Forsaking the Ministry for the World — Walter Chantry

Paul's Final Charge and the Crown of Righteousness

In God's Word to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Follow as I begin to read at verse 6. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.

For demons have forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Crescent to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.

Antiochus have I sent to Ephesus. And the cloaks that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil.

The Lord reward him according to his work. Of whom be thou ware also, for he hath greatly withstood our word. There are people today who would like to say that ministers should not speak against others who have a differing theological position.

Beware of him. He has withstood our word. There are men abroad who are withstanding the word of God in our day, and we need to be warned against them. At my first answer, no man stood with me. But all men forsook me.

I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear that I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Paul's life was in its final hours when he penned these last words of his letter to Timothy.

Paul's Readiness to Die for Christ

He was conscious that it was his time to depart from the world. That time had come. The old warrior was willing to die for his faith in Jesus Christ. As he tells us in verse 6, I am now ready to be offered.

That is exactly what happened under Nero's fierce persecution of the Christian church. Paul gave up his life for the cause of Christ. How often we've all thrilled at Paul's triumphant expectation in verse 8.

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, that object after which all true ministers of the gospel stand, to have the crown of righteousness given to them in that day of Christ's appearing.

And there are some of you who are approaching the end of your ministry in this world. And there are gray hairs here and there, and thank God there are some young men here who are about to begin on their path of the ministry.

But there are others who, like Paul, are near the end of their journey, and look for that crown of righteousness which will be given to them. But immediately joined to the prize that is held aloft for our admiration, there is a warning beacon given to Christian ministers.

Demas as a Warning to Gospel Ministers

These are the pastoral epistles. And near the end of his pastoral advice to a man who had been faithful in the gospel, the apostle sets a warning beacon for ministers in verse 10. The beacon is Demas, a gospel minister, an assistant to Paul in the preaching of the word of God, a yoke-fellow of the apostle who is mentioned with distinction in two earlier epistles, in Colossians and Philemon.

But now Paul is compelled to write about him and bring shame upon his reputation. Demas had forsaken him. He had left Rome in Paul's hour of need. But the separation was more than a distance of miles.

He had abandoned Paul. Demas has forsaken me. There was a spiritual breach between them. He had deserted his mentor and fellow laborer in the gospel. Some commentators caution us that we have no warrant to conclude that Demas' desertion was permanent.

Though it is the closing testimony of Scripture concerning Demas that he had forsaken the apostle. Still they tell us perhaps it was a temporary fall, a temporary digression from his following the apostle.

He may have been restored. Others make Demas a leading symbol of apostasy, like John Bunyan, who places a minister, Demas, at the silver mine to beckon temptingly to all of the Christians who go by on the way to the celestial city to seek to seduce them from the way to eternal life.

As shepherds of men's souls, you have observed some who appear to begin well in following Christ and then they fall. Some falls are temporary and they are sad enough, but some falls are permanent as men apostatize from the faith.

In either case, Scripture makes Demas a monument to the tragedy of a serious fall for a gospel minister. Like Lot's wife in the Old Testament, who looked back lovingly and longingly at the city of destruction from which she had run with her husband, she was turned to a pillar of salt and made a monument for all to look at and tremble in fear.

Ministers Who Fall into Disgrace

But not only do the sheep fall. The under-shepherds also depart from the Lord. Under-shepherds deny his cause and bring disgrace to the kingdom. I'm sure each one of you has heard shocking reports of someone that you once knew and he seemed to be a fruitful and bright star in the hand of the Lord who holds the stars of the churches in his hand.

And you've heard that they have brought disgrace to the kingdom of God. And yet it should not overwhelm us to receive such reports because the New Testament records these instances of men prominent in the ministry, men greatly gifted in the ministry, men greatly used by the Spirit of God, who fell, some temporarily, some permanently.

There was Judas, the trustee of the apostolic college. It was only later that the apostles learned that he was pilfering, that he was embezzling from them and from the funds given to the poor. And they found it out when he finally auctioned off the Son of God with his love for money.

