subject that I need, and let me ask you this. Anybody
here need forgiveness? Anybody here need forgiveness? Do you need forgiveness for sin?
Do you need forgiveness for your
thoughts? For your actions? for your motives, for your feelings. Anybody here needs forgiveness. There's a verse of Scripture
over in Psalm 130 and verse 3 that says this, Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquities, If God went through our lives,
through our hearts, through our thoughts, through everything
about us, and began to make little check marks for every time we
committed a sin, every time we committed an iniquity, who would
be able to stand? But you know what the next verse
says? But there is forgiveness within. that thou mayest be feared. Bless God for that. Bless God
for forgiveness. You know, forgiveness is an essential
thing. Essential. We're going to have
a clean conscience, a clear conscience before God, even with our fellow
man. We not only need forgiveness
from God, but we need to give forgiveness to others. We must
be willing and ready to forgive as God forgives us. We need forgiveness. I need forgiveness. And hopefully,
and I need it every day, and hopefully, by God's grace, I
will extend it to others whenever they wrong me. You see, forgiveness
is required. It's not an optional thing. You
keep Aleman's. Look with me in Mark, just a
moment. Over in Mark chapter 11. I'm going to bring a message
here in a few weeks on no options. I thought late in bed last night,
and it comes to me when I'm thinking about this message. No options. I've got several things on my
mind that there's just no options about. No options whatsoever. No way to get around it. You're
going to have to do it or else. But here in Mark 11.25, look
what it says. Talking about forgiveness, it's
required, it's not optional. And when you stand praying, forgive. If you have ought against any,
that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you
your trespasses. You know, Paul said it another
way. He says, be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath also forgiven you. But Him, He
said here in verse 26, But if you do not forgive, neither will
your Father forgive you, neither will your Father, which is in
heaven, forgive you your trespasses. If God doesn't forgive us and
give us a forgiving heart. And I think this is one of the
most telling things about us as believers. And I know that
when God has forgiven a man for his sins, and God has forgiven
him and taken away his sins, taken away that guilt and cleansed
his conscience, he doesn't find it hard to forgive others then
at all. Just doesn't find it hard. And here in Philemon, this
little book, these 25 verses, we have six things concerning
forgiveness. Six things. that's necessary. And I believe that, I believe
you, when I go through these six things, those of you who
know what forgiveness is, and those of you who need forgiveness,
and those of you who desire forgiveness, will agree with every one of
these things. Father, forgive them. Our Lord cried on the cross,
Father, forgive them. One of the last things He said,
Father, forgive them. Forgive this man who took that
spear and pierced my side. Forgive those men who nail me
to this cross. Forgive these people who stand
here, riding me, deriding me, and mocking me, and ridiculing
me. For they don't know what to do. They do not understand what's
being accomplished here and what they did. They just don't understand. But let me tell you the first
thing that's essential in forgiveness. Now, Onesimus... Let's back up
a minute. Onesimus was a slave in Philemon's
house. He was a servant. And he ran
away. He went to Rome. And under Roman law, and under
the law at that time, Philemon could have had him slain. But
he ran away, and when he got to Rome, he knew Paul, and he
sought out Paul. And Paul was in prison. He had
his own hard house at that time, and he sat down under the apostles'
ministry. And when he ran away, God crossed
his path there and saved him by His grace. And after he was
saved, Paul says, you've got to go home. You've got to go
back. And that's what the purpose of this letter is. You've got
to go back. And here's the first thing in verse 11 about forgiveness. Guilt. Guilt. Look what it says
in verse 11. He says, And I beseech thee for
my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in
time past was to thee unprofitable. That's the first thing that a
man is. He has guilt, and he's unprofitable. He is absolutely unprofitable.
As Onesimus was unprofitable to Philemon, as Onesimus wasn't
faithful to his master, to his lord who owned him and made his
living for him, he ran away, and he was a slave. And let me
ask you this question. What profit is any man to God?
What profit are you and I to God today? Do we add anything
to His majesty? to His glory, to His power, to
His might, to His omniscience? Do we make God better by even
believing Him? Do we make God any different
than what He is? What prophet are we to God? What
have we ever given to Him that would ever put Him in debt to
us? We were unfaithful. We were unprofitable. In fact,
the Lord says, you know, this unprofitable servant, when you've
done everything you know to do, still say, I'm unprofitable.
