OK, the book of Philemon. I've
entitled our lesson this morning of a personal letter, because
that's what this epistle is. This is Paul's personal letter
to a man who lived in Colossae named Philemon. Paul wrote this
letter while he was in prison. He wrote it to his friend Philemon. And it's a personal letter concerning
personal matters. The people in this letter are
real people. They lived real lives. They had
real interpersonal relationships and real problems of this life
to deal with. But this personal letter is a
letter written under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
And the main message of the letter, it's not personal things. The
main message of the letter is redemption. in Christ through
God's free and sovereign grace. And the Lord willing, in the
message, we'll look in more detail at that this morning. But. In
this hour, I want us to look at the people who were involved
in this personal letter and see some characteristics of belief
or see something that's that's personal to the heart of believers,
because these characteristics and motivations apply to all
believers and they all stem from one place. They all stem from
God's grace in Christ Jesus. So first, I want us to see this.
I want us to see the faith and the love of a believer. Look
here at the beginning of verse four. Paul says, 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. We have great joy and consolation
in my love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by
the brother. Now, this is what we know about
Philemon. Philemon was a man of faith.
Philemon believed God. He believed that all of his salvation
was in Christ through the righteousness of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ
by the grace of God in Christ. Paul knew that. And you know
how Paul knew that? because he said Philemon was
known to be a loving man. You see, faith and love always
go hand in hand. They always go together. You
can't separate faith and love. Where there's faith in Christ,
there's always love. There's love for Christ, and
there's love for the brethren, wherever there's faith in Christ.
You just can't help it. If you believe Christ, you love. Just like if you're alive, If
you breathe, if God's given you faith in Christ, he's given you
a nature that loves. And Paul tells Philemon, I know
that you love the Lord Jesus. And here's how I know that. You
communicate your faith by acts of love towards all the brethren.
You communicate your faith in Christ by your acts of love towards
your brothers and sisters. It's just like Rahab's faith.
Her faith was revealed, was shown publicly to men. She showed she
had love for her heart, in her heart. When she saved those spies,
saved their lives by putting that scarlet lion out the window
and them climbing down and her saying, I don't know where they
are. That was an act of faith. And it was shown in her love
to save the lives of those men. Philemon was known to be that
kind of man. He showed his faith and his love toward all the saints,
those who lived there in town with him. and those who were
visiting in town. Paul knew about that hospitality
firsthand. He'd been a guest in Philemon's
house before and he'd enjoyed the hospitality that you found
in that home. Jan and I have been visiting
different places and it's It's humbling, it's embarrassing.
The hospitality people show to someone coming and visiting,
they just feed you like kings. You come home, you gotta let
your pants out. You're just, my goodness. That was Philemon's
home. People, and not just visitors,
but people who lived there in town, they enjoyed that kind
of hospitality and love. Paul says, Philemon, you've refreshed
the bowels. You've refreshed the hearts of
the saints. Doesn't that feel good to get
a refreshing? Somebody does something kind and loving and refresh your
heart. Philemon was known to be that
kind of man. Maybe he refreshed the hearts of his brethren. Somebody
was sick or some problem, you know, and he'd take the time
to go visit them at home. He'd see them and he'd offer
them kind words, heartfelt words, maybe send them a gift or something,
you know, a visitor would come through town. And Philemon would
come up and put his arm around him and say, why don't you come
over to my house? We'll have a hamburger. We'll sit and talk for a while.
And he said, don't stay in a hotel. I got a bed for you. And he just
refreshed their hearts. And he just did what he could
to help the brethren. And that's what we all, that's
a lesson all of us should learn. Maybe we all can't do things
other people can do, but let's do what we can to be an encouragement,
to refresh the hearts of our brethren. And the way we show
our faith in Christ is by how we treat the body of Christ,
how we show love to his people. His people are his body. That's
how we show our faith in Christ, by showing love to his people.
Now, God knows your heart. If God's given you faith in Christ,
he knows your heart. But we show what's in our heart.
