a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now, the apostle, when he wrote
this letter, was a prisoner in Rome. He was kept prisoner in
his own hired house. This is an unusual situation. He was not in a dungeon. He was
not in a cell in a correctional institution or maximum security
penitentiary. Somehow, he was kept prisoner
in a house. He had guards. Evidently, he
had fetters or bonds that kept him within the house. However,
he could receive his friends. They could come and see him.
He couldn't leave, but they could come see him. And people could
come and hear him preach. He conducted a ministry from
his prison, from his house, where he was kept as a prisoner. He calls himself a prisoner of
Christ. He said, it's the Roman government that has secured me
in this place, but I'm not their prisoner. I'm a prisoner of Jesus
Christ. I'm here because of the gospel
I preach. I'm here because this is the will of God for me to
be here. I'm here according to his purpose. This is where he
wants me. He said, on one occasion, I have
learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. And
then John Newton wrote that great old hymn, content with beholding
his face, my all to his pleasure resigned. No changes of season
or place would make any change in my mind. While blessed with
a sense of his love, a palace, a toy, would appear. And prisons
would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. So
Paul looked upon this prison as being the palace of Christ.
He looked upon these fetters or bonds as being the bonds of
Christ. He looked upon this place where
he was kept in prison as being the place where God wanted him
at this particular time. I wish we could learn that, not
be so impatient, not be so anxious to leave where we are, not be
so anxious to go somewhere else or to do something else. If we
could, here Paul is, the man with the great vision, the man
with a great burden for men's souls, the man who had been commissioned
of Christ to be the apostle to the Gentile, a man with great
unusual gifts and learning and abilities and talents, and here
he is in jail, in prison, not allowed to travel, not allowed
to pastor, not allowed to carry on his work of evangelism or
missions. Here he is in prison, and yet
he's content. And yet he's resolved. He said
the word of God's not bound. I'm bound, but his word's not
bound. God can send men to hear me here. God can send his word
out from this place. The Lord doesn't have to have
a cathedral pulpit to preach to his elect. He can preach to
them from a jail cell. He can preach to them from a
hired house. He can preach to them from a steel mill. He can
preach to them from any place. So Paul says, I'm a prisoner
of Jesus Christ. This is where he wants me, and
consequently, this is where I want to be. This is where I want to
be. I'm bound, but the word of God's
not bound. He preached to the guards. He preached to the people
passing by. He preached to those in the house
who did the cooking, the servants. He preached to those who came
to hear him. I can just imagine Paul every day getting a message
from God and delivering it to whomever would listen. And one
day he was preaching and he looked out over the congregation, I
don't know whether he was standing to preach or seated or sitting
on the porch of this little house and people were out in the yard,
that may have been the way it was, but he looked out over the
congregation and he saw a man that he thought he knew. When
he preached the gospel he saw a man He remembered that face
from somewhere. And the man went away, and the
next day he came back again, and he listened. He listened
carefully. He listened so intently to Paul. His eyes were glued on the apostle
while he was preaching. And Paul looked at him. I've
seen him somewhere. And he went away, and he came
back the next day, and he heard Paul. And he lingered after everybody
else had left. And he came down. And he knelt
down in front of the apostle and he said to him, the Lord's
done a work of grace in my heart. I've heard your gospel. I've
been saved. Now I know that because Paul
says down here in verse 10, whom I have begotten in my bonds.
This young man was saved, Cecil, listening to Paul preach. He
listened to Paul preach and he was saved. And this is the only
place he could have listened to Paul preach at this time.
He was saved while Paul was in prison. He was saved while Paul
was in bonds. He was saved while Paul was preaching.
And he came and told Paul that God had saved him. God had redeemed
him. The Lord saves slaves. He saves
drunks. He saves harlots. He saves blasphemers. He saves gamblers. God saves
sinners. That's the only kind of people
he does save. And Paul looked at him. They talked a moment.
And then Paul said to him, I know you from somewhere. I've seen
you somewhere. And that's when the man said,
I am Onesimus. Paul said, that's who you are,
Onesimus. You're Philemon's slave. You're Philemon's rebel is what
you were. I know you. I know the trouble
Philemon had with you. I know how unprofitable you were.
