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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The hymnal on 159. Blessed be the name. You're on the first. All praise to him who reigns above in majesty supreme. Who gave his son for man to die that he might man redeem. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. His name above all names shall stand exalted more and more. At God the Father's own right and where angels adored. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Redeemer, saviour, friend of man once ruined by the fall. Thou hast defied salvation's plan but thou hast died for all. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. His name shall be the councilor, the mighty prince of peace. Of all earth's kingdoms conqueror whose reign shall never cease. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Very good singing. Brother Mohit, would you pray for us this evening please? Amen. Turn to 199 in our hymnals, Let the Joy Overflow. Song 199, Let the Joy Overflow. There's a clear fountain flowing from the bright throne above. And its waters are glowing with the sunshine of love. Take a blessed consolation which the Lord will bestow. Take the cup of salvation, let the joy overflow. Oh the joy, with this wondrous salvation be our hearts all adored. Oh the joy, let the blessing run over and joy overflow. Many hearts need the story or a thirst for his grace. Go to them with his glory shining out from your face. Tell of Jesus your Savior, if his mercies you know. Show the light of his favor, let the joy overflow. Oh the joy, with this wondrous salvation be our hearts all adored. Oh the joy, let the blessing run over and joy overflow. Be our lives really yielded to the Savior's command. By his care ever shielded and upheld by his hand. In the pathways of sadness sweet as lilies may grow. Let us sow seeds of gladness, let the joy overflow. Oh the joy, with this wondrous salvation be our hearts all adored. Oh the joy, let the blessing run over and joy overflow. Good singing. You're so happy you can just sing all those high notes, right? Thanks so much for coming to Steadfast, or I'm sorry, Pure Words Baptist Church. And if you need a bulletin, they're over here on the back cabinet. We have Proverbs chapter 24, verse number 10. We're working on on the inside we have our service and soul winning times. Is there any extra soul winning numbers that need to be counted for the past few days? Okay, keep up the good work on soul winning. Upcoming guest preaching. July 7th, Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful or Baptist Church is going to be coming out here and preaching for us. And so that's going to be a huge blessing. I'm not going to be here that evening, but just make sure to thank Pastor Anderson for being out here and coming down here. Also on the right we have the list of our expecting ladies. We have Ms. Rogers to continue to pray for. We have her men's conference, August 18th through the 20th. And then we have a couple other prayer requests. Please continue to pray for the Goodwin family up in the Dallas-Ford area. For the Edward, continue to pray for him. And then we're praying for Ms. Liberty's daughter-in-law, Mother Catherine. And then Brother Joel. We also have Old Fast Baptist Church, continue to pray for them. We've been just making the whole circle, right? All of our friends, thinking about them. Also a couple church reminders. Just make sure that your kids aren't running around in the church services or they're getting on the stage. And please keep them out of the other baby room areas unless you are there present with them. I do have one other announcement, and it's a good announcement. I haven't announced it publicly quite yet, but at Steadfast specifically last night, I made a lot of private announcements and I announced it then as well. But Brother Duncan Urbanic is going to be ordained as an evangelist on the 10th. And he's going to come down here and be an evangelist for George Baptist Church. They're actually going to move here and he and his family are going to be coming down here. And so he's going to be preaching regularly down here. It is going to be my goal to still come down here for Thursdays for a little while. I don't have an exact date, but definitely several weeks even beyond him coming down here and being an evangelist. So I'm still planning on coming down here for Thursdays for a while. But eventually the goal is that I'm going to kind of slowly phase out. I might kind of go to alternating weeks and try to go to Oklahoma City a lot. I kind of alternate Thursdays and then God willing, you know, things are going well. I might not come on Thursdays that often anymore and I might come on Sundays every once in a while. So I'll still be coming here about a six-week basis as a minimum, so even further down the road. That's what I kind of do with Oklahoma City. But the goal is that Brother Urbanic will be preaching here regularly and be able to provide a lot of leadership. He'll be in the area. He moved here. And so we're really looking forward to that. Brother Duncan's a really good guy. He does the song leading up for us up there at steadfast. He does a really good job at that. He's led soul winning times up there. And he preaches for us regularly. He's a good preacher and he's got a good family. And so I think it's going to be a great opportunity for him to be down here and to help lead the church while we're still, you know, God willing. Hopefully getting another pastor at some point. And, you know, that is the goal for viewers to be not having a split pastor. So I know you guys tolerate me and everything like that. But it would be better if you have somebody that's here present for every service and everything like that. And so that is still the goal. That is still the plan. And then we're working on that. And just as a kind of a midway solution, we're going to have Brother Urbanic down here. And he knows the Bible really well. He's read the Bible dozens of times, over a dozen times, I believe. And memorized a lot of scripture. And so I think he's going to be a great fit down here. Make sure to be very thankful to Brother Duncan. Once we get a little bit closer to the actual transition, I'll probably talk about it a little bit more. I just wanted to give you that announcement. So the 10th, he's going to be technically ordained up there. But we're going to give him another two weeks or so to kind of move down here. I believe his goal is to kind of move down here by July 20th. And then, you know, God willing, he'll be preaching here the Sunday services the 24th. So that is kind of on the horizon. And obviously, you know, Brother Nick Gomez is still coming here and helping. But we're going to try and transition a lot of his task to Brother Duncan and let him kind of take on a lot of that lead. It makes it even easier since he'll be here locally. Brother Nick's been traveling from afar and everything like that. But I'm really excited about it. It's been kind of a long time coming. I talked to a lot of different men about Brother Duncan. And they all had good things to say. And so I'm really looking forward to him being down here. But also since he's going to be an evangelist, you know, he can perform baptisms and things like that. So I'm really looking forward to this. And I think it's going to be a great transition for this church. We still have a lot of great plans and vision for this church. I'm still working on a documentary, King James Bible documentary. And this past Tuesday, this Tuesday, me and Brother Oz, we went to Washington, D.C. And they have a museum there called the Museum of the Bible. And it's kind of a famous museum. And I didn't know what to expect as far as what we would get out of it. But the thing that I did like is they have a lot of nice looking graphics. And they have a lot of artifacts that are on display. And so we got to take a lot of pictures and a lot of video of just some of the information they have. And I think it's going to help us make our timeline portion of the film look nice. So it's going to help it look good, which is a good thing. And so we're real excited about that. We've done some interviews and we've done some sermons and things like that. And I still have a few more things to do. I'm going to preach a sermon here specifically that will hopefully be a major part of the film. But we'll decide that in the post-editing, of course. However, it is our goal to work on this pretty diligently. Brother Ben has already started working on this. And we've done, I would say, 80% of our filming, if not 90%. So we're hopefully getting all of our filming done. And then it's going to be a pure words production we're going to make on the DVDs. And we'll have a nice, another film that we can hand out. As far as social media is concerned, I mean, I was thinking like, it would be nice to have a documentary