little book of Esther in the Old Testament, right before Job, Esther, Job. So we know where Solomon is and Job is before Psalms and then the little book of Esther. I want to read from verse one. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus. This is Ahasuerus, which reigned from India, even unto Ethiopia, even a hundred and seven and twenty provinces. That in those days when Ahasuerus sat on the throne of its 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 Medias. Now, this is quite interesting. Persia then is Iran today, so it's quite familiar. The nobles and the princes of the provinces being before him when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even on hundred and four-score days. When these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were peasant in Shushan the palace, both under great and small seven days in the course of the garden of the king's palace. where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, with silver rings and pillars of marble. The beds were of gold or the couches of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold the vessels being diverse one from another, no two alike, and royal wine in 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 band's pleasure. also vast eyes that Queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. Now, I'm not going to go into detail on this book. We'll leave that, Lord Willing, next Sunday. We'll take up a quest for a Queen. But I want to speak of something that's very interesting, and that is, the fact that in these ten chapters God is not mentioned. No dust saith the Lord, and yet there is no book in your Bible that gives more evidence of God behind the scenes than this book. And it's a very interesting thing when we stop to think of God's silence in the world. There are two periods of God's silence we're going to mention when it seems that God doesn't do anything. As I say, this book is a very remarkable book. It's a lovely story, as we'll see next week. It is called the book of the Hidden Face. God is behind the scenes, but He is also the one who moves all the scenes that He is behind. You know there are nations today that God is not believed in or not even mentioned, yet God is working. You read about the iron curtain, the bamboo curtain, and the Berlin Wall and all this. But this, that can keep God out. There are nations that want to keep the Almighty out. They don't want their people to hear about the Almighty. because they know that their system of government would not be consistent with the Almighty. And so that's what you have in this amazing book. And in these countries I've mentioned, God is working all the time. And that's a wonderful thing. God is at work. You can't rid God out of the universe. You cannot keep them out of our country. And you cannot keep a mother of your heart without paying a big price. I think of the case of Nebuchadnezzar. He was the king of the first Gentile power, and it was a big power. And here is Nebuchadnezzar, a very powerful man, undoubtedly the greatest empire, Gentile empire of its time. and possibly to this day. He was a great man. He was a man that had supreme authority. If anyone disagreed with him, death. And he was so egotistic that he set up an image, a great image, an image of gold, and everybody was to worship that image. And if anyone did so much as to pray toward any other God, save him, they were to be thrown in the fiery furnace, and three Hebrew children be baptized. That shows you the kind of tyrant he was. He didn't want anything to do with the living God. He had all kinds of idols, and he named some of his servants after his idols his supposed God. But God looked at that big monarch, with all this wealth and power, a God who didn't want a thing to do, a man who didn't want a thing to do with the Almighty. God says, I'm going to put you through the ringer. And that man lost his mind. He acted like an animal. He acted like a wild beast. He was driven from his soul. And then he repented. And I'm going to read to you, you don't have to turn to, it's only three verses. I'm going to read to you what that King said when he received his mind back. When he got back, his senses and his memory, and that's over in Daniel four, this is what he says. And at the end of the day, if Nebuchadnezzar, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understandingly turned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever. Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven. and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him what jewel is thy. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, and extol, and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are good, and his way's judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to obey. And so you have this King, The first great Gentile king, before that we had Jewish kings, like that of David and Solomon. They had great kings. Then followed the king of Babylon. Following him, Muriel Persia. Following him, Alexander the Great. Following him, the Roman Empire. And so you have God working. And how stupid man is to think he can get by without having to face up to the Almighty, trying to live as though God didn't exist. As I have already mentioned, there's no thus saith the Lord in this book, and yet there's no book in the Bible that reveals God, the invisible God, more than this book does. You