A Letter to a Believer

Q: What does the Bible say about the Book of Philemon?

The Book of Philemon is a personal letter from Paul that emphasizes forgiveness, love, and reconciliation among believers. The Book of Philemon is often neglected in the canon of Scripture, primarily read for personal devotion or doctrinal study. However, it carries profound theological implications centered on forgiveness and the transformative power of the gospel. It's a letter written by Paul while imprisoned, addressed to Philemon, a master of a runaway slave named Onesimus, who has been converted under Paul's ministry. This letter not only highlights the individual relationship between Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus but also reveals how the gospel advocates for reconciling relationships among believers. Paul urges Philemon to receive Onesimus not merely as a slave, but as a beloved brother in Christ, signifying the new identity believers have in the body of Christ.

Q: How do we know the message of Philemon is important for Christians?

The message of Philemon teaches Christians about the necessity of accepting one another in love and forgiveness, reflecting Christ's love. The importance of the message in the Book of Philemon for Christians lies in its foundational teaching on love, acceptance, and forgiveness within the body of Christ. Paul advocates for Philemon to receive Onesimus, a former runaway slave, not as a servant, but as a beloved brother, showcasing the profound change that occurs through faith in Christ. This call to acceptance and love underscores the essence of the gospel, where all believers are united, irrespective of their past. Paul’s request for Philemon to forgive Onesimus exemplifies the spirit of the gospel that calls us to act out of love rather than obligation. Such teaching ensures that the faith we profess is lived out practically in our relationships with one another, thereby bringing joy and refreshment to fellow believers, as Paul hopes for in his relationship with Philemon.

Q: Why is grace important for Christians?

Grace is essential for Christians because it is the unmerited favor of God that grants us salvation and sustains our faith. Grace is a core tenet of the Christian faith, representing God's unmerited favor towards sinful humanity. In Paul's greeting to Philemon, he speaks of grace as the source of peace that only comes from God the Father through Jesus Christ. This concept of grace is crucial because it signifies that our relationship with God does not depend on our merit or works, but solely on His sovereign decision to love and redeem us through Christ. As believers, we acknowledge that all good things we possess, including our faith and abilities to act righteously, are gifts from God, given by His grace. This understanding fosters humility, dependence, and gratitude, as we recognize that we are accepted and beloved not because of what we do, but solely because of God's grace in Christ.

Q: What does the Apostle Paul teach about love in Philemon?

Paul teaches that love is the foundation of Christian relationships and should motivate our actions towards others. In the Book of Philemon, Paul emphasizes that love is the driving force behind our interactions as Christians. He acknowledges Philemon's love and faith both towards the Lord and other believers, illustrating that genuine love for others originates from one's love for Christ. Paul encourages Philemon to not only forgive Onesimus but to do so out of love rather than obligation. This highlights the transformative nature of divine love, which urges us to act not just in obedience, but in a manner that reflects Christ's compassion. The love that Paul speaks of is not merely a feeling, but an active commitment to the well-being of others, demonstrating that true Christian love leads to acts of kindness, acceptance, and reconciliation.

