I want you to turn in your Bible
to the book of Philemon. You ever thought about this?
Were it not for the grace of God? You ever thought about it? Were it not for the grace of
God? Were it not for God's unmerited favor? Where would you be? Where would you be? There are
probably some of you in here that think you are where you
are because of your smarts, because of your intelligence. But when
it comes right down to it, you're nothing but a smart aleck. Isn't
that right? I was talking with someone a
week or so ago, and we were talking about the homosexual agenda and
what's happening in our country with regard to the homosexual
issues. And this person said to me, well,
you know, Pastor, it's just in their genes. And I said, you
know, you are so right. It's in their genes. It's called
total depravity. It's called sin. Now, I'm going
to say something that isn't going to be very popular with you in
here, but maybe some of you in here. But every person in here
has the potential of lesbianism or homosexuality in them. Because in your nature, amen, you know, in your nature. Somebody says, well, we beat
the guy up because he's a homo. No, you beat him up because you're
afraid. You're afraid. Deep down inside, that seed's
there. Well, pastor, I resent that. OK, that's all right. That's
because you don't understand total depravity. You're trying
to hide it, cover it up. But it's there. That seed is
there. The little gal who's been beat up by men all of her life
turns to another woman for gentleness, tenderness and kindness. And
then in all of its depravity, it works out in sexual issues.
That's because the seed is there. We come forth from our mother's
womb. So, when somebody says, you know,
it's in the genes, I say, that's right. And then I go on to explain.
It's not a sickness. Or, I was made this way. No,
no. No. You act on your depravity. Sin is what we are. Now, I'm
going to tell you this. This is really what I was going
to talk about this morning before. So, you'll get two sermons real
quick here. The first one is this. Because you are such a
great sinner, you have to have a great Savior. You have to have
someone save you that can outsmart you, first of all, and can send
the devil back to hell. Because the devil is your partner.
You and he agree by nature. Because sin is not what we do,
it's what we are. There are no good people in here.
There are no good people in the world. There are people in the
world who are sinners saved by the grace of God. And then we really know what
we are. Sinners saved by the grace of God. Isn't that right?
So to the extent you know your depravity, to that extent you
want a Savior. The reason you have no interest
in Christ is because you haven't seen how wicked you are. If you
ever see And get a glimpse of yourself. If God ever turns you
inside out, you're going to seek a Savior. You're going to become
a desperate person. And nobody can keep you from
Christ. You know, the truth is, your will is so messed up. I
was talking to some folks about this thing of salvation by grace
and by unmerited favor. If you're saved, God did it.
God did it. And always people want to talk
to me about their free will. Your will is not free. Your will is enslaved to your
nature. And a baby comes forth from the
womb speaking lies. The baby is a liar as soon as
it's born. It will become a liar in overt
action. You ever thought about this?
You ever thought about what you think about? Nobody sees it. Nobody knows
it. Just you. Isn't that scary? It's really
scary. So salvation is absolutely by
grace. And here in the book of Philemon,
we're going to see. Prevenient grace, not preventing
grace. Prevenient grace. Grace before
grace. Do you know that before you came
to know grace, there was grace in your life? Think about where you've been.
Should have been dead sleeping in my grave a long time ago.
Somebody said, well, I hope I haven't done enough for God You've done
enough, brother. You know, I just feel like I
don't know why God's punishing me. You know, if God really wanted
to get you, He could just thunk it. And you'd be gone, right? God is not out to get us. He's
out to save His people from their sins. And, pervenient grace. You know when you were down there
in the hood? God's grace was with you. That's
why you're not dead. You know, when you were in prison,
you know, all the shenanigans you pull as a young person, maybe
in the suburbs, how many times you get drunk and drive? Just
think about. Just think about it a little
bit. It's a miracle that we're alive, isn't it? It is indeed
a miracle that we're alive. It's the grace of God. God's
marvelous grace. And I think the greatest example
of grace before grace is here in the book of Philemon. Here
in the book of Philemon, verse 10, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus,
whom I have begotten in my bonds. Paul is saying, to Philemon, I'm here in jail,
but I'm not in jail by myself. There's this young man that was
your servant, and he stole from you. He cheated you. He was a crook. And he ran off to Rome. Paul had been arrested and was
in prison. And they bring this young guy
in and throw him in jail with the Apostle Paul. How lucky can
you be? God is a God of providence. God predestines, predetermines,
and He brings to pass His purpose. Isn't that a good thing? The
reason you know God in Christ Jesus is because God brought
you all the way. Many kids in my day got polio. And many of them died. I didn't. What was that? The grace of God.
