Good morning. It's always good
to be with you. And when Lindsay asked me to
come this weekend, I thought, shame on you. You want me to
come home for Mother's Day? Terrible. Well, happy Mother's
Day, if you're a mother. Now that my wife is a mother,
I can appreciate it a little bit more. But I invite your attention
this morning to the book of Philemon. Just before Hebrews, Philemon. And I reckon for the third time
in about four or five weeks, your brethren in Kingsport send
their greetings and love. Philemon. Look with me at verse one. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ,
And Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved
and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Iphiah and Archippus,
our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house, grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The book of Philemon is a letter. It's a letter that Paul wrote
to his dearly beloved brother in Christ, Philemon. And he mentioned a couple others.
He mentioned that Timothy was with him in prison when Paul
wrote this letter. And he mentioned Aphia, who's
believed to be Philemon's wife, and Archippus, who's believed
to be the pastor of the church there in Colossae. And he also
mentioned the church in thy house, the brethren in your house. But
this is a letter from Paul to a particular person. It's to
Philemon. And this letter, it's a, I don't
know if you're familiar with it or not, but it's a special,
special letter. It's a letter of love. It's a
love letter. And it's a letter of forgiveness. And I wouldn't be preaching from
it if it weren't a letter full of the gospel. This letter is
so full of Christ. And it gives me great hope As
a sinner, as a sinner before God, this gives me great hope
and I pray that it will you too. Now Paul wrote this letter while
he was in prison. He was in prison in Rome. Why
was he in prison? It never ceases to amaze me when
I just acknowledge the fact Paul was in prison for preaching the
gospel. You know, I feel like I complained
a lot with the things going on in the world and in our country
and yet we're still able to worship our God freely. I'm not going
to face any backlash from the rulers of the land for standing
before you today. And it wasn't always that way. And here Paul is writing, thinking
of his brethren, thinking of his brother here while he's sitting
there in prison. Amazing. And I love the salutation
he gave. I believe he used this salutation
every time he said grace to you. Grace to you, that's my prayer
for you. Grace to you, peace to you. Where are we gonna have
grace and peace? Well, he tells us, doesn't he?
He tells us in God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse four says,
I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers.
He said, I pray for you. Verse five, hearing of thy love
and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all
saints, that the communication or fellowship of thy faith may
become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is
in you in Christ Jesus, for we have great joy and consolation
in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by
thee, brother." He's writing to his dear brother, and he says,
I thank God for you. I couldn't help but think what
he said in 2 Thessalonians 2. He said, we're bound to give
thanks to God for you, because you're my brother, beloved of
the Lord. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. I thank God for you. He set you
apart through sanctification of the Spirit. He made you holy
through belief of the truth. He said God has called you by
our gospel, the gospel of Christ. He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm
telling you right now, if God has done that for you, I thank
God for you. I mean that. I thank God for
you. I love how Paul spoke so highly
of his brother. He acknowledged his love and
his faith. He said, you have love and faith. I've heard about
it. I keep hearing about it. How much you love and have faith
in Christ, our hope, and all saints. Does that give you any
encouragement that it says all saints? I just can't help but
think about the fact that there are people that spits and spats
come up, don't they? Things happen, even amongst God's
people. We get in arguments, we get in
disputes, we may not be talking to one another, and it's sad.
Honestly, it's sad. Shouldn't be that way. The way
Paul spoke of his brother here, this is honestly the greatest
commendation we could have in this world. For it to be said,
Cody loves Christ and God's people. Oh, that's my prayer for all
of us. That might be said of us. After
all, that is God's commandment, isn't it? To love the Lord our
God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love
our neighbor as ourself. Love the brethren. It's our privilege
to do that by God's grace. Paul said, Philemon, we have
great joy because of you. And I say that because of you,
too. It's such an honor to be here with you. I don't have to
be here speaking for you to give me great joy. It's my joy just
to be in your presence. And that's what being in Christ,
and that's what Christ being in us will do for us. It'll cause
love and faith and hope and great joy to abound amongst us. I look
here at verse 8. He says, wherefore, I've said
all that to say this, 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 in one as Paul the aged,
and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Having just commended
Philemon's love and faith, Paul now tells him, I could enforce,
I could command what I'm about to ask you, When I'm about to
ask you, I could enforce it as God's apostle, because this is
right in the Lord. This is the right thing to do.