I know how rebellious you are. I know you. Paul, you see, Philemon
was a man who lived in Colossae. He's a man God had blessed. God
had showered his blessings on this man, prospered him. He had
a large household. He had servants and slaves. He
had a church, a congregation of believers that met in his
home. He was a brother to Paul. He was a fellow laborer to Paul.
He was a supporter of Paul. He was a companion of Paul. He was a godly man. He was an
influential man. And this young man here was a
slave. to this man Philemon. Paul had
visited Philemon many times in the past. He preached in his
home many times, and that's where Onesimus first met Paul was down
in Colossae at the home of Philemon. But Onesimus was a rebel. He
was a rebellious, unprofitable servant. He confessed this. I'm
sure Paul already knew it. I'm sure Philemon and Paul had
talked about the household. When Paul was down there in Philemon's
home preaching to the church in his home, I'm sure that Oh,
Paul had asked about this one and that one, the other. Paul
was concerned for all men, not just for the children of the
home or the friends of the home. He was concerned about the servants,
too. And I know finally even many times it said to Paul, Onesimus
is a wild book. I have trouble with him. He's
a rebel. He's an unprofitable servant. See, here in verse 11,
it says, in times past, he was unprofitable to you. How'd Paul
know that? Well, he knew that, Bill. thought he would have told
himself. He wouldn't have brought that
charge against Onesimus had it not been true. In times past,
he's been a rebel. He's been an unprofitable servant.
I know that, Paul said. And he'd been converted here.
And Onesimus said, I despised my master. I stole from him. You see, Paul said, if he'd taken
anything from you, verse 18, if he owes you anything, put
it on my account. Evidently, he ran off with something. No
servant's going, no slave's going to escape and run off unless
you take something to buy some bread with. He's going to steal
some gold or some silver. He's not going off empty-handed.
So when Onesimus ran away from home, from Philemon, he gathered
up some goods, put them in his sack, and ran to Rome. And I'm
sure he told Paul, he said, I came here to Rome, but I've spent
all I have like the prodigal son, and I've been brought low. And I heard that you were here. And God broke my heart down and
showed me what I am. And I heard you were here in
this house preaching. And I've been coming to hear
you again. When you preached at Fr. Lehman's house, I heard
your words, but I didn't hear your message. I heard you speak,
but I didn't hear your gospel. I heard you teach, but I never
heard of Christ. But God has stripped me, and
broken me, and humbled me, and brought me down, and I've heard
the gospel, and God's redeemed me, Paul. God's redeemed me.
I'm a child of the King. Well, Paul said to him, you have
to go back home. You got to go back home. But now you stay here
a while. I know this took place because
you see in verse 13, Paul says, whom I would have retained with
me, that he might minister unto me in the bonds of the gospel."
You see, this Philemon stayed, this Onesimus stayed with Paul
a little while. Paul wouldn't have this man converted
and then send him off. He stayed with Paul, and he evidently
cooked around the house, and he worked around the house, and
he served the apostle Paul, took care of his needs, and Paul taught
him the gospel. Paul taught him more perfectly the word of God.
I'm just sure of this. When I read the Apostle Paul's
dealings with people, he didn't just get a profession of faith
out of fellas and then kiss them goodbye. He taught them the Word
of God more perfectly. He stayed down current for a
year and a half. And when the Philippian jailer came to believe
on Christ, Paul taught his household the Word of God and exhorted
him in the things of God. So Paul kept Onesimus here a
little while. And he studied at the feet of
Paul, he ministered to Paul, he proved himself to be a profitable
child of grace. Because when Paul sent him back,
he said at one time he was unprofitable, but I guarantee you now, he's
profitable. I guarantee you, if I leave him,
he's profitable. All right, Paul said, you gotta go back. Let
me show you something. Turn to the book of Colossians
a minute. I'll show you how profitable he turned out to be. The book
of Colossians, chapter 4. Paul sent him back to Colossae.
He became one of the leaders of the church, such a leader
that he's mentioned in the letter to the Colossians. In Colossians
4 verse 9, Paul said, with Onesimus, you see it? Colossians 4 and
9, with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother. This rebel? Yes, sir. This unprofitable slave? Yes, sir. This thief? Yes, sir. Grace has made him
a faithful beloved brother who is one of you. You see that?
