Act hymn number 53, and let's
all stand together. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals
his wounds, and drives away his fear. Repeat. And drives away
his fear. Dear name, the rock on which
I built my shield and hiding place, my never-failing treasury
built with boundless stores of grace, with boundless stores
of grace. Jesus, my shepherd, brother,
friend, my prophet, priest, and king, I debt thy life, my way,
my end, except the praise I bring, except the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart,
and cold my warmest thought. But when I see thee as thou art,
I'll praise thee as I ought. I'll praise thee as I ought. Till then I would thy love proclaim
with every fleeting breath. And may the music of thy name
refresh my soul in death. Refresh my soul in death. Please be seated. Greg asked
me to do the call to worship tonight. And also, I spoke with
Donnie and Jeanette. Jeanette got her test results
back from the hospital today. And she has, if I get this correct,
Jeanette, a T-cell lymphoma. But you said it's the most benign,
slowest growing. Right now, they're just going
to monitor and continue to do blood work. But there's no treatment
as of this time. So in the Lord's providence,
I think that's probably good news. She'll have to be monitored
for a while. But there's no treatment. And
if it progresses, it'll be slow, she said. So that's an answered
prayer for us, Jeanette. We've got a prayer for you. I
wanna read from Hebrews chapter 10, beginning at verse 16. I'll read through verse 25. Hebrews 10, 16. This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I'll
put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write
them. and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now
where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
that is confidence, to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having
an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with
a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for he is faithful to the promise. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works. not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would be
with us this hour, Lord. Send your spirit now. Lord, cause
us to have the confidence that you've commanded us to have to
come forth boldly because you have finished the work of salvation.
Lord, we're so grateful for what you've done, for your Holy Spirit
shed that causes us to believe. Lord, we're grateful for the
good news that we got from Jeanette tonight, and we pray your hand
of grace would continue on her and Donnie, and that this is all that there will be
to our sickness, Lord. Lord, we know all things move
at your command. Lord, cause us to know that the
time is short for us, and that we have boldness in the Lord
Jesus Christ to enter into Your presence by Him, and that we
would exhort and love one another, Lord, during the time we still
have, looking forward to seeing You face to face. Lord, be with
us now, send your spirit now. We ask that you would give Hugo
grace to bring us a word that he's prepared for us, Lord. And
we ask that you would open our hearts, cause us to just blot
out the world and to rest in you and to listen to your word,
the pure water of the word. Lord, we ask it in our Lord Jesus
Christ, amen. All right, let's sing hymn number
23 from this Bible hymn book, number 23. Cast me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might, in truth condemning,
let your mercy fall on me. Love of God so everlasting, blood
of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. ? Ask me not, O blessed Savior
? ? Let me hear your gracious call ? I'm a guilty, helpless
sinner, Savior, at your feet I fall. Love of God so everlasting,
Blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in thee. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit. You can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of saving power. Give me faith and make me live. Love of God so everlasting, blood
of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not, a poor lost sinner. If you will, you can save me. Reach down with your hand of
mercy. ? Saving others, Lord save me
? Love of God so everlasting ? Blood of Christ so rich and
free ? Grace of God so strong and saving, magnified Please be seated, Hugo. Good
evening. We're going to be looking at
the letter of Paul to Philemon. Letter of Paul to Philemon. We're
going to try to see Christ and the gospel and other lessons
that he might have for us. I'd like to start with a word
of prayer. Father God, we come before you in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, thankful that you allow us to get together
and listen to your Word and come and worship Father. We're in
great need, Father, though. We're in great need of your Spirit
to teach us. We're in great need of seeing
Christ more clearly and the Gospel more clearly, and we're just
in need of you speaking to us, Father. So we come before you
and we pray that you might be with us, that you might visit
with us tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Okay, we're going to look at
the letter of Philemon. The background of this letter
is that Philemon was a Christian brother who had a church in his
home. And he possibly was well off
