Notes used in the Sunday School Message
“Book
of Esther”
Names and Their
Meaning
Esther = “Star”
Vashti = “Beautiful” of forgin orgin
Ahasuers = “King”
Mordecai = “Of small statue” “little man”
Haman = “Ham – evil”
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Now, we find out she commits spiritual fornications, going out with the
world, professing something, living something different. That won't never work. What the church ought to do, is do like Esther did. Esther refused
the adorning of the world.
We know
that little book of Esther, how that Mordecai... His uncle had a daughter.
And it was down during the times of the reigns of the Medes and Persians.
It's a very beautiful type there. The king, one of the greatest kings in the
world of that day, he had a great feast. And he called the queen to come set by
him, but she wouldn't do it. She refused to do it. So what did he do? He was so
humiliated, he didn't know what to do, that his own
wife wouldn't come.
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I think that's a whole lot like Christ today. Christ has invited us to
set in heavenly places with Him, and we're ashamed of it. Many people are
ashamed to say that they got the baptism of the Holy Ghost: Pentecostal people.
That's right. They're ashamed to say it. We're ashamed of Him.
And
so, the queen wouldn't come. She refused to come. It humiliated him. His face
turned red. Everybody noticed.
I wonder
if Jesus' face don't turn a little red too, when He
calls on us for a work, calls on the Pentecostal movement for fellowship and
brotherhood. And we're so tightly organized in little groups till we won't bend
for the other. We're so--getting so worldly, and things like that. We're
getting ashamed of the name of Pentecost. Some people is
afraid to say... Said, "Well, I belong. I'm a Christian, but..." I'm
glad I got a Pentecostal experience. Amen. I'm glad to bear the Name of Jesus
Christ. The greatest privilege I ever had is to say I'm part of Him.
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Now, we find out, then he got some consultants to ask what must he do. And they said, "If this goes on like this,
all the rest of the women throughout the country will take the example of the
first lady." Of course, that's what's happening tonight. Look at some of
these women (I hope I don't hurt your feelings, and yet I hope I do. That's
right.), trying to be this here first lady stuff, with these waterhead haircuts. I never seen
such a thing in all my life. The other day there was a woman
come up in a store where I was waiting for my wife, and that woman's
head was that big, and she had green paint under her eyes. And I said, "Go
back, boogerman. I'll be good." It was the awfullest sight; it would scare you. What is it? The first lady. It's the first lady. That's it. And they
take an example by that.
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And let me say this now. (I didn't say it jokingly, but in a parable
that you'd see.) That's exactly what you older Christians are doing for these
younger. Exactly right. You're supposed to be examples. You Pentecostals that
profess to have the Holy Ghost, you are to be an example for the Methodists,
and Baptists, Presbyterians. Not like the first lady, but like Jesus you're supposed
to be. He tells you in here what to do, how to do it. We must follow His rules
and examples. But that's the way we find it.
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Esther... This queen, she wouldn't listen to it. She wouldn't come,
humiliated him. Said, "If--if this first lady of the
land sets an example like that, all the rest of the women will do it. So
then, when a man calls for his wife, she'll say, 'Go
jump in the river.'" See? Boy, he really foretold
Now, we
find out that in doing so... Then there was a man that had
some wisdom about him, come up and counseled with the king. He said, "The
thing to do is excommunicate her, and send out through the nation, and call in
all the virgins that there is, young virgins, and there pick yourself a
wife." It pleased the king.
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So he sent... And he sent out the chambermaids and so forth, that went
out to--to pick all the young virgins, that could--the beautiful women
throughout all the kingdom and the provinces that he was over, which was the
greatest in the world.
And when he did, it come to this little Jewish
girl. She was rather a kind of an offcast, because
like the Gentiles (You see?), she was cast off to one side. And she had no
father and mother. And Mordecai, her uncle, was raising her. And she had to go
to qualify. And so what they did, they had to take these girls in for
purification for so many months. They had to perfume them, and do all kinds of
adorning, and fix them all up so they could go before the king.
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Now, that's just about the way the world wants to fix the church today:
adorn it up with the world; pattern after the things of the world, trying to
get more members, taking in anything in their fellowship. Oh, my. It's a
pitiful thing, one organization trying to beat the other one, take anything in
for a member. You might take them in this organization, but they'll never come
into the fellowship of Christ until they're cleaned up and borned
again of the Spirit of God. That's true. They might have their name on a book
here, but not up there in the Lamb's Book of Life till it's wrote
with the Blood of the Lord Jesus.
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All the women, they fixed themselves all up to look pretty. And, oh, I
imagine they got really some looks on them, maybe after the first lady and so
forth. They got themselves all fixed up because they was
going to appear before the king.
And I
think that's about the whole lot that's getting the matter with our churches
today. They're trying to fix themselves all up worldly, having worldly entertainment, worldly things in it, doing things that's of
the world, associating in the world, thinking they can meet the King. God don't
care about that. He hates that. But we want to act like the world.
Some of
our churches that I've said let down the bars, taking in deacons and so forth
in the church (and sometimes pastors), that's married four or five times,
and--and some of them that smoke cigarettes. Say, "They'll get over it.
They'll be all right." Get a man out of a barroom one night and put him in
the pulpit the next night. I don't believe in no such
stuff. I believe a man's got to be proved (That's right.), proved. I tell you,
a lot of times we call...