And oh, when the Scripture says we're like sheep, what did we
do? We went astray. We didn't stay
in the fold. We didn't stay where the Master
was. We didn't stay where the Lord was. We never even thought
of our Master. And, oh, beloved, look over here.
You keep this and look in Job 22 with me just a moment. Job
22. And I tell you, this idea that
preachers have given and the media has given to men and women,
that God just stands with bated breath for them to trust Him
and come to Him. He's just standing there with
such love in His heart that He'll take you on any terms you're
willing to come. because you're such good people,
that you're such strong people, and yet you've got so much to
offer the Lord. That's a lie. That's in hell
itself. Oh, it's just this man in his
best state is altogether vanity. And you know what vanity is?
Nothing. As Scott Richeson said, it's
a donut hole. It's nothing. Men need to understand
that they got nothing to offer God as no nation has had nothing. He was unprofitable to His master. We're unprofitable. And the only
way in the world that we got faith, He gave it to us. We couldn't
give it to Him. He had to give it to us. Give
Him your heart. We can't give Him even our hearts.
He's got to give us a new heart. We've got to repent. He's got
to grant us repentance. You've got a mind that's against
God. And what does the Scripture say?
He gives us a new mind, a new understanding. He says you're
unwilling. He said, oh, listen, I'll make
you willing in the day of my power. So everything we got,
He gave to us. And look what it said here in
Job 22, in verse 1, talking about all guilt, guilt, guilt, unprofitable. Then Elias the demonite answered
and said, 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 gain to him that thou
makest thy ways perfect? You're going to impress God. Impress God? Make God to look
at you and say, boy, look what I've done. The Pharisee stood
and prayed best with himself. I thank thee, O Father, that
I'm not as other men are. That I pay tithes of all that
I possess. I fast twice in the week. I'm
no adulterer. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
as other men are. I'm not like this publican over
here. That publican, he stood on his knees. He knew his sinfulness. He knew what a condition he was
before God. He stayed way back in the temple. He didn't draw an eye. And he
stood back there and he's kneeling on his breast like this. He said,
this is my problem, right in here. He wouldn't lift his hands
up. And he said, Oh God, be merciful. Be propitiated toward me, the
sinner. And the scripture says that that
man, that publican, that warned, who wouldn't even lift his eyes
to heaven for his bread, he went down to his house justified. Why? Because he knew he was unprofitable. He knew that he was guilty. He
knew that he couldn't even lift his hands up and hold his eyes
up before God. There is none righteous, no not
one, There's none that does good. No, not one. Not one. And you know what Onesimus
means? His very name means profitable. But he became unprofitable. He
became unprofitable. Guilt. If you have guilt, if
you feel guilty, that's forgiveness for being that way. Guilty. And
then look at the second. I know I love this one. Back
over in Philemon. The second thing necessary, the
second thing involved in forgiveness is love. Look down in verse 9.
Yet for love's sake, for love's sake, I rather beseech thee,
being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner
for Jesus Christ. Love. You guilty? Well, for love's sake. For love's
sake. God is love. And there is no
forgiveness without God being love. Just none. Now, you keep
filing it, and just turn over to your right until you come
to 1 John. And look at 1 John chapter 1 with me, and verse
5. You see, God is love. No forgiveness
without love. And Paul says, for love's sake.
For love's sake. I know He's unprofitable to you.
I know he's guilty, he's unfaithful, he ran away. He adds nothing
to you. But listen, for love's sake,
for love's sake, and there's no forgiveness without there
being love. I can't forgive anybody unless
I've got love in my own heart. And it has to be first and foremost
love for Christ to honor him. But look what he said here in
1 John 1, 5. This, then, is the message which we have heard of
Him and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. God is light, God is holy, God
is righteous. There's no darkness in Him at
all. So when we talk about being unprofitable, when you face God,
He's holy, He's righteous, there's no darkness in Him. So here we
are in our guilt, but yet, He looks at us and I tell you, beloved,
no darkness, no, just perfect light. And He's holy and He's
righteous. Well, what are we going to do?
Well, look over in 1 John, look over in chapter 4 and verse 16. Oh my, not only is God light,
But look what he says here in verse 16 of 1 John chapter 4. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in him. Look down in verse 19. We love him. Because He first loved us. Now let me tell you something.
If you have love, love must be expressed. You can't help but
express it. When you have a child born, that
love expresses itself. When you want to marry somebody,
that love expresses itself. When you have a mother or father
or somebody that you know that's sick and in need, that love must
express itself. It expresses itself in lots and
lots of ways. And God expressed His love. How did He express His love?
