Apostasy in the Gospel ( 2 Timothy 4 vs 10)

It's good to be with you this morning. I'm glad that this service is rather filled up. I imagine you didn't want to get up early because there were three huge things going on last night. Three huge things.

You had the match against Argentina, congratulations on that. And then you had the debate last night. Congratulations. And then you had Graham's birthday party. Some of you don't know about that. That was the biggest of the three.

In fact, I've heard that the plan is that they've just paused it. They're going to continue on tonight. So I mean, that was a big one. You didn't know that you were actually competing with the Springboks, but you were.

And I think you outperformed them. So congratulations. And happy birthday, brother. It is good to be with you again. I want to look at a number of texts of scriptures. So that used to mean that you would hear a lot of pages turning.

And now that means you don't hear tapping. I missed that part. But there's nothing wrong if you read your Bible on a computer. It's not quite as spiritual as a leather-bound Bible, but, you know, the Lord will still use you, sort of.

You know, it's okay. We'll be looking at a number of texts. I want to begin in Paul's epistle to the Colossians chapter 4. And I just want to look at one verse briefly in Colossians 4 .14, where greetings are being given by the apostle to the church.

And he says, Luke, the beloved physician greets you and Demas. And Demas. And I want to look a little bit at Demas this morning to begin our time together. We're not told anything about Demas here, other than he seems to be normally associated with Luke.

He may have been in that particular part of the apostolic band that was mostly associated with Luke, who was not always with Paul, but very frequently was with Paul. Here you have, when this letter is written, one of the apostolic band is a man by the name of Demas.

This is the only information that we are given about him here. But if you look at the little epistle to Philemon, you will also find a reference to Demas. And the section where, again, you have greetings being given, right at the end of the letter, verse 23, you have the greetings beginning.

And then you have in verse 24, Mark and Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers, my fellow workers. And here you have a description of these individuals as being in the apostolic ministry and being with Paul as fellow workers.

Now that's a term that I'm old enough now to have some understanding of how special that can be. Once you have a number of decades under the belt in ministry, then when you have fellow workers, those are individuals that, with you, can understand the challenges of ministry and the fact that there are great benefits and great encouragements in ministry, but you need to understand there are often tremendous weights and tremendous responsibilities and tremendous hurts in ministry as well.

I've never had a wide-eyed, naive view of ministry. I stand before you to honestly admit that at the age of 10, I made a commitment to never go into the ministry because I saw all the knife holes my dad had in his back from being mistreated as a minister.

So at age 10, I said, that's one thing I ain't doing. I wanted to go to the Air Force Academy. And the reason I was valedictorian in my junior high school and valedictorian in my high school is because I knew because my eyes weren't all that good, I was going to need to have the really good grades to get into the Air Force Academy.

Well, the Lord had other purposes, obviously, and thankfully did not hold me to that commitment of a 10-year-old to never go into the ministry. But I've never had a naively simplistic understanding.

I've always known, having grown up as a preacher's kid, some of the issues that one would face. And so when you call someone your fellow worker, someone who is joined with you in the work of ministry, that's a special phrase.

Over the years, I can think of certain individuals, and yes, they mean a lot to me because I know that we're pulling the same direction and we have the same commitments. I'm in an eldership in a church right now, the most active church I've ever seen, to be perfectly honest with you.

What apology a church does in a week would make most churches exhausted if they did it in a month. I mean, it's just, I am the elderly elder. I'm almost 16 years older than the next elder in the group.

And they challenge me greatly, and I think it's wonderful. They're my fellow workers. So I understand when Paul speaks of these. And notice Demas and Luke are right next to each other again. My fellow workers.

So when we turn to 2 Timothy, chapter 4, we read some very, very sad words. Here, you don't have greetings. You have Paul probably his last writing to his dearly beloved Timothy. And in verse 9, come to me quickly.

Make every effort to come to me quickly. He's going to basically talk about how he has been abandoned. And later he's going to say, try to come before winter because you have my coat. Could you come before winter?

But then verse 10, for Demas has abandoned me. And in fact, the way it is in the original language, he puts the word me first, so there's an emphasis. For Demas, me, has left. He's abandoned me. And then these words, having loved the present age.

Having loved this present world is sometimes a translation, but it's specifically the word for age. This present age. What this world has to offer. He has loved this present age and has gone to Thessalonica.

Do you think those words were easy for Paul to write? Timothy would have known Demas. Maybe Demas was with Paul during some of the times, the most formative times of Timothy's own training. He would have been involved in teaching new converts.