We show men what's in our hearts by our actions. True love always
acts. True love is never in word only. True love is not something that's
kept secret in your heart. It's always shown in our actions. And that's what Philemon, he
showed the faith that was in his heart by the way he communicated
his love for the brethren. And that's exactly why Paul knew
Philemon would be motivated in this matter of Onesimus to forgive
an erring brother. He knew he'd be motivated by
love. And that's the second thing I want us to see. I want us to
see the believer's relationship with forgiveness. Look at verse
eight. Paul says, wherefore, though
I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee to do that which
is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being
such a one as Paul the agent, and now also a prisoner of Jesus
Christ, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I begotten
in my bonds, which in time past was to thee unprofitable. There's
no argument about that, he's unprofitable. But now, there's
no arguing about this either. Now he's profitable to thee and
to me, whom I've sinned again. Thou therefore receive him, that
is mine own bowels. Now Paul could have, as an apostle
of Christ, he had the apostolic authority. He could have commanded
Philemon. You accept Onesimus, you forgive
him, and that would have been the end of it. Paul had the authority
to do that. But that's not what he did. And
I'll tell you why he didn't do that. Paul knew Philemon would
be more motivated by love in his heart than he would a commandment
from Paul. So what Paul did is he asked
Philemon, would you accept Onesimus? He asked him, would you forgive
this man, this runaway slave, would you forgive? He asked him
to do it. And I thought of an illustration. There's a lesson
there in leadership. many, many years ago. I was supposed
to fill in for Bob Coffey, teach Bob Coffey's Sunday school class.
And I'd been preparing for it. At some point in the week, Brother
Henry called me. And he said, Scott Richardson
needs somebody to go up and fill the pulpit for him. And I said,
well, Henry? He asked me if I'd go. I said,
well, I'm supposed to teach Bob's class on Sunday. He said, well,
I know that. He said, so hope you don't mind,
but this is what I've done. I asked Bob if it would be OK
with him if I found someone else to teach his class so you could
go up to Fairmont. And I thought, I know how that conversation
went. Henry asked, and he couldn't get the sentence out of his mouth.
And Bob said, of course. And he didn't do it out of duty.
He didn't do it because of Henry's authority as the pastor. He did it out of love. Henry,
of course. And guess what I said? Would
you go to pheromone? Of course I would. He asked,
that's what Paul's doing here. Would you do me this? Would you
do this for me? Would you forgive and accept
this my brother? And that motivated, now that'll
reach the heart of a believer. Because a believer's not motivated
by the commandment of the law. No, we're dead to the law. We
died to the law in Christ. A believer has no relationship
with the commandment of the law. A believer is motivated by something
much stronger than a commandment. A believer is motivated by love,
by love for Christ and love for our brethren. And I just know
Paul had some confidence here Philemon was going to do what
I asked him to do because he already knew Philemon loves Christ. Philemon had been forgiven. If God's forgiven you for Christ's
sake, certainly, shouldn't we all be able to forgive one another
for Christ's sake? Look in Ephesians chapter four,
that's so. If God's forgiven us our sin, our rebellion, our
corruption, if he's forgiven us for Christ's sake, we ought
to be able to forgive one another for Christ's sake. Those who
have been forgiven know something about forgiveness. Verse 31 of
Ephesians chapter four. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice and be a kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. Paul knew Philemon would be very
motivated to forgive Onesimus because he'd been forgiven for
Christ's sake. But Paul also knew this. that
Philemon would do what he asked because Philemon loved Christ.
