The Holy Spirit Being Obeyed (Part 2)

[0:00] Last week in our study on conquering the dilemma of Christian living, the battle of the Bible, we began, or we kind of ended up with looking at obedience to the Holy Spirit.

[0:36] We looked at the Holy Spirit being grieved, being quenched, and now we began looking at the Holy Spirit being obeyed. And that was a picture of what Esther did.

[0:48] Now remember in the study that Mordecai represents the Spirit of God while Esther represents the human spirit, while Haman represents the natural man or the sin nature, the flesh within us.

[1:08] And so as we looked at last week's, remember, Mordecai had given her instructions that she's going to have to go in and see the king and set this thing straight with him and try to get him to change the decree that has been ordered by Haman in the king's name.

[1:31] So Esther chapter 4, verses 14 through 16, remember, said, Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer. Go, gather all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day.

[1:52] I also and my maids will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish.

[2:06] Now, with her lips quivering, no doubt, probably every limb trembling, heart beating rapidly, she now steps out on that third morning as she crossed the threshold of the royal court into the presence of the king uninvited.

[2:26] Now, recall that the danger in that was that the law of the kingdom stipulated that no one goes into the presence of the king without being bidden to come in.

[2:38] If they do, the consequence of that crime was death, irrevocable punishment of death.

[2:51] So she goes in, and uninvited, not knowing what's going to happen, simply knowing that she very likely will have been committing suicide, if you will.

[3:04] But, realize, she's listening to Mordecai. She has nothing to lose, because she was already dead.

[3:16] She died the moment she obeyed the Spirit of God. All right, notice that. The moment she decided to obey Mordecai.

[3:28] But, she was already dead, but she had everything to gain. She was, it was as though she was compelled by some inner sense and some inner voice, and threw her life away, seemingly.

[3:44] Now, for those who saw her, think about it, those who saw her go in to that chamber of the king, where his throne is, they had to believe that she threw her life away, that she acted recklessly, acted childlessly, in folly.

[4:06] But, it was as if, in her heart, she heard that little voice keep saying, if I perish, I perish. If I perish, I perish.

[4:18] What would bring somebody to that conclusion? Now, let me rephrase that.

[4:28] What would bring somebody to determine to go on in uninvited, knowing the likelihood of being put to death?

[4:41] If I perish, I perish, she said. What would cause her to do that? What would cause her to do that? She had to have confidence in somebody here.

[4:54] Right? Because realize, what she has really done is totally yielded in obedience to Mordecai.

[5:06] Yeah. She yielded to Mordecai. Picture of yielding to the Spirit of God here.

[5:18] And, if I perish, I perish. And, God take the consequences. There you go. There's going to be a consequence to this. One way or the other.

[5:30] The king's either going to hold out that golden scepter to her, or he's not.

[5:40] And, if he doesn't, it's the sentence of death. So, those are the two consequences here that are possible. Somebody's going to take care, or somebody's going to have to take those consequences and deal with it.

[5:55] All right? And so, in essence, I believe from what Mordecai had said to her, she realizes, as far as the context of the passage itself, that God's going to take care of the consequences.

[6:10] And, that's the whole key to what we can begin to see here. So, God take the consequences, and he did. Esther chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Now, it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house.

[6:32] And, the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house. And, it was so. When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand.

[6:54] So, Esther drew near, and touched the top of the scepter. Beautiful picture here. But, think about something just a moment.

[7:07] There's a stark difference here. Between how he dealt with his first queen, Vashti, and how he deals with Esther.

[7:21] Both of them, in reality, were in disobedience. Remember, Vashti, at the beginning of the book, was bidden by the king to come into that royal banquet, and present herself before everybody?

[7:41] And, she wasn't going to be the king's showcase, so she said no. As a result, she no longer was queen. Vanquished. Vanquished.

[7:52] Not banquished. Vanquished is banquet and vanquished put together. All right. We can invent new words around here, Matthew. Yeah. Totally vanquished.

[8:03] All right. Now, here's Esther. Now, he didn't invite her to come. If he had, that would have been a different story here.

[8:15] But, she came in uninvited, against the law of the land. And, what does he do? He holds out the golden scepter.

[8:30] All right. But, he holds out the golden scepter. Why? There's the big why.

[8:45] Why? God determined that would happen. It was his will. He, no doubt, dealt with the heart of King Ahasuerus.

[8:59] Now, do you remember, let's try to put everything together here. Do you remember what King Ahasuerus represents? Esther, the human spirit.

[9:14] Mordecai, the holy spirit. What does Ahasuerus represent? The human soul. The human soul.

[9:24] Mind, will, and emotion. What a picture here. All right. We begin to see how things work.

[9:38] The holy spirit influencing the human spirit that influences the soul. The mind, the will, and the emotion.

[9:52] All right. That's what we picture here. And, that's what we see happen here. All right. And, God, of course, was in that all because it's his people, his covenant nation that's now about to be destroyed and is being dealt with here.