But he said, I'm not going to do that. He said, I'm going to
ask you this for love's sake. We'd be wise to do the same.
Paul telling us here, he said, I'm an aged believer. I'm an
old man now. It's believed he was about 60
years old. It's not that old, is it? But he said, I'm not asking this
for love's sake. As an older believer, Paul had experienced
much. He had experienced much love
and grace. And he had learned by experience that that is how
he ought to deal with his brethren. And I pray that God would teach
us to do the same thing. I mean that. To deal with one
another in love. It's the only way to deal with
one another, honestly. He exhorts Philemon here, do
what I'm about to ask of you for love's sake, all right? And that also means for Christ's
sake, right? The love of Christ in us, do this for Christ's sake.
Verse 10 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, profitable to thee and to me." Paul is writing to Philemon
on behalf of this man, Onesimus. Who was Onesimus? He was Philemon's servant. He
belonged to Philemon. Philemon owned him, and he ran
away from him. He fled his master. Paul tells
us he was unprofitable. Often we look up the original
word used here. It's the only time this version
of the word unprofitable is used in the scripture. The only time.
Here's what it means. Inefficient. If somebody's inefficient,
it means they're not efficient. You give them a job, they don't
do it well. They may not do it at all. It means detrimental. Literally, they do more harm
than good. And the last meaning, sums it
all up, useless. Absolutely useless. Onesimus
was a useless, unprofitable, inefficient, detrimental servant
to Philemon. And he ran away. We'll read a
little bit more of what happened, but these 25 verses don't tell
us exactly what he did. But it tells us all we need to
know. He was a sinner. plain and simple. Onesimus was
a sinner, and he represents you and me. As the unprofitable servant,
he represents all mankind. We have left our master. And Paul tells us in Romans 3,
we're all together. Yes, each of us on our own. is
unprofitable, but all together, you put all of us together, what
are we in God's sight? Unprofitable. Zero plus zero
is zero. All together, unprofitable. But
in God's good providence, in the midst of this man's rebellion,
God saved him. He really did. God saved this
man. Paul said, I've begotten Him. I got him. How'd you get him,
Paul? In my barns. Why was he in barns? He was in barns for preaching
the gospel. What do you think he was doing while he was in
prison preaching the gospel? What did God cause to happen
while Paul was in prison preaching the gospel? He allows Onesimus
to flee his master a thousand miles. That's how far it was
from Colossae to Rome. A thousand miles. How did he
get there? I don't know. The Lord directed
his steps, though he went his own way. Where did he wind up?
At the feet of Paul. In the jail cell. Or in his hired
house, wherever Paul was in prison. What happened when he was led
there? God led him to Paul, and Paul led him to Christ. Does
that bless your heart? Well, he was wrong for what he
did. Absolutely he was. You know, I could just see Paul
whenever he saw Philemon again, saying, oh, brother, we know
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are other called according to his purpose, don't we? Oh
my, thank God for his purpose. Thank God for his purpose. Paul
said, this runaway servant of yours, he was in time past unprofitable,
but he said, not anymore, Philemon. He's profitable now to you and
to me. Well, how was he profitable?
He said he's profitable to you. He wasn't even back with him
yet. How was he profitable to him? As his brother, we're profitable
to one another. I mean, we really are. God says
so. And Paul, he's gonna speak very highly of Onesimus, all
right? And as we see that, that's what we are in Christ, profitable,
profitable. And we read it a minute ago,
but he said, every good thing which is in you, did you notice
it said, in Christ Jesus? Paul said, I know in my flesh
there's nothing good. But in Christ there is. Christ
is in us, dwells in us, and he's good. The word profitable there, I
think it was only used three times in the scriptures, that
version, and means useful. He was useless in himself, but
in Christ, he's useful. He was unworthy, he was detrimental,
inefficient, but now he's meat for the master's use. I love
that. Oh, that encourages me so much.
