If you will turn with me for
our message today to the book of Philemon. Philemon, it's between
Titus and Hebrews. Philemon, look with me at verse
one. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ,
and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved
and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Aphia and Archippus,
our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house." Here Paul
is in prison in Rome for preaching the gospel, and while he's there,
he writes a letter to a dearly beloved brother in Christ from
the church at Colossae named Philemon. Now, we don't know
much about Philemon. Literally, all we know about
him is what is recorded here in these few verses. It's believed
he was a wealthy man, a generous man. What I do know for sure is he
was a dearly beloved brother and a fellow laborer in the gospel. Now, this letter that Paul wrote
to him It's precious, we're gonna see that. It's a precious, precious
letter, and it's absolutely full of the gospel. It's full of good
news, and I pray, my prayer for us is that this truly might be
good news to you and me, all right? Now look how he greeted
him here in verse three. He said, grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought about
this. This was a letter from one brother
in Christ to another. And the very next thing he says
is, God is our father. You know, I think it kind of
goes without saying, we tend to forget this sometimes, but
we're brethren and we have one father. Amazing, God is our father. And we have one Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And God has given us grace. People love to talk about grace.
You go to just about any church or any funeral service, you're
gonna hear amazing grace. Well, this amazing grace comes
from God. We don't have anything to do
with it until He manifests that grace to us and in us. And He
does so through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing grace. It's
sovereign grace. It's saving grace. And He's given
us that grace and peace. We're sinners and we need peace
with God. We can't do it. Christ is peace. He is our peace, eternal peace,
everlasting peace. And that's how Paul greets his
brother here. He says, grace to you, peace to you. What he's
saying is Christ to you. All right. Look at verse four.
He said, I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my
prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward
the Lord Jesus and toward all saints, that the communication
of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every
good thing which is in you, in Christ Jesus. He gave his brother
a very high commendation. And when reading this, I can't
help but think about you, my brethren in Christ. Do we not
thank our God for one another? Do we not make mention of one
another always in our prayers before God? I thank God for you. And I hope
this comes out right. But I thank God for you, not
because of anything in you. Not because of anything special
about you. I thank God for you because of
what God has done for you. I thank God for you because of
what God has done in you. You're special. But it's not you. It's Christ
in you. I thank God for you. Just like
Paul thanked God for his brother here, I thank God for you. He
mentioned Philemon's love and faith which he has toward the
Lord Jesus and all saints. If we have faith, if we have
true, saving, God-given faith, God gave us that faith. He works
that faith in us. It's the gift of God. He's the
author and finisher of that faith. I thank God for giving us that
faith. I thank God for that. I thank
God for revealing His love to us and putting His love for Him
and for one another in us. It says He shed abroad the love
of God in us, in our hearts. Well, if God's done that for
us, we ought to thank Him, shouldn't we? for giving us faith in Christ
and love for Him and love for one another. Now, it's obvious,
just reading the six verses we just read, it's obvious that
Paul had a great love for his brother Philemon, didn't it?
They had a special, special bond. And it's believed that Paul had
spent a good deal of time with Philemon and the church in his
house, the brethren there in Colossae. They had a great special
relationship. And I love what he said here
in verse seven. He said, for we have great joy and consolation
in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by
thee, brother. He said, you give us great joy. You give us great joy. I mentioned
it's believed Philemon was a wealthy man, and there's some things
in this chapter that lead us to believe that. But the bowels
of the saints being refreshed by him, It doesn't mean, well,
He gave His money and thereby refreshed the bowels of the saints.
Maybe the Lord used that. He no doubt does. But it was
more than that. The refreshing I see is in the
love and the faith that God gave Him. It's refreshing, isn't it?
That will cheer our heart, won't it? Christ in us will produce
love and faith in Christ. and joy and fellowship among
one another, won't it? It's special. Now, Paul has greeted
his brother with the kindest, sweetest, most loving and affectionate
greeting I could imagine. Now, he's gonna ask him something,
all right? Now, here's our message. Look
with me at verse eight. Wherefore, Though I might be
much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient,
yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one
as Paul the Aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ."
