Demas’ Decision

Introduction

Well, we have done great things together today. We have studied God’s word and we have, what was this great hymn morning, Tim? I mean, some awesome hymns we have sung to God and so well led by Dave and Parker. And we hopefully I won’t diminish from any of that in the next few minutes. Welcome to everyone. We have some visitors in our presence. Thank you for coming. And glad Bill’s feeling well enough to be here. And I know Joanne Medlin, who’s recovering from a recent fall or broken hip, who’s doing remarkably well considering what has happened to her at her age. I know she’s glad to have Melody and family here to visit with her because they don’t get to do that as often, I’m sure, as they would like.

But it’s been great to be with you already today and to talk for a few minutes about a passage that has long intrigued all of us who believe. And that passage is 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 10 in Paul’s concluding words to the young evangelist Timothy, he says, Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. You can hear the hurt in Paul’s voice. This is the third and final mention of Demas in the letters of Paul. He’s mentioned in Colossians 4 and verse 14, along with Luke, the beloved physician, as they both send greetings to the church at Colossae. And in the end of that tiny epistle to Philemon, the one with the runaway slave Onesimus, who has become a Christian, and being sent back to Philemon, he is also greeted by Demas, the fellow worker.

He is styled by Paul along with some remarkable company in that verse, Mark, again, Luke, and Aristarchus. But as we look at this verse, my question is, what was so intriguing about Thessalonica? Why Thessalonica? What was the allure to Demas that he would leave this great servant of the Lord? Then he would deem that more important than working side by side with the apostle Paul. Off he goes.

1. The High Cost of Broken Fellowship

Demas, deserter, disappointment, discouragement to Paul. I want to talk to you for a few moments about this verse, the costly consequences of Demas’ decisions. And ours, if we choose similarly. I want you to think for a moment about the impact of Demas’ decision. And this is going to be one of those rare sermons that I only have two points. And the first point that I want to make regarding Demas’ decision is the high cost. The tremendous cost of broken fellowship. We are not told whether his love for the world was centered on any one thing or circumstance. But what we do know is that his agape, his love of the world, is set in contrast to the love of Paul and every believer. Because in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 8, when Paul talked about having fought the good fight and finished the course, having kept the faith, he said, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, the victory crown, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me on that day.

And not to me only, but to all those who love his appearing.

They anticipate, they look for that or hasten the coming of the day of God, 2 Peter 3 and verse 12. They long for and love the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was Paul’s love. Demas Agatha, his love had changed. And no love affair has ever cost more. Demas, like countless thousands before him and after him. While thinking he was actually getting more.

This is, as has been said, the high cost of low living. Young people, I want you to mark it down and mark it well. The decision to reject the Lord in your life. The decision to not walk after his ways will always and inevitably lead to a lesser quality life. You are always choosing less. When you reject the Lord in his ways. When you instead desire to walk with the world rather than to walk with him. This is wisdom. This is undeniable. It’s reliable when everything else isn’t. The words of the wise writer in Proverbs 3. Sometimes I think I cannot read these verses often enough. And let me just say, interject here. I was going to say this in the introductory words.

Some of our young people have just returned from Dry Creek camp in Louisiana, a camp run by Florida College. But it has been through the years of tremendous benefit to young people. Our kid, this is the first year that we did not have at least one kid at Dry Creek camp since Shelley was first able to go. So it’s sort of sad. Because I’ll tell you, the kids always came back, both of our children every year, on a spiritual high. They were more focused on spiritual things as a result of having been there, and that’s why Parker, I believe, said what he said today. And I know our young people who had the opportunity to do that have been energized by that opportunity. And they know.

Our young people, all of our young people know the truth of these words, and I don’t know that I read them enough. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. That’s where so many people get into trouble. Demons got into trouble leaning on his own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. And he will make your paths straight. He will turn mountains into plains, as we saw in Zechariah chapter 4. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Don’t think that you know better. Hear the Lord. And turn away from evil. That’s always been the choice that is before man. And it will be healing to your body. And refreshment to your bones.

One of the things that Facebook has allowed me to do is to connect again with old high school classmates back in Indiana. And I want to tell you, I’ve had absolutely nothing to do with my high school classmates in, well, it’s been a while. Over 30 years. And it’s not because I didn’t want to, it’s because I’ve lived in Texas most of that time, not lived in Indiana. And don’t have very many opportunities to go back. But I’ll tell you what Facebook has done. This year, we’ve all turned 50. Everybody in my class. And so when it comes up, they were having a birthday. You know, we can all commiserate. I know how old you are. If it wasn’t already there on Facebook, I knew how old they were because, and you know, I look at their pictures and say, man, they’re getting older.

