of finding these women, not everyone is going to end up being chosen, okay? Only some are going to be chosen. And that kind of pictures the same with the gospel in the sense that we go out and we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we don't know who's God's elect. We don't know who's the quote-unquote chosen, and really we won't find out until they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and they call upon his name, and then we realize, oh, wow, this was a chosen person. And it's not that they were forced into that religion. We understand that they were chosen before the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God is what the Bible says. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God is how the Bible describes this in the sense that only God knows who's elect. And this is where Calvinists get really confusing in their language is because they try to play all these word games and mind games and try to suggest that we have no say on whether or not we're going to get saved or not. But this is not true in the Bible. The Bible makes it clear that we all have free will, says this over and over. And there's this word in your Bible you find a lot, it's called if, meaning it's conditional. That's a conditional word. If you've ever done computer programming, if's an important word because it's a decision. It's like if so and so is true, right? And when it comes to the Bible, if is a big word. And the Bible makes it clear that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved. If you don't, you're not saved. Now, when we present the gospel to someone, we don't necessarily know for sure whether they are going to believe that or not, right? And so it's our goal to go out and just present the gospel to everyone that we possibly can, give them as many chances as they possibly can. And after this first and second ammunition, a man that is an heretic, we would reject them, okay? But before we get to that point, we're presenting the gospel to everyone. We go out and we present them and we're trying to draw them in. And similarly, the Bible describes people who are saved as virgins in the Bible. Now, keep your finger here and we're going to be coming back. We'll go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 11. 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. You know, there's other places I'm not going to go to that are pretty popular or would maybe come to memory if you think about virgins. But the Bible talks about in Matthew 25, there's like 10 virgins. And there's like the five wise virgins and there's the five foolish virgins. And the wise virgins have oil in their lamp and the foolish ones just, they don't really care. They're just partying and having fun and wait until the last minute to go and try and buy some oil. But the problem is that you can't believe in Jesus after he returns and gets saved. You know, it's like that's not faith. You know, we're saved by faith. We're not saved by sight. And so when Christ returns in the clouds, you know, there's this dumb idea that somehow all of Israel is going to believe in him and get saved. But that wouldn't even be faith. How could you say, how could you have a doctrine that salvation is by faith and you get saved by faith but you believe that there's a bunch of Jews, Christ-rejecting Jews that are going to get saved when they see Jesus in the clouds? That's not faith anymore, that's sight. You know what they believe? Typically, people associate that with repenting of your sins because if they see Christ in the clouds and they're like, oh man, I guess I need to repent of all my sins and now I'll believe in him or whatever. But repenting of your sins doesn't save you. It's not like anybody was saved by repenting of their sins. You can't be saved by repenting of your sins, you're saved by believing in Jesus Christ. And that faith is what saves you. And at the moment that Christ returns, now that door's been shut. Now that door's been closed, you know, everybody in hell believes in Jesus. But here's the problem, it's too late. You know, the Bible talks about people in Proverbs chapter number one, calling upon the name of the Lord and he won't answer them. He's not going to hear their cry anymore. Why? Because it's too late. You don't think that the people in hell aren't crying out and asking for salvation. I mean think about the story of Lazarus, the poor beggar and the rich man in the book of Luke, the rich man is crying unto Abraham and saying, Father Abraham have mercy on me. I mean isn't that, when we think about salvation, isn't that kind of, it's a cry, a call for mercy, a call of hell, but those cries will be unanswered. And it's sad to think about and that's why it's important for us to go out and try to convince people to do it now before it's too late. God has chosen to elect those, to save those who believe, not those who decide afterwards, you know what, I don't like the flames of hell and I'm going to decide to believe in him now. That's not what God decided or ordained to save. He's going to save those of us that decide now to believe in him, those of us that are humble now, those of us that put faith in him now, those that are willing to trust in the Lord that we've never even seen, that's who he's going to save. And of course, there was a small remnant that got to believe in Jesus and see him in the flesh. We know that Jesus had his earthly ministry, but I almost think if you're honest with yourself, it would have been harder to believe in Jesus in the physical reality than what we have to do just in the simple fact that he looked like a normal dude. So just convincing you like a normal dude is God in the flesh, you know, obviously did miracles but I'm just saying if you just saw a random dude standing in a crowd and it's like this is the God of the universe, like that's harder probably to believe than just Jesus in heaven that we just can't quite see and we're just putting our faith in the scriptures, right? But of course, obviously when you spent time with Jesus and you saw the miracles and you heard him preach the Bible yourself, yeah, that would have been pretty compelling. I'm sure he was the greatest soul winner, okay, I get that. But at the same time, you know, there is a point when it's too late and for those foolish virgins who decided not to believe in Jesus, when they come back later, they didn't have the Holy Spirit because they didn't get saved, you know what, they can't buy it, they can't get it and Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew you, you know, he doesn't let them in the door. They knock at the door and he's like, I know you not went to the yard, you know, I'm sorry, see you later. So not every virgin gets picked, not every virgin is selected. But those that are Christ's disciples, those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are the children of God, those who believe in him, the Bible kind of paints this picture of us being like a virgin and how the apostle Paul talks to the church, which is, you know, those who are saved, is he wants us to be a pure virgin all the way up until the wedding day, quote unquote. And, you know, our wedding day is kind of symbolized in Christ coming from the clouds, not the rapture, but, you know, a later event after the battle of Armageddon, Christ is coming down and we have the marriage supper of the lamb in the sense that all of the birds eat the flesh of all the wicked people and then Christ is just immediately setting up his kingdom and we're going to have like a great party or feast with the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, all together, all unified, all the enemies have been defeated. I mean, that's going to be a pretty great day. If you think about it, you're not going to really want to feast at the rapture timing exactly because the rapture timing is when you're unleashing, like God's unleashing his wrath. And like some of his wrath is so horrifying that even all of heaven is silent for half an hour in some moments, right? It's kind of like, I remember, you know, when I used to watch a lot of TV, okay, when I used to watch a lot of TV, we would sometimes do it while we're eating, but there was TV shows we would watch that it was like, you didn't really want to watch it. And it would be like a, it would be like a, a show, there's a show called house. