Perfect Timing

The Dilemma of Christian Living!

And so the stage is now set for what's going to transpire in trying to expose Haman for who he really is and what he is and get him out of power in the palace.

And in reality, get him hanging from the gallows. So we begin to see that process unfolding and I don't know why this is one of my favorite parts of the whole study because Haman gets what's doing.

And now let me remind you now, Haman representing what? The flesh. Haman.

Haman, the villain, is representing the flesh. Remember that as we study through this and continue to look at what we've got.

All right. So it's party time, as we mentioned before. And by the way, there are notes to kind of just finish up in what was lacking and what I've already given to you. So it's party time here.

Esther has received approval from the king. And so the king said unto her, What wilt thou, Queen Esther? And what is thy request?

It shall be given thee to the half of the kingdom. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.

Notice, prepared for him. Prepared for Haman. All right. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther had said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Now, upon Mordecai's advice, no doubt, this was developed. She's depending upon Mordecai's wisdom to do what needs to be done here. So, the tables were spread.

Great meal was prepared. And Esther then invited the king and Haman to dinner. Now, recognize, if Haman was going to be hanged, if he's going to get out of power here, this really seemed like a strange way to get him to the gallows.

You know, she didn't really understand what was going on, but she didn't question it. She just did what she was told. She was obedient again to Mordecai.

Picture for us then of the believer who has died to self, died to the flesh, recognized he's crucified with Christ, is continuing to be obedient to the Spirit of God, even when they don't really understand what's going on.

Now, she's given now opportunity to make a request. She said, My petition and my request is, If I have found favor in thy sight, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king said.

Now, so, first request, I'm going to have a, I've prepared a banquet for the king and for Haman to come. So the king bids Haman to come.

They go to that banquet, and there at that banquet then, the first banquet, the king gives Esther the right to just pour out to him, right there at the banquet, what her request really is.

Because he knows it's more than just the banquet. All right? There's something on her heart, something on her mind. Some scholars believe that there's a pause between, you know, the first, the first statement, you know, or the statement that's made here.

When the king, when the king asks, what is it that you really want here, you know, at this first banquet, that there seems to be a pause before she answers. And then she answers, well, my request is, if you, if you will allow me to prepare a second banquet tomorrow, that you come, and Haman come as well to that banquet.

So that's the request now that she makes before the king as far as what it is that she wants done.

Now, think about Haman just a minute. Think about this. He's bidden to come to a banquet. He comes.

Now the queen wants to, and the banquet prepared for him, the queen wants to do a second banquet. What do you think that's going to do to Haman?

What's it going to do to Haman? Oh, you better believe it. All right. No matter how curious Esther may have been as to the ultimate course of events, Haman was already on his way out.

Because Mordecai, the spirit of God, if you will, has planned this. Now, realize something. It's important for us here to recognize the wisdom and work of the Holy Spirit in the circumstances of our lives.

Realize something. Esther, as I said, didn't really understand what's really going on here. She just knows she's supposed to hold banquets and she will have the opportunity to pour out her real question and her real need.

And remember what that is. that real need is Mordecai had told her the reason you need to go in and see the king is because of this edict that Haman has published to do away with all the Jews in the kingdom.

And so, you need to go into the king and get this thing cleared up so that can be stopped. That's the whole reason for this. And so now, she didn't realize and understand how this was going to work with these banquets.

Likewise, you and I have to realize it doesn't matter if we understand it or not. It doesn't even make a difference whether we see it or not.

The thing we have to realize is the Holy Spirit is always at work in our life. He's always working. No matter what the circumstances may be, good or bad, he's always at work in our lives.

So, we just need to learn to recognize that and learn to trust him to do so. Now, Haman was so proud. You know, he had to be proud when he received that first invitation, but man, the second invitation just had to pop his buttons.

So, in Esther 5, 9, then went Haman forth that day. That is, after he had received that second invitation, he went forth that day with a glad heart.

He just couldn't wait to get home. Tell his wife and tell his friends. He gathered them all together. Just had to let them know what's happening here.

Alright? Alright? He knows he's the king's favorite. King gave him his ring. He's in power. But what about the queen?

