The Danger of Desertion

So, I invite you to look with me this morning in 2 Timothy chapter 4.

If this is your first time here, thank you for being with us. Last Sunday was a joy to delight in, a necessary and delightful time of considering that Christ is risen. And today is also Easter Sunday. Christ is risen forevermore, and being Protestants, we recognize that every Lord's Day is an invitation to contemplate that Christ is risen indeed. So thank you for joining us again as we consider our risen and victorious Lord.

And what that has to mean for us is His people. When I was 10 years old, our family went on a vacation to Myrtle Beach for a week with some friends of ours. And that was a little different than our usual trip to Panama City, which is where my dad's family was from. One day while the parents were tending to the younger kids, I decided I was going to wade out into the water thinking nothing of it, as we had been playing in it all week. This time, however, there was a rip current. And the fascinating thing about those things is that they don't yank you violently. It kind of gently and subtly pulls you away until you look up, and the shore is getting further and further away.

According to my mom, by the time she began looking for me, all she could hear was a faint, Mom, as I was getting pulled out into the water. And while I was, fortunately, as you could guess, rescued, there is a lesson in this for us that drifting doesn't seem dangerous until it is. Today, I want us to explore the danger of desertion. It is the slow drift of a heart turning from the safety of Christ to the promises and the empty promises of the world. In 2 Timothy 4-10, we meet Demas, a man who stood shoulder to shoulder with Paul, only to be swept away by his love for this present world.

His story is tragic. It's what one writer calls a tragic mercy, a warning from God to test our loyalties before the current carries us too far. Today, we will be reminded of this present danger. We will also examine our hearts and find a reminder of hope and the God who sees our wondering hearts and promises to heal our backsliding with his free love.

And we will examine that in Hosea 14. Just as a rip current pulls you further from shore with every unnoticed step, the danger of desertion creeps into our hearts through small, subtle choices that turn our love from Christ to the world. As we open 2 Timothy 9-18 together, we will be reminded of the sobering dangers of apostasy and the gracious way God calls us to respond when we are wounded by those who turn away from the faith as well. With that said, let us look closer at Demas' subtle fate as a warning that God gives us to guard our hearts before we are too far from shore ourselves. Paul says in verse 10, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. The first thing that we will find as we look at this text is that this desertion is a subtle fade.

I want us to see the subtle fade of desertion. The story of Demas is a heartbreaking story. It is used by God as a warning for the good of his people.

It is what I mentioned beforehand, a tragic mercy. It warns us. It invites us to test our loyalties. The reason that this is so necessary for us is that this drift is not a sudden and clean break at a moment's notice. It is a subtle drift away from the Lord.

It is a slow fade. Notice that Paul writes that Demas loved this present world. In highlighting that word loved, we are reminded that the inward man forsakes the Lord for the far country far before his legs take him there. What's discouraging about this text is found two verses beforehand.

Look there with me. He says, Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Paul, building on top of the love that is rewarded with the crown, the love, this agape, this deep and unrelenting love and longing, this yearning for the glory of the Lord is counterbalanced by Demas's love for the world. Paul is giving us two sides to look at here, two ditches, as it were, and we definitely want to be in the first. By focusing on Demas's love for the world, Paul is contrasting these two loves and reveals that Demas was focused on what he could gain today rather than what awaits the believer tomorrow. In short, what Paul is doing here is revealing that Demas, a man who he once thought would receive a crown which belongs to all who long to see Jesus, really only loved the world.

The reality is that we also live in the same present evil age that Demas lived in. There are a myriad of voices crying out to you at every moment of every day that offer themselves as a solution to your need. They tell you your shoulders have gone too long bearing your cross and that you've earned a reprieve, a relief, the relief that they offer.

But it's a lie. Sin offers you freedom but it gives you chains. Christ promises a cross and bestows a crown upon you. The world is always whispering, it's always inviting, it's always calling, it's always promising, and the terrifying thing is that these temptations that once seemed so weak grow continually louder as you lend an ear to them. For instance, Satan's promise in the garden never held power until Eve began to entertain them.

And that's when the seed took hold. And that's when the seed will begin to take hold of you and I and so we must be careful to keep an eye out for the cause of this world and our subtle drift away from the Lord. We must admit and embrace the lyrics of the old hymn which cries out, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

This is our tendency and if we are not heeding the call of Aslan to come further up and further in, then our dispositions of sin will go further away. In John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Christian and Hopeful are nearing the end of their journey. While walking, they begin to reflect on a man named Mr. Temporary.