Philemon is not a book that you
read for devotions like you read the book of Psalms. When I turn
to have time to read and just for my own joy and pleasure,
I don't turn to Philemon. I turn to Psalms or one of those
books. And then it's not a book that
you read for doctrinal study like Ephesians, Hebrews. If I
were going to teach a class here during the next week on Bible
doctrine, I probably wouldn't turn to the Book of Philemon.
Never have, you know, for this type of thing. And then, as Doug
prayed, if someone came after the service and wanted instructions,
someone seeking the Lord, I doubt that I would turn to the Book
of Philemon. There would be no reason not to. I'd turn to the
book of Romans or the book of John to instruct them in faith
and these things. So it's really a neglected book.
I'm not going to ask for a show of hands of how many have heard
a sermon on the book of Philemon, but you'll hear one tonight.
I call it a letter to a believer. A letter to a believer. Now,
just hold the book of Philemon there open for a moment and listen
to me. When this book was written, this
epistle, this letter is what it is, he was a prisoner in Rome,
but he had an unusual, unusual situation. And you'll have to
take my word for these things now. We're not going to turn
to all these dozens of references, but Paul was a prisoner in his
own hired house. there in Rome, and it seems to
me, and I think I can show you this, that he had several prominent
brethren with him. Or to be in jail for a little
while with these fellows, I want you to listen. Look at verse
23. There salute thee, Epaphus, verse 23, my fellow prisoner
in Christ Jesus, Mark, Marcus is John Mark, that's Barnabas'
nephew. Aristarchus was with him. Demas was with him. This was
before Demas left him. And Luke, Lucas is Luke. Now,
Paul was in this hired house of prisoner, but these men were
with him. They were his fellow prisoners.
Now, this letter was written about the same time the letter
to the Colossians, because Philemon was a member of the church at
Colossae. Now turn to Colossians for a
moment. Let me show you these men again. Paul wrote Colossians
4. Paul wrote these letters about
the same time. And he mentions in Colossians
4, verse 9, he mentions Onesimus. Onesimus They've been there a
while, studying, learning under Paul. Verse 9, with Onesimus,
a faithful and beloved brother, who's one of you. He's from Colossae. They shall make known unto you
all things which are done here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner,
salutes you. Mark, sister's son to Barnabas,
touching whom you receive commandments. If he can't come unto you, receive
him. Luke, the beloved physician,
and Demas greet you. Here Paul is in prison, and he's
surrounded with these faithful brethren, beloved brethren, Mark,
Aristarchus, Luke, Demas. And Paul was allowed to preach
during this time. He was allowed to receive people
who came to hear him or to visit him. He was allowed to preach
the gospel, teach people, and I sort of, in my own mind, visualized
this scene. Paul is in his hired house, and
maybe he sits on the porch, and people sit out in the yard, or
perhaps he had a big enough room that people crowded into the
room, but Paul preached. And these men preached with him.
They were encouraging him and ministering to him. And evidently
one day when Paul was preaching the gospel, a young man was there
for the first time, and maybe he came back the second time.
But nevertheless, I think Paul either noticed him or recognized
him. And he was hearing the gospel,
and he was receiving the gospel, he was rejoicing in the gospel.
And so I believe Paul might have asked him, who are you? Who are
you? I've seen you before, somewhere. Tell me who you are. And the
young man replied, I am Onesimus. I am a servant, I am a slave
of your friend Philemon down in Colossae. That's where you've
seen me. When you came to the home of
Philemon, And when you preached in Colossae, I was a servant,
not a believer. I was a slave to Philemon. Now,
Philemon was a dear, evidently a very prosperous man who had
a great household who had many servants. Onesimus was one of
these slaves, one of these servants. And he lived in Colossae. He
was a dear friend to Paul, faithful brother. And he was converted
under Paul's preaching. Philemon was converted under
Paul's preaching, because here in verse 19, Paul said, I, Paul,
have written this with my own hand. I will repay. If Onesimus
stolen anything from you and owes you anything, I'll pay you
back. Albeit, however, I do not say to thee how you owe unto
me your life, your own self. So that's evident. Paul said
to Philemon, now, if Onesimus has done you wrong, and owes
you something, you charge it to me and I'll pay it. But I
want to remind you, if it hadn't been for me, you'd be on the
dunghill, because you heard the gospel, so you owe me your life.
I want to remind you of that, but we'll see this in just a
moment. So evidently Philemon was converted
unto Paul's preaching, and evidently Philemon had a church meeting
in his home. They didn't have facilities like
we have, I'm sure, these large buildings and accommodations
