The Revelation of Esther - Final Sermon- Dr. Roger Seheult

i'm gonna have to switch over oh you'll do it okay okay well it's so good to be here i'm so happy i in studying the books of the bible when i first started way back four or five years ago i would never have thought that i would be here standing in front of you i had never given a sermon before i had never really preached i never even led a sabbath school lesson okay but i wanted to learn and i think it was my prayer that was answered that i wanted to learn more about the bible and the place that i started was the book of esther and just about everything that you have learned this weekend came about as a result of me studying the book of esther i went through the book of esther line by line trying to figure out where the sanctuary was what was going on in the book of esther and i came across many puzzling things and that stirred me to look at other parts of the bible to try to figure those things out and so everything that you've learned this weekend has been a spinoff of me trying to figure out the book of esther so the good news is we've worked backwards you have all of this understanding now about the sanctuary about the 13 14 15 the passover all of that and now we're going to delve into the book of esther and you're going to see something that i think is very very exciting and i think this is probably the pinnacle of everything that you've learned this week and if you can draw on all of that you will start to you'll start to see and find out that the book of esther almost was not a book of the bible it almost didn't even get into the canon but i believe that it's there today and it's there today for our benefits and i believe that god made sure that the book of esther was put into the bible today for our purposes if you know that know that the book of esther doesn't even have the name of god in it okay did you know that out of all of the books of the old testament the essenes who were a very small select group of scribes that lived in isolation they would get up and they would copy the old testament books and this is where the dead sea scrolls came from if you're not aware of that and whenever they would come to the word yahweh they would bathe they would wash themselves and then they would write the name yahweh they have to be i mean this is how strict they were they never got married they basically went to these areas way out in the desert and they would copy these these scripts for us do you know that they copied every single book of the old testament except for one book they would not copy the book because they thought it was too vulgar it was the book of esther so we don't have the book of esther in the dead sea scrolls but it doesn't stop there folks here's an article in 2013. should christians read the book of esther i'll read to you this is a piece by joel miller originally ran under the title you're reading the wrong book of esther listen to what he says here the book of esther occupies a controversial place in the bible john calvin did not include the book in his biblical commentaries and only referenced it once in the institutes his institutes of the christian religion that you may have read though he did include it in his bible martin luther was highly ambivalent about it he said quote this is martin luther i am so great an enemy to esther that i wish it had not come to us at all for it has too many heathen unnaturalities he said in table talk 24 and in one exchange with erasmus he said it deserves to be regarded as non-canonical okay did you know that the book of esther was not looked upon it was too jewish but let me present to you a hypothesis today i will what i hope to present to you is that the book of esther actually is the entire great controversy from beginning to end in chronological order with every person in the part playing a specific part in the great controversy let's let's begin but before we begin i want to show a little bit of validity to the book of esther do you know did you know that the book of esther may have been referenced by jesus christ in the new testament let's get out matthew 18. i'm going to read it to you let's read it together i'm going to read from the king james matthew 18 verse 23 as soon as i start to read you will recognize one of the most famous parables that jesus ever uttered starting in verse 23 therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants and when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents but for so much as he had not to pay his lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made the servant therefore fell down and worshipped him saying lord have patience with me and i will pay the all then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosened him and forgave him the debt but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying pay me thou thou owest and his fellow servants fell down at his feet and besought him saying have patience with me and i will pay the all and he would not but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debts so when his fellow servants saw what he had done they were very sorry and came and told unto their lord all that was done then his lord after that he had called him and said o thou wicked servant i forgave thee all that debt because thou desirest me should us not thou also have compassion on my fellow servant even as i had pity on thee and the lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him so likewise my heavenly father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses do you notice something about this if you're reading it these are the words of christ early on we said we looked in the in the spirit of prophecy and ellen white said when you read the words of christ they have a deeper meaning than is portended on the surface correct so what is this whenever i read whenever we get to this in the sabbath school lesson the lesson is always about forgiveness right it's always about forgiveness and that is a true lesson that is what this means but there is something much more to this does anyone catch it did anyone catch something in there what was it what is that it's about haman and mordecai okay i'm more of a numbers person did you notice anything about the numbers in here this is this is how i you want to know how do you study the bible ten thousand talents why ten thousand talents do you know that ten thousand talents was exactly what haman sold the jews for it is exactly the same amount in fact let's look at the history of the jews let's look at the book of esther we know the book of esther we don't have to go through it we know that in 474 bc is when the book of esther took place we know this very well because we know exactly when xerxes who is a hazuris took the throne and in the opening salvo of esther we know exactly when this started it was in the three and a half years right this is when it started so we know that haman's death decree occurred in 474 bc but then what happened we know that they were sold for 10 000 talents of silver but then god raised up esther for such a time as this and she saved the jews so the jews were saved from utter destruction how much did they owe god how much numerically did they owe god 10 that was what the price was correct exactly and so for 10 000 talents of silver that's how much they owed god then what happened in 457 bc just a short while later god forgave them that debt and said i want you to go and rebuild jerusalem daniel 9 24-27 why finish transgression make an end of sins reconcile for iniquity and confirm the covenant for one week that's all in 457 bc then what happens they went and they did that and the descendants of those people that had begged for forgiveness nailed jesus christ to the cross in 31 a.d the christians they persecuted saul himself killed many christians until finally they stoned stephen in 34 a.d do you remember how much christ was sold for 30 pieces of silver that's correct 30 pieces of silver and when judas tried to return the money to them what did they do with the money they would not accept that money they would not accept payment of that money correct that is correct and so what happened in 34 a.d the 70-week prophecy ends stephen is killed by the jews saul becomes paul and now the message goes to the gentiles as well as the jews but for those jews refusing the message they decided to stay in jerusalem and in 70 a.d jerusalem is destroyed and the jews are turned over to the tormentors now let's look at let's look at matthew matthew 18 23 because in matthew 18 23 we have a king who's looking at debts does the king of the universe have someone that owes them a debt yes they do and wouldn't you know it it's exactly the same debt 10 000 talents of silver but that king forgives the debt right we just read it but what happens that very same servant the jews torments a fellow servant the christians they demand repayment of that debt but it never happens even though they beg for forgiveness he doesn't forgive them and just as the jews forgiveness ends after the 70-week prophecy so does in this parable the forgiveness ends of the servants and in this case the debt is a hundred pence the actual word there in the greek is dinarii pence is the old english term the pence is a derivative of the dinariah so it's really a hundred dinaria and so what happens to this fellow servant the king finds out ends forgiveness and just as the jews in jerusalem are turned over to the tormentors so too is this servant turned over to the tormentors this is not just a parable on forgiveness this is a prophecy about what is to happen to those in jerusalem you want to know what's really interesting jesus tells this parable in response to something go back go back i find this fascinating i find this fascinating this all starts off in verse 23 with the word therefore what should that tell you there's something that happens before this peter comes to jesus and he says peter how often shall i forgive those who sin against me the rule was three times peter wants to be magnanimous and says i'll do it seven times what does jesus say not seven times but seventy times seven wow that's the seventy week prophecy that's the seventy week prophecy seven times 70 is 490 years which is exactly the amount of time that the jews had from forgiveness in 457 bc this pair ellen white says it every word has its meaning the words of christ have a deeper meaning than what is on the surface so you say ten thousand talents of silver 10 000 talents of silver i see a problem roger here 30 pieces of silver 100 denarii that's a different value check this out this is what i this will give you this will give you chills by the way what day as we'll find out what day of the year did haman sell the jews on it was the 13th day of the first month nissan 13. it's right there right there in esther what day was jesus sold jesus was sold two days before the feast of unleavened bread by judas nisan 13. the word that is used you know when the servant falls down before the king and begs for forgiveness the greek word there is proscini i'm not a greek scholar but it literally if you look it up it means to fall on one's knees and worship that is exactly what the