In 2 Timothy 4 Paul writes these penetrating words:

[2 Timothy 4.1-4] I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

Along with the strong charge to be faithful to preach the Word of God is the solemn declaration that the day will come when people within the walls of local churches will fully and completely reject the sound preaching and teaching of God’s Word and will instead surround themselves with so-called preachers who will tickle their sinful and self-centered ears. People will deliberately turn away from the truth and they will find teachers who will feed their appetite for lies. The situation that Paul speaks of here is alive and thriving in America. A very clear example of this is the recent action of the Presbyterian Church USA to now openly condone what God so thoroughly condemns. What that apostate denomination has done is to take the truth of God’s Word and throw on the rubbish heap and replace it with the lies of the devil. Their action is nothing but a turning away from the Truth; it is a full and complete rejection of God and His Word.

Now I fully realize that the example of the PCUSA is a rather extreme example and one that causes a great many professing Christians a high degree of consternation, but what of the myriad of examples of turning away from the Truth that are more subtle or sophistication and openly embraced. What I have in mind here are all of those so-called churches that have replaced the preaching of Gods’ Word with some sort of performance; that have shelved doctrine for drama; that have removed the confrontation of sin and replaced it with comedy. All of that and so much more comes under the umbrella of entertainment that hovers over so much of what passes for evangelicalism in America today. People do not want to go to church and be challenged by a sermon from the Bible, they want to be entertained by professional performers. And how do the churches respond to this desire? They give the people what they want because most churches are more concerned about attendance and finances than they are about Biblical faithfulness. This is one of the reasons why so many people have never even heard of expository preaching. And this is also why so many other people who heard of expository preaching want no part of it. They want to come to a church service and be placated and petted and entertained. They do not want to be challenged and confronted.

I would dare say that the majority of large and numerically growing evangelical churches are not bastions of Biblical truth, but dispensers of worldly entertainment and pop psychology. That is certainly the case in the town where I live. I do not know of a single large or numerically growing evangelical church in my community where the Word of God takes center stage and is being faithfully and unapologetically expounded week in and week out. I know of those where entertainment and worldliness rules the day, but not the Truth. I suspect that this is true across this nation. Is it any wonder that professing Christians are so ill-equipped to deal with the various issues of life? They have not been taught how to do so from the Word of God. They have been entertained by music and dramas and other performances, but they have not be taught God’s Word.

If entertainment driven churches were to suddenly put an end to the entertainment and start giving people a steady diet of Biblical Truth, they would soon be empty. Mark Dever notes in The Deliberate Church that whatever it is that a churches uses to win people, that is what they are going to have to use to keep them. If a church wins people with entertainment, they are not going to keep them with the Word. People won to a church with entertainment will simply move on to the next church with great entertainment. The end result of all of this is a massive amount of unregenerate church goers whose only concern is to have their ears tickled and to leave the church service on an emotional high.

Why did Paul tell Timothy to be faithful to preach the Word rather than to work hard to build up some sort of entertainment driven ministry? The answer is because the Gospel is not found in entertainment or performances; the Gospel is found in the Word of God. What is it that unbelievers need to hear? They need to hear the Gospel. They do not need to be entertained to death; they need to be confronted with Gospel of God’s Word. May we come to realize this before it is too late.