Well, let us turn to God's Word
in that portion of scripture that we read in the epistle of
Paul to Philemon. And I want to direct you more
particularly this morning to the verses 17, 18, and 19. In
Philemon, verse 17 through to verse 19. If thou count me therefore a
partner, receive him as myself, if he hath wronged thee, or oweth
thee aught, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written
it with mine own hand, I will repay it, albeit I do not say
to thee, have thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. He's speaking here of course
of Onesimus who was a servant or a slave really of Philemon. If thou count me therefore a
partner, receive him as myself says the Apostle. If he hath
wrung thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. I,
Paul, have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it, albeit
I do not say to thee as thou owest unto me even thine own
self. Besides, Onesimus, it would appear,
had been in contact with the Apostle and through that contact
had been converted. As we see at verse 10, 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. It would appear that being a
slave to Philemon, at some stage he had absconded. Verse 15, perhaps
he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him
forever not now as a servant or a slave but above a servant
a brother beloved especially to me but how much more unto
thee both in the flesh and in the Lord. And so Paul is making
this appeal on behalf of Onesimus here in verse 18, if he has wronged
thee, or oweth thee, or put that on mine account, I have written
it with mine own hand, I will repay it. What he's foresaying
then is declaring his readiness to stand as a surety for this
man Onesimus. And that's the particular theme
that I really want to seek to address this morning, how we
see here Paul as surety for Onesimus. But first of all, let's consider
something of Paul's circumstances at the time. We know that this
is one of the prison epistles because he declares it in the
opening verse, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And then again,
in verse 9, he writes, yet for love's sake, I'd rather beseech
thee, being such, and one as Paul, the aged, and now also
a prisoner of Jesus Christ. There are various of the epistles
that were evidently written when Paul himself was under some sort
of arrest, maybe house arrest there in Rome. Certainly we know that the epistle
to the church at Ephesus was written when he was suffering
some sort of incarceration. There in the opening words of
chapter 3 in Ephesians, We read for this cause, I Paul, the prisoner,
the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. And then again, when he writes
to Timothy in the second epistle to Timothy in verse eight of
chapter one, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. he says. But be thou partaker
of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. He was a prisoner. But first
of all of course we have to remember that he is Paul the Apostle. Paul the Apostle. And what does
he say? So often when he writes in the
various epistles addressing himself to these different churches he
will remind them of his authority as an apostle. He writes to the
Galatians in there in the opening verse of that epistle and declares
from whence his apostleship came. Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who
raised him from the dead. It's particularly in his epistles
to the Church of the Corinthians that he has to remind them of
his authority because there were those who had crept into that
church who would sort to undermine his authority amongst
them although he had been so instrumental in the establishing
of the church at Corinth there were those false teachers who
very much despised him when he writes then in the opening words
of the second Epistle to Corinth, he says, Paul an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God. So different to those false teachers,
they were false apostles, they were self-appointed ministers,
but not so Paul. Now, time and again we see him,
as he writes to that church at Corinth, either in the first
epistle or in the second, he has to defend his apostleship. Writing there in chapter 9 of
the first epistle, he says, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ
our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others,
yet doubtless I am to you. For the seal of mine apostleship
are ye in the Lord." He needs surely never to have written
such things as these, when we consider the way in which his
ministry there at Corinth has been so owned and blessed of
God. And yet, as I said, These false
teachers had come in and here he asserts so strongly in the
questions that he puts to them that he is a true apostle and
he has that that is the mark of an apostle. Have I not seen
Jesus Christ our Lord? He was one as he were born out
of due time. Was it the mark of the apostles
that they bore testimony? to the truth of Christ's incarnation,
his ministry, his death, his resurrection. We see that quite
clearly in the opening chapter of the Acts where one must be
chosen in place of the betrayer, Judas Iscariot. The apostles
are those who bear testimony to the truth of Christ's resurrection
from the dead. That's one of the striking marks
of those men. And Paul has to defend himself
and remind the Corinthians how he had seen the Lord Jesus. See
how he speaks of those who had crept in particularly there in
the 11th chapter of his second epistle to the Corinthians. In
2nd Corinthians verse 13 in chapter 11 he says
concerning those teachers such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ."
