1102. Two Appointments You Cannot Avoid pt. 1

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.

Two appointments you cannot avoid. Firstly, I couldn't stand the school. My junior high years and high school years were just really an open rebellion towards God. The Lord had saved me at a younger age, and I just kind of went through a time of thinking that maybe I'm somehow smarter than God.

I knew what's better for me than He did. And it's interesting when you try to live your life that way, what God does in your own heart and your own life, and God began to awaken me and stir me. And it really wasn't until my senior year of high school that going into my senior year where the Lord got a hold of my life at camp. How many of you in some time in the past that a Christian camp has made an impact on your heart or life?

Would you slip your hand up? Isn't that amazing? It's a huge number. And it's amazing now God did a work in my heart. I remember coming back from camp and really for the first time really wanted to serve God with my life.

I wanted to see God work in my heart and my life. And I came back and now I was a senior in the academy and it really was such a life change. It was like a fireball. I became like a fireball. And whereas in the past I would lead people down the wrong way, now all of a sudden I'm kind of confronting everybody. I was kind of probably a jerk to many people.

Not meaning to be, I just couldn't believe. Like, why would you want to live like that when you can be free in Christ? And God began to stir my heart in such a way. And I remember starting to go downtown Greenville, South Carolina and talk to people about Christ and just seeing what God would do in our hearts and our lives. And so I look back and when it came to coming to school, I didn't have to go to the university.

My parents were not on staff or somehow I had to kind of go here. But I began to really pray about it. I really felt as though God wanted me to be a preacher. And that was a struggle in my own heart because honestly I'm thinking, God, how could you use me? I can't get up in front of people to do a book report. I might be able to tell a joke maybe, but not a book report.

I mean, my friends would laugh at me. And so there was a struggle in my own heart. How, God, could you use someone like me and even my own past? And yet God in His kindness and His mercy and His grace not only began to stir me but call me to preach.

When I think about that, I look back and I see how God just orchestrated events and people. I begin to say, okay, God, where would you want me to go to school and train for the ministry? And the people who made a serious impact in my own heart actually went to Bob James University. And so I remember praying about it and really the Lord leading me here.

And here I was studying for the ministry. And God was doing such a work in my life. It was very interesting to then go and to travel with Steve Pettit to think about after undergrad and to be with him because honestly, like what I showed up as, he was really questioning a lot of things.

And yet God was using that to actually break me and to work in my heart. I'm so thankful for the friendship and the love of Steve and Terry Pettit. And I look back and think about all the people that they've influenced. I think about through the years, I think, Steve, you had some 60 people that traveled with you. And since then, in 07, we started a team on our own as well. Obviously, many of you know Aaron Coffey and their team as well, Will Galkin and their teams of the past. But we've had about 37 people who've traveled with us. They hear Steve Pettit every day and in a sense through me.

And it's interesting the influence that Steve has had. I'm so thankful that he's here. I hope that many of you will get to know him and pray for their family. They've gone through a lot of trials and God continues to work in and through them. There are some team members I have even in the past. I'm looking over here and I actually see Elizabeth and she traveled with us.

And my niece is sitting over here and my brother's daughter. And so, again, I know I'm among friends and I'm so thankful for what God's going to do for these next two nights. My plan would be this, is tonight I really desire to make it clear when it comes to the gospel to challenge both lost people because I know there are lost people here. There is no doubt in my mind that there are lost people hearing this message.

And it's amazing how many people grow up in a system. You maybe went to a Christian school, maybe you went to now a Christian college. And it's amazing how scripture is very clear that many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we do good works? And he says, depart from me you that work iniquity or practice lawlessness.

I don't know you. Many will say that. The truth is, out of the 12, when you think about the 12, no one suspected Judas. Which tells you that you can truly play the part really, really well. You can even deceive yourself into thinking that somehow you're in Christ. It's not my desire tonight though to, if you are in Christ, to somehow make you doubt your salvation. But if you are here tonight and you're doubting your salvation, that may be truly of God for you. I also know this, that there are many believers here that you need to be challenged in your walk with the Lord.

And so that's my desire as well. So tonight it's going to have a double-edged sword as I'm going to really preach to you tonight. And tomorrow night, really challenging at this point, really the believers to move forward and really to make an impact in their world. So tonight as we think about Hebrews, this passage came to my mind immediately when Steve had talked to me about even coming and preaching because of our culture and our modern day.

Listen carefully to this. It's Hebrews 9 verse 27 and verse 28. It says this, the writer says, And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, 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. When you think about this verse, you think about these verses.

