We'll turn back with me to the
book of Philemon. As you noticed when I read, Philemon
has no chapter divisions. And in fact, it only has 25 verses. A very short letter to Philemon
concerning a runaway servant whose name was Onesimus. It was not uncommon in that day
for one to sell himself into servitude. He sold himself into
servitude in order to pay some debt he had incurred, but for
whatever reasons, he could not now pay that debt. So he would
go to whoever that was willing to have it, And he said, I owe
this much. And if the man was willing to
do so, they would talk back and forth. And he'd say, OK, you're
going to have to work for me. Whatever capacity I put you in,
you're going to have to work for me for 25 years, or for life
if the debt was large enough, or maybe just two or three years.
They sold themselves into servitude, and I've read all sorts of things
about Philemon, but there would be no letter of urgency from
Paul to reconcile Philemon if he was just a hired servant and
quit his job. There was more than that involved.
And a lot of the writers want to say that he stole something,
but it doesn't say that, doesn't even hint that in this letter.
I don't know where they come up with that. So it makes sense
to me that this man, for whatever reason, had incurred a large
debt, and now he couldn't pay it, and the inspection put him
in prison. But rather, he sold himself into bondage to filemon. And know this, that when that
master, whoever he was, did that, all the money was paid up front. He had to pay the bill. Kind
of like if you co-sign a note, Luke, and one of them sticks
you with it, that bank calls you up, they want their money
right now. They don't want you to take over
his payments. They want the money. And that's the way it was. And
so Fionnuala Lehman had paid the whole amount on this. And evidently somewhere down
the road, it doesn't say why, Onesimus got weary of being a
servant. And one night he packed up his
stuff, he may have stolen a beast or something from him, I don't
know, it was a long way, he was at Colossae, and it was a long
way from Colossae to Rome, it doesn't say. But anyway, he packed
up and left. He packed up and left. And Philemon
was a believer. He was an active member of the
church at Colossae, and here it says the church that's in
thine home, either referring to God's universal church, I
use that term kind of loosely, I'm talking about his elect,
members of his church in that home, It was Onesimus' home in
which they met, which is more likely. He was a very wealthy
man, had a large home, a lot of facilities. And Philemon was a believer.
He was an active member at the church at Colossae. He was a
Colossian. And he was a very well-to-do
man. And yet, God had saved him under the Apostle Paul's ministry
And this man, Paul commends him on his generosity and hospitality,
willing to do what he could for those in need. And meanwhile,
down in Rome, Paul had been put under, I guess the closest thing
in our language would be house arrest. He was not, they got
him up there in Rome, they knew he was a Roman, and They feared
what they might do to him and they were going to just turn
him loose. He said, no, you publicly condemned me. Now you're going
to publicly justify me. And they said, well, we're going
to send you off to Caesar. They didn't want him part of
it. So they sent him off. And now he's in Rome. But he's not
a murderer. He's not a violent man. And he
was there. And I think most of those Romans
knew that you know, from their experience with Christ and that
whole thing, I think they all knew that this was just Jewish
bull. And he's here, but they gotta
do something with him. And so they allow him to stay
in a home, which he calls in Acts 28, you can read the end
of the chapter, he dwelt two whole years there in his own
hired house. So through the donations of the
churches and support of the churches, he was able to get a house, and
that's where he stayed for two years. Acts 28, 23 through 30
will give you the story. And then in God's wondrous providence,
this runaway rebel meets up with Paul, hears the gospel, and then
confesses his problem to Paul, who immediately sits down and
pens this beautiful letter to Philemon. And I said all that
to say this, the book of Philemon is a book of reconciliation. That's what it's there for. Paul
wrote all kinds of letters. I'm convinced of that. He was
an apostle. It's through his ministry that
all these little, the Colossian church, the Ephesian church,
it's through his ministry that all these churches existed. And
you know that they have problems, we have problems, all churches
have problems. But an apostle is an authority over all the
churches and as an apostle you know that he wrote many letters
to these pastors back and forth or when they came down to visit
with him. But God wasn't pleased to take all of Paul's letters
and make them a portion of the Bible. But some he did. It's actually not the book of
Ephesians, it's the letter. of Paul to the Ephesians. The
letter of Paul. And this is a letter of Paul
to Philemon. And it's a book of reconciliation.