Why not me? You know, I've never seen a person...
When I understand grace, I've never seen a person that I thought
I was better than them. When you come to know God's grace,
you can put your arm around the slimiest, dirtiest sinner that
ever wormed his way out of hell and say, if God saved me, He
can save you. It's not by works. How many of
us in here have fallen and fallen and fallen and fallen and fallen
and got up? Only by the grace of God. The
apostle was always saying things like this. There go I, but for
the grace of God. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Were it not for grace, Paul would say. You see, it's grace
that puts us in the way. You're never going to even think
about God until your waner is worked on. And then you're going
to hunger and thirst. You know what that is? That's
grace before grace. The hound of heaven will seek
you out. Listen, for those of you who
have come to Grace Centers of Hope, and the bus let you out
at the front door, you had no idea where Grace Centers of Hope
was, you came to Pontiac from Flint or Detroit or wherever
you came from, and lo and behold, right in front is a center. Do
you think that was an accident? It's like Tom said, this is the
grace of God. God's unmerited favor. Undeserved
favor. God should have sent us all to
hell. I mean, if God gave us what we deserve, isn't that right?
I don't care what your station in life and where you are. If
you're from Birmingham or you're from the armpit of Oakland County
Pontiac, it's the grace of God that kept you alive. And it's
the grace of God to save you. Isn't that right? I said armpit, but that's going
to change. That is changing. Alright. So,
prevenient grace. Grace before grace. You ever
thought about this? All the time you were shooting
up. You ever thought about this? All the time you were in the
crack house when they had guns. Or, you know, you should have
been dead. I saw you. You were on life support.
Should have been dead. But the grace of God. Right? And I said, well, God gave me
a second chance. Listen, you need to change your
vocabulary. God doesn't know anything about
rabbit's foot luck, spitting on horseshoes, black cats, and
walking under ladders. God doesn't know anything about
that. God is a God of purpose and providence. And all by His grace. When you come to know God's grace,
your heart melts. And you don't go to church because
you have to. I was glad when they said, let
us go up to the house of the Lord. You want to live for Him. You want to serve Him. I don't
serve Him out of fear. I do not. I serve Him because
I love Him. I'm here because I love Christ.
And I'm here because He first loved me. The grace of God. Philemon says, I'm beseeching
you for Onesimus. He's here in jail, and I pointed
him to Christ, and he trusted Christ. You see that? I beseech thee for my son Onesimus,
whom I have begotten in my bonds, in my imprisonment. Here in prison. You know, God will save folks
anywhere. Back in my young days, we had
an old evangelist that traveled on Greyhound buses and he came
to our house. And I remember him saying to
my dad, his name was Neville, Brother
Neville, we called him. He said, where's the closest
bar? Of course, I'm just a little
kid, a preacher's kid. I thought, the preacher's asking
where the closest bar is. Well, it was Van Dyke and 8 Mile
Road. That was the closest bar right
there on the corner, just a block away. He said, I'll be back after
a while. I'm going to go do a little preaching.
He went up in that bar, got up on a chair. I followed him up
there. He's the only Baptist I ever
knew that went into the bar and told everybody about it. He got
up and preached Christ. You know, God can save you wherever
you are. You get desperate enough to call
on Him and ask Him, He'll come. He will. Well, anyway, Onesimus
got saved in the jail. Brother Barnard used to do that
too. I remember one of Brother Barnard's stories was he was
in Texas and he went into a saloon in Texas and he preached. several times in that saloon.
And there was a barmaid in there. Some guy came in and shot her.
And laying on the floor, she asked
those around her, said, go get the preacher. And they went and
got Brother Byron. He went in the bar where she
was dying. And he called, ladies, honey. Everybody was honey, honey. He
said to her, got down there where she was and said, Honey, trust
Christ. And she said, I can't. And died. This is a serious matter. Trust
Christ. That's the message. It's by grace. Alright, now, I want you to look
at this. Let's look at verse 10 and read
through it a little bit. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus,
whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past was to thee
unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me, whom I have
sent again, thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels,
whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might
have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. But without
thy mind would I do nothing. that thy benefit should not be,
as it were, of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps He therefore
departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive Him forever."
He departed for a little while, perhaps in the providence of
God. Now that I'm sending Him back, He may be with you and
profitable forever. Sometimes we mess up and fall
down. only to get up to be stronger. Isn't that right? Just because
you messed up doesn't mean you're out of the game. Is that right? Oh, no. God may permit you in
His providence to do the most outlandish, stupid stuff and
then take it around and use it for your good in God's glory.
