Good seeing everybody again.
And thank you for that, Billy. It's going to take everything
in me to get through this. I'm topping it out. I just sobbed,
but I pray the Lord's with us. I hope I can give the sense of
this text that we have today. I felt bad for you because you
don't have a pastor. You don't have somebody working
through books. Like we're going to go through Ephesians. We're
going to go through whatever, Genesis. And so I'm going to
go through a whole book with you today. Is that all right?
I don't know how long it'll take, but we'll go as quick as we can.
If you will turn to Hebrews chapter one, that's what said Nehemiah. And I'll say this later, the
child of God bows to the word of God. It said, they stood and
they read in the book, the law of God distinctly. What's his
law, his word, everything he said. They read the law of God
distinctly and they gave the sense and caused them to understand
the reading. I pray we understand what the
Lord has wrote to us today. I think I got a glimpse of it
and my heart just pour bubbles over, it overflows. And I pray
yours will too. So if you got Hebrews 1, I'm
not going to go through Hebrews. I'm just helping you get there.
Look left one page to Philemon. That's a tiny book. It's just
a letter. from Paul to Philemon, and it's easy for me to overlook. I imagine somebody else has overlooked
it. But when we say, well, you know, I'm having trouble in my
marriage, or I feel so cold and weak, and I need the Lord to
increase my faith, or I need wisdom, we don't say, well, let's
turn to Philemon. Well, we ought to. If this was
the only letter that we had, the only book we had, there's
enough gospel in there. We'll never exhaust it, will
we? This is a personal letter. And I was taught at a young age,
if you write somebody a letter, a handwritten letter, that's
special. That's real special. And Kimberly
knows my handwriting. If you ever get a letter from
me and you can read it, it took me a long time to write that
letter. But it's a personal thing and
it's special to it. But whenever you get a letter,
you go out to your mailbox and you get a letter, it matters
who that letter's from, don't it? You look in that upper left-hand
corner, The power company, or if it's junk mail, or if it's
from a loved one. You might open it before you
get back to the house. And it matters who it's to. If I got
a letter from the president in my mailbox, but it was to my
neighbor, it don't do me any good, does it? It's gotta be
to me. And it matters what it's about.
What's it saying? What's the letter about? What's
inside of there? The Lord gave us this letter.
This letter's from Paul, the apostle, to Philemon. He's a
rich fellow down in Colossae. And he had servants, and he had
a big enough house that the church met in his home. And they think
he was saved by Paul's preaching, and he preached until he filled
in when the pastor was gone. But it's from Paul, and it's
to Philemon, and it says something. What's it saying? We got to get
a sense of the text, don't we? Maybe the Lord will give us an
understanding on it. It concerns something. And I
want to go through this letter. A friend of mine preached it
this way, and I love it. And we'll go through it one time.
And I hope we can gain some knowledge from this letter, and we see
what's being said here. We can learn a lot. And then
I want to go through it a second time. I'll go quick with you. Lord willing, and we'll get some
understanding. Lots of folks have a lot of knowledge. I want
understanding, too, don't you? I was commenting on a fellow
one time, and he said, well, he knows a lot of scripture.
And I said, do him good if he understood it. He don't know
what it means. I want to know what it means.
I want to know what the Lord meant. And this is, do you think, a
handwritten letter? And God has preserved just a
note from Paul to Philemon for 2,000 years so we could read
it today. Isn't that something? I don't have nothing from my
grandfather. That's just a generation away, you know. God's preserved
this note, a pardon letter, from Paul to Philemon for thousands
of years so we can read it. It's short, too. Here's the characters
of the story. Paul is an apostle. He's in a
hired house. He's a prisoner there in Rome. Philemon, he's the man in Colossae.
He had a church meeting in his house, had some servants. One
of them got away, wronged him, and took off. A runaway slave,
Onesimus. That's who it's about. That's
who they're talking about. He's the runaway servant of Philemon.
So here's round one, okay? Verse one. Paul, a prisoner of
Jesus Christ. He starts out, he's not a prisoner
of Nero. He's not a prisoner of Rome. The government hasn't
wronged him. People are so scared to death
about the government wronging him. He said, I'm God's prisoner. I'm
Christ's prisoner. And Timothy, our brother, Timothy was there
with him. Unto Philemon, our dearly beloved, our fellow laborer,
he preached to. And our beloved Athia, that's
his wife. And Archippus, the fellow soldier.
Scholars think that Archippus was the pastor there in Colossae.
