What an amazing story. Just a
few little verses here in Philemon. I'm so glad God put this in the
book. The story of Philemon and Onesimus. So many stories like this in
the Word of God. In fact, Onesimus' story is my
story. Mephibosheth's story. Mephibosheth. Messed up in the fall. Couldn't
walk. Down in Lodibar, the hood. And Almighty God sought him out. Fetched him out. That's how every saved person
got where they are today. You were fetched out. You didn't stumble into. You
didn't get lucky. Salvation is not lotto. God doesn't
play lotto. Some of you do, but God doesn't
play lotto. God is not God of luck. He's
a God of providence. I hope that somehow today you
will Be very much conscious of God's prevenient grace. Long before you were converted, before you were formed in your
mother's belly, prevenient grace was at work. Not preventing grace. That's grace too. Because God
has prevented you from doing a lot of things that you would
have done. But I'm talking about grace before grace. Grace before
you were conscious of grace. Grace when you didn't know anything
about grace. God's grace was there. When you were being molested,
the grace of God was there. When all the horrible things
of sin and depravity were happening to you, the grace of God was
present. Because it could have been far
worse. Those of you who are dealing
with molestation and sexual mess-up, your predator told you that it
was your fault. Scared you with all kinds of
things. Had it not been for the grace
of God, you would have killed yourself. But grace was there. Provenient grace. God was there. Some of you have said, where
was God when this was happening to me? He was there. That's why
you're still alive. That's why you're still here. God's grace was there. Jacob, the swindler. Think about
all the people in the Bible that God loved. Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. And yet Esau was a better guy
than Jacob. How can you explain? Somebody
says, I just don't understand how God could hate Esau. What
I don't understand is how He could love Jacob. He was a swindler. He was a crook. He was a no good for nothing.
And the Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road. Later, the Apostle
Paul, God said, the reason this happened to you is because you're
a chosen vessel. Chosen vessel! Grace was there when Saul of
Tarsus was holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen.
God's grace was there. Provenient grace. All of you,
all of us together, As I already have this week in contemplating
this message, all of us need to go back. Go back before you
were converted. You will see God was there. Could
have been dead sleeping in my grave were it not for the grace
of God. Got you up morning after morning. Onesimus! What are the chances
of an Onesimus ever being converted if we're going to operate in
this chance area. That God just somehow or another
just kind of loves everybody. Often I give this illustration
when I'm talking about the love of God. It doesn't do anything
for me when you say God loves everybody. It doesn't do anything
for Miss Pam when I say, I love all women. I just love all women. All women are special to me.
Somehow that doesn't float Her Majesty's boat. It's when I say to her, I love
you. You're the only woman in the world for me. You are my
darling. You are my queen. You are my
princess. You are everything to me. That
floats her boat. When we say some kind of general
love, God just kind of mushy, gushy Santa Claus loves everybody. Doesn't do much. God is trying
to do, you know, the older I get, the more I see there's absolutely
no hope in man for man. I don't care what your status
is, whether you're a crack addict in the hood or you're President
of the United States outside of the sovereign, free grace
of God, there is no hope. There is no hope. Onesimus robs
from his owner and then plots and plans to run
with what he's stolen, like the prodigal son. Onesimus wastes
all of his stolen stuff in riotous living down in the hood in Rome
and gets arrested. Onesimus, a type of grace. He
was a slave. He was a nobody. And certainly
in Old Testament and New Testament times, a slave was just kept
ignorant. There was no education, no schooling. He was untaught. He was degraded. He was a degraded individual. Certainly, slavery has and always
does bring out the depravity of man. To know that any man
could buy and purchase another man is totally wacko. It is wicked
and depraved. Slavery is not of God. Oh, there
ought to have been louder amens than that in here. The slaves were used barbarously. And they sunk into the lowest
barbarism. You know, just because a man
is a slave doesn't mean he's good. You know, slaves do wicked things
to slaves. Amen. Onesimus was a barbarian. I don't know what he stole, but
he was a thief. And he ran from Colossae and
sought the city of Rome where he hung out in the hood. Why
do you go to the hood? And who are you going to hang
out with when you get there? I ought to tell you something about
depravity. Birds of a feather flock together. There he tried to hide out among
the gangs of thieves. And yet, mark it, the eye of
the Lord God of heaven and eye of love had been set upon Onesimus. And God watched him. As he stole,
as he ran to Rome, as he found himself in the hood living a
riotous life, God watched him. Onesimus was a marked man. God
had marked him out. He was blood marked. And I thought to myself when
I was reading this story, God, This is just like God. Were there
no free men for you to choose? Was everybody a slave? That you had to choose Onesimus? Didn't you have some choices
here? Were there no faithful people
searching the Bible that you could choose? Somebody who wasn't
an embezzler and stole his master's money? Wasn't there somebody
who was educated, more educated than Onesimus? You know, some
polite folks who knew their manners? Was everybody a barbarian? You didn't have any choices,
so you chose Onesimus? Were there no moral individuals?
