A Prison Letter

Now let's open our Bibles to
the book of Philemon. A good possibility that many
of you have never read this little book. Some of you may have, and
perhaps have not understood the significance of it, nor seen
the beauty of it. This is Paul's shortest epistle,
only 25 verses, and yet one of the richest. I hope when I finish
tonight that you are able to see the riches of their precious
book. He wrote this letter from Rome,
from prison, and it was sent to a well-to-do, a wealthy friend
of his, by the name of Philemon. You'll see the last line in verse
2, the church met in the home of this man, Philemon. He was
a wealthy man. He loved Christ, he had many
servants, and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ met in his
home. This was down in Colossae. Now
the subject of this little book is a runaway slave. This man
Philemon had many servants. They called them slaves then.
They were servants. And this servant, this particular
servant, was named Onesimus. You'll see his name in verse
10. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus." And this servant of
Philemon, whose name was Onesimus, had run away. He was an unprofitable
servant, he was a rebellious servant, and he had run away
from home, he had escaped. And evidently he had fled to
Rome, and there he had heard the apostle Paul preach the gospel. Now there's a good possibility
he already knew Paul. Because Paul had been in the
home of Philemon, I'm sure, many times, and this servant possibly
heard him then, or knew him then. But we do know that he went down
to Rome and heard the gospel, and Paul said he was saved. In
verse 10, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have
begotten, who has been born again, who has been redeemed in my bonds. I preached to him, Paul said,
being in prison. I preached to him being down
here in jail. And verse 13, look at this, whom
I would have retained with me, Paul said, I want to keep him
here with me to take care of my needs, that in your stead,
in the stead of his friend Philemon, that he might minister to me
in the bonds of the gospel. But without your permission,
I wouldn't do it. So Paul is sending this servant
back to Philemon. This man Philemon down in Colossae,
this wealthy, well-to-do friend of Paul's, whom he loved in Christ,
who was a faithful believer, in whose home the church met,
had this servant, this slave, Onesimus. He had run away, and
he had gone down to Rome, and there God saved him. He heard
Paul preach, and he was brought to the knowledge of Christ. And
Paul loved this slave, Onesimus. He said, I'd like to keep him
here with me. Let him take care of my needs. But I'm sending
him back to you, Philemon, without your permission. I wouldn't keep
him. I'm sending him back to you. Verse 17. Now watch this. If you count me a partner in
the gospel, in Christ, receive this man as myself, as you would
receive me. Now if he's wronged you in any
way, if he owes you anything, if he stole something when he
left, you put it on my account. And I'll pay you when I come
down there. Now that's what the book's all about. But the significant
thing about this book, this epistle, is every argument that Paul uses,
every word that he writes, every condition of which he speaks,
every person about whom he speaks, he makes a constant reference
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And some eleven times The Apostle
Paul mentions in these 25 verses the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He puts everything on the basis
of our relationship with Jesus Christ. When he talks of himself,
when he talks of Philemon, when he talks of the Gospel, when
he talks of Onesimus, when he talks of these things, he always
puts every bit of it on the basis of our relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ. I want to show you that. First
of all, in verse 1. I told you that this book was
written from prison. The Apostle Paul was a prisoner. He was in jail in Rome. And he
writes in verse 1, and this is the way he begins the letter. He says, Paul, a prisoner. Now, most of us would have written
a prisoner of the religious Jews, because it was a wrath of these
religious Jews that had him put in prison. Some of us would have
written, Paul, a prisoner of the Roman government. because
the Roman government certainly held him in prison. Some of us
would have written Paul a prisoner of the Roman soldiers because
just outside of his cell door stood a Roman soldier keeping
watch over him day and night. But Paul didn't consider himself
a prisoner of the religious Jews. Paul didn't consider himself
a prisoner of the Roman government nor of the Roman soldiers. He
said, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And that wasn't a slip
of the pen because he repeats it again. Look at verse 9, the
last line in verse 9, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Look at verse
23 again, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus. In other words,
Paul is saying, whatever privations and whatever persecutions and
whatever sufferings I'm called upon to endure, I consider it
to be the will of my master. Man may be the second cause,
but my Savior is the first cause. Look at Philippians chapter 4.