jews in persia did when haman had sold them esther and her other ladies that were in the house with her they fasted for three days and they prayed and they worshiped god okay if we look and see what the fellow servant did to the jews that's different it's a different word there that is used in greek it's pericaliae i'm not a greek scholar which means to summon to entreat to admonish that is exactly what the christians were doing to the jews at that time the christians were trying to admonish them to entreat them to accept the lord jesus christ as their savior that is what stephen was doing and eventually that was what paul was doing this is a perfect perfect prophecy but you say what about the 30 pieces of silver and 100 pence you have to understand these are two different denominations two different denominations of currency check this out so if you go to wikipedia and you look up the denarii this is the roman currency you will see at certain times 250 267 bc 211 bc 200 bc it had a certain amount of grams of silver in it at the time that jesus christ gave this parable which was from 1480 to 3780 the weight of a denarii was 3.9 grams of silver 3.9 grams of silver in a dinarii so how many denarii was owed to the servant a hundred denarii so how many grams of silver are we talking about 390 grams of silver does anyone understand that okay so how much so he was just forgiven ten thousand talents of silver but now this fellow servant owed him 390 grams of silver okay okay so 100 denarii times 3.9 grams equals 395 390 grams of silver now let's talk about this these the 30 pieces of silver that jesus was sold for now where did that money come from it came from the priests the priests only dealt with one type of currency the tyrion shekel when jews from all over the world came to the passover they had to convert their money into the money of the temple which was the tyrian shekel it was minted entire because they had the coins with the highest amount of silver in them that's why you had money changers guess what here is an article from 2008 called the rare silver coin found in excavations in jerusalem and guess what they happen to come from the second temple period perfect that's when jesus was there so let's read about this type of currency and they talk about a rare silver coin the type used to pay the half shekel tax this is actually a full shekel but you could pay it with one coin and you could pay it for two remember the coin that was found in the fish's mouth that was a shekel that could pay for two temple taxes remember christ asked to pay for peter and himself one coin half shekel tax you could pay for two people a rare ancient silver coin the type used to pay the half shekel attacks in ancient times was recently discovered in an archaeological excavation that is being conducted around the walls around jerusalem national park near the city of david in what was the main drainage channel of jerusalem during the second temple period the annual half shekel head tax was given in shekel and half shekel coins from the tire mint they were struck in the air 125 bce until the outbreak of the greek revolt in 66. so is this during the time of christ absolutely at the time of the uprising the tax was paid using the jerusalem shechem they were specifically minted for this purpose in the rabbanic sources it states the silver mentioned in the pentateude is always tyrion silver is it tyrion silver it is a jerusalemite many have interpreted this to mean that only tyrion shekels could be used to pay the half shekel head tax in the temple okay so this is the unique exclusive currency of the priests if the priests were going to pay for judas to betray christ this is the money that they would use the shekel was found in the excavation guess how much a shekel weighed they found the coin they put it on the scale guess how much it weighed 13 grams how many pieces of shekel was christ sold for 30 pieces of silver what's 30 times 13 390 grams of silver grams of silver not only did christ predict exactly when jerusalem would fall he also named the price that he would be sold for in that one parable let me tell you something else that this does today in the event in the evangelical worlds have you heard of left behind have you heard of the pre-tribulation secret rapture there is a theology that believes that the 70th week of daniel chapter 9 is cut off from the 70-week prophecy and put into the future and those seven years are going to be seven years of tribulation that are going to occur but before those seven years of tribulation occur there's going to be a secret rapture where god takes away all of his loyal people so they don't have to go through the tribulation what an evil theology because when you are on this planet and you believe that and you're going through tribulation you're going to feel like you are lost what does this what does this prophecy tell us it tells us beyond a shadow of a doubt that that 70th week has already happened it has already happened this prophecy just by itself completely undermines futurism if you understand it and the numbers match up perfectly and what does it also say it also means that christ validates the book of esther because it's only in the book of esther that we learn that the jews were sold for a thousand talents of silver do you see this the book of esther is inspired so let's talk about the great controversy in the book of esther because i believe it is a completely it is a complete replay of the great controversy king xerxes is god the father esther is jesus christ wait we'll see mordecai is the holy spirit queen vashti is lucifer haman is lucifer and babylon and the jews are the righteous saints let's go through what happens for those of you who don't remember the book of esther there's a hundred and eighty day feast there's a public wine feast of seven days in a garden vashti refuses to appear before ahazueras vashti is deposed but not executed there is a search for a new queen esther has taken place to be made queen now you may remember statements in the spirit of prophecy that validates the actions of vashti and calls into question what king xerxes did that's not the point who what what was jesus christ he fulfilled the sign of jonah correct what did jonah do he ran away from his from his duties was he a good man or a bad man in doing that not good right but yet that is the sign of christ because as he was in the belly of the whale for three days so will christ be in the belly of the earth for three days so just because they individually may have been good or bad or done that's irrelevant in the in the grand scale in terms of using parallelisms okay so i understand what you're saying or thinking there but you'll see next haman's plot to exterminate the jews mordecai saves the king's life that's big than and teresh that raised their hand against the king heyman is promoted despite that this is a real interesting point because it's mordecai that saves the king's life but yet heyman is promoted it'll make sense heyman resents mordecai and wants to take revenge on his race the jews haman's decree to exterminate the jews occurs on nisan 13 the first month of the year to be executed on adar 13 the last month of the year esther champions the cause of her people the jews fast mordecai appeals to esther esther accepts the challenge esther goes before the king and lives and then esther entertains the kings at a king at a banquet we have the fall of haman then haman's plot to hang mordechai king reminded of mordecai's service haman is compelled to honor mordecai there's the second night of the same banquet esther accuses haman before the king haman is executed on his own gallows then mordecai is elevated he counterman's haman's death decree which cannot be reversed mordecai advances his people and restores the favor there's deliverance of the jews there's the proclamation of the feast of purim and mordecai is made prime minister of persia okay so i want to show some parallelisms here let's go from let's go through this slowly so in the book of esther we have the king of persia who sat on his throne and ruled over the largest empire the world has ever known you know the king god the father sits on his throne and rules over all the universe the queen was insubordinate to the king of persia and a top commander in god's army was insuborded to the king of the universe that's lucifer now this was done at a seven day wine feast known as a mishta and whenever you see this word mishta used in the bible there's always a feast followed by some sort of judgment feast judgment like belshazzar's feast then there was a judgment pharaoh's birthday party baker and the butler whenever that word is used there's always a judgment that follows there was an investigation that was done in the kingly courts of persia to decide what should be done with queen vashti and she was eventually deposed and expelled out of the courts for the better of those remaining as she would have been a bad influence according to them right what do they say well if this woman starts to you know go against her husband then all the women in the in the country are going to go against their husbands all kind of order is going to break down it's better for her to be deposed that's what they came up with and then well we'll talk about war in a little bit now in heaven lucifer had free will to choose which doctrine he would follow and there was an investigation that was done in heaven an investigative judgment in the kingly court to decide what should be done with lucifer and he was eventually deposed not murdered not killed not destroyed and he was expelled out of heaven for the better of those remaining as he would have had a bad influence now we know in heaven there was war in heaven right and in that war who were the casualties in that war a third of the angels were cast out of heaven and satan was offered lucifer was offered multiple times to repent but he refused interesting what happens because we know when this happened actually before we get to that let me just we talked about a mishta that's the jewish word there for mishta it's used several times in the old testament it's usually a wine banquet we see it with isaac when she when he was weaned from sarah and abraham they made a mishta pharaoh had a birthday party that was a mystery they had the baker and the butler samson had a mishta for his wife and then you had the riddle about the lion and the honey and those 30 fellows lost their clothes nobel and abigail david daniel has three friends eating at the king's table belshazzar writing on the wall this word mishta whenever it's used there's always a judgment that happens afterward keep that in mind now i talked about war in heaven we know that between chapter 1 and chapter 2 of esther there is a period of time and we know what that time period is and we know that 480 bc falls directly in between chapter 1 and chapter 2. now in the parallel we have war in heaven guess what happens on earth xerxes goes to battle and the battle is the probably the most famous battle of european history ever known as the battle of thermopylae many movies have been made about it it's where 300 spartan soldiers defend against