A PROFILE OF A SPIRITUAL DEFECTOR
TEXT: 2 Timothy 4:10
2 Timothy 4:10 KJV For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; . . . .
I. INTRODUCTION -- ONE OF MINISTRY’S MOST DEVASTATING BURDENS
-One of the most devastating burdens about the ministry is watching the process of spiritual defection take place in the lives of people. Spiritual defection occurs when one abandons the Kingdom of God, its concepts, the Church, and the saints that have been a part of fellowship and friendship for them. It is a cycle that has been repeated over and over again and it will continue to be this way until the Rapture occurs.
A. On Backsliding
A. M. Hills (From Backsliders and Worldly Christians) -- It is doubtful if a moral fall is ever precipitous. People decline in religion and backslide gradually. Like descending a stairway, they go down step by step.
Herman Melville -- We warn you against little concessions, little acquiescence, little indulgences, little conformities. Each may only destroy the millionth part of the velocity; but this little destruction of a millionth has only to be perpetually repeated, and the planet’s march is arrested, and its luster is quenched. If vital religion be driven out of the soul, it will be as the Canaanites were to be driven before the Israelites, “by little and little.”
William Gurnall -- Many are soon engaged in holy duties, easily persuaded to take up a profession of religion—and as easily persuaded to lay it down: like the new moon which shines a little in the first part of the night, but is down before half the night be gone; lightsome professors in their youth, whose old age is wrapped up in thick darkness of sin and wickedness.
W. P. Lockhart -- In a petrifying spring articles are often placed under the dropping water, and as it trickles down upon them they are gradually hardened until they become like the very stone. So it is with sin. Gently and slowly it seeks its way into the heart, and hardens it day by day, even while the possessor of that heart may be more or less unconscious of the change that is going on. This is backsliding. Sin permitted, the heart gradually hardened, unbelief taking his place on the throne, and then, departure from the living God.
Thomas Watson -- The world eats the heart out of godliness, as the ivy eats the heart out of the oak. The world kills with her silver darts.
-There are numerous biblical examples of backsliders. Furthermore, in every church there are those that can be remembered who have now backslidden and departed the faith. In my personal life, I have had some very close friends who were one time greatly involved in the Kingdom of God and loved God with all of their heart but some little thing begin to grow in their heart until it totally separated them from God and the Church.
-Spiritual defectors will be part and parcel of any church that exists. Not only have I had peers that have spiritually defected, I have observed those who were literally stalwarts in the faith who decided that the love of the world held greater promise for them than did the permanence of the Kingdom of God.
B. The Spiritual Defectors That Paul Mentioned
-While Judas is one of the classic New Testament examples of backsliding, there is another example of a man who brings it even closer to home because of what Scripture has to say in defining him.
2 Timothy 4:10 KJV For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; . . . .
-Paul clearly stipulates here that Demas was one who was in a ministry partnership with him. Yet, when the pressure of spiritual life began to show itself, Demas defected to this present world because he loved the world.
-In this last chapter of 2 Timothy, Paul is frankly giving out the swan song of life. In fact, in 2 Timothy 4:6, he states that he is now ready to be offered. He is literally having reference to the fact that he is preparing his life to be poured out as a drink offering.
-The greatest calling should have gotten the greatest salute but it was not to be. There were no parades, no dinners in his honor, no accolades, and no great awards. In fact, there was nothing for Paul but a cold, dank, rat-infested cell that was full of filth and disease. Beyond that was the executioner’s blade that would sever his head from his body.
-All of this because Paul was involved in building a Kingdom that he could not see. This is the great dilemma of spiritual life and sometimes because we are building things that we cannot see, there is a prevailing and often overwhelming sense of discouragement and de-moralizing defeat.
-Paul had affected many in a great way. These people were scattered all about the world. What was not brought out was the fact that there were some people whom Paul could not affect and their lives ended up being a shipwreck. This could have been in the mind of Paul when he addresses Timothy in the last writings of his life.
• 2 Timothy 1:6 -- Timothy, don’t let your gift fall into disuse. Others have neglected their gift but you cannot afford to do so. So much depends on how you use the gift that has been given to you. Invest it and don’t hoard it!
• 2 Timothy 1:7 -- Timothy, don’t let fear and cowardice corrupt your thinking. Don’t be intimidated by those who try to disrupt the flock of God with their heavy-handed ways. Don’t be dissuaded from always doing what is right no matter how difficult it may be.
