You will turn with me to the
book of Philemon. It's between Titus and Hebrews.
It's one chapter, very short book. Philemon. Again, I appreciate y'all having
me and pray our Lord has and will bless the time we have together. Bless his word to our hearts.
Philemon, look with me starting in 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,
the apostle Paul is imprisoned in Rome, and we know why, for
preaching Christ. And we're introduced to this
man Philemon. That's the name of the book.
And what this book is, it's a letter from Paul to his brother, the
brother in Christ. And maybe you've heard this preached
on before. When I first prepared this, was
thinking about it, and I don't know how it came to my mind,
but I remember hearing it preached here at your conference, I think
it was in 2014, somewhere around there. Gabe, who's now my pastor,
he wasn't at the time, preached from this text, and it feels
like yesterday, and it blessed my heart then, and I pray it'll
bless my heart again, and yours too. This letter is, if it's
anything, it's full of the gospel. It's full of Christ, full of
good news for those who need it. Look at verse 3 right here. It says, Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If you read the
letters Paul wrote, he pretty much always started it with a
salutation like that. Grace and peace to you. And I
never get tired of reading that. And it's so fitting that he started
this letter with that. He's going to make a petition
known here. manifest a request, all right?
And he starts it lovingly, okay? And the love is about to continue.
But let's just be reminded as we start this of the peace and
the grace that we have from God our Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not fleeting. You know, we just looked at what
God's done for us, how it's forever, how it's eternal, the half. He
hath not dealt with us after our sins. He forgiveth all our
iniquities, healeth all our diseases, okay? It's continual, it's forever.
Now, let's look at this, verse 4. 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, And when I read what Paul wrote here to his brethren, I
feel that for you, my brothers and my sisters. I feel the love.
He's sincerely acknowledging the good that is in his brother,
which is Christ in him, the hope of glory, the only one who is
truly good. And when we acknowledge the good
that God has bestowed upon one another, we truly are thankful
for each other. I truly am thankful for you, my brethren, beloved
in the Lord. And the faith that God has given
us, you know, we must have faith. Without faith, we are not going
to please God. He said it's impossible. And yet we know faith is the
gift of God. God has given us His faith. It's
a gift. He imparted it to us. He's given us His love. He's
revealed His love to us. Anybody that has a Bible can
say, well, God is love. But have you experienced that
love? Love is experienced. It must be experienced. And we
who belong to Him, we have. He's shed it abroad in our hearts.
We know it. We feel it. Thank God for one
another. Now, it's obvious here that Paul
loved this man. Paul loved his brother Philemon. It's believed that the Lord used
Paul, and there's a verse in here that pretty much confirms
that, that the Lord used Paul by the preaching of Christ to
save Philemon. And then we also just read that Philemon was a
fellow laborer. Maybe he ministered. Even you who don't preach, we
still minister. We still labor together in the
cause of the gospel. They were dear friends. And right
here in verse 7 he said, For we have great joy and consolation
in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by
thee, brother. You give us great joy. Again,
I say the same thing for you. I get to see you maybe once or
twice a year, and every time I'm burdened with the task of
preaching, I would be just as content to sit and get to worship
together as hearers. But someone has to do it, and
I was asked, but you truly do give me great joy. Again, when
I think about the relationships I have in this world, now I have
what seems like a really good boss, I have some good co-workers,
and I deal with people and I think in my mind, well, they're good
people. And I know it's not so inside of God. I know we're sin
before Him. We must be in Christ. That's
all the good that there is. But people of the world don't
give me the joy that God's people do. And you who believe Christ,
you understand what I'm saying. I love to be with brethren. earthly
brethren. We're connected by sinful blood,
but I rejoice in the brethren we're connected by the Holy Blood
of Christ. Truly do. Great love and great joy. Now
that Paul has greeted his brother here, we're going to get into
the letter. We're going to get into the request. Now look with
me at verse 8. He said, 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 in one as Paul the Aged,
and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ." What he's saying is,
I could enforce, as an apostle, I could enforce what I'm going
to ask you because it's good and it's right in the Lord. Alright? But I'm going to ask you this,
did you notice what it said in verse 9? For love's sake. I'm
coming to you, my brother, beloved, in love. I am coming to you in
love. And is that not how we should
come to one another? in love. He commended Philemon's love.
Now he's about to ask him to act on that love. It's one thing
to say I love you, but then... We love one another. Brethren,
this commandment have we received. Love one another. Love one another.