What he's saying is, Philemon, I could enforce what I'm about
to ask you as God's apostle. As God's minister, as His messenger,
what I'm going to ask you is right. It's good in the Lord. And as His apostle, I could command
this of you. But He said, I'm not going to
do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to ask you this. I'm beseeching you. I'm urging
you. I'm pleading with you. for love's
sake." Now, that's key. As we go through this, that right
there is key. I'm asking you this for love's sake. Now, we
just read Paul commend Philemon's love. He had the love of God in him,
and now Paul is pleading with him to act on that love. And I thought about this in 2
Corinthians 5, I believe. We read that God's people are
constrained by love, specifically the love of Christ. And if there's
one thing that moves the child of God, it's this, love. There's no more appropriate way
for Paul to come to his brother, asking him to do something, and
it's going to be a glorious thing he's asking him to do, than for
love's sake. This is precious. Absolutely
precious. Look with me 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." Paul is pleading for this man, Onesimus. Who was he? Again, this is another
person we don't read much about in the Scriptures. Onesimus. He was Philemon's servant. He was Philemon's unprofitable
servant. He was unworthy. He was useless. That's what the word unprofitable
here means. Useless. Useless. He had run away from
his master. We know what kind of master Philemon
was, don't we? He was kind. He was gracious. He was loving. So you have a
sinful rebel who flees his loving master. Does that sound familiar? Can we relate to this? Onesimus was a sinner. He was
a nobody. Brethren, He represents all of
us. What I just declared Him to be
is all mankind as we are dead in trespasses and sins in this
wicked flesh. Sinners, we We had a master who
we left, didn't we? A kind, gracious, loving, tender-hearted,
merciful, compassionate master. And we said, away with this man. We don't want you. And we did
much more than that. We did not want our master. There's a verse that says we've
all gone out of the way. All of us. Every one of us turned
and went our own way. We're all unprofitable on our
own and it says we're all together become unprofitable. Put us all
together. What do you have in God's sight?
Unprofitable. Worth nothing. I'm an accountant. I deal with values. All of us
together before God, we're worth 0.00000. You know, you put enough decimals,
maybe you'll get to a .0001. No. Before God, infinite zeros. That's what we are. Nothing.
All right? Nothing. Unprofitable. That's
what Onesimus was to Philemon, and it's a picture, okay? In
the sight of God, and that's what we are, in the sight of
God. But here's what blesses my heart, and here's some good
news. Do you see what Paul called Onesimus in verse 10? He said,
I beseech thee for my son, Onesimus. It wasn't Paul's physical son.
He didn't have any children. He was his son in the faith. Like Timothy, you know, he called
Timothy his son. He was his son in the faith.
Now, what does that mean? It means though he was a wicked,
unprofitable, undeserving servant, he was a vessel of God's mercy. You know, that's what our Lord
told Paul. He said, he's a chosen vessel
unto me. Well, it was the same for Onesimus. The exact same for Onesimus.
Paul was no different. Philemon, we just read very high
words concerning him. He was no different. We're all
sinners before God. And in God's good purpose, he
saved Onesimus. In studying this, I read that
Philemon is in Colossae, okay? Onesimus winds up in Rome. Would you like to know the distance?
It was around a thousand miles. You imagine how long it took
him to get that far from his master. They didn't have planes
and trains and automobiles like we do. How far have we gone from our
Master? Do we really have any idea? Honestly, we've gone as far as we could
go, as far removed as we could possibly be. That's how far we've
gone. We did it on our own. We left. Now, isn't it something
that Onesimus, I told you, there's no doubt Paul had been in Philemon's
house, okay? Well, Onesimus was a servant
in Philemon's house, so they had obviously corresponded together
in the past. Well, isn't it amazing that they
wind up in a prison together a thousand miles from home? Isn't
that amazing? Isn't God's grace amazing? Can
you see His purpose in causing Paul to be in prison? We think
it's such a terrible thing that Paul got thrown in prison over
and over and over again for declaring Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
don't we? If that were to happen to any of us, wouldn't we just
feel so bad and so sorry and, oh Lord, why? Can we see why? We don't have any idea just how
greatly God used Paul's prison ministry. Well, here's one. Here's one. He caused, you know,
man's heart deviseth his way. Onesimus says, I'm out of here.
But the Lord directed his steps, didn't He? It wasn't by accident
he wound up in that prison where Paul was. And I don't know how
he wound up there. Seems like he got himself in
trouble, don't it? I don't know. It doesn't matter. God put him
there. He led him to Paul, who by the Spirit of God preached
the gospel to him and led him to Christ. What a blessing. What a blessing. You know, a lot of times things
don't make sense to us, but we need to understand this whole
world, this universe, whatever exists is moving at God's sovereign
command. And it's being controlled by
His infinite wisdom that we just can't understand. But we sure
can believe it and trust in it. Verse 10 again, Paul said, I
beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. When our Lord hung on the cross,
do you know what was taking place? He was begetting us in his bonds. You know that? Everything that
happens here that we're reading here in this text is a picture
of what Christ has done for His people. He beget us in His bonds. He hung there on purpose. He suffered on purpose. He bled
and died, was buried, rose again, all according to God's purpose.
