Take your bible and open to Esther 1 and Ill show you.

IN BUT OUT 03 THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN

Esther 1:1-11 John Lennon once sang a song entitle, Imagine. One line went like this. Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace What would the world be like without religion? Impossible to say. Religion is in every part of the world. So that tells us that man longs for God. But the better question is, What would the world be like without the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? What would it be like without the law and the true message of holiness? Without Christ and grace and redemption? What would the world be like then? I can tell you this. It wouldnt be a world where everyone lives in peace. How do I know? Well all you have to do is go to areas where the ideals of Jesus do not prevail in the culture. Or travel back in time to the world as it existed PRE-Jesus. Chapter 1 does two things. First, it tells us the story of how the queens position was vacated. In addition to that, it tells us about life in ancient Persia.

The theme of this work is IN but Out. In the world but not of it. The Jews had been displaced from their land. They have lived for three generations in Babylon and now Persia. God for many is a distant memory. They have gradually embraced the values of their culture. For us to understand the depths to which the Jews had fallen we need to plumb the depths of the depravity of man. Esther one sets the scene. Verse 1. 1 Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces, Ahasuerus is another name for King Xerxes. The first great significant Persian King was named Cyrus. He conquered the Babylonians and established the kingdom. After a couple of Cyrus children briefly held power the next king was Darius. Darius the Great put down a variety of rebellions, extended the boarders of the empire and codified the legal system. He ruled for 36 years. The Persia he left behind was the most powerful empire the world had ever known. Remember, this is 200 years before Alexander the Great and the Greeks conquered the world. It is 450 years before Julius Caesar and the Romans. The boarders of Persia extended from India to the north of Greece all the way to the Ukraine. In the south it stretched through he promised land and engulfed Egypt. That is the Persia Xerxes inherited. Xerxes was the unquestioned leader of the world. 2 in those days as King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne which was at the citadel in Susa, This tells us that the period in question was winter time. Susa was the winter palace for the King of Persia. It grew far too hot during the summer months.

3 in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his princes and attendants, the army officers of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of his provinces being in his presence. We are in the third year of his reign. Xerxes is 35 years old. (He came to power at 32). He has consolidated the empire and crushed a rebellion in Babylon. Time to celebrate his victories. So he throws a party and invites al of the dignitaries across the country. This is no small party. It lasted 180 days. Six months of celebration. Lets gain some insights into the depravity of man

II. Drunkenness and debauchery

5 When these days were completed, the king gave a banquet lasting seven days for all the people who were present at the citadel in Susa, from the greatest to the least, in the court of the garden of the kings palace. After the 180 days of celebration they went into hard party mode. A seven day drug fest. This time the party goes nation wide. They invited everyone, greatest to least. This is Woodstock, 482 BC. 6 There were hangings of fine white and violet linen held by cords of fine purple linen on silver rings and marble columns, and couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and precious stones. 7 Drinks were served in golden vessels of various kinds, and the royal wine was plentiful according to the kings bounty. The national distillery was opened and the booze was flowing freely. Notice that line, wine was plentiful. . . 8 The drinking was done according to the law, there was no compulsion, for so the king had given orders to each official of his household that he should do according to the desires of each person. Ive always wondered why you have to have drugs to have a party. In fact, for some, its not a party without drugs. A group of people can be sitting around the room talking about football or whatever. Someone shows up with the case of beer and its party time! Isnt it interesting that the more things change the more they stay the same. People are still doing this. ALCOHOL: The number of high-school seniors saying they have consumed alcohol in the past month remained fairly steady in the 1990s -- 52.7 percent in 1997, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. People say to me, Bill why dont you lighten up on the alcohol thing? Thats a war the church lost. Its over. Those of you that dance around the edge of this well might say, Its safe! Im someone that came from the bottom of that well. I know the darkness thats down there. And Im trying to keep your kids out of it. Its not safe.

