Sermon Tone Analysis

It’s Your Time

 

He makes what could easily be taken as a not-so-veiled threat, saying, “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish” (Esth.

4:14).[1]

When the situation had come to a crisis, Esther was brought to her own defining moment by circumstances over which she had no control.

Mordecai said to Esther, “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place .... and who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

It was for “such a time as this” that she was forced to choose between identifying herself with God’s covenant people or continuing to live as a pagan in the king’s court.

No one in the court, including[2]

her own husband, knew that she was a Jew.

In order to reveal Haman to the king in the hope of saving her people, she had to reveal herself as well.

However, the Esther story shows more than an example of God’s providence at work.[3]

As the first king of God’s people, it was Saul’s responsibility to be the agent through whom God would fulfill that promise.

God instructs him through the prophet Samuel to “attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them.

Do not spare them,” God says; “put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys” (1 Sam.

15:1–3).

Saul did attack the Amalekites as commanded, but he took Agag their king alive and spared his life along with the best of the sheep and cattle, in disobedience to God’s command.

By disobeying, Saul refused to be the agent who would fulfill God’s promise, and therefore, he was disqualified to rule as God’s earthly king.

God worked His purpose providentially through these people providentially to fulfill His ancient promise, whether or not their motives were righteous, and whether or not they consciously aligned themselves with His purposes.

This is as good an example as one could find of Rom.

8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

On May 14th, 1948, the regathered Jews declared a portion of Palestine to be the independent state of Israel.

This in itself did not fulfill specifically the prophecies concerning Israel’s regathering, for the regathering has been in unbelief; but after nearly two thousand years of exclusion from their land, Israel’s existence as a state may very well set the stage for the final act.

2. /Perilous times./

Paul describes social conditions in the “last days”:

But realize this, that in the LAST DAYS difficult days will come.

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power … among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tm. 3:1–7, NASB).

Of course such men as Paul describes have always existed; but when the depravity that he describes characterizes a whole society, such a condition signals the approach of the end of this age.

When the conditions prevailing today of selfishness, sexual perversion, crime, violence, lack of conscience, and rebellion against Bible morality are contemplated, one is not surprised that many Bible scholars view modern society as a “doomsday” society.

3. /The rise of communist Russia./

The prophet Ezekiel, in chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine, prophetically describes a nation or nations that will come against Israel when she is regathered in her own land.

He says: “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal” ’ ” (Ez.

38:2, 3, NASB).[4]

4.

/The rise of communist China./

In the book of Revelation, chapter sixteen, there is a passage which makes reference to the “kings of the east”: “And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the EAST” (Rv.

16:12, NASB).

6.

/Progress in transportation and science./

In the last chapter of Daniel’s prophecy is recorded this word of the Lord: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the TIME OF THE END; many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase” (Dn.

12:4, NKJV).

Many who write about latter day signs point to Daniel’s prophecy quoted above as a sign that the end is approaching.

Until the nineteenth century, there was very little change in the way people traveled.[5]

Today, travelers span continents in jet planes in a matter of hours; and space travel (already being booked) will offer speeds permitting one to circle the globe faster than Abraham could get to the next village.[6]

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[1]Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary: /Faith and Mission Volume 14/.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1997; 2005, S. vnp.14.1.4

[2]Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary: /Faith and Mission Volume 14/.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1997; 2005, S. vnp.14.1.8

[3]Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary: /Faith and Mission Volume 14/.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1997; 2005, S. vnp.14.1.7

NASB The New American Standard Bible

[4]Duffield, Guy P. ; Van Cleave, Nathaniel M.: /Foundations of Pentecostal Theology/.

Los Angeles, Calif.

: L.I.F.E.

Bible College, 1983, S. 524

NASB The New American Standard Bible

[5]Duffield, Guy P. ; Van Cleave, Nathaniel M.: /Foundations of Pentecostal Theology/.

Los Angeles, Calif.

: L.I.F.E.

Bible College, 1983, S. 526

[6]Duffield, Guy P. ; Van Cleave, Nathaniel M.: /Foundations of Pentecostal Theology/.

Los Angeles, Calif.

: L.I.F.E.

Bible College, 1983, S. 527