For Such a Time As This — E.A. Johnston

Esther’s Crisis and the Call to Courage

Before we go to our time of prayer this evening, friends, I'd like to turn in your Bibles to the book of Esther. We're gonna be in chapter four. We're all familiar with brave Esther as she put her life on the line for her people and nation.

Through treachery, wicked Haman convinced the king to send out an edict to eliminate all Jews in all the provinces of his kingdom. And the king said a seal to that written document to destroy the Jews.

And when this terrible news hit the various provinces, there was a great mourning among the Jewish people. They fasted and wept and wailed and sat in sackcloth and ashes. Well, I wanna go over this section in the book of Esther for us right now.

We're gonna be in verses 12 through 16. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews.

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then there shall enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither eat or drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens 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. The title of my message this evening, friends, is For Such a Time as This. And I want to apply this theme to the course of the history of the church and our present day situation.

God’s Instruments in Times of National Crisis

Listen, friends, God will mold and make at his powder's wheel the human instrument to deliver a nation. I can't help but think of Moses on the backside of the desert, being shaped by God to deliver the people of God.

And I think of Martin Luther in Germany and John Knox in Scotland, chosen vessels fit for the master's use to impact the nation for God's glory. A man raised up by God for such a time as this, so to speak.

I can see similar movement of the hand of God as he moves in seasons of revival, or when the church desperately needs an invasion from heaven and a human instrument is necessary to bring about the blessing.

When all of London was a gin shop in the 18th century and the Church of England was in decay, God thrusts out a youthful John Wesley and George Whitefield to restore spiritual life to the church and through a revival of religion.

They were men for such a time as this. And then there lay the nation of Wales, ready to be stirred from an invasion from heaven through a powerful revival. And God's human instrument was Evan Roberts, who was thrust into the public arena for such a time as this.

The Church’s Spiritual Powerlessness

Look around you, friends, at this sad day in which we live. These last days where society spins out of control and moral upheaval, where the church lies in a death grip of either deadness and formality or carelessness and worldliness.

The church is unfit for the task before it. How in the world can a powerless church turn the tide of a nation back to God? She cannot in her present condition. Her reliance is upon man and ingenuity rather than on prayer and importunity.

The church today is materialistic and self-sufficient. She is rich and increased with goods, but yet cannot see her nakedness and spiritual poverty. Gone are her well-attended prayer meetings. Gone are her spirit-anointed ministers, burdened and broken over the sins of the land.

We have mainly professionals in our pulpits today who run a church along the same lines as a business through committees and methodologies, money and manpower, rather than what the church needs, which is a prophet who stands in the gap for church and nation at this critical hour.

Prophetic Boldness Against Sin and Corruption

Where are the watchmen to warn this nation of her great and perilous danger? Where are the Elijahs in our day who are willing to go toe-to-toe with a corrupt kingdom and its false prophets and stand with authority and speak with conviction?

Thus saith the Lord of hosts. Where is a John the Baptist today to cry out against the sins of our day, willing to stand boldly before a wicked king and denounce his lifestyle and put his neck on the line by doing so?

Where is the fearless lad who's willing to slay the giants of perversion that dominate the land? Why does it appear that the gates of hell are prevailing against the church in our day? Why do we lack power?

Where is our authority? Where is our influence? Somewhere in our personal lives, we have forfeited all rights to power. We cannot cry out against sin if we are rolling in it ourselves. We cannot lead a nation back to God when we ourselves have lost the way.

Instead of our churches being a flame that burn with the fire of God, attracting all within her walls, the church is more like a mortuary that sends forth her chilly blasts, repelling all who come her way.

A Gospel Centered on God’s Holiness

The gospel of our hour is a watered-down perversion which is centered on man and his happiness rather than God and his holiness. Many pastors are men-pleasers who need constant affirmation to enter the pulpit and they preach nice little sermons that don't upset anybody.

The problem is, friends, they don't save anybody either. There are few true conversions in our day of a corrupted gospel and a compromised people. We behave like God is here to serve us rather than us serve him.

It's all about us. It's no wonder society looks at church today and mocks. Where is the young woman who's willing to stand in the gap for her nation and say like Esther, if I perish, I perish? Where is the young man who's willing to shut himself up with God in prayer like Evan Roberts and then cry out for God in reckless abandon?

Bend me, Lord, bend me. Where, oh, where are the gamblers for God today like a young CT stud who gambled his life away for Christ in eternity and was willing to lose his life to save it? Am I speaking to you, friend?

