The Ministry of Prayer — Mary Peckham

Thank you for your prayers during this time. It's been a blessing to know that I've been remembered in prayer. You've said such wonderful things about me. I'm going home to my husband to tell him what a wonderful person I am.

I don't think he'll believe a word of it. Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. You folk in America have a habit of telling people these things. You know, you're such a wonderful person and so on.

We don't do that in Scotland and in England. I don't know whether we should or not, because I think it's a little bit dangerous to be telling people that they are so wonderful when they know themselves that they're not.

Terrible thing to say to you, I don't believe you. That's how I feel. One of the ladies said to me this morning, oh, the Lord did answer your prayer and make you beautiful. It's a good job I've got a mirror in my purse, otherwise I might believe her.

Well, it's been good to be with you. When I thought, first of all, of this, coming to America on my own to this conference, I must admit that I was very apprehensive, not saying the least of it. This man, Harold Vaughan, and my husband, Colin Peckham, they were in cahoots together, and they were planning the whole thing, and here was I thinking of it.

And one day in tears I said to Colin, you and this Harold Vaughan have arranged all this for me. Do you realize what this is going to mean? I'm going to go on that long journey all on my own, and that's all right, dear, you'll be okay, you'll be fine, and I'll be praying, and I was praying, I was really praying right through for you.

That's all right for you, you're not going. Okay, I want to assure you that I'm 101 percent human, 101 percent human. And some of you have said to me, too, that you would love to be able to pour out the texts of Scripture as I've done in these Here I Say sermons.

The Ministry of Women and the Authority of Scripture

Oh, by the way, the previous pastor suggested that I should become a pastor. Let me assure you that I have a deep conviction in my heart that ladies should not be pastors. They can have their job. I don't believe in women ministers, but I believe in the ministry of women.

You got that? Well, what was I saying before that? Oh, about the Scriptures. Somebody said to me this morning they'd love to know the Bible. It takes time. It takes time. I was for three years when I couldn't take any meetings because of heart palpitations.

I couldn't go hardly a day without spending hours lying on my back with my heart going at 130, 140, and one day it went at 176. And they used to rush me off one week. I was three times in the hospital rushed off to try and do something for me.

But I couldn't book a meeting because invariably it would start again. So I determined that I would spend that time reading the Bible because I believe that this is the most important thing in my life.

God gave me a love for the Word of God when He saved me. Oh, I used to hug my Bible as a young teenager. I loved the Lord. The Lord, I loved His Word. After all, it is through this Word that we see Him.

In our Bible college, the students will not receive their final diploma if they have not read the Bible through twice during their two years in the college. And during their two years in the college, they have got a third year too for a degree if they want to stay, but they've got to learn over 300 texts of Scripture and recite them off by heart because the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.

And was it not the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory? That which we have seen and heard, said the apostle, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you. The life was manifested and we have seen it and we declare unto you that eternal life.

The Word is everything. I'm no expert at the Word, but I spend quite some time each day before I put my feet on the floor because if I do, ladies, you know what happens if you put your foot on the floor.

It means that you're at it right through the day and there's no time. So you've got to take time and redeem the time and get this Word into your heart. There's lots of books and, well, they're okay, but there's no book more important in your life than this one.

Live in the Word. Meditate on the Word. Quote the Word in your prayers. Pray the Word of God and you will draw near to God through His Word. Now the final word for this conference, Esther, chapter 4, the book of Esther.

I'd love to be able to read the whole book of Esther to you. You can do that when you go home. I hope you'll do that. And read it not just once or twice, but over and over and over again until the story of Esther gets right into your system.

Esther’s Call to Intercession

When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai was Esther's cousin. She was his uncle's daughter. When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and a bitter cry and came even before the king's gate, for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing and many laying sackcloth and ashes. So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her.

Then was the queen exceedingly grieved and she sent Raymond to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sackcloth from him, but he received it not. Then called Esther for Hethach, one of the king's chamberlains who had been appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai to know what it was and why it was.

So Hethach went forth to Mordecai and to the street of the city which was before the king's gate and Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews to destroy them.

Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them to show it unto Esther and to declare it unto her and to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication unto him and to make requests before him for her people.

And Hethach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Again Esther spake unto Hethach and gave him commandment unto Mordecai. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live.

But I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews, for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their 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 nor 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. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

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. 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. So Esther drew near and touched the top of the scepter.

Ending at verse 2 of chapter 5. And God will bless to us his word. Let us pray. Come Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire. Let us thine influence prove, source of the old prophetic fire, fountain of life and love.

