Okay, go back to Philemon with
me. This is a short but very sweet book, isn't it? A precious, intimate letter written
by Paul while he was in prison to a man named Philemon, a beloved
brother he called. Philemon was Apparently a very
rich man, a man of means. He had an estate, he had servants,
many servants, and apparently he helped the churches everywhere
greatly. He was very generous. Paul said
that, by you the brothers have been greatly refreshed. So he
was a rich man. Now, our Lord said, and we just
looked at it, not many wise men at the flesh, not many mighty,
not many overcome. He said, How hardly shall they
that have riches hear the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples, knowing that
most people are pretty well off, he said, who then can be saved?
He said, with man it's impossible. Our Lord, with those words, tells
us that salvation is impossible with man. Man can't save himself.
He must be born. of God, born again, begotten
of God. With God, not only possible,
it's certain. Whomever he chooses, they're
going to be saved. But this is a letter to this
man, this rich man, whom the Lord saved by grace, saved by
the gospel, saved one way, here in the gospel. Gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. Please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them. Is that what it said? How shall
they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except
to be sinned? And preachers are precious to God's people that
hear them. Philemon heard the gospel through
Paul somewhere, somehow. We think he's from Colossae,
Philemon. And, but somehow, some way, somewhere,
the Apostle Paul, I mean Philemon heard the Apostle Paul preach
the gospel. And that's how everyone is saved.
Everyone. This is my story. This is a prodigal
son. This is my story. And we're going
to see how he heard the gospel. He heard Paul. And the Lord saved
him. We're all saved one way. By Christ. By the Gospel. By the Spirit
of God. Taking the things of Christ. Convicting us of our
sin. Showing us our name. So now that
Philemon is a saved man. Saved by grace. Saved by sovereign
grace. Sovereign electing grace. Now
he's a gracious man. Now he's a merciful man. That's
what the grace of God does. The Lord made him gracious, made
him loving. Having received the love of God,
the truth of God, the grace of God, he himself is gracious.
He's loving. He's faithful. He's generous. Read verses 5 through 7 with
me. I hear of your love and your faith you have toward the Lord
Jesus and toward all the saints. Isn't that what Christ said? love of God and love for His
people. That's fulfillment of the law. Verse 6, the communication of
your faith is effectual. Verse 7, we have great joy and
consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are
refreshed by thee, brother. So He's a gracious and a generous
man and a loving man and a kind man. Salvation is unto good works. We don't preach works for salvation. We have no part in it. But when
God saves somebody, He saves them unto good works. He takes
a no good and brings some good out of it. He takes somebody
that's unprofitable and makes them profitable. A little bit. That's the story here. Not only
of Philemon, but of Onesimus, but Philemon. Old Brother Barnard
said one time, when God saves a man, even the old hound dog
will know it. When God saves a man, he'll be
a parent. So Philemon, saved by grace,
was a gracious man. Well, he had servants, slaves
back then, servants, named Omnesimus. Philemon lived perhaps in Colossae
and he had an estate and he had many servants. And he had this
young man named Onesimus who was his servant. Look at verse
10. He wrote to him, I beseech thee
for my son Onesimus. And as I said, can you imagine
Philemon when he first read this from Paul? Onesimus. You see,
Onesimus was one of his servants. And he was there for a while.
And one day, though, he ran away. And he stole something. He stole
some money, perhaps a horse to get out of Dodge. But he was
sitting for a while in the home of Philemon. Paul said, the church in your
house. When the Lord saved Philemon, he wanted everybody in his house
to hear the gospel. Somebody was preaching the gospel
to his house, and he had his servants, he had his family,
he had everybody sitting in his house hearing the gospel, because
it was what saved him, who saved him, and he wanted his people
to hear it. He wanted his servants to hear it. And there sat Onesimus,
forced, like our children feel, forced to sit and hear the most
wonderful news in the world. And yet to Onesimus it was torture. How do I know? Because I'm Onesimus. And he sat there. He sat there.
And he plotted. He planned his getaway. Now Philemon
was a kind man, a loving man, a gracious man, a good master. He treated his servants well.