see his hand overruling? You see his hand in preserving his people, correcting his people, comforting his people, caring for his people. All kinds of evidence that God could work and he lived. He moved. Watching moving quietly but surely until the peril was passed relative to that nation and his people enjoyed safety and peace. God is working today. You know the supreme message of the book of Esther is simply this, that God lives, God acts, those silences. Unseen. God is at work. The poet has well put it, and I think it's remarkable. The poet writes this, Tale it seems the great avenger that God, histories pages but record, one death gravel in the darkness, tricks, world system, and the word, the Bible, truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the still unknown, stand of God watching in the shadows for his own. How, too. We live in a day when it seems that wrong is on the throne, ruling. Right is on the scaffold. God is looking on these watches. Man lifts his fists in the face of the Almighty. He goes his way as if God didn't live, didn't exist. And I'm going to tell you one thing, God lives. God exists. God sees. He knows everything. There are four hundred silent years in your Bible, and that's from Malachi to Matthew. Before that, God spoke to man directly, like to Abraham. He also spoke by angel. He just fasted angels to men. He spoke through his prophets and through his priests. He spoke in a supernatural way. He dried up the Red Sea. He dried up the River Jordan that his people might go over. I mean, there was a cloud that followed the nation of Israel. When God dwelt in the midst of his people in that tabernacle, there was a cloud hovering over and hovered over in the daytime to keep them from the blistering rays of the sun. Then when night came on, that cloud turned to brightness and fire to give them heat at night. That happened while the children of Israel were going through the wilderness. He sent the manna down from heaven, angel food, and fed them for forty years. He also sent water out of the filthy rock. There was one supernatural sign after another, not to mention the prophets that God sent to them, an angel ministry. You know, all of that stopped in Malachi's days. God says, I'll talk no more. And you do. No more prophets. No more supernatural sign, God was silent, until a voice appeared, John the Baptist. Behold, the Lamb of God was taken away, the sin of the world. He introduced the Lord Jesus, and here is God, manifested in the flesh. Here is God speaking to a man, his Son. He had the life of Christ. Then the apostles, and you come into the Book of Acts, and you go on through the Acts, and you come to the Book of Revelation, and from the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, to John's final chapter, in the Revelation, ninety-six years God has been speaking. God in that sundry time spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his sons. So God was silent for four hundred years. Then he speaks. He speaks through his sons. And those who minister concerning the sons, and when old John and old man passed nine years, on the Isle of Patmos after he wrote the book of Revelation. The last chapter of the book of Revelation closes that period when God spoke. Up to then he used visions, he used angels. He did things. He's supernatural. But here is John. And he says in the end of Revelation, If any man add unto this book, I'm going to get some water, Harold. Anyone add unto the words that are written in this book, I will add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. John hands out a warning, lest anybody change or add to or take from God's precious words. And for nineteen hundred years God has been silent. He hasn't sent one angel. He hasn't sent one prophet like Elijah or like Isaiah. No. God has been silent for nineteen hundred years. There's nothing really supernatural happens. God is silent. That's a very serious thing to think that God is silent. And God has given us one thing, this book. But along with this book, He's given the Holy Spirit. And aside the Holy Spirit and this book, He's used circumstances. But God has not spoken from heaven. directly. He has not spoken from heaven for two thousand years, nineteen hundred years. He's been sacked. That's a strange thing, isn't it? I wonder why man can't escape the fact that although God has not acted like he did, man has not acted. Well, God has not acted the way he did in the Old Testament and the way he did for ninety-six years. In the time of John the Baptist or John concludes the last chapter of the book of Revelation, yet through these nineteen hundred years some amazing things have been going on on the earth, through the operation of the Holy Spirit of God and through the preaching of this book. This is God's voice today. When is he going to speak again? God is going to speak when Jesus Christ comes for his church. Man cannot escape the fact that God exists. Man cannot escape the fact that God is working. He's alive. In him we live, we move, we have our being. The God in whose hand thy bet is, and whose all thy ways thou hast not glorified. That's what Daniel said. The God in whose hand thy bet is, and whose all thy ways he's got your bet in his hand, and all your ways in his hand, and yet you have the glory. Oh, he hasn't demonstrated this with himself the way you'd like him to, but it's in the book. And