A SENSE OF
URGENCY
By J. Farrell Fisher
October 4, 2014
Recently I sent to my dear friend, Dr. Bill Anderson, former classmate at Baylor University and teammate on Baylor’s “Golden Bears” football team that beat Number 2 in the nation, Tennessee, in the Sugar Bowl in 1957, a message that I had prepared on “The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ”! Bill’s last pastorate was, I believe, 26 years leading Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida.
I had received word from a dear friend that a mutual friend of ours had shared that he didn’t believe in the virgin birth of Christ and didn’t think it was necessary for one to have a relationship with God. I prepared the message on the virgin birth and sent it to Bill. He E-mailed back, “As you know, large segments of Christendom are giving up the doctrine. I’ve often heard that 85% of all writing theologians don’t accept the doctrine as biblically stated; I think the number is higher. I have a manuscript in which I exegeted every passage in the New Testament which relates to eternal punishment – at least 148 – there are several other questionable ones – but can’t get it published. Publisher told me to write on how to get to heaven, without really trying, and it’d sell! Bill”.
Do you sense a time of great urgency for STANDING FOR TRUTH as you see the world around you, yes, promoting deceptions? Of late our Lord has been impressing upon me “A Sense of Urgency.” All across this world of ours, what happens politically, economically, socially, spiritually, and morally becomes a rallying cry in my bones, “We don’t have long!”
And that “sense of urgency” increases in its intensity each day. Webster, in his 1828 Dictionary, defines “urgency” as: “pressure, pressing with necessity; as the urgency of want or distress, violent or vehement.”
It would help us to have a taste of Hezekiah’s medicine. One day he’s healthy – the next he’s mortally ill. [2 Kings 20]. And God sent Isaiah the prophet: “Thus says the Lord, ‘SET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER, FOR YOU SHALL DIE AND NOT LIVE.” Is it time for you to set YOUR life in order, your family, your nation, your church? Some men never consider the urgency bound up in this earthly life. They think they’ll never die and if they do it’s just a grave they face, it’s all over, believing there’s nothing to follow.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his Psalm of Life, wrote: “Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal!” In Psalm 39:4-5 David wrote, ‘LORD, MAKE ME TO KNOW MY END, AND WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF MY DAYS. Let me know how transient I am…Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in Your sight. Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.”
Shakespeare, in Macbeth (Act V, sc 5,l.26) wrote: “LIFE…is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” How sad is that? Charles Wesley, who wrote his “Letter to John Wesley” said, “I desire to have both heaven and hell ever in my eye, while I stand on this isthmus of life, between two boundless oceans.”
Look with me at Ephesians 5:15-16, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, ‘redeeming the times,’ because the days are evil.” THE TIMES? Look at the, yes, Holy Scriptures!!
Genesis 38:12, “time of mourning,” Psalm 21:9, “time of anger,” Psalm 102:13, “a time to be gracious,” Proverbs 25:13, “time of harvest,” Isaiah 49:8, ‘Thus says, the Lord, ‘In a Favorable TIME, I have answered you…”, Jeremiah 14:19, “a time of healing,” Jeremiah 15:11, “a time of disaster,” Jeremiah 30:7, “time of Jacob’s distress or trouble,” Jeremiah 51:6, “this is the Lord’s time of vengeance,” Ezekial 30:3, “a time of doom for the nations,” Ezekial 35:5, “the time of their calamity,” “the time of the punishment of the end,” Daniel 11:24, “a time of tranquility,” Hosea 10:12, “time to seek the Lord,” Romans 8:18, “the sufferings of this present time,” 2 Corinthians 6:2, “the acceptable time,” 2 Timothy 4:6, “the time of my departure,” I Peter 1:17, “the time of your stay upon the earth,” I Peter 5:6, “the proper time,” Revelation 2:21, “time to repent,” Psalm 9:9, “times of trouble,” Daniel 9:25, “times of distress,” Matthew 16:3, “the signs of the times,” Acts 17:30, “times of ignorance,” Ephesians 1:10, “fullness of the times,” 2 Timothy 3:1, “difficult times coming.”
