A Christian can experience no higher blessing than being loved by God and loving God. The theme of this conference is the fear of God. That's not antithetical to the love of God. They work together. All of the other speakers are addressing the holy fear of God that Christians need to develop.

It has fallen to me to bring a message on that fear that non-Christians will experience when they face God after death. So it'll be a very serious message. If you have a Bible, open with me to Hebrews Chapter 10. If my voice cracks, please forgive me. The context of Hebrews is this.

God is addressing a mixed audience of Hebrews that have professed to follow Jesus Christ. Some are true believers and he encourages them. Go on in faith, chapter 11. But then other ones are not true believers and they're beginning to show it. Some are departing.

Some are not only departing, they are radically turning against Christ. And so the writer gives five very serious warnings. And two of them in particular are extremely serious. As you've read Hebrews, you've seen those, chapter 6 and chapter 10. These are addressing people that have turned their back on Christianity, on Christ.

They no longer claim to be Christians. They were never saved and now losing it. They were never saved to begin with. It's like what 1 John 2 29 says, they went out from us but they were never of us. Had they been of us, they doubtlessly would have continued with us.

The same is true in chapter 10. This is one of those sections that a brand new believer reads, and he breathes deeply, Is this really what it looks like? Yes it is. And sometimes they wonder if they've committed it. What is it?

Look at verse 29 in particular because this is the context of how much worse punishment you suppose. Will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot counted the blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace This is by those that once claimed to be Christians and they have now turned on Christ in a vehement, violent way and they become worst enemies of Christianity. Call your attention to that phrase in verse 29 they have insulted the Spirit of grace This is how that awesomely serious sin described in Matthew 12 is repeated after the life of Jesus. The unforgivable blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And there is never any forgiveness for that.

The person that is committed this sin will never ever be saved. God stamps reprobation into his heart. They are in that rare group of people that claim to be Christians but are not, but they've experienced something just short of salvation. Hebrews 6, they've been enlightened. They've tasted of this power.

They know that this is the Spirit of God. But as they're being drawn closer and closer and to being saved there and not right up to the brink. And then for some reason, they turn away violently to get away from that, that pole. If you've studied physics, It's comparable to the slingshot effect. For example, when a rocket goes to the moon and is in its gravitational pull, to bring it back, it has to circle and do a slingshot and shoot away from it back into space.

Or what happens when a comet comes around the sun and has to shoot away? These people violently turn away from Christianity. And it's as it were, they reclusify Christ. And they insult, notice the word, they insult the Holy Spirit. There is a general apostasy that people commit that go along with Christianity and then they just drift away.

This is worse. This is double apostasy. In the first group, a person could later repent and be saved. Not this person. God does something in him and they now face not just hell but extra hell.

That's the context of when Paul issues this very serious warning. How does that apply today? Children in Christian families are similar to these Hebrews to whom the writer is addressing this. They've heard the Bible. They felt something.

They've experienced something just short of Christianity. They may think that they're saved And they have so many blessings. They've been taught the Bible, the good example of loving godly parents. They've prayed. They've sung hymns.

But now they're more accountable. Jesus said, him to whom much is given, from him much shall be required. And sadly what happens is some people when they grow up and they go away often they turn on Christianity and they become like a completely different person they oppose it and some even commit this unpardonable sin. A few years ago I was watching television, I don't watch much, but I was watching the news and particularly the weather to see what it'd be like the next day. This was late at night, so I went in the kitchen, wash the dishes or something.

When I came back and then moved into a one of these late night news documentaries, I think it was Nightline, and the reporter was saying, there's a new atheism and it's on the internet, and young people are militantly denying God, even those that came from fundamentalist evangelical churches. And then they played some clips that were taken from the internet. And it surprised me. One by one, these young people, teenagers, young adults, took turns saying the most abominable things. As I recall, the first one said something, and they all had that glazed over look in their eye and an evil grin.

The first one said something like, I renounce Christianity, I curse God, and I hereby officially blaspheme the Holy Spirit. I consciously commit the unpardonable sin." Then another young man came on and said, I renounce Christianity and I blaspheme God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And then a young lady says, I blaspheme the Virgin Mary. And they went on with it. What in the world is happening?