She must really think I am it. Yeah? I mean, after all, not just one banquet, but two banquets is what I have been invited to here.

So, he calls his wife and his friends to give them what we can picture as the typical exhibition of the flesh. It boasts in very grandier form and fashion about itself.

And that's what happens here. In Esther 5, verses 11 and 12, Haman told them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things wherein the king had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

Haman said, moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she prepared but myself.

And tomorrow I am invited unto her also with the king. There's going to be a second banquet. Oh, he's not only the king's favorite but the queen's too to the exclusion of everybody else.

Now, realize something. Picture that again as Haman being the flesh. It's characteristic of the flesh to seek its own aggrandizement at the expense of everyone else.

Is there anybody here, I'll ask it this way, is there anybody here that through your lifetime there's never been a time, never been a time when you did a comparison of yourself to others and kind of began to sense to some degree I'm a little bit better in some of this than others?

Hmm? Yeah, I didn't think so. Not even Cody. Didn't raise your hand that time. Oh, you were like this. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so that's what the flesh does. We're reading between the lines and in so many words, what Haman's friends had to say was in type this, apart from the king, the queen would not let anyone else come to the banquet but myself.

And confidently, between you, me, in the fancy post, I don't think she really was enthusiastic about the king being there either. You know, he just, he, she just had to invite him because he was the king and that's it.

Yeah. The flesh has an unlimited capacity for self-deception. Now think about that. It does. It does. When it comes to enhancing its own reputation, makes us feel about ourselves what we are totally not.

All right. How many, you as well have seen so many self-deceived people thinking more of themselves than they ought to and thinking themselves to be something that they are, that they really are not.

Now, so, that's the work of the flesh. Basking as he was in his own limelight, limelight, there's only one thing that spoiled this.

And this, to me, is amazing. The flesh, self-aggrandizement, puffed up, bragging about itself, but there's one little thing that's just driving him up the wall.

When Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he, that is Mordecai, stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.

Still one person that remained unbowed in his presence and was totally unimpressed by him. And that was this man, Mordecai.

So, what happens here? In this fit of rage, you know, look at the contrast here. The guy had to be bipolar. Yeah? He, you know, he's just puffed up about the fact that he's been the king's favorite, or the queen's favorite.

But he walks home, walks by the king's gate, and there sits Mordecai, the guy he despises above everyone because he's a Jew. And now, what happens?

All this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at the king's gate. Goes home and just balls like a baby to his family and to his friends.

Alright? Now, the Holy Spirit always exposes the flesh for what it is. And there's nothing more infuriating to the carnally-minded Christian that when those who are spiritually discerning remain wholly unimpressed in spite of such self-advertisement.

The Spirit of God can't stand that when the carnally-minded Christian can't stand that when people are unimpressed by what they are and what they do.

Sometimes I just, I guess I get in the flesh sometimes. Because when I see folks like that doing things and behaving, I just like to kind of aggravate them by my expressions of what they do.

And so, pray for me if that's not right to do. Alright? Now, you've probably heard of the man that, or people say, I am a self-made man.

Have you heard that? I'm a self-made man and to his friends that are unimpressed, they respond, that just demonstrates the horrors of unskilled labor.

Yeah, yeah. Esther 5, 14, Then said Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon.

Then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet, and the thing pleased Haman. And he caused the gallows to be made. Simple answer, right? Yeah, his wife comes up with a scheme.

She's as bad as he is. You know, you've got another banquet coming up, but in the meantime, just build a gallows, be ready, and then tomorrow at the banquet, ask the king, tell him that Mordecai needs to hang from that thing.

Easy to do, and easy to figure out here that that's all that needs to be done. Now, you know, after all, if you're as popular with the king as you say you are, then surely he'll be glad to answer your request, and that'll be taken care of.

Nothing else will give you any problems. Now, had Esther known what was going on behind the scenes, she might well have been tempted to wonder whether everything was going according to plan.

In the little time that still remained, the all-important issues would have to be decided, for there was a gallows in the garden. You know, so, not much time left here.

There's another banquet coming on the brink here, so she's going to have to figure this thing out. Who's going to hang? Is it going to be Haman, or is it going to be Mordecai? So, ultimately, here's the real issue for us.