Mr. Temporary was a man who seemed genuinely set on going to the Celestial City with them. As a matter of fact, they said, we were convinced that he knew of his sinfulness, for he cried. And then Hopeful says, but not all who cry unto me, Lord, Lord, know me. Somewhere along the way he turned back and in response to that while they were speaking, Christian gives 10 reasons. We could call them 10 mile markers on the road of desertion.

Here are five of them. First, they will begin to draw their thoughts from remembering God, remembering death and remembering judgment. In essence, they will begin to do everything that they can to find any means possible to distract themselves from the weightier issues of life, namely God, death and the judgment. Second, they will cast off their Christian duties such as prayer and the resisting of sin. Third, they will forsake the company of warm Christians. Fourth, they grow cold in the hearing, the reading and the talking of the things of the Lord. And fifth, they will begin to pick holes in the lives of Christians around them to give them a reason to forsake religion.

They will use it, as it were, as a grip to be able to pull themselves up to state that since they see sinfulness in the lives of others, then they are justified in their own sinful living themselves. This is what Christian gives unto us, the pilgrim gives unto us as five mile markers on the road of desertion. Do these resonate with you? Are you on that road today? Have you found yourself caught in the grasp of the subtle rip current of sin? Does the Savior's voice seem more distant than before? Are you using the distractions of this world to drown out the voice of the Lord and the thought that you will face God?

I met with a friend the other day while speaking to him. We were convinced that the Romans one reality of God's judgment of delivering up the people of the United States to their sin is not that we will go without, but that we are so consistently focused on self-indulgence that he will give it to us until it comes out of our noses and yet we will be the most oppressive people the world has ever seen. Are you on this road today? Are you abiding in the distractions of this world and yet you were tormented by your conscience which is screaming but you can't hear it because you've drowned it out every moment of the day? Do the promises of the gospel and the hope that lay before us seem encouraging, less encouraging than today's promise of popularity, comfort and indulgence? Are you pushing away the friends who speak truth into your life and beloved if these are true of us God has given to us this sad story of Demas as a stop sign on the road of desertion to call you from the way that you are heading. But since it is such a subtle and slow fade and since our adversary is so crafty, how do we know?

How do we know? And this leads me to my next point. We have seen the danger, the present reality of desertion which faces men even Demas, this faithful co-laborer as far as Paul thought it in the gospel. But next we will see a diagnosing, a diagnostic of desertion in our own hearts. In Hebrews chapter 6 verse 7 through 12, you are welcome to turn there with me if you would like. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 7 through 12, we are going to find two red flags that warn us of this dangerous trajectory in our lives. The text reads, for the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated receives blessing from God.

But if it bears thorns and briars it is rejected and near to being cursed whose end is to be burned. But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation that we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. In verses 7 and 8, we are going to find a contrasting of two types of soil which are the hearts of men. One like the earth, it not only receives but it drinks up the word of God and in response to it, it bears a good fruit. The other is fruitful. However, the fruitfulness of this other soil is fruitful and bad fruit. They are called the thorns and the thistles or the briars of the heart. Matthew Henry writes, it is not only barren of good fruit, it is fruitful in that which is bad.

Briars and thorns, fruitful in sin and wickedness, which are troublesome and hurtful to everyone around them. God will concern himself no more about such wicked apostates. He will let them alone. He will cast them out of his care. He will command the clouds that they rain no more upon them.

Divine influences shall be restrained and that is not all. Lastly, its end is to be burned. Apostasy will be punished with everlasting burnings. The fire that shall never be quenched. This is the sad end to which apostasy leads and therefore Christians should go on and grow in grace, lest if they do not go forward, they will go backward.

Powerful words. The first red flag we see here is a hardened heart toward the word of God, which abuses the gift of his word and instead of drinking it up and being fruitful, it responds with sinfulness. In short, the first red flag that alerts us to a tendency for desertion within us is a fruitless relationship with the word of God. It's a fruitless relationship with the word of God. This looks like having no care in the world for the reading of the scriptures or the hearing of it preached. It looks like doodling during sermons week after week until you finally decide there's no point in coming at all. You remain uninterested, unchanged and ultimately unmoved by the Lord. The little preaching you do here is just to find criticisms or to use them as ammo that you can use against those around you. But aside from that, you've decided that there is nothing in it for you. This is the red flag of a desertive heart who rejects the word of God.