that's like social media safe. But I'm just not social media safe. So it kind of like is a tough dichotomy there. But we're going to still try to distribute the film as much as we can and get it out there. And if we have to pay, we'll pay or whatever. But I'm looking forward to it. And I think it's going to be a great blessing. There was some history that I was reading. And it wasn't really a direct quote. I would like to see if I could find a quote. But it was about William Tyndale. And if you kind of, I'll give you kind of a sneak preview. I'm not preaching yet, but I'm preaching. This is just kind of cool. But when you study kind of the history of the Bible and the preservation and all the different steps that it went through, there's a period of history where it's called the Dark Ages. And essentially, it's approximated between about 400 AD to about 1400 AD. So it's roughly in that timeline. During that time, though, why it's really dark is because of the Bible itself, specifically, it's just not accessible to common man. And one of the pioneers of the English Bible and really trying to drag people out of the Dark Ages was William Tyndale. And Tyndale's goal was simply just to put the Bible into man's hand again so that faith could increase. And really, when you think about it, that is what the Bible teaches, that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And when I kind of look at our culture and I look at our society and I look at our world, the reason why faith seems to be dying is because they just simply don't even have a Bible to even put any faith in. And so, God willing, we could be influential in our culture to put the right Bible in people's hands to bring faith back and bring revival in this nation and get a lot of Christians fired up for the things of God. But it's just not going to happen if we don't have the right Bible. Why are all these other churches so dead? It's because they just don't have the right Bible in their hands. And so we need to get people on the right Bible and teach them why we use the King James Bible. So I'm really excited about this documentary film and what potential it could have. It's a really important topic, obviously, to me. It should be to every Christian, but I'm just saying, you know. Obviously, I named my church Pure Words Baptist Church for a reason. The Bible is the cornerstone of our faith. It's God, literally. And so, you know, it's really important work. And I'm really excited about this church. I'm really excited about its future. I'm excited about our projects that we're going to be having. And I'm really excited about Brother Duncan being here and being an evangelist. And so definitely a lot of things to be encouraged about when it comes to Pure Words Baptist Church. Plus, you don't have like 10,000 churches. So it's really nice that I don't have to worry about that problem down here. Let's go ahead and go to our third song for the evening. If you have any questions about any of those things, you can always ask me. 314, 314. More Love to Be, song 314. More Love to Be. More Love to Thee, O Christ. More Love to Thee. Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my life. This is my life. More Love to Thee, O Christ. This is my earnestly. More Love, O Christ, to Thee. More Love to Thee. More Love to Thee. One's earthly joy I crave. Sought peace and rest. Now be alone I seek. Give what is best. This all my prayer shall be. More Love, O Christ, to Thee. More Love to Thee. More Love to Thee. Let sorrow do its work. Sin, grief, and pain. Sweet are Thy messengers. Sweet their refrain. When they can sing with me. More Love, O Christ, to Thee. More Love to Thee. More Love to Thee. Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise. This be the parting cry my heart shall raise. This still its prayer shall be More Love, O Christ, to Thee. More Love to Thee. More Love to Thee. More Love to Thee. Very good singing. At this time, we'll turn in our Bibles to Esther, chapter one. We're starting a new Bible study. Pass the offering plate. Brother Jeffrey, you want to read for us Esther, chapter number one? Follow along as he reads the entire chapter. All right, so you're there in Esther, chapter one. The Bible reads in Esther, chapter one, verse one. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus. This is Ahasuerus, which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over 107 and 20 provinces. That in those days when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was Shushan, the palace, the third year of his reign, the king made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Medea, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom in the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even in 104 score days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace. Where were white, green, and blue hangings fasted with cords of fine linen and purple the silver rings and pillars of marble? The beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red and blue, and white and black and marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another, and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king. The drinking was according to the law. None did compel, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure. Also Vashti, the queen, made a feast for the women in the royal house which belongeth to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehumen, Bista, Harbana, Bitta, Abaca, Zether, and Carcass, the seven chamberlains, and served the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shoe the people and the princes of her beauty, for she was fair to look on. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore was the king very raw, and his anger burned in him. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, for so was the king's manner toward the all that knew the law and the judgment. And next unto him was Karshina, Shethar, Adama, Harshish, Marys, Marsena, and Mehumen, the seven princes of Persia and Medea, which saw the king's face in which sat in the first of the kingdom. What shall we do even unto the queen Vashti, according to the law, because she have not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains? The Mehumen answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen have not done wrong to the king only, but also to the princes and to all the people that are in the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, but they shall despise their husband in their eyes, when it shall be reported. The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Medea say this day unto all the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the law of the Persians and the Medes that it not be altered, that Vashti come no more before the king Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout his empire, for it is great, all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small. The saying please the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Mecuman. For he sent letters unto all the king's provinces, and to every province according to the written thereof, and to every people after their own language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people. Do you have a prayer? Men. So we're going through the book of Esther, and I'm really excited about this book because this book has just so much application when we get to the latter portions of our current world. And here's another thing that I really love about the book of Esther is that it's honestly one of the coolest books of the Bible when it comes to typology and symbolism, yet the book of Esther a lot of times is kind of attacked by some Christians or some theologians or seminaries or different institutions because they'll say oh well there's all this manuscript evidence for all these books, but it's lacking in the book of Esther. Who's heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls? I believe that if you study that, and you can look this up, but I think Esther might be the only book that they didn't find in the Dead Sea Scrolls or something like that, which of course we have the book of Esther in the 1600s, and the Dead Sea Scrolls weren't found until the 1900s or the late 1900s or a long time ago. Now even though they technically predate the King James Bible translation we understand that it's not like Esther gets its authority from the books of the Qumran. Qumran is the group, this cult, this weird group that you get the Dead Sea Scrolls or whatever from. So if God-fearing Holy Spirit-filled men of God thought that Esther was part of the canon way before even the Dead Sea Scrolls were even a thought of, then why would I then put shade on the book of Esther because the Dead Sea Scrolls didn't perhaps contain them or something else like that. That doesn't really matter to me. Here's another thing that's interesting. The name of God is not really mentioned in the book of