here you have God, silent, but he's not blind, he's not deaf, and he's not inaction. And you read this over in Ecclesiastes eight and eleven. because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set on them to do evil." Man doesn't like that. Oh, he bodes in the back why he can do what you like when nothing happens. Because this sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Man seems to get by with just about anything these days. He can do all kinds of wickedness. He can cuss God, get by. He can say the most awful things about the Almighty. He can ridicule and scorn this book. Nothing happens. That's what the Bible says. But you know God is listening all the time. Man thinks he's getting away with it. God can abide his tithe. He's not in the hurry. He can afford to wait. You can. You know there's a remarkable verse over in Psalm fifty. There are a number of things in that Psalm that are noticeable. First of all, you have man, and it's using pious, religious, even biblical words. He hates instruction and he consents to stealing and engages in adultery. He speaks evil and engages in deceit. Even he slanders his own family. Seven things. And then you read this. God says, These things hath thou done? And I kept sight. Thou thoughtest that I was such an one as thyself. brusted under the car, forgiven. God says you thought that I was such a one as thyself, because I am going to reprove you and set them in order before thine eyes. And the day is going to come when that God that you think is silent or doesn't exist. He's going to speak. and is going to set your life before you and show you why he's going to punish you sin, then he's going to punish you unless you come to know Jesus Christ as your person of faith. Yes, men can live as though no God existed, but death ended all. The question is, why should God speak anymore? Why shouldn't? He doesn't have to. He's spoken all that's necessary. God doesn't have to send any more supernatural evidences. The Bible is the finality of revelations. It's all in this book. God has rested his case. He's given us this book. He's sent his Holy Spirit. And he does act. and operate in the lives of men. That is, he allows circumstances, unpleasant circumstances to diminish their lives. God has vested his peace. He has nothing more to tell you. God, who at sundry times in divers' manners, speak unto the fathers by the prophets and all these other supernatural means. But in these last days he's spoken unto us by his Son, and that's God's message. I have nothing more to say. Now man's got to deal with my Son. He has given us the story of his love. He's given us his provision, man's provision, in the Gospel. He has made it clear what the gospel is. By grace are ye saved through faith, not of yourselves, in the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And he has also given us many other scriptures, not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to his mercy he has saved us. but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. God has told us, in unmistakable language, what the gospel is, and how you may be saved and go to heaven. He also has made a claim in this book, why, what the gospel is not. The gospel is not the law. The gospel is not good work. The gospel is not a good life. The gospel is not being a member of the church. The gospel is not ordinances. He's made that claim. He's given in this book all the necessary information for his people to live a godly life and behave as a Christian. It's all here in the epistles. He's given all this. He has warned man of the end of grace. He has warned man of his coming again. He's warned man of coming judgment. He has spoken of heaven and globe. He has spoken of eternal life. He has spoken of eternal judgment. God says there hasn't been anything else to change. I've got no more to say. I've given man all that he needs in this blessed book. That's why God has been silent for nineteen hundred years. And the only way you can get to know what God thinks about you and what He wants of you is in this book. And isn't an amazing thing that the Bible is the most popular book in the sense of person, of any book. Beauty. If you want to know the mind of God, if you want to know what God thinks, it's you. He has nothing to say. He's given you a book. It's all in this. I put in the paper my subject was, four things that are out of place. And there are four. And that's what's wrong with this woman. There are four things out of place. Now if you had a body and your four things in your body were out of place, your kidneys, your heart, your lungs, your liver, what kind of a body was bad? You'd be in bad shape. Any organization that had four major things out of the place could not operate. That's what's wrong with this world today. There are four things out of place. And that's why we're in the mess we're in. And there's no solution until those four things get back in place. Although we hope, well, for incoming president and with his cabinet. But unless a man's not going to do it, unless man discovers these four things that are out of place and puts them into it, there's nothing ahead but judgment for this poor old world. When you say what are those four things? The first thing that's out of place, God's people are out of place. You say, how do you make that up? Here's a verse for you over in Philippians three-twenty. Our citizenship