I turned the television off. And I thought about that. Were they just trying to be cool? And I hoped it wasn't the real thing. You know, it doesn't take much.

It takes a lot to shock me. I've been through a lot. I've seen death, disease. I have a ministry to prison inmates. I've witnessed to gangsters, strippers, criminals.

I've seen death. I've seen attempted murder. Doesn't it? I've seen a lot. I don't think I'd ever been shocked as much as when I saw that.

I had to sit down. I was shaking. Those young people. And then I remembered what the announcer said, that this is a trend of people that had come from evangelical churches. Parents, Would that be your children one day?

Maybe someone you know in your church might end up like that and you would say what in the world has happened? That's the context of our text for this morning verse 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Why fearful? Because a person that dies lost is facing the wrath of God and there are degrees of punishment and he has just talked about those that will receive the worst punishment.

Look at verse 27 they face a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Verse 28, without mercy. Verse 29, much worse punishment. Verse 30, vengeance. It is a fearful thing.

They will experience the fear of God one day. What is fear? Fear is one of the emotions that we are capable of having. Think of the wide variety of emotions that you experience. Think of the positive ones, such as peace.

It's Saturday morning and you're sleeping in late. And there you are with your spouse, and you're half awake and your eyes are half open and you say this is peaceful. Everyone in your family is healthy, children doing well in their studies, you've paid all your bills and you're at peace because you can't think of a single thing to worry about. How about joy? You and your spouse have just had your first baby, and you say, I never dreamed I could have such happiness.

What about love? The day you've looked forward to all your life has arrived and there you are in front of the preacher on your wedding day. And you look at your beloved and you are overcome with love. You feel like you're under a waterfall of love. These are great emotions.

Not all emotions are so good. You drift into the ones that are bad like embarrassment, confusion, Loneliness. You've seen other friends married and you're all alone or you've been divorced or widowed. You're lonely. You feel empty.

One person says, I feel like an empty cup. I want to be loved so much. It's a negative emotion. Grief. As a pastor I've comforted people and they're weeping and they've said I've never thought I could hurt so much.

Many of you know what that's like. Depression, where you weep every day behind closed doors, nobody knows. Every day for weeks, Months, years, overwhelming emotion, anger. We know what that's like when it overtakes us. Road rage.

You lose your temper. You start throwing things. You even strike out and hit your spouse or even your children. You're out of control. You see, emotions like that can overwhelm you.

And there are other ones, But I am persuaded the most overwhelming one of all is fear. When that comes in, no matter what else you're experiencing, it takes over. Look at those first three examples. Peace, you're in bed feeling everything is right and your spouse says, honey, do you smell smoke? You open the door, honey, the house is on fire.

You're afraid. Well, you're holding that little baby in the hospital filled with joy. The doctor walks in and you can tell from his face he's got bad news. You hold your spouse and say, doctor, what's wrong? Or you're at your wedding, overcome with love, and before you say I do, you hear a shuffling at the back and two men are fighting.

Before you can turn around someone yells out, he's got a gun! Bam! And everybody automatically is overcome with fear. Fear overwhelms every other emotion. And as some of you have learned, you are capable of more fear than you have ever imagined before.

We know what phobias are. That's the Greek word for fear, phobos. And each of us has one particular thing we're afraid of that others may not be afraid of. It might be something trivial. I knew someone that was afraid of caterpillars.

It can be anything. What are some of the popular phobias? High places, small places, wide places. According to public opinion polls, for many years the most popular phobia, one at the top of the list, is what I'm doing right now, speaking in front of a group of people. There are people, they wouldn't speak in front of ten people, let alone a hundred.

I saw a young man when I was at seminary, thought he could preach, I gave him a chance to preach and within ten minutes he turned as white as my shirt. I'm not kidding. And he had this blank shirt, we had to help him sit down before he found it. He was terrified. Maybe someone here has that.

But then I also read where another phobia may have overtaken that. The fear of walking home alone in the dark through a strange neighborhood and you hear footsteps behind you and then you get the point. It's fearful. People are afraid of dogs because they were bitten as a little child. Snakes, spiders, mice, rats.