And I love the verse that tells us we're constrained by love.
Constrained by the love of Christ. And we are. 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." He's pleading for somebody. He's writing this
letter to Philemon on behalf of somebody else. Onesimus. And again, before I heard Gabe
preach this message, I'd never heard of that man. Oh, but I
love that brother. Love that man. Who was he? Well,
up to this point, It says he was unprofitable. He was a servant. He was Philemon's servant. He
belonged to Philemon. He was an unprofitable servant. He was useless. And I can relate
to that. If God has revealed to us anything
about ourselves, we can enter into that. Unworthy, useless
servant. And this man, Onesipus, he had
done something. He had sinned against his master. He ran away from him. We already
looked at what kind of man Philemon was. He was a dear brother. He
was a dear saint of God, full of love and faith and grace and
peace, and yet his servant ran away. Now, it's easy to see Onesimus
was a sinner. He was a sinner, and not just
against Philemon. He was a sinner before God. And
that's what we are. We sin against one another. But
David, I think, said, against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. Our sin is against God. And what
we've done is we've left our Master, our gracious, loving,
kind, merciful Master. We left Him. How far did we go? As far as we could. You know,
when Jonah, when he went down to Tarshish, he was trying to
get as far away from Nineveh as he could go, and he went as
far as God let him. And then God put him in the belly
of a fish that spat him out on Nineveh. We've sinned against our Master.
We've left Him. Unprofitable. That's what He said on Nisbeth.
It was unprofitable. And that's what we are. But did
you notice in verse 10 what Paul called on Nisbeth? Look at it
again. Like the Apostle Paul, Onesimus was a chosen vessel
of God's mercy. Onesimus fled, and in studying
this, it says that he fled about a thousand miles. I don't suppose transportation
was as convenient then as it is now. He fled for a long time,
and before he fled, I bet he thought about it. Look for the
right opportunity to get out of here. I'm hightailing it out
of here. And he went a long way off. There's a song that I love. Far removed from hope in heaven,
long the distance that I fell. I think it's deeper than the
stain has gone. And yet, here he goes. But in God's goodness, everything
happens according to God's purpose. His will always comes to pass.
This man Onesimus finds himself in the prison where Paul is. What a coincidence. I'll tell you what that is. That's
mercy. That's divine intervention. I
suppose being Philemon's servant, I suppose that Onesimus had heard
Paul preach the gospel before. Sound familiar? In and out. Off we go. Until
God, in mercy, does something for us. And when I think about,
I think Paul already said twice here that he's a prisoner of
Jesus Christ and he was literally a prisoner in Rome. You think
about Oh, well, poor Paul, he was in prison. I do think that.
When I think of him being in prison, I think, well, we sure
got it easy. But I also thought of this. How greatly did our
Lord bless his prison ministry? I mean, seriously. How many occasions
a wicked man would put him in prison and then the Lord would
save some of that man's servants? Well, this is my favorite one.
wrote a whole little book about it. So special. So special. I pray we can see the infinite
wisdom and goodness of our God. God used Paul to save Onesimus.
Verse 10 again, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus whom I have
begotten in my bonds. It was a trial. It was an affliction.
They were bonds that Paul was enduring. And yet what a beautiful
picture we have here of our Lord Jesus Christ He came into this
world to be in bonds, if you will. When He hung on that cross,
when He traded places with us, that was bonds we could never
imagine. The grief, the pain, the agony. His soul was exceeding sorrowful
even unto death. And He was obedient unto death. Our Lord hung there, doing nothing
for Himself, but giving himself completely. God giving himself
completely as a man for useless, unworthy, unprofitable servants
like Onesimus and like you and me. What glory do we get in that? None at all. 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." He's not unprofitable anymore. We feel like it, don't
we? We feel just as unprofitable
as we ever were, but not in Christ we're not. In Christ we're profitable
because He's profitable. What He is, we are. One with
Him. made us to be accepted in Him,
perfect, pure, spotless in Him. Christ is all and we're in Him. And right here, because of what
God was pleased to do for this man on Nessamus, because of what
God did for him, I can just imagine the joy Paul had getting to write
this letter and send it to Father. Let me tell you what God did
for that useless servant of yours. Oh, you're never going to believe
it. What a beautiful picture. Now,
verse 12, he said, Whom I have sent again, I'm sending him back. Thou therefore receive him, that
is, mine own bowels. Paul sending this man Onesimus
back to his master, sending the servant back to the master, and
he's urging him to receive him. For love's sake, remember, for
love's sake. And I love how he pleads for him right here. The
end of verse 12, he said, Receive him, that is mine own vows. He's pleading for Onesimus as
his own heart, the object of his affection, one whom he dearly
loves. And you know that's how our Lord
pleads for us. Though all we see is wretched vileness. Pleads for us as his own, because
he made us his own. Made us his own. Verse 12, whom
I have sent again, thou therefore receive him that is mine own
vows, whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he
might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel, but
without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefits should not
be as it were of necessity, but willingly. Paul here, he's saying
I would have gladly kept him right here with me, but he doesn't
belong to me, he belongs to you. And so I send him back. We must
stand before the one we've sinned against. God is the one with
whom we have to do it. We must stand before him. Now,
when we must stand before him, what hope do we have? Mentioned
in the first message. We have an advocate. We have
one to intercede for us. And that's exactly what Onesimus
has right here. He don't have to say a word.
