I am
sitting all alone, Praised
to be true,
I have silence to endure.
Holy, sweet Jesus,
🎶
the book of Esther and chapter 4.
And from the twelfth verse, when Esther's words
were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this
answer, "'Do not think that because you are
in the king's house, you alone of all
the Jews will escape, for if you remain
silent at this time, relief and deliverance for
the Jews will rise from another place, but
you and your father's family will perish, and
who knows but that you have come to
a royal position for such a time as
this.'" There used to be a program on
television, and I'm glad to boast that I
haven't seen one full program on television over
this Christmas period, I count that as a
privilege.
But there used to be a program on
television called Opportunity Knox, and the idea was
that the contestant, actually there are about several
of them, came and put their item before
the large audience of people in Britain, and
then folk made judgment as to which was
the best act, and that went forward to
the finals.
Now, when I was asking the Lord for
some word for this evening, I felt the
prompting upon my spirit to preach about the
importance of the now, the importance of the
now.
And the whole idea behind the burden that's
increasingly been placed upon my mind is this,
that there is an opportunity that presents us
as a fellowship of Christians here in Worthing
in the late 1985 and moving on into
1986, which will never reoccur.
And so I want to gather you all
with me tonight and speak to the whole
of the church family, to young people and
old people, and also to speak to you
not just on a mass but on an
individual basis, and address you on the subject
of the importance of the now.
Who knows but that you have come to
royal position for such a time as this.
The person who is being addressed in this
particular verse is a woman, a rather remarkable,
one of the most in my book, that
ever lived in history.
Her name is Esther, and it was a
very difficult time that she found herself living
on the stage of the Jewish story.
You see, the Jews have been threatened with
genocide, that means mass extermination, on earlier occasions
than just this century.
And many thousands of them found themselves under
the jackboot of the Persian Empire.
There was a man who was quite a
barbaric king by the name of Ahasuerus, or
Xerxes if you're reading the NIV version of
the Bible.
And he had been manipulated into bringing out
a decree that would mean the elimination of
the Jewish race.
How that came about?
Well, read the book of Esther and you'll
get the back cloth to the story.
But the thing that I want you to
have at the forefront of your mind at
this very moment is that if the Jews'
salvation is to be preserved, then it will
only come about by Esther using her royal
prerogative.
You see, by a most unusual turn of
events, she has become the wife of Xerxes.
She has displaced a woman that he sent
into exile by the name of Vashti.
And Esther, the Jewess, is the wife of
the king.
And what is even more significant is this.
Esther and Esther alone has the ear to
the king.
And unless she speaks to the king and
the king listens, then the destiny – well,
there won't be any destiny for the Jewish
people.
And the word comes to her from her
uncle as he makes contact with her, "'Do
not think that because you are in the
king's house, you alone of all the Jews
will escape, for if you remain silent at
this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews
will rise from another place, but you and
your father's family will perish.
And who knows, but that you have come
to royal position for such a time as
this.'" I want to suggest this, and I
weigh my words, that in one very real
sense, tonight we find ourselves, each one of
us, as God's Esthers.
There is something that you can do in
the kingdom of God that no one else,
amongst the brothers and sisters here, is capable
of doing.
I'll qualify that point in a moment or
two.
You see, the burden on my heart is
not just to preach this evening to the
unreached, because I'm persuaded that there's hardly anyone
who would come out in such arctic conditions
as these and listen to an address if
there wasn't the basis of a commitment in
their hearts.
And so, my message is directed at least
to 95%, if not 99%, of the people
who are here, already committed Christians.
And I'm suggesting to you that we are
all, in one sense, God's Esthers.
And who knows, but that we have been
raised to this position as sons and daughters,
princes and princesses of the living God, for
such a time as this.
So I break open my verse, the urgency
of the hour.
After all, that's what confronted Esther.
And that's what confronts us today.
A very urgent, a very special hour.
An hour when God's people should have this
as a common denominator.
They want to identify themselves publicly as the
people of God.
You see, that was the temptation for Esther.
Here she was as the wife of the
king, as the wife of the Persian.
She could perhaps have sort of sunk herself
in anonymity, as far as the people of
God were concerned.
But the uncle, Mordecai, he says, no Esther,
it's not time for you to go into
privacy, it's time for you to make public
whose you are and to whom you belong.
And I say today, my friend, let the
people of God acknowledge the fact that they
belong to Him.