is in heaven. From hence we look for the same. Even Jesus, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his own glory of God. God's people are out of place here. Our citizenship is in heaven. And the Lord Jesus said, You're not a good world. This is not my home. And he says, You're strangers, you're a pilgrim. You're going through this life, you're a stranger, and you're a pilgrim. Stranger, this is not your home, a pilgrim, but you're going home. And Christ said in John, And here it is prayer, I will, Father, that those whom thou hast given me be with me, that they may be whole, my glory. Lord, thou hast given me from the foundation of the world. Do you know the Lord Jesus is praying right now for that to be answered? Father, I am praying that my people are with me. down in that wicked, ungodly world, a thunder of judgment, I want them with me. That's why I went to the cross. So the Christian was out of his place here. We should spend this time here as a witness for Jesus Christ. And so the Christians out of his place. What's going to get him into this? When Jesus Christ comes, and all of God's beloved people are in glory, like the Lord Jesus Christ, having a body like unto him, then God's people will be in their place. He says, My Father's house for many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I'll come again, and receive you unto myself, as where I am, there you may be also. That's where he wants his family. And just so no born-again child of God can be completely happy in this room. A lot of people use they're using that word born again and it can be thrown around. Politicians can use it. They don't know the meaning of it. But a true born again child of God is not happy in this world. How can it be? A world that crucified his Savior. A world that hates Muslims, hates his Savior. There's so much in this world that crosses the grain of a child of God. sickness, sorrow on every hand. No true child of God is happy here. We're looking for a time when we go home. We look for a city which has foundation, who builds and makes it with God. And so we've got one thing in place. We've got the church, his family in place. What's the next thing? The Jews are out of their place. The Jews belong in not only Palestine, but the whole land that God promised Abraham from Egypt to Euphrates. From the River Nile, you read that over in Genesis, fifteen and eighteen. And that's what God is looking for. Israel is God's ugly people, and he promised that to Abraham, and he hasn't changed. And developments in the Middle East are leaning towards you. And the time is coming toward Israel. God established her in the land of Caleb. but she so sinned against them, disobeyed them, and committed idolatry, that God sent for seventy years down into Babylon. She came up out and then declined until the Malachi era we referred to. And then Christ came. And the nation of Israel rejected him. They didn't want them assigned. And because of that there was the dispersion. Jerusalem destroyed under Titus, seventy years AD. Now the dispersion are scattered all over the world. They don't know what tribe they belong to. But they're coming back. They've been coming back for fifty, sixty years, back to Palestine. that they're not born again, please. They're patriotic, please. They don't believe in Christ, they're Messiah. And they won't until the end of that great tribulation period. And they are, McGuinty. And that's what we're facing now. I don't think this world is going to be destroyed by atomic power. One is a little surprised to hear President Carter the other night give his farewell, and he spoke to all this. This proliferation of atomic energy has not stopped. It will be an atomic war, and no one will be left. God has planned for this planet. His Son was dishonored here, and God says, I'm going to honor him here. for he shall reign from sea to sea, from foal to foal, and all shall know him from the least of the greatest. The Jews are going to get back into the land, and they'll know their tribe. In that coming day, when they'll wonder who this one is, that's one this mighty battle. They shall look upon him whom they appear, and say, First, what are these wounds in thy hand? These are they with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Then shall Israel, claim him as their Messiah. He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was on him, and with this light we are healed. A nation shall be born in a day. Israel back in the land that God promised Abraham. Now take care of all the Palestinian situation of all the islands. Israel will be back in the land. She's in her place, the place God promised her, way back in Germany. So we get two things in place. Christ is out of place. He is at his father's right hand. The Father said, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemy, thine escape. And then after the millennium, or even before the millennium, after the great tribulation, Christ shall rid out of his kingdom all things that offend. Then Jesus Christ shall reign on the throne of his throne, David's throne. Christ will be in the throne and on the throne. That's his rightful place. So we've got three things in their place. The people of God at home in heaven. The Jewish nation in a proper place in the land. Christ in his proper place on the throne of David. Satan is the next person who's out of his place now. He's a