The book of Esther, and we're
going to be in chapter four of the book of Esther, Esther chapter
four. And we have some understanding
of what's going to happen. We have some understanding of
the consternation that Mordecai feels. We have some of the understanding
of what Esther is going to feel. And having that in front of us,
having been able to read ahead, Remember, they're living it day
by day. We're getting to look at it from
ahead and see all that is going on and how God is going to providentially
watch over His people and care for them and deliver them. And
as I think about situations like this in our own lives, there
are two verses of scripture that I'd like to read before we go
to the book of Esther, chapter 4. Keep your finger there and
turn with me to the book of Isaiah for just a moment. There isn't
any of us that have not had issues face us. Some are larger than
others. And sometimes they're quite large
for us, but they may not be that significant to others around
us. But they are issues. And here, if you turn with me
to the book of Isaiah chapter 40, we read here in Isaiah chapter
40 some glorious verses of scripture that God left the church, that
left His people. In Isaiah chapter 40, beginning
with verse 27, This wonderful passage of scripture that Isaiah
the prophet of old left us. It says, Isaiah 40 verse 27 My way is hid from the Lord,
and my judgment is passed over from my God. God's not paying
any attention. Now, I don't know how Mordecai
completely felt. I've never been in such a situation.
And I don't know how Esther felt, because I've never been completely
in that situation. But I know that they felt in
trouble. They knew that there had been
an edict that went out. Esther's going to discover it.
Mordecai already knows about it. And the children of Israel
that are there in that land, They are in deep mourning. Now
it goes on to tell us, hast thou not known, hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting God, Isaiah 40, verse 28, the everlasting
God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth
not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his
understanding. What a glorious thing for the
church to discover. He's not ever caught up with
a situation. He's not ever. Second, he's not
ever learning from the newspaper. And then he goes on to say, he
giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he
increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and
be weary, and young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength, and they shall mount
up with the wings as eagles, they shall run and not weary,
and they shall walk and not faint. Lost in our own mind and then
in another passage of scriptures found over the book of Hebrews
Hebrews chapter 4 beginning with verse 14 in Hebrews chapter 4
in verse 14 We have these these wonderful words to the church.
Oh That we have the privilege of coming before his throne of
grace not Meekly but boldly Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14, seeing then
that we have a great high priest, seeing then we have a great high
priest. that is passed into the heavens.
Now, what does that mean? He's resurrected. He accomplished
everything He said He would do. He paid full down payment and
in full for all the sins of all of His people. And God is so
pleased with all His work that He brought Him forth out of the
sepulcher, brought Him to life, and He is now sitting at the
right hand of the Father making intercession for us. We have
a great high priest who has entered into the heavens. He's not walking
around the temple. He's not trying to find a place
to sit down. He's not trying to do what those
priests in the Old Testament could never do. Number one, he
did not die and have to have his son take on the high priesthood,
and two, he accomplished it by the sacrifice of himself and
now has entered in once into the heavens. And then in verse
four, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. We are infirm, and we have great
infirmities. It doesn't take very long to
study the word of God to find out what we inherited from Adam,
and it's not good. But the Lord said, he has been
touched with the feeling of our infirmities yet without sin,
but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. We thank him, he's entered into
the heavens. Let us therefore come boldly
into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Now, as I look at Mordecai out
there in sackcloth and ashes, I almost feel that this is where
he is. He is bringing this whole situation
to the Lord. He is bringing what is happening
to the Lord. He has the ability and privilege
to come before the throne of grace, even before the Lord came,
born of a virgin, and went to the cross, and died, and arose
again, and ascended to the Father. He had the same comfort that
we have because God had promised it. It will be. So, as we go
back here to the book of Esther now, keep those thoughts in mind,
and that's just two places we could have turned to see that
God oversees all things, and He is with His people, and He's
not turning them loose. He's not letting them bounce
around. He is their God, and He is sitting at the right hand
of the Father. Now, going back to the book of
Esther now, there's some things that are going to happen here
that are in the minds of Mordecai and the minds of Esther. And
we're going to see that there's someone, and it's only a cameo
shot. Someone is going to be asked
by Esther to do something. And there's where we're going
to spend our time tonight. What a blessing is open to all the
church and all the members, the spiritual body of all the elect
and every generation has had the great pleasure of coming
to the throne of grace. The throne of grace is always
open to the children of God. There's never a sign, oh, to
go and find that the store is closed just when you need it.