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? It's like a medical show, but in this show they would always have these like gruesome scenes where it's like something gross or someone has some disease or they're like growing up or something like that. And it's like, you don't really want to eat, you know, obviously people eat popcorn and watch anything, but I'm just saying like, you don't really want to have like a nice meal and you're just watching all these gruesome things happening or whatever. Like it's kind of nice that we get to, you know, watch all that and then we're going to have like some kind of a, you know, marriage feast with the Lord or with the Lord or excited. And it's a lot of fun at that point in time. But leading up to that, there's this symbolism of us kind of being this virgin and going through a process of what the Bible describes as sanctification. Now I'm getting a little ahead of myself in the chapter, we'll go back and read it in a minute, but as you read chapter two, you see that these virgins are supposed to go through a really lengthy process of going through these ointments and these oils and purifying themselves. I mean for like 12 months, you know, for a long period of time, they're cleaning themselves up, preparing themselves. I mean can you imagine, think about the story, it's like this guy is not only getting the most beautiful women of all the land, then they're going through like a 12 month process of like become the top shape you could possibly be in, like the most physically fit, the most attractive, the best smelling, your hair is just perfect, just like everything, like everything about her is just like, you know, it's like you're training for a marathon or something, you're training for this event of your life and the event of your life is to be the most presentable woman on the planet. I mean it kind of gives imagery of like a beauty pageant or something. You know, like women will, you know, basically do all kinds of things to prepare themselves for a special beauty pageant or some kind of event where they then show them, you know, they present themselves in their best garments and they sing a song and they, you know, perform some kind of a talent and they give a speech about world peace or whatever, you know. It's like that's the beauty pageant as it were, right? And that's kind of how we have this picture of Esther which she's going to be going through and these other young virgins forking a hazardous and, you know, obviously our world taints and perverts things and makes them, you know, kind of sensual but there's technically nothing wrong with this concept, right? There's nothing wrong with a woman preparing herself for marriage or a young man preparing himself for marriage or trying to strive to be the best version of themselves for their wedding day or whatever the kind of event. And so, you know, we have pure minds like the Bible tells us, under the pure all things are pure, there's nothing really wrong about this and ultimately it kind of pictures the Christian life. Look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 1, would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So the Apostle Paul is saying, you guys are like virgins and there's coming a day when I'm going to have to present you to the Lord Jesus Christ and I want you to be a chaste virgin, okay? Not just a virgin, a chaste virgin. Now what's chaste? Well, if you add the word in to the word chaste, it becomes real obvious what we're talking about because what if we said chaste in? What are we talking about? We're talking about someone that's being punished, right? If you're chastening your son, the Lord chasteneth, you know, us. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son in whom he receiveth. So a loving parent chastens their children, God loves us and chastens us. So if we drop the N, we're not really talking about the action, we're not talking about doing the chastening. If we say someone is chaste, what are we saying? They're disciplined. We're saying that they're well behaved. So we want to present to ourselves, we want to present to the Lord Jesus Christ someone that's an obedient virgin as it were, right? And again, the virginity in this context is not necessarily about physical virginity but rather it's more about purity in the sense that God wants an obedient, pure people to be presented unto him at his return. He doesn't want a bunch of rebellious people or people that aren't, you know, pure to be presented before him. And of course, that purity comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. We get our righteousness and our purity from his shed blood, from his act. But then beyond that, we still have a form of righteousness that's our own that is our daily life. You know, God wants us to sanctify ourselves. And sometimes people get confused about sanctification. Sanctification in the Bible is two part. Now, go if you would to 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4, 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4. In one context, sanctification is an immediate event at salvation because to sanctify means to be set apart, to be made holy. That's what's sanctify. Sanctify, set apart, be separate, holy, these are all synonyms. They're describing the same event, the same kind of process, okay? The moment you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been made holy. You've been sanctified. You've been set apart, okay? All of those things happen immediately in your spirit, in your new man. You have been made new. Behold, all things are become new, okay? So that's one aspect of sanctification. But there's another aspect of sanctification that goes beyond just your immediate salvation and that is the daily process of trying to sanctify yourself to be pleasing unto God. This is where repenting of your sins actually comes into play. Repenting of your sins has nothing to do with that first act of sanctification because you can't do that. But the second layer, because we have the flesh, we're supposed to constantly crucify the flesh daily. We're supposed to constantly try to clean ourselves up. We're supposed to draw near on the Lord. We're supposed to be holy as your Father which is in heaven is holy and this is the process of sanctification. So, of course, because the Bible does teach a process of sanctification, that's where a lot of false teachers and false prophets come into play and they start teaching works based salvation and they'll point to verses that bring up sanctification. And they'll say, oh yeah, our salvation is a process and going to heaven is a process. That's not true at all. Going to heaven was a one-time moment of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, period. But then the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to strive and have daily effort towards being holy, sanctifying ourselves, purifying