I think if we'll learn this, we'll have a little less murmuring
and complaining. I think if we learn this, we'll
have a little less of this anxiety and fretful living, if we remember
that our Lord is the first cause of all things. In Philippians
chapter 4 verse 11, not that I speak in respect of want, for
I have learned. Now watch this. This is something
that has to be learned. It's not something that you know
when you're born again already. It's not something that is created
in your heart the minute you come to know Christ. It's something
you learn. Not that I speak in respect of
want, I have learned in whatsoever state I am. Now we can go along
with that as long as we're happy. We can go along with that as
long as we're healthy. We can go along with that as
long as we're prosperous. But whatever state I am, in whatsoever
state I am, in prison, in the sickbed, in loneliness,
therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased,
humbled, I know how to abound everywhere and in all things.
I am instructed both to be full, and we know how to be full, but
do we know how to be hungry? Both to abound and suffer need. I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me, whatever privation." That's the reason
Paul calls himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Here he is sitting
in a cell. Here he is lonely. Here he is
deserted and forsaken by most of his friends. He tells Timothy
in the second book of Timothy how that all men forsook him.
He was alone. He was deserted. He was in prison. He was an old man now. But he
said, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now turn with me to Genesis
chapter 50. I want to show you this again.
What Paul is saying and what I'm trying to say is this. that
whatever state we are in, whatever sufferings, whatever poverty,
whatever anguish, that the first cause is the will of our Father
if we're His children. The second cause may be, it may
be men, it may be yourself, but the first cause is God. Now over
here in Genesis chapter 50, I believe around verse 15. And when Joseph's brethren saw
that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did
to him. Now you remember how Joseph's brethren treated him.
They hated him. There were twelve of those boys.
One of them, Benjamin, of course, didn't hate him, but the other
ten did. And they put him through all kind of misery. They mistreated
him, they threw him in a pit, they sold him into slavery, sold
their own brother into slavery and sent him down into Egypt
to be a slave. Went home and told their father
that the lions had eaten him. They tore his coat and poured
blood on the coat and told his daddy that he was dead. And they
forgot him. Well, Joseph wound up on the
throne and here after their father died and they found out Joseph
was alive and they were down in Egypt, they said, now Joseph
will get eaten with us. Well, let's see. over here in
verse 19, And Joseph said to his brethren, Fear not, am I
in the place of God? Vengeance is not mine, it belongs
to the Lord. But as for you, you thought evil against me,
but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this
day, to save much people alive. In other words, what you did
to me, you thought was evil, and it was evil, as far as you
are concerned. But all of it was in the purpose
and the providence and the plan of the Heavenly Father. I wish
we could learn. I wish I could learn that. I
wish all of us could learn that. Be it life or death, be it prosperity
or poverty, be it sickness or health, be it youth or old age,
be it loneliness or whatever, I've learned in whatsoever state
I am to be content. And the only way that you can
be content is to know that where you are is because God willed
it. And what comes to pass in your
life is because God willed it. That's the reason Paul could
accept prison, he could accept persecution, he could accept
loneliness, he could accept these things because God brought it
to pass. When Bishop Rutherford was in
prison at Aberdeen, he was there for many years before he was
finally killed. He wrote letters all the time
to his Christian friends, and he would always date those letters
up in the right-hand corner where you usually put your location,
and then the date, and then, Dear Sir. But up in the right-hand
corner he'd always date it this way, The Lord's Palace in Aberdeen. He was sitting in a prison cell
with nothing but a bench and a table and a hard bunk. surrounded by guards, but he
would date those letters, all of them, the Lord's palace in
Aberdeen. John Newton wrote something like
that. He said, 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. That's the first thing
we need to learn from this epistle now is that we are subjects of
his providence and of his purpose if we're subjects of his kingdom.
We are children of his providence if we're children of his love.