[10:10] And so, that's, that's what's being pictured here in all of this. All right. Now, picture is, God had raised her from the dead.

[10:22] She was dead to herself and she's now alive to God. All the responsibility now rested fairly and squarely upon the shoulders of Mordecai.

[10:37] All right. I mean, after all, he's the one that told her she's going to have to do this. All right. So, it's the picture here for us that everything lies squarely on the shoulders of the Spirit of God.

[10:56] All right. What was, what was Esther's, what was Esther's response when Mordecai first told her you're going to have to go into the king because when he revealed to her the idea of what's happening in the palace and the decree that had been written by Haman in the name of the king, what was her first response when Mordecai told her she's got to go in?

[11:21] You remember? Yeah. Yeah. It's as if she said that's ridiculous. I'd be more value, of more value to my people, the Jews, being alive, living in the palace than I would to be, than I would be if I died recklessly.

[11:48] All right. So, she kind of, she made all kind of excuses here for not obeying what he said that he says to her. If you think you're going to get get by with all this because you're in the palace, forget it.

[12:04] You're a Jew. All right. God will determine some other way to get this done, but as for you, you'll perish with the rest of us. All right. Don't you, don't you imagine she had mulled that over a lot?

[12:19] Amen? I bet she went to bed that night, wasn't able to sleep, just thinking about what Mordecai said to her. Have any of you ever spent restless nights because of something God has impressed upon your heart?

[12:35] Pardon? Probably more than one. Probably more than one. Yeah. Yeah.

[12:45] Yeah. Oh Lord, surely not. Surely you wouldn't ask me to do that. Right? No. No.

[12:57] But isn't it an amazing thing when we discover that God knows what he's doing? Amen? Yeah. And that he's able, he's able to prepare us and give us everything we need to do what he says to do.

[13:17] What is, what do you suppose is the biggest excuse that Christian people use when God impresses them about something that he wants them to do? Yeah.

[13:31] I'm not able to do, just like Moses, right? Yeah. Yeah. Lord, I'm not a man of eloquent speech. I can't do this. So God listens.

[13:42] All right. He listens patiently than what you say. All right. I'll send your brother with you. He's a good speaker. I'll send him. But you're going. Amen?

[13:53] Yeah. You're going. So we've got to be, we've got to realize that there's, there's just no merit in arguing with God. And Esther has now come to realize that because now everything lies on the shoulders of Mordecai.

[14:10] Now, get this picture. Esther now has come to know the emancipation of obedience. obedience. The freedom that obedience gives to the believer.

[14:26] There were no more issues for her to face. Only instructions to obey. Now, think about that just a moment. Think about that. Is there anybody here that doesn't have issues in their life?

[14:46] I'm going to use Marsha as an example. I've just got to do this. I never get the chance to use Marsha as an example and she's a prime example of this because I heard her tonight say that she's totally free from the brace.

[15:00] From the neck brace. Yeah. Yeah. Was that a that was a problem wasn't it? Having to wear that thing. So, freedom.

[15:13] Freedom that comes. She didn't argue with the doctor about you know you didn't call the doctor and say hey I want to I love this thing so much I just want to keep this on for another six weeks.

[15:27] The doctor said take it off. Take it off after six. And she was freed from that encumbrance of that brace and I could say something else about that but I'm not going to I'm smarter than that.

[15:44] Look at our emancipation our freedom that comes with obedience. Alright. Romans 6 verses 11 through 13 say likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[16:04] Now stop there a minute. Remember we said the word reckon there in the original is an accounting term. You know you've got you've got your ledgering you've got your debit side you've got your credit side debit side is what you write off to pay your bills credit side is what you've got coming in.

[16:24] The word reckon here means place it to your account. In other words it's a credit here. It's to your good. Reckon place it to your account that you are dead indeed unto sin but you're alive to God through Jesus Christ.

[16:45] So he says let not sin therefore reign that is literally to exercise kingly power that's what reigning means to not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.

[17:02] Now that's what we did before we got saved before Christ came in and the spirit of God came within us. Sin reigned it ruled our lives alright now to various degrees outwardly but the nature of sin was still in control alright so don't let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lusts thereof neither yield yourself your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourself unto God as those that are alive from the dead in other words resurrected to new life and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God now the question is alright he said don't let sin reign in your mortal body well let's I don't want to get hung up on that too much because we'll look at it here in a minute alright let's go on verses 16 and 18 of Romans 6 know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness don't you know that alright it's a plain and simple statement here whoever you render obedience to that's the master and you're the master's servants alright so

[18:34] I'll go ahead and say this because y'all probably forget it because we've got it coming up later on anyway how do we do that how do we do that if we are in a default mode of living under the power of the sinful nature that still lives within us how do we do that when he says don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies oh that was the that was the other one you know don't let it reign in your mortal bodies that you should obey it in the lust thereof don't yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin alright yield them yield yourself unto God in other words in obedience to God use it for him now how do we do that the only way we can do it the only way we can do it is to through the power and work of the spirit of God within us alright goes back to the previous passage yeah no it doesn't it's this one whoever you yield yourselves servants to obey you're that person that thing's servant alright it comes to the matter of obedience who are we going to obey are we going to obey the nature of sin within us are we going to obey the spirit of God that's within us and that's the picture here alright now again notice how he stresses this he said let me back up here a minute okay here we go he said but thanks