Come Holy Ghost, for moved by thee the prophets wrote and spoke. Unlock the truth, thyself the key, unseal the sacred book, for Jesus' sake. Amen. The story of Esther is a thrilling story, and this is a ladies conference.

And we are going to consider together the story of Esther. And I hope that God will plant something in your heart, and in mine as I speak. This afternoon, is it afternoon? No, it's still morning. My time is upside down anyway.

The King’s Glory and Vashti’s Refusal

The curtain rises in the first chapter of the book of Esther. Upon Ahasuerus, the great king, has a tremendous kingdom, 127 provinces from India across to Ethiopia, of which he was king. And he has a great gathering of all his lords and chamberlains and delegates and what have you.

And he spends six months, according to the first chapter, showing them the glories of his kingdom. Must have been some kingdom. Elaborating on his riches and on the glory and on the power that he possessed as a king.

And he feasts with all these people. They have a marvelous time of celebration over his greatness. Then for the common people later on, he has another celebration at Shushan the palace. And so it's a great time of rejoicing altogether.

And then the Vashti, the queen, she has all her ladies around her, and she also has a feast. And in concluding, after all the feasting and the drinking and the joy of the occasion, Ahasuerus thought that it was time to show all these delegates and all these leaders of the provinces, all his chamberlains and what have you, show them the beautiful queen that was his queen, Vashti.

And so he sent messengers to her to please come and be paraded before these important people. And she refused. Well, the king was very angry. And so he consulted his wise men as to what should be done about Vashti, having refused to come and put in an appearance, seemed to spoil the whole thing, that his wife would put the spoke in the wheel at this stage.

And so his wise men said, well, if you give in to her and let her off with it, then this will spread right through the provinces and all these ladies will rise up and demand their own way. That will never do.

So what you must do is give her the order of the boot. Do you have that expression? So Vashti got the order of the boot and she was out. And then in the second chapter we find the king thinking of all this and then he was advised again that he should send messengers throughout the whole land and find a replacement for Vashti the queen.

Esther as God’s Unlikely Choice

And this is where we come across Esther. Well, all these ladies were brought, all these girls, and they were paraded before the king. They were prepared, first of all, to appear before the king. And then we find that this girl, Esther, is chosen.

She was an unlikely choice. You know, God makes very many unlikely choices. He brings many a prophet from obscurity. We tend in evangelical circles these days to parade people who might have had some place of importance in the world or maybe they were in Hollywood or maybe they were at one time pop stars and converted and they're still pop stars.

I won't name any names. And they are paraded. Look who we've got on the platform here. And we all bow and scrape to them because of what they were. You know, God says in his word that not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the things that are not, things that are despised, the things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are that.

Know what was the pastor speaking about? Flesh should glory in his presence. Not many mighty, not many noble. And if you read your history, all right, you will find all kinds of people. You will find all kinds of unlikely choices.

Well, go back to the Bible and find Peter, whoever would have chosen Peter a fisherman. Only God could choose such a man. Imagine Peter who denied him three times. Imagine Peter who could blurt out anything that came into his imagination.

Imagine Peter who after the resurrection had to be named by name, otherwise he might not have come. Go tell my disciples and Peter that I go before you into Galilee. Why did he say that? Because Peter had denied him and no doubt if he had heard the message, go tell my disciples, poor Peter wouldn't have come.

He would have been too ashamed to come. But the Lord of Glory said, go tell my disciples and Peter that I go before you. And isn't it amazing that it was on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood forth with the eleven and he preached and three thousand souls came to Christ.

Oh, God makes, He makes unlikely choices. He makes strange choices. And so often you find in the Scripture, you find the prophets and there's no word of their pedigree. To us the pedigree is so important, but not to God.

Remember John the Baptist, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Could you find anything more ordinary than that? And could you find anything more strange than the figure that emerged from the wilderness, clothed as he was, with camel's hair, and a diet of locusts and wild honey?

And it was John who pointed to Jesus by the river Jordan and said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose, to stoop down and unloose.

Oh, we can go down through his... What about D. L. Moody who came to Scotland? He couldn't speak the Queen's English, but in Edinburgh alone three thousand souls came to Christ through the ministry of D. L. Moody.

We don't know anything about his pedigree. What about Billy Bray down there in Cornwall who was so full of the joy of the Lord that one day coming home with a basket over his arm and a little dress that had been given to him for one of his little children, he danced the dress out of the basket with the joy of the Lord as he made his way home.

