This little epistle here contains the gospel clearly and
plainly. But I want to talk about forgiveness. Forgiveness. And you know forgiveness is what
a blessed thing to have. David asked this question, Lord
if thou shouldest mark iniquities, who? would be able to stand. If God began to mark our iniquities,
put a checkmark by all of them. And he could, he could. Because he sees everything, knows
everything. Knows the reason, the motive,
the actions. Knows everything there is to
know about every soul that's ever been born. And he said,
Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquities, who would be able
to stand? But he also said this next. He
said, but there is forgiveness with thee. There is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. And all my forgiveness
is essential if we are to have a clean conscience and have a
clear conscience. We need forgiveness and we extend forgiveness in
our everyday lives. We don't have to say, forgive
me what I've done, Lord, just forgive me who I am and what
I am. Just forgive me what I am. You
know, forgiveness is required. It's not an option. It's not
something a man has an option to do or not to do. Let me show
you that. You keep Philemon. Look over in Mark chapter 11.
Forgiveness is not an option. I've heard people say, I just
can't forgive. I just can't forgive them with
that. I can't forgive them well I hope that you'll never need
forgiveness then because look what our Lord said here in Mark
11 25 and he said when you stand praying
when you stand praying most of us do when we pray we stand I'm
standing now I stood when I prayed and when you stand praying forgive
if you have ought against any anything ought against any that
in your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses you may have ought against somebody he says trespasses
for you or me but if you do not forgive neither will your father
which is in heaven forgive you your trespasses that's pretty
serious business isn't it? That's pretty serious. You can't
forgive this ought that you have against somebody. God said he
won't even forgive you. You're trespassing. Not just
a trespass, all of them. All of them. And I also know
this, that when a man has been forgiven of his sins, by God
Almighty and cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't find it hard to forgive.
He doesn't find it hard to forgive others at all. He just doesn't
do it. You know, He said over in Ephesians
4.32, Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake has also forgiven you, forgiven you. And
here in Philemon we have seven, seven things concerning forgiveness. Now, Onesimus was a runaway slave. He was a slave. You know, Rome
had more slaves than anybody ever in the history of mankind.
They had so many slaves over there. So many slaves. And Onesimus was a slave. He was a slave. He wasn't a free
man. Philemon owned him. He was a
servant, a slave of Philemon. And here we have seven elements,
seven things about forgiveness. And you know what the first thing
is about forgiveness? You gotta be guilty. If you don't
have any guilt, you don't need forgiveness. If there's nothing
wrong with you, you don't need forgiveness. If you've never
done anything, don't have no guilt. You don't need forgiveness.
And Onesimus means unprofitable. Look up here in verse, down here
in verse 11. Which in time past was to thee
unprofitable. When he was there with you, he
is unprofitable. He is unprofitable. Onesimus
was unprofitable to Philemon. He wasn't faithful to Philemon.
He wasn't a good man before Philemon. He ran away and he was a slave. Now let me ask you this. You're
talking about unprofitable. What profit? What profit is any
man to God Almighty? What do we add to God? Does our righteousness add anything
to God? Does our person add anything
to God? Does our prayers add anything
to God? What does our lives, our being,
our thoughts, anything about us, what profit? Does it profit
God anything? Does it make Him any more than
He is? Had He never done anything for
us, were we any profitable to Him whatsoever? Do we add anything
to His glory? Do we add anything to His person?
Do we add anything to His sovereignty? You keep this. Look with me over
in Job chapter 22. Job right before the book of
Psalms. Job. Look here what Job said in verse
chapter 22. Job asked this question. What
prophet is any man to God? She's saying that, you know,
we all like sheep have went astray. We wasn't in a sheepfold, we
was astray. We had run away from God. Like
Adam did, he run away and hid from God. We run away and we
hid from God. And it's easy to hide from God
in certain places. The safest place to hide from
God is in a church. That's the safest place and the
best place in the world to hide from God. Get you a Bible. Get you some crosses. Give a little money to the church.
Attend fairly regularly. Say some good things every once
in a while about God. Put on a suit. Enter the ministry. Dedicate yourself commit yourself
and say I'm gonna start serving the Lord And I'll tell you what make a
profession when you're a child Make a profession sign a card
join the church come to the altar And boy you in a safe place.