And if God purpose for me is to be on a lonely island like
John, the Apostle John, then God will put me there and I'll
be the prisoner of Jesus Christ. If it's God's purpose for me
to move among a large crowd of people to preach His gospel,
then I'm to be content there. If it's God's purpose for me
to be well or sick, whether in life or in death, we are the
Lord's. And it's His will that must be
done. That's the way we're taught to pray. Thy will be done. And men are only the estimates
of God's purpose. Even the wrath of man will praise
the Lord. Even His enemies do His will. That is true of the crucifixion
of Christ. Look over here at Acts chapter
2. Let me show you that. When the Apostle Peter was preaching
on Pentecost, that's what he said to those people. In the
second chapter of Acts, he said in verse 23, talked about ye
men of Israel, you crucified the Lord of glory, but look at
Acts 2.23. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you with wicked hands have
crucified and slain. Turn over to Acts chapter 4,
verse 28, 27. He said of a truth, Acts 4.27, of a truth. against thy holy child Jesus
whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate and
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
it to be done." Now don't call me a fatalist. I'm not. But I'm
a believer. And I believe that our lives
are not in the hands of luck. I don't use that word because
I don't believe that word. I don't believe that our lives
are in the hands of a blind faith. I believe my life is in the hands
of a loving Heavenly Father. But He may put me through the
furnace of fire. It will be for my good and for
His glory. He may put me through severe
trial. He may put me through severe
suffering. But it will be for my good and
His glory. And I've got to learn, like the
Apostle Paul, to accept the will of God, however difficult it
may prove to be. So that's the way he starts this
epistle, and he goes that way all the way through. Verse 1,
verse 9, verse 23, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Nero has no
control over me or power over me. I'm immortal until God sees
fit to take my life. There's not one thing can be
done to me without my father's permission. And if my father
gives permission, he does it for my good and for his glory. Do you believe that? I'll say
this to you, and I wouldn't be hard. If you don't believe that,
your father and my father are two different fathers. Because
my father runs this show. This is my father's world. And
he rules in the inhabitants of heaven and the inhabitants of
this earth, and he doeth according to his will in heaven, earth,
and the seas, and all deep places. And I'll guarantee if nobody
can lay a hand on one of my children, do you think anybody can lay
a hand on one of God's children without his permission? Not on
your life. Even Satan is God's devil. That's right. He can't bat his
eyelash without God's permission. All right, the second thing.
In verse 5, Christ is the object of faith. Paul talks about faith
throughout this epistle. But he talks, and he says about
Philemon, he said, I've heard of your love and your faith.
I've heard of your love and your faith, which you have toward
the Lord Jesus Christ and toward all the saints. Now, the believer
loves many things. The believer loves and cherishes
many things. The believer loves the Word of
God. The believer loves the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
believer loves other believers. The believer loves all people.
The believer loves God's creation. If you be without love, you be
without God. That's what John said. If you
be without love, you be without God, for God is love. But the
grand object of the believer's love, the grand object of the
believer's faith, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to John 21. This is what he demonstrated
here after his resurrection, when the apostles had given up
and gone fishing. And that's what they'd done.
Peter came in that room where the other apostles were, and
they sat around a while, and they figured everything was finished,
The kingdom was smashed, and their uprising was done away
with, and so Peter said, I'm going fishing. They went out
there and fished a while, and Christ came and stood on the
land, and they came in, and they sat around. He had something
for them to eat, and they were sitting around there, and I'm
sure they were embarrassed by the way they'd acted. They'd
forsaken him. They'd left him. Peter denied
him. So verse 15, John 21, when they had dined, Jesus said, Simon
Peter, Simon son of Jonas, Lovest thou me more than these?" Peter,
you love your fishing boats, don't you? You love your nets.
You love the sea. You love the cool of the morning.
You love all these things. But do you love me more than
these? And Peter said, Yea, Lord, thou
knowest that I love thee. Then he said, You feed my lambs.