And to the church in my house, that's who he's writing to, he
addresses them. And he says, grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a good way to
start a letter, isn't it? What's he want? First and foremost,
grace to you. Peace to you. From who? From our Father, our Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, I want that for you.
I want God to show his grace to you, and I want you to have
peace with it. I do. Verse 4, I thank my God,
making mention of thee always in my prayers. We could learn
a lot from that. What should we do for one another? Pray for
one another. Pray for me. Well, I don't know
what to pray. I don't know what to pray for
you. Make mention of him. That's pretty easy. Somebody
told me yesterday, we were down at Kingsport, and they said,
I was thinking of your name yesterday. I said, I really wasn't thinking
anything in particular, just I had your name on my mind. And
I thought, I just had wrote this down. He was making mention of
me, wasn't he? Lord knows, he'll intercede for us. Make mention
in our prayers, verse 5, hearing of thy love and faith, which
thou hast towards the Lord Jesus first. I heard about your love
of God. I heard about your faith in him and towards all saints. If you love him, you love the
brethren. If a man says he loves God and hates the brethren, the
love of God's not in him. Why? That's not an enemy out
throwing rocks at your church building. That's, I love you.
I love the gospel. But to hate the brethren, the
love of God's not in them. He said, I've heard of it, that
you love the Lord and you love the saints. Verse six, that the
communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging
of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. That's so sweet. People say,
well, thank you for doing it. Well, the Lord's did it. It ain't me. The Lord said, I'll
walk in them. Why? So they can acknowledge
all good works of the Father. He did it. You say that, don't
you? You do anything good? Well, with
me doing it, Lord did it. He might have blessed it, but
I know me. Verse 7, for we have great joy
and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints
are refreshed by thee, brother. Our hearts are refreshed by you,
by your love. That's what makes us so special.
That's what makes us know our brethren. Did you know that?
And the world knows it. Remember in John 13, the Lord
said, by this shall all men know you are my disciples. If you
have your doctrine in her sorted out. No. All men's going to know
you're my disciples. If you go to the right church,
if you send her to the right pastor. No. He said, all men
know you're my disciples. If you have love one towards
another. If you love one another. Verse eight, wherefore though
I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is
convenient. Paul said, I could make this
real short and I could just say, do it. Hush and do it. Now he was an apostle. I'm not
an apostle. Hush and listen to him. He could
make you do it. And you know, we're commanded,
not just Paul having a wild idea and he's going to enact this
thing. We're commanded to love one another, aren't we? Are we
commanded to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven you? Heck,
I can just say, remember what the Lord said? Now do it. They
said, I'm not going to do that. Verse nine, yet for love's sake
rather I beseech you. I'm going to plead with you because
of love. Being such a one as Paul the
aged, I've learned some things. Paul said, I've learned to be
content. The Lord don't save you and then you're just content
forever. It's a process. You've got to learn. content. And I said, I'm old. I've learned
a couple things. And now also a prisoner of Jesus
Christ. That's a good way to argue, isn't
it? Lord said, wherefore I say unto
thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven
the same loveth little. Paul's remembering love's sake.
Remember what the Lord did for you. I'm asking to forgive. But remember, you're forgiven
too. What cost to that? How much did you offend? You've
been offended. He's going to get to that in a minute. But
how much did you offend? The offended party is the one
that restitution has to be made to. If I'm the offender, nobody
owes me nothing. I'm the guilty one, right? And
he said, let's not forget when somebody's wronged you, you're
guilty too. But for love's sake, Philemon
knew this. He did. Who did the forgiving
to that lady that had much to forgive? Christ forgave. Who
forgave Philemon? Christ did. Well, what's it for
Philemon to forgive Onesimus? Nothing like you read out of
Romans 14. All that other stuff. Bend over
backwards and kiss your heels. Do whatever it takes to not put
a stumbling stone. Why? Get the gospel out there. Look to Christ. Hear of Him.
Learn of that person that saved you. All that other stuff. We'll
get over it. If they don't have the food you
like, stop at McDonald's on the way home, you'll be fine. Look to
Him. That's what's important. But for love's sake, for Christ's
sake, let's remember who was present even while we're reading
this letter, Philemon. Someone's with us. That one who's
forgiven us so much. Let our conversations, all of
them, be standing on this ground, the person and the work of Christ.
You got something to say to somebody? Good, bad, ugly. Remember who
you are and whose you are. I'm nothing and I'm the Lord's.
