Fear the Lord and Forgive, for Hell Is REAL – Episode #685

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Fear the Lord and Forgive, for Hell Is REAL
Episode #685
01/19/2020

With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and we cannot do without it. Wisdom knows that hell is real, and our forgiveness hinges on whether we forgive.

Martha:
This might be the strangest podcast we’ve ever done. I have 205 Message of the Month plus dozens of messages on CDs and…

John:
It’s well over 30. There’s… You have at least… It’s well over 30 CD series and then you have 21 or 22, maybe even more, booklets. And then you have four books and then you have the podcast. And we’ve been doing it for, I believe we’re in the twelfth year. I think, we’re either eleven or twelve years.

Martha:
But this is a subject that I have never spoken on anywhere, never taught. And so we’re, we’re going for a ride here.

John:
Ok, here we go.

Martha:
Here we go.

There’s something missing from Christianity today, a big problem of something missing. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this sermon by Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. What we don’t have now is the fear of God. We have focused on grace to, to the point that it’s obliterated the fear of God.

And I sent my sons out into the world, when they went to college and so forth, with this verse: “Humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life.”

The fear of the Lord in, especially in Proverbs and in Psalms as well, the benefits of the fear of the Lord would make you want it. And Psalm 34 tells you how, exactly how: “Come, if you want to know the fear of the Lord, I will show you how.” And many people I have prayed “God show them hell. Hang them over hell!”

John:
Well, you had that prayer for me and I…

Martha:
Did I really?

John:
Yeah, you did. And I was going through a real tough time and I think that’s what you prayed is, and He did. And I had an infusion of the fear of the Lord.

Martha:
Wow.

John:
It was, it was, I mean it was the scariest thing. I know Jennifer’s had the same experience. And it, it freaked me out. I mean it freaked me out because you realize at that point, when you are in the crux of the fear of God, you know that none of your manipulations, none of your words, none of your cajoling or…

Martha:
Bargaining.

John:
…bargaining. Nothing matters.

Martha:
Nothing moves God.

John:
Nothing moves God and you realize that bar the grace and the mercy of God… See, it’s interesting that we’ve gone so far into grace that we don’t have the fear of God, because when you have the fear of God, then you realize that only the grace and mercy…

Martha:
Oh, brilliant.

John:
…of God saves you…

Martha:
Yes.

John:
…brings you through…

Martha:
Uh huh.

John:
…brings you to a different place. And so I, you know, I, I, I literally was begging God but realized that my words and my emotions and my…

Martha:
Cries and need.

John:
…cries and need and my personal relationship with Him from that point had no sway on Him.

Martha:
And, you know, John, I had that experience, too. I wasn’t in trouble. I was spirit-filled. I wasn’t in a bad place. And suddenly I felt that I was being hung over hell and I, I really understood that… I never knew why He let me have that except to know that the experience is so valid. I knew that if He let go of me I would drop into hell, and there was nothing I could do about it.

John:
That is precisely it.

Martha:
And it is a life-changing experience.

So, okay, I want to start… The… We don’t hear the word of God in terms of the fear of God. We, we skim over it. One of the most important scriptures of the New Testament is Romans, first chapter, 18-21. It says: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

“The wrath of God is revealed.” We don’t, we don’t get it, that His wrath has come to us and it’s to save us. You’re not healthy unless you have a good healthy, reverential fear of God. He is God!

John:
I think that the reason why He gave you that experience is because you would, on the other side of having that experience, you have such respect and appreciation for the fear of God. Unless you, unless you experience the fear of God… I can say I have fear of God all day long, but usually what our fear of God is, is our, our concept that He’s like our earthly parent or earthly…

Martha:
True.

John:
…you know, authority.

Martha:
We project another face.

John:
It’s another person’s face.

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
But this, this had nothing to do with anyone. There was no one else in the room but He and I. And I think that He, He gave you that experience because you have been able to pray that for a number of people…

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
…and it is, it is born so much fruit.

Martha:
It has born fruit.