[20:43] God be thanked that you were that's why I put it and highlighted it here you were in time past he's writing to believers here you were in time past servants of sin but now you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered you being then made free from sin you became servants of righteousness now in verses 20 through 22 the same chapter for when you were servants of sin you were free from righteousness alright you had no righteousness within you self-righteousness maybe but no righteousness of God within you so he asked the question what fruit did you have then in those things that you're now ashamed of what fruit did you have what good thing proceeded from you when you were living in sin for the end of those things is death but now being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life have you ever have you ever and you got to be careful with this have you ever had a period in your life or maybe from time to time surely probably you're serving

[22:23] God the way you know how to do and you question sometimes is God really using me is what I'm doing for the Lord really being productive is it touching the hearts of somebody you ever you ever gone through that I have I have but I tell you what from time to time God gives us the joy of knowing through various ways that he is using us to touch the lives of other people that happened to me today yeah I got a free breakfast out of it too amen yeah yeah yeah and that was a joy to me to hear what those folks had to say but the question for me is and for all of us do we really want do we really need to know

[23:36] I know it's I mean it's good to know it's encouraging to know and we in our flesh sometimes really need some encouragement amen yeah but do we really need to know whether God's using us or not it's doing the same thing Esther did just trusting God if I'm yielding myself to God yielding myself daily to the spirit of God and being obedient to him when he impresses me to do whatever then I can just trust that he's going to use that yeah or else he would not have impressed me to do whatever amen yeah yeah and so so that's the thing we have to recognize here and that's what Esther did she just stepped on out whatever happens happens God's in control now brings us to the gallows in the garden you know think about dead men don't die amen dead men can't die not even zombies amen the night of the living dead right they can't be frightened responsibility is not something that gives them a lot of problems amen no so there's nothing quite so relaxing as being dead now put that in the context of our death to sin and being alive in the

[25:37] God with God in control here all right you're dead to your own ability to accomplish anything apart from Jesus Christ and that's where we've got to come to if we're not there already you know again whatsoever is flesh is flesh but whatsoever is spirit is spirit anything we attempt to do in our own strength and wisdom is flesh but everything we do under the leadership and power of the spirit of God that's what has eternal consequences now we can afford to die once we have become utterly convinced that death to ourself is to trade what we are for what Christ is now take note of that again we can afford to die once we become utterly convinced that death to ourselves is to trade what we are for what

[26:40] Christ is emphasis on the word convinced alright it's not a maybe so it's not a hope so it's a conviction alright how many times in the letters that Paul had penned down in the New Testament has he used that phrase that simply gives us the idea in the literal Greek it's the idea of having considered this and pondered this I've come to a definite conclusion that's being convinced and it's a conclusion that is wrought in steadfastness unmovable unchangeable alright being convinced and we must be convinced that when we die to ourself we're trading what we are in ourselves for what

[27:50] Christ is in himself alright now here's the place where unbelief begins to rear its head yeah boy we've got that up here how many times have we heard this stuff in different format in different ways we've got it up here but has it translated to the heart yeah I know I know what the Bible says I know what it says and I believe it but can that really work for me yeah yeah I don't know why it is that that when it comes to the things of

[28:54] God a lot of times we just cut God short because we cut ourselves short you know we we read the scriptures and we see all the tremendous men and women that God has used through the centuries and we think boy how tremendous that is you know those folks were just you know Hebrews chapter 11 just wrought with those folks but not us not me we're just kind of small on the pecking order here but realize later on we'll get down to that too what does God use what people does God use the most and when Paul wrote to the church at Corinth God uses this is

[29:57] Lyons translation that's common ordinary folks that don't have much learning to confound the wise that's what Paul said and that is so the spirit of God can be in control and do it all and not human effort and wisdom and all of that yeah yeah don't cut ourselves short don't cut God short in using us because believe it or not that's the main reason God saved us main reason to save us is not to get us to heaven that's a big bonus but the main reason God saved us is for him to live his life through us to touch humanity to accomplish kingdom purposes as we yield to his spirit in obedience yeah otherwise he would not have needed to place the spirit of

[31:15] God within us amen let's pray father again thank you for your loving kindness your goodness and grace today again thank you for the privilege of the time together you've given us and ask father that you enable us now more and more to come to a realization of what you're doing through us through your spirit and what the work of the spirit of God is within us and the necessity of us turning loose of ourself and yielding completely to your spirit in daily life thank you again for these precious folks love them and thank you for them and thank you for their love for it and ask you continue to impress it upon our heart and life enable us to make the personal practical application of it all to our life thank you for it now in Jesus name we pray amen