Or they're self-made apostles, they're not God-appointed men. He goes on later, verse 22, to
put these questions Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of
Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of
Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more
in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths after deaths. He is constantly having to defend
himself then in his ministry. Verse 5 of that chapter he says,
I suppose I was not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles. He is that one who has been so
called and raised up to be the great apostle to the Gentiles. And it's interesting because
after saying those things in that 11th chapter In 2nd Corinthians,
remember how in the next chapter he goes on to speak of that thorn
in the flesh. Oh yes, he was privileged. He
was caught up, he says, to the third heaven. He saw unspeakable
things. But then there was the thorn
in the flesh and how he was made to feel himself to be really
as nothing. And so he writes there in chapter
12 and verse 11, In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles,
though I be nothing. Nothing in himself, all that
he was, was by the grace of God. But he was truly an apostle,
and that's what he is first and foremost, an apostle. not of men, neither by man, but
by Jesus Christ, and God the Father." But then, secondly,
this man, besides being an apostle, is also evidently a servant. And sometimes that's how he speaks
of himself. when he writes in the opening
words of his epistle to the Romans. How does he begin? Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God. Paul, he was one that served,
that was his great desire. Not to serve himself, not to
seek his own, but to exercise that ministry that he had received
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, writing there in that
opening chapter of the Roman Epistle, verse 9, he says, God
is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his
Son. This is all he is concerned to
do, is to serve God. in seeking to execute that ministry
that the Lord had committed to him. And he has to deal of course
with all these various problems that arise in the churches, the
care of all the churches he speaks of. How there were those false
teachers, as we've said, they crept in to the Corinthian church,
they were there in the churches of the Galatians, There were
those legalizers, there were those Jews who were contending
that these Gentile converts must receive circumcision, they must
become Jews. And now the Apostle has to speak
against these legalists who want to bring them in some measure
under the Old Testament law. Writing then through the Galatians
again there, in Galatians chapter 1 and verse 10, he speaks of
himself as Christ's servant. Striking words in Galatians 1.10,
do I now persuade men or God, he asks, or do I seek to please
men? For if I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. But when he uses this word that's
rendered servant. Time and again, it's really the
Greek word for a slave. And that's what he is really.
He is the slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is one who is, as
it were, the property of the Lord Jesus. He's been bought
by the precious blood of Christ. He is owned by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is that man then who is under
authority to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is an apostle, and yet he
is clearly the Lord's servant. But coming again to this epistle
to Philemon, we see him here speaking of himself only in terms
of being a prisoner. He doesn't make any mention here
of his apostleship as such, He doesn't speak of himself so much
as one who is the servant or the slave of Christ, but he speaks
of himself as the Lord's prisoner. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Then again, remember in verse
9, as he seeks to persuade this man Philemon to receive back
his slave Onesimus. What does he say there in verse
9? Yet for love's sake I rather beseech them. Or he says at verse
8, I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin them, that which is
convenient. But he's not issuing a commandment
to Philemon. No, he says, for love's sake
I rather beseech them. being such as one as Paul the
Aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. As we said,
he's there in Rome under some restrictions, maybe some sort
of house arrest. We know from what we're told
in the latter part of the Acts of the Apostles that when the
Jews were seeking to to kill him he had made his appeal to
Caesar he had every right to do that of course he was a he
was a Roman citizen he had citizenship he could appeal
to the to the Emperor and that's what he does there before Festus
in Acts chapter 25 verse 10 then said Paul I stand
at Caesar's judgment seat where I ought to be judged. To the
Jews have I done no wrong, as they very well knowest. For if
I be an offender or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse
not to die. But if there be none of these
things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar." And so
we see as subsequently he is taken to Rome. And we have the record, of course,
of his perilous voyage in chapter 27. And then, in the last chapter,
we see him now at Rome. In verse 16 of Acts 28, when
we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the
captain of the guards, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself.