tens of thousands of of persian soldiers and so you have this god king xerxes who is battling against leonidas and the greeks as it turns out and and this by the way is a photograph taken at the very place of thermopylae and uh you can see a statue there of leonidas western culture has seen that leonidas was the hero of that battle even though they lost because they stood against the persians but in actuality if you look at this in 480 bc the battle of thermopylae occurred it was known as the battle of the hot gates or the battle of the gates of hell because it was around this area that there was thermal baths that's why it's known as thermopylae this god king xerxes led 60 000 troops to fight a very small spartan force of 300 he lost about a third of his army interestingly he had a special guard of soldiers known as the immortals and leonidas the leader of the spartans was defiant even though xerxes offered him king of greece this is what he said he said i would rather die than serve you essentially and he has this famous quote that says xerxes says put down your weapons he says come and take him. and it's written there in greek and it's actually written on that greek statue of leonidas by the way leonidas is meaning the lion right seeking whom he may devour it says there in in first peter 5 8 lucifer is noted as a lion seeking whom he may devour lucer lucifer was offered forgiveness before the war started but he refused and of course you know that god lost about a third of his angels so what's the next thing that happens in esther chapter two we know in the great controversy that the plan of salvation was instituted very early on even before man was created and in this situation esther becomes the queen taking the place of queen vashti this is after xerxes comes back from the battle so in the book of esther we know that esther grew up in obscurity esther hid her origins until the time was right esther was orphaned and raised by an adopted father esther was fully jew and she was became fully queen and it was only because of this duality that she was able to plead for her people the targum states that esther was as beautiful as the morning star esther was visited every single day by her cousin mordecai and esther was loved by the king more than any of the other women in the great controversy we know that jesus grew up in obscurity jesus also hid his origins until the time was right jesus was orphaned by on earth and was raised by an adopted father jesus was fully man and fully divine and it was only because of this duality that he was able to intercede on behalf of his people jesus is the morning star and jesus was trained every single day by the holy spirit and of jesus the heavenly father said behold my beloved son in whom i am well pleased now the next thing that happens in the great controversy is the fall of adam and eve the plan of salvation instituted and now the fall of adam and eve we know that adam and eve were given a special place of honor in the kingdom of god but adam and eve raised their hand against the king of the universe and it was occurred because one of them left their posts an investigation was done and conducted and they were found guilty and they were sentenced to death in the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die and adam was told in the sweat of thy face thou shall eat bread and eve thy desire shall be to thy husband well if you read in the book of esther there's two people that are there big thought and teresh that kept the door of the king and they sought to lay hand on the king and it occurred if you look in the megillah 13b while one of them they were found out because one of them had left their posts and there was an inquisition was made of the matter and it was found out that both of them actually were hung on a tree in esther 223 interestingly the word big than means in the press giving meat so out of the sweat of thy brow and teresh means desire so what comes next who was the person that figured out that big thon and taresh were going to kill the king mordecai who should have been elevated mordecai but he was not right after adam and eve sinned and left the garden of eden what type of religious power started to gain prominence was it the true religion or was it false religion false religion and so we do not see mordecai rising up in power we see another power rising up we see haman haman is a man who demands worship haman is a man who hates mordecai by the way haman is the descendant of king agag king agag was the was the king that saul did not kill even though samuel told them to wipe out all of the amalekites so haman wants to kill all the jews because mordecai will not bow down to him he informs the king that there are some people in his kingdom that don't follow his laws and they should be put to death and he's willing to pay the treasury ten thousand talents of silver he demands worship and he gets the king to issue a death decree now you have to be very careful and understand this when the persians wrote a law you could not bring it back remember remember daniel when the king wrote the law and the king found out that daniel was about to go into the lion's den they searched day and night for some loophole that they could get daniel out but they could not find it and so finally daniel had to be placed into the lion's den not even the king himself can reverse the law of the persians and so when haman was successful in getting the king to write a law that would exterminate the jews that law is irremovable it's irrevocable folks is there a people in the universe that do not follow the king's laws yes it's planet earth and is that law immutable yes you cannot change it we represent that death decree is the death decree of adam on all of us that is in the great controversy just as haman wanted to see this death decree placed on those that he hated lucifer knows that you all in here when you go to heaven are going to be replacing those angels that were lost this is what lucifer says in in prophets and kings 588 are these the people that are going to take my place in heaven and the place of the angels who united with me they profess to obey the law of god but have they kept its precepts have they not been lovers of self more than lovers of god have they not placed their own interests above his service have they not loved the things of the world look at the sins that have marked their lives behold their selfishness their malice their hatred of one another will god banish me and my angels from his presence and yet reward those who have been guilty of the same sins thou cannest not do this oh lord in justice justice demands that sentence be pronounced against them when haman convinces the king to write that death decree that is satan accusing you and yes it is true we have violated a law that cannot be changed and so the death decree goes out and the letters were sent by post into all the king's provinces to destroy to kill to cause to perish all jews both young and old little children and women in one day even upon the 13th day of the 12th month which is the month adar and to take a spoil for them for a pray did you notice here that the people that are getting the death decree are the same people in matthew 18. the man would be sold and his wife and his children did you catch that it's exactly the same and so the death decree goes out and all of the jews the death decree is a typology of the death decree given to adam and his offspring by god and accused by lucifer it is a law that cannot be changed young old male female everyone are under its charge there is no escape it's gonna wipe out all and there is absolutely no hope without an intercessor and this is where we are the great controversy and so the plan of salvation is executed into action this is book this is the book of esther 4. all the king's servants so mordecai is there mordecai is there and he is in sackcloth and ashes and esther is like what's wrong with mordecai and mordecai sends a messenger to esther and he says you need to go to the king to intercede here's the problem esther has not been in the presence of the king for 30 days she doesn't know how she's doing with him who does esther represent she represents jesus christ how long had jesus christ been on this earth before he started his ministry 30 years if christ had committed one sin in those 30 years would he be able to intercede on our behalf if christ had committed one sin and ascended into the holy place in heaven would he have stood a chance he would have been killed himself i believe that this book of esther is telling us what esther is going through is what jesus christ went through for us she says all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever whether man or woman shall come unto the king into the inner court that's the holy place who is not called there is one law for him to be put to death accept such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter is the king going to hold out the golden scepter to someone who is sinful no you have to be a perfect sacrifice who is not called there is one law he may live but i have not been called unto the king for 30 days i'm scared to go i don't know what my standing is with the king he hasn't called me in 30 days i may die if i go we may not have that relationship that we used to have and they told mordecai esther's words then mordecai commanded to answer esther think not with thyself thou thou shall escape the king's house more than all the jews think about that jesus is also a man he is in the same predicament as mankind is if he doesn't go and be the savior for all he himself is locked into being a man and is also if christ had never died on the cross do you think christ would have lived forever he eventually would have died and with his death would be mankind's loss this is what mordecai is saying to him her for if thou altogether hold us thy peace at this time then thou shall be enlarged when deliverance arise to the jews from another place but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this i love those words because it gives me hope then esther paid them to return to mordecai this answer go gather the people gather all the jews that are present in shushon and fast for me and neither eat nor drink three days night or day i also and my maidens will fast likewise and i will go unto the king which is not according to the law and if i perish i perish haman ordered the law on the 13th day of the first month mordecai went into ashcl ash and sackcloth the very next day nissan 14. on the very day that esther resigns herself to die if it must be so nissan 14 is the very day that jesus christ did die nissan 14 and for those three days that she and her maidens are fasting jesus christ lay in the tomb fasting so what happens that now it came to pass on the third day nissan 16 resurrection day to be she gets up she puts on her royal apparel and she ascends into the inner court of the king to plead against the law that cannot be changed do you see it do you see the plan of salvation it's an esther 1500 years 2500 years ago and so when the king so here it is so chapter five now it came to pass on the third day that esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner inner court of the king's house let me explain this imagine the king is here sitting on his throne looking this way there is a chamber and then there's a door right here and the door is open and then there is the inner court over here the king can see through that door into the inner court and when someone appears in the inner court with the guard if the king does not put forth his scepter they die here in the inner court most holy place holy place do you understand if the king puts forth the scepter she then is accepted and then she can draw an air walk through the door and she's now in the in the throne room of the king why did they do it this way there was a problem with assassinations they didn't want anyone to get too close to the king so if it wasn't accepted over there that's where they dealt with it and so it was when the king saw esther sorry in the inner court of the king's house over against the king's house and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house over against the gate of the house that's an old english way of just describing what i just showed you okay and it was so when the king saw esther the queen standing in the court that she obtained favor in his sight and the king held out to esther the golden scepter that was in his hand so esther drew nair touched the top of the scepter and then the king said unto her what wilt thou queen esther and what is thy request it shall be given to thee even up to half the kingdom and esther answered if it seemed good to the king let the king and haman come this day unto a banquet that i have prepared let's go through this jesus was absent from his father for 30 years prior to his ministry but was given encouragement from the holy spirit to embark on his mission esther was absent for the king for 30 days prior to her ministry but was given encouragement from mordecai to embark on her mission only jesus because of his divinity could stand in the mo in the holy and the most holy place and in the presence of god and live but he could die if there was any sin found in him only esther because of her royalty could stand in the inner court and then the presence of the king and live but she could die if he did not find favor in her jesus asked his disciples to pray and to fast for him as he struggled with his decision in the garden of gethsemane esther asked all the jews in shushon to fast and pray for her as she struggled with her decision jesus submitted to the will of the father and resigned to die as it was necessary on nisan 14 and rested in the tomb on nisan 14 15 and 16. esther submitted to the will of mordecai and resigned to die if it was necessary on nisan 14 and fasted and preyed on nisan 14 15 and 16. there's more on nissan 16 jesus put on his royal apparel and rose up and went into heaven in the inner chamber the holy place and was accepted into god's presence on nissan 16 esther put on her royal apparel and rose up and went into the inner chamber of the king's palace and was accepted and asked to enter the throne room jesus entered the most holy place on october 22nd 1844 again in the presence of god and the investigative judgment pleading on behalf of his people against the law that could not be changed esther entered into the king's throne room to plead on behalf of her people against the law that could not be changed she had one request a mishta and whenever there is a mishta what always follows adjustments folks this is confirming everything that we know and this was written 2500 years ago and it meets exactly what we know a seventh-day adventist is happening so here's what it looked like here is esther in the inner chamber in the holy place if you will there is the king holding forth his scepter the guard is waiting to see what the sign is going to be and then she is let in into the king's chamber and as she passes through that door we hear signs of 1844. here is a satellite image of the excavations of that very palace here we see the green dot symbolizing the outer chords the blue dot symbolizing the inner court and the red dot symbolizing the throne room of the king this is how we know exactly how it was laid out now there's something that's really interesting about this because this action that she does takes place in the shushan palace in shushan persia and when esther moves in from the inner chamber into the king's throne room again we think about 1844 and the 2300 day prophecy we think about daniel question where was daniel when he received the vision of the 2300 day prophecy daniel chapter 8 verse 2 look it up look up daniel chapter 8 verse 2 whoever has it read it to me because it's going to sound much better coming from somebody else daniel chapter 8 verse 2 this is where daniel gets the vision of the 2 300 days where he gets where he sees christ where he sees where he's given the vision of the 2 300 days and the cleansing of the sanctuary daniel chapter 8. he doesn't understand it you have it read it out loud daniel was in the very same place that esther was when he received the vision of the 2300 days he was in the shushan palace does that give you just chills so let's review after support for mordecai and resigning to die esther fasted for three days and rose up on the third day nissan 16 put on her royal robes and went into the inner chamber and lived only because of her relationship with the king she obtained favor in his eyes and then went into the throne room of the king where she pleaded for a for the lives of her people against the law that could not be changed jesus christ after support from the holy spirit resigned to die jesus died and rested for three days and rose up on the third day same day nissan 16 put on his royal robes and went into the holy place and lived only because of his relationship to god the father then he obtained favor in his eyes and then went into the throne room of the king of kings where he pleaded for the lies of his people against the law that could not be changed so what happens next this is amazing the investigative judgment begins what is the investigative judgment it is two components it's one judgment but it's divided into two components the judgment of the dead the righteous dead and the judgment of the righteous living guess what there's one banquet how many nights two nights it even says it there in esther chapter 7 verse 2 on the second night of the banquet so it's one banquet two nights so what is the essence of the investigative judgment the essence of the investigative judgment is someone brings god the book then they open the books and you look to see whose name is in the book and you see was this person rewarded no then we should reward them with a robe of righteousness isn't that the investigative judgment it is isn't it so guess what happens after the first banquet the king can't sleep and so the chamberlain brings him the books and they open the books and they start reading about big fan and taresh who's going to come up first in the investigative judgment adam and eve probably right they're going to go chronologically big thon into rush anyway mordecai they see mordecai right has anyone rewarded mordecai nope oh haman's coming in hey haven what do you think i should do for the for someone that really really pleases me and he thinks it's him oh well you should do this and put the kingly robe on and run him around the streets perfect do that for mordecai so mordecai mordecai names comes up in the book and he gets a robe the kingly robe i mean this this is this is like right oh you couldn't have designed a story better everything that we know as seventh-day adventists in terms of eschatology is coming true in this book of esther and it's happening in the very same order so this is synonymous with the judgment of the dead that's what's happening right now in heaven the books are being opened rewards are being given to those who are written in the book haman leads mordecai around on a horse proclaiming that's like the three angels message is haman happy about this no he hates it but he has to do it because civil authority is telling him he has to do it do you think that's the same that's going on right now do you think there's some religious entities that hate the fact that we're able to preach the three angels message it's only because of civil authority that's allowing us to do it when that civil authority goes away it's gonna end they're just waiting in fact what is haman building at this very moment he's building a gallows and he has mordecai's name on it i want to hang mordecai on those gallows and i'm just waiting to ask the king for it that's what he's waiting for so after this after that first banquet heyman has a horrible day he comes home late because he's running around the town shushan trying to show off haman and he's running ahead of him and as soon as he gets home guess what the king's people are there to whisk them away to the second night of the banquets what do you think the second night of the banquet has to do with we just talked about the judgment of the righteous dead now we're talking about the judgment living now what is it that starts the judgment of the righteous living do you remember what we talked about yesterday 13 14 15 to get from 13 to 14 you have the national sunday law right and that's kind of what we believe might be the defining marker though ellen white says that nobody knows for sure what is it that the national sunday law has it is when babylon completely falls and so notice here this is esther five and haman told him the glory of the riches and the multitude of his children does somebody else brag about how many children they have they have many many daughters don't they uh-huh and the daughters are gonna go back to the mother and all the things where in the king have promoted him and how he had advanced him above the princes and the servants of the king oh yeah there he's very very high up heyman and moreover yeah esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she prepared for myself and tomorrow am i invited unto her also with the king all yet all this availeth me nothing so long as i see mordecai the jews sitting at the king's gates then juarez his wife and all the friends said unto him let a gallows be made 50 cubits high and tomorrow speak unto the king that mordecai may be hanged thereon then go in merrily with the king onto the banquet and the king pleased haman and he caused the gallows to be made when you see the gallows think sunday law ellen white she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication how is this done by forcing man to accept a spurious sabbath listen carefully not yet however can it be said she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication she has not yet made all nations do this not until this condition shall be reached and the union of church with the world shall be fully accomplished throughout christendom will the fall of babylon be complete has babylon completely fallen today no the fall of babylon will be complete at that time the change is a progressive one and the perfect fulfillment of revelation 14 8 is yet future so what happens at the second banquet you have all of the elements of the