Fear That Delivers From Hell

In this message, Pastor Aaron teaches us that fear of the Lord is healthy, and the consequences for choosing not to follow Him have eternal ramifications.  In Luke 16, Jesus teaches a parable about a rich man and a man named Lazarus who died and experiences two different realities.  

Transcript

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You know, we've been going through this holy fear series, and this is just there's just three more weeks in this series, and the foundation of it has been Proverbs 9:10. And it says, fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment. Now, who knows? Healthy fear is a good thing. Healthy fear is a great thing in our relationship with God. It is complicated to talk about fear because we have these misconceptions of what fear is. Because as much as we should fear God, he is absolutely approachable. And you should have this desire to approach him because God wants this deep connection and relationship with you. In fact, his son tells us to entrust ourselves to him because he says, My burden is easy and my yoke is light. And yet we find ourselves in this awkward position where we are fearful of him because of his power and authority, but we go to him because we know he loves us. When I was young, six or seven years old, somewhere in there, there's a significant part of my childhood where my dad, he worked, he worked midnights, and there were times he needed to sleep, and then there were times that when when he got called up to vice and narcotics, he was gone a lot. And growing up, I was practicing my what I call extreme adolescence. You know, it's like if I'm if I'm going to be mischievous, if I'm going to be a terrible child, I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. And my mom and I, we could get pretty combative, especially when dad wasn't home. And again, I don't know if I was six or seven, but I decided that it was okay to say some mean things to my mom. And I remember kicking her in the shin and running off. And this is what I heard. Stay in your room until your father gets home. In a heartbeat, guys, I went from being angry to being terrified, right? Just absolutely terrified. And I remember being in my room, and there's this fear of dad coming home, and but then there was the level that I was at, which was a little bit beyond fear, like the close to peeing your pants kind of fear, you know? And I was preparing myself for the spanking. Like I'm like, okay, I can handle that. Gotten plenty of those. Like I'll gear up for it. But when he got home, there was something he said that struck greater fear in me than any spanking. Let's go for a walk. You guys know the walk, right? That's the behavior modification walk. And I'm gonna walk alongside you until boy, you get it, okay? And so I hear that let's go for a walk, and I know what comes with it. It's receiving the lecture, it's accepting the wrongdoings, and it's facing the consequences for my actions, right? Now, as a young man, if you ever wanted to see me fall in line, all you had to say was, I'm going to talk to your dad. Say no more. There was so much to that though. It wasn't, it wasn't because he was a bad father, it was because there was this fear of disappointing him, the punishment that would be doled out, and yes, it was coming. And the favor or lack thereof that I would have from him going forward. And it meant something. And and I I knew I had a loving father, but I wouldn't dare cross him. That's a healthy relationship. That is an absolutely healthy relationship with a father, and I believe that's what it should look like. It's not wanting a buddy or a best friend growing up. That's that's gonna do you no good, but demonstrating the right way to go and disciplining us so that we are shown the right way. Because without it, we could be on a path to destruction. You know, having holy fear is so important. It's so important. A fear that's driven by the consequences if we fall out of the favor of the Lord, but scripture can continually be our resource that tells us the right way to live if we choose to. And so today what I want you to is I want you to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 16, and we are going to be reading a parable. For those who don't know or are unfamiliar, parables are teachings that Jesus gave, and every parable, almost every parable he gives, is an allegory for the principles of his kingdom. And so we have a lot that we can learn from them, and here we learn about the contrast in living in heaven or hell. Who declares heaven is real? And I want us to embrace that if heaven is real, so is hell. And so we're going to read from this parable, Luke chapter 16, verses 19 through 31. I encourage you to read along, it will not be on our screen. Jesus said, There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen, and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man's table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores. Finally, the poor man died, and he was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, and he went to the place of the dead. Therefore, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side. The rich man shouted, Father Abraham, have some pity. Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames. But Abraham said to him, Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is great, there's a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there. The rich man said, Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father's home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don't end up in this place of torment. But Abraham said, Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote. The rich man replied, No, Father Abraham. But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God. But Abraham said, if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead. Let's pray.

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Lord, your word is deep.

