I just know our Bible conference
is going to be absolutely wonderful. Sunday morning on the 5th, Pastor
Bill Sasser will be our speaker. And then Sunday night at 7, Gary
George from Boston, Massachusetts will be speaking. And then Monday
morning, Bill Sasser again. Monday evening, Pastor John Gunn
from right here in Pontiac is going to be our speaker. And
then Tuesday morning, Pastor Gary George And then Tuesday
evening, Pastor Christopher Brooks from Detroit will be speaking
to us. So I hope you have that marked
on your calendar and you plan to attend. We're going to have
some great singing as well as great preaching. Tickets for
the Christmas concert are in tomorrow. So we will have those
tickets in hand tomorrow, I understand. I sincerely believe that those
tickets are going to go fast. Miss Pam saw Mark Larry on TV
this morning. Right. And such a humble guy
will forgive him because he's a Baptist, he said. But anyway,
you're going to enjoy the concert. The battle for the gospel is
perennial. Actually, with some of us, it's an everyday battle.
I have never been more conscious of satanic ploys to drift us
away from the centrality of Christ and from the Gospel of Grace.
Everything pulls at it. The Antichrist's great ploy is,
of course, Antichrist. That's why the Apostle Paul said,
I am determined. And my friends, I don't know.
I've been in this for 50 years. And I guarantee you this, if
you're not determined, something, someone, some system, some religious
organization, some means will take you away from the sensuality
of Christ. And I want to say this, and I
say it in earnestness and sincerity, psychology cannot deliver you. And, of course, Dr. Pam is a
psychologist, but she stands with me on that only the grace
of God can deliver us. Counseling's good, but counseling
without the gospel is null and void. Programs are all right,
but programs without Christ are dead and are nothing. The Apostle Paul said, I'm determined
to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And on one occasion, in the same Corinthian letter where he said
that he was determined to preach the Gospel, he said, I'm glad
I baptized none of you. Well, if salvation were by ordinances,
and especially baptism, he would have wanted to baptize them all.
The centrality of the Gospel is Christ and Christ alone. So I will preach the same thing
to you that I preached last Sunday. What a wonderful little book
the book of Philemon is. I didn't see it on the back screen.
Was the reading on the back screen? I bet somebody couldn't find
Philemon. I don't know. I'm just guessing.
Page 1,271 in my Bible. But if you haven't read it, it
certainly is in there. And a very interesting little
book with one chapter, of course. You can see, you can prick it
and it will bleed with substitution and the blood of Christ. Interesting
verses. I think verse 10, the Apostle
Paul said, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have
begotten in my bonds. In other words, Onesimus has
been converted here in prison with me. Isn't that something? Paul, wherever he was, was a
preacher of the Gospel. And then verse 15 says, perhaps
he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him
forever. His mischief. His thievery. You know, God will use Satan
sometimes. I know it was kind of quiet when
I said that. Some of you got here by means of Satan. God's used Satan to get you here. Don't ever forget this. The devil
is God's devil. He is, and God's going to chain
him up one day and throw him in the pit. Never forget, God
is in charge. And then in verse 18, we certainly
see substitution. If he hath wronged thee or oweth
thee aught, put that on my account. I know someone that said that
a long time ago. Ken owes anything to justice.
Put that to my account. And my sins were accredited to
Christ. And Christ paid for my sins on
the tree of the cross. That's substitution. He became
the propitiation for my sins. And today, lest I forget as we
go through this period of time here, remember, grace was operative
toward you long before you were converted. And I wrote someone this week
about that others ought to read her book, actually. And I used
the word, Provenient Grace. And she helped me by writing
back, that's a big word. I don't know what that means.
Can I change that word? And I wrote back, this is what
you can change it to. Provenient. Grace before grace. You didn't die because God's
grace was there. When you were insane and down
in the hood and down in Lodibar and doing whatever you were doing,
grace was operative toward you. You didn't just fall into grace.