God will never find you in a place like that. I It's a rare thing
for God to go find somebody like that. Because everybody thinks
that they're profitable to God. Them coming to a service makes
them think, boy, I'm really doing something for God. I'm adding
to God. I joined the church. I made God
happy. I made God feel good about me. But look what he said here in
Job 22. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered
and said, Listen to this, Can a man be profitable unto God? As he that is wise may be profitable
unto himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty
that thou art righteous? Or is it a gain to him that thou
makest thy ways perfect? Oh my, what about that, huh? Do you see that? What gain are
we to him? What gain are we to him? And
that's what he's saying here. That's why Paul says that there's
none righteous, no not one. There's none good, no not one.
There's none that seeks after God, no not one. There's none
that understandeth, no not one. And old Estimus was guilty, he
was unprofitable. And I know this, I know this,
if a man ain't got guilt, if he's not guilty, not guilty of
sin, not guilty of dishonoring God, not guilty before God, The
scripture says that every mouth may be stopped and the whole
world become guilty before God. One of these days the whole world
will become guilty before God. God, He'll take His holy law
and He'll make the whole universe sin. And they'll see how holy
and righteous and glorious and mighty He is. And then when He
does that every mouth is going to confess that guilty. Oh, I didn't do it. Guilty! Then one thing I can say, I've
been guilty of anything that couldn't be guilty for, I've
done it. If I was a criminal, I'd have
been in jail for life and ten thousand lives. You know, they
give people three life sentences. Three hundred and five, I read
the other day, gave one fellow three hundred and fifty-six years.
If I'd have been a criminal with all the guilt that I've got,
I'd have been in jail for 356 years. Isn't that right? But that's the first thing about
it. If you're going to get forgiveness, guilty of what? Guilty of what?
Sin? Rebellion? Unthankfulness? Unholiness? A
lover of self? A lover of pleasure? Oh my, but
Onesimus, here he was unprofitable, but then Onesimus means profitable. Here's the second thing about
forgiveness. Guilty. Guilt. Oh my, you won't be forgiven
if you ain't guilty. If you don't have ought against
anybody, you don't need to forgive them. But look what it says, here's
the next thing you gotta have. Gotta have love. Look here in
verse 9. Yet for love's sake. Yet for
love's sake. Oh my. For love's sake I'm asking
you to take Onesimus back. Love. Oh my. God is love. No forgiveness without
God being love. You know John says that God is
light and in him is no variable, neither shadow of turning. But
he also said God is love. God is love. And every good and
perfect gift cometh down from the Father of light. And you
know God is love. God is love, not a God of love.
People say all the time, my God is a God of love. And what that
means is, is they set up what they consider to be love, and
then God qualifies for what they call being love. But it don't
say God is a God of love, He is love. He is love. And here's the thing about it,
wherever there's love, wherever there's love, it must be expressed.
And God, you know how He expressed His love? You know how He expressed
His love? He sent His blessed Son. He said,
you want to know how much I love? You want to know how much I really
love the world and how I love men and women that are guilty?
Men and women who are sons of Adam. You know how much I love
them. I'm going to let you know how
much I love them. I'm going to give my beloved,
blessed, glorious son. I'm going to send him from heaven. I'm going to take him and he's
in my bosom and I'm going to send him to earth. And I'm going
to bring him into this world as a man. And as a man, he's
going to be able to love. He's a man. He'll look at sinners.
He'll look at people who are unlovable, and he'll love them.
And how do you know he's going to love them? Because he's going
to bear their sins. He's going to bear their iniquity.
He's going to bear their guilt. He's going to bear it away in
his own body on the tree. And love, love must be expressed. It's impossible for a person
to have love and not express it. It's impossible. And Paul said, oh, Paul the agent. Ain't that what he said? Yet
for love's sake I rather beseech thee being such a one as Paul
the agent. He's an old man now. He's an
old man. And you know what he calls on
as a motive? As the cause of receiving this
runaway slave, and receiving with complete forgiveness,
love, love, and Christ having loved his own, which was in the
world, he loved him all the way to the end. He said, I'll never
leave you and I'll never forsake you. And I know that there is no way
in the world it is impossible for us to understand God's love. But the only way we know, the
only thing we know about it is He expressed it to us individually. He expressed it to us individually.
He come and made us know the love of God. You know how He
made us know it? He sent the Holy Ghost and He
shed abroad in our hearts God's love. God's love. I heard a fellow
say the other day he wanted to live in God. And I says no, you
don't live in God. God lives in you. We can't live in God. God has
to live in us. How would you live in God? He
can have us eternity. How can you be in Him from having
eternity? But He come down and made Himself
and took Himself and moved into our hearts and moved into our
souls and shed abroad in our hearts His blessed love for us. And once He loves us, you know
I love I was talking to a dear preacher here the other day.