He sent His only blessed Son, the Son of His love. He unbosomed
Him. And He sent Him into this world.
And He came into this world. And as a man, He lived in this
world, walked in this world, and was a man in this world.
And all beloved, a perfect man without sin, but He was a man.
And God loved. God loved so much that He gave,
willingly, voluntarily, joyfully, His only begotten beloved Son,
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. And that's what I'm telling you.
God expressed His love He communicated His love. He communicated the
love that He had towards us, and that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. And when He's talking about the
world, He's talking about you. You're in the world, ain't you?
He's not talking about everybody. He's talking about every class
and tribe and kindred and tongue. You're in this world, ain't you?
Are you one of those that God gave His Son for? The only way
in the world you'll ever know is that I believe on Him. I believe
Him. I believe Him right now. I'm
coming to Him right now. It's in my heart and in my soul
to look to Him right this moment. I'm going to. Oh, He's light. That's why we're
guilty. But He's also love. That's why
we're forgiveness. There ain't going to be no forgiveness
without love. There ain't going to be no forgiveness
without guilt. And the aged apostle, he's an
old man now. And going back over to our text,
he's an old man now. Paul's an old man now. And you
know what he calls on the motive to get finally to forgive oneself? Love. I beseech you to receive
Onesimus, who's so unprofitable, so unfaithful. I know that you've
got the right to do what you want to do. Oh, for love's sake,
and as the motive, as the motive, as the cause of receiving this
runaway slave back, and to receive him with complete forgiveness,
do it with love as your motive. Love as your motive. And oh,
let me tell you another. Another thing about forgiveness,
guilt. You ain't going to be forgiven
if you ain't guilty. I've told you this, and you all
know it well as I do, that no matter how many people you talk
to, and you talk to them about the gospel, you talk to them
about how they need Christ, and they say, oh, you know, I don't
feel like I'm so bad. I don't feel like I've done anything. And none of us would feel that
way had not God done something for us. Oh, without guilt, no
forgiveness. And without love, love being
the motivating cause, there'd be no forgiveness. And I'll tell
you another thing. Look back over here in our text.
Without substitution, there'd be no forgiveness. Look what
he says here in verse 18, talking about Onesipus now. And he's
writing to Philemon. If he had wronged him, verse
18, If Onesimus hath wronged you, and he owes you anything, he
must have took something with him when he left. Must have not
only run away, but also must have stole something. If he hath
wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, watch what he says now. Put that
on mine account. Charge it to me. And I, Paul,
have written this with my own hand. Now watch this. I will
repent. I will repent. Put it on my count. Put it on my count. Someone's
going to have to pay the debt that this runaway slave ran off.
Somebody's going to have to pay for whatever he took when he
left. Whatever he stole when he left. You see, when God is
wrong and you sin against Him, who's going to pay the debt?
Who's going to pay the debt? Who's going to pay the debt of
what you've done this morning? Who's going to pay the debt of
what you did yesterday? Who's going to pay the debt of
the sin that you inherited from Adam? Who's going to pay that
debt? Huh? I'm going to read something
to you. You don't have to look at it. I'll find it and read
it to you. And I'll read this to you right
quick. It says this. And if one man sinned against
another, the judge shall judge him. You can go to court if one
man wrongs another man in this world, the way things go. But
if a man sinned against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? Who's
going to go to God for him? Who's going to pay his debt there?
Who's going to judge him there? Huh? Who shall entreat for him?
Who's going to come up for him? Well, Paul's saying, you take Odessanus back. He's
guilty. Forgive him. For love's sake,
forgive him in receiving. And whatever he's done against
you, whatever he took that wasn't his, whatever debt he owes, you
put that on my count. Put that on my count. Now, I
want you, everyone, to turn with me to our creed, Isaiah 53. This
is our creed right here. We don't have nothing wrote down
on paper. All we've got is a blessed Bible,
the Word of God, and this is our creed. This is our blessed
truth. This is what we believe from the depth of our soul to
the top of our head. Substitution. Put it on my count.
And you know what substitution means? Everybody knows that somebody
else stands in another person's place. And God took His Son and put
Him in our place. Look what he said here in Isaiah
53. It says, Who hath believed our
report? Who hath believed our preaching?