It wasn't luck. It was grace. God's unmerited
favor hemming you up. Because you were a wild-asses
cult that couldn't be tamed. Bucking and snorting. And I don't mean this irreverent,
but a real cowboy had to tame you. He had to conquer you. Now, the book of Philemon bleeds
with the compassion of the Apostle Paul for the souls of men. Many
times those of us who, without blushing and without shame, Proclaim
the doctrines of grace. We don't back up. We're not ashamed
of the word predestination. Nor are we fearful of it. In
fact, we believe it strongly. But sometimes we're accused of
not being a compassionate people for the souls of men. But if
you read the Scriptures, you'll find out that God in calling
His men and women to ministry, and God in conversion enlarges
the heart and gives tremendous love for people. Grace doesn't
make you lack in graciousness. It causes you to be gracious.
In fact, as I came to see and it was revealed to me the doctrines
of grace, the more love I had for folks. The more I understand
that it's pleased God to call the elect out of the world through
the proclamation of the Gospel, the more I preach it, the more
I proclaim it. God has been pleased. And let
me tell you, dear friend, you're not going to be saved by your
works. You're going to be saved through the power of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. And so that's what I proclaim
because I want to see you come to know Him. The Apostle said,
I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may obtain or
lay hold upon the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. The truth
is, by nature we're all selfish. By nature we're all self-centered.
Grace makes you loving. That's right. It gives you this
attitude. I have never met a man or woman
that I could not lay my hand upon and say, if you'll trust
Jesus Christ, He'll save you. If He saved me, He can save you. Is that right? Persons, and I've heard this
statement or close to this statement, persons who boast that they care
for nobody and nobody cares for them. That's the reverse of Christianity. Because Jesus Christ enlarges
the heart, as I've already said, when He cleanses it. When He
cleanses your heart, one of the biggies in your heart... He has
to give you a new heart. One of the biggies in your heart
is self-centeredness. Self. It's kind of like a snake. Self. That's what your life is
all about. That's what drugs is all about.
Self. Drugs is all about self. Me. Mine. Here's what the Scripture says
to us. Let this mine be in you. Which
was also in Christ Jesus. You think about the words of
the Apostle Paul. I could wish myself a curse I haven't got there yet. I really
don't love you that much. I wish I could enter into that.
I could wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren, for my
kinsmen. I do love you, but I've never
really been able to say that with a genuine heart. And I want
to be honest. But I strive toward that. I want
to love people like that. My, the Apostle Paul must have
been full of God. The fullness of God. You know,
none have ever been so tender as the Master Himself. The Lord
Jesus Christ. He was the Servant of servants.
He washed His disciples' feet. And Paul was imminently large-hearted
and sympathetic. I do want to be like that. And
I think every pastor has to be like that and must be like that. When I read the story of Onesimus,
I think all kinds of things. You know, he was a runaway slave. Maybe you don't know that. He
was a runaway slave. Surely, the Apostle Paul had
more to do than tend to a runaway slave. He was burdened with the
preaching of the Gospel. He was in prison. He could have
passed on the other side like the priest in the story of the
Good Samaritan. He could have ignored this runaway
slave. But Paul was not of that mind.
He had been preaching in prison and Onesimus had been converted.
And so he regarded him as his own son. And that's the way I
look at many of you here who have been converted under the
preaching of the Gospel here as my own sons and daughters
in Christ. You've been converted. This runaway
slave had become a believer. He and Paul became very close
there in the prison. And as Paul watched Onesimus,
he observed him growing in grace and in character And when he
thought it right, he wrote to Philemon and said, I'm going
to send him back to you. And actually, Philemon is one
of the, I think, one of the only books that the Apostle wrote
with his own hand. His eyes supposedly were weak,
and so he couldn't write. And he talks about, you see with
what large letters I write to you. So this was a very special
A letter that was written to Philemon from the Apostle Paul. And he apologized for Onesimus. And every word was well selected.
