1103. Two Appointments You Cannot Avoid pt. 2

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

Today on The Daily Platform, we'll hear a sermon preached at a special evangelistic service on the campus of Bob Jones University. As you consider this, there is a danger in death. I think about some of you tonight, my heart breaks, because some of you tonight, inevitably, numbers will eventually, when you die, you will die, and some of you will die without Jesus. Statistics tells us clearly that you would die without Christ, and because of that, where would you end up?

Well, you'd end up in hell, because you sin against an eternal God, there's an eternal punishment. This is why you need God's eternal sacrifice. Now, for many of you, though, in this room, there's been a time in your life where you have understood this message.

God has stirred it in your heart and your soul. You knew you needed Christ, so you did. You turned from your sin to the Messiah, and you trusted in Jesus, and Him alone, you cried out to Him. The Scripture makes it clear, for whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, they shall be saved. But consider what that means. Scripture, as it says this, remember in Romans chapter 10, verse 9, that if you would confess with your mouth, literally, that Jesus is Lord.

Why would you say that? Because of repentant heart, you're turning to Him. And you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. That person, it's a person who goes from the head to the heart where you go, I don't want my sin, but I need Christ.

And there's a submission there. It's not just Jesus, I want you to save me, but I don't want to live for you. I have met people that way. They've actually said, Jeremy, I want Jesus to save me from my sin, but I don't want to give Him my life. So I tell them the truth when they say that.

I say, then you're not ready. It doesn't make any sense. They realize that there's no way in and of themselves that they can make their way to Heaven.

There's this element of real brokenness over who they are. They need Messiah and they turn to Him. And when that happens to a person, and he cries out to the Lord to be saved, what does the Scripture say?

It says, whoever does this, well, they shall be saved. And as you consider this, for those who are in Christ, there is a delight in death for those who are in Christ. Now that seems a little morbid and a little weird, especially if you're without Jesus. A delight in death.

I mean, consider that. You go from this world to the eternal bliss of Heaven and God and who He is and Christ. I mean, to think about no more pain and no more sorrow. We think about all the trinkets like that.

You know, that's awesome. I mean, some of you have experienced a little bit of pain. Some of you have experienced sorrow.

Some of you have experienced even death of a loved one. And yet, no sin in Heaven. All these are, in a sense, trinkets, but the greatest glories of Heaven as you enter into it, seeing the sight, the Scripture teaches in Hebrews 12, this sight that's almost unfathomable and the excitement and the joy of this heavenly city with the people of God. And you think about many of those people who have gone on before you, who now you will see. I mean, and you enter into this eternity, and then you see Christ, the true glory of Heaven. When I think about that, nobody who dies, when I think about my brother-in-law who was in Christ, there is no way he is thinking somehow, and there's none of that. Not for the true believer. So I look at that and say there's a danger in death without Christ, but there's a delight in death if you are in Christ. Think about Scripture. It is the gift of God, which is eternal life. The Scripture says, so God gives you a gift?

That's a good thing. I mean, to the thief on the cross, what did Jesus say? He said, behold, today you will be with me where? In paradise. Paradise? Paul said in Philippians 1 21, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is what?

Gain. Even Paul said in 1 Corinthians that death is swallowed up in victory. I mean, when you consider this for a minute and you go, man, there's a danger in death, but there's such a delight in death if you're in Christ. And so tonight, as we see this and as we have illustration after illustration all around us within the culture, I would look at you and say this, are you ready for this appointment? Are you ready?

Unfortunately, I think sometimes this age and stage, and I know, would sometimes somehow think that we're sort of invincible, but we all know that's not true. Number one, you have an appointment with death. Number two, there's a second appointment. Look at verse 27. It says, but after this, the judgment. So what is that supposed to mean here? Okay, so you could say this.

Number one, you have an appointment with death, but number two tonight, you have an appointment with God. In other words, after this does come judgment. And Scripture is clear about the different kinds of judgment.

That are there. Actually, there are two main kind of judgments you could think about in Scripture. One would be a judgment for those who are without Jesus Christ. We would call them lost people. See, before you are in Christ, you are lost and you need to be found. I would call these also people, not just lost, but I would say that another name for them would be unbelievers. There are some of you right now.