Paul is pleading for him. He's writing to His Master on
His behalf. I love it. Wonderful. We have Him. And we do accept
Him, but only as a result of Him accepting us and putting
His love in our hearts. We joyfully come down and receive
Him, just like Zacchaeus. Because the Lord came to him
and said, come down. Because Christ pleads for us,
we're accepted. And I love, notice the end of
verse 14. He said that thy benefit should
not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. How will God receive
us? Willingly. God didn't have to
save anybody. Not of necessity, but willingly. I will. You know, that poor leopard
that came. Lord, if you will, that's it.
If you will, you can make me clean, you can make me whole.
And the Lord simply said, I will. Be thou clean, be whole. Because of Christ, God will receive
us willingly. Not because he had to, because
he chose to. He chose to. It's his will that
saves us, not ours. You know that. Now, in order
for Onesimus to be received, This is an account that actually
happened, okay? A man truly departed his master
and then he was going back to him. You think Philemon is going to
receive him? If he does, it will be willingly. He will choose
to take him back. Alright? Verse 14 again, But
without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be
as it were of necessity, but willingly. Now look at this.
For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest
receive him forever." The title of this message, Received
Forever. When Onesimus left, he had no
intention of coming back. Did we have intention of ever
praising the God that made us? ever worshipping the Creator
rather than the creature? Was it in us to even do that? But God who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved Onesimus. You know what He did for Onesimus? He reached way down. Plucked
him as a bran from the burn. He departed. He departed! And yet God said, I'm going to
receive you forever. Now, it just keeps getting better. Look at verse 16. Here's how
Paul is urging Philemon to receive him. Receive him forever, not
now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother Beloved, especially
to me, oh, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh
and in the Lord. You receive him as a brother.
You receive him as mine on bow. You love me, don't you? Oh, love
and receive him, a brother beloved in the Lord. Don't receive him as a servant.
Yes, he's your servant. Oh, but he's so much more than
that. Oh, He's so much more. Turn back to where our brother
just read from. They go together so well. Luke 15. Sometimes I wonder, will God
really receive a sinner like me? We read about it. We say it.
Rejoice to hear it. You read that account of Philemon?
Oh, mm. Lord, that's me. That's me. And right here, the two sons,
one of them was just a good old boy. You know, at the end of
this chapter, he's just filled with anger. Couldn't understand.
Couldn't enter into the joy. There was no happiness there.
And yet, the other brother that we're about to read about, he
just wasted it. Wasted everything. Give me what's
coming to me. All right, here you go. God give
me this and we just waste it. Verse 17, Luke 15, 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 perished 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.
See, he was a son. And look what he said there.
He said in verse 19, make me as one of thy hired servants.
Can I just please come back and just be a servant? Okay, that's
his request. And verse 20, and he arose and
came to his father. And I love this. But when he
was yet a great way off, his father saw him. What a picture that is. You just flash back before the
Lord brought you to a knowledge of himself. No care, no acknowledgement of Him. What do we have that we haven't
received? We didn't believe it. We didn't think that way. And yet, while we wore a far
off, He sees us. In fact, He's the one. It says,
when He came to Himself, He's the one that makes us come to
Him. Blesses the man whom Thou choosest and causes to approach
unto Thee. Loved us with everlasting love, he drawn us to himself.