and he had slaves. And one of those slaves was not
a profitable slave, a slave that was not faithful. And even though
there was a church in his home gathering, he wasn't following
Christ at the time. And he left. He ran away. He ran away, perhaps stole from
Philemon before he left, and he took off. What had happened was that he
eventually, in God's sovereign mercy and grace, he found his
way to the Apostle Paul, who Philemon had learned the gospel
from. Paul had preached the gospel
to him. And that's how Philemon, God
used Paul for Philemon to believe. And that is the short background,
whereas Philemon Onesimus is the name of the slave. Onesimus
comes to Christ by God's grace through Paul's preaching. And
Paul was possibly in prison or in house arrest, one of those
two. but God brings Philemon right to Paul, and not Philemon,
I'm sorry, Onesimus. And Onesimus comes to Christ,
becomes a servant of Paul, becomes a co-laborer with him. Paul endears
himself to him. And it came the time where Paul
found out possibly that he had run away from Philemon. And he
thought it was correct for him to return to Philemon. Yet, at
that time, an owner of a runaway slave could do a number of things
to a runaway slave. There are consequences. He could
have punished him. He could have, even to the extent
of death, to discourage other slaves from running away. But
now that Onesimus is a believer, the Apostle Paul intercedes for
him. He writes a letter. The shortest
letter that we have in the scriptures from Paul is Philemon. Yet it
is filled with teaching and filled with the gospel. And we're going
to go to the letter of Philemon, which is just before Hebrews. It says, Paul, a prisoner of
Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our dearly
beloved and fellow laborer. Paul starts here addressing himself
as a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't come here
in this letter like other letters where he states that he's either
a servant of God or more likely the apostle of Paul. Sometimes
he addresses as apostle by God, by the will of God, but here
he doesn't seem to need that to come introduce himself as
an apostle. He doesn't have to portray his
authority. He doesn't have to indicate that. He comes, this is a letter, a
friendly letter, a letter that he knows is going to be well
received with somebody that's close to him, which is Philemon.
So he comes, he addresses himself as a prisoner, not of Romans,
but of Christ, of course. He's first most prisoner of Christ,
both by service and I think more so saying that is of Jesus Christ. He's working for Jesus Christ.
So even though he's a prisoner in Rome, He is serving Christ,
and that's what he points out. And of course, he also mentions
Timothy, which is almost like we sometimes think of him as
a right-hand man, right? His helper, Timothy, is often
with Paul. He says, Timothy, our brother,
to Philemon. Who is Philemon? He's our dearly
beloved and fellow laborer. So he loves Philemon, he has
high regards for Philemon, and he feels that he's dearly beloved
by all of them, by Timothy and by Paul. And he goes on in this
letter and says that, and our beloved Appiah, Athia is probably
his wife, most likely, and Archippus is either his son or perhaps
the pastor of that church that meets at his home. And that was quite often the
only way that church met at that time was all other men at homes.
And he says, and fellow soldier, and to the congregation in your
home. So this letter was written to both, well, it was to Philemon,
his wife. possibly the pastor, and also
the whole church. Now he addresses the whole congregation
in the house. And verse three says, grace to
you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Of
course, this is often what Paul writes. Grace, of course, is
what we need. Grace is how we achieve peace
with God. It's through grace. and we only
attain it through the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's wishing grace
to you is a common salutation. And in verse four, he starts
talking about Philemon, addressing Philemon. And he says, I thank
God making mention of you always in my prayers. hearing of your
love and faith which you have towards the Lord Jesus Christ
and towards all saints. So here we find that the evidence
of that love of that faith is the love that Philemon has both
for the Lord and all the saints. It probably manifested by him
using his home as a gathering place for the church. That's
one of the things he has done, among other things. And I'm going
to start saying that, of course, we have three main characters
in this letter. is Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus. And I feel that the gospel is
clearly seen in this letter. I believe that Philemon is a
picture of God the Father, and Apostle Paul is a picture of
Jesus Christ, and Onesimus is a picture of you and I. of all
the believers. And so here, one of the things
that I noticed that he has love towards the Lord and towards
all the saints, as God the Father has. God the Father loves Jesus
Christ, and he loves all the saints that are in him. All the
saints are in him. and he loves them with that love
that he loves Jesus Christ, he also loves the saints. At the
same time, in the same way, the saints are the body of Christ.