Are you and I ‘time’ or ‘times conscious? Are we aware of the days – their number, destiny, signs, opportunities, wisdom? In I Chronicles 12:32 it speaks of the “men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” Deuteronomy 32:29 tells us, “Would that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would discern their future (or latter end!).” In Deuteronomy 28 we come to the end of the blessings and curses chapter, and for those who refuse the wisdom of God, reject the biblical pathways to blessing, renounce the discernment of the times, verse 66 tells us: “So your life shall hang in doubt before you: and you shall be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.”
Notice, there is assurance of life, of blessing, and of a future. It’s why we read in Ecclesiastes 7:17, “…WHY SHOULD YOU DIE BEFORE YOUR TIME?” Or, why should you die before you’ve really begun to live? And in Deuteronomy 32:35 our Lord talks about the unwise: “In due time their foot will slip; for the day of their calamity is near, and the impending things are hastening upon them.” Then in verses 46-47 Moses said, “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe – all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”
Do you remember Paul before Felix and his wife Drusilla in Acts 24? He preached faith in Christ Jesus – ( righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come)!! Verse 25 says, “And Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time, I will summon you.” There’s no evidence he ever did! He didn’t make the most of his opportunity, he didn’t sense the urgency of the moment – he didn’t understand the life or death preciousness or peril!
In Acts 26:28-29 Paul shared with King Agrippa “words of sober truth.” Paul discerns Agrippa even believed the prophets as Agrippa said to him, “In a short time, Paul, if I let you, you will persuade me to become a Christian.” But he pushes Paul away, goes back to the business of being a king, and misses the King of kings!
Jude 18 tells us, “In the last time there shall be MOCKERS, following after their own ungodly lusts…Verse 20, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, Verse 21, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life!!”
CONSIDER CAREFULLY, FIRST, A SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SERIOUSNESS OF OUR ONENESS AND OUR WALK IN CHRIST: Ephesians 5:15 says, “Therefore, be careful how you walk…” The Amplified translates it: “Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise – sensible, intelligent people – MAKING THE MOST OF THE TIME – BUYING UP EACH OPPORTUNITY – BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL.”
“Be careful how you walk?” Why? I Timothy 4:1 says, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons…” Paul had said earlier in I Timothy 1:19, “Holding faith and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck…”
Peter discerned and was led also to sense spiritual urgency and even danger! In 2 Peter 3:17 he wrote, “You therefore, beloved, knowing beforehand, be on your guard LEST, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall away from your own steadfastness.”
It IS a “serious walk”! Because of our call, not to ease and comfort, but to ‘commitment’ and a ‘cross’! What did Paul say in Romans 8:18? “For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.” If Paul knew he had to die daily, it’s just an option to you without any real significance?
It IS a “serious walk” because our call IS a call to alertness and not to apathy! Luke 21:36 tells us, “But keep on the alert at all times.” And true believers keep on the alert through prayer and the Word! Luke 18:1 says, “that at all times they ought to pray.” And in Romans 15:4 we read, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope.”
It IS a “serious walk” because our call is a call to duty in a spiritual and invisible war! What does Ephesians 6:12 tell us? “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
It IS a “serious walk” because our call is the calling of hope in Christ and not in ourselves! In 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Paul wrote, “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
It IS a “serious walk” because our call is a call into the test of our faith! In Hebrews 10:35-36 we read, “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”
CONSIDER SECOND THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF RAMPAGING FLOODS OF EARTHLY, NATURAL, AND DEMONIC ‘wisdom” IN OPPOSITION TO THE “WISDOM OF GOD”! Follow carefully James 3:13-17, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom…
But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic…
For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”
CONSIDER THIRD THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SINISTER IMPACT OF THE WORLD’S DAYS! In Ephesians 5:15-16 we read, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The spiritual father nature in Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had him write to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:13, “But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
I changed Romans 6:19 just a ‘fraction’ for emphasis, “…if you present your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness [it will lead] to more lawlessness, when God intends your members to be slaves of righteousness!”