Verse 20, 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. Father's about to
cut him off right here. That's not all the son wanted
to say. He was going to say, please, just make me a hired
servant. Let me work for you. Let me earn. Oh, there's no earning
before the father. It all must be freely given.
And again, before, he gave him what he asked for. Now he's about
to give him so much more, more than he could ever imagine, all
right? Verse 22, but the father said to his servants, Bring forth
the best robe and put it on him. Don't make him put it on. You
put it on. Son, sit there. Stand still and see. Watch me
work. Bring forth the best robe and
put it on him. And put a ring on his hand. I've
made a covenant with you. Put that ring on it. It goes
forever and never ends. It's eternal. Put a ring on his
hand and shoes on his feet. He was a new creature. We're
not after the flesh, we're after the Spirit. Walking in Christ
now. Not walking according to the
course, the prince of this air, whatever it says out there in
Ephesians 2. We're walking in Christ. We're walking after Him
in newness of life. Now look at this, verse 23. and bring hither the fatted calf
and kill it." You know, I wonder how long that calf had been waiting
for that moment. It had been prepared. It was
ready. Come, for all things are now
ready. Kill that calf, the end of verse 23, let us eat and be
merry. Why? For this my son was dead
and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. You see how unworthy that man
was? I don't know how old he was. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter how old. We're fools in this flesh and
we need God to do something for us. We need our loving Father
to have pity on us and mercy and compassion. That right there is how God receives
sinners. This man receives sinners. That's how he does, lovingly.
We don't deserve it. We just plumb don't deserve it.
He covers us in that robe, the robe of Christ's spotless, pure,
perfect righteousness. It's like Mephibosheth, right? He just thought he's a dog. I'm
just a dog. And yet he was a servant of the
king. He sat at the king's table forever. God receives sinners
mercifully, willingly, joyfully. Back in our text, following in
verse 17. If thou count me therefore a
partner, receive Him as myself. I told you, it just keeps getting
better. How are you going to receive Him? As me. How does God receive sinners?
He must punish sin. He can only receive us as Christ. What are we going to look like?
We're going to look like Him. Conform to His image just like Him. We must have our sins covered.
God is holy. He must judge righteously. And
He does, in Christ, complete in Him. He was made sin to make
us the righteousness of God in Him. He who knew no sin. Holy
and righteous in Christ. Verse 18. If He hath wronged
thee, or owed thee aught, anything, put that on mine account. I,
Paul, have written it with mine own hand. I will repay it. Can you see the love Paul had
for this man, Onesimus? Onesimus, now that God has saved
him. Oh, what a picture of Christ's love for us. Whatever he owes
you, all the wrong that he's done to you, you put it on my
account. Let me bear it. Was it Judas that said, I'll
be sure with you? Let me bear the blame forever. Now, I don't know how much Paul
could have actually done here. Now, he was God's apostle. I don't suppose Paul had a bunch
of riches laying around to repay him if he stole money from him.
Oh, but what a picture this is. Christ, you think of what he
did. He became us, he bore our sin, the guilt of it, the punishment,
the shame, bore it all in his body. The body that was prepared
for him, he bore it all. And now we're perfectly accepted
and saved in him. He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
That's what's happening here. Paul's interceding for somebody.
And our Lord's interceding for you and me right now before the
Father. Verse 19, 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. I mentioned,
it seems like the Lord used Paul to preach the gospel by which
he saved Philemon. Saying, Philemon, don't you forget
now how gracious God's been to you. Don't you forget God's goodness
that He's bestowed upon you, Philemon. May we never, may we
never forget. Forget not all His benefits toward
us. Verse 20. Yea, brother, let me have joy
of thee in the Lord. Refresh my bowels in the Lord.
He ain't talking about money. You
know, when you read it in the beginning of the text, you know,
it's believed he was a wealthy man. He did refreshing in many
more ways than that. Love and faith, grace and peace,
fellowship. That's the joy. Refresh my bowels
in the Lord, having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto
thee. Now look at this. Knowing that thou wilt also do
more than I say. You think God caused Philemon
to receive Onesimus? Paul, he didn't have confidence
because of himself. He had confidence in the Lord,
knowing God has done this for me. He's done this for you, Philemon.