So God sees them as Jesus Christ. In verse six we have, he says
that the communication of your faith may become effectual by
the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you, in Christ
Jesus. So he's talking about the communication
of faith, the evidence of faith, that Philemon's faith is communicated
effectually through what he does for the gospel, through his service
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's all in Christ Jesus,
of course. Any service that any believer
has done or does, It's through Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ
working through that believer. And it's for his glory and it's
by him as well. It's not by us. It's by the Lord
Jesus Christ himself that he does. And we see there that Christ
is the one working through us in the believer's life. In verse
seven, we find that he says, For we have great joy and consolation
in your love, because the bowels of your saints are refreshed
by you, brother." So the bowels of the saints, meaning the hearts
of the saints are encouraged, they're refreshed by Philemon's
service, right? By what Philemon has done, by
Philemon's faith. And his love, this is what causes
his brothers, has caused his brothers to be refreshed, to
be encouraged, right? To praise God for him. And he
has accomplished this. And now verse eight, he starts
this intersection for Nesimus in verse eight. It says, therefore,
though I might be bold, greatly bold in the Messiah or in Christ,
to command that which is convenient, yet for love's sake, I'd rather
beseech you." This is one of the main points that we have,
I want to point out here. The Apostle Paul says, I have
the authority to tell you what to do. I have the authority to
tell you what's right. I have the authority to command
you, right? what she does. He was an apostle,
he was sent by the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has authority
over the church, over the believers, and he says that although I might
be greatly bold in Christ to command you, that which is convenient,
right, he says yet for love's sake I rather beseech you. If we, if I had to put a title
to this study, it would be for love's sake. For love's sake. And this is, this is like a principle
that's throughout the New Testament. It's always a principle throughout
the New Testament that the apostles and Jesus Christ, the way he
speaks to the believers, it's not like the Old Testament law
of Moses, is it? It's not like that. It's not
in stone and in our hearts, because the hearts of the believers now,
they're different. we have the Holy Spirit. In the
call to worship in Hebrews 10, notice how a brother read that
this is the covenant that will make with them in those days,
says the Lord. Dear Lord, I will put my laws
into their hearts and their minds. I will write them, right? And
their sins and iniquities I remember no more. So it is different,
the relationship that we have. It seems to me that they had
an Old Testament. Old Testament had their law and
do this and this is the law and it was, you're supposed to follow
it because God says so, right? But here in the New Testament,
it seems different. And that principle, we're gonna
see it in 2 Corinthians 5. If we go to 2 Corinthians 5, we find in verse 14 the following. In verse 14 says, for the love
of Christ constrains us, right? It is the love of Christ that
constrains us, and that's how God wants it. God wants us to
love Him. God wants that we grow in Christ
and we grow to love Christ and that we respond in love, right? It's like the law of Christ is
the law of love, right? And he seems to say that here,
because thus we judge that if one died for all, we all dead,
meaning Christ died for all the believers, all the elect, we
all dead, and that he died for all, all the believers again
every single uh chapter of the bible is written to believers
only so that's why when it says always all of us the the recipients
of the god's word they that which which live should not henceforth
live unto themselves but to him which died for them and rose
again right And this is, again, the same principle, that the
love of Christ utter constraints and thus constrains us. We see
that in marriage as well, right? What husband wants his wife to
submit because she has to, because she's been told to, right? That
is not what we wish, no? And God tells us to love her
as Christ loved the church. Without children, it's the same,
right? We command our children, we ask them to do things. And
what is better, for them to just grudgingly and obey us, listen
to us just because they have to or because they love us, right? And we see that also in church
when we bring the children, there's a big difference between bringing
the children and them being here because they have to be, because
you told them to, than when they move on and now they come because
they want to come. That's a huge difference. So
we see that in our children. And we see that in Paul writing
to the Romans in chapter 12, after writing all those chapters.
In Romans, the first 11 chapters, writing about what God has done
for us. And in chapter 12, he says, I
beseech you. Not I command you, I beseech
you. Therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable, and which is your reasonable service, right? He
beseeched us. He could say, I command you,
but he beseeches us. because it's for love's sake.
That's the way the Lord Jesus Christ handles. And he talks
about that we're not slaves anymore, but he's gonna call us friends,
right? And that's in John. So that's
an overwhelming theme, overwhelming principle that's in the New Testament.