That's where you are. You're not a believer. You might have a mental belief in Jesus and say, well, sure, he existed. I mean, for you to think that he didn't exist would make you an idiot. And so you don't want to be an idiot.

That way. And so just you'd say, well, historically, sure, he existed, but that doesn't mean you believed upon Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And so for you, maybe you're an unbeliever or maybe you would say a non-Christian. And I would say this is funny because we live in a culture where supposedly America is a Christian nation. Did you know that? It's because everyone in America saved.

I mean, no way. And you got cults that call themselves Christians as well. And the truth is, is what does that even mean? But scripture is clear. Take your Bible for a moment.

We'll finish off back here, but I want you to do this. Take your Bible. Go to the book of Revelation and let's go to Revelation chapter 20.

Turn with me there for just a moment. Because the first judgment that you see before really in this passage here will be a judgment called the Great White Throne Judgment. This is not a judgment for believers because everyone who goes to this Great White Throne Judgment in the end, end up in a place called the Lake of Fire.

And this is very, very clear. I mean, you read Revelation, you got what's called the Ordo Eschaton, you know, the order of end times. And you kind of work through this. And it's like, you know, you hear this letters to the churches. You all of a sudden feel like, where are the churches? And then you have the scene in heaven.

And then all of a sudden you've got these plagues. You got all the tribulational time, the seven years. You have at the end of that where Christ comes and establishes his kingdom for a millennial reign. And scripture would deal with that as well.

A thousand years on the earth. And yet at the end of the millennial reign, what happens? One last uprising before everything is pushed away and there's going to be no more sin. God will deal ultimately with sin and with even sinners.

Notice this. It's verse 10. Dealing with the devil. At that point in time in verse 10 it says, again in Revelation 20, 10, it says, in a sense in court he will be ultimately cast into the Lake of Fire. Look at verse 11. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven, they fled away and there was found no place for them. So it's almost like this majestic scene in heaven where everything from heaven and earth seems to pull back from because of the glories of Almighty God.

And it can't stand the glory, but it pushes back. So this great white throne, verse 12, and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. Now who would that be? I don't know how to name names throughout history. There are some names I could name tonight and you would go, oh, I know that name.

And I could name other names and you would go, I don't know who that is at all. These are lost people, small and great, who will stand before God. The books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

Now maybe at first glance you might say, well, Jeremy, according to their works, I guess if their good works outweigh their bad, they'll get there. But wait, look at verse 13. Paul or Hades delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works.

So there's that again. But wait, verse 14 shows us they all end up in the same place. And death and hell or Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

This is tragic. Family members who are immediate family members, maybe a mom or dad or brother or sister who are without Christ. Would you raise your hand? Yeah. Any cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents? Friends? Neighbors? This is sobering.

They could end up there. And God uses people to reach people. That's how he's ordained it. How will they hear without a preacher? There's an element where God has you, where you are for a purpose and yet we can't save them but we can sure declare good news to them and help them with the gospel.

But I look at this and go, this breaks my heart that there will be people. And yet this is all glorifying God because it shows that God is holy, that God is righteous. This is the beauty of His holiness and righteousness because He would not be a good God if all of a sudden He just kind of let everyone in. It would be wrong of Him as a righteous judge. And so this judge, this judgment, it's amazing because now here's Christ who paid it all for us.

And you look at this and say, this is a serious judgment. This should frighten you if you're without Christ. And if it doesn't frighten you, one day it will because you will pronounce Him Lord to the glory of God the Father. But there's a second judgment. And now I want you to take your Bible for a minute and go with me to 1 Corinthians. Take your Bible and go to 1 Corinthians. As you turn there, we'll go to chapter 3.

Almost done here. Chapter 3. As we look at this passage, we see the second kind of judgment. This is for a judgment actually for Christians. For true Christians. I would call them for true believers. For those who have been found in Christ. This is called the Bema Seat.

If you want to be technical, maybe you call it the Bema Seat. But the idea is that it's a judgment seat of Christ and we've probably heard of this. As I touch on this for a second, I want you to know this. This is not a place where believers will face their sin.