with a soldier that's kept him. He's under certain restrictions,
maybe some sort of house arrest. Right at the end there, verse
30, Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received
all that came in unto him. But he was not free. He was a prisoner. But how he acknowledges the Lord's
hand in all of these things, He is Paul, a prisoner of Jesus
Christ. Now is it not the truth, friends,
that what we read with regards to Paul, in all these various
ways that we sought to say something God, be it as an apostle, be
it as a servant, a slave, or be it as a prisoner, in some
measure there are principles there that apply to all the people
of God. We're not to forget, of course, that when
he writes to Timothy, he does speak of himself as a pattern,
a pattern to them which should thereafter believe. He's a type,
as we've said on previous occasions. He's a typical believer. We have
these things recorded then in so much of the New Testament
concerning Paul, not only the doctrinal or the practical content
of his epistles, but those occasions when in the course of writing
to the different churches he speaks of his experiences, because
there are principles that we can discern in this man's life
that apply to believers. He's a pattern, he's a type of
the true Christian believer. Now, that doesn't mean that any
of us are called to be an apostle in an official sense. when we
think of the office of the apostles, that is an office that was peculiar
to those men who were the immediate witnesses concerning Christ and
his resurrection from the dead. And as we see when he writes
in the Ephesians, the church is built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. The apostolic office is a foundational
office. There's no apostles today, and
there's no such thing really as apostolic successions. It
might be taught by the Church of Rome or the Church of England.
I imagine that those men who were recognized as bishops in
the Church have received their authority, as it were, in an
unbroken line going back to the apostles, apostolic succession
by the laying on of hands. Well there's no one as the office
of an apostle anymore, but when we think of the meaning of the
word, the basic meaning of the word, it literally has to do
with one who is sent. And truly, all believers are
those who are sent, are they not? We are to be those who are
the Lord's witnesses. in this wicked world. When the
Lord saves his people, he doesn't take them immediately to himself,
but he leaves them here as his witnesses, to bear testimony
to him. And in that sense, all might
be said to be apostles as sent, sent by the Lord to be his witnesses
in a wicked world. And all, of course, are his servants. all are to serve Him, all are
to obey those precepts of the Gospel, all are to conform to
the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are His slaves, they are
bought with a price, they are not their own, they are the Lord's. And then all also are the Lord's
prisoners, their every thought is to be brought into captivity
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have those words that Paul
writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5, casting down
imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the
knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ. Every thought is to be brought
into captivity to Christ, to the obedience of Christ. In other
words, what are believers to do? They are to think Christ's
thoughts after Him. Or doesn't Paul say again to
those Corinthians, we have the mind of Christ. The very thinking,
you see, of the people of God. Let this mind be in you. which
was also in Christ Jesus, we read in Philippians chapter 2.
And what does Paul go on to say in that great second chapter
of the Philippian epistle? He speaks of the humiliation
of Christ. That's the mind of Christ. "...he
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men." Oh, that is the mind of the Lord
Jesus Christ. All are to be prisoners to Christ
in that sense, they are to be Christ-like. But it's not only
that they are to have right thoughts. Believers are to have right thoughts,
they are to think God's thoughts. They are to fill their minds
with the words of God. They are to delight not only
in the promises of the Gospel, they are to embrace all the precepts
of the Gospel. But not only so, besides right
thoughts, they must also know something of real affection. Oh, it's not enough, is it, to
have a right mind, a sound mind. As Joseph Hart says, true religion's
more than notion. Something must be known and felt. There's that that is felt. In
other words, it has to do with the affection. And we see it, do we not, in
the way in which Paul will exhort those believers in the church
at Colossae how their affections are to rise above the things
of time and sense. In chapter 3 it says, If ye then
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth for you're dead and
your life is hid with Christ in God. What a favoured people
where the affections are right. There's a remarkable work of
Jonathan Edwards in which he deals with the religious affections. Yes we're to have a clear mind,
we're to have a mind that is well instructed, we're to have
a right understanding and appreciation of the great doctrines of the
gospel, but we need more than that, we need that Christ should
come and dwell in our hearts by faith, and that's the Christians
calling is it not, this man you see who's such a powerful The
pattern to them which would hereafter believe, how He is the Lord's
prisoner in every sense. He says to the Galatians, I am
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in man. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Is that my
desire? Is that your desire this morning?