Esther. So you don't really ever find a verse that will say God, Lord, God Almighty or anything like that, the tetragrammaton as it's referred to the name of God which is four letters, that is not necessarily found in the book of Esther. So some people have tried to say there's something wrong with Esther or it's bad or it's not biblical. Here's another thing that's shade, and I'm just giving you all the bad, all the shade on the book of Esther. They'll say, oh well the book of Esther, it's the only book that doesn't have any internal evidence. So a lot of books in the Bible will point to another book in the Bible, or they'll have a reference that kind of is brought out in another portion of Scripture. So you've got all kinds of different things where Jesus is validating the Old Testament, just quoting the Old Testament, or you're bringing up Moses, or you have all this different internal evidence as it were. And so people will say, oh Esther doesn't have anything like that. You don't see any other prophets bringing up Esther or talking about Esther or these kind of like what they would call internal evidences. So that's all the shade, and I've always heard these kind of things about the book of Esther. People get weirded about the book of Esther. I've heard things where people say Haman was the good guy and the Jews were the bad guy and Mordecai and Esther were bad. It's out there. It's weird stuff about the book of Esther. But I think after we're done studying this book, there will be zero doubt in your mind that it's the word of God. It's not even close. I mean the book of Esther is one of the most powerful books when it comes to the teachings of the Bible. And in fact, it's a really good end times book, end times prophecy book. And this is another thing that's interesting about the Bible as far as how it's structured or laid out is that it kind of has all these different chronologies that you're going through. You're following all these different history aspects. When you get to these books of the Bible that are kind of the later sections, they end up pointing more to end times Bible prophecy and a lot of these other futuristic things, which makes sense where we find them in the scripture. If you're going to think about end times prophecy, it probably wouldn't make sense that it's Genesis 2. We're just barely getting into the book of the Bible, so it doesn't make as much sense. And you understand the Old Testament kind of broken up into a few different parts, depending on kind of how you want to categorize it. I've heard it's broken up into five parts. But the first two are really closely similar because the first is considered the Torah or the first five books of Moses or the law, depending on what name you want to give it. But then you kind of have this next section is kind of like the history section. But really, the first five books is kind of history too, right? So it's kind of like a perfect history from Genesis all the way up to Esther. And that's kind of your first two. Then you have the third section, which is considered poetry. Then you have your fourth section, which is considered the major prophets. And then you have the final sections, which is considered the minor prophets. And what you have to realize about these books, within those sections, those five categories, they have a perfect chronology in the sense that the timeline of the events that are happening in those books are in perfect sequential order. But they have these five categories, so they kind of start over, right? So you start with Genesis, and then you get all the way to Esther. Well, as soon as you get to Job, now you're like completely going backwards in time. But you have kind of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. And that follows a similar chronology of events because you essentially have what? You have Job, then you have David, then you kind of roll into Solomon, and then that kind of ends, right? Then you have the major prophets, where it's Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. These also are following a chronology in the sense that Isaiah was before Jeremiah, and Jeremiah is before these other guys, and then you essentially kind of lead into Daniel. And then you finally get the last section of your minor prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Abba, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, they're kind of in a perfect little chronology. So you have these little sections of the Bible. So where do we find Esther? We find Esther as the final book in the history section. So it would make sense that if we're going to talk about end times, it's going to be a lot about the end times. And I'll say this, it is a huge end times book. Now not every chapter is. We kind of roll into that, but the book of Esther is a really incredible book when you study it and you really kind of think about it. And I'll say this, the book of Esther made no sense to me for the longest time. So like the majority of my Christian life, I didn't get Esther. I had heard all this shade and I kept thinking like, I don't know. And then just one day I was reading it and it was just like, it was just like everything clicked. And it was just like, wow. And the book just made perfect sense all of a sudden. And you know, it's really just, you know, the Holy Spirit will just somehow just sometimes just, you know, tune you into things and you just never really figure them out. And that's really just the testimony to the fact that you should continually read the Bible over and over because God will give you new truths out of things that you didn't understand before. Plenty of things I read in the Bible I don't understand and plenty of things I didn't understand in the past and then after reading it again, God gives you more understanding as you continue to read, you study more and you see things. And I think Esther is not a book that you could probably ever understand the first time reading. Like it's literally impossible to probably have understood it the first time because what's necessary to understand Esther is a lot of the foundations of the Bible. You have to understand a lot of the storyline already. You have to understand all the key players. You have to understand the Gospel. You have to understand end times Bible prophecy. So like until you've kind of gotten to a certain point in your understanding of Scripture, you've read the Bible quite a bit, and you've seen a lot of these elements, Esther couldn't even make sense to you anyways. So that's another cool thing about the Bible is some things in the Bible will never make sense until you get to that place in your life in that Christian walk. You know there's certain passages you read about tribulation or persecution. You're not going to get that day one of being a Christian. You get that after you've been Christian for 10 years, 15 years, and you've been burned by family members. You've had people get mad at you and you've had to go through difficulties and struggles and people getting mad at you. Just like when I was talking with Pastor Anderson about coming and starting this church and he was trying to prepare me to be a pastor and kind of talking about the future. And he's trying to tell me people are going to hate you and people are going to get mad at you and everything like that. And I said, nobody even cares who I am. I'm like, but you notice he's like this, they haven't learned to hate you yet. They haven't learned it yet. But he's like, but they will. And so yeah, it takes time and then eventually they hate you and then you start going through new phases and new aspects of the Bible. And so the Bible is just so deep and there's so much to our lives and there's so much to just understanding that it really takes a true lifetime to even scratch the surface of the potential of the Word of God. And there's a lot that we can learn from Esther. I'm going to try and do both a little bit this evening where I give you some of the on the surface aspects, but then I'm going to give you some of the typology as well. And as we get later into this book, it's going to become really cool, a lot of the symbolism that we're going to pick out of it. But look at verse number one. The Bible says, Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus. This is Ahasuerus which reigned from India, even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces. That in those days when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him. So we start out the story with a king, King Ahasuerus, and the Bible says that he's reigning from India all the way over to Ethiopia. So India is kind of the most eastern portion of the world and we understand where India is approximately. Ethiopia is kind of considered a more western aspect of the scope of mankind. It's down in what we consider Africa. It's kind of south and it's really west. And then you have like India