That must be decided in the heart of every true believer. If Christ is still on the cross, then, self is on the throne.

Alright? Think of that. If He's still on the cross, we've not had any resurrected life. So, self is still on the throne.

But, if self is on the cross, has died, then Christ is on the throne. So, there's a gallows in the garden. So, who's going to swing? Who's going to swing from the gallows?

Who's going to do that? So, that brings us to the doom of duplicity. Haman begins to fall. I just love this, the way this transpires.

I guess I've got this little sly, sly attitude thing in my mind. Sometimes, he's going to get it. Yeah. Now, Esther 6, 1, on the night, yeah, on that night, this is the night between the two banquets, realize, the banquet's going to be the next day, the second one.

On that night, could not the king sleep? And he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king.

Now, the first banquet's coming past, something keeping the king awake. He can't enjoy his sleep that he would normally have. He tosses, he turns, have you ever done, how many of you, how many of you ever spent sleepless nights?

Yeah. My favorite chair is the recliner. And I'll slip away in there, I find out, I hear and listen, Calvita's sound asleep. She's given verbal evidence that she's asleep, and you know what that is.

I'm not going to say she snores, but that's just verbal evidence. So I know she's sound asleep, so I'll be quiet and careful and slip out and go into the, into the, into the recliner.

I'm not alone, am I? To, to try to catch some slumber. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But the king is restless. Can't figure out why.

Maybe he's eating too much. Maybe it's what, an old preacher I used to work with said he had a hamburger hangover. Whatever it may be. He could not rest.

Alright? But that night of all nights, now just think about that. That night of all nights, he could not sleep. Isn't it amazing how God works?

Amen? Yeah. The night between the two banks was just when Mordecai seemed to have been in such mortal danger on the eve of his execution, the king could not sleep.

Precisely on that night. Now, interesting thing. So what does he do? At last, in desperation, he calls for the book of records and they were read before the king.

Now, why? Well, maybe that was the, maybe that was it. Instead of dragging out his favorite novel, he calls for the books, books of the chronicles to come, be brought, and so he could read them.

And so he begins to read them. God's timing is always perfect, is it not? Yeah. Always is. Does it make any difference?

What the circumstances? His timing is always exactly right. And we need to learn to trust that, don't we? Yeah. What happens a lot of times when we fail to trust God's timing?

And there's, there's reasons when we, why we fail to do that. A lot of times, when, when we fail to trust God's timing, we just, again, goes back to the matter of self-control.

We want to do something to make it happen. But it's not God's time for it to happen. So many examples of that in the Scripture.

Alright? It wasn't until all seemed lost when Abraham was to, to offer Isaac. And he holds, holds that knife up. The knife was flashing in the sunlight.

It wasn't until that time. Now, he was ready to slay a son that God said, hold your hand back, Abraham. And he could, he could throw that knife away.

Though due to die, dawn, Peter was delivered from his chains and from prison by the angel of the Lord who was thus cheated Herod of his prey. Not by chance did Philip meet the eunuch in the desert.

Nor Paul encountered Lydia by the riverside. These were divine appointments by which God accomplishes His divine ends. Oh, that we be patient.

Amen? We be patient. Everything today has to be like this. Remember who Yakov Smirnoff was or is over in Branson?

I'll never forget hearing him somewhere or other. Maybe he's on video or something. But, he's talking, you know, his favorite, his favorite phrase was, oh, I love this country.

You know, you know. And so, he was talking about being in the grocery store. And he was just amazed. He walked down the aisle and he sees this box.

It's his instant potatoes. All you have to do is pour water or milk in them and heat them up and you got potatoes. Oh!

Then he walks a little further and he sees this box of powdered milk. Just add water, you get milk. Oh, man.

Then he turns around to the next aisle and he looks down and he reaches down and there's a box of baby powder. And he looks and says, only in America.

What a country! You know? Yeah, so, everything, everything's got to be instantaneous. Amen? Yeah.

Calvin and I, our microwave that we bought, what, six years ago when we bought the house went kaput the other day. And so, we went to Lowe's because that's where we got the first one.

Went to Lowe's to get one that'll match the stove and they didn't have it in stock. They had to order it. This was last week. Said it'd be in yesterday. You ever tried doing without a microwave for a week?