He wrote this letter as if he was pleading for himself. And
he could not have pleaded more earnestly and wisely than that. This is the first IOU. The very
first in the Scripture. was written by the Apostle Paul.
This church, I pray that God in each of us will cultivate
a large-hearted spirit in us. A large-hearted spirit where
we can sympathize with those who are lost in this world. Lost
to life. Lost to God. without hope, and
that this church becomes noted for being the great instrument
that God uses in the winning of men and women, boys and girls,
to Jesus Christ. When you get saved, it's going
to be your desire to see others converted. I know that to be
true. I want to get right into this
and I will be brief today. In Onesimus, we see the great
grace of God in his election. It is important that, to me,
and I think to everyone who comes to know Christ, to get a glimpse
of the doctrine of election. that God chose you. That's almost laughable. That
God chose you. Isn't that something? It's almost, who, me? Yeah, it's you. Onesimus was
a slave He was ignorant, he was untaught, and he was a degraded
individual by society. He was used in barbaric slavery. Think about this. In the days
of Rome, the high class folks who were in the slave trade were
barbaric in their own depravity. I was thinking about that this
week. That if the slave owner be a barbarian, what is the slave
himself who is down lower? I mean, you think what was going
on in Rome. It was the height of depravity.
We haven't even seen that height yet here in this country. And we see a lot of depravity. But if you read historically
about society in the days of Rome, It was absolutely horrible. It was. And they had these slaves
who were the lowest of the low. Philemon, it seems, was a Christian.
Onesimus must have been trusted. He must have been a trusted slave
because he got so close that he was able to steal from his
master. He was a trusted slave. And perhaps
Onesimus was even rebelling against what his owner Philemon was doing. Maybe Philemon was having church
in his house and had all the slaves attend. Anybody here identify
with having to go to church? To some of you, that's not funny. Maybe you're rebelling against
being in the house of God. You don't know, and I don't know,
but God could have brought you to Grace Centers of Hope to save
your lost soul, to give you a new life. And so Onesimus rebelled against
trying to get him to attend church, probably. And he stole and ran
away from Colossae and thought himself less likely to be discovered
by the ministers of justice in the hood at Rome. Isn't it insane? While doing bad, you find a home
in the hood. You find yourself comfortable
among the trash of society. There in those Black back slums
with gangs and thieves. Onesimus hides thinking he can
live the free and easy life of a thief. The free and easy life
of a drug addict. The free and easy life of a self-righteous
person. Aren't you glad you couldn't
hide from God? You did your best. And for those
who are not addicts here today, some of you are hiding in churchiness,
all camouflaged. You don't cuss, you don't smoke,
you don't roller skate. Here you are, hiding all camouflaged,
hellbound and hellbent with a self-righteousness that God hates. You know, I thought about God
choosing Onesimus, and I thought... I mean, you kind of think this
way. Were there no faithful servants for God to choose? Were there
none better than an embezzler of his own master's goods? Wasn't
there someone more educated, more polite than this barbarian? And yet God chose him. Weren't there people among the
moral and that infinite love could fix on to save? Onesimus was now mixed with the
scum of society in Rome. And as I've said, if you read
of Roman times, you would know that the upper class were barbarians
and that those who were slaves were considered the scum of society. The lowest of the low. And Onesimus
was among the worst. And yet, God's eternal love passed
by kings and princes, left Pharisees and Sadducees, philosophers,
and the upper crust who stumbled in the dark that they themselves
chose. And God fixed His almighty eye
upon this poor creature that he might be a vessel of honor
fit for the Master's use. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. Just think about it, dear saved
soul here today. God didn't have to save you.
You were no bright and morning star. You are not the fairest
of 10,000. Let us admire the marvelous electing
love which selected such a one as Onesimus. And so we preach
election here. That God elected a people and
we don't back up on it. And look at the grace in Onesimus
conversion. He doesn't look like a candidate
for conversion. He's a heathen, a slave, probably
from Asia. Uneducated, dishonest thief.