I. Pride and egotism

4 And he displayed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty for many days, 180 days. He throws a six month party. Notice the whole focus of his celebration. To display the glory of Xerxes. Talk about a megalomaniac. This is the core of the fallen nature. Its all about me. I want recognition. I want attention. I want acclaim. Give it to me. Every time the spotlight turns to one person it turns away from a hundred others. Trouble comes. You cant see clearly with a spotlight in your face. You cant see needs. You cant see hurts. And you cant see your enemies. We will see later that everyone wasnt as enamored with Xerxes as he was with himself. Mordecai will actually thwart an attempt on Xerxes life. It wouldnt last. Years later Xerxes would be assassinated in his own bed. Pride blinds us. We cant judge the enemys strength. One of my favorite lines in history is really a tragic thing. The last words of a Civil War army commander named John Dedgwick. He said, They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist --1

Calendar The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said, March 15, 1999 Workman Publishing

Is it wrong to drink? Not necessarily. Is it wrong to abuse drink? Absolutely. And heres my problem. Virtually every high school and college student I ever saw drink, abused it. Mom and dad might have it in moderation. Your children will abuse it. Dont believe me? Then listen to the

III. Lust and misogyny

Misogyny. Theres a word. It means hatred of women. I dont think people realize how these things all tie together. When you leave room for the depravity of man the group that will suffer most is the women. And interestingly, they are often willing victims. In fact they think they are being free. 9 Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the palace which belonged to King Ahasuerus. This banquet was probably far more sedate and civilized. They might have been watching steel magnolias and drinking frapuccinos. 10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, At the end of seven days when the king is drunk out of his gord and all sense of decency and discernment are gone, he called for his queen. 11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown in order to display her beauty to the people and the princes, for she was beautiful. On the surface it seems that he simply wants his buddies to look at his wifes beauty. Verse 11 display her beauty. Little doubt that this meant to display in a sensual or inappropriate way. He wants to show her off, but he wants to show off more than she wants to show. The depravity of man will always wind up in the subsocial sewer of lust and mistreatment of women. This is what baffles me about the modern womens movement. Nothing has done more to harm the place of women in culture than the sexual revolution. Men can now have sex without commitment. They can act like chimpanzees in the jungle. And thats what they do. The girls, so starved for masculine attention give in to the lust and do whatever he wants thinking that she is capturing her man. Listen to these statistics:

A Snapshot of Annual High-Risk College Drinking Consequences

The consequences of excessive and underage drinking affect virtually all college campuses, college communities, and college students, whether they choose to drink or not. * Injury: 599,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2005). * Assault: More than 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking (Hingson et al., 2005). * Sexual Abuse: More than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (Hingson et al., 2005). * Academic Problems: About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall (Engs et al., 1996; Presley et al., 1996a, 1996b; Wechsler et al., 2002). * Drunk Driving: 2.1 million students between the ages of 18 and 24 drove under the influence of alcohol last year (Hingson et al., 2002). * Alcohol Abuse and Dependence: 31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking (Knight et al., 2002). I would love to drop the anti-drinking thing. I just think that in light of our current crisis that it would be irresponsible on my part to do it. This isnt new. Drunkenness and debauchery is a part of the depravity of man. Following closely on the heels: lust and misogyny.

Freewheeling young women in the United States and Canada first have intercourse at the age of 15, partake more in oral sex than previous generations and are far less prudish, according to a landmark new report by researchers at California's San Diego State University. Between 1943 and 1999, the age of first intercourse dropped to 15 from 19 for females, while the percentage of sexually active young women rose to 47 percent from just 13 percent in 1943, according to the study that appears in the most recent issue of the Review of General Psychology. Over the same 56-year period, approval of premarital sex increased from 12 percent to 73 percent among young women, while the figure rose from 40 percent to 79 percent among young men, according to the study. What are the results of this liberated thinking? More women than ever before are living with men outside of marriage. In other words, the women are concubines and mistresses. Is that what they want? No. thats what the guys want. What happens when you grow old and less attractive? Hes not committed to you. He simply walks out. Now you face the tough years alone. More women than ever before are rearing children on their own. Men are great with this. Girls let me clue you in on something. Dont believe anything else they tell you out there. Here is the truth. If you want a solid husband and a family. Then learn to say NO. There are girls that guys date and there are girls they marry. That never changes. Verse 12 Queen Vashti refused. She might have gotten to her position through her looks, but she was a dignified, decent woman. She refused. Girls can say no. It will cost you a rotten guy, but trust me, its worth it. And here is the amazing part. The woman that did not know God said, NO. But as we shall see, the woman that knew God said, Yes. That demonstrates how we become affected by the world in which we live.

Thats the depravity of man. Thats the world in which Esther and Mordecai lived. And that world was changing them. It always does. This world will change you, unless you learn to resist it.