Sometimes we don't learn easy. God has to take a two-before
to us. to get our attention. For perhaps He therefore departed
for a season that thou shouldest receive Him forever. Boy, there's
some lessons there. Those of you who think you're
something on the end of a stick and somebody falls and you don't
forgive them, you're in big trouble yourself. It won't be long. It won't be long till you fall. Right? All of this haughtiness. And pride comes before the fall.
Very, very true. Remember where God found you.
Remember how many times you've messed up. Christ receiveth sinful
men, even me with all my sin. Now look at verse 16. I love
this. I'm sending him back to you because I think he'll be
profitable now forever, and I want you to receive him. Not as a
servant. But above a servant. He stole, right? He stole. He did. And he was a servant.
Now he's been delivered by the grace of God. He did his best
to get away. Stole. Found himself locked up. Probably got drunk or something
down there in Rome. Amen. I mean, he did something
to get locked up. He broke the law. I know none
of you have ever broken the law. No, no, no, no. Receive him as a brother beloved,
especially to me. Paul said, I'm sending him back. And I want you to receive Him
not as a servant. I know He was a servant. But
now I want you to receive Him as a brother, beloved, especially
I love Him, Paul says, both in the flesh and in the Lord. I
like His personality. In the flesh, I just like Him.
You know, it is true that we like some people more than others.
Kind of a neat thing about heaven. We'll like everybody when we
get up there. But some folks I don't like nearly as much as
I do others. Now, don't be lying to me. You
do too. You'd rather hang out with some
people more than others. This is the real church, right?
I mean, we're real. Aren't we real? That's just true. But anyway, Paul said, I really
like Him in the flesh and in the Lord. Now, look at verse
17 and 18. If thou count me therefore a
partner, if you count me like I'm a partner with you in the
faith of Jesus Christ, you count me as a partner, receive Him as myself. I'm sending Him back. You receive
Him just like it was me. Isn't that something? We as Christians
need to learn this. You know, this Sunday morning
stuff, and going to the big church, and you know, get it over with,
and then I'm off and running. And not having any idea how to
treat one another, how to treat our husband, how to treat our
wife, how to treat our kids, how to walk the walk, how to
talk the talk. Not receiving one another. One
of our biggest problems is relationship, right? You've got to learn some
things about this grace thing. It was grace that put me in the
way. It was grace that led me along
the way. And it's grace that takes me
all the way. Therefore, I cannot judge you. I receive you as God has received
me. Right? I'm not talking about
lack of accountability or responsibility. I'm not talking about that at
all. You know the truth is that the church, myself, pastors,
elders, you, We don't have to punish anybody. The punishment
comes along with the sin. Right? It just comes along with
it. You know, I've been watching
TV here and the guy that just had an affair with his best friend's
wife. Who is that guy? Yeah. Yeah. I've been thinking about this
a lot. Isn't our world crazy? This is kind of off the text
a little bit. I need to say this. Somebody
said to me the other day, you know, things like, well, you
know, you're not going to keep people from having sex. I mean,
whether they're married or not, you know, you're not going to
keep people from, as if, that's okay. I want to tell you this,
you commit fornication, I'm going to follow you the rest of your
life. You commit adultery, I guarantee you, you play, you pay. It's
true. I don't care if everybody is
doing it. God's Word says don't. God's
Word says it's dangerous. God's Word says every sin is
without the body. You know why people have bad
relationships? Because if you're in bed with
multiple people, you get where you can't bond. You get where
you can't have a relationship. Sex is supposed to be the expression
of relationship. I love you so much, I want to
be one. How come it's getting quiet in
here? So just to go on record, I'm not going to follow you around
and try to slap you up for something you do. Because I might do the
same thing. But I am going to tell you this,
If you don't do it God's way, you're going to pay. You know
why? He made you. He knows what works
best. You know, a train is supposed
to run on the track. You can't put it out in the cornfield
and it operates real good like a train. It runs best on the
track. God made us and He says, now
if you do this, life can be pretty good. Amen. A man is faithful
to his wife. Wife's faithful to her husband.
