The following points are sermon highlights, for those who do not have 55 minutes to hear this excellent sermon.
Bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine:
- 2 Timothy 4:10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
- Topic of sermon, apostasy, specifically, loving the world
- Demos was a minister of the gospel, not a regular church goer
- The remedy: If our gaze was on Christ [and we were busy abiding in the word and prayer…], then He would put worldliness to death in us
- Two truths considered: 1. Apostates love this present world; 2. Believers love the appearing of Christ
- Context: Paul was locked in jail awaiting execution (the pastor often returns to this text for a fresh picture of finishing the Christian race rightly)
- For you to run your race well could mean that you are abandoned by all your friends, imprisoned…just like the apostle
- Reminder: The Lord Jesus Christ promised eternal life to those who persevere in the faith; He did not say we would have a pleasant journey, but that we would have tribulation; but to take heart because He had overcome the world
- It is a noteworthy goal to be able to say, with the apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
- Resolve each day, to fight the good fight. It is unlikely we will be involved in carrying the gospel to the end of the earth, but in smaller things it is necessary:
- I have fought the good fight against my sin today; against temptation; by being content when the world says I shouldn’t; by repenting quickly after sinning; by being a godly parent…
- Paul didn’t fight to earn righteousness, that was given him by the Lord [at conversion, when he was justified], he fought because Christ had died for him, loved him, bathed him in His own blood
- Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? …37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
- Such meditation prepared Paul for facing tribulation and forsaking the world
- What is this world in comparison to Christ, His loveliness?
- In Philemon, it is clear that Demas a co-laborer with Paul in the gospel: 23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
- Demas was in the inner circle, side by side with those other helpers of Paul; if he could fall, having sat under the teaching of Paul, then any of us could fall into soul-damning worldliness
- 1 Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful…
- No minister, elder, Doctor, deacon…is exempt; this warning is about real people, real friendships, tragedies, history
- The Christian faith is no mythology; the true God has worked through real men, in real time; we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:16)
- What Demas did and why: he abandoned Paul. Paul was then in deep trouble with Rome. Demas may have feared martyrdom? He may have been happy to teach and help Paul until Paul entered into such tribulation. He went to Thessalonica, a 1000 miles or so away
- Demas was like a brother to Paul which likely increased the sense of betrayal to Paul…
- When we experience betrayal and other suffering in our service to the Lord, we get a tiny taste of His sufferings
- Jesus was betrayed by Judas for 30 pieces of silver; Jesus was also betrayed by Demas in the above scenario
- The immortal souls of Demas and Judas had set their affections on something perishable; the object of their affections had an expiration date, like the milk in the fridge
- Demas and Judas perished in hell; loving the world above Christ has tragic consequences
- 1 John 2:17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever
- Your faith is tied up with the object of its greatest affection
- What do you love? Your eternity will be based on what you most cherish
- 2 Corinthians 4:18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal
- It is a great diagnostic tool, to know on which realm your eyes are set, the temporal or the eternal
- 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life3 —is not from the Father but is from the world.
- A diagnostic question: About what am I constantly thinking? Does it promote godliness or worldliness?
- On what do you spend your time and money? Those things indicate where your affections lie
- Ephesians 5:15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is…
- Do you redeem the time or spend yours on games, social media, worldly entertainment; with people of the world; obsessing over the material goods you seek; thinking about others opinions of you…
- Our time is under Christ’s lordship and we will be called to account for it, every idle word…
- Do you use your money for the kingdom of God or the kingdom of self?
- Are my family / personal devotions the first thing on the chopping block [the lowest on your priority list]?
- Do you admit to being a believer in this present evil age that hates God and Christ?
- We must call upon the Lord in prayer to mortify our worldly affections
- From the text, it is clear that Paul did not suspect that Demas would apostatize; Paul’s eyes were opened by Demas’ abandonment of him
- Do not remain oblivious to what your heart loves; you must know what that is while there is time to do something about it – beseeching the Lord for His help in loving what He approves…
- Do not discover that you’re in love with the world when it is too late, as Lot’s wife did
- It is important to understand your motives for the things you do: is it to love the world or Christ?
- Matthew 13:22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful
- Pray that God the Holy Spirit prepare the soil of your heart to receive His word
- It is not enough, however, to put away the love of the world; one must also nurture the love of Christ’s appearing: Luke 11:24-26 was referenced:
- Luke 11: 24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
- In learning to love Christ’s appearing, meditate upon such texts: 1 Thessalonians 4: 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
- 1 John 3: 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
- Luke 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. [In this scenario, the one seeking to save his life has worldly values, like Lot’s wife]
- Luke 17:28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all
- Those things underscored above are not bad things unless they are placed above Christ, which they were in this scripture, as those people were not among those called by God to flee Sodom
- Jude, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
- Jude, 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
[The highlights above lack transitions and some illustrations of the pastor’s. They may make more sense to you in hearing them preached.]
This sermon came from the following YouTube site: Christian Sermons and Audiobooks. This site contains sermons from the greatest preachers of the faith, C H Spurgeon, for example; it also contains current preacher’s sermons, as this today.
This is a valuable site and I highly recommend subscribing. He sends a few sermons a week for subscribers to consider.
The following link is to the above sermon, for those who would explore the site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zlsBODmiAo&list=LL&index=2