A man who was powerful in the Spirit, used of God to bless other lives, and he fell. And it was permanent. Others fell temporarily and did not even lose their usefulness in the ministry as Peter. Thank God for those instances when men fell, but it was not permanent.

And they even remained useful in the ministry, as in the case of Peter. Well, you have put your hand to the plow. You have taken sacred vows. You have been consecrated by the laying on of hands and by prayer.

You have labored in the Word and in doctrine for varying lengths of time. But it is only biblical to warn you that ministers who are orthodox and ministers who are evangelical and ministers who are Calvinistic and ministers who are Reformed have grim and ruinous and ignominious falls, some temporary and others permanent in apostasy.

Loving the Present World

In either case, the occasion of ministerial falls is most often that which occasioned the fall of Demas in our text. You see it clearly. Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Perhaps better, he fell in love with the present world.

How often have you exhorted your people in the words of 1 John 2, verse 15, Love not the world. You preached it. Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

How often have you taught the parable of the sower? When the Word of God comes upon the hearts of men, it is the thorns of worries about worldly affairs and the deceitfulness of worldly riches that choke out the effects of that Word before it can bear fruit to the praise of God and make a man to prove to be no true disciple of Christ.

How often have you reminded your hearers that the world is like a mud hole, as James puts it, in chapter 1 in verse 27 of his epistle. Pure religion and undefiled is this, to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

No doubt Demas preached the same things to his people, for he was a follower of the apostles. And it is tragic when ministers are overcome by the world. He was spattered by the mud hole of the world. His faith was choked by worldly things.

And this same old world tugs, I am sure, at the coattails of every man who is today behind a pulpit in this land and throughout the world. I know that some of you feel the pull of it, for it is like a small heavenly body coming within the gravitational field of a larger body, like a star or a planet.

The world holds an immense power of attraction, and we feel the pull. It's not a theoretical enemy to ministers. I'm sure it is not a theoretical enemy to you. If you are honest, it is one of your great battles in life to resist the world.

If you're not fighting the world, then the world is gaining ground on you. And I would be surprised in a gathering of ministers this size if there is not someone here who has a serious problem with the world.

The World’s Temptations for Ministers

Intimately involved in a minister's conference some 15 years ago, I was shocked that someone that I thought I had had spiritual fellowship with in the week gone by was up to his ears, up to his ears in the world.

And the only way it was found out is that his secret lover had sent a note to the place of the conference, and he was discovered. And it happens to ministers of the gospel. Think through with me this Demus syndrome of which the apostle warns us.

And watch and pray against it for the sake of your soul and for the cause of Christ, how it dishonors our Lord when His ministers depart from Him. And renew the zeal of your youth to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 2, verse 4, just look at it for a moment. He had said to Timothy earlier, No man who is a warrior entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please Him who has chosen him to be a soldier, his recruiter, the Lord Jesus Christ having recruited you for the battle, for the fight that you're in.

A good soldier can't get ensnared, entangled in the affairs of this world. You remember Bunyan's portrait of a safe guide for souls in his Pilgrim's Progress, when Christian came to the interpreter's house.

There was a picture that he saw, and it was the safe guide to souls. The best of books was in his hands, the best one of the books being the Bible itself. And a crown was over his head, and he was sober and he was grave.

He was serious about the things of eternity, not frivolous in his living or his bearing. But the world was behind his back. The world was behind his back. He was turned the other way. And only such men are able to bear children, bear spiritual children, and to feed them when they come to the birth.

Resolve afresh to renounce the world for the sake of you, Lord. Now, of course, the term world is a versatile English word, and it has differing meanings in the New Testament itself. The New Testament uses the word world to refer to the created order.

Three Biblical Meanings of “The World”

In Acts 17 and verse 24, God that made the world and all things therein. We do love that world. We love the creation of God because it declares His glory. And when we're converted and when we're the servants of the Lord, the forests and the animals and the stars declare the glory of God to us with a freshness and a power that we have not known before.