Did you hear that? There's been some really awful preaching of the past where people would say, you know, it's almost like a holy PowerPoint, you know, in the sky, you know, and all the sins you've ever done, you know, in your life will kind of be there. And you're like. It's interesting how scripture says something different. Let me remind you of one of, maybe you could say one of my favorite verses. I think of Romans 8, verse 1. It says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ. If you're here tonight and you're in Christ, there is no condemnation.

No. But what happened when you got saved, past and present and even future sins all done away with. You were declared righteous.

You who were not righteous, God made you righteous. That is crazy to think about. That God would look down from heaven if you're in Christ, He doesn't see you, He sees Jesus, the perfect righteousness of God in Christ.

And you're thinking, but that's not me, not practically. That's why we need to be sanctified. But when you think about this, this is an amazing truth. So wait a second, if we're not going to be judged for our sins, then what's the point of the beam of seed of Christ?

Well, let's look at this for just a moment. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11, it says, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Okay, so Christ is the foundation. Verse 12, now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, stubble there, every man's work shall be made manifest. So wait a second, you think about in a fire, what will happen to, well, gold, silver, precious stones. Well, that's going to make it through. It's actually going to be purified. But what happens to wood, hay, and straw or stubble? In a moment it's consumed.

It's gone. Every man's work shall be made manifest. Watch this, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work what sort it is. And if any man's work abide, which he has built upon, he shall receive a reward.

Now when you think about this for just a moment, okay, you could say this. The bema, this judgment seed of Christ is actually a place of examination. Now that's clear because, again, verse 13 talks about every man's work shall be made manifest. In other words, we will be examined. Our life will be examined. How do we live as believers? How do we act? How do we respond? How, you know, what have we done in a sense for Christ?

And yet when you consider this and right motives and those things, we often fail in this area. But I would say this is there is a great examination. And you think about this examination, my mind thinks about the Apostle Paul who at one point in his life was standing at a bema in Acts chapter 24. And remember as he stood there at this bema, what was he doing?

He was being tried by Felix. And sure enough, he said this, I believe in the resurrection of the just and the unjust. And he says, because I believe this, what does he say? In Acts 24 verse 16, he says, I hear and do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense towards God and towards men.

So he is being examined and he's saying I'm totally innocent. I have a conscience that's innocent between me and God because I seek to get things right with God and seek to be right with mankind. God has made me righteous and I seek to fulfill that.

I seek to get things right again with people. But he's saying he exercises his conscience to be void of offense towards God. And towards man, he's being examined and actually he is innocent.

But he's at a bema. Now, when you think about this, it's not just a place of examination. But if you notice verse 14, if any man's work abide which he had built upon, he shall receive a what?

Reward. Growing up, I competed in different sports. I competed in Taekwondo. My dad was a Taekwondo instructor. So I competed in Taekwondo around the country.

And I got to a certain point where you get a certain belt that you have to wait quite a few years for your next degree and your next degree. And during the process of time, I actually took gymnastics. And I honestly, I want to learn how to do backflips. I want to learn how to do flips.

And it's crazy because I was kind of picking it up real fast. I started competing in gymnastics around the country. And then later in soccer. And some of you guys play maybe more of a normal sport. I would say that's kind of more of a normal kind of idea of sport, a soccer match of some sort.

And honestly, in all of this, it's interesting because I, at one point, I really would say this. I longed to go to the Olympics. I wanted to win a gold medal. And when I think about that past, though, I remember at one point in time traveling with this international judge in gymnastics. And we go to a place where one of the Olympic head coaches was there. And we go to this one guy's house.

And sure enough, on his nightstand, he was gone. He was doing like a meet in Tokyo of some sort. And we go there and I see this gold medal. I'm thinking, that is amazing, the gold medal of the Olympics, you know. When a person wins a gold medal, what happens? I mean, if they've been examined and they've actually won their competition and it's been, they didn't win and they didn't cheat, you know, I mean, they won, what happens at the end? They will stand.

There's a bema, you could say. You have the gold medal winner. You got the silver and the bronze.

