Sometimes I get sick and tired of bad news. As a pastor I have had to tell a loving mother that her children had died. I have had to stand by people through the grief of losing a job or their health and I have had to bring the bad news of God's Law to unrepentant sinners. Believe me, no one likes to hear that their sinful lifestyle is leading them to hell. No one that I know of enjoys using the harsh letter of God's Law, either. There are days when I'd like to be able to gloss over sin as so many churches and denominations are doing. It would surely be a more popular message than, “Repent or burn in hell forever!”
In the short run, life and ministry would be so much easier in so many ways, if it weren't for those tough words of God's Law convicting the whole world of sin and calling all of us to repent of our sins of thought, word, and deed, action and inaction! The Bible warns us that in these last days people will only want to listen to sermons that pander to what their itching ears want to hear. While a sinful, lazy, and selfish part of me sometimes wants the popularity of short-cutting the Law out of God's Word, faithfulness to my Savior requires that I preach the full wisdom and counsel of God. The Law convicts all of us of our sin and demonstrates that we cannot save ourselves. Then the joy and sweetness of the Gospel shows us God's mercy flooding out from the cross of Christ Jesus to all who trust in Him! What I'd like to say with the prophet Jeremiah (23:28) is: “Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully… declares the Lord.”