Now, for the majority of this chapter, Paul is going to be
interceding. He's going to be pleading for
this man, Onesimus. And here's what I want us to
see. This is a glorious, beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ
interceding with the Father for us. This is absolutely wonderful. And this comes as a result of
Christ begetting us in His bonds at the cross. When we hear the
gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, doesn't that beget
us? Doesn't that draw us near to
Him? That's what causes us to have
faith in Him, to look to Him, to believe on Him. It's a beautiful
picture. May God bless it to us. Look
with me again at verse 10. He said, I beseech thee for my
son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past
was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to
me, whom I have sent again. Thou therefore receive him, that
is mine own bowels, 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 would I do nothing. that thy benefit should
not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. Paul is urging
him, Philemon, for love's sake, receive him. Receive him back. He pleads for him, did you notice
this, as his own bowels, as his own heart, as the object of his
affection. That's how Christ pleads for
us. He said, they're mine. He's mine. I bought him. He belongs
to me. And I love this. Paul said, I would have kept
him with me. I'd have loved to retained him here with me. He's
ministering unto me. He's a comfort to me. But there
was just one problem. He had to be reconciled to his
master, and so do we. He said, without your mind, without
your judgment, your permission, I'm not going to keep him here
for me. He belongs to you. So I'm sending him back, and
I'm trusting that you're going to receive him. I'm trusting you're going to
forgive him. I'm trusting you're going to
love him like that prodigal son's father welcomed his son back.
He saw him afar off, and he took off running. He said, I'm trusting
that's what you're going to do, Philemon. Notice the last word in verse
14, willingly. He's saying, I trust you're going
to receive Him. I trust you're going to cause
your benefits to abound toward Him. And you're not going to
do it because you need to. He hasn't been any good for you.
He certainly doesn't deserve your goodness. You don't owe
it to Him, but I trust you're going to bestow it to Him willingly,
of your own accord, of your own will. I trust you're going to
be merciful to Him. That's what He's saying here.
That's exactly how God will deal with us. God saves sinners willingly. We play no part in it. We don't
deserve it. We don't desire it. and yet he
willingly, makes us willing to believe on him. He said, I'll
have them and they're gonna have me. We're gonna be one. Verse
15, Paul said, for perhaps he therefore departed for a season. Now look at this, that thou shouldest
receive him forever. Don't you love that? He left
you. He doesn't deserve to come back
to you. He departed. He meant what he did for evil. But oh, Philemon, God meant it
for good. Can't you see God's goodness,
Philemon? Oh, can't you see what he's done?
Receive him. Can you picture our Lord saying
this to the Father? Interceding for us? My soul. Verse 15 again. For perhaps he
therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him
forever, not now as a servant. Don't you receive him as a servant,
but above a servant, a brother. Beloved, specially to me, but
how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord. Filemon. I'm sending him back
to you. Now, don't you receive him as
a servant. Don't you have your whip ready
that I'm going to show him? No. Don't receive him in anger. Receive him in love. He's your brother. He's not your
servant anymore. Physically speaking, yes, but
he's your brother in Christ. Receive him. Receive him. God's chosen him to salvation.
Receive him. It doesn't matter what he's done
to you, Philemon. Receive him. Verse 17, if thou
count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. You receive this man for love's
sake, and you receive him as me. If you count me a partner, if
you count me a companion, a brother, you receive this man exactly
like you would receive me. Now this is beautiful. The only way we're going to be
received by God in that great day is we must be received as
Christ himself. We must be one with Him. And He said we are. I want to
show you a couple verses here. Turn over just a couple pages
to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews 7 verse 25. Hebrews 7.25 says, wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. He became
us. I'm not going to pretend to understand
what all that means, but I know according to God's Word, He became
us, covered Himself in our filth, and we became Him, robed in His
righteousness, made to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Look back just
a couple pages at Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. You know, it's one thing that
Christ, God, that God Almighty, that God was pleased to prepare
a body for the Son of God to dwell in human flesh. That's
one thing. But read what it says right here.
Hebrews 2 verse 16, For verily He took not on Him the nature
of angels, He didn't take on him the nature of angels. It
says, he took on him the seed of Abraham. Verse 17 says, wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. It
pleased him to condescend so low He became like us. Isn't that something? Does that
astonish you, that God would be pleased to do that? Send His
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, to send Him as THE servant? Amazing. Why did He do this?
To reconcile us to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
His people? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, be ye reconciled to God, we
must be reconciled. This wouldn't be such a beautiful
story if Paul just kept, if he just kept Onesimus to himself.