Verse 27, you can't get away from the word appointed. Life, you could say, is filled with appointments. Some of those appointments are good, some are bad, some and many you can avoid, but when I think about this, it was interesting. I had traveled with Steve Pettit. I'd come back for grad school, but during that time, I remember I went and traveled for the university. They actually had asked me, hey, would you want to travel on a music team and you be the preacher? They wouldn't let me do music. So would you be the preacher?

And then your wife can be part of the music and have a music team. And so we did two semesters of this. We did a fall and a spring. And what was interesting about the fall and the spring is, is literally we would average about 10 services in a week. So we would do Sunday morning service at a church. We would do Sunday evening service at another church. Monday morning was a Christian school. Tuesday morning would be another Christian school. And then Tuesday night would be a service.

Wednesday morning, Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Thursday night, Friday morning. In all these different places, we're in about 250 different places in a matter of, I don't know what, nine months. Amazing as God was doing the work in our hearts and our lives. But I do remember one time in particular, I remember one time waking up and we were in Lima, Ohio, and I woke up that morning before a chapel on a Friday and something was desperately wrong. I mean, I'm starting to speak in this chapel and I'm starting to slur my speech. Something was definitely wrong.

I wasn't on anything that was causing me to slur. But the truth is, as I began to slur in my speech, my mouth was being more and more, I could tell swelling up more and more until finally by the time I finished, I just, I finished that chapel, I said, is there a dentist in your area? Because it is, I mean, something is wrong in one of my teeth. So at that point in time, they said, well, actually there's a dentist right over there across the parking lot over there. You can see kind of a strip mall and there's a dentist office there.

So I went over there not knowing. And as I went in there, they basically assessed my tooth and they said this, hey, Jeremy, just so you know, you have a wisdom tooth that's impacted. You really need to get it pulled.

But because you're a walk-in, we can't do that for you. And so you're going to have to have something scheduled. And then I'm trying to think, okay, when am I going to get this pulled? Okay, I have from Friday afternoon till Sunday morning before I have the next scheduled event. And then you can't do anything during the week. They said, we can give you some medication.

It'll help the swelling go down. And so I, you know, okay, that's fine. And then the very next week we're in a kind of a rural town in Ohio. How many of you here are from Ohio? Would you raise your hand? Okay, so there's some of you here.

Some of you were probably cheering for your team. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. When I think about this, though, I go to this little town in Ohio. I finished off this chapel. And they said, here, you're going to go speak at this or speak here. And then here's a place you can go for a dentist. And they described the dentist as a World War II dentist. No, I didn't know what that meant for me.

I'm thinking World War II, that's like the greatest generation. And I go and they kind of drop me off of this old house off of Main Street. And once I go to this house, I walk in and I meet the dental assistant. I think she was the dental assistant. I think she was the secretary. I think she was probably the janitor.

There were probably a lot of things. I then meet the dentist. And when I meet the dentist, I would have thought it was COVID time because sure enough, he was wearing a dental mask. And I actually never saw his face fully.

It kind of made me nervous because at that time, historically, you could normally see someone's face. And so I'm thinking, does he even have teeth? I don't even know. So he began to work on my tooth. And he said this. He says, you know, Jeremy, this bottom tooth is the one that's impacted. And when the top one hits it, it causes the irritation. So here's what we'll do. We're going to pull the top one. And so we'll pull the top wisdom tooth.

And you should be good. I'm thinking, wouldn't you pull the tooth with the problem? I mean, have you ever been in one of those situations where things are moving a little bit too fast for you? Because I'm thinking, okay, he's the expert, but he's telling me they're going to pull this top tooth. It's not even the problem tooth, and it's going to fix the problem?

And how's that working? And then all of a sudden, Novocain starts going in. I don't know if you've ever had one of these experiences, but this definitely was World War II. I mean, this guy, it was like a horror movie with a syringe in my mouth. I'm like, ow, ah, ah. I'm feeling everything he's doing.

It felt like a hornet's nest in my own mouth. And then soon after that, what he did is he begins to start to pull the tooth. He put the dental pliers in and starts to pull so hard, I'm going back and forth and back and forth. He's kind of like wrestling me with me in this chair, and as all this is kind of going on, I mean, he's sweating, I'm sweating.

I'm feeling every bit of everything he's doing. And then he says, one more try, and then all of a sudden we hear a loud crack, crack. And he goes, got it. And then he goes and he puts gauze in my mouth, and then he sits me up in the chair and says, that'll be $60. Actually, that's a great price to get a wisdom tooth pulled.