They got food and raiment and above that, but he was a kind
man. He did so much for them. If you'd
ask him anything, he'd do it for you. And that's our Lord. Kind man, but man, but, and you,
who walked according to the course of this world, the prince of
the power of the earth, you were by nature children of wrath,
even as other children of disobedience, thinking, I got to get out of
here. That's what I thought. I can't
wait for the day that I make my escape. That's what happened. I'm leaving here. I've got to
get out of here and be on my own. I want to be free. That's what I thought. That's
what I thought. He thought, where can I go to
escape? Where can I get away? I'll get
as far away as I can. And he ended up in Rome. Rome,
you know how far Rome is from Colossae? One thousand miles. This young man ended up far off. He said, about as far as you
can get away. But God The title of this, I think, I
don't know what the title is, A Runaway Found. You could say
A Runaway Run Downed. Found. Our Lord said he leaves
a ninety and a nine and goes after the one lost sheep. And
that, I love those words, it says until he finds it. He seeks
that sheep until he finds it. You know what happens until he
finds it? You know what happens to those sheep that are prone
to wander and where they run off, those rebels that run off
as far as they can get? You know what happens until he
finds them? They get in a pit. They get in corruption. They
get into everything you can get into. And he thought, I'm going
to Rome. Oh yeah, at the big city lights.
Sodom. That's what Lot said. I'm going
to Sodom. It'll be the grace and the mercy
of God if he pulls you out. And how he did it, just like
Lot, he sent two angels of mercy, preachers of the gospel. Old
Nessimus, he ended up in Rome. He ended up in Rome. Well, you
know who was in Rome? Paul was. He was in prison. Now, oh, the ways of our God. Past finding out. Oh, the wisdom
of our God. Isn't it amazing, God's providence,
God's power, Now, Paul didn't want to be in
prison, did he? He didn't want to be in prison. And he was.
The Lord put him in prison. Why? Why did He put him in prison?
To write a letter. To write several letters. Write
this letter. To meet one young man. The gospel is waiting on him.
So, on Estimus, he ran off to Rome. And listen to Ephesians
2. I just tried to quote it to you,
but I'm going to read it to you. I don't want to misquote it.
It says, Remember, you in time past were without Christ, aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of
promise, no hope without God in this world, like Onesimus. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who sometime were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. It goes on to say, you were enemies,
but Christ reconciled you to God. When one body by his cross
he slew the enemy thereby, and came and preached peace to you
that were afar off, and to them that are nigh, to bring you back
home. And he said, now you're no more strangers and foreigners,
you're fellow citizens. You're a brother of the household.
You're not a rebel. You're not a runaway rebel. You're
a willing servant and brother of God. That's what happened
to Onesimus. Our Lord said, My sheep shall
hear my voice. My sheep shall hear my voice.
They must. And his voice is the preacher
of the gospel. How did Onesimus hear the gospel? How did he?
It could have went like this. It does often. Most of the time
it does. There was an old woman, someone
going to hear Paul preach. He preached there in Rome. He
was there for quite a while preaching. What, was it two years? Was he
in Rome for two years? Yeah, he was free to, he was
not free, he was in prison. But God had these unjust judges
do what he said. And they allowed people to come
hear Paul preach. So this woman that kept coming
to hear Paul preach, she's in Rome, and she's going one Sunday
morning, I guess, to hear Paul preach, and she notices this
down-and-out young boy on the side of the road. And she stopped
to speak to him. And that's what we're to do.
Tell others, aren't we? Bring others to hear the gospel.
And she found out his name. She said, Come with me, son.
Come with me. Do you good. Come thou with us and we'll do
you good. Come on. Come hear the gospel. I know
better than you. I'm a sinner just like you. I'm
a runaway too. I'm a rebel too. I was a far
off too. Come on. Come on. Hear the gospel.
Hear what I've heard. Hear the gospel of Christ. I
think it will. So he did. He did. Yes, he did. So he came. He sat. And the Lord pierced his heart. The Lord broke down that enmity
in him. Crushed his heart. Convicted
him of his sin against not only his kind master Philemon, but
his God. Sin against God. That's what
David said. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. You're going to be just if you
judge. Philemon, Onesimus, you'll forgive me if I get the names
mixed up. You try it. But Onesimus, he was a broken
young man then. The Lord saved him by his grace.
