Rejoice and Be Glad

The book of Esther, Conquering the Dilemma of Christian Living.

! Now, when we met three weeks ago, we had found that the third banquet had commenced, the third, or not third, but the second banquet that Esther had commissioned for the king and for Haman.

And you recall what happened there. Esther had the opportunity then to reveal to King Ahasuerus the character and nature of Haman, the fact that he is the one that has determined to put the Jewish people with whom she identifies, because she's one of them, put them to death.

And so as a result of that, the king was very angry. You remember he went into his garden area to just kind of cool off a bit and consider things.

And in the meantime, remember that Haman stood up and came before the queen, begging for his life in essence. And somehow during that, you recall that Haman, I don't know if he stumbled or what, but ended up prostrating on her bed, the foot of her bed probably, just as the king came in.

And the king came in, saw him there, and that just made him even more angry. And so the process was put in motion to put Haman to death.

Remember the statement that in chapter 7, verse 8, simply said they covered Haman's face. Remember that is the indication that this individual is assigned to death.

And remember, because I'm going to repeat this because I like it so well. Remember the Roman statement here. I lector caput abnubito arbonri infelici suspendito.

Yeah, couldn't get the suspendito out. And that's one of the best words. That simply means go, sergeant, cover his head and hang him on the accursed tree. And then verses 9 and 10 of chapter 7 said, Harbona, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman.

Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

So, tremendous, tremendous thing that occurred as we closed out our last session. Now that brings us to the next portion for us.

On the very day that Haman was hanged, the Bible says, Mordecai came before the king. It's a time to rejoice and be glad. For Esther had told what he was unto her.

Remember now that when Esther brought the accusation before the king about Haman, that was the point in time, first time that King Ahasuerus ever had an idea that she was a Jew, that she identified with the Jewish people.

And now Esther has told the king now what Mordecai was to her. So he comes in before the king as well.

Remember, Mordecai was the one that adopted, if you will, Esther raised her as his own daughter after the death of her parents. Esther explained to King Ahasuerus that she belonged by adoption to Mordecai, who had intervened to save the king's life from the hand of the assassin.

And that then for the king to be identified with her, inevitably means that he is going to have to identify with Mordecai, if there's going to be any harmony in the relationship between she and the king.

Remember the analogy here now. You've got the human spirit, you've got the human soul, and you've got the Holy Spirit here being spoken of. What an appropriate picture we have here.

For there to be harmony among those three, then the human soul has to identify itself with the Spirit of God, just as the Spirit already is, the human spirit.

In the light of all that had been revealed to him, and with a profound sense of gratitude, not only for the fact that Haman preserved his life, but for his deliverance from the subtle destructive influence of the enemy within the palace, that's Haman, on that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman, the Jews' enemy, unto Esther the queen.

And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. Mordecai, and that's in chapter 8, verses 1 and 2. Now, notice two things that the king did here.

First of all, he took his ring, that remember he had placed on Haman's finger, he now takes that ring, that ring of authority, and places it on the finger of Mordecai.

Then secondly, though, in spite of the fact that he had done that for Mordecai, he entrusted the administration of Haman's estate to Esther.

Now, you get the picture here. The human soul giving power to the Spirit of God, if you will, in the life.

But then the ultimate authority goes to the human spirit, as far as the soul is concerned. But take note here. In this way, although the king invested Mordecai with all the authority that once had belonged to Haman, this authority was to be exercised according to what Ahasuerus now considered to be the better judgment of Esther the queen.

Esther, though, for her part, indicated at once where she knew the better judgment lays. Esther, not in herself, but in Mordecai, whom she then sets over the house of Haman.

You see the picture there? You just cannot beat the wisdom and the guidance of the Spirit of God. Amen? And that's the picture that you have here. That the human spirit, in this case, relinquishes everything to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

Esther 8.2, Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. Now, the king then identified his will with that of Esther.

Esther then submits her will to that of Mordecai. Spiritual significance in this new relationship is quite obvious.

When the soul, consisting of the mind, the emotions, and the will, that's the king of Ahasuerus, is in total harmony with the desires created by the Holy Spirit, that's Mordecai, within a yielded human spirit, Esther, then the fullness of God is at work through the believer.

Now, look at that statement again. Very important. The idea here is, everything's in harmony, because everything is in consistency with the heart and mind and wisdom of the Spirit of God.

That's when the fullness of God is at work in the life of the believer. Ephesians 3.1 makes the statement that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

That's God's desire for us. And that fullness, he's talking about everything that Jesus is, everything that God is. In who he is.

When the Spirit of God comes to dwell within us, he comes to dwell within us in all that he is. All right? And realize that everything that Christ, if you will, possesses, likewise the Spirit of God does too.