I'm not my own. I'm bought with a price. Now
with that, we're going to look at the context of this letter
to Philemon. I want to look at the context.
The Lord taught me something a couple of years ago. And I've
misused this a long time. And I want to learn something.
Look over Matthew 18. He's reminded him. He said, the Lord's with
us, Philemon. Remember who you are and whose
you are. Matthew 18, verse 20. Matthew 18, 20. For where two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. I'm right there with you. Now,
there's religious zealots in this world, and they take this
and they run with it, and they think they've got an excuse to
form a mutiny against God. I've heard people say, we're
going to have a prayer meeting and we're going to pray until God does something. That's a, that's a mutiny. Better
watch it. Be able to burn down. I don't
want to be near it. What's the context of the Lord
saying? He said, when two or three are gathered, I'm going
to be there with them in their name. Didn't he say, Lo, I'm with you always?
If I was on a deserted island and I was all by myself, well,
the Lord can't be with me. I ain't got a brother with me
or a sister with me. No, He's with you always. Look at verse
15, Matthew 18, 15. Here's the context. Moreover,
if thy brother shall trespass against thee, Onesimus trespassed
against Philemon, didn't he? Go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone. Just two of you. And if he shall
hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. If he'll listen to you,
if he'll apologize to you. If he will not hear thee, then
take thee one or two more, that thy mouth may be of two or three
witnesses, every word may be established. And if he shall
neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect
to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and
a publican. This is whenever you have something
that has to be addressed. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever
ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever
ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I
say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching
anything that ye shall ask, it shall be done for them of my
Father which is in heaven. This is whenever you have to
confront a brother or sister. He says, remember, I'm right
there with you. Look, verse 24, because where two or three are
gathered in my name, there I'm in the midst of them. Before you go arguing, you got
to address something. Sometimes things have to be addressed.
Now, let's start off grace to you and peace to you. And you
remember Christ is here with us. He's with you and he's with
me. He's here with us. That's going
to set the tone. That's a ground we're going to
stand on before we go Any disputes, anything has to be addressed.
Back in our text here, Paul 8. Verse 8. Wherefore, though I might be
much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient,
yet for love's sake, verse 9, I rather beseech thee, being
such a one as Paul the aged, now also a prisoner of Jesus
Christ, I beseech thee for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten
in my bonds, which in time past was unprofitable to thee, to
thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. This Onesimus,
this runaway slave. Paul said, this is my son. Believers
are family, ain't they? But he's been begotten. He's
been born again. God's put a new creation inside
of Onesimus. Well, now that's changing the
tune. There's a new creation there. That man went down to
go preach to Paul. The Lord said, go to him. He
said, do you know who that is, Lord? I heard about this fellow. He said, behold, he prayeth.
He'd never done that before. He'd said words out loud and
said he's talking to God, but he never prayed to God. Now he's
praying. This old nest has been forgotten.
He's born again, new life. While Paul was bound in prison,
while he was in his bonds, because he's in his hired house, people
come visit him. Onesimus got there to Rome and found him.
But while he was bound to preach Christ, too, he was bound to
tell the truth, Paul was. And he said, while I was preaching
in my bonds, God saved him. He put life in
him. He called Paul son. John said that, didn't he? He
said, my little children. He was unprofitable. He literally
lost you profit, Philemon. But now he's profitable to both
of us, to both of us, because he's a new creation. There's
a new creation in him. Verse 12, whom I have sent again,
I'm sending back to you. Thou therefore receive him, that
is, mine own bowels. You take him, you take my heart.
I'm one with this man now, and you take him in your home just
like it was me. No difference. If one of you
were to receive one of my children, if I sit with my children and
go stay with you, would you treat them any different than you treat
me? No, you'd take good care of them, wouldn't you? Verse 13, whom I would have retained
with me, I would have kept him with me. That in thy stead, just
like you did, he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.
He'd have served me just like you did, by the way. That's what
he's doing now. But without thy mind, would I do nothing? That
Thy benefits should not go, should not be as a word necessity, but
willingly. He said, I would keep him here
with me, but I'm going to send him there first with this letter.
And you decide, I want it to be willing, not, not because
you had to, not because you're constrained to. That's important. If it pertains to the word of
the Lord, if it pertains to the love of the Lord, believers bow. Willingly. Willingly. We do. Sheep don't butt on that. They bow. And what story comes
to mind this round one? What story comes to mind? I'll
go quicker. Whenever you think of this, somebody being willing.