Saved him by the gospel. Saved him through the preaching
of Paul. Begotten. Paul said, look down in our text,
he says, verse 10, he said, I have a ceaselessly for my son Onesimus
whom I have begotten in my bond. Now Paul, you know Paul is not
saying that he gave birth to Onesimus, that he saved Onesimus,
but he knows the gospel is the power of God and him preaching
the gospel and it is God who We're born of God. Not of the
will of the flesh or the will of man, but born of God. He begat
us, James said, with the word of truth. And Paul said, this
is the gospel. There is no other. And he preached
it. And he said, this is the power of God. And God used that
gospel. And that young man was born again.
What's that mean? It means he's a new man, a new
creature. He has a new heart, a new mind, a new will. You don't
have free will. Your will is for you. Your will
is for sin. You will not, Christ said, you
will not come unto me. No man will come unto me, he
said, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. And when
the Spirit of God, through the preaching of the Word of God,
convicts a sinner, he'll break his proud, stubborn will. And he'll call. He won't call
unless God calls him. He won't come unless God comes
to him through the gospel. He won't come unless God draws
him. He won't do it. You won't do it. You won't know
God. You won't worship God. You won't
bow. You won't love the truth unless God loves you. Unless
God calls you. Why do you say that? Because
it's true. Because that's my story. Is that your story? It's
the story of every sinner. Psalm 110 verse 3 says, Thy people
shall be willing when? Louder. In the day of thy power. And the gospel is the power of
God. It's not in your power to accept
anything. And we're going to see this.
We don't accept Him. We need accepting by Him for
Christ's sake. And that's what the Lord does.
He reveals to us, I'm nothing but a runaway rebel against God,
an unworthy, unprofitable, a thief, a robber. To steal God's pride
is to steal God's glory. To take credit for anything I
am or have ever done is to steal God's glory. Because what do
we have we have not received? If we received it, why would
we glory as if we hadn't? And God hates pride. And He's
determined to bring down every proud person on this earth. But
God, rich in mercy for His great love
wherewith He loves some of these proud sinners. They don't love
Him. He loves them first. Philemon loved Onesimus first. God loved him before Philemon
did. And so God exerted His power,
the gospel, the word, the word by which He said, let there be
light. And He exerted that power in this dark heart of this runaway
river. Let there be light. Let him see what he is. Let him
see what he's done against God. Let him see what he's done against
everybody, including himself. Let him see himself. Let him
conjure himself like that prodigal son in the hog pen. Let him see
just what he has done, the wages he has earned. Now, let him see
my mercy. Now, let him see my glory. Now, let him see my salvation. Now, let him glory. And let him
not glory in anything or anyone but me, God said. And he did. Ole Missums did. You know, every sinner God saves,
thank you. Can God have mercy? Depth of
mercy can there be? Mercy still reserved for me?
Me, the chief of sinners spared? Yeah, that's who he came for.
But you've got to make them know it. And he did. So he was born
again. That's what it means to be born
again. It doesn't mean you came to a knowledge of the doctrines
of grace. That ain't salvation. You've just been convinced of
doctrine. That ain't salvation. That ain't
in the Bible. You come to see God, and you're in his hands,
and you've sinned against God, and your only hope is that God
has mercy upon you, and you know that mercy is in one person,
Jesus Christ. He's not obligated to save you,
like Philemon. He ran away from Philemon. Philemon
wasn't obligated to receive this young man. If Aliman wasn't obligated
to receive him back, then why did he? Somebody wrote a letter. And this whole book, you know
what this whole book is? A letter, for my part, a letter
that God wrote. Christ wrote it. He is the Word.
To the Father. Father, I will, that they be
with me where I am. Father, for my sake. Look at
this. Look at this. Look at down in verse 10. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus. Isn't that what Christ called
his people? My children. My little children. Whom I have
begotten. Didn't Christ beget us when he
hung on Calvary's tree? When a soldier pierced his side
and out came blood and water? What's that? Sanctification. Justification. Like Adam, the
Lord took Adam and opened up his side, and out came his bride.