This is not an age, I speak with
feeling, for division within the body of Christ.
This is a time when God would federate,
would bring together all His peoples in this
land.
Because in unity there is strength, and where
there is unity, then God the Spirit commands
the blessing.
The urgency of the hour is this, identify
yourself publicly with the people of God.
And I go on to argue this, it's
in your own interest to do so.
It is in your own interest to do
so.
Logically, that may seem to be an indefensible
point, but it is no more or no
less indefensible that it is for me to
assert historically that Esther's destiny was with the
people of God, not with Ahasuerus, not with
her husband Xerxes, not with the Persians, but
with the Jews.
Why?
Because to the Jews belonged the covenant, to
the Jews belonged the future of the ancient
world inasmuch as they would bring into this
world the Son of God.
And we, by extension, have become spiritual Jews,
for we name the name of Abraham.
We have committed faith in God as Abraham
committed faith in God.
Only our faith has been underlined, sealed by
the precious blood of Jesus, and the future
is our future.
And to declare ourselves as the people of
God is clearly within our own interests.
Even though we may be a tiny minority
within the United Kingdom, the destiny of the
people of God or the destiny of the
world is encased within the people of God,
for they alone have a future, not those
who are outside the covenant that God would
make with all men who will confess Jesus
Christ as Lord.
And what is more, I would argue this,
that at such an urgent time as this,
it is a fitting response to publicly declare
that you belong to God, as it was
a fitting response to what God had done
for Esther.
She has been elevated to the position of
a princess.
Is she therefore to be a Joseph who
might, though he wasn't, be reluctant in a
similar situation to identify himself with his brothers
who came from afar?
Joseph who was the prime minister of Egypt,
should he take this position and exploit it
and forget his destiny and forget his brothers?
No.
That would be to take the blessings of
God and throw them back in his face.
Instead of this, Joseph realized that the way
that he could respond to the benevolence of
God was by identifying himself with his brothers.
It was his right so to do.
It indicated the gratitude of his heart, as
it indicated the gratitude of Moses' heart when
he had the possibility of remaining in Egypt
with its luxury and with the influence that
was undoubtedly his.
But he rather determinedly turned his face against
Egypt and aligned himself with his own people.
And as a result, he indicated to the
Lord his gratitude for the preservation of his
life.
Now, my brother, my sister, how do you
describe yourself?
Well, you do so in the terminology that
I've just employed.
You talk of yourself as sons of God.
Abba, Father, let me be thine and thine
alone.
Now that is an inestimable privilege.
There is nothing greater on planet earth than
for you, for me, to align ourselves with
God as his sons, as his daughters.
Then if the hour is urgent, is it
not right that you and I should publicly
identify ourselves as being on the side of
Jesus Christ and as a result show our
gratitude to the Lord?
When our Saviour said to his disciples on
one occasion when a crowd evaporated into thin
air and he was left with just half
a dozen or so men, will you also
go away?
Peter, who often dropped a gaff and put
his foot in it, came out with that
incredibly wise comment, Lord, to whom shall we
go?
For you alone have the key to eternal
life.
There is no one that we can go
to.
It is in our interest to declare ourselves
with the people of God and what is
more, by so doing we show our gratitude
to the Lord for all that he has
done for us on Calvary's cross.
So I say right now, during this next
year, we are to be the people who
shall so respond in an immediate fashion as
Esther responded.
There will be no procrastination.
You know what they say, procrastination.
Procrastination is my sin.
It brings me naught but sorrow.
I know that I should stop it.
In fact, I will tomorrow, but we're not
like that as Christian people.
With the urgency of this hour, we rise
to our destiny as the people of God.
Who knows, but for this you have come
to a royal position for such a time.
And you see, hard on the heels of
the urgency of the hour contained within the
context of my verse is the tragedy of
default.
The tragedy of default.
Listen, Mordecai, the uncle speaking to Esther, if
you remain silent at this time, relief and
deliverance for the Jews will arise from another
place.
Now I said I'd have to qualify a
comment that I made earlier and here it
is.
And it's a comment that you need to
take to your heart and I need to
take to mine.
God can do without us.
Now that may be a staggering piece of
information for me to impart and it's something
that I have to stare at myself, that
God can do without me.
You see, Moses was prepared to take on,
after a little bit of persuasion, the job
of leading the Israelites out of Egypt and
back to the borders of the Promised Land.