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And God, who can understand it without revelation from your Holy Spirit? And so, God, I just ask that today our hearts will be open for you to minister to us. Because, Lord, there are realities that we do not like dealing with. But God, you called us to live with spiritual eyes that are wide open. And so, Lord, I pray that you'll be opening up the eyes of your people today. I thank you in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen, amen. You know, this is a sobering story. And there's this reality that the rich man is dealing with of these two destinies. You know, he gets to experience all the earthly comfort in the world, and then all of a sudden he's experiencing eternal torment. And I completely understand this fleshly desire for that earthly comfort. And Jesus, as he's telling this story, he's not talking symbolically. He isn't vague. He is talking about real ramifications to our lives. Real ramifications in how we choose to live. And so he tells the story of two men dying, and we can just assume that he's imparting, it's almost like they died on the same day, right? So two men died, and one lived in luxury every single day, all the clothes he could ever ask for, feasting without limit. And clearly he wasn't living in the blessings of God. This was his identity in what he had become. The other man. By Jewish tradition, he would be considered unclean, laying at the gate, covered in sores. And it says, longing for scraps, even with the dogs licking his wounds. Who sees the visual there? Okay. Then all of a sudden, at death, there is this reversal of fortunes. It's immediate and it's permanent. And and hit like everything about their lives changes instantly. And what we read is that Lazarus is carried by angels to Abraham's side, comforted at the heavenly banquet. And then in contrast, the rich man is buried and wakes up in the place of the dead in torment, in flames, and complete anguish. And all of a sudden, it gets things get real. Because listen, there are times in our lives where we don't want to talk about these things. We don't want to think about it. And it's like, I would like, I would like to live out the phrase, ignorance is bliss. I'm sure maybe you are like me. And yet all of a sudden, Jesus is bringing bringing this reality to the forefront. And I want to emphasize this parable is not about money and how to live here on earth. That's not what this is about. Jesus regularly points out eternal consequences of how we live and whom we serve. And to me, when I read this, the warning is so stark. There are several places that Jesus describes hell. One of those is Matthew 25, 41. He says, eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. Matthew 25, 46, he calls it eternal punishment. So this idea of a never-ending punishment, it's not, it's not just got a period of time, it's forever. In Matthew 25, 30, Matthew 13, 42, and Matthew 24, 51, Jesus spoke of a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Describing like this outer darkness where there's consciousness, there's eternal regret, and there's suffering. It's all encapsulated into one thing. Now the biblical language here is very interesting. The Greek word for weeping describes this intense wailing or sobbing. Gnashing of teeth speaks of a rage, fury, resentment, and a defiant pain. So it's not this picture of a passive remorse, but it's a bitter response to what is taking place. The same words are described in Acts chapter 7, verse 54. The religious leaders, they're hearing the words of Stephen, and Stephen is telling them that, hey, you guys are the ones that killed Jesus, and he's going a description of it. And it describes them as gnashing their teeth at him. And what it was implying was there was this murderous rage inside of them that they couldn't just handle anymore what he was saying. And Jesus now is saying that there's going to be this eternal anger and hostility, not just sorrow, not just remorse over what you've done, not this mild regret, but all of a sudden they are filled with this extreme anguish mixed with furious despair.

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This is my eternity.

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And it says, the fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. And so my prayer for us as a people is that we find the fear of the Lord now. We find it now. Holy fear opens our eyes to this sobering reality. Things that are absolutely true. And I find that without that fear, we will end up living like the rich man who was too busy chasing comfort, pleasure, and status while eternity hangs in the balance. Just four weeks ago, you know, I grew up in a motorcycle household, and I just got my third motorcycle. And then immediately after I purchased my bike, two people I know died on motorcycles. All of a sudden, it just opens you up to that reality. Like, yeah, that's real. That's real, that can happen. And I gotta do my best to protect myself. And it is absolutely true, spiritually speaking, without that fear of knowing that this is a reality. Like, like heaven and hell, this is a reality. Without that, with that ignorance's bliss mentality, we have chosen a path to hell. I had a professor once who uh he had he had moved, and when he had moved, he he missed a deadline in the new state that he moved to to pay the taxes on his property. And he got this huge fine in the mail and a summons for a court appearance, and he tried to explain that that just where he's from, they do it differently. And the judge responded, ignorance is not an excuse. Ignorance is not an excuse. Matthew 10, 28 says, Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body, they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Now, to me, to live with this kind of fear is to be delivered from hell. It's to be delivered from it. It means that once we choose, Jesus, and I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but I want to say this. If we choose to follow Jesus, you don't have to live in the fear of hell. You don't have to live in that fear. And that's important to embrace because holy fear it forces us to ask the most important questions. Am I living for what death takes away? Am I living for the world? Or am I living for things that last forever? Because when we die, there is this finality of judgment. It meets us. And as Jesus describes this, there's this great chasm, and we can't immediately be awakened to this reality and say, Oh, I made a mistake. Mercy, Lord, mercy. At that point, it's too late. And the rich man, he cried out, listen to this. He cried out for just a drop of water to cool his tongue from the finger of the man who was once laying at his gate. And here's the crazy thing about this. This is a man who, while on the earth, he would have never touched. He wouldn't have touched him because he was unclean. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. And all of a sudden, he is begging for a drop of water from his finger.

