Paul specifically mentions Onesimus
to the church at Colossae. Now what I think is very interesting,
he said he's one of you. All the church at Colossae knew
Onesimus because he was a slave of one of the members there by
the name of Philemon. And he had robbed Philemon and
ran away to Rome. And all they knew about Onesimus
was that he was a thief and a robber and had fled from his master. And yet when Paul writes to the
church, he speaks of Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother,
one of you. Now, from what I can understand,
Philemon and Onesimus were written at the same time. Paul wrote
a letter to the church at Colossae and he wrote a letter to Philemon
regarding this man Onesimus. So when I looked at that passage
of scripture, I thought, I want to preach on the book of Philemon
because Onesimus is the one that Paul is writing concerning in
this book. So would you turn with me to
the book of Philemon? Philemon is the shortest of the
epistles, and it's really unlike any other epistle. And Paul is
writing Philemon on behalf of this runaway slave by the name
of Onesimus. Now, I don't know how he came
into contact with Paul when he was in Rome. I know that he knew
who Paul was because he was a slave of Philemon. And perhaps while
he was in Rome, he'd run out of money and he knew Paul to
be a kind man. And maybe he was going there
to try to get some money off of him to help him. But at any rate,
he came under the influence of his preaching. And the Lord did
something for Onesimus. He'd heard Paul before at Colossae
and it meant nothing to him. But he goes off to Rome. and
he comes into contact with the Apostle Paul and the Lord does
a mighty work of grace in his heart. Now let's read this epistle
of Paul to Philemon. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now he could have said a prisoner
in Rome, but he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. That's the one
reason he was there. Don't you want to be a prisoner
of Jesus Christ? I surely do. And Timothy, our brother unto
Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our
beloved Athia, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the
church in thy house." Now, Philemon, in all likelihood, was a very
wealthy man. We know that he owned slaves, and perhaps he
had a large enough room in his house to accommodate the church
at Colossa. I don't know how big it was.
It might have been 20 or 30 people. It might have been several hundred,
but he had a big room and he spoke of the church in his house,
which was, I believe, the church at Colossa. Athia is a female's
name. In all likelihood, it was his
wife. I'm sure that's who it was. And Archippus, our fellow
soldier, a preacher in that church, to the church in thy house, grace
to you, and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now those words are found in the scripture so often. Paul
used this word grace and peace. Now if I have God's grace, His
free, sovereign, saving grace, his favor toward me. If I have,
if I possess God's grace, you know what that gives me? Peace. If salvation really is all of
grace, I've got peace. Now, if you put a work in there
anywhere, I have no peace. If you put any part of my salvation
dependent upon me, I have no peace. But if it's all of grace,
what peace we experience. He said in verse four, I thank
my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers. You know, it always means so
much to me when someone tells me they're praying for me. Paul
said to Philemon, I thank God for you always calling your name
before the throne of grace. You know, if you love somebody,
you're going to pray for them. And the best thing you can do
for somebody is pray for them. You believe that? That's the
absolute best thing you could do. He 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. Now this is what ought to be
conspicuous in every believer. Love and faith. Love to Christ. He is altogether
lovely. I don't want you to think about
your love to him. I want you to think about his
loveliness. I want you to think about his glorious attributes.
I want you to think about his humility. I want you to think
about his power. I want you to think about his
wisdom. I want you to think about his holiness. I want to think
about him. And you know what we say? He's altogether lovely.
We love him and we have faith in him. We do rely upon Christ. I'm relying upon him as all God
requires of me. I'm relying on him. And he also
speaks of love to the saints and faith toward the saints.