So the idea here is, when the Spirit of God comes within us, then the fullness of Christ abides as well. What am I trying to say here?

I'm trying to find the word. The focus then has got to be for us, knowing that that's the reality. The desire of God is for that fullness to be at operation within us, and flow from us.

All right? Ephesians 4.13 says, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what the Spirit of God is working for in the church. Now, let's take a look back, just to refresh our minds just a little bit.

We saw the Holy Spirit resist it. That was recorded for us in chapter 3. Remember, outside the palace, there was sitting in the king's gate, someone that was not very happy.

All right? He was sitting at the king's gate, while Haman was plotting his destruction. And that, of course, was Mordecai. His problem was, Haman's problem with Mordecai, remember, was that should he gain access to the king, and bring his influence to the king, and to the government, then the laws of the Jews would become effective within the kingdom.

And those were contrary to the laws that Haman himself hated, which he wanted to establish himself. He hated the law of God to Israel.

And then we saw the Holy Spirit received in chapter 2. Told us of the Holy Spirit coming into the human spirit as Mordecai came into the life of Esther.

Of course, the basis of that, remember, was adoption, just the same way as you and I must receive the spirit of adoption that God's word speaks of.

Romans 8, 16, the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are then the children of God. And that comes through adoption. Then we saw the Holy Spirit grieved.

Mordecai sitting at the gate of the king, this time in sackcloth and ashes, crying with a loud and bitter cry.

Mordecai had come into the life of Esther, and according to chapter 2, verse 20 of Esther, she did the commandment of Mordecai like as when she was brought up with him. But yet, even though he was in the life of Esther, at that juncture, remember, Mordecai had not yet come into the life of the king.

Haman was still the one that dominated the scene there in the palace. Now, well, let's just move on.

Then we saw the Holy Spirit quenched. Picture painted in Exodus, chapter 4 continues, Esther was reluctant to obey Mordecai's instructions. Remember after he told her what she needed to do to quell all of this.

She hesitated to go in unsummoned unto the presence of the king, thus to hazard her life in the interest of her people so that the seed of Abraham might not perish.

Remember how strictly she was against that instruction that Mordecai had given her. Even though Haman's wickedness had been fully exposed to her by Mordecai, remember, until Esther was prepared to die to her own ability to hang him, to change things anyway, it was impossible for Mordecai to assume responsibility for putting this enemy into the place of death.

But then we saw the Holy Spirit obeyed. As it came to its conclusion, the latter part of chapter 4 introduced us to the implications of true discipleship.

On the third morning, Esther, as good as dead, entered into the royal presence and the king held out the golden censer. Losing her life, she found it again to be identified forever with God's purpose, God's power, and of course, God's people as well.

Now, look at the fullness of the Spirit.

With the enemy disposed, Mordecai with the king's ring upon his finger, occupying his estate, and with the king and queen at one with each other and honoring Mordecai with all the executive powers of government, the stage has now been set for a new and a glorious regime to take place here.

That regime was established spiritually within us. Yeah, it doesn't mean, it means not only does the Lord Jesus live by His Spirit within our human spirit, but He now controls the mind, the will, and the emotions.

But all you that do and say are, all that you do and say and are, His life and likeness are expressed through you. Now, remember that.

And there's the important aspect of it. With the Spirit of God present within us, the mind, the will, and the emotion, the human soul, all right, is to be controlled by Him.

Now, let me ask you this question. Is it always controlled by Him? How come?

Once again, the old man, Haman, seems to come back once in a while, at least to be able to go.

Ah, there's the key. There's the key. Yeah. Depends on who we yield to, right?

We exercise that control ourselves. Who is it to control? Who is it that's going to control our mind, our will, and the emotions? Is it going to be the Spirit of God?

If it's not the Spirit of God, who's it going to be? The natural man. The flesh within us, right? It's going to be Haman. It's going to be Haman.

So, ah, but when we yield to the Spirit of God, and everything we do, everything we say, everything we are, is simply an expression of the person of the Lord Jesus.

And that's what glorifies Him and glorifies the Father. Everybody around us becomes aware of the fact that we, but they may not understand it, but they're aware of the fact that there's something different about us.

And that is that by the exceeding great and precious promises, we've become partaker of the divine nature. Now, it's important for us to remember at this stage of the story that although Mordecai is welcome at home within the palace, he communicates, continues to communicate with the king through Esther the queen.

Now, Esther, chapter 8, verse 5. Esther spake yet again before the king. Now she goes once again to the king. What is missing here?

I'm going to back that, whoops, whoops, wrong way. I'm going to back that up a minute so you don't get the answer. Okay, Haman has been hanged. Mordecai's got the ring.