He's done this for Onesimus. He received us forever. You receive
that, sir. You take him back. And you love
him like you never loved him before. Oh, I know you're going to do
more than I'm asking for. I love that so much. How much
is God going to do for us and give us in Christ forever? More
than we could possibly imagine. You know, sometimes we think
our prayers aren't answered. You ask for something, you don't
get it. I'm fully convinced. First, we ask amiss. But second,
God gives us far more than we do ask Him for. We think He didn't
give us something. He gives us far more than we're
even asking for. and far more than we're failing to even ask
Him for. Verse 22, But withal, prepare me also a lodging, for
I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. He
said, by God's grace, I'll come back to you. I want to be with
you again. See you in the flesh. Verse 23, There salute the Epaphras,
my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas,
Lucas, my fellow laborers. Now he ends the letter as he
began it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Amen. Grace to you. Christ to you.
Now, when Gabe preached this message, this is the part where
I was blessed more than any. There's a footnote. Until that
day, I've never even paid attention to a footnote. But look at this
wonderful footnote. It says, written from Rome to
Philemon by Onesimus, a servant. Everything Paul's writing here,
interceding on Onesimus' behalf, Onesimus wrote down. He penned
this letter. Can you imagine the guilt and
the shame that he must have felt writing these things about himself? He departed. I know he departed
from you. I know He was nothing but an
unprofitable servant to you. He wronged you. Doesn't deserve
you. Didn't want anything to do with
you. Has God caused us to acknowledge
that about ourselves? That that's how we, in this flesh,
were before God? Before He revealed Christ to
us and in us? We wanted nothing to do with
Him. Christ came and we wanted nothing to do with Him. We see
it, don't we? And yet, you just think about
the joy when Paul started interceding for Him. Obviously, this man was already
overwhelmed with joy because God saved him. But yet, he was
still in a bit of a predicament, earthly speaking. wronged his
master. And he knew that he didn't deserve
God's mercy and grace, and he also knew he didn't deserve Philemon's
either. And then Paul says, he's my son. Paul says, Philemon,
I've begotten him in my bonds. He's profitable now. Mine own
bowels. You received him just like you
received me. Don't receive him as a servant,
but above a servant. He's special. Special to me,
but how much more to you? He's a brother beloved now, just like
you. He's just like you, Philemon.
Oh, mm. What joy. You know, we hear the
gospel preached, and it literally means good news. But it's the
gospel. Oh, but we need it to be my gospel,
our gospel. It's not good news to everybody.
When that son came home and the father had mercy on him, that
was terrible news to the goody two-shoes son, who said, I've
never disregarded you, father. I've never broken your commandment.
I never left. If we leave and by God's grace
we find ourselves at the feet of Christ, oh, we'll have joy
unspeakable. The joy that this man must have
had. And I can just picture him. I
mentioned it was a long way that he had departed. He'd gone a
long journey. He had a long journey to hand
deliver this letter. I bet a lot of tears were shed
on that journey. Now I want to close by showing
you something that is absolutely precious to me. It's in the book
of Colossians. Colossians chapter 4. This is the only other time,
I believe, that Onesimus is mentioned. Colossians 4 verse 7. If you look at the footnote,
this was also written by Onesimus and another brother. Colossians
4 verse 7, again writing on Paul's behalf,
said, 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 estate and comfort your hearts, with Onesimus. A faithful and beloved brother
who is one of you. He's one of you. Who's Paul writing to? If you
look at Colossians chapter 1, verse 2, he's writing to the
saints and faithful brethren in Christ. He's one of you. One of you. He's a child of the
King. You mean that wretched, vile
servant that wanted nothing to do with his kind, loving master
who left? That's right. He's one of you now. God has
saved him just like God has saved you. He didn't make a decision. His
decision was, I'm out of here. God's decision was, you belong
to me. I bought you. You're mine. by grace alone, by the work of
Christ alone, by the intercession of Christ alone, He's one of
you. There was no mistaking what He deserved in and of Himself.
It was obvious. And yet, for Christ's sake, for
love's sake, not only did Philemon receive Him forever, The Lord
God Almighty received this man forever. Christ died for sinners. He received sinners as himself. And when I think about you and
when I think about my children, my sincere heart's desire and
prayer to God for all of us is this, Lord, receive us as Christ. For Christ's sake, for love's
sake, Lord, please receive us If you will, Lord, receive us
by your grace, by your mercy, forever. I pray that's good news
to you as it is to me. Amen.