ourselves, drawing closer to Him. And look in 1 Thessalonians 4, it's going to bring up this sanctification process. Verse 1, furthermore, then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so you would abound more and more, for you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. Now, the word even in your Bible, if you just always replace it in your mind with the word specifically, it'll help you understand that word, okay? Because the word even, it's like it means nothing to me somehow. Maybe it's just me. But like who else feels weird when you read the word even? Anybody? You're like confused by it? But if you just immediately change it in your mind to think of the word specifically, it helps you understand that word better, right? So when it says even our sanctification, or your sanctification, what does that say? Specifically your sanctification. So he's saying, what is God's will specifically about your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication? So that means what? God wants us to completely and utterly abstain from fornication. Now, what could be a more clear sin to talk about when we're bringing up this virginity process of Esther and presenting her? I mean, what could be the worst thing that Esther and these other ladies could do in preparation of meeting the king would be committing fornication? Because that would totally nullify the fact that they're even a virgin. And it would totally ruin the whole purpose of even gathering these women because the only reason they're even gathering them is because they are a virgin. And so what's going to ruin that is by committing fornication. Now, if we take this to the spiritual perspective and our modern perspective, you know, God wants us as godly Christians to completely abstain from fornication and not ruin our testimony, not ruin our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, not ruin his anticipation. You know, the Lord would like to receive us and us to have not committed fornication, not to have committed wicked sins, and for him to just be able to receive us as a pure chaste virgin, okay? And the same goes with, you know, Esther goes with us and the fact that God is displeased when we commit these type of sins. You know, as a young man, as a young woman, you have to realize that not only will your spouse, your future spouse, be disappointed that you're not a virgin on your wedding night, God is very angry at those who commit fornication. You know, it's an evil sin, it's a wicked sin, and I think the reason why the Bible brings up this sin a lot, and I'm telling you, that sin, this sin is a lot in the Bible, is because it's so easy. It's so easy and it's so tempting. I mean, if there was a sin out there that's tempting, it's fornication. While some sins are also very easy to want to succumb to, you know, drugs and alcohol, drinking alcohol can be pretty easy, can be pretty tempting. Doing drugs, you know, maybe not necessarily hard drugs at first, but, you know, smoking pot or doing things like that are pretty easy for young people. You know, the thing about alcohol and drugs, though, is you almost have no internal desire to commit those sins until after you've committed those sins, in the sense that, like, someone that's never drank alcohol isn't just sitting here just like, man, I'm just craving some Jack Daniels, you know, like, man, I just need some rum, you know, man, I just want a beer so bad. In fact, most of their interactions have been going to a bar or a baseball game or something where they smelled alcohol and they were like, why do people drink that? Like, that is gross, you know. Like, or even if they just smelled, like, they just kind of smelled a little bit, they're like, oh, that's weird, you know, that's kind of gross. It kind of takes people, like, drinking alcohol for a while or doing drugs for a while to then get to the point where their body actually craves it. And of course, you can get there. I mean, you can get to a point where your body's just like, I want alcohol or I want drugs or whatever. But what I'm saying is that just naturally speaking, someone that's never, you know, I've never had a moment where I'm just like, LSD, oh, man, I just need some drugs, man. Why? Because I've never done hard drugs, okay? So I have no desire. I've never smoked pot. So I have no desire to smoke pot. But I guarantee if I had smoked pot, there might be, like, a physical reaction in my body to do that. But here's the thing. Someone that's never, someone's a virgin, 100% virgin, your body inside will still desire that act even though you've never done it. That's why it's way different. It's really, if you were going to try and equivalent it to something, I always equivalent it to eating in the sense that even if you've never eaten food, you, like, have a desire to eat food before you've ever tried it. Like, my little baby, Ellie, she has not really had any food, but, like, she's so interested in food. Because we try to, we try to, like, breastfeed them exclusively until they're about 12 months and you can almost never make it. But you know, at the end of the day, like, even this six months and stuff where we're for sure not feeding her, I mean, anytime we get food out, she's just like, you know, what are you doing? Looks pretty good. You know, maybe I should try that. Like, she just is really interested, she's really in tune, she's always watching, she's kind of paying attention to what's going on. And you can just tell, like, inside of her, she knows she wants that, there's something that's saying that she would like that, and there's nothing wrong either with her having food, right? And it's proper timing and it's proper place, okay? And the same is with that desire inside men and women. You know, there's nothing wrong with desiring the opposite sex. There's nothing wrong with desiring marriage. There's nothing wrong with desiring what, you know, the benefits of marriage. But of course, we want that in the proper timing and its proper role. And because just all of your, you know, hormones and all the things inside of your body that are going to be screaming, I want that, it makes that sense so easy. It's so tempting. People just don't get it, you know, they don't realize how, you know, you just can't put yourself in the wrong situation or you're going to commit fornication. It's an important thing that we teach our children, and here's my philosophy. And of course, I've never raised teenagers, but I was a teenager, okay? I've seen a lot of teenagers raised, I'm not stupid, and I've read the Bible that you have to have the brains for your teenagers, okay? As a parent, if you don't want them to commit these sins, you have to be smart for them because they aren't smart enough. They don't have enough self-control, they don't have enough willpower, you know, if you put someone that's on a diet in a room filled with candy, you know, you're just, you know, in shakes and milkshakes and all the food, a buffet, no cameras, and just say, we're going to leave here for a couple of days, just don't eat anything. It's just like, you're just being stupid. I mean, you're just being foolish, you know, it just doesn't make any sense. I mean, imagine you'd put your five-year-old in their room, you put a gum machine and a rack of cookies, freshly made cookies, and a soda machine, and you said, mom and dad aren't going to come here and check on you, don't eat any of it. I'm sure all your five-year-old children would just perfectly obey, never touch it, never even think about it, right? I mean, that is just as foolish as putting, you know, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20-year-olds