Let us turn once again to those
closing verses in Paul's epistle to the Colossians, Colossians
chapter 4. Considering some of these who
were the colleagues of the Apostle in all his ministry, we often
think of Paul as the one who was the great Apostle to the
Gentiles, but there were those, his friends, who were much associated
with him and often a great help and encouragement and now time
and again at the end of the epistles he mentions many by name that
we know so little of as he seeks to bring their greetings to the
various churches that he addresses himself to so we've been looking
at these verses here in the fourth chapter of Colossians and we
turn tonight to verse 14 Colossians 4.14 Luke the beloved physician and Demas
greet you short verse conveying greetings from two men Luke the
beloved physician and Demas greet you so I want us to consider
something of these two people and we will observe that there's
a remarkable contrast between each of them last week we were
of course in the previous verse considering that man Epaphras. And we thought of him as a converted
Gentile and one who was fervent and zealous in his prayers. Epaphras, who is one of you,
a servant or a slave of Christ, salute of you, always laboring
fervently for you in prayers that she may stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God he was one of the Colossians
it was principally a Gentile church in the previous verses
remember we considered those three men Aristarchus, Marcus and Jesus
called Justus who were of the circumcision three converted
Jews we were looking at those men and then after that we come
to this man Epaphras and he was really the man who was responsible
for the establishment of the church there at Colossa Paul
had never been there, he had not seen them at least as he
says there in the opening verse of chapter 2 I would that you
knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea
and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh it was this
man Epaphras who had taken the gospel
to them he is spoken of in the opening chapter Remember, we
looked at it last time, verse 4 following, Paul writes, Since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which he
hath to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you
in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the
gospel which is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and
bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you since the day that
ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth, as ye
also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow-servant, who is for
you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your
love in the Spirit. And as he had preached the gospel
to them, so he was a man who would give himself much to prayer
on their accounts. And so those words that we were
looking at, how Paul reminds them of his laboring, whereas
the Margin said he's striving fervently for you in prayers. And Dr. Gill makes that comment that
he strove even to an agony. Gill says as the word signifies
because the word is actually the Greek word from which etymologically
English word agony is derived. It's the word agony really in
the original and we think of the Lord Jesus himself agonizing
in prayers in the garden of Gethsemane being in an agony, he prayed
more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling
to the ground and now this man was a prayer after the pattern
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself laboring, fervently agonizing
in prayer, surely this was one who was a true child of Israel. son of Jacob who at Peniel knew
what it was to wrestle with the angel and even when the angel
the Lord Jesus touches the hollow of his thigh and he's crippled but he can't
give over though he cannot wrestle he will cleave I will not let
thee go he says unless thou bless me well here is one surely a
true Israelite, an Israelite indeed, one who labored much
in prayers. And he's praying that they might
be perfect and complete in all the will of God. And of course,
all that perfection, all that completeness is found only in
the Lord Jesus Christ. As he says back in the second
chapter of verse 9, in him, in Christ, well as all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power. Well, those are some
of the things we sought to address last Thursday evening, and turning
now to the following verse, and the two individuals spoken of
here, Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, First of all, to say
something with regards to Luke. As I'm sure you're aware, he's
the author, of course, of the third gospel. Matthew, Mark,
Luke. And we have that sort of preamble
at the beginning of that gospel, which is most interesting. And
then, of course, we discover he's also the person who is the
author of the Acts of the Apostles. He refers again in the opening
verses of the Book of Acts to his former treatise. His former
treatise was the Gospel, which bears his name, but he is also
the one who writes that account of the ministry of the apostles. A glorious event on the day of
Pentecost and all that follows. The coming of the Spirit, And
then, although there, it's Jews, it's proselytes who are present
for the great Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of Pentecost, 50
days after the Passover. But then, a few chapters later,
chapter 10, we also have, as it were, the Pentecost of the
Gentiles, when Peter preaches in the house of Cornelius. And
then, subsequent to that, we have the great record of Paul's
ministry and his missionary journeys and this man Luke was a regular
companion of Paul in some of those journeys and he was very
loyal to the Apostle. It seems that he first meets
with him during the course of his second missionary journey