All right, he's got to go home. He's got to go back to Philemon. So Paul writes this letter with
his own hand. He didn't dictate it. It's written
in his own handwriting. It says, Paul, a prisoner of
Jesus Christ to Philemon, and to your wife, and to the pastor,
and to all the church, this letter. He writes the letter, and he
calls Onesimus in one day, and he said, it's time for you to
go back. And Onesimus said, all right, I'll go back. And Paul
said, I want you to take this letter to Philemon. You deliver
it personally to him when you get back. So Onesimus left. How he traveled, I do not know.
But he went back. I can imagine Philemon hasn't
heard from him in months. He hasn't heard from anybody.
He didn't have a telephone back then to get the news out, or
a newspaper, or so forth. He hadn't heard from anybody.
He's out, Bob, on the range working. Fileyman is. He's out there with
a crew of men. They're doing whatever they're
doing, taking care of the grapes, or the olive trees, or the wheat
fields. And he sees somebody coming.
And he stops work and stands there and looks like the prodigal
son's father. And in his mind, he thinks, I
know that walk. I know that wall. And he comes
closer, and he says, I know that face. That's Onesimus. And I'm sure Philemon didn't
know what to think. And the men by that time all
stood up from their work, and everybody's standing there in
total silence. I can just picture the scene. And Onesimus is coming,
but he's got something in his hand. He's got something in his
hand. And he comes closer and closer
and finally even doesn't say a word. There's no smile on his
face because he doesn't know how this man's coming back. The
last time he saw him, he'd stolen from him. He had run away. He
was rebellious. He was unprofitable. He was ungracious. All of these things. Here he
comes. And he comes and falls on his knees, I'm sure, right
in front of his master. He doesn't open his mouth. He
hands him a paper. And Philemon takes that paper
and opens it. And you know the first thing
you look for on a letter is what? The signature. Who wrote it? Who wrote it? And Philemon picks
it up. He's old as some of you. He got
his glasses out. But he looked at it, and I know his shock went
clear through his brain. Paul. Paul. See, he loved Paul. Paul loved
him. They were fellow laborers. They were brothers. He'd been
saved under Paul's ministry. He loved Paul. Paul loved him. Paul was the closest man on earth
to this man, Philemon. Paul, what are you doing with
a letter from Paul? And he holds it up again. It
says, Paul, a bond slave, a servant, a prisoner of Jesus Christ to
Philemon, to Philemon, my dearly beloved brother. And I bet tears
came in his eye. Here this slave wasn't opening
his mouth. See, we don't plead, Christ pleads for us. When this
slave came back home to the father, I didn't come home popping off.
I said, let the Lord speak for me, would you father? This slave didn't come back popping
off. I'll do this now, I promise. He just handed him the letter. And Philemon stood there and
looked at it, and there's some words stood out. There are four
or five words that I believe stand out here. I believe that
one of the first words he saw is in verse 9, the word love. I wouldn't care if you underscored
that, at least in your mind. I want to dwell on this just
a moment. Paul says in verse 8, I might command you to do
that which is right, Philemon. I could. I could. You see, I'm Paul, down in verse
9, I am Paul, the apostle. And I am your elder, I am Paul
the aged. And I am Paul, a prisoner of
Jesus Christ. I'm in jail suffering for the
gospel and you're home enjoying steaks and French fries. I could
bring to bear some pressure on you. You see what Paul's saying? He's reminding, he's reminding
Philemon what he could do as an apostle, as an authority.
as an experienced elder statesman in the gospel, as a man who was
giving everything for the gospel. I could command you, but I'm
not going to do that. He puts a little word in here,
verse 9, I want you to receive Onesimus, I want you to be kind
to him, I want you to love him for love's sake. For love's sake. Brother, let me tell you something.
This is really the only true proper motivation for anything
that's done in the kingdom of God or for the glory of God.
And this love is threefold. Number one, I preach or you sing
or give or witness or pray or walk uprightly because God loved
us for the sake of his love, for the sake of his love to me.
Our Lord said, as I have loved you, so you love one another.
As I have forgiven you, you forgive one another. As you have received
mercy, show mercy. This is the motive, the proper
motivation, is your love for us. And then secondly, for the
sake of our love for Him. I'd do anything for Christ's
sake, wouldn't you? For Christ's sake. And then thirdly, and not
last by any means, is our love for one another. Now this is
what Paul is saying. Because God loved you, and because
you love him, and because you love me, I send Onesimus back
home to you. That's the pattern. Brother,
let's turn to 1 Corinthians 13. Let me show you something here.