being like super east. So he's encompassing just like a giant portion of land. Another thing you have to understand is that the world has not always looked like it does today. In the sense that if you looked at Texas, if you looked specifically at Houston, you look specifically at the Dallas War Theory, two hundred years ago there was actually like no one even living here. Like it was just trees and swamp and wilderness and whatever. I mean I remember I grew up in Keller and where I lived specifically in the Dallas War area, we lived in this little neighborhood and it was just trees everywhere, land everywhere, there was nothing. And now when you go back you can't find a tree anywhere. It's just a concrete jungle of all kinds of businesses and that was only twenty years ago or something like that. So another thing you have to understand is that throughout history not every continent not every square inch of the world was inhabited or people were living in these areas. So when we go all the way far back into history to this point in time, people haven't really migrated much beyond India and some of these portions of Africa. You know civilization is not over here on this part of the continent, this part of the world. There's not any of these things happening yet. People haven't really been pushed. I personally even believe in studying history it's most likely that no one even lived in North or South America until well after the gospel. That it was in fact the gospel that probably drove people to even enter into these continents. And of course there's a lot of science, false as it's called, which says people lived hundreds of thousands of years ago and all that other nonsense. But I reject all of that. But when it talks about these areas sometimes you would think like oh well he's ruling like one fifth of the world here. But no this is like literally the whole world. This is at that time, this is like everyone in any kind of real civilized area or kind of a normal area. It talks about 127 provinces so you can kind of think of that as like states is a similar word to a province. In Canada I believe they still consider themselves to have provinces as opposed to states. But it's the same concept and it's kind of the same application. So they've divided up 127 provinces. This king of hazardous is pretty much ruling. The timeline again in history is going to be that Medo-Persian empire. Where it's kind of this dual kingdom where you kind of have Persian kings, sometimes you have Median kings and he's just kind of ruling. It's going to be well after Daniel in the sense of kind of like where this timeline is. And we have Jews living here. We also have to understand is that at the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity there was a return back to the promised land. But not every single Jew returned back to the promised land. And because Jews had been dispersed throughout every country and every region in the entire world there still existed these Jews throughout the entire world. And it makes sense because think about, let's fast forward, we're about 400 BC. Somewhere between 400-500 BC maybe in this timeline of king of hazardous. And I'm just throwing out numbers. You can research yourself. It's kind of hard to figure out exactly at pinpoint time. But let's fast forward to 30 AD. The crucifixion of Christ around that timeline. Or fast forward just a few more years when the apostles start going out and preaching the gospel. Doesn't it say in the book of Acts that they have Moses being read to the Gentiles in every city? And isn't it when Paul is going out and preaching the gospel, does he ever run into a town where there isn't Jews? Where there isn't a synagogue? Of course there is, right? So here's a question. Where did they come from? How did they get there? Well, the initial essential basically destruction of Jerusalem caused all these Jews to be scattered throughout the entire world. And so there was Jews living everywhere and some Jews came back to the promised land. Which Jews do you think came back to the promised land? The ones that kind of had faith in the Lord. The ones that were kind of the cream of the crop essentially. But that doesn't mean that there wasn't still good, you know, godly people that kind of just were left behind. Think about back then. I mean to travel back to Jerusalem would have been an intense journey. It would have taken a lot of money. It would have taken a lot of effort. So there's probably going to be elderly people. There's going to be young people. There's going to be women that may not be able to just travel there. Doesn't mean they weren't still a god-fearing person but they basically were left behind and they kind of inhabited these areas. And especially initially there was still a lot of good people and this timeline. So you have, you know, god's people living everywhere. Even though there's still a majority in Jerusalem. And of course all these Jews that are living in these provinces, they're supposed to a couple times a year travel to Jerusalem to go still have the feast and still have those different celebrations. Think about Acts chapter number two. Don't we have Jews coming to the day of Pentecost from literally every single, you know, Parthians, Elamites, you know, those in Mesopotamia. Where did they come from? Again, this is that leftover remnant from the initial Babylonian captivity. And so when we're in this timeline this is past the return to Jerusalem. This is past Ezra and Nehemiah is kind of that return and people are coming back and rebuilding the temple. But then we still just had a leftover group of just Jews that are everywhere. And then God's giving us basically this interesting story of some Jews that happen to be still in the major kingdom area of King Ahasuerus that's kind of the leftovers from Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar and some of that. Because they basically inherited Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar just took over the entire world set up an empire and then the Medo-Persians came in and just kind of killed the people and then just kept the empire. And so they're just continuing to reign. It would be like if somehow a foreign nation just invaded America and they just wiped out the White House and Pentagon and whatever and then they just started ruling. So it's like, it's different leadership, it's different management, but essentially all of the elements still kind of exist and permeate in those situations. So that's just kind of giving you an idea. That's the carnal truths, that's the history, that's what we kind of understand. What is the typology? Well, if you want to understand the book of Esther, you have to realize that King Ahasuerus pictures someone in this story and it's God the Father. King Ahasuerus is a God the Father figure consistently throughout the book of Esther. And think about it, they have similarities. Now we have to understand anybody that plays a picture in the Bible, anybody that plays the part of Jesus or God the Father, it's always going to come short, right? And they're always going to have areas where they do not model God the Father. You can see in the New Testament Jesus Christ uses parables to illustrate God the Father and he uses an unjust judge in the sense that he has a woman coming and making petition under this unjust judge regularly to ask to be avenged of his adversary and then he kind of relates that or uses that parable to illustrate how God the Father will answer our prayers for our importunity just as the same as an unjust judge would do the same for a woman that's nagging him, essentially. And importunity is essentially like you're begging and constantly coming back and asking over and over. So, what is the similarity? Well, King Ahasuerus is reigning over everyone, God the Father reigns over everyone. So they have this reign they're in charge, they're the top of the kingdom as it were, they're the king of kings in a sense. So that's where we have kind of this story melding with some spiritual pictures. It says in verse number four, oh, what other point I want to make? This is another thing. Notice it says in verse three, in the third year of his reign. In the third year of his reign. So everything that's going to take place now is happening in this quote unquote third year. I'll explain that in a minute, I just wanted you to think about it. Third year, right? It says in verse four, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days even a hundred and four score days. Now the word score is twenty so four score would be eighty so it's a hundred and eighty days so it's about a half a year. So for about a half a year he's just showing his glory showing his majesty and frankly speaking that's similar to God the Father. God the Father shows us his majesty. He shows us his excellence. How does he show it? In many ways, through creation. You