To go somewhere and find, oh, they're on vacation. The doctor's
out. I had a friend telling me that
he was in serious, his friend of his was in serious trouble,
but all the doctors had gone on vacation. Whoa. Anyway. There's no time that
God takes off. All right, here in verse five
of Esther chapter four. Esther chapter four and verse
five. Let's look at this first. It says, well, let me back up here just
a little bit. We'll read to give some outline here. In verse three, in every province,
whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was
great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and
wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So Esther's maids
and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen
exceedingly grieved, and she sent Raymond to clothe Mordecai. Did you notice that word right
there? There's Esther's maids, and then
it tells us, then was the queen. Let us keep in mind where she
is. She's been put in a high place
some years before this, and we're going to find out that she's
there on purpose. Always has been, ever will be.
She's there on purpose. The queen was exceedingly grieved. Why? For her cousin. She has
no idea what her cousin has heard. She has not seen the writing.
She hasn't heard the report. She's only heard that her cousin
is out there in sackcloth and ashes and grieving to the bone
because of the message that has been sent out by Haman and his
henchmen. Then the queen was exceedingly
grieved and she sent Ramah to clothe Mordecai and to take away
his sackcloth from him, but he received it not. I have nothing
to do with fresh clothes. I will stay where I am until
this situation is abated. Now, we have a cameo. There's a man mentioned four
times in the book of Esther right here close together. And he is
a Chamberlain that the king has given her. Now, the word Chamberlain
is a kind word for saying eunuch. The translator said, let's be
careful, we don't offend anybody, so we'll call him a Chamberlain.
Well, he was a head guy in king's household, and the king had put
this man to watch over the queen. Now, I read this, no despot is
ever exempt from twofold torture, jealousy and suspicion. And no doubt, there is a little
bit of both that caused King Ahasuerus to place one of his
top men in the household of his wife. Now she's going to say
she has not seen her husband for a month. She's going to inform
us of that. So she is going to tell us here
that this person has been placed. Notice here, then called Esther
Hattach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend
upon her Now, this is quite interesting when we think about it, that
this man is in the household of Esther at the behest of her
husband, the king of the Persian Empire. Now, if he put her there
because he was suspicious, or if he put her there because he
might be jealous, so be it. But he is in exactly the right
place at the right time, and we're not going to learn much
about this guy, except it tells us here that Esther gave him
a commandment to go to Mordecai. Now, you know, for just a moment,
we're going to have all of the greater actors of this book sit
down. and we're going to have a cameo
of one individual. Now we're going to have the king
and the queen, they're set aside for a moment. We have Haman and
Mordecai, set aside for a moment. We have the morning Jews and
those Amalekites, stop for a moment. They're going to be let out and
Esther's servant, who is appointed by the king, a faithful servant
to stand before us and in his undistinguished honesty and simplicity
is going to do an errand. He is here on purpose. Do you remember I've said several
times that God is the director and the church are the actors? And everything else is props? Well, here's one of the props.
He is put in the right place at the right time by a king for
whatever reason. When I read that about a king
putting someone in a position like that, probably was true.
He probably was jealous. He didn't want Esther messing
around. And also, he probably didn't want her conspiring with
anybody without knowledge. So here he is. Now, I don't think
Esther had any interest in doing either one of those, but kings
in high places and people in high places are exactly that. They're jealous and they have
a feeling, I'm going to protect myself. All right. So she sent
Hathach. He is mentioned in the book of
Esther in chapter four by name four times, and we never hear
from him again. I need my truest and best that
I may know what is, what does it say here? It says, and gave
him commandment to Mordecai so Esther could know what it was
and why it was. What is your problem? Now, he didn't tell. those maidens
that he sent, and he didn't tell the sub-chamberlains or the under-eunuchs. This one special individual is
put here on purpose to do this. You know, as I look at this,
I can see such a similarity between this one person and what we find
in the scripture about how the Holy Spirit handles our business
for us. Someone is sent. The King has
sent this. Now, I would like to read just
a few verses that you all know. But every time I read them, I
get blessed. And one of them is found over
in the book of Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. In Genesis
chapter 1, we read something about the blessing of the Spirit
of God. Genesis chapter 1 verse 2. Genesis
chapter 1 and verse 2. We find that in the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without
form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and
now who are we introduced to? The spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. Oh My goodness, that's what God
does God the Holy Spirit does all the time. He's moving on
dead things He's coming upon dead things things that are out
of sorts out of business. They're dead and trespasses and
sin We are introduced there in the book of John chapter 3. You
must be born again and the Holy the Lord goes on to say So is
everyone that is born of the Spirit? He does his business
without our permission because we don't have the ability or
grace to grant it. I've mentioned to you about that
preacher that said that Lazarus had to give permission before
the Lord could raise him. Now, that is the height of idiocracy. That's the height of foolishness.