And it brings joy to our hearts to read Romans chapter 8 that is the resurrection of Christ's people, the world too will be renovated and delivered from the bondage under which it has come by man's fall into sin.

We love the world in that sense. Then the New Testament uses the word world to refer to the vast multitudes of men throughout the earth. Mark 16, 15, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. And again, the ministry demands that we love the world in that sense.

And our hearts condemn us that we don't embrace the souls of men with even greater affection for them. But then the word world is used in the Bible to describe the present fallen order of things under Satan's headship.

I'm sure these are not new things to you. Romans 12, 2, Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. The system which perverts everything, every part of life, every part of humanity, every part of the created order with a serpentine twist that leads men to hell.

The wicked one produces fashion and philosophy and manners and desires and habits and trends that are unique to his vile character and all who perish with him in the lake of fire. Demas deserted Paul and the Christian faith by falling in love with this present world in the last mentioned sense.

How the World Captures the Heart

And who could describe all about falling in love with the world? I guess ministers are like other men. Men fall in love in different ways and ministers fall in love in different ways. Some fall so fast, head over heels, love at first sight.

And some take a long, long time before ever they fall in love. But usually there are flirtations that are followed by more serious approaches and then comes commitment and devotion. And everyone who is here, if you are honest before God and you sense that God looks within your soul on the basis of a text like this to love not the world, Demas having fallen in love with the present evil world, every one of you will have to admit before God that you have at least flirted in some way or other with this present world in the last mentioned sense of the world.

But each experience would be different. It would not be profitable to express to one another those temptations. But if it were done and our hearts were pure and could benefit from it, we would find that each experience was different.

The perverted pleasures of sin are so numerous that the wicked one can tailor-make a battery of worldly temptations that is peculiarly suited to your personality and the remnants of the flesh within you.

For some, riches for others, women for still others. And sometimes the devil uses exact opposite. One man falls in love with the world by the devil holding out to him excessive ease and relaxation. While another falls in love with the world, while the devil holds out to him wild excitement and frantic activity.

But it's all falling in love with the world. And the list is endless. Sometimes we tend to say ministers depart from the Lord in doctrinal issues. At least we tend to think that men go off the beam in their minds.

But when you begin to study the Scripture and the relationship between a man's ethical habits and his beliefs, you begin to see that sometimes men veer away from the truth because they've fallen in love with the world.

If any man will do his will, he will know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether it's of man, said our Lord Jesus Christ. And we do have to be careful with that, because all questions on doctrinal issues do not arise from sin.

But let's not be foolish in thinking that everyone who opposes the sound doctrine of the Word of God does so out of a pure motive. For when the heart is in love with the world, it cannot bear the doctrine of Scripture.

There may be some who honestly wrestle with the biblical teaching on the Sabbath day. But not all ministers who are now fomenting against the biblical position do so out of such a pure conscience and honest question.

But some do it because they have fallen in love with the world's pattern of living. And they would not like to yield their devotion to Sunday afternoon baseball or football. When a man falls in love with the world, it affects his doctrine.

Friendship with the World and Spiritual Adultery

The world is a painted harlot to lead us away from Christ. James 4, for ye adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? And we are married to Christ and His ministers twice married to Him.

When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we vowed to follow Him wherever He would lead for the rest of our days. And when we became ministers, we added a second sacred vow to live unto Him and not for ourselves or for our pleasures in the world.

It is a shame for a married man to even flirt with another. But when someone is fallen in love for the first time or for other times, and that perhaps you would not like to call love, his taste in women may differ, but the signs of being in love usually remain constant.

You can tell when people are in love. They have a certain look about them. They act in a certain way. We could describe that at length, but we won't. But we are going to look at the signs of demons having fallen in love with the world.

And it is essential to look at the signs because we cannot exhaust the ways in which the world appeals to ministers so that they fall in love with the world. There are so many different avenues. There are so many different types of women.