That we might be those who do conform more and more to the
Lord Jesus Christ, that we can say with Paul that we're a prisoner
of Jesus Christ. And he says it twice, as we see
here in the opening words, the first verse and then again there
at the end of verse 9. Now, as a prisoner, Paul would
surely know something about suretyship And this is what he is writing
of in the words that I announced as our text there at verse 18. If he, that is Onesimus, if he
hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with
mine own hand. I will repay it. I say again,
this is suretyship. And that is a judicial term,
to be a surety. The surety is responsible for
another person, responsible for that person's appearance in court. And now a payment is made, that's a bond or guarantee,
that the person will appear at the appointed time. Even in our
legal system there are those who stand bail for a particular
individual, are they not? And this is what we have here
in the language that Paul is using. Whatever it is that Onesimus
owes, whatever debt there is to pay, Put that on my account. I will repay it. He's taking
on the responsibility. Now, it's interesting in the
Old Testament Hebrew, the particular word that is used in regard to
the surety does have the idea of an exchanging of places. And we see it in what's written
there in the book of Proverbs. In Proverbs we find references
on occasions to the surety, for example in chapter 6, the opening part of Proverbs
6, My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast
stricken thy hand with a stranger thou art snared, with the words
of thy mouth thou art taken with the words of thy mouth." Serious matter then, to be a
surety for another and to put yourself as it were in their
place and to take on responsibility for them and certainly with regards
to thinking in terms of the law The surety is a man who stands
in for another, that's what we see from those words in Proverbs. Now remember how Judah back in
Genesis becomes surety for his brother Benjamin after they had treated Joseph so cruelly and
sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt We have the history unfolded
there in the book of Genesis. So in time, Joseph is exalted
to the highest position next to Pharaoh in all the land of
Egypt. And when there's that tremendous
dirt in all the countries round about, there's great plenty in
Egypt because the Pharaoh had listened to the advice of Joseph
previously. You are familiar. with the details
and Jacob sends his sons he sends them into Egypt to to get grain
and Joseph recognizes his brethren though they don't recognize him
and he inquires after Benjamin and eventually they go off and
he says if they if they should come again they must bring their
brother with them and after a while of course it's necessary to go
again and Judah reminds his father that they must take Benjamin
or the man will not see them and now Jacob he's so upset he's
lost one son so he thinks he's lost his son Joseph His beloved
son, is he going to lose another son? He's annoyed that ever his
brethren had made mention of another brother at home, but
of course the man had inquired if there was another. But then
see what Judah says. There in Genesis 43 verse 8,
Judah said unto Israel, his father, send a lad with me. We will arise
and go, that we may live and not die, both we and thou, and
also our little ones. I will be surety for him. Of
my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever."
He is surety for his brother, and Jacob relents, and so they
go and then when they come before Joseph Jacob tells Joseph of
the arrangement he had made with his father in chapter 44 and
verse 32 thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father saying
if I bring him not unto thee then I shall bear the blame to
my father forever Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant
abide instead of the lad a bondman to my Lord, and let the lad go
up with his brethren." This is suretorship, and this is what
we see in the case of the Apostle Paul. It's the same principle
that we have here in verses 18 and 19. If he, if Onesimus hath wrung thee, or
oweth thee aught. Put that on mine account. I,
Paul, have written it with mine own hand. In other words, we've
struck hands. This is my solemn work. I will
repay it. Albeit I do not say to thee,
O thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. Now, here we
see Paul, you see, in another capacity. He's an apostle, he's
a servant, he's a prisoner, but now we see this man as a shorty. Now what is the point that we're
seeking to make in all of these things? Why doesn't this ultimately
direct us to him who is the great shorty of his people, even the
Lord Jesus Christ himself? Remember how Job, in the midst
of all those terrible trials, all that came upon poor Job,
how he cries out in chapter 17 at verse 3, and he says, put
me in a surety with thy. All this is his prayer to God,
that there might be one who can be surety for Job, who can take
on the responsibility for him. who will stand, as it were, in
his place." And isn't Job there anticipating and looking for
the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ? He goes on to say later,
"...I know that my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand in the latter
day upon the earth." But there we have his request
to God, "...put me in assurity with them." And so it was, of
course, in the fullness of the time that God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of
sons. O God's eternal Son has come,
made of the woman, the seed of the woman, yes, in accordance
with the great promise there at the beginning in Genesis 3,
but not only made of a woman, also made under the law. He stands in that law place.