in a house, in a room, in an apartment, by themselves, with the opposite gender, with their boyfriend, with their girlfriend, and just saying, play checkers, buddy, have a Bible study. You know, you're just, you're really just lying to yourself at that point in time. And again, I'm saying this because it's wrong, and we shouldn't just go ahead and just be like, you know what, I don't think anybody's doing anything bad in our church. You know, the teenagers in our church, they know the Bible. Look, I don't care if you could quote the entire Bible. If you put a young man that likes a young woman together alone, I know what's going to happen. You know, there's a reason why Joseph had to literally sprint out of the building when Potiphar's wife grabbed him, you know, by the shirt, because the Bible says to flee fornication. And, you know, I preach hard on this, but, you know, it's real. And we need to believe it's real, and we need to believe it's important, and you know what, God killed people for fornication. And here's the thing that people just don't get about it, is they think like, oh, what's the big deal? We love each other. It's because typically people that commit fornication don't end up together. A lot of times they don't end up together. And there's a lot of other consequences, too. I mean, first of all, it's a sin against God. Secondly, you may not even end up staying with the person. You know, after, you know, Tamar is defiled by her brother Amnon, he hated her. He said he hated her more than he loved her before they committed fornication. And you know what's interesting about that story, about Tamar and Amnon? Is the Bible, the narrator, says that Amnon loved her. Okay? So, you know, just because you love them theoretically in some way, does not mean that it's okay. Does not justify it, does not mean it's right. And a lot of times when you do things the wrong way, it has bad consequences. You know, you may lie with the person, and then for whatever reason it causes you to despise them in your eyes, or not look at them as having the same value. And then these people don't get married, then they're defiled, then there's all these other problems, then the next person you try to date, it's going to be downhill, it's going to be lower grade. I mean, think about it from Esther's perspective. Obviously, we like to think like, okay, Esther's the prize, King Ahasuerus is, you know, the lucky one here. But really, from a lady's perspective, isn't marrying the king kind of like her best option in a sense? So, like, if she ended up committing fornication, and now King Ahasuerus is taken off the table, isn't she going to end up being with someone a little bit lower grade, a little bit lower of value? You know, there's some people that have high standards and they say, I will only marry a virgin. And so by you committing fornication, you're literally taking yourself out of that person's league, out of that person's opportunity to potentially want to date you or marry you. And so you're basically just constantly lowering your value, putting yourself on a lower rung, less people are going to be interested. That's why you should just completely abstain. And I'll say this, young ladies, if a guy is not willing to wait to marry you, he wasn't going to marry you. That's what you have to realize. I don't think that ladies realize this, but it's like, if you say no and he breaks up with you, he was not going to marry you. And then, of course, if you had known that up front, you wouldn't want to be with the guy anyways. That's why it's so important for ladies to realize they should just say no, not put themselves in that situation, not go down that road, not put themselves in a compromising situation. Because there's a lot of scumbags out there. I'll just be honest. Dudes are jerks. Dudes, you know, they date women for bad intentions, bad reasons, and when you go ahead and shut down the bad intentions, you know, it really helps you find the right kind of guy or the kind of guy that would be worth marrying and settling and being with. And of course, why would a young lady want to be with a guy that is so quick to sin against her? I mean, the most heartbreaking thing is to get married to some young man and then he goes out and commits adultery. And it's like, if the guy's going to commit fornication just so willy-nilly, so easy, who's to say that the guy won't commit adultery later in life or do something even worse? And now you're even in a even further bad situation. That's why it's always important to stay virgin, stay pure, you know, try to make sure that you're sanctifying yourself, and as parents, realizing your children, they can't always do everything for themselves. You know, I think that we all get it, like, how cruel would it be if you said, you know what, after my kids turn three, they have to make their dinner. I'm done feeding them, you know, I'm done making meals for them. In fact, I'm just done providing for them. They have to pay rent. You know, that would be silly. A three-year-old couldn't do that, okay? And I just don't remember in the Bible where there was a story where it was like, you know what, once they turn 17, they don't need any more parental boundaries in their life. Like, they're good. They don't need the parents to tell them no anymore. They don't need their parents to keep them locked into their house anymore. Just let them run wild. Just let them go and do whatever they want. Oh, 18? Yep, you're an adult. Go do whatever you want, no matter what. You're mature now. I've never met a mature 18-year-old dude. They're all immature. I mean, the insurance on cars doesn't actually go down until a dude's 25. Now, I'm not saying that I want my sons to live with me until they're like 30 or something like that, okay? I'm not saying that necessarily. What I am saying is I do not trust any 18-year-old boy. I'm not saying, like, your kids. I'm saying everyone's kids. I'm saying my kids. And I'm saying we ought to be careful with our children. We ought to make sure that we're still their brains for them when they don't think with their brain. They think with a lot of their hormones and a lot of other things that are going on. And even with King Ahasuerus, these virgins that have been collected, they have a keeper of the war. They have Hegi. And I want to read a little bit more of this story because I've been getting so far ahead of myself. I want to kind of catch back up. But it says in verse number five, now, in Shushan the palace, there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jer, the son of Shemiai, 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, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away. 