They’re looking, they’re getting older. Imagine that. Let me tell you, when you turn 50, well, at least my experience, everything doesn’t just automatically fall apart. Okay? It all has not absolutely fallen apart. But I’ll tell you what you do know. The youth and vigor and vitality. That’s God.

What you had when you were in your 20s, when you were in high school, when you were in college, and when you first started out, you started getting married, having a family, and all of those things. The youth and vitality, that’s gone. You think more about your mortality, and about your need for the one who can provide you immortality. And the truthfulness of these statements in Proverbs chapter 3. The high cost of broken fellowship. What we learned from Demas, and what lesson we need to take from that is that undue attachment to the world breaks union with God. That’s what happened. Friendship with the world is hostility toward God. James chapter 4 and verse 4. And those who are in love with the world are called adulteresses in that text.

It breaks union with God. It’s hostility toward God. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, 1 John 2 and verse 15. The one who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. John says. And finally, what is a man profited? If he gained the whole world and lose his own soul. I got the thought for doing the sermon from a little article that Ricky Jenkins does every week called Wednesday’s Walk with the Lord. Jacob Hudgens, who worked with him, writes part of the time. And I want to quote Ricky here. He says, No doubt, Demas, nor his modern counterparts, would acknowledge being the enemies of God or not loving him. Few ever have. And when you look at the example of the nation of Israel, so many times when they were loving the world and so far from God, they thought all the while that they were in God’s favor.

Even as destruction loomed over the city of Jerusalem and the promises of the prophets that it was coming, they were still running around saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, as if that magical icon was going to somehow deliver them as it was a symbol of God’s presence. They didn’t know that the glory of the Lord had departed. And so when they were so often flirting with the world and creating enmity between themselves and God, they were usually oblivious to the condition.

2. The Fruits That Are Forfeited

May that not be true of us. And as Ricky would go on to say, respectable trappings do not lessen the severity of the sin. That’s point number one. The high cost of broken fellowship. Point number two. I think there’s a lesson to be learned from Demas’ example about the fruits that are forfeited when such a decision is made. The impact of the decision to leave the Lord or to just love the world. There’s an impact to that. There is the quenching of the fruit of the Spirit in your life. The productivity of all that is good, that it flows from God, the fruit of the Spirit, the character that is produced when we give attention to the things of the Spirit. That being forfeited in our lives is of tremendous cost.

But there is not only cost in the quenching of the fruit of the Spirit in our own character. There are the fruits that are forfeited in the lives of others. Let me tell you about Demon’s decision. There was one fewer worker for the cause of Christ. How much good could Demas have done had he remained the fellow worker of Paul? If it is true, and it is, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. You know the text, right? James 5, 16. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. When someone makes the choice like Demas did, that’s one less, one fewer who is praying. And what is available from prayer is now lost. I don’t know how many people are impacted by my decision to persevere in God’s things.

And you don’t know. God does. I just know that God’s cause is advanced in a way that it would not be otherwise if I were not steadfast. My steadfastness contributes something. My teaching does some good. My example, my light produces some effect. And whether that impact is thousands or hundreds or just one.

No, I don’t think it is. But even if it was just one, that’s still important. One final point from my brother. He said, Every demus who leaves the truth makes it a little more difficult for some Cornelius to learn the truth. Or for some Timothy to be reared in it. Think about that. We can’t know all of God’s intentions for us. And if we could, it would probably blow our minds. But I know this.

Three verses earlier, two verses earlier, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 19. I don’t want to be a vessel to dishonor. I want to be a vessel to honor. I want to be useful to the Master, and I know that contributes to the good of his cause. Where would Timothy be? If it were not for a godly grandmother and mother, Lois and Eunice, the faith that dwells in you, Paul tells Timothy, first dwelt in them. And he had become convinced from a young man about the holy scriptures that were able to make him wise unto salvation. The wisdom that we read about in Proverbs chapter 3. He was grounded in those truths in the scripture by a godly grandmother and mother. I don’t know where the grandfather was, I don’t know where the father was.

But those two women made an impact to the extent that Paul would say of Timothy, I had no one else of kindred spirit to the church at Philippi who would genuinely be concerned about your interests, who is more concerned about the interests of Christ than anything else. Timothy is that man. And whatever he was able to do, and how he was able to fulfill that role, and for Paul to be able to use Timothy in that way can be attributed in some way to the faith of a godly grandmother and a godly mother. Fruits forfeited. There’s another angle to this that I want to explore very briefly with you. And that is that of diverted resources.

Because every soul is.