John:
So I think that it was, it was a, a well planted investment into your life, because then you literally became a source that you could pray and because you knew the validity of it…

Martha:
Yeah.

John:
…and you knew the value of it.

Martha:
Yes. You’re putting it so well, John. It’s right.

John:
So I, I, it… That, that to me was, was absolutely phenomenal and, and Jennifer would, has had a testimony that she experienced it. That she just came face to face with it.

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
And I’m, I… There’s several people.

Martha:
Several people, yeah. I’ve had, I’ve had people come back and tell me.

John:
And you, you, you know when you experience it, you know that it is utter grace that you would have it…

Martha:
Yes.

John:
…because you can go, we could go our entire life, have no fear of God and walk straight into hell.

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
But God, you know, in His mercy and His grace, kind of does a, “Boo!” And then you’re like, you know, I mean literally I, I had a, a quaking in my body for months after that.

Martha:
Really?

John:
Oh, it, it… Yeah, yeah.

Martha:
I did, too. I was in shock…

John:
Totally.

Martha:
…for days. All I could think about was that experience and that I had no power to save myself.

John:
None.

Martha:
If He let go of me, that was it.

John:
That was the experience I had. It’s exactly— And, and, you know, I knew that, very briefly, that you had told me that in passing. It wasn’t like you went into it but when I experienced it and I told you about it, then you told me more about your experience. And I said, “That’s exactly it.” And I… And that is exactly, precisely it. You realize that, that He could literally and has the right…

Martha:
Yes.

John:
Not only has the right…

Martha:
And the power.

John:
…and the power, the right and you deserve it, that He just drops you straight into hell.

Martha:
Yeah.

John:
So.

Martha:
Well, I’ve said a lot at times about the fear of God and the benefits to us personally about it, but I ran across in the, in the YouTube channel the testimony of a woman who went to hell. And I was quite impacted by it. Her name was Laurie Ditto and she gave a testimony on the, on the show of Sid Roth. But it’s on the YouTube channel and her title is I Found Myself in Hell: The Reason Why Will Surprise You. And I just, I just watched it and I thought, “All of us need to hear this.” We need desperately to know what hell is – real – and what it is like.

John:
Well, you called a meeting and you said, “We all need to watch this.” And we all… I remember, we all did, we all watched it.

Martha:
We went to one house and we sat and watched it. And it was very sobering and what she realized, and relates kind of to my book on forgiveness for me, she said she, she cried out to Jesus. She said, “I can’t bear to stay here. This is, this is terrible.” And she cried out to Him and she— But she realized why she was there – because she was a born-again Christian. And she said, “I didn’t know born-again Christians could go to hell.” But she had not forgiven. And so she was not forgiven. And that answered a question for me.

This, this woman was a credible witness. She was not a flake. And I wondered, when the Lord showed me that if you don’t forgive, you are not forgiven. If you don’t forgive one, one situation and one person, your entire package of sin is back on you. It’s very clear in the scriptures, absolutely clear. And this… She said, “I, I had been forgiven so much from God but I would not forgive.” And it’s…

John:
And it wasn’t multiples. Wasn’t it one particular person?

Martha:
She seemed, she seemed it was singular. She had not forgiven but she didn’t say what.

John:
Right. Well, a lot of us could say, “Oh, well, I forgive, I forgive, I forgive.” But it’s, it’s wiping the slate clean.

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
It’s going the distance with forgiveness. It’s dealing with every situation with forgiveness. You have to face all of it. Where the Spirit, I mean the Spirit has to bring you through it.

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
But, but you have to, you have to forgive everything. And what, you know, you’re saying is and what she said is that not forgiving one person can, can put you in hell. And I mean, really that’s it.

Martha:
Well, she described and it’s, it’s pretty awful. So I, I wanted us to watch that. I want us to have – corporately – the fear of God.

Fear the Lord and Forgive, for Hell Is REAL – Episode #685 – Shulamite Podcast

If you do not fear God, then have you ever met Him? To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and we cannot do without it. Wisdom knows that hell is real, and that God’s forgiveness of our sins hinges on whether we forgive what is done to us.