and so forth. Verse 2 tells me that. Verse 2 of Philemon says, And
to our beloved Appiah and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the
church in your house. So evidently Philemon had a church
meeting in his own home. So here this boy sits here, this
young man sits here, and Paul said, Now, you're Onesimus. And you are a slave of Philemon,
my friend in Colossae. What are you doing here? What
are you doing in Rome? And he would reply, well, I am
a rebellious servant. I am a runaway slave. I stole from my master. The reason
I think he stole some things is because, verse 18, Paul said,
if he owes you, how could a slave owe him anything? Only one way. when he left the place. That's
the only way he could owe his master anything. So he said,
I stole from my master and I ran away from home. And I came here
to Rome. But the Lord in his good providence
brought me here to hear you preach. And the Lord has saved me. The
Lord has saved me. I know that the Lord saved him
because Paul keeps talking about him now being He was unprofitable. You see here in verse 11, in
times past, Onesimus was to thee unprofitable, and there is nothing
more unprofitable than a rebellious servant, agitating and unprofitable
and troublesome. He was unprofitable to you, but
now profitable to thee and to me. And then he said in verse
13, I would have kept him here. I wouldn't let him come back
to you. That's my first inclination. I would have kept him here. That
in your stead, you're not here, he is. You're down there in Colossae
and he's here. And I would have kept him here
that he might minister to me, help me, assist me in the bonds
of the gospel. So he was in the bonds of the
gospel. This young man knew God. Paul talks about him in the bonds
of the gospel, a beloved brother. would have kept him as an assistant.
But he said to Onesimus, well, you've got to go back. You can't
stay under these circumstances. That's what Paul said in verse
14. Without your mind, I'm not going
to keep him here. Without your mind. So we're going
to send him back. He said, Onesimus, I've got to send you back. But
he said, you stay here a while and sit here and learn the gospel.
How important that is. This young man didn't become
a minister to Paul and an assistant and a helper and all these things
overnight. Would you think, Bob? I just know he didn't. Not overnight. He was there for a while. He
sat at the feet of the Apostle Paul. He stayed there because
in that letter to the Colossae Church, Paul spoke highly of
this young man. When he ranks him with Mark,
and Aristarchus and the rest of them, this young man made
some progress in the gospel. He's grown. Now here's the picture
before we go into these. Here's a runaway slave, a runaway,
a rebellious servant called Onesimus who's become a believer. And
Paul sent him back home. That was a tough trip back home.
But he didn't send him with nothing in his hand. He sent him back
to his master, clutching in his hand a letter from the dearest
person in the world to Philemon, Paul. He had a letter from Paul,
written with his own hand. That's something. Paul didn't dictate this one.
Look at verse 19. He said, I, Paul, have written
it with my own hand. You've got my signature on this.
So he comes here with a letter in his hand from the Apostle
Paul urging Philemon to receive him. Look at verse 15. For perhaps he therefore departed
for a season that you should receive him forever, not now
as a servant. I want you to receive him above
a servant, a brother beloved especially to me. But how much
more to you? both in the flesh and in the
Lord. Now then, the significant thing,
as John was reading this, I believe many of you noticed this, I'm
sure that you did, especially the elders and preachers and
the congregation. And John prayed for me, he said,
let us enable our pastor to preach Christ. I'm not preaching Philemon
tonight, I'm not preaching Palwa, I'm not preaching Onesimus. in
preaching Christ. And the significant thing about
this short letter, 25 verses, is that the Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul is writing here, putting a letter in the hand of a runaway
slave who has been saved, to his master, to petition him to
receive him as a brother, and Paul mentions the name of our
Lord 11 times. 11 times in 25 years. You see, all
that Paul knew, he said, I'm determined to know nothing but
Christ. Nothing but Christ. All that
Paul knew, all that Paul did, all that Paul, all for which
he hoped, and all that Paul requested of anybody else was based on
our relationship with Christ. That was his heartbeat, was Christ.
It was because of Christ. It was in Christ. It was by the
glory of Christ. And I want you to notice this.
I'll try to briefly bring out seven or eight things here, but
number one is verse one. He says, Paul, he's the author,
writing this letter to Philemon, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now, I've dealt with this many
times, and I'm not going to enlarge upon it much tonight, but simply
to say this. Whatever suffering and whatever
difficulty Paul encountered, whatever trial and trouble came