What is your phobia? You probably know what it is. The worst fear of many parents is that something really, really bad would happen to their children. That's their worst nightmare. Think of Job.

Job lost all of his belongings. He lost all of his children. He lost his health. You could say he lost his wife because she turned on him. And then he said this, that which I have feared the most has come upon me.

Then there are other things that strike terror into us. I'll tell you one. Have you ever had an asthma attack? And you can't breathe. You're suffocating.

You're wheezing. And you're gasping. You feel like you're suffocating. I know that feeling. I know what it's like to fall on the ground on your hands and knees like a dog gasping for air and you're getting light-headed, you're afraid you're gonna pass out and suffocate when you're unconscious.

That's why I always carry an inhaler. Parents, if your child begins to develop it, be very gentle with him, go to the doctor, go to an asthma specialist. It is terrifying when you cannot breathe. By the way, this is behind, this is the principle behind waterboarding. It used to be called the old Chinese water torture.

I do not approve of that. Our Constitution says no cruel and unusual punishment, certainly not for people who have been convicted. They'll either hold a person under the water or they strap him down and just simply put a wet towel over his face. And he can't breathe. They'll confess to almost anything the terror of this fear.

When were you most afraid? Most people can remember a time in their life they were absolutely terrified. I think the time I was most afraid was when I was 10 years old. Rode my bike over to play with a friend a few blocks away, and as I was going up to knock on the door, I happened to look back in the street, and coming down the street was a mad dog. Rabies foaming at the mouth, shaking his head, growling and walking in a strange way.

And I remembered how my parents had warned me, Kurt, if you ever see a mad dog, don't pet it, don't go up to it, you get away from it. If it bites you, you could get rabies, you could die, don't touch that dog! And now it's coming in my direction. I just opened the door, went in, closed it, and I wasn't afraid. I was petrified.

I couldn't move. I just stood there. After a few moments, my friend's mother walked in and she noticed something's wrong. And like a wise loving mother, she said, Kurt, what's wrong? She looked out the window and she says, Kurt, the dog's gone.

We'll get the dog catcher. Don't worry. We'll lock the door. It took me at least an hour to get over that. Some of you have had experiences like that.

I asked a friend of mine that I'd grown up with and he said, I'll never forget what happened to me. I was a young man working at my father's drugstore and a man came in shaking and he walked up to me pulled out a gun put it in my face cocked it and said you give me morphine or I'm gonna blow your head off. Some of you have been robbed. Gun point, knife point. It's terrifying.

Before we proceed let me address this. Even as Christians, sometimes we can't get over some terrifying experience. It's traumatic. It comes back to us in our dreams, perhaps. We've never been able to cope with it.

Maybe one of these that I mentioned or something else like that. Sometimes it comes out in our dreams. If you parents notice that your children are having recurring nightmares, sit down and comfort them and listen to them. Apply God's words, especially if it's more than simply nightmares, if it's what they call night terrors. You see, you can get over a nightmare in a few minutes.

Night terror, you're gonna shake hysterically and scream for an hour or more. That's a deep-rooted problem. You may need to speak with a godly Christian counselor or pastor. But many of us will have fears of something that traumatically happened in the past we've never gotten over it. I urge you to speak with another Christian.

Don't let it fester within you. It needs to be lance like a boil so that you can receive the medicine of God's mercy. Speak with your parents. They love you. Your pastor, the elders, they can apply God's Word.

If you're a woman and a certain event has happened to you, I urge you to seek out an older, wiser, godly woman. Bring a box of tissues and let her speak to you woman to woman and apply God's mercy. You see, no matter what we've gone through, God's mercy can minister to us. But what about the non-Christian that doesn't know God? He can experience terror.

Some of you men may have served in the military. You'll never forget your first day of combat. It can be terrifying. There are extreme cases in the Bible. Moses shook at Mount Sinai.

Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall and he was terrified. The guards outside of Jesus' tomb were so terrified when they saw the angel says that they were on the ground like dead men. The lost sinner now laughs, but one day he will weep and tremble in terror. Look at the text. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

All the terrors I've just described will look like a child's picnic if you die on your sins and appear before God. It is a fearful, it is the most fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Psychologists have discussed what is the primal fear people have? From Sigmund Freud on, they will say, well, it's the fear of the unknown after death it's something so basic to our psychological nature like a fear in the dark and they say well it's the fear of non-existence or something like that but the Bible tells us what it is. He moves to us the fear of death and judgment after death.

It's a point unto man wants to die and after that the judgment. There's just something built into us that we try to ignore that is that primal fear of meeting God in our sins. Oh, some people say I don't fear death, but I fear dying. Years ago, there was a famous Hollywood actor on television being interviewed on one of the late night shows and he made a career out of playing tough guys, macho men. The interviewer, it may have been Johnny Carson, said, you play these men that don't seem to have any fear, are you afraid of anything?" And he got real serious and said, I'm terrified of dying.

And the audience got real quiet. Now Christ removes this fear from believers as they come to die, but not unbelievers. However they die, the moment after they die they're struck with extreme fear and terror. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You see, the lost sinner should not just fear death, he should not just simply fear Judgment Day or hell, he will fear God.

He's falling into the hands of the living God. Romans 1 puts it like this, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and people suppress it. Look at the text, they hold it down. They don't want to think about it. In psychological terms, you'd say they take it from their consciousness and push it deep down in their subconsciousness.

But it just keeps coming up in their dreams or something in their... And so it's their worst fear and they suppress it. But when they appear before God, it is now totally conscious, totally real. It's right in their face and they realize this is what they feared the most. God is either your best friend or your worst enemy and facing God is worse than any nightmare you've ever had.

What makes hell so terrifying is not just its fire or its eternity but because it is the wrath of God, the real God that is there. That's why he says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands. Notice the verb to fall into the hands of the living God. Fall helplessly. Most people fear falling.

Children learn that at a young age. Some people are afraid to climb even up on a ladder. It's an inbred instinct for self-preservation. That's why people are afraid to go on a high building and look down. You know what that, you get that strange feeling in your knees.

People fear falling. The Bible speaks about falling into danger. Jesus spoke the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10, and talked about this traveler that fell into the hands of the robbers. In other words, he fell into danger. We would all be afraid to fall into the hands of certain people.

Madmen, terrorists, sadists that like to torture. You would tremble to fall into their hands, but that would be mild compared to falling into the hands of the living God. Fear is the emotional reaction to danger that will present harm to us. Therefore the greater danger, the greater the fear we have. The worst danger that the lost sinner faces is God.

His worst enemy because the Bible says sin makes people enemies of God. Notice also it says they fall into the hands of the living God. In the Bible, the arm of God is an anthropomorphism for strength. Is the arm of the Lord short and that it cannot do this or that? Is anything too hard for the Lord?

The hand is that personal and particular extension of our arm. So when the Bible speaks about the hand or hands of God, it means the personal and particular touch of the strength of God upon a person for good or for bad. Nehemiah said the good hand of the Lord is upon me but to fall into the hand of the living God in your sin is to fall under the personal and particular powerful wrath of God against you, from which there is no hope of escape. Notice also he's called the living God. Often in the Bible the phrase is used to contrast God with the dead idols and false gods of the pagans.

Jonathan Edwards put it like this. It's the difference between seeing a picture and the reality. For example, of a lion. You go to the zoo and you say, you know, I've seen pictures of Leo the lion. I want to go see him in his cage because you've seen the picture.

The picture doesn't cause you any fright. And as you're walking down the trail, you hear an announcement that says, look out, the lion has escaped. And you don't know where he is so you go this and then you trip and you look up and there's the lion right in front of you and his hot breath you can feel on your face and that low rumble of a growl and then he roars and you're terrified the picture wouldn't do it but now you're face to face. The Bible says you will face God face to face. More terrifying than any lion or any danger in this life.

Now there are people that try to suppress this laugh at this ignore this and They tell jokes about this. Oh, there's no God or God is just love and they die in their sins diluted and Then when they face God face to face They are now overcome with the fearful realization it's true after all and they're terrified. Jesus says nobody can take a Christian out of God's hands of love. But conversely, neither can anybody escape from God's hands of wrath. Now when the Hebrews read this, they would automatically think of Deuteronomy 32, 39.