second angel's message right fallen fallen is babylon who made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication guess what happens at the second banquet it's a wine banquet the king finds out that haman wants to kill the jews he's wrath haman falls down on the bed of esther i don't know how they ate back then but apparently there were beds okay haman falls down the king comes back in and he thinks that haman is trying to assault his wife fornicate it's all there all of the words in play are there at the second banquet and what happens we know that this is a play on the sunday law because what happens haman gets hung on his own gallows it is the very action of the mother church to cause a sunday law to occur which causes her to completely fall do you see that it's the very action by causing a law enforcing sunday a spurious sabbath that very action causes that very church to fall in the eyes of god it is a complete fall at that point haman in trying to get rid of mordecai builds a gallows and he's hung on the very gallows do you see that it's amazing stuff now what happens we know from biblical eschatology that as soon as this happens what breaks forth from heaven without any restraint the latter rain who in the story is represented as the latter rain mordecai he's the holy spirit he's the one that encourages esther he's the one that visits esther every day and it's right at this moment that hey that mordecai where he was just led around the streets of shushan before now he becomes he actually gets the ring from haman and now he gets to make the laws then the king azir has said unto esther the queen anto mordecai the jew behold i have given esther the house of haman and him that they have hanged on the gallows because he laid his hand upon the jews right ye also for the jews as it liketh you in the king's name and what does this holy spirit do by the way it seals doesn't it seal look how many times the word seal is used here and seal it with the king's ring for writing which is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring that may no man reverse then were the king scribes called at that time in the third month that is the month sivan on the three and twentieth day thereof by the way if you actually calculate that date out it's exactly 70 days from the death decree 70 7 x 10 the perfect number so essentially what's happening here is mordecai is writing a new law in many different languages it's sealed with the king's ring and it's let out on horseback essentially the holy spirit mordecai is writing a new law that will allow the jews to stand against the old law and that is exactly what christ is going to do to allow us to stand against the death decree of adam and mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel in blue and white with a great crown of gold and with a garment of fine linen and the city of shushan rejoiced them was glad the jews had light and gladness and joy and honor and in every province and in every city whistle over the king's commandment and his decree came the jews had joy and gladness and a feast for a good day and many of the people of the land became jews for the fear of the jews fell upon them can i restate that many came out of babylon into the true church do you see this every aspect of what we know in the great controversy is being fulfilled in this book of esther so this closing events chart is perfect and we're seeing it the fulfillment the nissan 13 14 and 15. okay so if it was that simple at the very end of esther it should be and they all got saved and everything was fine and happily after after and and okay we're done that's not how it happened if you look at esther chapter nine you will see a couple of things first of all the story of simon's feast we talked about simon's feast right mary magdalene how much did she feel like she was out like she owed christ 500 denarii that was gratitude that was her that was grace and what did she actually do she did something out of that gratitude what was it it was breaking the alabaster jar and pouring the spiked nut onto christ's feet how much was that worth 300 there is a there is a feeling there is a a understanding there is a faith okay and then there is a doing of that faith 500 300. okay so here we are now we are in the last month of the year this is where you have to pay attention this happened at the beginning of the year the first month and now it's going to be executed at the end of the year the end of time and the way it gets dealt with is very different the way the people in shushan go through this is very different than the people in the provinces there are way more jews in the provinces than there are in shushan shushan is a tiny capital there are way more many jews in the provinces so the first thing that happens is they are saved over guess what 13 14 and 15. we see it again and this is what this is what got me into the study of trying to figure out the 13 14 and 15. this 13 14 and 15 on the adar the last month on the 13th day of the last month is when the old death decree was to be executed so what happens in shushan if you read esther chapter 9 the jews in shushan defend themselves 500 attackers come against them and they kill them all and also the 10 sons of haman okay but in the provinces 75 000 attackers attacked the jews and they are able to withstand all 75 000 and they survive so that's what happens on the 13th not a single jew dies in this in this conflagration great we should be all done right no they're saved but esther is not yet done who does esther represent jesus i don't want you to miss this esther goes back to the king you're like come on esther you you kind of push this a little bit far right you've gotten what you want you're asking for more but esther is no longer a little weak uh little weak queen who's tremulous she has now had a year of experience okay she goes back to the king and she boldly asks him for two things so for whose sake is she asking this for for her sake she is the one that's asking for this does this sound familiar does jesus ask for something for his sake yes he does actually for my name's sake remember in in psalms 23 he leads me through the path of righteousness for whose sake his sake remember ezekiel 36 i do not this for your sake i'm not going to make you righteous for your sake i'm making it for my i had pity on my holy name correct who is going to the king right now esther she's not satisfied yet with the situation what does she ask for she asks for two things number one she asks for one more day of fighting only in the capital in shushan and number two she wants the dead bodies of haman hung on the gallows now what did we say which day when we talked yesterday which day of 13 14 and 15 is the sunday law active in the 14th that's correct what does the gallows represent sunday law and so what do we see here we see on the very day that we believe the sunday law is going to be effective in the 14th we see the gallows once again being erected but this time we see the 10 sons of haman being put on them and so this is what happens this is exactly what happens the king allows it to happen and and so while the provinces are resting on the 14th while the provinces have no bearing on the 14th what i'm saying is righteous jews living in the provinces are not taking part in the actions on the 14th they are resting and to this day when you celebrate purim most of the jews who celebrate purim celebrated on the 14th of nisan that's where most of them do but there is a special case of jew one who happens to be living in shushan one who happens to be witnessing the end events one who happens to be there and see the gallows what does the gallows represent sunday law is there a special type of jew that's in shushon can we take the application of this that maybe at the end there is going to be a special type of people at the end a remnant that is going to have a little different experience exactly and so what did they do this time they defend themselves against 300 attackers and the 10 sons of haman are hanged do you see the 500 the 300 do you see that what do you make of that what does the 500 represent the five exactly the debts so those on the 13th feel the debt they are like mary magdalene and now what they do as a result of that debt even though it doesn't make up for that debt they are breaking the alabaster jar they are pouring the spikenard and they are the ones that will have an extra day of fighting on the 14th and then finally just as the 144 000 will be sealed on the 15th so they too rest in fact today there's a certain group of people if they're in walled cities celebrate purim on the 15th it's called the shushanpura interesting isn't it isn't this interesting i think it's amazing so 13 14 and 15. now i want to show you i remember i told you there was a secret message okay here's the secret message it's the ten sons of haman when the ten sons of haman's names are recorded in esther you have to understand at purim there is a jewish tradition that has gone on for 2500 years that at purim they read the book of esther in hebrew and there are certain parts when they read that they read it all together there's about four parts in the book of esther you if you went to a purim celebration there would be a room filled like this full of jews there would be a rabbi or a master at the at the head and they'd be reading it and when he got to certain places in esther about four different places they would all read it together but that's not special enough because this is one of the places when they read the ten sons of haman in esther chapter nine they all read it together but they do something more than just that they take a deep breath and they read all the ten sons of haman in one breath as if it were one long sentence they've been doing this for two thousand five hundred years so these this was who was this requested by was this a requirement to save the jews on the 13th this is for esther's benefits she asked the king for this you'll see remember what jesus christ did he said for his benefits in ezekiel 36 which happens right before ezekiel 37 which is the dry bones chapter which is when the resurrection occurs this is right before the resurrection but i had pity for my holy name which the house of israel had profaned among the heathen whether they went therefore say unto the house of israel thus saith the lord god i do not this for your sakes o house of israel but for my holy name's sake which ye have profaned among the heathen whither ye went and i will sanctify my great name which is profaned among the heathen which has you have profaned in the midst of them and the heathen shall know that i am the lord saith the lord god when i am i shall be sanctified in you before their eyes now notice what he's going to do it how is he going to do it watch for i will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land and then what is he gonna do i will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols i will cleanse you a new heart i will give you and a new spirit he's going to give you a new creation and i will put it in you and i will take away the stony heart of your flesh and i will give you a heart of flesh is that what