He lost the dress and he probably got a scolding from his wife at the end of the journey. Not many mighty. And whoever in this day would have chosen a Jewish girl to become the Queen for this great, powerful, rich King Ahasuerus.

Of course she did not. She did not betray her identity. She was told by Mordecai, her cousin, that she mustn't tell that she was a Jewess because that would not have been acceptable. So we have God's unlikely choice of this young lady.

Purification Before the Presence of the King

But she had to be prepared for the presence of the King. And how was she prepared? For six months she was prepared, first of all. First of all with sweet spices and all sorts of things. We don't know anything about that.

But she was prepared for 12 months according to the manner of the woman and that is in chapter 2 and verse 12. According to the manner of the woman for so were the days of her purification accomplished to wit, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet odor.

This is how she was prepared for the presence of the King. Six whole months she went through this purification process before putting in an appearance in the presence of the King. We live in a day of push-button experiences.

Push the button and everything will happen. I pushed the button of my dishwasher the other day and nothing happened. It just rolled. So I put a big face on it with a mouth like that. Out of order. Purification doesn't happen overnight.

We don't just press the button spiritually to prepare ourselves for the presence of the King. All so often there is a painful period of purification. We're talking about intercession. We're talking about coming into the presence of the King.

Do you remember that story from the Hebrides revival when the elders met together and they were praying and then this elder John Smith who was a blacksmith he read Psalm 24 to the men and he said to them Brethren, we'll read this Psalm.

And what did the Psalm say? Who shall ascend into the hill of God who shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation and John turned to his friends the other elders and he said My dear brethren it is absolute humbug for us to be here today seeking God unless our hands are clean and our hearts are pure so let us confess our situation and our condition before almighty God because we are here to ascend into the hill of God and God is a holy God and he requires clean hands.

Are our hands clean? In all our dealings with others are our hands clean? I remember a story that Duncan Campbell used to tell I've been at a meeting down I think in England and a choir sang that song Calvary covers it all my past with its sin and shame.

Beautiful song by John Moore and they sang it. And then Duncan Campbell got up to preach and he said this. My dear people he said Calvary will never cover what you have to uncover. One of the men came to him afterwards he said to him he said what am I to do.

Must I go back to my wife and tell her that I'm a thief. Must I tell my children that Dad's a thief. Because he said I have furnished my house from my firm and I haven't paid for it. And now the years have gone past and the firm no longer exists.

What must I do. Duncan Campbell said to him if you want to get right with God you will go home and do exactly what you've said. You can take the value of your furniture and pay it wherever the Lord leads you to pay it.

Because the firm didn't exist anymore. And he did. And the joy and release came to him. Calvary will never cover what you have to uncover. There is a cleansing process. Clean hands and a pure heart. What do we read in the Beatitudes.

Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God something to think about. And so we find Esther this young girl going through this process of purification according to the laws of the land. And then there were all the sweet spices and things that we don't understand in this process.

And then there were six further months with sweet odors. Wonder what that was in my simplicity. I think that maybe as she went into the presence of the King purified and cleansed and fitted and clothed and fit for the presence of the King.

That the odors. The odors filled the atmosphere around her. The sweet odors. We all love sweet odors. Let me say this. That the woman who is right with God carries with her an atmosphere Duncan Campbell used to say the greatest thing about us all is our unconscious influence.

The influence that we have when we are not trying to influence anybody. The influence that we are unconscious of. When Moses came down from the mount. What do we read? He had been in communion with God and we read.

He wished not that the skin of his face shone and he had to veil his face because the people were afraid. Oh to carry about with us in our home that fragrance of the presence of God. That wonderful fragrance of a holy life of a clean life.

Not something synthetic on the surface but something that is deep and sincere and honest and truthful. The man has said we are what we are when we are on our knees before God and nothing else. Because there we must be honest.

And so Esther is ushered into the presence of the King. And we read. We read that she found favor with the King Ahasuerus. So there she is a young Jewess. An unexpected choice. How unlikely unlikely choice.

She came as a shy child of the captivity. She was brought up by her cousin Mordecai who loved her very much. Were her parents killed during that captivity? We are not told how they died but we are told that they did die.

And so there she was. What an unlikely choice she was. Now if you are genuinely saved you can look back. And you can also say that you are an unlikely choice. And you can say oh God why me? Why me? I can say that when I think of myself in my rebellion away in the city of Glasgow far removed from the revival I had no thought of God and the things of God.

But I am so glad that there is a verse in the Scripture that says the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. I wasn't seeking Him. I am fond of them that sought me not the Scripture says.