Listen to this. Now see that I, even I am he and there is no God besides me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal, nor is there any who can deliver from my hand. I hope all of you have read Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

I think every Christian should read it at least once every year. Parents, read it to your children, at least children that are old enough to understand it, read it to them very slowly. Or give them a copy and say, Janie, Bobby, I want you to go to your room and read this and pray about it. And then come talk to me. Listen to your children after they've read that.

Now, there are two stages in which a person leaves this life to meet God. There'd be death, but in other ones it's the second coming, they're still alive. And people say, yeah, when Jesus comes, big deal. Not according to the Bible. Revelation 6, 16 says that when Jesus returns, all the kings and the mighty men, the famous, the atheists, the agnostics.

It says that they will shake in such utter terror they will flee and hide themselves in holes of the ground saying, cover us up, they'd rather be buried alive than face the Lord Jesus Christ, overcome with terror. But that's not the end. Whether they die or face Jesus at the second coming, the Bible says all lost sinners will be gathered at Judgment Day. No place to run or hide And how will they respond? We need to tell people about this.

What will people do? A few months ago, I read an interview somewhere where they interviewed the famous actor Robert De Niro. Raised Catholic, now he's somewhat of a agnostic. Plays macho men, makes money. In fact, they estimate he's one of the richest people in Hollywood.

He has well over $200 million. And so they said, well, what do you believe? He said, oh, there's probably not a God. And he said, but what if there is? And you know his friends call him Bobby, Bobby if you die and what if it there really is a God what will you say and De Niro said I'm gonna point my finger at him and accuse him.

How dare you allow these things to happen disease and war I'm gonna accuse God when I read that I said no you won't Bobby De Niro mr. Cool they can bury you with your Oscars and with your money but when you appear naked before God you won't accuse anybody You will tremble before a holy God. Matthew 7 describes how people will appear before God and offer excuses. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? There'll be preachers lost at Judgment Day.

And the people offer other excuses. People that have learned the Apostles' Creed. Trembling, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Other ones will remember the four spiritual laws. God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life.

Catholics will probably repeat the rosary, Holy Mary Mother of God, wherever you are, help me! She can't help you. Other ones will say, but Lord, I was raised in a Bible-believing church and family. I went to a family-integrated church. I was not like those others out there.

I dressed modestly, and I never used foul language. I memorized Bible verses by the hundreds. But Lord, I did this. Doesn't that count for anything? No.

Those are good things. But people are still counting on that even in Bible-believing churches. Imagine their terror when they're awakened that that doesn't count for anything. And they will be condemned. In Matthew 7, God will say, Depart from me, you cursed ones, you workers of iniquity.

If the angels are allowed to have a part in this judgment, they'll say, you never repented, you only pretended to. When you're a little child, a youth group leader said, don't you want to invite Jesus in your heart? Just open the little door and he'll become your best friend. And you thought that you became a Christian but you never repented. Imagine the horror when people's masks are taken off and they find out they were never saved to begin with.

And so people will offer excuse after excuse after excuse. And then God will stop them. And he'll say, undeath, stop it! Depart from me, you cursed ones, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. The most terrifying words people will ever hear and they will hear it from the mouth of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says then the angels will drag the condemned people off to the brink. Matthew 18 describes that. Dragging them off like sacks of garbage could be thrown into the fire. And lost sinners will be helpless to resist and at this point they are really overcome with the fear of the Lord. I mentioned that I have a ministry to prison inmates.

When a criminal is convicted and sentenced to two or three years, they usually do the super cool, but I can do that standing on my head. Two years, I can have fun, and back on the streets. But when they're given 10, 20 years to life without parole, they react differently. When that judge says, I sentence you to 20 years at hard labor without hope or parole or death, and I've corresponded with people on death row, one of them was executed, they react in a completely different way. Some of them faint.

Some of them shake. They break down. They cry. Some get hysterical. Some try to run.