Boaz, he was related to Ruth. He was able to redeem Ruth. And
then the law said he had to. No, he wanted to. He was willing
to do that. That's for love's sake. This
isn't some kind of legal arrangement that happens to benefit. Onesimus
here. It's for love's sake. Willing.
It wants to. It wants to. It'll be special
to Philemon, won't it? Love constrains. Law restrains. That keeps you from doing something.
Love constrains. That squeezes and makes you do
something. For love's sake. Verse 15, for perhaps he therefore
departed for a season that thou shouldst receive him forever.
Lord, may I let all this stuff happen just so you loved him
and you gained a brother. Verse 16, not now as a servant, but
above a servant, a brother, a beloved brother, especially to me, but
how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
He said both. It'll be special to follow him,
not just in the flesh. He's going to be a better servant.
I promise you. He's going to work harder, but
you get to worship God with him. That's going to be special. Verse
17, if thou count me, therefore a partner. Receive him as myself. This is precious too. If he hath
wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on my account. Did he
wrong him or did he owe him? He said, or. You know what's
special about that? Paul didn't know. It's estimated,
they think, that Onesimus has been there with Paul about three
years. Could you imagine if he's like, I've wronged my master.
I don't want to hear about it. Take it to the Lord. You didn't
sin against God. He saw you do it. Mankind thinks
you did. You sinned against God. That's
your master that God gave you. You're fighting God on this.
Yeah, but you know what I took? I don't want to hear about it.
That ends gossip, don't it? It don't matter what it was.
Take it to the Lord. And Paul said, whatever it was,
because he didn't know, you put it on my account. You put it
there. Verse 19, I, Paul, have written
it with mine own hand. I will repay it. Albeit, I do
not say how thou ow'st me, even thine own self besides. Paul
preached there in Colossae, and it's thought Philemon was saved
by his preaching. That's how Onesimus knew to find
Paul. Colossae and Rome's 1,311 miles apart. That's a long way
from home, isn't it? And he sinned against his master
and stole something or did something, but he left anyway. He was departed
from him. And then he's on the run. He's
all the way, way far away in Rome. And he heard about a man. And he said, I've heard about
this before. And then he got close to the house and he heard
a voice. And he said, I've heard that voice before. And then this
time, though, he heard the message. He had the knowledge of who Paul
was. He knew he preached to his master. And now, boy, he had
understanding. He heard the message. Verse 20,
Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord. Refresh
my bowels in the Lord. Having confidence in thy obedience,
I wrote unto thee. I wrote this because I knew you'd
do it, knowing that thou will also do more than I say. I know
you'll do abundantly more than just doing what I'm asking. You'll
go above and beyond. But withal, prepare me also a
lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given
unto you. He's in prison right now, and
he said, you're all praying for me. And I said, I'm pretty confident
the Lord's going to let me out of here, and I'm going to come
visit you. So get me a room ready. You know what room I stay in.
Get ready. It's my intention to come where
you are. And Onesimus already be there, and we'll all be there
together. That's my intent. There, salute
thee, Ephorus, my fellow prisoner of Christ. Marcus, that's John
Mark, Barnabas' nephew. Aristarchus, Demas. You know, when Paul said there
in 2 Timothy that Demas had departed, loving this present world, This
one, he's in prison. Wouldn't that be nice if Demas
come back? Lucas, that's Luke. He wrote Luke's Gospel in Acts.
My fellow labors, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
your spirit. Amen. And we'll try not to cry. A lot of Bibles have a footnote
just past that amen. And it says, written from Rome,
To Philemon, we got that, didn't we? By Onesimus, a servant. Paul couldn't see. I think he
had, I talked to an eye specialist one time, went to church a lot,
and he said he thought he had cataracts, because it kept getting
worse, and he'd write bigger. He said, look what a large letter
I wrote. I signed my name real big, you know. But he would dictate
this. Somebody would write it down,
and Paul would sign at the end of it. Onesimus wrote it down. This whole time. Onesimus was writing this. He's
unprofitable. Unprofitable. He didn't say,
well, I mean, he was kind of a little bit bad. No. He grew
up poor, didn't he? He was unprofitable. He wronged
you. He took from you. Oh, yeah. He was worthless. But now, God done something in
him. Yeah, the Lord did it. He wrote it word for word. He
agreed with it, didn't he? And that's what he was taking to
Philemon. This is Onesimus' pardon letter.