He would have been involved in evangelism. He would have been involved in establishing churches. Demas would have seen some of the miraculous events in Paul's life, even though there had been more miraculous events at the beginning.

In fact, when we look at the book of Acts, we see that when the gospel is first being proclaimed, apostolic authority is established by the presence of these miracles, but as time goes on, they become less and less until you get to the point here where Paul leaves one of his closest ministry companions sick at Miletus.

Why doesn't he just heal him, if that was the normative thing to do? But those initial miracles were establishing apostolic authority. And so Demas would have seen some of these things. He would have heard.

Here would be someone who would have insights into theological truths because he would have heard an apostle teaching these things over and over again. This was not an untaught man. And there would have been times of prayer, and there would have been times of the Lord's Supper together.

And when Paul wrote these words, do you think his heart was broken? We don't know the time frame when Demas did this. You can tell by looking at Colossians and Philemon. They're written before 2 Timothy, chronologically speaking.

This is one of the last letters written, probably the last letter written. And it makes me wonder if Paul maybe hesitated to tell Timothy this because it's going to be discouraging to Timothy. Remember, Timothy's probably at Ephesus at this point in time.

And we remember that when Paul was going to Jerusalem, he didn't get to go to Ephesus, but he was close enough that he was able to call the Ephesian elders to himself in Acts chapter 20. And he told them, you're never going to see my face again.

I know you're never going to see my face again. So let me tell you what's going to happen. Men are going to rise from your own ranks, from the ranks of the eldership of the church that Paul himself had trained.

They're going to go into error, and they're going to draw disciples after themselves like ravening wolves. Thanks, Paul. Appreciate the up-tempo comments. Paul didn't do the Joel Osteen thing. I hope you don't know who Joel Osteen is.

Some of you do, but he's always smiling. Paul wasn't always smiling. And so Timothy would already know from Paul that difficult times are coming. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy talk about these things. But we can also tell Timothy didn't seem to be the most bold guy.

So Paul is always having to say, God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and a sound mind, disciplined mind. So he's having to encourage Timothy to stand firm. And so I wonder if he hesitated to be the one, to in one sentence say, Demas has left me.

He's gone. He went to Thessalonica because he loved this present age. What a final word. There are only three references to Demas in the New Testament. We've now looked at all of them. What an amazing thing to be remembered.

The last thing Paul would have seen is Demas' back as he started on the journey to Thessalonica. What was in Thessalonica? We don't know. Did he meet someone there? Was there a business opportunity? We don't know.

All we know is he loved this present age and that can take all sorts of different forms, sadly. Sometimes it just takes the form of someone just walking away from the faith. Saying, yeah, I know I used to be a part of your church and I know that I sang in the worship team and we sang songs about Christ alone and faith alone.

But I'm just not into it anymore. And I know I said that my entire future and my entire heart was focused on Christ and was dependent upon Him, but I don't know. I just don't feel it anymore. There are so many different religions and science says this, that, and the other thing.

I just like my life right now and I want to live it the way I want to live it. So you have the people who go back into the world in that way. Then you have others who enter into apostasy through false teaching, join cults and isms and false religions and whatever else it might be and end up denying Christ while remaining religious.

And then you have the people who just disappear and when you talk to them, oh, I'm fine, me and the Lord are doing good, but you can just tell. Christ has no place in their life any longer. They're not willing to meet with the brethren.

They don't long for fellowship with Christians. They just sort of, like that ember that rolls away from the fire, it just slowly dies out in and of itself. For Demas, it seems to have been a specific decision.

Did it happen over time? Did Paul see it happening over time? Or was he as stunned as everyone else might be when someone who's been in ministry has been prominent in ministry, whose name is mentioned in two books of scripture, one morning says, Paul, I'm done.

I'm done with the traveling. I'm done with the suffering. I'm done with the preaching. I'm done with the rejection. I'm done. I'm done. I'm out of here. I've got things to do in Thessalonica. See you later.

Would that have hurt the apostle's heart? Of course it did. And we might say, well, he was an apostle. He would have seen this coming. No, not necessarily. When Peter knew what was in the heart of Ananias and Sapphira, there was a specific purpose for that miraculous revelation of their hearts.

But I don't think the apostle walked through the shops in whatever city he was ministering at that time reading the minds of everyone walking past him. We're not told that that's an apostolic gift. When there was the need, miraculously, fine.