that you had to choose Onesimus, the very scum of society. Onesimus was among the worst
of the worst. And yet eternal love which passed
by kings and princes and passed by the Pharisees and the Sadducees
and philosophers. Passed them all by as they stumbled
in the dark as they chose not the Lord Jesus Christ. God fixed
His eyes upon this poor, raggedy creature to make Him a vessel
of honor. Isn't that something? You know
what we call that? Amazing grace! That's what we
call that. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. Some of you in here Have this
testimony, I hope many, because I have it. God said, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. Isn't it a wonder that God saved
the likes of you? You sorry rascals. Nobody in here ought to be amazed
that God saved anybody else. You ought to be amazed that God
saved you. That's the problem in our churches
today. We've lost the amazing part of this. We've lost the
wonder of it all. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me! We've lost this wonder that I
didn't first call on Him, He first called on me. I didn't
first choose Him, He first chose me. I didn't first seek Him,
He sought me. And then I started to seek Him. Now I want you to look at something
else too. God had elected him before the
foundation of the world. God had chose him. Onesimus couldn't be stillborn.
Have you ever thought about where this slave was born and how he
was born and even who his daddy was? Slaves were like cattle and they
were bred like cattle. Onesimus might not have even
known who his daddy was. I was preaching once in chapel
about 20 years ago over at the mission. And a gentleman stopped
me in the message, held up his hand. Brave soul that he was. I suspect he was one of God's
elect. He held up his hand and I called on him and he said,
Pastor, Would God save a bastard like me? I don't know who my father was.
I'm an illegitimate child. Oh, it's a good thing when sinners
find out Christ came to save sinners. He only saves sinners. Christ does not save good people.
All of you good people here today, I have no message for you. I'm
looking for an Onesimus. An Onesimus. And then what happens after he
gets converted? He was a runaway slave. How unlikely was his conversion? He was worse than the ordinary. He was dishonest, running from
Colossae to Rome. But everlasting love means to
convert him. And converted he shall be. All
of those that God chose from the foundation of the world,
Ephesians 1, 4, 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, they will be converted. Amen. Conversion happens in time. God chose before there was a
world. God marked out a people. People's
names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation
of the world. You were saved on purpose by
God. You say, well, Pastor, I don't
like that. I don't like that. I think God
ought to give everybody a chance. If God had given everybody a
chance, everybody would have gone to hell. You don't need
a chance. You need saving. If God doesn't save anybody,
nobody goes to heaven. If God doesn't work on your willer,
you're never going to change your will. Your will is never
going to be changed. Your will got you where you were
when God found you. If God doesn't find you early
on in life, You will dig a huge hole. Do I have any witnesses? You will dig a huge hole. That's why sometimes we say,
don't dig the hole any deeper. Don't dig it any deeper. And
then we say, God, he or she's digging the hole deeper. Oh,
God, do something. I often pray, for you in that
manner. God, I've done everything I know.
As a pastor, I've done everything I know. They're digging the hole
deeper. Now we need a miracle. Now we
need an absolute miracle. Because he's going to go on being
a drunk and she's going to go on whoring around. She's going
to go on using, going on, on in her self-righteousness. going
to attend church and think they're a good person unless you do something. There's lots of ways to dig the
hole. I wondered, too, as I was studying
for this message, I wonder if Onesimus heard Paul at Colossae,
because Paul went through there, or maybe at Athens, but he wasn't
impressed. How many of you heard the gospel,
maybe for the first time, but you weren't impressed? Maybe
you heard it when you were a child. Maybe you heard it when you were
20. But it rolled off you like water off a duck's back. In fact,
you were thinking, man, it's the hottest day of the year here
on Sunday. Maybe you're thinking it right now. Hope this guy doesn't
go to 130 today. But all the time, whether he
heard Paul at Colossae or not, or Athens, all the time, pervenient
grace was at work. God's grace in Onesimus' life
was at work, and God intended to make use of his crimes. Isn't that something? Isn't that
a mighty God? That God will make use of your
crimes. God can take your crimes and
turn it to your conversion. Isn't that something? You don't hear much preaching
like that anymore. You ought not have done that. Keep the
commandments and be good. If you don't be good, you can't
go to heaven, you know. God will take your rattlesnake
actions, your crookedness, You're conniving. You're robberies. You're mess. And He will use
it to convert you. Amen. In fact, some of you got
converted after you lost everything, went to prison, got out of prison,
and came over to the rescue mission. And came here to church and heard
the gospel. Amen. Somebody asked, this has been
several years ago, how many of your membership have been to
prison? I said, most of them. How many in here read the word
of God in prison? Look at that. Why don't you put them down so
quick? And I'm not recommending that you rob a bank, go to prison
to get saved. But I am saying that God is big
enough to use those things to convert you. Amen. Get you where you can't wiggle. Isn't it marvelous how wonderfully
well we listen when we're in prison? How we have time for God in chapel
and how we study our Bible. And it's okay. And those of you who have been
converted in prison, praise God. Those of you that God found you
in some dead church and brought you out, praise God. I often
say this. I think it's a good saying. I
stole it from somebody. Probably Brother Barnard. The
devil doesn't care whether you go to hell from the barstool
singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall or from the choir loft
singing, Oh, How I Love Jesus. The devil doesn't care. But somewhere
in this life you must be converted, quickened by the Holy Spirit,
regenerated, born again, given a new heart with a new start
and a new life. And God's in the business of
doing that. So God's grace brought Onesimus
to where Paul was preaching and thus brought him to Christ. shall
be able to touch the heart of Onesimus, but Paul." It's true. There are people who listen to
me that will not get converted under anybody else's ministry
but mine because God has ordained it. It's true. So I just sow
the seed and preach the gospel knowing that God's elect are
out there somewhere and He's given me a whole bunch of them.