if we turn to the the 16th chapter of Acts and
it's here that we're introduced to this man Luke Acts chapter 16 and verse 8 the
following verses and they that is that would be Paul and Silas on the second
journey revisiting the places where Paul had first preached
the gospel when he'd gone forth with Barnabas. Now with Silas
they, passing by Mosiah, came down to Troas. And the vision
appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help
us. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them and it's interesting when we when we look at the pronouns
he speaks speaks in the third person plural doesn't he they
as I said that would be the Apostle Paul himself and Silas and maybe
some others they they pass by Mycenae they come to Troas and
then he speaks of the vision of the man of Macedonia And then
he says in verse 10, after he had seen the vision, immediately
we endeavored to go into Macedonia. So, it's at that point, it would
appear, that Luke joins the party. He's the person who is writing
the accounts. He's writing that particular
narrative. And then, subsequently, we see him as one
who is left. at Philippi in chapter 17. Again he uses the third person. When they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica where was
a synagogue of the Jews. He's speaking again of what they
were doing, but he doesn't seem to be associated with them at
that time. Doubtless had been left behind. Paul and the others moved on,
but Luke was left behind at Philippi. And then we find him subsequently
rejoining the party on the third missionary journey. when we turn
over to Acts chapter 20 He says there at verse 6 We sailed away from Philippi
after the days of unleavened bread and came unto them to Troas Again, we have the first person
and the third person. Sometimes he includes himself,
other times he obviously was not part of the party. But after
that, he seems to continue with the Apostle in chapter 21, when Paul is going to Jerusalem
now. chapter 21 and verse 17 when
we were come to Jerusalem the brethren received us gladly so
he's part of that party that has now gone up to Jerusalem
and then of course as we're aware there the Jews will persecute
him and seek to kill the Apostle and he appeals to the Caesar
and he then travels to Rome and again Luke is part of the party
that sets off from Jerusalem to go to the Imperial City. Acts 27.1, and when it was determined
that we should sail into Italy. It's we, it's not they, it's
not them. he's part of the party. He is
one who is time and again clearly associated with Paul in his various
movements and is still now with the apostles there at Rome because
this epistle is one of the the prison epistles what are called
the prison epistles those that were written when Paul was confined
in some way at Rome In verse 10 he speaks of Aristarchus as
my fellow prisoner. This is one of the prison epistles
and here is Luke, the beloved physician, who's with him and
sending greetings to the church of the Colossians. And in that
portion that we read in the fourth chapter of 2nd Timothy, we have
those poignant words, only Luke is with me, he says. Only Luke
is with me. He was one of the fellow labourers
then of the Apostle Paul. And he was greatly loved by Paul. And here he refers to his great
love for him. He is the beloved physician. He was a doctor, a medical doctor,
clearly. And The comment of Gill is interesting,
he says he became of a physician of bodies a physician of souls. He became of a physician of bodies
a physician of souls. He's part and parcel of the ministry
that is being exercised by Paul and his various compatriots. John Davenant, I refer to Davenant's
commentary. John Davenant, one time the Bishop
of Salisbury, one of the English delegates to the Synod of Dorth,
and he has a famous commentary on the Book of Colossians, probably
the best of all the commentaries on the book. Although we have
to be aware that Davenant himself was was an Amiraldian, he wasn't
a Calvinist, he didn't believe in particular redemption, he
believed in a general redemption but he was a fine student of
the Word of God and in his commentary on Colossians he says of Luke
whose writings as often as they are read in the churches so often
divine prescriptions are offered to men His writings then in the
Gospel according to St Luke, his writings in the Acts of the
Apostles are as prescriptions, divine prescriptions that are
being set before men. He's quite a remarkable person
then is this one, Luke, and he, as I say, is a very loyal associate,
a friend of the Apostle Paul. but then in the second place
Demas now they are mentioned together again in the little
letter to Philemon there in Philemon verse 24 they are both referred
to as fellow labourers with Paul but then in that portion that
we read in 2nd Timothy 4 we read those solemn words at
verse 10, deemeth hath forsaken me, having loved this present
world. Now 2nd Timothy is reckoned to
be the last of all the epistles that Paul wrote and that was,
or is evident I should say, we read a short portion there at
the beginning of that fourth chapter and clearly all is here
at the end of his pilgrimage. I couldn't help but think of Martin
Penton when I was reading that portion. I am now ready to be
offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth
there is laid up for me crown of righteousness which the Lord
the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me
only, but unto all them that also love his appearing." Of course, Martin has been a
faithful servant of the church here at Salem over very many
years, given of himself really. for the service of the church
in a variety of ways. Well, we don't know what the
Lord's will is. We're going to pray for Him.