he says he's going to do that's what he says he's gonna do okay check this out so as i said the ten sons of haman it's read at the festival on adar 14 it's also the only place in the book of esther where the where the names are written vertically as if they are hanging on the gallows on the page if you look normally the hebrews right from right to left right to left right to left it's an interesting thing anyone any culture check me out on this any culture east of jerusalem writes right to left any culture west of jerusalem writes left to right see if i'm right on that i'm trying to think of exceptions but generally speaking that's kind of what happens but in jerusalem they write right to left here's the only place in the hebrew bible where they stop doing that they still write right to left but you can see that those those letters there that are the same on the left-hand side that's the word and so this and this and this look it up in esther chapter nine where they read the ten sons of haman so what are the weird things about this number one they all read it together it's listed vertically and this is the only place everybody takes a deep breath and they say all ten sons names and these are persian names because haman grew up in persia everyone clear on this and where what think about what this is this is on the 14th and this is happening at the request of esther all right let's put it together so you take the this is what i did i took the the ten names and there they are in actual hebrew so these are persian names that have sounds associated with them and they can be written in hebrew and that's how we have them today they're persian names written in hebrew okay and here are the names so let's try it alrighty everyone take a deep breath we're gonna we're gonna pretend that we're at the feast of purim here all right can you do this take a look hopefully you have uh good lungs all right here we go parshadatha dalfon azpatha paratha adalia eredatha parmasata arisai eredai and vajdatha very good okay do you want to know what you just said yes you do so what i did was i took a number of different standard dictionaries so strong's brown driver briggs hitchcock's and a number of them why because not all of these names are in all of those dictionaries so i have to find i have to find them i have to dig each one of these words each each one of these names means something so i want you to think about this for 25 years without even knowing what they're doing the jews have been preserving this statement over and over again since esther and this is what it means parshadotha means given by prayer delfon means reign as patha means gathering of men like the harvest and protect paratha means fruitful adalia means to draw up aridatha harvest and new and noble birth paramashatta means a yearling bull arisai means lion-like eredai means the lion is enough excellent and worthy and vajdatha means sprinkling the chamber of purity and whites so allow me a little bit of license and we take those and we come up with a statement like this i want you to think about ezekiel 36 i want you to think about everything that happens i think about who this is where this is and who requested it and who's kept it preserved for all this time given by prayer you know what's given by prayer the latter rain given by prayer the rain shall gather men like the harvest protect them and they shall be fruitful for he will draw out the harvest and give a new and noble birth to them for he is a yearling bull but he is also like a lion and he is enough excellent and worthy to sprinkle the chamber and purify them and make them white and that happens on the 14th day which is exactly the day that we need it to happen on and it's at the request of esther who represents jesus who says i will do this for my holy name do you see that for 2 500 years the jews have been saying this every single year almost as if they're waiting for the promise to be fulfilled so here's rabbi levi kaplan and if you ask him you can look him up on youtube he said why do we do this rabbi he says there are four places in the megillah where the congregants join the reader and those four places are areas that talk about redemption those spots mark a change something great that happened something that ushers in the victory redemption salvation of the jewish people at that time and those places are esther 2 5 esther 8 15 to 16 and esther 10 3 but this is the fourth place in esther chapter nine however this is not the case when we talk about the ten sons of haman so why is it that the ten sons of haman are recited by the congregation and he goes on to give three very scholarly and not so scarily as admitted reasons why he half jokes that one day when the reader went to read the passage in one breath he paused perhaps too long for that breath and this triggered the congregation to start reading the passage as one a little on the purim side he admits the second he inserts is that the reader must say each word clearly and in one breath there's a chance that he could miss one of the words since it is absolutely essential that each word be conveyed at a reading it was necessary for each member of the congregation to say those names the rabbi's third reason though is is probably the most important for us today this is his thoughts he says quote reading the ten sons in one breath is something that every person must experience on their own we cannot fulfill our obligation so to speak by having someone else breathe for us we have to recite the names of haman's children in one breath of hours just as we can't appoint someone else to fill in for us we can't hire a proxy to breathe for us so too with the reading of the magilla we have to experience reading the names in one breath so there are the ten sons of haman given by prayer the rain shall gather men like the harvest protect them and they shall be fruitful for he will draw up the harvest and give a new and noble birth to them for he is a yearling bull but also like a lion and he is enough excellent and worthy to sprinkle the chamber and purify them and make them whites those are for the people in shushan so if you think about what you just saw here was there somebody else that prayed for the rain who else prayed for the rain elijah who has that elijah message seventh-day adventists elijah represents the 144 000 because he did not die but was translated he was taken care of by ravens in the wilderness he has a message for the end time five either follow god or follow baal and he prayed for the rain and he prayed seven times and you think about seven times sprinkling as the day of atonement naaman at the base seven times so i believe that the key to get that ladder rain or to get the holy spirit is really if we could only know how elijah prayed for that reign he prayed seven times if we could only know how allied what was going through if we could just be a fly on the rock listening to elijah or know what was in his head we would know the secrets to how we need to pray for the holy spirit well if we go to first kings 18 41 to 44 we can read the bible and elijah said unto ahab get the up and eat and drink and there was a sound of an abundance of rain so ahab went up to eat and drink and elijah went to the top of carmel and he cast himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees and he said to his servant go up now and look towards the sea and he went up and looked and said there is nothing and he said go again seven times and it came to pass at the seventh time that he said behold there arises a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand and he said go up and say to ahab prepare thy chariot and get thee down that the rain not stop thee well that wasn't that was nice to know but it wasn't very helpful about what was in his mind right wouldn't it be great if we had some source somebody to tell us what was in elijah's mind we do aren't we blessed to have the spirit of prophecy because ellen white wrote exactly what was in elijah's mind in the review in herald may 26 1891 and we'll end on this we'll end the whole thing on this because really this is the whole crux of the matter she starts off before the sacrifice elijah had said how long halt ye between two opinions if the lord be god follow him but if baal then follow him after the destruction of the prophets of baal elijah said to ahab get thee up eat and drink for there is a sound and abundance of rain after the king's departure elijah went up to the top of carmel and he cast himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees when he had bid in ahab to go up and eat and drink did he have any evidence that there were showers were about to fall did he see the clouds in the heavens did he see the rain or hear the thunder no he spoke these words because the spirit of the lord had moved upon his mind and led him to believe that his prayer would be heard he had done all that was possible he had done all that was possible to make manifest his faith and now he began to pray for the outpouring of the abundance of rain how did elijah pray watch he said to his servant go up now look towards the sea and he went up and looked and said there is nothing and he said go again seven times the servant watched while elijah prayed six times he returns from the watch saying there's nothing no cloud no sign of rain but the prophet did not give up in discouragement he kept reviewing his life to see where he had failed to honor god he confessed his sins and thus continued to afflict his soul before god while watching for a token that his prayer was answered as he searched his heart he seemed to be less and less both in his own estimation and in the sight of god it seemed to him that he was nothing and that god was everything and when he reached the point of renouncing self while he clung to the savior as his only strength and righteousness that's when the answer came the servant appeared and said behold there arise with a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand and he said go up and say unto ahab prepare thy chariot and get thee down that the rain not stop thee and it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain and ahab robin went to drezriel and the hand of the lord was upon elijah and he gird up of his loins and ran before ahab to the entrance of jezreel do you remember what john the baptist said he must increase and i must decrease i'm going to share with you two more slides before we finish and that is what ellen white says right after this and i found it to be very poignant for us she says there are many lessons to be drawn from the experience of israel and of the prophet of god we are living in a time of apostasy similar to the time of which we have read for there is a great religious declension in the churches among the professed people of god the children of god should have a realization of their accountability and should direct their hearts toward god seeking for strength and grace with an earnestness which they have never before manifested there was never a there was never there never was more solemn time in the history of the world than the time in which we are now living our eternal interests are at stake and we should