upon him, he always looked upon it as being the will of his master. I wish we could cultivate that
spirit and that attitude. He wrote this, he said, I have
learned, and I'm glad he said he didn't know it already, he
learned it. in whatsoever state I am to be
content. How can you be content in whatsoever
state? How can you be content in times
of difficulty and pressure and failure and all these things,
imprisonment? You can be content if you have
one thing uppermost in your mind. I'm here. I'm here according
to the purpose of my Father, according to the will of my God,
and somehow He's going to use this for his glory and my good.
That's how you can do it. That's the only way. Bishop Rutherford. You know, someone said this,
Nero, the emperor, compared Paul outwardly, but Paul inwardly
knew that he was where his master intended him to be, right there. That'll keep us from trying to
live in the future. And it will keep us from trying
to always straighten out the past, if we know where we are
by the grace of God. Bishop Rutherford was in prison
in Aberdeen for preaching the gospel. And every time he wrote
to a friend from the prison in Aberdeen, he would date his letters
this way, from the Lord's palace in Aberdeen. Isn't that something? That's the way he dated from
the Lord's palace in Aberdeen. If we wrote anybody from a trying
place, we'd say it's so hot here and dark here and damp here and
depressing here and troublesome here. No, he said I'm writing
from the Lord's palace here in Aberdeen. And he wrote to one
friend and he said the Lord's with me here in Aberdeen. I cannot what man shall do to
me. And no pen or words can express
to you the present grace of my Lord here in Aberdeen. Alright, look at the next, in
verse 3. Paul says to Philemon, grace
to you, grace to you and peace to you from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. If there's any grace for sinners,
if there's any goodness for sinners, if there's any peace in this
world or the world to come for a sinner, it'll be from the Father
through Christ. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath life. He that believeth not the Son
of God need not talk about grace, mercy, or peace. He need not
talk about hope or life because the wrath of God abideth on him. Grace, Philemon, grace, no matter
who you are, you're my friend, and you got a church in your
home, and you've been a strong supporter and all this, but I
want you to know this, any grace or mercy or peace that's to you
has got to come from the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
way it has to be and it will be. You see, we were, like Doug
prayed, we were chosen in him. We were redeemed in him. We were
loved in him. We were accepted in him. We are
blessed in him. God bless God who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Now that's where it
is, and that's, he makes that very clear and very distinctive.
Grace to you and peace not reward, not wages, grace to you. And now notice verse 5. I hear,
I have heard, I'm hearing of your love and faith. I'm hearing of your love and
faith. I'm hearing good things about you, Philemon. Paul wasn't
there a long time, I don't suppose, He said, I'm hearing some things
of you. I'm hearing of your faith, your love and faith, which you
have toward the Lord Jesus, and which you have toward all saints. I'm hearing about this. You know,
where one finds true love for others, he says, this man Philemon,
he said, you love the saints. You love God's people. But I'll
tell you this, where you find true love for others, you'll
first find love for Christ. And where you don't find love
for others, I don't care how doctrinal a man is, how accurate
he is, how zealous or how moral he is, the only true love that
any person has for another believer is because of the love of God
shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. Now that's just so. Let's look at 1 John 4 a moment. And my friends, I'm telling you
this. This is one thing, I've said
this over and over, I covet faith. I covet faith. I covet, secondly,
love. I covet, secondly, love. Faith
and love. The ability to pray, all of these
things. But I covet those two things.
Now about it. hope and love, but the greatest
of these is love. And I say that a person can have
religion, he can have morality, he can have zeal, he can have
doctrinal accuracy, she, he, whomever, but I tell you they
can't have that genuine, sincere love of Christ for other people
unless they love him first. That's where it is. And the more
you love him, the more you're able to love others. 1 John 4, listen to this, verse
7. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is not of the flesh, it's not of religion, it's not
of doctrine, it's not of personal zeal and determination, it's
of God. It's the gift of God. Love is
of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God. That's the only way he could
love. Well, you see, everybody loves their husband or wife. That's their husband or wife.
Everybody loves his children. It's his children. He loves himself. You see, you can love your job.
It's your job. You can love your neighbors,
your neighbor. You can love your wife or your
