The Importane of the Now

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.