It's the love of Christ that constrains us. So in verse 10,
we're going back to Philemon, in verse 10 we find that he uses the word
again I beseech you my son for my son on as an essence he could
be commanding him but he chooses to beseech him right ABC system
for my son on SMS who I have begotten in my bonds." He gave
him birth, meaning he preached the gospel to him. God used Paul
in the life of Onesimus for Onesimus to come to Christ. So he's beseeching
for him. Of course, we know that Onesimus
represents the church, represents the elect, and we're gonna see
he's appealing to him. In verse 11, we find that says,
which in time past he was to you unprofitable, but now profitable
both to you and to me. He was an unprofitable servant,
right? He was a slave that did not serve well, did not want
to be there, did not serve out of his heart, but now he's profitable. And without Christ, of course,
every belief is unprofitable. Every person is unprofitable.
If we look to Job 22, it says the following, Job 22, verse
two through five, can a man be profitable to God as he that
is wise may be profitable to himself? Is there any pleasure
to the Almighty that you are righteous? Is it gain to him
that you make your ways perfect? Will he reprove you for the fee
of you? Will he enter with you into judgment? It is not your wickedness great
and your iniquities infinite. This is what God says regarding
man without Christ. We are not profitable. We are
sinful, we are wretched, we are depraved, and we're not profitable,
right? We were not profitable. Now,
as to them being profitable now, of course it's through Christ
that they believe it's profitable. It's what everything Christ did,
everything Christ does through us, and and the believer doesn't
see himself ever profitable, does he? He does not see himself
profitable. Yet in Christ, We are profitable
because we have Christ's righteousness. Christ's righteousness is what
we have, and we also do not have our sin against us, right? Do
not have our iniquity. It was all paid for. Christ paid
for it all. So even though we see our sin,
our shortcomings, our iniquity, that's what we see. God does
not see that because it's not really there. because Christ
has removed it from there. Christ has died for us. He has
paid for all of those sins. So God is able to see us in Christ,
and it's the only way he sees us is in Christ. If you were
to see you without Christ, you're not in Christ, and there's only
judgment. But he can only see you in Christ
at this time. So in verse 12, going back to Philemon, whom
I sent again, you therefore receive him, that is my inward affection. So he's sending him back, he's
asking him to receive him back. Reminds me again of man or the
believers, right? We were gods in Adam and we fell,
we went away from him, we ran away from God, right? And we
also ran away, even as we are born. So he tells him that to
receive him back, to take him back. That's what he's asking
in verse 12. Receive him back. That is my
own inward affection. He loves dearly Onesimus. Paul loves him dearly. And he's
interceding for him. And that reminds me of Christ's
love for us. Of course, Christ's love for
us is even greater. complete and holy, so it's further
away more than Paul loved Onesimus, but there's a picture of it.
Verse 3, 13 says, whom I will have retained with me, that in
your stead he might have ministered to me in the bounds of the gospel."
So he's telling him, I would rather keep him because he's
such a good servant, I love him so much, I would rather keep
him with me, right? So he could minister on your
behalf for the gospel. He's throwing there a hint, perhaps
maybe he's asking Philemon to do that at the end. uh but it
says that in verse 14 but without your mind i would do nothing
that your benefit should not be as a word of necessity but
willingly all right he don't want to force that again this
is the same principle you don't want to force philemon to leave
on essence with him he rather him do it willingly Right? It's
more a blessing. It would be more refreshing.
It would be more encouraging for Philemon to do such a thing,
to free Onesimus and send him back to Paul. Right? Because
he has three choices with this letter. Philemon could take him
back, forgive him, and keep him as a slave. Or he could forgive
him and receive him as a brother, which is what Paul is asking.
Right? or he can go further and forgive
him, receive him as a brother, give him his freedom, and send
him back to Paul. So this is one of the options
that Paul here is given Philemon to send him back to him to serve
with Paul in the bonds of the gospel, obviously for the gospel. Verse 14, but without your mind,
I will do nothing like we said he doesn't want to force him
to do that because it will be a blessing is better much better
if I even does that out of his home or own heart and Again,
it's the same principle that that he don't want to force anybody
but you want to honor his own heart and And verse 15, for perhaps
he therefore departed for a season that you should receive him forever.