That's stupidity. But, you know, there's no end
to it when people have in their minds, natural minds, set in
their natural minds how God saves people, and they have to be involved
in it. So, every type and shadow picture
has to have the same thing. So, we just look, well, my goodness.
except for the grace of God, there go I." Well, let's move
into the book of Isaiah chapter 40. In Isaiah chapter 40, we
have, again, the Spirit of God sharing with us. Isaiah chapter
40. Now, this is, just reminded me, as this man
is sent by the Queen, Don't you and I as a church ask the Holy
Spirit? Now, we remember that when we
honor Christ, we're honoring the Holy Spirit. And when we
honor Christ, we're honoring the Father. And Jesus himself
said that the Spirit will speak of me. It's His business to translate
me into your hearts and minds. Alright, here in the book of
Isaiah chapter 40 verse 12. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 12 says,
Who hath measured the waters in the hall of His hand, and
meted out heaven from the span, and comprehended the dust of
the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and
the hills in a balance? You just take all of that and
sum it up in one sentence and that's what you get. It's mighty.
God is almighty doing what he, he knows everything. You know,
God knows every molecule of his created universe. He knows the
number of hair on our head. He knows our heart inside and
outward. And he knows all about us. And he goes, who has directed
the spirit of the Lord? Or been his counselor or taught
him? Who, with whom took he counsel
and who instructed him and taught him the path of judgment? You
know, dead people can't instruct. And even saved people cannot
instruct the Holy Spirit. We may ask, oh God, send your
spirit. Oh God, I have children to teach. taught him language, showed him
the way of understanding. Behold, the nations are as a
drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.
Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very small thing." Turn
with me to John. We're going to go to the John
for just a moment, and we find out this wonderful thing. Hattach
is going to go to Mordecai, and he is going to question him,
and Mordecai is going to give him all the information. He didn't
do it for the mages, and he didn't do it for the subunits, but he
is going to do it for the queen's ambassador. Now look here, in
the book of John, John chapter 14, 15, and 16, one verse out
of each one of those. John chapter 14, verse 17. This is glorious, even the Spirit
of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth
in you, and shall be in you. Spirit of truth, that is who
reveals to us the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Next
chapter, chapter 15, we find out about the Spirit. Chapter
15, and there in verse 26, I believe it is, But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify
of thee. The Spirit of God is only going to reveal things from
the Word of God, and He will not reveal different things to
different people that are in conflict with each other. He
is going to always reveal the truth. It is the truth as in
Christ Jesus. It is the truth of the gospel.
He will never go in conflict with that. We're going to see
that this ambassador that Esther sends out is only interested
in one thing. He's gonna go out, retrieve it,
and bring it right back. All right, let's look in chapter
16 now. Chapter 16 and verse 13. In chapter
16 and verse 13, we have these words recorded. It says, how
be it when He, the Spirit of truth, The Spirit of Truth. If someone comes along and said,
Jesus Christ did not die for the sheep, He died for everybody,
that's not the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God reveals the
Word of God and it's not in conflict with each other. We find the
Spirit of God revealing the whole passage of Scripture, not just
one verse of Scripture out of context. So the Holy Spirit is
so powerful. We find that it was the Holy
Spirit that sent Philip out to a man in the desert. The Spirit
of God spoke to him. And you know what? It was the
Spirit of God that spoke to Paul. He says, no, I'm not going to
have you go over there. He wanted to go to a place to
do what? Preach the gospel. That's all
he knew. Christ in him crucified. And
the Holy Spirit withheld him. And he headed out for another
direction, and the Holy Spirit withheld him again. And you know
what? The Lord sent him a vision from
a man from Macedonia, come over and help us. And that's where
he went. The Spirit of God did that. I just think about how
God has moved in our lives. to do exactly what he has determined
to do before the foundation of the world, moved us. We said,
how in the world did we ever get here? Because of the Spirit
of God. All right, we find that the Spirit
of God is likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.