His wife said this, he said, you know, I love you, but I'm
not in love with you anymore. Wouldn't that be awful if God
said that? I love you, but I'm not in love with you. But when
God talks about love, He talks about loving you. And his love
is not like anything that a human being has ever been able to express. Is that God's love like a mother's
love? No, no, no, 10,000 times no. There's nobody, nobody that can
compare in this world that can compare to the love of God by
how they love somebody. I love waxes and wanes. Sometimes it's hot, sometimes
it's cold. Sometimes it just really expresses
itself and then it'll go days and not express itself at all.
What if God was like that? But he's not. Having loved his
own, how long did he love him? All the way to the end. Huh? Oh my. And that's how you get
forgiveness. God's love. When you're guilty,
He said, I love you. You're a sheep going astray,
I love you. You're a runaway slave, I love
you. How do you know I'm going to come and move into you? Huh? And old Paul was an old
man. Here's the third thing that you
got to have about forgiveness. You got to have substitution.
Oh, God is love. You got to have substitution.
Look down here in verse 18 and 19. Here at Philemon. And now
look what he says. If he hath wronged thee, talking
about Onesimus, now that runaway slave. If he hath wronged thee,
or owes thee aught, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with
my own hand. I will repay it. I will repay
it. Oh my. Put it on my account. Somebody has to pay the debt. Paul said, you know if he owes
you anything, put that on my account. And God Almighty Put
it on my son's account. Somebody has to pay off the debt.
When God is wronged, who's going to pay the debt? Who's going
to pay the debt? You know, I want you to look
over here in Acts 13. You know that one thing that,
down in verse 38. You know, some people get in
such debt that they have to file bankruptcy. They can't pay it.
They owe so much they can't pay it. They can't pay it. And it's like that man that our
Lord Jesus asked Simon, the Pharisee, said, said if a man owed 500
and the other owed 50, but frankly, neither one of them had ought
to pay. I mean, the fellow that owed 50 couldn't pay. The fellow
500 he couldn't pay. But yet the Lord forgave them
both. Now some people are worse, they've
done more than other people as far as living in this world goes.
But I don't care if you've never been out in the world. I don't
care if you've never said a cuss word. I don't care if you've
never had a drink. I don't care if you've never
had any tobacco. I don't care what you've done
or what you've thought or what you've said. You're not worth,
you owe a debt that you could not never possibly pay. Oh, you hear people brag all
the time. Alcohol's never touched my lips.
Well, bless your heart. I'm glad. I'm happy for you. People make sin out of everything.
You know that? They'll take a big old piece
of chocolate cake and take a bite and say, that's so good it's
sinful. Ain't that right? But oh my. you know you think about this
you think about all the sin of all of God's elect from Adam
to just now from Adam to just right now how much sin you reckon
that is? how great a debt you reckon that
is? how great a debt Do you reckon
that is? You look at all the beaches in
this world and try to count all the sand on all the beaches that
only begin to count the debt that every one of us owes. Debt
of sin, debt of gratitude, debt of thankfulness, a debt, a debt
against God. Well somebody's got to pay it.
Well, who's going to pay it? Look what he said here in Acts
13.38. Be it known unto you therefore, men
and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the
forgiveness of sins, O my. We're preaching that through
Jesus Christ there is forgiveness of sin. And listen to this, and
by Him all that believe are justified from all things. Justified from
what? All that debt. All that sin. All those transgressions
from which you could not be justified by the law. And you know, Paul
said put that on my account. Our Lord Jesus Christ when He
come into this world when God come to get me and you and required
us to pay and we didn't have anything to pay he came forth
and he was bruised for our iniquity he was wounded for our transgressions
it pleased the Lord to bruise him he made his soul an offering
And God saw the burden, the agony, the pain of his soul. He said,
I'm satisfied. And beloved, no wonder David
said, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. You know, our Lord Jesus took
all that sin, all the sin of all his elect,
All the sin of all his elect is way out here. They all come. All of them. People haven't even
been born yet. And God put them on his blessed son. Laid every
single one of them on him. Mine would have been enough to
make him cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Mine would have been enough for him to weep in Gethsemane. Mine would have been enough to
let this cup pass from me. But you take all of us. And he said, Father, lay it on
me. Put it on me. Charge them to my account. And
I'll pay. What they owe, I'll pay. Put
it on my account. What they owe, I'll pay it. And
I tell you, he paid it so well, that God says their sins and
iniquities will I remember against them anymore. I won't even remember them. Now
that's something you can't do. You know we can forgive somebody
but it's awful hard to forget being wronged. It's awful hard
to forget being offended. Ain't it? It's awful hard to
forgive being treated harshly. But yet We forgive. We forgive. People say, well
if you forgive, you forget. I wish I could. I really do. But
that's one thing God can do. He forgives and forgets. Ain't
you thankful? Here's another thing now. Not
only substitution that's necessary for forgiveness, but look what
else it is. Intercession. Look back here again in verse verse 10 I beseech thee for my son Onesimus
whom I have begotten in the bonds now I beseech thee means I beg
you I plead with you I ask you I ask you and you know all of
John 17 our Lord Jesus Christ is saith unto his father, I beseech
thee, I beseech thee, I beseech thee. I beseech thee, forgive them.
