This is the evening service for Sunday, September 9th, 1990. This evening, Dr. Norris preaching on the sermon subject, Human Responsibility. He uses as his text extra four, one through seventeen. This is the fourth in the series on the book of Esther. Book of Esther. From the first verse. When Mordecai had learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went as far as the square in front of the King's Gate, for no one might enter the King's Gate closed with sackcloth. In every province where the King's command and decree arrived, there was great morning among the Jews with fasting, weeping and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So Esther's maids and unucks came and told her and the Queen was deeply distressed, and then she sent garments to close Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. Then Esther called Hatha one of the King's unucks whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai to learn what and why this was. So Hatha went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the King's Gate, and Mordecai told him all that it happened to him, and the sum of money that he and had promised to pay into the King's pressuries to destroy the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given a shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, that he might command her to go into the King's presence, and to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. So Hatha returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai, and then Esther spoke to Hatha and gave him a command for Mordecai, all the King's servants and the people of the King's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the King who has not been called, he has but one law put all to death except the one to whom the King holds out the golden sector that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go into the King these 30 days, and so they told Mordecai Esther's words, and then Mordecai told them to answer Esther, do not think in your heart that you will escape in the King's palace any more than all the other Jews, or if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? And then Esther told them to return this answer to Mordecai, go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day, my maids and I will fast likewise, and so I will go to the King which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. And then Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. Amen, may God bless this his holy word to our understanding. I draw your attention this evening to the 14th verse of this fourth chapter. Those that were here last Sunday evening will remember that that was the text that we took then and were unable to complete. We saw that in this portion of God's word, even though Israel is being persecuted and hamen, desires to destroy every Jew, offering to put into the royal treasury a fabulous fortune and silver, he has persuaded the Emperor, Zaksis, Aearius, that if he will give consent on a particular day in every village in the Persian Empire, it will be lawful for anyone to kill a Jew and not come under the punishment of the law. The King has exceeded to this command the decree is published and everyone now knows that the fate of Jewry is decided that every single Jew will be exterminated and there doesn't seem anything that anyone can do about it. And Mordecai, Mordecai, goes into the front of the palace, he puts on sackcloth and ashes and there he mourns for his people. And Esther sends down the servant, the eunuch, and says, put on clothes, dress yourself, you do not need to be mourning in this way, explain why it is and Mordecai explains through the eunuch to Esther that she and all her people are interaled, that they will be destroyed, that the end of the nation is at hand. And yet we saw in the words that he spoke that Mordecai demonstrated a confidence of guarding his people, deliverance will arise, you may do nothing about it, but deliverance will arise because God does not fail. His purpose is complete and he does not make mistakes. God will do his work and it will be a great work. And we saw that Mordecai also demonstrated the way in which we as the people of God are called to submit to his perfect will, not simply with a fatalism that says, there isn't anything I can do about it so I must take what comes. But with the certainty of faith that recognizes that God is in control and that we will rejoice in whatever he does. Well, we return this evening to this text and we see immediately confronting us a second question. And it's the question of Esther and what she has to do, for she responds to Mordecai, her guardian, her father figure, and says there is nothing that I can do for you know that it is only proper to be bitten into the presence of the emperor. And anybody who goes without that call risks death. Indeed, the law says that anyone who enters uncalled into the presence of the king will automatically be put to death unless he raises his golden sector and calls for freedom for that person. And I, she says, I have not been before the king in 30 days. Now we'll remember that Esther, this young queen, is a little more than a girl and is offering as it were an excuse to Mordecai. What can I do about the terrible dilemma that he's facing us? It looks as though there is something I can do because I am a queen but really I am a prisoner. I cannot leave the women's quarters. I cannot even speak to Mordecai. Much less can I enter into the presence of the king. I have no access. I have no influence. I have no power. I have only a title. What can I do? I have been asked to come there. And Esther sends that reply to Mordecai and Mordecai unfailingly. Reminds Esther that she too is a Jew. There is no escape for her because she is in the palace where judgment will come upon all, if judgment comes upon the nation. And that she is called to live before God. And then we hear these great and mighty words. And in them the Lord teaches us certain truths about the way in which we live before Him, the way in which we make decisions in His sight. And the first thing that becomes clear to us is that there are choices. Real choices are forwarded to God's people in every situation. Mordecai says, if you remain silent Esther, deliverance will arise but the choice is yours. You can be quiet. You can do nothing. You can simply stand in the palace and wait for the events to happen. This truth will stand. God's purpose will never be overturned for He is the Lord, He is God. And He will work out His perfect purpose. He will deliver His people. You may not