He's in power. All right? Esther has told the king, Mordecai's the one that needs control of it all now.

The estate of Haman and all that. There's still something missing here. What is it? What is it that hasn't taken place yet? Haman's edict is still in force.

Yes, yes. That edict that he wrote about the Jews being exterminated still in force. All right? So, thank you, Lee.

Glad you taught this before. Chapter 8, verse 5. Esther then comes back into the presence of the king unannounced.

Or not unannounced, but uninvited. Esther spake yet again before the king, fell down at his feet, besought him with tears to put away the mischief.

Let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews, which are in all the king's provinces.

Now, I think that interesting. Once again, she goes in. Something's got to be done here. And she knows that. She's still following Mordecai's instruction.

All right? Now, in doing that, then it raises an interesting point for us. Do you remember back when we talked about the duality of the conscience, the animal conscience and the moral conscience, and we gave you the example of the little puppy dog and how he responds through his animal conscience, and that being built on the consequence of what's going to happen when he does or doesn't do whatever.

All right? Well, it's interesting because there also seems to be a duality of the will as well. All right? When you exercise your animal will, you make an animal choice.

That's a brilliant statement, isn't it? Governed then by your animal conscience. On the other hand, when you exercise your moral will, you make a moral choice governed by your moral conscience.

Now, so much that we do, a lot of things, we may not realize it, but a lot of things we do, we do based on the animal conscience. Has nothing at all to do with the moral conscience.

Case in point, when you sat down in that chair, Mike, this evening, which conscience did you, and which will did you exercise?

Well, obviously, it must be in the animal one because I didn't pray before I said that. All right. Yeah, the animal conscience. If you crank up your fireplace when it gets cold and that thing's burning nice and bright, all of a sudden that log falls off onto the floor, what are you going to do?

Are you going to reach down and pick it up and put it back in? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to find something to scoop it up with and throw it in there. Why? Because you know if you pick it up, you're going to get burned.

Okay? Now, that doesn't, that doesn't have anything to do with a moral will, moral will, moral conscience. It's just, there's consequence there.

Okay? If you reach down, pick it up, you're going to burn your hand. It's got to be moved, but it's got to do it a different way because of the consequence that is there. All of those things apply to that animal will, animal conscience, and so forth.

We deal with so many different things by the animal conscience to the animal will, through the animal will, if you will, that have nothing to do with the moral choice and moral directions that we choose.

Now, now, when you're walking, let's say you're walking down the street, all right, walking down the street, animal will, right, has nothing to do with the animal conscience, I mean, with moral conscience, it's all just like you've always done.

Same way a dog does, only you've got two legs. Now, but when you get to the end of that sidewalk, and you have a choice to make, am I going to go left, am I going to go right?

Knowing that if I turn left, I can just go down to the grocery store. But if I turn right, there's a place down there I ought not to go.

Okay? So right then, at that point, we've got to make a decision. And that's where the moral will comes in upon the moral conscience.

Okay? Turn left, you go to the grocery store, turn right, you go down to that place where you ought not to be able to go. All right? Ought not to go.

All right? Now, so, you know, you see the principle there. Let's say, let's say on that right side, you go down there, there's that old, that's that old bar that you, pool hall bar that you used to go to and, and, guzzle it up while you did all kinds of stupid stuff.

But on the left, you go home, there's your wife and your kids. Okay? So, you have to make a choice. If I go right, you know what's going to happen.

But if I decide to go left, there's going to be joy there because wife and kids are there. And the wife and kids are always in good shape, right? They're always in good frame of mind and heart and attitude.

Love seeing you come in the door. Amen? Amen? I just thought I'd throw that in for extra. Now, even though we are born again, the sin principle still operates within us and it'll seek to dominate that animal will.

All right? So that the decisions we make will be enabled, enable the flesh to use our anatomy, our human bodies to realize its carnal appetites and to satisfy them.

it's always going to do that. There's no escape of that. You know, there's no, don't you wish there were? But there's not.

It's there until we shed this body of flesh. Now, at the same time, as it seeks to control your animal will, it's going to seek to silence the moral conscience, persuade the animal conscience, that you can do what it wants you to do and get by with it without any unpleasant consequences.

That's what it's going to try to tell you and persuade you of. And the problem there is the animal conscience and the animal will is quite ready to fall into that. All right?

So, likewise, simultaneously, your moral conscience, quickened and undergritted by the Spirit of God within our human spirit, will exercise its moral will to plead with your animal will to put away the mischief, saying in so many words, do not continue offering or yielding your body members and faculties to sin as instruments or tools of wickedness, but offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to perpetual life and your bodily members and faculties to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

That's in Romans 6, 13. Now, if the flesh is successful in silencing the moral conscience, then you know what's going to happen.