And so what happens is you would go and you would stand up there. And sure enough, they're getting that reward. And as they get that reward, what's often happening? Oftentimes, there's tears. These guys are crying or these ladies are crying and sure enough, as they're getting the medal around their neck, they're not tears of sorrow. They're not going, man, everyone quit looking at me.

I'm so embarrassed and I feel awful. That's not what they're doing. They're tears of great joy and excitement, you could say, of happiness because they just won. Some would say this. They want to train so hard that in four years, I want to go back. It's all worth it, just that moment.

You think about the way they work for that gold medal. When I consider this, the beam of the judgment seat of Christ for all true believers, you will be examined. But praise God, you'll be rewarded.

A place of great reward. This should stir us as believers. When I consider this passage for you, I begin to think, wait a second, so yes, we will stand before God with our life, but we'll also stand in the sense of we will face death as well, so we need to be ready for these things. But I consider this, think about Revelation 22, the very end of the Bible. Revelation 22, 12 says this. This is Jesus himself. He says, and behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according to his work shall be. He's speaking for the true believer, that we are judged by that, and he comes with this great reward. And when I consider this, you're going to stand before God as a Christian, and you're going to give it a count of your life.

This should motivate you. This should stir you. When I consider this, what does it do for a Christian? I would say a couple things.

One would be this. It should make you have a desire to be right with God and others. I mean, that's what Paul did say in Acts 24 verse 16.

He exercised himself to have this conscience for defense towards God and towards man. I don't know, do you ever exercise? Some of you have not exercised maybe for the last seven weeks. I sort of fit into that category, not real well exercising, but some of you have good motivations. How many of you plan on exercising physically this semester? I mean, trying to be consistent with it. Anyone like that out there? Okay, yeah.

We have good intentions. But I will tell you this, if you haven't done it in a while, and all of a sudden you go to go do it tomorrow, let's say tomorrow's the day, and you work out real hard, some of you will be so, you'll be hurting by tomorrow night. I mean, it's that bad. Usually it takes a couple days, but no, not when you haven't done it in a while. I mean, someone bumps you a little bit, you're like, ow, your body hurts. But what happens when you exercise on a consistent basis? You feel better, don't you? You have a greater stamina.

You can put up more weight in a one sense too as you're working out in some form or fashion. And when you look at this, this should so stir us as believers to seek to say, you know what, I want to make sure that I'm right with God, that I'm not holding anything back. And I think about this right now, some of you, God's bringing to this point of what are you going to do with your sin? Because here you are now in Christ, and you've been in Christ, and yet God is putting pressure on you because He's saying that sin that you've been committed to or consistent with over this break, you need to get that right. So for the believer, what do we do? Due to our sanctification, due to our love for the Lord, we seek to humble ourselves and confess it. We agree with God against ourselves.

We're broken. Dear God, forgive me, God, change me. We run to God.

We run to other people. One of the biggest struggles that I faced back when God got a hold of my life at 17, I remember coming back to school, and it was probably, I don't know, the first or second week back in school, and I knew as a senior in high school that I had done all this wrong stuff. I mean, I had done all this wrong stuff, and I had already asked God to forgive me, but the truth is I didn't just sin against God, I sinned against people, and honestly, I sinned against the institution for sure. And I remember walking back then to some form of a disciplinary committee or whatever, and I went to them. I was so nervous because I knew by the time I was done telling them the things that I had been involved in and the things that I had been doing that I'd be expelled, but I longed to be right with God and longed to be right with people.

And I'm going in there, and my heart's beating so fast, and I say, I've got to talk to somebody. I told them, I said, I've asked God to forgive me about these things, and He has, but I'm getting ready to tell you some things I know you're going to expel me by the time I'm done. And I begin to unload, I've sinned against you this way, I've been this, I've been this.

About midway through, the man says, Jeremy, stop. He said, we are so thankful that God has gotten a hold of your life. We've been praying for you, and we forgive you. You know what's amazing is to have a clear conscience.

There's such freedom there. You don't worry. See, when you have a guilty conscience, you look, you're like, oh no, is Dr. Pettit looking at me that funny? You know, like, you know, you always kind of feel like you're, everyone's out to get you, and yet for me, it's this freedom there, and yet for a true believer, consider this. What if next Friday is the day that you're going to meet the Lord?