There's far more in these verses than one man trying to reconcile
another man. And I say again, the book of
Philemon is a book of reconciliation. And I want to give you a few
things this morning that I believe sets before us an accurate picture
of chosen sinners reconciled to God. And the first thing I
want us to see is this runaway rebel. Onesimus stuck his master
with the dead. There's no other way to say it.
That's what he did. That's what he did. You might
feel sorry for him. He did this, he did that. He
was a young man, blah, blah, blah, on and on it goes. But
the fact of the matter is, He stuck his master with his debt,
and he took off running. And now he seeks to flee not
only his master, but the condemnation of the law, which also carried
a severe punishment for what he'd done. He sold himself into
slavery to avoid the condemnation of the law. And now he's got
both. Now he's got both. This man is
a runaway rebel. That's what he is. And every
offspring of Adam is a runaway rebel. Is he not? Paul said,
we know that the law is spiritual. It judges the thoughts and intents
of the heart. It looks past what men see on
the outside and looks on the heart. It sees your motives. You can do a thing and perfectly
do it. But if it don't have the right
motive, it's an abomination to God. You can come and worship
God, but if you do it for the wrong reasons, it's an abomination
to God. Fact is, our Lord said, here's
the number one commandment. They said, which is the greatest
commandment? Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul,
mind, and strength. Now, if you don't, what happens? then you're guilty of the whole
law because the whole law hangs on that. You did it with the
wrong motive. You didn't do it because you
loved the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
You did it because you were scared of getting punished. And that's what Paul's telling
these people. The law is spiritual. It judges thoughts and intense
motives. It looks past what men see and
sees as God only can see. We know that the law is spiritual.
But, now watch this, I'm carnal, sold under sin. Sold under sin. I'm in bondage. I'm a slave. Sin reigns under
death. And every natural man owes a
debt that he can't pay. And that might have been the
case with Onesimus. He might have sold himself for
a lifetime. And he figured it'd be a lot
better to serve a lifetime under Philemon than it would be to
serve a lifetime down there in the prison. It might have been why he ran
away, because he owed a debt that a lifetime of servitude
could not pay. But being bankrupt beggars, and
this is what I want you to understand, does not exonerate one from his
debt. You try that on next time somebody
takes you to court. You owe a bill. You go down there
and tell the judge, well, I just ain't got no money. We had a guy used to come out
and subcontract from us, and he always wanted cash. And the
reason he wanted cash was because he owed alimony. And if his wife
knew that he got money, she'd have to have a part of it. Well,
the judge knew what he was doing. And the judge called him in.
And he told him, he said, if I see you again, I won't see
you again. He said, you understand what
I'm saying? Now, you owe x many thousand dollars. And you be
in here Monday with the money. This was on like a Tuesday the
week before. You being here, we said, where
am I gonna get it? He said, I don't care where you
get it. Well, I ain't got no money. It don't matter. You better
have the money here Monday morning or you're going to jail. Being a bankrupt beggar does
not exonerate us from our debt. You made the debt. You owe the
debt. And you're responsible for the
debt. And oh, what a heart-wrenching thought that even eternal suffering
can never bring about satisfaction of your debt with God. You think
on that. Not even eternity, suffering,
whatever that suffering is, not an eternity of it will even,
you won't even be that far up the list of your debt. Now let me show you something
about this debt that we owe to God. In Acts 7, 53, Paul tells
us that the Jewish fathers received the law by disposition of angels. That is, by delegated authority. These angels read the word of
God. And then in Hebrews 2, 2, He
tells us that if the word spoken by angels, now he's still talking
about the law. If the word spoken by angels
was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, how shall you escape if you neglect so
great salvation? He thought, when he ran away
from Philemon, that he could hide. And he might have got along
OK for a little while. It doesn't say how long he was
gone. He might have got along OK. He
might have thought, boy, this is the best thing I ever did.