How can you talk about all of them and how you fall in love and are attracted to all of them? We ought to talk about the signs of love. And so, what are the signs of being in love with the world? You see, it is especially crucial in the area of the things of the world under Satan's dominion because Christians use the things of the world too.

And the very same thing. Because all Christians eat, the man who has made his belly his god doesn't detect that there is any problem in his life. Because all believers wear clothes, the person who is absolutely absorbed and led away from Christ with the fashions of this world is unaware that there is any problem.

Because all saints work to provide bread for their families, the man who is obsessed with riches thinks that he is only more diligent than his neighbor in a noble cause. We must look at demons and see the difference between using the things of the world and falling in love with this present world.

First Sign: Separation from God’s People

First, I would show you that when anything separates you from the Lord's people, it is a sign that you have fallen in love with the world. This just emphasizes what our brother said earlier in the afternoon.

You will notice when Demas fell in love with the world, he forsook the Apostle Paul. We are not told how the world appealed to Demas. You see, if we were, and it was something that didn't tempt you, you would breathe a sigh of relief and say, well, that's not my problem.

But the sign of the problem is given. He abandoned Paul and the other workers of the gospel in a crucial hour of their need and the gospel's need in Rome. For some lore or other, we're not told why, he came to despise that holy circle in comparison with his love for the object that drew him away.

When you no longer delight in being with God's people and take delight in the people of God, it's a sign that you're falling in love with the world through whatever object it has come to pass. It can be social activities.

It can be selfish relaxation. It can be many a thing. But you know, ministers often lose their affection for the people of God. Ministers often get to the place where they despise the sheep and begin to speak of the sheep disparagingly.

Haven't you been in ministerial circles where people berate the sheep? When a minister no longer loves the people of God, there is something wrong with him. And usually, part of what's wrong with him, and a major part of it is, he's falling in love with the world in some way or other and then fading out of ministerial fellowships.

There used to be that keen love for the word of God and prayer and talking about holy things. What a pity when ministers get together and all they speak about is the things that the rest of the world is jabbering about.

You know that when someone in your church is no longer attending the worship of God, no longer fellowshipping with the people of God, he is in grave danger. Well, ministers have to be there. They have to open the building and they have to stand behind the pulpit.

Second Sign: Wanting Earthly Rewards Now

When that love is declining, it's because the love of the world is increasing. The second sign that we see in Demas, when you grow impatient to get your portion now, beware. We notice what it says in the text in verse 10.

Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world. It was the present things that Demas wanted. He desired something good now, even the outset of the gospel. Becoming a Christian involves turning our back on the world, on the city of destruction and setting our face toward another world.

Not being affectionately desirous of the things below, but the things which are above, where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. And laying up treasures in heaven, not laying up treasures upon the earth.

Every Christian becomes like Moses, who rejected the pleasures and riches and powers of Pharaoh's court for the reproach of Christ in this world. Deeming that the reproach of Christ was greater riches than all that he could have from Pharaoh and from Egypt.

The Christian's portion is incorruptible and undefiled. And it does not fade away because it is reserved in heaven for him who is kept by the power of God by faith. It is in heaven, it is not in the present world, that the Christian caches in his chips.

You notice in verse 8, Paul's expectation. He said, I'm looking for a crown of righteousness. When are you going to get it, Paul? Not today. Not until I offer up my life. I'm now ready to be offered up.

I expect the hangman's noose or the executioner's axe in this world, but in the world to come a crown of righteousness. And that's the appearing of Jesus Christ, a crown of righteousness. But Demas, he wants something in the present world.

He wants something good now. He is unwilling to wait for the future. His spirit grew restless and discontent. He no longer could live with faith and hope with his expectation in the future. He desired something at once.

Like that picture of passion and patience in Pilgrim's Progress, the two children. One child who was willing to wait to have his good things and the other who insisted in having his good things now. Well, Satan offers everything now.