know, just the sky. We get to see the sunset or we get to see the sun rise. We get to see all the clouds. We get to see all the beautiful creations that God's given. We constantly are seeing God's excellency and we're seeing God's majesty. You know, if you just skim through the Psalms it'll be constantly talking about the clouds and the sky and the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets and earth and the seas and it's always in reference to how majestic our Lord is and how glorious our Lord is and how powerful our Lord is, right? And so in a similar way, him kind of extolling his majesty and his glory is similar to how God the Father does that to us. And another way that is kind of illustrated and in this story is going to be through you know, a specific way is going to be through Vashti. Because he's doing it in a lot of ways but he's also going to have it through Vashti. Let's keep reading here. It says in verse five, The king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both in a great and small, seven days in the court of the garden, of the king's palace. Where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, to silver rings and pillars of marble, the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red and blue and white, black marble. And they gave them drink and vessels of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another, royal wine and abundance, according to the state of the king. And the drinking was according to the law, none did compel, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure. Also, Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the king of the when the heart of the king was married with wine, he commanded Mahuman, Bizthah, Harbonah, Bigthah, Abagthah, Zethar, and Carcass, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on." So King Ahasuerus is showing his majesty, showing his glory, having this giant party. Everyone gets to have you know, celebrate. And notice that it even says in verse 8, according to every man's pleasure. So it's essentially saying like, we're all just having a good time and enjoying my excellency, enjoying my majesty, and according to your free will. This is God's creation. God's creation is one of majesty and excellence and there's all these things to be enjoyed and we as mankind get to enjoy them at free will. Look at the nations of the world. Look at every man that's ever lived. We get to enjoy all the blessings that God has given us. We get to enjoy the sun. We get to enjoy the sea. We get to enjoy bread. We get to enjoy wine. We get to enjoy all of these things and really as much of our discretion as possible. We're saying this in a general sense. Obviously we understand some people live in a country that's under heavy oppression. They don't get to enjoy it. But there's nothing stopping that country and its leadership from essentially enjoying all the resources, all the goodness that God has created, all of the world and throughout history mankind has really indulged itself and enjoyed this world. But he also wants to do something. He wants to bring out Vasti specifically to show the people and the princes her beauty for she was fair to look on. So he's going to take a particular person and model her to every single one else and show she's the most beautiful. She's the most special. She's my favorite person. She's my beloved. And what does Vasti represent in the book of Esther? Israel. She represents Israel. Because Israel was a chosen people. They were supposed to be a holy people. They were supposed to be the beautiful one that was essentially separated from everyone else. Think about it. Vasti is his spouse and God even talks about he's espoused Israel unto himself. He married Israel and to God the Father she is above everyone else. She's supposed to be essentially the model of beauty and excellency and majesty for him to show the whole world. Israel some people have this idea that only Israel God cares about. That's not true. God cares about every person. It was just that Israel was a little bit more special than everyone else. Israel's supposed to be the light to lighten the Gentiles. Israel's supposed to be the model of how you're supposed to be. But it wasn't that God didn't care about everybody else. It's just they're the best. They're the chosen. They're the fairest. They're the most beautiful. They're the ones that are supposed to be his representation. And that's what King Ahasuerus wants. He wants hey let's bring out Vasti. Let me show you how beautiful my bride is. Let me show you how beautiful my wife is and what a lovely person she is. And we even see this same thing happen even in our modern culture. President Trump, former President Trump would often hold ceremonies or events or speaking engagements where he'd bring out his wife and say look how beautiful my wife is and let's hear what she has to say. She's very intelligent. And I think that Melania Trump, well she definitely has a sordid past. I'm not trying to apologize for anything she's done. I think that she actually speaks several foreign languages and she actually does have some level of intelligence and has some things to say. I think she modeled and showed off her body which is not godly whatsoever. And I'm not saying that she's godly. I'm not saying that Vasti was godly. Frankly let's be honest Israel wasn't godly. So obviously we understand the parallels here. But they were supposed to be. And of course men love to show off their women. They love to show off their trophy wife as it were. And this is consistent theme throughout the Bible. You can see Herod. He has Herodias daughter come and dance for everybody. He's kind of showing her off and a lot of the men in the Bible like to kind of show off their bride. And if it's not done in a perverse way there's nothing technically wrong with it. If you have a beautiful woman by your side there's nothing wrong with saying look I have this beautiful woman. She has all these great attributes and she does all these good things. And there's nothing wrong with God metaphorically speaking. His wife Israel showing them off to the world and giving them extra blessings. We kind of see it modeled with Solomon. Solomon was kind of the peak of Israel's history in the sense that it was a nation that everybody sought after. They wanted to hear Solomon's wisdom. He made it to where silver was as plenteous as just stones. And they had the best trees. They had the best everything. So that was God's goal with Israel. And this is what Ahasuerus wants for Vasti. But here's a problem. Notice what it said in verse 9. Also vastly the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. So Ahasuerus wants to show her off but instead of her being shown off Ahasuerus way she wants to show herself off. She wants to have her own party. She wants to have her own event as it were. And this is kind of like Israel seeking its own righteousness and seeking its own methods of glory and seeking its own methods of partying and all these different things. As opposed to doing it King Ahasuerus' way she's coming up with her own celebration her own feast, her own parties, her own self-indulgences and notice she's doing it for the women. Why isn't she doing it for the men? Really we see Vasti bringing in feminism in the Bible. And she is a model of feminism and it's a model of wickedness. And if you understand anything about Satanism if you understand anything about the destruction of nations it always comes through the vehicle of feminism. Feminism is a toxic cancer that destroys everything that it touches. If you look at communism one of the most important elements to communism succeeding is feminism. Is putting women in the workplace trying to get them to have rights or whatever. Making them equal with men and really just rejecting the difference between gender. Rejecting the fact that there's men and there's women and they're different and there's reasons why they're different and there's different roles that God has given us and those roles are basically being reversed is what communism relies upon. But you know communism, who cares about it? It's just a vehicle of Satanism because everything really is coming from the devil and the devil wants to destroy culture. And you look at wicked satanic cultures what's always at the forefront typically? Feminism. Now feminism is not always necessary for a culture of Satanism because you got Islam and you know Islam is not really being overrun by feminism but it's still of the devil. So I'm not saying that all roads lead to feminism but I'm saying all feminism roads lead to Satanism. And the devil is uses that as one of his tools to corrupt a lot of societies and it's worked in many ways. Think about when they go to Ephesus and they're screaming out greatest Diana of Ephesians. Who are they worshipping? A female God. And you have the Catholic church worshipping Mary. You