But could Demas have completely shocked and surprised him? Certainly. Certainly. Would Paul have attempted to reason with him? To call him to repentance? To remind him of the message of the gospel and what he himself had professed?

Well, I think certainly he would have if given the opportunity. But in my experience, when apostasy enters into someone's heart, very often the last thing they want to do is have a discussion about all the things they've taught and said in the past.

They want to get away from it as quick as they can. Most people, and I sadly, given the work that I do, I have a long list of people. 35 years in ministry now, I have a long list of people that I can think back on.

I can think back on one individual. Only 15 years ago, he was involved with us in a conference we did. He wrote books. Clear thinker. Excellent speaker. Doesn't even claim to be a Christian today. Very much like Demas.

Loved this present age. Able to make money. And decided that that was a better thing to do. Not that there's something wrong with making money. But he decided that that was the one thing that he wanted to do.

And this Christianity thing was getting in the way. But then there were others. False religions. And the vast majority of them, in that transitionary period, the last thing they wanted to do was talk to me.

So you get to find out about it only after all the decisions have been made. The doors have been closed. Mentally, they're already miles and miles away. And they make the announcement and then they want out of there.

Is that what happened? We don't know. Will we find out someday? I don't know. I'm not sure in heaven we're going to be dwelling on such things, to be honest with you. But Paul took it personally. Demas has abandoned me.

It was personal. He was a part of my inner circle. And he turned around and walked away. But he remained faithful. Paul did. Would there have been a temptation on his part? Because I'm sure this wasn't the first time.

Maybe the names aren't recorded for us in Scripture. But I'm sure it wasn't the first time that he had experienced something like this. And if you are in ministry for any period of time, you're thinking right now about certain individuals.

You're thinking about how you've experienced what Paul did. Apostasy is not an enjoyable subject to discuss. There aren't many amens going on right now, and I understand why. You're scared to do it. If I amen a sermon on apostasy, am I thinking of apostasy?

I'm not sure. I'm going to be quiet. That's the wise thing to do. But the fact of the matter is, if you keep up with what's going on in the world, you know that in my country, over the past three weeks, a month at the most, there have been some very high-profile incidents of apostasy.

And one involved an individual who had written books, was a part of the purity movement, had, as a result, at a very young age, been put in the position of leadership in the church. That probably wasn't wise in and of itself.

Just because your book sells a million copies doesn't mean that you should be put into leadership in the church, by the way. And within a couple of weeks, well, a couple of months after he divorces his wife, he makes an announcement that he's not a Christian any longer, and then within two weeks, on his Instagram account, are pictures of him joyfully attending a gay pride event.

As a former preacher of purity, that would be the way to virtue signal to the world. I'm with you now. I know I was once a part of them, but I'm with you now. And then just last week, a very popular writer of Christian music.

You put his name into Google, and all sorts of videos pop up of very popular songs, with him performing them in front of thousands of people. And then one day he just goes, you know, this just isn't for me anymore.

You know, science keeps poking holes in religion, and I think there's truth in a lot of different religions, but I just don't want a religion where it's just, I believe, and don't ask me why anymore. Which immediately tells you something about where the problems were there.

But immediately there was the virtue signaling, and we all need to love one another, and I reviewed this individual statement on my program last week, and I pointed out that it was the most incoherent thing I've ever read.

Because he's still borrowing from his old worldview, while at the same time saying that's now a false worldview. He doesn't even realize it yet. We can hope in his situation that maybe there was just such deep ignorance that maybe there could be real conversion.

But it's sort of hard to see that in the same way in the other example that we've had given to us recently. The reality is that when we hear these things, when we hear about these actions on people's parts, we are deeply troubled.

We're deeply troubled because if the person next to me in the Lord's Supper might not be here next week, what about me? What about my faith? What does this say about Jesus' ability to save and to keep his sheep?

Oh, we have our theology which says, well, what does it say? We need to have a theology of apostasy. And sometimes we ignore that. Sometimes it's easier for us to just close our eyes and ears and talk about something else.

Because this isn't fun. This isn't uplifting. But we need to have a theology of apostasy. Because I believe in light of the cultural pressures coming against the church all around the world that we're going to see a tsunami of apostasy.

And if your faith is in any way based upon numbers, upon big leaders, big names, you're in danger. You're not standing on solid ground. You can be thankful for big names that have been used to bring you to faith, but Christian maturity is getting to the point where even if the big names walked away from the faith, you wouldn't.