He saith to him the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. He said to him the third
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved
because he said to him the third time, lovest thou me? And he
said to him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that
I love thee. Then feed my sheep. A faith that
saves is a faith in Christ. A love that saves is a love for
Christ. A hope that saves is a hope in
Christ. I shudder when I hear people
give their reasons for hope, their reasons for believing that
they're going to heaven. I shudder. I hear them say, well,
I'm saved. I know I'm saved because I had
an experience. I was there when it happened.
I hear people say, well, I know I'm saved because I'm living
a good life. I'm doing the best I can. I hear
others say, I'm saved because I'm a member of the church. I'm
a Catholic or a Baptist. I'm a Nazarene or I'm a Presbyterian. Or others say, I'm saved because
I made a decision. The true men of faith in the
Word of God spoke of a person, not an experience, not a feeling,
not a decision. They spoke of a person. Job said,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. David said, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. That's why I shall not want,
the Lord is my shepherd. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, I am persuaded he's able to keep that which I've
committed to him against that day. In Romans 8, he said, who
is he that condemneth? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifies, Christ
that died, was buried and rose again, whoever liveth to make
intercession for us. That's the foundation of my hope.
John said, God has given us eternal life, this life's in His Son.
And Peter said, for as much as you know, you're not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of Christ. Paul said, Philemon, I thank
God, verse 4, I thank God I make mention of you in my prayer because
I heard of your love for Christ. I thank God I pray for you because
I've heard of your faith in Christ. I didn't hear about your experience,
I heard about your love for Christ. I didn't hear about your doctrine,
I didn't hear about your devotions. I didn't hear about your dedication.
I didn't hear about your consecration. I heard about your love for Christ.
I heard about your love for Christ. Living, He loved me. Dying, He
saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. And one day is coming. Oh, what
a day. Now look at verse 3, and I want
you to listen carefully to this point. First of all, Paul said,
I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Wherever I am, whatever they
do to me, I accept it because it's the will of my Master. I'm
where He wants me to be. John Bunyan spent twelve years
in prison. Twelve years. There he wrote
Pilgrim's Progress. There he wrote some of his greatest
writings. Benjamin Keech, who pastored
Spurgeon's church many years before Spurgeon was there, was
put in stocks outside the church on the city street because of
what he preached. Jonathan Edwards, one of the
greatest preachers in American history, was kicked out of his
church after he had been there 20 or 30 years because he demanded
a regenerated church membership, and the pulpit committee fired
him. He was the father of the Great Awakening in our country
back years ago. Paul said, that's all because
of the will of my Lord, and I accept it. And then thirdly, Christ
is the source of all grace. Now listen to verse 3. Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. All the grace I have comes from
and through Jesus Christ. Every gift is a gift of His love. Now I want you to watch three
things. Now think with me and listen to this. Grace to you
from our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the source of all grace.
Now watch it. He's the source of all grace
for the believer. He's the source of all grace
to the believer. And He's the source of all grace
in the believer. Now, think of those words. Turn
to Ephesians chapter 1, first of all. Now, I said that Christ
is the source. We don't get it from some other
person, some other human. We don't get this grace because
of years of experience and dedication. We don't get this grace by some
secret formula or recipe. Read a book on how to be baptized
with the Holy Ghost. or how to this and how to that
and how to the other. All grace is from Christ. All grace, He's the source of
all grace. Grace be unto you from God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Look, if you will, at verse 6
of Philemon. First of all, verse 6. Listen
to this. Verse 6 says that the communication of your faith may
become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is
in you in Christ Jesus. That's where it came from. Every
good thing that's in you is in you because of your relationship
with Christ Jesus. Now turn to Ephesians 1. Let
me show you that. First of all, he is the source
of all grace for the believer. It says in verse 1 that God the
Father Verse 4, chose us in Christ. Back yonder before the world
began, we were chosen in Christ. So our election, our being chosen,
was not because of what God saw in us, but because of what God
saw in His Son. We were chosen in Christ. We
were chosen because of Him. Not because of ourselves, not
because of our house and lineage, Not because of our difference,
we were chosen because of Christ in Him. Now read on. Verse 5.