be the agent of deliverance. You may do nothing to help. But God will do it. For Esther, there is a choice for you to make. Now we believe that God is sovereign, that He rules the whole of the world according to His purpose and there is not one molecule nor one atom that is random and free from His control. For His God, He is the Lord, He holds all things in His hand, but there is never an excuse for any one of us. As a consequence of knowing and believing God's absolute sovereignty for us to say, well, what I do doesn't matter. Mordecai teaches Esther that even though God is sovereign, what we do, the choices that we make, the decisions that we engage in matter, they're real choices, they're not imaginary ones. God has called us and set us as people with choices to make. And when we make those choices, we are held accountable for them by God. Esther could choose to do nothing. In which case there's Mordecai, you will choose to live with the fact that you will inherit judgment.
Every one of us is given choice in every situation and every choice is a real choice. We can't any of us escape that reality. We can't say because God is sovereign, what I do is unimportant, because the choices that we make have consequences and those consequences will ultimately come and live with us. Oh, they will not change the purpose of God in ultimate terms. He will do what His will demands. But our choices do touch us and we live with those consequences. For God's purpose always includes the exercise of our real choice and our choices are important. Esther could have chosen not to go to the King. Would Israel have perished? No, it would not. For God had determined that it would not. But Esther would have perished. When we deal with eternal choices, when we stand before God's absolute unending word that says, choose this day whom you will serve, the Lord Jesus Christ or another, there is given to us the reality of choice. We choose. Now we believe that God is sovereign, that He is the giver of faith, that He is the one who moves in our heart, and we believe that He is the only one who can give salvation. There is no question about His absolute and unfailing sovereignty. But at the same voice that we breathe with thankfulness that God is sovereign, we breathe the reality that our choices matter. And what we do and don't do, what we say and don't say, where we go and don't go, they matter and they will touch our lives and will be held before us. So there are decisions that don't matter to God, they all matter. And our call is to bring our actions, our mind, our word into accordance with Him, in the great and important decisions where it comes to choose the Lord Jesus Christ over everything else at first. But in every day our choices are real. It's important to recognise that when so often we say, I have no choice but to do the things that I do, we have every choice. The consequences of those choices might be disastrous and we may say, but it is unreasonable for me to follow Christ in a specifically Christian situation. I would lose everything that's exactly what Esther faced. It was unreasonable of her to go before the king, unbidden, it was unreasonable of more decay, I to expect her to do that, but that was the choice that was before her. There are times when our excuses to God, among to the fact of Lord, you can't ask me to do that. You can't expect me to give up so much for something that doesn't seem to have the end result. Good gracious. Here is Esther risking her life, and there is a great probability that nothing will be achieved by her going to the king. He may not even see her, she would simply be executed. She chose to go. Now there are times when God speaks to you and He speaks to me. And He says here is the way forward. Choose me or not my way. And we say, but the end result is not worth the sacrifice if I make their decision. And He says choose to obey or not to obey. And that choice is a real one and that choice will have a consequence in our lives. There is nothing that God will not forgive except the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But this is a reality. We live with the consequences of our choice and forgiveness does not eradicate those chances or the consequences of them. To often we imagine that when we come to Christ and receive His forgiveness there are no consequences from the path to be dealt with. But that is not the case. I heard the testimony of a man who prepared to throw himself from Tower Bridge one night because he had incurred so many debts and he had disgraced his honour and had bankrupted many people having stolen significantly from the company of which he was president. And he became a Christian madman for the ministry of one who was passing by from the London city mission. And yet that man when he went into the police station for given by God an inheritor of the kingdom of Christ went to prison for six years. Forgiveness did not buy him freedom from the consequences. And many times as Christians we think that because we are in Christ it is an insurance against the consequences of what we have said or done and it doesn't work that way. God brings us those consequences David reminds us of that. Our choices are important and the ones that we make and what we do and what we say and when we choose to be silent. Those consequences are real. Way decisions they matter. The second thing that this verse, this great verse teaches us is that God amidst the choices that we make blesses us. Who knows as Mordecai? If you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this Esther had no certainty that she would live through her ordeal. She had no certainty that she would be successful in saving the Jews. She had no certainty that she was God's chosen vessel for the salvation of his people. What did she do? She chose to do that which was right. This is the way of the duty of God's people. I will walk in it. Now there is the guide to each of our consciences as we begin to say, what do I do to serve God? I do what's right. How do I determine what is right? God has given us His word and we walk in it and there is no shadow within that word. We walk according to the path straight and true and narrow and that's what's right. Sometimes that path leads us to chasms and we walk it. It leads us to conflict and we face it. It leads us into His presence because it comes from His presence. The choice that we make has to be guided, not by the fragmatism of our age, not by whether or not it will make us successful, but whether or not it's right. Is it right because it comes from God? Is