And he's agreeing with every word of it and standing on what
Paul said. There's Paul, Philemon, Onesimus. The topic is the pardon letter
concerning the substitution, concerning love sake, concerning
forgiveness. But the subject's not just Onesimus
being made amends with Philemon in the flesh. That took place.
There was a servant, and there was a master, and Paul wrote
this letter, and he went back, and everything's hunky-dory.
They rode off into the sunset together, and they worshiped
God together, and it was wonderful. That happened. And this letter's been preserved
for us. But there's another subject here. We'll go for round two,
and I'll go, I'll have to skim it. We'll do just a few verses.
There's one letter here. It's 25 verses long, and if you
go through the English here, there's 14 sentences is all it
is. That ain't much, is it? The Lord
Jesus Christ's name is mentioned 13 times in 14 sentences. Now, this is about humility and
forgiving brethren, being a good servant. Yes, this is about the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's look at verse 8 again,
and I want to give you the characters again. There's Paul, Philemon,
Onesimus, right? Paul is a son of God. He's God
the son. Philemon is God the father. This
is a letter. This is holy communication from
the son and the father, and it's concerning all believers, all
Onesimuses. Are you an Onesimus? You know,
this isn't about those that haven't done Philemon wrong. This isn't
to those that's never been war with God. A man told me one time, he said,
I've never been like, I never hated God. I said, you still
do. God save you. He got real mad at that. I hope
he got mad enough to hear me. Lord may make him listen. This
is only concerning those that are horrible, unprofitable servants.
They have nothing to offer. That's all it's about, isn't
it? So Paul's the son of God, Philemon's God the Father, Onesimus
is all of us believers, and may God the Holy Spirit make us hear
it. Look here in verse eight. Wherefore, though I might be
much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient,
yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such a one
as Paul the aged, now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. This is the
son speaking to the father, saying, Lord, we could just save them.
We could just turn them into me right now. But for love's sake, And for
Christ's sake, why are we here? Isn't that a big question? At
some point in your life, you go, why is all this going? Why
are we on the earth? It's for Christ's glory, that's
why. And for our good. Well, how could it be for our
good, too? Because he loves us. He's going to make us love him.
And we're going to be willing to do it. I beseech thee for
my son, Onesimus. The Lord's, the son's talking
to the father, and he said, well, father, we're going to talk about
my children. whom I have begotten in my bonds." Paul was in prison,
wasn't he? And he was bound to preach the
gospel. How was Christ in bonds? He came bound in his flesh like
us. He was made under the law. He was bound to the law. He was
bound to serve the Father in thought, word, and deed, in perfection
from conception on. He was bound hand and foot to
that tree, wasn't he? He was bound to drink that cup
that I earned and the dregs thereof, to take the punishment and being
forsaken of God. All the while, his face set like
a flint, honoring the Father, trusting Him. He said, He won't
leave my soul now. Verse 11, which in time past to thee was
unprofitable, weren't we all? There's no profit. Nothing good.
I had a friend that couldn't say iniquity. He would say inequity. And I thought, you know, that's
perfectly, you're in debt. You think you're doing something
good for God? No, you're in debt. You're the one that owes something.
Times past was unprofitable to me, but now profitable to thee
and to me, whom I've sent again. We left the Lord. We left him
in the garden and we left him in our hearts. We left him in
everything. And Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ is turning us back.
make an atonement. Therefore, receive him that is
mine own bowels. Receive my heart, whom I would
have retained with me." He said, Lord, I would that they be where
I am, but nevertheless, thy will be done. That in my stead, he
might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel, but
without thy mind, without thy will, Father, I would do nothing. that thy benefit should not be,
as it were, of necessity, but willingly. Not thy will, my will,
but thy will be done. For perhaps he therefore departed
for a season that thou should receive him forever. All of the
Lord's bride so far spans about 6,000 years or so on this earth.
All that took place, we departed for a season that we may be gathered
together and be with him for eternity. Infinite. We don't know what that is. Our
brains can't. Why is this all taking place?
We can be with him for eternity. Verse 16, not as a servant though,
but above a servant. He don't just need laborers in
the cornfields in heaven. A beloved brother, a child, a
family member. Come in, sit down, I got you
some food ready. And the Lord's going to serve us. If he didn't
say that, I wouldn't even imagine. We're not there to be slaves.
We're bond servants. We're willing servants. We're
family now. That's above a servant, especially to me. But how much
more unto thee? Because the Father is honored
and the Son redeeming us, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
We'll physically be there. A body's prepared for us. I don't
know what it's going to look like. It's going to look like him.
