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[silence] We don't have much time left, and that's good. We're talking about some men merely mentioned in Scripture, and tonight I want to mention one of these.

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His name was Demas. Demas is noted three times in the pages of the New Testament. In the 24th verse of Philemon, Paul says of him, "Demas and Luke, my fellow workers."

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Then in Colossians chapter 4 at the 14th verse we read, "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you." Finally, in 2 Timothy chapter 4 at verse 10, Paul makes the last reference to Demas which appears in the Bible.

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He writes, "For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me." The life of Demas from Scripture can be seen as three points on a graph. Demas, my fellow worker. Demas, no comment.

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Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me. Paul had a very sharp tongue. You only have to read what he said in his debates about Mark or with Barnabas or Peter to know that he could call a spade a spade. But when it came to Demas, there's no rebuke.

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There's no sharpness. There's no severity. It's a kind of breathed epitaph. He has loved the world too much and has deserted me. If we only had the first two references, I suppose there would be children named Demas today

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and perhaps a congregation here or there called the Church of St. Demas. But there are none because of this last word of Paul. "For Demas, in love with the present world, has deserted me." Demas is the man who loved the world too much.

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Now, it may be that this happened to Demas because he did not count the cost of discipleship when he gave himself to Jesus. You know, Jesus never kids about the cost of discipleship. He says, "If you would be my disciple, you must take up your cross and follow me." And maybe Demas didn't understand that.

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It has often seemed to me that those, particularly who come to Jesus at an emotional high point in their lives, often come without understanding what the cost of discipleship is going to be. I remember talking to a girl on a Midwestern campus, and she said that all of the thrill had gone out of her Christianity. She was very surprised when I said to her, "My young friend, I hope you understand that not all of Christianity is thrilling."

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No one had ever told her that. Sometimes it isn't very exciting. It instead is painful and difficult. I heard Billy Graham say to a group of ministers on one occasion that many of those who came forward in their meetings,

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and I quote him directly, "do not have any idea what they're doing." And I think that's true. There are many who come to Christ without ever counting the cost. I always think of that little passage back in 2 Kings, where the children of Israel, the soldiers, had golden shields,

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but they were conquered and their golden shields were taken away, and so they took brass shields and polished them till they shined like gold. Well, there are many times in the Christian walk when our golden shields are taken away, and the romance of religion suddenly becomes the stern march of duty.

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And in those minutes, you must be ready to shine the brass shield so that it gleams like gold. Maybe no one ever told that to Demas. He didn't count the cost, and so he fell away. Or maybe his difficulty was that someone told him, and he made the stake of believing it,

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that once you become a Christian, you'll never have any difficulties anymore. Everything will be a smooth walk. It seems to me hard to believe that Demas could have accepted that, for he spent some time with Paul when Paul was in prison.

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And here is Paul paying the price of his faith, and Demas saw that. So Demas must have been, to some degree at least, aware that all is not smooth in faith. But the difference between Paul and Demas is this, that the inner convictions Paul had were enough to carry him through those times,

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and it was not so for Demas. You know, the Arabs had a saying that all sunshine makes the Sahara. The light that has only brightness loses its depth and its beauty, its lushness and its growth. But perhaps Demas was naive enough to believe that when you become a Christian,

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all of life will be that kind of delight. And if that is so, then it is much to be regretted that he did not understand. I have always been taken with the fact that there was a music director, teacher, in Warsaw, Poland, about whom there is nothing of particular significance,

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except that in one of his journals in which he recorded the names of his students, this man whose name was Elsner wrote these words, "New student. Chopin. Frederick. Third year. Amazing capabilities. Musical genius." He was only in his third year.

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But already Elsner recognized what was there. But it took many years, many years of pain and difficulty and effort, to make Chopin the greatest genius of the keyboard that we have ever known. Like great paintings, the Christian life must have not only light, but shadow.

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And Demas didn't grasp that. You will notice that in the Colossians reference, Paul says that Luke was there with Demas. And I think it interesting to notice that Luke is the only one of the gospel writers who tells the parable of the builder of the tower.

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Do you remember that parable about the man who built the tower, and he hadn't counted the cost in advance, and he ran out of money, and he was ashamed when he didn't have enough money to complete the job? "Which of you who is going to build a tower," Jesus says, "does not first count the cost?"

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Only Luke, only Luke tells that parable. And maybe he tells it because he knew Demas. And Demas was the man who didn't count the cost. Or maybe Demas fell away from faith because of the sheer weariness of the years.

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Traditionally, we think he was very young, but the fact of the matter is that no reference whatever is made to his age. He could have been an older man, and maybe as the journey of faith went along for him, he lost his enthusiasm and his zeal. I know when I was a young pastor, I would be thrilled when the telephone would ring at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.

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I would think, "Oh, here comes some dramatic moment. This will make a great sermon illustration sometime in the future." And I'd be all ready for the excitement of it. And now, when the telephone rings at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, I say, "Oh, no." Faith does have a way of wearing us down.

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We talk a great deal about good beginnings, and we think beginnings are very important. That's the reason we spend so much time on the ministry to children in the church, for example. That's the reason we have premarital counseling. We want to get the couple off to a good start.