They might have had great fellowship, but do you see how beautiful
it's gonna be when he's reconciled to his master? Do you see the
picture that that represents? Sinners, sinners like you and
me reconciled to holy, almighty God. What a blessing. Back at our text, verse 18. If he hath wronged thee, the
word if there seems kind of pointless. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth
thee aught, if he owes you anything, Paul said, put that on mine account. Follow Him and whatever He's
done to you, whatever He's taken from you, I will answer for Him. That reminds me of somebody saying,
I'll be surety for Him. Yeah, He sinned against you,
but don't go to Him. Don't go to Him for an answer.
Don't go to Him for His sins. You come to Me. I'm going to
be his substitute. You come to me. I'll pay. Praise
God. Praise God. Christ willingly
suffered the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.
He bore all the punishment I deserve, and he's given us eternal life. I don't remember who said it.
It was one of the old preachers, but he was talking about heaven. He said, the only way I'm going
to be there is if I'm there on the right of another. I remember Don talking about that,
and I believe he said something like this. Don Fortner! Don Fortner! Over and over. And then one stands in his place. He said, he's with me. In that day, our only hope is
that we'll be there on the right of another. And his name is Jesus
Christ. Verse 19 again. Verse 19. I, Paul, have written it with
mine own hand. I will repay it. Thought of our
Lord. It says, because he could swear
by no greater. Man, I love just thinking about
that. There is no greater. Because
he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself. That's so certain, isn't it?
It's so comforting. It's finished. As soon as God
purposed our salvation, it was done, and yet he caused it to
come to pass exactly as it was written, as he had it to be written. Every jot, every tittle, it all
must be fulfilled. And in his final moment, he bowed
his head, and he cried, it's finished. It's finished. You don't have to intercede for
me. I don't have to intercede for you. We ought to pray for
one another. Paul said, brother, pray for us, and let's do it.
We ought to. If we love one another, if we
love Christ, we will do this. But there's only one who's intercession. will do something for us, and
that's Christ. Notice, Paul is pleading for Onesimus all by
himself. He said, he's my bows, he's with
me. I'll pay it, don't go to him.
Receive him as me. The intercession of our Lord,
we read he ever lives to make intercession for us. The intercession
of our Lord is effectual, it's effectual. He says, their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. No more. They're all
taken away. Well, here we see the conclusion
of the letter. Verse 19, I, Paul, have written it with mine own
hand. I will repay it. Albeit, I do not say to thee
how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. Fleshly speaking, he's telling
him You know, Father Lehman, don't forget what God's done
for you. Don't forget, God used me to
preach the gospel to you, fleshly speaking, kind of like you owe
me one, right? Oh, but when we're reminded of what God has done
for us, how God's forgiven us, how he
daily forgives us, doesn't that make you want to be forgiving?
Doesn't that make you so willing and ready to forgive your brother
who's trespassed against you, knowing what God has done for
you? Our Lord said, if we can't forgive our brother, then we're
not forgiving. That woman whom He saved, who
just had a heart of love for Him, and just crying to be in
His presence, and washing His feet, And the Pharisees say,
oh, what's she doing? What did he say there about love
and forgiveness? He said, she's been forgiven
much. That's why she's doing this for
me. That's why she's anointing my feet. Because she loves me. She's been forgiven. May God help us. And I mean this
for myself, first and foremost. May God help us to own up to
our wrongs, first against God. but also against one another.
And may God help us to forgive one another, excuse me, to forgive
one another as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. 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, knowing that
thou wilt also do more than I say. He said, Philemon, I know you're
going to receive him. I know you're going to forgive
him. I know you're going to do much more than I'm asking. And it's going to give me great
joy when you do. Oh, brother, I told you, God
saves us. We don't even ask for it. But
after the fact, we do, don't we? And his blessings, his benefits
toward us truly are bountiful. Like the psalmist said, our cup
runneth over, doesn't it? Verse 22, Paul wrote, but withal,
prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers
I shall be given to you. He said, if God's willing, I'm
going to come to you. I long to be with you, brother.
And I thought of Psalm 133, behold how good and how pleasant it
is. for brethren to dwell together in unity. Truly, such a blessing. Already, I can just picture Onesimus
going back, reuniting with Philemon, and then Paul shortly thereafter,
and Timothy coming on with him, sitting around the table together,
supping together. But what a blessing. God's people love to be together.