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, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together under Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegi, that Esther was brought also under the king's house to the custody of Hegi, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him, and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things that belonged to her and seven maidens, which were meat to be given her, out of the king's house, and he preferred her and her maidens under the best place of the house of the women." So this particular guy, Hegi, is kind of like over this process, or he's over the ladies. But think about it another way, he's kind of like a gatekeeper. He's kind of protecting these women, and he's providing for these women. And you know, Hegi, in my opinion, is kind of a picture of a lot of things. He can picture, maybe a pastor, in the sense that a pastor is supposed to kind of guard and protect his flock and keep them in line. But another one would just be a father, a father figure, and one that's protecting his daughter, keeping her pure, providing for her. It's not like she has to go out and make money, she doesn't have to go out and get her food. He's providing everything she needs. Hey, you need seven maidens? You got it. You know, whatever it is that you need, you know, we're going to get you prepared, we're going to get you set up. And really, what's the point in which Esther does not have a chaperone when she gets married? If you study the Bible correctly on this subject, she goes from Mordecai to Hegi to Ahasuerus. But at no point is she just a single lady at some capitao, at some sorority somewhere, and she's the sorority leader, and she's just women going her own way and making her own rules and doing her own thing. You know what? The Bible teaches that women should go from a man's hand to a man's hand. I mean, it does not teach this women going out and doing their own thing and leading themselves and being in charge. I mean, when women started being in charge, that's when sin entered into the world. Ever met Adam and Eve? Who was running that show? Who was running that train? You know, she started being the provider. Think about this. Adam wasn't feeding her, she was feeding him. That's where everything gets messed up and everything gets, you know, construed. I mean, what if Adam had stuffed his wife so full of apples or whatever, bananas or oranges, that she wasn't even hungry? And maybe the fruit on the tree in the midst of the garden wouldn't have been that appetizing, right? Because to the full soul, he loathed the honeycomb, you know, like, but to the hungry is every bitter thing sweet, right? To the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. So it's like she's starving over here because her husband's not, you know, feeding her, not taking care of her. And the same goes with a lot of situations. You know, you want to talk about women that are whores, often they have a bad father. Even their dad was not present in their life. Their dad's not giving them attention. Their dad's not giving them affection. And so because they're so starved for attention, they're so starved for a man to be in their life that they end up flaunting off their body. They go and seek men at all costs. And really, we as men, we as husbands, we as leaders as fathers, we need to make sure that we're satisfying and taking care of and providing for the women in our lives. And you know, I'll tell my daughter that she's beautiful every day of her life so that she doesn't need that from some other dude. She doesn't need some other man in her life to tell her those things. You know, I'll be the one to shower her with gifts. I'll be the one to provide for her. I'll be the one to fix all of her problems. So that she doesn't need some other man in her life to fix her problems, to help her do their things. She can just rely on good old dad. And she can rely on dad to keep her in until Prince Charming is ready for her, okay? And of course, you know, I'm all for making my daughter be a great present unto some guy, you know? Hey, let's purify her and let's get her chase. And let's make sure that she's going to be a great blessing and a gift unto some young man. But at the same time, you know, I'm not going to just let her figure those things out on her own. I'm not going to let her go and try and find her own maidens and try to go and do her own thing. You know, like, I don't want my daughters to go work at McDonald's just so that I don't have to give her a couple extra hundred bucks or something like that. You know, McDonald's is gross anyways. You only eat it because nothing else is open, all right? And Whataburger's worse. Sorry if you like Whataburger. I don't know if it's worse or not. It's probably better quality. But it's just like, I mean, it doesn't taste good. You know, it's just like, if I'm going to make a bad decision, I might as well like it. You know, it's just like, okay. But at the same time, I don't want my daughters to go get some low-end job in the world and have to pay for themselves or something like that. I'd rather just provide for them, okay? That makes a lot more sense. And when it comes to God and us, you know, God is the one that's taking care of us. God doesn't want us to go and by wicked means or going outside of God's will trying to provide for ourselves, make money for ourselves, go in the world, you know, and say, well, you know, just working by the sweat of my brow is not good enough. I'm going to go ahead and steal a little bit of money on the side. I'm going to go ahead and charge some usury. I'm going to go ahead and set up a bank and start charging people usury and start making some money on my money. You know what I mean? Who's, who's, you know, what Jews with me? I'm just kidding. Do you know what I'm talking about? But I'm not going to go outside of God's boundaries to provide for myself. I'm going to stay within God's boundaries just like a young lady should stay within God's boundaries, not trying to go out and provide for herself and be this self-made woman and trying to do things that her husband isn't allowing her to do. And look, there's nothing wrong with a lady making money. I'm not saying that because obviously the Proverbs 31 woman is making money. She's selling merchandise and she's buying a vineyard and she's doing all kinds of things. You know, that's under the authority of her husband and that's under the approval of her husband. That's not her just going on her own, you know, trip and doing her own thing and just her own self-made woman and she's going to tell men what to do and everything like that. No, no, no. She's under the authority of her husband. And that's what the Bible teaches consistently. And that's how we should be is we should be under authority as God's people, we're under the Lord's authority under the Bible and we're trying to sanctify ourselves. Now what's cool about this story too though is, and I want you to think about Esther for a moment with Mordecai, and this is prior to, but Mordecai is technically not her father. He kind of like took her on as his own daughter even though she's not. And it makes me think of the word like adoption, okay? And if you go to Romans chapter number eight for a moment, we'll go to Romans chapter number eight. So we've kind of been introduced to a few characters here. There's another one in the Bible, Mordecai, and often in the story of Esther, Mordecai pictures someone and he pictures Jesus. So we have King Ahasuerus kind of picturing God the Father. We have Vashti picturing the rebellious physical Jews, physical Israel. We have Esther picturing spiritual Israel, picturing the Christians, and then we kind of have Mordecai often picturing Christ throughout the Bible. Sometimes these things swap a little bit, but just generally speaking these are kind of how I look at these typologies. And with Mordecai taking on Esther, he didn't have to do that, but he decided to do it out of the kind of his heart. She was orphaned, she had nothing, and then he brings her in as his own child. And that's kind of how Jesus is with us in the sense that we have nothing, we're essentially apart from God, we're orphaned in a sense, and really we have no hope except for Jesus deciding to want to adopt us and bring us into his family and to be his brother, right? But it says in Romans chapter number 8 in verse 15, we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. So you know the cool thing about God is he takes us in as his