Okay, so he's saying the sovereignty of God is at work here, isn't
it? He ran away from you that he might come over here, hear
the gospel, be saved and come back to you forever. So this
is all in God's plan, all in God's sovereignty, just like
our salvation. Every single event that took
place before you heard the gospel, if you think back of it, we didn't
think it was the sovereignty of God, did we? But now we know
it was. Every single factor, everything
that happened before that brought us to listen to the gospel and
for God to have mercy on us and to open our eyes and to save
us All of it was within God's plan, right? All of it is. And same with him here. All of
it is. They're running away. Everything
is within God's sovereignty. So, and this is true with us
as well. Like I said, everything happened
within God's sovereignty. Verse 16, we find, you know, also I had, that we ran
away from God both in Adam and at our birth as well. In our
birth, I wrote down here Psalm 58.3. Let me read that for you,
Psalm 58.3. The wicked, now when it says
the wicked, that includes us. It's not just the reparate. It includes us because Ephesians
2 says that we were wicked. We were dead in our trespasses
and sins. And that's how we were born.
The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon
as they are born, speaking lies. And that includes us. That includes
every one of us. So we ran away from God, both
in Adam and in ourselves as well. In verse 16, he asks him, now
not as a servant, he's asking him to take him back differently,
that he left. The runaway slave was unprofitable
and was not his brother at the time, right? Or at least he was
not converted. but above a servant, take him
back above a servant, take him as a brother, right? It says,
brother, a brother beloved, especially to me, that's Paul, but how much
more to you? Because he's your, he's your,
your property. He's, he's your servant, right?
You know him well. And now there's a big difference,
uh, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So he's asking him
to take him back as a brother, not as a servant anymore. That
reminds me when Lord Jesus Christ says, you're not my slaves, you're
my friends, because I tell you what God tells me. I tell you
what God has told me, right? And that reminds me that we were
God's creatures before he saved us, but now we are sons of God.
He makes us sons of God. So there's a big difference there.
He tells him not as a servant, but as a brother. If you count
me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. If you love me,
if you find me as a partner, receive him as what? As myself. This is a big difference,
isn't it? He could take him back as a slave,
as a brother. He's told him, no, don't take
him back as a slave. Take him back as a brother. Take him back
as myself. That's even stronger, isn't it?
He's my representative, he's saying. He's there. If you love
me, love him, right? Take him back as myself. Of course, we see the gospel
here. And it's the only way that God, the Father takes us back
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Lord Jesus Christ's body,
it's just amazing. And it's hard to comprehend,
isn't it? How that God sees us in Christ. And even though we see our sin,
but we got to remember that God got through those sins in the
ocean, as far as east is from the west, right? away away and
he he does not he remembers our iniquities no more okay so that
he takes him as myself if he has wronged you or owns you anything,
put it in my account, okay? This is very important because
he's not ignoring what he did. An SMS stole from Philemon. Well, he's not just throwing
it on the rug. He's not telling, take them back and forget about
all the damage you did. No, he's saying, I will make
up the damage. I will pay it, right? He says,
put it in my account. and verse 19 goes further, I,
Paul, written it with my own hand, I will repay it. In other words, he took that
verse that he had people writing for him, Paul did most of the
time in his letters, But verse 19 is written in Paul's handwriting.