You heard of the now generation. That's always been Satan's way. In the future, Satan has nothing to offer. He doesn't have an eschatology. He doesn't dare speak about the world to come. This present age is what drew Demas away.

Oh, brother, when you must have your good things at once, beware you are falling in love with the world and a world that is passing away and a world that will be burned up with the works thereof. Some of you have been along the way a long time.

Don't you feel sorry sometimes for the Christians who have sacrificed for principles? They've never really had anything in this life. They haven't had comfort because of sickness. They haven't had riches sometimes because of biblical principles.

Don't you pity those who suffer and suffer and suffer and there's one cross after another to bear? They're laying up treasures in heaven. What about the ministers? Probably nobody sacrifices like ministers.

Probably there are ministers here who have sacrificed and wondered where they're going to get the bread to put on the table the next day, wondered how they're going to buy clothes for their children to go on to school.

Ministers often do, when they stand for truth, suffer in these ways. When you get to the place where the cross, the cross in following Jesus Christ, becomes contemptible to you and you feel that you must have something now, legitimate things.

I'm not talking about going down to the whorehouse, but having the legitimate things and looking around at the other Christians who have so much more. And you want your things now and you want your pleasures now, legitimate pleasures.

You're falling in love with the world. It can be a dangerous sign, a dangerous mark. Probably one of the worst signs of the Christianity of our age is that it wants a Christianity without a cross. The easy way, in our area now, they've opened up a restaurant where you can go and eat for three and a half hours while you listen to gospel music.

The real principle involved in that is they don't open up many churches where they preach that man must bear a cross. When you want to have your good things now, you're in love with the world, of danger, of falling in love with the world.

Third Sign: Choosing Pleasure over Duty

When there's a conflict of choices and you choose against the Lord and His kingdom, beware. For Demas, there was something at Thessalonica and there was something at Rome. In Thessalonica, there was pleasure.

At Rome, there was duty. Some people don't like to hear about duty. It sounds legalistic, doesn't it, to hear about duty? Well, brother, it comes as a conflict. And if you haven't felt it, if you don't see it day by day, that duty and pleasure conflict, I'd like to talk to you about your devotional life, how early you rise and all of that.

But what do you think when the conflict comes? When you find that duty is wearisome, the world is winning your heart. When you find that the world, when you feel the conflict, when you feel the opposite appeals to pleasure and to duty and you turn and you wish that there were no duty, you're falling in love with the world.

But if you look at that world and wish it would pass away so that you might perform your duty freely and without restraint in liberty before the Lord, then you're in love with the Lord. And each degree of love for the world is at a cost of love for God.

Now, some of you, I know, feel these conflicting tugs in your soul. You feel it at the worship of God and in the service of God. Demas came to the place where he preferred other company to Christian company.

To the place that it was important to him to have something now. To the place where he despised duty. These are grave signs. Grave signs. Do you find the marks in your own heart? If so, remember that gospel ministers fall to the disgrace of the name of Jesus Christ in the world and to the injury of their own souls.

Faith Overcomes the World

With the warnings, I'd like to give a word of encouragement out of the text. The Lord never said that Christians wouldn't have a struggle with the world. Every true believer feels these temptations to love the present world.

I'm sure that you are not so idealistic as a minister that you would say that the man who ever looked at another woman wasn't a faithful husband. Oh, there was sin involved in the look. What man has not looked?

What Christian has not felt the tug of the world? We would not say all men have fallen who have felt the struggle and the battle. First John 5, it says, 5 and verse 4, everyone that is born of God overcomes the world.

That means there's a fight on. He overcomes the world and the text indicates it's his faith that overcomes the world. Faith that looks to things beyond. What is faith? It is the expectation of things hoped for.

The confidence of things that are not yet seen. Faith overcomes the world. But there's still a fight and it's a desperate battle. It's those who abandon the struggle and leave the Christian camp and want their fun now and find duty to wearisome that are like demons.