He says, you know, by nature, even by new nature, by Christ
in us, we do not know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit
of God helpeth our infirmities. And we find that the natural
man can't see it because the Spirit of God hath not revealed
it unto him. There is a passage over here
in the book of 1 Corinthians 12. Would you turn there with
me? 1 Corinthians 12 is so interesting to read this passage of scripture.
1 Corinthians 12, beginning with verse 4. It doesn't matter about the diversity
of gifts. There is one spirit. There's
not multiple spirits. There's one spirit, and the Spirit
of God never reveals contrary things to people. He doesn't
reveal this contrary thing to this person and a contrary thing
to someone else in conflict. They're always going to be in
harmony. The Spirit's revelation will
always be in harmony. That's why we can go out and
find somebody and the first thing they start talking about is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified and how He is glorious to me and
I love Him with all my heart and He revealed Himself to me
and we say, I think I've always known you. Why? Because the Spirit has revealed
to that person what He's revealed to us. We don't have to go much
further. Well, what do you take for the
Lord's Supper? That's irrelevant. That's one
of those things that my dear friend, Brother Henry said, that's
not the issue. The issue is Christ. We find
out there's so many things that the Holy Spirit reveals to everybody
that's ever been saved, and we have fellowship in that. Just
fellowship. May never have met him before,
and here we are. Our friend up there in Canada,
my goodness, it doesn't take long to visit with him and say,
whoa, hallelujah. And Mike has mentioned a number
of times in reading one of those books how people would travel
miles and miles under persecution, find one person, and they'd say,
oh, it's so good. I knew there was someone else.
Well, he says, now there are diversities of gifts, but the
same spirit. And there are differences of
administrations, but the same Lord. It may have differences,
but there's going to be one Lord, and the Lord is always going
to give the same instructions. There are diversities of operations,
but the same God which worketh all in all. So we have the same
Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God. But the manifestation
of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. Who gives
it? The Spirit. Why does He give
it? Because it's going to be a profit to the church, and a
profit from Him. For to one is given the spirit
of the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, by the
same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another
gifts of healing. Now, look that word up. It doesn't
mean that I could go over here and heal somebody. It has much
more close to our level on that verse. And then, but the same
spirit, and to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy,
to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues,
another to interpretation of tongues, but the self-same spirit,
it says in verse 11, dividing to every man severally as he
will. So whatever gift you have, it is given by the Holy Spirit,
and they will always be in complement to every other gift ever given. They will not be in conflict. And I have found out that among
God's people, God's people are not jealous of someone else's
gift. because it complements the whole. And I wouldn't have that if we
didn't have this. If they didn't have that gift,
we wouldn't have that gift. And since they have that gift,
we have that gift. We're a whole now. Not all can
be the eye, not all can be the ear, not all... Well, when he
come, he will glorify me. Esther let's go back to the book
of Esther now in the book of Esther chapter 5 we find these
words of this man that Esther sends out he is given to her
by the king and Now she confesses in in Esther chapter 4 verse
5 It says then call Esther and she knew who she wanted and one of the King's Chamberlains,
this is my husband's friend, that he gave me to help take
care of me. Now if there are other reasons
he gave him, that's irrelevant, because right now he's going
to do my bidding. And he appointed to attend to
her and he gave and gave him a commandment to Mordecai to
know what it was and why it was. I need to understand this. So
Hatech went forth to Mordecai and to the street of the city
which was before the king's gate. I wonder how long it's been since
this man has been here. He's a very important person.
How long has it been since he's been out in the streets with
regular folk?" But he went when he was asked to go. There are
two parables about sending out to
get people to come in. One of them says he sent his
servant, and the other one said he sent his servants. Now, his
servants couldn't compel, but the servant can. The Holy Spirit
can compel. We can only beg, but cannot compel. All right. Now, what does Mordecai
say when he gets out there? And Mordecai told him all that
had happened unto him. and the sum of the money that
Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasury for the Jews
to destroy them. And he gave him the copy of the
writing of the decree that was given to Shushan to destroy them
to show it unto Esther. All right. Now that's why you
are in sackcloth and ashes. That's why you are where you
are. And she takes this back to Esther. Mordecai told him all. What happened
to him, the money promised by Haman to destroy the Jews. And
he gave Hathorach a copy of the writing to show it to Esther
to declare it to her. What's it go on to say? It says,
gave him a copy of the writing of the decree that was given
at Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto Esther and to declare
it unto her and to charge her that she should go unto the king
and make supplication unto him and to make requests before him
for the people. And guess what? This servant
went back with the report. No lies, no misconceptions, no
thoughts that he had. Mordecai's out there faking it.