They raise their children in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord, and things just go pretty good. Right? Okay, you're
getting quiet. Let me get back. I'll get back
to the grace part. Verse 17, "...if thou count me
therefore a partner, receive him as myself." If he has wronged
you, well, he did. He stole. Oweth thee anything, put it on My account. I don't get that. Put it on. Just charge it to Me. That's grace, brother. If He
owes you anything, you just charge it to Me. And when I see, I'll
take care of it. You say, well, I know what some of you are thinking. Well, hell, preacher, are you
going to let me do what I want to do and then you're going to
pick up the tab? You don't get it yet. You see,
what happened to Onesimus in prison was he got born again. The Onesimus that goes back is
not the same Onesimus that left. The Onesimus that goes back now
to Philemon has been changed. He's a new creature in Christ
Jesus. And he's going to serve Philemon. His whole world has been changed. His whole attitude has been changed. I guarantee you, If you've been
born of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God indwells you,
you can't sin and love it. No. Listen. When God saved you,
He ruined your taste for crack. I know some of you Some of you
have gone back and tried it and maybe said a bad word. I can't
even get high. Because greater is He that's
in you than He that's in the world. You know, I know many
people come visit us who've never... I've never used crack or heroin
or drugs, so... But I do know this. I have sinned
and I have Christ in me and I know that I cannot do what I used
to do. I cannot think what I used to
think, and it does not bother me. It eats me alive. Right? And besides that, you
know, I know over here I talk a lot about crack and heroin
and drugs and blah, blah, blah. And maybe some of you are coming,
oh, I've never done that. Me neither. But you and I are mean
as hell too. We're just as depraved. We sin
in a different way. Amen. You know, we might not long for
crack, but we may long for a hummer. You know, we may make something
else our God, right? See, our problem is the false
gods. And it doesn't have to be crack
and heroin. It can be this. And the more I get, the more
I want. And the more I get, the harder I work. Because that's
my God. This is one of the sweetest,
smallest books in the Bible. You know what Jesus said? Here's
what Jesus said. If space owes you anything, put
that to my account. Jesus paid it all. He paid your
account in full. There's no condemnation to those
that are in Christ Jesus. Is that right? I want this to be such a real
church. In the early days, I used to say, I want the Prince and
Pauper church. That's what I'm going to name
the church. The Prince and Pauper. I want the president of the bank
and the pimp to sit down and hear the gospel. Right? The president of a bank and the
little girl who has sold herself for years on the street who's
been saved by the grace of God. Yeah. And I am seeing God do
the most miraculous things with this message. And thinking yesterday
about how God blesses this place, and always I tell you this, God
blesses this place because the message never changes. We always
give Him all the glory. We give Him all the praise. We
give Him all the honor. We say, not unto us, not unto
us, but unto Thee, O Lord. And we struggle with things in
this place. The last couple of weeks have
been a tremendous struggle. That's right, but God. But God. I don't know. I got this email
and I think you may be here today. But a grandmother talking about
her granddaughter. Are you here? I don't know. Maybe you're not. But heard a
message on Sermon Audio that I preached on Gomer. And this person had been praying
for her granddaughter. Praying that God would do something
for her granddaughter. who was, are you here? I'm not
trying to embarrass you. That blessed my own heart so
much. God is a God of providence. And God didn't bring us over
to her granddaughter, but God brought her granddaughter over
here. Isn't that good? That's good stuff. That's the way God
works. God would take Philip, who's
in this great revival, in Samaria, and send him down into a deserted
place to an Ethiopian eunuch." Translation, African American. God would save the seller of
purple, Lydia, as we talked about last week. and forbid Paul to
go into Asia Minor, but would bring Lydia to Paul. That's the way God does. God
has His elect people, people He loves and has chosen before
the foundation of the world. Somebody said to me lately, I
just can't get my mind around that, that God has chosen people
to be saved. I can't get my mind around it
either. It's too marvelous. It's too wonderful. Why would
He choose any of us? I don't know. Have you ever played
sandlot ball? You know, and I forgot what you
call that where you threw the bat and you did the hand thing.
And that's to see who gets to choose first. You know who I
would choose first? The best players. I didn't want
that guy over there who couldn't catch a ball, couldn't hit the
ball, couldn't play baseball. You know who God chose? That
guy over there who couldn't play ball, who couldn't hit the ball,
who couldn't catch the ball. And God says that very plainly
in the Corinthian letter. This church must to continue
to be God's voice. Proclaim the message of grace
and live it. You know, we're the real thing
here. And this is life, right? This
is life. And I've told him, only because
I love him, I will put your butt in jail. And I'm sorry for you
visitors. This is a real place. And God
came to save sinners. Is that right? And we deal with
issues. We deal with real, live issues. Doing God's saying and loving
one another. You know, sooner or later, we're all going to
fall. And we're going to need somebody
to pick us up. And again, I think you know And
I'm not talking about enabling or entitlement or any of that. I'm just talking about the body
of Christ.