children or your mama or your daddy, but that's not love until
you love somebody else's mama and daddy. That's right. That kind of love is of God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God. God is love. God is love. That's right, and that's what,
here's what Paul said in the Philemon, boy I tell you, wouldn't
it be wonderful if folks were hearing about our love and faith
in Christ and our love, hearing about our love for each other.
Things, people tell me about how much you love folks, how
much you love people. We want them to hear how accurate
we are in our doctrinal position. Verse 6, what's this? He says
something, and that's in Christ. You see, everything, a prisoner
of Christ, grace to you through Christ, I heard about your faith
and love to Christ, and to all the saints. And verse 6, that
the communication of your faith may become effectual. What's
he saying here? That the communication, the exercise
of your faith may become effectual. Well, this verse is connected
with verse 4. Let's go back to verse 4. Paul
says, I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers,
because I've heard about your love and faith which you have
for the Lord Jesus and toward other people, and I pray that
the exercise of your faith may become effectual. I pray this,
that faith and love and exercise and communication of your good
works and kindness to others, God might effectually use it
for his glory. Make it effectual. You see, Paul
didn't just want to preach. He wanted effectual doors to
open where he could preach. He said, pray that effectual
doors may be opened. We don't want to just walk the
treadmill. We don't want to just exercise
in good works. We want them to be effectual.
And that's what Paul is praying. He said, I make mention of you
every day in my prayers. I love you and pray for you.
And I've heard about your love for Christ and your love for
other people, and I pray that the exercise and communication
of your faith and of your kindness and of your good works may become
effectual. And what's this? By the acknowledging
of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Oh, I
tell you, Philemon, don't take credit for any good thing in
you or of you because it's all in Christ. If there's any good
thing in you, it's not there by nature. It's there by grace. Is that what he's saying, Doug?
He's saying, we acknowledge, I acknowledge this, every good
thing which is in you is in Christ Jesus and from Christ Jesus.
And because of Christ Jesus, we can't take any praise or credit
or glory for anything that we are, anything we have, or anything
we do. Sometimes we're tempted to do
that and feel a little good about things, and I guess it's all
right to feel good about feeling good or doing good, just so long
as you don't take credit for it. As long as we remember that
if it were not for His grace, we'd be the greatest rebel. So everything that's good in
you is in Christ. And then look at verse 8. Now,
you know, he told him to, in this letter John read, he told
him to receive Onesimus back. Take him back. Take him back
as a brother. Take him back and love him and
forgive him and give him his work back and all these things.
And then verse 8, Paul says now, I, though I might, wherefore
though I might, be much bold in Christ." And I'll tell you,
Christ gives his servants boldness. He said, and if a man is not
bold in preaching and bold in the teaching of God's Word, then
he must not be God's servant. Because God's servants are bold.
They have a boldness. begin with, they know, like Paul
said, I'm not ashamed. I know whom I have believed.
And I have a gospel that's so plain and clear to me that I
say if an angel from heaven preaches any other gospel, let him be
accursed. I'm bold. God's servants are bold. They're
not compromisers. They're not wishy-washy. They're
bold. They seek not to please men.
And I might be bold in Christ to enjoin you to do that which
is right." He said, I could command you. You know, our Lord told
His disciples in Luke chapter 17, don't turn to it, He told
His disciples, if a brother trespass against you, forgive him. And
then He said to the disciples, if he trespass against thee,
forgive him again. And Peter, I believe, was said
how many times? Seven times? And the Lord said, Seventy times
seven. That's a commandment. That's
a commandment. Paul said, I could. I could,
in Christ, send Onesimus to you and command you to receive him.
But he said, that's not the way I want it. That's not the way
I want it. That's not the way it's going
to be. Verse 9, Yet for love's sake. Dear friend, let's underscore
those three words, for love's sake. For the sake of God's love
for us, love one another as God loved you, as Christ loved you,
forgive one another as Christ forgave you, I say, dear Philemon,
for love's sake. For the sake of God's love for
us, for the sake of our love for Him, for the sake of your
love for me, for the sake of my love for you, for the sake
of the love which we have for others, For love's sake, I'd
rather beseech you. I'm not going to command you. You see, that's what's wrong
with all of this preaching today that puts people under a pressure. I resent it, and I resent it