own children and we become spiritual children, we're adopted into God's family. Go to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter number 1, it's a little bit further right in your Bible, Galatians, Ephesians. As you're flipping I'll just read another verse. In Galatians 4, 5 the Bible says, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons, and because of your sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son in your hearts crying Abba Father. So just like Jesus is the son of God, we too get to share that and become children of God. I really like the way that Ephesians words this and look at verse number 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who blesses with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According he has chosen us and him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. So notice that we get the adoption by Jesus Christ and God the Father is adopting us unto himself through Jesus Christ, right? And so kind of in a picture here with Mordecai adopting Esther unto his own is kind of similar even though it's not exact to how we too are adopted into God's family and he takes us as own even though we weren't. And you know adoption in the Bible is a beautiful thing. I think in our modern world there's a lot of corrupted versions of adoption out there. I reject baby picking is what I refer to it. But the true spirit of adoption is taking a child that has nothing, is orphaned and bringing them in on as your own family member. That's a beautiful thing and that's kind of what we get. We have like in a sense no father or mother apart from God and God just brings us in as his own children and makes us his children and that's kind of similar here to Esther. Go back if you would to Esther and we'll kind of finish this chapter. But there's a lot of cool spiritual pictures that we can kind of draw out of this but ultimately it's all still picturing the same thing. We're talking about sanctification, we're talking about purification, it says in verse 10, Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it. Now, one thing that's interesting is she's a Jew but it's not outwardly manifested. And I think that's a great way to illustrate how she's a Christian because we're Jews on the inside but it's not outwardly manifested. And Romans chapter number two makes it clear he's not a Jew which is one outwardly but it's inwardly. That circumcision is not outward in the flesh but it's inward in the spirit. And so we're children of God inwardly even if you can't tell physically or on an outward appearance and for Esther here it's not necessarily evident that she's a Jew even though she is. And that's the same with God's people. God replaced Vashti with Esther in the sense that he replaced physical Israel with spiritual Israel and while from a physical perspective you can't tell, an inward perspective you can't. And inwardly they've been replaced. Let's get more in the replacement, verse 11, it says Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house to know what Esther did and what she'd become of her. Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to 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 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 into the second house of the women the custody of Shashgaz 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 in 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 Egei the king's chamberlain the keeper of the women appointed and Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month which is the month Tibeth in the seventh year of his reign and the 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. Now to pause for a moment you know some people are curious about like what's going on. I don't believe that the king is doing what you see in the stupid TV show The Bachelor where and then you know The Bachelor is like a wicked show it's also fake where they have at the end they have like a couple girls that they're all interested in and they have this like bedroom suite thing where they kind of go and they basically commit a bunch of fornication with all these women and then decide who they're going to be with and what would what would make a girl more excited to get married to know that he just slept with a bunch of other women just like a week ago or whatever. I mean that's disgusting and gross okay and that's really wicked. I can't say for sure that he didn't do that but from my reading of the text I don't think he was doing that. I think it was simply they're coming and presenting themselves to the king and then he's deciding which one he's going to pick and then he's going to end up marrying her and then they would be husband and wife and do those things. But one of the reasons why I kind of believe that is if you look at verse number 17 again says in the king loved Esther above all the women and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins. Now if in order for him to love all the virgins they would have to still be virgin right. But I believe that he was basically just you know they came and presented and then he's just like and then you know the next one is like and the next one and then finally got to Esther is like that's the one you know this is the one and he loved her more than all the what virgins not all the women he just defiled okay and the other ones don't end up becoming queen. They were just basically presented and he's just like nah yeah yeah whoa no it's like you know it just keeps going and then he's just like yes this one right. He finally picks her and it's really kind of a picture also of the sense that Esther is the Jew and she's picked and it's kind of like how God the Father and Jesus Christ are in the sense of like Matthew 7 how there's going to be a lot of people are going to come present themselves before the Lord but most of them many of them are going to be cast away and only one is going to be chosen and that's picture of how Christians are the only ones that are going to end up being with the Lord. The only ones that are going to make it into the marriage the only ones that are going to be picked and selected are those that have faith in Jesus Christ the saved the elect and the vast majority rejected and just like marriage is kind of just picking one and rejecting all others is the same how God in the sense that he's rejecting like the whole world and going to pick just Christians to save and inherit with him for all of eternity. You know it's a special honor it's a special privilege to be a Christian to be saved because you have to realize like 90 in my estimation 90 plus percent of all humanity is going to go to hell. You know and I would love for that number to be lower it's not like I want it to be that high but I'm just saying in all honesty it only seems about like at best case near about five percent of people are saved when you go out preach the gospel when you talk to people and that's in a country where Christianity is able to go out and be preached I mean there's other countries in other areas where it's probably way less you know like Japan or North Korea or maybe places like India because in India I think from a population perspective and we should look this up I'm just throwing out numbers I think it's only like one or two percent that's even Christian of their entire population and when you think about it of that one and two percent that's tons of Catholics that's tons of you know Presbyterians that's tons of all kinds of mixes of Christian so-called I mean think about in America there is like 50 million Baptists in America so-called but there isn't 50 million safe people in America