This is the manuscript of the nineth sermon in the "Doctrine of God" series. It was delivered on Sunday July 10, 2022 at Christ Church, Los Angeles, CA.
You can watch a video recording of the entire service on the Christ Church YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/DVrupRToAeQ
Scripture
John 9:1-12 NIV As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.
Text:
John 9:4 NIV As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
Introduction
How does God regard time? God’s commands and commissions have urgency. That may sound like a contradiction to what it says in 2 Peter about a day being like a thousand years to God, but hold on and I will deal with that in a few minutes. An example of the urgency and haste of God is in Jesus whose task was so compelling and urgent that He crowded His work into three and one-half years.
Concerning this urgency, let’s consider two facts and then, based on these two facts, consider two questions.
First the two facts.
We are slow to do God’s work.
God is urgent.
I. Consider two facts.
A. First fact, we are slow to do God’s work.
Today everything is urgent to us. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
We must eat faster, learn faster, travel faster, and sell faster.
Hurry up, except when we deal with the things of God. When it comes to the work of God and the church we are content on working at a leisurely pace. No sense of urgency weighs on our minds concerning God’s work. In the world, our theme is rush, rush, rush. “Got to make a living, you know.” But when it comes to serving God, we say, “We’ll get to that one of these days. There’s no hurry; we have plenty of time.”
A story is told of three apprentice devils that were coming to Earth to finish their apprenticeship. They were talking to Satan, the king of the devils, about their plans to tempt and ruin humanity.
The first said, “I will tell them there’s no God.”
The Devil said, “No, that is not going to work. People know there is a God.”
The second one said, “I will tell them there’s no Hell.”
“No,” the Devil said, “Most people, deep down in their hearts, know there is a Hell and a judgment to come.”
The third said, “I will tell them there’s no hurry.”
“Go,” said Satan, “and you will ruin them by the thousands.”
That is how procrastination works. It doesn’t say, “I’m not going to do it.” That is too final, too absolute. Rather, procrastination says, “I’ll get around to it later.”
The first fact is that we a slow to do God’s work
B. The next fact is that God is urgent.
Now back to any confusion about the urgency of God and the passage of scripture that says one day is like a thousand years to God. Let’s read it first.
2 Peter 3:8-9 ESV But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
When we read this most people think of God as having no concern with the passage of time. Everybody focuses on the thousand years in God’s sight equaling one day. Seldom do people focus attention on the statement the other way around. Ler me give you an example.
Anyone who has watched through a long night at the bedside of a dying loved one will understand how a few hours can seem like an eternity. We have a friend who had several strokes at least two months ago and she has not responded at all for at least two months. She has 3 children and a lot of grandchildren, other relatives and many friends. Imagine how long these two, onths have felt to them. Now think about how it must be with God as he watches the dying multitudes, whom he loves and for whom Christ died, going into eternal damnation. Our delay in sharing the gospel must weigh heavily on his heart. God’s love demands that we move in haste.
The New Testament is an urgent book.
Matthew 28:7 ESV Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
Acts 12:7 ESV And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands.
The only reason Jesus ever asked his disciples to tarry was that they might be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 24:49 ESV And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Everything else that He commanded His disciples to do He wanted them to do quickly.
II. Now the two questions that arise from these two facts that we are slow to do the work of God and the fact that God is urgent.
First question, why are we so slow?
Second question, what results from our lack of urgency concerning God’s work?
A. First, why are we so slow?
There are several reasons.
1. We are so slow because we do not realize how important God’s work is.
We think primarily of our own earthly wealth and material obligations. We let God’s business get along the best it can. People often want God to hurry, especially when his presence would end their sorrow and suffering.
Psalm 70:1-3 ESV Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life! Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt! Let them turn back because of their shame who say, “Aha, Aha!”
The rest of the time we assume that God will be content to wait until we have made our fortunes, until every earthly obligation has been met, or until there is a more convenient time for us.