Not the kind of faith you have in Christ, but there's a faith
toward the saints. First, love to the saints. They're God's
saints. They're God's elect. They're God's redeemed. They're
God's regenerated. You can't help but love them
because of who they are. They're God's saints. And you trust them. What do I mean by that? Well,
we don't, it's not talking about putting confidence in the flesh,
I realize that, but you know, we don't got to police God's
people. If they belong to the Lord, Lord will keep them. Lord
will preserve them. We trust the Lord to take care
of them and we trust them to follow the Lord. We don't need
to police them, the Lord's saints. And this is what ought to be
conspicuous in us all, hearing of thy love and faith, which
thou hast for the Lord Jesus and toward all 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. Now, what that means is that
your faith may be communicated in a powerful and an active way
to others. And that good thing or those
good things which there are in thee that come from Christ may
be acknowledged. That people may see your faith,
not only by what you say, but by our conduct. Wouldn't that
be a blessing? If somebody watched how forgiving
you were, having been forgiven, you forgive. How kind you were,
having experienced God's kindness. You're kind to others. How merciful
you are, having experienced God's mercy yourself. You are a merciful
person. How cheerful you are. God's on
the throne. We really believe that God controls
everything and everyone, therefore we're cheerful. You know, it
does make us happy when we remember God's in control. Nothing to
worry about. If someone sees how non-judgmental
we are, you know where a non-judgmental attitude comes from? It comes
from humility. I loved what Gene Rutledge said
to me over and over again. He said, I've got too many sins
of my own to worry about somebody else's. And that's so, isn't
it? A non-judgmental attitude, where
someone never feels threatened or condemned or criticized, bias. The fruit of the Spirit, love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
wouldn't it be a blessing of grace if people saw our faith,
not simply by what we said, although we ought to be saying it, but
by the way we conduct ourselves and by the way we treat other
people. I couldn't help but think of
a statement Donnie Bell made to me when I was staying with
him at the Crossville Conference, and they've got death on their
mind so much, with Mary dying The Lord is pleased to miraculously
preserve her. And he was talking about death.
And he said, when I think about death, he says, I know that Christ
is my only righteousness and I have confidence in him, but
I don't want to die regretting how I've treated people. I don't
want to die regretting how I've treated anybody. I want to have
no regrets. And you know I do too, don't
you? I want to have no regrets as to how I have treated you. May the Lord give me grace. May
the Lord give all of us grace to have this communication of
our faith that is seen in that sense. He says in verse 7, For
we have great joy and consolation, comfort in thy love, because
the vows of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. Now, how he
commended this man, and this man wants to be commended. He
said, the bowels of the saints are refreshed, encouraged by
you, by the way you are. And what a beautiful way that
he spoke of this man, Philemon, but now he gets to the point.
I think it's interesting how he starts off with all these
positives, and that's a good way. We can learn something from
that. But now he gets to the point, he's going to talk about
Philemon. He says in verse 8, Wherefore,
though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which
is convenient, I could with my apostolic authority as an apostle
command you to do this. This is what you have to do.
This is what you're commanded to do. I've got the authority
to do it. But how do you react to stuff like that? I don't think anybody reacts
very well to anything like that. You better do this. I'm commanding
you to do because I said, well, that's just not, that's not a
way to elicit a positive response. And Paul said, I'm not going
to do that. He said, yet for love's sake, verse nine, yet
for love's sake, I rather beseech thee. I'm asking you, I'm not
telling you, and I'm doing this for love's sake. What people will do for love's
sake, they give, they forgive, they cover, they're kind, they're
patient, they're long-suffering for love's sake. I think of what
Paul said to the Ephesians, be kind. tenderhearted, forgiving
one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. He didn't forgive you because
you were sorry. He didn't forgive you because
you asked for forgiveness. He didn't forgive you because
you promised to do better and straighten things up. He forgave
you for one reason. For Christ's sake. Oh, for Christ's
sake. For love's sake. Same thing. He says, yet for love's sake,
I'd rather beseech you, ask you, being such a one now as Paul
the agent. You know, Paul was only 60 years
old when he wrote this letter. That's not that much older than
me. But through his life as an apostle, being beat up everywhere
he went for preaching the gospel, I imagine he looked quite a bit
older. and he calls himself Paul the
Aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech thee
for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. Now, Onesimus, he had already
mentioned him to the church at Colossae and called him a beloved
brother, a faithful man, and they didn't know him to be that
way. All they knew him as was as a runaway slave of one of
the leading members of their church, Philemon. And he robbed
him. And he ran away and went to Rome, where he thought he
wouldn't be found. And I would say he'd heard Paul
preach before, but it meant nothing to him. But somehow he came into
contact with Paul in Rome. I don't know if he went to the
prison purposely. I don't know why he came. I don't know if
he was looking for money, a handout. I don't know if he was just feeling
lonely and wanted to look at a familiar face. But he came
to hear Paul preached and God did something for him. He was
begotten. That's what happens when God
saves somebody. He gives them life. He walked into that room
dead in sins and he was begotten of God. He was given life. He was given a heart. He was
given eyes to see. He was given ears to hear. he
was saved by the grace of God. That's what happens when God
saves somebody. They're begotten, born of God. To as many as received
him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even
to them which believe on his name, which were born. That's
the word. Not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. This man was given a new heart."