That's Christian maturity. Are we there yet? The Bible warns us about these things. I'm not just talking about the warnings in Hebrews, though those are real and valid warnings. Jesus warned us. He prepared the disciples.

Do you remember the parable of the sower? It's really more about the soils than it is the sower. The sower doesn't really have any place other than that's the apostles. And they're going to go out, and they're going to spread the word of God just like you sow the seeds.

And remember, there were five results of sowing seeds. Well, actually, six. So you had the path alongside, which was beaten down and hard. It was like cement. And so the seed falls on that. The birds come along, eat it.

That's it. And those are the people who hear the word, and immediately Satan comes along and takes it away. And those are the people you talk to that just, they could care less about any of this stuff.

But then you have five kinds of soils. Three are called good soil. Then you have the rocky soil and the thorny soil. In three of the five, there's fruit. In two, there are not. And when you have the description of what these represent, they are preparing the apostles for what's going to happen when they go out proclaiming the message to everybody.

When you go out and proclaim the message to everybody, there are going to be some that respond immediately. And man, it looks really good, and they give you all the right words, and they're excited, and there's this growth.

But the problem is they're the rocky soil. And the reason there's immediate growth is because there's rocks underneath, and so the soil is very warm, and so the seed germinates very quickly. But then the seed starts trying to put its roots down, and there's rock in the way.

There's no roots, no fruit. Dies, withers, and the sun comes up. And then you have the thorny soil, where it can put its roots down, but it's competing with other roots because there's thorns, there's other plants in the way that are robbing it of its nutrients, and it too will start to grow, but it can't continue, and it never produces fruit.

And then you have the good soil, but there's different levels of good soil, 30, 60, 90, 30, 60, 100, depending on how you look at it. And the point is that there are some folks that will produce fruit, but it'll never be a whole lot.

And then there are others that will produce a lot of fruit, and for a long time. And the sower doesn't get to determine any of that. That's not a part of the sower's job. His job is to spread the word.

God prepares the soil. And so there are going to be people who show interest, and sometimes it's an immediate type thing with immediate departure, but sometimes it takes longer. And the Lord was saying to the apostles, you need to understand that there's going to be differing reactions.

Utter rejection, quick reaction, quick response, no long-term fruit, and then long-term fruit of differing plentitude. And that's exactly what every generation in the church is seeing. But we're still shocked and disappointed and personally hurt when you have false growth, even though we were warned that we would.

Even though we were warned that we would. When John, the apostle, writes 1 John, he's probably the last one still kicking at that point in time. It's probably one of the last epistles that we have in the New Testament.

And the church is struggling. There are all sorts of false teachers. There were all sorts of false teachers even in Paul's day. He had to struggle against the super apostles in Corinth, and people keep saying, let's go back to the early church.

It was a mess. It was a mess even in the days of the apostles. The church always has to fight for purity of the faith and stand for doctrine. Every generation is called to do that. We keep thinking this is really weird and strange.

No, this is pretty normative, actually. When John writes his little epistle, there are people questioning his apostolic authority. There's divisions in the church. He even refers to the antichristoi, the antichrists, and he says they went out from us.

The antichrists went out from us. They weren't just some weird cult outside the church. They were led by former people who were probably aware of who John was or maybe had been to John what Demas was to Paul and maybe even used that association as the means of starting their own groups.

Man, that's rough. But remember what John said. They went out from us so that it might be demonstrated they were not truly of us. There's actually a blessing to apostasy. Apostasy helps clarify the truth of the gospel.

When they stay in the church, they pollute the church. When they leave, they make it clear they were never truly of us because he says if they had been truly of us, they would have remained with us. But they weren't truly of us, so they went out from us.

That's John's explanation. And if an apostle of Jesus Christ can't keep false teachers from arising during his lifetime, why should we be shocked and surprised when we see examples of apostasy in our lifetime?

But we still are, aren't we? And there is an appropriateness. There really is an appropriateness to us grieving over apostasy, especially when you realize what Jesus taught about judgment based upon the amount of light that you had.

Woe to Chorazin and Bethsaida if Sodom and Gomorrah had had the kind of light that you've had. The Son of God has walked in your streets and taught, and you don't care, and you reject him. It'll be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you in the day of judgment.

If you've been over to Israel, I noticed something. I had my first chance to go last year, and we're going again next year. Rome, Ephesus, Athens, and Israel. Me and Jeff Durbin will be doing the teaching.