know kind of venerating a woman and making her the greatest person to ever live. Instead of John the Baptist being the greatest man born among women it's Mary it's this woman and they venerate some kind of a woman and they exonerate a woman rather than being Baptist and letting John the Baptist be the person that you look to and that you model your life after. And you know what? Feminism in our culture in America is destroying our country. You want to say like what do they have to do to destroy our country? Women's suffrage. You know bringing in women to vote and then bringing in all this stuff. You know I went to D.C. and they have the entire Supreme Court like guarded up like you know they have this fenced up because they're afraid of people destroying it or damaging it and there's all these people outside angry and yelling and protesting about current rulings. You know who's doing it? Women. There's like very few men there. You know even when it comes to just abortion specifically if women had never been able to vote abortion would have never been legal because men in vast majority don't support abortion. It was coming from this feminist type agenda. And you know when it comes to you know our country if we ever wanted to get back to a biblical culture we would have to address feminism which you know I think that most Republicans and most conservatives they really stay away from that. In fact most of them are putting women in positions of political leadership now. It feels like the Republican Party has almost all but conceded to just women as their only leaders now. I mean I kid you not it's like literally almost every Republican candidate is now a woman. And it's like it seems like there's more women because this is what the Republicans care about winning elections. That is the only thing they care about. And they feel like if they don't put a woman in there they're going to lose the votes of the women which is probably true. And so they have to get a woman that's a conservative so they can basically in their minds have their cake and eat it too. They can have the best of both worlds. And they're basically putting all these vasties in public office. And I'm telling you that's not going to fix America. You know I get calls every single day like hundreds of calls. Every day. And they're all complaining about my preaching. And you know who's complaining? Women. Women and homos. That's it. It's not a bunch of these just like, yeah my name's Bubba. And you know I don't like your preaching Pastor Shelley. No no no. It's either a woman or a queer. That's it. That's the people that are really mad about it. And look I'm telling you women are soft on the homosexuals. Women are soft on crime. Women are soft on every hard nose issue of the Bible. And we need men to step up and lead our country. Where are all the men? Where are the men to lead our country and for our nation to say no? And allow women to flourish in being a woman. Because you know if we let the women be the men, then who's going to be the women? The men? I mean that's basically what they're doing. Because someone's got to play the role of the woman. And if the women aren't doing it who's going to do it? And you know what? I'm not going to be Mr. Mom. Because I'm not a good mom. I'm a great dad, but I'm not a great mom. And I have the potential of being a really good father and a really good husband. I have zero potential of being a great wife. It's not in the cards for me. It's not in the cards for any man. And we need women to realize that being a wife and being a mother is a very important job. It's a significant job. It's an incredible job. It's a wonderful thing. I love women. You know people accuse me of hating women because I don't want them to be in leadership. That couldn't be further from the truth. Because if you actually had less women in leadership you would have had less abortion and you would have killed less baby girls. You know by allowing women, you know and of course what country in the world is afraid of women taking over the leadership of America? You really think that China, you really think that Russia, you really think that Iran and Iraq and all these countries are so terrified that our entire leadership, it was all women? You know especially like the Supreme Court justices is about to be sworn in and Tonjie Brown, Jackson or something like that, who doesn't even know what a woman is. Yet she's supposedly the first woman to be like black woman or something to be nominated on the Supreme Court and to sit in that seat. But she doesn't even know what she is. She can't even define it. You know that's how stupid our culture has evolved to. And when you let people like Vashti just start running their mouth and doing their own thing and having their own parties that's where your country leads to. That's why it's really important that we understand what King Ahasuerus did. Look at verse 12 But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains therefore was the king very wroth and his anger burned in him. King Ahasuerus doesn't like feminism. And you know I don't know King Ahasuerus if he was saved or not. I don't really care. But he was right on feminism. Okay. He was like this is not okay. My wife doesn't get to tell me no. My wife isn't going to run the house. She isn't going to wear the pants in the family. No no no. He is going to wear the pants. Doesn't matter how beautiful she is. It doesn't matter that she is the second in command theoretically even. If she is the queen or something. You know you disobey the king and there is going to be punishment. Verse 13. Then the king said to the wise men which knew the times for so was the king's manner toward all that new law and judgment. And the next unto him was Karshina, Shethar Ad-Maitha, Tarshish, Meres, Marcina and Mamukan. Seven princes of Persia and Meda which saw the king's face and which sat the first in the kingdom. What shall we do under the queen? Vashti according to law. Because she had not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains. Now it is interesting they have to even bring this up because they are just thinking like this is so weird and so rare. Like we have never even seen like we don't even know what to do because it is just like never happened. We never thought a woman would be so brazen to just not obey her husband not do exactly what he said the first time that they are just trying to figure out like what do we even do here? You know it is the part of the rule book that you have never even seen. Like this play has never been played this event is unprecedented that a woman has ever rebelled against her husband. Now that is unfathomable in America because in America you watch TV and music and Hollywood and movies and women rebel against their husband left and right. I mean they rebel against their husband 25 times a day. 100 times a day. So the fact that a woman rebelled against her husband is just so common place. It just makes so much sense. It is just so obvious that this story won't even make sense. But let me tell you something about history. You know there were times and places and there are still cultures today where women don't say no to their husband. That is not acceptable. That is not a reality. And you know what? According to the Christian Bible it is the same way. Where women should submit to their husbands and do what they said. And I like this they say in verse 15. What should we do according to the law? What should we do to the law? What does God say? What is the law? You know and think about God. When it comes to this picture Vashti has rebelled against who? God the Father and Israel rebelled against God the Father. And who are they going to, how are they going to be judged? According to the law. And it is similar to when we think about just salvation in general for all of sin it comes short of the glory of God. How are those who have sinned how are they going to be judged according to the law? You know it is funny that we think about oh we are in the New Testament and we are under grace. Well you are not under grace unless you are saved. Because if you are not saved you are going to be judged by the law. You are going to be judged by God's commandments and you are going to be found wanting. You are going to come short and God is not going to be pleased with you. Go to 1 Timothy 2 for a moment. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number 2. There is so much in this chapter I am going to try and get through this pretty quickly but here is the thing. Feminism is a satanic agenda. It is a satanic doctrine. Look what it says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 11. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence. For Adam was first form and Eve. And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness or sobriety. Now again I am not saying that all roads lead to feminism but think about just for a second. How did we even get in the mess we are in? Wasn't it from Eve taking some liberties and taking of the forbidden fruit and then giving it to her husband? Who led who in the Garden of Eden? Eve led Adam and caused Adam to sin. And because of that feminism we exist in a culture where feminism is permeating almost every aspect of our society. And even in Islam I am sure there is still some aspects of feminism that exist. Because it is funny to me the other day I was driving. Oh no no we were walking in D.C. We were walking in D.C. and I see these practicing Islamicists, these women and they have this head covering and they have like you can't see, I mean you couldn't see their eyes. But then they are wearing blue jeans. And I am thinking like that is so weird that your woman can look like a dude with jeans on but then they have to wear this like burka, they have to wear this like head covering and shield their entire body, their upper portion of their body. I am like who made up these rules? So obviously the feminism is still alive and well in those cultures, in those societies whether they want to admit it or not. But this is truly a satanic doctrine and God made it clear he made the man first for a reason. We see in verse 13, For Adam was first formed, then Eve. So who has the preeminence man does? Woman is supposed to be in subjection and notice all subjection according to verse 11. Look at chapter 5, just flip the page look at chapter 5 and look what it says in verse number 11, But the younger widows refuse for when they have begun to wax one against Christ, they will marry, having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith. And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also in busy bodies, speaking things which they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan. So according to the Bible when you're not as a young woman seeking for the things of marriage and childbearing and raising a family and the things that God has ordained, you can get to a point where you're now being led by the nose of Satan. Where Satan is literally dragging you through life and causing you to get involved in all kinds of manner of things that you shouldn't and notice that when one woman is going after Satan, she usually tries to drag a bunch of other women with her. Notice that they're idle and they're wandering about from house to house. Just like Vashti having a party and inviting all these other women and dragging all these other women down with her. No different. And the Bible makes it clear that what really saves them from this feminist agenda from Satan is what? Having children, being in the home, doing the things that God has ordained for them to do. Now, I want you to 1 Corinthians, go back to the left in your Bible, 1 Corinthians 14. It's funny to me that people get so mad about these verses that claim to be Christian. Something like, what parts of the Bible do you believe? I mean, how much New Testament do you want? But you know who gets mad at this? Usually men don't get mad at this kind of preaching. It's women that get mad at this kind of preaching. And you know what? Men need to tell them, this is what the Bible says and this is what you're going to do. Look what it says in verse number 33. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, for they are commanded to be under obedience, and I like this phrase, as also saith the law. So what are the women supposed to do? They're supposed to be silent according to the law. What are we doing with Vashti? We're going to judge her. We're going to figure out what to do according to the law. What is it that she's supposed to be doing here? She's supposed to be obeying her husband. Go back if you went to Esther chapter number 1. Go back to Esther chapter number 1. So they're trying to figure out what they do. They're looking up the law. And it says in verse 16, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported the king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came night not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen, thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. So she said, hey, what she did isn't just affecting you king Ahasuerus, this is affecting all the women in the entire country and the entire nation and all the land, and if your wife can say no to you, then I'm going to go home and my wife's going to say no to me. And there's going to be too much contempt and too much wrath and all these problems. I mean, why do you think divorce is rampant in America today? Because women are rebelling against their husbands. You know, there's so many problems that come from feminism and feminism is a cancer that spreads to everyone. That's why it's important for God's people to renew themselves with the word of God and not go the way of the heathen, not be like Vashti here, and for wives to obey their husbands. If you want to have a good marriage and you're a wife, you need to obey your husband in everything, as it is fit in the Lord, as the Bible says. Of course, if he says, you know, commit a sin, you don't sin. But outside of your husband asking you to sin, the Bible teaches you're supposed to submit to him in every single way. And we need to teach our young children, we need to teach the next generation how to actually have a proper biblical marriage and to try and reduce the divorce and reduce all the issues that come from having an unbiblical marriage. And there's so many people that have marriage problems and really to fix your marriage problems, it's not hard. You know, the guy provides, the guy loves his wife and the wife obeys her husband and serves her husband. It's going to work. You know, all marriage problems can really always pretty much just be solved with those few things. I mean, you know, it's like you've got a wife that's submissive and obeying, but her husband's a derelict, just not even making any money, you're going to have a lot of issues still, okay? You've got a guy that's providing and loving his wife and the wife just doesn't want to serve or doesn't want to obey her husband, you're going to have problems. When you fix those, though, it just usually seems to work. It just usually seems to always have the proper situation, you know, fixing itself. Now, of course, it takes two to tangle, I get that, but if your marriage is not where you want it to be, you just start doing your part again and you start leading as a man and, you know, sometimes you have to lay down the law, you know, they're saying, hey, this is what you've got to do, now let's see if he's going to do it, right? Verse 19, if it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and Medes and the Medes that it be not altered, that vastly come no more before king Ahasuerus and let the king give a royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the kings decree, which he shall make, shall be published throughout all his empire, for it is great. All the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to the great and small, and the saying, please the king in the provinces, and the king did according to the word of Mimeuchen, for he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people. So, a couple things. Number one, he does it. And she ends up getting replaced by a better. Now, sometimes God uses carnal things that aren't right to illustrate spiritual truths, okay, so is it right that a guy would just divorce his wife for not obeying one time? No. Okay, so I'm not saying that. Should he have squashed the rebellion? Sure. And of course he did. I mean, this is a really big squashing. Hey, you're going to say no to me? You're done. Like, that'll really squash out the rebellion pretty quick. Now, you don't want to go to Islam either. Islam says if your wife doesn't obey, you just strike her. We don't do that either. Obviously, for God's people, divorce is off the table. Hitting your spouse is off the table. But, you know, men should still lead their wise, instruct their wise, and tell them no. And, you know, you should be able to figure out a way to basically keep your wife in line to some degree. Now, of course, I'm not going to force my wife. Technically, my wife still has free will. But, you know, I'm going to make it as difficult as possible for her to rebel. You know what? I need to lead my house, and I need to lead my family, and it's not right for women to say no to their husband or not obey their husband, period. There is no exception. There is no other alternative. Now, let's look at this from a picture perspective. We have God the Father. We have Vashti rebelling against her husband, which is Israel. So, Israel rebelled against the Lord. And, this is going to cause a problem. Because, just as Vashti rebelling against her husband is like Israel rebelling against God, well, if Israel is not going to obey the Lord, why would the heathen nations obey the Lord? Why