And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he, Christ,
shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry
ground. Christ hath no form, nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
in him. There's no halos around his head. There's no big red
heart coming out of him. There's no light shining down
from heaven around him. When you looked at him, I mean,
when they was in his, in the garden, Judas had to go to identify
him by reaching and getting him and kissing him. Said, the one
that I kissed, the one that I point out to you, that's the one you
to take. Because they, he was so ordinary looking. And that's
why I said, there was no beauty about him. He wasn't no beauty
about him. Now watch this. He is despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows, and also acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. Oh my! You see folks, you know,
you don't want to have to deal with, you don't want to have
to talk to them or something. You see them, you just, you know, turn
and walk away. That's why we've done Christ. Didn't want to deal
with Him. Didn't want to deal with what
He did. Didn't want to deal with our sin. Didn't want to deal
with our rebellion. And what did we do? We turned
away to religion. We turned away to our self-righteousness.
We turned away to our self-confidence. We turned away to our morality.
We turned away to our free-will-ism. We turned away to how good we
are. And we hid as though we were our faces from Him. We don't
need Him. But oh, watch. But now watch what he says down
in verse 4. Surely, the grief that he had,
he bore ours. carried our sorrows, and yet
we said God stroke him, God smote him, God afflicted him. But you
know why God smote him, why God stroke him, why God smite him?
He was wounded for our transgressions. Put it on my account. Father, these people sinned against
you. Son, these folks have sinned against me. They owe a debt they
can't possibly pay. I'll go pay it for them, Father.
You give them to me, and I'll tell you what I'll do. You give
them to me as your sheep, and I'll go lay my life down for
them. You give them to me as your elect in the covenant of
grace, and I'll go give myself for them. I'll go into this world,
and I'll pray for them. I won't pray for nobody else.
And I'll go into this world, and I'll love them. And I'll
do for them what they can't do for themselves. And look what
he says, but it wounded for our transgressions, all our transgressions. How many
are they, you reckon? How many times have you all went
hunting or went fishing or somewhere and you seen a no trespassing
sign, and you went ahead and crossed the fence? How many times have you seen
a no trespassing sign? And you went ahead and crossed
the fence, or went ahead, went fishing, went hunting. We've crossed the fence against
God from the day we were born. Don't trespass it. Just keep
on trespassing. And He was wounded for our transgressions
and, oh, bruised, beaten, bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, and bless His holy name, with all
the stripes they put upon Him, and the blood that came from
Him, healed our souls from our sin. And all we like sheep have
gone astray. We have every one turned to his
own way. And what did the Lord do for
us when we was doing that? And the Lord picked up all of
our iniquity. all of our sin, of all of his
people for all ages, and laid them, and the weight of them,
and the guilt of them, and the shame of them, on his blessed
son. And look what it says down in
verse ten. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. If he oweth you, put
it on my account." Christ said, put it on my account. And then
look what it says, he, Christ, shall see his seed. And God's
pleasure, God's satisfaction in the will of God will prosper
in his hand. And he, Christ, shall see of the travail, the
pain, the agony of his soul. and shall be satisfied. God shall
see of the travail and pain and agony of His soul, and He shall
be satisfied. And by His knowledge, by Him
making us know Himself, shall my righteous servant justify
many, for He shall bear their iniquities." You owe me a thing? I'll never
forget as long as I live. And I seen Christ at the cross
in my place. Early, early, early one morning. My sins was before me, weighed
heavy on me. My self-righteousness, my legalism,
weighed heavy on me. And I seen the Lord Jesus bearing
my sins in His own body there on that tree, and my heart broke.
Oh, it broke. It broke. It just melted. It just crushed. And the fountain of the deep
broke up in my soul, and I said, Oh, Lord. Oh, God, forgive me. Have mercy on me. I'm so sorry, Lord Jesus, that
my sin is so grievous that it took You to bear them away. And, oh, beloved, our Lord Jesus
had our sin put on his account, and by his blood through death
he removed our sin, as he sang in the psalm this morning, as
far as the east is from the west. He brought them out as a thick
cloud. And, O beloved, no wonder David
said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
Blessed is the man who is forgiven. And, oh, beloved, not only is
he forgiven, but all of his sins are also forgotten. Hebrews 10
says, not only are they forgiven, but God said, their sins and
iniquities, I will remember them no more. I can't forget them,
but God has. All right, let me move on here. Look again, not only is there
guilt involved in forgiveness, love involved in forgiveness,
substitution. Put it on my account. It'd be
a joke. But there's intercession, intercession
number four. Look down there in verse ten.