You'll turn right at the end of the sidewalk, end up that old pool hall, involved with the same stuff you were before.

On the other hand, if the Spirit of God enables your will, your moral will to exercise its control, then what are you going to do?

You're going to turn left and go down where your family, your wife, and your kids are waiting for you.

Now, most people say right there is where I have a problem. It's when I get to that end of the road where I've got to turn right or left.

probably with most believers or many believers, let me put it that way, is how do we get to the point where our animal conscience and our animal will are then superseded by the moral conscience and the moral will to do right.

is there anybody that's ever had problems at any point in time with doing right when you know you should have and you didn't? Yeah.

Yeah. It doesn't have to be anything large, but it's just something that you know is not what the Spirit of God wants for you. So, how in the world, how in the world do we overcome that and get victory over that and make sure the right, the ring is on the right finger?

Alright. Although I held up my left hand. Now, the answer to that lies in our attitudes about the Lord Jesus and the fact that, of course, we are sharing His life.

And that's the thing that we've got to really, I think, grasp. It's, oh goodness, it's not just the idea that the Spirit of God wants to take control of our lives.

We know that. We know that He dwells within us. But I think even more so we need to focus on the reality that in and through all of that is the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ through the indwelling presence of His Spirit shares our life.

He wants to be living through us. In us and through us. He wants His life to be seen through our living.

That's the focus I think we need to make in all of this. when Esther went in once more before the king besought him with tears to put away the mischief and to reverse the letters it was an attitude of utter confidence in Mordecai.

Alright? She felt certain that as her obedience to him had enabled Mordecai to put Haman into the place of death likewise now her continued obedience to him would allow Mordecai to bring his influence to bear upon the king's mind and upon the decisions made in the palace.

As she once had died to her own ability to hang Haman she continued then to die to her own ability to change the character and I should say the attitude of the king.

She couldn't do that. It's got to be Mordecai. That's why she determined it's best for him to be in charge of the estate of Haman not her because he knew best.

He knew best and she could count on anything he says in the future because she knows what happened in the past and how faithful and true he was to everything back then.

Likewise you and I need to come to the reality that yeah the spirit of God is alive and working within our lives.

Christ is there. He wants to live through us. What has the spirit of God done in our life in the past? That's why it would be so good for us.

Maybe this week would be a good week to do that. Challenge you to just spend some time this week first of all asking God God you're going to have to refresh my memory because I don't remember things like I used to.

Amen. Yeah. He'll do that if you ask him to refresh my memory and remind me of the things that you have done in my life through your spirit in days past.

Write them down. Write them down so you don't forget them. Here's what God did. Here's how faithful he's been to me and here's how he showed that faithfulness.

Yeah. So that all right now I can trust him for everything else in the future. Yeah. Whatever he does wherever I end up whatever takes place in my life I can trust him because I know who he is and I know what he's done in who he is in my life in the past.

And he sure isn't going to change. Amen. He's the unchangeable God. On this occasion we'll quit here in a minute. On this occasion she too entered unsummoned into his presence and once more the king held out the golden scepter toward Esther.

Yeah. Trust Mordecai. Amen. Just trust him. Know what he's done. Know what he says. And just obey what he says and shows you to do.

All right. We'll uncouple right there. Any thoughts, questions, comments? Yes, James. Because Doylene's not here. Yes. I'm going to ask this on her behalf because I'm sure she would have thought.

Yeah. About the moral conscience and animal conscience. Uh-huh. The natural man also has a moral conscience. Because there are a lot of people out there. I'm a good person.

I don't do anything. I haven't killed anybody. You know, they're convinced that their own goodness, their own moral conscience is enough. Is enough. Yeah. Yeah.

But I think that's the natural moral conscience. But it's a moral conscience that's not controlled by the Spirit of God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's under the animal influence, but there's still moral.

Yeah. Right. Right. And again, you know, even if you looked at it in the animal will and conscience, good people do good things, but they, but why do they do those good things?

There's a consequence. There's a consequence. They may be a good consequence, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Or look what I can put on my headstone. as if we'll look down and read them. All right.

Anything else? Good question. That was a good insight, James. Anything else? All right. We'll pick up there, Lord willing, next week. Let's pray.

Father, again, thank you for your goodness, grace, and love to us, and thank you for your word again, and for the things that you've shown us through the book of Esther that pertain to our life, our living, your work within us, your desires for us and through us.

And so, Father, I pray that you'll continue to impress these things upon our soul and our spirit that will help us more and more understand what it is you're doing and how we can yield to your spirit and let him control our lives that you might be glorified in and through us.

And we'll thank you and praise you for it now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.