Now, he says in verse 11, he says, which in times past was
to thee unprofitable. Now, I'm sure the man didn't
have much of a character. He was a thief. He ran away from
his owner. Now, you think, well, I would
run away if somebody owned me too. Well, in that I understand
that, I wouldn't want to be anybody's slave, but it was still wrong
to run the way he did. And he stole from him because
Paul said, if he's wronged you or taken from you, I'll pay it
back, put it on my account. So Onesimus was not a man of
sterling character. And Philemon had every reason
to be angry with this man. He'd ripped him off and gone
off. Who knows what all he took. He certainly had wronged him.
And Philemon had a reason to be upset with him. which in times,
verse 11, which in times past was to be unprofitable, but now
profitable. God's done something for him
and he's now profitable to thee and to me, verse 12, whom I have
sent again, thou therefore receive him. That is mine own bowels. I'm sending him back to you and
asking you to receive him. And that word means welcome him
with open arms, receive him as one dearly loved by me. Now,
as I said, Vilemon had a good reason to be mad at Onesimus,
but Paul speaks of receiving, welcoming, forgiving, and being
reconciled to Onesimus. Now this is a gospel issue. This
is a gospel issue. We are told to forgive as we
have been forgiven. How have you been forgiven? I want you to think about how
the Lord forgave you. Now that is how we are called
upon to forgive. He will forgive us in the manner
we forgive. He actually said that. We're
told to pray, forgive us as we forgive those who are indebted
to us. How do you forgive? Partially?
Well, if I forgive partially, well, I'm going to have partial
forgiveness. And that kind of forgiveness won't do me any good.
This is a gospel issue. How did he forgive you? He told
Philemon, you welcome him, you receive him, you be reconciled
to him, you forgive him just as if he were me, myself. That's how I want you to receive
him. Now, I tried to put myself in
Philemon's place. I guarantee you Philemon was
good to him. I guarantee you, he was a kind slave owner. He was a believer. He treated
his slaves differently than an unbeliever would treat their
slaves. Perhaps he thought, as well as I've treated him,
this is how he repays me? And yet Paul says to him, receive
him. Receive him. Verse 13. whom I would have retained with
me, that in thy stead he might have ministered to me in the
bonds of the gospel. And this is such an important
verse. But without thy mind would I do nothing. That thy benefit
should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. Now remember doing
something out of necessity. because it's your duty, because
you will feel guilty if you do not do it, is not what God wants. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Thy people shall be volunteers
in the day of thy power. Thy people will be saying, Lord,
here am I. Send me. Not out of necessity,
not because of the guilt or the shame that I'll experience if
I don't do my duty, or all the different reasons we have for,
and I have so much guilt that I operate so much on this principle. I wish I didn't. I wish I didn't. Here's a reminder for me not
to. This is not the way the Lord would have us be. The gifts,
the benevolence, the assistance we render to one another should
not be by compulsion, but voluntary, or it's of no spiritual value
at all. And he says to Philemon, he says,
I want you to receive him because that's what you want to do. Not
because I'm telling you to do it and I'm trying to guilt you
into it, but I want you to do this because you want to do it
willingly. Verse 15, for perhaps he therefore
departed for a season that thou shouldst receive him forever.