What many of them do is they jump up and they just blast forward with hatred and they threaten the judge, the district attorney, the person to testify, I'll get you, and they start cursing, and they got to literally be dragged away. How will people react at the Judgment Day when God, the ultimate judge, says, Depart from me, and they're being dragged away? Oh, they'll curse and scream? But as they face the fiery wrath of God in hell, they will cry out, no, no, no, no, please God, no, no, no. They will know finally at last, they will be getting just what they have feared the most.

And all their screams will be to no avail, because in Proverbs 1, God says, I called to you and you did not listen. And now you will call to me and I will not listen. It will be too late. It will be worse than being thrown into a live volcano or locked in a house on fire because people that endure that, they die suddenly. But those thrown into hell will never die.

And entering hell is only the beginning of their fearful torment. Notice, fearful torment. From the very moment their naked bodies touch the flames, that is not the end, that's the beginning. And they will then scream out that high-pitched scream. I don't know if you've heard people in extreme pain.

They screech. They scream out, help, help. I've heard such a scream. I visited a mental hospital once and it was chilling when I went by the children's ward and these poor children screeching out in such torment. It was painful to listen to.

But the Bible says those that are in hell, weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth. And fear, you see, we're capable of more pain than you realize. If you've gone through extreme pain, you know just what I mean. You are also capable of much more fear than you realize, worse than your worst nightmares, and those in hell are experiencing more pain and more fear, and two things add to that. They realize it will be never ending because Christ says, Depart from me into everlasting fire.

And when that dawns on them and they look down, as it were, into future, and it vanishes, as it were, into eternity, the nightmare is now compounded, and there's even more that compounds it. You see they die lost in a state of sin, they're incapable of loving God, they will hate God, so they compound their sin, they compound their torment exponentially every moment, every moment's pain gets worse and worse and what dawns on them that it will go on like that. Worse and worse they say, no, no! And that fearful realization will be with them increasingly for all eternity. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

It is not just the fear of hell. It is the fear of God himself. People try to soften it. They try to de-hell hell and say, well hell is simply the absence of the presence of God not according to the Bible. Revelation 14 they will be tormented day and night forever in the presence of the Lamb.

Jonathan Edwards said that the fire of hell is actually God himself. God himself is the fire of hell. That's why it later says in Hebrews 12, 29, our God is a consuming fire. But just as nobody can separate believers from the love of God, Romans 8, so nobody can rescue unbelievers from the wrath of God in hell. Romans 8 says if God be for us who can be against us.

Turn that around. If God is against you who can possibly be for you? Jonathan Edwards also offered another terrifying insight. Jesus spoke a parable in Matthew 18 and in that chapter it talks about the angels bringing people to hell. And in this parable, it says that when a person is convicted, the judge turns them over to the tormentors, sometimes translated the torturers.

Who are they? Well, at that time those would be the Roman lictors, because according to Roman law, a person be convicted thrown into prison, they say call for the lictors, these strong men with bulging muscles come in with whips hot irons and torture a person that's part of his punishment So in the parable Jesus says the condemned person is turned over to the tormentors. Who are they? Edwards said, well it includes the good angels but also the devil and his angels. They will be tormented but everybody in hell adds to one another's torment.

Imagine spending eternity being tormented by the devil who is a sadist. That would strike terror into the worst. I said that once to one of these tough muscle guys with tattoos thinking he's cool motorcycle guys. Do you want to fall into the hands of the devil? He got real quiet.

But I tell you, falling into the hands of God would be far worse than falling into the hands of the devil or the worst demons. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This is why John the Baptist thundered, flee from the wrath to come. You remember on 9-11 when the first tower was collapsing you remember people running for their lives. That's what God says, flee the wrath to come, Run as fast as you can to God.

People are running from God. They need to run to God, especially as we're facing death one day. Remember the words of the dying thief next to Jesus and he turned to the other thief and says, do you not even fear God? Buddy, we're about to die and meet God! And so he turned to the Lord Jesus and the other one didn't.

Thomas Watson, the famous Puritan, had an interesting observation. He said there are at least two ways in which animals are better than humans. He said that animals will know where to find their food from their master, Isaiah 1. But he said the second one is this. Animals fear fire.