Esau was more happy in finding an immediate
successor, Elisha, to take over his role.
And John the Baptist, well, he was mapped
out by the Lord as being someone who
would herald the way for the Lord Jesus
Christ.
But let's think a nonsense thought through for
a moment, shall we?
What if Moses had done a flat refusal?
What if Elisha had said no?
What if John the Baptist had not been
so willing as he stood by the banks
of the Jordan to cry a message of
repentance to those who came to hear him?
Well, God is not frustrated.
You see, there is one characteristic, in fact
there are many, but there is one supreme
characteristic which marks God out from you and
me.
He is the eternally unfrustrated one.
Esther, if you don't, if you remain silent
at this time, relief and deliverance for the
Jews will arise from another place.
God can do without you if you reject
to perform what is His bidding.
And it may be, and here I horrify
myself, for I speak of this beloved church
fellowship, it may be that He will do
without us.
What is our reputation as a church?
Missionary minded, you say?
Well, maybe, evangelistically geared, biblically centered, but what
if our reputation is hollow?
What if it's just like the cosmetic that
a lady may daub her lips with?
What if it's really only skin deep?
Then hear me and hear me well, for
I claim to speak in the name of
God.
He will raise up another fellowship.
He will raise up a faithful people.
If we will not do what God wants
us to do for Him, then He will
remain the eternally unfrustrated one.
If Esther will not go through to Ahasuerus
to Xerxes the king, then God will have
someone else.
The history of the Christian church has indicated
that God sometimes has had to put down
against saying of the disobedient people.
And He has brought, usually by a remarkable
movement of His Spirit and through something that
we call revival, interbeing of people who are
obedient and prepared to do the will of
God.
God can do without us.
And it may be in face of our
disobedience that He would do without us, that
He might take our candlestick, that He might
say, as was said of Judas by prophecy,
let his habitation be desolate and let his
bishopric another one take.
But to stay with this point is too
painful for me, so let me move on.
For we've considered together not only the urgency
of the hour and the tragedy of default,
but let's contemplate for a moment or two
longer the frailty of the vessel.
The frailty of the vessel.
You see, she was just a woman, only
a woman.
And yet you know sometimes I feel that
women get very bad publicity as far as
preachers are concerned.
I think that sometimes the whole of God's
purposes in the Old Testament and in the
New Testament have pivoted on women.
As far as women's lips are concerned, well,
I'm not too sure about the modern brigade,
but what I do believe is this, that
God honors women through His Word.
He has a Deborah, thank God.
He has an Esther.
He has a Mary.
He has a Mary Magdalene.
But they're so frail, these women, aren't they?
But isn't it amazing what God can do
with frail women?
I was going to get up and testify
a moment or two ago about some people
who had influenced my life quite radically in
the last three weeks.
Let me tell you now.
There were a couple of ladies.
One was, I think she said she was
61 and the other was 65.
I didn't ask their ages, I don't do
that sort of thing, but they informed me
of this.
Pioneer missionaries amongst primitive tribes, unreached tribes in
Central Africa, Central East Africa.
And we were trying to persuade them to
take one of our missionary sessions in the
afternoon as I had done the Bible exposition
in the morning.
They were part of the African Inland Mission.
They came from South Africa actually, South African
by birth.
And their maxim was at 61 and 65
that they'd go anywhere.
In fact, they said, all right, we'll take
a session, but announce us as the go
-go girls.
We didn't do that.
But it was incredible to see the pictures
of the little tent in which they'd lived
and the primitive sanitation that was theirs.
It's now been replaced by something a little
more sophisticated, as these women folk hazarded their
lives at that age, an age when some
people would excuse themselves from attending prayer meetings
here in England because, well, you're getting on
a bit at 60, aren't you?
That's not my view.
It's what I've been told.
I'll tell you in a few years.
The frailty of the vessel, you see, in
no way as far as Esther is concerned,
will her femininity frustrate the purposes of God?
Again, Uncle Mordecai, who knows?
Who knows but that you have come to
a royal position for such a time as
this?
Well, no one at that moment could argue
against it, could they?
Who knows that God has brought together 300,
400, 500, I don't care about the numbers,
of people at Worthing Tabernacle for such a
time as this in the history of this
town, in the history of the southern part
of England?
Who knows?
Nobody can argue against it.
Not at this moment.
You might be able to argue against it
ten years hence when you've judged my word,
whether it has any prophetic aspect to it
or not.