• 2 Timothy 1:8 -- Timothy, don’t be ashamed of the reproach that comes with being associated with the Kingdom of God. Don’t let the sufferings for the Name lead you to give up and defect. Suffering is part of the ministry that God has called you for.
• 2 Timothy 1:13 -- Timothy, hold on to the sound words of doctrine that have been delivered to you to preach and teach. The sound words can be a foundation for you in the times when human philosophy and false doctrines are working against you.
• 2 Timothy 1:14 -- Timothy, guard the treasure! Guard the Word that has been carefully passed on to you. It is like a diamond that is set against a black velvet backdrop. No need to be novel with it, just preach it and declare it plainly to those who hear you. Don’t get tainted with a hunger for popularity, money, or social elevation.
• 2 Timothy 1:15 -- Timothy, all in Asia have abandoned me and the Gospel. Some have been taken by missionary endeavors and responsibilities but others have defected. Phygellus and Hermogenes have gone the way of the world.
-Paul names these last two for Timothy perhaps for the sake of shock value. They were prominent men that people would have undoubtedly asked, “Can you believe that these two have departed the faith?” How many defectors did Paul have along the way? One can be sure that there were many who were saved and influenced by his ministry but the fact remains that all of them did not make the whole journey with him.
-The house of Onesiphorus was faithful and they ministered to the needs of Paul. They were keyed into the ministry of refreshment. The J. B. Phillips translation renders this phrase, “Many times did that man put fresh heart into me!”
-The Greek word for refresh means, “to cool again, to cool off, to assist one to recover from the effects of the heat again, to recover the breath, to take the air, etc.” Furthermore they were not ashamed of his chain.
-What could happen to those in our generation if there was a choosing to devote oneself to the ministry of refreshment. But even in the midst of these faithful few, when Paul concludes the last few lines of 2 Timothy, he states that no one stood with him (4:16). This is the exact pattern of ministry that Jesus and Stephen both would have to endure.
II. THE DEFECTION OF DEMAS
-Demas was a close friend of Paul and had been very closely associated with him for a number of years. Colossians 4:12-14 is the first mention of him and then when Paul is writing Philemon he establishes that Demas is a “fellow-labourer” (Philemon 24).
-Demas over the years had been associated with some very formidable men. In addition to Paul, he had been associated with Epaphras a powerful, praying pastor in Colosse.
-However all of the activity of Demas’ life can be summed up in one verse by Paul:
2 Timothy 4:10 KJV For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
-In the NASB, the expression is that he has “deserted” Paul. What should be made of this word?
-What real connotation lies behind it? The Greek word (egkataleipō) literally means to leave in straits, leave helpless, totally abandoned and utterly forsaken.
-Demas left Paul because he “loved this present world.” He loved the system of the world and its ideas and thoughts. John has written to us that we cannot love the world and if we do, the love of the Father is not in us.
-Demas fell into two of the categories or types of soil that was described by the Lord in Matthew 13. He was rocky soil which allowed the seed to grow for a while but then the plant was snuffed out. When persecution and suffering came to Demas, he withered. He was also a type of the weedy soil. When the cares of life and the deceitfulness of riches usurped the power and gained a foothold in his life, the tender plant of the Gospel withered.
-The backsliding and defection of Demas was a great sin:
• It was a sin against the great light that he had received as a young man. He could not attempt to plead that ignorance had offset him.
• It was a sin against the great love of God.
• It was a sin against the great light of good examples and mentors. Paul, Luke, Epaphras, and others would have greatly influenced him in the early days.
• It was a sin to give in to the temptation that had crossed his path.
• It was a sin for his influence to be used in a very negative way. By his poor example, others would have been drawn into the web of deceit and it would have brought a reproach to the witness of the early Church.
-Mere association with the Church and holy things do not in themselves necessitate the certainty of salvation. Every saint will have to stand the test of time and only when we love the things of God more than the things of this world will one be successful at Christian living.
-Time and truth go hand in hand and it creates much stability for the committed saint of God to embrace truth. The more the soul reclines in worldliness, the greater the liability becomes in living for God.
-Compare Paul to Demas and you will find one who kept the faith with tenacity and desire.