But he also loved Paul. He loved the Apostle Paul. You think, now this is a personal
letter. Think about Philemon. He gets this letter. Do you think
he has any desire to make life harder for the aged Apostle Paul,
who's suffering in prison? Not a chance. No, he's going
to do whatever he can to make life better for him. You think
about this. God loved us when there's nothing
to love. Ought we not be able to love
our brethren? Look at John chapter 15. That's a commandment of our
Lord, motivated by love for him, that we love our brethren. This
is not just a good idea. This is the nature of the new
man. John chapter 15, verse 12. This
is my commandment. that you love one another, not
according to the law, as I have loved you. That's how you're
to love one another. And that's what believers are
to do. We're to help one another. We're to encourage one another
in this matter of love and forgiveness. I'll show you that in verse one
of Titus. Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of
the truth, which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which
God that cannot lie promised before the world began. Gosh,
I'm in Titus, excuse me. I thought, where am I going here?
Philemon 1. Philemon 1. Paul, a prisoner
of Jesus Christ, to Timothy, our brother, and to Philemon,
our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Apphia
and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house. Now Paul, when he writes this
letter, he includes Timothy in the salutation. See what he's
doing? He knows he's getting ready to
ask Philemon to do this for him. And what he's saying is, Timothy,
do you love and respect? He's with me in this. He's asking
you for this too. And Paul also includes, says
this letter is written to Apphia. She's Philemon's wife. Now, you
know the story of Onesimus. He stole from Philemon and ran
away. But he stole from Athia too.
She's going to have to be on board in this matter of forgiveness. If he's going to be accepted
back into her house, she's going to have to be on board in this
matter of forgiveness. And it could be Paul felt like he ought
to include her too for this reason. That the softer heart of a woman
might be used to soften up her husband a little bit, make him
more willing to be softer and forgiving. And Paul included
Archippus in this salutation. He may have been the pastor of
the church in Philemon's house. Now, some people think Philemon
was the pastor, but Paul calls both of these men fellow laborer
and my fellow soldier. So one of them, I'm sure, was
the pastor, but they both preached. They both handled the word of
God. That man that handles the Word of God, he ought to know
something about forgiveness and love and be helpful in this matter.
And that's good instruction to all of us. We should all be a
help and an encouragement to our brethren. To love and forgive
and never be a hindrance to loving one another and forgiving one
another. And I tell you what will help a great deal in this
area. It's humility. You notice Paul did not write
this letter like he's up here and everybody else was down here,
you know, like he's on the mountaintop and he's dispensing all his wisdom
and authority. No, he wrote it like everybody
else is above him and he's asking them to do a favor for him. That's
the way he wrote it. He's writing this like everybody
else is superior to him. And if you look over Philippians
chapter two, I'll show you, this is what the word of God tells
us to do. Paul's practicing what he preaches here. Humility. Philippians 2, verse
2. Fulfill ye my joy that you be
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of
one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves. And that's what Paul is doing.
He's esteeming other better than himself. Paul writes this letter
And he sure makes it sound like Timothy's is equal, doesn't it?
Now, I promise you, Timothy doesn't feel that way. But Paul does. And he ought to feel that way
because all the brethren are equal. Nobody's on a higher plane
than somebody else. And I'll show you a wonderful
example of that. We just looked at these pastoral
letters to Timothy and Titus. In those letters, Paul talked
about Timothy and Titus, my sons in the faith. You know what he calls Onesimus?
That no count fellow with no background. Timothy had a background
now. Taught the scriptures from the
time he could understand language. Onesimus is no count. And you
know what Paul calls him? My son. Equal with Timothy. Because where's their righteousness
come from? Where's their goodness come from? Where's their acceptance
with the Father come from? All in Christ. It doesn't have
anything to do with us. It's all in Christ. Every believer
is equal. And I'll tell you, if God will
give us genuine humility, we'll find it a whole lot easier to
love and forgive one another. Third, I want us to see this. I want us to see how every believer
is made willing. Luke verse 13. Paul says, 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 do I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were
of necessity, but willingly. Willingly. You do this willingly
or don't do it. And I say the same thing to all
of us. Whatever it is that you do in service of the Lord and
worship of the Lord, you do it willingly. Because you're not
under the law. Now you're under grace. You do
it willingly. A servant, a slave, he does what
he does because if he doesn't do it, he's not going to get
paid. Or if he doesn't do it, he's going to get whipped. That's
the motivation of a slave. But that's not the motivation.