1 Corinthians 13. I know a lot of emphasis is placed
in this day on talents and gifts and the finances, and here we're
tearing down a building over here, going to build a new parking
lot, and we're talking about an investment of already $65,000,
maybe $85,000 or $90,000. That's got to be paid for. And the television program this
morning, the missionaries, and all these things, those things
have to be taken care of. And you're doing a good job taking
care of it by God's grace. And the young men are out preaching. We've got Mike saying so beautifully,
but listen to this. First Corinthians 13, though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love,
I'm becomes a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. And though
I have the gift of prophecy, I understand the mysteries of
the gospel and have knowledge, faith even, so that I can remove
man's, and have not love, I'm nothing. And though I bestow
my goods to feed the poor, though I support the kingdom of God,
though I give my body to be burned and have not love, It profiteth
me nothing. So this is what Paul is saying
here, for love's sake. And I would say this, if we can't
preach and give and witness and pray and worship and forgive
and show mercy and walk together in a genuine, sincere affection,
then let's quit. Let's just throw it aside. It's
all useless and worthless and counts for nothing and I reckon
we might as well bang on an old Chinese gong or tinkle a Salvation
Army symbol. It's nothing. That's right. If
you can't love. Brother Gruber said something
to me the other day. I gave it to the preacher's class
yesterday. In essentials, there should be
unity. in essentials. Why are we talking
about essentials? I'm talking about the essentials of the Word,
such as the fall of man, original sin. We can't disagree on that.
That's too vital. On the sovereignty of God, God's
sovereignty, God's indisputable, immutable sovereignty in all
things, creation, providence, salvation, we can't walk separate
ways on that, see, so we gotta agree on that. Unity, it's got
to be unity on essentials. on the sufficiency of Christ,
His blood, His death, His fulfilling all the sacrifices, the types
and the shadows and the pictures, it's all in Him. Redemption in
Christ, the grace of God in Christ. We can't, we can't, supposedly
if you preach any other gospel, I don't care if it's an angel
from heaven, let him be under the curse of God. Can't disagree. Let there be unity and essentials,
perseverance of the saints, a godly walk, holiness of conduct and
character. We can't disagree on those essentials.
Let there be unity on essentials, the return of Christ, the inspiration
of the word, the virgin birth. Keep naming those essentials,
you know what they are. But he continued, he said, on non-essentials,
let there be liberty. Don't force me to eat meat, sacrifice
to idols, but don't tell me I can't eat it. On non-essentials, you
see, don't give me a day in which I must worship God. Let me worship
God every day, if that's the way the Spirit of God leads me.
Don't force me. Back me off into the corner on
your standards, on your rules, on your requirements. Live by
them if you please, as the Spirit of God leads you, but on non-essentials,
where the word is silent, don't pressure me. Let me have my liberty
in Christ. See what I'm saying? Let me have
my liberty on non-essentials. Don't commit me to hell because
I disagree with you on what a man should eat or drink, or things of that nature, whether
I should kneel or stand to pray, whether I should sing psalms
or hymns. On non-essentials, let there
be liberty. But thirdly, in all things, let there be love. Huh? You see what I'm saying? In all
things, essential and non-essential. And that's what Paul's saying
to Philemon, this whole thing, that's the first word he saw.
For love's sake, I'm appealing to you. For love's sake. Secondly, verse 11, there's a
word, unprofitable. Unprofitable. Paul didn't gloss
over Onesimus' character. He didn't say, now this is just
a good boy that's gone wrong. Paul didn't write here and say,
now, you misjudged old Nessifus. He wasn't bad as you thought.
He said, he's just as bad as you thought. The fellow bearing
this letter, he said, was unprofitable. That's worthless. That's what
that means, worthless. Unprofitable means worthless.
It means you lose money on him. He's unprofitable. That's all.
He's certainly that, as you and I are, too. What's the chief
end of man? To glorify God. Have we glorified
God? I'm talking about in our unsaved
state. In Christ we glorify God. In faith we glorify God. In worship
we glorify God. In praise we glorify God. We
offer sacrifices of praise and worship and faith. But brethren,
by nature we didn't glorify God. We were unprofitable. But Paul
says to Onesimus, Paul says to Philemon in verse 11, in times
past he was to you unprofitable, but now Profitable. What made the difference? The
grace of God. The grace of God. Paul could
unconditionally guarantee Philemon that Onesimus would now be a
loyal and devoted servant because he had tasted of the grace of
God. Now he's profitable. All right, let's look at another
word in verse, as I move quickly, verse 14, the word willingly.
