The Lost Fear of Hell (Part A)

You get one lifetime of chances.

What are you going to do with it? Satan's a predator. He hates every single one of you. And if he could send you to where he's going, to that abyss, he will do it. And if you don't believe it, you've lost your fear of hell. And penitent sinners have long tried to take the shame out of sin as though it will protect them from God's judgment.

Attempts to avoid God's restrictions and consequences are futile. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching special messages here on Cross Reference Radio.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick for this special message called The Lost Fear of Hell in Isaiah chapter one. We'll be in Isaiah chapter one. And if you have your Bibles, please turn to Isaiah chapter one. And we'll read verses 10 through 20, beginning in verse 10. Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says Yahweh? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats.

When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices, incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, calling of assemblies I cannot endure. I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feast my soul hates. They are a trouble to me.

I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear your hands are full of blood. These are the words of God trying to reach people who are insulting him. He is trying to warn them that they're going to hell. He has sent not only Isaiah but countless other prophets to keep this from happening because of his great love for sinners. But these particular sinners had decided that they could play at church, they could pretend to come sing Christmas songs, and all the while have no intention of obeying him or listening to him. My text is the 15th verse, Isaiah chapter 1 verse 15.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear your hands are full of blood. These are not weak believers that he is speaking to. These are belligerent people. These are those that know what his law says, know what is required of them, and they reject it, they refuse it. What happened to these people? What caused them to behave this way, to go to the temple and to bring their sacrifices to celebrate their Christmas and their Easter and their other holidays and use the name of Yahweh and have no intention of obeying him whatsoever?

He says your hands are full of blood. He did not mean necessarily they were murderers of each other, but they were killers of his word, of his glory, of his love and his mercy. People attempted to shape God into their own image rather than receive the revelation of who God says he is, and this is still going on and that is why it is so heartbreaking.

There is a pandemic of those in churches that are insisting that they love Jesus and they trample his word without shame, and the rest of us are supposed to wink at this, to accept it, to tolerate it, to bless them, and we don't. Because we don't, they think that we are their enemies. If we were their enemies, we would be cheering them on to disagree with God. At the time Isaiah wrote these words, Judah's kingdom was prosperous, economically, militarily strong.

Of the four kings mentioned in verse one, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, four of them were godly men. They had no idea they had no excuse for this behavior. You get to the second chapter, God says you're full of gold and you're full of idols.

You've got a good life as things go, but not with me. The guilty lost their fear of God. They had no fear of hell, and today we have those insisting that they are saved. They have no fear of hell, not because Jesus is their savior, because they don't fear hell. They don't think they're going to go there for trampling his word, for disrespecting him, for pretending to be believers, for trying to transform God's word into something other than what God meant it to be.

What do we do about this? I know what I do about it. This is what I have this pulpit, and as the Lord leads, try to use it the best I can to appeal to them, to rebuke, to convict, to exhort, and to love. Again, they found no problem disobeying him while going to church. They would sit, they would hear his words, and they would bounce off of them, and hell would cheer them on. There would be three cheers in hell over the soul that listens to God's rebukes and laughs in God's face.

They profess to know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. In reading this section of Isaiah a moment ago, I had not anticipated it being so difficult. I read it several times in my study at home, I read it several times in my office here this morning.

It was no problem. I'm very grateful to God, gifting me with tears, such a hard passage of scripture. It makes it so hard as right now, there are so many in churches doing this. There have always been some, but now, again, it's like it's everywhere.

The internet is likely contributing to this. Stay off the internet if you believe in Jesus Christ and have no discernment and no discipline. If you can't take it, stay away from it. If it's going to chase you from Jesus, don't go near it. This sermon is for those who mock God by dismissing his commandments, not the weak who want to obey and can't find the strength. The Bible is to correct man's twisted views concerning God and himself and others. We don't get to pick and choose what sin is. We don't get to pick and choose what offends God. God tells us what offends him. He tells us what sin is. He tells us what will damn our souls. He tells us what will send us to hell. And he's not lying. The funny thing, not haha, the odd thing is God is a loving God, but he's not a liar.