Okay, what would you do? Well, I don't think if you're in Christ, you'd be like, man, I got to hurry and take my trip to Hawaii. You wouldn't be able to get there anyway, probably, so. I mean, you start thinking about this, what would you, you would seek rewards for the sake of God's glory. I mean, they're there for you as motivation, so that should motivate, God, I want to do this for you and for your glory. I mean, you would consider and seek after people, you would seek to reach the lost for their good and for God's glory. Think about this for a minute, aren't you so thankful for the person who lovingly challenged you and confronted you with the gospel? And how God used them to maybe bring you to Christ?

You don't have animosity towards that person, you're grateful. Some of you have roommates this way who need Christ. You have friends or family members, the truth is we seek to reach the lost for their good and for God's glory. We would say this, we would seek total commitment to Christ, holding nothing back, going all out. Is that you? As you consider this, now let's land this plane, take your Bible and go back to where we started in Hebrews chapter 9. As we turn there to Hebrews chapter 9.

I want to give you really two illustrations, one would be very pertinent, and here it is. How many of you have ever taken a test, an exam, and you really weren't ready? You probably don't even have to raise your hands. Some of you are like super proud about it. I'm a loser.

Others of you are like... I think we've all been there, where you didn't put in the time, or maybe you thought it was another day. You went to class and you were legitimate thinking, it's today?

I thought it was next week. And then they give you the test and you're nervous about even writing your name. You're like, I guess I'm going to put it down. And then you're like, question number one. And you're like, question number two, question number three.

Maybe I'll start on the back and you flip it over. And you finish that test and you know, you know you did horrible. You know you failed. You didn't know these answers. What an awful feeling. Many of you have been there and hopefully you won't go there again. But I think about, have you ever been ready?

Where you really studied, you put in the effort, the time. It's like you're kind of waiting. You're like, quit taking your time. Give me the test. You get the test and you're like, question number one, question number two, question number three. You're just flying there. You finish it off.

You even check it over. You've got time to wait for everyone else to get done. And you just can't wait to get it graded because you know, you know you did really well on it. You know you put the time in and you studied.

What an awesome feeling, isn't it? This is no test. This is your life. This is why he tells us this.

It's not out of anger. It's out of love for you to be prepared. And when I think about this, I would also say this. You know, I think about my kids and I remember one time over the summer, I was saying to one of the kids when they were a little bit littler. I said, hey you guys, guess who's coming this weekend?

You know, Uncle Brent and Danielle and Brooke and Bryce and Blair, these are the cousins. And I said, they're coming to the trailer this weekend and stuff too. And they're coming and they go, really, really, they're all excited. I said, okay, so I need you to go clean your room, so get it ready. And they go, okay, and they ran in there ready to get it ready. And I would tell you this, that is not normal. Normally, go clean your room and they're like...

But they ran in there all excited, cleaning their room. Why? Because someone they loved was coming. Hebrews 9, 27 says, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Notice this, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. In other words, I would say this way, Jesus has come just like He said He would the first time.

And you know what He also promises? That He is coming again. Could you imagine, what if this is a semester? I mean, here we are and we're all kind of concerned like, oh no, what's going to happen with the government?

What's going to happen with COVID? You're kind of freaking out about everything. And it could be that sure enough, God in His mercy and kindness and love all of a sudden draws us out. Raptures us up. But the point is, He's coming again. So why does He say this? Because in His love for us, He longs for you to be ready.

Can I tell you, these appointments are unavoidable. But if you're ready, and these are the greatest things ever, that you're going to die and meet the Lord, you're going to go to glory? That He's going to come and you're going to stand before Him and He's going to reward you?

This is amazing if you're in Christ and if you're ready for these appointments. But I also warn you tonight, some of you are here and this is tragic for you. Some of you, when it comes to your own spiritual life, the truth is you know you're without Christ. God in His kindness has drawn you to Himself. Don't reject His love. See, when you reject His love, you will receive His wrath. Turn from your sins. Trust in Christ. May God save you tonight. You