It's going to be fun. I hope, Lord willing. You can have disasters on those trips too, so I know, I'm a realist. But one thing I noticed when I was over there, they can't find any first century synagogues for Chorazin and Bethsaida.

They're gone, razed to the ground. Not even archaeological remains. Whoa, what happened to those cities? They received judgment. They received judgment. I found that interesting. Be more tolerable. The amount of light, and so someone who's been in ministry and had so much light, knows the languages of the Bible, and walks away, what kind of judgment are they going to have in comparison to someone who never heard?

You don't want to wish that on your worst enemy. You don't want to wish that. So we should grieve, but we should never question Christ's ability to save based upon the fact that what he warned us was going to happen, happens.

Now we may question, well Lord, why would you allow that kind of thing to happen? Because if it didn't happen, we would never count the gospel as being precious, and we would never understand why Paul says, examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith.

Apathy is a horrible thing. One of the hardest groups of people to evangelize are people who think they're already saved. And sadly, the church very often uses a gospel presentation that encourages people to think they're saved when they're not.

Come down the aisle, shake the hand, get your ticket punched. Don't worry about all the rest of that stuff in Scripture. That's just for super Christians. Produced generations of Christians, so-called Christians, who may well, at the day of judgment here, depart from me, I never knew you.

Lord, Lord, did we not? I never knew you. Jesus can save his people. And the Bible tells us what he does in the lives of saved people. And so I'm not saying that we should sit around contemplating our navels all day long.

If you want to know you're in the faith, do you trust Christ? Are you looking to yourself and your works? Or do you trust in Christ and his works? Do you truly have love for him and his gospel? Does his righteousness thrill your soul?

Or does the things of the world thrill your soul? That is the question. That same chapter of 1 John is where John said, if you love the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in you. Thanks, John.

Couldn't you have nuanced that some? Couldn't you have given us some wiggle room? Couldn't you have said something along the lines of, if you love the things of the world, the love of the Father is not going to be quite as fulfilled in you?

That would be so much easier. He said, if you love the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in you. That's stark, but it's true. Remember Demas? I've loved this present world. I love this present age.

And you can suppress that for a while and act religious, but eventually it gets you. Eventually it gets you. So first of all, let me apologize, because this is not the most uplifting message you've ever heard.

And I know that. But at the same time, I have talked to Christians who are really struggling because some big name apostatized. And I'm like, did your church never talk about this? And they're like, no.

Well, you're not going to be able to blame me for that. We do need to have a theology of apostasy. Because the Bible presents it. And we need to recognize it's okay to be hurt when Demas walks away and leaves you.

I've had that happen. Other people in this room have had that happen. And if it happens to you, is your faith shaken by that? Hopefully not, now that we've discussed it. But especially over the next number of years, especially you young people, you need to be firmly rooted in the truth of who Jesus Christ is and what he's doing in your life.

What the objective reality of the truth of the gospel is. That Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings, no matter what anybody else does around you. If that is not the beat of your heart, then you're following the wrong people.

And when they start walking away, you will too. But if you're absolutely committed to the kingship of Lord Jesus, you're going to keep following him, no matter what anybody else does. And that's what we need to be committed to as a people.

Individually, as a body, committed to the lordship of Christ. What that means. Don't let anyone deflect you from that. Paul kept walking on. Timothy kept walking on. They didn't follow Demas to Thessalonica.

And you need to make the commitment, Lord, give me the direction. Don't let me follow any Demas to some place where I'm promised something better. There isn't anything better. Continue to follow faithfully.

Let's pray together. Precious heavenly father, your word is a lamp to our feet and sometimes that lamp shines upon difficult subjects. But you've placed them there in your wisdom. And so we would ask that we would not be like Demas.

That we would not love this present world because we recognize it's passing away. That our love be for the Lord Jesus, for his kingdom, and the call you've placed upon our lives. May our faith be that which is produced by the Holy Spirit and hence endures to the end.

May we encourage one another while it is day. And no matter what happens around us, may we with a single-hearted devotion remain committed to the calling you've given to us in Jesus Christ. We pray for those who do walk away.

Lord, you have a purpose in all of it. And if any of those be individuals who had never truly had an understanding of who you were, then reveal yourself. But Lord, if they did, we know what your word says.

May we be warned by the seriousness of what your word says about having much light and then sinning against it. Lord, bless this church in its proclamation in these difficult days. And even when there are those who walk away, may we remain faithful out of our love for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's in his name that we pray.