And he will not lie to accommodate or cover up sin. These temple worshipers, as we're told in verse 5, were in revolt. Why should you be stricken again?

You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. So God notifies them that he is rejecting them.

They're not really rejecting him. Sin unchecked makes fools of all of us, people who would otherwise be very rational, very intelligent, even wise. When their sin is not checked, they become fools. And the fate of those who lose their fear of hell of God's judgment for this kind of behavior, the fate of losing a fear of hell is hell. Revelation 20, verse 11, here's a glimpse of what God is talking about.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. These are the guilty ones that rejected the love and care of Jesus Christ. The day will come when they will stand before him and be rejected and be doomed to a hell without appeal, without another chance. You say, what are you saying that I get one chance? You get one lifetime of chances.

What are you going to do with it? Satan's a predator. He hates every single one of you. And if he could send you to where he's going to that abyss, he will do it. And if you don't believe it, you've lost your fear of hell. And penitent sinners have long tried to take the shame out of sin as though it will protect them from God's judgment.

Attempts to avoid God's restrictions and consequences are futile. Cain, who John tells us in his first letter, was of the wicked one. He killed his brother because his brother was righteous and his works were righteous and he murdered him. And when God confronted him about it, he got sassy with God. Genesis chapter 4 verse 9, then Yahweh said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?

Am I supposed to watch out for him? Well, you didn't mind killing him, but you see, he's not ashamed of his sin. He's not afraid that God is going to deal with him for this. God was later merciful towards Cain, but in the end, Cain is judged.

See? No shame, no pity, but no escaping God. Cain had no shame, no pity, but he could not escape God. God seeks those who side with him.

He wants us to be on his side. When we come to his scripture, he wants us to read it and not dismiss it. And if you're saying, you know what, I'm so sick of hearing, I'm going to tune you out right now, then you've lost your fear of hell and that's where you're going. It's not a joke.

It's not something you turn off when you're tired of listening or hearing it. You can do that to the preacher. You cannot do that to God and get away with it. When Moses confronted the people who were full blown into their sin, we're told Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, whoever is on Yahweh's side, come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. Then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.

He's still saying that through the Holy Spirit, through his prophets, through his pastors, through his people, if you're on God's side, come to him. But stop this going to church. Stop this claiming you're a Christian while you thumb your nose at his commandments and stop thinking you're going to get away with it and stop thinking that you're going to somehow be okay because you're not. The very definition of hell is man, you will not survive this. Lies about hell come easy to those who want to do what they want to do. Satan has a plan for your life.

Do you believe that or not? If you refuse God, Satan has a plan for you. He wanted Eve to change her interpretation of what God said.

He wanted her to disagree with the clear meaning of God's commandment, don't eat from this tree. There was nothing complicated about that. It was not in a foreign language.

It was only one language. To this day, Satan is pulling the same move. Oh, that verse doesn't mean that.

Oh, you can do this. Oh, it's okay. We expect this kind of stuff from the devil. We don't expect it from people who say, I'm a Christian and it's okay to change what the scripture says. They're not only in our universities and seminaries, they're in the workplace, they're all over the place. They love the internet. I almost never read what Christians have to say on the internet.

Too many fall for it. Satan sways those who refuse the word. Luke's gospel, the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you like wheat.

Well, he's still doing this. Then Jesus said, but I have prayed for you. Let me say, if you are a churchgoer and I know that I'm not only speaking to those here in the church building right now, I know that there are those online and there will be those listening on radio at some point or listening in the future through the recorded messages.

I have no single individual in mind. This sermon is the outcome of several conversations I've had with different people over the last couple of months and it has just been pressing on my heart, pressing on my heart. Jesus said, I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. How does faith fail?