There must be in you as a true disciple of Christ Jesus, one with Him, in Him, through Him, and we are to be those disciples who take the full armor of God and, yes, “we resist in the evil day”! We stand firm and faithful and full of the Holy Ghost, fighting the good fight of faith!
CONSIDER FOURTH THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SPIRITUAL SICKNESS OF FALLEN MANKIND WHO ARE WITHOUT CHRIST AS LORD AND SAVIOR! It was the psalmist who said, “No man cares for my soul,” and I wonder if the fallen world, separated from God, is saying the same thing today!
What does Isaiah 59:2 tell us? “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.” I don’t know how any prodigal, wayward, wandering, lost, alienated child of God could read Luke 15:14 and not know there is hope in a Loving, Caring Father-God! “And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want,” but some wayward sons are satisfied in their spiritual destitution!
Paul wrote the Thessalonians, I Thessalonians 4:13, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are already asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” But, in Christ, we ARE “children of the hope”, and God calls us to reach out with His “Life-Preserver”!! His name is Jesus!
I remember reading a news article many years ago about a child in Louisville, Kentucky, who had been on a ‘liver-transplant list” for a long time. One became available at a much-needed time, but Louisville was hit with a massive snow storm. There was two feet of snow and the temperature had dipped to 22 below zero. The call came the morning of the storm, but the airport had been closed. The deadline for the little boy was only hours away. What happened? Hundreds and hundreds of people went out to clean the runway so the child could be flown out, yes, to an available liver!
CONSIDER FIFTH A SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SOBERNESS OF DIVINE JUDGMENT! Oh, look carefully at Isaiah 26:7-10! The prophet tells us, “The way of the just is uprightness; O Most Upright, You weigh the path of the just. Yes, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You; the desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You. With my soul I have desired You in the night, yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.”
How SAD is that?!? Yet our Lord has unveiled Himself every single day since this world was created! Why then do men not “see” the righteousness of God and desire it? Because they love darkness rather than Light, untruths rather than Truth, turmoil rather than the peace that passes all understanding – lost men “crucify” Jesus over and over! And they must learn: Hebrews 9:27, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes the judgment!”
There are so many, many lives that we meet every day whose lives hand over the entrance to Hell by one solitary thread, and the thread is old and rotten! Hell IS REAL! It was prepared by God for the devil and his angels, but it also became a place for godless, Christ-less lives! It’s “where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched”!! If you’re without Christ, you need only one whiff of the smoke and stench of Hell!
Jude 14-15 tells us “…Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment on all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Was Simon Peter alert to “divine judgment”? In 2 Peter 2:9-10 he tells us: “then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.”
Do you have “a sense of urgency because you know the seriousness of divine judgment”?
CONSIDER SIXTH THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SHORTNESS OR BREVITY OF LIFE! What did James tells us? James 4:14, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”
In Job 7:6 we read, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle [or a Singer sewing machine!].” Have you ever heard someone say, “I have plenty of time!” But the next day, they’re gone!
The psalmist told us, Psalms 39:5, “Indeed, You [God] have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.” They don’t have long – then their eternal days are ushered in!
LASTLY, CONSIDER THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE GOD”S KINGDOM HAS DRAWN NEAR! Matthew 3:2 says, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand…it draws near.”
I’m telling you, “Gabriel has God’s trumpet to his lips, and he’s about to blow!! Plus, Psalm 34:7 tells us, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.” Delivered to Jesus or delivered to the devil and his angels? Psalm 34:22 then tells us, “The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.”
I’m sure John 3:16 is in your memory-box, but what about John 3:18-19? “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
The most awesome, awful, seek deed on earth? Rejecting the love of God expressed in the crucifixion of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ!
When one is called to be a ‘saint’ and settles into selfish sinfulness and unbelief, only Hell, the Devil and his demons, and multitudes of unbelievers will be one’s eternal companions with every day dark, then darker, sick then sicker, sinful and more sinful, hellish and more hellish – but you’re a true believer, and you’re not accountable for them?