But Christians grow tired of the struggle. As I've already mentioned, when they grow tired of the struggle, they pray that God will overcome the world through the powers of Christ. And they read that book of Revelation where it talks about the harlot Babylon that goes up in smoke and all of it's burning.

The riches of the world are burning and it's gone up in smoke. And all the world is mourning over the riches and the pleasures that were theirs. But the Christian feels that he's one of God's people that rejoices when the harlot goes up in smoke.

Restoration Is Possible for the Fallen

Well, the Lord did not say that the Christian wouldn't have a struggle with the world. And then Paul mentions in the same passage, a man who once left him, but now has returned. I hope you'll see that.

And especially if you have felt even under the Word of God that maybe you are falling in love with the world. He says, Demas has forsaken me. Well, he talks about someone else who once forsook him in verse 11.

Only Luke is with me, but take Mark. Oh, you remember John Mark, how he forsook Paul once right in the middle of one of the most significant missionary journeys that ever took place. He turned tail and ran home.

But Mark, bring him with you, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Still profitable for the ministry. All desertions are not permanent, thank God. And if your heart has been running to the world, then return to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Returning to First Love and First Works

Do you remember the reminder of Scripture? If you've left your first love of Christ to give love to the world, remember from whence thou art fallen and do the first work. And what were the first works?

Don't you remember how you prayed when you first came to Christ? And you said, I will follow you wherever you go. And I will do whatever you command. And don't you remember when you first became a minister?

The way you said, Lord, I will devote myself to the glory of Your name on earth. And you put the world behind your back. Do the first works and make fresh resolves. There are times when you are expected to exert your will when you find yourself falling in love with the world.

Repent and do the first works again. Then I'd like you to turn to a text in the Old Testament in Hosea 14. This summer our brother Ernie called the text to mind. But looking at John Mark who returned and was received with favor and made useful in the ministry itself.

Hosea chapter 14. Notice what the Lord said to a backsliding Israel. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord and say to Him, Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously.

So we render the calves of our lips. Our lips will become like the calves on the altar as a sacrifice to You. What better prayer for a minister who uses his lips so much. Verse 4. I will heal thy backsliding.

I will love them freely. This is the Lord speaking. For mine anger is turned away from Him. I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. And on and on it goes.

What a loving Savior. We sang in the hymn, No harshness hast thou. The gentleness of the Savior to those who return. What does the world do to ministers? When the world gets hold of a minister, what does it do to a minister?

The World’s Mockery and Christ’s Preservation

Well, first it ensnares him and then it mocks him. And then it uses him against his master and Lord. Remember what happened to Pliable? You know what the world did to Pliable when he started on to the celestial city?

The world knows something about religion. Even though the world hates true religion, the world knows that if any man is going to be religious, he ought to have the courage and backbone to stick with it.

The world will never excuse a minister that turns to the world. It will use him for all it can get out of him and then mock him and leave him for destruction. But what does the Savior do to his people with gentleness?

I will never leave you nor forsake you. I give unto them eternal life and they will never perish. No one will pluck them out of my hand. The crown of righteousness. Love is appearing. And surely if the people of God are called to turn from idols to serve the living in God, living in true God, and to await the appearing of Christ, surely ministers are called upon to show that they have that attitude in their bearing and words and lifestyle that they have turned from idols.

The idols of this present world under Satan's dominion to serve the living and true God and to await the appearance of Christ from heaven. And to those who love his appearance, he has the crown of righteousness and great blessings in the day that he comes.

Prayer for Faithfulness in Ministry

Let's bow together in prayer. O Lord, we thank you for your word that holds before us the high ideals of the Christian ministry. Lord, we are sorry that you have no better servants on earth than we are.

Forgive us for all our flirtations with the world. Forgive us, O Lord, and when we think of them and see your beauty and your gentle grace, how we hate the world. Bring that day when in your conquering the world shall go up in smoke and your people will be as you are with no longer a heart that runs out after these things.