for you. This thing of passing out pledge
cards and saying, the Bible commands you to tithe. You better do it
or God will take it out the door in a coffin. I hate that kind
of preaching. You do this, you do that, you
be here in the service every Sunday morning, Sunday night,
Wednesday night or else, you know. Don't you hate that kind
of preaching? I like this kind of preaching
for love's sake. That's the only kind that's worth
anything. That's the one primary reason. He said, do it for love's
sake. I rather beseech you being, here's
the fellow talking to you, Paul the aged, and now a prisoner
of Jesus Christ. And I beseech you for my son,
Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. In other words,
here I am in prison. And God let me be his instrument
to preach the gospel to this young fellow and he's come to
the knowledge of Christ and I'm sending him back to you and asking
you to receive him and forgive him and bless him and help him
and don't do it because you have to, do it because you want to. Do it for love's sake. And verse
15. Verse 14, he said, without thy
mind I wouldn't do anything, I wouldn't keep him, but that
thy benefits should not be as it were of necessity. Just don't
be motivated by necessity or duty or responsibility, but willingly. Now verse 15, now this is so
interesting. Perhaps he therefore departed
for a season. The fact of the matter is he
stole some things and ran away. He upset the whole household.
I'm sure you can imagine when they started looking for him.
The next day, Onesimus is gone, and this is missing, and that's
missing, and the other thing's missing, and I'm sure Philemon
must have said, that ungrateful wretch. You know, that's the
way we would react. Here's a servant in our home, and he's cleaned
us out, and he's gone off somewhere, and we don't know where, and
that good-for-nothing, ungrateful wretch. I gave him this and that,
and I'm kind to him, and this is the way he repays me. And
Paul said, now Philemon, Let's get this thing in perspective.
If you're angry, if you're upset by something someone has done
through ill will or hatred or whatever, be comforted by the
fact that maybe God's in this whole thing to bring him to Christ. That's what he's saying perhaps.
He left you, He departed for a season that you should receive
Him forever. If He hadn't stolen those things
and hadn't run away and hadn't mistreated you and abused you,
He may not be coming back with this letter in His hand. It's
hard to see things that way. All we can see is what's happened.
But I tell you, if we're God's servants, if we're God's people,
I mean His people, His sons and children and daughters, And whatever
takes place, all things work together for good. Isn't that
right? Whatever happens, God will make
it for good. I don't care what it is now.
That doesn't say some things and most things are the greater
part of things, but all things. Isn't that good? Onesimus ran
away from Philemon with evil in his heart, with stolen goods,
but God Almighty let him run right into the hands of the Apostle
Paul. If he hadn't have left Philemon, he'd have never been
saved. He'd never been saved. I love
that passage right there. I need to read that over and
over again. Perhaps he therefore departed for a season. And it
was an upsetting season and a troublesome season and nobody but God knew
the outcome that you should receive him forever. Now, look at verse
17. Here is where most people preach this message, and I'm
going to dwell on it just a few seconds. If you count me there
for a partner, a brother, receive him as you would receive me. Receive him as you would receive
me. That's a tall order, isn't it? But that's Paul's request. And here's his next request.
If he's wronged you or owes you anything, you charge it to me.
That's the gospel message right there. Because here was a runaway
rebel, and there's some more runaway rebels. Running from
God. And the Lord Jesus Christ interceded. Now Paul's interceding for this
man. He's interceding for Onesimus with his master. And my Lord
Jesus Christ interceded for me with the Heavenly Father. And
he said, he's wronged you. It's not if he's wronged, he
has wronged you. And he owes you a lot. Charge it to me. And
he did. The Father charged it to him.
And he paid it. I'll repay it. And our Lord did
pay it. Alright, quickly, verse 29. Brother,
brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord. Refresh my spirit. The word bows in the scripture
usually means my innermost being. They refer to the deep down. I want you, Philemon, I want
you to give me some joy. I want you to refresh my spirit.
Now here Paul is in jail and there Philemon is down there
in Colossae. How is Philemon going to give
Paul joy and refresh his deepest, innermost being? You know how? By receiving this man, and by
forgiving him, and by doing what a believer ought to do. And I'll
tell you this, there's nothing more encouraging to your brothers
in Christ than to see you walking in compassion, truth, and love.
There's nothing that thrills our hearts quite like that. That's
right. John, in 2 John, kept using these