This needs to be emphasized very strongly, the word willingly.
Paul said that I would have kept him with me, that he might serve
me and wait upon me in your place. You see, you're down there in
Colossae. I'm up here in Rome. And I have needs. And I don't
have any help. And I could have kept him here
to wait upon me, to help me, to minister to me in your place.
But he said, I won't have your benefits, your blessings, your
favor of necessity. I'm sending him back. And if
you want to return him, that's fine. But you'll do it willingly.
You'll do it willingly. I could have kept him here. As
an apostle, I could have kept him. I could have kept him here
because he was converted under my ministry. I could have kept
him here. But I'm asking you to receive
him now and sending him back. Apart from your consent, I would
do nothing. Let's read that verse here, verse
14. But without your mind would I do nothing, that your benefit
should not be, as it were, of necessity. Preacher, how do you
apply that right now? I apply it to any type of worship
or giving or service, or alms, or anything in the name of God,
or the name of good, or the name of truth. Now, this is the reason
that I reject tithing with a passion. I don't believe God requires
his people of necessity to do anything. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 8. Now, don't get me wrong. I believe
this, that in the Old Testament they were a natural, national
people, blessed physically and nationally as they obeyed God.
They were blessed physically. They kept the Sabbath day. They
gave a tie. They kept the ceremonies as types
and pictures. You see, Christ is our Sabbath.
Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our lamb. We don't
keep these ceremonies and so forth. And these people had a
spiritual or religious tax which they paid 10% that they gave
to the tabernacle and the people in the tabernacle lived by it.
How can we give any less under grace than they gave under law?
I'm not giving people permission in the kingdom of God to give
any less than a tithe. But I say a tithe is not grace,
it's not New Testament. In 2 Corinthians, it's a necessity. It's a requirement. It's a tax.
It's a man taking so much and saying, well, this is God's. I'll set this apart, you know.
I can do it. If I don't give it to him, he'll punish me. If
I don't give it to him, I'll have to pay a doctor bill. If
I don't give it to him, I'll have to fix the car. If I don't
give it to him, he'll take it out the door in a coffin. If
I don't give it to him, I got to do it. You see what I'm saying? Look at 2 Corinthians 8, verse
12. He's talking about giving here,
the whole chapter is talking about giving. First, for if there
be first, a willing mind. First is not the amount, but
the first is a willing mind. That's the first place to start.
It is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according
to that he hath not. Watch your pledges. I pledged
to give in 1982 so much, that's wrong. I don't have anything
in 1982 yet. God, I don't give what I don't
have. See that, Frank? I don't give what I don't have.
I give what I have. Every man upon the first day
of the week let him lay by and store as God has prospered him,
not as he expects to be prospered, as he wants to be prospered,
as he's going to use that old trick that they use on the television,
you give so much and I promise you God will prosper you. That's
driving a Jew bargain with God Almighty. We give according and
watch verse 13, but I mean not that other men be eased and you
burdened, but by an equality. Oh, wait a minute. equality All right, I make Church furnishes
me a home and a car and I make about $19,000 a year $20,000
a year Here's a winner over here that makes 5,000 I Give my 10%
which is $2,000 She gives her 10%, which is $500.
That leaves her $4,500 to live on. She's got to pay the same
gas bill, same water bill, same phone bill. See what I'm talking
about? Same house rent, same obligations. She's got to do that on $4,500
while I do it on $18,000. Now, where's your equality there? That's not equality. That's her
being burdened and me being eaten. Now, you're saying, Preacher,
she's not to give. Oh, no, I'm not saying that at all. and cease
to give unto the Lord willingly, as God has prospered her. I better
give as God's prospered me too. You see what I'm saying? And
I don't mean to cut out a little ten percent. I mean to give sacrificially. Now that's New Testament giving.
That's willingly. That's willingly. Willingly. That's what scripture teaches.
Willingly. That's what he's saying here
to Philemon. He said, I'm not requiring you to do anything.