That's awesome. But he pulled the wrong tooth. And what's amazing, he sat me up so quick.

Honestly, I wasn't feeling good at all. I'm like turning green, and I say to him with the gauze in my mouth, I say, I think I'm going to throw up. And he's like, excuse me?

And I said, I'm sick. And he's, oh, and then he goes over to the counter. He grabs some smelling salt. He breaks it. He sticks it underneath my nose like an old school boxer of some sort. And here I am going. And he says, why don't you just kind of rest here for a while?

And when you're ready, you can go pay. Now, I tell you this to say this. That was like the worst appointment. I'm not joking.

I would not wish that even upon my enemy. It really was that bad. And again, he pulled the wrong tooth. So as I left there that day, I'm thinking, okay, this has happened to me. Now what am I going to do?

Because I still need the right tooth pulled. It was probably about two weeks later after a chapel. Sure enough, I'm talking to some people. We spent the night with people that night. And I asked this man when he came home from work.

I said, so what do you do for a living? Just didn't talk. And he says, I'm a dentist. I gave him a dirty look. And he says, why are you looking at me that way? And then I told him the story. And he laughed like some of you laughed a little bit too.

But the idea was that as I tell him the story, he says, I am so sorry. He said, listen, you come to my office tomorrow. I will pull your tooth.

I'll do it for free. And I guarantee you won't have the same kind of an appointment. I said, I'll pray about it. I don't know.

I just didn't know. But sure enough, the next morning after that chapel, I had that 24 hour period where I would be able to hopefully heal enough. I went in and sure enough, soothing music.

Then eventually, Mr. Frazier come on in. They begin to assess my tooth. They actually begin to put some numbing cream in my mouth, you know, first and kind of talk me for a little bit. And then they pull that out and they begin to actually put the Novocain in. Honestly, I never felt the prick of the syringe at all. And here they are putting Novocain in my mouth and doing it very gently, massaging it in. And when it was all said and done and they kind of pulled it out, they waited a while, tapped on my tooth. I said, I feel that. They said, we'll wait a little longer, add some more conversation. And then they tapped on it again.

I said, I don't feel that at all. And within moments, they pulled it out. And can I tell you something? I had a really good appointment at a dentist. Now, when I say all this to you, life is filled with appointments.

Some good, some bad, and most you can avoid. But here in scripture, we're learning tonight about two appointments that you cannot avoid. No matter who you are tonight, you will face these appointments. Let's pray tonight and just ask God's blessing. God, as we come to you tonight, I'm thankful again for my friends here. And I ask God that you would use me tonight as I would unfold scripture. I pray that you would stir our hearts.

I pray for those who are lost. Would they be convicted by the Spirit of God through the scriptures that you would stir them and bring them to a genuine saving knowledge of Christ? And for many in this room who are born again and born from above, I ask God, would you stir them and encourage them? Will you work in them as believers, Lord, to grow in their sanctification? So, dear God, I ask, will you fill me with your spirit and use this time for your honor and your glory? Thank you for your word.

Use it tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said, amen. In Hebrews 9, verse 27, you see it kind of clearly laid out. It says, and as is appointed unto men, wants to die. Which brings me right to the first of two points. Okay, that's kind of an easy message.

But the first point is simply this. You have an appointment with death. Did you know that? Now, it's interesting. As I say this, I didn't get any kind of weird reaction. I'm looking around all over. I didn't see anyone go.

Like, shockingly move. You know, like, what are you talking about, Jeremy? Not me, Jeremy. Maybe other people are going to die, but not me. And no, we all know this, so it doesn't take us by surprise that we're all going to die. The truth is, in our culture right now more than ever, we kind of see this laid out or played out, many people dying. You could say it this way, death is universal. I wonder how many of you have suffered the loss in the last year of a loved one.

Anyone have that happen to you? Yeah, numbers of you here. The truth is that some of you have lost friends. Some of you have lost grandparents or uncles when I think about it. And not just due to COVID.

When I think about this, I had a great grandfather in his 90s who died during the first part of the shutdown and lockdown of COVID. And we weren't able, we were on the other side of the country, so we couldn't make our way back, in a sense, during that time to the funeral. And then I remember as we were finishing the summer off and doing ministry in local churches, we get a phone call. My wife gets a phone call. And it's her mom. And my wife calls me out of this auditorium, and it's like it's kind of wailing right now. We didn't know what happened.

And she says, Brent, it's her brother. He may have just drowned. We waited probably about an hour not knowing what happened. The family had gone on vacation that day. They just thought, hey, they live in South Bend, Indiana. They were going to drive up to Michigan and go to Lake Michigan. I mean, it's something they would do. It's not a big deal.