When you start to disagree with God, when you tell him you know better, when you think that you can trample his word, that you can empower those who hate him and get away with these things, you're not walking on water, you're walking on thin ice. Jesus said, and when you have returned, strengthen your brethren. See, that's the goal of the preacher, to preach these things so that we can be stronger. I have a deep suspicion that many of you know someone like this who gets up in your face and tells you they're believers and you know they're not behaving like believers and have no intention of behaving like believers and yet they want you to be sucker enough to not rebuke them and they will hate you for rebuking them because the devil, his talons are in them and the only way to get them out is to stand strong to preach the word.

They don't even want to hear you say you love them anymore. They just want you to bow down and agree. Again, 1 John chapter 5, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Then why are churchgoers running to the world to ask them how they should live? When the Bible clearly says that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one, they are expanding immunity. They're saying you don't have to worry about a judgment.

You are immune from the consequence of trampling God's words as if it's going to stop his judgment. Paul stood before Felix, Luke writes, now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. Felix was afraid and answered, go away for now when I have a convenient time.

I will call for you. History does not record Felix calling for Paul and repenting of his sin. He didn't like the message. He was uncomfortable with the thought of self-control.

He'd rather self-delusion than self-control. He didn't want to hear about righteousness according to God. He did not want to hear about judgment to come. Jesus said the Holy Spirit, he will come and he will convict the world of sin in judgment. He will convict the world of sin.

He will find them guilty and they will have no appeal. When the fear of hell is lost, so will be that soul. If they do not change, if they do not change course, if they do not come out of this, and I think that many of us are noticing, rather we may not be registering it or able to articulate it, but maybe this morning I'll help you with this. Maybe you'll understand that you're coming across people who really have not the fear of God, which is the beginning of knowledge, and therefore they have no fear of his judgment, and they're playing games with their words, and we may be their last stop before eternal death. We may be the single most helpful individual in the world if we can stand strong, preach the truth in love, and not back down. 2 Corinthians 4, whose minds the God of this age is blinded, who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. The God of this age has blinded them, that's Satan, and the people who are blinded by him, they don't believe he's doing it, but you say that you do see, that you do see the gospel, that you do love Jesus Christ. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. John's gospel, chapter 9, Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin, but now you say, we see, therefore your sin remains on you. You want to claim to be a beneficiary of the gospel of Jesus Christ, why you disagree with the gospel of Jesus Christ, all of the gospel, that you want to cherry pick it, you want to edit out what you don't like, you want to tell God what is good and what is not good, then you will not benefit from the blood of Jesus Christ, but the wrath of God will be upon you.

I want instant results from this sermon. I want the guilty to stand and repent and get right with God instantly. I don't want them to go home and think about it, because Satan will intercept them, but maybe he's done such a thorough job on them, they don't want to give me the satisfaction of repenting. You know, many people are like that. They want to stick it to somebody else, because they're not getting it right, and they refuse to line up with what is right, and so they're going to stick it to you, persecute you in some form, punish you in some way.

I get it often. Wow, we don't like that, church. Sometimes it may be legitimate, but sometimes they don't want to hear what God has to say, and I'll be their whooping boy, and I'll take that, and you need to learn to do the same thing, if you're not already doing it. I want the guilty to stand up and repent before God. Peter, in his sermon, he pressed them for a confession. He said, repent therefore and be converted. Turn around and convert to Christ, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. You know what they say to that today, those who don't fear hell? Well, I have repented. Well, I'm really not sinning. They're going back to Eden, and they're letting Satan tell them what the scriptures mean, what God's words mean, not God. Eve was not listening to what God said when she was listening to what Satan said, otherwise she never would have partaken of the banana. I'm giving you all this scripture because I want you to hear God say it from his word, and if you go down that little boring line, well, I don't know that it is all God's boring. It's such an old, weak alibi.

It doesn't work. Too much of it has proven trustworthy, and too much of everything else has proven untrustworthy. So we've gotten past that, I hope, professed Christians yet still insisting they love the Lord, but they are at the very least, those who confess they say they love him but don't care to obey him, they are at the very least confused about his commandments, and at the most they are corrupting his commandments to fit their sin. We understand, we Christians, the urge of sin, temptation, seduction. We're not foreigners to this. We sympathize. We get that. We are all subject to it. That's why we pray, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one. It's not that we don't understand.