That's not the relationship that a son and a daughter has. A son
and a daughter, they do what they do out of love for their
father. So if you can't serve the Lord willingly, then just
don't. If you can't come willingly to the worship, and I'm talking
about to the worship service now, if you can't willingly come
to the worship service desiring to hear a word from the Lord,
stay home. Now, it's to your eternal detriment,
but if you can't do it willingly, just stay home. If you can't
give out of a willing heart, keep your money. God don't need
you and me. God's people are willing. And you know why they're willing?
Because in the day of God's power, he made him willing. He gave
him a new heart that willingly follows him, that willingly seeks
after him, that desires to be with him. And here's the whole
motivation for a believer willingly serving our Lord, willingly worshiping
him and seeking after him. It's Christ our Savior. Who willingly
gave himself a sacrifice for our sins. If I have any inkling
of what that means, I think I'll serve him out of love, don't
you? Willingly. Let's willingly love and forgive and help one
another. Fourth, I want us to see this.
I want us to see how a believer is made profitable through the
new birth. Verse 10, Paul says, I beseech
thee for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.
which in time past was to thee unprofitable. But now he's profitable,
both to thee and to me. Now Onesimus had been a worthless
servant. That's what the word unprofitable
means. He was worthless. He was unprofitable. You know,
you're like, if you got accounting ledgers, you know, you got your
cost over here and your revenue over here. And if your revenue
adds up to more than your cost, you've got a profit. But if your
cost adds up to more than your revenue, you're unprofitable.
That's Onesimus. It cost more to keep him than
he produced by his work. He was such a poor worker. He cost more than he produced. Philemon suffered loss just by
employing Onesimus because Onesimus, he just wouldn't work. I mean,
the man was lazy. He wouldn't work. And when they
did force him to do something he did a bad job of, somebody
had to go behind him and redo it. You know, he's unprofitable.
One day, well, then Philemon also suffered loss in this way.
Onesimus was unprofitable. When he ran away, He stole from
Philemon. He took Philemon's property.
He himself was the property of Philemon, and he stole Philemon's
property, deprived him of the work that he should be doing
for his master. And to top it off, when he left, he took a
bunch of valuables and things so he could finance his escape
to the big city. Onesimus was just unprofitable. And one day Philemon's, you know,
beginning his morning, drinking him a cup of coffee, Somebody
comes in and says, Philemon, we can't find Onesimus anywhere.
He must have run off in the night. And Philemon, they said, we're
getting a search party to go look for him. And Philemon said,
don't you do it. Don't do it. I don't want him
back. We're better off without him. That's unprofitable, and we're
better off without him. And you ought to know who that's
a picture of. That's a picture of you and me. We're unprofitable. We can't add anything to God.
We're just like Onesimus. We're unprofitable. We've stolen
from God. We've stolen his food, his water,
his air. We tried to steal his glory and
salvation, and then we ran away from God. But I'll tell you,
God in his mercy and his grace is not going to let his people
stay in that unprofitable, wretched condition. If God chose you,
One day, sooner or later, you're going to hear the gospel. God's
going to break it. He's going to cause you to be
born again. And now you're profitable. Now
you'll be profitable. You'll be profitable by being
an example of God's free and sovereign grace. I'm not saved
because I did anything. It's not because I did anything
right. Not because I lived a moral life. God didn't save me because
I decided to let him save me. God just saved me. by His sovereign
grace. He crossed my free will and saved
me by His grace. You'll be an example of God's
free and sovereign grace. You'll be profitable because
you won't be able to help yourself. You'll communicate that faith
and that love that God's given. You'll be profitable. That's
what happened to Onesimus. I mean, you think about this
lazy, no-count worker. God saved him. And you know what? He became a willing, cheerful
helper to the Apostle Paul. Paul said, he's been here helping
me. I'd like to keep him here. He's so helpful. I won't do it
because he's your property. And you know, if he's going to
come back here, you're going to do it willingly. But suddenly
he became a great worker. He had a good work ethic. He
was just sought every way he could to be helpful to the Apostle
Paul. Well, what happened? God saved him. God gave him a
new heart. He became profitable. Look over at Colossians chapter
four. After Paul sent Onesimus back, he became profitable to
the church there. Onesimus became a leader in that
church. Colossians four, verse seven. Paul says, all my state shall
Tychicus declare unto you, who is a faithful brother and a faithful
minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I've sent unto
you for the same purpose that he might know your estate and
comfort your hearts. I've sent him with who? Onesimus. Look how he describes him here.