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And Abraham's answer.

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But Abraham said to him, Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there. Jesus is saying, the line is clear, the line is obvious. Once death comes, our judgment is set. And ignorance is not an excuse. No second chances. You can't just cross back. No negotiations. So Jesus' warning, and this is so important for us to embrace, Jesus' warning wasn't out of anger or righteous indignation. It was this urgency that he is speaking with. Guys, we can't no longer live in ignorance. We can't just be following our own path. We have to take these things seriously. In Matthew 25, 36 through or 31 through 46, excuse me, Jesus talks about a final judgment. And I strongly encourage you that if you need that fear of the Lord, read Matthew chapter 25. Read it. It's a tremendous chapter. And he is talking about this final judgment that separates the righteous to the right from the unrighteous to the left. And he calls it the separating of the sheep from the goats. And then he describes the king turning to those on the right in verse 34. He says, Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. And then in verse 41, the king addresses those on the left. It says, Then the king will turn to those on the left and say, Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. No appeal process, guys. The choices in life have been made, and they are facing the consequences for how they live. Church, how desperate we need to be to fear the Lord God Almighty. And I know there are days that are absolutely tough, and we just seek comfort and we desire peace, but we desire peace all the wrong ways. And we find ourselves desiring to be comforted by the world. But we should not be comforted by the world. We need to be comforted by Jesus. And so you and I, here's the thing, and this is this is what you should embrace. You shouldn't live just trembling, constantly thinking about God and Him holding the judgment and the outcome. You and I can choose to settle eternity today. We can choose that today. Listen to 2 Corinthians 6, 2. For God says, at just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you. Indeed. The right time is now. Listen to that. The right time is now. Today is the day of salvation. And I know you can hear this and you can say, Pastor, you're throwing some really, really scary things at us. You're throwing deep things at us. And I know that sometimes we hear this, and the truth is shocking. And sometimes we want to openly reject it. Say, I don't want to hear that. Listen to Hebrews 3.15. Remember what it says today when you hear his voice. Don't harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled. Don't do it. Because what I'm preaching about is not some kind of anxious fear where I'm always scared of the outcome. That's not what I'm talking about here. But when you embrace it, it's one of true comfort and rest because I know when God calls me home, I'm gonna hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. And church, we're not gonna hear that because wow, Aaron did everything right. He was perfect. I'm going to be there because I said I choose to claim the blood of Jesus Christ over my life. And I choose to cover claim that each and every day. Matthew 11, 28, Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. And so I want you to embrace this that holy fear won't drive you away in terror from God, it will drive you into his loving arms. But if we wait for everything to fall in line or just everything to happen at just the right time, I'm telling you, this chasm is real. Life goes by so quickly, and you and I we cannot wait or neglect the great gift of God that He is offering us. He's offering that today. And so the fear of the Lord, when we start realizing what it is, it drives us to repent and trust Jesus now before it's too late.

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And here today, what you're hearing is a warning from Jesus.

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And what I have come to embrace is that God's word, even though we might look at it as a relic, we might look at it as so old, it is absolutely so applicable for today. The sufficiency of God's word, it is for today. And so we have this opportunity to heed warning while there is still time. If you're breathing today, there's still time. Because we need to embrace this rich man's desperate plea and not find ourselves there. Listen to 27 and 28. It says, then the rich man said, Please, Father Abraham, at least, at the very least, send me to my father's home, for I have five brothers and want him to warn them so they don't end up in this place of torment. Abraham's response is sobering. But Abraham said in verse 31, if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, and they won't be persuaded even if someone, they won't be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead. I've talked about this often in churches. So often someone says, Well, if I just have this amazing miracle from God, then I'll just change everything. You know what? Abraham just made it clear. If you can't follow the word of God, you're not gonna change for a miracle. Miracles for the unbeliever. Shouldn't be for the believer. It's nice when it happens, but we know God is a God of miracles. And so this scripture to me, it's it's so clear, and it's applicable to everyone in this room today. They had already heard God's word. They had already heard it, they had everything they needed, they just refused to obey it. And so Jesus, in his loving kindness, pointed people back to Scripture, not his own words, so often when he ministered, he brought up, he brought up all the prophets, he brought up Moses in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, he says, Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and perform many miracles in your name. But I will reply, I never knew you.

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Get away from me, you who break God's laws. Another sobering warning.

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But to know Jesus is to follow God's laws. Church, I want you to hear me again.

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Follow Jesus, to serve him truly.