They've done it many, many times in the past. They make their way up. There's a family. They're kind of celebrating, really, you could say, one of the daughter's birthdays. There's a 17-year-old, a 15-year-old, a 12-year-old, and the wife. And so sure enough, it's like a Thursday late afternoon. They get up there.

They eat some pizza. They go to Lake Michigan. And sure enough, huge waves, though. I mean, some of you have been to Lake Michigan before, and it's not necessarily massive waves. But that day, it was a beautiful day, but yet the waves were crashing some five feet. I mean, it was huge waves, unheard of almost for Lake Michigan. And so there they are on the beach area and playing in the water. And even his wife was nervous about this, saying, Brent, this is really, it'll be OK.

They're OK. And they played for about an hour. They got out for a little bit. And then the 12-year-old and the 17-year-old get in the water one more time and begin to be drawn out by a current. My brother-in-law sees this and throws his phone down and his stuff. And his wife says, should I call 911? And right away, he says yes, not knowing they're calling 911 for him. He runs to the water. He's 44 years old. He jumps in the water.

He's in good health. And he jumps in to rescue, gets about 10 feet from his kids. And in the midst of that, gets pulled out, like the last words were, I can't do this. As he's being pulled out, the 17-year-old is rescuing his sister, who's 12 years old. And literally, all three should have drowned, and yet he rescued his sister. And yet here's a father who, in love for his own kids, jumped in to rescue them and drowns in the process. Devastating.

We were devastated. But you look at all of this, and I think about life, and I go, do you know, we all have an appointment with death. We don't know. I mean, he may live to be 90-something years old, but you're not promised tomorrow.

We don't know. And actually, right now within our culture, in one sense, this is a helpful thing for all of us to kind of wake up a little bit, because the reality is we don't know. And there are people dying, and you have sometimes, some of your relatives and friends are people who have passed on, and yet scripture does tell us in the book of Ecclesiastes that it's better to go to a funeral than to a party. You know, when you go to a party, what do you do? You kind of, well, you party, you forget life, but it's interesting how a funeral sobers you, and you begin to really consider, okay, I will die, and I'm going to spend eternity somewhere forever. And yet as you think about here, the scripture is clear that death is universal. You could say, well, Jeremy, I'm from a different culture. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter age and stage. We just don't know, but the reality is we do know this, that we all have an appointment with death. And yet when you consider this, it spans all ages, it spans all cultures.

Death is not final, though. You might even ask this question, because there may be some of you who might even be saying, well, Jeremy, why death, and where did this all come from? And yet if you know scripture, you realize that in Genesis 1, God is creator of all things, and He makes us this world, and He makes mankind, and it's very, very good. And yet mankind is tempted in Genesis chapter 3, and sure enough, here is Eve being tempted by the serpent, and Adam seemingly right there with her, and as she's being tempted, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And remember, as it's so subtle, I mean, she did not understand what was kind of going on there, and yet the devil in the form of a serpent was questioning God. Would God say this? In many ways you could say, He's saying, God's not good. I mean, if God were really good, wouldn't He let you eat of any of the tree of the garden? You could have it all.

I mean, why is He withholding something from you? You deserve that, and yet the truth is, if you have this, you'll be like a God, and you'll know good from evil. And so the truth is, here she is, she's being tempted with all of this, and as she's being tempted, she gives in. And sure enough, there's Adam, who's right there with her.

What's he going to do? And Scripture tells us this in Romans chapter 5 verse 12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, why? For that all have sinned. There could be a tendency for us to go, you know, that's, I mean, why did He do this?

Why did they do this? I mean, but the truth is, before we try to blame them, how often do you sin? Every day. When you think about sin, what is sin? sin is the transgression of the law, it's when you break God's laws. We sometimes say with little kids, anything you think or say or do that even displeases God, the truth is, everyone we know has sinned, we've all broken His laws in many ways.

And actually for some of you, right now, it may be much more heightened because you've been on a break of about seven weeks. There's some of you spiraling down to sin in your life. And yet there's mercy, there's grace that God would give. But the truth is, you know, some of you have tasted sin, you've delved into this, and you always come up short, don't you? Because sin is pleasurable for a season, but what happens when the season's over, and then the Scripture is clear that the wages or the payment of sin is what? It's death.