A faithful and beloved brother who's one of you. They shall
make known unto you all things which are done here. This faithful
and trusted brother, Onesimus. Now he's profitable. He's just
as profitable as Tychicus. He's profitable because that's
what God's grace does. That's what God's grace does
for a rebel. It gives him a new heart, a new nature, and makes
him proper. And here's the last thing I want
us to see. I want to leave you with this. I want to leave you
with a word of comfort and encouragement by seeing God's providence for
his people. Verse 15 of Philemon. Paul says,
for perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest
receive him forever. Now just think back before this
story began, I don't know, a year, two years, I don't know how long
in advance of this, but a chain of events began to take place. And all those events led up to
the Apostle Paul being put in prison in Rome for preaching
the gospel. Well, couldn't God have prevented that? Of course
he could. Why didn't he? because it was his purpose in
the salvation of his people. Paul was sent to prison in Rome. And when he was there, you know
who came to hear him preach? Members of Caesar's household.
Well, Paul couldn't have gone into Caesar's house and preached. God's got a people there. How
on earth are they going to hear the gospel? God's going to send
his servant to prison and they're going to come here and preach.
That's how. That was God's providence for his people. And you think
about the life of the apostle Paul. Paul spent his time tirelessly
traveling and preaching. Just nothing would stop him from
going to preach the gospel everywhere he had the opportunity to do.
But God put Paul in prison. Paul said, that's who put me
in prison. I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ.
I'm not a prisoner of Rome. God put me here. I'm God's prisoner.
It could be that God did that. Give the apostle some time to
write these blessed prison epistles. Could be for our benefit. And
then there is Onesimus. He's a hard case. It was just
difficult to even be around Onesimus. I mean, his disposition was ugly. His work ethic just would offend
you. Just he's hard to tolerate. And
he's a thief. I mean, everybody, nobody likes
to be one of the thief. He stole from Philemon. He stole
from him by not giving him an honest day's work. He stole his
money and his property and went off to the city. And Onesimus
had hung around the house. Paul had come there to visit
several times, more than likely. And other men, maybe Timothy
or Titus or somebody had come around, Barnabas, somebody. And
they came there. If they come to town, Philemon
had them come to his house. And they'd probably have a service.
Philemon just hung around back there They're preaching. You
think the apostle Timothy, Titus, they're preaching. He's sitting
back there with a scowl on his face. He's shifting. That facial expression was not
encouraging to whoever was preaching. He was a discouragement, discouragement
to the preacher, discouragement to the people around him. Oh,
and then. He ran off to the big city, you
know, he ran off to see if he could hide in the crowd and never
be found again. It'd just be like us going to New York City.
Seems to me like somebody wants to hide in those crowds, you'll
never find him. That's what they thought about
on that. He's run off, that's the last we'll ever hear of him.
We'll never see him again, never be able to find him again. And
they thought, Well, I had some hope before, you know, at least
he was here when Paul was preaching and there's no hope for him now.