it right because it honors God? Is it right because it obeys God? Esther was no saint. Oh, she was a saint in the sense that you and I are saints. But she was flawed just as we are flawed and she hesitated because the cost was costly. It was her life, it was her privilege, it was everything she enjoyed. She hesitated, I don't know if this is worth it and then she said, if I perish, I perish. It is right to do it and this or I will do it. 100 years ago as Africa was being opened to the missionaries, the average life of an Englishman so we are told in the Old London Missionary Society annals who went to the coast of Africa because of the disease and the plague. The average life of a man's ministry was six months. Didn't even have time to learn the language to communicate the truth that he believed in. And yet they had a waiting list that was three years long for people who were ready to go and to die on the shores of Africa without ever having learned the right words to speak because God led them there. It's alliterate because there are not many of us in this room tonight who would not say there is a better way of doing it than the way they chose. And there are not many of our alternative thinkers in this sanctuary that would not think of a new strategy to save our lives rather than simply to fling them one after another upon the shores of Africa. But they did what was right and they preached Christ and Christ was glorified and it is not given to us to say why. Every mother that had ever given their lives for Christ we could think of a better way, a better use of the life that was taken from them and robbed of them. But God did it and they obediently followed Him. It's a terrible thing when we see ourselves having to be a polygist for God and His call and His direction. When we have to make excuses for the King of Heaven and yet there are times when we seek to do that by trying to circumnavigate His call and we say well you can better be used in some other way. This is the way. Walk in it. This young girl Esther frightened and properly frightened young and immature and placed into a situation over which she had no control with a degree of mixed motive still went forward and did it. You know the great excuse that Christians offer in terms of being able to go straight forward with God is to say well you know I'm not sure even about my own motives. They're mixed and until I am certain until they are pure, until there is absolutely no contamination in that I'm not going to do anything. Let me read to you the words of that mighty, that great apostle Paul in chains talking about the preaching of Jesus Christ of the gospel as he has received it. He says as he writes to the Philippians in the first chapter and the fifteenth verse, some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife and some also from good will. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition not sincerely supposing to add to my affliction in chains but the latter out of love knowing that I am appointed for the defence of Christ what then. Only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ be preached. Oh we hear about mixed motive and we say I but I can't read my own human heart and I'm not sure that I'm absolutely clean and pure in my motive. Do what is right. The mixture of our motive, the ally mixing with that which is sound, going and doing that which is right will preach and glorify Christ. Esther could easily have gone into the presence of the king, have in determined that this was the only way she would get any savings at all. It doesn't make any difference. We're not called to read her heart or mind. We are called to see she obeyed what was right and not only to say that she did what was right but to learn and to say when God calls me I will go and do what he says because I'll walk in the right. Well there is a third thing that we see in these verses. We will not return to the 4th chapter and the 14th verse next week we trust but who knows we may. The third thing we see is that the action that this woman of God took was bathed and sanctified in prayer. Fast for me she cried. She asked Israel, she asked Mordokai and she asked her hand maidens to praise what her. She prayed and others prayed. She bathed her decision that she bathed her action in prayer before the Lord. She said if I perish I perish. But knowing what she had to do deciding that this is the way to walk according to the commandment the will and the testimony of God she did it. The result was in God's hands but she did what she was called to do. And there is the great truth that we rely on. As is not the call for success as the world defines success. It is to be obedient to him and to trust that as in our obedience he will bring the result but glorifies his name. That's the work when in the kingdom that's our call the results are in God's hands and finally we see in this verse and the verse is the follow of all things that the action of Esther was decisive. If I perish I perish. She hesitated and stopped and then she went forward and she did not look back and said this is the way I will walk and I will walk in it. Now there is a contrast for much of the way in which we live before Christ. Oh is it right? Is it wrong? Should I do this? Should I do this? Go forward, go backwards. And always we stay at the same place chasing our tails. If I perish I perish. I will do what is right, I will go forward with God and I will trust to him and unlike lots wife I will not look back I will become no pillar of salt I will go forward and I will trust to his great grace. How decisive we would be for our master and our Lord if we had learned these lessons of his kingdom. This is my path walking in it according to his great grace and his mighty message. A people set for his kingdom, a people who know that the time given is now and such a time we are appointed for and in that we might serve the king of kings. That's great, gracious, eternal and heavenly Father. We thank you that you are the living God that by your word you address us and the decisions that we make and you make of our decisions that which is important to glorify your name. We thank you our God that our days are spent in your hands and we lift our eyes to behold your glory and we lift our hearts to joy in you. Grant to us this night that we, like your servant, might be forthright and certain and strong that we may be a people set for the gospel and its kingdom. Grant to us that we might ever go forward in your will to your praise and your glory in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.