And I have been ordained to be the spiritual father of individuals. Look at this. I'll show you how this works.
Philip is in a great revival in Samaria. The Holy Spirit goes
over there to Philip and says, now Philip, I want you to leave
here. Now most evangelists would not do this because they're having
all kinds of conversions, miracles, all kinds of things are happening.
And the Holy Spirit says to Philip, I want you to leave this great
revival meeting and go into a deserted place. Now the Holy Spirit rushes
over here and there's this Ethiopian eunuch who doesn't know this
is the Holy Spirit. And he's got a little bit of
religion and he's reading Isaiah 53. I call it the Gospel according
to Isaiah. Isaiah 53. Philip's coming this
way. The Ethiopian eunuch is coming
this way. And a ready preacher and a ready
sinner meet. You think that was an accident?
And he says, Understandest thou what thou readest? That's King
James. How can I except some man show
me? And Philip got up into the chariot
and preached unto him Jesus. Next thing you know, the eunuch
is saying, here is much water. What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said, well, if you
believe with all your heart. I believe. And the Ethiopian
eunuch was baptized saying, Christ died for me, Christ was buried
for me, and Christ arose for me. The old me is dead and a
new me is alive in Jesus Christ. That's the way it works. So the
Holy Spirit... Listen, I don't know whether
you know this or not, but there's more jealousy among preachers.
I call it jalousy. There's more jalousy among preachers
than anywhere in the world. Don't get jealous. If God's called
you to preach, He's got some people going to be converted
under you. And you're not going to get one of mine. All you elders,
you're not going to get one of mine. So you just need to settle
down. And wherever you are, whoever
you are, I got an email this week from somebody that I had
met out in the world, showing me some houses on Moreland Street,
thanking me for inviting them here to church. And they came.
I don't know whether they're here today or not. But they came. And then they emailed me and
asked me if they could come back. I got a feeling that's one of
my sheep. And we just met a few weeks ago. That's the way it
works. Lots of times the worst thing
that can happen to a young man is sometimes the best thing that
can happen to him. Say, isn't it sad Johnny got
locked up? Eh, I don't think so. Probably saved him from robbing
banks and doing this and that and, you know, committing something
where he'd get the electric chair. And maybe God locked him up so
he could hear the gospel. Oh, God will track you down.
Let me tell you folks here, all you obstinate folks, if you're
one of God's, He's going to track you down. And let me tell all
the rest of you folks who will not bend your knee, there is
a day coming when you're going to be a believer, but it's going
to be too late. And every knee shall buckle and every tongue
shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That day is coming.
Everybody is going to be a believer someday. Many times we see the providence
of God in action. The crucifixion of Christ. Men,
by wicked hands, took and nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross.
And out of that wickedness, God has redeemed to Himself a number
of people that no man can number. God took the worst thing that
man could do and used it for our salvation. Isn't that something?
That is something. You ought to think about that. Joseph was sold into Egypt. And Joseph later told his brothers,
you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Onesimus is
arrested and finds himself in a bare room in the barrack prison
with the apostle Paul, who's chained to another guard's hand. And Paul has church there in
the barracks. Young preachers often say this
to me, or have said this to me in the past. If you're going to be out of
town, I'll preach for you. Well, if you're not preaching
now, why would I ask you to preach? Preach! God's called you to preach. Preach! Preach in the nursing
home. Preach to the realtors who show you houses. Preach to
the little lady who waits on your table. Preach in the nursing
home. Preach! Preach! Preach! Preach!