So why do people die? Well, because, because we sin against God. We're born this way, we're born sinful, we commit sin, it's an endless cycle, you're a sinner, and yet that's why you sin, and yet you sin because you're a sinner, and we do this, we know this, we say things, each one of you here would say this, you know of people that you have hurt by your own speech. You have said things that definitely displeased God, but you've hurt other people in the process.

You wish you could take it back. You might have even said to the person, just so you know, I didn't mean that, trying to kind of get away from it, but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The truth is we sin with our speech, we sin with our mind. It's amazing how you can have angry thoughts or dirty thoughts or selfish thoughts or just proud thoughts, and yet all of these things show us our sinfulness, and yet all of this is against God Almighty who is so holy and so pure, and He's without sin, and God lives in heaven, when I think about even God and His heavenly state, the truth is Revelation 21 makes it very clear that there will be nothing that will enter into it that will defile it. This is God, He is holy and He is pure, but that's not us, we're broken people, we sin against God, we sin against people.

We need to be delivered. When you look at this closely, I would say it this way, death is not annihilation. There are some people who think this, they say well Jeremy, I mean in witnessing to someone they might even say hey listen, you kind of live and you die, so you might as well live it up, and I'd say excuse me, but you will live somewhere for all eternity. As you consider that whole thought there, I would say it this way, there is a danger in death if you are without Christ. As you think of Christ, think of who Jesus is as Messiah, virgin born, as He has not only entered into the world and yet never sinned, and as He gets to the age of 30 years old He does miracles to make it so clear that the dumbest of dummies could understand, here He is doing miracles that are only of God and yet all prophesied that this Messiah would come. Jesus then does exactly what He says He's going to do, at the age of 33 and a half He's prophesied His own death, His own burial and even resurrection, and that the truth is as He does this and He dies on the cross, He wasn't paying for His sins, He was paying for your sins and for my sins. We need to be delivered from our sins. My question to you tonight, if you're without Christ, is how will you be delivered? Are you going to somehow try to do better? I mean, Scripture is clear, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but it's according to His mercy that He saves us.

It's not your works. You know, I meet people, they say, well, you know, I've been baptized, Jeremy. Well, how does going underwater in front of people wash away your inward sin problem? When you think about that, maybe you should use soap and shampoo with it, you know, as you try to... And the point is it doesn't wash away your sins, just because you go underwater in front of people. And yet some people trust in that.

Some people trust in that they're a pretty good person, that maybe they're good would outweigh their bad, but yet God doesn't work that way because God is so holy that not even one sin will enter into heaven. So how in the world are you going to get there? You need to somehow be perfect and made perfect.

And you can't do this on your own. This is why Messiah came. You know, often I preach this, I tell people, listen, you know why you need the Messiah? You need the Messiah because you're not the Messiah.

That's why. And the truth is, is every one of us sitting here, no, we're not the Messiah and we need to be delivered from our sin. And yet the hardened heart of mankind rejects God and goes against God, but God in His kindness stirs people.

He begins to work in you and through you, bringing experiences and situations and the word of God to then ignite your heart to draw you to Himself that you would say, I don't want my sin. You're repenting. I don't want my sin. I want Jesus to save me.

Has this happened to you? Has there ever been a time in your life where you've come to grips with your own sin? And not just coming to grips in a light way. I think of the song, Rock of Ages, many of you are familiar with. That song, the hymn writer basically says this, he says, you know, there's nothing in my hands I can bring to God, but simply to the cross I can cling. He goes on to say, in all my tears, no respite, no.

What does that supposed to mean? It's like in all of this religious zeal for the Lord. And I was crying in that sense, but I couldn't find respite. I couldn't find peace.

That's where some of you are maybe. When I think about it even further, it's like there's, just I feel naked, exposed, I come to you for dress, until finally the writer, the songwriter says this, he says, wash me savior or I die. And that's genuine repentance, where a person realizes they cannot save themselves. They need Messiah and Him alone, and they turn from their sin to Christ, and they cry out to Christ to be rescued, and I just, I look here, my heart breaks for you, and I'm praying for you because there are some of you here tonight. That has never happened to you.

God genuinely, because if it really has happened to you, it would transform your life, and you would be a new creature, a new creation, old things passing away, yet all things becoming new, literally. And yet, some of you, you look at your life, and you watch your life spiraling down and down and down, and maybe, maybe here tonight you're here, and you're without Jesus. And why, why are we doing this? Because God in His kindness, God in His love, has set it aside for you to hear the gospel. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today's sermon, titled, Two Appointments You Cannot Avoid. Be sure to listen tomorrow, as we'll hear the conclusion of this sermon from evangelist Jeremy Frazier, preached from the Bob Jones University Chapel platform.