arouse to the importance of making our calling and election sure we dare not risk our eternal interest on mere probabilities we must be in earnest what we are what we are doing what is to be our course of action in the future all are questions of untold moments and we cannot afford to be listless indifferent or unconcerned it becomes each one of us to inquire what is eternity to me are the feet in the path that leads to heaven or on the broad road that leads to perdition all around us the world is manifesting intense activity there is a feeling of apprehension among all people they are looking for some great event but know not what it is to be the state of affairs in europe excites men's fears and all are looking for those things that shall come upon the earth and their hearts are failing for fair the nations are filled with anxiety and there is a spirit of unrest and tumult on every hand if ever there was a time when men should know their position it is now no man can afford to go on blindfolded no knowing what road he is traveling but careless and hoping to come out in the end right for great and disastrous will be his awakening those who do not appreciate eternal life enough to work diligently for it will never obtain it those who are seeking earthly pleasures worldly gain and honor will never make a success of winning eternal life unless they repent and turn to god with all their hearts she wrote that in 1891. so we have the plan of salvation we have the sanctuary we have seen god's signature and we have asked is it possible that god has a signature and the answer i believe is yes and the question is does the signature open up other doors in that room and the answer is yes and i believe that only those that have and understand the sanctuary will be able to understand these things and that is why we need to get the word of the sanctuary out and have people understand it all heaven is interested in the happiness of man our heavenly father does not close the avenues of joy to any of his creatures the divine requirements call upon us to shun those indulgences that would bring suffering and disappointment that would close to us the door of happiness in heaven the world's redeemer accepts men as they are with all their wants imperfections and weaknesses and he will not only cleanse us from sin and grant redemption through his blood but he will satisfy the heart longing of all who consent to wear his yoke to bear his burden it is the purpose to impart peace and rest to all who come to him for the bread of life he requires us to perform only those duties that will lead our steps to heights of bliss to which the disobedient can never attain the true joyous life of the soul is to have christ formed within the hope of glory so here's our final call to action where you are let us do these five things as we leave number one make time in our daily life for a relationship with god otherwise it's not going to happen we need to have that relationship with god meditate on christ and him crucified that is what mary magdalene did she had that personal experience she realized that he personally saved her and it was out of that gratitude that she was able to do what she did she didn't even realize what she was doing was difficult it came naturally for her number three ask him to identify the sins in your life and cooperate with god in putting them away for good do you know that when christ wrote raised lazarus from the dead that's really difficult to do can we raise anybody from the dead no but was there a role for man to play in the resurrection of lazarus he christ asked them to roll the stone away if christ would have raised lazarus from the dead it would have been to no effect if the stone was not rolled away he would have been stuck in a dark tomb for him to have the fullness you have to roll the stone away god allows us to cooperate with him in raising to new life and if you think about it who probably got the best experience out of that resurrection those that stood by and watched or those that actually rolled the stone away i bet you those people that rolled the stone away will never ever forget and so god allows us to be his hands to be part of his body and he allows us to cooperate with the holy spirit in getting rid of our sins so that we may be prepared we need to start to study the issues of righteousness by faith i don't know how it's going to happen but based on the last supper i believe that is the next greatest event that is going to occur in this church it is a re-awakening of the understanding of righteousness by faith learn those issues figure out what happened in 1888 and then finally it's very easy on an adventist campus to feel sometimes like you're not worthy like you don't fit in like maybe you're not good enough that's very easy to happen remember that christ accepts you exactly how you are but he doesn't want to leave you the way you are and so that when satan tells you this because it's only satan that tells you this that you're not good enough he doesn't want you to get involved one of the things to help that i found that's very helpful is when you start to be involved in teaching other people this it is an amazing thing don't feel like you have to be better before you can start to teach you can reach out where you are in where you are and in doing that you will be imbued with the holy spirit so teaching is the best way of learning when you teach something you have to learn it good okay and that's when you that's when you grow so do not feel number one if you ever feel like you're not good enough that is satan talking to you okay yes we can improve god is going to help you with that but god will take you immediately the way you are you know we've talked about how probation is going to close on the church fairly early it's not going to be next month there's a number of things that have to happen but each one of us individually we have no idea what's going to happen to us when we walk out of these doors right we don't know when our probation is going to close that's why we must always have oil in our lamps so we are not awakened at an early hour and we don't know what happened so make time in our life meditate on christ ask him to identify your sins in your life cooperate with god in doing that start to study the issues of righteousness by faith and teach others what it is that you've learned and hopefully this weekend will change your life please stand with me as we as we end dear lord thank you so much for such a wonderful weekend and we have seen that your spirit has moved among us myself included that this is really what it is that you want and that we have we have understood more fully your word and the sanctuary and we will now read with renewed interest in the stories of the bible that they are not just two-dimensional old stories they are alive that the bible is a living word a two-edged sword please help us to internalize these things to to meditate on them and as we go out to give us strength to spread your word and the three angels message please bless everybody here i'll give everybody safe travel help all of them in their studies help them to be successful in thy way in thy name in the name of jesus christ amen we're not through we do have some questions from the online audience that is also watching today and then we'll also take some questions here as well let me see if i can read this from one of our sophomore students can you explain more about new light as i have had people use these exact quotes that you used friday night to show me that we should be keeping the feasts how do we not take these truths too far with feast keeping etc so that's a very good question and i i probably should have qualified at the very beginning i believe that we can learn a lot from the feasts i believe that there's a lot of type and anti-type in there i do not believe in keeping the feasts i think ellen white's very clear that when christ died on the cross that the passover feast basically was irrelevant at that point he had basically put an end to that now in terms of new light that's the thing that uh that is very important there is going to be new light there's no question about it we are in an increasing light and we're always going to learn new things but the key to that is taking what is correct and discarding what is false and isaiah 8 20 that's why i put that at the very end of those quotes isaiah 8 20 to the law and to the testimony what is the testimony spirit of prophecy if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them and so keeping the feasts keeping the passover feast keeping all of these feasts is not we were not ever given any light on that and so that would be something that uh is is uh not and i would be careful by the way for things that are salvational new light is going to add meat on the bones what i always am a little bit concerned about is when people say this is new light you need to accept it and if you don't you're going to be lost okay that's a problem for me what is it that saves us jesus christ and his death on the cross everything else is adding to it so so keeping so telling me that keeping the feasts is uh is something that is salvational no no we haven't been given that light and that is goes against what we have as as previous light i know that the using the feast as an example but in generally speaking again new light will ever come in but it must agree with what has gone before god is not going to give us confusion that's babylon god is going to give us things that correlate all right another question from one of our college students what is the significance of the week between the 14th of nisan and the 21st in the feast of unleavened bread yeah so um it's a whole week of unleavened bread it was to celebrate the seven days that it took the israelites to leave egypt and then finally get across the red sea if you look into that it's a little bit unclear it took them about three days to reach the red sea but then there was some things that happened at the red sea and then finally they crossed but traditionally the jews celebrate the feast of unleavened bread as the time it took to get them from egypt to the wilderness because we know in terms of their food god supplied manna at that point on i don't know if there's a significance in terms of eschatological but i do know that on the 15th there begins a seven day feast of unleavened bread and even though that takes us out a few days i see it as a seven period of time where you're not consuming anything that has leaven in it in other words a period of sinlessness which actually starts the day before on the 14th in preparation for that all right and then a question also related to this last message esther and vashti are both asked to come before the king one refuses to accept the crown and the other accepts all the king offers her and takes nothing else are these two different churches well it's certainly possible in in our uh play on it if you will uh vashti represents lucifer because you know he went against the king and he was deposed but not killed and we've of course already gone through with what esther represents for a number of there's other many coincidences or it's