I mean if there was 50 million safe people we would be meeting a lot more safe people when we go out and talk and then run into people and we just tons of people run into their Baptist not safe and when you get outside of the window of Baptist almost no one's safe when you first run into them yeah occasionally you'll run into a Pentecostal or a non-denominational or a Presbyterian and a Lutheran you're like really you're a Lutheran you believe it's like are you sure it's like you like why do you go to that church you know and they'll be like well I was raised Baptist and then I got married to a Lutheran I just kind of go and you're just like stop going there you know like so that's just weird because most people that aren't Baptists aren't even safe and what if there's about 350 million people in America so what would five percent of that even be ten percent would be 35 million okay so about seventeen and a half my math correct anybody can I get a witness I get a witness seventy about seventeen and a half million people in America would be saved by my estimation okay I mean that is way less than the 50 million that's it's a select group and then when you think about it of people that are saved how many people actually go to church and like you're serving the Lord and going and preaching the gospel I'm working we're getting lean narrower and narrower and narrow and it's like it's just you see Esther is like just the top pick of the litter why because not only she saved but she's also a chaste virgin she's also following God's commandments in a sense we also see that picture and you know that's what Jesus wants he doesn't want to be ashamed of us at his coming keep your finger I know it's been a little bit we're spending a little time but I want to go more places first John first John it's towards the end of your Bible and look at chapter number three you know Vashti was replaced for being rebellious and you know we believe in replacement theology in this church okay and you can look up in Matthew chapter number twenty one Jesus is constantly rebuking the children of Israel and saying that the nation was going to be taken from them and giving and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof that you know the fact that because Israel is not producing any fruit because they're not preaching the gospel because they're not even saved God's going to basically just reject them as a whole and completely replace them with a new nation which is a spiritual nation which is a chosen people Christians and those Christians are supposed to bring forth that fruit but if we decide to not bring forth fruit then God will get rid of us too and God will stop using us first John chapter number three I'm sorry it was chapter two but look at verse twenty eight and now little children of Biden him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before I'm at his coming that's that's an interesting verse because I think a lot of us were like man we're just so excited when Jesus comes back but for some Christians it's going to be embarrassing a little bit it's going to be kind of embarrassing like that they're just at home not at church you know wouldn't it be embarrassing if Jesus came back on a Sunday or Wednesday night and you're just at home doing nothing you're just backslidden wouldn't be embarrassing if you're a Christian and Jesus came back and you're at the bar if Jesus came back and you were stealing or lying or taking a nap on the job I mean you're at work just taking a nap and then Jesus is coming back and you're like oh hey he's like what have you been doing yeah you know whatever sleep by you know get some shut eye I was just closing my eyes for a minute you know it's like you don't want that to happen right it's just the same principle like when your parents come back home when they left you home alone for a little while and there's cookie crumbs everywhere you shouldn't have gotten in the cookies your room still a mess and you're just like oh no what do I do he's like run away you hide you know isn't that kind of the tendency you want to hide you're afraid they're like I'm home they're like you want to run you're kind of nervous about it it's like I don't want I don't want me and my church to feel that way like I want Jesus to be coming like you know praise the Lord he came back right I always say this and it's kind of a joke but it would be kind of funny like wouldn't the coolest be because they're gonna be beheading people right before Christ comes back but like you were the next guy on the chopping block and then Christ came so like you didn't even you didn't even actually have to get beheaded but you were like because don't you think that's gonna happen I mean there's gonna be somebody that was literally the next guy like they're about to be killed maybe it's not right in the moment but like you know maybe it was the next day or the next hour or whatever like there's somebody that's on the chopping block and they're like hauls they're sweating and then Jesus comes back I mean just think about how excited that guy's gonna be he's gonna just soar up into the sky and just be like or maybe he was hoping he got to be headed he's like I almost got it you know hey man that guy in front of me you know you're like you kind of got you you were in prison with each other and you're like you go ahead you know like you first you know and that one guy gets the beheaded crown and you just you're like oh man I was that close but obviously if you are gonna be beheaded for Christ you wouldn't be ashamed of Christ coming you would have been so excited it would have been the greatest thing ever you know and and of course for some people I mean that's kind of like some of the stories you have in the Bible that's the Shadrach Meshach and Abednego thrown on fiery furnace and nothing hurt them you know imagine I mean the the guillotine just it's like racing down and then just raptured it's just like oh they missed him you know you're like sweet you know it doesn't hurt you know it doesn't kill you or whatever I mean that would just be the coolest thing ever or the guy with the guillotines about to do it and then the brightness of Jesus is blind he's just like you know you can't he just falls down and then he's like hide me you know or whatever but how do you get to that place you're a chaste virgin you're following God's commandments you're doing that I mean think about what Esther had to do physically she had to be completely separated from her family she had to go ahead and purify herself with all these ointments and all these oils and doing all these special activities and physical things you don't think that was some effort you don't think that was some energy you don't think that was some sacrifice you don't think that was something difficult that she had to do to separate herself and you know what sometimes God calls you to separate yourself to get away from those that you love to pour on the ointment I mean what is the ointment signifying in the Bible it's the Holy Spirit you know you getting alone with the Bible getting alone with the Word of God and sanctifying yourself and purifying yourself and getting ready for the task that the Lord Jesus Christ has called you to and you know what Esther is a special woman in the Bible that's going to be used greatly by God to end up delivering all of our other people and you know what if a man of God if a woman of God would just sanctify themselves and separate themselves and allow the Holy Spirit to fill them then God could use them a mighty way to save other Christians to pull other people from the fire be greatly used