I'm sure you've been praying for Him. And we'll pray for Him
tonight. But He, as often said, He's ready
to go. He's ready to depart. And yet,
it's hard, isn't it, for us to let Him go. We want Him to remain
with us and to remain with Jill. We pray that God's will will
be done. He's been reviving somewhat, it seems. So we pray on. But returning to this man Demas,
how solemn are those words. Demas hath forsaken me, having
loved this present world. This man was an apostate. That's
how it appears. The very last thing that Paul
says of him is so solemn. And John, remember, in his first
epistle speaks of those who went out from us but they were not of us, or if
they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with
us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they
were not all of us it does appear that that was the case with Demas
very different to to Luke very different also to Mark or Marcus
or John Mark we were looking at him when we consider those
three converted Jews there in verse 10 Marcus sister's son
to Barnabas he was a nephew of Barnabas and John Mark was one
who was associated with Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary
journey recorded there in Acts 13 verses 5 and 13. He's very
much with them, he's one of them. They take him along and then
we are told sadly what happened. When Paul and Barnabas came to
Perga in Pamphylia, John, that is John Mark, departing from
them, returned to Jerusalem. So he leaves them in the course
of that first missionary journey. And then later, when Paul is
desirous to go and to visit those places where he had been ministering
with Barnabas, There is a sad division between Paul and Barnabas,
the uncle of John Mark, and it was such a grievous division
that they had to go their separate ways. Remember what we're told
at the end of Acts 15. Paul said unto Barnabas, let
us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached
the word of the Lord and see how they do. And Barnabas determined
to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought
it not good to take him with them who departed from them from
Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention
was so sharp between them that they departed asunder, one from
the other. And so Barnabas took Mark and
sailed on to Cyprus. And Paul chose Silas and departed.
being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God and he
went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches. So if Demas had forsaken the Apostle
at that point it seems that John Mark had also forsaken him. But then we did also read there
in that fourth chapter of 2nd Timothy Those remarkable words
of Paul writes concerning Mark. Verse 11, he says, Take Mark
and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the
ministry. He was restored. He was restored. God says, I will heal their backslidings,
I will love them freely. That was very much the case with
John Mark, but we don't read that concerning Demas. In contrast, it seems that he
was an apostate. So we have these two characters
mentioned in the verse tonight, Luke, the beloved physician,
and Demas, and at this time, they're with Paul, and they send
their greetings to the Colossians. Well, as we conclude, just two
important points of application, two things I would remark concerning
these two men. Doesn't it remind us of the great
need for us to examine ourselves? Personal examination. There are
those trials and troubles that will come in the course of the
Christian's profession. There must be the trying of faith.
Peter speaks of it, doesn't he? The trying of your faith. More
precious than gold, though it be tried with fire, is to be
found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ. And when he writes in 1 Corinthians
chapter 10, He remarks concerning those of the Old Testament who
were ensembles or types to us. He's spoken of the children of
Israel coming out of the bondage of Egypt and all that transpired
with that generation. And he says, now all these things
happened unto them for ensembles and they are written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come wherefore
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall how many
fell in the wilderness and then he says there hath no temptation
taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will
with the temptation make a way to escape, that you may be able
to bear it. In the temptations, in the trials,
in the troubles, God will watch over his people, and we're to
endure the trial. And the trial should teach us
to look to ourselves, to examine ourselves. Paul gives that exhortation
again at the end of the second letters of the Corinthians examine
yourselves whether you be in the faith prove your own selves
he says know you're not your own selves know that Jesus Christ
is in you except you be reprobate we need that spirit of David
the man after God's own heart search me oh God and know my
heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked
way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. If we look to
ourselves we'll see time and again our need of continuous
supplies of the grace of God. Now we have to examine ourselves
then and we have these things recorded in scripture for our
admonition not just in the Old Testament but also in the New
Testament but also besides that self-examination the importance
of endurance or perseverance. We find it interesting that when
those at the canons of Dort drew up their decrees, the decrees
of Dort, the five points of Calvinism we call them. Do you remember
what the fifth point is? The P stands for perseverance
of the saints, that's how we remember it. Of course It also
stands for preservation. It stands for preservation. There's
a wonderful harmony in all the works of God. Those whom the
Father has chosen in the eternal covenant committed to the Son,
those that the Son has come and redeemed by the shedding of His
precious blood, He can lose none of those that He has purchased.
And those who have been quickened by the irresistible grace of
the Spirit in their hearts, they can not lose that faith. There is preservation, because
the work is God's, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. But we emphasize
the thought of the perseverance. All God's people have to persevere.
The Lord Jesus says, He that shall endure to the end shall
be saved. Oh, you did begin well. What
did hinder you? We have to endure. It's enduring
to the end. There's a beginning and there's
a middle. And there's an end of faith.
And surely we learn that when we consider the contrast between
two individuals mentioned in Deshort's verse. Luke, the beloved
physician, and Demas, the forsaker of the apostle. And yet here
they are together and they are greeting the Apostle. Oh, the
Lord help us then to look to ourselves and to prove ourselves. The Lord bless His Word to us. Let us now sing our second praise. Before we come to pray, we'll
sing the hymn 182, the June Stellar 797. If ever it could come to
pass, The sheep of Christ might fall
away, My fickle, feeble soul, alas, would fall a thousand times
a day, Were not thy love as firm as free, Thou soon wouldst take
it, Lord, from me.