He gave His soul. That's what we read in Isaiah
53. He gave His soul an offering
for sin. He gave Himself an offering for sin. He was made sin. Why? To save a bunch of unworthy,
rebellious, sinful, wretches like Onesimus, like me, like
us. Christ begat us in His bonds. And now, I love this, Paul said
in verse 11, he said, in time past, he was unprofitable to
you. But he said, not anymore, he's
profitable now to me and to you. And that's so, brethren, in Christ,
we have no idea just how valuable we are, and here's why. Because
Christ is all, and God has put us in Him. We're one with Him. We're profitable now. And again,
it's not us. It's Christ in us. Oh, praise
His holy name. Now, because of what God had
done for Onesimus, we're going to enter into Paul pleading for
him to Philemon. And this is a glorious picture
of Christ, our Savior, interceding with the Father for us. Look at verse 10 again, 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, verse 12, whom I have sent again. Thou
therefore receive him, that is mine own bowels. Paul is going
to send Onesimus back to Philemon. He's going to hand deliver this
letter. And Paul's urging him, Philemon, you receive your departed
servant, you receive him for love's sake, and I love how Paul
urged him to receive him here. He said, receive him as mine
own bowels. That's strong language. He's
saying, you receive him as my own heart. You love me, Philemon. You receive him like you love
me. You receive Him as the object of my affection, as the object
of your affection. And brethren, that's how Christ
pleads for us. The message our brother brought last week, John
17, how Christ pleads for us. It's beautiful, isn't it? Melts
your heart, doesn't it? Just to think about how He loves
us, how He prayed and prays for us, how He loves us with the
same love that God loves him, the Father loves him, gives us
the glory the Father's given him. That's how Christ pleads
for us, and it's beautiful. Look at verse 12 again. A great change has taken place
here, and I would just be tickled to keep him here with me. Selfishly,
I'd love to keep him here with me. But Paul knew he was Philemon's
servant. He belonged to Philemon. I've
got to send him back. What we need to see here is we've
done the sending, and we must stand before the one we've sinned
against. We must. We absolutely must. And when we do, not if, you know,
one by one, every single day people are going and they're
dropping this robe of flesh and they're going and standing before
God. I hear about it pretty much every single day. People my age,
people younger than me, believe it or not, we know it so, right?
People older than me, one by one, we're going to meet God.
When we do, it could be today, what hope do we have? We're gonna stand before the
one we've sinned against, gonna be judged for our own sin. Well,
I'll tell you this, I need someone who can plead for me. I don't
want to have to give an account myself. I don't want to have to stand
on the merit of myself, or I am doomed. You notice Onesimus isn't
pleading for himself. Paul is doing all the pleading
for him. He's not going to say a word.
He's going to come to Philemon. He's going to hand him this letter,
mouth closed. We need someone to speak for
us. Brethren, we have someone to speak for us. If any man sin,
we have, right now and in that day, an advocate with the Father,
and His name is Jesus Christ the righteous. He's gonna speak
for us. You know, a song that we sing
says, eternal blood will speak for me. That's what I need. I need Christ to plead for me
because He pleads Himself. He doesn't plead. Paul did not
say, Philemon, receive Onesimus. He's better now. He's different
now. No. All he said was, here's what
God did for him. Receive him because of what God
has done for him. When Christ pleads for us before
the Father, He pleads what He has done for us. That's it, brethren. We hope in Him and Him alone. Now I love this, in verse 14,
notice what he said here, the second part of the verse. He
said that thy benefit or thy goodness should not be as it
were of necessity, but willingly. He's saying Philemon, don't receive
him because you have to. Paul knew Philemon owed him nothing. He'd given him everything and
he left. If onesimus is gonna be received,
it's gonna be willingly. If we're gonna be received by
God, brothers and sisters, it's gonna be of His own will. That's how He begets us, isn't
it? Of His own will. Not my will, His will. Must receive
us according to His will. Now look at verse 15. For perhaps
He therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive Him
forever. Onesimus departed. No one made
him depart. Philemon didn't drive him off.