And there she was. This unlikely choice. And she finds favour with the King. And she is. She is now the Queen. She is now in intimate relationship with the King. She is now in this position in these 127 provinces.

She is in a position of great honour. What is it all about? What is the purpose of it all from the Godward side? Well we see it unfolding as we read through the book of Esther. The purpose of God in this unlikely choice that was made.

She wasn't chosen. She wasn't chosen to sit back comfortably and enjoy the luxury of Shushan the palace and her ladies in waiting and all the other things that surrounded her. She was there in the purposes of God.

And I want to assure you ladies today that if you are saved by sovereign grace you are not saved just to sit and warm the pew on a Sunday morning and evening. And that's all there is to it. You have a tremendous responsibility because you're not your own.

God saves us. He saves us to become missionaries. You don't need to go to a foreign field to be a missionary. You are a missionary like it or not, you are a missionary. Now the story unfolds. And what happens?

Mordecai’s Resistance and the Threat Against the Jews

Well, you'll find that that tragedy struck. The king appoints Haman as his prime minister. If you like you don't have a prime minister. Well John Major is our prime minister. But he's the chief man in the land.

They're always talking about him and so on and so forth while you center on Clinton for better or for worse. I didn't say what. But there was Haman, he was exalted but there was a problem. The Jews only bowed their knee to one God and they would not bow their knee to any man.

And Mordecai refused to bow his knee and he got into trouble and Haman couldn't stand it. He could not stick this Mordecai who refused to bow his knee to him. He had one God and only one God and only this God to this God would he bow his knee because thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve.

He was a godly man. Mordecai. Well, to cut a long story short Haman worked on the situation and got the ear of the king and his proclamation was sent out through the land with the king's seal with his ring upon it that the whole of the Jewish nation should be blotted out.

The Jews should be killed. And it was the law of the Medes and the Persians that cannot be altered. And so Mordecai heard about this. Oh he had done a good turn to the king before then because two of his chamberlains wanted to kill him and Mordecai sent word through Esther about it and the life of the king was saved, that was just by the way.

But that comes into the story as an important part later on. But here we find Mordecai now breaking his heart in chapter 4 verse 1 Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes and went out into the midst of the city.

And can you picture it? Have you got a good imagination? He went out into the midst of the city and he cried with a loud and a bitter cry and there was great mourning. Verse 3 among the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

The sword was stretched out over the Jewish nation. Do you realize what that means? What would have happened to us? What would have happened to the gospel if the Jewish nation had been at this time blotted out?

We owe everything to the Jews. We owe the gospel to the Jews. We owe the scripture to the Jews. And now the sword was stretched forth and Mordecai this godly man puts off his clothes, wraps himself in this sackcloth denying himself sackcloth and ashes and sits there in the king's gate and he cries with a loud and a bitter cry to heaven that god would intervene for his people.

Prayer, National Distress, and Revival

And then the messenger came in to Esther and told her about her cousin who was in this sad state and she sent some raiment, some clothes to him that he might clothe himself. And then he sent back a message to her why it was that this was so and that the Jews were crying and he related to her the whole sad tale of the condemnation and the judgment that was to come upon the nation, upon his people, upon her people.

And he said Esther, you're the one, you must intercede with the king in this situation. And she said but you know there is one law to put anyone to death who enters into the presence of the king without invitation.

I can't do that. And modically I said to her, well now Esther, if you don't do it, god will find somebody else who will do it and you will perish. And so she calls her maidens around her to fast and to pray and to seek god and she sends out word that the Jews should all fast and pray and seek god.

There is no more important exercise in the church or in your individual life than prayer. Do you remember what Jesus said? My father's house shall be called not a concert hall a house of prayer. And he was jealous over his father's house and it being a house of prayer and they made it a house of merchandise.

What is your church like? Is it a house of prayer? That's what it ought to be. That's the most important exercise of the church. And so they got to pray they got to fasting. First of all they recognized the situation in their land.

They recognized that there was no way in which the law of the maids and the persians should act. And as you look out upon your land can you see any answer other than that god should intervene? There is no answer.

The condition the moral cesspool of iniquity in the land. The destruction of the homes in the land. The destruction of the children born into this country. I have a daughter who is teaching primary school and sometimes I break my heart over the stories that she brings home from these children psychologically disturbed.

No desire to learn anything. No compulsion from the home. Nothing to do well no sense of home. No security of parenthood. No responsibility of parenthood. Three generations that have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and don't want to hear it.