The same happened to Christ the second half. He begot us in his
bonds. He was taken from prison, Isaiah
53 says. By his wounds, by his strife,
we're healed. And who did he do this for? Verse
11, unprofitable sinners. No good sinners. He said, now
he's profitable. Why? How? In Christ. complete
in Him, accepted in Him. He said, do this, verse 9, for
love's sake. Why did God the Father send Christ
to die for such unworthy sin? Because God loved him. It's amazing. We sing that song, Amazing Love.
How can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? The whole
world talks about God loving everybody and throws that out
there like an offer for anybody to accept. Cheapens the love
of God. Nobody cares a thing about it. Well, God doesn't love
everybody. But whoever He loves, He convicts
him of sin. And the thing He makes him to
know is, God ought not to love me. God ought to send me to hell.
And if He loves me, it will be for Christ's sake. Not anything
He's seen in me. Not anything I've ever done,
do now, ever will do. But for what Christ has done.
Yes! Every single sinner God saves
says that. It's for Christ's sake. God loves
me because of Jesus Christ. There's nothing lovable in me.
And if there's any good that comes out of me, it's He did
it! Philippians 2.13. It's God that
worketh in us both the will and do of His good pleasure. Christ
in you is the hope of glory. He gets all the glory before
salvation, during, and after. He did it all. It's His work.
David said, You've made me glad through Thy work. We're going
to see that Philemon took this letter. I'm getting ahead of
myself. Now look at this. Look down at
verse 12. He said, I've sent Him again
that you should receive Him. You know, no man cometh unto
the Father but by Jesus Christ. You know that? Nobody's saved
but by Jesus Christ. Be it a Muslim, or a Hindu, or
a Buddhist, or a Southern Baptist. And they're all lost until God
saves them. No man cometh unto the Father
but by name. The world says that's too narrow. No. Christ said it. It's narrow. He said it one way.
He said no man cometh unto the Father but by name. We, Randy
and I, watch these movies, you know, and some of them, to get
a clean movie, they have to have some kind of faith based. Well,
it's almost as bad or worse. Anyway, and every now and then
they'll mention God. They'll mention God, you know. Oh, that's good. They never mention
Jesus Christ's name. You'll never hear Jesus Christ's
name. Don't want to offend anybody. You know what? Don't want to
offend anybody. Well, let this offend people. Christ said, does
this offend you? No man cometh unto the Father,
but by Jesus Christ. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father.
And every single sinner that God saved, they know Jesus Christ. They know who He is, why He came,
what He did, and their only hope is Him. They're not confused
about that. They know it's not their will,
they know it's His will. They know it's not their blood,
or their works, it's His work. They know it's not their choice,
it's His choice. They know it's not them, it's
Him. Everyone of them. Everyone of them. There's no
confusion there. Onesimus knew this. If I'm accepted,
it's going to be for Paul's sake. Right? Onesimus thought, if Philemon
takes me back, it'll be because of what Paul does intercede for
me on my behalf. And that's what we know about
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he said, let me go on, it
says in verse Verse 14, without thy mind would I do nothing.
Everything Christ did, He did it by the will of God, according
to the mind of God, the purpose of God. He came down to this
earth to save everyone given to Him by God, according to the
will of God. And it says, I would not have
you do it out of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps He therefore,
verse 15, He departed for a season. Thou shouldest receive Him. I could have entitled this many
things. I could have entitled it gone for a while, home for
good. Or runaway, home to stay. Or if he owes you, put it on
my account. Just so many things. This is
the gospel. This is salvation. And God's people, they're runaways,
they depart. And boy, when they're brought
back, they're brought back forever. Verse 16, He said, Now receive
Him as a servant, but above a servant, a brother, beloved. Our Lord
said to His disciples one time, who were just old common sinners,
whom He chose, whom God loved, whom God gave to Christ, and
Christ came and revealed the Father to Him, and Christ died
for them, rose. He said, The Father loves you
like He loves me. That's what He said. That's always amazed me. He said,
love you as he loves me. That can't be. Yet it is. And he said in verse 17 and 18,
if thou count me therefore a partner. See, Christ thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. There are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these
three are one. Triune God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. One
in salvation. One in this work of redemption.