But everlasting love means to convert this man, and converted
this man shall be. If God has chose you, converted
you shall be. Say, Pastor, you shouldn't tell
people that. I already have. God will seek you out. God will
work on your waner. For when He saves you, you'll
want to know Him more than anything else in the world. If you're
sitting here uninterested and unconcerned, it's because you
have not been regenerated. And only the Spirit of God can
do that. And He only regenerates the elect. It's true. Ms. Pam, I thought about this
this week, and you'll forgive me for talking so much about
it. But Miss Pam died in our bed on August 20th. I have never felt so powerless. Except when I'm in the pulpit
preaching to you who are dead in your sins and trespasses. And somebody must come to you
where you are and quicken you. Do more than CPR. Give you life. And you, Taffy made alive, who
were dead in trespasses and sins. And hallelujah, We that know
the Lord. Not only did He choose us, but,
oh, He came to me. He came to me when I could not
and would not come to Him. He came to me and did for me
what I could not do for myself. Yes. Think about this. God's going to get a preacher
to you or get you to a preacher? Now, Onesimus is in Colossae. Paul is in prison in Rome. So
Satan suggests to Onesimus, steal from your master and run. You can get away from
all this churchy stuff. And Onesimus does. And he runs. And he gets in the hood. He gets
in Lodibar. And he's living it up. He's using. He's getting high. Really getting
low. Lower than he's ever been before.
He's in the hog pen. Eating the husks that the hogs
did eat. None the better. Miserable. He
crosses the line again. Commits some kind of crime. Gets
arrested by Roman soldiers. And thrown into prison with the
Apostle Paul! Don't you see how God used Satan? He used Satan. Some of the stuff
you're doing, just edging you closer to where you have to sit
in Grace Gospel Fellowship church service. I mean, you got so... Listen,
you can't fall out of bed when you're sleeping on the floor.
And some of you were sleeping on the floor. You had nowhere
else to go. God shut you up. And you'd made the rounds. Some
in here, you've been in 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 treatment centers. And you're none the better. And
now you have, now you are a yard from hell. Last, last chance, Grace Centers
of Hope. And you have heard God calling.
Some of you sit way back there in the back so I can't see you,
and you can't hardly see me or ignore me. But I'll tell you
this, if you're God's, you can't hide from Him. He knows who you
are. Your name is written in the Book.
And He will seek you out of your low debar. He'll turn the lights on. Boy, that's an awakening, isn't
it? When God turns the lights on and you see yourself as God
sees you. I'll tell you what you do when
that happens, wild thing. You run to Christ. You skedaddle
to Jesus Christ. And now I'm going to tell you
something else. One of the old Puritans said this. Roland Hill
used to say this. That he would not give a half
penny for a man's piety if his dog and cat were not better off
after his conversion. In other words, your dog and
cat run before you're converted because you're mean as a snake.
But the dog and cat recognize something's happened to you.
They're not gun-shy anymore of you. I believe that. If any man
be in Christ, he's a new creation. That's what God's grace does,
and that's what we're about here. We're not about feeding, clothing,
and sheltering drug addicts. We're not about being churchy
here, more churchy here. We're not about that at all.
We're about Preaching this, there is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilt and stains. The crimson stream I
see, I see. I plunge and oh, it cleanses
me. There's power in the blood. Wonder-working
power in the blood of the Lamb. Down at the cross where my Savior
died. That's where you go for cleansing.