two words, truth and love, truth and love, truth and love. He
said, my soul rejoices when my children walk in truth, the truth
of the gospel, and in love. It refreshes him. And that's
what Paul is saying, when the Word comes back to me, and it'll
come back, I'll know everything you did, I'll know everything
you said, it'll come back to me. And what a joy! I'd be so
downcast and so blue and so unhappy to know that you reacted contrary. But when I hear that you embraced
Onesimus like the father did the prodigal son and shed tears
of joy over him, I'm just going to leap with joy. Isn't that
what he said? It's going to make me so happy. He's going to be
glorifying to God. Let your light so shine that
men may see your good works and glorify God. It's going to be
honoring to the gospel. You know, we preach the gospel.
Let's put it in effect. Let's adorn it. Let's don't live
in word only, but in deed and truth. Let's don't just talk
about what a man ought to be, what a man ought to do. Do it.
It's glorifying to God. It's honoring to the gospel.
It's an example to others. You will never know perhaps on
this earth, the influence you've been in just the slightest kindness
and the slightest compassion and the slightest consideration,
you'll never know what effect or influence you've had on somebody
else. You'll never know. You'll never know. God knows. You don't have to know now. But
that's just a word, a kindness, a forgiving spirit, a tender
hand, a help, an assistance. You never know. They haven't
forgotten it. And I'll tell you this, works
of faith confirm our faith. James says faith without works
is dead. This thing of doctrine in creed
only is dead. It's that exercise Communication
of faith. That's what he called it in verse
6, the communication of faith. What is communication? It's something
going from one place to the other, isn't it? That's real faith.
And he said, look at verse 21. But I have this confidence in
you. Make me happy now by doing what you ought to do. But he
said in verse 21, I've got this confidence in you and your obedience.
Having confidence and obedience, I wrote to you knowing that you
will also do more than I say." You're going to go the second
mile. I just know that. I know my friend, Philemon. And I'll be greatly disappointed
if this is not true, but I know you're going to do a whole lot
more than just what I say. You're going to do a whole lot
more. Isn't that something? This is characteristic of God's
children. They don't just do what they have to do or what
they must do, they say, what can I do? That's characteristic
of God's people. I'll close with this, verse 23.
There salute thee Epiphas, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus. You see, the name of the Lord
Jesus is all the way through, all the way through. My fellow
prisoner in Christ Jesus. Here are these men, Paul, Mark,
Luke, Aristarchus, and probably Epiphus, were all here in prison. It's like you and Bill and Ken
last week, two weeks ago when they wouldn't let you catch the
plane, the police got after you and all this stuff. But didn't
you have a little fellowship? Weren't you glad they were with
you? What have you been about yourself? And these fellows were
in prison, but they had a fellowship. And I'll tell you, that's what
our Lord was praying about over here in John 17. Turn over there
just a moment. This is a good note to close on. They had a
fellowship. They had a family relationship.
And this is what our Lord prayed about in John 17, verse 20. John 17, 20. Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word, that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art
in me, and I in thee, that they may also may be one. That's a oneness. That the world
may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou
gavest me I have given them, that they may be one as we are
one. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and loved them as thou hast loved me." That
oneness of fellowship makes us fellow prisoners in the Lord,
makes us fellow worshipers in the Lord, makes us fellow preachers
of the gospel, makes us fellow workmen, fellow laborers, fellow
whatever. Fellowship. Somebody asked Brother
Barnard one time, he said, what is fellowship? He said, that's
fellers in the same ship. And they're glad to be there.
I'm glad for you. Glad for you. Glad for this fellowship. Let's protect it by God's grace.
Let's even come closer together. All right, Mike, I don't know
what song you selected. What number? 187.

A Letter to a Believer

What does the Bible say about the Book of Philemon?

How do we know the message of Philemon is important for Christians?

Why is grace important for Christians?

What does the Apostle Paul teach about love in Philemon?

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A Letter to a Believer

What does the Bible say about the Book of Philemon?

How do we know the message of Philemon is important for Christians?

Why is grace important for Christians?

What does the Apostle Paul teach about love in Philemon?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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