by God and you know what it doesn't happen by accident no one just wins a marathon without practicing nobody gets to win the Super Bowl without trying you know the top athletes it's their life they put hours and effort and energy and their diet and their sleep and their hat I mean just everything is just about winning and about achieving that goal and you know would the God we'd have spiritual athlete Giants you know we would have a spiritual Michael Jordan we would have a spiritual Wayne Gretzky we would have a spiritual Tiger Woods you know we'd have a spiritual and I like this Vijay Singh okay and in golf this guy he was a professional golfer but he was notorious he would practice for like 12 hours a day eight nine ten twelve hours a day I mean the guy would just go to the golf course and just pound balls and just practice play oh just all the time and he was a really good golfer you know these guys that are at the top they are just dedicated they make it their life everything they just eat and sleep and drink whatever sport whatever thing they do they're just always practicing always do and you know what if we had Christians doing that just eating and sleeping the Bible is dedicating their lives to the Word of God dedicated so you know God could use you in a mighty way I see the great men of God in the Bible being people that dedicated themselves Lord Jesus Christ the disciples left everything for three years apart I mean I don't know we don't know just as tradition is three and a half years right Jesus's ministry the disciples I mean it was several years for sure these disciples are leaving their whole family leaving their their father's business traveling on all kinds of places having no money they're not even getting I mean are they really getting paid I don't know they're basically just getting their basic needs met sacrificing everything being with the Lord Jesus Christ getting prepared for the most important journey ever in their life to go out and preach the gospel the whole world and you know what that's what we need people to do and dedicate themselves and to be like an Esther in the let's finish reading this and we'll kind of finish here the Bible says in Esther chapter 2 then the king made a great feast on all the 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 then Mordecai sat in the king's gate Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people as Mordecai had charged her for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai like as when she was brought up with him in those days while Mordecai sat in the king's gate two of the king's chamberlains big than and thresh of those which kept the door were wroth and sought to lay hand on the king a hazardous and the thing was known to Mordecai who told it on Esther the queen Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name and when Inquisition was made of the matter it was found out therefore they both they were both hanged on a tree and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king so Mordecai ends up delivering people and you know he's kind of a deliverer pictures of Jesus we also I think there's an interesting statement here in verse 20 for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai like as when she was brought up with him a lot of things can be said about this one honoring your father and mother even in marriage you know obviously once you get married it's not like your parents can't give you instruction or guidance that you could follow now of course obviously as a wife you're you're now under your husband's authority as opposed to your father's authority but at the same time you should still have honor respect your father and you should still do that which is right in their sight to the best of your ability another thing that we can look at is think about a Christian and when we went into the New Testament we kind of have the Old Testament right but a true Christian is still gonna obey the Old Testament law just like when they were in the Old Testament now yeah there was a few changes but think about it those changes are kind of like the marriage thing right instead of being technically under Mordecai she's now under a hazardous so instead of us being under the law we're under Christ okay but from the big picture perspective we're still not supposed to lie steal cheat metadultery yeah all these big things are still gonna do them the same as if we were under the law we realize there's been some fulfillment of that law and that's been done away in Christ just like she doesn't have to go to Mordecai's house she's now in hazardous house and everything we get that but generally speaking it's still the same and we have the same principles and you know as Christians we shouldn't get away from the law of God and just oh that's Old Testament I'm gonna start printing marks on my body I'm gonna go and drink beer because I'm free in Christ I you know I don't know if people think this but like I'm gonna commit fortication I'm under grace I have heard Calvinists teach that you know God wanted them to commit fortication or something nonsense you know no we we still follow the law like it's still a testament okay yeah we have some provisions that have been done away we eat bacon praise of God okay why we don't go to in and out we're not Zion we're not Zionist here okay but at the same time we want to make sure that we're sanctifying ourselves and we sanctify ourselves through the law we sanctify ourselves with keeping the commandments just like Esther was sanctified in this process to be prepared for Christ we too want to sanctify ourselves through the commandments to be prepared for Christ when he returns let's close in prayer thank Heavenly Father for the Word of God thank you for this story of Esther and her example and thank you so much for the mercy that you've given us and the the sacrifice that we got through your son the Lord Jesus Christ that he's willing to help us become adopted sons of God and he was willing to sacrifice himself and I pray that we wouldn't take that sacrifice lightly but rather we would continue in our sanctification after salvation that we'd see the importance of being chased and an obedient sons and daughters of God and that when we hear presented and the in the end times that we would be chased and that we would be acceptable and well pleasing in thy sight that we wouldn't be ashamed at the return of Christ but we would be in a symbolistic picture a chase virgin in Jesus name we pray amen so we're gonna sing before we sing our finals hymn song we're gonna sing happy birthday to Titus okay there he is all right all right we're gonna sing it together ready happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday God bless you happy birthday to you and it's a big cake so we're probably gonna have leftover Sunday so even more reason come to church on Sunday let's go to 48 song 48 I'll be so glad see all together song 48 I'll be so glad when day is done I'll be so glad when victories won there'll be no sorrow in God's tomorrow I'll be so glad when Jesus comes say one more time I'll be so glad when day is done I'll be so glad when victories won there'll be no sorrow in God's tomorrow I'll be so glad when Jesus comes amen we'll just bless the food really quick dear Lord we thank you for the food we have thank you for pastor for getting the cake for us and that's pretty blessed to our bodies as thank you personally Lord for my son Titus I was pretty blessed on his birthday we love you in Jesus name amen all right you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you 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