Who would have thought, for example, at the
point of calling, that Jesus hadn't made a
mistake when he brought twelve men to be
his followers, though he recognised that one was
a dud, but within a few years after
their call they turned the world upside down?
Who would have known that?
That these men could do that sort of
thing?
Who knows what we might discover within our
fraternity here at the Tab?
I sometimes feel myself as being a Samuel
looking for a David that I want to
anoint.
I've lived long enough to want to pour
my life into the life of other younger
people so that when I'm dead and through
and in the glory they will be able
to continue.
Who knows who might come into this fellowship?
Who knows if it might be us that
prays another George Verver into the kingdom or
a George Muller?
It's amazing what God has done with Georges,
isn't it?
George Fox was another in the history of
the church.
Who knows?
Well, you can't say, can you?
You can't dogmatise.
All you can say is that, well, it
is a possibility that amongst our ranks we
may have some people who ultimately will turn
this country back to God.
Who knows?
And what's more, you can't deny that it
could well be yourself that's particularly to be
used by the Lord after all of what
he's done.
Esther was a princess, but you, as I've
repeated, are royal in the sight of God.
Could you ever believe that?
I remember my dear, dear brother Peter Lewis
one day nearly breaking down in the pulpit
as he said that one of the great
discoveries he ever made in his life was
that God could love him.
Now if God has done the greater and
lifted you up as a son, as a
daughter of his, can he not do the
lesser and use you in your sonship on
this earth to achieve his purposes?
Who knows?
What God could do with us in community,
what God can do with us as individuals,
if he can speak to the godless through
the mouth of a donkey, conceivably God can
rise to the challenge of making you articulate.
He can cause a huge fish to cough
up Jonah, what might he use to regurgitate
you?
What might he do with you?
And Esther, when her uncle says, who knows
but that you've come to a royal position
for such a time as this, she sends
a message back, when there's been a fast
for three days, verse 15, then I will
go to the king even though it is
against the law and if I perish, I
perish.
The frailty of the vessel.
Now finally my commentary on her response, if
I perish, I perish.
You see, she hasn't been before the king
for a month, and in those days wives
didn't go before their husbands unless they were
asked how things have changed, at least queens
didn't go before their kings until they were
asked.
And one might be risking one's life to
suddenly find yourself in the presence of the
king without the royal decree and his golden
rod being pointed towards you indicating that you
had access into his presence, and so Esther
says, if I perish, I perish.
But here's my commentary on her response, Esther,
don't fear for your physical safety.
Don't fear for your physical safety.
Why?
Well, you see, you've been brought to the
kingdom for such a time as this, and
the heart of the king is within the
hand of God.
Do you understand what that means?
The heart of the king is within the
hand of God.
In other words, these powerful men, these power
blocks in our world today, they are still
within the compass of the sovereignty of God.
George Whitefield, one of my heroes, said, I
am immortal until my life is through and
he's dead right.
Immortal until the hour on the clock comes
when God has said that I will lay
down my life on this earth.
So here is Esther, you see, and she
is agreeing to what her uncle has said,
and her uncle has logically argued that she,
Esther alone, has, or so it would seem,
the safety of the Jewish nation in her
hand.
And in the purposes of God, she determines
after a three-day fast, after maintaining spiritual
disciplines, that whether invited or not, she'll go
before a Xerxes.
If I perish, I perish, que sera, sera.
But my commentary is, you remember, you have
no need to be afraid for your physical
safety.
Why not?
Well, you see, when God tells you to
do something, then you have the guarantee of
His presence with you.
And therefore, we can couple to my observation
this, fear not for the outcome of your
mission.
Fear not, Esther, for the outcome of your
mission.
Roll down the red carpet of predestination.
That's not a very pleasant word to some
people, but you know, the carpet of predestination
is much better than an axe minster, because
it's woven on the looms of heaven.
And as you go through your life, as
you go through your pilgrimage on planet earth,
you are not in the power of some
capricious force.
That means some uncontrollable power that's being exerted
on your life.
You're not thrown sort of into a turbulent
sea like some cork that's uncontrollable.
If you are within the purposes of God,
if your life has been placed in His
hands, then He will work out for you
what He has predetermined, and that's a great
relief to know.
That doesn't make you a puppet on a
string.
It doesn't lock you into some mechanical system
whereby God obliterates the freedom of your choice
and your will, but in harmony with His
sovereignty becomes your freedom.
