“Demas, The Disconnected Disciple”
“2 Timothy 4:10”
Philemon 1:24 Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.
Colossians 4:14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
2 Timothy 4:10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
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I was speaking to someone this past week and made the observation that I had never seen a time in all my years of pastoring like today with the subject of our message. I have titled this message “Demas, the Disconnected Disciple” for good reason. This is a case of a man who had been a follower of Jesus and a companion to the Apostle Paul, who somehow lost his way, came loose from his moorings and drifted away into the world again. I am not going to be so presumptuous as others have been and make a statement that Demas was never saved to begin with, nor am I going to venture to speculate on where Demas is at this moment. What concerns me is what happened to this man from the time he is first mentioned in Scripture until the last time he is mentioned. He is an example of what can happen and what will happen to anyone believer who comes to the place in his or her life where they, “…love this present world…” more than they love God.
I. The Lure of This Present World
a. Our deception
ILL - Few college football coaches have made a point against drugs as effectively as Erk Russell of Georgia Southern College, the last 4 sport letterman at Auburn, winner of 3 national championships, who passed away in September of 1996. He arranged for a couple of good ol’ country boys to burst into a routine team meeting and throw a writhing, hissing, six-foot-long rattlesnake onto a table in front of the squad. "Everyone screamed and scattered," Russell recalls. "I told them,” When cocaine comes into a room, you’re not nearly as apt to leave as when that rattlesnake comes in. But they’ll both kill you!"
Unknown.
Hebrews 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Sulfur Caves
ILL - In Southern Mexico lies the Cueva de Villa Luz, or Cave of the Lighted House. As you make your way to the cave you walk through a veritable paradise of tropical birds and lush rain forest. Underwater the cave is fed by 20 underground springs, beautiful watercourses which teem with tiny fish. The cave itself is home to spectacular rock formations and beautiful ponds. The environment is inviting. Yet accept the invitation and you’ll soon be dead. You see, the Cueva de Villa Luz is filled with poisonous gases. Temptation is just like this. It presents itself to us as something inviting, attractive, life-giving. Yet in reality it’s poisonous and toxic.
Source: Scott Higgins. Information on the Cave obtained from National Geographic, May 2001.
THE PROMISE OF A FLAT-SCREEN
ILL - Reminds me of a 42-year-old woman from South Bend, Indiana. She called the police after being sold what she thought was a flat-screen TV. She was approached by a man who offered her a great deal on the TV, a new flat-screen TV for only $500 dollars. She admitted it was a great deal but did not have the money. So he lowered the price to $300 dollars. She gave him the money. The set was bubble-wrapped, had Wal-Mart stickers on it, and came with a remote control--but when she unwrapped it, she discovered it was an oven door! Satan has all kinds of good things like that for us; all we have to do is pay the price of disobeying God!
b. Our dissipation
ILL - Sin has a diminishing factor to it. It always gives it’s best in the beginning. It never gets better after that ... it only gets worse.
Mark Aulson
Luke 8:14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
Have you ever watched weeds take over a garden or a lawn or a life for that matter. It is slow and progressive and the end result is the life is “choked” out of our spiritually.
c. Our discernment
Discernment is the spiritual capacity to distinguish between right and wrong, the real and the counterfeit, the true and the false.
ILL - Vacationing in Arizona, a group of British tourists spots a cowboy by the side of the road, with his ear to the ground. "What’s going on?" they asked."Two horses, one gray-one chestnut, are pulling a wagon carrying 2 men,” the cowboy says."One man is wearing a red shirt and the other a black shirt." "They’re heading east." "Wow, You can tell all that just by listening to the ground?" says one of the tourists.
"No" replies the cowboy. "They just ran over me."
ILL - "No one is so empty as the one who has stopped walking with God and doesn’t know it."
Jerry White
Judges 16:20 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.
Hosea 7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
Isaiah 47:8 “Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me…”
11 “…evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.”
II. The Love of This Present World
There was a popular Gospel song out a few years ago by the Cathedrals that said, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” The Apostle John (who knew something about love) writes: 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
To be honest loving this present world will lead you to do some things that you never thought possible because loving this world more than you love God is sin. Loving the present world will lead you to:
a. Disobey the Scriptures
1 John 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
b. Disconnect from the Servants
Paul was writing from a Roman jail when he penned these words and we can only imagine his pain and disappointment to know that in his hour of need this man who had been a close companion had separated himself from the aged Apostle. “…For Demas hath forsaken me…and is departed…” Other men had left him but none have the designation, “…having loved this present world…”
c. Disappear from the Sanctuary
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
d. Disrespect the Savior
Hebrews 10:29a Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing,
e. Despise the Spirit
Hebrews 10:29b …and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
$3.00 WORTH OF GOD, PLEASE
ILL - Tim Hansel in his book "When I Relax I feel Guilty," writes some insights of what most people want from God. "I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please." If we would be totally honest, the idea of transformation really scares us. That is because we know that such a radical change would be quite uncomfortable. We realize that with transformation comes a major overhaul of our lives and priorities.
(From a sermon by Scott Chambers, The Mission if You Accept it: Transformation, 2/15/2011)
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