And the preacher's a fool that tries to do that. Stands up with
his authority as a servant of God, as a messenger of God. You
attend church on Sunday. I'm saying this to you. Don't
come at all if you can't come willingly. If you can't come
because you want to, don't come because your name's on the roll.
Come because you worship God, want to. Come out of thanksgiving. You've got to give your 10 percent.
You've got to give it or we'll go broke or we can't meet our
bills. No, sir, I beg your pardon. Our bills being met don't depend
on me or you or anybody else, but God Almighty. They're his
obligations and not mine. The battle is the Lord. If you
can give willingly, If you can say, God's anointed me and blessed
me and I have an abundance here. Pastor here, church, use it for
God's glory. I want to give proportionately.
I want to give equally. I want to give out of the sacrificial. I want to give because God's
blessed me. Here, use it! Willingly. Hilariously. Please
do. But if you can't, if you can't
do it that way. This is what Paul is saying to
his friend Philemon. Not of necessity. not of necessity,
willingly. Let there first be a willing
mind. That's the only place I believe
in free will, Cecil, free will given. I believe a man freely
gives out of his will, but it's a regenerated will, it's a renewed
will, it's an anointed will. All right, let's look at another
word. I'm preaching too long. I've got to where the older you
get, the more long-winded you get. You know that? I used to
think that when folks got old, they got quiet. But I've got
to point this out. There's a word in verse 15, perhaps. Paul says perhaps. He departed
from you. Perhaps he stole, ran away, mistreated
you. All that's in the providence
and will of God that he might come back on a permanent basis. See that? Forever. We look at second causes instead
of looking at first causes. This happens, you know, with
some catastrophe or tragedy, something, some great trial.
And we say, oh, we just get so blue and down. I'm sure Philemon,
when Onesimus ran away and took his goods with him, he must have
thought, well, the boy will never be converted now. He's gone.
He's out from under the gospel. He's out from under my influence.
He's out there on drugs and drink and by himself. And I'll never
be able to reach him. Wait a minute. He ran away from
you right into the hands of Christ. So don't discount God's providence. We were down there in Mexico
last Sunday morning, right at this time, right here, 11 o'clock,
a little bit poor right now. We were going out to the Gulf
of Mexico to baptize. Brother Walter had a young man
from Tella who wanted to be baptized. He couldn't take the Lord's table
when they observed the Lord's table. he hadn't been baptized,
he hadn't confessed Christ publicly, so he didn't take the Lord's
table, and he wanted to, and he asked Walter to baptize. Well, they usually waited till
they get several. But Walter told me, he said, I kind of hate
to go that far to baptize one person, but he said, I believe
we ought to go. So we got in the car Sunday morning,
we drove out to the, out to Talia, and then went north to the Gulf
about, oh, about an hour and a half or two hours drive, and
we got there early. Now, this is a pretty good-sized
beach, and one thing about baptizing in the Gulf of Mexico, you can
select, Lord, your water level. You can baptize any level you
want to, you know, just keep walking out slowly. And so we
baptized—we could have baptized anywhere within five miles there,
but we picked one place where we thought the people would meet
us. They were coming from the church, didn't tell you. And
Walter and I and Richard walked out on the—and the girls walked
out on the beach, and Walter met a man. Standing there. Walter
walked up. This man walked up. Now, this
is at the time on a five or 10 mile beach. And the man introduced
himself to Walter. He said, I'm the pastor from
Baguio-de-Leed. I know you, your brother Gruber.
And they stood and talked a minute. And the pastor from Baguio-de-Leed,
which is two hours, 100 miles from Mettada, said, I want to
know about that school you have over in Mettada. I'm interested
in attending. And they stood there and talked about a half
an hour. Walter got his address. He got Walter's address. They're
going to get together. He may come to the school. A
day or two after that, downtown metadata, we met a man named
Rojas from Cancun. And Walter was telling him about
meeting this pastor from Valladolid. And he was interested in the
school. And Rojas said, you mean he wants to come to the school,
Walter? That's what he said. He said, that man. is the most
influential believer from Valle de Lille to Cancun. He said he's
the trunk of the tree. He pastors and preaches in several
congregations. If you get him, you've got the
influence of all those churches over there. That's providence.