it actually plays into it because esther has this duality and she's able to bridge the gap between the royal throne and and the jews so um yes a woman in the bible represents the church there may be another different meaning there but in terms of looking at the entire great controversy esther fulfills the role of christ in that in that play but this is what i said the bible obviously has multiple meetings on multiple levels so okay any questions here among our face-to-face group yes question here yeah you have a microphone coming appreciated what you said about um god knew that man was going to sin and so he had already a plan that's why the sanctuary was in heaven before it was ever on earth but why then was the i mean i understand the ten commandments that was god's character but why the bud and the manna the rod oh the rod aaron's rather butted and the mana you know i i haven't really studied that extensively i'm not sure is uh i'll ask you is is there a aaron's rod and a man in heaven or is that just in the i'll have to look into that i'm not sure yeah all right another question from one of our college students i guess this is more directed to administration uh but was it intentional that that that this weekend was the 13th through the 15th [Laughter] i didn't even notice that actually that's very interesting and uh it was not intentional but uh it uh may have been prophetic any other questions from here i know i had one yesterday as well there's one over here good and i'm going to try to find one from a student yesterday that i'm having trouble locating go ahead time to share with us a little bit about your testimony how god brought you from your teenager i mean being a teenager and becoming a physician and then you know and how you start studying the bible just a short test oh okay that could take a little while um so how so the question is my testimony how i went from a teenager to being where i am now it's totally god i i i it's kind of a long story i mean i grew up in a regular adventist home a very good adventist home um and uh but you know it's uh you know you start to get involved with things like school and college and you don't you know make as much time for god as you as you would normally have but looking back over my time i could see how god was grooming me for this type of of a situation i did a lot of teaching i tutored a lot in in college i learned to get up in front of people and speak i did a speech class i was horrible in speech i had gotten a d in french i almost didn't even get into the university because of that they didn't university of california didn't consider that a passing grade fortunately they went back and looked at my grade and they decided to change i don't know how but they decided to change it was god and and i finally got into college um i met my wife first year in chemistry class and that's a whole nother story um yeah she she knew she wanted to be a doctor from the day she came out of the womb with a stethoscope i mean she knew she wanted to be a doctor she she knew exactly what she had to do she had a 4.8 gpa from high school straight a's never got an a minus in her life and i looked at her and i said why can't i do that and so um there's this sort of back and forth kind of a courtship a little bit and i started to delude myself thinking if i just got better grades maybe she'd pay attention to me and so i started to get better grades and um after we got married she said you know what really attracted me to use when you started getting better grades so i deluded myself into actually thinking something that was actually true it was it was bizarre um but uh so and this might be helpful to some of you here i was both my wife and i went to the university of california riverside a very you know secular university christian christians on campus nevertheless i mean but evolution served up on a plate every day every day and so um i was pathologically shy first quarter first year chemistry class i i had an eye on betty my wife she was the she was the most beautiful girl in the class very smart always sat at the front of class she was in my lab section and i was so shy that i couldn't even get her name the only way i could get her name this is so embarrassing at the end of the quarter when you check in your glassware and you know you got to put the glassware in and make sure it hasn't broken you got to go up to the front and put your name on a clipboard so that the ta can come and make sure you're so i watched for her to go up put her name down and i ran up to see what her name was this is how pathologically shya was um it was not it was not a good thing anyway she was catholic okay her family is catholic not only was she catholic she was polish and the pope was polish okay so you know that so this was a you know i knew that this wasn't going to work and so early on you know she as we start to get to know each other it first started out as studying as we first started to you could see things were going a little bit you know how it is in relationships things start to get a little bit more chummy right and i started to realize this is this is not good i've always been raised that you know i need to marry a seventh-day adventist you need to be equally yolked and i knew this and so i said you know you're catholic and i'm seventh-day adventist and she's like well what's the difference and i'm like oh boy we're the angels i thought it was on candid camera so i i i realized i said look i don't want to go down this road and and it's going to be more difficult after i know somebody so i handed her the great controversy i said if you can read this then you'll understand and she read it and she said you know what it makes sense and to make a long story short she was baptized as a seventh-day adventist before we proposed i wanted to make sure that this was not i was not coercing her she had to do this on her own she did it and she became a seven day she teaches sabbath school in the kids lessons it's just amazing her mother unfortunately her father passed away um early um her mother she's a she's she's a european she likes her churches um but one day we were working on her one day she was sitting in the church and the the priest got up and said you know um there are many things that we do in the catholic church that are not in the bible and uh this week marks the week that whatever and we're honoring the virgin mary and even though we don't have any biblical evidence for this our tradition says that we should do this this that and the other and my mother-in-law basically is like forget this what am i doing here these people are just making things up it's not even in the bible and she walked out of that church and she never went back and she was baptized into the seventh-day adventist church as well so it's i've been very blessed and that's really been kind of my walk and i can see looking back all of what god has done and he's doing it in your lives too you just don't know it maybe you do know it but you don't know the half of it and we all know it when we get to heaven so that's a long answer to your question so have you learned anything this weekend i think there was a lot to learn in each one of those presentations fortunately they're recorded and it's uh worthwhile to go back through that because there was probably you know maybe even more about than a hundred instructional points per presentation [Laughter] i told you it would be a styrofoam cup might have been uh before uh for some of our earlier weimar students or younger ones it might have been a little bit of information overload but it is recorded and we would certainly encourage you to go through that again we have another question is that right okay go ahead question um thank you for this this is my favorite for obvious reasons but her name is esther you mentioned that so esther says if i perish i perish so we believe jesus is a hundred percent man but we also believe he's a hundred percent god so how would that do we have the answer to that that is a mystery and i think ellen white says we'll be solving that mystery in eternity the mystery of salvation how god how jesus was a hundred percent man but also a hundred percent god that's true well dr uh schwell we have a special gift on behalf of weimar uh for you uh your wonderful wife and i think there's even some gifts in here for you wow 15 year old and oh wonderful and 10 year old thank you so much this is uh primarily from uh the wemart and um thank you so much and and the wemart has a lot of wonderful things if there's something in there that you um don't think you want to use uh the head of our wemart is sitting right here and she said she would exchange it for you if you want to go through the wee mark and look through it you're certainly welcome to do that but i think you'll find a lot of um of wonderful uh things for you and your family there and give you some remembrance of weimar thank you so much it's been a pleasure it's uh as i said it was something that was on it was a spot on my wall it was something that i was looking forward to for a very very long time and fortunately i'll be back in february i think that's right he's coming back for the emotional intelligence summit giving a couple of scientific presentations at that time related to covid of course and also related to the mental health issues behind covet we're seeing a lot more mental health issues not only due to the response to covid but also due to covet itself and so we'll be centering in on those two aspects plus we'll have many other speakers from around the nation and the world so be sure and tune in for the emotional intelligence summit february 18-21 you may not have room for that basket if you don't you can leave it but if you do that basket is yours okay thank you yeah i was gonna wonder i was gonna ask if you sell suitcases at the shop well let's uh let's stand as we close this colloquium father in heaven what a blessing it has been to open up your word and to see it from a new perspective to see even the math and the days and the feasts pointing to new and deeper truths concerning you and your love for us and the fact that you do take care of your own just as you took care of esther in your own in israel you will take care of your own through thick and thin as we prepare to go through a crisis and a time of trouble such as this world has never seen we pray lord that we these sessions will indeed inspire us to draw close to you to draw close to your word and to drink daily of your fountain and to express that love and truth to those around us as you did when you were here on this earth and we thank you for dr schwelt bless him bless him in his work and his ministry bless his family and may he continue to spread this good news around the world in jesus name we pray amen amen thank you thank you

Channel: Weimar Church Media

Views: 3,333

Rating: 4.9365077 out of 5

Keywords: Weimar Campus Church, Sabbath, Seventh Day Adventist, Coming of the Lord, End of time, Pastor Don Mackintosh, Dr Neil Nedley, NEWSTART, Health, education, economy, trial, tribulation

Id: h5Eh5r8k-fY

Length: 108min 50sec (6530 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 15 2020