No hope. He won't be here next time Paul's
here. His soul's gone, he's lost. But somehow, when Onesimus went
to Rome, he chose Rome of all places. He could have gone to
any big city, he chose Rome. He chose the city where the apostle
Paul was imprisoned. Now Paul was in prison. He couldn't
run out and grab Onesimus by the scuff of the neck and drag
him to service, could he? No, Onesimus could have easily
avoided Paul. But he didn't know why. But for
some reason, he was just drawn. He couldn't stop himself. He
didn't know why. But he went there to hear Paul preach. You
see, this is God's providence. It's His sovereignty. Paul was
bound in prison. He couldn't go get Onesimus.
Onesimus was bound. by a worthless nature. He couldn't
do anything to help himself. But the word of God was not bound.
God sent that worthless slave to hear the gospel preached.
And Onesimus was born again through the preaching of the gospel.
You just imagine there, Paul was in prison. It was his own
hired house, but he was chained to a Roman soldier or to a wall.
I mean, it was still prison. But there he was in his hired
house. They let anybody come to see him, wanted to come. And
he was there preaching. Onesimus undoubtedly got to service
late. And Paul watched and saw him
come in. He thought, what on earth is he doing here? How did he get to Rome? And what's
he doing here to hear me preach anyway? And Onesimus, as soon
as Paul was done preaching, skied out the door. Paul didn't get
a chance to talk to him. And the next day he came back. And
the next day he came back. And Paul watched his face. He
noticed his face. That scowl was gone. Now he was listening. He was
listening differently. It looked like, could there be
light on in there? Could God be dealing with him?
And Paul watched. God gave that worthless slave. Gave him a new heart. Gave him
faith in Christ. Well, why didn't the Lord do
that for Onesimus way back there at Philemon's ranch? Wouldn't
that be a lot easier? I don't know. Somehow he did it to exalt
his grace, his providence, his power. Maybe Paul didn't even
know why God. He said, well, perhaps he therefore
departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever. So the next time you think about
giving up hope of salvation for a loved one, you just remember
this. God's providence does miraculous things for his people. He does
miraculous things. for lost causes to bring them
to repentance and faith in Christ. And let me give you this too.
Onesimus was a slave. Now, that's a horrible, horrible
institution. For some reason, God allowed
it. I don't know why. He didn't allow it because it's
right. I know that, but I don't know
why he allowed it. But Onesimus was a slave. His master could
do anything he wanted to him and nobody ever say anything
about it. And Onesimus thought, this is not fair. This is evil.
It's not right. And he's right. What they're
doing to him is evil. But you know, God oversaw the wickedness
of man and he used it for good. I want you to look first at Psalm
76. I'm going too long, but you got to see this Psalm 76. Only God can do that, turn this
evil into good. Psalm 76 verse 10. Surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath shalt
thou restrain. Now the wrath of man is not right,
but God overrules it for the good of his people by his providence. And if you look there, if you
got to Cambridge, where it says, surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, there's a reference there. In my Bible, it's a cue.
That reference is to Exodus chapter nine. Now turn back there to
Exodus nine. What is this reference to the
wrath? Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. Exodus nine, verse 16. Here's the illustration. God here speaking to Pharaoh.
He said, And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee
up, for to show in thee my power, that my name may be declared
throughout all the earth. Now the way the Egyptians treated
Israel was wicked. What Pharaoh did to them was
wicked. It was not right at all. It wasn't right that they'd make
them slaves, and it wasn't right that the way they treated But
God allowed all that to happen. God actually raised Pharaoh to
power so he could be so wicked to the children of Israel for
this purpose. God would get the glory when
he destroyed him and brought Israel out. So just like next
time you think you've lost hope for a loved one, you think there's
no hope for them now, you remember the God of problems. And the
next time somebody does something evil to you, Now, you just take
comfort in this. Yes, it's evil. Yes, it's wicked. And yes, it hurts. But somehow
the God of Providence is working this out for good. Now, you may
never see it. It might not be for your good.
It might be for somebody else's good. I don't know. But I know
this, the God of Providence knows and he will bring his purpose
to pass. And his purpose is always good
for his people. Always. All right. I hope the
Lord will bless that.