He said, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, who I have forgotten
in my bones. And that beseeched thing is,
I beg you, I plead with you, I plead that you, for my son
Onesimus, and I'll tell you something, beloved, all of John 17, the
whole chapter, is devoted to Christ interceding for His people. When you get home this afternoon
or sometime this week, you read John 17. And you read there how
the Lord Jesus Christ prayed, prayed for all of his people. He said he even prayed for those
who would believe. He said, who would believe? And
that was praying for me. Who would believe? And that's
why Paul is praying for Onesimus. He said, I will cease I'm interceding
for him. I'm interceding for him. And,
oh, beloved, look over here in Hebrews. You know, you've got
Hebrews there. Look in Hebrews 7.23. Talking about intercession. He says here, Hebrews 7.23, And
there were truly many priests, Many of them, but they were not
suffered to continue by reason of death. They, you know, they
died. They, you know, they couldn't keep on being the priesthood
because they died. But now talking about Christ
being our priest, the only priest that God recognizes. But this
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, because he continues ever, has an unchangeable
priesthood. It ain't gonna never change.
He's got to work for it. He is awesome. able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Now listen to this,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such
an high priest became us, necessary for us, who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens."
That's who's interceding for us. Higher than the heavens,
holy and harmless. interceding for us. Now look
again back over here at Tholema, and look what else Paul says
about this intercession. Look what he says in verse 17.
He said, If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him just like
you received me. You know, you receive Onesimus
for my sake. I begot him in my bonds. And
you know, he said, if you count me there for a partner, receive
him as myself. And let me tell you something.
God receives us just like he receives his own son. God said
himself, and our Lord, when he prayed, he says, Father, thou
hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. And I pray for
them that they will be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. And I tell you, our Lord God
Himself, right this moment, right this moment, and this is one
of the most astounding things that the human mind's ever conceived
of and that God has ever blessed him to understand, is that right
this moment in the sight of God, God receives me just like He
receives His own Son. Christ is righteous, so am I.
Christ is seen at God's right hand, I'm seen in Him. Christ is without sin, so am
I. Whoa. Now that's good news. That is good news. And that's
why the Lord says, Father, forgive them, receive them, keep them. You know what he prayed? When
poor Peter ever denied him three times, he says, Peter, I prayed
for you. That's what He does. He prays
for us. I prayed for thee, that your faith might fail. And every
moment of every day, our Lord Jesus has got our names on His
heart and on His lips. Every day. When you go to Him,
He takes your cares and concerns to heart. And then let me hurry
on here. I'm taking... Not only you got guilt for forgiveness,
love for forgiveness, substitution for forgiveness, intercession
for forgiveness. Somebody else got to take up
your call. Somebody else got to take up your name. Somebody
else got to bring you. And then secondly, restoration. Be restored. The fifth one is
this. Look in verse 15. Here at Philemon,
verse 15. For perhaps he therefore departed
for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever." You know,
God in His providence is mysterious. You know, here this fellow ran
away, and he had no intentions of ever going back. And if he
had got caught, And if he hadn't have crossed Paul's path, if
he had got caught, they would have put him in jail and they
would have executed him. But he said he departed for a season,
just for a certain amount of time, that you might receive
him forever. He said, receive him. How long
are you going to receive him? For just a day or two until he
messes up again? Receive him forever. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, He
that believeth on the Son hath eternal life. And you know what
have means? You got it. You're not going to get it, you
got it. I'm not going to give it to you, you got it now. Do
you believe on Christ? You have eternal life then. And
Paul's sitting back. And let me tell you something,
the Holy Spirit brings everyone that hath departed from God,
and love's sheep that went astray, the Holy Spirit brought every
single one of them to the place where they heard the gospel,
like Onesimus, run away, and he crossed the preacher's path,
and when he was down there, that preacher began to preach to him,
and he sat there and he listened, and after a while he believed
that, and Paul says, now you've got to go home. You've got to
go back to your Master. You need to go back. And oh,
He'll love you. He'll receive you for love's
sake. Everything that's wrong, He said,
I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it. And I tell
you what, I'm going to take your cars up. I'm going to speak for
you to Paulina. I'm going to do it. And then when you get there,
he's going to receive you forever. Paul says, you know, I before
was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, and I was injurious. But when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, called
me by his grace. When did he call him by his grace?
