A Warning and a Way

Last week in our study from Luke 16, the message was about “Money” in the parable of the shrewd Steward, this week, we will speak of an even more challenging topic, that of Hell.

Pastor Adam Dooley of the Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson Tn. posted an article this week which stated “Preaching sermons from the Bible may be more difficult than it has ever been”. We live in an age of soundbites where fewer and fewer people are willing to digest biblical truth. A YouTube generation has grown accustomed to messages that are three minutes or less. Added to these prevailing trends there is growing distrust for any kind of authority and the overall resentment that many feel towards truth that is confrontational or convicting.      

Yet, our modern tendencies neither disprove the truthfulness of Scripture nor diminish its veracity in our lives. To the contrary, the Bible accurately predicted a time when most would not endure sound doctrine but would accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their sinful desires, wanting to have their ears tickled (2 Tim. 4:3). The foolishness of our day is equal to myth, largely because so many have turned their ears away from the truth (2 Tim. 4:4). Yet, in this climate, the apostle Paul’s final admonition to his protégé Timothy is to preach the word in season and out of season, knowing that God watches and hears every message His ministers proclaim (2 Tim. 4:1-2).   

 Rather than conform to the culture, pastors are to confront it with truth. Teaching book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, and verse-by-verse, he is to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction (2 Tim. 4:2). Every pastor will answer to God for his willingness to proclaim the whole counsel of Scripture (Acts 20:27).   

This is what I love about expository preaching through a Book of the Bible, which we do at Hazard FBC, going verse by verse chapter by chapter. In doing so we come across passages that are challenging which require a closer look, chapters that convict us, and passages that may even rebuke us.

Todays’ passage is about “hell” not a very popular topic, but one that I must be diligent to preach, as it provides not only a warning about this terrible place, it also provides a way to escape it.