Best thing I ever did. Nobody knows who I am. Here I
am. I have no debt. I can start all
over. I heard a story one time about
a pastor, he moved into a small city up in farm country. I don't know, he might have been
in Kansas or Iowa or somewhere. And he was a very influential
man. This farm had been in their family for generations, and they
were very well-to-do. I mean, he was one of the key
figures in that little town. And there was only one church
there, and it was set outside of town. And his family probably
donated the land that the church was built on, and they had strong
ties in there. And anyway, they got a new pastor,
and he come in. And this guy was used to running
things, and the pastor just eliminated that. And he started telling them how
things were gonna be, and this guy, you know, he come up and
tried to bud in and do this and do that, and the pastor wouldn't
let him. And then, having his feelings hurt a little bit, he
sat there, and then the preacher started preaching to him, and
man, what the preacher was saying, oh, he didn't like that either.
He didn't like that a little bit. Finally, he just got mad. He said, I don't mean anything
to this church anymore. He just got mad and stomped out
the door and away he went. And the longer he sat at home
and thought about it, the madder he got. He said, I know what
I'm going to do. I own all the ground around that
church. I'm going to take my tractor down there every Wednesday
and every Sunday. And while they're trying to worship,
I'm gonna plow that field and dish that field and do all that
I gotta do with my tractors all the way around that church the
whole time they're there. And that's what he did. All spring,
all summer. Finally come fall. One Sunday
they'd met there to worship. And sure enough, old guy's out
there on his tractors. And he's harvesting. at a bumper
crop. He's harvesting wagon after wagon
after wagon full of corn and wheat and all these things and
he gets it all loaded up and he's watching his watch and it's
just about time for church to be out so he rolls those tractors
right up in front of the church. He's in the lead tractor and
he's sitting there, he's waiting on church to dismiss and worship's over and Everybody
comes out the door and finally the pastor comes out and he said,
hey. Everybody got quiet. He said,
I want to know something. He said, You're telling me God's
sovereign and God won't do this and God won't do that and we
ain't got no say about this and that. He said, I've sat out here
and defiled every service that you've had. I've interrupted,
I've done everything I can do to disrupt what's going on in
this church. And he said, if you'll look,
he said, I've got a bumper crop. He said, how do you explain what
I've done and what I have in the light of what you've been
saying. And boy, you could hear a pin drop out in that yard.
Every eye turned back, passing on that pastor. And the pastor
said, after some silence, he said, God doesn't settle his
accounts in October. You ain't getting away with nothing.
But on that's what we thought he was, see. He thought he was. He thought he could run away
from this dead. I can hide from this dead. I can go here, start
over, change my name. I can do this. I can have a fresh
start. You can't hide from God. You can't hide from God. You can run all you want to,
and you can run until you false refuges and you can run into
the world and its pleasures and you can run into false religion
but you can't hide from God and you can't outrun God. I see in this epistle of God
a runaway rebel and then secondly I see in these divine writings
God's amazing grace. God had engaged his amazing grace
to save this runaway rebel before he was ever created. Before he
ever existed, God had made provision for him. He's no different from any other.
His actions were but mirrored by many that went before him.
This wasn't the first man ever ran away from his debt. But God
had sent an angel God had set an eternal eye on him. God had his eye on him. That's
what he says about his people. They're the apple of his eye.
You know how, buddy, I'll tell you, I just had eye surgery.
I don't even like thinking about something touching my eyes. Especially
now. We're the apple of his eye. He's
got his eye on you, Winston. Always have. Always have. He'd been looking on you from
all eternity. God had set an eternal eye upon
Onesimus and his sovereign grace was laying out the path. What are you talking about, preacher?
I'm talking about provision made for us in Christ. John said,
and of his fullness have we all received in grace for grace.
Grace has been paving the path for your salvation from all eternity. It doesn't start the day you
come into church. It doesn't start the day you're
here. It started way back yonder. That grace is what brought Christ
into this world. Grace and truth came by Him. He came here to live and die
for us. to be raised from the dead for
our justification, to ascend into heaven and be crowned and
sit at the right hand of God. That's our surety. That's the
surety of the everlasting covenant of grace. And he lives. He lives. Prevenient grace. God's wondrous
providence had arranged before that his apostle be held captive
in Rome. Here's Paul, he's way over here
preaching somewhere. Anywhere near Rome. It took him
years to get from where he was to Rome. They were shipwrecked,
I don't know what all happened to him before he finally got
there. God had arranged for his apostle
to go to Rome under false charges and suffer this indignity and
found himself there in his own hired house, and now Paul's beginning
to see some light in his captivity, beginning to see that God had
did this, that he might, he'd been able to minister to royalty. He would have never had that
opportunity had he not been a prisoner. He would have been talking to
those kings and governors. So God had arranged these things.