And the only time they do receive it is not for their own good, but as ammunition against those around them. To use it, as it were, as a club to beat others into submission to your own will. Next, in verses 11 and 12, we see a tendency to sluggishness. Similar to what we've discussed beforehand, the sluggish professor sees no urgency or necessity in Christian discipline. He sees it as an unnecessary and unfruitful exercise which he or she doesn't have time for. It looks like instead of preparing our hearts for the worship of the Lord, we'd rather distract ourselves and indulge in something more entertaining. While there is nothing wrong with the TV show and watching a movie with your spouse, there is something to be said about the ever-presence of noise in our world today. We have screens glaring, speakers booming, voices shouting at all times to drown out the small voice of conviction and contemplation within our souls.

And while we travel down the subtle road of desertion, we're too sluggish to do anything about it. Now you might be thinking, this isn't me at all. I attend every service. I volunteer for all the ministries I can. I give.

I even fit in perfectly. But beloved, while that may be great, we have to remember Judas heard all of Christ's sermons. In 2 Kings 5, Naaman, a commander of the Syrian army, is struck with leprosy and he, with no hope, flees to Elijah. As he knocks on his door, Elijah tells him, go wash seven times. And Naaman, who's a little apprehensive at first, receives that command and is cleansed. In his delight, he returns to Elijah. He offers a repayment and Elijah refuses it.

That is a physical sermon about the free offer of the gospel and the unmerited, undeserved and unrepayable grace of God given in the gospel. But there's another person standing to the side and his name is Gehazi. When Gehazi hears that there is an offering of money from Naaman, he decides, well, when Elijah looks away, I'm going to chase Naaman down and I'm going to tell him Elijah changed his mind.

We actually would like some of those gifts after all. And Naaman is overjoyed. And he gives not only what Gehazi is asking for, he gives him double what he asked for. And as Gehazi turns and he heads back to his master's quarters, he hides what he has. Elijah confronts him about it and he pretends to have no clue of what Elijah is talking about. Elijah says, did not my soul go with you? And then the judgment of God, God falls upon him and he is cursed with the leprosy that once devoured Naaman. This is one example of the love that Demas had for the present world. Gehazi sat under a godly master. He saw the miracles of God. He witnessed a display of God's free grace. And instead of being thrilled with that, his heart was set on the offerings of this present world. Beloved, what we see in the story of Demas is how close we can get to the kingdom without truly kissing the king.

Demas had a tremendous pedigree. What greater associates could you have? What greater friends could you fool than the Apostle Paul that you were a Christian and yet you were never truly one to begin with? Is this the road that you were walking? Is this the road that I am walking?

Are we riding a padded pew down the road of apostasy? Ask yourself, genuinely, what thrills me? What comforts me? What grieves me about myself?

What is my heart's innermost longing? Does the gospel simply sit on the dusty shelf of my mind as a thought of bygone errors? Does a busted bracket hurt me more than my sin against the Lord? Does a trip to the beach thrill me more than the contemplation of the gospel of free grace?

Is Sunday just another day of obligations that weigh upon my shoulder? If so, we must understand that we have backslidden against the Lord. And perhaps the most terrifying thing about this is that you can almost find no distinctions between the early stages of apostasy and backsliding.

They look identical. And this is a cancer which devours piece by piece until it takes you totally. And yet there's hope. There's hope. There is hope.

And our third subpoint here, hope for the backslider. I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Hosea chapter 14. Hosea chapter 14. I will read verses one through four. We'll focus in on verse four for those of you who are finding your way there. O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord.

Say to him, take away all iniquity. Receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips. Assyria shall not save us. We will not ride on horses, nor will we say any more to the work of our hands. You are our gods.

Why is that? They continue, for in you, for in you the fatherless find mercy. And God replies, I will heal their backsliding.

I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from him. I will be like the dew to Israel. He shall grow like the lily and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread.

His beauty shall be like an olive tree and his fragrance like Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall be revived like grain and grow like a vine.

Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon. There is hope for the backsliding. God promises, I will heal their backsliding.

I will love them freely. The beautiful thing about the Lord is that he does not only forgive us in our backsliding, he promises to heal it. And how does he do that? How will God today for you and I who have this disposition of backsliding within us, how will God restore us from our backsliding? He tells us that he will do it by his free love. This love is not the reward of their reform.