You know, sometimes we do that, we drive people off. He had no reason to leave, but
he left. He left. Got as far away as he
could. And I'll tell you this, he had
no intention of coming back. No intention whatsoever. But God, You put yourself right
here. We left, wanted nothing to do
with God. We despised His Christ, His grace. Give me my own way. Let me have
my own lot. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, hath quickened us. Even we were dead in sins. Can't
leave that out. We were dead in our sins and
he quickened us together with Christ, joined us with his only
beloved begotten son, Christ. By grace, we're saved and grace
alone. Verse 15 again, perhaps he departed
for a season. that thou shouldest receive him
forever." Forever. He departed, and yet he was going
to be received forever. Forever. Now look how Paul urged
Philemon to receive him. Verse 16, not now as a servant,
but above a servant. A brother beloved, especially
to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in
the Lord. He's saying, I acknowledge he
is your servant. Fleshly speaking, he's your servant.
But Philemon, he's more than that. He's your brother in Christ. Oh, how special, how sweet, your
brother in the Lord. Turn back to where our brother
read for us, Luke chapter 15. You know, the prodigal son, he's
very similar to Onesimus, isn't he? He said, give me what's mine. The father graciously gave him
something. He didn't have to give him anything. Son goes out,
he wastes everything with riotous living, ruins himself. And then what's he say? He came
to himself. It wasn't him, God worked in
him. He said, I think I'm just gonna go back home. I'm going
to pray for forgiveness for my father because I sinned against
him." And he said, if I could just come back and be a servant
in his house, oh how wonderful that would be compared to the
mess I got myself into. Now look here, Luke 15 verse
17. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants
of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with
hunger? I will arise and go to my father,
and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his
father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him,
and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed
him. And the son said unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more
worthy to be called thy son. Now notice, the father cuts him
off before he even gets to say, please let me be one of your
servants. That's what I'm saying. He's not going to let him be
a servant. That's not how God receives us. Well, time to put
you to work. That's not how it works. That's not how it works.
He said above a servant, a brother be loved. Look here. The son
said unto him, verse 21, Father, I've sinned against heaven and
in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and
put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his
feet, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us
eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and
is alive again. He was lost and is found, and
they began to be merry. Brethren, that's how God receives
sinners. That's how God receives sinners
willingly. The father saw him and he ran
to the son and kissed him. The son was talking, the father
cut him off, and he said, put all this on him. Deck my son. God receives sinners lovingly,
graciously, mercifully, willingly. Look back in our text, verse
17. Paul said, "...if thou count
me therefore a partner or a brother, receive him as myself." When
we stand before God, we can't be received as we are in this
flesh. We must be holy to be accepted.
I'll tell you what we must be. We must be as that prodigal son.
Let me recount what the father put on him. He told his servants,
you go put this on him, the best robe, not just any old robe. There's one righteousness and
that's Christ. He said, you go put a ring on his hand, a ring
signifying my covenant with him. You're mine forever. You put shoes on his feet. He
doesn't walk. in the sinful flesh that he wears
anymore. He's a new creature in Christ.
He walks in Christ, lives, moves, has his being in Christ. And
here's the best part of all. He said, you kill that fatted
calf. That fatted calf that we've had prepared for this very moment,
they probably didn't know it, but God knew it. He said, you
go kill that fatted calf. It says, the fatted calf, there
was one, Kill it. Let us eat. Eat his flesh, drink
his blood, and be merry. If we're going to be received
by God, that's how it must be. We must be vitally, eternally,
inseparably joined to Christ. He that hath the Son hath life,
must have Him. He was made sin who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. It's the only
way we're going to be accepted. Paul said, receive Him as myself. Verse 18 says, Can't you see
the picture here? Everything we've done wrong,
everything we've sinned against God, Christ said, don't go to
them for it, come to me. I'll be surety for them. Whatever
they owe, I'll pay it. And our Lord truly paid it all.
He paid it all. He did what Paul couldn't do.
Sounds great what Paul's saying. I don't know how much Paul could
truly do here. But our Lord bore our sins. He
bore the weight of our sins, the guilt of our sins, the punishment,
the wrath, the death. of our sins, and we are right
now forgiven, justified, holy, accepted before God in Him. Right now. And He ever liveth
to make intercession for us. That's what Paul's doing here.
He's interceding for Onesimus. Christ ever lives to intercede
for us. Ever lives. Now, here's the conclusion of
the letter. Verse 19 again. I, Paul, have written it with
mine own hand. I will repay it. Albeit I do
not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. It appears God used Paul to preach
the gospel to Philemon, by which God saved Philemon. He said,
Philemon, remember how much you've been forgiven. I told you that
he was no different than Onesimus. We're all the same. We've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's one good,
that's Christ. Remember how much you've been
forgiven, may we never forget. God help us to never forget and
boast. Verse 20, yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the
Lord. Refresh my bowels in the Lord.