It's going to smell like him. It's going to be wonderful. We'll be there and be meeting
the Lord, worshiping Him face to face. We got in there at the
conference at Kingsport yesterday, and wrongly, I say all kinds
of stuff wrong. I told Kim, I said, this will
be like glory, won't it? Those people we hadn't seen in years. And
just, hey, hey. And just as much as I can say
hi to you, hey, Abraham, Elijah. But that won't hit. That would
be precious, wouldn't it? We understand that. It's going
to be more precious than that, because when I open my eyes,
I ain't going to see Elijah. I ain't going to see Abraham.
I'm going to see my Savior. Just Him. We're going to meet
everybody else in a little while. Not as a servant, but above a
servant, a brother beloved especially to me, but how much more unto
thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If thou count me, therefore,
a partner. Now the word there is worthy.
Well, if somebody's good enough and they're on a scale, they'll
get into heaven. you want a pardon letter, the Lord Jesus Christ
looks to his father and says, I'm the propitiation. That's
an accepted bloody sacrifice. And he said, if you count me
worthy, me, he didn't say if you count Onesimus worthy, Onesimus
ain't worthy. You count me worthy. You count
me a partner. If we're in this together, receive
him as myself, as one, as one. Buddy. Father, count me a partner
worthy and equal. He thought himself not Robert
equal to God. He's God. They're partners. And he's worthy. He said, then receive him as
myself. If he hath wronged thee or oweth
thee aught, put that on mine account. Round two for that. You do not have a single sin
that cannot be forgiven. I met people who said, well,
when I get better, I'm just too bad. That's self-righteousness.
That is not humility. Lord said, it doesn't matter.
They're mine. Put it on my account. You receive
me, you're receiving him. That's what it is. Put that on
my account. Not in my account. Imputation is a accounting term. And so if you go to your pantry
and you Count five cans of green beans. That's because there's
five cans of green beans there. It's by a prior act. You look
in there and it's already on it. And you just declare what's
there. We can't do that. I can't put my sin on somebody.
I can't pay for somebody else's. The Lord can. How can man be
just with God? That's what I was asking Job,
the oldest book in the Bible. We ought to be asking now. How
can he be just and justify? Christ has to put his blood on
it. That propitiation, that sacrifice
has to be the son of God. And he has to willingly shed
his blood, not for necessity sake, but for love's sake. That's the same on as when it
says, this is the work of God that you believe on him, which
he hath sent. He said, put that on because
it's done by him on my account. I, Paul, have written with my
own hand. I will repay it. Albeit I do not say to thee how
thou ow'st me, even thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let
me have joy of thee in the Lord. Refresh my bowels in the Lord.
Having confidence, they rejoice. All heaven rejoices over one
sinner, it's been said. They're happy about it. His countenance
shines upon us. His smiling face, he's happy.
Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that
thou wilt do also more than I say, exceedingly abundant. But withal, prepare me also a
lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given
unto you. This is from time past. This was before I was born. Everybody
in this room. But in time past, the son said,
Father, these are mine, I'll be surety for them, and I'm coming
to you. And he'll be there with us. Verse
25, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Written from Rome to Philemon
by Onesimus, a serpent. A footnote, are we Onesimus?
This is only for those that have offended God. This is only for
the enemies of God. This is a pardon letter. What
a wonderful thing the Lord's work for his people. And I, you
will, he'll make you, but I'll tell you anyway. I urge you, you show up in the
presence of the Father, just like Onesimus' servant went back
to his master, the one that owned him, rightfully what he is. You
show up with this pardon letter and hush. Nothing else, nothing
added to it. Could you imagine Onesimus walking
in there, Philemon, what are you doing here? I ain't seen
you in five years. Look who's showing her face now.
Would've been man's reaction, right? Read this letter. Where
have you been? Read the letter. What did you
do? Read the letter. What's the letter
say? What'd you write in that? I didn't
write it. Read the letter. Don't have nothing else to say,
but read what the son says. That's what we do when we come
to, that's what that servant did to his master. You come in the
presence of God, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, don't
see me, see him. Don't hear my words, hear his
words. Don't look to any sacrifice I make, look to his sacrifice. I pray God will make us do that.
I pray this will be your pardon letter as well. Thank you for
your time. I always enjoy seeing you all. I pray the Lord make
out a blessing to us. So thank you, have a good day.