Now, the Lord always brings good out of bad. He departed for a
season unwillingly under you. He departed as a thief. He didn't
want to be under your rule. He proved that because he ran
away. He wanted to get away from you. But now he's coming back
willingly. After hearing the gospel, he
now wants to be back with you. Look at the way the Lord has
turned things around. The Lord brings good out of evil. He's doing what he wants to do.
And I love a statement. Bill Clark, the missionary to
France, he was Irish, used to always make, and I've heard him
make this statement many times, and it needs to be understood.
I realize an unbeliever might twist this, but I can't do anything
about it. He said, here's the believer's rule of life. Trust
Christ and do what you want to. I want you to think about that.
Trust Christ and do what you want to. What do you want to
do? I want to be like Him. I want
to follow Him. I want to be a man after God's
own heart. I want to be a pastor after God's
own heart. I want to be a husband after God's own heart. I want
to be a father after God's own heart. I want to be a friend
after God's own heart. I want to follow Him. Trust Christ. and do what you want to. Isn't
that a good, simple rule of life? Trust Christ and do what you
want to. Now, if you want to do something
contrary to that, you know, people do what they want to do. You
know what you do? You do what you want to do. And
if you want to go in another direction, well, you obviously
don't really trust Christ. Trust Christ and do what you
want to do. The Lord always brings good out
of bad. He said, for perhaps he therefore
departed for a season that thou should receive him forever, not
now 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. Beloved to Christ,
beloved to me, and beloved to you. And then he says in verse
17, if thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. Now, that's the gospel. That's the gospel right there.
How does God receive me? As Christ. That's the gospel. God receives me as Christ. As perfect, as holy, as unblameable,
as unreprovable, as faithful, as obedient, as perfect in Christ
Jesus. That's how God receives me. He doesn't hold me off, He receives
me. And He tells Philemon, who had
a legitimate beef against this guy, you receive Him the way
you would receive me. Verse 18, here's another gospel
statement. You receive him as you'd receive
myself. I couldn't help but think when
I was thinking about that, though, about how the prodigal was received. I mean, this guy, he got his
inheritance early. He wasted it all with riotous
living and partying. I mean, the man just made a mess
of things. And can you imagine how his brother
felt when he came back and after wasted all of his father's substance,
wasted everything, and now he comes back. And how was he received?
How did the father receive the prodigal, that man of bad character? Bring forth the best robe. Not put him through some probationary
period and see how he works out. See how sorry he is. See if he's
truly repented enough. No. Bring forth the best robe. The robe of the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. And put it on him. Don't hand
it to him. Put it on him. and bring forth the ring for
his hand, signifying my eternal love that never had a beginning
and will never end. Give shoes for his feet, grace
to walk in the gospel. That's how the prodigal was received.
I want to be received like that, don't you? Every time. In verse 18, In 19, Paul makes
another gospel statement. This is given to typify the gospel.
He says in verse 18, if he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught,
put that on my account. Christ, Jesus the Lord, took
complete responsibility for me. He said to the father, if he
have wronged thee or oweth thee anything, put it on my account. And of course, I thought about
what Judah said to Jacob when he was speaking for Benjamin. He said, I will be surety for
him of mine hand. Shalt thou require him? If I
bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, let me bear
the blame forever. And that's what the Lord said
of me. He said of my hand will you require of him. How he took
complete responsibility. Now look what Paul says in verse
19. Paul says, I, Paul, have written it with my own hand.
I will repay it. Whatever he owes, doesn't matter
what it is, whatever he owes, I will repay it. And I love the way he says, I'll
be it. I don't say to thee how thou owest unto me, even thou
own'st thyself besides. He said, I'll pay it back, but
let me remember how much you owe me. Paul, hard to tell what kind
of beating he had to go through in order for Philemon to hear
the gospel in the first place. What kind of persecution? Now,
he wasn't giving himself the credit. If you've heard the gospel,
it's because Christ saved you. You don't give a man the credit.