Living on a welfare state and incurring more and more and more expenses on the government trying to support children born out of wedlock and parents who don't know what it is to work, oh the tragedy of it, the tragedy of these little children as she looks at their behaviour in the classroom and sees the signs.

This little one has been abused in the home. This one has been abused by her father. This one has been abused by her mother's boyfriend. And so it goes on the endless endless list. Children destroyed.

How many parents think of their children when they fight with each other. Do they think of the reverberations down through the years of that child's life. As it recalls our streets are full of young people who have run away from home.

They sleep in cardboard boxes. I suppose they're the same here. And more expenses incurred on the local authorities to provide them some place that they might sleep in the country has lost its soul because it has lost its God.

And isn't it the same with America. But oh for the Mordecais who are not ashamed to cry. Oh for the Mordecais who are not ashamed to cry aloud for the Mordecais who are willing to be in sackcloth and who are willing for all to see that they are disturbed and distressed.

Remember when Daniel went into the presence of the king. He was the king's cupbearer. He was sad. He was sad because way back there the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the gates thereof were burnt with fire.

How many of us are concerned for our land, how many of us are concerned for the state of the church. How many of us are concerned for the spiritual science. I remember one place in the island of Tyree we lived in a little cottage with a leaky roof and we were preaching in a church that had shutters up because the windows were broken and there were drafts galore as we say in Scotland coming in under the door, some nights there was nobody there who would come to the meetings, other nights you would have a handful, one night we had the local postman who was unsaved and an old missionary who was as stiff as a stone, when I asked him to pray he thought I asked him to sing and he sang and we hardly knew what to do.

The situation was desperate but one morning as we were on our knees, as we were on our knees every morning seeking God two of us girls very young girls at that we had no fuel for the fire we had very little money none at all.

We lived on the eggs that people gave us, we had seven dozen at one time in the house we had them for breakfast, we had them for lunch and we had them for our evening meal but this particular morning we were on our knees praying wrapped in blankets because we had no fuel to put on a fire and it was winter time and it was snow you can imagine how cold it was and as we prayed suddenly it came to us, we are not here to exalt ourselves or to exalt the mission that we represent or to prove God that he can supply our needs in this situation, we are here for one purpose to see the Lord Jesus Christ uplifted and honored in this community and his name is in the gutter as far as these people are concerned there is no desire for him and we prayed and prayed and prayed on until there came the moment, now I've got a Presbyterian background, there came the moment when my fellow worker did something that I never heard her doing before and that I certainly never did before and that I never heard anyone else doing before and it wasn't the Toronto blessing either she began to laugh and as she laughed a laugh of victory she said thank God she said praise God the devil's on the run we have the victory went along to the meeting on the Wednesday night and the church was full and they brought heaters with them, paraffin heaters and after the meeting was over a young man walked down the aisle that was in the middle of the seventh week of preaching six times a week and he came down the aisle and he said I'm not going home tonight until I get saved.

And suddenly the fires of revival began to spread throughout the island and people came converged on the meeting house after about nine weeks we moved from there to the next place for six weeks and to the next place for was it nine or ten weeks and then to the next place and the grand finale in the middle of the island in the largest church on the island it was filled it hadn't been filled for years and it was all that one moment of breaking through into the presence of God and that's not easy can't turn it on like that.

And so they fasted and they prayed and the first answer to prayer was when oh Esther said okay I'll go, I'll go into the presence of the king and she said if I perish, I perish. In other words she's saying I'm staking my life on this, I'm going to go into the presence of the king.

What determination if ladies leave this conference saying individually in their hearts oh God whatever it costs whatever it means I stake my life on it. I'm giving myself to pray for this nation for this people for my church and I'm going to pray on, you know how to you know how to pray?

I'll tell you how you learn to pray by praying. You just keep at it and where nothing else matters, not the salvation of your loved ones, not the salvation of your children not the salvation of your husbands nothing else matters.

But that in these lives the Lord Jesus Christ is uplifted when God brought us there and God broke through we were as it were out of the way the glory of God was all that mattered. Oh what a thrill to see God doing in a moment what we've been trying to do for many years.

Access to God Through Christ

So she enters into the first answer to prayer was this. See Esther in her royal robe standing in the presence of the King waiting apprehensively to know whether there would be the smile of approval or whether there would be the condemnation and she would suffer death.

My friend the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to whom we come has broken the way into the presence of God for us. The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and what the priest had.

But once a year we have at any time in any place under any circumstance we can come with boldness to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.