Yeah? Yeah. In fact, in fact, was it today or yesterday? One, Cavalita was saying, yeah, because he had all these pots and pans strung out. And all we were doing is eating leftovers.

You know? Put it on a plate, stick it in the microwave, push the button, it warms up. But no, didn't have it. So she had pots and pans. She was mixing stuff in to heat it up so we could eat hot food.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, isn't it amazing? Everything has to be instant. But we need to learn to wait upon God. Because the sad thing is, a lot of times, that instant desire for instant things carries over into our spiritual life.

And we expect God to answer and do things just like that. and He doesn't. He may at some point, but He doesn't always do that. Alright?

Sometimes He tells us to wait and to trust and to look and to watch and be sensitive to His direction. So those divine appointments are the ways that He accomplishes the things He wants to do.

Now, for the king, as the pages of the book were read upon this restless night, Esther 6-2, says, it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigphana and Tresh.

There's a reason why I'm laughing at that. Two of the king's chamberlains to keep the keepers of the door who sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. The king suddenly became aware of the fact that Mordecai had been the means by which his life was spared back in that event.

Now, the story is found at the end of chapter 2 of Esther. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigfin and Tresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.

And the thing was known to Mordecai who told it unto Esther the queen and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when the inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out.

So therefore, they were both hanged on a tree. And it was written in the book of the Chronicles before the king. Now, it's not as if the king didn't know this or wasn't aware of this.

Surely, he was made aware of it back when the thing first happened. Alright? But on this particular night, for some reason, that caught his attention.

And so, a question came to his mind. What honor and dignity has been done to Mordecai for this? Oh, catch the picture here, folks.

You know? What honor has been given to him, Mordecai, for this thing that he's done? Then said the king's servant that ministered unto him, there's nothing done for him.

Oh! That's as if some of the servants may have said, King, you had a chance to do it when you first heard about that. But you were preoccupied with other things.

This didn't seem to have priority for you. So, you know, you forgot it. Nothing else was done. Just never came back to mind. So, that's the way it is.

Now, think about that just a moment. King Ahasuerus represents what? The human soul? Alright. Mind, will, and emotion? Alright.

when it comes to the work of the Spirit of God. See what's happening here? Now, it's possible for a man to live many years strangely unmoved by the amazing love of God in Christ though he professes saving faith in Christ.

To be so preoccupied with other things that the momentous fact of redemption through the precious blood of Jesus remains a matter of secondary importance.

You ever been there? Yeah? Life's just full of stuff. Full of clutter. and the natural man within us has a unique way of letting that get in the way of even our thinking capacity of remembering the love of Christ and what that means to our life.

Now, the facts are known but unrelated until the moment of fuller revelation when almost inexplicably the significance of the cross stands out vividly in bold relief.

And a troubled restless soul is suddenly confronted with the claims of a neglected Savior. Wow! It's the work the Spirit of God does.

At the sight of the wounds in his hands and in his feet the heart cries out to God what honor and dignity hath been done to him for this? And sadly the say the answer would be nothing.

Nothing's done for him. Wow! But aren't you glad the Holy Spirit brings us to that point and causes us to realize that to recognize that to see that in our lives so we can surrender to it repent of it and then let God be God to us in all that he wants to be.

Our time is gone what's next? I'll just give you this to chew on. The king said who's in the court?

He comes to the realization that nothing has been done for Mordecai. So he said who is it that's in the court? Now Haman was come into the outer courtyard or court of the king's house to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he prepared for him.

And the king's servant said unto him behold Haman standeth in the court and the king said let him come in. Remember why Haman is there?

He's going to come talk to the king before that second banquet and say hey Mordecai has got a swing. Yeah but that that sleepless night and the book of the records changed it all.

Who's in the court? Well Mordecai is out there waiting to see you. Tell him to come on in. Yeah I can imagine Haman's thinking alright this is going to be easier than I thought it was.

Yeah I'm going to just go in there and I'm going to tell him we need to hang Mordecai because he's an enemy of the kingdom and things will be taken care of things will be settled but that's not what happens amen so chew on that and search it out until next time