And we point to Christ. I love how God made use of Onesimus'
sins. Our God took crime and used it
to his conversion. He brought him to Rome. He brought
him to the preacher. Isn't that something? You know,
this is not the first time God's done something like that. When
God invaded history, when God came down here, The Bible said
evil men took him and slew him, nailed him to the cross. The
greatest evil that has ever been committed is the greatest blessing
that mankind has ever known. Jesus Christ on the tree of the
cross. So Onesimus must get to Paul. And this kind of providence is
seen throughout scripture. in conversion. How Lydia was
converted. The seller of purple. And her
eyes were opened. She had to come from Asia. And
God brought her in that trade of hers all the way over to where
Paul was preaching. Down by the riverside. And God
opened her heart. And the Bible says the Lord opened
her heart. Where are you? Today, as you
listen to this poor preacher, have you experienced something
deep down inside? Has it been going on for days
now? Conviction of sin? Have you looked to the blood
of Jesus Christ? Have you trusted Him? Are you
sitting back there somewhere fearful, maybe to confess? Nobody's going to believe that
God would love somebody like me. Are you fearful to walk this
aisle and say, I am a Christian. I have trusted Christ. Are you
back there somewhere? Where are you? God didn't bring
me over here to preach to nobody. I'm preaching to an Onesimus.
Maybe many Onesimus here today. And you're without Christ. And
you have gone the route of hopelessness. Days out there. And you've got
so hopeless, you keep turning back to find comfort in a drug. Or you love the bottle. Or it's
a sexual addiction. Or it's whatever the addiction
is. We're all addicts in here. We've all turned to the false
gods. But today, as we gather together in one Spirit and the
Gospels being preached, there is joy in hundreds of people
in here, in our hearts. We rejoice and we say, Amen.
You saw, we got happy here a little bit during our praise service. And you may scratch your head,
what's wrong with those people? There's nothing wrong with us.
It's all good. It's all right. Because our God
has converted us, and we're rejoicing and giving Him praise. Amen. I want us to stand now, and I
want to challenge you with this challenge, Onesimus. If you're
here, let's stand together. And I seldom do it exactly this
way, but let me tell you this. Coming up front does not save
you. Only Christ saves. Altar calls don't save. Jesus
saves. You trust Christ right where
you are without moving a muscle. But once you trust Christ, I
know this is in your heart. I ought to tell somebody. I ought
to let it leak out on me. I'm not ashamed. Yes, I'm a Christian. Yes, I'm on the Lord's side.
Yes, I know He saved me. I know He's changed me. I know something has happened.
and declare it. We'll rejoice with you. We'll
praise God with you while we stand together and while we sing.
We'll give you opportunity to do that. Will you today, or maybe
before we even start singing, will you step out right now and
confess Jesus Christ? If he's come into your heart,
Lord of your life, confess him before men. I urge you to do
it. Do it. We'll give you a little music
to march by. Trust Him, Onesimus. That's it. Do you surrender? Do you completely trust Him? You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? All you big, brave guys that
have wallowed in the stables of sin, trust Him. called to be my meditator, I
surrendered all. I know you're here. He knows
you're here. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee my friend and Savior
I surrender all All to Thee my friend and
Savior I surrender all Anyone? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, what a
man. Amen. Justin Christen. Thank you, Lord. Praise God. Thank you. Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank God. Ladies and guys, there's no condemnation
to those that are in Christ. So I want you to pick your head
up a little bit and smile now because you're in Christ. And to say to you personally,
he elected you, he chose you, your name was written in the
book, You are no surprise or accident to Him. He's brought
you out of darkness into light. And He always intended to do
that even though you didn't know it. His hand is on you. Now you'll grow in that grace. And life will be different. Doesn't
mean it'll be easy. Your flesh is no better. It's
no better. It's your enemy, really, your
flesh is, but you're a new creature in Christ. You have a new heart,
new desires, and those will come out of you as you grow in grace.
What an awesome God. I knew he was going to do it. God is a On time, God. You know, he God waited right
up until the last. I saw him coming over there and
I thought, is is that a mastermind? And sure enough, there are several. How awesome. How wonderful. How great it is to be in the
presence of God with his people. I love you and I want to get
names. Are you going to help with that? And Nick, will you help? And Brother Sam, will you help? We're going to meet back in the
chapel. We'd like all of y'all to meet
back in the chapel. Amen. All right. All right. Aren't you glad God let you live
to see this?