He arranged for his apostle to be held captive in Rome. And
were it not for these circumstances, no telling where Paul might have
been. But God fixed his providence so that Paul was in Rome. And
I think about this. Had Paul been kept in prison,
he couldn't have had any visitors. Nobody could visit him. Nobody
could come to him. He wouldn't be preaching. He'd
be chained and sitting on a bench in a dungeon. Been no ministry. But Acts 28 30 said he dealt
two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came
unto him. Think about that. That's God's
providence. God's amazing grace paved the
way for this runaway slave to hear the gospel. He don't know
it yet. He's still running. But to hear, he has to go to
Rome. Now, he didn't go to Rome to hear Paul. He didn't sit there
and say, well, God's providence has put Paul in Rome. I'll go
down there and see Paul. No, no, I ain't going with you.
He was running away. He was running away. He didn't
go to Rome hoping to hear. He was hoping to escape. He was going the opposite direction,
he thought. But all his running did was to
run him to Rome where he heard the gospel of Christ. Also, Paul said this in Ephesians
1, he said, in Christ also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. Grace had ordained
the means, and grace had arranged the providence, and grace had
prepared both Paul and Onesimus to find one another. That's God's
amazing grace. Onesimus was a runaway rebel,
but he belonged to the Lord. I was a runaway rebel, but I
belonged to the Lord. God has a people out there, a
people out of every nation and kindred and tribe and people
under heaven. They belong to him. God chose
them in him, put them in him, made full provision for them
in him. And grace was gonna bring it
to pass. That prodigal ran and ran and ran until he finally
found himself running right into the arms of his loving father. And then thirdly, I see in these
inspired verses the effectual calling of God. Paul said, he's
my own son, I've begotten him in my bonds. Now I want you to think about
something. If like the verses say, that
the church, the Colossian church met in Philemon's home, Then Onesimus had heard Epaphras
preach, who was the pastor there, he heard him preach many times.
He may have even heard Paul preach. But he'd heard many men preach
the gospel. That's where they met for worship. He lived in a godly home. Philemon
was a saved man, and I have no doubt that his house operated
under gospel principles, godly principles. prayer and teaching
of the word, reading the word, honesty in all things. And in
fact, this may be what caused Onesimus to leave to start with.
The carnal mind is enmity against God. It don't like godly things. It just don't. It'll tolerate
it for so long and like a... Henry used to liken it unto a
something that was sealed and set on fire. Pretty soon it's
gonna explode. It's gonna explode. Natural man, he hates the gospel.
He despises God's rule over him. And I have no doubt that Onesimus
heard the gospel preached and either by Paul or Epaphras or
one of the preachers there. But it wasn't his time yet. Wasn't
his time yet, or I should say God's time for him. Paul said
this. He's talking about his own conversion. And Paul said, wouldn't it please
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace to reveal His Son in me? Wouldn't it please God? God has a time set and a means
ordained and a man called out for every believer. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3,
he said, who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers
by whom you believed, even as God hath appointed for every
man. You believe that? Oh, I do. I do. He's got a minister. and
that minister is going to minister to his elect, and it's not just
a free-for-all, they're already appointed. He's got a set time and the means
ordained to call out his elect. And until that time, even the
gospel comes in word only. And when Paul addressed the Thessalonians
Here's what he told them. He said, I know your election
of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only. It may
have come before in word only, but it didn't this time. It came
in power and in the Holy Ghost, and you become followers of us
and the Lord. Onesimus had no doubt heard the
gospel preached many times and may have even seen folks saved
and baptized, but it had no effect on him. And one day the Holy
Ghost came with a message of Paul upon Onesimus, and He called
him out of death to life, called him out of darkness into light,
called him out of rebellion unto obedience. God called him, and
He called him with an irresistible call. And for this cause, Paul
said, thank we God without ceasing, because when you receive the
word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. You know,
I preach a message and my sister, some of my brothers have told
me, well, that's your opinion. And that may have been what Thessalonians
said many times, but this time they didn't say that. Paul said, you received the word
of God which you heard of us, and you received it not as the
word of men, not as men's opinion, but as it is in truth the word
of God. And then fourthly, I see in this
godly letter a ministry of reconciliation. In 2 Corinthians 5.18, Paul said,