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Follow God's laws. Jesus said John chapter 14, verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. We only have two responses we can make to this message. Just two. Embrace it or reject it. That's it. That's it. There's no middle ground here. There really isn't. I mean, there's there's two ways we can go. Listen to John 12, 48. It says, but all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken. See, we can continue to live in ignorance, but even that has an expiration date. And so I choose to live with a fear that will deliver me from hell. I choose that. And this fear, it makes us take God's word seriously. It makes us it makes us say that when we open this, these words are truly life-giving, saving us from hell. That is God's loving way of reaching out. And church, I am I am encouraging you. We don't need miracles from the dead. We don't need that. What we need, we need a Bible, we need God's word, we also have the truth of the gospel, and we also have the Holy Spirit that is ministering to us right now. You choose to just follow what is being prompted on your heart. Because those same scriptures that warned the rich man's brothers, they're issuing a warning to us today. It's a warning today, a fear that hopefully it leads you to read the word, repent when it convicts us, and walk in obedience and say, you know, God, I have to follow your statutes. And the key, the key is not living in fear, although what we've been illustrating is important. The key is falling in love with Jesus because God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The foundation of our relationship with God is not fear, it's love. And you need to embrace that it's love. You need to fall in love with who he is, what he has done for you, and realize the relationship that he is inviting you into. As Kelton said in that last worship song we sang, uh, or uh come to the altar, his arms are open wide for you if you just choose to run into his embrace. And something that I want to encourage you, I remember when I was younger, and messages like this just tore me up. My heart just ached. And I'm like, I don't know what to do with this, but I don't like it. I don't like it. And I want you to know that is the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit throwing you out a lifeline and saying, just grab on, grab on, and I'll take care of you. And that church is conviction. And what I have come to embrace is that conviction is a gift from God. That God in his loving kindness sent his son, that Jesus would come on this earth, live a perfect life, and be put on a cross to die for you and I. And that blood was shed for us so that we do not have to face the torment of hell. That was God in his loving kindness. And so I want you to again understand that Jesus, when he tells this story, he didn't tell this parable to try and terrify us away from God, but to drive us to him. I need God. Because without him, without him, I am in torment. And so this rich man's story was a warning. But Lazarus' story is hope. It's pure hope. Both men died. One was ready. One was ready. And so the question I have for you today: who do you identify with more? Lazarus or the rich man? I want you to bow your head, close your eyes. You know, this warning of hell is by the same Jesus that provided you a way out of hell. And so, what he's ultimately offering is this invitation that you can fall into the arms of a loving God who has provided a way out of eternal torment. And so, God in his loving kindness, he's offering us mercy right now. The time is right now. You know, I want to read that scripture again, 2 Corinthians 6.2. For God says, at just the right time I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you. Indeed, the right time is now. Today is the day of salvation. At this time, I would ask my prayer altar team to come forward. Also, if you're a credential minister, I'd invite you to come forward as well. You know, there are these moments where we don't know what to do with the wrestling that is going inside of our soul. But I can tell you that if everything inside of you is yearning for peace, for freedom, eternal comfort, I want you to know there is a place for you at this altar. And the Spirit of God wants to reach down to you and show you there is a way to perfect peace and love through Him. What I want us to do right now is I want us to stand and we're gonna be we're gonna be singing out in worship in just a moment, but I want to pray for you, and then I want to invite you that if the Holy Spirit is working on you right now, I just invite you to follow that prompting and come find someone up here to pray with. But let's lift our hands to the Lord. Father God, you see those that are here today, God, and I I pray that we do have two options to embrace your word or reject it. I pray that each and every soul that is within the sound of my voice embrace it, Lord. Embrace it because it is good for us. It is good for us for our for our eyes to be opened, for us to understand that, Lord, this world doesn't have everything we need. But Lord, in you and through your Son Jesus Christ, you have provided everything we need. And so, Lord, I pray for people to reach out and grab on to you today and say, I choose Jesus because it is through him that I can have everlasting life. Lord, I'm tired of seeing a world that is trying to hang on for dear life to an extra day here on the earth when, Lord, your promise is so much greater. And Lord, if we embrace just what you have, Lord, we can look forward to a day where we're no longer here, but we're worshiping before you in eternity, Father. And Lord, for those who are without hope today, or just feeling in their spirit, God, I need to repent, I need to make things right, I need to choose to follow out after you and obey your laws and statutes. That God, you will give them the boldness to step out. Because, Lord, it is that submission of the flesh to say, God, I choose to be a man or woman of the Spirit. I thank you, God. Let us follow those promptings right now. In Jesus' name.