Verse 23, there salute thee, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner
in Christ Jesus, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers. He said, you send my love to
them. That's what we say, isn't it? I'm sending Gabe and the
brethren's love to you. Lastly, he says, the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Grace to you. He started it that
way. He ends it that way. Grace to you. What a sweet, blessed
book this is. I pray we've seen Christ in it.
Now, in closing, I want to show us something absolutely beautiful. It's blessed my heart when I
first heard it. But under verse 25, there's a little footnote. I've never paid attention to
footnotes before, but I'm going to start. Look what it says here.
It says, written from Rome to Philemon by Onesimus, a servant. Onesimus is the one who wrote
this as Paul was speaking it. I know he was a worthless servant. I know He wronged you. I know
He stole from you. He departed from you, and He
does not deserve you. I know that. Can you just picture
Onesimus writing this? Oh, the guilt. Oh, the shame. You know, the gospel comes to
us. At first, it hurts. I can't stress to you, honestly,
I can't stress to you. I heard Don for years, all my
life, just beating it to my head and one day to my heart. You're
a sinner. You've sinned against God. It's
all you are. You're worthless. You don't deserve
God's grace. You don't deserve his mercy.
You don't deserve to go to heaven. But in Christ, you're worthy. Come in. It's His good pleasure to give
you the kingdom. Look what He's done for you. He went to prepare
a place for you. You're accepted and to be loved.
Come to Christ. Believe on Him. Look to Him.
Trust Him. Rest in Him. There at first, I'm sure our
Miss Miss was, oh, just in tears. Can you imagine the joy he must
have felt when Paul started writing these things he was writing?
When Paul started interceding for him? When Paul said, this
is my son. This is my son. He's profitable
now. He's worth something now. He's
mine on boughs. He's my own flesh, my heart. He's a brother beloved of the
Lord. You receive him just like you
receive me. Whatever he's done to you, forgive
him for my sake, for love's sake. Whatever he owes you, you put
it on my account. I'll pay it. Can you imagine how he must have
felt? Onesimus, penning these words. If we can identify with him,
then we can imagine, can't we? Imagine how humbling and how
comforting this must have been. Why would God be so kind? Why would God be so good to a
sinner like me? For love's sake. Because he loved
us with an everlasting love and therefore with love and kindness
he's drawn us to himself by the gospel, by Christ. for Christ's
sake, for His precious blood that was shed to put away every
sin of all His people forever, and His perfect righteousness
that He established and brought in by Himself and has freely
given to us. I mentioned the prodigal son.
The Father put the best robe on him. He didn't say, here,
put this on. Clean up. We're going to have dinner. He
said, you put the best robe on him. You put a ring on his finger.
You put shoes on his feet. We've prepared a fatty calf for
him. The fatty calf, should I say.
Christ, oh, to grace how great a debtor. Daily I'm constrained to be,
let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart. And
that's what it is. Oh, Lord, bind my heart to you.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. And we do, don't we? Prone
to leave the God we love. But at the end of the day, we
say, Lord, here's my heart. Would you take and seal it, seal
it to your courts above? I want to show you one more thing,
and we'll be done. There's one other time in Scripture
Onesimus is mentioned. It's Colossians chapter 4. Look
there with me. Colossians chapter 4. After this message, I hope for
myself and for you that this is a name we'll remember. Onesimus. When we think of him, may we
think of ourself. May we think of God's goodness for us, and
Paul's intercession for him, what Christ did for us. Colossians
4 verse 7, Paul said, all my state shall
Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful
minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have sent unto
you for the same purpose, that he might know your state and
comfort your hearts with Onesimus. Now look at this. a faithful
and beloved brother who is one of you. You mean to tell me that runaway
servant, that unprofitable servant, that wretched sinner who stole
and lied and cheated and worthless, you mean to tell me he's a faithful
and beloved brother He said, He's one of you. Who's
Paul writing to? He's writing to the saints. That's what it says, Colossians
1. He's writing to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ.
He's one of you. Oh, by God's grace, He's one of you. By the intercession of Christ
alone, by the death and life and resurrection of Christ alone,
He's one of you. Faithful and dearly beloved. Is this not a sweet book? And
I'm telling you, this is just one man. This is one account
of a sinner God saved freely by His grace. This book's full
of it. Absolutely full of it. I thank God for Christ and the
intercession He makes for sinners. I truly mean this. May God be
pleased to do for us what He did for our brother Onesimus.
Amen.