And He predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. Now look at verse 6. To the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He made us accepted in Christ
Jesus. So all of the grace for the believer
in eternity past came to the believer because of Jesus Christ. We were chosen in him, predestinated
by him, and accepted in him. See that? All right, now watch
secondly. All of the grace to the believer
that directly applies to him came through Christ Jesus. Look,
if you will, at verse 7, in whom we have redemption through his
blood. The atonement The cleansing, the washing away of our iniquity,
was in Him. All right, look if you go to
verse 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of His will according
to His good pleasure which He purchased purpose in Himself.
Our enlightening was in Christ. And then look, if you will, at
verse 11, "...in whom also we obtain an inheritance." Got a
home in heaven? In Christ. Got a hope of eternal
life? In Christ. Got a mansion reserved
in the sky? In Christ. You see that? So all
of the grace to the believer, all of the grace for the believer
in eternity past, chosen in him, predestinated in him, accepted
in him, down here in the fullness of time, redeemed in him, enlightened
in him. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. I am come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundant. And the inheritance
which we have is in him. Now watch this. Now we've got
a little grace and a little love. John Newton said, I'm not what
I'm going to be, I'm not what I expect to be, I'm not what
I ought to be, not what I want to be, but I'm not what I used
to be, and so the rest of you can say that. Now you hate what
you loved and you love what you hated. Now you're easier to get
along with, you've grown in grace. But did you know that even the
love and the joy and the peace and the patience and the meekness
and all these things, are not yours, you didn't produce them.
They're fruits of the Spirit. That's right, they're fruits
of the Spirit. That's the reason he said over here in Philemon,
verse 6, that every good thing in you is there because of Jesus
Christ. His presence. His presence. They're not the products of the
flesh, they're the fruits of Christ's Spirit. So the source
of all grace for the believer, to the believer, and in the believer
is because of Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, we don't have
any room to boast. Somebody and I, we were talking
the other day about rewards in heaven. Well, now, you kindly
tell me who deserves the reward. You know who deserves it? You
don't. Jesus Christ. And all the crowns are going
to be laid at His feet. And besides that, the Scripture
says this, Of all men born of woman, there's none risen greater
than John the Baptist, but in the kingdom of heaven, he that's
least is greater than John the Baptist." The way people talk today, I'm going
to have different crowns on my head. I'm going to look like
a totem pole walking around with a bunch of crowns sitting up
on my head. That's so foolish. It's foolish to even think about
such things. There are no degrees of reward and glory. And that's
nothing in the world but a bunch of fleshly preachers trying to
promote faithfulness out of a bunch of people that don't know the
Lord. In order of promising them a reward when they get to heaven.
Promising them a bigger mansion than somebody else, and a bigger
car than somebody else, and a mansion nearer to Jesus than somebody
else. I'll tell you who will be with him, the thief on the
cross. And you better come in the same door he came in, or
you won't come in." The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain
in his day, and there may I, though vile as he, wash my sins
away. The only reward I'm looking for
is Christ. He's my reward. To see Him. Well, I tell you, to stand in
the presence of the Lord will make all these so-called crowns
and material things but trinkets. Play pretties. You're going to
have to have some play pretties in heaven, I feel sorry for you.
I want you to turn to Luke 17. In Luke 17. Now what I'm saying
is this, that Christ is the source of all grace. He's the source
of all fruit. He's the source of all goodness.
And we don't deserve any praise when we've done all that we can
do. We're unprofitable servants.
If I got a little more knowledge of the Word of God than somebody
else, it's because God made me to differ, not because I'm any
different. And if you have a little more ability to pray, or a little
more ability to give, or a little more ability to forgive, it's
because of God's mercy. It's not because of anything
in you. In Luke 17, verse 3, listen to this, Our Lord said,
Take heed to yourselves. If your brother trespasses against
you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If
he trespassed against you seven times a day, and seven times
a day he turns to you and says, I repent, forgive him. You know
what the apostles said then? Lord, increase our faith. We're
not going to be able to do that. You're going to have to do something
for us. Increase our faith. Help me to do that. Because these
apostles knew that that was not human nature, and human nature
couldn't produce it. And if it was present, it was
because Christ gave it. God increase my faith. All right,
turn back to Philemon, and I'll wind this message down. Christ
is the transforming power in a man's life. He makes the difference.