would the other Gentiles and why would the other nations have any respect for God? They wouldn't. So, it's not only by Israel rejecting the Lord or being rebellious to the Lord does it affect their nation, it affects every nation in the entire world, because then why would they have any respect under the God of the Bible or want to follow the God of the Bible? So, what does God have to do? God has to replace that Israel. Okay? And, how is God going to end up replacing that Israel? Through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ bringing in the gospel. He's going to bring in a different Israel, a spiritual Israel, that's going to replace the old Israel. Now, what replaces the old Israel is the new covenant. Okay? Keep your finger, don't keep your finger, I don't think I'm going to come back, but go to Hebrews chapter seven for a moment. This example, again, is really important. You know, from a carnal perspective, Titus chapter number two teaches that the older women or the elder women are supposed to teach the younger women. You know, if you look at that portion of scripture, you'll see that the impact of the leadership of women is really impactful. You know, you can tell women all day long what the Bible says, but I'll tell you something, the way the pastor's wife behaves herself is more impactful than usually the preaching is. Like, you could get up and preach standards, and you could preach Bible and everything, but if the pastor's wife just ended up just not doing any of that, then all the women in the church wouldn't do it either. And, vice versa, you know, you could have a guy that's not preaching that much about women's roles, but the wife's just a really good example, and a lot of women just follow that example. And it's not just the pastor's wife, it's just other women in the church, especially the older women who already have children. The younger women are looking to them and saying, wow, your kids behave, how do I get that? You know, or your kids are well dressed, how do I get that? Or you seem to have a happy marriage, how do I get that? And they'll look to their example and they'll model their behavior because they want that. And so it's really important that elder women live above approach and they live the cleanest life and they, you know, set a really important example. Just like God's people are supposed to set an example for the world. And because they rebelled and rejected the Lord and refused to do that, God had to end up replacing them. And he replaced them with a spiritual Israel through the new covenant. And notice how the Bible had worded it in Esther, he's going to be replacing someone that's better than you, right? Look at Hebrews chapter 7, verse 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. So just like Vashti is going to get replaced and we'll just, you know, foreshadow, who's that? Esther. Esther is going to picture the foreshadowing of the better coming in and just like the New Testament being ushered in is a better replacement of Vashti. More obedient. More righteous. More chastity. A lot of different things that are going to be labeled for Esther. And the other thing that's interesting though, when she's getting replaced, notice that this proclamation is made in all the earth, right? So whenever God replaces Israel through what? The gospel, the death, throne, and resurrection. What happened? Then the gospel gets spread into all the earth and they hear about what? The better testament. And they hear about how God has sought a new replacement. So of course from a carnal perspective with the hazardous, it's wrong for him to replace his wife, okay? That's wrong. There is no such biblical precedent in the Bible till death do us part. You made that vow. God expects us to honor our vow first and foremost. Secondly, any provisions about divorce in the Bible are due to the hardness of someone's heart and have an annulment type exception, not a, I just don't like you or you disobeyed me one time type of exception. That's not legitimate. According to scripture, once you're married, if it's a valid marriage, there was no alternative. There was no option for divorce. And in fact, I personally believe you should never divorce. That's not on the table. But God used that carnal picture of a wicked king, arguably, king of hazardous, through his rebellious feminist wife to illustrate how he had a relationship with Israel. They rebelled against him and he replaced them with a spiritual Israel, one that was going to actually be obedient unto him. And remember, what year was it that this happened? The third year, didn't it? And when did Israel get replaced? On the third day, didn't it? When Jesus Christ rose again, hey, we're entered into that New Testament. Okay, and so we kind of have some parallels and some of the numbers, they kind of match, they kind of usher in this new picture. It's just interesting how the book of Esther really carries itself forth. Now, giving you a lot of these tokens or a lot of these clues, as you read Esther, you could probably figure out a lot more stuff, but we're going to go through and we're going to kind of look at some of these people and we're going to look at some of these situations. Chapter one, though, is a good set up chapter. We kind of learn about the evils of feminism and how we as God's people need to reject feminism. And some people get mad and say, oh, you're just a misogynist, Pastor Shelley. But here's the thing, just like a wife is supposed to obey her husband, we are supposed to obey the Bible and we're supposed to obey God. It's not like men don't obey anybody and women have to obey people. We all have to obey. Children have to obey their parents. Wives have to obey their husbands. Husbands have to obey their boss at work. Husbands have to obey their pastor at church. Husbands have to obey the Bible. And everyone has to obey Christ. And then Christ is obedient to God the Father. Obedience is just life. Unless you're God the Father, you have someone to be obedient to. I mean, that is the King of Kings. That's the top of the chain there. And even Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ can obey the Father, how can we not obey? And feminism is just really just short for just rebellion. That's all it is. It's just rebellion. And of course, that's how the devil brought sin in the world is through rebellion and teaching Eve to rebel and then having her teach her husband how to rebel. And we see this kind of spiraling up rebellion. And we need to teach our wives to submit and to obey and to do that, which is biblical. And we ourselves need to submit and obey to God's Word. We are the new wife. We are the Esther. We don't want to be like Vashti as God's people. We want to be an obedient people that follow God's commandments and that we model His majesty. We model His excellence. That God is proud to present us to other people. That He's not like, yeah, here's my wife. Let's put a head covering on that. We're not Islam here. We're not going to do that to our wife. We're going to put on the royal crown and the beautiful garments and the white. Just like a wedding day, the bride is kind of a picture of how we're supposed to present ourselves where you're all done up and you've got the white robe of righteousness, which is Christ's righteousness computed onto you. And that's why weddings, it's good to have the white bride. The white, not skin, but I'm saying her dress, okay? But essentially, we too need to make sure that we are a good representation of God. Just like Vashti was not a good representation and Esther will end up being that representation. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for the word of God. Thank you for giving us this great book of Esther that we can study and we can learn important biblical doctrines. I pray that we wouldn't have a rebellious spirit, we wouldn't have a rebellious heart like Vashti, but we would try to obey your commandments to the best of our ability. We would seek to be pleasing in your sight and that we could model your excellency and your majesty for the world. To give you more honor and to give you more glory and that we wouldn't drag the name of Christ and God the Father through the mud by our own selfish desires, our own rebellion, and just trying to lift ourselves up. Rather, we'd humble ourselves to give you more honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We'll go to our final song for the evening, 467. 467. The B-I-B-L-E. We'll sing it twice. And then what I like to do is at the very end we'll yell Bible together. So we'll spell it. So the second time through we'll finish with a big Bible. 467. The B-I-B-L-E. On the first. The B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. The B-I-B-L-E. The B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. The B-I-B-L-E. Bible! All right. Y'all are dismissed. God bless. Have a good evening.