The surety of his people. And so in Hebrews Hebrews 7 and
verse 22 we read of Jesus made a surety of a better covenant. And the word, the particular
word that's used There in Hebrews 7 is just used on that one occasion
in all the New Testament Scriptures. Here is the uniqueness then of
the Lord Jesus Christ in his office as the surety. He is the
surety of a better covenant. That is a covenant that is better
than the old covenant. Better than the covenant that
God gave at Mount Sinai. Now remember, what were the terms
of that covenant? We have it set out, of course,
in the 20th chapter of Exodus. You know that it's there that
we find the Ten Commandments, which are the expression of that
covenant, but we have the setting of the covenant in what we read
in the previous chapter, certainly in chapter 19. And what are the
terms of that covenant that God is entering into Israel with?
Well he says there at Exodus 19 and verse 5, Obey my voice
indeed and keep my covenant. They have to obey. If they're going to keep the
covenant, they have to obey the commandments of the Lord God. And so, Leviticus 18 and verse
5. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes
and my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. These are the terms of that covenant.
What does the covenant say? It says do and live. That's the language of the covenant,
the old covenant. Do, do, do. And when Paul He's explaining
these things in the New Testament. See how he refers to Moses. Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man that doeth those things shall
live by them. Now this is ever the language,
is it not, of the law. The law was given by Moses. And now the Old Testament prophets
What is their ministry? They appeal to the language of
Moses. They're expounding the law of
God. They're applying the law of God
time and again to the nation of Israel. Jeremiah, for example,
in Jeremiah 11 and verse 3 says, Cursed be the man that obeyeth
not the words of this covenant. If they don't obey, In every
detail, the words of the covenant, if they don't obey all the commandments
of God, they're under the curse. Well, that's the ministration
of that old covenant. As many as are of the works of
the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone the continuous not in all things written in the book
of the law to do them." That's the language that we have in
Galatians chapter 3, is it not? Verse 10. As many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse. There's no blessing in
the law. It's that ministration of condemnation. It's that ministration of death. But then, What does Paul go on
to say there in Galatians 3 and verse 13, Christ has redeemed
us. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Oh, Christ has come, you see.
In the fullness of the time, God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, He is the surety and He stands
in the place, the law place of His people and He answers for
them before all that holy law of God made of a woman made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. He has paid the
price of their redemption. That ransom price that the holy
law of God demanded Christ has met it. But not only so, of course,
he's also honored and magnified that law of God in terms of its
precepts, as well as his penalties. He's not only born in his own
person that penalty, that punishment that was the just desert of the
transgressor, but he has also honored it in terms of its commandments. He was obedient. Obedient in
life, obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross Christ
is the end of the law. For righteousness to every one
that believeth. Remarkable it is that when we
come even to a book like Philemon and you might say well there's
very little of doctrinal content in the book. That's true. It's
a very personal letter written by the Apostle concerning this
young man, it would seem, this man Onesimus, who was a servant,
a slave, who, as we said, had absconded, and he'd come into
contact with the Apostle, and he had been wonderfully converted,
he'd been saved, Paul writes of him so lovely.
Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, he says. So he writes
here to his master Philemon and speaks of himself as ready to
stand as surety for Onesimus. All doubtless the apostle is
so much aware of what Christ had done. had
not Christ come and stood as Paul's surety. Couldn't Christ say these words
concerning this man, Paul, speaking as it were to his father, if
he hath wronged thee or loathe thee aught, put that on my account. That's the language of the gospel,
is it not? The Lord Jesus is that one who is willing to come
into the very place of his people and do all that is necessary
in order to their salvation, he has paid the price. And he
has paid it fuller. The top lady says, payment God
cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, his
hand, and then again at mine. This is, that's great salvation. that he's found only in the Lord
Jesus Christ, or that we might be those who do truly know him
and are desirous that we might be those who are really his servants,
even his prisoner. All our thoughts, all our affections
brought into captivity to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, God
be pleased to bless his word to us.