See, he ain't talking about money. Love and faith, forgiveness,
peace, joy. Let me have joy of thee in the
Lord, refresh my bowels in the Lord, having confidence in thy
obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do
more than I say." God will forgive us. We can rest
assured, brethren. God will forgive us. I love how
he worded that. I know you're going to forgive
him. I know you're going to do more than I say. Gabe dealt with the Solomon, the queen of Sheba,
the half has not been told. We just, he's gonna do more than
we can even begin to enter into. His forgiveness is so vast. His
mercy, the song, the love of God, if we would think the ocean
filled, the skies of parchment. We just don't have any idea what
awaits us. It hasn't entered into our hearts
the things he's prepared for us. But I love thinking about
it. I really do. Could be any day now. Verse 22,
but with all prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through
your prayers I shall be given to you. He said, I hope to come
back and see you again soon. There salute thee Epaphras, my
fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, Marcus Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas,
my fellow laborers. You tell him I said hello. Verse
25, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, amen. He ends the letter same way he
started it, grace, peace, Christ. Christ to you. Now, really quickly,
I want to look at this here. The chapter did not stop right
there. I hope your Bible has this. I know some don't, but
there's a footnote. Let's read it together. It says,
written from Rome to Philemon by Onesimus, a servant. I pray this blesses our heart.
Onesimus physically wrote these words. As Paul spoke them, being
inspired of God to speak them, Onesimus wrote them down. Can
you imagine the guilt and the shame that he must have felt?
Honestly, he said, I know he's wronged you. I know he stole
from you. I know he was nothing but an
unworthy, unprofitable, useless servant, and he wanted nothing
to do with you, and he departed from you. Truth, Lord. It didn't change a word. He wrote
it exactly as Paul said, exactly as it had to be said. But can
you imagine the joy that he must have felt all through his heart
and through his soul when Paul started interceding for him,
when he said, this is my son. Are you serious? This is my son
whom I've begotten in my bonds. He's profitable now. He's ministering
to me. He's a blessing to me. He's mine
own bowels, my own heart. Receive him as you received me.
He departed for a season, but by God's grace that thou shouldest
receive him forever. Oh, can you imagine the joy that
flooded his soul? If we can relate to Onesimus,
we can imagine the joy he felt, can't we? We can enter into that.
Because this is good news for sinners. It really is. When the gospel, you know, we
hear it preached time and time again. but when the gospel becomes
my gospel." You know, this was very personal to Onesimus because
it was all about him. It was directly concerning him.
I sinned. Look at this hope I have in Christ. When the gospel becomes my gospel,
when the truth becomes my truth, when the good news becomes my
good news, Nothing is ever the same. There's joy unspeakable. We become happy, blessed, eternally
happy. And I can't explain this. I can't
begin to try. It can only be experienced. And
I pray God would enable us to experience this. Now I want to
close showing you something very sweet. The only other time Onesimus
is mentioned. Turn back a few pages to Colossians
chapter 4. You know, you could read Philemon
and wonder, well, did Philemon actually receive Him? Right? It doesn't technically say. Now
Paul said, I have confidence. I know you're going to receive
Him. I know you're going to do more than I say. Onesimus needed to be received
by God, not Philemon. Look here at Colossians 4 verse
7. All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved
brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord,
whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might
know your state and comfort your hearts, verse nine, with Onesimus,
a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you. Do you know
who Paul's writing to? You can go back and look if you
want, Colossians 1 verse 1. He's writing to the saints and faithful
brethren in Christ. He's one of you. That wretched sinner, that no
good, unworthy, unprofitable, runaway servant. God said he's
one of you. one of you. By God's grace alone,
by the substitutionary death of Christ alone, by the intercession
of Christ alone, He's one of you. Now let me close with this. Onesimus departed. I told you he would have stayed
departed. He deserved to suffer the eternal wrath and damnation
of God against sin forever. just like you and me. But in
the goodness of God, in the manifold, eternal wisdom of God, God purposed
to save him and receive him unto himself forever." Forever. Christ died for sinners. Christ receiveth sinful men,
and He receives them forever. Well, if you do this, He receives
them forever. He said, I will come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.
And it's forever, brethren, forever. May God be pleased to do for
you and me what he was pleased to do for Onesimus. For Christ's
sake, for love's sake, amen.