And energy has to be put in to keeping people already within the body of Christ on the right track. Do you know how many churches spend a great deal of their resources really trying to evangelize those who are already numbered among the saved? Instead of being able to look out and reach the lost, we’re almost exclusively at times focused on fixing those who are already among the saved. Keeping the savage strong is perhaps a more important concern than it’s ever been. People that already know the truth. And yes, one soul is important. But when people should know better, it’s discouraging. It takes up resources that could be spent reaching those without. Well, that’s just a thought about this. But I want to get down to the end of this and say this today.

But they thought about giving up. Circumstances and people discourage. We grow weary. We begin to question. Is this worth it? And we entertain doubts. But you need to remember something. Giving up affects other people. As a brother posted on Facebook this week, every person falls down at some point. Successful people choose to get up. When a believer quits, he or she robs the world of the flavor of the example of Jesus Christ. Which it so desperately needs to see. We deprive the world of an example of Christ, a lover of souls, and a teacher of truth. In Philippians 2 and verse 15, the church at Philippi is admonished prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God, above reproach, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.

That’s what demons left. That’s what he forfeited. Holding fast the word of life. So that in the day of Christ, aren’t you thinking, demons, about the day of Christ that inevitably comes? It inevitably will come, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. That’s what breaks Paul’s heart in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 10. That now it has become vain in the life of demons. He stopped holding forth the word of life. And persevering and being lights in the world. Now I want to issue a warning here. Nobody wakes up one day and says, you know what? I’m leaving the Lord. Bingo. Light just came on for me. I’m out of here.

Today’s the day I leave the Lord. It doesn’t just happen out of the blue. There are steps to departure. And let me just say about that. Some people are in the process of leaving the Lord long before they leave the Lord’s people. And some people who leave the Lord still sit among the Lord’s people. But they find themselves in a state where their relationship to God has fallen into disrepair. Let me tell you some of the symptoms of that. Spirituality becomes a Sunday only pursuit.

And it’s not really that spiritual either. Zeal is vanished. The onset of lethargy took place a while ago. Prayer and meditation cease. Is this the only time we pray? What an indicator. Going through the motions. No thoughts of God on his throne during assemblies. Not casting our minds into his presence. Prayers are praying. Where were we mentally? Were we casting those thoughts to the throne of God? Songs were sung, but did we even really know whether we were singing to God or singing to each other? Or both. Were we really even paying attention to the words? Daydreaming, snoozing, and we’re not even ten minutes into the sermon. I’ll tell you, when people start going to sleep, and I’ve only been talking for one minute, I’ll tell you, that can’t happen that fast.

That can’t be me. That’s got to be you. But I’ll tell you what in essence is said. I don’t really need one. These are the steps of departure.

And again, we wouldn’t say that. Oh, let me tell you everybody, I don’t really need this. Well, that’s what your behavior is saying. And let me tell you what all of that is a symptom of. And I’ve told you this before. You know what it’s saying? Jesus doesn’t sit on the throne anymore of my heart. I do.

And that’s the root of all of our problems. If God is on that throne, I think of the others that he loves, and I serve them too. Even if they don’t deserve it, even if they hate me, even if they think awful of me, I remain steadfast for him and for them. Such a decision like Demas’s hurts in so many ways.

Conclusion

And profits in none. So perhaps there is someone who needs to take some steps toward loving God again. And that begins by placing Jesus on his rightful throne in our hearts. What is your next step? And that decision will lead to trust. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And that decision will naturally lead to obedience. Maintain your zeal for Him. Do it today. And do not delay. And covet fellowship with Him. You know, we use that word covet of loving and longing for the wrong things. Demas coveted the things of this world. Terrible decision. But this word is also used in the New Testament to speak of things that should be longed for that God provides. The Corinthians are told to covet the spiritual gifts that God had granted to them that they might know the will of God.

And we need to covet and strongly desire things that are right. And we need to covet fellowship with God above all else.

Don’t ever confuse that. Israel stood around the temple, admired the temple, but they were far from God. Don’t ever confuse the fact that presence in this building means that I’m right with God. Who’s on the throne? In your heart. That’s what determines. Do you seek fellowship with him above all else?

I can only wonder, even in my lifetime, how many people have chosen like these?

Let’s not be numbered among others.

Do you need to come home to the Lord? Or have you been choosing the love of this world all your life? And need to choose something higher and better. And begin to love his appearing. The hope of glory and immortality one day, more than anything else. Can we assist you in putting on Christ today? By being baptized into him, forsaking the paths of sin, and walking in newness of life. We are to come if you need to respond while we stand and say.