and all things are of God who hath reconciled us unto himself
by Jesus Christ. Past tense. Reconciliation is
a work already accomplished, already done. This is the work
our Lord was addressing when he hung on that cross and he
said, it's finished. What's finished? This work of
reconciliation, this work of redemption. It's finished. The
righteousness of God for chosen sinners have been wrought out
and the justice of God satisfied in full. Colossians 1.20 says,
and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him
to reconcile all things to himself, by him I say whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. Everything reconciled,
everything. Then Paul continues in 2 Corinthians
5.18 telling us that the God who reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ has also given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, here it is, God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. And our whole lives now revolve
around this great transaction. We were justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And believers
don't look back to some experience in their path for hope, they
look back on the experience of Christ on the cross. That's the
only experience that makes any difference, what he experienced
on that cross. God saw the travail of his soul
and he was satisfied. Satisfied with what? Satisfied
with him and everything that's in him. He's satisfied. That's the ministry. That's what
we're to preach. They look back on experience
of Christ crucified and seeing the sufficiency of his person
and work, they find assurance before God. Actually, when we preach, we're
hoping to reconcile sinners to his reconciliation. That's what
we're trying to do. And then lastly, I want you to
see the effect of this reconciliation in our love and care for those
that God has reconciled. In Philemon verse six, Paul talks
about the communication of thy faith being effectual. How can I communicate my faith? to men and women out there in
an official way, where it's not just a waste of time. How can
I do that? How can I do that? Well, he tells
us here in verse six, by the acknowledging of every good thing
which is in you in Christ Jesus. Oh, what's in the believer that's
in Christ Jesus? What's he talking about? Full
and eternal provision. Huh? That's what's in me that's in
Him. Full and eternal provision. A
race of beings created to minister and watch over me and you. A favorable providence providing
us with the means to live our everyday life and means to have
eternal life and live forever. He keeps me here. Give us this
day our daily bread. That's how he said we are to
pray. Where does it come from? It comes from him. Oh, I'm a
self-made man. You don't wanna go there. You
don't have anything. What have you gotten that you
haven't received? Oh, my soul. What does a sinner have that's
in Christ Jesus? He's got a favorable providence,
he's got an intercessor that ever liveth to make intercession
for him. If we sin, Paul said, we know
we have an advocate with the Father. Somebody said that ought
to read like this, when we sin, or we're gonna sin. But we have
an advocate. I have the will of God. That old leper fell down before
the Lord, and he said, if you will, you can make me humble.
He said, I will. I will. Believers have the will
of God. Christ said, and this is the
will of him that sent me that everyone that seeth the Son and
believeth on him may have everlasting life. That's the will of God. Unbelievers always pray trying
to change God's mind. They always pray trying to change
God's mind. You know how believers pray? Not my will, but thy will
be done. We have the will of God. And
we know it's for our good and his glory. Look here at the language. Now
Paul's, I know he's trying to reconcile this young man who's
done wrong and his whole life is just destroyed. It's just
destroyed. But he's a true convert. He heard
the gospel. He heard the gospel. And he was
converted. And Paul calls him, he's my own
bowels. This is my own son. I've begotten
him. And then when he writes to Philemon,
listen to this reconciliation that Paul had experienced in
his life and preached to others. Watch this reconciliation. Watch
these words come out of him. And see if what I just told you
this morning ain't so. Look at the language he uses.
He writes to Philemon about receiving Onesimus, verse nine, for love's
sake, he said, I beseech thee. I love you, you love me. And
we're loved of God. And for love's sake, he said,
I beseech you. He appeals to the work God did
in him to his willingness to receive
him. Let me have joy of thee in the
Lord. Refresh my bowels in the Lord. Having confidence in thy obedience,
I'm writing to you. Verse 18. Listen to this. If he hath wronged thee, or owe
a fiat, put it on my bill. Wow. Ain't that what Christ said? If you come for me, that's what
he told that band of thugs, he said, if you come for me, you
let these go. Verse 17, if thou count me therefore
a partner, receive him as myself. Don't that sound like our intercessor?
Our savior, our lord? I see nothing but reconciliation
all the way through this letter. All the way through this letter. I hope this will be a help to
you. As much as it's been a help to me.