• In Antioch, he kept the faith when they attempted to silence his voice with their outbursts, interruptions, contradictions, and accusations of blasphemy.
• In Iconium, he kept the faith when the envious Jews stirred up the people to stone him.
• In Lystra, he kept the faith when he almost suffered a similar demise as did Stephen. He was dragged, wounding and bleeding, and dumped on the outskirts of town and left for dead.
• In the opposition of Peter, he kept the faith and withstood him to his face.
• In Philippi, he kept the faith when he was treated as a criminal and tossed into the prison.
• In Thessalonica, he kept the faith when some baser sort of fellows falsely accused him of sedition.
• In Athens, he kept the faith when he confronted those on Mar’s Hill for the worship of idols but did give a nod toward an “unknown” God.
• In Corinth, he kept the faith by instructing those who were in unstable patterns of spiritual life.
• In Ephesus, he kept the faith by pointing people to the Christ and not to Diana.
• In Jerusalem, he kept the faith when he was stoned again by an enraged mob. He was bound with iron fetters and he still kept the faith.
• In Caesarea, he kept the faith when he stood before a trembling and conscience-stricken Felix.
• In the audience of Agrippa, he kept the faith by using an intensity and passion that the king was pressed to a point of almost becoming a Christian.
• In the Roman prison, he kept the faith in the closing hours of his life in that dismal and dark cell by stating that he was “ready to be offered.”
-All of these examples from Paul’s life just reiterate the fact that we must give ourselves diligently to the service of the Kingdom no matter where we may reside!
III. WHAT SPIRITUAL DEFECTION DOES TO OUR SOUL
James 4:4 KJV Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
-Friendship with the world is hostility toward God. The world hates the truth and sinful, corrupt, human thinking is always going to oppose God’s Kingdom. James carries this thought to an incredible description when he calls those who associate with the world “adulterers and adulteresses.” James is addressing Jewish believers who knew exactly what the concept of his writing was. They knew very clearly what spiritual adultery/harlotry was.
-One of the great tragedies of our modern times is that many who are professing to be in the Church are pursuing the things of the world at a breakneck pace on the downgrade (as Charles Spurgeon once called it).
-There is an ongoing love affair with the world and all of its enticements. The world has much more devotion than does their relationship with God. This is the crux of what James was explaining.
-There is a spirit of worldliness that is cunning in her efforts to woo the Church into a state of paralysis. Spiritual power becomes bankrupted by involvement with the world. The Old Testament is full of descriptions from the prophets of what God saw when he looked at their defections from Him.
2 Chronicles 21:11-14 KJV Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto. [12] And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, [13] But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father’s house, which were better than thyself: [14] Behold, with a great plague will the LORD smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods:
Jeremiah 2:20-21 KJV For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. [21] Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
Jeremiah 3:6 KJV The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
Ezekiel 16:15-21 KJV But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. [16] And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. [17] Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them, [18] And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. [19] My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD. [20] Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, [21] That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
Hosea 1:2 KJV The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
-Spiritual defection is idolatry. James writes that those who corrupt their worship are in hostile posture toward God. What was once sacred has now become so soiled that God wants no part of their worship.
-The following passages indicate what will ultimately happen to those who are the enemies of God:
Deuteronomy 32:41 KJV If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
Psalms 21:8-9 KJV Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. [9] Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
Psalms 68:21 KJV But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.
Psalms 72:9 KJV They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
Nahum 1:2 KJV God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
-Demas listened to the wooing call for too long and he defected to Thessalonica soon becoming the enemy of God. His former life had too much of a call to him. This is why that as soon as one gets into the Church that there has to be a desertion of the places, things, and even people who once had a share in our previous wicked lifestyle.
-Thessalonica was along the trade route with a population of some 200,000 and all of the world’s vices were on display in this location. Because Demas did not love God and he loved the world, he was overcome. We are no match for this world without the cleansing work of the Spirit.
-The spirit of this world will ravish your soul. Truth and righteousness must be embraced and error has to be forgotten. Far too often there is a willingness to think that doctrine is the only place of error. Nothing could be further from the truth because the devil uses every opportunity he can to subvert the souls of men. One has to understand that everything opposing God is unacceptable. 1 John 5:4 describes a faith that is overcoming in its scope.
Philip Harrelson
May 29, 2008
www.barnabas14blog.blogspot.com