And as you submit yourself to His design,
so He works out for you, come Xerxes
or anyone else, what He has predetermined, that's
a marvellous thing to appreciate.
So here, and I'm through, here is dear
Esther.
She's preaching to us.
What a marvellous woman.
She's preaching to us in the 1980s from
her life.
Who knows but that you have come to
a royal position for such a time as
this, the urgency of the hour.
The tragedy of default.
Esther, if you don't do this, God will
raise somebody else up.
But what an insult that will be.
Instead of people remembering Esther and her name
being a blessing, it will become almost a
curse.
It will become an embarrassment to the Jewish
race.
Esther, you've come to the kingdom for such
a time as this.
Ah, but the frailty of my vessel.
That's no problem with God.
He likes frail things because a greater glory
accrues to God as He uses the most
unlikely person.
That's why He picked you and me.
And when she said, well if I perish,
I perish, you heard my commentary.
Esther will not perish.
Why?
Because she's locked up within the purposes of
the Lord.
Now look, we move into the future, don't
we, as a church?
Into 1986.
I don't want to make a fetish out
of the change of a day on a
calendar, that's not highly important, but it's an
opportunity for us just to ensure that we're
going on the right course and appreciating what
God can do through us.
I believe God has got a great deal
more to do with Worthing Tabernacle.
I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe
that.
I believe that He wants us to develop
further in our evangelistic concerns, in our ministry
of prayer, in the recklessness of our giving.
I think that He wants to take more
from our fellowship to use them in the
ministry at home and abroad.
And there's no one lady, there's no one
man, there's no boy, there's no young person
who is outside of the potential of God
using them in the service here for the
advance of the cause of Jesus Christ.
You've come, you've come to the Kingdom for
such a time as this.
You've come with me, you've come with one
another.
So let's go to it and secure the
purposes of God as He opens up this
next year and daringly linking hands with Him
and hands with one another.
Let us fulfill the purposes of the Lord
as we proclaim His gospel, as we educate
people in biblical truth, and as we glorify
the name of Jesus Christ in our living.
We, my brothers and sisters, have come to
the Kingdom for such a time as this.
We are all God's esters.
Amen.
We're going to sing a hymn that we
haven't sung more than two hundred times this
year.
Jesus is King and I will extol Him,
give Him the glory and honour His name.
Anyone got the number?
236, it's on the overheads.
Let's lift that last verse as an anthem
and indeed we'll take it twice.
236.
Let's sing this with all our heartfelt response
to what I've tried to share with you
from God's Word this evening.
After we've sung the second verse twice, we'll
have the benediction, then you're free to go
or else you can be instructed more in
the beauties of Africa as Ken Hearn takes
us on a tour de force of four
countries.
I think we've got some coffee and tea
before we go to Africa, but we're in
the back hall here, the back lounge, and
you're more than welcome.
And the 11 o'clock service on Christmas
Eve, New Year's Eve, we'll be glad to
see you here if you can make it.
Jesus is King.
Jesus is King, and I will extol Him,
give Him the glory and honour His name.
He reigns alight in glory forever.
Word of the Father makes us
certain, gone through the curtain and touching the
throne.
We have a priest who is there interceding,
for he comes
to make a priest and apostle.
Lord, give His glory a place
before Him.
Filled with Your goodness, Savior,
forever.
Filled with Your goodness,
Savior, forever.
And Father, as we're moved with the emotion
of that song, we pray that combined with
our feelings may be our reasoned conclusion that
yes, we have come to the Kingdom by
Your grace for such a time as this.
That we've come not as paupers, but as
princes.
We've come as people withstanding, not by our
right, but by Your grace.
Then help us as children of the King
to live royally.
May our very demeanour, our very attitude towards
one another and the way that we conduct
our affairs, handle our time and our finances,
may it befit those who are part of
the royalty of heaven.
And we ask, O Lord, that as we
muse upon all that is in store for
us, our priorities may be rightly ordered and
enable us to go and tell the equivalent
to the Persians in our world of the
greatness and the splendour of the plan of
salvation.
Enable us to be Your ambassadors.
Keep us together, loving one another, united in
heart and purpose, and help us to achieve
what is Your design in our lives for
the Saviour's sake.
Amen.
And all God's people said?
Amen.
And the saints said?
Hallelujah.
And one day Gordon will get it.
God bless you.
Amen.