He took the letter, he asked for his secretary, whoever was
writing it, give it to me. I, Paul, have written with my
own hand. This is a promise. This is a
guarantee. I will repay. I will take care of it. I will
undo the wrong he did. And that's what Christ has done
for the church. He repays. And then the next
line, the next sentence says, I did not say to you that you
owe it owe me even more, he says, you owe me self-besides, meaning
you owe me, he's telling Farim, you know you owe me more. than
an SMS stove, a lot more, right? He's saying, obviously, this
may have to do with him bringing in the gospel and him knowing
Christ through Paul. So he's saying, you know you
owe me more, right? But if this is the church, this
is saying I have paid it, right? Because the first part says,
I will repay it in the future. And the second part says, you
owe me, meaning that Christ has paid already. For the church,
he has paid every single sin of every believer past, present,
and future. He has paid the iniquities. He
has made it right. He has considered that he has
taken our punishment, our judgment, so that God could have mercy
and grace with us without sacrificing his judgment, without sacrificing
his holiness. He has taken care of it and the
Lord Jesus Christ has done what called it and much more, much
more. Because Onesimus, Onesimus, he's
paying what Onesimus has damaged up to that point, right? And
that's all he could do, right? Onesimus in theory could fall
away and maybe take even more. But the Lord Jesus Christ paying
is not up to now, up to the sins are now. They are all our sins,
all our sins, till we pass away. So Christ has done a lot more. This is just a picture. These
pictures are, of course, they're imperfect, they're good, but
they're not complete because they're just a picture. They're
not reality. And the reality is Christ and what he has done
for us. So he says, yes, brother, in
verse 20, Let me have the joy in the Lord. Refresh my inward
affection in the Lord, meaning give me that joy. Do what I'm
asking you to do, please. I beseech you, make me happy,
make me praise God, make me be happy, refresh if you do this,
because this is demonstrating, of course, the forgiveness that
Christ has done for us. Of course, Jesus Christ, in the
Gospels, in that parable where this man was owning an inamountable
debt. He owned millions and millions
of dollars. And he came to the master and
begged for forgiveness. Oh, be patient with me. I could
repay. He forgave him, right? He said,
go away. And then he goes out and meets
somebody who owns some thousands, where he owned millions, right?
And he said, he grabbed him by the neck and says, pay me or
go to jail. Someone saw him told him the
master and the master called him back right and send them
to jail But meaning what Christ has forgiven us, of course, we
have no right not to forgive We have no right and and the
heart that's been forgiven that heart that has Really has understood
mercy or some of our mercy right because we we we understand in
part that The grace and the mercy that God has given us, we understand
in part, is much greater than we ever think. So the ones that
experience that grace, that mercy, are merciful, are the merciful
ones. So he's, in verse 20, he's having confidence. of your obedience
I wrote to you, knowing that you will do even more than I
say." So he's confident that Philemon is going to do what
he's asking. Or maybe even more, right? Maybe
even free Onesimus so he could work and serve with Paul. So he's confident. Now, of course,
Jesus Christ is confident that God the Father is going
to accept us. He's confident because he said
it is finished at the cross. it is finished, it's paid it
all. And God resurrected the Lord Jesus Christ. And that also
is proof that God the Father was satisfied what Jesus did
for us. So there's a confidence in this
intercessor that God is gonna accept the sacrifice and is gonna
take us, is gonna see us as Christ. And of course, God the Father
in eternity past gave that did that to Jesus Christ. And Jesus
Christ said, I will save him. So he's confident of your obedience
here. But there, prepare for me also
a lodging for a trust that through your prayers, I shall be given
to you. This is probably Paul's way of saying, I'm going to check
up on them. I'm going to check up. I'm going
to follow up. I'm going to make sure that you do as I ask, as
I beseech, not as I command, but as I beseech. Because for
the other believers, it's not necessary for him to command.
He trusts not in Philemon's but in God, who's the one working
inside of Philemon. He trusts in the Holy Spirit
that's going to prompt Philemon to do the right thing. It's not
because of Philemon's righteousness or his own faithfulness, but
of God, who's the one that's working in Philemon. So in verse
25, I mean, and then it's salute at Epaphras, verse 23, my fellow
prisoner in Christ, Marcus, Artitarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers. Then verse 24, we see Marcus
and that reminds us that Paul also was reconciled to Marcus,
that's Mark. who he had a problem with because
Mark had, in one of the journeys, I think it was the first journey,
Mark was going with Paul and then he quit halfway. And then
the next time Barnabas was in the city, and Paul did not want
to take Mark with him. But later on, he says, Mark is
the only one with me, and Mark, my faithful assistant. And Mark was an example that
Paul did also reconcile and put in practice this forgiveness
with him. But in verse 25, we see that
the grace of our Lord Christ Jesus be with
your spirit. And that's, of course, our wish,
isn't it? That grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with our spirits till he calls us home. Let's stand together. We'll close
with hymn number 28 in your spiral hymn book, number 28. has mercy on whom he will, and
whom he will, he pardons still, to whom he will, he gives