They're yours. The whole thing is Him interceding
for us. Our Savior praying for us. And that's one of the most blessed
things that you can possibly think of. is the Lord Jesus Christ
sitting at God's right hand. And He sees us in our state and
in this old world that we live in. And He sees us. And He sees our sins and our
fallings and our failures and our faultings and our ups and
our downs. Our wonderings and our weariness
and all the troubles and trials and things we go through. He
looks down. And even when we go for a day or two and don't
even pray. I know you ain't never done that.
But we go a day or two and don't even stop to give Him thanks.
You know what He does? He says, Father, forgive them. Not because of who they are,
but because of who I am. Not because of what they've done,
but for what I've done. You reckon the Father hears you? You know, I love to hear
my son's voice. He calls and every once in a
while we'll FaceTime, you know. I love to hear his voice. If
I love to hear his voice, you imagine how much God loves to
hear his son's voice. You know what his son's voice
sounds like to him? Especially when we sin, when
we fall, when we stutter and stammer around. He said, Father, forgive them. He said that on the cross. Forgive
them. Why? They don't have a clue what they're
doing. They don't know what they're
doing. I know what they're doing. You know what they're doing.
But they don't know what they're doing. So, Father, forgive them. Forgive them. And how many times is that what
He said to us? They don't know what they're
doing. Father, they don't know what they're doing. Forgive them. Forgive them. You know, Paul
said, Receive on Esamuel's for my sake. I begot him in my bonds. Christ begot us in His bonds. Christ in his bonds is bound. Bound by God's law. Bound by
God's justice. Bound by God's wrath. Bound by
my sin. And he began us in those bonds.
Gave us life through those bonds. And not only Father forgive them,
receive them. And keep them. Simon Peter, I prayed for you. Why? So your faith wouldn't fail. How many times has Christ prayed
for us that our faith wouldn't fail? Little children, I write unto
you. That's what he said, little children. I write unto you that
you sin not. Pity man's sin. We've got an
advocate. We've got us a lawyer. I need
the best. You say, that's the best lawyer
money can buy. This is the best lawyer in all
the universe and he never cost us anything. Huh? And he's sitting there dressed
in righteousness and in glory and in power. And then he pays
attention to poor old sinners like ourselves. And then here's
another thing too you need for forgiveness. Look at what else
it is here in verse 15. You need restoring. Restoring.
It's one thing to forgive a person, but God restores you. For perhaps
he therefore departed for a season. Oh, listen. That thou shouldest
receive him. For how long? Forever. He was gone. But when you get him back, you
get him back forever. Real life sheep going astray.
But the shepherd went and found them. He brought us back to the
sheepfold. When our Lord Jesus says you
have eternal life, that means you really, really have it. Forever. And oh, that's why Paul, he said,
talking about departing for a season. He departed for a season. He
hated God. He hated Christ. He didn't hate
God the Father, but he hated Christ. Thought he was an imposter. And yet he said, when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, called him, predestinated him, had his love set on him,
his affection set on him, and let him go just as far as he
can go. He said, you can't go no further
than that. down you come. And when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb, called me, called me by his grace. Then he was restored. Been something
he had never been before. Became a believer. in Jesus Christ. Became a believer in the blood
of Christ. Became a man who preached Christ. And Paul sent him back. Sent
him back. The Holy Spirit brings us to
our Lord Jesus Christ. He brings us back. He was way
out there and he brought us back. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and calls us to approach unto thee. In the day of His
power, we're made willing. And oh, you reckon when old Nesimist
came back, you reckon he said, you wanna run away to Rome again?
Wanna run away and be a fugitive again? No, no, no, no, I'm here,
I'm here forever. Would any of y'all go back where
you started from? Would anybody go back to the
life they had before? I wouldn't go back to one second
before God saved me by His grace. Not one second. And I'm telling you something.