usurper. In other words, the Bible speaks of him as a usurper. This world is really in hand. The Bible tells you that. He's a usurper. He's a prince, the power of the air. He's a prince of demons. The prince of this world. The world lies in the arms of the wicked one. Satan as a usurper. The world would sooner have Satan than Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was not wanted as in the heads of government. He's not wanted in national affairs how often it is made mention. I have been in the United States for nearly fifty years this government statement. I've never heard of a president elect. I've never heard a president use the full title of Lord Jesus Christ. He's not at the head of this country. He's not at the head of our world again. And the sadder thing in that is not in your heart. He's not at his place. He's in his right place if he's in your heart. You've got to be circle in your heart. Satan. Satan. God says, all over the United States and the world there are synagogues of Satan. Satan worshipers. That's what the better one. It's only when Satan is put in his place and put, there he is, that the revelation says he should be in the bottomless pit. That's where it is going. And everybody who lines up with him and reject Jesus Christ, they'll be there, the devil and his angels. Satan is the usurper. He's the deceiver. He's the murderer from the beginning. He's a liar. He's rampart today. He's behind a lot of these movements. Yes, movements are contrary to the word of God. Satan is behind. Humanism. a lot of diabolical moon, Satan's behind him. This is his day that he hath but a short time in emotion, and then he's going to his own place like Judas, he went to his own place. Only when these four things are in their proper place Hear this way, no peace, with all the Christians in the presence of God. And when the Jewish nation is in a rightful place, and when the Lord Jesus is upon the throne of His glory reigning over Israel, And that day Israel be the head, not the tail. Today she's the tail. Then she'll be the head. And when Jesus Christ is on his throne, his rightful place to rule the earth, and Satan is in the bottomless pit, only then will this world know you. Four things are the place. That's why we're in the mess we are. Here is God, and what's God doing, working quietly, secretly, silently, to bring about that very situation. To have his people first in his presence, then Jesus comes to take up every born-again Christian, really saved. Then to turn to Israel and get her prayer back in her place, the place she has prepared for her. And then for his son to sit on the throne of his glory, the throne of the Lord, and then Satan in his place. And I don't get rid of a lot of trouble when we get him in the way, concerning the fire and blunder. God is working to that end. The next time God speaks, he's been silent for nineteen hundred years, the next time God speaks, he's come up, children. He's going to call up out of this wicked world his own. All those who are saved by sovereign gifts. Silent for four hundred years, from Malachi to Matthew, silent. And then he speaks for ninety-six years from John the Baptist to John the Apostle, the end of the Revelation. Silent now for nineteen hundred years. He's going to break the silence. In one of these days, to the south, the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God, he'll call his church up. And when the first things in place, then the others will fall rapidly. and everything eventually will be in place. And that will be the glorious future of this kind. And with everyone who's born again, just to think in history this morning, and if you are not a born-again Christian, Satan is in the place where the Lord Jesus Christ wants to be and will be if you let him in. What will you do with thee? What will your answer be? Is Christ or Satan? Christ or this word? You hold the answer. He says, Behold, I stand at the door knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I'll come into him and talk with him. I'll be with me. Then it's wonderful. to be on the side of the one who's going to put all these things in place. It's sad to be in a world where they're out of place. This is what the Bible says. This is the final authority. I challenge you to say what I've said is not true. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy holy word. We thank thee for it. Those of us who have saved rejoice in the story of the Bible, when thou hast declared thyself, thou have spoken in terms, unmistakable terms, as to what thy plan and program is, For this word, thou givest thou givest those who act by thy Holy Spirit, moving upon human heart, seeking to prepare our human heart, for thy Son will come in and reign. May Son's heart this morning respond, and say, Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come into my heart this day. He asked, I bless you of my word. Isn't it worthy in precious name? Amen. So we begin closing. Three hundred and seventy-three. Three hundred and seventy-three. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou didst me, come to thee, O Lamb of God. I come. I come as just as simple as that. O Lamb of God, I come. Your whole life can be changed. You can be changed from that which is out of place to that which is in place. You receive the Lord Jesus as your favorite one. He comes. He died for you. He wants to save you now.