On the Damascus Road. On his way to persecute and kill
Christians. He departed for a season, but
he's coming back. In the day of his power, his
people are made willing. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach others. Oh my, do you want to... Listen, when he got there, she
said, you want to run away back to Rome again? Oh no, no, no,
I ain't leaving no more. I ain't going nowhere. No, no. You want to be a fugitive? No,
I ain't going to be a fugitive. I'm staying right here with us
forgiveness, where there's love, where there's intercession, where
somebody's secure on my death. This is where I'm staying. Somebody
loves me. Somebody loves me. And I tell
you, beloved, there's enough sin and heartache and grief in
this world. There's enough heartache and
grief in this world. Let us, me and you, never be
the cause of any other to anybody. Let us, as believers, never be
the cause of any heartache or grief to anybody. Let us be willing
to love, to forgive, to restore, to be willing to take any wrong
done to us. Let us never, by God's grace,
cause any grief or heartache or sorrow, because we don't have
enough of it coming our way without us being responsible to make
anybody. Would you all agree with that? Huh? And I tell you, a lot of bad
things, a lot of things happen, a lot of sins committed, but
there's a time when God crosses their path. And they're restored. You know why? Because God loved
them with an everlasting love and in cords of loving kindness
through them. I have restored them and received
them. And then look what he also said here in verse 8. Let me
move on. He said, I'm talking about freedom. You're restored and then there's
freeness. You've got to be free. You get set free. Paul said,
Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin
thee, and that word enjoins thee means to command you to that
which is convenient. You know, so he says Philemon,
according to law, could have been executed. Nothing about
Onesimus was right. He ran away from his master.
But I might be bold. I might be bold. to command you
to do that which is not convenient, which is even against the laws
of the land, yet for love's sake. You freely, freely take him back. Don't let no law be involved. The law I know is broken. You've
got the right to do what you want to with it. But don't do
that which is convenient. Don't do it just because you
can. for love's sake, and oh, take him back freely. He was
freely forgiven. And not only was he freely forgiven,
but he was fully forgiven. And then not only was he fully
forgiven, but he was forgiven forever, as long as he was in
Philemon's house from that day. I don't believe Philemon ever
mentioned anything that Onesimus ever did. That's my brother Onesimus. I
love Onesimus. And Onesimus says, I love my
master Philemon. Oh, he took me back. He loved
me. He forgave me. He received me.
And I've done him so wrong. I sinned against him so greatly.
He could have killed me. He could have executed me. Oh,
I love Philemon. Oh, I love Philemon. And then
look at the last one here. Forgiveness. Oh, guilt, love,
substitution, intercession, restoration, receiving forever, taking back
freely. And then look at the relationship
changes when there's forgiveness. Look what he says in verse 16.
He departed for a season that thou shouldst receive him forever,
not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother, beloved. He's especially beloved to me.
But how much more unto thee, both in the flesh as still, you
serve him, and in the Lord. Don't take him back just as a
servant. He's your brother now. He's your brother. He's not a
slave anymore. He's going to come back and He's
going to serve you. He's going to love you. He's going to honor
you. He's going to do everything just
right. Oh, but you take Him back as a brother now. He's taking
and receiving as somebody in your family. You love your brother? What do you do? Oh, listen. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, He's, of course, born among many brethren. He's
not ashamed to call us brethren. And here this man left to slay.
left the fugitive, left stealing something. And God, in his sovereign
mercy, he crossed the preacher's path, and he heard Christ preached. And now, eleven times in these
twenty-five verses, Paul mentions Christ's name, the Lord Jesus,
eleven times. And he left the fugitive, he
left the slave, And he crossed that preacher's path, he heard
and believed the gospel, and he came back a member of the
family. I'm a member of Christ's family.
Oh, receiving as a son, behold what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called what? The sons
of God, brethren, beloved of the Lord. You need forgiveness? You need
forgiveness. I just told you where it's at,
how it's given, and who it's given to, and the results of
it when you give it. When you give it. Our Father, in the blessed, holy,
glorious name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, how we bless
You for Your mercy, for your grace given us in Christ Jesus. How we desperately need you.
Thank you for your mercies today. And Father, if you've created
in a heart that life, that life that says you've got it, I pray
that that fruit would come forth to your glory. I pray that you
would honor yourself in the salvation of sinners in this place. And
I ask, Lord, that you meet with us this afternoon. Bless the
food to our in our enjoyment of one another and our fellowship
with one another. May you be honored among us. And Father, that sinner, that
sinner that I even conscious of being a sinner, I pray that
you make them conscious of their great need. And we ask you in
Christ's name. Amen. Amen.