And he said in verse 17, if I'm with you, you're with me, receive
him as myself. Accept. Would you accept Onesimus,
Brother Philater? Would you accept Onesimus as
if he were me? Would you accept him? I know
I'm beloved to you. I know you love me. And he said
in verse 19, you owe me. I've done this for you. And the
Father loves the Son. Oh, He loves Him dearly. And
Christ said, I know whatever I ask, You'll give me. He said,
everybody glorify and rejoice in the Son because He's done
this for me, for my glory. And so Christ, like Philemon,
Paul, our Lord, says, if he, would you receive him on my account? We are accepted in the blood.
In verse 18, he said, if he's wronged thee, if he owes you
anything, whatever he's stolen, whatever he's taken, whatever
he's done to you, he put that on my account. And he said, I'll
pay. I've always paid. I've paid every
debt I owe. I will repay it. And our Lord
Jesus Christ paid every debt, every sin, every wrong that God's
people did. God made Him sin. He put it on
His account. And you know what? He gave us
Christ's account. We're saved on account of Him.
There's a good title in it. Saved on account of Him. Not on account of anything good.
Onesimus didn't do anything to earn anything. Yea, brother,
let me have joy in thee and the Lord. Rejoice, my bowels in the
Lord. Oh my. And he said in verse 21,
I'm confident in thy will be I wrote unto you, I know you'll
do more than I say. God not only, we received in
the Lord's hand double for all our duty. What does that mean?
Not only received mercy, but we received adoption. Not only pardon, but acceptance. Not only the slate wiped clean,
all the sins that we've sinned against God are just forgotten,
out of mind, out of mind, but righteousness. Christ did it. And we've wasted our substance,
all our substance, like the prodigal son, like Onesimus did, wasted
all our substance in riotous living, but God gives us an inheritance. Like the product, bring the best
roe, kill the fattest calf, bring the seventh. That's our God. Isn't that amazing? Now this is what I want to show
you in closing. Look at the last line. It says, Amen. What do
you say to this message? Amen. That means that's the way
it is. That's salvation. That's what
God did. That's what Christ did. That's what He does for all His
people. That's what you believe. That's faith. There is no other.
This is how God saved us, who God saved us, who saved us, Jesus
Christ. And right at the end of this,
it tells us where it was written from and by. You see it? Written from Rome, from Rome,
Paul, to Philemon by Onesimus. Onesimus sat there for the longest
time helping Paul with God's people and church like you are,
help me. And Paul said, I'm going to write
Philemon on your behalf. You need to go home. You need
to reconcile. You need to go back home and
reconcile to your Master. Confess what you've done and
ask His forgiveness. And I'm going to write for you.
I'm going to write a letter for you. And I know Him. He'll have
you back. And you need to be a willing
servant now and not a runaway slave. So I'm going to write
a letter on your behalf. Oh, but He might not... Oh, I
know Him. On Eshmas, I know Philemon. He's a gracious man, and mercy,
he'll have you. So, okay. And he, Paul's poor eyesight,
he's writing all this, Onesimus is writing all this down for
him. I bet he could, he could hardly sleep with tears in his
eyes. You'd do that for me? You writing for me? So he took this letter. He's headed a long way back,
a thousand miles. And he's got this letter. It's
his pardon. It's his acceptance. It's reconciliation
with his master. He ought to be angry. He was once an enemy, once a
rebel. He's got this pardon. Now he's headed home. It's a
long journey. Somebody says, what you got there?
I got my hope. I got my salvation. What's that? Right here. It's the gospel. What would you
take for that on this one? Nothing. Here, come on in here
with us and let's take... No, I don't have time to tarry. You can't have this no matter
what. What's the gospel worth to you? Huh? What's this book
worth to you? What's this letter, what's your
hope worth to you? Who would you trade it for? Would
you tarry anywhere else? No, we're going back to the Father,
accepted and beloved on His behalf. And you can't have it. This is
my gospel. This is my story. That's the best I can do with
that. Okay, Sally, that's for you. And me. And a few others. Okay, let's sing a closing hymn.