Now you can run a goat off. You can run a goat off. I mean
you can really run a goat off. But you cannot run a sheep off.
I heard this illustration one time that you know everybody
in here one time or another has had chickens and fed chickens.
When you was growing up or now even. Now when you went out to
feed the chickens and you went out and give them their corn
or their scratch or whatever you gave them. You didn't reach
in there and throw it at them like that. Did you? They would
have just whoo they just would have flapped around and carried
on a side. But you go out there and you
go You throw it. And here they come and run it.
And that's the way it is with sheep food. You know, a goat thinks it's
coming like this. But a sheep, oh my, just throw
it out there. They'll take it. They'll take
it. Throw me a little more of that,
would you, like we were talking about the other night. Throw
me another handful on purpose. Show me another handful on purpose. And I tell you what, Lord give
me a handful on purpose. And if we get a handful, it'll
be on purpose. It'll be on purpose. And then
let me give you another thing here. Not only will you be restored,
you'll receive Him forever. God receives us forever. And
then one of these days, forever, means never stop never stop and
oh my look here's another thing you'll be free once you're restored
you become free look down here in verse 8 wherefore though I might be much
bold in Christ Jesus to enjoin thee or to command thee that's
what it means that which is convenient You know, what's convenient? Not to treat him mean, not to
treat him as a slave. See Philemon, according to law,
could have been executed. Philemon, according to law, could
have executed Onesimus. Could have executed him. Nothing about Onesimus was right. He ran away from his master.
And yet Paul says take him back. He ran away. And I want you to do what's right. He was, and I tell you when he
came back, he was freely, freely, freely forgiven. And fully and
completely forgiven. And forgiven forever. And ain't
you grateful? God said I'll love them freely.
He gave us freely his blessed son. And then let me give you
my last one. Relationship. Relationship. He is no longer a servant. Look
there in verse 16. well look at verse 14 make 15
16 go together for perhaps he therefore departed for a season
that thou shouldest receive him forever now listen to this not
now as a servant but above a servant what a brother oh receive him
as a brother huh and especially to me But if he's
a brother to me, especially to me, how much more is he going
to be to you? Not only in his flesh that he's
going to be your brother, but also your brother in Christ,
your brother in the Lord. Huh? Oh, so when he went back
there, Philemon said, oh, my dear, dear brother, put his arms
around him, gave him one of them holy kisses, That kiss of charity,
that kiss of love. And He come back. He was one
with the family now. He is a member of the family.
No longer a servant, but a member of the family. And our Lord Jesus
Christ. Just turn right to you right
there in Hebrews chapter 2. Look at this. Look what about
our relationship. You know, Our Lord Jesus is the
firstborn. Firstborn. Firstborn of God. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. Many brethren. Look what he says
about all of us. Look what he says in verse 11. Hebrews 2.11. For both he that
sanctifies, that's Christ he sanctifies, and they who are
sanctified, those he sanctifies, are all of one. If He sanctifies
you, then you're one with Him. And listen to this. For which
cause? Because they're sanctified and
He sanctified them. We're one with Him. For which
cause? He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. And then not only that, but do
you know what He's going to say? This is going to happen. This
is yet to happen. when we declare thy name in glory
I will declare thy name he's talking about God the Father
now I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church will I sing praise unto thee oh my Onesimus left as a
slave as a fugitive and he crossed the preacher's
path and became a new creature in
Christ and was sent home as a member of the family we were run away
and God brought us back and now we're members members of God's
family guilt guilt love substitution intercession
Restoration, free relationship, all, all needed for forgiveness. And thank God there is forgiveness
with God. Forgiveness with God. Our Father, oh blessed Father,
Oh, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that there's forgiveness
with you. Even as we're here today, we
all need forgiveness of what we said, thought, and done in
this service today. We need forgiveness. And Lord,
we're thankful that there's always, always forgiveness with you.
We don't go and sin just to get forgiveness. We don't act the
way we do just so we can come and you forgive us. Lord, we
come because we need forgiving continually. Like we need washing. Like we need washing all the
time. Our feet washed. Lord, we need
forgiveness. What we think, what we say, how
we act, our motives, We need forgiveness. Forgiveness of our self-righteousness,
our pride. Oh God, we need forgiveness. And Lord, we thank you that we
get it. And it's so freely, freely given. And when we don't even know what
we're doing, you say, Father, forgive them. They know not what
they do. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Amen. Amen.