You see, you walk out with the Zazu flies everywhere and the
mosquitoes and all these things biting you, and go so far as
to baptize one little fellow in the Gulf of Mexico God brings
you to meet the woman at the well. One other incident that'll
bless you. The church at Tellur rented a
truck to drive over there to the baptismal service. None of
them have vehicles. They rented a truck. The man
who owns the truck, who drives the truck, is not a believer. He's a Catholic. He doesn't come
to church. He's just a man who owns a truck.
They rented it. He drove them. You don't have
anybody else drive. He parked his truck behind our vehicle.
They all unloaded, about 20 or 25 of them, went down on the
Gulf of Mexico, and Walter stood there, and their pastor, Maximo,
led them in singing, and they had prayer, and they read the
scripture, and Walter preached. What is baptism? What does baptism
mean? This truck driver, a man about
so tall, gray-headed, about my age, heavy set, took his sombrero
off and stood there and listened to Walter preach the whole time.
they saw the baptismal service and we sang and shook hands and
hugged one another and had a good service there and Then we broke
up The children were gonna swim a while the pastor promised them
they could swim at services over in the ocean So we started to
leave we went up to the vehicle. Everybody got him Walter The
truck driver moved his truck so we could get out and then
he got out of his truck and motioned Walter over And Walter walked
over he threw his big arms around him and hugged him in big tears,
streaming down his cheeks. And Betty was sitting behind
me in the suburban vehicle. She said, they don't do that. They just don't do that. I wonder
what he's doing. She said, these people don't
show that kind of affection. They don't cry like that. That
man's an unbeliever. That man's never been in church.
She was interested to know what he was saying to Walter. So Walter
got back in the truck. She said, what'd he say? What'd
he say? Walt said he said that he had
never understood what baptism was all about, but now he understood. He had never understood what
I was trying to preach, and now he could see some things and
said, would I come to his house and preach the gospel to his
family? Brethren, despise not the day of small things. God
just has to keep telling us that. We think unless we have directed
something and organized something and it's a big something, that
God has to be in it. God's in small things. Because
that way he gets the glory. I'm just saying that here's what
Paul said to Philemon, he said, perhaps he left by the providence
of God that he might come back forever. I think some of you
know what we're talking about. A friend of mine in jail for
murder said God put him there so he'd hear me preach the gospel
on a wall radio and he'd come to know Christ. He said if I
hadn't been in jail, I'd have never come to know Christ. That's
an awful way to come to Christ, but that's... God moves in a
mysterious way his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps
on the sea and rides upon the storm. Here's a verse, his purposes
ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Here's another word quickly,
verse 18, my account. He said if he's wronged you or
owes you anything, put it on my account. That's the gospel,
that's what Christ did. We're unprofitable runaway slaves
and we've sinned against God. We've stolen his glory, we've
stolen his sunshine, stolen his bread, stolen his food and never
gave thanks. And Christ said, Father, whatever
they owe you, just put it on my account. I'll pay it. I'll
pay it. That's what Paul said when he
sent this man home. He said, just put it on my account. If he owes you anything, I'll
settle with you. Well, bless your heart, Christ did just that.
He settled with the law. He settled with God's justice.
He settled with the debt I owed, and now I owe nothing. He's paid
in full. I come home a ransom slave. Last
word is verse 21, confidence. This is interesting right here.
I have confidence in you, my brother. Don't you wish that that could
be said of all of us? Why not? Why shouldn't it be
said of all of us? Why shouldn't it be? I have confidence
that you'll do what's right. Paul did in Philemon. His confidence wasn't in Philemon.
It was in the grace of God that dwelt in Philemon. I have confidence.
that you'll do what's right. Our Father, for thy word we give
thee thanks. How precious, how comforting, how magnificent is thy word. How beautiful, beautiful is this
message. How we love it by your grace.
Lord, open our eyes to see the treasures that are here. the
blessings that are here, the comfort that's here, the joy
that's here, the promises, precious promises from our precious Lord
to you who believe He's precious. Now use this message for your
glory, to accomplish your purpose. Bring an Onesimus to your feet
today. In powerful grace, in convicting
grace, in converting grace, bring an Onesimus to thy feet. And
Lord, the Philemons, encourage us willingly, cheerfully,
to do thy will and thy purpose and carry out thy word for the
glory of Christ. Not of necessity. Lord, deliver
us from bondage and bring us to the glorious liberty and freedom
and willingness and joy of the people of God. Thy yoke is easy
and thy burden is light. For Christ's sake we pray, amen.