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E-78 Esther was to become a bride, so
she didn't want none of the adorning of the world. She
wanted to go in to the king just like she was. She adorned herself like the
Pentecostal women ought to, with a meek humble spirit. And when all these fancy
first ladies come by with all their new fandangoed
things, the king looked at them, and put them in the chamber with the
concubines. But when this Esther come into his sight,
and he got a glimpse of that sweet, humble, meek spirit, he said, "That's
her. Go get the crown and put it on her head." That's it.
Let them adorn themselves with that kind of a spirit, not
only the women, but the men too, adorn themselves with that kind of a spirit.
Then you're becoming ready for the--the bride, sweet, reverent. Esther made her
heart clean.
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E-83 Remember, it will never be... You can't
say, "Well, now, I belong to this... the Assemblies, I belong to the
Foursquare, or the
Esther cleaned herself. She cleaned her heart. That's
what she cleaned. That's what the church needs: a heart cleaning." How do
you clean your heart, Brother Branham?" Washed by the
water of the Word, through the Blood of Jesus Christ.
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E-84 The Bible said it's wrong for women to act
that way, and for men to let them do it. That's both of you. A man that'll let
his woman get out in the street with naked--with clothes on like that, I've got
little respects for him being even a man. He's a puppet. That's right. She uses
him as a dishrag. Shame on you. You ought to be men.
And a pastor will let his church get by with such things as that
without blasting the tar out of it from the pulpit, he's a sissy. What we need is men. The Gospel--not with rubber gloves, but with the
power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost with the Word... The Bible says these
things are wrong. It's wrong for people to do that way, to act that way. It
ought to be preached, and lived, and everywhere. Ought to... The church needs a
purging, a cleaning out.
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E-85 Esther purged her heart before
God, walked up with a meek and humble spirit; the church that's going to be the
bride of Christ... Now, remember, Esther refused the worldly adornment. She
took the Spirit in her heart to go before the king.
And the woman today, the church that thinks she's going to get in
because she's got more numbers, she's the best dressed crowd, she's got the
biggest organization, the biggest church in the city, and things like that...
You'll miss it a million miles if you're depending on that.
It's a sweet, kind, reverent spirit to the Word of God, washed by
the water of the Word. And the Word in you, it's a washing. Amen. The church needs a washing, a full Gospel washing (That's
right.), not just a part washing, but a full Gospel washing, cleaned up, made
new creatures in Christ Jesus.
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wouldn't have His dirty bride. A woman come up to get married,
and she looked like she come out of the pig pen out there, a man that's got any
dignity about him wouldn't marry her. He'd make her clean herself up. And when
the
Neither is the
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the heart, the hidden man, the meekness and gentleness of the Spirit of God in
the human heart, not the glory and class of the world...
I've always said the world shines; the Gospel glows. Oh, it's a
million miles apart.
Esther didn't want to adorn herself with all the modern apparel of
the world. That wouldn't look like a king's wife. And do we wanting to be like
the world, and the... Would that look like a holy man's wife? We, as the church
of the living God adorn ourselves with the things of the world, and then look
like a holy man's wife? Would that look natural?
If you seen a man today, that's supposed to be a holy man, and
here comes his wife down like the first lady: one of those great big hairdo's
out like this, and red stuff on one side, and green stuff on the other side;
and--and look like she's been hit in the mouth with a paint brush, and all
these kind of things like that; walking down the street, in little wiener-tight
clothes like that, and heels about so high, twisting along, mincing down the
street... Say, "That's a holy man's wife?" (I'm not telling jokes.
I'm only making statements.)
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preaching the Gospel. If it don't stir you up a little bit, get your--feel your
spiritual gastronomics started right, make you a
little sick to examine yourself with the Bible; see if that old
temper, and selfishness, ungodliness, love of the world, television, and things
at night. And leaving the church set empty, and the pews set empty, when you
ought to be out there like Jesus (you got His Spirit in you), trying to get
everybody in the country to come to your church to receive Christ. And we call
ourselves then the bride of Christ.
Oh, what a pity, friends. The hour has come. His bride has made
herself ready, oh, made herself ready. She laid aside
all of these things.
Remember, Esther was chosen and the others
was rejected. And only those that's
borned again, that's got the Spirit of God, will be
the chosen that day that the crown of glory will be set upon her head. And the
others will be rejected.
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E-52 The church is a whole lot like it was in
the days of Esther. Esther didn't take the perfuming of--of the women. She
adorned herself with the modest apparel, the hidden man of the heart. And the
king said, "Put the crown on her head." Esther was a type
of the church today, those who are ready to come out and adorn themselves with
the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, not the perfuming and the dressing of the
world, try to compare with them but that hidden man of the heart, that's the
one.
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E-74 The--the Bride must be unified,
unified together by the Word. "My sheep hear My voice," and this is His voice on printed Word. All right. Unified by the Word, she makes herself ready, not
with the regular creed.
Like Esther... When Esther was to be chosen to
stand before the king, she didn't adorn herself with all the things. But she
adorned herself with a sweet, meek spirit. That's what the Bride's adorning herself
within, with all of the fruits of the Spirit following it. What's she got?
Assembling together in the fellowship of the Word.
Amen. Fellowship of the Word (That's right.), fellowshipping, setting together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus tonight: one accord, one place, one Spirit,
one mind, one hope, one God, one purpose. Amen. See, there you are.
Every time the Bible says anything, we say, "Amen." Punctuating every word with, "Amen." "Jesus
Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever." "Amen." "Repent
and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ." "Amen." Everything
is "Amen, amen, amen." Right on down (See?), in fellowship...