Am I speaking to you? Is your heart burdened over the sins of the land? Is your heart broken over the deadness in the church? Is your heart bursting over the millions who perish into a burning hell? Do you wanna be the person for this strategic hour and for such a time as this?

Are you prepared to have the spirit of the martyrs and cry out, if I perish, I perish, but I will spend my life for God and his gospel? Are you willing, friend, to be a kernel of wheat that dies to bring forth life?

The Altar of Surrender and Sacrifice

There is an altar beckoning. There is an altar before you. It's a double-sided altar, for it's both a marriage altar, signifying new life and commitment to your bridegroom, Jesus, and it's a altar of sacrifice, signifying utter surrender and death to self, to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Do you wanna see your nation turn back to the God of the Bible? Do you wanna see in the church a God-consciousness again? Do you desire to see untold thousands bowed under by a powerful heaven-sent revival?

Then focus, turn your focus towards eternity and be gripped with the God of eternity. Do you wanna be the person God can use to turn an entire nation back to him? Do you desire to see God move in the churches in revival where people are once again bowed beneath the awful solemnity of a holy God, to where the people of God are cleansed from their wicked ways and set on fire for God to reach this generation of perishing souls?

Are we willing to turn from our superficiality and wholeheartedly seek God in nights of desperate and burdened prayer? Do we understand the sacrifice involved in such an undertaking? Are we willing to pay the cost of that sacrifice?

Are we willing to be that sacrifice and get up on God's altar and stick the flesh hooks in ourselves so we won't crawl off that altar come hell or high water? Do we wanna see our nation clean from our filthiness and perversion and violence and disorder?

Do we wanna see our churches alive with the presence of God in our midst and the lives of believers set on fire for God to such a degree that all we see is a future judgment for all mankind and we wish to bring in as many souls as God will give us.

Does not our nation lie on the rocks and ruin of destruction? Are not millions standing on the very rim of the bottomless pit of hell ready to fall in? Does not God have the power to take us and mold us and make us the person for such a time as this?

A Call to Prayer for Revival

Yes, he is. He is, friends. He's still the God of Esther. He's still the God of revival. This is a call for the people of God to go to our knees and cry out to God for our nation, for our church, for the lost and perishing.

This is a call for you, brother pastor, to go to the leaders of your church and call your church to a time of solemn assembly and cry out to God in desperate prayer and have your sanctuary that way night after night until you get a breakthrough with the Almighty.

Joel’s Pattern of Repentance and Solemn Assembly

In the book of Joel, we see this necessary pattern for a move of God to stir a people of God and turn them back to him. It's found in Joel chapter two. Let's turn in our Bibles there now, friends. We'll be in verses 12 through 18.

Oh, friends, how solemn the subject is and how great is our need at this tragic hour in history. Here now is the word of God and may the spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word. Therefore, also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning and rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, a slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil, who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children and those that suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.

Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar and let them say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathens should rule over them, wherefore they should say among the people, where is their God?

Then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people. Listen, friends. The main reason that God's not getting serious with us today in our churches is because we're not getting serious enough with him.

We refuse to set aside our own agenda and clean out our sanctuaries of its idols and worldly influence and turn from our wicked ways and humble ourselves before our God in nights of desperation, where the brokenhearted people of God weep over the sins of our land and cry out to God to come and heal our land and send revival to our churches.

Listen, friends. I have seen God use just one praying pastor and a brokenhearted people to push back the darkness within their community. If we get serious with God, friends, God will get serious with us.

Four Obstacles to God’s Presence

There are four main reasons why God has withdrawn his presence from among us, from among his people through remedial judgment. And I believe these four main reasons are the following. Number one, arrogance.

Number two, pride. Number three, self-sufficiency. And number four, a refusal to turn back to God and true repentance. Oh, friends, if we were to do these things and actually lay hold of God in earnest prayer, I believe he would again reign righteousness upon us and extend his kingdom work through us in a clear demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power.

Returning to God Before It Is Too Late

God declares in Malachi, a return to me and I will return to you. Are we willing to do it? Will we do it? Will we do it before it's too late? Will you be the one dear friend who will take a stand for God and stand in the gap for your land and rise up for such a time as this and not fear in the consequences about God's grace proclaim, if I perish, I perish as long as God gets the glory.

Let us now go to a time of prayer.