In Philemon, verse 10, Paul's talking about this slave, Onesimus. He must have been a rough one.
He must have been something else, because Paul said in verse 11,
in times past, He was to you unprofitable. Unprofitable. He wasn't any good. He was worthless. Worthless to you, but now profitable
to you and to me. What had happened? He'd met the
Lord. That's what happened. And that's
what changes a man from unprofitable to profitable. That's what changes
a man from worthless to worthy. That's what changes a man from
dishonest to honest. That's what changes a man from
unholy to holy. He meets Christ. That's what
happened. Look at verse 15 and 16. So Paul
said, perhaps, he departed for a season, he ran away from you
for a little while, that you should receive him forever. And
not now as a servant, but above a servant, you receive him as
a brother, beloved brother, especially to me. And how much more to you,
both in the flesh and in the Lord. Now here's the last thing
I want to point out. Jesus Christ, in the fifth place,
gives boldness to his servants. If a man's representing Christ,
if a man's speaking for Christ, he dares to speak boldly. Look
at verse 8. Now Paul said, Philemon, I could
send Old Nessimus back to you, and I could command you to accept
him. I could command you to treat
him right. I could. That's what he says
in verse 8. Though I might be much bold, where? Not in my office,
not in my age, Not in my experience, in Christ. Now, brethren, this
is something all of us need to learn right here. Whether we
be husband and wife, or whether we be father and child, or whether
we be pastor and people, or whether we be elder and member of the
church, something's not so because I, as the pastor, say it. It's
so if I can say it in Christ. My actions are not right because
of my office. I can't use boldness and severity
because I'm a father. You do it because I'm your father.
You do it because I'm the pastor. You do it because I'm the elder.
No, sir. He said, I can be bold in Christ
if I'm right in Christ, if my motive is the glory of Christ,
if my motive is the will of Christ, if my motive is your good in
Christ. I'm not afraid of flame or flood. I could command it." Isn't that
right? That's what he said in Christ.
But he said, that's not the way I'm doing this because of my
relationship with you. Verse 9, But for love's sake
I beseech you. For love's sake. I'm old Paul,
we're old friends, and I'm a prisoner of Christ. And I beseech you
for my son Onesimus, whom I've begotten in my bonds, you receive
him. But I'll tell you something else
Christ does. Look at verse 21. We have confidence that the true
believer, if he's exhorted in Christ, he'll obey. He'll obey. Now the person who's
speaking, the person who's preaching, our exhortations and our preaching
and our rebuke are prompted by the will of Christ, by the glory
of Christ. And I tell you this, if a man
is a believer, And you come to him if he's wrong in a situation,
and if he's acted unwisely, if he is a believer, you can come
to him in Christ with the Word of God, and if he's a believer,
he'll obey it. God the Holy Spirit will give
you boldness to speak Christ's mind and Christ's will, and God
the Holy Spirit will give him obedience to accept it. That's
what Paul said in verse 21. I have confidence. I have confidence
in your obedience, knowing that you'll do exactly what I say. No, sir, you'll do more than
what I say. You'll do more than what I say. Let me tell you a
little story. I can't tell this like the fellow that told it,
because the fellow that told it lived it. That's a lot of
difference in telling what you heard and telling what you experienced.
But this preacher that I heard preach up in West Virginia a
week ago at a Bible conference said when he was just a About
16, 17, 18 years old, he raised sheep. He lived on a little farm
way up in the northern part of the country, and he had a bunch
of sheep. And his father gave him some money to buy him a good
ewe. That's a female sheep. So he
went to the place where they sold them. And they took him
around to show him all the different sheep there. They had them graded,
you know, they were worth a different amount of money. And he saw one
that caught his eye. is a one-eyed sheep. She was
pitiful looking. She was good stock, but she'd
been in some kind of accident. She'd lost one eye, and she wasn't
very pretty to look at. And he said they quoted a price
on her, and then they went out and showed him other sheep, but
his mind kept coming back to that old one-eyed sheep. And
he kept telling the man, let's go back and see that sheep. They
take him, but you don't want that one. Yeah, I think that's
the one. And finally, after being there, he picked that one right
there, that old one-eyed sheep, and bought her and took her home.