But Paul, still, I love the way he says this. He says, I'll pay
everything he owes, but let me remind you. you heard the gospel
through me." And, you know, you seem to almost be an idiot to
have done that, but I don't guess it is, because he's riding under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But he says in verse 20, "'Yea,
brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord. Refresh my bowels
in the Lord.'" And what a refreshing thing, what a joy it would be to me, to see you receive him,
forgive him, and be reconciled to him." And I really think that
this is really what he was mainly talking about when he talked
in verse 6 of the communication of his faith. It's seen in this
receiving of Onesimus. That demonstrates your faith
more than anything else. You're receiving of Onesimus. You're forgiving Onesimus and
you're being reconciled to Onesimus. Seeing the true communication
of your faith. Let me show you something I never
really thought of. Turn to Luke chapter 6. This is what I thought
of when I was thinking about this. Verse 36. Be ye therefore merciful,
as your father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not
be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not
be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto
you. Good measure, pressed down and
shaken together, and running over shall mean given to your
bosom. For with the same measure that you meet with all, it shall
be measured to you again. Now, which came first, God being
merciful to us or us being merciful? You see, God's mercy to me was
not his response to me being merciful. Yet, when the Lord speaks of
this, he speaks of us being merciful. When he says, judge not that
you be not judged. Well, Lord didn't judge us, he
justified us. That came first. He didn't justify
us because we were not judgmental people because we're such judgmental
people. But he does say to us, judge not first, you judge not,
that you be not judged. And then he says, Condemn not, and you shall not
be condemned. Now, does that mean the only
reason we won't be condemned is because we don't condemn other
people? Obviously not. The only reason I'm not condemned
is because Christ died for me. That's it. Yet when our Lord
speaks of this, He says, you don't be a condemning person,
and you will not be condemned. Now notice the order the Lord
gives, and He gives it the way it ought to be given. We know,
okay, forgive. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Now what comes first? Your forgiveness or His forgiveness?
Oh, you know that. When He said, Father, forgive
them, they know not what they do. They were all forgiven. He,
as an act of His own free and sovereign will, forgave them.
His forgiveness is not a reaction to us or a response to us. He
does it because of who He is. And we're forgiven for Christ's
sake, not because we forgive. But notice the way the Lord says
this. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. He says give, and it
will be given to you. Now who gave first? Oh, God gave everything. He gave
His only begotten Son. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. You
know where the Lord says it's more blessed to give than to
receive? The Lord is the more blessed one. He's the giver.
We're the receiver. Isn't that true? He's the giver.
We're the receivers. Yet He says give. and it shall
be given to you. With the basket you bring, it'll
be measured out to you again. Oh, he says to Onesimus, oh,
what joy this will give me. Turn back to Philemon. He says in verse 21, having confidence
in my obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou will
also do more than I say. This was not confidence in the
flesh, but confidence in the power of the grace of God in
a man. You'll go above and beyond what
I say. I have confidence in this. Then
he says in verse 22, But withal, prepare me also a lodging, for
I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. There
salute the Epiphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, Marcus,
Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. And then when he writes to the
Church of Colossa, remember, he was writing these letters
at the same time. And all the Church of Colossa knew of Onesimus
was that he was a thief who'd run away from his master. And
how does he refer to Onesimus? A faithful and beloved brother,
which is one of you. I love the way he presented Onesimus
to the church at Colossa. Now, this is a beautiful story. And it's a beautiful gospel.
Let's pray.