Don't worry about it. He came back with the exact report
that Mordecai had. how glorious this man is and
what a statement he makes about someone we depend on so much,
the Holy Spirit, to bring the correct report, to share with
us the correct report, the truth of the gospel, to share with
us when we're stumbling through a passage of scripture and we
say, Lord, what is this? And the Holy Spirit will say,
it always declares Christ. Now, we've often said, we know
what it doesn't say. We're not going to go there.
It doesn't say something dishonorable about the Lord. It's always going
to say something honorable. And if it's misunderstood, it's
our misunderstanding, and it's not the misunderstanding of the
Holy Spirit. So Hattach comes back with a
copy and shares that. He goes in. Hattach came and
told Esther the words of Mordecai. Again Esther spake unto Hattach,
and gave him commandment unto Mordecai, All the king's servants,
and the people of the king's provinces, do know that whatsoever,
whether man or woman, shall come unto the king, and to the inner
court, who is not called, there is one law to his, to put him
to death, except such to whom the king would hold out the golden
scepter. And he may live, but I have not
seen, I have not been called to come into the kings, under
the king these 30 days. I haven't seen him for 30 days."
Well, she takes that message back out to Mordecai, or through
him, and he says, you've been here for such a time as this.
Now, I would like to take you in closing to those two passages
of scripture over in the book of Matthew chapter 22. Matthew
chapter 22, the parable that the Lord used about inviting
people to the wedding feast. In the book of Matthew chapter
22, The Holy Spirit is so demonstrated here, He has the power to do
what He said He will do. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit are equal in every way. They have different manifestations,
and they have a different ministry in the covenant of grace, but
they are complementary, co-equal, co-powerful, co-everything. But
we do find out that the Holy Spirit will speak of Christ.
He will speak of Christ. We find out, this is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye Him. When we praise,
when we honor, when we honor God in Christ Jesus, we are honoring
the Godhead. And they're all pleased and thankful. All right. Here in the book of
Matthew, chapter 22, verse 8, It tells us, then saith he to
his servants, this is so important, the wedding is ready, but they
which are bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways,
as many as you shall find, bid them to the marriage. What do
we do? Can't go any further than that.
Bid them to the marriage. We invite you. May invite them
to church, may invite them over, I don't know. But that's all
we knew. So the servants went out into
the highways and gathered together all as many as they found, both
bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests. And
when the king came in to see the guests, who brought this
guy in here? Who brought the guy in there
that didn't have a wedding garment? Those who sent out to gather
him. Can you and I tell? Someone makes a profession of
faith. We're going to go on that. Best we can. We can't tell. But when the king saw it, he
knew exactly what was going on. And he said, here the king came
in to see the guests, saw there a man that was not in a wedding
garment, and he alone can do that. All right. Go with me over
to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, verse 17. This time we have this almost
identical parable, but there is a servant. Now the word servant
and the word servants comes to us from exactly the same word,
and that means servant. sent his servant at supper time
to say unto them that were bidden, come, for all things are now
ready. And they all, with one consent, began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have
bought a piece of ground. I must these go and see it. I
pray thee, have me excused. The other said, I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and go to prove them. I say, I pray thee,
have me excused. Another said, I have married
a wife, and therefore cannot come. So that servant came and
showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house,
being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets
and the lanes, and bring in hither the poor and the maimed, and
the halt and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it
is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the
Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges,
and compel then the cunnin that my house may be full. Now he
says that to the spirit, but he never says that to the servants. Bid them. but the Holy Spirit
has the power to compel them. And the church is thankful. Now,
this man went out and visited for just a minute. How did Mordecai
know that this is a good thing to talk to this man about all
of his problems? God. I don't know what this man said
to him. I don't know if he knew that this was Esther's servant.
But he went out and told this man everything that ever I've
done. And he went back with the report
and shared it directly as it was given to Esther. And she
says, you go tell him again. I cannot go before the king.
He hasn't seen me in 30 days. I cannot go before the king.
And this old cousin says, I think you've been brought to the throne
for such a time as this. And we're going to stop there
tonight, and we'll pick this up, Lord willing, next time,
for such a time as this.