The severest consequences are for those who reject God’s instructions. Not only will their lives be the most miserable and filled with pain and bitterness but the end of those lives is eternal death.
Proverbs 8:32-36 “Now therefore, O sons, listen to me,
For blessed are they who keep my ways.
“Heed instruction and be wise,
And do not neglect it.
“Blessed is the man who listens to me,
Watching daily at my gates,
Waiting at my doorposts.
“For he who finds me finds life
And obtains favor from the Lord.
“But he who sins against me injures himself;
All those who hate me love death.”
Since no one is annihilated it means that they will live in an eternal state of death where the worm does not die and the flame is never quenched.
Mark 9:44 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
Man was never designed for this destiny but chooses it for himself when he rejects God’s instructions.
Matthew 25:41,46 Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels…These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Man’s rebellion against God’s instructions began in the garden. He did not heed what the Lord had told him and he was sent out of the garden and experienced curses and ultimately death.
Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
The Lord says that the person is blessed who will heed instruction and be wise. Life on this earth is either a taste of hell or a taste of heaven. If you will do exactly as the Lord says to do in His Word then you will be blessed. Heaven is eternal life and blessings forever. If you neglect what He says then you will experience curses. Hell is eternal death and curses forever. (The person who curses is usually the person who will spend eternity in hell because the Bible says that the one who loves to curse that curses will come to him.)
Isaiah 55:6,7 Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
Do you want to avoid a life that rejects instruction? Accept God’s instructions and live. The Bible says that the person who finds the Lord and His instructions finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. The Christian life is sweet and those who live in His kingdom love it because they have found the Giver of life and experience life rather than death on a daily, moment by moment basis as they follow His instructions.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The first instruction that He gives those who want to experience life is that they believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him into their life to be their Lord and Savior. Once He is our King then He instructs us in the way we should live. He will guide us until we see Him face to face and live in His presence forever.
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
Instructions To A Young Life 