It's that we do understand. They profess to know God, but in works they deny him, and what they do, and the actions that they take, and the side that they side with. They profess that they don't know God, and that they don't want to. This is burdening because Satan is on your back.

You are his little target. He's just going to slap you around until death, and then you get as your reward a hell that you didn't believe in. There needs to be the fear, not the terror, but the fear of God in all of us, all of us. When we talk about the holiness of God, are we understanding? We are really talking about take the sandals off your feet. The ground you stand on is not like anything else.

It is pure, and it's clean because God said so, because God is there. There they are out singing Christmas carols, telling you Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas. Isaiah 1 verse 15, again our text, when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood. I'm not listening to you. You're not mine. You think you're mine.

That's why you're talking to me, but I'm not listening because you've demonstrated that you will not submit. A half-baked faith is a ruined faith. Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples. Ephraim is a cake unturned. Ephraim was up in the north. They had joined the world. They weren't doing what Yahweh said. They were doing what all the pagans were doing. They were worshiping their idols.

They were practicing idolatry and all the filth that went with it, with abandonment, with no shame, and God sent them prophets, and Hosea was one, and the voice of Hosea was this, You're breaking my heart. God's speaking through the man, through his own life, and then he says, Ephraim is a cake unturned. You just cooked on one side. You're not done.

You're not right. You're not edible. You're beneath what you are supposed to be, or you're not what you're supposed to be. My intentions are not malicious towards those deceived. If there's someone here this morning and you're falling for Satan's stupidity, I'm not trying to be malicious towards you, but I am trying to be malicious towards the influences of Satan himself, and we make enemies that way. The Bible tells us that we will make enemies that way.

When swinging for you, I'm going for your heart. I want you to know you're missing out on the love of Christ and the life in Christ, but also, I'm swinging for, I'm taking headshots at Satan. Proverbs 15, 12, a scoffer does not love the one who corrects him, nor will he go to the wise.

Why not? Because they know the wise are going to set them straight, and they don't want to be set straight. They want their evil, and this is why God says, I'm not listening to you. I don't want any more of your sacrifices, your new moons, your festive day. Those are holidays that God instituted with his people, and he's saying, I'm not taking it from you.

You can go and you can say Merry Christmas all you want. I'm not listening because you're not listening to me. God's word is a hammer on the guilty conscience, and which is one reason why many don't want to come to a church that preaches God's word. Jeremiah 23, verse 29, is not my word like fire, says Yahweh, like a hammer that breaks rock in pieces. That's a heavy hammer.

That's a sledge hammer, 20 pounder. It's called a Monday. Well, all right, never mind. You'll only have yourself to blame if you don't listen to me preach the word. I mean, you don't have to listen to my opinion about everything else, but when it comes to the word of God, if the word be true and you don't listen to whatever messenger is presenting it to you, you're in trouble. I preach this because Satan is preaching to you. He's preaching to our youth, and we are living in an age where our females are more susceptible to this, seemingly, than ever, just like Eve.

They're quick to take the fruit. They're quick to disagree with God and agree with Satan, though they don't think it's Satan. It's just a shiny little serpent, not even a serpent at that time, just a shiny thing.

All that glitter ain't gold. Look at verse 18 of Isaiah chapter one, if you still have your Bibles marked for Isaiah one. Here's God's response. Come now, let us reason together, says Yahweh, though your sins are like scarlet. That means really bad. They shall be as white as snow.

That's really good. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool in the midst of God's judgment. He's saying, look, I'm trying to reach you. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio for this study in God's Word. If you've missed any part of this message or would like to explore more teachings, you can hear them by going to crossreferenceradio.com.

Pastor Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Again, that website is crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross-Reference Radio that we upload. It's a great way to stay connected to God's Word. Just search for Cross-Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. That's all for today. Thanks for joining us here on Cross-Reference Radio.