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But you know, good beginnings don't mean much if they only lead to sad endings. The most tragic lives are not the lives of the handicapped. You and I have both known handicapped people who went through life with all their flags flying and have done marvelous things. It seems to me the greatest tragedy is the life which has in it that fatal flaw,

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which does not manifest itself at the beginning, which we tend to emphasize and focus on, but which manifests itself later and brings the whole thing down. Have you noticed in the newspapers the last couple of weeks we've been reading all the stories about this young FBI agent who betrayed his country? The first FBI agent we've ever known to do that.

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You know, I think it's interesting that in all of the articles about that man, there's never been a word said about all the cases in which he was engaged earlier and which he found himself to be of value and success. All we remember about it is the sad way in which he ended.

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I think it is especially important that as we become older in the Christian faith, we pause every now and then to measure our zeal and to find out if we are still excited about the things of Christ as we once were. I go to the Lincoln Memorial at least once every two years.

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I write it on my calendar to find if I'm still led to weep when in the presence of that great man's memory. I listen at least once each year to the Resurrection Symphony of Gustav Mahler, which was the first musical moment I remember in which my soul was illuminated, just to see if the light still shines for me when I hear it.

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Do you ever go back over the passages to see if they reach you down deep inside like they once did? If they don't, well then you've got to change the version of the scriptures that you're using, and you've got to move to a different method of prayer than the one that has been yours across the years, and you need to talk to some close Christian friends with whom you can share deeply

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and from whom you can receive their counsel. And perhaps you need to explore the discipline of meditation if you have never made that a basic part of your Christian experience. And you need to change your job in the church so that you take on something meaningful again

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to find out what a beginner in the faith feels like once more, and some secret gift-giving will help, gift-giving that really costs, and taking on some tough tasks that the other people don't want to touch. These are the kinds of things that will bring life and enthusiasm and vitality

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back into a faith that has become worn and tattered. I had lunch with a minister on Friday in our presbytery, a very successful pastor, who told me he's going to seminary to take graduate courses, and when I asked him why, he said, "I'll tell you.

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It's because my study habits have become so sloppy. I suddenly realize I've slipped back so much, I've got to do something to get me on the track again." We do not have to fade away. We do not have to fail in the end, like Demas did. He that endures to the end will be saved, and there are ways of reigniting the flame.

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Just one last thought. It may be that Demas fell away just because he loved comfort more than he loved Christ. You know, in the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C., they have a department of terrestrial magnetism. That's a department where their studies concern the magnetic attraction of the earth.

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And the world does have a great magnetic pull to it. I've become very sensitive to that coming back into the city, out of the rural environment of Grove City. There are many things in the world which pull you to it. Even Jesus was so tempted. Remember, the devil took him up to the top of a high mountain

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and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof. And Christ in his perfect purity resisted that temptation. But many who think themselves very clever and very wise and very sophisticated fall. Is that what happened to Demas?

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I mean, did he feel the hot breath of Nero on his neck, and did he look at Nero on his throne and Paul in his jail cell and say, "It's obvious what things in life will finally triumph." Is that the mistake that Demas made? If it is his mistake, it's a very common one. You know the greatest sadness that I carried away from the campus after ten years there?

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It was the recognition that many of those students when they were on campus were on fire for Christ, filled with a real zeal. They were urgent for justice, and they went out of school with all kinds of passion and high resolve, ignited and ready to ignite the world. But now, they've gotten smart. Now, they've learned what's really important.

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This morning at that doorway, I saw a young man who went forth from our campus so thrilled with the things of Jesus. And I said to him, "Lee, how are you?" And he said, "I'm great. I'm making big bucks." And there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. But it saddened me to think that that's how he measures greatness now,

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because there was a time when he had a higher understanding of what greatness really is. Maybe that's what happened to Demas. You know, if you put even a dime close enough to your eye, you can't see anything else behind it. Technically speaking, I don't know much about music,

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but it seems to me that the great weakness in much of the new music today -- I apologize to a music major for the inanities of what I'm about to suggest -- it's not the noise of it. It's the fact that it never says anything that's worth repeating.

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Have you ever noticed that? So much of modern music brings in one trivial theme after another, states the theme, and then drops it. It's a series of unimportant discontinuities. Now you see, Tchaikovsky or Bach or Beethoven or Brahms,

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they bring forth a theme, and then they carry that theme through to the end. I mean, you listen to it when it's presented the first time in the composition, and you think to yourself, "How beautiful that is! It couldn't be said any better than that." And then, sure enough, a few minutes later, it comes back, and it has been elevated,

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and it is even lovelier and more richly ornamented than it was before, and then it goes away, and you think, "Surely that was the best," and now the theme is exhausted, and it comes again, and this time it comes like an army with all kinds of banners flying.

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Well, great living is to be like that kind of music-making, because you see, great convictions play again and again, and the canvas is always broader, and the colors are always brighter, and the glories should always be greater.

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And that's what makes it so sad, that Demas, loving comfort, turned away from all the beauty that could have been his in Jesus. His life like three points on a graph. Demas, my fellow worker, Demas.

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Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me. There are some texts you have to preach, and there are other texts that preach themselves. Let us pray.

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Oh God, bless to us this time together. May it give us a memory or two worth rethinking in the days that are to be. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let's sing our closing song together.

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You have it on the white song sheet, just to the tune "Adam Light." Shall we stand? May the Lord, mighty God, bless and keep you forever, grant you peace, perfect peace, courage in every endeavor,

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lift up your eyes and see his face and his grace forever. May the Lord, mighty God, bless and keep you forever. Good night, and God bless you. [BLANK_AUDIO]