Lost sinners don't fear hell fire until they get there. Preachers need to preach on the fear of God and the fear of hellfire. Parents need to speak with their children about have you parents spoken with your children? You say well I don't want to hurt them. What if they died you'd never warn them.

I plead with you speak with them gently and kindly but warn them and warn them especially about this extreme sin of Hebrews 10. So it is a fearful thing for lost sinners to fall into the hands of the living God. But the exact opposite is true for believers. As terrifying as it is for unbelievers, there is great comfort for believers. Hebrews 6-9 goes on to say, but we were persuaded of better things for you brethren.

And Then here in Hebrews 10 verses 32 and 39 the writer then turns around said I'm not talking about you that are true believers There's wonderful hope for you Christians don't experience terror at the second coming, but great joy. Notice the great contrast in the words of Jesus, Matthew 25. To some, he says, depart from me, you curse it into fire. But to the others, he says, come, you blessed ones, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. What a great contrast!

Most Christians will die either at home or in the hospital or at a nursing home, And that will be us one day if you're a Christian, you'll die. And God will gradually overcome the fear of death in you, so as you're coming close to dying, he will gently take you to the other side. Let me tell you a story. Happened about a year and a half ago. I'm a pastor and there was a woman that was dying.

I had been with her several times to comfort her with her husband and the family and friends and on this night we knew she was dying. Some of you know what it's like to sit at the bedside of a dying one and you know she's going real soon. She was as cold as ice. She could barely move but she was partly conscious. She was trying to hold on so we took turns reading Bible verses and singing her favorite hymns.

We sang her to heaven and then the moment came she couldn't hold on anymore and we knew she was gone and we knew that at that moment she was in the hands of her blessed Savior. This is what the Bible says Deuteronomy 33 the eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. David said in 2 Samuel 24 please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great. Isn't this what happened when Jesus died? He said, Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.

For the Christian, falling into God's hands is not a fearful thing. It is a wonderful thing. What's more, the Christian need not fear death or hell. We can fall on our knees and say, thank you, Lord, I will never experience the fires of hell or the terror of Judgment Day. Has that occurred to you?

Have you thanked God that he has saved you from hell? Two last applications. Number one, study what the Bible says about fearing God, judgment day in hell, and that should cause all of us to examine our hearts to make sure the Bible says examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Such self-examination will encourage believers and hopefully it'll move some unbelievers to repent and believe in Christ. And secondly, make sure and then speak with your children and other people.

Second Corinthians 5 says, knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men. Pray that God would put this fear into their heart. I think there's only one person in this room that I know. I don't know your heart. There may be someone here that is not a believer and you've pretended to be, but hearing a message like this, you begin to have your doubts.

If you have not been saved yet, and you are afraid to die and go to hell, God's invitation is believe in Jesus Christ. Get along with God and say, Lord, show me, And if I'm lost, Lord, save me. And here's one word of encouragement for the unbeliever that has been struck by this fear. You see, the terror that the lost person will experience at Judgment Day casts its shadow in this life. If you've been saved, you've gone through that conviction of sin and the fear of hell, I did, you have, you'll never forget it.

So pray that the Lord would cast that shadow into the conscience of the lost person. And the person then will tremble and say, but how can I come to Jesus? Here's a word of encouragement. Jesus knows that feeling. You remember Gethsemane?

He looked into the cup. Father, is there any way he felt the trembling, the fear of experiencing the wrath of God at the cross, and at the cross he did. He knows that fear, that terror, and that's why Jesus experienced it for us and can give the wonderful invitation, come to me. He will save all those that come to him. And then you will have the blessed experience of knowing the love of God and loving God.

As we go to God in prayer, we'll first take a moment of silent meditation, and then I will conclude with prayer. Let us pray. Father and our God, we ask that you would put this deep truth well within our hearts examine our hearts to see if we truly believe in you We pray for the lost even in our own families. Convict them and convert them. And for some in particular we pray that you would put your fear into their heart, give them no rest, invade their dreams drive them to the Lord Jesus and then save them we thank you Father, for your holiness and for your mercy.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Of the Church and the Family to the Word of God and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org. Dot o-r-g.