And she's one of the best sheep that he had. That's the way the
Lord chose us, you see. That old lame sinner, that old
broken sinner, that old worthless sinner that nobody else had anything
to do with, nobody else wanted, the Lord chose us. and made us
his own. He named her Queenie. And he'd
always take Queenie to the county fair. She never won a ribbon.
She couldn't even win a pink ribbon, let alone a blue one
or a red one or a white one. But he always took her because
she'd produced all these different pennant-winning and ribbon-winning
other sheep. He always took her to the county
fair. He didn't enter her in any contest because she's too
ugly. But he'd take her. And one day he took her to the
county fair along with his other sheep. And they were entered
in the contest, but old Queenie, he didn't have any place to keep
her, because she wasn't allowed in there where the other sheep
were supposed to be. And so he said he turned her
over to a hogman. Now he said, what does a hogman
know about sheep? But he left Queenie with this
hogman. And he said he went over to where the sheep were being
judged, he was taking care of his sheep, and somebody came
and told him that that hogman had let Queenie get away. And
so he went running out, and of course everybody heard about
that Queenie had escaped, Queenie had got out of the pen, the Hawkman
let her run away, and she was out there in the midway. And
all those merry-go-rounds, you know, and all of the ferris wheel,
and all these noises, and all these games, and crowds, and
hawkers are screaming and yelling, and Queenie's just running here
and there and yonder. People were trying to help and
they were causing more confusion. They were running after her,
scaring her to death. They were screaming her name and she just
wowed out of that one eye, just running all over that place.
And Brother Clifford said he stepped out there and he spotted
her way over there running between a bunch of people trying to catch
her. And he stood there and he hollered, He said she stopped just like
that. And she cocked her head around, and she saw him, and
she made a beeline right up between his legs and sat down. She heard
her master's voice. Above all the din, of all that
confusion of voices, that confusion of music, That rattling of, here,
step right in and join us. Step right in and do this. Step
right in and do that. She heard her master's voice
and she came running. And brother, I know that as well
as I'm standing here. God's got some sheep out there
on the midway. And all surrounded by all this
worldliness and this religious hucksters. And they're screaming
all these instructions and orders, and they've got this wild music
going, this rock Jesus junk and all the rest of it, and drunken
quartets, and people making money out of being hucksters in the
religious world. But I know somewhere out there,
Queenie's going to hear the gospel. And you know what Queenie's going
to do? Go run to the Lord. Go run to the Lord. And other
shepherds, they will not follow. Brother Clifford said he had
an older brother. He was always the little brother,
and his older brother always excelled at everything. He was
kind of put down, but he said one thing. He said, my daddy
would go out there and call my sheep, and they'd run to the
corner of the pasture. My older brother would go out there and
call my sheep, and they'd run away from him. I'd go out there
and call my sheep, and they'd run right to me. And he said,
that made me feel so good. But that's true. Christ said,
my sheep hear my voice. The sheep of Christ will recognize
the truth when they hear it. And if a man doesn't recognize
it, it's a sure sign he's not one of God's sheep. And somebody
says, well, there's so many denominations and so many churches and so much
of this. Old Queenie heard Clifford's
voice. She heard it. And I'll tell you, no matter
all the different confusing voices and all this junk that's going
on, they'll hear it. They'll hear it. Our Father, we pray Thee to speak
to us. Thou art our shepherd, the Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters, He restores
my soul. He leadeth me in prayers of righteousness
for His namesake, and yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I fear no evil for thou art with me. Speak
to us, let us hear thy voice. O Lord, leave us not in this
dry and thirsty wilderness, in this confused state.

A Prison Letter

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A Prison Letter

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