The Apostle Paul is chained up. And they bring in this young
man. Oh, I got a new audience. He starts preaching to Onesimus. No stained glass windows. No
little chapel. No little steeple, no cross,
no fancy pews, no collar backwards, no robe. Just there in prison,
Onesimus comes in and he starts preaching the gospel and the
Holy Ghost regenerates Onesimus. Isn't that something? Isn't that
something? Somehow we got so churchy. So
churchy. We get all religious in here,
bring our little Bibles with a zipper and a cross on them
and, you know, wear the cross around our neck and then leave
here and forget about a world that's going to hell. The gospel
is the power of God on Moreland Street, on Seneca Street, on
Paddock Street, in the hood, Pennsylvania Avenue. Amen. It is the power of God. Listen,
you don't have to defend a lion. Just loose it. Talk to people about the Gospel.
Win people's confidence. Now, I'm not saying you go up
to people that you don't even know and say, you don't want
to go to hell, do you? They might tell you to go to hell. Don't
do that. You become friends. You're friendly. You show yourself friendly. You
win the right to invade their spiritual privacy. Then you begin
to show them why you're so happy. You have the joy of the Lord.
Why you're so contented. You're not complaining. You're
rejoicing that you're heaven bound. Onesimus heard the Gospel
from the Apostle Paul. And oh, what a change it made
just like that. I heard Quentin on radio today.
I don't know, were they supposed to play that show today? Well,
they played it. Quentin's favorite verse. Stand
up. Can you stand up, Quentin? Quote your favorite verse. Tell
us what it is. Amen. Amen. Out from the hood,
out from under the 8-mile I-75 bridge, into the glorious light
and liberty of Jesus Christ. Got his wife back, living on
Boylan Street, grandchildren. Isn't that something? That's
what the gospel does. Now, I remember that day when
Milt and Randall brought you back. Hobbling could hardly walk. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Change immediately. A person who is converted by God
repents of his sins. There's a turning from. A turning
from and a turning to the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance. Their greed to think about the
wrong. I listen to Quentin and the guys
tell their story, and they grieve. He grieves over leaving Phu Phu
in those places that you left her alone. Grieves over them. How come he's grieving now? Because
he's got a new heart? He's sorry for his sins with
a godly sorrow. Vexed to see the depravity of
our own hearts because we've been given a new heart. We've
been converted. We even sometimes weep. Do you
ever weep about what you used to be? Do you ever say to your children,
I'm sorry. Daddy, Mama neglected you. I'm
sorry I left you in the bed at night and went out and used.
I'm sorry that I caused you fear and you shook and cried in your
bed. I'm sorry! and all you working dads who
work seven days a week, never took your kids to the house of
God, never managed your wife in a godly way and esteemed her
and your kids grew up wild and not having any desire, never
being under the gospel. Have you now since you've been
converted? I guarantee you if you've been converted, you have.
I am sorry. I was not the leader I should
have been. I was not the husband I should have been. I was not
the wife I should have been. I was not the child I should
have been. I'm sorry. That's what conversion
does. Roland Hill, the old Puritan
said, I would not give a half penny for a man's conversion
if his dog and his cat were not better off after he was converted. Now, your old dog ought to howl,
glad you're saved. The cat ought to say, thank God
Almighty, I'll never be kicked out of the house again. I wonder, I wonder, I just wonder
if there's any body here, if there's any providence of God
in some of you being here today. I wonder if God brought you here. Thank you. I saw one. That's
two. I really wasn't trying to get
you to raise your hands, but yes! Providence of God! I'm here on purpose. Some of
you are having all kinds of mess happening in your life. You don't
understand exactly what God is doing. If He saved you, if He
has saved you, His grace is at work behind the scenes. And He's
going to bring good out too. He's going to bring good out.
I close with this. It sounds strange perhaps. I dare you to go out of this
place as you came in. I dare you to go out of this
place as you came in. The truth is you can't. Whether
you're converted or not converted today, you now before Almighty
God are accountable for what you've heard. I have told you
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I've warned you to flee from
the wrath to come. And so those of you who leave
and say, no God for me, one day you will stand before God and
give an account for what you heard today, and He will throw
you, cast you into the lake of fire. It's true. Some of you,
I pray, although you were not thinking right, You came because
maybe somebody's in the program. You came because maybe I met
you somewhere out there. And you just wanted to come over.
You didn't know I was a screaming preacher. You thought we had better air
conditioning. You thought it was a cool place to be. But behind
the scenes, God was making all the moves. And in His providence,
He brought you to this place for such an hour as this. Let's
stand together, sing the praises of our Lord.