Their reform is the result of his free love. Paul tells us that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. And what greater good could God possibly show us than his love in the open display of the crucifixion of his own son? What is the result of us receiving this kind of unmerited favor, this undeserved forgiveness? What is the response of the soul when he is enraptured with such grace?

We find two things. First in verse 2, it is the detesting of your sin. Notice the Lord gives them the prayer that they should pray back to him. They say, take away all iniquity, receive us graciously, for we will offer sacrifices of our lips.

Take away all iniquity. Richard Sibb says, none heartily pray to God to take away all iniquity who have not first received grace to truly hate all iniquity. In essence, when we consider the beautiful love of God and how we do not deserve a single ounce of his affection, we can't help but to see how horrible our sins against him are. And if you were in your sin today and you say, it's just a pet sin, everyone has them.

I don't really see the big deal in it. Certainly I don't see that God can merit an eternity of punishment for my sins. The reason that you undervalue or underestimate the seriousness of your sin is because you have a deficient view of who the God is that you've sinned against.

When we understand, as Hosea teaches us, that the clouds are the dust at his feet, that he meeds out the glories of our oceans in the palm of his hand, that he speaks the cosmos into existence, that he crushes Pharaoh's armies, that he slays Leviathan. When we understand that it's against that God that we have sinned, we say, what else do I deserve but an eternity beneath wrath? God says, but I will heal your backsliding. And the response of those who see the weight of sin can only come to detest their sin.

When we see the love of God shed abroad in our hearts and the crucifixion of his Son, how can we not be brought to hate our sin? This is the response of those who are enraptured by divine grace. And it's not a work that you do. It's a divine intervention.

It's a monergistic act. It's not watching videos and self-mutilating until you can make yourself hate your sin. You drink sin like water.

It's the air you breathe. It's the only thing that gives you delight until you understand for the first time in your life there's something else worth living for. And as Augustine said, your soul is never truly satisfied until it finds itself satisfied in him. And that God says, I will love you freely. That God says in Song of Solomon, my banner over you is love. And the heart which has been created in his image responds, how could I not hate my sin against that kind of God? How can I not hate my sin against that kind of God?

You might be asking, how has God loved me? And Paul says, look no further than the cross. Verse three, they cry out in despair.

So not only is there a detestation of sin, but there is a despair in soul. They say, it's not Assyria. Lord, Assyria cannot save us. It's not our horses that can save us. It's not the works of our hands that can save us.

It's not our idols that can save us. Father, our only hope is the gracious God who we know to be a father to the fatherless. In essence, it is in a God who loves to help those who have no other hope. God's love opens our eyes to the emptiness of everything that we've been clinging to for help.

And it teaches us to sing with a hymn writer. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress. Helpless, look to thee for grace.

Foul, eye to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I'll die. In our text today, there is, in 2 Timothy 8, a sentiment of reconciliation seen.

Mark, a man who himself once abandoned Paul as well in his resignation from their missionary journey and his flight back to Jerusalem. Overall, the Lord uses the sad story of Demas to provoke you and me to explore the condition of our own souls. Now, there may be seasons of serious sin for those of us in Christ.

Serious sin. But if we endeavor into these seasons of serious sin and the chastising rod of the Lord does not fall upon us in removing assurance, in removing the cloud or the sunshine of his love from us, if we can dwell in these seasons of unbridled sin and yet we do not lose assurance, you have great reason to be afraid because God chasteneth those he loves. God chastises those he loves. For the true Christian, beloved, you will, you will persevere. Philippians 1, 6. He who has began a good work in you will perform it unto the day of the Lord.

What he begins, he will finish. You will persevere, not because you are not like Demas. We are so much more like Demas than we care to admit. So you will not persevere because you're better than Demas. No, you will persevere because Christ, who is opposite of Demas, will never forsake you because you are his and he is yours forevermore.

We are prone to wonder. I know myself and it is not my daily assurance that I grab upon Christ with an unrelenting grip. It's that Christ has taken hold of me. Christ has made me, as it were, a love gift to the Father and the Father, likewise, has given it to the Son.

He has set this thing into motion. He found me as a young boy in South Carolina and raptured me with divine love, has taken hold of me by grace, and he promises, you will endure. You will endure not because you are that good but because I am that good. You will persevere because I will preserve you. You have that hope. You have that hope. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4.18, The Lord will deliver me.