Luke 9:57-62 ESV As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
James 4:13-15 ESV Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
2. We are so slow because we cannot discern the flawless and unseen operation of spiritual laws and forces.
God works silently and unseen, but he works! We Christians have ro remember that time is running out for those who are not Christians.
Jonah 3:4 ESV Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
We all know what happened to Johah when he refused to obey God's command to go preach to the people of Nineveh. He was thrown into the sea and was swallowed by a great fish. He repented and prayed and the fish threw him up on the land. Great story but what I see in Johah's experience is that a sense of urgency was created in him.
Jonah underwent a transformation in the fish’s belly. He could have died there, but God saved him and preserved him. Jonah was a changed man, and people can’t argue with a transformed life. He should have been dead, but he was alive and well.
As a result, there was an urgency and a passion in what he was saying. There was authenticity in his voice. He had a mission, and he was going to fulfill that mission.
Jonah 3:4 ESV Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
Notice it says Jonah “called out.” Of course, this wasn’t the first time that Jonah called out. He also cried out in the belly of the fish.
Jonah 2:1-2 ESV Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
Jonah took the desperation he felt and channeled it into what God had called him to do in bringing the message to the people of Nineveh. And the people of Nineveh could see this was a resurrection man.
Jonah 3:6-10 ESV The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Our message, the message of the gospel, must be delivered with urgency.
We are so slow because we do not understand the urgency of God. There are always people urging you to hurry up and buy this hurry up and buy that. These are material things and God is not concerned with material things. However God’s reason for urgency is because He doesn’t want any to perish.
Our delay in sharing the gospel must weigh heavily on his heart. God’s love demands haste. Do you have an urgency and a passion for reaching others with the Good News of Jesus Christ? Time is running out.
B. Second, what results from our lack of urgency concerning God’s work? Several answers may be suggested.
1. By our lack of urgency, we bring pain to the heart of God. God has already furnished all things needed for our salvation. Jesus' work of salvation was completed on the cross he cried,
John 19:30 ESV When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
God’s plan of salvation is complete. Atonement has been made. How it must grieve his heart when we are so slow to show others his way.
2. By our lack of urgency, we miss and can't reclaim many of the opportunities made available to reap God’s harvest of the souls of people.
Luke 10:2 NIV He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Revelation 14:15 NIV Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”
Our text tells us when we are to work for him: “While it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” The opportunity passes.
3. By our lack of urgency, we do so little to win a lost world to Christ.
Although much is being done in all types of missions, the surface has hardly been scratched.
This is urgent business. Its urgency stems from the Lord’s command to his people to make disciples of all nations.
Matthew 28:18-20 ESV And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We must daily focus our minds upon the fact that the kingdom of God is near. We can’t wait. Nowhere in Scripture is there the call to receive Christ tomorrow. The emphasis is upon the present, on today.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 ESV Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Conclusion
There are two prayers we all should pray. First: “God, give us a vision of yourself, of a God who is in a hurry. Give us a vision of your work, its importance, its urgency. And give us a vision of ourselves, how slow and lackadaisical we are.”
Matthew 24:36-44 ESV “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
The second prayer is “God, help us realize that the King’s business requires haste. Show us how great your program is, how urgent your cause. Urge us on, Lord, that we may be in a hurry to do your work.
We read 2 Peter 3:8-9 before but let’s read it again and add to it verse 10.
2 Peter 3:8-10 ESV But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
God is urgent and we should be urgent to execute the command;
Matthew 28:19-20 ESV Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Let's Pray
Father, the most important belief that a person can accept is that You’ve given eternal life and we must accept Jesus, the Son of God, to receive this eternal life. When a person rejects Jesus, then they reject Your testimony, and cut themselves off from You. They’ll be eternally lost without exception. Stir up urgency within me and within the church to spread the testimony of Christ. The spiritual battle over the lost is of eternal consequence. We must seek to spread the gospel and we will storm heaven with our prayers asking You to grant saving faith to those who have not accepted Jesus Christ. Reveal Yourself to their hearts and cause the lost to hear and accept the testimony of Christ in Jesus name, amen.
Sermon Audio
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