Many who are in a back sliden condition need to fear God and fear waking up in hell with eternal regret. What could be more horrible than that. When they do, they will get up out of the pig pen and turn to God in repentance and he will rush to pick them up and clean them up. Those who think they can have their sins and heaven too will wake up in hell and remember for all eternity how many times they said they would repent later and now it is too late.
I will preach that if you have known the Lord and been born again and walked in holiness for years but then for some reason, maybe a divorce or something tragic you have gone back to the bars and the sinful life and are fornicating and getting drunk on a regular basis and you don't repent you could wake up in hell with eternal regret. I know that is theologically true. However...
That being said, I have known those who did that kind of backsliding and they have repented and returned and are on fire for Christ today. So their lives are a testimony of both belief systems. On the one they believed they would go to hell if they did not repent, and on the other hand they were restored demonstrating that God brought them back. It is hard to say if it was because God is sovereign in making sure they did not stay in that condition or if it was because they knew that you can sin yourself into a hard heart and go to hell and they responded to the conviction and warning of God to escape the fires of hell before it was too late. Can't both be true? I think they can. It is an endless loop philosophically whether they are living in holiness today because God is sovereign and once saved always saved or because they believe that if you keep sinning willfully you will go to hell and they repented out of the fear of God which is also a work of God upon our hearts. We give God the glory that we have a repentant heart and we give God the glory that we are not on the way to hell. We do not however tell other people that are getting drunk and fornicating that they are going to heaven because of their decisions in the past. We tell them to repent lest they wake up in hell with eternal regret.
22And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23And others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.